Search results for: Human capital development.

Authors: Hassan Attahiru Gwandu

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This study aims at surveying and analyzing the contribution of Sokoto scholars or Sokoto Caliphate in the development of science and technology in West Africa. Today, it is generally accepted that the 19^th century Islamic revivalism in Hausaland was a very important revolution in the history of Hausa society and beyond. It is therefore, as a result of this movement or Jihad; the Hausaland (West Africa in general) witnessed several changes and transformations. These changes were in different sectors of life from politics, economy to social and religious aspect. It is these changes especially on religion that will be given considerations in this paper. The jihad resulted is the establishment of an Islamic state of Sokoto Caliphate, the revival Islam and development of learning and scholarship. During the existence of this Caliphate, a great deal of scholarship on Islamic laws were revived, written and documented by mostly, the three Jihad leaders; Usmanu Danfodiyo, his brother Abdullahi Fodiyo and his son Muhammad Bello. The trio had written more than one thousand books and made several verdicts on Islamic medicine. This study therefore, seeks to find out the contributions of these scholars or the Sokoto caliphate in the development of science in West Africa.

Keywords: Sokoto Caliphate, scholarship, science and technology, West Africa.

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Authors: N. Slepickova Kasalkova, P. Slepicka, L. Bacakova, V. Svorcik

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Tissue engineering includes combination of materials and techniques used for the improvement, repair or replacement of the tissue. Scaffolds, permanent or temporally material, are used as support for the creation of the "new cell structures". For this important component (scaffold), a variety of materials can be used. The advantage of some polymeric materials is their cytocompatibility and possibility of biodegradation. Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) is a biodegradable,  semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer. PLLA can be fully degraded into H₂O and CO₂. In this experiment, the effect of the surface modification of biodegradable polymer (performed by plasma treatment) on the various cell types was studied. The surface parameters and changes of the physicochemical properties of modified PLLA substrates were studied by different methods. Surface wettability was determined by goniometry, surface morphology and roughness study were performed with atomic force microscopy and chemical composition was determined using photoelectron spectroscopy. The physicochemical properties were studied in relation to cytocompatibility of human osteoblast (MG 63 cells), rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), and human stem cells (ASC) of the adipose tissue in vitro. A fluorescence microscopy was chosen to study and compare cell-material interaction. Important parameters of the cytocompatibility like adhesion, proliferation, viability, shape, spreading of the cells were evaluated. It was found that the modification leads to the change of the surface wettability depending on the time of modification. Short time of exposition (10-120 s) can reduce the wettability of the aged samples, exposition longer than 150 s causes to increase of contact angle of the aged PLLA. The surface morphology is significantly influenced by duration of modification, too. The plasma treatment involves the formation of the crystallites, whose number increases with increasing time of modification. On the basis of physicochemical properties evaluation, the cells were cultivated on the selected samples. Cell-material interactions are strongly affected by material chemical structure and surface morphology. It was proved that the plasma treatment of PLLA has a positive effect on the adhesion, spreading, homogeneity of distribution and viability of all cultivated cells. This effect was even more apparent for the VSMCs and ASCs which homogeneously covered almost the whole surface of the substrate after 7 days of cultivation. The viability of these cells was high (more than 98% for VSMCs, 89-96% for ASCs). This experiment is one part of the basic research, which aims to easily create scaffolds for tissue engineering with subsequent use of stem cells and their subsequent "reorientation" towards the bone cells or smooth muscle cells.

Keywords: Poly(L-lactic acid), plasma treatment, surface characterization, cytocompatibility, human osteoblasts, rat vascular smooth muscle cells, human stem cells.

