Search results for: thermal system

Authors: Chao Fang

Abstract:

Due to the Confucian emphasis on filial piety and an undeveloped social welfare system in mainland China, adult children are both socially and legally obliged to care for their parents, including financial assistance and physical care as well as emotional and social support. Thus a family-centred care pattern for elderly people has been firmly established in China. However, because of the nationwide ‘One Child Policy’, over one million parents are excluded from such care because of the death of their only child and, therefore, their primary caregiver. Without their child’s support, these parents must manage the day to day challenges of growing old alone, with little support from society. By overturning established expectations of a ‘good’ elderly life, the loss of an only child may be accompanied by social and self-stigmatization, pushing these bereaved parents to the margin of society and threatening their economic, physical, emotional and social well-being. More importantly, since the One Child Policy was implemented from the late 1970s and early 1980s, the first generation of bereaved or ‘Shidu’ parents has reached an age at which those parents need elderly care. However, their predicament has been largely ignored. This paper reports on a qualitative interview study that found elderly care to be the main concern for Shidu parents’ everyday life. The paper identifies and discusses the concerns these bereaved parents raised about the prospect of having nowhere to turn at a time of increased need for financial, physical, social and emotional support in old age. The paper also identifies how Shidu parents have been coming together in grief and negotiate to make their predicament known to the government and wider society and to re-define their elderly life by rebuilding a sense of ‘family’.

Keywords: culture, bereavement, China, elderly care

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Authors: Tanuj Joshi

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Smart transportation is fast emerging as a solution to modern cities’ approach mobility issues, delayed emergency response rate and high congestion on streets. Present day scenario with Google Maps, Waze, Yelp etc. demonstrates how information and communications technologies controls the intelligent transportation system. This intangible and invisible infrastructure is largely guided by the big data analytics. On the other side, the exponential increase in Indian urban population has intensified the demand for better services and infrastructure to satisfy the transportation needs of its citizens. No doubt, India’s huge internet usage is looked as an important resource to guide to achieve this. However, with a projected number of over 40 billion objects connected to the Internet by 2025, the need for systems to handle massive volume of data (big data) also arises. This research paper attempts to identify the ways of exploiting the big data variables which will aid commuters on Indian tracks. This study explores real life inputs by conducting survey and interviews to identify which gaps need to be targeted to better satisfy the customers. Several experts at Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Mumbai Metro and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) were interviewed regarding the Information Technology (IT) systems currently in use. The interviews give relevant insights and requirements into the workings of public transportation systems whereas the survey investigates the macro situation.

Keywords: smart transportation, mobility issue, Mumbai transportation, big data, data analysis

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Authors: Yusuf Jundi Sado

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Changes in land use are mostly credited to human actions that result in negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functions. This study aims to analyze the dynamics of land use and land cover changes for sustainable natural resources planning and management. Chilalo-Galama Mountain Range, Ethiopia. This study used Thematic Mapper 05 (TM) for 1986, 2001 and Landsat 8 (OLI) data 2017. Additionally, data from the Central Statistics Agency on human population growth were analyzed. Semi-Automatic classification plugin (SCP) in QGIS 3.2.3 software was used for image classification. Global positioning system, field observations and focus group discussions were used for ground verification. Land Use Land Cover (LU/LC) change analysis was using maximum likelihood supervised classification and changes were calculated for the 1986–2001 and the 2001–2017 and 1986-2017 periods. The results show that agricultural land increased from 27.85% (1986) to 44.43% and 51.32% in 2001 and 2017, respectively with the overall accuracies of 92% (1986), 90.36% (2001), and 88% (2017). On the other hand, forests decreased from 8.51% (1986) to 7.64 (2001) and 4.46% (2017), and grassland decreased from 37.47% (1986) to 15.22%, and 15.01% in 2001 and 2017, respectively. It indicates for the years 1986–2017 the largest area cover gain of agricultural land was obtained from grassland. The matrix also shows that shrubland gained land from agricultural land, afro-alpine, and forest land. Population dynamics is found to be one of the major driving forces for the LU/LU changes in the study area.

Keywords: Landsat, LU/LC change, Semi-Automatic classification plugin, population dynamics, Ethiopia

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Authors: Ratchadaporn Ungcharoen, Lily Ingsrisawang

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Capture-recapture methods are popular techniques for indirect estimation the size of wildlife populations and the completeness of cases in epidemiology and social sciences. The aim of this study was to estimate the completeness of pulmonary tuberculosis cases confirmed by two sources of hospital registrations and surveillance systems in 2013 in Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand. Several estimators of population size were considered: the Lincoln-Petersen estimator, the Chapman estimator, the Chao’s lower bound estimator, the Zelterman’s estimator, etc. We focus on the Chapman and Chao’s lower bound estimators for estimating the completeness of pulmonary tuberculosis from two sources. The retrieved pulmonary tuberculosis data from two sources were analyzed and bootstrapped for 30 samples, with 241 observations from source 1 and 305 observations from source 2 per sample, for additional exploration of the completeness of pulmonary tuberculosis. The results from the original data show that the Chapman’s estimator gave the estimation of a total 360 (95% CI: 349-371) pulmonary tuberculosis cases, resulting in 57% estimated completeness cases. But the Chao’s lower bound estimator estimated the total of 365 (95% CI: 354-376) pulmonary tuberculosis cases and its estimated completeness cases was 55.9%. For the results from bootstrap samples, the Chapman and the Chao’s lower bound estimators gave an estimated 347 (95% CI: 309-385) and 353 (95% CI: 315-390) pulmonary tuberculosis cases, respectively. If for two sources recoding systems are available, record-linkage and capture-recapture analysis can be useful for estimating the completeness of different registration system. Both Chapman and Chao’s lower bound estimator approaches produce very close estimates.

