Search results for: Environmental Activities Media Exposure

Authors: R. Barbour

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Peace-building organisations act as a network of information for communities. Through fieldwork, it was highlighted that grassroots organisations and activists may cooperate with each other in their actions of peace-building; however, they would not collaborate. Within two divided societies; Nicosia in Cyprus and Jerusalem in Israel, there is a distinction made by organisations and activists with regards to activities being more ‘co-operative’ than ‘collaborative’. This theme became apparent when having informal conversations and semi-structured interviews with various members of the activist communities. This idea needs further exploration as these distinctions could impact upon the efficiency of peacebuilding activities within divided societies. Civil societies within divided landscapes, both physically and socially, play an important role in conflict resolution. How organisations and activists interact with each other has the possibility to be very influential with regards to peacebuilding activities. Working together sets a positive example for divided communities. Cooperation may be considered a primary level of interaction between CSOs. Therefore, at the beginning of a working relationship, organisations cooperate over basic agendas, parallel power structures and focus, which led to the same objective. Over time, in some instances, due to varying factors such as funding, more trust and understanding within the relationship, it could be seen that processes progressed to more collaborative ways. It is evident to see that NGOs and activist groups are highly independent and focus on their own agendas before coming together over shared issues. At this time, there appears to be more collaboration in Nicosia among CSOs and activists than Jerusalem. The aims and objectives of agendas also influence how organisations work together. In recent years, Nicosia, and Cyprus in general, have perhaps changed their focus from peace-building initiatives to more environmental issues which have become new-age reconciliation topics. Civil society does not automatically indicate like-minded organisations however solidarity within social groups can create ties that bring people and resources together. In unequal societies, such as those in Nicosia and Jerusalem, it is these ties that cut across groups and are essential for social cohesion. Societies are a collection of social groups; individuals who have come together over common beliefs. These groups in turn shape the identities and determine the values and structures within societies. At many different levels and stages, social groups work together through cooperation and collaboration. These structures in turn have the capabilities to open up networks to less powerful or excluded groups, with the aim to produce social cohesion which may contribute social stability and economic welfare over any extended period.

Keywords: Collaboration, cooperation, grassroots activism, networks of communication.

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Authors: S. Souli, Z. Lachiri

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In this paper we propose a robust environmental sound classification approach, based on spectrograms features driven from log-Gabor filters. This approach includes two methods. In the first methods, the spectrograms are passed through an appropriate log-Gabor filter banks and the outputs are averaged and underwent an optimal feature selection procedure based on a mutual information criteria. The second method uses the same steps but applied only to three patches extracted from each spectrogram.

To investigate the accuracy of the proposed methods, we conduct experiments using a large database containing 10 environmental sound classes. The classification results based on Multiclass Support Vector Machines show that the second method is the most efficient with an average classification accuracy of 89.62 %.

Keywords: Environmental sounds, Log-Gabor filters, Spectrogram, SVM Multiclass, Visual features.

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Authors: C. Zarcula, R. Croitoru, L. Corîci, C. Csunderlik, F. Peter

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Lipases are enzymes particularly amenable for immobilization by entrapment methods, as they can work equally well in aqueous or non-conventional media and long-time stability of enzyme activity and enantioselectivity is needed to elaborate more efficient bioprocesses. The improvement of Pseudomonas fluorescens (Amano AK) lipase characteristics was investigated by optimizing the immobilization procedure in hybrid organic-inorganic matrices using ionic liquids as additives. Ionic liquids containing a more hydrophobic alkyl group in the cationic moiety are beneficial for the activity of immobilized lipase. Silanes with alkyl- or aryl nonhydrolizable groups used as precursors in combination with tetramethoxysilane could generate composites with higher enantioselectivity compared to the native enzyme in acylation reactions of secondary alcohols. The optimal effect on both activity and enantioselectivity was achieved for the composite made from octyltrimethoxysilane and tetramethoxysilane at 1:1 molar ratio (60% increase of total activity following immobilization and enantiomeric ratio of 30). Ionic liquids also demonstrated valuable properties as reaction media for the studied reactions, comparable with the usual organic solvent, hexane.

