Search results for: Diversity Indices

Authors: Ekta Singh

Abstract:

Indices summarizing community structure are used to evaluate fundamental community ecology, species interaction, biogeographical factors, and environmental stress. Some of these indices are insensitive to gross community changes induced by contaminants of pollution. Diversity indices and similarity indices are reviewed considering their ecological application, both theoretical and practical. For some useful indices, empirical equations are given to calculate the expected maximum value of the indices to which the observed values can be related at any combination of sample sizes at the experimental sites. This paper examines the effects of sample size and diversity on the expected values of diversity indices and similarity indices, using various formulae. It has been shown that all indices are strongly affected by sample size and diversity. In some indices, this influence is greater than the others and an attempt has been made to deal with these influences.

Keywords: Biogeographical factors, Diversity Indices, Ecology and Similarity Indices

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Authors: Gebriel M. Shamia

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The Improved Generalized Diversity Index (IGDI) has been proposed as a tool that can be used to identify areas that have high conservation value and measure the ecological condition of an area. IGDI is based on the species relative abundances. This paper is concerned with particular attention is given to comparisons involving the MacArthur model of species abundances. The properties and performance of various species indices were assessed. Both IGDI and species richness increased with sampling area according to a power function. IGDI were also found to be acceptable ecological indicators of conditions and consistently outperformed coefficient of conservatism indices.

Keywords: Statistical ecology, MacArthur model, Functional Diversity.

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Authors: Mahsa Tavakoli, Seyed Mohammad Hojjati, Yahya Kooch

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Considering that coal mining is one of the important industrial activities, it may cause damages to environment. According to the author’s best knowledge, the effect of traditional coal mining activities on plant biodiversity has not been investigated in the Hyrcanian forests. Therefore, in this study, the effect of coal mining activities on vegetation and tree diversity was investigated in Hyrcanian forest, North Iran. After filed visiting and determining the mine, 16 plots (20×20 m²) were established by systematic-randomly (60×60 m²) in an area of 4 ha (200×200 m²-mine entrance placed at center). An area adjacent to the mine was not affected by the mining activity, and it is considered as the control area. In each plot, the data about trees such as number and type of species were recorded. The biodiversity of vegetation cover was considered 5 square sub-plots (1 m²) in each plot. PAST software and Ecological Methodology were used to calculate Biodiversity indices. The value of Shannon Wiener and Simpson diversity indices for tree cover in control area (1.04±0.34 and 0.62±0.20) was significantly higher than mining area (0.78±0.27 and 0.45±0.14). The value of evenness indices for tree cover in the mining area was significantly lower than that of the control area. The value of Shannon Wiener and Simpson diversity indices for vegetation cover in the control area (1.37±0.06 and 0.69±0.02) was significantly higher than the mining area (1.02±0.13 and 0.50±0.07). The value of evenness index in the control area was significantly higher than the mining area. Plant communities are a good indicator of the changes in the site. Study about changes in vegetation biodiversity and plant dynamics in the degraded land can provide necessary information for forest management and reforestation of these areas.

Keywords: Vegetation biodiversity, species composition, traditional coal mining, caspian forest.

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Authors: Reza Mokhtari Malek Abadi, Mohsen Saghaei, Fatima Iman

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This paper investigates the indices of a creative city in Isfahan. Its main aim is to evaluate quantitative status of the creative city indices in Isfahan city, analyze the dispersion and distribution of these indices in Isfahan city. Concerning these, this study tries to analyze the creative city indices in fifteen area of Isfahan through secondary data, questionnaire, TOPSIS model, Shannon entropy and SPSS. Based on this, the fifteen areas of Isfahan city have been ranked with 12 factors of creative city indices. The results of studies show that fifteen areas of Isfahan city are not equally benefiting from creative indices and there is much difference between the areas of Isfahan city.

Keywords: Grading, creative city, creative city evaluation indicators, regional planning model.

