Search results for: economic analysis

Authors: Rathnayaka D. D. T., Vidanage P. W., Wasalathilake K. C., Wickramasingha H. W., Wijayarathne U. P. L, Perera S. A. S.

Abstract:

This paper describes the research carried out to develop a process to increase the NaCl percentage of crude salt which is obtained from the conventional solar evaporation process. In this study refined salt was produced from crude solar salt by a chemico-physical method which consists of coagulation, precipitation and filtration. Initially crude salt crystals were crushed and dissolved in water. Optimum amounts of calcium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and Polyaluminiumchloride (PAC) were added to the solution respectively.

Refined NaCl solution was separated out by a filtration process. The solution was tested for Total Suspended Solids, SO₄^2-, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺. With optimum dosage of reagents, the results showed that a level of 99.60% NaCl could be achieved. Further this paper discusses the economic viability of the proposed process. A 83% profit margin can be achieved by this process and it is an increase of 112.3% compared to the traditional process.

Keywords: Chemico-physical, Economic, Optimum, Refined, Solar Salt.

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Authors: F. S. Al-Anzi, M. Sarfraz, A. Elmi, A. R. Khan

Abstract:

Researchers are responding to the environmental challenges of Kuwait in localized, innovative, effective and economic ways. One of the vital and significant examples of the natural challenges is lack or water and desertification. In this research, the project team focuses on redesigning a prototype, using Value Engineering Methodology, which would provide similar functionalities to the well-known technology of Waterboxx kits while reducing the capital and operational costs and simplifying the process of manufacturing and usability by regular farmers. The design employs used tires and recycled plastic sheets as raw materials. Hence, this approach is going to help not just fighting desertification but also helping in getting rid of ever growing huge tire dumpsters in Kuwait, as well as helping in avoiding hazards of tire fires yielding in a safer and friendlier environment. Several alternatives for implementing the prototype have been considered. The best alternative in terms of value has been selected after thorough Function Analysis System Technique (FAST) exercise has been developed. A prototype has been fabricated and tested in a controlled simulated lab environment that is being followed by real environment field testing. Water and soil analysis conducted on the site of the experiment to cross compare between the composition of the soil before and after the experiment to insure that the prototype being tested is actually going to be environment safe. Experimentation shows that the design was equally as effective as, and may exceed, the original design with significant savings in cost. An estimated total cost reduction using the VE approach of 43.84% over the original design. This cost reduction does not consider the intangible costs of environmental issue of waste recycling which many further intensify the total savings of using the alternative VE design. This case study shows that Value Engineering Methodology can be an important tool in innovating new designs for reducing costs.

Keywords: Desertification, functional analysis, scrap tires, value engineering, waste recycling, water irrigation rationing.

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Authors: Edward Lim

Abstract:

This paper deals principally with the socio-economic impact on the local Iban community in Mukah Division, Sarawak; with the commencement of the open-cut coal mining industry since 2003. To-date there are no actual studies being carried out by either the public or private sector to truly analyze how the Iban community is coping with the advent of a large influx of cash into their society. The Iban community has traditionally been practicing shifting cultivation and farming of domesticated animals; with a portion of the younger generation working as laborers and professional. This paper represents the views and observations of the author supported by some statistical facts extracted from published articles and non-published reports. The paper deals primarily in the following areas: • Background of the coal mining industry in Mukah Division, Sarawak; • Benefits of the coal mining industry towards the Iban community; • Issues / Problems arise in the Iban community because of the presence of the coal mining industry; and • Possible actions that need to be taken to overcome these issues/ problems.

Keywords: Coal Mining, Iban Community, Malaysia, Sub-Bituminous Coal.

