Search results for: index of sustainable functionality
2056 Analysis of Influenza Cases and Seasonal Index in Thailand
Authors: S. Youthao, M. Jaroensutasinee, K. Jaroensutasinee
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This study investigated the pattern and seasonal index of influenza cases in Thailand. Our results showed that southern Thailand had the highest influenza incidence among the four regions of Thailand (i.e. north, northeast, central and southern Thailand). The influenza pattern in southern Thailand was similar to that of northeastern Thailand. Seasonal index values of influenza cases in Thailand were higher in the hot season than in the wet season. Influenza cases started to increase at the beginning of the hot season (April), reached a maximum in August, rapidly declined in the middle of the wet season and reached the lowest value in December. Seasonal index values for northern Thailand differed from other regions of Thailand.
Keywords: Influenza, disease index, seasonal index, Thailand.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15662055 On Estimating the Headcount Index by Using the Logistic Regression Estimator
Authors: Encarnación Álvarez, Rosa M. García-Fernández, Juan F. Muñoz, Francisco J. Blanco-Encomienda
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The problem of estimating a proportion has important applications in the field of economics, and in general, in many areas such as social sciences. A common application in economics is the estimation of the headcount index. In this paper, we define the general headcount index as a proportion. Furthermore, we introduce a new quantitative method for estimating the headcount index. In particular, we suggest to use the logistic regression estimator for the problem of estimating the headcount index. Assuming a real data set, results derived from Monte Carlo simulation studies indicate that the logistic regression estimator can be more accurate than the traditional estimator of the headcount index.
Keywords: Poverty line, poor, risk of poverty, sample, Monte Carlo simulations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20942054 The Functionality and Usage of CRM Systems
Authors: Michael Torggler
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Modern information and communication technologies offer a variety of support options for the efficient handling of customer relationships. CRM systems have been developed, which are designed to support the processes in the areas of marketing, sales and service. Along with technological progress, CRM systems are constantly changing, i.e. the systems are continually enhanced by new functions. However, not all functions are suitable for every company because of different frameworks and business processes. In this context the question arises whether or not CRM systems are widely used in Austrian companies and which business processes are most frequently supported by CRM systems. This paper aims to shed light on the popularity of CRM systems in Austrian companies in general and the use of different functions to support their daily business. First of all, the paper provides a theoretical overview of the structure of modern CRM systems and proposes a categorization of currently available software functionality for collaborative, operational and analytical CRM processes, which provides the theoretical background for the empirical study. Apart from these theoretical considerations, the paper presents the empirical results of a field survey on the use of CRM systems in Austrian companies and analyzes its findings.Keywords: CRM systems, CRM system adoption, CRM system diffusion, CRM functionality, Market study.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 40492053 Rainfall Seasonality Changes over India Based on Changes in the Climate
Authors: Randhir Singh Baghel, Govind Prasad Sahu
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An individual seasonality index is used to study the seasonality of rainfall over India. The seasonality indicator is examined for two time periods: early (1901-1970) and recent (1971-2015). In some regions of India throughout the recent time (1971-2015), trend analysis using linear regression during these two periods reveals a downward trend in the seasonality index (i.e., decreasing values of the index), which implies shorter dry spells resulting in more consistent rainfall throughout the year.
Keywords: Individual seasonality index, rainfall distribution, seasonality index, climate.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1732052 Family Functionality in Mexican Children with Congenital and Non-Congenital Deafness
Authors: D. Estrella, A. Silva, R. Zapata, H. Rubio
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A total of 100 primary caregivers (mothers, fathers, grandparents) with at least one child or grandchild with a diagnosis of congenital bilateral profound deafness were assessed in order to evaluate the functionality of families with a deaf member, who was evaluated by specialists in audiology, molecular biology, genetics and psychology. After confirmation of the clinical diagnosis, DNA from the patients and parents were analyzed in search of the 35delG deletion of the GJB2 gene to determine who possessed the mutation. All primary caregivers were provided psychological support, regardless of whether or not they had the mutation, and prior and subsequent, the family APGAR test was applied. All parents, grandparents were informed of the results of the genetic analysis during the psychological intervention. The family APGAR, after psychological and genetic counseling, showed that 14% perceived their families as functional, 62% moderately functional and 24% dysfunctional. This shows the importance of psychological support in family functionality that has a direct impact on the quality of life of these families.