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Authors: Robin C. Ladwig

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Human resources, especially diversity management, play a significant role in the recruitment, retainment, and management of transgender and gender diverse individuals in organisations. Although, the inclusion of transgender and gender diversity as part of gender identity diversity has been mostly neglected within the diversity management practice and research. One reason is cisnormative gender binarism that limits inclusive diversity and human resource management which leads to the exclusion and discrimination of transgender and gender diverse employees. This qualitative multi-method research found three stages of diversity management to engage with transgender and gender diversity in the organisational context: intuitive, reactive, and proactive. While the influence of cisnormative gender binarism and the awareness of transgender and gender diversity varies between these three forms, the application of the queering approach to diversity management could increase the inclusion of gender identity diversity beyond the gender binary.

Keywords: Cisnormativity, diversity management, gender binarism, transgender, gender diversity.

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Authors: S. Jadid, S. Jalilzadeh

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In this paper, an improved technique for contingency ranking using artificial neural network (ANN) is presented. The proposed approach is based on multi-layer perceptrons trained by backpropagation to contingency analysis. Severity indices in dynamic stability assessment are presented. These indices are based on the concept of coherency and three dot products of the system variables. It is well known that some indices work better than others for a particular power system. This paper along with test results using several different systems, demonstrates that combination of indices with ANN provides better ranking than a single index. The presented results are obtained through the use of power system simulation (PSS/E) and MATLAB 6.5 software.

Keywords: composite indices, transient stability, neural network.

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Authors: Essam Al-Daoud

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A New features are extracted and compared to improve the prediction of protein-protein interactions. The basic idea is to select and use the best set of features from the Tensor matrices that are produced by the frequency vectors of the protein sequences. Three set of features are compared, the first set is based on the indices that are the most common in the interacting proteins, the second set is based on the indices that tend to be common in the interacting and non-interacting proteins, and the third set is constructed by using random indices. Moreover, three encoding strategies are compared; that are based on the amino asides polarity, structure, and chemical properties. The experimental results indicate that the highest accuracy can be obtained by using random indices with chemical properties encoding strategy and support vector machine.

Keywords: protein-protein interactions, random indices, encoding strategies, support vector machine.

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Authors: Raju Kaduru, Narsaiah Srinivas Gondlala

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This paper presents an analytical approach for evaluating distribution system reliability indices in the presence of distributed generation. Modeling distributed generation and evaluation of distribution system reliability indices using the frequency duration technique. Using model implements and case studies are discussed. Results showed that location of DG and its effect in distribution reliability indices. In this respect, impact of DG on distribution system is investigated using the IEEE Roy Billinton test system (RBTS2) included feeder 1. Therefore, it will help to the distribution system planners in the DG resource placement.

Keywords: Distributed Generation, DG Location, Distribution System, Reliability Indices.

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Authors: H. H. Goh, Q. S. Chua, S. W. Lee, B. C. Kok, K. C. Goh, K. T. K. Teo

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At present, the evaluation of voltage stability assessment experiences sizeable anxiety in the safe operation of power systems. This is due to the complications of a strain power system. With the snowballing of power demand by the consumers and also the restricted amount of power sources, therefore, the system has to perform at its maximum proficiency. Consequently, the noteworthy to discover the maximum ability boundary prior to voltage collapse should be undertaken. A preliminary warning can be perceived to evade the interruption of power system’s capacity. The effectiveness of line voltage stability indices (LVSI) is differentiated in this paper. The main purpose of the indices used is to predict the proximity of voltage instability of the electric power system. On the other hand, the indices are also able to decide the weakest load buses which are close to voltage collapse in the power system. The line stability indices are assessed using the IEEE 14 bus test system to validate its practicability. Results demonstrated that the implemented indices are practically relevant in predicting the manifestation of voltage collapse in the system. Therefore, essential actions can be taken to dodge the incident from arising.

Keywords: Critical line, line outage, line voltage stability indices (LVSI), maximum loadability, voltage collapse, voltage instability, voltage stability analysis.

