Search results for: Critical control

Authors: Mai Ali

Abstract:

Advancing beyond the junior stage of a paediatrician’s career is a crucial step where they accumulate essential skills and knowledge. This process prepares them for the challenges they will encounter throughout their profession, particularly in dealing with paediatric emergencies. This can be especially demanding for trainees specializing in fields like endocrinology, particularly in the management of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) in the UK. In different societal contexts, junior doctors, whether specializing in paediatrics or other medical fields, are generally expected to possess a fundamental level of knowledge and skills necessary for managing DKA emergencies. These physicians consistently concurred in recognizing prevalent problems in the healthcare facilities they examined. Such issues include the lack of established guidelines for DKA treatment and the inadequate availability of comprehensive training opportunities. The abstract underscores the critical importance of junior paediatricians acquiring expertise in managing paediatric emergencies, with a specific focus on DKA. Commonly, issues like the lack of standardized protocols and training deficiencies are recurring themes across healthcare facilities. This research proposal aims to conduct a thematic analysis of the proficiency of paediatric trainees in the United Kingdom when handling DKA in various clinical contexts. The primary goal is to assess their competency and suggest effective strategies for comprehensive DKA training improvement.

Keywords: DKA management, junior paediatricians, level of competence, standardized protocols.

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Authors: R. Mkahl, A. Nait-Sidi-Moh, M. Wack

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Batteries of electric vehicles (BEV) are becoming more attractive with the advancement of new battery technologies and promotion of electric vehicles. BEV batteries are recharged on board vehicles using either the grid (G2V for Grid to Vehicle) or renewable energies in a stand-alone application (H2V for Home to Vehicle). This paper deals with the modeling, sizing and control of a photovoltaic stand-alone application that can charge the BEV at home. The modeling approach and developed mathematical models describing the system components are detailed. Simulation and experimental results are presented and commented.

Keywords: Electric vehicles, photovoltaic energy, lead-acid batteries, charging process, modeling, simulation, experimental tests.

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Authors: M.H.Aziz, Erik L.J.Bohez, Manukid Parnichkun, Chanchal Saha

Abstract:

Petri Net (PN) has proven to be effective graphical, mathematical, simulation, and control tool for Discrete Event Systems (DES). But, with the growth in the complexity of modern industrial, and communication systems, PN found themselves inadequate to address the problems of uncertainty, and imprecision in data. This gave rise to amalgamation of Fuzzy logic with Petri nets and a new tool emerged with the name of Fuzzy Petri Nets (FPN). Although there had been a lot of research done on FPN and a number of their applications have been anticipated, but their basic types and structure are still ambiguous. Therefore, in this research, an effort is made to categorize FPN according to their structure and algorithms Further, literature review of the applications of FPN in the light of their classifications has been done.

Keywords: Discrete event systems, Fuzzy logic, Fuzzy Petri nets, and Petri nets.

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Authors: Kenneth M. Oba

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This study investigated factors affecting the price of cement in Nigeria, and developed a mathematical model that can predict future cement prices. Cement is key in the Nigerian construction industry. The changes in price caused by certain factors could affect economic and infrastructural development; hence there is need for proper proactive planning. Secondary data were collected from published information on cement between 2014 and 2019. In addition, questionnaires were sent to some domestic cement retailers in Port Harcourt in Nigeria, to obtain the actual prices of cement between the same periods. The study revealed that the most critical factors affecting the price of cement in Nigeria are inflation rate, population growth rate, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate. With the use of data from United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and Central Bank of Nigeria databases, amongst others, a Multiple Linear Regression model was formulated. The model was used to predict the price of cement for 2020-2025. The model was then tested with 95% confidence level, using a two-tailed t-test and an F-test, resulting in an R² of 0.8428 and R² (adj.) of 0.6069. The results of the tests and the correlation factors confirm the model to be fit and adequate. This study will equip researchers and stakeholders in the construction industry with information for planning, monitoring, and management of present and future construction projects that involve the use of cement.

Keywords: Cement price, multiple linear regression model, Nigerian Construction Industry, price prediction.

