Search results for: medieval period

Authors: Chien-Song Chyang, Yu-Chi Wang

Abstract:

For sludge disposal, incineration is considered to be better than direct burial because of regulations and space limitations in Taiwan. Additionally, burial after incineration can effectively prolong the lifespan of a landfill. Therefore, it is the most satisfactory method for treating sludge at present. Of the various incineration technologies, the fluidized bed incinerator is a suitable choice due to its fuel flexibility. In this work, sludge generated from industrial plants was treated in a pilot-scale vortexing fluidized bed. The moisture content of the sludge was 48.53%, and its LHV was 454.6 kcal/kg. Primary gas and secondary gas were fixed at 3 Nm³/min and 1 Nm³/min, respectively. Diesel burners with on-off controllers were used to control the temperature; the bed temperature was set to 750±20 °C, and the freeboard temperature was 850±20 °C. The experimental data show that the NO emission increased with bed temperature. The maximum NO emission is 139 ppm, which is in agreement with the regulation. The CO emission is low than 100 ppm through the operation period. The mean particle size of fly ash collected from baghouse decreased with operating time. The ration of bottom ash to fly ash is about 3. Compared with bottom ash, the potassium in the fly ash is much higher. It implied that the potassium content is not the key factor for aggregation of bottom ash.

Keywords: Sludge incineration, fluidized bed combustion, fly ash, bottom ash.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 916

Authors: Raquel Ramos López, Anissa El-Khattabi, Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco, Luis Javier García Villalba

Abstract:

An increasing number of mobile devices with integrated cameras has meant that most digital video comes from these devices. These digital videos can be made anytime, anywhere and for different purposes. They can also be shared on the Internet in a short period of time and may sometimes contain recordings of illegal acts. The need to reliably trace the origin becomes evident when these videos are used for forensic purposes. This work proposes an algorithm to identify the brand and model of mobile device which generated the video. Its procedure is as follows: after obtaining the relevant video information, a classification algorithm based on sensor noise and Wavelet Transform performs the aforementioned identification process. We also present experimental results that support the validity of the techniques used and show promising results.

Keywords: Digital video, forensics analysis, key frame, mobile device, PRNU, sensor noise, source identification.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1161

Authors: Doseong Eom, Jeongmin Kim, Kwang Ryel Ryu

Abstract:

Large exhibition halls require a lot of energy to maintain comfortable atmosphere for the visitors viewing inside. One way of reducing the energy cost is to have thermal energy storage systems installed so that the thermal energy can be stored in the middle of night when the energy price is low and then used later when the price is high. To minimize the overall energy cost, however, we should be able to decide how much energy to save during which time period exactly. If we can foresee future energy load and the corresponding cost, we will be able to make such decisions reasonably. In this paper, we use machine learning technique to obtain models for predicting weather conditions and the number of visitors on hourly basis for the next day. Based on the energy load thus predicted, we build a cost-optimal daily operation plan for the thermal energy storage systems and cooling and heating facilities through simulation-based optimization.

Keywords: Building energy management, machine learning, simulation-based optimization, operation planning.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 966

Authors: Denis Trcek

Abstract:

Trust is essential for further and wider acceptance of contemporary e-services. It was first addressed almost thirty years ago in Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria standard by the US DoD. But this and other proposed approaches of that period were actually solving security. Roughly some ten years ago, methodologies followed that addressed trust phenomenon at its core, and they were based on Bayesian statistics and its derivatives, while some approaches were based on game theory. However, trust is a manifestation of judgment and reasoning processes. It has to be dealt with in accordance with this fact and adequately supported in cyber environment. On the basis of the results in the field of psychology and our own findings, a methodology called qualitative algebra has been developed, which deals with so far overlooked elements of trust phenomenon. It complements existing methodologies and provides a basis for a practical technical solution that supports management of trust in contemporary computing environments. Such solution is also presented at the end of this paper.