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Authors: Hyeondal Jeong, Yoonjung Baek

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The main purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of diversity sensitive orientation on job satisfaction and turnover intention. Diversity sensitive orientation is the attitude of the individual to respect and accommodate diversity. This is focused on an individual’s perception of diversity. Although being made from the most diversity related research team and organizational level, this study deals with diversity issues at the individual level. To test the proposed research model and hypothesis, the data were collected from 291 Korean employees. The study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis for the validity test. Furthermore, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized relationship in the conceptual model. The results of this paper were as followings: First, diversity sensitive orientation was positively related to job satisfaction. Second, diversity sensitive orientation was negatively related to turnover intention. In other words, the positive influence of the diversity sensitive orientation has been verified. Based on the findings, this study suggested implications and directions for future research.

Keywords: Diversity sensitive orientation, job satisfaction, turnover intention, perception, cognition.

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Authors: Hasan Kalyoncu, Burcu Şerbetci

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Diatoms are an important group of aquatic ecosystems and diatom-based indices are increasingly becoming important tools for the assessment of ecological conditions in lotic systems. Although the studies are very limited about Turkish rivers, diatom indices were used for monitoring rivers in different basins. In the present study, we used OMNIDIA program for estimation of stream quality. Some indices have less sensitive (IDP, WAT, LOBO, GENRE, TID, CEE, PT), intermediate sensitivities (IDSE, DESCY, IPS, DI-CH, SLA, IDAP), the others higher sensitivities (SID, IBD, SHE, EPI-D). Among the investigated diatom communities, only a few taxa indicated alfa-mesosaprobity and polysaprobity. Most of the sites were characterized by a great relative contribution of eutraphent and tolerant ones as well as oligosaprobic and betamesosaprobic diatoms. In general, SID and IBD indices gave the best results. This study suggests that the structure of benthic diatom communities and diatom indices, especially SID, can be applied for monitoring rivers in Southern Turkey. 

Keywords: Diatom, Darı stream, OMNIDIA, Turkey, Water quality.

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Authors: F. Vallée, J-F. Toubeau, Z. De Grève, J. Lobry

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When evaluating the capacity of a generation park to cover the load in transmission systems, traditional Loss of Load Expectation (LOLE) and Expected Energy not Served (EENS) indices can be used. If those indices allow computing the annual duration and severity of load non covering situations, they do not take into account the fact that the load excess is generally shifted from one penury state (hour or quarter of an hour) to the following one. In this paper, a sequential Monte Carlo framework is introduced in order to compute adjusted LOLE and EENS indices. Practically, those adapted indices permit to consider the effect of load excess transfer on the global adequacy of a generation park, providing thus a more accurate evaluation of this quantity.

Keywords: Expected Energy not Served, Loss of Load Expectation, Monte Carlo simulation, reliability, wind generation.

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Authors: Fariba Esfandiary, Ghafoor Aghaie, Ali Dolati Mehr

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Wheat prediction was carried out using different meteorological variables together with agro meteorological indices in Ardebil district for the years 2004-2005 & 2005–2006. On the basis of correlation coefficients, standard error of estimate as well as relative deviation of predicted yield from actual yield using different statistical models, the best subset of agro meteorological indices were selected including daily minimum temperature (Tmin), accumulated difference of maximum & minimum temperatures (TD), growing degree days (GDD), accumulated water vapor pressure deficit (VPD), sunshine hours (SH) & potential evapotranspiration (PET). Yield prediction was done two months in advance before harvesting time which was coincide with commencement of reproductive stage of wheat (5th of June). It revealed that in the final statistical models, 83% of wheat yield variability was accounted for variation in above agro meteorological indices.

Keywords: Wheat yields prediction, agro meteorological indices, statistical models

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Authors: Mahmoud Roushdi, Hany Mostafa, Khaled Kheireldin

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Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal Corridor are promising and important economic regions in Egypt due to the unique location and development opportunities. Thus, the climate change impacts should be assessed over the mentioned area. Accordingly, this paper aims to assess the climate extreme indices in through the last 35 year over Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal Corridor in addition to predict the climate extreme indices up to 2100. Present and future climate indices were analyzed with using different RCP scenarios 4.5 and 8.5 from 2010 until 2100 for Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal Corridor. Furthermore, both CanESM and HadGEM2 global circulation models were used. The results indicate that the number of summer days is predicted to increase, on the other hand the frost days is predicted to decrease. Moreover, it is noted a slight positive trend for the percentile of wet and extremely days R95p and R99p for RCP4.5 and negative trend for RCP8.5.