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Authors: Victor Maldonado

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Recent concerns of the growing impact of aviation on climate change has prompted the emergence of a field referred to as Sustainable or “Green” Aviation dedicated to mitigating the harmful impact of aviation related CO2 emissions and noise pollution on the environment. In the current paper, a unique “green” business jet aircraft called the TransAtlantic was designed (using analytical formulation common in conceptual design) in order to show the feasibility for transatlantic passenger air travel with an aircraft weighing less than 10,000 pounds takeoff weight. Such an advance in fuel efficiency will require development and integration of advanced and emerging aerospace technologies. The TransAtlantic design is intended to serve as a research platform for the development of technologies such as active flow control. Recent advances in the field of active flow control and how this technology can be integrated on a sub-scale flight demonstrator are discussed in this paper. Flow control is a technique to modify the behavior of coherent structures in wall-bounded flows (over aerodynamic surfaces such as wings and turbine nozzles) resulting in improved aerodynamic cruise and flight control efficiency. One of the key challenges to application in manned aircraft is development of a robust high-momentum actuator that can penetrate the boundary layer flowing over aerodynamic surfaces. These deficiencies may be overcome in the current development and testing of a novel electromagnetic synthetic jet actuator which replaces piezoelectric materials as the driving diaphragm. One of the overarching goals of the TranAtlantic research platform include fostering national and international collaboration to demonstrate (in numerical and experimental models) reduced CO2/ noise pollution via development and integration of technologies and methodologies in design optimization, fluid dynamics, structures/ composites, propulsion, and controls.

Keywords: Aircraft Design, Sustainable “Green” Aviation, Active Flow Control, Aerodynamics.

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Authors: Rosaline Govender

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This research study is an exploration of the selfdirected professional development of teachers who teach in public schools in an era of democracy and educational change in South Africa. Amidst an ever-changing educational system, the teachers in this study position themselves as self-directed teacher-learners where they adopt particular learning practices which enable change within the broader discourses of public schooling. Life-story interviews were used to enter into the private and public spaces of five teachers which offer glimpses of how particular systems shaped their identities, and how the meanings of self-directed teacher-learner shaped their learning practices. Through the Multidimensional Framework of Analysis and Interpretation the teachers’ stories were analysed through three lenses: restorying the field texts - the self through story; the teacher-learner in relation to social contexts, and practices of self-directed learning. This study shows that as teacherlearners learn for change through self-directed learning practices, they develop their agency as transformative intellectuals, which is necessary for the reworking of South African public schools.

Keywords: Professional development, professionality, professionalism, self-directed learning.

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Authors: Abduladim Maitieg, Kevin Lynch, Mark Johnson

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The goal of the Libyan Environmental General Authority (EGA) and National Oil Corporation (Department of Health, Safety & Environment) during the last 5 years has been to adopt a common approach to coastal and marine spatial planning. Protection and planning of the coastal zone is a significant for Libya, due to the length of coast and, the high rate of oil export, and spills’ potential negative impacts on coastal and marine habitats. Coastal resource scenarios constitute an important tool for exploring the long-term and short-term consequences of oil spill impact and available response options that would provide an integrated perspective on mitigation. To investigate that, this paper reviews the Misratah coastal parameters to present the physical and human controls and attributes of coastal habitats as the first step in understanding how they may be damaged by an oil spill. This paper also investigates costal resources, providing a better understanding of the resources and factors that impact the integrity of the ecosystem. Therefore, the study described the potential spatial distribution of oil spill risk and the coastal resources value, and also created spatial maps of coastal resources and their vulnerability to oil spills along the coast. This study proposes an analysis of coastal resources condition at a local level in the Misratah region of the Mediterranean Sea, considering the implementation of coastal and marine spatial planning over time as an indication of the will to manage urban development. Oil spill contamination analysis and their impact on the coastal resources depend on (1) oil spill sequence, (2) oil spill location, (3) oil spill movement near the coastal area. The resulting maps show natural, socio-economic activity, environmental resources along of the coast, and oil spill location. Moreover, the study provides significant geodatabase information which is required for coastal sensitivity index mapping and coastal management studies. The outcome of study provides the information necessary to set an Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) for the Misratah shoreline, which can be used for management of coastal resources and setting boundaries for each coastal sensitivity sectors, as well as to help planners measure the impact of oil spills on coastal resources. Geographic Information System (GIS) tools were used in order to store and illustrate the spatial convergence of existing socio-economic activities such as fishing, tourism, and the salt industry, and ecosystem components such as sea turtle nesting area, Sabkha habitats, and migratory birds feeding sites. These geodatabases help planners investigate the vulnerability of coastal resources to an oil spill.

Keywords: Coastal and marine spatial planning advancement training, GIS mapping, human uses, ecosystem components, Misratah coast, Libyan, oil spill.

