Search results for: Global Optimization Heuristics

Authors: Raúl Pereda García, Julio Manuel de Luis Ruiz, Elena Castillo López, Rubén Pérez Álvarez, Felipe Piña García

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New technologies for the capture of point clouds have experienced a great advance in recent years. In this way, its use has been extended in geomatics, providing measurement solutions that have been popularized without there being, many times, a detailed study of its accuracy. This research focuses on the study of the viability of topographic works with drones incorporating different sensors sensitive to the visible spectrum. The fundamentals have been applied to a road, located in Cantabria (Spain), where a platform extension and the reform of a riprap were being constructed. A total of six flights were made during two months, all of them with GPS as part of the photogrammetric process, and the results were contrasted with those measured with total station. The obtained results show that the choice of the camera and the planning of the flight have an important impact on the accuracy. In fact, the representations with a level of detail corresponding to 1/1000 scale are admissible, depending on the existing vegetation, and obtaining better results in the area of the riprap. This set of techniques is, therefore, suitable for the control of earthworks in road works but with certain limitations which are exposed in this paper.

Keywords: Drone, earth movement control, global position system, surveying technology.

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Authors: Dong-Young Yoo, Jong-Whoi Shin, Gang Shin Lee, Jae-Il Lee

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As the disfunctions of the information society and social development progress, intrusion problems such as malicious replies, spam mail, private information leakage, phishing, and pharming, and side effects such as the spread of unwholesome information and privacy invasion are becoming serious social problems. Illegal access to information is also becoming a problem as the exchange and sharing of information increases on the basis of the extension of the communication network. On the other hand, as the communication network has been constructed as an international, global system, the legal response against invasion and cyber-attack from abroad is facing its limit. In addition, in an environment where the important infrastructures are managed and controlled on the basis of the information communication network, such problems pose a threat to national security. Countermeasures to such threats are developed and implemented on a yearly basis to protect the major infrastructures of information communication. As a part of such measures, we have developed a methodology for assessing the information protection level which can be used to establish the quantitative object setting method required for the improvement of the information protection level.

Keywords: Information Security Evaluation Methodology, Critical Information Infrastructure Protection.

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Authors: Zohreh Bang Tavakoli, Shuktika Chatterjee

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This study investigates the fiscal policy impact on countries’ economic growth in developing countries with a different external debt level. The fiscal policy effectiveness has been re-emphasized in the global financial crisis of 2008 with the external debt as its new contemporary driver. Different theories have proposed the economic consequence of fiscal policy, specifically for developing countries. However, fiscal policy literature is lacking research regarding the fiscal policy’s effectiveness with the external debt’s contributions through comprehensive study. Also, high levels of external debt will influence economic growth. Through foreign resources and channel of investment in which high level of debt decreases the amount of foreign investment in the developing countries. The finding of this study suggests that only countries with a low external debt level and appropriate fiscal policies and good quality institutions can gain the proper quantity and quality of foreign investors in which will help the economic growth. For this, this research is examining the impact of fiscal policy on developing countries' economic growth in the situation of different external debt levels.

Keywords: fiscal policy, external debt, gross domestic product, developing countries

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Authors: A. Al-Mazloum, E. Omer, M. F. A. Abdullah

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Recently many cases of missing children between ages 14 and 17 years are reported. Parents always worry about the possibility of kidnapping of their children. This paper proposes an Android based solution to aid parents to track their children in real time. Nowadays, most mobile phones are equipped with location services capabilities allowing us to get the device’s geographic position in real time. The proposed solution takes the advantage of the location services provided by mobile phone since most of kids carry mobile phones. The mobile application use the GPS and SMS services found in Android mobile phones. It allows the parent to get their child’s location on a real time map. The system consists of two sides, child side and parent side. A parent’s device main duty is to send a request location SMS to the child’s device to get the location of the child. On the other hand, the child’s device main responsibility is to reply the GPS position to the parent’s device upon request.

Keywords: Child Tracking System, Global Positioning System (GPS), SMS-based Mobile Application.