Keywords: capture-recapture, Chao, Chapman, pulmonary tuberculosis

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Authors: Mosaad Attia Elkasaby

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The crude oil contains paraffines, aromatics, and asphaltenes in addition to some organic impurities, with increasing demands to reduce the cost of crude oil production, the uses of a pour point depressant is mandatory to maintain good flow rate. The wax materials cause many problems during production, storage, and transport, especially at low temperature, as these waxes tend, at low temperatures, to precipitate on the wall lines, thus leads to the high viscosity of crude oil and impede the flow rate, which represents an additional burden for crude oil pumping system from the place of production to the refinery. There are many ways to solve this problem, including, but not limited to, heat the crude and the use of organic solvents. But one of the most important disadvantages of these methods is the high economic cost. The aim of this innovation is to manufacture some polymeric materials (polymers based on aniline) that are processed locally that can be used as a pour point depressant of crude oil. For the first time, polymer based on aniline is modified and used with a number of organic solvents and tested with solvent (Styrene). It was found that the polymer based on aniline, when modified, had full solubility in styrene, unlike other organic solvent that was used in the past, such as chloroform and toluene. We also used a new solvent (PONA) that is obtained from the process of hydrotreating and separation of straight run naphtha to dissolve polymer based on aniline as a pour point depressant of crude oil. This innovative include studies conducted on highly paraffinic crude oil (C.O.1 and C.O.2). On using concentration (2500 ppm) of polymer based on aniline, the pour point of crude oil has decreased from +33 to - 9°C in case of crude oil (C.O.1) and from + 42 to – 6°C in case crude oil (C.O.2) at the same concentration.

Keywords: PPD, aniline, paraffinic crude oils, polymers

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Authors: Sa-Kil Kim, Jang-Soo Lee

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On March 31, 1993, a severe fire accident took place in a nuclear power plant located in Narora in North India. The event involved a major fire in the turbine building of NAPS unit-1 and resulted in a total loss of power to the unit for 17 hours. In addition, there was a heavy ingress of smoke in the control room, mainly through the intake of the ventilation system, forcing the operators to vacate the control room. The Narora fire accident provides us lessons indicating that operators could lose their mind and predictable behaviors during a fire. After the Fukushima accident, which resulted from a natural disaster, unanticipated external events are also required to be prepared and controlled for the ultimate safety of nuclear power plants. From last year, our research team has developed a test and evaluation facility that can simulate external events such as an earthquake and fire based on the operators’ real-sense. As one of the results of the project, we proposed a unit real-sense-based facility that can simulate fire events in a control room for utilizing a test-bed of human factor validation. The test-bed has the operator’s workstation shape and functions to simulate fire conditions such as smoke, heat, and auditory alarms in accordance with the prepared fire scenarios. Furthermore, the test-bed can be used for the operators’ training and experience.

Keywords: human behavior in fire, human factors validation, nuclear power plants, real-sense-based fire simulation

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Authors: Beier Zhu, Rui Zhang, Qi Song

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Text contained within fixed-layout documents can be of great semantic value and so requires a high localization accuracy, such as ID cards, invoices, cheques, and passports. Recently, algorithms based on deep convolutional networks achieve high performance on text detection tasks. However, for text localization in fixed-layout documents, such algorithms detect word bounding boxes individually, which ignores the layout information. This paper presents a novel architecture built on convolutional neural networks (CNNs). A global text localization network and a regional bounding-box regression network are introduced to tackle the problem in a coarse-to-fine manner. The text localization network simultaneously locates word bounding points, which takes the layout information into account. The bounding-box regression network inputs the features pooled from arbitrarily sized RoIs and refine the localizations. These two networks share their convolutional features and are trained jointly. A typical type of fixed-layout documents: ID cards, is selected to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system. These networks are trained on data cropped from nature scene images, and synthetic data produced by a synthetic text generation engine. Experiments show that our approach locates high accuracy word bounding boxes and achieves state-of-the-art performance.

Keywords: bounding box regression, convolutional networks, fixed-layout documents, text localization

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Authors: Onur Kaya, Ilknur Tukenmez

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In this study, we consider vehicle routing problems on networks with alternative direct links between nodes, and we analyze a multi-objective problem considering the financial, environmental and social objectives in this context. In real life, there might exist several alternative direct roads between two nodes, and these roads might have differences in terms of their lengths and durations. For example, a road might be shorter than another but might require longer time due to traffic and speed limits. Similarly, some toll roads might be shorter or faster but require additional payment, leading to higher costs. We consider such alternative links in our problem and develop a mixed integer linear programming model that determines which alternative link to use between two nodes, in addition to determining the optimal routes for different vehicles, depending on the model objectives and constraints. We consider the minimum cost routing as the financial objective for the company, minimizing the CO2 emissions and gas usage as the environmental objectives, and optimizing the driver working conditions/working hours, and minimizing the risks of accidents as the social objectives. With these objective functions, we aim to determine which routes, and which alternative links should be used in addition to the speed choices on each link. We discuss the results of the developed vehicle routing models and compare their results depending on the system parameters.

