Search results for: Growth potential

Authors: Hasan S. Mahmoud, Salwa M. Beheiry, Vian Ahmed

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In light of the repercussions of the 2008 global economic crisis, the response of the United Arab Emirates economy and growth, and the vast construction activities that are undergoing, there is a need to investigate the relationship between construction activities and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This study aims to investigate the causality relationship between the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates and the GDP of the country in the last decade. For that, this study will investigate the relationship between the growth of the GDP and the growth of construction activities and their value addition to the economy. To ascertain this relationship, Granger Causality method is used to identify the causality between the time-dependent series.

Keywords: Construction value addition, Granger causality, Growth of GDP, UAE.

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Authors: Kehinde Damilola Ilesanmi, Dev Datt Tewari

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South Africa is in its post-industrial era moving from the primary and secondary sector to the tertiary sector. The study investigated the impact of the disaggregated energy consumption (coal, oil, and electricity) on the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy between 1980 and 2012 in South Africa. Using vector error correction model, it was established that South Africa is an energy dependent economy, and that energy (especially electricity and oil) is a limiting factor of growth. This implies that implementation of energy conservation policies may hamper economic growth. Output growth is significantly outpacing energy supply, which has necessitated load shedding. To meet up the excess energy demand, there is a need to increase the generating capacity which will necessitate increased investment in the electricity sector as well as strategic steps to increase oil production. There is also need to explore more renewable energy sources, in order to meet the growing energy demand without compromising growth and environmental sustainability. Policy makers should also pursue energy efficiency policies especially at sectoral level of the economy.

Keywords: Causality, economic growth, energy consumption, hypothesis, sectoral output.

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Authors: Seyed Alireza Valadabadi, Hossein Aliabadi Farahani

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This experiment was carried out to study the effect of AMF, drought stress and phosphorus on physiological growth indices of basil at Iran using by a split-plot design with three replications. The main-plot factor included: two levels of irrigation regimes (control=no drought stress and irrigation after 80 evaporation= drought stress condition) while the sub-plot factors included phosphorus (0, 35 and 70 kg/ha) and application and non-application of Glomus fasciculatum. The results showed that total dry matter (TDM), life area index (LAI), relative growth rate (RGR) and crop growth rate (CGR) were all highly significantly different among the phosphorus, whereas drought stress had effect of practical significance on TDM, LAI, RGR and CGR. The results also showed that the highest TDM, LAI, RGR and CGR were obtained from application of Glomus fasciculatum under no-drought condition.

Keywords: Drought stress, Glomus fasciculatum, physiological growth indices

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Authors: Maher J. Tadros, Naji K. Al-Mefleh

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The evaluation of non-conventional water resources on seed germination and seedling growth performance at early growth stages is still in progress especially in forage crops. This study was designed to test the effect of four types of water qualities (treated wastewater (TWW), industrial water (IW), grey water (GW), and Distilled water (DW)) on germination and early seedling vigor of Leucaena leucocephala. The results showed that the germination was not significantly affected by the different water qualities. Seed germination reached maximum after 17, 14, 14, and 21 days under GW, IW, TWW, and DW treatments, respectively. The highest mean of shoot length was scored under the GW treatment. And, the highest mean of root length was scored under DW which was not significant from GW treatment. The means of shoot fresh was the highest under the TWW. The means of root fresh weight was not significantly different from each other's under different treatments. The growth performance was in progress with no mortality during 21 days of growth. Thus, the best non-conventional water qualities alternatives based on the cleanness, nutrients, and toxicity are the GW, TWW and IW, respectively.