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Authors: Astiaj Khoramshahi, Hossein Ahmadi Danesh Ashtiani, Ahmad Khoshgard, Hamidreza Damghani, Leila Damghani

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Rural electrification rates are generally low in Iran and many parts of the world that lack sustainable renewable energy resources. Many homes are based on polluting solutions such as crude oil and diesel generators for lighting, heating, and charging electrical gadgets. Small-scale portable solar battery packs are accessible to the public; however, they have low capacity and are challenging to be distributed in developing countries. To design a battery-based microgrid power systems, the load profile is one of the key parameters. Additionally, the reliability of the system should be taken into account. A conventional microgrid system can be either AC or coupling DC. Both AC and DC microgrids have advantages and disadvantages depending on their application and can be either connected to the main grid or perform independently. This article proposes a tool for optimal sizing of microgrid-independent systems via respective analysis. To show such an analysis, the type of power generation, number of panels, battery capacity, microgrid size, and group of available consumers should be considered. Therefore, the optimization of different design scenarios is based on number of solar panels and super saving sources, ranges of the depth of discharges, to calculate size and estimate the overall cost. Generally, it is observed that there is an inverse relationship between the depth spectrum of discharge and the solar microgrid costs.

Keywords: Storage, super-storage, grid-independent, economic factors, microgrid.

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Authors: Yessengeldy Kuanyshpayev

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Now in some countries of the world the cellular market is on the point of saturation, in others - positive dynamics of development kept on. The reasons for it are also different, but there are united by their general susceptibility to innovation changes, if they are really innovative. If to take as an example the cellular market of Kazakhstan it is defined by the low percent of smart phones at consumers, the low population density, undercapacity of the 3G channel, and absence of universal access to the LTE technology that limits dynamical growth of this branch. These moments are aggravated by failures of starting commercial projects by private companies which prevent to be implemented and widely adopted to a new product among consumers. The object of the research is possible integration of wireless and program technologies at which introduction the idea can regenerate in an innovation. The analysis of existing projects in the market and the possible union of the technologies through a prism of theoretical bases of innovative activity shows that efficiency of the company by development and introduction of innovations is possible only thanks to strict observance of all terms and conditions of the innovative process which main term is profit. Despite that fact that on a global scale the innovativeness issue of companies is very popular, there are no researches about possibility of innovative breaks in the field of wireless access to the Internet in the cellular market of Kazakhstan.

Keywords: Cellular market, commercialization, innovation, the effectiveness of company.

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Authors: Ndidi F. Amulu, Patrick E. Amulu, Gordian O. Mbah, Callistus N. Ude

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Comparative analysis of the properties of melon seed, coconut fruit and their oil yield were evaluated in this work using standard analytical technique AOAC. The results of the analysis carried out revealed that the moisture contents of the samples studied are 11.15% (melon) and 7.59% (coconut). The crude lipid content are 46.10% (melon) and 55.15% (coconut).The treatment combinations used (leaching time, leaching temperature and solute: solvent ratio) showed significant difference (p < 0.05) in yield between the samples, with melon oil seed flour having a higher percentage range of oil yield (41.30 – 52.90%) and coconut (36.25 – 49.83%). The physical characterization of the extracted oil was also carried out. The values gotten for refractive index are 1.487 (melon seed oil) and 1.361 (coconut oil) and viscosities are 0.008 (melon seed oil) and 0.002 (coconut oil). The chemical analysis of the extracted oils shows acid value of 1.00mg NaOH/g oil (melon oil), 10.050mg NaOH/g oil (coconut oil) and saponification value of 187.00mg/KOH (melon oil) and 183.26mg/KOH (coconut oil). The iodine value of the melon oil gave 75.00mg I2/g and 81.00mg I2/g for coconut oil. A standard statistical package Minitab version 16.0 was used in the regression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The statistical software mentioned above was also used to optimize the leaching process. Both samples gave high oil yield at the same optimal conditions. The optimal conditions to obtain highest oil yield ≥ 52% (melon seed) and ≥ 48% (coconut seed) are solute - solvent ratio of 40g/ml, leaching time of 2hours and leaching temperature of 50oC. The two samples studied have potential of yielding oil with melon seed giving the higher yield.

Keywords: Coconut, melon, optimization, processing.