Keywords: vehicle routing, alternative links between nodes, mixed integer linear programming, triple bottom line accounting

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Authors: Hashem Shariatmadar, Mozhgansadat Momtazdargahi

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The purpose of control structure against earthquake is to dissipate earthquake input energy to the structure and reduce the plastic deformation of structural members. There are different methods for control structure against earthquake to reduce the structure response that they are active, semi-active, inactive and hybrid. In this paper two different combined control systems are used first system comprises base isolator and multi tuned mass dampers (BI & MTMD) and another combination is hybrid base isolator and multi tuned mass dampers (HBI & MTMD) for controlling an eight story isolated benchmark steel structure. Active control force of hybrid isolator is estimated by fuzzy logic algorithms. The influences of the combined systems on the responses of the benchmark structure under the two near-field earthquake (Newhall & Elcentro) are evaluated by nonlinear dynamic time history analysis. Applications of combined control systems consisting of passive or active systems installed in parallel to base-isolation bearings have the capability of reducing response quantities of base-isolated (relative and absolute displacement) structures significantly. Therefore in design and control of irregular isolated structures using the proposed control systems, structural demands (relative and absolute displacement and etc.) in each direction must be considered separately.

Keywords: base-isolated benchmark structure, multi-tuned mass dampers, hybrid isolators, near-field earthquake, fuzzy algorithm

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Authors: Libena Cernohorska

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The goal of this paper is to specify factors influencing the profitability of selected banks. Next, a model will be created to help establish variables that have a demonstrable influence on the development of the selected banks' profitability ratios. Czech banks and their international parent companies were selected for analyzing profitability. Banks categorized as large banks (according to the Czech National Bank's system, which ranks banks according to balance sheet total) were selected to represent the Czech banks. Two ratios, the return on assets ratio (ROA) and the return on equity ratio (ROE) are used to assess bank profitability. Six endogenous and four external indicators were selected from among other factors that influence bank profitability. The data analyzed were for the years 2001 – 2013. First, correlation analysis, which was supposed to eliminate correlated values, was conducted. A large number of correlated values were established on the basis of this analysis. The strongly correlated values were omitted. Despite this, the subsequent regression analysis of profitability for the individual banks that were selected did not confirm that the selected variables influenced their profitability. The studied factors' influence on bank profitability was demonstrated only for Československá Obchodní Banka and Société Générale using regression analysis. For Československá Obchodní Banka, it was demonstrated that inflation level and the amount of the central bank's interest rate influenced the return on assets ratio and that capital adequacy and market concentration influenced the return on equity ratio for Société Générale.

Keywords: banks, profitability, regression analysis, ROA, ROE

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Authors: Volkan Uygun, H. Birkan Yilmaz, Tuna Tugcu

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This study focuses on the development and use of algorithms that address the issue of resource management in response to emergency and disaster situations. The presented system, named Disaster Management Platform (DMP), takes the data from the data sources of service providers and distributes the incoming requests accordingly both to manage load balancing and minimize service time, which results in improved user satisfaction. Three different resource management algorithms, which give different levels of importance to load balancing and service time, are proposed for the study. The first one is the Minimum Distance algorithm, which assigns the request to the closest resource. The second one is the Minimum Load algorithm, which assigns the request to the resource with the minimum load. Finally, the last one is the Hybrid algorithm, which combines the previous two approaches. The performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated with respect to waiting time, success ratio, and maximum load ratio. The metrics are monitored from simulations, to find the optimal scheme for different loads. Two different simulations are performed in the study, one is time-based and the other is lambda-based. The results indicate that, the Minimum Load algorithm is generally the best in all metrics whereas the Minimum Distance algorithm is the worst in all cases and in all metrics. The leading position in performance is switched between the Minimum Distance and the Hybrid algorithms, as lambda values change.

Keywords: emergency and disaster response, resource management algorithm, disaster situations, disaster management platform

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Authors: Misha Ali, Qayyum Husain, Nida Alam, Masood Ahmad

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Improving the activity and stability of the enzyme is an important aspect in bioremediation processes. Immobilization of enzyme is an efficient approach to amend the properties of biocatalyst required during wastewater treatment. The present study was done to immobilize partially purified ginger peroxidase on amino functionalized silica coated titanium dioxide nanocomposite. Interestingly there was an enhancement in enzyme activity after immobilization on nanosupport which was evident from effectiveness factor (η) value of 1.76. Immobilized enzyme was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Immobilized peroxidase exhibited higher activity in a broad range of pH and temperature as compared to free enzyme. Also, the thermostability of peroxidase was strikingly improved upon immobilization. After six repeated uses, the immobilized peroxidase retained around 62% of its dye decolorization activity. There was a 4 fold increase in Vmax of immobilized peroxidase as compared to free enzyme. Circular dichroism spectroscopy demonstrated conformational changes in the secondary structure of enzyme, a possible reason for the enhanced enzyme activity after immobilization. Immobilized peroxidase was highly efficient in the removal of acid yellow 42 dye in a stirred batch process. Our study shows that this bio-remediating system has remarkable potential for treatment of aromatic pollutants present in wastewater.

