Search results for: Local materials
2950 Monitoring the Fiscal Health of Taiwan’s Local Government: Application of the 10-Point Scale of Fiscal Distress
Authors: Yuan-Hong Ho, Chiung-Ju Huang
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This article presents a monitoring indicators system that predicts whether a local government in Taiwan is heading for fiscal distress and identifies a suitable fiscal policy that would allow the local government to achieve fiscal balance in the long run. This system is relevant to stockholders’ interest, simple for national audit bodies to use, and provides an early warning of fiscal distress that allows preventative action to be taken.
Keywords: Fiscal distress, fiscal health, monitoring signals, 10-point scale.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18012949 A Novel Model for Simultaneously Minimising Costs and Risks in Just-in-Time Systems Using Multi-Backup Suppliers: Part 2- Results
Authors: Faraj El Dabee, Romeo Marian, Yousef Amer
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This paper implements the inventory model developed in the first part of this paper in a simplified problem to simultaneously reduce costs and risks in JIT systems. This model is developed to ascertain an optimal ordering strategy for procuring raw materials by using regular multi-external and local backup suppliers to reduce the total cost of the products, and at the same time to reduce the risks arising from this cost reduction within production systems. A comparison between the cost of using the JIT system and using the proposed inventory model shows the superiority of the use of the inventory model.
Keywords: Lean manufacturing, Just-in-Time (JIT), production system, cost-risk reduction, inventory model, eternal supplier, local backup supplier.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15362948 Effect of Coal on Engineering Properties in Building Materials: Opportunity to Manufacturing Insulating Bricks
Authors: Bachir Chemani, Halima Chemani
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The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of adding coal to obtain insulating ceramic product. The preparation of mixtures is achieved with 04 types of different masse compositions, consisting of gray and yellow clay, and coal. Analyses are performed on local raw materials by adding coal as additive. The coal content varies from 5 to 20 % in weight by varying the size of coal particles ranging from 0.25mm to 1.60mm.
Initially, each natural moisture content of a raw material has been determined at the temperature of 105°C in a laboratory oven. The Influence of low-coal content on absorption, the apparent density, the contraction and the resistance during compression have been evaluated. The experimental results showed that the optimized composition could be obtained by adding 10% by weight of coal leading thus to insulating ceramic products with water absorption, a density and resistance to compression of 9.40 %, 1.88 g/cm3, 35.46 MPa, respectively. The results show that coal, when mixed with traditional raw materials, offers the conditions to be used as an additive in the production of lightweight ceramic products.
Keywords: Clay, coal, resistance to compression, insulating bricks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21742947 Testing of Materials for Rapid Prototyping Fused Deposition Modelling Technology
Authors: L. Novakova-Marcincinova, J. Novak-Marcincin
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Paper presents knowledge about types of test in area of materials properties of selected methods of rapid prototyping technologies. In today used rapid prototyping technologies for production of models and final parts are used materials in initial state as solid, liquid or powder material structure. In solid state are used various forms such as pellets, wire or laminates. Basic range materials include paper, nylon, wax, resins, metals and ceramics. In Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) rapid prototyping technology are mainly used as basic materials ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), polyamide, polycarbonate, polyethylene and polypropylene. For advanced FDM applications are used special materials as silicon nitrate, PZT (Piezoceramic Material - Lead Zirconate Titanate), aluminium oxide, hydroxypatite and stainless steel.Keywords: Rapid prototyping, materials, testing of materials.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 44122946 Local Steerable Pyramid Binary Pattern Sequence LSPBPS for Face Recognition Method
Authors: Mohamed El Aroussi, Mohammed El Hassouni, Sanaa Ghouzali, Mohammed Rziza, Driss Aboutajdine
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In this paper the problem of face recognition under variable illumination conditions is considered. Most of the works in the literature exhibit good performance under strictly controlled acquisition conditions, but the performance drastically drop when changes in pose and illumination occur, so that recently number of approaches have been proposed to deal with such variability. The aim of this work is to introduce an efficient local appearance feature extraction method based steerable pyramid (SP) for face recognition. Local information is extracted from SP sub-bands using LBP(Local binary Pattern). The underlying statistics allow us to reduce the required amount of data to be stored. The experiments carried out on different face databases confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Keywords: Face recognition (FR), Steerable pyramid (SP), localBinary Pattern (LBP).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21702945 Material Analysis for Temple Painting Conservation in Taiwan
