Abstract: Health and Social care (HSc) services planning and scheduling are facing unprecedented challenges, due to the pandemic pressure and also suffer from unplanned spending that is negatively impacted by the global financial crisis. Data-driven approaches can help to improve policies, plan and design services provision schedules using algorithms that assist healthcare managers to face unexpected demands using fewer resources. The paper discusses services packing using statistical significance tests and machine learning (ML) to evaluate demands similarity and coupling. This is achieved by predicting the range of the demand (class) using ML methods such as Classification and Regression Trees (CART), Random Forests (RF), and Logistic Regression (LGR). The significance tests Chi-Squared and Student’s test are used on data over a 39 years span for which data exist for services delivered in Scotland. The demands are associated using probabilities and are parts of statistical hypotheses. These hypotheses, as their NULL part, assume that the target demand is statistically dependent on other services’ demands. This linking is checked using the data. In addition, ML methods are used to linearly predict the above target demands from the statistically found associations and extend the linear dependence of the target’s demand to independent demands forming, thus, groups of services. Statistical tests confirmed ML coupling and made the prediction statistically meaningful and proved that a target service can be matched reliably to other services while ML showed that such marked relationships can also be linear ones. Zero padding was used for missing years records and illustrated better such relationships both for limited years and for the entire span offering long-term data visualizations while limited years periods explained how well patients numbers can be related in short periods of time or that they can change over time as opposed to behaviours across more years. The prediction performance of the associations were measured using metrics such as Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), Area Under Curve (AUC) and Accuracy (ACC) as well as the statistical tests Chi-Squared and Student. Co-plots and comparison tables for the RF, CART, and LGR methods as well as the p-value from tests and Information Exchange (IE/MIE) measures are provided showing the relative performance of ML methods and of the statistical tests as well as the behaviour using different learning ratios. The impact of k-neighbours classification (k-NN), Cross-Correlation (CC) and C-Means (CM) first groupings was also studied over limited years and for the entire span. It was found that CART was generally behind RF and LGR but in some interesting cases, LGR reached an AUC = 0 falling below CART, while the ACC was as high as 0.912 showing that ML methods can be confused by zero-padding or by data’s irregularities or by the outliers. On average, 3 linear predictors were sufficient, LGR was found competing well RF and CART followed with the same performance at higher learning ratios. Services were packed only when a significance level (p-value) of their association coefficient was more than 0.05. Social factors relationships were observed between home care services and treatment of old people, low birth weights, alcoholism, drug abuse, and emergency admissions. The work found that different HSc services can be well packed as plans of limited duration, across various services sectors, learning configurations, as confirmed by using statistical hypotheses.
Abstract: With rapid development of urbanization and improvement of living standards in the world, energy consumption and carbon emissions of the building sector are expected to increase in the near future; because of that, energy-saving issues have become more important among the engineers. Besides, the building sector is a major contributor to energy consumption and carbon emissions. The concept of efficient building appeared as a response to the need for reducing energy demand in this sector which has the main purpose of shifting from standard buildings to low-energy buildings. Although energy-saving should happen in all steps of a building during the life cycle (material production, construction, demolition), the main concept of efficient energy building is saving energy during the life expectancy of a building by using passive and active systems, and should not sacrifice comfort and quality to reach these goals. The main aim of this study is to investigate passive strategies (do not need energy consumption or use renewable energy) to achieve energy-efficient buildings. Energy retrofit measures were explored by eQuest software using a case study as a base model. The study investigates predictive accuracy for the major factors like thermal transmittance (U-value) of the material, windows, shading devices, thermal insulation, rate of the exposed envelope, window/wall ration, lighting system in the energy consumption of the building. The base model was located in Istanbul, Turkey. The impact of eight passive parameters on energy consumption had been indicated. After analyzing the base model by eQuest, a final scenario was suggested which had a good energy performance. The results showed a decrease in the U-values of materials, the rate of exposing buildings, and windows had a significant effect on energy consumption. Finally, savings in electric consumption of about 10.5%, and gas consumption by about 8.37% in the suggested model were achieved annually.
