Search results for: profitability management mechanism.

Authors: Carolyn J. Ortega, Stephen E. Berger

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The role of the custody evaluator is perhaps one of the most controversial and risky endeavors in clinical practice. Complaints filed with licensing boards regarding a child-custody evaluation constitute the second most common reason for such an event. Although the evaluator is expected to answer for the family-law court what is in the “best interest of the child,” there is a lack of clarity on how to establish this in any empirically validated manner. Hence, practitioners must contend with a nebulous framework in formulating their methodological procedures that inherently places them at risk in an already litigious context. This study sought to qualitatively investigate patterns of practice among doctoral practitioners conducting child custody evaluations in the area of Southern California. Ten psychologists were interviewed who devoted between 25 and 100% of their California private practice to custody work. All held Ph.D. degrees with a range of eight to 36 years of experience in custody work. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate assessment practices, ensure adherence to guidelines, risk management, and qualities of evaluators. Forty-three Specific Themes were identified using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Seven Higher Order Themes clustered on salient factors such as use of Ethics, Law, Guidelines; Parent Variables; Child Variables; Psychologist Variables; Testing; Literature; and Trends. Evaluators were aware of the ever-present reality of a licensure complaint and thus presented idiosyncratic descriptions of risk management considerations. Ambiguity about quantifying and validly tapping parenting abilities was also reviewed. Findings from this study suggested a high reliance on unstructured and observational methods in child custody practices.

Keywords: Forensic psychology, psychological testing, assessment methodology, child custody.

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Authors: Yasin Tadayonrad, Alassane Ballé Ndiaye

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Most of the supply chain networks have many nodes starting from the suppliers’ side up to the customers’ side that each node sends/receives the raw materials/products from/to the other nodes. One of the major concerns in this kind of supply chain network is finding the best schedule for loading/unloading the shipments through the whole network by which all the constraints in the source and destination nodes are met and all the shipments are delivered on time. One of the main constraints in this problem is the loading/unloading capacity in each source/destination node at each time slot (e.g., per week/day/hour). Because of the different characteristics of different products/groups of products, the capacity of each node might differ based on each group of products. In most supply chain networks (especially in the Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry), there are different planners/planning teams working separately in different nodes to determine the loading/unloading timeslots in source/destination nodes to send/receive the shipments. In this paper, a mathematical problem has been proposed to find the best timeslots for loading/unloading the shipments minimizing the overall delays subject to respecting the capacity of loading/unloading of each node, the required delivery date of each shipment (considering the lead-times), and working-days of each node. This model was implemented on Python and solved using Python-MIP on a sample data set. Finally, the idea of a heuristic algorithm has been proposed as a way of improving the solution method that helps to implement the model on larger data sets in real business cases, including more nodes and shipments.

Keywords: Supply chain management, transportation, multiple-multiple network, timeslots management, mathematical modeling, mixed integer programming.

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Authors: Adriana Alexandru, Eleonora Tudora, Ovidiu Bica

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This paper is an overview of the structure of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems and radio frequency bands used by RFID technology. It also presents a solution based on the application of RFID for brand authentication, traceability and tracking, by implementing a production management system and extending its use to traders.

Keywords: Radio Frequency Identification, Tag, Tag reader, Traceability.

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Authors: Zsolt Szabolcsi

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Political communication in Hungary has undergone a significant change in the 2010s. One element of the transformation is the Flashnews. This media product was launched in March 2015 and since then 40-50 blocks are broadcasted, daily, on 5 channels. Flashnews blocks are condensed news sessions, containing the summary of political narratives. It starts with the introduction of the narrator, then, usually four news topics are presented and, finally, the narrator concludes the block. The block lasts only one minute and, therefore, it provides a blink session into the main narratives of political communication at the time. Beyond its rapid pace, what makes its avoidance difficult is that these blocks are always in the first position in the commercial break of a non-political media product. Although it is only one minute long, its significance is high. The content of the Flashnews reflects the main governmental narratives and, therefore, the Flashnews is part of the agenda-setting capacity of political communication. It reaches media consumers who have limited knowledge and interest in politics, and their use of media products is not politically related. For this audience, the Flashnews pops up in the same way as commercials. Due to its structure and appearance, the impact of Flashnews seems to be similar to commercials, imbedded into the break of media products. It activates existing knowledge constructs, builds up associational links and maintains their presence in a way that the recipient is not aware of the phenomenon. The research aims to examine the extent to which the Flashnews and the main news narratives are identical in their content. This aim is realized with the content analysis of the two news products by examining the Flashnews and the evening news during main sport events from 2016 to 2018. The initial hypothesis of the research is that Flashnews is a contribution to the news management technique for an effective articulation of political narratives in public service media channels.

Keywords: Flashnews, political communication, political marketing, news management.

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Authors: Osman Mohammed Hegazy, Ali Hamed El Bastawissy, Romani Farid Ibrahim

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In this paper, our concern is the management of mobile transactions in the shared area among many servers, when the mobile user moves from one cell to another in online partiallyreplicated distributed mobile database environment. We defined the concept of transaction and classified the different types of transactions. Based on this analysis, we propose an algorithm that handles the disconnection due to moving among sites.

Keywords: Concurrency, mobile database, transaction processing, two phase locking.