Authors: Chen-Fu Wang, Lin-Ya Kung
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For traditional painting materials, the artisan used to combine the pigments with different binders to create colors. As time goes by, the materials used for painting evolved from natural to chemical materials. The vast variety of ingredients used in chemical materials has complicated restoration work; it makes conservation work more difficult. Conservation work also becomes harder when the materials cannot be easily identified; therefore, it is essential that we take a more scientific approach to assist in conservation work. Paintings materials are high molecular weight polymer, and their analysis is very complicated as well other contamination such as smoke and dirt can also interfere with the analysis of the material. The current methods of composition analysis of painting materials include Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), mass spectrometer, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), each of which has its own limitation. In this study, FT-IR was used to analyze the components of the paint coating. We have taken the most commonly seen materials as samples and deteriorated it. The aged information was then used for the database to exam the temple painting materials. By observing the FT-IR changes over time, we can tell all of the painting materials will be deteriorated by the UV light, but only the speed of its degradation had some difference. From the deterioration experiment, the acrylic resin resists better than the others. After collecting the painting materials aging information on FT-IR, we performed some test on the paintings on the temples. It was found that most of the artisan used tune-oil for painting materials, and some other paintings used chemical materials. This method is now working successfully on identifying the painting materials. However, the method is destructive and high cost. In the future, we will work on the how to know the painting materials more efficiently.
Keywords: Temple painting, painting material, conservation, FT-IR.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12642944 Global and Local Structure of Supported Pd Catalysts
Authors: V. Rednic, N. Aldea, P. Marginean, D. Macovei, C. M. Teodorescu, E. Dorolti, F. Matei
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The supported Pd catalysts were analyzed by X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy in order to determine their global and local structure. The average particle size of the supported Pd catalysts was determined by X-ray diffraction method. One of the main purposes of the present contribution is to focus on understanding the specific role of the Pd particle size determined by X-ray diffraction and that of the support oxide. Based on X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy analysis we consider that the whole local structure of the investigated samples are distorted concerning the atomic number but the distances between atoms are almost the same as for standard Pd sample. Due to the strong modifications of the Pd cluster local structure, the metal-support interface may influence the electronic properties of metal clusters and thus their reactivity for absorption of the reactant molecules.Keywords: metal-support interaction, supported metal catalysts, synchrotron radiation, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-raydiffraction
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15262943 Management of Local Towns (Tambon) According to Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy
Authors: Wichian Sriprachan, Chutikarn Sriviboon
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The objectives of this research were to study the management of local towns and to develop a better model of town management according to the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy. This study utilized qualitative research, field research, as well as documentary research at the same time. A total of 10 local towns or Tambons of Supanburi province, Thailand were selected for an in-depth interview. The findings revealed that the model of local town management according to Philosophy of Sufficient Economy was in a level of “good” and the model of management has the five basic guidelines: 1) ability to manage budget information and keep it up-to-date, 2) ability to decision making according to democracy rules, 3) ability to use check and balance system, 4) ability to control, follow, and evaluation, and 5) ability to allow the general public to participate. In addition, the findings also revealed that the human resource management according to Philosophy of Sufficient Economy includes obeying laws, using proper knowledge, and having integrity in five areas: plan, recruit, select, train, and maintain human resources.