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Authors: Syadiah Nor Wan Shamsuddin, Valerie Lesk , Hassan Ugail

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Early detection of dementia by testing the spatial memory can be applied using a virtual environment. This paper presents guidelines on how to design a virtual environment specifically for elderly in early detection of dementia. The specific design needs to be considered because the effectiveness of the technology relies on the ability of the end user to use it. The primary goal of these guidelines is to promote accessibility. Based on these guidelines, a virtual simulation was developed and evaluated. The results on usability of acceptance and satisfaction that are tested on young (control group) and elderly participants indicate that these guidelines are reliable and useful for use with elderly people.

Keywords: Virtual Environment, spatial memory, design, guidelines

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Authors: P. Kiruthika, K. Ramani

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Multi-Level Inverter technology has been developed in the area of high-power medium-voltage energy scheme, because of their advantages such as devices of lower rating can be used thereby enabling the schemes to be used for high voltage applications. Reduced Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).Since the dv/dt is low; the Electromagnetic Interference from the scheme is low. To avoid the switching losses Lower switching frequencies can be used. In this paper present a survey of various topologies, control strategy and modulation techniques used by these inverters. Here the regenerative and superior topologies are also discussed.

Keywords: Cascaded H-bridge Multi-Level Inverter, Diode Clamped Multi-Level Inverter, Flying Capacitors Multi- Level Inverter, Multi-Level Inverter, Total Harmonic Distortion.

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Authors: O. Miraliyari

Abstract:

This article attempts to analyze functionally graded beam thermal buckling along with piezoelectric layers applying based on the third order shearing deformation theory considering various boundary conditions. The beam properties are assumed to vary continuously from the lower surface to the upper surface of the beam. The equilibrium equations are derived using the total potential energy equations, Euler equations, piezoelectric material constitutive equations and third order shear deformation theory assumptions. In order to fulfill such an aim, at first functionally graded beam with piezoelectric layers applying the third order shearing deformation theory along with clamped -clamped boundary conditions are thoroughly analyzed, and then following making sure of the correctness of all the equations, the very same beam is analyzed with piezoelectric layers through simply-simply and simply-clamped boundary conditions. In this article buckling critical temperature for functionally graded beam is derived in two different ways, without piezoelectric layer and with piezoelectric layer and the results are compared together. Finally, all the conclusions obtained will be compared and contrasted with the same samples in the same and distinguished conditions through tables and charts. It would be noteworthy that in this article, the software MAPLE has been applied in order to do the numeral calculations.

Keywords: Thermal buckling, functionally graded beam, piezoelectric layer, various boundary conditions.

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Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, B. Mohammadi-Haji

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Stone columns have been widely employed to improve the load-settlement characteristics of soft soils. The results of two small scale displacement control loading tests on stone columns were used in order to validate numerical finite element simulations. Additionally, a series of numerical calculations of static loading have been performed on strengthened raft footing to investigate the effects of using stone columns on bearing capacity of footings. The bearing capacity of single and group of stone columns under static loading compares with unimproved ground.

Keywords: Circular raft footing, numerical analysis, validation, vertically encased stone column.

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Authors: M. Tarafdar Haque, A. Taheri

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Application of neural networks in execution of programmed pulse width modulation (PPWM) of a voltage source inverter (VSI) is studied in this paper. Using the proposed method it is possible to cancel out the desired harmonics in output of VSI in addition to control the magnitude of fundamental harmonic, contineously. By checking the non-trained values and a performance index, the most appropriate neural network is proposed. It is shown that neural networks may solve the custom difficulties of practical utilization of PPWM such as large size of memory, complex digital circuits and controlling the magnitude of output voltage in a discrete manner.

Keywords: Neural Network, Inverter, PPWM.

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Authors: A. Youseef

Abstract:

IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) aims to present high speed wireless access to cover wide range coverage. The base station (BS) and the subscriber station (SS) are the main parts of WiMAX. WiMAX uses either Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) or mesh topologies. In the PMP mode, the SSs connect to the BS to gain access to the network. However, in the mesh mode, the SSs connect to each other to gain access to the BS. The main components of QoS management in the 802.16 standard are the admission control, buffer management and packet scheduling. In this paper, we use QualNet 5.0.2 to study the performance of different scheduling schemes, such as WFQ, SCFQ, RR and SP when the numbers of SSs increase. We find that when the number of SSs increases, the average jitter and average end-to-end delay is increased and the throughput is reduced.