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Authors: F. Amin, S. Feizi

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This paper describes the complex nature of organizational culture and its role in telecom organizations. To set the stage for culture change, the literature is reviewed for perspective on the role and function of culture in organizations. Organizational the­orists as well as business consultants report that a strong organizational culture is essential for success because the shared assumptions, values and culture of an organization influence the behavior of its individual members.

Keywords: Component, Telecommunication, Management, Cultural, Transformation.

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Authors: Md. Maksudur Rahman Khan, M. Rahim Uddin, Hamidah Abdullah, Kaykobad Md. Rezaul Karim, Abu Yousuf, Chin Kui Cheng, Huei Ruey Ong

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A systematic study was conducted to explore the photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into methanol on TiO₂ loaded copper ferrite (CuFe₂O₄) photocatalyst under visible light irradiation. The phases and crystallite size of the photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and it indicates CuFe₂O₄ as tetragonal phase incorporation with anatase TiO₂ in CuFe₂O₄/TiO₂ hetero-structure. The XRD results confirmed the formation of spinel type tetragonal CuFe₂O₄ phases along with predominantly anatase phase of TiO₂ in the CuFe₂O₄/TiO₂ hetero-structure. UV-Vis absorption spectrum suggested the formation of the hetero-junction with relatively lower band gap than that of TiO₂. Photoluminescence (PL) technique was used to study the electron–hole (e⁻/h⁺) recombination process. PL spectra analysis confirmed the slow-down of the recombination of electron–hole (e⁻/h⁺) pairs in the CuFe₂O₄/TiO₂ hetero-structure. The photocatalytic performance of CuFe₂O₄/TiO₂ was evaluated based on the methanol yield with varying amount of TiO₂ over CuFe₂O₄ (0.5:1, 1:1, and 2:1) and changing light intensity. The mechanism of the photocatalysis was proposed based on the fact that the predominant species of CO₂ in aqueous phase were dissolved CO₂ and HCO₃^- at pH ~5.9. It was evident that the CuFe₂O₄ could harvest the electrons under visible light irradiation, which could further be injected to the conduction band of TiO₂ to increase the life time of the electron and facilitating the reactions of CO₂ to methanol. The developed catalyst showed good recycle ability up to four cycles where the loss of activity was ~25%. Methanol was observed as the main product over CuFe₂O₄, but loading with TiO₂ remarkably increased the methanol yield. Methanol yield over CuFe₂O₄/TiO₂ was found to be about three times higher (651 μmol/g_cat L) than that of CuFe₂O₄ photocatalyst. This occurs because the energy of the band excited electrons lies above the redox potentials of the reaction products CO₂/CH₃OH.

Keywords: Photocatalysis, CuFe2O4/TiO2, band-gap energy, methanol.

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Authors: M. Ntšolo, D. Kalumba, N. Lefu, G. Letlatsa

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Rock mass damage due to shear tectonic activity has been investigated largely in geoscience where fluid transport is of major interest. However, little has been studied on the effect of shear zones on rock mass behavior and its impact on stability of rock slopes. At Letšeng Diamonds open pit mine in Lesotho, the shear zone composed of sheared kimberlite material, calcite and altered basalt is forming part of the haul ramp into the main pit cut 3. The alarming rate at which the shear zone is deteriorating has triggered concerns about both local and global stability of pit the walls. This study presents the numerical modelling of the open pit slope affected by shear zone at Letšeng Diamond Mine (LDM). Analysis of the slope involved development of the slope model by using a two-dimensional finite element code RS2. Interfaces between shear zone and host rock were represented by special joint elements incorporated in the finite element code. The analysis of structural geological mapping data provided a good platform to understand the joint network. Major joints including shear zone were incorporated into the model for simulation. This approach proved successful by demonstrating that continuum modelling can be used to evaluate evolution of stresses, strain, plastic yielding and failure mechanisms that are consistent with field observations. Structural control due to geological shear zone structure proved to be important in its location, size and orientation. Furthermore, the model analyzed slope deformation and sliding possibility along shear zone interfaces. This type of approach can predict shear zone deformation and failure mechanism, hence mitigation strategies can be deployed for safety of human lives and property within mine pits.

Keywords: Numerical modeling, open pit mine, shear zone, slope stability.

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Authors: Z. Abdollahi Biron, P. Pisu

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Connected vehicles are one of the promising technologies for future Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). A connected vehicle system is essentially a set of vehicles communicating through a network to exchange their information with each other and the infrastructure. Although this interconnection of the vehicles can be potentially beneficial in creating an efficient, sustainable, and green transportation system, a set of safety and reliability challenges come out with this technology. The first challenge arises from the information loss due to unreliable communication network which affects the control/management system of the individual vehicles and the overall system. Such scenario may lead to degraded or even unsafe operation which could be potentially catastrophic. Secondly, faulty sensors and actuators can affect the individual vehicle’s safe operation and in turn will create a potentially unsafe node in the vehicular network. Further, sending that faulty sensor information to other vehicles and failure in actuators may significantly affect the safe operation of the overall vehicular network. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to take these issues into consideration while designing the control/management algorithms of the individual vehicles as a part of connected vehicle system. In this paper, we consider a connected vehicle system under Co-operative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) and propose a fault diagnosis scheme that deals with these aforementioned challenges. Specifically, the conventional CACC algorithm is modified by adding a Kalman filter-based estimation algorithm to suppress the effect of lost information under unreliable network. Further, a sliding mode observer-based algorithm is used to improve the sensor reliability under faults. The effectiveness of the overall diagnostic scheme is verified via simulation studies.