Keywords: Management, Local Town (Tambon), Principles of Sufficiency Economy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15132942 Polymer Industrial Floors - The Possibility of Using Secondary Raw Materials from Solar Panels
Authors: J. Kosikova, B. Vacenovska, M. Vyhnankova
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The paper reports on the subject of recycling and further use of secondary raw materials obtained from solar panels, which is becoming a very up to date topic in recent years. Recycling these panels is very difficult and complex, and the use of resulting secondary raw materials is still not fully resolved. Within the research carried out at the Brno University of Technology, new polymer materials used for industrial floors are being developed. Secondary raw materials are incorporated into these polymers as fillers. One of the tested filler materials was glass obtained from solar panels. The following text describes procedures and results of the tests that were performed on these materials, confirming the possibility of the use of solar panel glass in industrial polymer flooring systems.
Keywords: Fillers, industrial floors, recycling, secondary raw material, solar panel.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17632941 Local Stability Analysis of Age Structural Model for Herpes Zoster in Thailand
Authors: P. Pongsumpun
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Herpes zoster is a disease that manifests as a dermatological condition. The characteristic of this disease is an irritating skin rash with blisters. This is often limited to one side of body. From the data of Herpes zoster cases in Thailand, we found that age structure effects to the transmission of this disease. In this study, we construct the age structural model of Herpes zoster in Thailand. The local stability analysis of this model is given. The numerical solutions are shown to confirm the analytical results.
Keywords: Age structural model, Herpes zoster, local stability, Numerical solution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15332940 Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Gas-Liquid Phase Stirred Tank
Authors: Thiyam Tamphasana Devi, Bimlesh Kumar
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A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique has been applied to simulate the gas-liquid phase in double stirred tank of Rushton impeller. Eulerian-Eulerian model was adopted to simulate the multiphase with standard correlation of Schiller and Naumann for drag co-efficient. The turbulence was modeled by using standard k-ε turbulence model. The present CFD model predicts flow pattern, local gas hold-up, and local specific area. It also predicts local kLa (mass transfer rate) for single impeller. The predicted results were compared with experimental and CFD results of published literature. The predicted results are slightly over predicted with the experimental results; however, it is in reasonable agreement with other simulated results of published literature.Keywords: Eulerian-Eulerian, gas-hold up, gas-liquid phase, local mass transfer rate, local specific area, Rushton Impeller.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11782939 Elastic Failure of Web-Cracked Plate Girder
Authors: Sebastian B. Mendes
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The presence of a vertical fatigue crack in the web of a plate girder subjected to pure bending influences the bending moment capacity of the girder. The growth of the crack may lead to premature elastic failure due to flange local yielding, flange local buckling, or web local buckling. Approximate expressions for the bending moment capacities corresponding to these failure modes were formulated. Finite element analyses were then used to validate the expressions. The expressions were employed to assess the effects of crack length on the capacity. Neglecting brittle fracture, tension buckling, and ductile failure modes, it was found that typical girders are governed by the capacity associated with flange local yielding as influenced by the crack. Concluding, a possible use of the capacity expressions in girder design was demonstrated.Keywords: Fatigue crack, flange yielding, flange buckling, web buckling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22362938 Study of Hydrothermal Behavior of Thermal Insulating Materials Based On Natural Fibers
Authors: J. Zach, J. Hroudova, J. Brozovsky
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Thermal insulation materials based on natural fibers represent a very promising area of materials based on natural easy renewable row sources. These materials may be in terms of the properties of most competing synthetic insulations, but show somewhat higher moisture sensitivity and thermal insulation properties are strongly influenced by the density and orientation of fibers. The paper described the problem of hygrothermal behavior of thermal insulation materials based on natural plant and animal fibers. This is especially the dependence of the thermal properties of these materials on the type of fiber, bulk density, temperature, moisture and the fiber orientation.