Keywords: Climate change, extreme indices, RCP, Sinai Peninsula.

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Authors: Mohammad Irfan

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship among the key macroeconomic variables and Islamic stock market in India. This study is based on the time series data of financial years 2009-2015 to explore the consistency of relationship between macroeconomic variables and Shariah Indices. The ADF (Augmented Dickey–Fuller Test Statistic) and PP (Phillips–Perron Test Statistic) tests are employed to check stationarity of the data. The study depicts the long run relationship between Shariah indices and macroeconomic variables by using the Johansen Co-integration test. BSE Shariah and Nifty Shariah have uni-direct Granger causality. The outcome of VECM is significantly confirming the applicability of best fitted model. Thus, Islamic stock indices are proficiently working for the development of Indian economy. It suggests that by keeping eyes on Islamic stock market which will be more interactive in the future with other macroeconomic variables.

Keywords: Indian shariah indices, macroeconomic variables, co-integration, Granger causality, Vector error correction model.

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Authors: Mokhtar Ghobadi , Mohammad-Eghbal Ghobadi, Danial Kahrizi, Alireza Zebarjadi, Mahdi Geravandi

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Post-anthesis drought stress is the most important problem affecting wheat production in dryland fields, specially in Mediterranean regions. The main objective of this research was to evaluate drought tolerance indices in dryland wheat genotypes under post-anthesis drought stress. The research was including two different experiments. In each experiment, twenty dryland bread wheat genotypes were sown in a randomized complete blocks design (RCBD) with three replications. One of experiments belonged to rain-fed conditions (post-anthesis drought stress) and other experiment was under non-stress conditions (with supplemental irrigation). Different drought tolerance indices include Stress Tolerance (Tol), Mean Productivity (MP), Geometric Mean Productivity (GMP), Stress Susceptibility Index (SSI), Stress Tolerance Index (STI), Harmonic Mean (HAM), Yield Index (YI) and Yield Stability Index (YSI) were evaluate based on grain yield under rain-fed (Ys) and supplemental irrigation (Yp) environments. G10 and G12 were the most tolerant genotypes based on TOL and SSI. But, based on MP, GMP, STI, HAM and YI indices, G1 and G2 were selected. STI, GMP and MP indices had high correlation with grain yield under rain-fed and supplementary irrigation conditions and were recognized as appropriate indices to identify genotypes with high grain yield and low sensitivity to drought stress environments.

Keywords: Dryland wheat, Supplemental irrigation, Tolerance indices

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Authors: Mohammed Sharif, Donald Burn

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Large scale climate signals and their teleconnections can influence hydro-meteorological variables on a local scale. Several extreme flow and timing measures, including high flow and low flow measures, from 62 hydrometric stations in Canada are investigated to detect possible linkages with several large scale climate indices. The streamflow data used in this study are derived from the Canadian Reference Hydrometric Basin Network and are characterized by relatively pristine and stable land-use conditions with a minimum of 40 years of record. A composite analysis approach was used to identify linkages between extreme flow and timing measures and climate indices. The approach involves determining the 10 highest and 10 lowest values of various climate indices from the data record. Extreme flow and timing measures for each station were examined for the years associated with the 10 largest values and the years associated with the 10 smallest values. In each case, a re-sampling approach was applied to determine if the 10 values of extreme flow measures differed significantly from the series mean. Results indicate that several stations are impacted by the large scale climate indices considered in this study. The results allow the determination of any relationship between stations that exhibit a statistically significant trend and stations for which the extreme measures exhibit a linkage with the climate indices.