Keywords: Seed germination, Growth performance, Leucaena, Multipurpose forest trees, Waste water, Grey water

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Authors: Umair Shafique, Hafiz Usman Zia, Fiaz Majeed, Samina Naz, Javeria Ahmed, Maleeha Zainab

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The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a hot topic for the last couple of years. This innovative technology has shown promising progress in various areas and the world has witnessed exponential growth in multiple application domains. Researchers are working to investigate its aptitudes to get the best from it by harnessing its true potential. But at the same time, IoT networks open up a new aspect of vulnerability and physical threats to data integrity, privacy, and confidentiality. It is due to centralized control, data silos approach for handling information, and a lack of standardization in the IoT networks. As we know, blockchain is a new technology that involves creating secure distributed ledgers to store and communicate data. Some of the benefits include resiliency, integrity, anonymity, decentralization, and autonomous control. The potential for blockchain technology to provide the key to managing and controlling IoT has created a new wave of excitement around the idea of putting that data back into the hands of the end-users. In this manuscript, we have proposed a model that combines blockchain and IoT networks to address potential security and privacy issues in the healthcare domain and how various stakeholders will interact with the system.

Keywords: Internet of Things, IoT, blockchain, data integrity, authentication, data privacy.

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Authors: Morten Stigaard Laursen, Rasmus Nyholm Jørgensen, Henrik Skov Midtiby, Anders Krogh Mortensen, Sanmohan Baby

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This work contributes a statistical model and simulation framework yielding the best estimate possible for the potential herbicide reduction when using the MoDiCoVi algorithm all the while requiring a efficacy comparable to conventional spraying. In June 2013 a maize field located in Denmark were seeded. The field was divided into parcels which was assigned to one of two main groups: 1) Control, consisting of subgroups of no spray and full dose spraty; 2) MoDiCoVi algorithm subdivided into five different leaf cover thresholds for spray activation. In addition approximately 25% of the parcels were seeded with additional weeds perpendicular to the maize rows. In total 299 parcels were randomly assigned with the 28 different treatment combinations. In the statistical analysis, bootstrapping was used for balancing the number of replicates. The achieved potential herbicide savings was found to be 70% to 95% depending on the initial weed coverage. However additional field trials covering more seasons and locations are needed to verify the generalisation of these results. There is a potential for further herbicide savings as the time interval between the first and second spraying session was not long enough for the weeds to turn yellow, instead they only stagnated in growth.

Keywords: Weed crop discrimination, macrosprayer, herbicide reduction, site-specific, sprayer-boom.

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Authors: N. Kotabin, Y. Tahara, K. Issakul, O. Chunhachart

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Cadmium (II) (Cd) is one of the major toxic elemental pollutants, which is hazardous for humans, animals and plants. γ- Polyglutamic acid (γ-PGA) is an extracellular biopolymer produced by several species of Bacillus which has been reported to be an effective biosorbent for metal ions. The effect of γ-PGA on growth of rice grown under laboratory conditions was investigated. Rice seeds were germinated and then grown at 30±1°C on filter paper soaked with Cd solution and γ-PGA for 7 days. The result showed that Cd significantly inhibited the growth of roots, shoots by reducing root, and shoot lengths. Fresh and dry weights also decreased compared with control; however, the addition of 500 mg·L-1 γ-PGA alleviated rice seedlings from the adverse effects of Cd. The analysis of physiological traits revealed that Cd caused a decrease in the total chlorophyll and soluble protein contents and amylase activities in all treatments. The Cd content in seedling tissues increased for the Cd 250 μM treatment (P<0.05) but the addition of 500 mg·L-1 γ-PGA resulted in a noticeable decrease in Cd (P<0.05).

Keywords: Polyglutamic acid, Cadmium, Rice, Bacillus subtilis.

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Authors: Laidson P. Gomes, Cristina T. Andrade, Eduardo M. Del Aguila, Cameron Alexander, Vânia M. F. Paschoalin

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Chitosan is a natural polysaccharide prepared by the N-deacetylation of chitin. In this study, the physicochemical and antibacterial properties of chitosan nanoparticles, produced by ultrasound irradiation, were evaluated. The physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles were determined by dynamic light scattering and zeta potential analysis. Chitosan nanoparticles inhibited the growth of E. coli. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were lower than 0.5 mg/mL, and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values were similar or higher than MIC values. Confocal laser scanning micrographs (CLSM) were used to observe the interaction between E. coli suspensions mixed with FITC-labeled chitosan polymers and nanoparticles.

