Search results for: knowledge management factors.

Authors: Brian H. Marsh

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Nitrogen fertilizer is the most used and often the most mismanaged nutrient input. Nitrogen management has tremendous implications on crop productivity, quality and environmental stewardship. Sufficient nitrogen is needed to optimum yield and quality. Soil and in-season plant tissue testing for nitrogen status are a time consuming and expensive process. Real time sensing of plant nitrogen status can be a useful tool in managing nitrogen inputs. The objectives of this project were to assess the reliability of remotely sensed non-destructive plant nitrogen measurements compared to wet chemistry data from sampled plant tissue, develop in-season nitrogen recommendations based on remotely sensed data for improved nitrogen use efficiency and assess the potential for determining yield and quality from remotely sensed data. Very good correlations were observed between early-season remotely sensed crop nitrogen status and plant nitrogen concentrations and subsequent in-season fertilizer recommendations. The transmittance/absorbance type meters gave the most accurate readings. Early in-season fertilizer recommendation would be to apply 40 kg nitrogen per hectare plus 15 kg nitrogen per hectare for each unit difference measured with the SPAD meter between the crop and reference area or 25 kg plus 13 kg per hectare for each unit difference measured with the CCM 200. Once the crop was sufficiently fertilized meter readings became inconclusive and were of no benefit for determining nitrogen status, silage yield and quality and grain yield and protein.

Keywords: Wheat, nitrogen fertilization, chlorophyll meter.

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Authors: Puzanova Zhanna Vasilyevna, Larina Tatiana Igorevna, Tertyshnikova Anastasia Gennadyevna

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In this day and age, extremism in various forms of its manifestation is a real threat to the world community, the national security of a state and its territorial integrity, as well as to the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. Extremism, as it is known, in general terms described as a commitment to extreme views and actions, radically denying the existing social norms and rules. Supporters of extremism in the ideological and political struggles often adopt methods and means of psychological warfare, appeal not to reason and logical arguments, but to emotions and instincts of the people, to prejudices, biases, and a variety of mythological designs. They are dissatisfied with the established order and aim at increasing this dissatisfaction among the masses. Youth extremism holds a specific place among the existing forms and types of extremism. In this context in 2015, we conducted a survey among Moscow college and high school students. The aim of this study was to determine how great or small is the difference in understanding and attitudes towards extremism manifestations, inclination and readiness to take part in extremist activities and what causes this predisposition, if it exists. We performed multivariate analysis and found the Russian college and high school students' opinion about the extremism and terrorism situation in our country and also their cognition on these topics. Among other things, we showed, that the level of aggressiveness of young people were not above the average for the whole population. The survey was conducted using the questionnaire method. The sample included college and high school students in Moscow (642 and 382, respectively) by method of random selection. The questionnaire was developed by specialists of RUDN University Sociological Laboratory and included both original questions (projective questions, the technique of incomplete sentences), and the standard test Dayhoff S. to determine the level of internal aggressiveness. It is also used as an experiment, the technique of study option using of FACS and SPAFF to determine the psychotypes and determination of non-verbal manifestations of emotions. The study confirmed the hypothesis that in respondents’ opinion, the level of aggression is higher today than a few years ago. Differences were found in the understanding of and respect for such social phenomena as extremism, terrorism, and their danger and appeal for the two age groups of young people. Theory of psychotypes, SPAFF (specific affect cording system) and FACS (facial action cording system) are considered as additional techniques for the diagnosis of a tendency to extreme views. Thus, it is established that diagnostics of acceptance of extreme views among young people is possible thanks to simultaneous use of knowledge from the different fields of socio-humanistic sciences. The results of the research can be used in a comparative context with other countries and as a starting point for further research in the field, taking into account its extreme relevance.

Keywords: Extremism, youth extremism, diagnostics of extremist manifestations, forecast of behavior, Sociological polls, theory of psychotypes, FACS, SPAFF.

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Authors: S. M. Seyedhosseini, A. Makui, M. Ghadami

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Globalization and therefore increasing tight competition among companies, have resulted to increase the importance of making well-timed decision. Devising and employing effective strategies, that are flexible and adaptive to changing market, stand a greater chance of being effective in the long-term. In other side, a clear focus on managing the entire product lifecycle has emerged as critical areas for investment. Therefore, applying wellorganized tools to employ past experience in new case, helps to make proper and managerial decisions. Case based reasoning (CBR) is based on a means of solving a new problem by using or adapting solutions to old problems. In this paper, an adapted CBR model with k-nearest neighbor (K-NN) is employed to provide suggestions for better decision making which are adopted for a given product in the middle of life phase. The set of solutions are weighted by CBR in the principle of group decision making. Wrapper approach of genetic algorithm is employed to generate optimal feature subsets. The dataset of the department store, including various products which are collected among two years, have been used. K-fold approach is used to evaluate the classification accuracy rate. Empirical results are compared with classical case based reasoning algorithm which has no special process for feature selection, CBR-PCA algorithm based on filter approach feature selection, and Artificial Neural Network. The results indicate that the predictive performance of the model, compare with two CBR algorithms, in specific case is more effective.

Keywords: Case based reasoning, Genetic algorithm, Groupdecision making, Product management.