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Authors: Alireza Saviz, Sedigheh Zarei

Abstract:

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an integral part of an open and effective international economic system and a major catalyst to development. Developing countries, emerging economies and countries in transition have come increasingly to see FDI as a source of economic development modernization, income growth and employment. FDI is an important vehicle for the transfer of technology, contributing relatively more to growth than domestic investment. Exploratory research is being conducted here. The data for the study is collected from secondary sources like research papers, journals, websites and reports. This paper aim was to generate knowledge on Iran’s situation through these factors after lifting sanction in comparison to Turkey. Although the most important factors that influence foreign investor decisions vary depending on the countries, sectors, years, and the objective of investor, nowadays governments should pay more attention to human resources education, marketing, infrastructure and administrative process in order to attracting foreign investors. A proper understanding of these findings will help governments to create appropriate policies in order to encourage more foreign investors

Keywords: FDI, foreign investor, comparative study, host country.

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Authors: Hanna Ziętara

Abstract:

Gastronomy is one of the oldest forms of commercial activity. It is currently one of the most popular and still dynamically developing branches of business. Socio-economic changes, its widespread occurrence, new techniques or culinary styles affect the almost unlimited possibilities of its development. Importantly, regardless of the form of business adopted, foodservice is strongly related to logistics processes, and areas of foodservice that are closely linked to logistics are of strategic importance. Any inefficiency in logistics processes results in reduced chances for success and achieving competitive advantage by companies belonging to the catering industry. The aim of the paper is to identify the areas of logistic support, occurring in the catering business, and affecting the scope of the logistic processes implemented. The aim of the paper is implemented through a plural homogeneous approach, based on direct observation, text analysis of current documents, and in-depth free targeted interviews.

Keywords: Gastronomy, competitive advantage, logistics, logistics support.

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Authors: Beata Ślusarczyk, Sebastian Kot

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In subjective terms, Polish SME sector occupies a prominent position in the national economic development, in which planning of the management strategies should be primarily based on identifying and meeting the innovation needs. As a research sample, there is chosen a printing sector of industry. SMEs share in printing sector in Poland is estimated at the level of 81% of all enterprises. In recent years, the printing industry achieved one of the highest levels of EU support in Poland. There is a relatively high increase in the development of technological innovations in equipment and the associated significant increase in production capacity. It can be also noticed that on average, every third enterprise belonging to the printing industry has implemented innovations, but not all of them effected in better economic results. Therefore, the aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of the implementation of innovation projects financed from the EU funds for performance of SMEs in the printing industry. As the results of research of EU funds co-financing effects on the development of innovation in the printing industry, it was specified that examined SMEs prefer to implement product innovation to receive a grant to the project at a level between 40% to 60%, the remaining part of the investment is usually covered with equity. The most common type of innovation had indicated a single implementation, related only to the change in process, technology, or organization. The relationship between variables of the EU funds and management of innovative activities was verified. It has been observed that the identified variables arising from the support in a form of the EU funds had a positive effect on the level of earned revenue, the increase in margin and in increase in employment as well. It was confirmed that the implemented innovations supported by the European funds have a positive impact on the performance of the printing companies. Although there is a risk that due to the decreasing demand for printing services such a high level of funding the companies in this sector will significantly increase competition in the long term, that may also contribute to the economic problems of the enterprises belonging to the analyzed branch.

Keywords: Innovations, SMEs, performance, results.

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Authors: Halle Bakhteeyar, Azadeh Maroufmashat, Abbas Maleki, Sourena Sattari Khavas

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In this paper, five options of Iran’s gas flare recovery have been compared via MCDM method. For developing the model, the weighing factor of each indicator an AHP method is used via the Expert-choice software. Several cases were considered in this analysis. They are defined where the priorities were defined always keeping one criterion in first position, while the priorities of the other criteria were defined by ordinal information defining the mutual relations of the criteria and the respective indicators. The results, show that amongst these cases, priority is obtained for CHP usage where availability indicator is highly weighted while the pipeline usage is obtained where environmental indicator highly weighted and the injection priority is obtained where economic indicator is highly weighted and also when the weighing factor of all the criteria are the same the Injection priority is obtained.