Keywords: Thermal insulating materials, hemp fibers, sheep wool fibers, thermal conductivity, moisture.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25402937 SIFT Accordion: A Space-Time Descriptor Applied to Human Action Recognition
Authors: Olfa.Ben Ahmed, Mahmoud. Mejdoub, Chokri. Ben Amar
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Recognizing human action from videos is an active field of research in computer vision and pattern recognition. Human activity recognition has many potential applications such as video surveillance, human machine interaction, sport videos retrieval and robot navigation. Actually, local descriptors and bag of visuals words models achieve state-of-the-art performance for human action recognition. The main challenge in features description is how to represent efficiently the local motion information. Most of the previous works focus on the extension of 2D local descriptors on 3D ones to describe local information around every interest point. In this paper, we propose a new spatio-temporal descriptor based on a spacetime description of moving points. Our description is focused on an Accordion representation of video which is well-suited to recognize human action from 2D local descriptors without the need to 3D extensions. We use the bag of words approach to represent videos. We quantify 2D local descriptor describing both temporal and spatial features with a good compromise between computational complexity and action recognition rates. We have reached impressive results on publicly available action data setKeywords: Accordion, Bag of Features, Human action, Motion, Moving point, Space-Time Descriptor, SIFT, Video.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20972936 Design of Local Interconnect Network Controller for Automotive Applications
Authors: Jong-Bae Lee, Seongsoo Lee
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Local interconnect network (LIN) is a communication protocol that combines sensors, actuators, and processors to a functional module in automotive applications. In this paper, a LIN ver. 2.2A controller was designed in Verilog hardware description language (Verilog HDL) and implemented in field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Its operation was verified by making full-scale LIN network with the presented FPGA-implemented LIN controller, commercial LIN transceivers, and commercial processors. When described in Verilog HDL and synthesized in 0.18 μm technology, its gate size was about 2,300 gates.
Keywords: Local interconnect network, controller, transceiver, processor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15692935 Sustainable Design Development for Thai Village-Based Manufacturing Products
Authors: Palang Wongtanasuporn
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Rural villagers in Thailand have unique skill for producing craft using local materials. However, the appearance and function of their products are not suited to the demand of international market. The Thai government policy on sustainable economy emphasises the necessity to incorporate a design strategy that will draw out the unique qualities and add value to the products, while raising the satisfaction of international consumer. As an industrial designer, the author sees opportunities that design can enhance sustainability of Thai local products through the potentials that available in village-based enterprises. This research attempts to address, how best use design to practically solve the problems in the development of Thais product in. The privilege solution is expressed through the design of design strategy that supports sustain economic development of microenterprise in Thailand in the way that aligns with product design development. This consideration integrates together with global business outlook in the development of products from rural communities.
Keywords: Community Development, Sufficiency Economy Philosophy, Product Design, Strategy Management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25272934 Penetration Analysis for Composites Applicable to Military Vehicle Armors, Aircraft Engines and Nuclear Power Plant Structures
Authors: Dong Wook Lee
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This paper describes a method for analyzing penetration for composite material using an explicit nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (FEA). This method may be used in the early stage of design for the protection of military vehicles, aircraft engines and nuclear power plant structures made of composite materials. This paper deals with simple ballistic penetration tests for composite materials and the FEA modeling method and results. The FEA was performed to interpret the ballistic field test phenomenon regarding the damage propagation in the structure subjected to local foreign object impact.
Keywords: Computer Aided Engineering, CAE, Finite Element Analysis, FEA, impact analysis, penetration analysis, composite material.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5972933 A New Biometric Human Identification Based On Fusion Fingerprints and Finger Veins Using monoLBP Descriptor
Authors: Alima Damak Masmoudi, Randa Boukhris Trabelsi, Dorra Sellami Masmoudi
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Single biometric modality recognition is not able to meet the high performance supplies in most cases with its application become more and more broadly. Multimodal biometrics identification represents an emerging trend recently. This paper investigates a novel algorithm based on fusion of both fingerprint and fingervein biometrics. For both biometric recognition, we employ the Monogenic Local Binary Pattern (MonoLBP). This operator integrate the orginal LBP (Local Binary Pattern ) with both other rotation invariant measures: local phase and local surface type. Experimental results confirm that a weighted sum based proposed fusion achieves excellent identification performances opposite unimodal biometric systems. The AUC of proposed approach based on combining the two modalities has very close to unity (0.93).