Keywords: Fault diagnostics, communication network, connected vehicles, packet drop out, platoon.

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Authors: Ada Yurman

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Using the case of Israeli Atomic Spy Mordechai Vanunu as an example, this study sought to examine social response to political deviance whereby social response can be mobilized in order to achieve social control. Mordechai Vanunu, a junior technician in the Dimona Atomic Research Center, played a normative role in the militaristic discourse while working in the “holy shrine” of the Israeli defense system for many years. At a certain stage, however, Vanunu decided to detach himself from this collective and launched an assault on this top-secret circle. Israeli society in general and the security establishment in particular found this attack intolerable and unforgivable. They presented Vanunu as a ticking time bomb, delegitimized him and portrayed him as “other”. In addition, Israeli enforcement authorities imposed myriad prohibitions and sanctions on Vanunu even after his release from prison – “as will be done to he who desecrates holiness.” Social response to Vanunu at the time of his capture and trial was studied by conducting a content analysis of six contemporary daily newspapers. The analysis focused on use of language and forms of expression. In contrast with traditional content analysis methodology, this study did not just look at frequency of expressions of ideas and terms in the text and covert content; rather, the text was analyzed as a structural whole, and included examination of style, tone and unusual use of imagery, and more, in order to uncover hidden messages within the text. The social response to this case was extraordinarily intense, not only because in this case of political deviance, involving espionage and treason, Vanunu’s actions comprised a real potential threat to the country, but also because of the threat his behavior posed to the symbolic universe of society. Therefore, the response to this instance of political deviance can be seen as being part of a mechanism of social control aiming to protect world view of society as a whole, as well as to punish the criminal.

Keywords: Militarism, political deviance, social construction, social control.

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Authors: Fuad Alzahrani, Yiannis Kyratsis

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Although emergency nurses, being the frontline workers in mass-gatherings, are essential for providing an effective public health response, little is known about the skills that emergency nurses have, or require, in order to respond effectively to a disaster event. This paper is designed to address this gap in the literature by conducting an empirical study on emergency nurses’ preparedness at the mass-gathering event of Hajj in Mecca city. To achieve this aim, this study conducted a cross-sectional survey among 106 emergency department nurses in all the public hospitals in Mecca in 2014. The results revealed that although emergency nurses’ role understanding is high; they have limited knowledge and awareness of how to respond appropriately to mass-gathering disaster events. To address this knowledge gap, the top three most beneficial types of education and training courses suggested are: hospital education sessions, the Emergency Management Saudi Course and workshop; and short courses in disaster management. Finally, recommendations and constructive strategies are developed to provide the best practice in enhancing disaster preparedness. This paper adds to the body of knowledge regarding emergency nurses and mass gathering disasters. This paper measures the level of disaster knowledge, previous disaster response experience and disaster education and training amongst emergency nurses in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is anticipated that this study will provide a foundation for future studies aimed at better preparing emergency nurses for disaster response. This paper employs new strategies to improve the emergency nurses’ response during mass gatherings for the Hajj. Increasing the emergency nurses’ knowledge will develop their effective responses in mass-gathering disasters.

Keywords: Emergency nurses, mass-gatherings, disaster preparedness, perceived role.

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Authors: Shih-Wen Hsiao, Yi-Cheng Tsao

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In the field of reverse engineering and creative industries, applying 3D scanning process to obtain geometric forms of the objects is a mature and common technique. For instance, organic objects such as faces and nonorganic objects such as products could be scanned to acquire the geometric information for further application. However, although the data resolution of 3D scanning device is increasing and there are more and more abundant complementary applications, the penetration rate of 3D scanning for the public is still limited by the relative high price of the devices. On the other hand, Kinect, released by Microsoft, is known for its powerful functions, considerably low price, and complete technology and database support. Therefore, related studies can be done with the applying of Kinect under acceptable cost and data precision. Due to the fact that Kinect utilizes optical mechanism to extracting depth information, limitations are found due to the reason of the straight path of the light. Thus, various angles are required sequentially to obtain the complete 3D information of the object when applying a single Kinect for 3D scanning. The integration process which combines the 3D data from different angles by certain algorithms is also required. This sequential scanning process costs much time and the complex integration process often encounter some technical problems. Therefore, this paper aimed to apply multiple Kinects simultaneously on the field of developing a rapid 3D mannequin scan platform and proposed suggestions on the number and angles of Kinects. In the content, a method of establishing the coordination based on the relation between mannequin and the specifications of Kinect is proposed, and a suggestion of angles and number of Kinects is also described. An experiment of applying multiple Kinect on the scanning of 3D mannequin is constructed by Microsoft API, and the results show that the time required for scanning and technical threshold can be reduced in the industries of fashion and garment design.

Keywords: 3D scan, depth sensor, fashion and garment design, mannequin, multiple kinect sensor.

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Authors: Amin Chegenizadeh, Hamid Nikraz

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Soil mechanics is a traditional course in any university. Management of lab classes is one of the main issues to deliver a proper outline. In Curtin University, different methods applied to check the efficiency of these methods. One of them was mainly rely on demonstration and the other one mainly on involving students in running tests. Comparison between these delivery methods also are outlined in summary section. The recommendation also made that the more satisfaction is reachable while the students engaged.