Keywords: WiMAX, Scheduling Scheme, QoS, QualNet.

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Authors: Tosaphol Ratniyomchai, Uthai Jaithong, Thanatchai Kulworawanichpong

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This paper presents an application of power line carrier (PLC) for electrical power telemetering. This system has a special capability of transmitting the measured values to a centralized computer via power lines. The PLC modem as a passive high-pass filter is designed for transmitting and receiving information. Its function is to send the information carrier together with transmitted data by superimposing it on the 50 Hz power frequency signal. A microcontroller is employed to function as the main processing of the modem. It is programmed for PLC control and interfacing with other devices. Each power meter, connected via a PLC modem, is assigned with a unique identification number (address) for distinguishing each device from one another.

Keywords: Power telemetering, Power line carrier, High-passfilter, Digital data transmission

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Authors: M. İskefiyeli, İ. Özçelik

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PROFIBUS (PROcess FIeld BUS) which is defined with international standarts (IEC61158, EN50170) is the most popular fieldbus, and provides a communication between industrial applications which are located in different control environment and location in manufacturing, process and building automation. Its communication speed is from 9.6 Kbps to 12 Mbps over distances from 100 to 1200 meters, and so it is to be often necessary to interconnect them in order to break these limits. Unfortunately this interconnection raises several issues and the solutions found so far are not very satisfactory. In this paper, we propose a new solution to interconnect PROFIBUS segments, which uses a wireless MAN based on the IEEE 802.16 standard as a backbone system. Also, the solution which is described a model for internetworking unit integrates the traffic generated by PROFIBUS segments into IEEE 802.16 wireless MAN using encapsulation technique.

Keywords: Internetworking Unit, PROFIBUS, WiMAX, WMAN, 802.16.

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Authors: Jin-Tae Lee, Jung-Hoon Suh, Sang-Soo Jang, Jae-Il Lee

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Information and communication service providers (ICSP) that are significant in size and provide Internet-based services take administrative, technical, and physical protection measures via the information security check service (ISCS). These protection measures are the minimum action necessary to secure the stability and continuity of the information and communication services (ICS) that they provide. Thus, information assets are essential to providing ICS, and deciding the relative importance of target assets for protection is a critical procedure. The risk analysis model designed to decide the relative importance of information assets, which is described in this study, evaluates information assets from many angles, in order to choose which ones should be given priority when it comes to protection. Many-sided risk analysis (MSRS) grades the importance of information assets, based on evaluation of major security check items, evaluation of the dependency on the information and communication facility (ICF) and influence on potential incidents, and evaluation of major items according to their service classification, in order to identify the ISCS target. MSRS could be an efficient risk analysis model to help ICSPs to identify their core information assets and take information protection measures first, so that stability of the ICS can be ensured.

Keywords: Information Asset, Information CommunicationFacility, Evaluation, ISCS (Information Security Check Service), Evaluation, Grade.

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Authors: Emiliano Matta

Abstract:

Passive resonant vibration absorbers are among the most widely used dynamic control systems in civil engineering. They typically consist in a single-degree-of-freedom mechanical appendage of the main structure, tuned to one structural target mode through frequency and damping optimization. One classical scheme is the pendulum absorber, whose mass is constrained to move along a curved trajectory and is damped by viscous dashpots. Even though the principle is well known, the search for improved arrangements is still under way. In recent years this investigation inspired a type of bidirectional pendulum absorber (BPA), consisting of a mass constrained to move along an optimal three-dimensional (3D) concave surface. For such a BPA, the surface principal curvatures are designed to ensure a bidirectional tuning of the absorber to both principal modes of the main structure, while damping is produced either by horizontal viscous dashpots or by vertical friction dashpots, connecting the BPA to the main structure. In this paper, a variant of BPA is proposed, where damping originates from the variable tangential friction force which develops between the pendulum mass and the 3D surface as a result of a spatially-varying friction coefficient pattern. Namely, a friction coefficient is proposed that varies along the pendulum surface in proportion to the modulus of the 3D surface gradient. With such an assumption, the dissipative model of the absorber can be proven to be nonlinear homogeneous in the small displacement domain. The resulting homogeneous BPA (HBPA) has a fundamental advantage over conventional friction-type absorbers, because its equivalent damping ratio results independent on the amplitude of oscillations, and therefore its optimal performance does not depend on the excitation level. On the other hand, the HBPA is more compact than viscously damped BPAs because it does not need the installation of dampers. This paper presents the analytical model of the HBPA and an optimal methodology for its design. Numerical simulations of single- and multi-story building structures under wind and earthquake loads are presented to compare the HBPA with classical viscously damped BPAs. It is shown that the HBPA is a promising alternative to existing BPA types and that homogeneous tangential friction is an effective means to realize systems provided with amplitude-independent damping.