Keywords: fingerprint, fingervein, LBP, MonoLBP, fusion, biometric trait.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23792932 Energy Saving Stove for Stew Coconut Sugar
Authors: Ruedee Niyomrath
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The purposes of this research is aim to build the energy saving stove for stew coconut sugar. The research started from explores ceramic raw materials in local area, create the appropriate mixture of ceramic raw materials for construction material of stove, and make it by ceramic process. It includes design and build the energy saving stove, experiment the efficiency of energy saving stove as to thermal efficiency, energy saving, performance of time, and energy cost efficiency, transfer the knowledge for community, stove manufacturers, and technicians. The findings must be useful to the coconut sugar enterprises producing, to reduce the cost of production, preserve natural resources, and environments.
Keywords: Ceramic raw material, Energy saving stove, Stove design, Performance of stove, Stove for stew coconut sugar.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16272931 A Novel Model for Simultaneously Minimising Costs and Risks in Just-in-Time Systems Using Multi-Backup Suppliers: Part 1- Modelling
Authors: Faraj El Dabee, Romeo Marian, Yousef Amer
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Just-In-Time (JIT) is a lean manufacturing tool, which provides the benefits of efficiency, and of minimizing unnecessary costs for many organisations. However, the risks arising from these benefits have been disregarded. These risks impact on system processes disrupting the whole supply chain. This paper proposes an inventory model that can simultaneously reduce costs and risks in JIT systems. This model is developed to ascertain an optimal ordering strategy for procuring raw materials by using regular multi-external and local backup suppliers to reduce the total cost of the products, and at the same time to reduce the risks arising from this cost reduction within production systems. Some results that will be illustrated in the second part of this paper are presented.
Keywords: Lean manufacturing, Just-in-Time (JIT), production system, cost-risk reduction, inventory model, eternal supplier, local backup supplier.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16422930 Lightweight Materials for Building Finishing
Authors: Sarka Keprdova, Nikol Zizkova
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This paper focuses on the presentation of results which were obtained as a part of the project FR-TI 3/742: “System of Lightweight Materials for Finishing of Buildings with Waste Raw Materials”. Attention was paid to the light weighting of polymermodified mortars applicable as adhesives, screeds and repair mortars. In terms of repair mortars, they were ones intended for the sanitation of aerated concrete.
Keywords: Additives, light aggregates, lightweight materials, lightweight mortars, polymer-modified mortars.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29172929 A Proposal of a Method to Measure the Satisfaction Indicator of the Local Community Concerning Tourism: A Case Study of Jalapão State Park, Tocantins
Authors: Veruska C. Dutra, Mary L. G. S. Senna, Afonso R. Aquino
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Tourists bring many benefits to a local community, encouraging it to be involved in that activity; however, it may also have detrimental effects like garbage, noise, violence, external culture and the damaging of the natural environment among others, which may promote community dissatisfaction. The contact between the tourist and the local community is a concern, especially when the community is located near protected areas. In this case, the community must know the tourist destination well, so it can collaborate in the tourism development without harming the environment. In this context, the present article aims to demonstrate the results of a research study conducted as part of a doctorate program in Sciences from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. It had as an objective to elaborate a methodology proposal to measure the local community satisfaction indicator, with applicability on a case study in the Mateiros community located in the surrounding area of the Parque Estadual do Jalapão –PEJ conservation unit in the state of Tocantins, Brazil. This is a study of an interdisciplinary nature that had the deductive method as its guide. The indicator result is going to be presented in this study. It pointed out as negative factors: there is no involvement between the local community and the tourism sector, and there is also dissatisfaction with regard to the town’s basic services. The study showed as positive the local community knowledge about the various attractions in the surrounding area and that the group recognizes the importance of the tourism for the town and life. Concerning the methodology that was used, the results showed that it can collaborate in seeking actions of improvement and involvement of the community in the planning and development of the local tourism. It comes out as an efficient analysis tool, thus enabling the perceiving of the local community point of view.