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Authors: J-B. Clavel, N. Thiollière, B. Mouginot

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The presented work is motivated by a French law regarding nuclear waste management. A new conceptual Accelerator Driven System (ADS) designed for the Minor Actinides (MA) transmutation has been assessed by numerical simulation. The MUltiple Spallation Target (MUST) ADS combines high thermal power (up to 1.4 GWth) and high specific power. A 30 mA and 1 GeV proton beam is divided into three secondary beams transmitted on three liquid lead-bismuth spallation targets. Neutron and thermalhydraulic simulations have been performed with the code MURE, based on the Monte-Carlo transport code MCNPX. A methodology has been developed to define characteristic of the MUST ADS concept according to a specific transmutation scenario. The reference scenario is based on a MA flux (neptunium, americium and curium) providing from European Fast Reactor (EPR) and a plutonium multireprocessing strategy is accounted for. The MUST ADS reference concept is a sodium cooled fast reactor. The MA fuel at equilibrium is mixed with MgO inert matrix to limit the core reactivity and improve the fuel thermal conductivity. The fuel is irradiated over five years. Five years of cooling and two years for the fuel fabrication are taken into account. The MUST ADS reference concept burns about 50% of the initial MA inventory during a complete cycle. In term of mass, up to 570 kg/year are transmuted in one concept. The methodology to design the MUST ADS and to calculate fuel composition at equilibrium is precisely described in the paper. A detailed fuel evolution analysis is performed and the reference scenario is compared to a scenario where only americium transmutation is performed.

Keywords: Accelerator Driven System, double strata scenario, minor actinides, MUST, transmutation.

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Authors: Khaled M. Ali, M. A. Abdel-Hamid, Ayman A. Mostafa

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Objective: Safety and efficacy of Ahmed glaucoma valve implantation for the management of uveitis induced glaucoma evaluated on the five dogs with uncontrollable glaucoma. Materials and Methods: Ahmed Glaucoma Valve (AGV®; New World Medical, Rancho Cucamonga, CA, USA) is a flow restrictive, nonobstructive self-regulating valve system. Preoperative ocular evaluation included direct ophthalmoscopy and measurement of the intraocular pressure (IOP). The implant was examined and primed prior to implantation. The selected site of the valve implantation was the superior quadrant between the superior and lateral rectus muscles. A fornix-based incision was made through the conjunectiva and Tenon’s capsule. A pocket is formed by blunt dissection of Tenon’s capsule from the episclera. The body of the implant was inserted into the pocket with the leading edge of the device around 8-10 mm from the limbus. Results: No post-operative complications were detected in the operated eyes except a persistent corneal edema occupied the upper half of the cornea in one case. Hyphaema was very mild and seen only in two cases which resolved quickly two days after surgery. Endoscopical evaluation for the operated eyes revealed a normal ocular fundus with clearly visible optic papilla, tapetum and retinal blood vessels. No evidence of hemorrhage, infection, adhesions or retinal abnormalities was detected. Conclusion: Ahmed glaucoma valve is safe and effective implant for treatment of uveitic glaucoma in dogs.

Keywords: Ahmed valve, endoscopy, glaucoma, ocular fundus.

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Authors: Pedro M. Abreu, Bruno R. Mendes

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The management of pharmacotherapy and the process of dispensing medicines is becoming critical in clinical pharmacy due to the increase of incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases, the complexity and customization of therapeutic regimens, the introduction of innovative and more expensive medicines, the unbalanced relation between expenditure and revenue as well as due to the lack of rationalization associated with medication use. For these reasons, co-payments emerged in Europe in the 70s and have been applied over the past few years in healthcare. Co-payments lead to a rationing and rationalization of user’s access under healthcare services and products, and simultaneously, to a qualification and improvement of the services and products for the end-user. This analysis, under hospital practices particularly and co-payment strategies in general, was carried out on all the European regions and identified four reference countries, that apply repeatedly this tool and with different approaches. The structure, content and adaptation of European co-payments were analyzed through 7 qualitative attributes and 19 performance indicators, and the results expressed in a scorecard, allowing to conclude that the German models (total score of 68,2% and 63,6% in both elected co-payments) can collect more compliance and effectiveness, the English models (total score of 50%) can be more accessible, and the French models (total score of 50%) can be more adequate to the socio-economic and legal framework. Other European models did not show the same quality and/or performance, so were not taken as a standard in the future design of co-payments strategies. In this sense, we can see in the co-payments a strategy not only to moderate the consumption of healthcare products and services, but especially to improve them, as well as a strategy to increment the value that the end-user assigns to these services and products, such as medicines.

Keywords: Clinical pharmacy, co-payments, healthcare, medicines.

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Authors: P. Siriarchawatana, K. Leungchavaphongse, N. Covavisaruch, K. Rojananuangnit, P. Boondaeng, N. Panyayingyong

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Glaucoma is a disease that causes visual loss in adults. Glaucoma causes damage to the optic nerve and its overall pathophysiology is still not fully understood. Vasculopathy may be one of the possible causes of nerve damage. Photographic imaging of retinal vessels by fundus camera during eye examination may complement clinical management. This paper presents an innovation for measuring central light reflex width-to-retinal vessel diameter ratio (CRR) from digital retinal photographs. Using our edge detection technique, CRRs from glaucoma and normal eyes were compared to examine differences and associations. CRRs were evaluated on fundus photographs of participants from Mettapracharak (Wat Raikhing) Hospital in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. Fifty-five photographs from normal eyes and twenty-one photographs from glaucoma eyes were included. Participants with hypertension were excluded. In each photograph, CRRs from four retinal vessels, including arteries and veins in the inferotemporal and superotemporal regions, were quantified using edge detection technique. From our finding, mean CRRs of all four retinal arteries and veins were significantly higher in persons with glaucoma than in those without glaucoma (0.34 vs. 0.32, p < 0.05 for inferotemporal vein, 0.33 vs. 0.30, p < 0.01 for inferotemporal artery, 0.34 vs. 0.31, p < 0.01 for superotemporal vein, and 0.33 vs. 0.30, p < 0.05 for superotemporal artery). From these results, an increase in CRRs of retinal vessels, as quantitatively measured from fundus photographs, could be associated with glaucoma.

Keywords: Glaucoma, retinal vessel, central light reflex, image processing, fundus photograph, edge detection.