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Authors: N. Boontian

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Biological conversion of biomass to methane has received increasing attention in recent years. Grasses have been explored for their potential anaerobic digestion to methane. In this review, extensive literature data have been tabulated and classified. The influences of several parameters on the potential of these feedstocks to produce methane are presented. Lignocellulosic biomass represents a mostly unused source for biogas and ethanol production. Many factors, including lignin content, crystallinity of cellulose, and particle size, limit the digestibility of the hemicellulose and cellulose present in the lignocellulosic biomass. Pretreatments have used to improve the digestibility of the lignocellulosic biomass. Each pretreatment has its own effects on cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, the three main components of lignocellulosic biomass. Solidstate anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) generally occurs at solid concentrations higher than 15%. In contrast, liquid anaerobic digestion (AD) handles feedstocks with solid concentrations between 0.5% and 15%. Animal manure, sewage sludge, and food waste are generally treated by liquid AD, while organic fractions of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and lignocellulosic biomass such as crop residues and energy crops can be processed through SS-AD. An increase in operating temperature can improve both the biogas yield and the production efficiency, other practices such as using AD digestate or leachate as an inoculant or decreasing the solid content may increase biogas yield but have negative impact on production efficiency. Focus is placed on substrate pretreatment in anaerobic digestion (AD) as a means of increasing biogas yields using today’s diversified substrate sources.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion, Lignocellulosic biomass, Methane production, Optimization, Pretreatment.

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Authors: Veruska C. Dutra, Afonso R. Aquino

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Since the 1980s, global tourism activity has consolidated worldwide to become an important economic contributor, and consequently, the sociocultural and environmental impacts are starting to become evidenced. This raises the need of discussing about actions for sustainable tourism that should be linked not only to the economy, but also to the environment and social aspects. The work that is going to be presented is part of a doctoral research project in Sciences undertaken at the Sao Paulo University, Brazil. It aims to analyze whether the monitoring of the tourism sector with a focus on sustainability is applicable or not, through those indicators, put in a case study in the Jalapão State Park (JSP) conservation unit, in the state of Tocantins, Brazil. This is a study of an interdisciplinary nature that had the deductive method as its guide. We concluded that the key points of the sustainable tourism, when analyzed with the focal point in environmental indicators, are an important evaluation and quantification tool of that activity in the study locus. It displayed itself as an adequate tool for monitoring, thus decoding, the main environmental impacts that occur in tourism regions and their intensity, which is made possible through analysis, and has the objective to trace ways to prevent and correct the presented impacts.

Keywords: Economic indicators, tourism, sustainability, Jalapão.

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Authors: Hynek Chlup, Lukas Horny, Rudolf Zitny, Svatava Konvickova, Tomas Adamek

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Coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG) are widely studied with respect to hemodynamic conditions which play important role in presence of a restenosis. However, papers which concern with constitutive modeling of CABG are lacking in the literature. The purpose of this study is to find a constitutive model for CABG tissue. A sample of the CABG obtained within an autopsy underwent an inflation–extension test. Displacements were recoredered by CCD cameras and subsequently evaluated by digital image correlation. Pressure – radius and axial force – elongation data were used to fit material model. The tissue was modeled as onelayered composite reinforced by two families of helical fibers. The material is assumed to be locally orthotropic, nonlinear, incompressible and hyperelastic. Material parameters are estimated for two strain energy functions (SEF). The first is classical exponential. The second SEF is logarithmic which allows interpretation by means of limiting (finite) strain extensibility. Presented material parameters are estimated by optimization based on radial and axial equilibrium equation in a thick-walled tube. Both material models fit experimental data successfully. The exponential model fits significantly better relationship between axial force and axial strain than logarithmic one.

Keywords: Constitutive model, coronary artery bypass graft, digital image correlation, fiber reinforced composite, inflation test, saphenous vein.

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Authors: M. Mohebbi, K. Shakeri

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The effect of different combinations of response feedback on the performance of active control system on nonlinear frames has been studied in this paper. To this end different feedback combinations including displacement, velocity, acceleration and full response feedback have been utilized in controlling the response of an eight story bilinear hysteretic frame which has been subjected to a white noise excitation and controlled by eight actuators which could fully control the frame. For active control of nonlinear frame Newmark nonlinear instantaneous optimal control algorithm has been used which a diagonal matrix has been selected for weighting matrices in performance index. For optimal design of active control system while the objective has been to reduce the maximum drift to below the yielding level, Distributed Genetic Algorithm (DGA) has been used to determine the proper set of weighting matrices. The criteria to assess the effect of each combination of response feedback have been the minimum required control force to reduce the maximum drift to below the yielding drift. The results of numerical simulation show that the performance of active control system is dependent on the type of response feedback where the velocity feedback is more effective in designing optimal control system in comparison with displacement and acceleration feedback. Also using full feedback of response in controller design leads to minimum control force amongst other combinations. Also the distributed genetic algorithm shows acceptable convergence speed in solving the optimization problem of designing active control systems.