Keywords: Soil, Geomechanic, Laboratory.

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Authors: Amirali Shirazibeheshti, Tarik Radwan, Alireza Ettefaghian, Farbod Khanizadeh, George Wilson, Cristina Luca

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Anticholinergic medication has been associated with events such as falls, delirium, and cognitive impairment in older patients. To further assess this, anticholinergic burden scores have been developed to quantify risk. A risk model based on clustering was deployed in a healthcare management system to cluster patients into multiple risk groups according to anticholinergic burden scores of multiple medicines prescribed to patients to facilitate clinical decision-making. To do so, anticholinergic burden scores of drugs were extracted from the literature which categorizes the risk on a scale of 1 to 3. Given the patients’ prescription data on the healthcare database, a weighted anticholinergic risk score was derived per patient based on the prescription of multiple anticholinergic drugs. This study was conducted on 300,000 records of patients currently registered with a major regional UK-based healthcare provider. The weighted risk scores were used as inputs to an unsupervised learning algorithm (mean-shift clustering) that groups patients into clusters that represent different levels of anticholinergic risk. This work evaluates the association between the average risk score and measures of socioeconomic status (index of multiple deprivation) and health (index of health and disability). The clustering identifies a group of 15 patients at the highest risk from multiple anticholinergic medication. Our findings show that this group of patients is located within more deprived areas of London compared to the population of other risk groups. Furthermore, the prescription of anticholinergic medicines is more skewed to female than male patients, suggesting that females are more at risk from this kind of multiple medication. The risk may be monitored and controlled in a healthcare management system that is well-equipped with tools implementing appropriate techniques of artificial intelligence.

Keywords: Anticholinergic medication, socioeconomic status, deprivation, clustering, risk analysis.

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Authors: Pravesh Chandra Shukla, Kunal Ghosh

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Over 90% of the world trade is carried by the international shipping industry. As most of the countries are developing, seaborne trade continues to expand to bring benefits for consumers across the world. Studies show that world trade will increase 70-80% through shipping in the next 15-20 years. Present global fleet of 70000 commercial ships consumes approximately 200 million tonnes of diesel fuel a year and it is expected that it will be around 350 million tonnes a year by 2020. It will increase the demand for fuel and also increase the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. So, it-s essential to control this massive fuel consumption and CO2 emission. The idea is to utilize a diesel-wind hybrid system for ship propulsion. Use of wind energy by installing modern wing-sails in ships can drastically reduce the consumption of diesel fuel. A huge amount of wind energy is available in oceans. Whenever wind is available the wing-sails would be deployed and the diesel engine would be throttled down and still the same forward speed would be maintained. Wind direction in a particular shipping route is not same throughout; it changes depending upon the global wind pattern which depends on the latitude. So, the wing-sail orientation should be such that it optimizes the use of wind energy. We have made a computer programme in which by feeding the data regarding wind velocity, wind direction, ship-motion direction; we can find out the best wing-sail position and fuel saving for commercial ships. We have calculated net fuel saving in certain international shipping routes, for instance, from Mumbai in India to Durban in South Africa. Our estimates show that about 8.3% diesel fuel can be saved by utilizing the wind. We are also developing an experimental model of the ship employing airfoils (small scale wingsail) and going to test it in National Wind Tunnel Facility in IIT Kanpur in order to develop a control mechanism for a system of airfoils.

Keywords: Commercial ships, Wind diesel hybrid system, Wing-sail, Wind direction, Wind velocity.

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Authors: Madiha El Awamie, Catherine Rees

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Natural preservatives have been used as alternatives to traditional chemical preservatives; however, a limited number have been commercially developed and many remain to be investigated as sources of safer and effective antimicrobials. In this study, we have been investigating the antimicrobial activity of an extract of Glycyrrhiza glabra (liquorice) that was provided as a waste material from the production of liquorice flavourings for the food industry, and to investigate if this retained the expected antimicrobial activity so it could be used as a natural preservative. Antibacterial activity of liquorice extract was screened for evidence of growth inhibition against eight species of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria innocua, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus subtilis. The Gram-negative bacteria tested include Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium but none of these were affected by the extract. In contrast, for all of the Gram-positive bacteria tested, growth was inhibited as monitored using optical density. However parallel studies using viable count indicated that the cells were not killed meaning that the extract was bacteriostatic rather than bacteriocidal. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration [MIC] and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration [MBC] of the extract was also determined and a concentration of 50 µg ml^-1 was found to have a strong bacteriostatic effect on Gram-positive bacteria. Microscopic analysis indicated that there were changes in cell shape suggesting the cell wall was affected. In addition, the use of a reporter strain of Listeria transformed with the bioluminescence genes luxABCDE indicated that cell energy levels were reduced when treated with either 12.5 or 50 µg ml^-1 of the extract, with the reduction in light output being proportional to the concentration of the extract used. Together these results suggest that the extract is inhibiting the growth of Gram-positive bacteria only by damaging the cell wall and/or membrane.

Keywords: Antibacterial activity, bioluminescence, Glycyrrhiza glabra, natural preservative.