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Authors: Hesham Abd Elkhalek, Sherif M. Hafez, Yasser M. El Fahham

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Allocating limited budget to maintain bridge networks and selecting effective maintenance strategies for each bridge represent challenging tasks for maintenance managers and decision makers. In Egypt, bridges are continuously deteriorating. In many cases, maintenance works are performed due to user complaints. The objective of this paper is to develop a practical and reliable framework to manage the maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities of Bridges network considering performance and budget limits. The model solves an optimization problem that maximizes the average condition of the entire network given the limited available budget using Genetic Algorithm (GA). The framework contains bridge inventory, condition assessment, repair cost calculation, deterioration prediction, and maintenance optimization. The developed model takes into account multiple parameters including serviceability requirements, budget allocation, element importance on structural safety and serviceability, bridge impact on network, and traffic. A questionnaire is conducted to complete the research scope. The proposed model is implemented in software, which provides a friendly user interface. The framework provides a multi-year maintenance plan for the entire network for up to five years. A case study of ten bridges is presented to validate and test the proposed model with data collected from Transportation Authorities in Egypt. Different scenarios are presented. The results are reasonable, feasible and within acceptable domain.

Keywords: Bridge Management Systems (BMS), cost optimization condition assessment, fund allocation, Markov chain.

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Authors: Ellen A. Kalinga, R. B. Bagile Burchard, Lena Trojer

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Tanzania secondary schools in rural areas are geographically and socially isolated, hence face a number of problems in getting learning materials resulting in poor performance in National examinations. E-learning as defined to be the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for supporting the educational processes has motivated Tanzania to apply ICT in its education system. There has been effort to improve secondary school education using ICT through several projects. ICT for e-learning to Tanzania rural secondary school is one of the research projects conceived by the University of Dar-es-Salaam through its College of Engineering and Technology. The main objective of the project is to develop a tool to enable ICT support rural secondary school. The project is comprehensive with a number of components, one being development of e-learning management system (e-LMS) for Tanzania secondary schools. This paper presents strategies of developing e-LMS. It shows the importance of integrating action research methodology with the modeling methods as presented by model driven architecture (MDA) and the usefulness of Unified Modeling Language (UML) on the issue of modeling. The benefit of MDA will go along with the development based on software development life cycle (SDLC) process, from analysis and requirement phase through design and implementation stages as employed by object oriented system analysis and design approach. The paper also explains the employment of open source code reuse from open source learning platforms for the context sensitive development of the e-LMS for Tanzania secondary schools.

Keywords: Action Research Methodology, OOSA&D, MDA, UML, Open Source LMS.

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Authors: Sarisa Pechpoothong

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The research is to minimize environmental damage pertinent to maritime activities about the operation of lighter boat anchorage and its tugboat. The guidance on upgrading current harbor service and infrastructure has been provided to Kho Sichang Municpality. This will involve a study of the maritime logistics of the water area under jurisdiction of the Sichang island Municipality and possible recommendations may involve charging taxes, regulations and fees. With implementing these recommendations will help in protection of the marine environment and in increasing operator functionality. Additionally, our recommendation is to generate a consistent revenue stream to the municipality. The action items contained in this research are feasible and effective, the success of these initiatives are heavily dependent upon successful promotion and enforcement. Promoting new rules and regulations effectively and peacefully can be done through theories and techniques used in the psychology of persuasion. In order to assure compliance with the regulations, the municipality must maintain stringent patrols and fines for violators. In order to become success, the Municipality must preserve a consistent, transparent and significant enforcement system. Considering potential opportunities outside of the current state of the municipality, the authors recommend that Koh Sichang be given additional jurisdiction to capture value from the master vessels, as well as to confront the more significant environmental challenges these vessels pose. Finally, the authors recommend that the Port of Koh Sichang Island obtain a free port status in order to increase economic viability and overall sustainability.

Keywords: Harbor, Garbage Collection Service, Environment, Off-shore port.

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Authors: Omid A. Zargar

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Vibration monitoring methods of most critical equipment like main turbine and compressors always plays important role in preventive maintenance and management consideration in big industrial plants. There are a number of traditional methods like monitoring the overall vibration data from Bently Nevada panel and the time wave form (TWF) or fast Fourier transform (FFT) monitoring. Besides, Shaft centerline monitoring method developed too much in recent years. There are a number of arguments both in favor of and against this method between people who work in preventive maintenance and condition monitoring systems (vibration analysts). In this paper basic principal of Turbine compressor vibration analysis and rotor movement evaluation by shaft centerline method discussed in details through a case history. This case history is related to main turbine compressor of an olefin plant in Iran oil industry. In addition, some common mistakes that may occur by vibration analyst during the process discussed in details. It is worthy to know that, these mistakes may one of the reasons that sometimes this method seems to be not effective. Furthermore, recent patent and innovation in shaft position and movement evaluation are discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Shaft centerline position, attitude angle, journal bearing, sleeve bearing, tilting pad, steam turbine, main compressor, multistage compressor, condition monitoring, non-contact probe

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Authors: Wondwosen Teshome

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It is impossible to think about democracy without elections. The litmus test of any electoral process in any country is the possibility of a one time minority to become a majority at another time and a peaceful transition of power. In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa though the multi-party elections appeared to be competitive they failed the acid test of democracy: peaceful regime change in a free and fair election. Failure to solve electoral disputes might lead to bloody electoral conflicts as witnessed in many emerging democracies in Africa. The aim of this paper is to investigate electoral conflicts in Africa since the end of the Cold War by using the 2005 post-election violence in Ethiopia as a case study. In Ethiopia, the coming to power of the EPRDF in 1991 marked the fall of the Derg dictatorial military government and the beginning of a multi-party democracy. The country held multi-party parliamentary elections in 1995, 2000, and 2005 where the ruling EPRDF party “won" the elections through violence, involving intimidation, manipulation, detentions of political opponents, torture, and political assassinations. The 2005 electoral violence was the worst electoral violence in the country-s political history that led to the death of 193 protestors and the imprisonment of more than 40, 000 people. It is found out that the major causes of the 2005 Ethiopian election were the defeat of the ruling party in the election and its attempt to reverse the poll results by force; the Opposition-s lack of decisive leadership; the absence of independent courts and independent electoral management body; and the ruling party-s direct control over the army and police.