Abstract: The rapid growth of oil palm industry in Indonesia raised many negative accusations from various parties, who said that oil palm plantation is damaging the environment and biodiversity, including birds. Since research on oil palm plantation impacts on bird diversity is still limited, this study needs to be developed in order to gain further learning and understanding. Data on bird diversity were collected in March 2018 in KJNP Estate, Riau Province using strip transect method on five different land cover types (young, intermediate, and old growth of oil palm plantation, high conservation value area, and crops field or the baseline). The observations were conducted simultaneously, with three repetitions. The result shows that the baseline has 19 species of birds and land cover after the oil palm plantation has 39 species. HCV (high conservation value) area has the highest increase in diversity value. Oil palm plantation has changed the composition of bird species. The highest similarity index is shown by young growth oil palm land cover with total score 0.65, meanwhile the lowest similarity index with total score 0.43 is shown by HCV area. Overall, the existence of oil palm plantation made a positive impact by increasing bird species diversity, with total 23 species gained and 3 species lost.
Abstract: Infrared thermography is a non-destructive test method used to estimate surface temperatures based on the amount of electromagnetic energy radiated by building envelope components. These surface temperatures are indicators of various qualitative building envelope deficiencies such as locations and extent of heat loss, thermal bridging, damaged or missing thermal insulation, air leakage, and moisture presence in roof, floor, and wall assemblies. Although infrared thermography is commonly used for qualitative deficiency detection in buildings, this study assesses its use as a quantitative method to estimate the overall thermal conductance value (U-value) of the exterior above-grade walls of a study home. The overall U-value of exterior above-grade walls in a home provides useful insight into the energy consumption and thermal comfort of a home. Three methodologies from the literature were employed to estimate the overall U-value by equating conductive heat loss through the exterior above-grade walls to the sum of convective and radiant heat losses of the walls. Outdoor infrared thermography field measurements of the exterior above-grade wall surface and reflective temperatures and emissivity values for various components of the exterior above-grade wall assemblies were carried out during winter months at the study home using a basic thermal imager device. The overall U-values estimated from each methodology from the literature using the recorded field measurements were compared to the nominal exterior above-grade wall overall U-value calculated from materials and dimensions detailed in architectural drawings of the study home. The nominal overall U-value was validated through calendarization and weather normalization of utility bills for the study home as well as various estimated heat loss quantities from a HOT2000 computer model of the study home and other methods. Under ideal environmental conditions, the estimated overall U-values deviated from the nominal overall U-value between ±2% to ±33%. This study suggests infrared thermography can estimate the overall U-value of exterior above-grade walls in low-rise residential homes with a fair amount of accuracy.
Abstract: The objective of this study was to assess the production and market of certified organic products in Thailand. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify a sample group of 154 organic entrepreneurs for the study. A survey and in-depth interview were employed for data collection. Also, secondary data from organic agriculture certification body and publications was collected. Then descriptive statistics and content analysis technique were used to describe about production and market of certified organic products in Thailand. Results showed that there were 9,218 farmers on 213,183.68 Rai (83,309.2 acre) of certified organic agriculture land (0.29% of national agriculture land). A total of 57.8% of certified organic agricultural lands were certified by the international certification body. Organic farmers produced around 71,847 tons/year and worth around THB 1,914 million (Euro 47.92 million). Excluding primary producers, 471 operators involved in the Thai organic supply chains, including processors, exporters, distributors, green shops, modern trade shops (supermarket shop), farmer’s markets and food establishments were included. Export market was the major market channel and most of organic products were exported to Europe and North America. The total Thai organic market in 2014 was estimated to be worth around THB 2,331.55 million (Euro 58.22 million), of which, 77.9% was for export and 22.06% was for the domestic market. The largest exports of certified organic products were processed foods (66.1% of total export value), followed by organic rice (30.4%). In the domestic market, modern trade was the largest sale channel, accounting for 59.48% of total domestic sales, followed by green shop (29.47%) and food establishment (5.85%). To become a center of organic farming and trading within ASEAN, the Thai organic sector needs to have more policy support in regard to agricultural chemicals, GMO, and community land title. In addition, appropriate strategies need to be developed.
Abstract: Pomace, a by-product from fruit processing industry is the potential source of valuable bioactive. Cookies are popular, ready to eat and low price foods; therefore, enrichment of these products is of great importance. In this work, bioactive compounds extracted from cherry pomace, encapsulated in soy and whey proteins, have been incorporated in cookies, replacing 10 (SP10 and WP10) and 15% of wheat flour (SP15 and WP15). Cookie geometry (diameter (D), thickness (T) and spread ratio (D/T)), cookie weight, cookie hardness and cookie surface colour were measured. Sensory characteristics are also examined. The results show that encapsulated cherry pomace bioactives have positively influenced the cookie mass. Diameter, redness (a* value) and cookie hardness increased. Sensory evaluation of cookies, revealed that up to 15% substitution of wheat flour with WP encapsulate produced acceptable cookies similar to the control (100% wheat flour) cookies.