Keywords: Ionic liquids, lipase, enantioselectivity, sol-gelimmobilization

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Authors: Mukesh Kumar Awasth, Mohammad Tamsir

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The effect of porous medium on the capillary instability of a cylindrical interface in the presence of axial electric field has been investigated using viscous potential flow theory. In viscous potential flow, the viscous term in Navier-Stokes equation vanishes as vorticity is zero but viscosity is not zero. Viscosity enters through normal stress balance in the viscous potential flow theory and tangential stresses are not considered. A dispersion relation that accounts for the growth of axisymmetric waves is derived and stability is discussed theoretically as well as numerically. Stability criterion is given by critical value of applied electric field as well as critical wave number. Various graphs have been drawn to show the effect of various physical parameters such as electric field, viscosity ratio, permittivity ratio on the stability of the system. It has been observed that the axial electric field and porous medium both have stabilizing effect on the stability of the system.

Keywords: Capillary instability, Viscous potential flow, Porous media, Axial electric field.

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Authors: Obaidullah Nadeem, Rizwan Hameed

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The preparation of good-quality Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports contribute to enhancing overall effectiveness of EIA. This component of the EIA process becomes more important in situation where public participation is weak and there is lack of expertise on the part of the competent authority. In Pakistan, EIA became mandatory for every project likely to cause adverse environmental impacts from July 1994. The competent authority also formulated guidelines for preparation and review of EIA reports in 1997. However, EIA is yet to prove as a successful decision support tool to help in environmental protection. One of the several reasons of this ineffectiveness is the generally poor quality of EIA reports. This paper critically reviews EIA reports of some randomly selected projects. Interviews of EIA consultants, project proponents and concerned government officials have also been conducted to underpin the root causes of poor quality of EIA reports. The analysis reveals several inadequacies particularly in areas relating to identification, evaluation and mitigation of key impacts and consideration of alternatives. The paper identifies some opportunities and suggests measures for improving the quality of EIA reports and hence making EIA an effective tool to help in environmental protection.

Keywords: Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA Guidelines, EIA Reports, Pakistan.

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Authors: A. Mahdy

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The main objective of the present article is to explore the state of mixed convection nanofluid flow of gyrotactic microorganisms from an isothermal vertical wedge in porous medium. In our pioneering investigation, the easiest possible boundary conditions have been employed, in other words when the temperature, the nanofluid and motile microorganisms’ density have been considered to be constant on the wedge wall. Adding motile microorganisms to the nanofluid tends to enhance microscale mixing, mass transfer, and improve the nanofluid stability. Upon the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation and non-similarity transmutation, the paradigm of nonlinear equations are obtained and tackled numerically by using the R.K. Gill and shooting methods to obtain the dimensionless velocity, temperature, nanoparticle concentration and motile microorganisms density together with the reduced Sherwood, Nusselt, and numbers. Bioconvection parameters have strong effect upon the motile microorganism, heat, and volume fraction of nanoparticle transport rates. In the case when bioconvection is neglected, the obtained computations were found in very good agreement with the previous published data.

Keywords: Bioconvection, wedge, gyrotactic microorganisms, porous media, nanofluid, mixed.

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Authors: Meng-Lung Lin, Chien-Min Chu, Chung-Hung Tsai, Chih-Cheng Chen, Chen-Yuan Chen

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The study of tourist activities and the mapping of their routes in space and time has become an important issue in tourism management. Here we represent space-time paths for the tourism industry by visualizing individual tourist activities and the paths followed using a 3D Geographic Information System (GIS). Considerable attention has been devoted to the measurement of accessibility to shopping, eating, walking and other services at the tourist destination. I turns out that GIS is a useful tool for studying the spatial behaviors of tourists in the area. The value of GIS is especially advantageous for space-time potential path area measures, especially for the accurate visualization of possible paths through existing city road networks. This study seeks to apply space-time concepts with a detailed street network map obtained from Google Maps to measure tourist paths both spatially and temporally. These paths are further determined based on data obtained from map questionnaires regarding the trip activities of 40 individuals. The analysis of the data makes it possible to determining the locations of the more popular paths. The results can be visualized using 3D GIS to show the areas and potential activity opportunities accessible to tourists during their travel time.

Keywords: Tourist activity analysis, space-time path, GIS, geovisualization, activity-travel pattern.