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Authors: Roy R. Gu, Mahesh Sahu, Xianggui Zhao

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Contour filter strips planted with perennial vegetation can be used to improve surface and ground water quality by reducing pollutant, such as NO3-N, and sediment outflow from cropland to a river or lake. Meanwhile, the filter strips of perennial grass with biofuel potentials also have economic benefits of producing ethanol. In this study, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied to the Walnut Creek Watershed to examine the effectiveness of contour strips in reducing NO3-N outflows from crop fields to the river or lake. Required input data include watershed topography, slope, soil type, land-use, management practices in the watershed and climate parameters (precipitation, maximum/minimum air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed and relative humidity). Numerical experiments were conducted to identify potential subbasins in the watershed that have high water quality impact, and to examine the effects of strip size and location on NO3-N reduction in the subbasins under various meteorological conditions (dry, average and wet). Variable sizes of contour strips (10%, 20%, 30% and 50%, respectively, of a subbasin area) planted with perennial switchgrass were selected for simulating the effects of strip size and location on stream water quality. Simulation results showed that a filter strip having 10%-50% of the subbasin area could lead to 55%- 90% NO3-N reduction in the subbasin during an average rainfall year. Strips occupying 10-20% of the subbasin area were found to be more efficient in reducing NO3-N when placed along the contour than that when placed along the river. The results of this study can assist in cost-benefit analysis and decision-making in best water resources management practices for environmental protection.

Keywords: modeling, SWAT, water quality, NO3-N, watershed.

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Authors: Ebipatei Victoria Tunyan, T. A. Cao, Cheol Young Ock

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Detecting subjectively biased statements is a vital task. This is because this kind of bias, when present in the text or other forms of information dissemination media such as news, social media, scientific texts, and encyclopedias, can weaken trust in the information and stir conflicts amongst consumers. Subjective bias detection is also critical for many Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks like sentiment analysis, opinion identification, and bias neutralization. Having a system that can adequately detect subjectivity in text will boost research in the above-mentioned areas significantly. It can also come in handy for platforms like Wikipedia, where the use of neutral language is of importance. The goal of this work is to identify the subjectively biased language in text on a sentence level. With machine learning, we can solve complex AI problems, making it a good fit for the problem of subjective bias detection. A key step in this approach is to train a classifier based on BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) as upstream model. BERT by itself can be used as a classifier; however, in this study, we use BERT as data preprocessor as well as an embedding generator for a Bi-LSTM (Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory) network incorporated with attention mechanism. This approach produces a deeper and better classifier. We evaluate the effectiveness of our model using the Wiki Neutrality Corpus (WNC), which was compiled from Wikipedia edits that removed various biased instances from sentences as a benchmark dataset, with which we also compare our model to existing approaches. Experimental analysis indicates an improved performance, as our model achieved state-of-the-art accuracy in detecting subjective bias. This study focuses on the English language, but the model can be fine-tuned to accommodate other languages.

Keywords: Subjective bias detection, machine learning, BERT–BiLSTM–Attention, text classification, natural language processing.

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Authors: M. Saravanan

Abstract:

Antimicrobial resistant is becoming a major factor in virtually all hospital acquired infection may soon untreatable is a serious public health problem. These concerns have led to major research effort to discover alternative strategies for the treatment of bacterial infection. Nanobiotehnology is an upcoming and fast developing field with potential application for human welfare. An important area of nanotechnology for development of reliable and environmental friendly process for synthesis of nanoscale particles through biological systems In the present studies are reported on the use of fungal strain Aspergillus species for the extracellular synthesis of bionanoparticles from 1 mM silver nitrate (AgNO3) solution. The report would be focused on the synthesis of metallic bionanoparticles of silver using a reduction of aqueous Ag+ ion with the culture supernatants of Microorganisms. The bio-reduction of the Ag+ ions in the solution would be monitored in the aqueous component and the spectrum of the solution would measure through UV-visible spectrophotometer The bionanoscale particles were further characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thin layer chromatography. The synthesized bionanoscale particle showed a maximum absorption at 385 nm in the visible region. Atomic Force Microscopy investigation of silver bionanoparticles identified that they ranged in the size of 250 nm - 680 nm; the work analyzed the antimicrobial efficacy of the silver bionanoparticles against various multi drug resistant clinical isolates. The present Study would be emphasizing on the applicability to synthesize the metallic nanostructures and to understand the biochemical and molecular mechanism of nanoparticles formation by the cell filtrate in order to achieve better control over size and polydispersity of the nanoparticles. This would help to develop nanomedicine against various multi drug resistant human pathogens.

Keywords: Bionanoparticles, UV-visible spectroscopy, AtomicForce Microscopy, Extracellular synthesis, Multi drug resistant, antimicrobial activity, Nanomedicine

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Authors: Stamatios A. Theocharis, George A. Tsihrintzis

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e-Government is already in its second decade. Prerequisite for further development and adaptation to new realities is the optimal management of administrative information and knowledge production by those involved, i.e. the public sector, citizens and businesses. Nowadays, the amount of information displayed or distributed on the Internet has reached enormous dimensions, resulting in serious difficulties when extracting and managing knowledge. The semantic web is expected to play an important role in solving this problem and the technologies that support it. In this article, we address some relevant issues.