Keywords: Deafness, psychological support, family, adaptation to disability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9762051 Some Aspects of the Sustainable Development in Romania
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The paper presents the Romanian realities and perspectives from the point of view of reaching the sustainable development model in the context of the recent accession to the European Union, based on the analysis of the indicators listed in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. The analysis of the economic-social potential for sustainable development and of the environment aspects show that the objectives stipulated in the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy of 2006 can be reached, but an extra effort must be put-in in order to overcome the existing substantial gaps in several areas in relation to the developed countries of the EU. The paper-s conclusions show that even if sustainable development is not an easy target to reach in Romania, there are resources and a growing potential, which can lead to sustainable development if used rationally.
Keywords: Ecological dimension, economic-social potential, strategy, sustainable development
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20592050 Walking and Sustainable Urban Transportation
Authors: Khashayar Kashani Jou
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Walking as a type of non-motorized transportation has various social, economical and environmental privileges. Also, today different aspects of sustainable development have been emphasized and promotion of sustainable transportation modes has been considered according to this approach. Therefore, the objective of this research is exploring the circumstance of relationship between walking and sustainable urban transportation.For writing this article, the most important resources related to the traits of walking have been surveyed via a documentary method and after explaining the concept of sustainable transportation and its indicators, benefiting from the viewpoints of transportation experts of Tehran, as the capital and greatest city of Iran, different modes of urban transportation have been compared in proportion to each criterion and to each other and have been analyzed according to AHP method. The results of this study indicate that walking is the most sustainable mode of inner city transportation.Keywords: Walking, Non-motorized transportation, Sustainable transportation, AHP
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20342049 Drought Stress Indices in Some Silage Maize Cultivars
Authors: Ehsan Shahrabian, Ali Soleymani
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Several yield-based stress indices have been developed that may be more applicable to work on drought tolerance. In this study, we investigate possibility of using stress susceptibility index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL), yield stability index (YSI), yield index (YI), stress tolerance index (STI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), harmonic mean (HARM), mean productivity (MP) to identify genotypic performance of some maize cultivars under normal and stressed condition. The results indicate that it was possible to identify superior genotypes for drought tolerance based on their stress indices and generally SSI indices which showed the lowest negative correlation with dry matter yield can be used as the best index for maize breeding programs to introduce drought tolerant hybrids. It was found that SC 647 showed the best behavior under drought stress condition based on TOL and SSI. A higher STI, GMP, and HARM values were attained for ko6. It can be suggested that ko6 should be cultivated in moderate stressful environment of Iran.
Keywords: Index, productivity, stress, susceptibility tolerance, yield.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25332048 The Open Knowledge Kernel
Authors: Adrian Perreau de Pinninck, David Dupplaw, Spyros Kotoulas, Ronny Siebes
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Web services are pieces of software that can be invoked via a standardized protocol. They can be combined via formalized taskflow languages. The Open Knowledge system is a fully distributed system using P2P technology, that allows users to publish the setaskflows, and programmers to register their web services or publish implementations of them, for the roles described in these workflows.Besides this, the system offers the functionality to select a peer that could coordinate such an interaction model and inform web services when it is their 'turn'. In this paper we describe the architecture and implementation of the Open Knowledge Kernel which provides the core functionality of the Open Knowledge system.