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Authors: Siamak Rasulzadeh

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Graph transformation has recently become more and more popular as a general visual modeling language to formally state the dynamic semantics of the designed models. Especially, it is a very natural formalism for languages which basically are graph (e.g. UML). Using this technique, we present a highly understandable yet precise approach to formally model and analyze the behavioral semantics of UML 2.0 Activity diagrams. In our proposal, AGG is used to design Activities, then using our previous approach to model checking graph transformation systems, designers can verify and analyze designed Activity diagrams by checking the interesting properties as combination of graph rules and LTL (Linear Temporal Logic) formulas on the Activities.

Keywords: UML 2.0 Activity, Verification, Model Checking, Graph Transformation, Dynamic Semantics.

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Authors: Luis A. Morales Rosales, Saul E. Pomares Hernandez, Gustavo Rodriguez Gomez

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Synchronous cooperative systems (SCS) bring together users that are geographically distributed and connected through a network to carry out a task. Examples of SCS include Tele- Immersion and Tele-Conferences. In SCS, the coordination is the core of the system, and it has been defined as the act of managing interdependencies between activities performed to achieve a goal. Some of the main problems that SCS present deal with the management of constraints between simultaneous activities and the execution ordering of these activities. In order to resolve these problems, orderings based on Lamport-s happened-before relation have been used, namely, causal, Δ-causal, and causal-total orderings. They mainly differ in the degree of asynchronous execution allowed. One of the most important orderings is the causal order, which establishes that the events must be seen in the cause-effect order as they occur in the system. In this paper we show that for certain SCS (e.g. videoconferences, tele-immersion) where some degradation of the system is allowed, ensuring the causal order is still rigid, which can render negative affects to the system. In this paper, we illustrate how a more relaxed ordering, which we call Fuzzy Causal Order (FCO), is useful for such kind of systems by allowing a more asynchronous execution than the causal order. The benefit of the FCO is illustrated by applying it to a particular scenario of intermedia synchronization of an audio-conference system.

Keywords: Event ordering, fuzzy causal ordering, happenedbefore relation and cooperative systems.

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Authors: Miguel José Oliveira, Fátima Farinha, Elisa M. J. da Silva, Rui Lança, Manuel Duarte Pinheiro, Cátia Miguel

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The Observatory of Sustainability of the Algarve Region for Tourism (OBSERVE) will be a valuable tool to assess the sustainability of this region. The OBSERVE tool is designed to provide data and maintain an up-to-date, consistent set of indicators defined to describe the region on the environmental, sociocultural, economic and institutional domains. This ongoing two-year project has the active participation of the Algarve’s stakeholders, since they were consulted and asked to participate in the discussion for the indicators proposal. The environmental and sociocultural indicators chosen must indicate the characteristics of the region and should be in alignment with other global systems used to monitor the sustainability. This paper presents a review of sustainability indicators systems that support the first proposal for the environmental and sociocultural indicators. Others constraints are discussed, namely the existing data and the data available in digital platforms in a format suitable for automatic importation to the platform of OBSERVE. It is intended that OBSERVE will be a valuable tool to assess the sustainability of the region of Algarve.

Keywords: Sustainability, observatory, environmental indicators, sociocultural indicators, development, tourism, Algarve.

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Authors: Sarkar M. A. Kawsar, Sarkar M. A. Mamun, Md S. Rahman, Hidetaro Yasumitsu, Yasuhiro Ozeki

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The present study has been taken to explore the screening of in vitro antimicrobial activities of D-galactose-binding sponge lectin (HOL-30). HOL-30 was purified from the marine demosponge Halichondria okadai by affinity chromatography. The molecular mass of the lectin was determined to be 30 kDa with a single polypeptide by SDS-PAGE under non-reducing and reducing conditions. HOL-30 agglutinated trypsinized and glutaraldehydefixed rabbit and human erythrocytes with preference for type O erythrocytes. The lectin was subjected to evaluation for inhibition of microbial growth by the disc diffusion method against eleven human pathogenic gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The lectin exhibited strong antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria, such as Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus subtilis. However, it did not affect against gram-negative bacteria such as Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli. The largest zone of inhibition was recorded of Bacillus megaterium (12 in diameter) and Bacillus subtilis (10 mm in diameter) at a concentration of the lectin (250 μg/disc). On the other hand, the antifungal activity of the lectin was investigated against six phytopathogenic fungi based on food poisoning technique. The lectin has shown maximum inhibition (22.83%) of mycelial growth of Botrydiplodia theobromae at a concentration of 100 μg/mL media. These findings indicate that the lectin may be of importance to clinical microbiology and have therapeutic applications.