Keywords: internet security, trust management, multi-agent systems, reasoning and judgment, modeling and simulation, qualitativealgebra

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1552

Authors: Bahar Razavi, Mansour Parehkar, Ali Gholami

Abstract:

Pore water pressure is normally because of consolidation, compaction and water level fluctuation on reservoir. Measuring, controlling and analyzing of pore water pressure have significant importance in both of construction and operation period. Since end of 2002, (dam start up) nature of KARKHEH dam has been analyzed by using the gathered information from instrumentation system of dam. In this lecture dam condition after start up have been analyzed by using the gathered data from located piezometers in core of dam. According to TERZAGHI equation and records of piezometers, consolidation lasted around five years during early years of construction stage, and current pore water pressure in core of dam is caused by water level fluctuation in reservoir. Although there is time lag between water level fluctuation and results of piezometers. These time lags have been checked and the results clearly show that one of the most important causes of it is distance between piezometer and reservoir.

Keywords: Earth dam, Reservoir, Piezometer, Terzaghi, Consolidation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2723

Authors: Shuvasish Roy Choudhury, Rita Mahanta, Aparajita Borkotoki

Abstract:

Fishes, in general, follow ammonotelic mode of excretion. However, certain stress factors may provoke them to excrete urea. In the present study, the possible role of ureogenesis to avoid accumulation of toxic ammonia under water-restricted condition was tested in Heteropneustes fossilis. A total of hundred fishes were collected and sacrificed. Excretory urea and ammonia were estimated in the water of the aquarium and glutamate dehydrogenase acitivity was measured in the hepatic tissue. During the experimental period, excretory ammonia in Heteropneustes fossilis was found between 931% to 16% above the baseline ammonia and excretory urea was found between 112% to 898% above the baseline urea. A high degree of correlation with r (coefficient of correlation) above 0.9 is observed between excretory ammonia and urea in Heteropneustes fossilis. However, only a moderate degree of correlation is observed between the activity of glutamate dehydrogenase and excretory ammonia and urea.

Keywords: Ammonia, aquarium, glutamate dehydrogenase, urea, ureogenesis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1745

Authors: Mario Gómez, José Carlos Rodríguez

Abstract:

This paper analyzes innovation trends in South Korea by means of the number of patent applications filed by residents and nonresidents during the period 1965 to 2012. Making use of patent data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), we search for the presence of multiple structural changes in patent application series in this country. These changes may suggest that firms’ innovative activity has been modified as a result of implementing some science, technology and innovation (STI) policies. Accordingly, the new regulations implemented in this country in the last decades have influenced its innovative activity. The question conducting this research is thus how STI policies in South Korea have influenced its innovation activity. The results confirm the existence of multiple structural changes in the series of patent applications resulting from alternative STI policies implemented during these years.

Keywords: Econometric methods, innovation activity, South Korea, patent applications, science, technology and innovation (STI) policy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2842

Authors: Suwardo, Madzlan B. Napiah, Ibrahim B. Kamaruddin

Abstract:

Stage bus operated in the mixed traffic might always meet many problems about low quality and reliability of services. The low quality and reliability of bus service can make the system not attractive and directly reduce the interest of using bus service. This paper presents the result of field investigation and analysis of on-time performance and service regularity of stage bus in mixed traffic. Data for analysis was collected from the field by on-board observation along the Ipoh-Lumut corridor in Perak, Malaysia. From analysis and discussion, it can be concluded that on-time performance and service regularity varies depend on station, typical day, time period, operation characteristics of bus and characteristics of traffic. The on-time performance and service regularity of stage bus in mixed traffic can be derived by using data collected by onboard survey. It is clear that on-time performance and service regularity of the existing stage bus system was low.