Keywords: flood analysis, low-flow events, climate change, trend analysis, Canada

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Authors: Mst Ilme Faridatul, Bo Wu

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Multi-temporal urban land cover mapping is of paramount importance for monitoring urban sprawl and managing the ecological environment. For diversified urban activities, it is challenging to map land covers in a complex urban environment. Spectral indices have proved to be effective for mapping urban land covers. To improve multi-temporal urban land cover classification and mapping, we evaluate the performance of three spectral indices, e.g. modified normalized difference bare-land index (MNDBI), tasseled cap water and vegetation index (TCWVI) and shadow index (ShDI). The MNDBI is developed to evaluate its performance of enhancing urban impervious areas by separating bare lands. A tasseled cap index, TCWVI is developed to evaluate its competence to detect vegetation and water simultaneously. The ShDI is developed to maximize the spectral difference between shadows of skyscrapers and water and enhance water detection. First, this paper presents a comparative analysis of three spectral indices using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM), Thematic Mapper (TM) and Operational Land Imager (OLI) data. Second, optimized thresholds of the spectral indices are imputed to classify land covers, and finally, their performance of enhancing multi-temporal urban land cover mapping is assessed. The results indicate that the spectral indices are competent to enhance multi-temporal urban land cover mapping and achieves an overall classification accuracy of 93-96%.

Keywords: Land cover, mapping, multi-temporal, spectral indices.

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Authors: Won-Jun Choi, Seung-Jun Yu, Jung-In Baik, Hyoung-Kyu Song

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Cooperative communication scheme can be substituted for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique when it may not be able to support multiple antennas due to size, cost or hardware limitations. In other words, cooperative communication scheme is an efficient method to achieve spatial diversity without multiple antennas. For satisfaction of rising QoS, we propose a reliable cooperative communication scheme with M-QAM based Dual Carrier Modulation (M-DCM), which can increase diversity gain. Although our proposed scheme is very simple method, it gives us frequency and spatial diversity. Simulation result shows our proposed scheme obtains diversity gain more than the conventional cooperative communication scheme.

Keywords: cooperation, diversity, M-DCM, OFDM.

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Authors: Ehsan Shahrabian, Ali Soleymani

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Several yield-based stress indices have been developed that may be more applicable to work on drought tolerance. In this study, we investigate possibility of using stress susceptibility index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL), yield stability index (YSI), yield index (YI), stress tolerance index (STI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), harmonic mean (HARM), mean productivity (MP) to identify genotypic performance of some maize cultivars under normal and stressed condition. The results indicate that it was possible to identify superior genotypes for drought tolerance based on their stress indices and generally SSI indices which showed the lowest negative correlation with dry matter yield can be used as the best index for maize breeding programs to introduce drought tolerant hybrids. It was found that SC 647 showed the best behavior under drought stress condition based on TOL and SSI. A higher STI, GMP, and HARM values were attained for ko_6. It can be suggested that ko₆ should be cultivated in moderate stressful environment of Iran.

Keywords: Index, productivity, stress, susceptibility tolerance, yield.

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Authors: O. S. Eludoyin, A. A. Aiyeloja, O. C. Ndife

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The study investigated the spatial analysis of trees composition, diversity and richness in the built up area of University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Four quadrats of 25m x 25m size were laid randomly in each of the three parks and inventories of trees ≥10cm girth at breast height were taken and used to calculate the species composition, diversity and richness. Results showed that species composition and diversity in Abuja Park was the highest with 134 species and 0.866 respectively while the species richness was highest in Choba Park with a value of 2.496. The correlation between the size of park (spatial coverage) and species composition was 0.99 while the correlation between the size of the park and species diversity was 0.78. There was direct relationship between species composition and diversity while the relationship between species composition and species richness was inversely proportional. Rational use of these resources is encouraged.

Keywords: Built up area, composition, diversity, richness, spatial analysis, urban tree.