Keywords: Amplitude-independent damping, Homogeneous friction, Pendulum nonlinear dynamics, Structural control, Vibration resonant absorbers.

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Authors: Siqing Chen

Abstract:

The vast rural landscape in the southern United States is conspicuously characterized by the hedgerow trees or groves. The patchwork landscape of fields surrounded by high hedgerows is a traditional and familiar feature of the American countryside. Hedgerows are in effect linear strips of trees, groves, or woodlands, which are often critical habitats for wildlife and important for the visual quality of the landscape. As landscape interfaces, hedgerows define the spaces in the landscape, give the landscape life and meaning, and enrich ecologies and cultural heritages of the American countryside. Although hedgerows were originally intended as fences and to mark property and townland boundaries, they are not merely the natural or man-made additions to the landscape--they have gradually become “naturalized" into the landscape, deeply rooted in the rural culture, and now formed an important component of the southern American rural environment. However, due to the ever expanding real estate industry and high demand for new residential development, substantial areas of authentic hedgerow landscape in the southern United States are being urbanized. Using Hudson Farm as an example, this study illustrated guidelines of how hedgerows can be integrated into town planning as green infrastructure and landscape interface to innovate and direct sustainable land use, and suggest ways in which such vernacular landscapes can be preserved and integrated into new development without losing their contextual inspiration.

Keywords: Hedgerow, Town planning, Sustainable design, Ecological infrastructure

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Authors: Achim Kampker, Kai Kreiskoether, Johannes Wagner, Sarah Fluchs

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The growing speed of innovation in related industries requires the automotive industry to adapt and increase release frequencies of new vehicle derivatives which implies a significant reduction of investments per vehicle and ramp-up times. Emerging markets in various parts of the world augment the currently dominating established main automotive markets. Local content requirements such as import tariffs on final products impede the accessibility of these micro markets, which is why in the future market exploitation will not be driven by pure sales activities anymore but rather by setting up local assembly units. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the concept of decentralized assembly and to discuss and critically assess some currently researched and crucial approaches in production technology. In order to determine the scope in which complementary mobile assembly can be profitable for manufacturers, a general cost model is set up and each cost driver is assessed with respect to varying levels of decentralization. One main result of the paper is that the presented approaches offer huge cost-saving potentials and are thus critical for future production strategies. Nevertheless, they still need to be further exploited in order for decentralized assembly to be profitable for companies. The optimal level of decentralization must, however, be specifically determined in each case and cannot be defined in general.

Keywords: Automotive assembly, e-mobility, production technology, small series assembly.

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Authors: Ali N. Suri, Ahmad A. Al-Makhlufi

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In this paper the problem of buckling of plates on foundation of finite length and with different side support is studied.

The Finite Strip Method is used as tool for the analysis. This method uses finite strip elastic, foundation, and geometric matrices to build the assembly matrices for the whole structure, then after introducing boundary conditions at supports, the resulting reduced matrices is transformed into a standard Eigenvalue-Eigenvector problem. The solution of this problem will enable the determination of the buckling load, the associated buckling modes and the buckling wave length.

To carry out the buckling analysis starting from the elastic, foundation, and geometric stiffness matrices for each strip a computer program FORTRAN list is developed.

Since stiffness matrices are function of wave length of buckling, the computer program used an iteration procedure to find the critical buckling stress for each value of foundation modulus and for each boundary condition.

The results showed the use of elastic medium to support plates subject to axial load increase a great deal the buckling load, the results found are very close with those obtained by other analytical methods and experimental work.

The results also showed that foundation compensates the effect of the weakness of some types of constraint of side support and maximum benefit found for plate with one side simply supported the other free.

Keywords: Buckling, Finite Strip, Different Sides Support, Plates on Foundation.