Keywords: mixed traffic, on-time performance, service regularity, stage bus

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2327

Authors: M. W. Siddiqi, M. Ilyas

Abstract:

Availability and mobilization of revenue is the main essential with which an economy is managed and run. While planning or while making the budgets nations set revenue targets to be achieved. But later when the accounts are closed the actual collections of revenue through taxes or even the non-tax revenue collection would invariably be different as compared to the initial estimates and targets set to be achieved. This revenue-gap distorts the whole system and the economy disturbing all the major macroeconomic indicators. This study is aimed to find out short and long term impact of revenue gap on budget deficit, debt burden and economic growth on the economy of Pakistan. For this purpose the study uses autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration and error correction mechanism on three different models for the period 1980 to 2009. The empirical results show that revenue gap has a short and long run relationship with economic growth and budget deficit. However, revenue gap has no impact on debt burden.

Keywords: Revenue Gap, Economic Growth, Budget Deficit, Debt Burden

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2789

Authors: Henry J. Wattimanela, Udjianna S. Pasaribu, Nanang T. Puspito, Sapto W. Indratno

Abstract:

Banda Sea Collision Zone (BSCZ) is the result of the interaction and convergence of Indo-Australian plate, Eurasian plate and Pacific plate. This location is located in eastern Indonesia. This zone has a very high seismic activity. In this research, we will calculate the rate (λ) and Mean Square Error (MSE). By this result, we will classification earthquakes distribution in the BSCZ with the point process approach. Chi-square is used to determine the type of earthquakes distribution in the sub region of BSCZ. The data used in this research is data of earthquakes with a magnitude ≥ 6 SR for the period 1964-2013 and sourced from BMKG Jakarta. This research is expected to contribute to the Moluccas Province and surrounding local governments in performing spatial plan document related to disaster management.

Keywords: Banda sea collision zone, earthquakes, mean square error, Poisson distribution, chi-square test.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2081

Authors: I. Erins, J. Erina

Abstract:

The aim of the present article is to determine the impact of the external and internal factors of bank performance on the profitability indicators of the CEE countries banks in the period from 2006 to 2012. On the basis of research conducted abroad on bank and macroeconomic profitability indicators, in order to obtain research results, the authors evaluated return on average assets (ROAA) and return on average equity (ROAE) indicators of the CEE countries banks. The authors analyzed profitability indicators of banks using descriptive methods, SPSS data analysis methods, as well as data correlation and linear regression analysis. The authors concluded that most internal and external indicators of bank performance have no direct influence the profitability of the banks in the CEE countries. The only exceptions are credit risk and bank size, which affect one of the measures of bank profitability – return on average equity.

Keywords: Banks, CEE countries, Profitability ROAA, ROAE.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2639

Authors: A. Radzevičius, P. Viškelis, R. Karklelienė, J. Viškelis, Č. Bobinas, E. Dambrauskienė andS. Sakalauskienė

Abstract:

Tomato nutrition value, color, flavor of their fruits and products depends mainly on lycopene, β-carotene, ascorbic acid, sugars and their ratio. The two most important carotenoids in fruits of tomato are lycopene, which determined fruits red color, and β- carotene, which accounts for approximately 7% of the tomato carotenoids. Therefore, tomato products and their quality can be well characterized by the content of these elements.Maturity at harvest is very important to composition and quality of tomatoes. This is especially a problem with tomatoes picked green since it is difficult to differentiate between mature and immature-green fruits. Typical and advanced mature-green tomatoes will usually attain a much better flavor than those picked at the immature or partially mature stages.To better understand the synthesis of biochemical compounds, their concentration should be compared not only at the last stage of maturity, but also during all fruit ripening period in different varieties.

Keywords: quality, ripeness, tomato, variety

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2964

Authors: Muchiri Josephine, Qdero Agnes

Abstract:

The current study was conducted during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) period, soon after the lifting of the lockdown measures and schools had just re-opened. It investigated the sociodemographic correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among adolescents (13-18 years) who had undergone domestic violence (DV) in Kajiado County, Kenya. The adolescents were administered a sociodemographic questionnaire to ascertain the forms of DV experienced, and those who met the criteria were assessed for the presence of PTSD using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ). Overall, 93 (90.3%) had experienced DV, and 57 (61.3%) had PTSD; where the severity and prevalence of PTSD increased with increased age, and it also increased significantly among those in higher academic levels, indicating that PTSD prevalence was chronic and additionally influenced by increased academic pressure. Social connections seemed to mitigate PTSD prevalence, whereas, regarding the family background, those living with guardians seemed to have more severe PTSD.