Keywords: Satisfaction indicator, tourism, community, Jalapão.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17722928 Dynamical Network Transmission of H1N1 Virus at the Local Level Transmission Model
Authors: P. Pongsumpun
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A new strain of Type A influenza virus can cause the transmission of H1N1 virus. This virus can spread between the people by coughing and sneezing. Because the people are always movement, so this virus can be easily spread. In this study, we construct the dynamical network model of H1N1 virus by separating the human into five groups; susceptible, exposed, infectious, quarantine and recovered groups. The movement of people between houses (local level) is considered. The behaviors of solutions to our dynamical model are shown for the different parameters.Keywords: Dynamical network, H1N1virus, local level, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15382927 Characteristics of Regional Issues in Local Municipalities of Japan in Consideration of Socio-Economic Condition
Authors: Akiko Kondo, Akio Kondo
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We are facing serious problems related to long-term depopulation and an aging society with a falling birth rate in Japan. In this situation, we are suffering from a shortfall in human resources as well as a shortage of workforce in rural regions. In addition, we are struggling with a protracted economic slump and excess concentration of population in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. It is an urgent national issue to consider how to live in this country and what kind of structure of society and administration policy is needed. It is necessary to clarify people’s desire for their way of living and social assistance to be provided. The aim of this study is to clarify the characteristics of regional issues and the degree of their seriousness in local municipalities of Japan. We conducted a questionnaire survey about regional agenda in all local municipalities in Japan. We obtained responses concerning the degree of seriousness of regional issues and degree of importance of policies. Based on the data gathered from the survey, it is apparent that many local municipalities are facing an aging population and declining population. We constructed a model to analyze factors for declining population. Using the model, it was clarified that a population’s age structure, job opportunities and income level affect the decline of population. In addition, we showed the way of the evaluation of state of local municipality.
Keywords: Evaluation, Local municipality, Regional analysis, Regional issue.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18542926 Beliefs in Auspicious Materials of Shop Entrepreneurs in Maung Hat Yai, Thailand
Authors: Punya Tepsing
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This research aimed to study the beliefs in auspicious materials of entrepreneurs in Muang Hat Yai. The data were collected via documentary research and field work including interviews, observations shops in Hat Yai which used auspicious materials to bring lucks to the shops. The results were as follows. The beliefs in auspicious materials that the entrepreneurs had were of three areas: 1) The auspicious materials could correct the improperness of the shop location, for example, the shop situated opposite a branch road, a shrine, or a bank. The owner usually corrected it by putting Chinese auspicious materials in front of or in the shop, for example, a lion holding a sword in his mouth, or a mirror, etc. 2) The auspicious materials could bring in more income. The owner of the shop usually put the auspicious materials such as a cat beckoning and a bamboo fish trap believed to trap money in front of or inside the shop. 3) The auspicious materials like turtles, paired fish and a monster holding the moon in his mouth could solve life problems including health, family, and safety problems. The use of these auspicious materials showed the blending of the beliefs of the Chinese shop entrepreneurs with the Thai folk beliefs. What is interesting is that Hat Yai is located near the three southern border provinces which are the unrest area and this may cause the number of tourists to decline. This prompted them to build a mechanism in adjusting themselves both to save their lives and to increase the number of customers. Auspicious materials can make them feel more confident.