Keywords: Active control, Distributed genetic algorithms, Response feedback, Weighting matrices.

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Authors: Gurjeet Singh, M. K. Pradhan, Ajay Verma

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The plastic industry plays very important role in the economy of any country. It is generally among the leading share of the economy of the country. Since metals and their alloys are very rarely available on the earth. Therefore, to produce plastic products and components, which finds application in many industrial as well as household consumer products is beneficial. Since 50% plastic products are manufactured by injection moulding process. For production of better quality product, we have to control quality characteristics and performance of the product. The process parameters plays a significant role in production of plastic, hence the control of process parameter is essential. In this paper the effect of the parameters selection on injection moulding process has been described. It is to define suitable parameters in producing plastic product. Selecting the process parameter by trial and error is neither desirable nor acceptable, as it is often tends to increase the cost and time. Hence, optimization of processing parameter of injection moulding process is essential. The experiments were designed with Taguchi’s orthogonal array to achieve the result with least number of experiments. Plastic material polypropylene is studied. Tensile strength test of material is done on universal testing machine, which is produced by injection moulding machine. By using Taguchi technique with the help of MiniTab-14 software the best value of injection pressure, melt temperature, packing pressure and packing time is obtained. We found that process parameter packing pressure contribute more in production of good tensile plastic product.

Keywords: Injection moulding, tensile strength, Taguchi method, poly-propylene.

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Authors: F. O. Omoya

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Food borne illnesses have been reported to be a global health challenge. Annual incidences of food–related diseases involve 76 million cases, of which only 14 million can be traced to known pathogens. Poor hygienic practices have contributed greatly to this. It has been reported that in the year 2000 about 2.1 million people died from diarrheal diseases, hence, there is a need to ensure food safety at all level. This study focused on the sterility examination and inhibitory effect of honey samples on selected gram negative and gram positive food borne pathogen from South West Nigeria. The laboratory examinations revealed the presence of some bacterial and fungal contaminations of honey samples and that inhibitory activity of the honey sample was more pronounced on the gram negative bacteria than the gram positive bacterial isolates. Antibiotic sensitivity test conducted on the different bacterial isolates also showed that honey was able to inhibit the proliferation of the tested bacteria than the employed antibiotics.

Keywords: Food borne illness, gram positive and gram negative bacteria, honey, and inhibitory activity.

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Authors: S. Manzoor, A. Nadeem, M. Javed, ME. Babar

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A major goal in animal genetics is to understand the role of common genetic variants in diseases susceptibility and production traits. Sahiwal cattle can be considered as a global animal genetic resource due to its relatively high milk producing ability, resistance against tropical diseases and heat tolerant. CYP11B1 gene provides instructions for making a mitochondrial enzyme called steroid 11-beta-hydroxylase. It catalyzes the 11deoxy-cortisol to cortisol and 11deoxycorticosterone to corticosterone in cattle. The bovine CYP11B1 gene is positioned on BTA14q12 comprises of eight introns and nine exons and protein is associated with mitochondrial epithelium. The present study was aimed to identify the single-nucleotide polymorphisms in CYP11B1 gene in Sahiwal cattle breed of Pakistan. Four polymorphic sites were identified in exon one of CYP11B1 gene through sequencing approach. Significant finding was the incidence of the C→T polymorphism in 5'-UTR, causing amino acid substitution from alanine to valine (A30V) in Sahiwal cattle breed. That Ala/Val polymorphism may serve as a powerful genetic tool for the development of DNA markers that can be used for the particular traits for different local cattle breeds.

Keywords: CYP11B1, single nucleotide polymorphism, sahiwal cattle, Pakistan.