Abstract: The importance of energy efficiency within the production processes increases steadily. For a comprehensive assessment of energy efficiency within the production process, unfortunately no tools exist or have been developed yet. Therefore the Institute for Factory Automation and Production Systems at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg has developed two methods with the goal of achieving transparency and a quantitative assessment of energy efficiency namely EEV (Energy Efficiency Value) and EPE (Energetic Process Efficiency). This paper describes the basics and state-of-the-art as well as the developed approaches.
Abstract: The postharvest quality management of tomatoes is
important to limit the amount of losses that occur due to deterioration
between harvest and consumption. This study was undertaken to
investigate the effects of pre- and postharvest integrated agrotechnologies,
involving greenhouse microclimate and postharvest
storage conditions, on the postharvest quality attributes of four
tomato cultivars. Tomato fruit firmness, colour (hue angle (h°) and
L* value), pH and total soluble solids for the cultivars Bona,
Star 9037, Star 9009 and Zeal, grown in a fan-pad evaporativelycooled
and an open-ended naturally-ventilated tunnel, were harvested
at the mature-green stage. The tomatoes were stored for 28 days
under cold storage conditions, with a temperature of 13°C and RH of
85%, and under ambient air conditions, with a temperature of 23±
2°C and RH of 52± 4%. This study has provided information on the
effect of integrated pre-harvest and postharvest agro-technologies,
involving greenhouse microclimate and postharvest storage
environment on the postharvest quality attributes of four of the
tomato cultivars in South Africa. NVT-grown tomatoes retained
better textural qualities, but ripened faster by changing from green to
red faster, although these were reduced under cold storage conditions.
FPVT-grown tomatoes had lower firmness, but ripened slowly with
higher colour attributes. With cold storage conditions, the firmness of
FPVT-grown tomatoes was maintained. Cultivar Bona firmness and
colour qualities depreciated the fastest, but it had higher TSS content
and lower pH values. Star 9009 and Star 9037 presented better
quality, by retaining higher firmness and ripening slowly, but they
had the lowest TSS contents and high pH values, especially
Star 9037. Cold storage improved the firmness of tomato cultivars
with poor textural quality and faster colour changes.
Abstract: Supermarkets are the most electricity-intensive type of
commercial buildings. The unsuitable indoor environment of a
supermarket provided by abnormal HVAC operations incurs waste
energy consumption in refrigeration systems. This current study
briefly describes significantly solid backgrounds and proposes easyto-
use analysis terminology for investigating the impact of HVAC
operations on refrigeration power consumption using the field-test
data obtained from building automation system (BAS). With solid
backgrounds and prior knowledge, expected energy interactions
between HVAC and refrigeration systems are proposed through
Pearson’s correlation analysis (R value) by considering correlations
between equipment power consumption and dominantly independent
variables (driving force conditions).The R value can be conveniently
utilized to evaluate how strong relations between equipment
operations and driving force parameters are. The calculated R values
obtained from field data are compared to expected ranges of R values
computed by energy interaction methodology. The comparisons can
separate the operational conditions of equipment into faulty and
normal conditions. This analysis can simply investigate the condition
of equipment operations or building sensors because equipment could
be abnormal conditions due to routine operations or faulty
commissioning processes in field tests. With systematically solid and
easy-to-use backgrounds of interactions provided in the present
article, the procedures can be utilized as a tool to evaluate the proper
commissioning and routine operations of HVAC and refrigeration
systems to detect simple faults (e.g. sensors and driving force
environment of refrigeration systems and equipment set-point) and
optimize power consumption in supermarket buildings. Moreover,
the analysis will be used to further study the FDD research for
supermarkets in future.