Keywords: Africa, Ethiopia, Election, Electoral violence, NEBE.

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Authors: O. F. Elkommos

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“Humour studies” is an interdisciplinary research area that is relatively recent. It interests researchers from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, medicine, nursing, in the work place, gender studies, among others, and certainly teaching, language learning, linguistics, and literature. Linguistic theories of humour research are numerous; some of which are of interest to the present study. In spite of the fact that humour courses are now taught in universities around the world in the Egyptian context it is not included. The purpose of the present study is two-fold: to review the state of arts and to show how linguistic theories of humour can be possibly used as an art and craft of teaching and of learning in EFL literature classes. In the present study linguistic theories of humour were applied to selected literary texts to interpret humour as an intrinsic artistic communicative competence challenge. Humour in the area of linguistics was seen as a fifth component of communicative competence of the second language leaner. In literature it was studied as satire, irony, wit, or comedy. Linguistic theories of humour now describe its linguistic structure, mechanism, function, and linguistic deviance. Semantic Script Theory of Verbal Humor (SSTH), General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), Audience Based Theory of Humor (ABTH), and their extensions and subcategories as well as the pragmatic perspective were employed in the analyses. This research analysed the linguistic semantic structure of humour, its mechanism, and how the audience reader (teacher or learner) becomes an interactive interpreter of the humour. This promotes humour competence together with the linguistic, social, cultural, and discourse communicative competence. Studying humour as part of the literary texts and the perception of its function in the work also brings its positive association in class for educational purposes. Humour is by default a provoking/laughter-generated device. Incongruity recognition, perception and resolving it, is a cognitive mastery. This cognitive process involves a humour experience that lightens up the classroom and the mind. It establishes connections necessary for the learning process. In this context the study examined selected narratives to exemplify the application of the theories. It is, therefore, recommended that the theories would be taught and applied to literary texts for a better understanding of the language. Students will then develop their language competence. Teachers in EFL/ESL classes will teach the theories, assist students apply them and interpret text and in the process will also use humour. This is thus easing students' acquisition of the second language, making the classroom an enjoyable, cheerful, self-assuring, and self-illuminating experience for both themselves and their students. It is further recommended that courses of humour research studies should become an integral part of higher education curricula in Egypt.

Keywords: ABTH, deviance, disjuncture, episodic, GTVH, humour competence, humour comprehension, humour in the classroom, humour in the literary texts, humour research linguistic theories, incongruity- resolution, isotopy-disjunction, jab line, longer text joke, narrative story line (macro-micro), punch line, six knowledge resource, SSTH, stacks, strands, teaching linguistics, teaching literature, TEFL, TESL.

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Authors: Aries Susanty

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The inability to implement the principles of good corporate governance (GCG) as demonstrated in the surveys is due to a number of constraints which can be classified into three; namely internal constraints, external constraints, and constraints coming from the structure of ownership. The issues in the internal constraints mentioned are related to the function of several elements of the company. As a business organization, corporation is unable to achieve its goal to successfully implement GCG principles since it is not support by its internal elements- functions. Two of several numbers of internal elements of a company are ethical work climate and leadership style of the top management. To prove the correlation between internal function of organization (in this case ethical work climate and transformational leadership) and the successful implementation of GCG principles, this study proposes two hypotheses to be empirically tested on thirty surveyed organizations; eleven of which are state-owned companies and nineteen are private companies. These thirty corporations are listed in the Jakarta Stock Exchange. All state-owned companies in the samples are those which have been privatized. The research showed that internal function of organization give support to the successful implementation of GCG principle. In this research we can prove that : (i) ethical work climate has positive significance of correlation with the successful implementation of social awareness principle (one of principles on GCG) and, (ii) only at the state-owned companies, transformational leadership have positive significance effect to forming the ethical work climate.

Keywords: Good Corporate Governance Principles, Ethical Work Climate, Transformational Leadership

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Authors: Adel M. Sharaf, Foad H. Gandoman

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Nowadays, Photovoltaic-PV Farms/ Parks and large PV-Smart Grid Interface Schemes are emerging and commonly utilized in Renewable Energy distributed generation. However, PVhybrid- Dc-Ac Schemes using interface power electronic converters usually has negative impact on power quality and stabilization of modern electrical network under load excursions and network fault conditions in smart grid. Consequently, robust FACTS based interface schemes are required to ensure efficient energy utilization and stabilization of bus voltages as well as limiting switching/fault onrush current condition. FACTS devices are also used in smart grid- Battery Interface and Storage Schemes with PV-Battery Storage hybrid systems as an elegant alternative to renewable energy utilization with backup battery storage for electric utility energy and demand side management to provide needed energy and power capacity under heavy load conditions. The paper presents a robust interface PV-Li-Ion Battery Storage Interface Scheme for Distribution/Utilization Low Voltage Interface using FACTS stabilization enhancement and dynamic maximum PV power tracking controllers. Digital simulation and validation of the proposed scheme is done using MATLAB/Simulink software environment for Low Voltage- Distribution/Utilization system feeding a hybrid Linear-Motorized inrush and nonlinear type loads from a DC-AC Interface VSC-6- pulse Inverter Fed from the PV Park/Farm with a back-up Li-Ion Storage Battery.

Keywords: AC FACTS, Smart grid, Stabilization, PV-Battery Storage, Switched Filter-Compensation (SFC).