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Authors: Miroslava Šidlovská, Ida Petrovičová, Tomáš Pilka, Branislav Kolena

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Phthalates are ubiquitous environmental pollutants well known because of their endocrine disrupting activity in human organism. The aim of our study was, by biological monitoring, investigate exposure to phthalates of Roma ethnicity group i.e. children and adults from 5 families (n=29, average age 11.8 ± 7.6 years) living in western Slovakia. Additionally, we analysed some associations between anthropometric measures, questionnaire data i.e. socio-economic status, eating and drinking habits, practise of personal care products and household conditions in comparison with concentrations of phthalate metabolites. We used for analysis of urine samples high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) to determine concentrations of phthalate metabolites monoethyl phthalate (MEP), mono-n-butyl phthalate (MnBP), mono-iso-butyl phthalate (MiBP), mono(2-ethyl- 5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (5OH-MEHP), mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (5oxo-MEHP) and mono(2-etylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP). Our results indicate that ethnicity, lower socioeconomic status and different housing conditions in Roma population can affect urinary concentration of phthalate metabolites.

Keywords: Biomonitoring, ethnicity, human exposure, phthalate metabolites.

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Authors: Ahmed R. Ismail, Hatem A. El Tawil, Nevin G. Rezk

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Historic paths in today's cities are facing the pressure of the urban development due to the rapid urban growth. Every new development is tearing the old urban fabric and the socio-economic character of the historic paths. Furthermore, in some cases historic paths suffer from negligence and decay. Kom El Dekka historic path was one of those deteriorated paths in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, in spite of its high heritage and socio-economic value. Therefore, there was a need to develop urban regeneration strategies as a part of a wider sustainable development vision, to handle the situation and revitalize the path as a livable space in the heart of the city. This study aims to develop a comprehensive assessment methodology to evaluate the different values of the path and to create community-oriented and economic-based analysis methodology for its socio-economic values. These analysis and assessments provide strategies for any regeneration action plan for Kom El Dekka historic path.

Keywords: Community-oriented, economic-based, syntactical analysis, urban regeneration.

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Authors: Mary L. G. S. Senna, Afonso R. Aquino

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The development of tourism causes negative impacts on the environment. It is in this context, through the Ecological Footprint (EF) method that this study aimed to characterize the impacts of ecotourism on the community of Mateiros, Jalapão, Brazil. The EF, which consisted in its original a method to construct a land use matrix, considering some major categories of human consumption such as food, housing, transportation, consumer goods and services, and six other categories from the main land use which are divided into the topics: land use, degraded environment, gardens, fertile land, pasture and forests protected by the government. The main objective of this index is to calculate the land area required for the production and maintenance of goods and services consumed by a community. The field research was conducted throughout the year of 2014 until July 2015. After the calculations of each category, these components were added according to the presented method in order to determine the annual EF of the tourism sector in Mateiros. The results show that the EF resulting from tourism in Mateiros is 2,194.22 hectares of land required for tourism activities in the region. The EF of tourism was considered high, nevertheless, if it is added the total of hectares needed annually for tourism activities, the result found would be 2,194.22 hectares needed to absorb the CO₂ emissions generated in the region directly from the tourism sector.

Keywords: Sustainable tourism, tourism ecological footprint, Jalapão/TO/Brazil.

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Authors: Wenwen Liu, Robert Burton, Simon McKeown

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Climate change is seriously threatening human security and development, leading to global warming and economic, political, and social chaos. Many artists have created visual responses that challenge perceptions on climate change, actively guiding people to think about the climate issues and potential crises after urban industrialization and explore positive solutions. This project is an interdisciplinary and intertextual study where art practice is informed by culture, philosophy, psychology, ecology, and science. By correlating theory and artistic practice, it studies how art practice creates a visual way of understanding climate issues and uses art as a way of exploring speculative futures. In the context of practical-based research, arts-based practice as research and creative practice as interdisciplinary research are applied alternately to seek the original solution and new knowledge. Through creative art practice, this project has established visual ways of looking at climate change and has developed it into a model to generate more possibilities, an alternative social imagination. It not only encourages people to think and find a sustainable speculative future conducive to all species but also proves that people have the ability to realize positive futures.

Keywords: Climate change, creative practice as interdisciplinary research, arts-based practice as research, creative art practice, speculative future.