Keywords: Flare, Gas, Iran.

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Authors: Manas Ranjan Kabat, Manoj Kumar Patel, Chita Ranjan Tripathy

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Many multimedia communication applications require a source to transmit messages to multiple destinations subject to quality of service (QoS) delay constraint. To support delay constrained multicast communications, computer networks need to guarantee an upper bound end-to-end delay from the source node to each of the destination nodes. This is known as multicast delay problem. On the other hand, if the same message fails to arrive at each destination node at the same time, there may arise inconsistency and unfairness problem among users. This is related to multicast delayvariation problem. The problem to find a minimum cost multicast tree with delay and delay-variation constraints has been proven to be NP-Complete. In this paper, we propose an efficient heuristic algorithm, namely, Economic Delay and Delay-Variation Bounded Multicast (EDVBM) algorithm, based on a novel heuristic function, to construct an economic delay and delay-variation bounded multicast tree. A noteworthy feature of this algorithm is that it has very high probability of finding the optimal solution in polynomial time with low computational complexity.

Keywords: EDVBM, Heuristic algorithm, Multicast tree, QoS routing, Shortest path.

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Authors: Carlo Bellettini, Alessandro Marchetto, Andrea Trentini

Abstract:

Web applications have become very complex and crucial, especially when combined with areas such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BPR (Business Process Reengineering), the scientific community has focused attention to Web applications design, development, analysis, and testing, by studying and proposing methodologies and tools. This paper proposes an approach to automatic multi-dimensional concern mining for Web Applications, based on concepts analysis, impact analysis, and token-based concern identification. This approach lets the user to analyse and traverse Web software relevant to a particular concern (concept, goal, purpose, etc.) via multi-dimensional separation of concerns, to document, understand and test Web applications. This technique was developed in the context of WAAT (Web Applications Analysis and Testing) project. A semi-automatic tool to support this technique is currently under development.

Keywords: Concepts Analysis, Concerns Mining, Multi-Dimensional Separation of Concerns, Impact Analysis.

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Authors: T Panigrahi, G Panda, Mulgrew

Abstract:

This paper introduces a new approach for the performance analysis of adaptive filter with error saturation nonlinearity in the presence of impulsive noise. The performance analysis of adaptive filters includes both transient analysis which shows that how fast a filter learns and the steady-state analysis gives how well a filter learns. The recursive expressions for mean-square deviation(MSD) and excess mean-square error(EMSE) are derived based on weighted energy conservation arguments which provide the transient behavior of the adaptive algorithm. The steady-state analysis for co-related input regressor data is analyzed, so this approach leads to a new performance results without restricting the input regression data to be white.

Keywords: Error saturation nonlinearity, transient analysis, impulsive noise.

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Authors: J. K. Khare, Abhay Kumar Sharma, Ajay Tiwari, Amol A. Talankar

Abstract:

Powder metallurgy (P/M) is the only economic way to produce porous parts/products. P/M can produce near net shape parts hence reduces wastage of raw material and energy, avoids various machining operations. The most vital use of P/M is in production of metallic filters and self lubricating bush bearings and siding surfaces. The porosity of the part can be controlled by varying compaction pressure, sintering temperature and composition of metal powder mix. The present work is aimed for experimental analysis of friction and wear properties of self lubricating copper and tin bush bearing. Experimental results confirm that wear rate of sintered component is lesser for components having 10% tin by weight percentage. Wear rate increases for high tin percentage (experimented for 20% tin and 30% tin) at same sintering temperature. Experimental results also confirms that wear rate of sintered component is also dependent on sintering temperature, soaking period, composition of the preform, compacting pressure, powder particle shape and size. Interfacial friction between die and punch, between inter powder particles, between die face and powder particle depends on compaction pressure, powder particle size and shape, size and shape of component which decides size & shape of die & punch, material of die & punch and material of powder particles.