Keywords: Architecture, P2P, Web Services, Semantic Web
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14062047 The Effect of Nutrition Education on Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Sustainable Healthy Eating Behaviors in University Students
Authors: Tuba Tekin, Nurcan Baglam, Emine Dincer
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This study aimed to examine the effects of nutrition education received by university students on sustainable healthy eating behaviors and adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-grade university students studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Nutrition and Dietetics, Midwifery, Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Rehabilitation departments of universities in Turkey were included in the study. Students' adherence to the Mediterranean diet was evaluated using the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Scale, and their sustainable and healthy eating behaviors were evaluated using the Sustainable and Healthy Eating Behaviors Scale. In addition, the body weight and height of the students were measured by the researchers, and the Body Mass Index (BMI) value was calculated. A total of 181 students, 85 of whom were studying in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and 96 of whom were educated in other departments, were included in the study; 75.7% of the students in the sample are female, while 24.3% are male. The average body weight of the students was 61.17 ± 10.87 kg, and the average BMI was 22.04 ± 3.40 kg/m2. While the mean score of the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Scale was 6.72 ± 1.84, in the evaluation of adherence to the Mediterranean diet, it was determined that 25.4% of the students had poor adherence and 66.9% needed improvement. When the adherence scores of students who received and did not receive nutrition education were compared, it was discovered that the students who received nutrition education had a higher score (p < 0.05). Students who received nutrition education had a higher total score on the Sustainable and Healthy Eating Behaviors scale (p < 0.05). A moderately positive correlation was found between the Sustainable and Healthy Eating Behaviors scale total score and the Mediterranean Diet Adherence scores (p < 0.05). As a result of the linear regression analysis, it was revealed that a 1-unit increase in the Mediterranean diet adherence score would result in a 1.3-point increase in the total score of the Sustainable and Healthy Eating Behaviors scale. Sustainable and healthy diets are important for improving and developing health and the prevention of diseases. The Mediterranean diet is defined as a sustainable diet model. The findings revealed the relationship between the Mediterranean diet and sustainable nutrition and showed that nutrition education increased knowledge and awareness about sustainable nutrition and increased adherence to the Mediterranean diet. For this reason, courses or seminars on sustainable nutrition can be organized during educational periods.
Keywords: Healthy eating, Mediterranean diet, nutrition education, sustainable nutrition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3142046 Application of Scientific Metrics to Evaluate Academic Reputation in Different Research Areas
Authors: Cristiano R. Cervi, Renata Galante, José Palazzo M. de Oliveira
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In this paper, we address the problem of identifying academic reputation of researchers using scientific metrics in different research areas. Due to the characteristics of each area, researchers can present different behaviors. In previous work, we define Rep-Index that makes use of a profile template to individually identify the reputation of researchers. The Rep-Index is comprehensive and adaptive because involves hole trajectory of the researcher built throughout his career and can be used in different areas and in different contexts. Now, we compare our metric (Rep-Index) with the h-index and the g-index through experiments with researchers in the fields of Economics, Dentistry and Computer Science. We analyze the trajectory of 830 Brazilian researchers from the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq), which receive grants research productivity. The grants are aimed at productivity researchers that stand out among their peers, enhancing their scientific normative criteria established by CNPq. Of the 830 researchers, 210 are in the area of Economics, 216 of Dentistry e 404 of Computer Science. The experiments show that our metric is strongly correlated with h-index, g-index and CNPq ranking. We also show good results for our hypothesis that our metric can be used to evaluate research in several areas. We apply our metric (Rep-Index) to compare the behavior of researchers in relation to their h-index and g-index through extensive experiments. The experiments showed that our metric is strongly correlated with h-index, g-index and CNPq ranking.
Keywords: Researcher reputation, profile model, scientific metrics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19992045 Brainwave Classification for Brain Balancing Index (BBI) via 3D EEG Model Using k-NN Technique
Authors: N. Fuad, M. N. Taib, R. Jailani, M. E. Marwan
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In this paper, the comparison between k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) algorithms for classifying the 3D EEG model in brain balancing is presented. The EEG signal recording was conducted on 51 healthy subjects. Development of 3D EEG models involves pre-processing of raw EEG signals and construction of spectrogram images. Then, maximum PSD values were extracted as features from the model. There are three indexes for balanced brain; index 3, index 4 and index 5. There are significant different of the EEG signals due to the brain balancing index (BBI). Alpha-α (8–13 Hz) and beta-β (13–30 Hz) were used as input signals for the classification model. The k-NN classification result is 88.46% accuracy. These results proved that k-NN can be used in order to predict the brain balancing application.