Keywords: e-Government, semantic web, ontologies

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Authors: Mohd.F.Shabir, P. Tamilporai, B. Rajendra Prasath

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The fundamental aim of extended expansion concept is to achieve higher work done which in turn leads to higher thermal efficiency. This concept is compatible with the application of turbocharger and LHR engine. The Low Heat Rejection engine was developed by coating the piston crown, cylinder head inside with valves and cylinder liner with partially stabilized zirconia coating of 0.5 mm thickness. Extended expansion in diesel engines is termed as Miller cycle in which the expansion ratio is increased by reducing the compression ratio by modifying the inlet cam for late inlet valve closing. The specific fuel consumption reduces to an appreciable level and the thermal efficiency of the extended expansion turbocharged LHR engine is improved. In this work, a thermodynamic model was formulated and developed to simulate the LHR based extended expansion turbocharged direct injection diesel engine. It includes a gas flow model, a heat transfer model, and a two zone combustion model. Gas exchange model is modified by incorporating the Miller cycle, by delaying inlet valve closing timing which had resulted in considerable improvement in thermal efficiency of turbocharged LHR engines. The heat transfer model, calculates the convective and radiative heat transfer between the gas and wall by taking into account of the combustion chamber surface temperature swings. Using the two-zone combustion model, the combustion parameters and the chemical equilibrium compositions were determined. The chemical equilibrium compositions were used to calculate the Nitric oxide formation rate by assuming a modified Zeldovich mechanism. The accuracy of this model is scrutinized against actual test results from the engine. The factors which affect thermal efficiency and exhaust emissions were deduced and their influences were discussed. In the final analysis it is seen that there is an excellent agreement in all of these evaluations.

Keywords: Low Heat Rejection, Miller cycle.

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Authors: Essam Abdel-Salam Gouda

Abstract:

This paper analysis the tourism development on the Red Sea in Egypt (west bank) and the needed ongoing action toward a sustainable approach. It addresses, at the first, the development's evolution occurred in the coastal area, the environmental effects it left, and how to minimize those impacts in the future. The second main point is dealing with the most important issues that hinder the achievement of sustainable tourism development on the Red Sea coast and how we can overcome them in the future.

Keywords: Coastal management, Environment, Red Sea, Sustainable tourism.

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Authors: D. N. Kambrekar, S. B. Jagginavar, J. Aruna

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Grape stem borer, Celosterna scrabrator is an important production constraint in grapes in India. Hitherto this pest was a severe menace only on the aged and unmanaged fields but during the recent past it has also started damaging the newly established fields. In India, since Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are the major grape production states, the incidence of stem borer is also restricted and severe in these states. The grubs of the beetle bore in to the main stem and even the branches, which affect the translocation of nutrients to the areal parts of the plant. Since, the grubs bore inside the stem, the chewed material along with its excreta is discharged outside the holes and the frass is found on the ground just below the bored holes. The portion of vines above the damaged part has a sticky appearance. The leaves become pale yellow which looks like a deficiency of micronutrients. The leaves ultimately dry and drop down. The status of the incidence of the grape stem borer in different grape growing districts of Northern Karnataka was carried out during three years. In each taluka five locations were surveyed for the incidence of grape stem borer. Further, the experiment on management of stem borer was carried out in the grape gardens of Vijayapur districts under farmers field during three years. Stem borer infested plants that show live holes were selected per treatments and it was replicated three times. Live and dead holes observed during pre-treatment were closely monitored and only plants with live holes were selected and tagged. Different doses of chlorantraniliprole 0.4% GR were incorporated into the soil around the vine basins near root zone surrounded to trunk region by removing soils up to 5-10 cm with a peripheral distance of 1 to 1.5 feet from the main trunk where feeder roots are present. Irrigation was followed after application of insecticide for proper incorporation of the test chemical. The results indicated that there was sever to moderate incidence of the stem borer in all the grape growing districts of northern Karnataka. Maximum incidence was recorded in Belagavi (11 holes per vine) and minimum was in Gadag district (8.5 holes per vine). The investigations carried out to study the efficacy of chlorantraniliprole on grape stem borer for successive three years under farmers field indicated that chlorantraniliprole @ 15g/vine applied just near the active root zone of the plant followed by irrigation has successfully managed the pest. The insecticide has translocated to all the parts of the plants and thereby stopped the activity of the pest which has resulted in to better growth of the plant and higher berry yield compared to other treatments under investigation. Thus, chlorantraniliprole 0.4 GR @ 15g/vine can be effective means in managing the stem borer.

Keywords: Chlorantraniliprole, grape stem borer, Celosterna scrabrator, management.

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Authors: Ekin Kıpçak, Sinan Kutluay, Mesut Akgün

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Recently, a growing interest has emerged on the development of new and efficient energy sources, due to the inevitable extinction of the nonrenewable energy reserves. One of these alternative sources which has a great potential and sustainability to meet up the energy demand is biomass energy. This significant energy source can be utilized with various energy conversion technologies, one of which is biomass gasification in supercritical water. Water, being the most important solvent in nature, has very important characteristics as a reaction solvent under supercritical circumstances. At temperatures above its critical point (374.8oC and 22.1 MPa), water becomes more acidic and its diffusivity increases. Working with water at high temperatures increases the thermal reaction rate, which in consequence leads to a better dissolving of the organic matters and a fast reaction with oxygen. Hence, supercritical water offers a control mechanism depending on solubility, excellent transport properties based on its high diffusion ability and new reaction possibilities for hydrolysis or oxidation. In this study the gasification of a real biomass, namely olive mill wastewater (OMW), in supercritical water is investigated with the use of Pt/Al2O3 and Ni/Al2O3 catalysts. OMW is a by-product obtained during olive oil production, which has a complex nature characterized by a high content of organic compounds and polyphenols. These properties impose OMW a significant pollution potential, but at the same time, the high content of organics makes OMW a desirable biomass candidate for energy production. All of the catalytic gasification experiments were made with five different reaction temperatures (400, 450, 500, 550 and 600°C), under a constant pressure of 25 MPa. For the experiments conducted with Ni/Al2O3 catalyst, the effect of five reaction times (30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 s) was investigated. However, procuring that similar gasification efficiencies could be obtained at shorter times, the experiments were made by using different reaction times (10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 s) for the case of Pt/Al2O3 catalyst. Through these experiments, the effects of temperature, time and catalyst type on the gasification yields and treatment efficiencies were investigated.