Keywords: Interfacial friction, porous bronze bearing, sintering temperature, wear rate.

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Authors: Monika Chuchro, Maciej Dwornik

Abstract:

The extraction of meaningful information from image could be an alternative method for time series analysis. In this paper, we propose a graphical analysis of time series grouped into table with adjusted colour scale for numerical values. The advantages of this method are also discussed. The proposed method is easy to understand and is flexible to implement the standard methods of pattern recognition and verification, especially for noisy environmental data.

Keywords: graphical analysis, time series, seasonality, noisy environmental data

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Authors: Bahador Bagheri, Ehsan Salimi Firoozabad, Mohammadreza Yahyaei

Abstract:

As the world move to the accomplishment of Performance Based Engineering philosophies in seismic design of Civil Engineering structures, new seismic design provisions require Structural Engineers to perform both static and dynamic analysis for the design of structures. While Linear Equivalent Static Analysis is performed for regular buildings up to 90m height in zone I and II, Dynamic Analysis should be performed for regular and irregular buildings in zone IV and V. Dynamic Analysis can take the form of a dynamic Time History Analysis or a linear Response Spectrum Analysis. In present study, Multi-storey irregular buildings with 20 stories have been modeled using software packages ETABS and SAP 2000 v.15 for seismic zone V in India. This paper also deals with the effect of the variation of the building height on the structural response of the shear wall building. Dynamic responses of building under actual earthquakes, EL-CENTRO 1949 and CHI-CHI Taiwan 1999 have been investigated. This paper highlights the accuracy and exactness of Time History analysis in comparison with the most commonly adopted Response Spectrum Analysis and Equivalent Static Analysis.

Keywords: Equivalent Static Analysis, Time history method, Response spectrum method, Reinforce concrete building, displacement.

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Authors: M. M. Isa, R. Abd-Rahman, H. H. Goh

Abstract:

A compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is a wellknown non-imaging concentrator that will concentrate the solar radiation onto receiver (PV cell). One of disadvantage of CPC is has tall and narrow height compared to its diameter entry aperture area. Therefore, for economic reason, a truncation had been done by removed from the top of the full height CPC. This also will lead to the decreases of concentration ratio but it will be negligible. In this paper, the flux distribution of untruncated and truncated 2-D hollow compound parabolic trough concentrator (hCPTC) design is presented. The untruncated design has initial height H=193.4mm with concentration ratio C_(2-D)=4. This paper presents the optical simulation of compound parabolic trough concentrator using raytracing software TracePro. Results showed that, after the truncation, the height of CPC reduced 45% from initial height with the geometrical concentration ratio only decrease 10%. Thus, the cost of reflector and material dielectric usage can be saved especially at manufacturing site.

Keywords: Compound parabolic trough concentrator, optical modelling, ray-tracing analysis.

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Authors: Eduardo C. Guardia, Jose W. M. Lima, Afonso H. M. Santos

Abstract:

This paper presents a nonparametric method to obtain the hazard rate “Bathtub curve” for power system components. The model is a mixture of the three known phases of a component life, the decreasing failure rate (DFR), the constant failure rate (CFR) and the increasing failure rate (IFR) represented by three parametric Weibull models. The parameters are obtained from a simultaneous fitting process of the model to the Kernel nonparametric hazard rate curve. From the Weibull parameters and failure rate curves the useful lifetime and the characteristic lifetime were defined. To demonstrate the model the historic time-to-failure of distribution transformers were used as an example. The resulted “Bathtub curve” shows the failure rate for the equipment lifetime which can be applied in economic and replacement decision models.

Keywords: Bathtub curve, failure analysis, lifetime estimation, parameter estimation, Weibull distribution.