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Authors: Barnabas M. Suleiman, Ifeanyi P. Onyeonoru, Egharevba E. Matthew

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This article interrogates the question of leadership in the context of the antidemocratic tendencies of Africa’s political leaders. The African continent has continued to struggle behind other continents of the world as a result of the failure of leadership to address the political and socio-economic challenges of the continent. Thus, bedevilled with the challenges of development, the African continent is in need of people-centred leadership. However, as the continent struggles to overcome its political and development predicaments, it is stuck in the dystopia of demagoguery that promises nothing but apocalyptic future for its teeming population. Thus, despite the enormous resources available in Africa, leadership failures have made progress difficult to achieve. At the centre of this leadership failure are demagogues: a set of leaders who have influence over a large number of people but take advantage of that influence to undermine democracy and good governance. Citing various examples across Africa, the article describes how demagogues, especially in democratic countries, have become the problem of the African continent in its quest to achieve democratic progress, development and peaceful progress.

Keywords: Africa, demagogue, good governance, democracy, leadership.

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Authors: Sansani Rungrattawatchai

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The White Kwao (Pueraria mirifica), a potent phytoestrogenic medicinal plant, has long been use in Thailand as a traditional folkmedicine. However, no scientific information of the direct effect of White Kwao on the development of mammalian embryo was available. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of White Kwao extract on the in vitro development and implantation rate of mouse embryos. This study was designed into two experiments. In the first experiment, the two-cell stage mouse embryos were collected from the oviduct of superovulated mature female mice, and randomly cultured in three different media, the M16, M16 supplemented with 0.52μg esthinylestradiol-17β, and M16 supplemented with 10 mg/ml White Kwao extract. The culture was incubated in CO2 incubator at 37 oC . After the embryos were cultivated, the developments of embryos were observed every 24 hours for 5 days. The development rate of embryos from the two-cell stage to blastocyst stage in the media was with White Kwao was significantly higher (p<0.05) than those of the control group (68.50% versus 43.50%) but did not differ from the positive control group (68.50% versus 57.66%). In the second experiment, hatched blastocysts, which obtained from three different media, were differently labeled the nuclei with two polynucleotide-specific fluorochromes, the propidium iodide (PI) and the bisbenzimide. The results showed that the number of trophectoderm cells in the blastocysts that cultivated in the media with White Kwao did not significantly differ from the control (80.00 versus 70 cells) and the positive control group (80.00 versus 112.50 cells). The average number of inner cell mass in the White Kwao treated group did not significantly differ from the control group (20.50 versus 16.00 cells) and the positive control group (20.50 versus 20.50 cells). The total cell number including the trophectoderm and the inner cell mass of the individual hatched blastocyst was evaluated. The cell number in the blastocysts obtained from the media with the White Kwao did not significantly differ from the control (94.25 + 9.50 versus 92.33 + 4.05) and the positive control group (94.25 + 9.50 versus 110.33 + 9.16). The results demonstrated that the White Kwao treatment group did have a stimulating effect on the in vitro development of mouse embryos. The exact mechanism that White Kwao stimulated mouse embryo development is not known. The suspect mechanism may in a manner similar to the mechanism that of estrogen stimulated the development of the mouse embryos. Futher studies are needed to transfer the blastocyst into the endometrium of pseudopreagnancy mice to evaluate the effect of White Kwao on implantation

Keywords: White Kwao (Pueraria mirifica), blastocyst.

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Authors: Päivi J. Tossavainen , Leena Alakoski, Katri Ojasalo

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Building a service-centric business model requires new knowledge and capabilities in companies. This paper enlightens the challenges small and medium sized firms (SMEs) face when developing their service-centric business models. This paper examines the premise for knowledge transfer and capability development required. The objective of this paper is to increase knowledge about SME-s transformation to service-centric business models.This paper reports an action research based case study. The paper provides empirical evidence from three case companies. The empirical data was collected through multiple methods. The findings of the paper are: First, the developed model to analyze the current state in companies. Second, the process of building the service – centric business models. Third, the selection of suitable service development methods. The lack of a holistic understanding on service logic suggests that SMEs need practical and easy to use methods to improve their business

Keywords: service-centric business model, service development, action research, case study

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Authors: Mohammad Shafigh, Nasser Fatouraee, Amirsaied Seddighi

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Mechanical properties of cerebral arteries are, due to their relationship with cerebrovascular diseases, of clinical worth. To acquire these properties, eight samples were obtained from middle cerebral arteries of human cadavers, whose death were not due to injuries or diseases of cerebral vessels, and tested within twelve hours after resection, by a precise biaxial tensile test device specially developed for the present study considering the dimensions, sensitivity and anisotropic nature of samples. The resulting stress-stretch curve was plotted and subsequently fitted to a hyperelastic three-parameter Fung model. It was found that the arteries were noticeably stiffer in circumferential than in axial direction. It was also demonstrated that the use of multi-parameter hyperelastic constitutive models is useful for mathematical description of behavior of cerebral vessel tissue. The reported material properties are a proper reference for numerical modeling of cerebral arteries and computational analysis of healthy or diseased intracranial arteries.