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Authors: Ml. López-Moreno, Le. Lugo Avilés, Fr. Román, J. Lugo Rosas, Ja. Hernández-Viezcas, Jr. Peralta-Videa, Jl. Gardea-Torresdey

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Degradation of agricultural soils has increased rapidly during the last 20 years due to the indiscriminate use of pesticides and other anthropogenic activities. Currently, there is an urgent need of soil restoration to increase agricultural production. Utilization of sewage sludge or municipal solid waste is an important way to recycle nutrient elements and improve soil quality. With these amendments, nutrient availability in the aqueous phase might be increased and production of healthier crops can be accomplished. This research project aimed to achieve sustainable management of tropical agricultural soils, specifically in Puerto Rico, through the amendment of water treatment plant sludge’s. This practice avoids landfill disposal of sewage sludge and at the same time results costeffective practice for recycling solid waste residues. Coriander sativum was cultivated in a compost-soil-sludge mixture at different proportions. Results showed that Coriander grown in a mixture of 25% compost+50% Voladora soi+25% sludge had the best growth and development. High chlorophyll content (33.01 ± 0.8) was observed in Coriander plants cultivated in 25% compost+62.5% Coloso soil+ 12.5% sludge compared to plants grown with no sludge (32.59 ± 0.7). ICP-OES analysis showed variations in mineral element contents (macro and micronutrients) in coriander plant grown I soil amended with sludge and compost.

Keywords: Compost, Coriandrum sativum, nutrients, waste sludge.

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Authors: Tao Zhang, Nan Yan

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In recent years, the Chaoshan area, a special place located in the southeast of Guangdong province in China, actively protects religious heritage and is developing religious tourism, which is attracting many expatriate Chinese who are coming back for travel and to worship. This paper discussed three questions. Firstly, what is the current situation about the different social background of tourists’ motivation, satisfaction and behavioral intention? Secondly, is there a relationship between the motivation, satisfaction and behavioral intention and the different social backgrounds of tourists? Thirdly, what is the relationship between religious tourists’ motivation, satisfaction and behavioral intention? The research methods use a combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis uses the method of observation and interviews. Convenient sampling technique was used for quantitative analysis. The study showed that the different social backgrounds of tourists’ forms diverse cognition and experiences about religious tourism, and their motivations, satisfaction and behavioral intention as tourists vary. Tourists’ motivation and satisfaction has a positive phase relation. Tourists’ motivation with satisfaction as the intervening variable also has a positive phase effect on tourists’ behavior intention. The result shows that religious tourists’ motivations include experiencing a religious atmosphere, and having a rest and recreation. The result also shows that religious tourists want to travel with their family members and friends. While traveling, religious tourists like to talk with Buddhist monks or nuns. Compared to other tourism types, religious tourists have higher expectations about temple environment, traveling experience, peripheral service and temple management.

Keywords: Behavioral intension, motivation, religious tourism, satisfaction.

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Authors: Maisam Rafiee, Chikashi Deguchi, Akio Odake, Minoru Matsui, Takanori Sata

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Cities in Afghanistan have been rapidly urbanized; however, many parts of these cities have been developed with no detailed land use plan or infrastructure. In other words, they have been informally developed without any government leadership. The new government started the In-situ Upgrading Project in Kabul to upgrade roads, the water supply network system, and the surface water drainage system on the existing street layout in 2002, with the financial support of international agencies. This project is an appropriate emergency improvement for living life, but not an essential improvement of living conditions and infrastructure problems because the life expectancies of the improved facilities are as short as 10–15 years, and residents cannot obtain land tenure in the unplanned areas. The Land Readjustment System (LRS) conducted in Japan has good advantages that rearrange irregularly shaped land lots and develop the infrastructure effectively. This study investigates the effects of the In-situ Upgrading Project on private investment, land prices, and residents’ satisfaction with projects in Kart-e-Char, where properties are registered, and in Afshar-e-Silo Lot 1, where properties are unregistered. These projects are located 5 km and 7 km from the CBD area of Kabul, respectively. This study discusses whether LRS should be applied to the unplanned area based on the questionnaire and interview responses of experts experienced in the In-situ Upgrading Project who have knowledge of LRS. The analysis results reveal that, in Kart-e-Char, a lot of private investment has been made in the construction of medium-rise (five- to nine-story) buildings for commercial and residential purposes. Land values have also incrementally increased since the project, and residents are commonly satisfied with the road pavement, drainage systems, and water supplies, but dissatisfied with the poor delivery of electricity as well as the lack of public facilities (e.g., parks and sport facilities). In Afshar-e-Silo Lot 1, basic infrastructures like paved roads and surface water drainage systems have improved from the project. After the project, a few four- and five-story residential buildings were built with very low-level private investments, but significant increases in land prices were not evident. The residents are satisfied with the contribution ratio, drainage system, and small increase in land price, but there is still no drinking water supply system or tenure security; moreover, there are substandard paved roads and a lack of public facilities, such as parks, sport facilities, mosques, and schools. The results of the questionnaire and interviews with the four engineers highlight the problems that remain to be solved in the unplanned areas if LRS is applied—namely, land use differences, types and conditions of the infrastructure still to be installed by the project, and time spent for positive consensus building among the residents, given the project’s budget limitation.

Keywords: In-Situ Upgrading, Kabul, Land Readjustment, Land value, Planned areas, Private investment, Resident satisfaction, Unplanned areas.

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Authors: Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa, Mighanda J. Manyahi, Nicodemu Gregory, Alex L. Kyaruzi

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Microgrids are increasingly being considered to provide electricity for the expanding energy demand in the grid distribution network and grid isolated areas. However, the technical challenges associated with the operation and controls are immense. Management of dynamic power balances, power flow, and network voltage profiles imposes unique challenges in the context of microgrids. Stability of the microgrid during both grid-connected and islanded mode is considered as the major challenge during its operation. Traditional control methods have been employed are based on the assumption of linear loads. For instance the concept of PQ, voltage and frequency control through decoupled PQ are some of very useful when considering linear loads, but they fall short when considering nonlinear loads. The deficiency of traditional control methods of microgrid suggests that more research in the control of microgrids should be done. This research aims at introducing the dq technique concept into decoupled PQ for dynamic load demand control in inverter interfaced DG system operating as isolated LV microgrid. Decoupled PQ in exact mathematical formulation in dq frame is expected to accommodate all variations of the line parameters (resistance and inductance) and to relinquish forced relationship between the DG variables such as power, voltage and frequency in LV microgrids and allow for individual parameter control (frequency and line voltages). This concept is expected to address and achieve accurate control, improve microgrid stability and power quality at all load conditions.