Keywords: Belief, auspicious materials, shop, entrepreneur, Maung Hat Yai.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18992925 Capacity Building of Extension Agents for Sustainable Dissemination of Agricultural Information and Technologies in Developing Countries
Authors: Michael T. Ajayi, Oluwakemi E. Fapojuwo
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Farmers are in need of regular and relevant information relating to new technologies. Production of extension materials has been found to be useful in facilitating the process. Extension materials help to provide information to reach large numbers of farmers quickly and economically. However, as good as extension materials are, previous materials produced are not used by farmers. The reasons for this include lack of involvement of farmers in the production of the extension materials, most of the extension materials are not relevant to the farmers’ environments, the agricultural extension agents lack capacity to prepare the materials, and many extension agents lack commitment. These problems led to this innovative capacity building of extension agents. This innovative approach involves five stages. The first stage is the diagnostic survey of farmers’ environment to collect useful information. The second stage is the development and production of draft extension materials. The third stage is the field testing and evaluation of draft materials by the same famers that were involved at the diagnostic stage. The fourth stage is the revision of the draft extension materials by incorporating suggestions from farmers. The fifth stage is the action plans. This process improves the capacity of agricultural extension agents in the preparation of extension materials and also promotes engagement of farmers and beneficiaries in the process. The process also makes farmers assume some level of ownership of the exercise and the extension materials.
Keywords: Capacity building, dissemination, extension agents, information/technologies.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24402924 Local Mechanical Analysis of Arch Foot of Space Y-Beam Arch Bridge
Authors: Cao Ziyuan, Luo Xuan
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To study the local force characteristics of a spatial Y-arch bridge, a medium-bearing spatial Y-arch bridge is used as the object of study, and the finite element software FEA is used to establish a spatial finite element model and analyze the force conditions of the arch legs under different most unfavorable loading conditions. It is found that the forces on the arch foot under different conditions are mainly in the longitudinal direction and transverse direction, which should be considered for strengthening. The research results can provide reference for the design and construction of the same type of bridge.
Keywords: Bridge engineering, special-shaped arch bridge, mechanical properties, local analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4202923 Effect of Water- Cement Ratio (w/c) on Mechanical Properties of Self-Compacting Concrete (Case Study)
Authors: Hamed Ahmadi Moghadam, Omolbanin Arasteh Khoshbin
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Nowadays, the performance required for concrete structures is more complicated and diversified. Self-compacting concrete is a fluid mixture suitable for placing in structures with congested reinforcement without vibration. Self-compacting concrete development must ensure a good balance between deformability and stability. Also, compatibility is affected by the characteristics of materials and the mix proportions; it becomes necessary to evolve a procedure for mix design of SCC. This paper presents an experimental procedure for the design of self-compacting concrete mixes with different water-cement ratios (w/c) and other constant ratios by local materials. The test results for acceptance characteristics of self-compacting concrete such as slump flow, V-funnel and L-Box are presented. Further, compressive strength, tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of specimens were also determined and results are included hereKeywords: Self-Compacting Concrete, Mix Design, Compressive Strength, Tensile Strength, Modulus of Elasticity
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 55742922 Local Perspectives on Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainability of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project: A Case Study in Thailand
Authors: S. Kittipongvises, T. Mino, C. Polprasert
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Global climate change has become the preeminent threat to human security in the 21st century. From mitigation perspective, this study aims to evaluate the performance of biogas renewable project under clean development mechanism activities (namely Korat-Waste-to-Energy) in Thailand and to assess local perceptions towards the significance of climate change mitigation and sustainability of such project in their community. Questionnaire was developed based on the national sustainable development criteria and was distributed among systematically selected households within project boundaries (n=260). Majority of the respondents strongly agreed with the reduction of odor problems (81%) and air pollution (76%). However, they were unsure about greenhouse gas reduction from such project and ignorant about the key issues of climate change. A lesson learned suggested that there is a need to further investigate the possible socio-psychological barriers may significantly shape public perception and understandings of climate change in the local context.Keywords: Climate Change Mitigation, Local Perspective, Sustainability, Thailand
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16192921 Two New Collineations of some Moufang-Klingenberg Planes
Authors: Atilla Akpinar, Basri Çelik
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In this paper we are interested in Moufang-Klingenberg planesM(A) defined over a local alternative ring A of dual numbers. We introduce two new collineations of M(A).Keywords: Moufang-Klingenberg planes, local alternative ring, projective collineation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1134