Keywords: acid yellow 42, decolorization, ginger peroxidase, immobilization

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Authors: Afsal Mohammed Kadavilpparampu, Haider A. J. Al Lawati, Fakhr Eldin O. Suliman, Salma M. Z. Al Kindy

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In this work, we evaluated the appropriateness of various oxidants that can be used potentially with Ru(bipy)32+ CL system while performing CL detection in a microfluidic device using eight common active pharmaceutical ingredients- ciprofloxacin, hydrochlorothiazide, norfloxacin, buspirone, fexofenadine, cetirizine, codeine, and dextromethorphan. This is because, microfludics have very small channel volume and the residence time is also very short. Hence, a highly efficient oxidant is required for on-chip CL detection to obtain analytically acceptable CL emission. Three common oxidants were evaluated, lead dioxide, cerium ammonium sulphate and ammonium peroxydisulphate. Results obtained showed that ammonium peroxydisulphate is the most appropriate oxidant which can be used in microfluidic setup and all the tested analyte give strong CL emission while using this oxidant. We also found that Ru(bipy)33+ generated off-line by oxidizing [Ru(bipy)3]Cl2.6H2O in acetonitrile under acidic condition with lead dioxide was stable for more than 72 hrs. A highly sensitive microbore HPLC- CL method using ammonium peroxydisulphate as an oxidant in a microfluidic on-chip CL detection has been developed for the analyses of fixed-dose combinations of pseudoephedrine (PSE), fexofenadine (FEX) and cetirizine (CIT) in biological fluids and pharmaceutical formulations with minimum sample pre-treatment.

Keywords: oxidants, microbore High Performance Liquid Chromatography, chemiluminescence, microfluidics

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Authors: Kapil Khanna, Swee Kuik, Joowon Ban

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The current linear economic system is unsustainable due to its dependence on the uncontrolled exploitation of diminishing natural resources. The integration of business innovation and supply chain management has brought about the redesign of business processes through the implementation of a closed-loop approach. The circular economy (CE) offers a sustainable solution to improve business opportunities in the near future by following the principles of rejuvenation and reuse inspired by nature. Those business owners start to rethink and consider using waste as raw material to make new products for consumers. The implementation of CE helps organisations to incorporate new strategic plans for decreasing the use of virgin materials and nature resources. Supply chain partners that are geographically dispersed rely heavily on innovative approaches to support supply chain management. Presently, numerous studies have attempted to establish the concept of supply chain management (SCM) by integrating CE principles, which are commonly denoted as circular SCM. While many scholars have recognised the challenges of transitioning to CE, there is still a lack of consensus on business best practices that can facilitate companies in embracing CE across the supply chain. Hence, this paper strives to scrutinize the SCM practices utilised for CE, identify the obstacles, and recommend best practices that can enhance a company's ability to incorporate CE principles toward business innovation and supply chain performance. Further, the paper proposes future research in the field of using specific technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and blockchain as business innovation tools for supply chain management and CE adoption.

Keywords: business innovation, challenges, circular supply chain, supply chain management, technology

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Authors: Meysam Naeimi, Zili Li, Roumen Petrov, Rolf Dollevoet, Jilt Sietsma, Jun Wu

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The substantial similarity of fatigue mechanism in a new test rig for rolling contact fatigue (RCF) has been investigated. A new reduced-scale test rig is designed to perform controlled RCF tests in wheel-rail materials. The fatigue mechanism of the rig is evaluated in this study using a combined finite element-fatigue prediction approach. The influences of loading conditions on fatigue crack initiation have been studied. Furthermore, the effects of some artificial defects (squat-shape) on fatigue lives are examined. To simulate the vehicle-track interaction by means of the test rig, a three-dimensional finite element (FE) model is built up. The nonlinear material behaviour of the rail steel is modelled in the contact interface. The results of FE simulations are combined with the critical plane concept to determine the material points with the greatest possibility of fatigue failure. Based on the stress-strain responses, by employing of previously postulated criteria for fatigue crack initiation (plastic shakedown and ratchetting), fatigue life analysis is carried out. The results are reported for various loading conditions and different defect sizes. Afterward, the cyclic mechanism of the test rig is evaluated from the operational viewpoint. The results of fatigue life predictions are compared with the expected number of cycles of the test rig by its cyclic nature. Finally, the estimative duration of the experiments until fatigue crack initiation is roughly determined.

Keywords: fatigue, test rig, crack initiation, life, rail, squats

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Authors: Adeniyi G. Adeogun, Bolaji F. Sule, Adebayo W. Salami, Michael O. Daramola

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Estimation of water yield and water balance in a river catchment is critical to the sustainable management of water resources at watershed level in any country. Therefore, in the present study, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) interfaced with Geographical Information System (GIS) was applied as a tool to predict water balance and water yield of a catchment area in Nigeria. The catchment area, which was 12,992km2, is located upstream Jebba hydropower dam in North central part of Nigeria. In this study, data on the observed flow were collected and compared with simulated flow using SWAT. The correlation between the two data sets was evaluated using statistical measures, such as, Nasch-Sucliffe Efficiency (NSE) and coefficient of determination (R2). The model output shows a good agreement between the observed flow and simulated flow as indicated by NSE and R2, which were greater than 0.7 for both calibration and validation period. A total of 42,733 mm of water was predicted by the calibrated model as the water yield potential of the basin for a simulation period 1985 to 2010. This interesting performance obtained with SWAT model suggests that SWAT model could be a promising tool to predict water balance and water yield in sustainable management of water resources. In addition, SWAT could be applied to other water resources in other basins in Nigeria as a decision support tool for sustainable water management in Nigeria.