Keywords: Anisotropic Tissue, Cerebral Blood Vessels, Fung Model, Nonlinear Material, Plain Stress.

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Authors: S. P. Singh

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This paper measures technical and scale efficiencies of 40 Indian sugar companies for the period from 2004-05 to 2013-14. The efficiencies are estimated through input-oriented DEA models using one output variable—value of output (VOP) and five input variables—capital cost (CA), employee cost (EMP), raw material (RW), energy & fuel (E&F) and other manufacturing expenses (OME). The sugar companies are classified into integrated and non-integrated categories to know which one achieves higher level of efficiency. Sources of inefficiency in the industry are identified through decomposing the overall technical efficiency (TE) into pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE). The paper also estimates input-reduction targets for relatively inefficient companies and suggests measures to improve their efficiency level. The findings reveal that the TE does not evince any trend rather it shows fluctuations across years, largely due to erratic and cyclical pattern of sugar production. Further, technical inefficiency in the industry seems to be driven more by the managerial inefficiency than the scale inefficiency, which implies that TE can be improved through better conversion of inputs into output.

Keywords: Sugar industry, companies, technical efficiency, data envelopment analysis, targets.

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Authors: Kwa-Sur Tam

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This paper reviews various approaches that have been used for the modeling and simulation of large-scale engineering systems and determines their appropriateness in the development of a RICS modeling and simulation tool. Bond graphs, linear graphs, block diagrams, differential and difference equations, modeling languages, cellular automata and agents are reviewed. This tool should be based on linear graph representation and supports symbolic programming, functional programming, the development of noncausal models and the incorporation of decentralized approaches.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary, dynamic, functional programming, object-oriented.

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Authors: Zh. Tolen, A. Kadyralyeva, A. Alimzhanova, G. Aldambergenova, K. Arymbayeva, A. Zhiyenbekova

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This paper describes the historical development of interethnic concord in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and emphasizes the role of tolerance mentality of the Kazakh people in ethno-political policy of the country. Moreover, pointing out interethnic concord as a powerful stabilizing factor, it analyses the specifics of interethnic policy in multinational Kazakh society. It summarizes that the culture of interethnic concord can be a model of ethno- political policy of Kazakhstan.

Keywords: Interethnic relations, the culture of interethnic concord, multiculturalism, tolerance, stability in society.

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Authors: Merita Dauti, Edita Alili-Idrizi, Sihana Ahmeti–Lika, Ledjan Malaj

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The extermination and proper disposal of pharmaceutical wastes from expired and unused medications remains a disputable issue due to their specific nature and characteristics. Even though the hazards from these wastes are already well known in terms of environment and human health, people still treat them as usual wastes. At a national level, in many countries the management of pharmaceutical and medical wastes has been one of the main objectives in order to protect people’s health and the environment. Even though many legal regulations exist in this respect, there has not been a single law that would clearly explain the procedures of returning medicines, ways of selection, treatment and extermination of pharmaceutical wastes. This paper aims at analyzing the practices of pharmaceutical waste management and treatment in some European countries as well as a review of the legislation and official guidelines in managing these kinds of wastes and protecting the environment and human health. A suitable treatment and management of expired medications and other similar wastes would be in the interest of public health in the first place, as well as in the interest of healthcare institutions and other bodies engaged in environment protection.

Keywords: Pharmaceutical waste, legal regulation, proper disposal, environment pollution.