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Authors: Carlo Bellettini, Alessandro Marchetto, Andrea Trentini

Abstract:

Web applications have become complex and crucial for many firms, especially when combined with areas such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BPR (Business Process Reengineering). The scientific community has focused attention to Web application design, development, analysis, testing, by studying and proposing methodologies and tools. Static and dynamic techniques may be used to analyze existing Web applications. The use of traditional static source code analysis may be very difficult, for the presence of dynamically generated code, and for the multi-language nature of the Web. Dynamic analysis may be useful, but it has an intrinsic limitation, the low number of program executions used to extract information. Our reverse engineering analysis, used into our WAAT (Web Applications Analysis and Testing) project, applies mutational techniques in order to exploit server side execution engines to accomplish part of the dynamic analysis. This paper studies the effects of mutation source code analysis applied to Web software to build application models. Mutation-based generated models may contain more information then necessary, so we need a pruning mechanism.

Keywords: Validation, Dynamic Analysis, MutationAnalysis, Reverse Engineering, Web Applications

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Authors: Zoaib Mirza

Abstract:

Pakistan is an Islamic country that got its partition from India in 1947 so that the people could practice the religion of Islam. The political slogan to strive for independence was “What does Pakistan mean? There is no God but Allah”. The ideology of Pakistan was based on the notion that sovereignty only belonged to God Almighty (in Arabic, God means “Allah”), and Muslims will live in accordance with Islam principles. The Quran (Holy Book) and Sunnah (authentic practices of Prophet Mohammad, Peace Be Upon Him, that explains the application of the Quran) are foundations of the Islamic principles. It has been over 75 years, but unfortunately, Pakistan, due to its own political, social, and economic mistakes, is responsible for not being able to become a true Islamic nation to justify its partition from India. The rationale for writing this paper is to analyze the factors that led to changes in the democratic movements impacting the country's political, social, and economic growth. The methodology to examine the historical and political context of Pakistan’s history is by referencing the scholarly work of Israr Ahmed. He focused on Islamic theology, philosophy, and studies, offering insights into the historical and political context of the country. While from a Western perspective, Karl Marx, Mar Weber, Hannah Arendt, Sheldon Wolin, Paulo Freire, and Jacques Ranciere's philosophies specific to totalitarianism, politics, military rule, religion, capitalism, and superpower are used as the framework to analyze Pakistan’s democracy. The study's findings conclude that Pakistan's democracy is unstable and has been impacted by military and civilian governance, which led to political, social, and economic downfall. To improve the current situation, the citizens of Pakistan have to realize that the success of a nation is only dependent on the level of consciousness of the leader and not the political system. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every citizen to be conscious of how they select their leader and take responsibility for the current situation in Pakistan.

Keywords: Pakistan, Islam, democracy, totalitarianism, military, religion, capitalism.

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Authors: Boo-Sung Koh, Seung-Eock Kim

Abstract:

In this paper, a direct design using a nonlinear inelastic analysis is suggested. Also, this paper compares the load carrying capacity obtained by a nonlinear inelastic analysis with experiment results to verify the accuracy of the results. The allowable stress design results of a railroad through a plate girder bridge and the safety factor of the nonlinear inelastic analysis were compared to examine the safety performance. As a result, the load safety factor for the nonlinear inelastic analysis was twice as high as the required safety factor under the allowable stress design standard specified in the civil engineering structure design standards for urban magnetic levitation railways, which further verified the advantages of the proposed direct design method.

Keywords: Direct design, nonlinear inelastic analysis, residual stress, initial geometric imperfection.