Keywords: GIS, modeling, sensitivity analysis, SWAT, water yield, watershed level

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Authors: Elison Eduardo Jardim Bierhals, Claudineia Brazil, Francisco Pereira, Elton Rossini

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The use of alternative energy sources to meet energy demand reduces environmental damage. To diversify an energy matrix and to minimize global warming, a solar energy is gaining space, being an important source of renewable energy, and its potential depends on the climatic conditions of the region. Brazil presents a great solar potential for a generation of electric energy, so the knowledge of solar radiation and its characteristics are fundamental for the study of energy use. Due to the above reasons, this article aims to verify the climatic variability corresponding to the variations in solar radiation anomalies, in the face of climate change scenarios. The data used in this research are part of the Intercomparison of Interconnected Models, Phase 5 (CMIP5), which contributed to the preparation of the fifth IPCC-AR5 report. The solar radiation data were extracted from The Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) model using the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios that represent an intermediate structure and a pessimistic framework, the latter being the most worrisome in all cases. In order to allow the use of solar radiation as a source of energy in a given location and/or region, it is important, first, to determine its availability, thus justifying the importance of the study. The results pointed out, for the 75-year period (2026-2100), based on a pessimistic scenario, indicate a drop in solar radiation of the approximately 12% in the eastern region of Rio Grande do Sul. Factors that influence the pessimistic prospects of this scenario should be better observed by the responsible authorities, since they can affect the possibility to produce electricity from solar radiation.

Keywords: climate change, energy, IPCC, solar radiation

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Authors: Baker Ssekitto, Ambrose Mbogo

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The study reveals that indeed agriculture employs over 70% of Uganda’s population, of which majority are youth and women. The study further reveals that over 70% of the farmers are smallholder farmers based in rural areas, whose operations are greatly affected by; climate change, weak digital skills, limited access to productivity knowledge along value chains, limited access to quality farm inputs, weak logistics systems, limited access to quality extension services, weak business intelligence, limited access to quality markets among others. It finds that the emerging 4th industrial revolution powered by artificial intelligence, 5G and data science will provide possibilities of addressing some of these challenges. Furthermore, the study finds that despite rapid development of ICT4Agric Innovation, their uptake is constrained by a number of factors including; limited awareness of these innovations, low internet and smart phone penetration especially in rural areas, lack of appropriate digital skills, inappropriate programmes implementation models which are project and donor driven, limited articulation of value addition to various stakeholders among others. Majority of farmers and other value chain actors lacked knowledge and skills to harness the power of ICTs, especially their application of ICTs in monitoring and evaluation on quality of service in the extension system and farm level processes.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, productivity, ICT4agriculture, value chain, logistics

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Authors: Yeliz Karaca, Rana Karabudak

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Multifractal Denoising techniques are used in the identification of significant attributes by removing the noise of the dataset. Magnetic resonance (MR) image technique is the most sensitive method so as to identify chronic disorders of the nervous system such as Multiple Sclerosis. MRI and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) data belonging to 120 individuals who have one of the subgroups of MS (Relapsing Remitting MS (RRMS), Secondary Progressive MS (SPMS), Primary Progressive MS (PPMS)) as well as 19 healthy individuals in the control group have been used in this study. The study is comprised of the following stages: (i) L2 Norm Multifractal Denoising technique, one of the multifractal technique, has been used with the application on the MS data (MRI and EDSS). In this way, the new dataset has been obtained. (ii) The new MS dataset obtained from the MS dataset and L2 Multifractal Denoising technique has been applied to the K-Means and Fuzzy C Means clustering algorithms which are among the unsupervised methods. Thus, the clustering performances have been compared. (iii) In the identification of significant attributes in the MS dataset through the Multifractal denoising (L2 Norm) technique using K-Means and FCM algorithms on the MS subgroups and control group of healthy individuals, excellent performance outcome has been yielded. According to the clustering results based on the MS subgroups obtained in the study, successful clustering results have been obtained in the K-Means and FCM algorithms by applying the L2 norm of multifractal denoising technique for the MS dataset. Clustering performance has been more successful with the MS Dataset (L2_Norm MS Data Set) K-Means and FCM in which significant attributes are obtained by applying L2 Norm Denoising technique.