Keywords: Chitosan nanoparticles, dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, confocal microscopy, antibacterial activity.

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Authors: I. Otete, A. I. Ejere, I. S. Okunzuwa

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In this work, we used the Hulthen-Yukawa potential to obtain the bound state energy eigenvalues of the Schrödinger equation in D-dimensions within the frame work of the Nikiforov-Uvarov (NU) method. We demonstrated the graphical behaviour of the Hulthen and the Yukawa potential and investigated how the screening parameter and the potential depth affected the structure and the nature of the bound state eigenvalues. The results we obtained showed that increasing the screening parameter lowers the energy eigenvalues. Also, the eigenvalues acted as an inverse function of the potential depth. That is, increasing the potential depth reduces the energy eigenvalues.

Keywords: Schrödinger's equation, bound state, Hulthen-Yukawa potential, Nikiforov-Uvarov, D-dimensions

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Authors: M. Rezvani, M. Ahangari, F. Zaefarian

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In a field experiment, growth parameters of soybean cultivars in different weeding regimes was investigated. The trial was split plot in a randomized complete block design. The four cultivars and two lines of soybean (Glycine max L.) including: Sahar, Hill, Sari, Telar, 032 and 033 in main plot and weeding regime consist of no weeding (control), one weeding (35 days after planting) and two weeding (35+20 days after planting) were randomized in sub plot. The results showed that during the growth season 033 had the highest dry matter in two weeding. In two weeding regime the dry matter decreased. ). In all weeding regimes 033 had the highest CGR (Figs. 3a, 3b and 3c), which cleared this cultivar ability compare to the others. This cultivar by increasing its leaf area could do more photosynthesis, so, have a higher CGR.

Keywords: Crop growth rate, Density, Leaf area index

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Authors: Shorena Pharjiani

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Present empirical paper investigates the relationship between FDI and economic growth by 10 selected industries in 10 Central and Eastern European countries from the period 1995 to 2012. Different estimation approaches were used to explore the connection between FDI and economic growth, for example OLS, RE, FE with and without time dummies. Obtained empirical results leads to some main consequences: First, the Central and East European countries (CEEC) attracted foreign direct investment, which raised the productivity of industries they entered in. It should be concluded that the linkage between FDI and output growth by industries is positive and significant enough to suggest that foreign firm’s participation enhanced the productivity of the industries they occupied. There had been an endogeneity problem in the regression and fixed effects estimation approach was used which partially corrected the regression analysis in order to make the results less biased. Second, it should be stressed that the results show that time has an important role in making FDI operational for enhancing output growth by industries via total factor productivity. Third, R&D positively affected economic growth and at the same time, it should take some time for research and development to influence economic growth. Fourth, the general trends masked crucial differences at the country level: over the last 20 years, the analysis of the tables and figures at the country level show that the main recipients of FDI of the 11 Central and Eastern European countries were Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. The main reason was that these countries had more open door policies for attracting the FDI. Fifth, according to the graphical analysis, while Hungary had the highest FDI inflow in this region, it was not reflected in the GDP growth as much as in other Central and Eastern European countries.

Keywords: Central and East European countries (CEEC), economic growth, FDI, panel data.

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Authors: Kati Kõrbe Kaare, Ott Koppel

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Transport and logistics are the lifeblood of societies. There is a strong correlation between overall growth in economic activity and growth of transport. The movement of people and goods has the potential for creating wealth and prosperity, therefore the state of transportation infrastructure and especially the condition of road networks is often a governmental priority. The design, building and maintenance of national roads constitute a substantial share of government budgets. Taking into account the magnitude and importance of these investments, the expedience, efficiency and sustainability of these projects are of great public interest. This paper provides an overview of supply chain management principles applied to road construction. In addition, road construction performance measurement systems and ICT solutions are discussed. Road construction in Estonia is analyzed. The authors propose the development of a national performance measurement system for road construction.