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Authors: Tisciane Perpetuo e Oliveira, Dante Inga Narvaez, Marcelo Gradella Villalva

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Installations of solar photovoltaic systems have increased considerably in the last decade. Therefore, it has been noticed that monitoring of meteorological data (solar irradiance, air temperature, wind velocity, etc.) is important to predict the potential of a given geographical area in solar energy production. In this sense, the present work compares two computational tools that are capable of estimating the energy generation of a photovoltaic system through correlation analyzes of solar radiation data: PVsyst software and an algorithm based on the PVlib package implemented in MATLAB. In order to achieve the objective, it was necessary to obtain solar radiation data (measured and from a solarimetric database), analyze the decomposition of global solar irradiance in direct normal and horizontal diffuse components, as well as analyze the modeling of the devices of a photovoltaic system (solar modules and inverters) for energy production calculations. Simulated results were compared with experimental data in order to evaluate the performance of the studied methods. Errors in estimation of energy production were less than 30% for the MATLAB algorithm and less than 20% for the PVsyst software.

Keywords: Energy production, meteorological data, irradiance decomposition, solar photovoltaic system.

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Authors: Murat Colak, Berkay Cakir Saridogan

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Since the dawn of modern corporations, almost every single employee has been working in the same loop, which contains three basic steps: going to work, providing the needs for the work, and getting back home. Only a small amount of people was able to break that standard and live outside the box. As the 2019 pandemic hit the Earth and most companies shut down their physical offices, that loop had to change for everyone. This means that the old management styles had to be significantly re-arranged to the "work from home" type of business methods. The methods include online conferences and meetings, time and task tracking using algorithms, globalization of the work, and, most importantly, remote working. After the global epidemic started, even the tech giants were concerned. Now, it can be seen that those technology companies have an incredible step-up in their shares compared to the other companies because they know how to manage such situations even better than every other industry. This study aims to take the old traditional management styles in big companies and compare them with the post-Covid methods (2019-2022). As a result of this comparison made using the annual reports and shared statistics, this study aims to explain why the winners of this crisis are the technology companies.

Keywords: COVID-19, technology companies, business models, remote work.

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Authors: Jalal Soleimannejad, Mohammad Asadizeidabadi, Mahmoud Koorki, Mojtaba Azarpira

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A significant percentage of production costs is the maintenance costs, and analysis of maintenance costs could to achieve greater productivity and competitiveness. With this is mind, the maintenance of machines and installations is considered as an essential part of organizational functions and applying effective strategies causes significant added value in manufacturing activities. Organizations are trying to achieve performance levels on a global scale with emphasis on creating competitive advantage by different methods consist of RCM (Reliability-Center-Maintenance), TPM (Total Productivity Maintenance) etc. In this study, increasing the capacity of Concentration Plant of Golgohar Iron Ore Mining & Industrial Company (GEG) was examined by using of reliability and maintainability analyses. The results of this research showed that instead of increasing the number of machines (in order to solve the bottleneck problems), the improving of reliability and maintainability would solve bottleneck problems in the best way. It should be mention that in the abovementioned study, the data set of Concentration Plant of GEG as a case study, was applied and analyzed.

Keywords: Bottleneck, Golgohar Iron Ore Mining and Industrial Company, maintainability, maintenance costs, reliability.

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Authors: M. Ricardo Lang, A. Costa, I. Iesbik, K. Haag, L. Trindade Buffara, O. Reimann Junior, C. Auswaldt Steclan

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Stroke affects not only the individual, but has significant impacts on the social and family context. Therefore, it is necessary to know the peculiarities of each region, in order to contribute to regional public health policies effectively. Thus, the present study discusses biomarkers in a post-stroke population, admitted to a stroke unit (U-stroke) of reference in the southern region of Brazil. Biomarkers were analyzed, such as age, length of stay, mortality rate, survival time, risk factors and family history of stroke in patients after ischemic stroke. In this studied population, comparing men and women, it was identified that men were more affected than women, and the average age of women affected was higher, as they also had the highest mortality rate and the shortest hospital stay. The risk factors identified here were according to the global scenario; with systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) being the most frequent and those associated with sedentary lifestyle in women the most frequent (dyslipidemia, heart disease and obesity). In view of this, the importance of studies that characterize populations regionally is evident, strengthening the strategic planning of policies in favor of health care.

Keywords: Biomarkers, population, stroke, sex, stroke unit.