Keywords: Antibacterial, Halichondria okadai, Inhibition zone, Lectin.

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Authors: Ming-Lun Chiang, Chieh Wu, Ming-Ju Chen

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Three strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (690, BCRC 13023 and BCRC 13025) implicated in food poisoning outbreaks in Taiwan were subjected to acid adaptation at pH 5.5 for 90 min. The growth behaviors of acid-adapted and non-adapted V. parahaemolyticus in the media supplemented with various nitrogen and carbon sources were investigated. The effects of acid adaptation on the thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) secretion and fatty acid profiles of V. parahaemolyticus were also examined. Results showed that acid-adapted and non-adapted V. parahaemolyticus 690, BCRC 13023 and BCRC 13025 grew similarly in TSB-3% NaCl and basal media supplemented with various carbon and nitrogen sources during incubation period. Higher TDH secretion was noted with V. parahaemolyticus 690 among the three strains. However, acid-adapted strains produced less amounts of TDH than non-adapted strains when they were grown in TSB-3% NaCl. Additionally, acid adaptation increased the ratio of SFA/USFA in cells of V. parahaemolyticus strains.

Keywords: Vibrio parahaemolyticus, acid adaptation, thermostable direct hemolysin, fatty acid profile.

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Authors: Salima Hacini, Zahia Guessoum, Zizette Boufaïda

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Human activities are increasingly based on the use of remote resources and services, and on the interaction between remotely located parties that may know little about each other. Mobile agents must be prepared to execute on different hosts with various environmental security conditions. The aim of this paper is to propose a trust based mechanism to improve the security of mobile agents and allow their execution in various environments. Thus, an adaptive trust mechanism is proposed. It is based on the dynamic interaction between the agent and the environment. Information collected during the interaction enables generation of an environment key. This key informs on the host-s trust degree and permits the mobile agent to adapt its execution. Trust estimation is based on concrete parameters values. Thus, in case of distrust, the source of problem can be located and a mobile agent appropriate behavior can be selected.

Keywords: Internet security, malicious host, mobile agent security, trust management

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Authors: Sachin Kumar, Michael Pecht

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A study was conducted to formally characterize notebook computer performance under various environmental and usage conditions. Software was developed to collect data from the operating system of the computer. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance parameters- variations, trends, and correlations, as well as the extreme value they can attain in various usage and environmental conditions. An automated software script was written to simulate user activity. The variability of each performance parameter was addressed by establishing the empirical relationship between performance parameters. These equations were presented as baseline estimates for performance parameters, which can be used to detect system deviations from normal operation and for prognostic assessment. The effect of environmental factors, including different power sources, ambient temperatures, humidity, and usage, on performance parameters of notebooks was studied.

Keywords: Health monitoring, Electronic prognostics, Reliability, Usage monitoring, Notebook computer.

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Authors: S. Jahani, V. Choopankareh

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Many people lost their life caused by environmental pollution every year. The negative effects of environmental crises appear to be much higher in Asian countries. The most important environmental issue in the developing countries and especially in Tehran, to our best knowledge, is air pollution that has affected many aspects of life in society. Environmental topics related to technology’s development have been salient issues among the main concerns of designers. Green facades are the most considerable solutions which designers and architectures are focused on, all over the world. But there are lots of behavioral and psychological problems about this point. In this line, this excavation has tried to reveal the cultural and psychological influences of green façade in developing countries like Tehran. Green façades in developing countries are so useless, although they are so expensive. As a matter of fact, users consider green facade as a decorative item. This research is an attempt to recognize the reasons which show green façades as worthless element. Also, some solutions are presented to promote green façades in the developing countries as an intrinsic solution. There are so many environmental threats, especially about air pollution, for a city as Tehran, which might be solved by green facades.

Keywords: Air pollution, developing countries, effects, green facades.