Keywords: ICT in road construction, key performance indicators, quality performance measurement, road construction supply chain.

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Authors: F. Pourhasanzade, S. H. Sabzpoushan

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Computer modeling has played a unique role in understanding electrocardiography. Modeling and simulating cardiac action potential propagation is suitable for studying normal and pathological cardiac activation. This paper presents a 2-D Cellular Automata model for simulating action potential propagation in cardiac tissue. We demonstrate a novel algorithm in order to use minimum neighbors. This algorithm uses the summation of the excitability attributes of excited neighboring cells. We try to eliminate flat edges in the result patterns by inserting probability to the model. We also preserve the real shape of action potential by using linear curve fitting of one well known electrophysiological model.

Keywords: Cellular Automata, Action Potential Propagation, cardiac tissue, Isotropic Pattern, accurate shape of cardiac actionpotential.

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Authors: Seyed Mohammad Reza Hosseini

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The new institutional Economics helps generalization and expansion of new classic by adding the institution theories to Economic. It is clear that the appropriate institution is among the factors that lead to success in Economic programs. If the institutional are appropriate, the society will save the source and when we make use of time to apply the program, there will be welfare and average revenue product will also increase. In Economy, one should not expect the real manifestation of Economic programs only with a model for estimating and predicting rather institutions of the same purpose and along with production are needed to form the process of growth and development costs. In this research, the institution role in transaction costs, financial markets, distribution of revenue and capital and its influence on the process of growth and development are investigated so that handicaps and problems of Iran Economic Institutions can be recognized. In other words, incapability, non productivity and ambiguity of the institution in Iran Economic are some of the factors that handicap Economic growth and development. For example, Iran government as an important institution while having 20 ministries,83 organizations and 60 years of programming could not go along the growth and development but why?

Keywords: Institution, New institutional economics, Transaction costs.

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Authors: R.Sangeetha, T.Karunanithi

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A combination of photosynthetic bacteria along with anaerobic acidogenic bacteria is an ideal option for efficient hydrogen production. In the present study, the optimum concentration of substrates for the growth of Rhodobacter sphaeroides was found by response surface methodology. The optimum combination of three individual fatty acids was determined by Box Behnken design. Increase of volatile fatty acid concentration decreased the growth. Combination of sodium acetate and sodium propionate was most significant for the growth of the organism. The results showed that a maximum biomass concentration of 0.916 g/l was obtained when the concentrations of acetate, propionate and butyrate were 0.73g/l,0.99g/l and 0.799g/l, respectively. The growth was studied under an optimum concentration of volatile fatty acids and at a light intensity of 3000 lux, initial pH of 7 and a temperature of 35°C.The maximum biomass concentration of 0.92g/l was obtained which verified the practicability of this optimization.

Keywords: Biohydrogen, Response Surface Methodology, Rhodobacter sphaeroides, Volatile fatty acid

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Authors: Aditya Arya, Hairin Taha, Ataul Karim Khan, Nayiar Shahid, Hapipah Mohd Ali, Mustafa Ali Mohd