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Authors: Nassereldeen A. Kabashi, Suleyman A. Muyibi. Mohammed E. Saeed., Farhana I. Yahya

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It is important to remove manganese from water because of its effects on human and the environment. Human activities are one of the biggest contributors for excessive manganese concentration in the environment. The proposed method to remove manganese in aqueous solution by using adsorption as in carbon nanotubes (CNT) at different parameters: The parameters are CNT dosage, pH, agitation speed and contact time. Different pHs are pH 6.0, pH 6.5, pH 7.0, pH 7.5 and pH 8.0, CNT dosages are 5mg, 6.25mg, 7.5mg, 8.75mg or 10mg, contact time are 10 min, 32.5 min, 55 min, 87.5 min and 120 min while the agitation speeds are 100rpm, 150rpm, 200rpm, 250rpm and 300rpm. The parameters chosen for experiments are based on experimental design done by using Central Composite Design, Design Expert 6.0 with 4 parameters, 5 levels and 2 replications. Based on the results, condition set at pH 7.0, agitation speed of 300 rpm, 7.5mg and contact time 55 minutes gives the highest removal with 75.5%. From ANOVA analysis in Design Expert 6.0, the residual concentration will be very much affected by pH and CNT dosage. Initial manganese concentration is 1.2mg/L while the lowest residual concentration achieved is 0.294mg/L, which almost satisfy DOE Malaysia Standard B requirement. Therefore, further experiments must be done to remove manganese from model water to the required standard (0.2 mg/L) with the initial concentration set to 0.294 mg/L.

Keywords: Adsorption, CNT, DOE, Manganese, Parameters.

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Authors: Dimitrios J. Dimitriou, Maria F. Sartzetaki

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Transport infrastructures are high-cost, long-term investments that serve as vital foundations for the operation of a region or nation and are essential to a country’s or business’s economic development and prosperity, by improving well-being and generating jobs and income. The development of appropriate financing options is of key importance in the decision making process in order develop viable transport infrastructures. The development of transport infrastructure has increasingly been shifting toward alternative methods of project financing such as Public Private Partnership (PPPs) and hybrid forms. In this paper, a methodological decision-making framework based on the evaluation of the financial viability of transportation infrastructure for different financial schemes is presented. The framework leads to an assessment of the financial viability which can be achieved by performing various financing scenarios analyses. To illustrate the application of the proposed methodology, a case study of rail transport infrastructure financing scenario analysis in Greece is developed.

Keywords: Rail transport infrastructure; financial viability, scenario analysis, rail project feasibility.

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Authors: İlke Bereketli, Müjde Erol Genevois, H. Ziya Ulukan

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Nowadays, manufacturers are facing great challenges with regard to the production of green products due to the emerging issue of hazardous substance management (HSM). In particular, environmental legislation pressures have yielded to increased risk, manufacturing complexity and green components demands. The green principles were expanded to many departments within organization, including supply chain. Green supply chain management (GSCM) was emerging in the last few years. This idea covers every stage in manufacturing from the first to the last stage of life cycle. From product lifecycle concept, the cycle starts at the design of a product. QFD is a customer-driven product development tool, considered as a structured management approach for efficiently translating customer needs into design requirements and parts deployment, as well as manufacturing plans and controls in order to achieve higher customer satisfaction. This paper develops an Eco- QFD to provide a framework for designing Eco-mobile phone by integrating the life cycle analysis LCA into QFD throughout the entire product development process.

Keywords: Eco-design, Eco-QFD, EEE, Environmental New Product Development, Mobile Phone.

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Authors: Haifeng Jiao, Chuankun Rao

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Due to the Rapid Urbanization in China, the influence of metropolises to surrounding areas grows by a tremendous speed in developed region. One of the most obvious influences is the expansion of the urban built-up areas which covers the land belongs to small towns. Around metropolitan fringe, the boundary between city and village becomes more and more obscure. So being the most sensitive area, the small towns on the fringe of metropolises have the special meaning on the research into the small towns- development. This paper chooses Sandun Town in Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province as an example, emphatically focus on aspects such as the central area proliferation, the industrial shift, the position effect, the subway effect and the commercial development, reviews a few problems of small towns in the future and the important problems in their planning by the analysis of the characteristics of the present conditions and the developing motive mechanism, so that guides small towns to develop properly by liking with these small towns and center metropolises.

Keywords: Metropolitan fringe, Small towns, Sandun Town, Motive mechanism.