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Authors: Elham Amini Boroujeni, Hamid Reza Momeni

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Design of an observer based controller for a class of fractional order systems has been done. Fractional order mathematics is used to express the system and the proposed observer. Fractional order Lyapunov theorem is used to derive the closed-loop asymptotic stability. The gains of the observer and observer based controller are derived systematically using the linear matrix inequality approach. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate validity and effectiveness of the proposed observer based controller.

Keywords: Fractional order calculus, Fractional order observer, Linear matrix inequality, Nonlinear Systems, Observer based Controller.

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Authors: Samar Saadeldin Abdelmotalab Omer, Ikram Mohamed Eltayeb Elsiddig, Amna Beshir Medani Ahmed, Saad Mohamed Hussein Ayoub

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Many herbal medicinal products are considered potential anti-hypercholesterolemic agents with encouraging safety profiles, however only a limited amount of clinical research exists to support their efficacy. The present study was designed to compare the antihypercholesterolemic and antioxidant activities of the crude ethanolic extracts of Citrus reticulata fruit peel, Zingiber officinale rhizome and Sesamum indicum seeds. Forty-five rats were used throughout the experiment which are extended for four weeks. These were divided into nine groups, five rats per each group as follows; group 1 was the normal control group (rats only fed standard normal rat diet), group 2 was the hypercholesterolemic control group (rats fed only hypercholesterolemic diet which contained 1% cholesterol plus 10% saturated animal fat added to the normal rat diet), groups 3 and 4 were fed hypercholesterolemic diet in addition to Citrus reticulata ethanolic extract at doses of (250mg/kg (group 3) and 500mg/kg (group 4)) administered daily via oral route, groups 5 and 6 were given hypercholesterolemic diet in addition to Zingiber officinale ethanolic extract at doses of (250mg/kg (group 5) and 500mg/kg (group 6)) daily through oral route, groups 7 and 8 fed on hypercholesterolemic diet in addition to Sesamum indicum ethanolic extract at doses of (250mg/kg (group 7) and 500mg/kg (group 8)) daily orally; and group 9 rats were given hypercholesterolemic diet in addition to atorvastatin (0.18mg/kg) daily via oral route as a standard reference antihypercholesterolemic drug. Blood samples from all groups were drawn from the retro-orbital venous plexus four weeks following treatment after overnight fasting and the lipid profile (total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride levels) were measured and the risk ratio (TC/HDL-C) was assessed. The antioxidant activity of the three plants extracts was determined using DPPH free-radical antioxidant assay. Results of in vivo and in vitro antihypercholesterolemic and antioxidant assay respectively, revealed that the three extracts possess comparable antioxidant and antihypercholesterolemic activities.

Keywords: Antihypercholesterolemic effects, Antioxidant activity, HDL, LDL, TC, TGs, Citrus reticulata, Sesamum indicum, Zingiber officinale.

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Authors: L. Godinho, N. Teixeira

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Nowadays, massification of Internet access represents one of the major challenges to the traditional powers of the State, among which the power to control its external image. The virtual world has also sparked the interest of social sciences which consider it a new field of study, an immense open text where sense is expressed. In this paper, that immense text has been accessed to so as to understand the perception Internet users from all over the world have of Portugal. Ours is a quantitative and qualitative approach, as we have resorted to buzz, thematic and category analysis. The results confirm the predominance of sea stereotype in others' vision of the Portuguese people, and evidence that national image has adapted to network communication through processes of individuation and paganization.

Keywords: Internet, national image, perception, web analytics.

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Authors: Urszula Wachowska, Anna Daria Stasiulewicz-Paluch, Katarzyna Kucharska

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A three-year field experiment (2010-2012) was conducted to determine the abundance of epiphytic and endophytic filamentous fungi colonizing the grain of winter wheat cv. Bogatka. Wheat spikes were protected with tebuconazole or chitosan at the watery ripe stage. Untreated plants served as control. Tebuconazole exerted an inhibitory effect primarily on F. culmorum and F. graminearum, and its effectiveness was determined by the pressure from pathogens that infected wheat spikes during the growing season. Chitosan did not suppress the growth of Fusarium species and Alternaria alternata.

Keywords: Winter wheat, tebuconazole, chitosan, Fusarium.