Keywords: Catalyst, Gasification, Olive mill wastewater, Supercritical water.

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Authors: Mingren Shi, Michael Renton

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There is a world-wide need for the development of sustainable management strategies to control pest infestation and the development of phosphine (PH3) resistance in lesser grain borer (Rhyzopertha dominica). Computer simulation models can provide a relatively fast, safe and inexpensive way to weigh the merits of various management options. However, the usefulness of simulation models relies on the accurate estimation of important model parameters, such as mortality. Concentration and time of exposure are both important in determining mortality in response to a toxic agent. Recent research indicated the existence of two resistance phenotypes in R. dominica in Australia, weak and strong, and revealed that the presence of resistance alleles at two loci confers strong resistance, thus motivating the construction of a two-locus model of resistance. Experimental data sets on purified pest strains, each corresponding to a single genotype of our two-locus model, were also available. Hence it became possible to explicitly include mortalities of the different genotypes in the model. In this paper we described how we used two generalized linear models (GLM), probit and logistic models, to fit the available experimental data sets. We used a direct algebraic approach generalized inverse matrix technique, rather than the traditional maximum likelihood estimation, to estimate the model parameters. The results show that both probit and logistic models fit the data sets well but the former is much better in terms of small least squares (numerical) errors. Meanwhile, the generalized inverse matrix technique achieved similar accuracy results to those from the maximum likelihood estimation, but is less time consuming and computationally demanding.

Keywords: mortality estimation, probit models, logistic model, generalized inverse matrix approach, pest control simulation

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Authors: Anatoly Krivinsh

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The results of dissertation research "Preventing and  combating corruption in public procurement" are presented in this  publication. The study was conducted 2011 till 2013 in a Member  State of the European Union– in the Republic of Latvia.  Goal of the thesis is to explore corruption prevention and  combating issues in public procurement sphere, to identify the  prevalence rates, determinants and contributing factors and  prevention opportunities in Latvia.  In the first chapter the author analyzes theoretical aspects of  understanding corruption in public procurement, with particular  emphasis on corruption definition problem, its nature, causes and  consequences. A separate section is dedicated to the public  procurement concept, mechanism and legal framework. In the first  part of this work the author presents cognitive methodology of  corruption in public procurement field, based on which the author has  carried out an analysis of corruption situation in public procurement  in Republic of Latvia.  In the second chapter of the thesis, the author analyzes the  problem of corruption in public procurement, including its historical  aspects, typology and classification of corruption subjects involved,  corruption risk elements in public procurement and their  identification. During the development of the second chapter author's  practical experience in public procurements was widely used.  The third and fourth chapter deals with issues related to the  prevention and combating corruption in public procurement, namely  the operation of the concept, principles, methods and techniques,  subjects in Republic of Latvia, as well as an analysis of foreign  experience in preventing and combating corruption. The fifth chapter  is devoted to the corruption prevention and combating perspectives  and their assessment. In this chapter the author has made the  evaluation of corruption prevention and combating measures  efficiency in Republic of Latvia, assessment of anti-corruption  legislation development stage in public procurement field in Latvia. 

Keywords: Prevention of corruption, public purchases.

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Authors: Ayman El Sabagh, Sobhy Sorour, Abd Elhamid Omar, Adel Ragab, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Celaleddin Barutçular, Akihiro Ueda, Hirofumi Saneoka

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Salinity is one of the major factors limiting crop production in an arid environment. Despite its global importance soybean production suffer the problems of salinity stress causing damages at plant development. So it is implacable to either search for salinity enhancement of soybean plants. Therefore, in the current study we try to clarify the mechanism that might be involved in the ameliorating effects of osmo-protectants such as proline and glycine betaine as well as, compost application on soybean plants grown under salinity stress. The experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions at the Graduate School of Biosphere Science Laboratory of Hiroshima University, Japan in 2011. The experiment was designed as a spilt-split plot based on randomized complete block design with four replications. The treatments could be summarized as follows; (i) salinity concentrations (0 and 15 mM), (ii) compost treatments (0 and 24 t ha-1) and (iii) the exogenous, proline and glycine betaine concentrations (0 mM and 25 mM) for each. Results indicated that salinity stress induced reduction in growth and physiological aspects (dry weight per plant, chlorophyll content, N and K+ content) of soybean plant compared with those of the unstressed plants. On the other hand, salinity stress led to increases in the electrolyte leakage ratio, Na and proline contents. Special attention was paid to, the tolerance against salt stress was observed, the improvement of salt tolerance resulted from proline, glycine betaine and compost were accompanied with improved K+, and proline accumulation. While, significantly decreased electrolyte leakage ratio and Na+ content. These results clearly demonstrate that harmful effect of salinity could reduce on growth aspects of soybean. Consequently, exogenous osmoprotectants combine with compost will effectively solve seasonal salinity stress problem and are a good strategy to increase salinity resistance of soybean in the drylands.