Keywords: clinical decision support, clustering algorithms, multiple sclerosis, multifractal techniques

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Authors: Aljohara M. Alquaiz, Tawfik A. M. Khoja, Abdullah Alsharif, Ambreen Kazi, Ashry Gad Mohamed, Hamad Al Mane, Abdullah Aldiris, Shaffi Ahamed Shaikh

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Objective: To determine the prevalence and correlates of anemia in male and female adolescents in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Design: A cross-sectional community based study setting: Five primary health care centers in Riyadh. Subjects: We invited 203 male and 292 female adolescents aged 13-18 years for interview, anthropometric measurements and complete blood count. Blood hemoglobin was measured with coulter cellular analysis system using light scatter method. Results: Using the WHO cut-off of Hb < 12gms/dl, 16.7%(34) males and 34%(100) females were suffering from anemia. The mean Hb (±SD) in males and females was 13.5(±1.4) and 12.3(±1.2) mg/dl, respectively. Mean(±SD) MCV, MCH, MCHC and RDW in male and female adolescents were 77.8(±6.2) vs76.4(±10.3)fL, 26.1(±2.7) vs25.5(±2.6)pg, 32.7(±2.4) vs32.2(±2.6)g/dL, 13.9(±1.4) vs13.6(±1.3)%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that positive family history of iron deficiency anemia(IDA)(OR 4.7,95%CI 1.7–12.2), infrequent intake (OR 3.7,95%CI 1.3–10.0) and never intake of fresh juices(OR 3.5,95%CI 1.4–9.5), 13 to 14 years age (OR 3.1,95%CI 1.2–9.3) were significantly associated with anemia in male adolescents; whereas in females: family history of IDA (OR 3.4, 95%CI 1.5–7.6), being over-weight(OR 3.0,95%CI 1.4–6.1), no intake of fresh juice (OR 2.6,95%CI 1.4–5.1), living in an apartment (OR 2.0, 95%CI 1.1-3.8) or living in small house (OR 2.5, 95%CI 1.2-5.3) were significantly associated with anemia. Conclusion: Anemia is more prevalent among Saudi female adolescents as compared to males. Important factors like positive family history of IDA, overweight, lack of fresh juice intake and low socioeconomic status are significantly associated with anemia in adolescents.

Keywords: adolescents, anemia, correlates, obesity

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Authors: Sana Dridi, Jalel Aouissi, Rafla Attia, Taoufik Hermassi, Thouraya Sahli

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Soil erosion is an increasing issue in Mediterranean countries. In Tunisia, the capacity of dam reservoirs continues to decrease as a consequence of soil erosion. This study aims to predict sediment yield to enrich soil management practices using Soil and Water Assessment Tools model (SWAT) in the Siliana watershed (1041.6 km²), located in the northwest of Tunisia. A database was constructed using remote sensing and Geographical Information System. Climatic and flow data were collected from water resources directorates in Tunisia. The SWAT model was built to simulate hydrological processes and sediment transport. A sensitivity analysis, calibration, and validation were performed using SWAT-CUP software. The model calibration of stream flow simulations shows a good performance with NSE and R² values of 0.77 and 0.79, respectively. The model validation shows a very good performance with values of NSE and R² for 0.8 and 0.88, respectively. After calibration and validation of stream flow simulation, the model was used to simulate the soil erosion and sediment load transport. The spatial distributions of soil loss rate for determining the critical sediment source areas show that 63 % of the study area has a low soil loss rate less than 7 t ha⁻¹y⁻¹. The annual average soil loss rate simulated with the SWAT model in the Siliana watershed is 4.62 t ha⁻¹y⁻¹.

Keywords: water erosion, SWAT model, streamflow, SWATCUP, sediment yield

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Authors: Arash M. Shahidi, Tilak Dias, Gayani K. Nandasiri

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While graduated compression is the foundation of treatment and management of many medical complications such as leg ulcer, varicose veins, and lymphedema, monitoring the interface pressure has been conducted using different sensors that operate based on diverse approaches. The variations existed from the pressure readings collected using different interface pressure measurement systems would cause difficulties in taking a decision regarding the compression therapy. It is crucial to acknowledge the differences existing between direct and indirect pressure measurement systems while considering the commercially available systems such as AMI, Picopress and OPM which are under direct measurements systems, and HATRA (BSI), HOSY (RAL-GZ) and FlexiForce which comes under the indirect measurement system. Furthermore, Piezo-resistive sensors (Flexiforce) can measure the changes in resistance corresponding to the applied force on the sensing area. Direct pressure measuring systems are capable of measuring interface pressure on the three-dimensional states, while the indirect pressure measuring systems stretch the fabric in the two-dimensional direction and extrapolate pressure from surface tension measured on the device and neglect the vital factor which is the radius of curvature. In this study, a leg mannequin of known dimensions is selected with a knitted class 3 compression stocking. It has been decided to evaluate the data collected from different available systems (AMI, PicoPress, FlexiForce, and HATRA) and compare the results. The results showed a discrepancy between Hatra, AMI, Picopress, and Flexiforce against the pressure standard used to generate class 3 compression stocking. As predicted a higher pressure value with direct interface measuring systems were monitored against HATRA due to the effect of the radius of curvature.