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Authors: Yusuf Garba Baba

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The construction industry and housing subsector are fraught with risks that have the potential of negatively impacting on the achievement of project objectives. The success or otherwise of most construction projects depends to large extent on how well these risks have been managed. The recent paradigm shift by the subsector to use of formal risk management approach in contrast to hitherto developed rules of thumb means that risks must not only be identified but also properly assessed and responded to in a systematic manner. The study focused on identifying risks associated with housing development projects and prioritisation assessment of the identified risks in order to provide basis for informed decision. The study used a three-step identification framework: review of literature for similar projects, expert consultation and questionnaire based survey to identify potential risk factors. Delphi survey method was employed in carrying out the relative prioritization assessment of the risks factors using computer-based Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) software. The results show that 19 out of the 50 risks significantly impact on housing development projects. The study concludes that although significant numbers of risk factors have been identified as having relevance and impacting to housing construction projects, economic risk group and, in particular, ‘changes in demand for houses’ is prioritised by most developers as posing a threat to the achievement of their housing development objectives. Unless these risks are carefully managed, their effects will continue to impede success in these projects. The study recommends the adoption and use of the combination of multi-technique identification framework and AHP prioritization assessment methodology as a suitable model for the assessment of risks in housing development projects.

Keywords: Risk identification, risk assessment, analytical hierarchical process, multi-criteria decision.

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Authors: Aidos Altynbekov, Gulmira Abdiraiymova, Gulnar Kenzhakimova, Mansya Sadyrova, Gulnapis Abdikerova

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Work ethic and labour productivity issues are extremely important for any society. It has been long proven by the global practice and various scholars that the country promoting the labour has always been way forward from the other countries. This paper studies the thoughts suggested by M.Weber, Confucius, Lee Kuan Yew, Mahathir Mohammad and other prominent thinkers concerning the issues of work ethics and labour productivity. The article analyzes why developed nations are way more advanced in their development compared to other nations.

Keywords: Work ethic, labour productivity, religion, philosophy.

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Authors: Kimutai Joan Jepkorir, Moturi Wilkister Nyaora

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The practice of open defecation can be devastating for human health as well as the environment, and this practice persistence could be due to ingrained habits that individuals continue to engage in despite having a better alternative. Safe disposal of human excreta is essential for public health protection. This study sought to find if open defecation relates to fecal-oral infections in Burat and Ngaremara Wards in Isiolo County. This was achieved through conducting a cross-sectional study. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 385 households that were used in the study. Data collection was done by use of questionnaires and observation checklists. The result show that 66% of the respondents disposed-off fecal matter in a safe manner, whereas 34% disposed-off fecal matter in unsafe manner through open defecation. The prevalence proportions per 1000 of diarrhea and intestinal worms among children under-5 years of age were 142 and 21, respectively. The prevalence proportions per 1000 of diarrhea and typhoid among children over-5 years of age were 20 and 20, respectively.

Keywords: Fecal-oral infections, open defecation, prevalence proportion, sanitation.

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Authors: I. M. Yusuff, A. M. Arogunjo, S. B. Ibikunle, O. M. Oni, P. O. Osho

Abstract:

Generally, water contamination is a serious health concern, affecting millions of people worldwide every year. Among the water contaminants, radon is a radioactive contaminant understudied and under-regulated. It produces many adverse health effects, including cancer. It is a natural gas that cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled. It develops from the radioactive decay of radium found in the rock of soil and has been considered a health hazard due to its radioactivity in nature. To examine its effects and physicochemical characteristics on the blood biomarkers due to its ingestion in drinking water, its concentrations were monitored and measured in treated and untreated water using Electronic Radon Active Detector (RAD7), while human blood samples were collected using the required laboratory tools. The blood samples were collected and examined physicochemically using semi-automated chemistry analyzer to evaluate the chemistry parameters of the blood. Statistically, results obtained were analyzed using T-test of variables at 95% confidence interval. The outcome of results revealed 112.03 Bq/m3, 561.67 Bq/m3 and 2,753.00 Bq/m3 of radon-222 concentrations in the three water samples used respectively. Demographically, chemistry parameters biomarkers of the blood determined displayed some levels of variations due to radon-222 contaminants ingested from untreated water. Also, analyzed results of blood revealed the associations between the physicochemical parameters of the blood biomarkers and volunteers’ health consequences. The consequences observed were more severed with group B volunteers than group A, due to high level of radon contaminants in borehole water consumed by group B than in well water consumed by group A. The percentages of elevated and depressed biomarkers observed differ from initial reference values and, were the dysfunction indicators. They are directly or indirectly associated to human’s state of health. Most significant biomarkers affected were; HCO3, Cl, K, Cr and Na, they are relevant biomarkers in medicine to determine human’s state of health at any point in time.

Keywords: Radioactive, radon, biomarker, ingestion, dysfunction.