Keywords: Brain balancing, kNN, power spectral density, 3D EEG model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26282044 Analyzing Disclosure Practice of Religious Nonprofit Organizations using Partial Disclosure Index
Authors: Ruhaya Atan, Saunah Zainon, Roland Yeow Theng Nam, Sharifah Aliman
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This study examines the relevance of disclosure practices in improving the accountability and transparency of religious nonprofit organizations (RNPOs). The assessment of disclosure is based on the annual returns of RNPOs for the financial year 2010. In order to quantify the information disclosed in the annual returns, partial disclosure indexes of basic information (BI) disclosure index, financial information (FI) disclosure index and governance information (GI) disclosure index have been built which takes into account the content of information items in the annual returns. The empirical evidence obtained revealed low disclosure practices among RNPOs in the sample. The multiple regression results showed that the organizational attribute of the board size appeared to be the most significant predictor for both partial index on the extent of BI disclosure index, and FI disclosure index. On the other hand, the extent of financial information disclosure is related to the amount of donation received by RNPOs. On GI disclosure index, the existence of an external audit appeared to be significant variable. This study has contributed to the academic literature in providing empirical evidence of the disclosure practices among RNPOs.Keywords: disclosure, index, partial, NPOs, religious
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18792043 Terminal Wiener Index for Graph Structures
Authors: J. Baskar Babujee, J. Senbagamalar,
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The topological distance between a pair of vertices i and j, which is denoted by d(vi, vj), is the number of edges of the shortest path joining i and j. The Wiener index W(G) is the sum of distances between all pairs of vertices of a graph G. W(G) = i Keywords:
Graph,
Degree,
Distance,
Pendent vertex,
Wiener index,
Tree.
2042 Development for the Evaluation Index of an Anesthesia Depth using the Bispectrum Analysis
Authors: Soo-young Ye, Jun-mo Park, Jae-hyung Kim, Jae-hee Jung, Ah-young Jeon, In-cheol Kim, Jung-man Son, Ki-gon Nam, Seong-wan Baik, Jung-hoon Ro, Gye-rok Jeon
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The linear SEF (Spectral Edge Frequency) parameter and spectrum analysis method can not reflect the non-linear of EEG. This method can not contribute to acquire real time analysis and obtain a high confidence in the clinic due to low discrimination. To solve the problems, the development of a new index is carried out using the bispectrum analyzing the EEG(electroencephalogram) including the non-linear characteristic. After analyzing the bispectrum of the 2 dimension, the most significant power spectrum density peaks appeared abundantly at the specific area in awakening and anesthesia state. These points are utilized to create the new index since many peaks appeared at the specific area in the frequency coordinate. The measured range of an index was 0-100. An index is 20-50 at an anesthesia, while the index is 90-60 at the awake. New index could afford to effectively discriminate the awake and anesthesia state.Keywords: Bispectrum, anesthesia depth, EEG, SEF.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16002041 Comparison of Diagnostic Performance of Soluble Transferrin Receptor and Soluble Transferrin Receptor-Ferritin Index Tests in the Diagnosis of Iron Deficiency Anemia
Authors: Hafiz Muhammad Obaid, Bilal Wajid, Nauman Haider, Muhammad Zafrullah
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In this research article, a comprehensive analysis is performed to compare the diagnostic performance of soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) and sTfR/log ferritin index tests in the differential diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and anemia of chronic disease (ACD). The analysis is performed for both sTfR and sTfR/log ferritin index using a set of 11 studies. The overall odds ratios for sTfR and sTfR/log ferritin index were 36.79 and 119.32 respectively, using 95% confidence interval. The relative sensitivity, specificity. positive likelihood ratio (LR) and negative LR values for sTfR in relation to sTfR/log ferritin index were 81% vs 85%, 84% vs 93%, 6.31 vs 13.95 and 0.18 vs 0.14 respectively. The summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves are also plotted for both sTfR and sTfR/log ferritin index. The area under SROC curves for sTfR and sTfR/log ferritin index was found to be 0.9296 and 0.9825 respectively. Although both tests are useful, the sTfR/log ferritin index seems to be more effective when compared with sTfR.