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Authors: Marius Pislaru, Alexandru F. Trandabat

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Environmental studies have expanded dramatically all over the world in the past few years. Nowadays businesses interact with society and the environment in ways that put their mark on both sides. Efforts improving human standard living, through the control of nature and the development of new products, have also resulted in contamination of the environment. Consequently companies play an important role in environmental sustainability of a region or country. Therefore we can say that a company's sustainable development is strictly dependent on the environment. This article presents a fuzzy model to evaluate a company's environmental impact. Article illustrates an example of the automotive industry in order to prove the usefulness of using such a model.

Keywords: fuzzy approach, environmental impact assessment, sustainability

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Authors: Behzad Sani, Vida Jodaeian

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In order to determine the impact of thermo priming on germination of soybean seeds, an experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design with three replications. The factors of studied included different time thermo priming (control, 5 and 10 minutes) through the placing seeds were exposed to oven. The results showed that the effect of thermo priming was significant on germination percentage, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour in P ≤ 0.05. Mean comparison showed that the highest germination percentage (77%), seedling dry weight (1.39 g) and seedling vigour (107.03) were achieved by 10 minutes thermo priming. 

Keywords: Thermo priming, seedling, seedling production, seedling growth, soybean.

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Authors: Sunaitan Al Mutairi

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A perfect start is a key factor for project completion on time. The study examined the effects of delayed mobilization of resources during the initial phases of the project. This paper mainly highlights the identification and categorization of all delays during the initial construction phase and their root cause analysis with corrective/control measures for the Kuwait Oil Company oil and gas projects. A relatively good percentage of the delays identified during the project execution (Contract award to end of defects liability period) attributed to mobilization/preliminary activity delays. Data analysis demonstrated significant increase in average project delay during the last five years compared to the previous period. Contractors had delays/issues during the initial phase, which resulted in slippages and progressively increased, resulting in time and cost overrun. Delays/issues not mitigated on time during the initial phase had very high impact on project completion. Data analysis of the delays for the past five years was carried out using trend chart, scatter plot, process map, box plot, relative importance index and Pareto chart. Construction of any project inside the Gathering Centers involves complex management skills related to work force, materials, plant, machineries, new technologies etc. Delay affects completion of projects and compromises quality, schedule and budget of project deliverables. Works executed as per plan during the initial phase and start-up duration of the project construction activities resulted in minor slippages/delays in project completion. In addition, there was a good working environment between client and contractor resulting in better project execution and management. Mainly, the contractor was on the front foot in the execution of projects, which had minimum/no delays during the initial and construction period. Hence, having a perfect start during the initial construction phase shall have a positive influence on the project success. Our research paper studies each type of delay with some real example supported by statistic results and suggests mitigation measures. Detailed analysis carried out with all stakeholders based on impact and occurrence of delays to have a practical and effective outcome to mitigate the delays. The key to improvement is to have proper control measures and periodic evaluation/audit to ensure implementation of the mitigation measures. The focus of this research is to reduce the delays encountered during the initial construction phase of the project life cycle.

Keywords: Construction activities delays, delay analysis for construction projects, mobilization delays, oil and gas projects delays.

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Authors: Hongmin Deng, Qionghua Wang

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A modified two dimensional (2D) logistic map based on cross feedback control is proposed. This 2D map exhibits more random chaotic dynamical properties than the classic one dimensional (1D) logistic map in the statistical characteristics analysis. So it is utilized as the pseudo-random (PN) sequence generator, where the obtained real-valued PN sequence is quantized at first, then applied to radio frequency identification (RFID) communication system in this paper. This system is experimentally validated on a cortex-M₀ development board, which shows the effectiveness in key generation, the size of key space and security. At last, further cryptanalysis is studied through the test suite in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Keywords: Chaos encryption, logistic map, pseudo-random sequence, RFID.