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This study has investigated the antidiabetic and antioxidant potential of Pseudovaria macrophylla bark extract on streptozotocin–nicotinamide induced type 2 diabetic rats. LCMSQTOF and NMR experiments were done to determine the chemical composition in the methanolic bark extract. For in vivo experiments, the STZ (60 mg/kg/b.w, 15 min after 120 mg/kg/1 nicotinamide, i.p.) induced diabetic rats were treated with methanolic extract of Pseuduvaria macrophylla (200 and 400 mg/kg·bw) and glibenclamide (2.5 mg/kg) as positive control respectively. Biochemical parameters were assayed in the blood samples of all groups of rats. The pro-inflammatory cytokines, antioxidant status and plasma transforming growth factor βeta-1 (TGF-β1) were evaluated. The histological study of the pancreas was examined and its expression level of insulin was observed by immunohistochemistry. In addition, the expression of glucose transporters (GLUT 1, 2 and 4) were assessed in pancreas tissue by western blot analysis. The outcomes of the study displayed that the bark methanol extract of Pseuduvaria macrophylla has potentially normalized the elevated blood glucose levels and improved serum insulin and C-peptide levels with significant increase in the antioxidant enzyme, reduced glutathione (GSH) and decrease in the level of lipid peroxidation (LPO). Additionally, the extract has markedly decreased the levels of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines and transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1). Histopathology analysis demonstrated that Pseuduvaria macrophylla has the potential to protect the pancreas of diabetic rats against peroxidation damage by downregulating oxidative stress and elevated hyperglycaemia. Furthermore, the expression of insulin protein, GLUT-1, GLUT-2 and GLUT-4 in pancreatic cells was enhanced. The findings of this study support the anti-diabetic claims of Pseudovaria macrophylla bark.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Pseuduvaria macrophylla, alkaloids, caffeic acid.

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Authors: Pavlo Selyshchev, Samuel Akintunde

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A theoretical approach to consider formation of chemical compound layer at the interface between initial substances A and B due to the interfacial interaction and diffusion is developed. It is considered situation when speed of interfacial interaction is large enough and diffusion of A-atoms through AB-layer is much more then diffusion of B-atoms. Atoms from A-layer diffuse toward B-atoms and form AB-atoms on the surface of B-layer. B-atoms are assumed to be immobile. The growth kinetics of the AB-layer is described by two differential equations with non-linear coupling, producing a good fit to the experimental data. It is shown that growth of the thickness of the AB-layer determines by dependence of chemical reaction rate on reactants concentration. In special case the thickness of the AB-layer can grow linearly or parabolically depending on that which of processes (interaction or the diffusion) controls the growth. The thickness of AB-layer as function of time is obtained. The moment of time (transition point) at which the linear growth are changed by parabolic is found.

Keywords: Phase formation, Binary systems, Interfacial Reaction, Diffusion, Compound layers, Growth kinetics.

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Authors: Bita Mashayekhi, Zeynab Lotfi Aghel

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The determinants of Earnings Response Coefficient (ERC), including firm size, earnings growth, and earnings persistence are studied in this research. These determinants are supposed to be moderator variables that affect ERC and Return Response Coefficient. The research sample contains 82 Iranian listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) from 2001 to 2012. Gathered data have been processed by EVIEWS Software. Results show a significant positive relation between firm size and ERC, and also between earnings growth and ERC; however, there is no significant relation between earnings persistence and ERC. Also, the results show that ERC will be increased by firm size and earnings growth, but there is no relation between earnings persistence and ERC.

Keywords: Earnings response coefficient, return response coefficient, firm size, earnings growth, earnings persistence.

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Authors: Jaroslav Žák, Aleš Florian

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Green bridges enable wildlife to pass through linear structures, especially freeways. The term migration potential is used to quantify their functionality. The proposed methodology for determining migration potential eliminates the mathematical, systematic and ecological inaccuracies of previous methodologies and provides a reliable tool for designers and environmentalists. The methodology is suited especially to medium-sized and large mammals, is mathematically correct, and its correspondence with reality was tested by monitoring existing green bridges. 

Keywords: Green bridges, migration potential, partial probabilities, wildlife migration.

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Authors: Mikhail Vladimirovich Deryabin, Morten Willatzen

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In this work, we address theoretically the influence of red and white Gaussian noise for electronic energies and eigenstates of cylindrically shaped quantum dots. The stochastic effect can be imagined as resulting from crystal-growth statistical fluctuations in the quantum-dot material composition. In particular we obtain analytical expressions for the eigenvalue shifts and electronic envelope functions in the k . p formalism due to stochastic variations in the confining band-edge potential. It is shown that white noise in the band-edge potential leaves electronic properties almost unaffected while red noise may lead to changes in state energies and envelopefunction amplitudes of several percentages. In the latter case, the ensemble-averaged envelope function decays as a function of distance. It is also shown that, in a stochastic system, constant ensembleaveraged envelope functions are the only bounded solutions for the infinite quantum-wire problem and the energy spectrum is completely discrete. In other words, the infinite stochastic quantum wire behaves, ensemble-averaged, as an atom.