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Authors: M. S. Alam, M. R. Alam, Nusrat Jahan Imu

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This paper presents a computer simulation model based on system dynamics methodology for analyzing the dynamic characteristics of input energy structure in agriculture and Bangladesh is used here as a case study for model validation. The model provides an input energy structure linking the major energy flows with human energy and draft energy from cattle as well as tractors and/or power tillers, irrigation, chemical fertilizer and pesticide. The evaluation is made in terms of different energy dependent indicators. During the simulation period, the energy input to agriculture increased from 6.1 to 19.15 GJ/ha i.e. 2.14 fold corresponding to energy output in terms of food, fodder and fuel increase from 71.55 to 163.58 GJ/ha i.e. 1.28 fold from the base year. This result indicates that the energy input in Bangladeshi agricultural production is increasing faster than the energy output. Problems such as global warming, nutrient loading and pesticide pollution can associate with this increasing input. For an assessment, a comparative statement of input energy use in agriculture of developed countries (DCs) and least developed countries (LDCs) including Bangladesh has been made. The performance of the model is found satisfactory to analyze the agricultural energy system for LDCs

Keywords: Agriculture, energy indicator, system dynamics, energy flows.

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Authors: Oladeinde Mobolaji Humphrey, Akpobi John

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A mathematical model for the hydrodynamic lubrication of parabolic slider bearings with couple stress lubricants is presented. A numerical solution for the mathematical model using finite element scheme is obtained using three nodes isoparametric quadratic elements. Stiffness integrals obtained from the weak form of the governing equations were solved using Gauss Quadrature to obtain a finite number of stiffness matrices. The global system of equations was obtained for the bearing and solved using Gauss Seidel iterative scheme. The converged pressure solution was used to obtain the load capacity of the bearing. Parametric studies were carried out and it was shown that the effect of couple stresses and profile parameter are to increase the load carrying capacity of the parabolic slider bearing. Numerical experiments reveal that the magnitude of the profile parameter at which maximum load is obtained increases with decrease in couple stress parameter. The results are presented in graphical form.

Keywords: Finite element, numerical, parabolic slider.

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Authors: Mathias Rossi, Silna Borter, Marie Sansonnens

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Entrepreneurs are important for national labour markets and economies in that they contribute significantly to economic growth as well as provide the majority of jobs and create new ones. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s “Report on Women and Entrepreneurship”, investment in women’s entrepreneurship is an important way to exponentially increase the impact of new venture creation finding ways to empower women’s participation and success in entrepreneurship are critical for more sustainable and successful economic development. Our results confirm that they are still differences between men and women entrepreneurs The reasons seems to be the lack of specific business skills, the less extensive social network, and the lack of identification patterns among women. Those differences can be explained by the fact that women still have fewer opportunities to make a career. If this is correct, we can predict an increasing proportion of women among entrepreneurs in the next years. Concerning the development of a favorable environment for developing and enhancing women entrepreneurship activities, our results show the insertion in a network and the role of a model doubtless represent elements determining in the choice to launch an entrepreneurship activity, as well as a precious resource for the success of her company.

Keywords: Women entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship motivation, entrepreneurial behavior.

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Authors: Z. Karakus, Z. Ozer

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Nurses are responsible for the care and treatment of individuals, as well as health maintenance and education. Medication administration is an important part of health promotion. The administration of a medicine is a common but important clinical procedure for nurses because of its complex structure. Therefore, medication errors are inevitable for nurses or nursing students. Medication errors can cause ineffective treatment, patient’s prolonged hospital stay, disablement or death. Additionally, medication errors affect the global economy adversely by increasing health costs. Hence, preventing or decreasing of medication errors is a critical and essential issue in nursing. Nurse educators are in pursuit of new teaching methods to teach students significance of medication application. In the light of technological developments of this age, e-learning has started to be accepted as an important teaching method. E-learning is the use of electronic media and information and communication technologies in education. It has advantages such as flexibility of time and place, lower costs, faster delivery and lower environmental impact. Students can make their own schedule and decide the learning method. This study is conducted to determine the impact of e-learning on medication administration of nursing students.

Keywords: E-Learning, Medication Administration, Nursing, Nursing Students.