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Authors: Mohamed Belaid, Edison Muzenda, Getrude Mitilene, Mansoor Mollagee

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A feasibility study for the design and construction of a pilot plant for the extraction of castor oil in South Africa was conducted. The study emphasized the four critical aspects of project feasibility analysis, namely technical, financial, market and managerial aspects. The technical aspect involved research on existing oil extraction technologies, namely: mechanical pressing and solvent extraction, as well as assessment of the proposed production site for both short and long term viability of the project. The site is on the outskirts of Nkomazi village in the Mpumalanga province, where connections for water and electricity are currently underway, potential raw material supply proves to be reliable since the province is known for its commercial farming. The managerial aspect was evaluated based on the fact that the current producer of castor oil will be fully involved in the project while receiving training and technical assistance from Sasol Technology, the TSC and SEDA. Market and financial aspects were evaluated and the project was considered financially viable with a Net Present Value (NPV) of R2 731 687 and an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 18% at an annual interest rate of 10.5%. The payback time is 6years for analysis over the first 10 years with a net income of R1 971 000 in the first year. The project was thus found to be feasible with high chance of success while contributing to socio-economic development. It was recommended for lab tests to be conducted to establish process kinetics that would be used in the initial design of the plant.

Keywords: Mechanical pressing, Net Present Value, Oilextraction, Project feasibility, Solvent extraction

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Authors: Ying Wang

Abstract:

Service trade is an important force of influencing economic development. A review on the related literatures is done firstly. Then through the construction of a Diamond Model, the main factors which influence the competitiveness of Chinese service trade are determined. With three competitiveness indexes served as the reference series respectively, the influencing factors served as the comparable series, three grey incidence models are then built up to conduct an empirical analysis on the main factors influencing the competitiveness of service trade after China entering WTO. The result indicates that urbanization level, open degree of service industry and foreign direct investment have larger impacts on Chinese service trade competitiveness, followed in turn by GDP in service industry and human capital, while commodity trade has the minimum impact. Further discussion provides train of thought for the upgrade of Chinese service trade competitiveness.

Keywords: Service Trade, Competitiveness, Diamond Model, Grey Incidence Model.

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Authors: Lakshmi Dhandabani, Rajeev Sukumaran

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Aim of this research study is to investigate and establish the characteristics of brain dominances (BD) and multiple intelligences (MI). This experimentation has been conducted for the sample size of 552 undergraduate computer-engineering students. In addition, mathematical formulation has been established to exhibit the relation between thinking and intelligence, and its correlation has been analyzed. Correlation analysis has been statistically measured using Pearson’s coefficient. Analysis of the results proves that there is a strong relational existence between thinking and intelligence. This research is carried to improve the didactic methods in engineering learning and also to improve e-learning strategies.

Keywords: Thinking style assessment, correlational analysis, mathematical model, data analysis, dynamic equilibrium.

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Authors: E. Kharaishvili, G. Erkomaishvili, M. Chavleishvili

Abstract:

The importance of agribusiness development is proved in accordance with the trends in the agricultural sector of Georgia. Agribusiness environment and the consequences of the agricultural reforms are evaluated. The factors hindering the development of agribusiness are revealed and the ways for overcoming these problems are suggested. SWOT analysis is done in order to identify the needs of agribusiness. The needs of agribusiness development in Georgia are evaluated by priorities: prevention of diseases and reduction of the harm caused by these diseases, accessibility of long-term agricultural loans with low interest rates, improving qualification of farmers, the level of education and usage of modern technologies, changes in legislation, accessibility to high quality agricultural machinery, and the development of infrastructure. Based on the outcomes of the research, agribusiness development strategies in Georgia are suggested and appropriate priorities of economic policy are determined. Conclusions are made and based on these conclusions, some recommendations are suggested.

Keywords: Agricultural sector, agribusiness development, agribusiness strategy, agribusiness in Georgia.

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Authors: Labiba I. Hussein, Maher Z. Elsabee, Eid A. Ismail, Hala F. Naguib, Hilda A. Aziz, Moataz A. Elsawy

Abstract:

Jojoba oil-wax is extracted from the seeds of the jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis Link Schneider), a perennial shrub that grows in semi desert areas in Egypt and in some parts of the world. The main uses of jojoba oil-wax are in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry, but new uses could arise related to the search of new energetic crops. This paper summarizes a process to convert the jojoba oil-wax to biodiesel by transesterification with ethanol and a series of aliphatic alcohols using a more economic and energy saving method in a domestic microwave. The effect of time and power of the microwave on the extent of the transesterification using ethanol and other aliphatic alcohols has been studied. The separation of the alkyl esters from the fatty alcohols rich fraction has been done in a single crystallization step at low temperature (−18°C) from low boiling point petroleum ether. Gas chromatography has been used to follow up the transesterification process. All products have been characterized by spectral analysis.