Keywords: AMI, FlexiForce, graduated compression, HATRA, interface pressure, PicoPress

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Authors: Abhilasha Dadhich, Manisha Mathur, Sanjay Kumar, Hemant Dadhich

Abstract:

The camel (Camelus dromedarius) is an important animal component of the fragile desert eco-system of India. Apart from others, impaired milk and meat production decrease in performance and even death are some of the major consequences of parasitic disease like coccidiosis in camel. Coccidiosis which is an acute invasion and destruction of intestinal mucosa by protozoa of the genera Eimeria or isospora spp. Post-Mortem examinations of 5 carcasses of dromedary of different age groups aged from 2 to 5 years were conducted. The history indicated that the camels were suffering from diarrhoea, dysentery, pyrexia, inappetence, weight loss, and emaciation. Post mortem examinations showed macroscopic and microscopic alterations in the small intestine, particularly in jejunum and ileum regions. The mucosae were congested, and haemorrhagic on which there were numerous whitish-grey nodular foci were observed. The affected intestinal tissue specimens were preserved in 10% formal saline and processed mechanically for paraffin embedding by acetone and benzene technique. The sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin method of staining for histopathological examinations. Histologically, typical lesions such as congestion and haemorrhages were present. The intestinal villi were oedematous; mucosa degenerated and desquamated, along with infiltration of eosinophils and macrophages. Crypts of lieberkuhn were obliterated due to presence of schizonts in lamina propria. Older camels served as the source of spread of coccidial infection and were also predisposed to secondary infections.

Keywords: camel, coccidiosis, Eimeria, histopathology

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Authors: G. Erkomaishvili, M. Kobalava, T. Lazariashvili, N. Damenia

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Current state of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Georgia is analyzed and evaluated in the paper, the existing legislative background for regulating investments and stimulating policies to attract investments are shown. It is noted that in developing countries encouragement of investment activity, support and implementation are of the most important tasks, implying a consistent investment policy, investor-friendly tax regime and the legal system, reducing administrative barriers and restrictions, fare competitive conditions and business development infrastructure. The work deals with the determining factor of FDIs and the main directions of stimulation, as well as prospective industries where new investments are needed. Contributing and hindering factors and stimulating measures are analyzed. As a result of the research, the direct and indirect factors attracting FDI have been identified. Facilitating factors to FDI inflow are as follows: simplicity of starting business, geopolitical location, low taxes, access to credit, ease of ownership registration, natural resources, low burden of regulations, low level of corruption and low crime rates. Hindering factors to FDI inflow are as follows: small market, lack of policy for attracting investments, low qualification of the workforce (despite the large number of unemployed people it is difficult to find workers with necessary special skills and qualifications), high interest rates, instability of national currency exchange rate, presence of conflict zones within the country and so forth.

Keywords: foreign direct investment, investor, investment attracting marketing policies, reinvestment

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Authors: Mohd Iqbal Malik

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Ethical philosophy of Quran pinnacled virtue and economics as the part and parcel of human life. Human beings are to be imagined by the sign of morals. Soul and morality are both among the essences of human personality. Islam lays the foundation of ethics by installation of making a momentous variance between virtue and vice. It suggests for the distribution of wealth in-order to terminate accumulation of economic resources. Quran claims for the ambiguous pavement to attain virtue by saying, ‘Never will you attain the good (reward) until you spend (in the way of Allah) from that which you love. And whatever you spend indeed, Allah knows of it.’ The essence of Quran is to eliminate all the deep-seated approaches through which the wealth of nations is being accumulated within few hands. The paper will study the Quranic Philosophy Of Islamic Economic System. In recent times, to get out of the human resource development mystery of Muslims, Ismail Al-Raji Faruqi led the way in the so-called ‘Islamization’ of knowledge. Rahman and Faruqi formed opposite opinions on this project. Al-Faruqi thought of the Islamization of knowledge in terms of introducing Western learning into received Islamic values and vice versa. This proved to be a mere peripheral treatment of Islamic values in relation to Western knowledge. It is true that out of the programme of Islamization of knowledge arose Islamic universities in many Muslim countries. Yet the academic programmes of these universities were not founded upon a substantive understanding and application of the tawhidi epistemology.

Keywords: ethical philosophy, modern Islamic finance, knowledge of finance, Islamic banking

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Authors: Yuki Hara

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Entrepreneurs are welcomed to the landscaping industry, conserving practically and theoretically biological diversity in landscaping construction, although there are limited reports on corporative trials making a market with a new logistics system of native plants (NP) between landscaping companies and nurserymen. This paper explores the entrepreneurial process of a landscaping company, “5byMidori” for NP marketing. This paper employs a case study design. Data are collected in interviews with the manager and designer of 5byMidori, 2 scientists, 1 organization, and 18 nurserymen, fieldworks at two nurseries, observations of marketing activities in three years, and texts from published documents about the business concept and marketing strategy with NP. These data are analyzed by qualitative methods. The results show that NP is suitable for the vision of 5byMidori improving urban desertified environment with closer urban-rural linkage. Professional landscaping team changes a forestry organization into NP producers conserving a large nursery of a mountain. Multifaceted PR based on the entrepreneurial context and personal background of a landscaping venture can foster team members' businesses and help customers and users to understand the biodiversity value of the product. Wider partnerships with existing nurserymen at other sites in many regions need socio-economic incentives and environmental reliability. In conclusion, the entrepreneurial marketing of a landscaping company needs to add more meanings and a variety of merits in terms of ecosystem services, as NP tends to be in academic definition and independent from the cultures like nurseryman and forestry.

