Abstract: Risk management in banking sector is a key issue
linked to financial system stability and its importance has been
elevated by technological developments and emergence of new
financial instruments. In this paper, we improve the model previously
defined for quantifying internal control impact on banking risks by
automatizing the residual criticality estimation step of FMECA. For
this, we defined three equations and a maturity coefficient to obtain
a mathematical model which is tested on all banking processes and
type of risks. The new model allows an optimal assessment of residual
criticality and improves the correlation rate that has become 98%.
Abstract: This paper presents a multiscale information measure of
Electroencephalogram (EEG) for analysis with a short data length.
A multiscale extension of permutation entropy (MPE) is capable of
fully reflecting the dynamical characteristics of EEG across different
temporal scales. However, MPE yields an imprecise estimation due
to coarse-grained procedure at large scales. We present an improved
MPE measure to estimate entropy more accurately with a short
time series. By computing entropies of all coarse-grained time series
and averaging those at each scale, it leads to the modified MPE
(MMPE) which provides an enhanced accuracy as compared to
MPE. Simulation and experimental studies confirmed that MMPE
has proved its capability over MPE in terms of accuracy.
Abstract: Squalene is a valuable component of the oil composed of 30 carbon atoms and is mainly used for cosmetic materials. The main concern of this article is to study the Squalene composition in the Lebanese olive oil and to compare it with foreign oil results. To our knowledge, extraction of Squalene from the Lebanese olive oil has not been conducted before. Three different techniques were studied and experiments were performed on three brands of olive oil, Al Wadi Al Akhdar, Virgo Bio and Boulos. The techniques performed are the Fractional Crystallization, the Soxhlet and the Esterification. By comparing the results, it is found that the Lebanese oil contains squalene and Soxhlet method is the most effective between the three methods extracting about 6.5E-04 grams of Squalene per grams of olive oil.
Abstract: The alternating current is the main power in all industries and other aspects especially for the short and mid distances, but as far as long a distance which exceeds 500 KMs, using the alternating current technically will face many difficulties and more costs because it's difficult to control the current and also other restrictions. Therefore, recently those reasons led to building transmission lines HVDC to transmit power for long distances. This document presents technical comparison and assessments for power transmission system among distances either ways and studying the stability of the system regarding the proportion of losses in the actual power sent and received between both sides in different systems and also categorizing filters used in the HVDC system and its impact and effect on reducing Harmonic in the power transmission. MATLAB /Simulink simulation software is used to simulate both HVAC & HVDC power transmission system topologies.
Abstract: Climate change remains a challenging matter for the human and the built environment in the 21st century, where the need to consider adaptation to climate change in the development process is paramount. However, there remains a lack of information regarding how we should prepare responses to this issue, such as through developing organized and sophisticated tools enabling the adaptation process. This study aims to build a systematic framework approach to investigate the potentials that Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment tools (NSA) might offer in enabling both the analysis of the emerging adaptive capacity to climate change. The analysis of the framework presented in this paper aims to discuss this issue in three main phases. The first part attempts to link sustainability and climate change, in the context of adaptive capacity. It is argued that in deciding to promote sustainability in the context of climate change, both the resilience and vulnerability processes become central. However, there is still a gap in the current literature regarding how the sustainable development process can respond to climate change. As well as how the resilience of practical strategies might be evaluated. It is suggested that the integration of the sustainability assessment processes with both the resilience thinking process, and vulnerability might provide important components for addressing the adaptive capacity to climate change. A critical review of existing literature is presented illustrating the current lack of work in this field, integrating these three concepts in the context of addressing the adaptive capacity to climate change. The second part aims to identify the most appropriate scale at which to address the built environment for the climate change adaptation. It is suggested that the neighborhood scale can be considered as more suitable than either the building or urban scales. It then presents the example of NSAs, and discusses the need to explore their potential role in promoting the adaptive capacity to climate change. The third part of the framework presents a comparison among three example NSAs, BREEAM Communities, LEED-ND, and CASBEE-UD. These three tools have been selected as the most developed and comprehensive assessment tools that are currently available for the neighborhood scale. This study concludes that NSAs are likely to present the basis for an organized framework to address the practical process for analyzing and yet promoting Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change. It is further argued that vulnerability (exposure & sensitivity) and resilience (Interdependence & Recovery) form essential aspects to be addressed in the future assessment of NSA’s capability to adapt to both short and long term climate change impacts. Finally, it is acknowledged that further work is now required to understand impact assessment in terms of the range of physical sectors (Water, Energy, Transportation, Building, Land Use and Ecosystems), Actor and stakeholder engagement as well as a detailed evaluation of the NSA indicators, together with a barriers diagnosis process.