Keywords: Jojoba oil, transesterification, microwave, gas chromatography jojoba esters, Jojoba alcohol.

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Authors: C. J. W. Habets, D. J. Peters, J. G. de Gijt, A. V. Metrikine, S. N. Jonkman

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Conventional seismic designs of quay walls in ports are mostly based on pseudo-static analysis. A more advanced alternative is the Performance-Based Design (PBD) method, which evaluates permanent deformations and amounts of (repairable) damage under seismic loading. The aim of this study is to investigate the suitability of this method for anchored sheet pile quay walls that were not purposely designed for seismic loads. A research methodology is developed in which pseudo-static, permanent-displacement and finite element analysis are employed, calibrated with an experimental reference case that considers a typical anchored sheet pile wall. A reduction factor that accounts for deformation behaviour is determined for pseudo-static analysis. A model to apply traditional permanent displacement analysis on anchored sheet pile walls is proposed. Dynamic analysis is successfully carried out. From the research it is concluded that PBD evaluation can effectively be used for seismic analysis and design of this type of structure.

Keywords: Anchored sheet pile quay wall, simplified dynamic analysis, performance-based design, pseudo-static analysis.

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Authors: Tosin Osasona

Abstract:

The Nigeria Police Force bears the constitutional mandate as the primary policing agency for the protection of life and property within Nigeria; however, the police have an historical ill-reputation for corruption, ineptitude and impunity. Using the institutional theory of police as the framework of analysis, the paper argues that the performance of the police in Nigeria mirrors the dominant political, social and economic institutions and the structural environment of the Nigerian state. The article puts in perspective the deliberate political decision to underfund the police, leaving officers of the force the extra task of foraging for funds to undertake the duty that the Nigeria state primarily exists for; the article further explores the nexus between corruption in the police in Nigeria and the issue of funding. The article finds that the Nigerian state, by deliberately under-funding the police, while expecting the agency to perform its duties, has indirectly sanctioned the corruption of the force and approved the cooption of the institution of police and policing for private use in Nigeria.

Keywords: Funding, policing, Nigeria Police Force, corruption.

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Authors: Anamika Gupta, Naveen Kumar, Vasudha Bhatnagar

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This paper focuses on analyzing medical diagnostic data using classification rules in data mining and context reduction in formal concept analysis. It helps in finding redundancies among the various medical examination tests used in diagnosis of a disease. Classification rules have been derived from positive and negative association rules using the Concept lattice structure of the Formal Concept Analysis. Context reduction technique given in Formal Concept Analysis along with classification rules has been used to find redundancies among the various medical examination tests. Also it finds out whether expensive medical tests can be replaced by some cheaper tests.

Keywords: Data Mining, Formal Concept Analysis, Medical Data, Negative Classification Rules.

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Authors: I. Derek Kaka’an, P. Smolianov, D. Koh Choon Lian, S. Dion, C. Schoen, J. Norberg