Keywords: Age, education level, gender, post-traumatic stress disorder.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27

Authors: Frank Emmert Streib, Matthias Dehmer, Gökhan H. Bakır, Max Mühlhauser

Abstract:

In this paper we investigate the influence of external noise on the inference of network structures. The purpose of our simulations is to gain insights in the experimental design of microarray experiments to infer, e.g., transcription regulatory networks from microarray experiments. Here external noise means, that the dynamics of the system under investigation, e.g., temporal changes of mRNA concentration, is affected by measurement errors. Additionally to external noise another problem occurs in the context of microarray experiments. Practically, it is not possible to monitor the mRNA concentration over an arbitrary long time period as demanded by the statistical methods used to learn the underlying network structure. For this reason, we use only short time series to make our simulations more biologically plausible.

Keywords: Dynamic Bayesian networks, structure learning, gene networks, Markov chain Monte Carlo, microarray data.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1587

Authors: Lin, Huifen, Fang, Yueh-chiu

Abstract:

This study explores perceptions of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners on using computer mediated communication technology in their learner of English. The data consists of observations of both synchronous and asynchronous communication participants engaged in for over a period of 4 months, which included online, and offline communication protocols, open-ended interviews and reflection papers composed by participants. Content analysis of interview data and the written documents listed above, as well as, member check and triangulation techniques are the major data analysis strategies. The findings suggest that participants generally do not benefit from computer-mediated communication in terms of its effect in learning a foreign language. Participants regarded the nature of CMC as artificial, or pseudo communication that did not aid their authentic communicational skills in English. The results of this study sheds lights on insufficient and inconclusive findings, which most quantitative CMC studies previously generated.

Keywords: computer-mediated communication, EFL, writing

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2546

Authors: M. Selvaggi, F. Pinto, A. R. Pesce Delfino, A. Vicenti, C. Dario

Abstract:

Data from 1731 Gentile di Puglia lambs, sired by 65 rams over a 5-year period were analyzed by a mixed model to estimate the variance components for heritability. The considered growth traits were: birth weight (BW), weight at 30 days of age (W30) and average daily gain from birth to 30 days of age (DG). Year of birth, sex of lamb, type of birth (single or twin), dam age at lambing and farm were significant sources of variation for all the considered growth traits. The average lamb weights were 3.85±0.16 kg at birth, 9.57±0.91 kg at 30 days of age and the average daily gain was 191±14 g. Estimates of heritability were 0.33±0.05, 0.41±0.06 and 0.16±0.05 respectively for the same traits. These values suggest there is a good opportunity to improve Gentile di Puglia lambs by selecting animals for growth traits.

Keywords: heritability estimate, growth traits, lambs, Gentile diPuglia.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1511

Authors: Zarita Zainuddin, Ong Pauline, C. Ardil

Abstract:

Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder, where the improper management of the blood glucose level in the diabetic patients will lead to the risk of heart attack, kidney disease and renal failure. This paper attempts to enhance the diagnostic accuracy of the advancing blood glucose levels of the diabetic patients, by combining principal component analysis and wavelet neural network. The proposed system makes separate blood glucose prediction in the morning, afternoon, evening and night intervals, using dataset from one patient covering a period of 77 days. Comparisons of the diagnostic accuracy with other neural network models, which use the same dataset are made. The comparison results showed overall improved accuracy, which indicates the effectiveness of this proposed system.

Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, principal component analysis, time-series, wavelet neural network.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2957

Authors: Tasnuva Tamanna, Sanjida Halim Topa

Abstract:

Sputum smear conversion after one month of antituberculosis therapy in new smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients (PTB+) is a vital indicator towards treatment success. The objective of this study is to determine the rate of sputum smear conversion in new PTB+ patients after one month under treatment of National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH). Analysis of sputum smear conversion was done by re-clinical examination with sputum smear microscopic test after one month. Socio-demographic and hematological parameters were evaluated to perceive the correlation with the disease status. Among all enrolled patients only 33.33% were available for follow up diagnosis and of them only 42.86% patients turned to smear negative. Probably this consequence is due to non-coherence to the proper disease management. 66.67% and 78.78% patients reported low haemoglobin and packed cell volume level respectively whereas 80% and 93.33% patients accounted accelerated platelet count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate correspondingly.

Keywords: Followed up patients, PTB+ patients, sputum smear conversion, and sputum smear microscopic test.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2145

Authors: Liu Shu, Dong Shangjia

Abstract:

Our goal is to effectively increase the number of boats in the river during a six month period. The main factors of determining the number of boats are duration and “select the priority trip". In the microcosmic simulation model, the best result is 4 to 24 nights with DSCF, and the number of boats is 812 with an increasing ratio of 9.0% related to the second best result. However, the number of boats is related to 31.6% less than the best one in 6 to 18 nights with FCFS. In the discrete duration model, we get from 6 to 18 nights, the numbers of boats have increased to 848 with an increase ratio of 29.7% than the best result in model I for the same time range. Moreover, from 4 to 24 nights, the numbers of boats have increase to 1194 with an increase ratio of 47.0% than the best result in model I for the same time range.

Keywords: Discrete duration model, “select the priority trip”, microcosmic simulation model.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1155

Authors: Y. Gholipour

Abstract:

In this paper, supply policy and procurement of shared resources in some kinds of concurrent construction projects are investigated. This could be oriented to the problems of holding construction companies who involve in different projects concurrently and they have to supply limited resources to several projects as well as prevent delays to any project. Limits on transportation vehicles and storage facilities for potential construction materials and also the available resources (such as cash or manpower) are some of the examples which affect considerably on management of all projects over all. The research includes investigation of some real multi-storey buildings during their execution periods and surveying the history of the activities. It is shown that the common resource demand variation curve of the projects may be expanded or displaced to achieve an optimum distribution scheme. Of course, it may cause some delay to some projects, but it has minimum influence on whole execution period of all projects and its influence on procurement cost of the projects is considerable. These observations on investigation of some multistorey building which are built in Iran will be presented in this paper.

Keywords: Construction Management, Supply Management, Resources Sharing, Multi-Project, Resource Procurement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2546

Authors: Y.M. Paltore, B.N. Zhubatova, A.A. Mustafayeva

Abstract:

Abai Kunanbayev is famous for being enlightener, composer, interpreter, social agent, philosopher, reformer, who wanted to enrich Kazakh literature by emergence with Russian and European culture, and also as a founder of Kazakh written literary language. Abai Kunanbayev was born in 1845 in East Kazakhstan area and passed away in 1904 in his hometown. His oeuvre absorbed and reflected all changes in the life of Kazakh society of the second half of XIX century. Because ХІХ century, especially its second half, was an important transition period for Kazakhstan, which radically changed traditional way of Kazakh society and predetermined further development in consequence of activation of Russian colonial policy and approval of commodity-money relations in Steppe Land.Abai Kunanbayev, besides Arabic and Persian common words and loanwords from Quran in his words of edification, had used a lot of words of Arabic, Persian, Latin, Russian, Nogai, Shaghatai, Polish, Greek, Turkish, which are used in the Kazakh language.