Keywords: cylindrical quantum dots, electronic eigen energies, red and white Gaussian noise, ensemble averaging effects.

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Authors: Jan Sedlacek

Abstract:

The paper focuses on the implementation phase of the strategy of the European Union and the national strategy of the Czech Republic to promote academic and research staff with the potential to produce results that provide innovation useful for economic growth. It deals with the use of financial resources of the Operational Program Education for Competitiveness at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The author presents an example of two strategic projects in the field of human resources – Excellence in Human Resources as a Source of Competitiveness and New Excellence of Human Resources. The subject of this paper is the potential contribution of newly recruited postdoctoral within these projects for the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and its internal environment.

Keywords: EU funds, public universities, human resources, results of research, funding.

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Authors: Antonio Estache, Atsushi Iimi

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Limited competition has been a serious concern in infrastructure procurement. Importantly, however, there are normally a number of potential bidders initially showing interest in proposed projects. This paper focuses on tackling the question why these initially interested bidders fade out. An empirical problem is that no bids of fading-out firms are observable. They could decide not to enter the process at the beginning of the tendering or may be technically disqualified at any point in the selection process. The paper applies the double selection model to procurement data from road development projects in developing countries and shows that competition ends up restricted, because bidders are self-selective and auctioneers also tend to limit participation depending on the size of contracts.Limited competition would likely lead to high infrastructure procurement costs, threatening fiscal sustainability and economic growth.

Keywords: Auction theory, endogenous bidder entry, infrastructure development, public procurement.

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Authors: Pallabi Kalita, Hui Tag, H. N. Sarma, A. K. Das.

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Wild edible food plants contain a number of organic phytochemical that have been linked to the promotion of good health. These plants used by the local people of Arunachal Pradesh (Northeast India) are found to have high nutritional potential to maintain general balance diet. A study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional potential of five commonly found, unexplored wild food plants namely, Piper pedicellatum C. DC (leaves), Gonostegia hirta (Blume ex Hassk.) Miq. (leaves), Mussaenda roxburghii Hook.f (leaves), Solanum spirale Roxb. (leaves and fruits) and Cyathea spinulosa Wall. ex Hook. (pith portion and tender rachis) from East Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh Northeast (India) for ascertaining their suitability for utilization as supplementary food. Results of study revealed that P. pedicellatum, C. spinulosa, and S. spirale (leaves) are the most promising species which have high nutritional content out of the five wild food plants investigated which is required for the normal growth and development of human.

Keywords: Wild edible plants, Gross energy, Gonostegia hirta, Cyathea spinulosa,

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Authors: Yun Jong Choi, Nam Woong, PooGyeon Park

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Variable Structure Control (VSC) is one of the most useful tools handling the practical system with uncertainties and disturbances. Up to now, unfortunately, not enough studies on the input-saturated system with linear-growth-bound disturbances via VSC have been presented. Therefore, this paper proposes an asymp¬totic stability condition for the system via VSC. The designed VSC controller consists of two control parts. The linear control part plays a role in stabilizing the system, and simultaneously, the nonlinear control part in rejecting the linear-growth-bound disturbances perfectly. All conditions derived in this paper are expressed with Linear Matrices Inequalities (LMIs), which can be easily solved with an LMI toolbox in MATLAB.