Keywords: Anemia, sTfR, iron deficiency, ferritin, odds ratio, sensitivity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9652040 Sustainable Tourism Development: Assessment of Egyptian Sustainable Resorts
Authors: Riham A. Ragheb
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Tourism can do a great deal of good in destinations, whether it be by bringing economic benefits to local communities, helping with conservation efforts or in placing a value on aspects of cultural heritage. As responsive travelers, we must all try to do more of the good and less of the negative. This is simply description of the sustainable tourism. This paper aims to set some criteria of successful sustainable tourism development and then through these criteria analyzing the development of some resorts in Egypt known as sustainable resorts. Hence, a comprehensive improvement of the touristic areas is certainly needed to ensure a successful sustainable tourism development radiated the sense of uniformity and coherence. Egypt can benefit from these criteria to develop its resorts in order to preserve and revitalize its unique natural character and achieve mixed uses and tourism development.Keywords: Egypt, resorts, sustainable tourism, tourism development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 33152039 Array Data Transformation for Source Code Obfuscation
Authors: S. Praveen, P. Sojan Lal
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Obfuscation is a low cost software protection methodology to avoid reverse engineering and re engineering of applications. Source code obfuscation aims in obscuring the source code to hide the functionality of the codes. This paper proposes an Array data transformation in order to obfuscate the source code which uses arrays. The applications using the proposed data structures force the programmer to obscure the logic manually. It makes the developed obscured codes hard to reverse engineer and also protects the functionality of the codes.Keywords: Reverse Engineering, Source Code Obfuscation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20362038 ABURAS Index: A Statistically Developed Index for Dengue-Transmitting Vector Population Prediction
Authors: Hani M. Aburas
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“Dengue" is an African word meaning “bone breaking" because it causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking. It is an infectious disease mainly transmitted by female mosquito, Aedes aegypti, and causes four serotypes of dengue viruses. In recent years, a dramatic increase in the dengue fever confirmed cases around the equator-s belt has been reported. Several conventional indices have been designed so far to monitor the transmitting vector populations known as House Index (HI), Container Index (CI), Breteau Index (BI). However, none of them describes the adult mosquito population size which is important to direct and guide comprehensive control strategy operations since number of infected people has a direct relationship with the vector density. Therefore, it is crucial to know the population size of the transmitting vector in order to design a suitable and effective control program. In this context, a study is carried out to report a new statistical index, ABURAS Index, using Poisson distribution based on the collection of vector population in Jeddah Governorate, Saudi Arabia.Keywords: Poisson distribution, statistical index, prediction, Aedes aegypti.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19172037 Assessment of Sustainability in the Wulo Abiye Watershed, Central Highlands of Ethiopia
Authors: Getabalew Derib, Arragaw Alemayehu
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Assessing the sustainability of watersheds holds significant importance for regional natural resource management and to achieve sustainable development. This study investigated the sustainability of the Wulo Abiye watershed, central highlands of Ethiopia. The sustainability status of the watershed was evaluated by using 17 indicators representing the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development goals (SDGs) based on the local and existing conditions of the watershed. The results indicated that environmental sustainability was at a ‘high’ level, while social and economic sustainability and the aggregate index were at ‘moderate’ levels. The overall level of community participation in the planning and evaluation phases of watershed management was at ‘low’ levels. The implementation phase was at ‘high’ level. Overall, the sustainability status of the watershed management practices and the level of community participation were at a moderate level. The study concluded that integrated support is needed to overcome the identified challenges to achieve sustainable development in watersheds.
Keywords: Wulo Abiye watershed, community participation, watershed management, sustainable development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 712036 Efficiency for Sustainable Growth: Evidence from the North African Countries
Authors: Ekrem Erdem, Can Tansel Tugcu
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Improved resource efficiency of production is a key requirement for sustainable growth, worldwide. In this regards, by considering the energy and tourism as the extra inputs to the classical Coub-Douglas production function, this study aims at investigating the efficiency changes in the North African countries. To this end, the study uses panel data for the period 1995-2010 and adopts the Malmquist index based on the data envelopment analysis. Results show that tourism increases technical and scale efficiencies, while it decreases technological and total factor productivity changes. On the other hand, when the production function is augmented by the energy input; technical efficiency change decreases, while the technological change, scale efficiency change and total factor productivity change increase. Thus, in order to satisfy the needs for sustainable growth, North African governments should take some measures for increasing the contribution that the tourism makes to economic growth and some others for efficient use of resources in the energy sector.
Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, Economic efficiency, North African countries, Sustainable growth.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17582035 Comparison of the Parameter using ECG with Bisepctrum Parameter using EEG during General Anesthesia
Authors: Seong-wan Baik, Soo-young Ye, Byeong-cheol Choi, Gye-rok Jeon
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The measurement of anesthetic depth is necessary in anesthesiology. NN10 is very simple method among the RR intervals analysis methods. NN10 parameter means the numbers of above the 10 ms intervals of the normal to normal RR intervals. Bispectrum analysis is defined as 2D FFT. EEG signal reflected the non-linear peristalsis phenomena according to the change brain function. After analyzing the bispectrum of the 2 dimension, the most significant power spectrum density peaks appeared abundantly at the specific area in awakening and anesthesia state. These points are utilized to create the new index since many peaks appeared at the specific area in the frequency coordinate. The measured range of an index was 0-100. An index is 20-50 at an anesthesia, while the index is 90-60 at the awake. In this paper, the relation between NN10 parameter using ECG and bisepctrum index using EEG is observed to estimate the depth of anesthesia during anesthesia and then we estimated the utility of the anesthetic.Keywords: Anesthesia, Bispectrum index, ECG, EEG
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15722034 Corporate Social Responsibility and Creating Shared Value: Case of Latvia
Authors: Inga Lapiņa, Indra Borkus, Olga Stariņeca
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Creating shared value (CSV) is a newly introduced concept whose essence and expressions, relationship to Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and implications for the business and society is now at the core of management and social responsibility debates of the scientific world. The aim of the paper is to gain clearer understanding of the CSR and CSV concepts, their implementation and role in sustainable development of organizations in Latvia. In this paper the authors discuss and compare the two conceptsand, based on the results of Sustainability Index (SI) initiative and analysis of publically available company information, evaluate their implementation in Latvia and draw conclusions on the development trends and potential of these approaches in Latvian market.Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Creating Shared Value, Sustainability Index.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 74182033 An Approaching Index to Evaluate a forward Collision Probability
Authors: Yuan-Lin Chen
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This paper presents an approaching forward collision probability index (AFCPI) for alerting and assisting driver in keeping safety distance to avoid the forward collision accident in highway driving. The time to collision (TTC) and time headway (TH) are used to evaluate the TTC forward collision probability index (TFCPI) and the TH forward collision probability index (HFCPI), respectively. The Mamdani fuzzy inference algorithm is presented combining TFCPI and HFCPI to calculate the approaching collision probability index of the vehicle. The AFCPI is easier to understand for the driver who did not even have any professional knowledge in vehicle professional field. At the same time, the driver’s behavior is taken into account for suiting each driver. For the approaching index, the value 0 is indicating the 0% probability of forward collision, and the values 0.5 and 1 are indicating the 50% and 100% probabilities of forward collision, respectively. The AFCPI is useful and easy-to-understand for alerting driver to avoid the forward collision accidents when driving in highway.
Keywords: Approaching index, forward collision probability, time to collision, time headway.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11602032 Nutritional Potential and Functionality of Whey Powder Influenced by Different Processing Temperature and Storage
Authors: Zarmina Gillani, Nuzhat Huma, Aysha Sameen, Mulazim Hussain Bukhari
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Whey is an excellent food ingredient owing to its high nutritive value and its functional properties. However, composition of whey varies depending on composition of milk, processing conditions, processing method, and its whey protein content. The aim of this study was to prepare a whey powder from raw whey and to determine the influence of different processing temperatures (160 and 180 °C) on the physicochemical, functional properties during storage of 180 days and on whey protein denaturation. Results have shown that temperature significantly (P < 0.05) affects the pH, acidity, non-protein nitrogen (NPN), protein total soluble solids, fat and lactose contents. Significantly (p < 0.05) higher foaming capacity (FC), foam stability (FS), whey protein nitrogen index (WPNI), and a lower turbidity and solubility index (SI) were observed in whey powder processed at 160 °C compared to whey powder processed at 180 °C. During storage of 180 days, slow but progressive changes were noticed on the physicochemical and functional properties of whey powder. Reverse phase-HPLC analysis revealed a significant (P < 0.05) effect of temperature on whey protein contents. Denaturation of β-Lactoglobulin is followed by α-lacalbumin, casein glycomacropeptide (CMP/GMP), and bovine serum albumin (BSA).