Abstract: Orthopaedic surgeries are characterized by a high degree of complexity. This is reflected by four main groups of resources: 1) surgical team which is consisted of people with different competencies, educational backgrounds and positions; 2) information and knowledge about medical and technical aspects of surgery; 3) medical equipment including surgical tools and materials; 4) space infrastructure which is important from an operating room layout point of view. These all components must be integrated and build a homogeneous organism for achieving an efficient and ergonomically correct surgical workflow. Taking this as a background, there was formulated a concept of international project, called “Online Vocational Training course on ergonomics for orthopaedic Minimally Invasive” (Train4OrthoMIS), which aim is to develop an e-learning tool available in 4 languages (English, Spanish, Polish and German). In the article, there is presented the first project research outcomes focused on three aspects: 1) ergonomic needs of surgeons who work in hospitals around different European countries, 2) the concept of structure of e-learning course, 3) the definition of tools and methods for knowledge assessment adjusted to users’ expectation. The methodology was based on the expert panels and two types of surveys: 1) on training needs, 2) on evaluation and self-assessment preferences. The major findings of the study allowed describing the subjects of four training modules and learning sessions. According to peoples’ opinion there were defined most expected test methods which are single choice test and right after quizzes: “True or False” and “Link elements” The first project outcomes confirmed the necessity of creating a universal training tool for orthopaedic surgeons regardless of the country in which they work. Because of limited time that surgeons have, the e-learning course should be strictly adjusted to their expectation in order to be useful.
Abstract: Allocating limited budget to maintain bridge networks and selecting effective maintenance strategies for each bridge represent challenging tasks for maintenance managers and decision makers. In Egypt, bridges are continuously deteriorating. In many cases, maintenance works are performed due to user complaints. The objective of this paper is to develop a practical and reliable framework to manage the maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities of Bridges network considering performance and budget limits. The model solves an optimization problem that maximizes the average condition of the entire network given the limited available budget using Genetic Algorithm (GA). The framework contains bridge inventory, condition assessment, repair cost calculation, deterioration prediction, and maintenance optimization. The developed model takes into account multiple parameters including serviceability requirements, budget allocation, element importance on structural safety and serviceability, bridge impact on network, and traffic. A questionnaire is conducted to complete the research scope. The proposed model is implemented in software, which provides a friendly user interface. The framework provides a multi-year maintenance plan for the entire network for up to five years. A case study of ten bridges is presented to validate and test the proposed model with data collected from Transportation Authorities in Egypt. Different scenarios are presented. The results are reasonable, feasible and within acceptable domain.
Abstract: Ambitions within the EU for moving towards sustainable transport include major emission reductions for fossil fuel road vehicles, especially for buses, trucks, and cars. The electric driveline seems to be an attractive solution for such development. This study first applied the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development to compare sustainability effects of today’s fossil fuel vehicles with electric vehicles that have batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. The study then addressed a scenario were electric vehicles might be in majority in Europe by 2050. The methodology called Strategic Lifecycle Assessment was first used, were each life cycle phase was assessed for violations against sustainability principles. This indicates where further analysis could be done in order to quantify the magnitude of each violation, and later to create alternative strategies and actions that lead towards sustainability. A Life Cycle Assessment of combustion engine cars, plug-in hybrid cars, battery electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars was then conducted to compare and quantify environmental impacts. The authors found major violations of sustainability principles like use of fossil fuels, which contribute to the increase of emission related impacts such as climate change, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and particulate matters. Other violations were found, such as use of scarce materials for batteries and fuel cells, and also for most life cycle phases for all vehicles when using fossil fuel vehicles for mining, production and transport. Still, the studied current battery and hydrogen fuel cell cars have less severe violations than fossil fuel cars. The life cycle assessment revealed that fossil fuel cars have overall considerably higher environmental impacts compared to electric cars as long as the latter are powered by renewable electricity. By 2050, there will likely be even more sustainable alternatives than the studied electric vehicles when the EU electricity mix mainly should stem from renewable sources, batteries should be recycled, fuel cells should be a mature technology for use in vehicles (containing no scarce materials), and electric drivelines should have replaced combustion engines in other sectors. An uncertainty for fuel cells in 2050 is whether the production of hydrogen will have had time to switch to renewable resources. If so, that would contribute even more to a sustainable development. Except for being adopted in the GreenCharge roadmap, the authors suggest that the results can contribute to planning in the upcoming decades for a sustainable increase of EVs in Europe, and potentially serve as an inspiration for other smaller or larger regions. Further studies could map the environmental effects in LCA further, and include other road vehicles to get a more precise perception of how much they could affect sustainable development.