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Authors: Derya Eren Akyol, Gonca Tuncel, G. Mirac Bayhan

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Activity-Based Costing (ABC) represents an alternative paradigm to traditional cost accounting system and it often provides more accurate cost information for decision making such as product pricing, product mix, and make-orbuy decisions. ABC models the causal relationships between products and the resources used in their production and traces the cost of products according to the activities through the use of appropriate cost drivers. In this paper, the implementation of the ABC in a manufacturing system is analyzed and a comparison with the traditional cost based system in terms of the effects on the product costs are carried out to highlight the difference between two costing methodologies. By using this methodology, a valuable insight into the factors that cause the cost is provided, helping to better manage the activities of the company.

Keywords: Activity-based costing, manufacturing systems, product costs, traditional costing.

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Authors: Young-Seok Choi

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It has been known that a characteristic Burst-Suppression (BS) pattern appears in EEG during the early recovery period following Cardiac Arrest (CA). Here, to explore the relationship between cortical and subcortical neural activities underlying BS, extracellular activity in the parietal cortex and the centromedian nucleus of the thalamus and extradural EEG were recorded in a rodent CA model. During the BS, the cortical firing rate is extraordinarily high, and that bursts in EEG correlate to dense spikes in cortical neurons. Newly observed phenomena are that 1) thalamic activity reemerges earlier than cortical activity following CA, and 2) the correlation coefficient of cortical and thalamic activities rises during BS period. These results would help elucidate the underlying mechanism of brain recovery after CA injury.

Keywords: Cortex, thalamus, cardiac arrest, burst-suppression.

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Authors: H. Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi, T. Rahmani, D. Gerhard

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Product Data Management (PDM) systems for Computer Aided Design (CAD) file management are widely established in design processes. This management system is indispensable for design collaboration or when design task distribution is present. It is thus surprising that engineering design curricula has not paid much attention in the education of PDM systems. This is also the case for eduction of ecodesign and environmental evaluation of products. With the rise of sustainability as a strategic aspect in companies, environmental concerns are becoming a key issue in design. This paper discusses the establishment of a PDM platform to be used among technical and vocational schools in Austria. The PDM system facilitates design collaboration among these schools. Further, it will be discussed how the PDM system has been prepared in order to facilitate environmental evaluation of parts, components and subassemblies of a product. By integrating a Business Intelligence solution, environmental Life Cycle Assessment and communication of results is enabled.

Keywords: CAD, Engineering Design, Design Education, ProductLife Cycle, Sustainability

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Authors: Milton Pavezzi Netto, Gustavo D'Almeida Scarpinella, Ricardo Siloto da Silva

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The springs located in urban areas are the outpouring of surface water, which can serve as water supply, effluent receptors and important local macro-drainage elements. With unplanned occupation, non-compliance with environmental legislation and the importance of these water bodies, it is vital to analyze the springs within urban areas, considering the Brazilian forest code. This paper submits an analysis and discussion methodology proposal of environmental compliance functions of urban springs, by means of G.I.S. - Geographic Information System analysis - and in situ analysis. The case study included two springs which exhibit a history of occupation along its length, with different degrees of impact. The proposed method is effective and easy to apply, representing a powerful tool for analyzing the environmental conditions of springs in urban areas.

Keywords: Springs, urban area, Brazilian forest code.

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Authors: Zulkufly Ramly

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This paper attempts to investigate the effect of corporate governance and shareholder monitoring mechanisms on cost of debt of Malaysian listed firms. We assess the quality of corporate governance using comprehensive corporate governance index, which consists of 139 items in six broad categories. We classify shareholder monitoring mechanisms into concentrated ownership, family, insider and government ownerships. Using panel sample from 2003 to 2007, regression results show that high corporate governance quality and concentrated ownership lower firm cost of debt. Debt issuers consider board structure and procedures, board compensation practices, accountability and audit, transparency and social and environmental activities as integral components of a good corporate governance framework.

Keywords: Corporate governance index, cost of debt, ownership structure, Malaysia.