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Authors: J. J. Gyimah, E. Kissi, S. Osei-Tutu, C. D. Adobor, T. Adjei-Kumi, E. Osei-Tutu

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Price fluctuation contract is imperative and of paramount essence in the construction industry as it provides adequate relief and cushioning for changes in the prices of input resources during construction. As a result, several methods have been devised to better help in arriving at fair recompense in the event of price changes. However, stakeholders often appear not to be satisfied with the existing methods of fluctuation evaluation, ostensibly because of the challenges associated with them. The aim of this study was to identify the challenges to usage of building construction cost indices in Ghana. Data were gathered from contractors and quantity surveying firms. The study utilized survey questionnaire approach to elicit responses from the contractors and the consultants. Data gathered were analyzed scientifically, using the Relative Importance Index (RII) to rank the problems associated with the existing methods. The findings revealed the following among others: late release of data; inadequate recovery of costs; and work items of interest not included in the published indices as the main challenges of the existing methods. Findings provided useful lessons for policy makers and practitioners in decision making towards the usage and improvement of available indices.

Keywords: Building construction cost indices, challenges, usage, Ghana.

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Authors: R. Ashok Bakkiyaraj, N. Kumarappan

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This paper investigates the suitability of Latin Hypercube sampling (LHS) for composite electric power system reliability analysis. Each sample generated in LHS is mapped into an equivalent system state and used for evaluating the annualized system and load point indices. DC loadflow based state evaluation model is solved for each sampled contingency state. The indices evaluated are loss of load probability, loss of load expectation, expected demand not served and expected energy not supplied. The application of the LHS is illustrated through case studies carried out using RBTS and IEEE-RTS test systems. Results obtained are compared with non-sequential Monte Carlo simulation and state enumeration analytical approaches. An error analysis is also carried out to check the LHS method’s ability to capture the distributions of the reliability indices. It is found that LHS approach estimates indices nearer to actual value and gives tighter bounds of indices than non-sequential Monte Carlo simulation.

Keywords: Composite power system, Latin Hypercube sampling, Monte Carlo simulation, Reliability evaluation, Variance analysis.

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Authors: A. Lincoln, O. Adedoyin

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In recent times, corporations are increasingly under pressure to ensure diversity within their boardrooms and a large number of academic research have reported findings consistent with the view that boards perform better when they include a diverse range of people. Women have unique characteristics needed to positively influence the strategic direction of a corporation and contribute to the growth of firms. In spite of such revelations, evidence suggests that women are under-represented in senior executive and board positions. In many parts of Africa, socio-cultural traditions inhibit women from attaining these roles. Given the emphasis placed on board diversity and inclusion of women as an essential part of good corporate governance, the relationship between gender diversity and board effectiveness deserves both theoretical and empirical investigation. This research is important because it represents the first theoretical review on gender diversity in corporate boards in Nigeria.

Keywords: Boards, Corporate Governance, Gender Diversity, Nigeria.

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Authors: A. Bouzabata, A. Boukhari

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Curcuma longa L. (Zingiberaceae), commonly known as turmeric, has a long history of traditional uses for culinary purposes as a spice and a food colorant. The present study aimed to document the ethnobotanical knowledge about Curcuma longa, and to assess the variation in the herbalists’ experience in Northeastern Algeria. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires and direct interviews with 30 herbalists. Ethnobotanical indices, including the fidelity level (FL%), the relative frequency citation (RFC), and use value (UV) were determined by quantitative methods. Diversity in the level of knowledge was analyzed using univariate, non-parametric, and multivariate statistical methods. Three main categories of uses were recorded for C. longa: for food, for medicine, and for cosmetic purposes. As a medicine, turmeric was used for the treatment of gastrointestinal, dermatological, and hepatic diseases. Medicinal and food uses were correlated with both forms of preparation (rhizome and powder). The age group did not influence the use. Multivariate analyses showed a significant variation in traditional knowledge, associated with the use value, origin, quality, and efficacy of the drug. The findings suggested that the geographical origin of C. longa affected the use in Algeria.

Keywords: Curcuma longa, curcuma indices, ethnobotanical knowledge, variation.