Keywords: Decoupled PQ, microgrid, multisource, renewable energy, dq control.

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Authors: Bahram Khan, Anderson Rocha Ramos, Rui R. Paulo, Fernando J. Velez

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With the growing demand for a new blend of applications, the users dependency on the internet is increasing day by day. Mobile internet users are giving more attention to their own experiences, especially in terms of communication reliability, high data rates and service stability on move. This increase in the demand is causing saturation of existing radio frequency bands. To address these challenges, researchers are investigating the best approaches, Carrier Aggregation (CA) is one of the newest innovations, which seems to fulfill the demands of the future spectrum, also CA is one the most important feature for Long Term Evolution - Advanced (LTE-Advanced). For this purpose to get the upcoming International Mobile Telecommunication Advanced (IMT-Advanced) mobile requirements (1 Gb/s peak data rate), the CA scheme is presented by 3GPP, which would sustain a high data rate using widespread frequency bandwidth up to 100 MHz. Technical issues such as aggregation structure, its implementations, deployment scenarios, control signal techniques, and challenges for CA technique in LTE-Advanced, with consideration of backward compatibility, are highlighted in this paper. Also, performance evaluation in macro-cellular scenarios through a simulation approach is presented, which shows the benefits of applying CA, low-complexity multi-band schedulers in service quality, system capacity enhancement and concluded that enhanced multi-band scheduler is less complex than the general multi-band scheduler, which performs better for a cell radius longer than 1800 m (and a PLR threshold of 2%).

Keywords: Component carrier, carrier aggregation, LTE-Advanced, scheduling, spectrum management.

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Authors: Funda Erdem Şahnali, Ş. Özgür Atayılmaz, Tolga N. Aynur

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Almost all of the domestic refrigerators operate on the principle of the vapor compression refrigeration cycle and removal of heat from the refrigerator cabinets is done via one of the two methods: natural convection or forced convection. In this study, airflow and temperature distributions inside a 375L no-frost type larder cabinet, in which cooling is provided by forced convection, are evaluated both experimentally and numerically. Airflow rate, compressor capacity and temperature distribution in the cooling chamber are known to be some of the most important factors that affect the cooling performance and energy consumption of a refrigerator. The objective of this study is to evaluate the original temperature distribution in the larder cabinet, and investigate for better temperature distribution solutions throughout the refrigerator domain via system optimizations that could provide uniform temperature distribution. The flow visualization and airflow velocity measurements inside the original refrigerator are performed via Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (SPIV). In addition, airflow and temperature distributions are investigated numerically with Ansys Fluent. In order to study the heat transfer inside the aforementioned refrigerator, forced convection theories covering the following cases are applied: closed rectangular cavity representing heat transfer inside the refrigerating compartment. The cavity volume has been represented with finite volume elements and is solved computationally with appropriate momentum and energy equations (Navier-Stokes equations). The 3D model is analyzed as transient, with k-ε turbulence model and SIMPLE pressure-velocity coupling for turbulent flow situation. The results obtained with the 3D numerical simulations are in quite good agreement with the experimental airflow measurements using the SPIV technique. After Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of the baseline case, the effects of three parameters: compressor capacity, fan rotational speed and type of shelf (glass or wire) are studied on the energy consumption; pull down time, temperature distributions in the cabinet. For each case, energy consumption based on experimental results is calculated. After the analysis, the main effective parameters for temperature distribution inside a cabin and energy consumption based on CFD simulation are determined and simulation results are supplied for Design of Experiments (DOE) as input data for optimization. The best configuration with minimum energy consumption that provides minimum temperature difference between the shelves inside the cabinet is determined.

Keywords: Air distribution, CFD, DOE, energy consumption, larder cabinet, refrigeration, uniform temperature.

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Authors: Mazziotti Gomez de Teran C., Fiore D., Cola B., Fardelli A.

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The present paper summarizes the analysis of the request for consultation of information and data on industrial emissions made publicly available on the web site of the Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea on integrated pollution prevention and control from large industrial installations, the so called “AIA Portal”. As a matter of fact, a huge amount of information on national industrial plants is already available on internet, although it is usually proposed as textual documentation or images. Thus, it is not possible to access all the relevant information through interoperability systems and also to retrieval relevant information for decision making purposes as well as rising of awareness on environmental issue. Moreover, since in Italy the number of institutional and private subjects involved in the management of the public information on industrial emissions is substantial, the access to the information is provided on internet web sites according to different criteria; thus, at present it is not structurally homogeneous and comparable. To overcome the mentioned difficulties in the case of the Coordinating Committee for the implementation of the Agreement for the industrial area in Taranto and Statte, operating before the IPPC permit granting procedures of the relevant installation located in the area, a big effort was devoted to elaborate and to validate data and information on characterization of soil, ground water aquifer and coastal sea at disposal of different subjects to derive a global perspective for decision making purposes. Thus, the present paper also focuses on main outcomes matured during such experience.

Keywords: Public information, emissions into atmosphere, IPPC permits, territorial information systems.