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Authors: D. Nouri, M.R. Sabour, M. Ghanbarzadeh Lak

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Proper management of residues originated from industrial activities is considered as one of the serious challenges faced by industrial societies due to their potential hazards to the environment. Common disposal methods for industrial solid wastes (ISWs) encompass various combinations of solely management options, i.e. recycling, incineration, composting, and sanitary landfilling. Indeed, the procedure used to evaluate and nominate the best practical methods should be based on environmental, technical, economical, and social assessments. In this paper an environmentaltechnical assessment model is developed using analytical network process (ANP) to facilitate the decision making practice for ISWs generated at Gilan province, Iran. Using the results of performed surveys on industrial units located at Gilan, the various groups of solid wastes in the research area were characterized, and four different ISW management scenarios were studied. The evaluation process was conducted using the above-mentioned model in the Super Decisions software (version 2.0.8) environment. The results indicates that the best ISW management scenario for Gilan province is consist of recycling the metal industries residues, composting the putrescible portion of ISWs, combustion of paper, wood, fabric and polymeric wastes as well as energy extraction in the incineration plant, and finally landfilling the rest of the waste stream in addition with rejected materials from recycling and compost production plants and ashes from the incineration unit.

Keywords: Analytical Network Process, Disposal Scenario, Gilan Province, Industrial Waste.

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Authors: A. Sayadi, A. Khodadadi D., S. Partani

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Today Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is known as one of the most important tools for decision makers in the construction of civil and industrial projects towards sustainable development. In the past, projects were evaluated based on cost and benefit analysis regardless of the physical and biological environmental effects and its socio-economical impacts. According to the Department of Environment (DOE) of Iran's regulations, the construction of hydroelectric dams is an activity that requires an EIA report. In this paper the environmental impact assessment of the Gotvand hydro-electrical dam has been evaluated in the three environment elements, biological, Physical-chemical and cultural units. This dam is one of the largest dams in Iran with a volume of 4500 MCM and is going to be the last dam on the Karoon River in the south of Iran. In this paper the ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) technique was employed for the environmental impact assessment of the dam. The research includes all socio economical and environmental effects of the dam during the construction and operation of the hydro electric dam and Environmental management, monitoring and mitigation of negative impacts were analyzed. In this project the results led to using some techniques to protect the destructive impacts on biological aspects beside the effective long time period impacts on the biological aspects. The impacts on physical aspects are temporary and negative commonly that could be restored and rehabilitated in natural process in the long time in operation period.

Keywords: "Gotvand Hydro Electric Dam", "EIA", "ICOLD and Leopold matrices"

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Authors: Sholpan Zhandossova, Erden Ordabek, Yelbolsyn Nazarov

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the article analyzes the national security as a scientific and practical problem, characterized by the state's political institutions to ensure effective action to maintain optimal conditions for the existence and development of the individual and society. National security, as a category of political science reflects the relationship between the security to the nation, including public relations and social consciousness, social institutions and their activities, ensuring the realization of national interests in a particular historical situation. In national security are three security levels: individual, society and state. Their role and place determined by the nature of social relations, political systems, the presence of internal and external threats. In terms of content in the concept of national security is taken to provide political, economic, military, environmental, information security and safety of the cultural development of the nation.

Keywords: Kazakhstan, national security, religious extremism

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Authors: R. O. B. Bitencourt, F. S. Farias, M. C. Freitas, C. J. R. Balduino, E.S. Mesquita, A. R. C. Corval, P. S. Gôlo, E. G. Pontes, V. R. E. P. Bittencourt, I. C. Angelo

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Aedes aegypti larval survival rate was assessed after exposure to blastopores or conidia (mineral oil-in-water formulation or aqueous suspension) of Beauveria bassiana CG 479 propagules (blastospores or conidia). Here, mineral oil was used in the fungal formulation to control Aedes aegypti larvae. 1%, 0.5% or 0.1% mineral oil-in-water solutions were used to evaluate mineral oil toxicity for mosquito larvae. In the oil toxicity test, 0.1% mineral oil solution reduced only 4.5% larval survival; accordingly, this concentration was chosen for fungal oil-in-water formulations. Aqueous suspensions were prepared using 0.01% Tween 80^® in sterile dechlorinated water. A. aegypti larvae (L₂) were exposed in aqueous suspensions or mineral oil-in-water fungal formulations at 1×107 propagules mL^-1; the survival rate (assessed daily, for 7 days) and the median survival time (S₅₀) were calculated. Seven days after the treatment, mosquito larvae survival rates were 8.56%, 16.22%, 58%, and 42.56% after exposure to oil-in-water blastospores, oil-in-water conidia, blastospores aqueous suspension and conidia aqueous suspension (respectively). Larvae exposed to 0.01% Tween 80^® had 100% survival rate and the ones treated with 0.1% mineral oil-in-water had 95.11% survival rate. Larvae treated with conidia (regardless the presence of oil) or treated with blastospores formulation had survival median time (S₅₀) ranging from one to two days. S₅₀ was not determined (ND) when larvae were exposed to blastospores aqueous suspension, 0.01% Tween 80^® (aqueous control) or 0.1% mineral oil-in-water formulation (oil control). B. bassiana conidia and blastospores (mineral oil-in-water formulated or suspended in water) had potential to control A. aegypti mosquito larvae, despite mineral oil-in-water formulation yielded better results in comparison to aqueous suspensions. Here, B. bassiana CG 479 isolate is suggested as a potential biocontrol agent of A. aegypti mosquito larvae.