Keywords: biological diversity, landscaping industry, marketing, native plants

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Authors: Margaret Schmuhl, Michelle Cubellis

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Violence against women (VAW) is a widespread social problem affecting nearly two million women in the United States each year. Recently, feminist criminologists have sought to examine patriarchy as a guiding framework for understanding violence against women. Literature on VAW often examines measures of structural gender equality, often overlooking ideological patriarchy which is necessary for structural inequality to remain unchallenged. Additionally, empirical literature generally focuses on extreme forms of VAW, rape, and femicide, often neglecting more common types of violence. This literature, under the theoretical guidance of the Liberal, Radical, and Marxist feminist traditions, finds mixed support for the relationship of patriarchy and VAW. Explanations for these inconsistencies may include data availability, and the use of different operationalizations of structural patriarchy. Research is needed to examine fuller operationalizations of patriarchy in social institutions and to extend this theoretical framework to the criminal justice response to VAW (i.e., clearance rates). This study examines sexual violence clearance rates under the theoretical guidance of these feminist traditions using incident- and county-level data from National Incident Based Reporting System and other sources in multilevel modelling. The findings suggest mixed support for the feminist hypotheses and that patriarchy and gender equality differentially affect arrest clearance rates and clearance through exceptional means for sexual violence.

Keywords: clearance rates, gender equality, multilevel modelling, patriarchy, sexual victimization, violence against women

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Authors: G. M. Hamada, A. A. Al-Gathe, A. M. Al-Khudafi

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Determination of water saturation in sandstone is a vital question to determine the initial oil or gas in place in reservoir rocks. Water saturation determination using electrical measurements is mainly on Archie’s formula. Consequently accuracy of Archie’s formula parameters affects water saturation values rigorously. Determination of Archie’s parameters a, m, and n is proceeded by three conventional techniques, Core Archie-Parameter Estimation (CAPE) and 3-D. This work introduces the hybrid system of parallel self-organizing neural network (PSONN) targeting accepted values of Archie’s parameters and, consequently, reliable water saturation values. This work focuses on Archie’s parameters determination techniques; conventional technique, CAPE technique, and 3-D technique, and then the calculation of water saturation using current. Using the same data, a hybrid parallel self-organizing neural network (PSONN) algorithm is used to estimate Archie’s parameters and predict water saturation. Results have shown that estimated Arche’s parameters m, a, and n are highly accepted with statistical analysis, indicating that the PSONN model has a lower statistical error and higher correlation coefficient. This study was conducted using a high number of measurement points for 144 core plugs from a sandstone reservoir. PSONN algorithm can provide reliable water saturation values, and it can supplement or even replace the conventional techniques to determine Archie’s parameters and thereby calculate water saturation profiles.

Keywords: water saturation, Archie’s parameters, artificial intelligence, PSONN, sandstone reservoir

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Authors: Nodi Islam

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This paper critically reads Rumi’s poems in The Masnavi (Book One) and the philosophy of master-disciple relationship, as reflected as a medium to attain the higher consciousness in the poems which is considered as spiritual by the Sufi practitioners. This paper further applies the concept of collective consciousness introduced by Durkheim, which stands for a set of beliefs, ideas, moral attitudes that operate as a unifying force in a certain society, in reading Rumi’s poems. According to Sufi philosophy, in order to reach to the beloved who is the Higher Being, a lover has to be a disciple of a master and dedicate himself completely even if it means to give up the earthly desires. When the process is completed, he achieves the divinity which is the utmost happiness to be one with the beloved. As this process is considered spiritual by the Sufi practitioners, this paper suggests that, apart from being spiritual, this is a reflection of collective consciousness also. This process plays a part to construct the collectivity as a means to create masters and disciples. Collective consciousness operates in this particular belief system of Sufis who tend to follow this phenomenon as a rule of obedience and accepts the rule because this is how their particular community proceeds on. This paper offers a view of Rumi’s poems which reflect such relationship and tends to offer a general discussion on the hegemonic approach of the Sufi society especially of the Mevlevi order. Finally, this paper offers a constructive representation of Mevlevi society based upon the idea of spirituality which could be an outcome of psychological and social issues and practices.

Keywords: collective consciousness, divinity, master-disciple relationship, Mevlevi order

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Authors: Pedro A. S. Bergamo, Emilia S. Streng, Jan Rosenkranz, Yousef Ghorbani

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Within the often-hazardous mineral industry, simulation training has speedily gained appreciation as an important method of increasing site safety and productivity through enhanced operator skill and knowledge. Performance calculations related to froth flotation, one of the most important concentration methods, is probably the hardest topic taught during the training of plant operators. Currently, most training teach those skills by traditional methods like slide presentations and hand-written exercises with a heavy focus on memorization. To optimize certain aspects of these pieces of training, we developed “MinFloat”, which teaches the operation formulas of the froth flotation process with the help of gamification. The simulation core based on a first-principles flotation model was implemented in Unity3D and an instructor tutoring system was developed, which presents didactic content and reviews the selected answers. The game was tested by 25 professionals with extensive experience in the mining industry based on a questionnaire formulated for training evaluations. According to their feedback, the game scored well in terms of quality, didactic efficacy and inspiring character. The feedback of the testers on the main target audience and the outlook of the mentioned solution is presented. This paper aims to provide technical background on the construction of educational games for the mining industry besides showing how feedback from experts can more efficiently be gathered thanks to new technologies such as online forms.

Keywords: training evaluation, simulation based training, modelling, and simulation, froth flotation

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