Keywords: Input saturation, linear-growth bounded disturbances, linear matrix inequality (LMI), variable structure control

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Authors: Chien-Hua Wang, Chin-Tzong Pang

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In data mining, the association rules are used to search for the relations of items of the transactions database. Following the data is collected and stored, it can find rules of value through association rules, and assist manager to proceed marketing strategy and plan market framework. In this paper, we attempt fuzzy partition methods and decide membership function of quantitative values of each transaction item. Also, by managers we can reflect the importance of items as linguistic terms, which are transformed as fuzzy sets of weights. Next, fuzzy weighted frequent pattern growth (FWFP-Growth) is used to complete the process of data mining. The method above is expected to improve Apriori algorithm for its better efficiency of the whole association rules. An example is given to clearly illustrate the proposed approach.

Keywords: Association Rule, Fuzzy Partition Methods, FWFP-Growth, Apiroir algorithm

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Authors: V. Nikkhah Rashidabad, M. Manteghian, M. Masoumi, S. Mousavian

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In this research, the changes in bubbles diameter and  number that may occur due to the change in heat flux of pure water  during pool boiling process. For this purpose, test equipment was  designed and developed to collect test data. The bubbles were graded  using Caliper Screen software. To calculate the growth and  nucleation rates of bubbles under different fluxes, population balance  model was employed. The results show that the increase in heat flux  from q=20 kw/m2 to q= 102 kw/m2 raised the growth and nucleation  rates of bubbles.

 

Keywords: Heat flux, bubble growth, bubble nucleation, population balance model.

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Authors: M. Naimi, M. B. Khaled

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The aim of the present work was to test in vitro inhibition of food pathogens and spoilage bacteria by crude bacteriocins from autochthonous lactic acid bacteria. Thirty autochthonous lactic acid bacteria isolated previously, belonging to the genera: Lactobacillus, Carnobacterium, Lactococcus, Vagococcus, Streptococcus, and Pediococcus, have been screened by an agar spot test and a well diffusion assay against Gram-positive and Gram-negative harmful bacteria: Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Escherichia coli ATCC 8739, Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 14028, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa under conditions means to reduce lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide effect to select bacteria with high bacteriocinogenic potential. Furthermore, crude bacteriocins semiquantification and heat sensitivity to different temperatures (80, 95, 110°C, and 121°C) were performed. Another exploratory test concerning the response of St. aureus ATCC 6538 to the presence of crude bacteriocins was realized. It has been observed by the agar spot test that fifteen candidates were active toward Gram-positive targets strains. The secondary screening demonstrated an antagonistic activity oriented only against St. aureus ATCC 6538, leading to the selection of five isolates: L_m14, L_m21, L_m23, L_m24, and L_m25 with a larger inhibition zone compared to the others. The ANOVA statistical analysis reveals a small variation of repeatability: L_m21: 0.56%, L_m23: 0%, L_m25: 1.67%, L_m14: 1.88%, L_m24: 2.14%. Conversely, slight variation was reported in terms of inhibition diameters: 9.58± 0.40, 9.83± 0.46 and 10.16± 0.24 8.5 ± 0.40 10 mm for, L_m21, L_m23, L_m25, L_m14and L_m24, indicating that the observed potential showed a heterogeneous distribution (BMS = 0.383, WMS = 0.117). The repeatability coefficient calculated displayed 7.35%. As for the bacteriocins semiquantification, the five samples exhibited production amounts about 4.16 for L_m21, L_m23, L_m25 and 2.08 AU/ml for L_m14, L_m24. Concerning the sensitivity the crude bacteriocins were fully insensitive to heat inactivation, until 121°C, they preserved the same inhibition diameter. As to, kinetic of growth , the µmax showed reductions in pathogens load for L_m21, L_m23, L_m25, L_m14, L_m24 of about 42.92%, 84.12%, 88.55%, 54.95%, 29.97% in the second trails. Inversely, this pathogen growth after five hours displayed differences of 79.45%, 12.64%, 11.82%, 87.88%, 85.66% in the second trails, compared to the control. This study showed potential inhibition to the growth of this food pathogen, suggesting the possibility to improve the hygienic food quality.

Keywords: Exploratory test, lactic acid bacteria, crude bacteriocins, spoilage, pathogens.