Keywords: Compost, glycine betaine, growth, proline, salinity tolerance, soybean.

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Authors: M. Pushparani, A. Sagaya

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Embedded systems have emerged as important elements in various domains with extensive applications in automotive, commercial, consumer, healthcare and transportation markets, as there is emphasis on intelligent devices. On the other hand, Business Intelligence (BI) has also been extensively used in a range of applications, especially in the agriculture domain which is the area of this research. The aim of this research is to create a framework for Embedded Weight Comparison Algorithm with Business Intelligence (EWCA-BI). The weight comparison algorithm will be embedded within the plantation management system and the weighbridge system. This algorithm will be used to estimate the weight at the site and will be compared with the actual weight at the plantation. The algorithm will be used to build the necessary alerts when there is a discrepancy in the weight, thus enabling better decision making. In the current practice, data are collected from various locations in various forms. It is a challenge to consolidate data to obtain timely and accurate information for effective decision making. Adding to this, the unstable network connection leads to difficulty in getting timely accurate information. To overcome the challenges embedding is done on a portable device that will have the embedded weight comparison algorithm to also assist in data capture and synchronize data at various locations overcoming the network short comings at collection points. The EWCA-BI will provide real-time information at any given point of time, thus enabling non-latent BI reports that will provide crucial information to enable efficient operational decision making. This research has a high potential in bringing embedded system into the agriculture industry. EWCA-BI will provide BI reports with accurate information with uncompromised data using an embedded system and provide alerts, therefore, enabling effective operation management decision-making at the site.

Keywords: Embedded business intelligence, weight comparison algorithm, oil palm plantation, embedded systems.

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Authors: I. Ludviga, A. Kalvina

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This paper aims to link together the concepts of job satisfaction, work engagement, trust, job meaningfulness and loyalty to the organisation focusing on specific type of employment – academic jobs. The research investigates the relationships between job satisfaction, work engagement and loyalty as well as the impact of trust and job meaningfulness on the work engagement and loyalty. The survey was conducted in one of the largest Latvian higher education institutions and the sample was drawn from academic staff (n=326). Structured questionnaire with 44 reflective type questions was developed to measure the constructs. Data was analysed using SPSS and Smart-PLS software. Variance based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to test the model and to predict the most important factors relevant to employee engagement and loyalty. The first order model included two endogenous constructs (loyalty and intention to stay and recommend to work in this organisation, and employee engagement), as well as six exogenous constructs (feeling of fair treatment and trust in management; career growth opportunities; compensation, pay and benefits; management; colleagues and teamwork; and finally job meaningfulness). Job satisfaction was developed as second order construct and both: first and second order models were designed for data analysis. It was found that academics are more engaged than satisfied with their work and main reason for that was found to be job meaningfulness, which is significant predictor for work engagement, but not for job satisfaction. Compensation is not significantly related to work engagement, but only to job satisfaction. Trust was not significantly related neither to engagement, nor to satisfaction, however, it appeared to be significant predictor of loyalty and intentions to stay with the University. Paper revealed academic jobs as specific kind of employment where employees can be more engaged than satisfied and highlighted the specific role of job meaningfulness in the University settings.

Keywords: Job satisfaction, job meaningfulness, higher education, work engagement.

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Authors: Lovorka Galetic, Zeljko Vukelic

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The advanced concepts of strategic and innovation management in the sphere of company dynamic and innovation capabilities, and achieving their mutual alignment and a synergy effect, are important elements in business today. This paper analyses the theory and empirically investigates the influence of a company’s dynamic capabilities on its innovation capabilities. A new multidimensional model of dynamic capabilities is presented, consisting of five factors appropriate to real time requirements, while innovation capabilities are considered pursuant to the official OECD and Eurostat standards. After examination of dynamic and innovation capabilities indicated their theoretical links, the empirical study testing the model and examining the influence of a company’s dynamic capabilities on its innovation capabilities showed significant results. In the study, a research model was posed to relate company dynamic and innovation capabilities. One side of the model features the variables that are the determinants of dynamic capabilities defined through their factors, while the other side features the determinants of innovation capabilities pursuant to the official standards. With regard to the research model, five hypotheses were set. The study was performed in late 2014 on a representative sample of large and very large Croatian enterprises with a minimum of 250 employees. The research instrument was a questionnaire administered to company top management. For both variables, the position of the company was tested in comparison to industry competitors, on a fivepoint scale. In order to test the hypotheses, correlation tests were performed to determine whether there is a correlation between each individual factor of company dynamic capabilities with the existence of its innovation capabilities, in line with the research model. The results indicate a strong correlation between a company’s possession of dynamic capabilities in terms of their factors, due to the new multi-dimensional model presented in this paper, with its possession of innovation capabilities. Based on the results, all five hypotheses were accepted. Ultimately, it was concluded that there is a strong association between the dynamic and innovation capabilities of a company. 

Keywords: Dynamic capabilities, innovation capabilities, competitive advantage, business results.

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