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Authors: K. Vallianou, T. Alexopoulos, V. Plaka, M. K. Seleventi, V. Skanavis, C. Skanavis

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The present research addresses the role of place attachment and emotions in community resiliency and recovery within the context of a disaster. Natural disasters represent a disruption in the normal functioning of a community, leading to a general feeling of disorientation. This study draws on the trauma caused by a natural hazard such as a forest fire. The changes of the sense of togetherness are being assessed. Finally this research determines how the place attachment of the inhabitants was affected during the reorientation process of the community. The case study area is Mati, a small coastal town in eastern Attica, Greece. The fire broke out on July 23^rd, 2018. A quantitative research was conducted through questionnaires via phone interviews, one year after the disaster, to address community resiliency in the long-run. The sample was composed of 159 participants from the rural community of Mati plus 120 coming from Skyros Island that was used as a control group. Inhabitants were prompted to answer items gauging their emotions related to the event, group identification and emotional significance of their community, and place attachment before and a year after the fire took place. Importantly, the community recovery and reorientation were examined within the context of a relative absence of government backing and official support. Emotions related to the event were aggregated into 4 clusters related to: activation/vigilance, distress/disorientation, indignation, and helplessness. The findings revealed a decrease in the level of place attachment in the impacted area of Mati as compared to the control group of Skyros Island. Importantly, initial distress caused by the fire prompted the residents to identify more with their community and to report more positive feelings toward their community. Moreover, a mediation analysis indicated that the positive effect of community cohesion on place attachment one year after the disaster was mediated by the positive feelings toward the community. Finally, place attachment contributes to enhanced optimism and a more positive perspective concerning Mati’s future prospects. Despite an insufficient state support to this affected area, the findings suggest an important role of emotions and place attachment during the process of recovery. Implications concerning the role of emotions and social dynamics in meshing place attachment during the disaster recovery process as well as community resiliency are discussed.

Keywords: Community resilience, natural disasters, place attachment, wildfire.

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Authors: E. Bárcena-Martín, S. Pérez-Moreno

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This paper explores the extent of the gap in poverty rates between immigrant and native households in Spanish regions and assess to what extent regional differences in individual and contextual characteristics can explain the divergences in such a gap. By using multilevel techniques and European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions, we estimate immigrant households experiments an increase of 76 per cent in the odds of being poor compared with a native one when we control by individual variables. In relation to regional differences in the risk of poverty, regionallevel variables have higher effect in the reduction of these differences than individual variables.

Keywords: Immigration, Multilevel Analysis, Poverty, Spanish Regions

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Authors: N. Nandan A. M. Nagaraj, L. Sanjeev Kumar

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In the rapidly growing population, the requirement of electrical power is increasing day by day. In order to meet the needs, we need to generate the power using alternate method. In this paper, a presentable approach is developed by analysis and can be implemented by utilizing heat energy, which is generated in numerous ways in some of the rural areas in India. The thermoelectric generator unit will be developed by combing with control circuits and converts, which is used to light the LED lamps. The temperature difference which is available in the kitchens, especially the exhaust pipes/chimneys of wooden fire stoves, where more heat is dissipated into the atmosphere, can be utilized for electrical power generation. Hence, the temperature rise of surroundings atmosphere can be reduced.

Keywords: Thermoelectric generator, LED, converts, temperature.

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Authors: Milan Rippel, Pert Teplý

Abstract:

Operational risk has become one of the most discussed topics in the financial industry in the recent years. The reasons for this attention can be attributed to higher investments in information systems and technology, the increasing wave of mergers and acquisitions and emergence of new financial instruments. In addition, the New Basel Capital Accord (known as Basel II) demands a capital requirement for operational risk and further motivates financial institutions to more precisely measure and manage this type of risk. The aim of this paper is to shed light on main characteristics of operational risk management and common applied methods: scenario analysis, key risk indicators, risk control self assessment and loss distribution approach.

Keywords: Operational risk, economic capital, key risk indicators, loss distribution approach.

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Authors: Lei Lei, Hongbo Zhang, Donald J. Bergstrom, Bing Zhang, K. Y. Song, W. J. Zhang

Abstract:

This paper presents a model for a modified T-junction device for microspheres generation. The numerical model is developed using a commercial software package: COMSOL Multiphysics. In order to test the accuracy of the numerical model, multiple variables, such as the flow rate of cross-flow, fluid properties, structure, and geometry of the microdevice are applied. The results from the model are compared with the experimental results in the diameter of the microsphere generated. The comparison shows a good agreement. Therefore the model is useful in further optimization of the device and feedback control of microsphere generation if any.

Keywords: CFD modeling, validation, microsphere generation, modified T-junction.

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