Keywords: Abai Kunanbayev, the Kazakh, Russian languages, literature

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2833

Authors: Ashkan Ebadi, Andrea Schiffauerova

Abstract:

Every year, a considerable amount of money is being invested on research, mainly in the form of funding allocated to universities and research institutes. To better distribute the available funds and to set the most proper R&D investment strategies for the future, evaluation of the productivity of the funded researchers and the impact of such funding is crucial. In this paper, using the data on 15 years of journal publications of the NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering research Council of Canada) funded researchers and by means of bibliometric analysis, the scientific development of the funded researchers and their scientific collaboration patterns will be investigated in the period of 1996-2010. According to the results it seems that there is a positive relation between the average level of funding and quantity and quality of the scientific output. In addition, whenever funding allocated to the researchers has increased, the number of co-authors per paper has also augmented. Hence, the increase in the level of funding may enable researchers to get involved in larger projects and/or scientific teams and increase their scientific output respectively.

Keywords: Bibliometrics, Collaboration, Funding, Productivity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1677

Authors: Edlira Donefski, Tina Donefski, Lorenc Ekonomi

Abstract:

Edgeworth Approximation, Bootstrap and Monte Carlo Simulations have a considerable impact on the achieving certain results related to different problems taken into study. In our paper, we have treated a financial case related to the effect that have the components of a Cash-Flow of one of the most successful businesses in the world, as the financial activity, operational activity and investing activity to the cash and cash equivalents at the end of the three-months period. To have a better view of this case we have created a Vector Autoregression model, and after that we have generated the impulse responses in the terms of Asymptotic Analysis (Edgeworth Approximation), Monte Carlo Simulations and Residual Bootstrap based on the standard errors of every series created. The generated results consisted of the common tendencies for the three methods applied, that consequently verified the advantage of the three methods in the optimization of the model that contains many variants.

Keywords: Autoregression, Bootstrap, Edgeworth Expansion, Monte Carlo Method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 553

Authors: T. Tanitteerapan, E.Thanpo

Abstract:

This paper, a simple continuous conduction mode (CCM) pulse-width-modulated (PWM) controller for high power factor boost converters is introduced. The duty ratios were obtained by the comparison of a sensed signal from inductor current or switch current and a negative slope ramp carrier waveform in each switching period. Due to the proposed control requires only the inductor current or switch current sensor and the output voltage sensor, its circuit implementation was very simple. To verify the proposed control, the circuit experimentation of a 350 W boost converter with the proposed control was applied. From the results, the input current waveform was shaped to be closely sinusoidal, implying high power factor and low harmonics.

Keywords: High power factor converters, boost converters, low harmonic rectifiers, power factor correction, and current control.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1782

Authors: R. Nayak, T. Panwar, R. Padhye

Abstract:

Protective textiles get soiled, stained and even worn during their use, which may not be usable after a certain period due to the loss of protective performance. They need regular cleaning and maintenance, which helps to extend the durability of the clothing, retains their useful properties and ensures that fresh clothing is ready to wear when needed. Generally, the cleaning processes used for various protective clothing include dry-cleaning (using solvents) or wet cleaning (using water). These cleaning processes can alter the fabric surface properties, dimensions, and physical, mechanical and performance properties. The technology of laundering and dry-cleaning has undergone several changes. Sustainable methods and products are available for faster, safer and improved cleaning of protective textiles. We performed a comprehensive and systematic review of green technologies and eco-friendly products for sustainable cleaning of protective textiles. Special emphasis is given on the care and maintenance procedures of protective textiles for protection from fire, bullets, chemical and other types of protective clothing.

Keywords: Sustainable cleaning, protective textiles, eco-friendly cleaning, ozone laundering, ultrasonic cleaning.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1294

Authors: M. Schulze, P. Crespo Del Granado

Abstract:

This paper considers the influence of promotion instruments for renewable energy sources (RES) on a multi-energy modeling framework. In Europe, so called Feed-in Tariffs are successfully used as incentive structures to increase the amount of energy produced by RES. Because of the stochastic nature of large scale integration of distributed generation, many problems have occurred regarding the quality and stability of supply. Hence, a macroscopic model was developed in order to optimize the power supply of the local energy infrastructure, which includes electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and district heating as energy carriers. Unique features of the model are the integration of RES and the adoption of Feed-in Tariffs into one optimization stage. Sensitivity studies are carried out to examine the system behavior under changing profits for the feed-in of RES. With a setup of three energy exchanging regions and a multi-period optimization, the impact of costs and profits are determined.