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This study was designed to examine mass participation and elite football performance in Nigeria with reference to advance international football management practices. Over 200 sources of literature on sport delivery systems were analyzed to construct a globally applicable model of elite football integrated with mass participation, comprising of the following three levels: macro- (socio-economic, cultural, legislative, and organizational), meso- (infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling sport programs) and micro-level (operations, processes, and methodologies for development of individual athletes). The model has received scholarly validation and showed to be a framework for program analysis that is not culturally bound. The Smolianov and Zakus model has been employed for further understanding of sport systems such as US soccer, US Rugby, swimming, tennis, and volleyball as well as Russian and Dutch swimming. A questionnaire was developed using the above-mentioned model. Survey questions were validated by 12 experts including academicians, executives from sport governing bodies, football coaches, and administrators. To identify best practices and determine areas for improvement of football in Nigeria, 120 coaches completed the questionnaire. Useful exemplars and possible improvements were further identified through semi-structured discussions with 10 Nigerian football administrators and experts. Finally, content analysis of Nigeria Football Federation’s website and organizational documentation was conducted. This paper focuses on the meso-level of Nigerian football delivery, particularly infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling sport programs. This includes training centers, competition systems, and intellectual services. Results identified remarkable achievements coupled with great potential to further develop football in different types of public and private organizations in Nigeria. These include: assimilating football competitions with other cultural and educational activities, providing favorable conditions for employees of all possible organizations to partake and help in managing football programs and events, providing football coaching integrated with counseling for prevention of antisocial conduct, and improving cooperation between football programs and organizations for peace-making and advancement of international relations, tourism, and socio-economic development. Accurate reporting of the sports programs from the media should be encouraged through staff training for better awareness of various events. The systematic integration of these meso-level practices into the balanced development of mass and high-performance football will contribute to international sport success as well as national health, education, and social harmony.

Keywords: Football, high performance, mass participation, Nigeria, sport development.

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Authors: Safak Baykal

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is analyzing the relationship between trust and social capital of people with using Social Network Analysis. In this study, two aspects of social capital will be focused: Bonding, homophilous social capital (BoSC), and Bridging, heterophilous social capital (BrSC). These two aspects diverge each other regarding to the social theories. The other concept of the study is Trust (Tr), namely interpersonal trust, willing to ascribe good intentions to and have confidence in the words and actions of other people. In this study, the sample group, 61 people, was selected from a private firm from the defense industry. The relation between BoSC/BrSC and Tr is shown by using Social Network Analysis (SNA) and statistical analysis with Likert type-questionnaire. The results of the analysis show the Cronbach’s alpha value is 0.756 and social capital values (BoSC/BrSC) is not correlated with Tr values of the people.

Keywords: Social capital, interpersonal trust, social network analysis (SNA).

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Authors: Allaw Kamel, Bazzi Hasan

Abstract:

Municipal solid waste (MSW) generation is among the most significant sources which threaten the global environmental health. Solid Waste Management has been an important environmental problem in developing countries because of the difficulties in finding sustainable solutions for solid wastes. Therefore, more efforts are needed to be implemented to overcome this problem. Lebanon has suffered a severe solid waste management problem in 2015, and a new landfill site was proposed to solve the existing problem. The study aims to identify and locate the most suitable area to construct a landfill taking into consideration the sustainable development to overcome the present situation and protect the future demands. Throughout the article, a landfill site selection methodology was discussed using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Several environmental, economic and social factors were taken as criterion for selection of a landfill. Soil, geology, and LUC (Land Use and Land Cover) indices with the Sustainable Development Index were main inputs to create the final map of Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) for landfill site. Different factors were determined to define each index. Input data of each factor was managed, visualized and analyzed using GIS. GIS was used as an important tool to identify suitable areas for landfill. Spatial Analysis (SA), Analysis and Management GIS tools were implemented to produce input maps capable of identifying suitable areas related to each index. Weight has been assigned to each factor in the same index, and the main weights were assigned to each index used. The combination of the different indices map generates the final output map of ESA. The output map was reclassified into three suitability classes of low, moderate, and high suitability. Results showed different locations suitable for the construction of a landfill. Results also reflected the importance of GIS and MCDA in helping decision makers finding a solution of solid wastes by a sanitary landfill.

Keywords: Sustainable development, landfill, municipal solid waste, geographic information system, GIS, multi criteria decision analysis, environmentally sensitive area.

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Authors: Pedro M. Abreu, Bruno R. Mendes

Abstract:

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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