Abstract: Fragility analysis is an effective tool for the seismic vulnerability assessment of civil structures in the last several years. The design of the expansion joints according to various bridge design codes is almost inconsistent, and only a few studies have focused on this problem so far. In this study, the influence of the expansion joint clearances between the girder ends and the abutment backwalls on the seismic fragility assessment of continuous integral bridge frames is investigated. The gaps (ranging from 60 mm, 150 mm, 250 mm and 350 mm) are designed by following two different bridge design code specifications, namely, Caltrans and Eurocode 8-2. Five bridge models are analyzed and compared. The first bridge model serves as a reference. This model uses three-dimensional reinforced concrete fiber beam-column elements with simplified supports at both ends of the girder. The other four models also employ reinforced concrete fiber beam-column elements but include the abutment backfill stiffness and four different gap values. The nonlinear time history analysis is performed. The artificial ground motion sets, which have the peak ground accelerations (PGAs) ranging from 0.1 g to 1.0 g with an increment of 0.05 g, are taken as input. The soil-structure interaction and the P-Δ effects are also included in the analysis. The component fragility curves in terms of the curvature ductility demand to the capacity ratio of the piers and the displacement demand to the capacity ratio of the abutment sliding bearings are established and compared. The system fragility curves are then obtained by combining the component fragility curves. Our results show that in the component fragility analysis, the reference bridge model exhibits a severe vulnerability compared to that of other sophisticated bridge models for all damage states. In the system fragility analysis, the reference curves illustrate a smaller damage probability in the earlier PGA ranges for the first three damage states, they then show a higher fragility compared to other curves in the larger PGA levels. In the fourth damage state, the reference curve has the smallest vulnerability. In both the component and the system fragility analysis, the same trend is found that the bridge models with smaller clearances exhibit a smaller fragility compared to that with larger openings. However, the bridge model with a maximum clearance still induces a minimum pounding force effect.
Abstract: Background: Plantar pressure measurement is an effective method for assessing plantar loading and can be applied to evaluating movement performance of the foot. The purpose of this study is to explore the sprint athletes’ plantar loading characteristics and pain profiles in static standing. Methods: Experiments were undertaken on 80 first-division college sprint athletes and 85 healthy non-sprinters. ‘JC Mat’, the optical plantar pressure measurement was applied to examining the differences between both groups in the arch index (AI), three regional and six distinct sub-regional plantar pressure distributions (PPD), and footprint characteristics. Pain assessment and self-reported health status in sprint athletes were examined for evaluating their common pain areas. Results: Findings from the control group, the males’ AI fell into the normal range. Yet, the females’ AI was classified as the high-arch type. AI values of the sprint group were found to be significantly lower than the control group. PPD were higher at the medial metatarsal bone of both feet and the lateral heel of the right foot in the sprint group, the males in particular, whereas lower at the medial and lateral longitudinal arches of both feet. Footprint characteristics tended to support the results of the AI and PPD, and this reflected the corresponding pressure profiles. For the sprint athletes, the lateral knee joint and biceps femoris were the most common musculoskeletal pains. Conclusions: The sprint athletes’ AI were generally classified as high arches, and that their PPD were categorized between the features of runners and high-arched runners. These findings also correspond to the profiles of patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS)-related plantar pressure. The pain profiles appeared to correspond to the symptoms of high-arched runners and PFPS. The findings reflected upon the possible link between high arches and PFPS. The correlation between high-arched runners and PFPS development is worth further studies.
Abstract: By GEO5 FEM program with four rockfill slope
modeling and stability analysis was performed for S1, S2, S3 and
S4 slopes where landslides of the shalefills were limited. Effective
angle of internal friction (φ'°) 17°-22.5°, the effective cohesion (c')
from 0.5 to 1.8 kPa, saturated unit weight 1.78-2.43 g/cm3, natural
unit weight 1.9-2.35 g/cm3, dry unit weight 1.97-2.40 g/cm3, the
permeability coefficient of 1x10-4 - 6.5x10-4 cm/s. In cross-sections
of the slope, GEO 5 FEM program possible critical surface tension
was examined. Rockfill dump design was made to prevent sliding
slopes. Bulk material designated geotechnical properties using also
GEO5 programs FEM and stability program via a safety factor
determined and calculated according to the values S3 and S4 No.
slopes are stable S1 and S2 No. slopes were close to stable state
that has been found to be risk. GEO5 programs with limestone rock
fill dump through FEM program was found to exhibit stability.