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Authors: Sumanta Daw, Gopal Chandra Saha

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The present study was conducted to explore the basic pulmonary functions which may generally vary according to the bio-physical characteristics including age, height, body weight, and environment etc. of the sports performers. Regular and specific training exercises also change the characteristics of an athlete’s prowess and produce a positive effect on the physiological functioning, mostly upon cardio-pulmonary efficiency and thereby improving the body mechanism. The objective of the present study was to compare the differences in cardio-respiratory functions between aquatics and track and field performers. As cardio-respiratory functions are influenced by pulse rate and blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), so both of the factors were also taken into consideration. The component selected under cardio-respiratory functions for the present study were i) FEVI/FVC ratio (forced expiratory volume divided by forced vital capacity ratio, i.e. the number represents the percentage of lung capacity to exhale in one second) ii) FVC1 (this is the amount of air which can force out of lungs in one second) and iii) FVC (forced vital capacity is the greatest total amount of air forcefully breathe out after breathing in as deeply as possible). All the three selected components of the cardio-respiratory efficiency were measured by spirometry method. Pulse rate was determined manually. The radial artery which is located on the thumb side of our wrist was used to assess the pulse rate. Blood pressure was assessed by sphygmomanometer. All the data were taken in the resting condition. 36subjects were selected for the present study out of which 18were water polo players and rest were sprinters. The age group of the subjects was considered between 18 to 23 years. In this study the obtained data inform of digital score were treated statistically to get result and draw conclusions. The Mean and Standard Deviation (SD) were used as descriptive statistics and the significant difference between the two subject groups was assessed with the help of statistical ‘t’-test. It was found from the study that all the three components i.e. FEVI/FVC ratio (p-value 0.0148 < 0.01), FVC1 (p-value 0.0010 < 0.01) and FVC (p-value 0.0067 < 0.01) differ significantly as water polo players proved to be better in terms of cardio-respiratory functions than sprinters. Thus study clearly suggests that the exercise training as well as the medium of practice arena associated with water polo players has played an important role to determine better cardio respiratory efficiency than track and field athletes. The outcome of the present study revealed that the lung function in land-based activities may not provide much impact than that of in water activities.

Keywords: Cardio-respiratory efficiency, spirometry, water polo players, sprinters.

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Authors: Akinola Ikudayisi, Josiah Adeyemo

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The correct estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ETₒ) is required for effective irrigation water resources planning and management. However, there are some variables that must be considered while estimating and modeling ETₒ. This study therefore determines the multivariate analysis of correlated variables involved in the estimation and modeling of ETₒ at Vaalharts irrigation scheme (VIS) in South Africa using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique. Weather and meteorological data between 1994 and 2014 were obtained both from South African Weather Service (SAWS) and Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in South Africa for this study. Average monthly data of minimum and maximum temperature (°C), rainfall (mm), relative humidity (%), and wind speed (m/s) were the inputs to the PCA-based model, while ETₒ is the output. PCA technique was adopted to extract the most important information from the dataset and also to analyze the relationship between the five variables and ETₒ. This is to determine the most significant variables affecting ETₒ estimation at VIS. From the model performances, two principal components with a variance of 82.7% were retained after the eigenvector extraction. The results of the two principal components were compared and the model output shows that minimum temperature, maximum temperature and windspeed are the most important variables in ETₒ estimation and modeling at VIS. In order words, ETₒ increases with temperature and windspeed. Other variables such as rainfall and relative humidity are less important and cannot be used to provide enough information about ETₒ estimation at VIS. The outcome of this study has helped to reduce input variable dimensionality from five to the three most significant variables in ETₒ modelling at VIS, South Africa.

Keywords: Irrigation, principal component analysis, reference evapotranspiration, Vaalharts.

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Authors: John Michael Russo

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Honeybees are important to our food system and continue to suffer from high rates of colony loss. Precision feed has brought many benefits to livestock cultivation and these should transfer to apiculture. However, apiculture has unique challenges. The objective of this research is to understand how principles of precision agriculture, applied to apiculture and feed specifically, might effectively improve state-of-the-art cultivation. The methodology surveys apicultural practice to build a model for assessment. First, a review of apicultural motivators is made. Feed method is then evaluated. Finally, precision feed methods are examined as accelerants with potential to advance the effectiveness of feed practice. Six important motivators emerge: colony loss, disease, climate change, site variance, operational costs, and competition. Feed practice itself is used to compensate for environmental variables. The research finds that the current state-of-the-art in apiculture feed focuses on critical challenges in the management of feed schedules which satisfy requirements of the bees, preserve potency, optimize environmental variables, and manage costs. Many of the challenges are most acute when feed is used to dispense medication. Technology such as RNA treatments have even more rigorous demands. Precision feed solutions focus on strategies which accommodate specific needs of individual livestock. A major component is data; they integrate precise data with methods that respond to individual needs. There is enormous opportunity for precision feed to improve apiculture through the integration of precision data with policies to translate data into optimized action in the apiary, particularly through automation.

Keywords: Apiculture, precision apiculture, RNA varroa treatment, honeybee feed applications.

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Authors: Jean Berger, Nassirou Lo, Martin Noel

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Perfectly suited for natural or man-made emergency and disaster management situations such as flood, earthquakes, tornadoes, or tsunami, multi-target search path planning for a team of rescue agents is known to be computationally hard, and most techniques developed so far come short to successfully estimate optimality gap. A novel mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) formulation is proposed to optimally solve the multi-target multi-agent discrete search and rescue (SAR) path planning problem. Aimed at maximizing cumulative probability of successful target detection, it captures anticipated feedback information associated with possible observation outcomes resulting from projected path execution, while modeling agent discrete actions over all possible moving directions. Problem modeling further takes advantage of network representation to encompass decision variables, expedite compact constraint specification, and lead to substantial problem-solving speed-up. The proposed MIP approach uses CPLEX optimization machinery, efficiently computing near-optimal solutions for practical size problems, while giving a robust upper bound obtained from Lagrangean integrality constraint relaxation. Should eventually a target be positively detected during plan execution, a new problem instance would simply be reformulated from the current state, and then solved over the next decision cycle. A computational experiment shows the feasibility and the value of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Search path planning, search and rescue, multi-agent, mixed-integer linear programming, optimization.