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Authors: J. F. Pollo Gaspary, F. Peron Gaspary, E. M. Simão, R. Concatto Beltrame, G. Orengo de Oliveira, M. S. Ristow Ferreira, F. Sartori Thies, I. F. Minello, F. dos Santos de Oliveira

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Background: The immune system has evolved several mechanisms to protect the host against cancer, and it has now been suggested that the expansion of its functions may prevent tumor growth and control the symptoms of cancer patients. Two techniques, ozone therapy and pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF), are independently associated with an increase in the immune system functions and they maybe help palliative care of patients in these conditions. Case Report: A patient with rectal adenocarcinoma with metastases decides to interrupt the clinical chemotherapy protocol due to refractoriness and side effects. As a palliative care alternative treatment it is suggested to the patient the use of ozone therapy associated with PEMF techniques. Results: The patient reports an improvement in well-being, in autonomy and in pain control. Imaging tests confirm a pause in tumor growth despite more than 60 days without using classic treatment. These results associated with palliative care alternative treatment stimulate the return to the chemotherapy protocol. Discussion: This case illustrates that these two techniques can contribute to the control of tumor growth and refractory symptoms, such as pain, probably by enhancing the immune system. Conclusions: The potential use of the combination of these two therapies, ozone therapy and PEMF therapy, can contribute to palliation of cancer patients, alone or in combination with pharmacological therapies. The conduct of future investigations on this paradigm can elucidate how much these techniques contribute to the survival and well-being of these patients.

Keywords: Cancer, complementary and alternative medicine, ozone therapy, palliative care, PEMF Therapy.

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Authors: Utpal Chattopadhyay

Abstract:

Indian telecom services industry has been witnessing a stupendous growth since 1990s. Over the years, subscriber base has grown steadily and it crossed 950 million marks in March 2012. India with second largest subscriber base also offers one of the lowest call tariffs in the world. But in the euphoria of high growth in services, the equipment manufacturing received least priority. India mainly depends on imported components from China. Of late, it is realized that lack of domestic manufacturing may pose a serious challenge to India-s continued success in the telecom sector. Therefore, the National Telecom Policy 2012 aims at developing a strong equipment manufacturing base within India. This paper realistically assesses India-s true potential in equipment manufacturing and seeks to identify the emerging issues and challenges before the Indian telecom equipment manufacturing sector while it tries to make a transition from an import-dependent industry to a global manufacturing hub.

Keywords: Equipment manufacturing, global hub, Indian telecom industry, issues and challenges.

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Authors: Punitha Periyasamy, Mahalingam Sudalaimuthu, Sachikanta Nanda, Arasu Sundaram

Abstract:

India holds 17.5% of the world’s population but has only 2% of the total geographical area of the world where 27.35% of the area is categorized as wasteland due to lack of or less groundwater. So there is a demand for excessive groundwater for agricultural and non agricultural activities to balance its growth rate. With this in mind, an attempt is made to find the groundwater potential zone in Gomukhi Nadhi sub basin of Vellar River basin, TamilNadu, India covering an area of 1146.6 Sq.Km consists of 9 blocks from Peddanaickanpalayam to Virudhachalam in the sub basin. The thematic maps such as Geology, Geomorphology, Lineament, Landuse and Landcover and Drainage are prepared for the study area using IRS P6 data. The collateral data includes rainfall, water level, soil map are collected for analysis and inference. The digital elevation model (DEM) is generated using Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) and the slope of the study area is obtained. ArcGIS 10.1 acts as a powerful spatial analysis tool to find out the ground water potential zones in the study area by means of weighted overlay analysis. Each individual parameter of the thematic maps are ranked and weighted in accordance with their influence to increase the water level in the ground. The potential zones in the study area are classified viz., Very Good, Good, Moderate, Poor with its aerial extent of 15.67, 381.06, 575.38, 174.49 Sq.Km respectively.

Keywords: ArcGIS, DEM, Groundwater, Recharge, Weighted Overlay.

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