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Authors: A. T. Kamzanova, G. Matthews, A. M. Kustubayeva, S. M. Jakupov

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of a range of EEG indices to time-on-task effects and to a workload manipulation (cueing), during performance of a resource-limited vigilance task. Effects of task period and cueing on performance and subjective state response were consistent with previous vigilance studies and with resource theory. Two EEG indices – the Task Load Index (TLI) and global lower frequency (LF) alpha power – showed effects of task period and cueing similar to those seen with correct detections. Across four successive task periods, the TLI declined and LF alpha power increased. Cueing increased TLI and decreased LF alpha. Other indices – the Engagement Index (EI), frontal theta and upper frequency (UF) alpha failed to show these effects. However, EI and frontal theta were sensitive to interactive effects of task period and cueing, which may correspond to a stronger anxiety response to the uncued task.

Keywords: brain activity, EEG, task engagement, vigilance task.

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Authors: A. Zeynolabedin, M. A. Olyaei, B. Ghiasi

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Drought is an inevitable part of the earth’s climate. It occurs regularly with no clear warning and without recognizing borders. In addition, its impact is cumulative and not immediately discernible. Iran is located in a semi-arid region where droughts occur periodically as natural hazard. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI), and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) are three well-known indices which describe drought severity; each has its own advantages and disadvantages and can be used for specific types of drought. These indices take into account some factors such as precipitation, reservoir storage and discharge, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration in determining drought severity. In this paper, first all three indices are calculated in Aharchay river watershed located in northwestern part of Iran in East Azarbaijan province. Next, based on two other important parameters which are groundwater level and solar radiation, two new indices are defined. Finally, considering all five aforementioned indices, a combined drought index (CDI) is presented and calculated for the region. This combined index is based on all the meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural features of the region. The results show that the most severe drought condition in Aharchay watershed happened in Jun, 2004. The result of this study can be used for monitoring drought and prepare for the drought mitigation planning.

Keywords: Drought, index variation, regional assessment, monitoring.

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Authors: T. Cholastova, D. Knotova

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Utilization of diverse germplasm is needed to enhance the genetic diversity of cultivars. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic relationships of 98 alfalfa germplasm accessions using morphological traits and SSR markers. From the 98 tested populations, 81 were locals originating in Europe, 17 were introduced from USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Three primers generated 67 polymorphic bands. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) was very high (> 0.90) over all three used primer combinations. Cluster analysis using Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Means (UPGMA) and Jaccard´s coefficient grouped the accessions into 2 major clusters with 4 sub-clusters with no correlation between genetic and morphological diversity. The SSR analysis clearly indicated that even with three polymorphic primers, reliable estimation of genetic diversity could be obtained.

Keywords: genetic diversity, Medicago sativa L., morphological traits, SSR markers

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Authors: Bassem Fahs, Philippe Barré, Patrick Ozenne, Eric Chartier, Guillaume Hérault, Sébastien Jacquet, Sébastien Clamagirand

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We present a dual-band (Cellular & PCS) dual-path zero-IF receiver for CDMA2000 diversity, monitoring and simultaneous-GPS. The secondary path is a SAW-less diversity CDMA receiver which can be also used for advanced features like monitoring when supported with an additional external VCO. A GPS receiver is integrated with its dedicated VCO allowing simultaneous positioning during a cellular call. The circuit is implemented in a 0.25μm 40GHz-fT BiCMOS process and uses a HVQFN 56-pin package. It consumes a maximum 300mW from a 2.8V supply in dual-modes. The chip area is 12.8mm2.

Keywords: CDMA, diversity, GPS, zero-IF, SAW-less

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Authors: S. Swain, P. S Khuntia

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In this paper, the unstable angle of attack of a FOXTROT aircraft is controlled by using Genetic Algorithm based flight controller and the result is compared with the conventional techniques like Tyreus-Luyben (TL), Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) and Interpolation Rule (IR) for tuning the PID controller. In addition, the performance indices like Mean Square Error (MSE), Integral Square Error (ISE), and Integral Absolute Time Error (IATE) etc. are improved by using Genetic Algorithm. It was established that the error by using GA is very less as compared to the conventional techniques thereby improving the performance indices of the dynamic system.

Keywords: Angle of Attack, Genetic Algorithm, Performance Indices, PID Controller.

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