Keywords: Blastospores, formulation, mosquitoes, conidia.

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Authors: Morteza Raei Dehaghi, Seyed Mohammad Mirhashemi

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The current study explored the effect of economic development, financial development and institutional quality on environmental destruction in upper-middle income countries during the time period of 1999-2011. The dependent variable is logarithm of carbon dioxide emissions that can be considered as an index for destruction or quality of the environment given to its effects on the environment. Financial development and institutional development variables as well as some control variables were considered. In order to study cross-sectional correlation among the countries under study, Pesaran and Friz test was used. Since the results of both tests show cross-sectional correlation in the countries under study, seemingly unrelated regression method was utilized for model estimation. The results disclosed that Kuznets’ environmental curve hypothesis is confirmed in upper-middle income countries and also, financial development and institutional quality have a significant effect on environmental quality. The results of this study can be considered by policy makers in countries with different income groups to have access to a growth accompanied by improved environmental quality.

Keywords: Economic Development, Environmental Destruction, Financial Development, Institutional Development, Seemingly Unrelated Regression.

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Authors: Chih-Chung Chang, Sy-Chi Kuo, Chen-Kang Huang, Sih-Li Chen

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This study experimentally and numerically investigates motor cooling performance. The motor consists of a centrifugal fan, two axial fans, a shaft, a stator, a rotor and a heat exchanger with 637 cooling tubes. The pressure rise-flow rate (P-Q) performance curves of the cooling fans at 1800 rpm are tested using a test apparatus complying with the Chinese National Standard (CNS) 2726. Compared with the experimental measurements, the numerical analysis results show that the P-Q performance curves of the axial fan and centrifugal fan can be estimated within about 2% and 6%, respectively. By using the simplified model, setting up the heat exchanger and stator as porous media, the flow field in the motor is calculated. By using the results of the flow field near the rotor and stator, and subjecting the heat generation rate as a boundary condition, the temperature distributions of the stator and rotor are also calculated. The simulation results show that the calculated temperature of the stator winding near the axial fans is lower by about 5% than the measured value, and the calculated temperature of the stator core located at the center of the stator is about 1% higher than the measured value. Besides, discussion is made to improve the motor cooling performance.

Keywords: Motor cooling, P-Q performance curves, CNS, porous media.

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Authors: Anil Ranjitbhai Patel, Clement John Shaji, Peter Liggesmeyer

Abstract:

Safety and security of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) is a growing concern, first, due to the increased number of safety-critical functions taken over by automotive embedded systems; second, due to the increased exposure of the software-intensive systems to potential attackers; third, due to dynamic interaction in an uncertain and unknown environment at runtime which results in changed functional and non-functional properties of the system. Frequently occurring environmental uncertainties, random component failures, and compromise security of the AVs might result in hazardous events, sometimes even in an accident, if left undetected. Beyond these technical issues, we argue that the safety and security of AVs against accidental and deliberate faults are poorly understood and rarely implemented. One possible way to overcome this is through a well-known diversity approach. As an effective approach to increase safety and security, diversity has been widely used in the aviation, railway, and aerospace industries. Thus, paper proposes fault-tolerance by diversity model taking into consideration the mitigation of accidental and deliberate faults by application of structure and variant redundancy. The model can be used to design the AVs with various types of diversity in hardware and software-based multi-version system. The paper evaluates the presented approach by employing an example from adaptive cruise control, followed by discussing the case study with initial findings.

Keywords: Autonomous vehicles, diversity, fault-tolerance, adaptive cruise control, safety, security.