Abstract: Depletion and hazardous gas emissions associated
with fossil fuels have caused scientists and global attention to focus
on the use of “alternative, eco-friendly substitutes for use in
Compression Ignition Engines. In this work, biodiesel was produced
by trans-esterification of soybean obtained from a Nigerian market
using Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) as a catalyst.” After the
production, the physical properties (specific gravity to kinematic
viscosity and net calorific value) of the Soybean-biodiesel produced
and petrol diesel obtained from a filling station in Nigeria were
determined, and these properties conform to conventional standards
(ASTM). A cummins-6V-92TA DDEC diesel (Compression ignition,
CI) engine was run on various biodiesel-petrol diesel blends (0/100,
10/90, 20/80, 30/70 and 40/60), the B20 (blend 20/80) was found to
be the most satisfactory.
Abstract: Soymilk residue is obtained as a byproduct from soymilk and tofu production with little economic value. It contains high protein and fiber as well as various minerals and phyto-chemical compounds. The objective of this research was to substitute soymilk residue for wheat flour in gyoza skin in order to enhance value of soymilk residue and increase protein and fiber content of gyoza skin. Wheat flour was replaced with soymilk residue from 0 to 40%. The soy milk residue prepared in this research contains 26.92%protein, 3.58% fiber, 2.88% lipid, 6.29% ash and 60.33% carbohydrate. The results showed that increasing soymilk residue decreased lightness (L*value), tensile strength and sensory attributes but increased redness (a*), yellowness (b*), protein and fiber contents of product. The result also showed that the gyoza skin substituted with 30% soymilk residue was the most acceptable (p≤0.05) and its protein and fiber content increased up to 45 % and 867 % respectively.
Abstract: The banking sector poses a lot of problems in Nigeria in general and the non-oil export sector in particular. The banks' lack effectiveness in handling small, medium or long-term credit risk (lack of training of loan officers, lack of information on borrowers and absence of a reliable credit registry) results in non-oil exporters being burdened with high requirements, such as up to three years of financial statements, enough collateral to cover both the loan principal and interest (including a cash deposit that may be up to 30% of the loans' net present value), and to provide every detail of the international trade transaction in question. The stated problems triggered this research. Consequently, information on bank financing of non-oil exports was collected from 100 respondents from the 20 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. The data was analysed by the use of descriptive statistics correlation and regression. It is found that, Nigerian banks are participants in the financing of non-oil exports. Despite their participation, the rate of interest for credit extended to non-oil export is usually high, ranging between 15-20%. Small and medium sized non-oil export businesses lack the credit history for banks to judge them as reputable. Banks also consider the non-oil export sector very risky for investment. The banks actually do grant less credit than the exporters may require and therefore are not properly funded by banks. Banks grant very low volume of foreign currency loan in addition to, unfavorable exchange rate at which Naira is exchanged to the Dollar and other currencies in the country. This makes importation of inputs costly and negatively impacted on the non-oil export performance in Nigeria.
Abstract: A comparative evaluation of acute toxicity of
synthesized nano silvers using two different procedures (biological
and chemical reduction methods) and silver ions on bacteria
Vibrio fischeri was investigated. The bacterial light inhibition test as
a toxicological endpoint was used by applying of a homemade
luminometer. To compare the toxicity effects as a quantitative
parameter, a nominal effective concentrations (EC) of chemicals and
a susceptibility constant (Z-value) of bacteria, after 5 min and 30 min
exposure times, were calculated. After 5 and 30 min contact times,
the EC50 values of two silver nanoparticles and the EC20 values were
about similar. It demonstrates that toxicity of silvers was independent
of their procedure. The EC values of nanoparticles were larger than
those of the silver ions. The susceptibilities(Z- Values) of V.fischeri
(L/mg) to the silver ions were greater than those of the nano silvers.
According to the EC and Z values, the toxicity of silvers decreased in
the following order: Silver ions >> silver nanoparticles from
chemical reduction method ~ silver nanoparticles from biological
method.
Abstract: This study used Item Analysis, Exploratory Factor
Analysis (EFA) and Reliability Analysis (Cronbach-s α value) to
exam the Questions which selected by the Delphi method based on the
issue of “Socio-technical system (STS)" and user-centered
perspective. A structure questionnaire with seventy-four questions
which could be categorized into nine dimensions (healthcare
environment, organization behaviour, system quality, medical data
quality, service quality, safety quality, user usage, user satisfaction,
and organization net benefits) was provided to evaluate EMR of the
Taiwanese healthcare environment.