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Authors: Abdallah S. Abdallah, A. Lynn Abbott, Mohamad Abou El-Nasr

Abstract:

This paper presents a new technique for detection of human faces within color images. The approach relies on image segmentation based on skin color, features extracted from the two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (DCT), and self-organizing maps (SOM). After candidate skin regions are extracted, feature vectors are constructed using DCT coefficients computed from those regions. A supervised SOM training session is used to cluster feature vectors into groups, and to assign “face" or “non-face" labels to those clusters. Evaluation was performed using a new image database of 286 images, containing 1027 faces. After training, our detection technique achieved a detection rate of 77.94% during subsequent tests, with a false positive rate of 5.14%. To our knowledge, the proposed technique is the first to combine DCT-based feature extraction with a SOM for detecting human faces within color images. It is also one of a few attempts to combine a feature-invariant approach, such as color-based skin segmentation, together with appearance-based face detection. The main advantage of the new technique is its low computational requirements, in terms of both processing speed and memory utilization.

Keywords: Face detection, skin color segmentation, self-organizingmap.

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Authors: Willi Zschiebsch, Alrik Dargel, Sebastian Spitzer, Philipp Johst, Robert Böhm, Niels Modler

Abstract:

In this article, we investigate an approach that digitally links individual development process steps by using the drive shaft of an aircraft engine as representative example of a fiber polymer composite. Such high-performance lightweight composite structures have many adjustable parameters that influence the mechanical properties. Only a combination of optimal parameter values can lead to energy efficient lightweight structures. The development tools required for the Engineering Design Process (EDP) are often isolated solutions and their compatibility with each other is limited. A digital framework is presented in this study, which allows individual specialised tools to be linked via the generated data in such a way that automated optimization across programs becomes possible. This is demonstrated using the example of linking geometry generation with numerical structural analysis. The proposed digital framework for automated design optimization demonstrates the feasibility of developing a complete digital approach to design optimization. The methodology shows promising potential for achieving optimal solutions in terms of mass, material utilization, eigenfrequency and deformation under lateral load with less development effort. The development of such a framework is an important step towards promoting a more efficient design approach that can lead to stable and balanced results.

Keywords: Digital Linked Process, composite, CFRP, multi-objective, EDP, NSGA-2, NSGA-3, TPE.

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Authors: Jin Si, Yanzhong Wang

Abstract:

The essence of the 21st century is knowledge economy. Knowledge has become the key resource of economic growth and social development. Construction industry is no exception. Because of the characteristic of complexity, project manager can't depend only on information management. The only way to improve the level of construction project management is to set up a kind of effective knowledge accumulation mechanism. This paper first introduced the IFC standard and the concept of ontology. Then put forward the construction method of the architectural engineering domain ontology based on IFC. And finally build up the concepts, properties and the relationship between the concepts of the ontology. The deficiency of this paper is also pointed out.

Keywords: Construction Engineering, IFC, Ontology

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Authors: Yasser M. Saad, Amr A. El Hanafy, Saleh A. Alkarim, Hussein A. Almehdar, Elrashdy M. Redwan

Abstract:

Camels are substantial providers of transport, milk, sport, meat, shelter, security and capital in many countries, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Inter simple sequence repeat technique was used to detect the genetic variations among some camel breeds (Majaheim, Safra, Wadah, and Hamara). Actual number of alleles, effective number of alleles, gene diversity, Shannon’s information index and polymorphic bands were calculated for each evaluated camel breed. Neighbor-joining tree that re-constructed for evaluated these camel breeds showed that, Hamara breed is distantly related from the other evaluated camels. In addition, the polymorphic sites, haplotypes and nucleotide diversity were identified for some camelidae cox1 gene sequences (obtained from NCBI). The distance value between C. bactrianus and C. dromedarius (0.072) was relatively low. Analysis of genetic diversity is an important way for conserving Camelus dromedarius genetic resources.

Keywords: Camel, genetics, ISSR, cox1, neighbor-joining.

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Authors: H. Lang, M. Bader, A. Buchroithner

Abstract:

Holistic methods covering the development process as a whole – e.g. systems engineering – have established themselves in product design. However, technical product optimization, representing improvements in efficiency and/or minimization of loss, usually applies to single components of a system. A holistic approach is being defined based on a hierarchical point of view of systems engineering. This is subsequently presented using the example of an electromechanical flywheel energy storage system for automotive applications.

Keywords: Design, product development, product optimization, systems engineering, flywheel energy storage.

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