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Authors: Ngozi Nwogu, Godson Osueke, Mamdud Hossain, Edward Gobina

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An unconventional composite inorganic ceramic membrane capable of enhancing carbon dioxide emission decline was fabricated and tested at laboratory scale in conformism to various environmental guidelines and also to mitigate the effect of global warming. A review of the existing membrane technologies for carbon capture including the relevant gas transport mechanisms is presented. Single gas permeation experiments using silica modified ceramic membrane with internal diameter 20mm, outside diameter 25mm and length of 368mm deposited on a macro porous support was carried out to investigate individual gas permeation behaviours at different pressures at room temperature. Membrane fabrication was achieved using after a dip coating method. Nitrogen, Carbon dioxide, Argon, Oxygen and Methane pure gases were used to investigate their individual permeation rates at various pressures. Results show that the gas flow rate increases with pressure drop. However above a pressure of 3bar, CO2 permeability ratio to that of the other gases indicated control of a more selective surface adsorptive transport mechanism.

Keywords: Carbon dioxide composite inorganic membranes, permeability, transport mechanisms.

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Authors: Abdelkader Dekdouk

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In this paper we propose a novel approach for searching eCommerce products using a mobile phone, illustrated by a prototype eCoMobile. This approach aims to globalize the mobile search by integrating the concept of user multilinguism into it. To show that, we particularly deal with English and Arabic languages. Indeed the mobile user can formulate his query on a commercial product in either language (English/Arabic). The description of his information need on commercial products relies on the ontology that represents the conceptualization of the product catalogue knowledge domain defined in both English and Arabic languages. A query expressed on a mobile device client defines the concept that corresponds to the name of the product followed by a set of pairs (property, value) specifying the characteristics of the product. Once a query is submitted it is then communicated to the server side which analyses it and in its turn performs an http request to an eCommerce application server (like Amazon). This latter responds by returning an XML file representing a set of elements where each element defines an item of the searched product with its specific characteristics. The XML file is analyzed on the server side and then items are displayed on the mobile device client along with its relevant characteristics in the chosen language.

Keywords: Mobile computing, search engine, multilingualglobal eCommerce, ontology, XML.

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Authors: Shyh-Ming Chern, Wei-Ling Lin

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Lignin is a major constituent of woody biomass, and exists abundantly in nature. It is the major byproducts from the paper industry and bioethanol production processes. The byproducts are mainly used for low-valued applications. Instead, lignin can be converted into higher-valued gaseous fuel, thereby helping to curtail the ever-growing price of oil and to slow down the trend of global warming. Although biochemical treatment is capable of converting cellulose into liquid ethanol fuel, it cannot be applied to the conversion of lignin. Alternatively, it is possible to convert lignin into gaseous fuel thermochemically. In the present work, trans-4-hydroxycinnamic acid, a model compound for lignin, which closely resembles the basic building blocks of lignin, is gasified in an autoclave with ethanol at elevated temperatures and pressures, that are above the critical point of ethanol. Ethanol, instead of water, is chosen, because ethanol dissolves trans-4-hydroxycinnamic acid easily and helps to convert it into lighter gaseous species relatively well. The major operating parameters for the gasification reaction include temperature (673-873 K), reaction pressure (5-25 MPa) and feed concentration (0.05-0.3 M). Generally, more than 80% of the reactant, including trans-4-hydroxycinnamic acid and ethanol, were converted into gaseous products at an operating condition of 873 K and 5 MPa.

Keywords: Ethanol, gasification, lignin, supercritical.

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Authors: C. Murat, T. Elifnaz

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Today, with globalization, human mobility has increased the interaction between countries significantly, and this contact has also increased the possibility of epidemics, although this contact has moved societies forward in terms of civilization. The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, which caused the most loss of life from these epidemics, quickly swept the whole world with the effect of globalization. The coronavirus epidemic has affected the world economically as well as health problems. While some businesses around the world experienced an extraordinary increase in demand, some businesses temporarily stopped their activities or were forced to do so. Businesses affected by the crisis had to adapt to new legal regulations but had to make changes in matters such as working styles, human resources practices, and policies. One of the measures considered is the reduction of the workforce. The current COVID-19 crisis has created serious challenges for many organizations and has led to an unprecedented wave of termination notices. In this study, examples of companies that were affected by the pandemic process and changed their working policies after the pandemic were examined. This study aims to reveal the impact of the global COVID-19 epidemic on human resources policies and employees and how these situations will affect businesses in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19, human resource management, crisis management, business function.