Abstract: In this paper, we study on color transformation
method on website images for the color blind. The most common
category of color blindness is red-green color blindness which is
viewed as beige color. By transforming the colors of the images, the
color blind can improve their color visibility. They can have a better
view when browsing through the websites. To transform colors on
the website images, we study on two algorithms which are the
conversion techniques from RGB color space to HSV color space and
self-organizing color transformation. The comparative study focuses
on criteria based on the ease of use, quality, accuracy and efficiency.
The outcome of the study leads to enhancement of website images to
meet the color blinds- vision requirements in perceiving image
detailed.
Abstract: The research study evaluated the performance of
irrigation system by using special scientific tools like Remote
Sensing and GIS technology, so that proper measurements could be
taken for the sustainable agriculture and water management.
Different performance evaluation parameters had been calculated for
the purposed data was gathered from field investigation and different
government and private organizations. According to the calculations,
organic matter ranges from 0.19% (low value) to 0.76% (high value).
In flat irrigation system for wheat yield ranges from 3347.16 to
5260.39 kg/ha, while the total water applied to wheat crop ranges
from 252.94 to 279.19 mm and WUE ranges from 13.07 to 18.37
kg/ha/mm. For rice yield ranges from 3347.47 to 5433.07 kg/ha with
total water supplied to rice crop ranges from 764.71 to 978.15 mm
and WUE ranges from 3.49 to 5.71 kg/ha/mm. Similarly, in raised
bed system wheat yield ranges from 4569.13 to 6008.60 kg/ha, total
water supplied ranges from 158.87 to 185.09 mm and WUE ranges
from 27.20 to 33.54 kg/ha/mm while in rice crop, yield ranges from
5285.04 to 6716.69 kg/ha, total water supplied ranges from 600.72 to
755.06 mm and WUE ranges from 6.41 to 10.05 kg/ha/mm. Almost
51.3% water saving is observed in bed irrigation system as compared
to flat system. Less water supplied to beds is more affective as its
WUE value is higher than flat system where more water is supplied
in both the seasons. Similarly, RWS values show that maximum
water deficit while minimum area is getting adequate water supply.
Greater yield is recorded in bed system as plant per square meter is
more in bed system in comparison of flat system Thus, the integration
of GIS tools to regularly compute performance indices could provide
irrigation managers with the means for managing efficiently the
irrigation system.
Abstract: We report a lithography-free approach to fabricate the
biomimetics, quasi-beehive Si nanostructures (QBSNs), on
Si-substrates. The self-assembled SiGe nanoislands via the strain
induced surface roughening (Asaro-Tiller-Grinfeld instability) during
in-situ annealing play a key role as patterned sacrifice regions for
subsequent reactive ion etching (RIE) process performed for
fabricating quasi-beehive nanostructures on Si-substrates. As the
measurements of field emission, the bare QBSNs show poor field
emission performance, resulted from the existence of the native oxide
layer which forms an insurmountable barrier for electron emission. In
order to dramatically improve the field emission characteristics, the
platinum nanopillars (Pt-NPs) were deposited on QBSNs to form
Pt-NPs/QBSNs heterostructures. The turn-on field of Pt-NPs/QBSNs
is as low as 2.29 V/μm (corresponding current density of 1 μA/cm2),
and the field enhancement factor (β-value) is significantly increased to
6067. More importantly, the uniform and continuous electrons excite
light emission, due to the surrounding filed emitters from
Pt-NPs/QBSNs, can be easily obtained. This approach does not require
an expensive photolithographic process and possesses great potential
for applications.
Abstract: A numerical study is presented on buckling and post
buckling behaviour of laminated carbon fiber reinforced plastic
(CFRP) thin-walled cylindrical shells under axial compression using
asymmetric meshing technique (AMT). Asymmetric meshing
technique is a perturbation technique to introduce disturbance without
changing geometry, boundary conditions or loading conditions.
Asymmetric meshing affects predicted buckling load, buckling mode
shape and post-buckling behaviour. Linear (eigenvalue) and nonlinear
(Riks) analyses have been performed to study the effect of
asymmetric meshing in the form of a patch on buckling behaviour.
The reduction in the buckling load using Asymmetric meshing
technique was observed to be about 15%. An isolated dimple formed
near the bifurcation point and the size of which increased to reach a
stable state in the post-buckling region. The load-displacement curve
behaviour applying asymmetric meshing is quite similar to the curve
obtained using initial geometric imperfection in the shell model.
Abstract: 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.