Keywords: Whey powder, temperature, denaturation, reverse phase – HPLC.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12292031 Compact Binary Tree Representation of Logic Function with Enhanced Throughput
Authors: Padmanabhan Balasubramanian, C. Ardil
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An effective approach for realizing the binary tree structure, representing a combinational logic functionality with enhanced throughput, is discussed in this paper. The optimization in maximum operating frequency was achieved through delay minimization, which in turn was possible by means of reducing the depth of the binary network. The proposed synthesis methodology has been validated by experimentation with FPGA as the target technology. Though our proposal is technology independent, yet the heuristic enables better optimization in throughput even after technology mapping for such Boolean functionality; whose reduced CNF form is associated with a lesser literal cost than its reduced DNF form at the Boolean equation level. For cases otherwise, our method converges to similar results as that of [12]. The practical results obtained for a variety of case studies demonstrate an improvement in the maximum throughput rate for Spartan IIE (XC2S50E-7FT256) and Spartan 3 (XC3S50-4PQ144) FPGA logic families by 10.49% and 13.68% respectively. With respect to the LUTs and IOBUFs required for physical implementation of the requisite non-regenerative logic functionality, the proposed method enabled savings to the tune of 44.35% and 44.67% respectively, over the existing efficient method available in literature [12].
Keywords: Binary logic tree, FPGA based design, Boolean function, Throughput rate, CNF, DNF.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19082030 Curing Methods Yield Multiple Refractive Index of Benzocyclobutene Polymer Film
Authors: N.A.M. Yahya, W.H. Lim, S.W. Phang, H. Ahmad, R. Zakaria, F.R. Mahamd Adikan
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Refractive index control of benzocyclobutene (BCB 4024-40) is achieved by facilitating different conditions during the thermal curing of BCB film. Refractive index (RI) change of 1.49% is obtained with curing of BCB film using an oven, while the RI change is 0.1% when the BCB is cured using a hotplate. The two different curing methods exhibit a temperature dependent refractive index change of the BCB photosensitive polymer. By carefully controlling the curing conditions, multiple layers of BCB with different RI can be fabricated, which can then be applied in the fabrication of optical waveguides.
Keywords: BCB 4024-40, curing method, multiple refractiveindex, polymers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27262029 Towards Sustainable Urban Transportation Case Studies
Authors: R. M. R. Hussein
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Climate change is one of the greatest environmental, economic, and social challenges of our time. Urban transportation has had a major negative impact on our environment—most of our air pollution comes from transport. This paper explores ways to move toward a more sustainable transport system by focusing on creating a more efficient and livable city and improving the environmental efficiency of transport activity. The analytical study covers some international examples of applying sustainable transportation and uses them to suggest a frame work to develop the transportation system in Egypt to be sustainable and more intelligent.
Keywords: Eco-efficiency, electric vehicle, liveable city, sustainable transportation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 45602028 Evaluating Refactoring with a Quality Index
Authors: Crt Gerlec, Marjan Hericko
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The aim of every software product is to achieve an appropriate level of software quality. Developers and designers are trying to produce readable, reliable, maintainable, reusable and testable code. To help achieve these goals, several approaches have been utilized. In this paper, refactoring technique was used to evaluate software quality with a quality index. It is composed of different metric sets which describes various quality aspects.Keywords: Refactoring, Software Metrics, Software Quality, Quality Index, Agile methodologies
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16222027 Investigation of the Effectiveness of Siloxane Hydrophobic Injection for Renovation of Damp Brick Masonry
Authors: Z. Pavlík, M. Keppert, M. Pavlíková, R. Černý
Abstract:
Experimental investigation of the effect of hydrophobic injection on siloxane basis on the properties of oldfashioned type of ceramic brick is presented in the paper. At the experimental testing, the matrix density, total open porosity, pore size distribution, sorptivity, water absorption coefficient, sorption and desorption isotherms are measured for the original, as well as the hydrophobic-injection treated brick. On the basis of measured data, the functionality of the hydrophobic injection for the moisture ingress prevention into the studied ceramic brick is assessed.Keywords: Brick masonry, siloxane hydrophobic injection, moisture ingress, functionality testing.
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