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Authors: Nieto Bernal W., Luna Amaya C.

Abstract:

This paper aims to present a framework for the organizational knowledge management, which seeks to deploy a standardized structure for the integrated management of knowledge is a common language based on domains, processes and global indicators inspired by the COBIT framework 5 (ISACA, 2012), which supports the integration of three technologies, enterprise information architecture (EIA), the business process modeling (BPM) and service-oriented architecture (SOA). The Gomak Framework is a management platform that seeks to integrate the information technology infrastructure, the structure of applications, information infrastructure, and business logic and business model to support a sound strategy of organizational knowledge management, low process-based approach and concurrent engineering. Concurrent engineering (CE) is a systematic approach to integrated product development that respond to customer expectations, involving all perspectives in parallel, from the beginning of the product life cycle. (European Space Agency, 2000).

Keywords: Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Information Architecture, Government and Knowledge Management, Service Oriented Architecture, Process Management.

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Authors: M. van der Bank

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This study involves a legal analysis of the case Earthlife Africa Johannesburg v Minister of Environmental Affairs and Others. The case considered the impact of the Thabametsi Power Project if it operated to the expected year 2060 on the global climate and ever-changing climate, in South Africa. This judgment highlights the significance, place and principles of climate change and where climate change impacts the South African environmental law which has its founding principles in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This paper seeks to examine the advances for climate change regulation and application in terms of international law, in South Africa, through a qualitative study involving comparative national and international case law. A literature review study was conducted to compare and contrast the various aspects of law in order to support the argument undertaken. The paper presents a detailed discussion of the current legislation and the position as it currently stands with reference to international law and interpretation. The relevant protections as outlined in the National Environmental Management Act will be discussed. It then proceeds to outline the potential liability of the Minister in the interpretation and application of international law.

Keywords: Climate change, environment, environmental review, international law, principles.

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Authors: Ying Yu, Wen-Chi Kuo, Tung-Jung Sung

Abstract:

The Product-Service System (PSS) has received widespread attention due to the increasing global competition in manufacturing and service markets. Today’s smart products and services are driven by Internet of things (IoT) technologies which will promote the transformation from traditional PSS to smart PSS. Although the smart PSS has some of technological achievements in businesses, it often ignores the real demands of target users when using products and services. Therefore, designers should know and learn the User Experience (UX) of smart products, services and systems. However, both of academia and industry still lack relevant development experience of smart PSS since it is an emerging field. In doing so, this is a case study of Xiaomi’s Chunmi, the largest IoT platform in the world, and addresses the two major issues: (1) why Chunmi should develop smart PSS strategies with UX; and (2) how Chunmi could successfully implement the strategic objectives of smart PSS through the design. The case study results indicated that: (1) the smart PSS can distinguish competitors by their unique UX which is difficult to duplicate; (2) early user engagement is crucial for the success of smart PSS; and (3) interaction, expectation, and enjoyment can be treated as a three-dimensional evaluation of UX design for smart PSS innovation. In conclusion, the smart PSS can gain competitive advantages through good UX design in the market.

Keywords: Design research, smart PSS, user experience, user engagement.

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Authors: N. S. Imamverdiyev

Abstract:

The transition to renewable energy sources has become a critical component of global efforts to mitigate climate change and promote sustainable development. However, the deployment of renewable energy technologies can also have significant impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide, such as carbon sequestration, soil fertility, water quality, and biodiversity. These technologies also highlight the potential co-benefits of renewable energy deployment for ecosystem services, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air and water quality. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydro, and biomass, are increasingly being used to meet the world's energy needs due to their environmentally friendly nature and the desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the expansion of renewable energy infrastructure can also impact ecosystem services, which are the benefits that humans derive from nature, such as clean water, air, and food. This geographic assessment aims to evaluate the relationship between renewable energy infrastructure and ecosystem services. Potential solutions such as the use of ecological benefit measures, biodiversity-friendly design of renewable energy infrastructure, and stakeholder participation in decision-making processes are being investigated to determine the positive effects of renewable energy infrastructure on ecosystem services.

Keywords: Renewable energy, solar energy, climate change, energy production.

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