Keywords: Distributed generation, optimization methods, power system modeling, renewable energy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1608

Authors: Somphoom Sawaengkun

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was primarily assessing how important economic factors namely: The Thai export price of white rice, the exchange rate, and the world rice consumption affect the overall Thai white rice export, using historical data during the period 1989-2013 from the Thai Rice Exporters Association, and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. The co-integration method, regression analysis, and error correction model were applied to investigate the econometric model. The findings indicated that in the long-run, the world rice consumption, the exchange rate, and the Thai export price of white rice were the important factors affecting the export quantity of Thai white rice respectively, as indicated by their significant coefficients. Meanwhile, the rice export price was an important factor affecting the export quantity of Thai white rice in the short-run. This information is useful in the business, export opportunities, price competitiveness, and policymaker in Thailand.

Keywords: Economic Factors, Rice Export, White Rice.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3461

Authors: Efat Lali Dastjerdi, Hassan Sadeghi Naeini, Hadi Sanjari

Abstract:

One of the important steps in a safety and risk management system is the economical evaluation of occupational accident and diseases costs in order to decrease accidents from reoccurring in the workplace. This study proposed a plausible method for calculating occupational accident costs and illnesses in work place. This method design for cost estimation takes into account both the personnel, organizational level as well as the community level especially intended for an Iranian work place. The research indicates that a using systematic method for calculating costs which also provides risk evaluation can help managers to plan correctly the investment in health and safety measures. Using this method is that not only is it comprehensive, easy and practical and could be applied in practice by a manager within a short period of time but it also shows the importance of accident costs as well as calculates the real cost of an accident and illnesses.

Keywords: ost calculating model, Economics of health and Safety.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2195

Authors: Jieh-Haur Chen, Pei-Fen Huang

Abstract:

This paper presents an integrated model that automatically measures the change of rivers, damage area of bridge surroundings, and change of vegetation. The proposed model is on the basis of a neurofuzzy mechanism enhanced by SOM optimization algorithm, and also includes three functions to deal with river imagery. High resolution imagery from FORMOSAT-2 satellite taken before and after the invasion period is adopted. By randomly selecting a bridge out of 129 destroyed bridges, the recognition results show that the average width has increased 66%. The ruined segment of the bridge is located exactly at the most scour region. The vegetation coverage has also reduced to nearly 90% of the original. The results yielded from the proposed model demonstrate a pinpoint accuracy rate at 99.94%. This study brings up a successful tool not only for large-scale damage assessment but for precise measurement to disasters.

Keywords: remote sensing image, damage assessment, typhoon disaster, bridge, ANN, fuzzy, SOM, optimization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1653

Authors: Manoela Cabo da Silva, Elton Fernandes, Ricardo Pacheco, Heloisa Pires

Abstract:

This study examined cointegration and causal relationships between economic growth and regular domestic and international passenger air transport in Brazil. Total passengers embarked and disembarked were used as a proxy for air transport activity and gross domestic product (GDP) as a proxy for economic development. The test spanned the period from 2000 to 2015 for domestic passenger traffic and from 1995 to 2015 for international traffic. The results confirm the hypothesis that there is cointegration between passenger traffic series and economic development, showing a bi-directional Granger causal relationship between domestic traffic and economic development and unidirectional influence by economic growth on international passenger air transport demand. Variance decomposition of the series showed that domestic air transport was far more important than international transport to promoting economic development in Brazil.

Keywords: Air passenger transport, cointegration, economic growth, GDP, granger causality.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 965