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Authors: Radha Krishan, Deepak Khare, Bhaskar R. Nikam, Ayush Chandrakar

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Every irrigation project is planned considering long-term historical climatic conditions; however, the prompt climatic shift and change has come out with such circumstances which were inconceivable in the past. Considering this fact, scrutiny of rainfall and temperature trend has been carried out over the command area of Eastern Ganga Canal project for pre-climate shift period and post-climate shift periods in the present study. Non-parametric Mann-Kendall and Sen’s methods have been applied to study the trends in annual rainfall, seasonal rainfall, annual rainy day, monsoonal rainy days, average annual temperature and seasonal temperature. The results showed decreasing trend of 48.11 to 42.17 mm/decade in annual rainfall and 79.78 tSo 49.67 mm/decade in monsoon rainfall in pre-climate to post-climate shift periods, respectively. The decreasing trend of 1 to 4 days/decade has been observed in annual rainy days from pre-climate to post-climate shift period. Trends in temperature revealed that there were significant decreasing trends in annual (-0.03 ºC/yr), Kharif (-0.02 ºC/yr), Rabi (-0.04 ºC/yr) and summer (-0.02 ºC/yr) season temperature during pre-climate shift period, whereas the significant increasing trend (0.02 ºC/yr) has been observed in all the four parameters during post climate shift period. These results will help project managers in understanding the climate shift and lead them to develop alternative water management strategies.

Keywords: Climate shift, Rainfall trend, temperature trend, Mann-Kendall test, Sen slope estimator, Eastern Ganga Canal command.

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Authors: Mohammed Sani Abdulai

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Government budgets are the primary instruments for formulating and implementing a country’s fiscal policy objectives, development priorities, and the overall socio-economic aspirations of its people. Thus, in this paper, the author examined the Government of Ghana’s budgets with respect to their functions, coverage, classifications, and integration with the country’s chart of accounts. The author did so by amalgamating the research findings of extant literature with (a) the operational and procedural guidelines underpinning the formulation and execution of the government’s budgets; (b) the recommendations made by various development partners and thinktanks on reforming the country’s budgeting processes and procedures; and (c) the lessons Ghana could learn from the budget reform efforts of other countries. By way of research findings, the paper showed that the Government of Ghana’s budgets in terms of function are both eclectic and multidimensional. On coverage, the paper showed that the country’s budgets duly cover the revenues and expenditures of the general government (i.e., both the central and sub-national governments). Finally, on classifications, the paper noted with delight the Government of Ghana’s effort in providing classificatory codes to both its national development agenda and such international development goals as the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, the paper found some significant lapses that require a complete overhaul and structuring on the integrations of its budget classifications with its chart of accounts. Thus, the paper concluded with a detailed examination of the challenges confronting the country’s current chart of accounts and recommendations for addressing them.

Keywords: Budget, budgetary transactions, budgetary governance, Chart of Accounts, classification, composition, coverage, Public Financial Management.

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Authors: Esraa A. Khalil, Mohamed N. AbouZeid

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Building materials selection is critical for the sustainability of any project. The choice of building materials has a huge impact on the built environment and cost of projects. Building materials emit huge amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) due to the use of cement as a basic component in the manufacturing process and as a binder, which harms our environment. Energy consumption from buildings has increased in the last few years; a huge amount of energy is being wasted from using unsustainable building and finishing materials, as well as from the process of heating and cooling of buildings. In addition, the construction sector in Egypt is taking a good portion of the economy; however, there is a lack of awareness of buildings environmental impacts on the built environment. Using advanced building materials and different wall systems can help in reducing heat consumption, the project’s initial and long-term costs, and minimizing the environmental impacts. Red Bricks is one of the materials that are being used widely in Egypt. There are many other types of bricks such as Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC); however, the use of Red Bricks is dominating the construction industry due to its affordability and availability. This research focuses on the New Egyptian Administrative Capital as a case study to investigate the potential of the influence of using different wall systems such as AAC on the project’s cost and the environment. The aim of this research is to conduct a comparative analysis between the traditional and most commonly used bricks in Egypt, which is Red Bricks, and AAC wall systems. Through an economic and environmental study, the difference between the two wall systems will be justified to encourage the utilization of uncommon techniques in the construction industry to build more affordable, energy efficient and sustainable buildings. The significance of this research is to show the potential of using AAC in the construction industry and its positive influences. The study analyzes the factors associated with choosing suitable building materials for different projects according to the need and criteria of each project and its nature without harming the environment and wasting materials that could be saved or recycled. The New Egyptian Administrative Capital is considered as the country’s new heart, where ideas regarding energy savings and environmental benefits are taken into consideration. Meaning that, Egypt is taking good steps to move towards more sustainable construction. According to the analysis and site visits, there is a potential in reducing the initial costs of buildings by 12.1% and saving energy by using different techniques up to 25%. Interviews with the mega structures project engineers and managers reveal that they are more open to introducing sustainable building materials that will help in saving the environment and moving towards green construction as well as to studying more effective techniques for energy conservation.

Keywords: AAC blocks, building material, environmental impact, modern construction, New Egyptian Administrative Capital.

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Authors: Mehrnoosh Omati, Mahmod Reza Sahebi

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The information on land use/land cover changing plays an essential role for environmental assessment, planning and management in regional development. Remotely sensed imagery is widely used for providing information in many change detection applications. Polarimetric Synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image, with the discrimination capability between different scattering mechanisms, is a powerful tool for environmental monitoring applications. This paper proposes a new boundary-based segmentation algorithm as a fundamental step for land cover change detection. In this method, first, two PolSAR images are segmented using integration of marker-controlled watershed algorithm and coupled Markov random field (MRF). Then, object-based classification is performed to determine changed/no changed image objects. Compared with pixel-based support vector machine (SVM) classifier, this novel segmentation algorithm significantly reduces the speckle effect in PolSAR images and improves the accuracy of binary classification in object-based level. The experimental results on Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) polarimetric images show a 3% and 6% improvement in overall accuracy and kappa coefficient, respectively. Also, the proposed method can correctly distinguish homogeneous image parcels.

Keywords: Coupled Markov random field, environment, object-based analysis, Polarimetric SAR images.

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