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Authors: Azlina Binti Abu Bakar, Fahmi Zaidi Bin Abdul Razak, Wan Salihin Wong Abdullah

Abstract:

Psychographic is a psychological study of values, attitudes, interests and it is used mostly in prediction, opinion research and social research. This study predicts the influence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition on e-government acceptance among Malaysian citizens. The survey responses of 543 e-government users have been validated and analyzed by means of covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling. The findings indicate that e-government acceptance among Malaysian citizens are mainly influenced by performance expectancy (β = 0.66, t = 11.53, p < 0.01) and social influence (β = 0.20, t = 4.23, p < 0.01). Surprisingly, there is no significant effect of facilitating condition and effort expectancy on e-government continuance intention (β = 0.01, t = 0.27, p > 0.05; β = -0.01, t = -0.40, p > 0.05). This study offers government and vendors a frame of reference to analyze citizen’s situation before initiating new innovations. In case of Malaysian e-government technology, adoption strategies should be built around fostering level of citizens’ technological expectation and social influence on e-government usage.

Keywords: Continuance intention, Malaysian citizens, media psychology, structural equation modeling.

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Authors: M. M. Mon, S. S. Maw, Z. K. Oo

Abstract:

Antioxidant activities of ethanolic extracts of Ardisia japonica Blume., Ageartum conyzoides Linn., and Cocculus hirsutus Linn Diels. leaves was determined qualitatively and quantitatively in this research. 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical solution was used to investigate free radical scavenging activity of these leaves extracts. Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) was used as the standard. In the present investigation, it is found that all of these extracts have remarkable antioxidant activities. The EC50 values of these ethanolic extracts were 12.72 μg/ml for A. japonica, 15.19 μg/ml for A. conyzoides, 10.68 μg/ml for C. hirsutus respectively. Among these Myanmar medicinal plants, C. hirsutus showed higher antioxidant activities as well as free radical scavenging activity than black tea (Camellia sinensis), the famous antioxidant, and A. japonica and A. conyzoides showed a rather lower antioxidant activity than tea extracts. According to results from bioassay with carrot discs infected with Agrobacterium tumefaciens, all extracts showed anti-tumor activity after 3 weeks of incubation. No gall was detected in carrot disks treated with C. hirsutus and A. japonica extracts in the dose of 100ppm and in carrot discs treated with A. conyzoides extract in the dose of 1000 ppm. Therefore, the research clearly indicates that these weedy plants of dry farm land are exceptionally advantageous for human health.

Keywords: Antioxidant, Anti-tumor activity, Carrot-discbioassay, DPPH

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu

Abstract:

The opportunity provided by advances in technology as regard to sports betting is so numerous. Nigerian youth are not left out especially with the use of phones and visit to sports betting outlets. Today, it is more difficult to differentiate a true fan as there are quite a number of them that became fans as a result of betting on live games. This study investigated the influence of online sports events on betting among Nigerian youth. A descriptive survey research design was used and the population consists of all Nigerian youth that engages in betting and lives within the southwest zone of Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique was used to pick three states from the southwest zone of Nigeria. 2500 respondents comprising of males and females were sampled from the three states. A structured questionnaire on Online Sports Event Contribution to Sports Betting (OSECSB) was used. The instrument consists of three sections. Section A seeks information on the demographic data of the respondents. Section B seeks information on online sports events while section C was used to extract information on sports betting. The modified instrument which consists of 14 items has a reliability coefficient of 0.74. The hypothesis was tested at 0.05 significance level. The completed questionnaire was collated, coded, and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentage and pie chart, and inferential statistics of multiple regressions. The findings of this study revealed that online sports betting is a significant predictor of an increase in sports betting among Nigerian youth. The media and television, as well as globalization and the internet, coupled with social media and various online platforms, have all contributed to the immense increase in sports betting. The increase in the advertisement of the betting platform during live matches, especially football, is becoming more alarming. In most organized international events, the media attention, as well as sponsorship rights, are now been given to one or two betting platforms. There is a need for all stakeholders to put in place school-based intervention programs to reorientate our youth about the consequences of addiction to betting. Such programs must include meta-analyses and emotional control towards sports betting.

Keywords: Betting platform, Nigerian fans, Nigerian youth, sports betting.

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