Abstract: Hazard management that can prevent fatal accidents and property losses is a fundamental process during the buildings’ construction stage. However, due to lack of safety supervision resources and operational pressures, the conduction of hazard management is poor and ineffective in China. In order to improve the quality of construction safety management, it is critical to explore the use of information technologies to ensure that the process of hazard management is efficient and effective. After exploring the existing problems of construction hazard management in China, this paper develops the griddization management model for construction hazard management. First, following the knowledge grid infrastructure, the griddization computing infrastructure for construction hazards management is designed which includes five layers: resource entity layer, information management layer, task management layer, knowledge transformation layer and application layer. This infrastructure will be as the technical support for realizing grid management. Second, this study divides the construction hazards into grids through city level, district level and construction site level according to grid principles. Last, a griddization management process including hazard identification, assessment and control is developed. Meanwhile, all stakeholders of construction safety management, such as owners, contractors, supervision organizations and government departments, should take the corresponding responsibilities in this process. Finally, a case study based on actual construction hazard identification, assessment and control is used to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed griddization management model. The advantage of this designed model is to realize information sharing and cooperative management between various safety management departments.
Abstract: In subjective terms, Polish SME sector occupies a
prominent position in the national economic development, in which
planning of the management strategies should be primarily based on
identifying and meeting the innovation needs. As a research sample, there is chosen a printing sector of industry.
SMEs share in printing sector in Poland is estimated at the level of
81% of all enterprises. In recent years, the printing industry achieved
one of the highest levels of EU support in Poland. There is a
relatively high increase in the development of technological
innovations in equipment and the associated significant increase in
production capacity. It can be also noticed that on average, every
third enterprise belonging to the printing industry has implemented
innovations, but not all of them effected in better economic results.
Therefore, the aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of the
implementation of innovation projects financed from the EU funds
for performance of SMEs in the printing industry. As the results of research of EU funds co-financing effects on the
development of innovation in the printing industry, it was specified
that examined SMEs prefer to implement product innovation to
receive a grant to the project at a level between 40% to 60%, the
remaining part of the investment is usually covered with equity. The most common type of innovation had indicated a single
implementation, related only to the change in process, technology, or
organization. The relationship between variables of the EU funds and
management of innovative activities was verified. It has been
observed that the identified variables arising from the support in a
form of the EU funds had a positive effect on the level of earned
revenue, the increase in margin and in increase in employment as
well. It was confirmed that the implemented innovations supported
by the European funds have a positive impact on the performance of
the printing companies. Although there is a risk that due to the
decreasing demand for printing services such a high level of funding
the companies in this sector will significantly increase competition in
the long term, that may also contribute to the economic problems of
the enterprises belonging to the analyzed branch.
Abstract: Learning outcomes of a course (CLOs) and the abilities at the time of graduation referred to as Student Outcomes (SOs) are required to be assessed for ABET accreditation. A question in an assessment must target a CLO as well as an SO and must represent a required level of competence. This paper presents the idea of an Expert System (ES) to select a proper question to satisfy ABET accreditation requirements. For ES implementation, seven attributes of a question are considered including the learning outcomes and Bloom’s Taxonomy level. A database contains all the data about a course including course content topics, course learning outcomes and the CLO-SO relationship matrix. The knowledge base of the presented ES contains a pool of questions each with tags of the specified attributes. Questions and the attributes represent expert opinions. With implicit rule base the inference engine finds the best possible question satisfying the required attributes. It is shown that the novel idea of such an ES can be implemented and applied to a course with success. An application example is presented to demonstrate the working of the proposed ES.
Abstract: Copreneurship is a term used to describe the business
pattern of operations run by married couples who share commitment,
goals, and responsibilities in handling a business. Research conducted
overseas showed that copreneurship business activities grew quickly
and played a role in elevating families’ and nations’ socio-economic
standards. In Malaysia, copreneurship has long been cultivated by
spouses. Thus, this study aimed to explore the factors that motivate
married partners to start a copreneurship business, and who is the
dominant partner in the management of this business. The study
participants are four entrepreneurial couples who are SME business
operators selected through purposive sampling. In-depth interviews
and direct observation were used as methods of measurement for
triangulation of qualitative data in this study. The findings of the
interviews were administered using NVivo 8.0 software. The result
shows that freedom is a key factor that drives entrepreneurs to set up
copreneurship businesses, and that the husband dominates the
management aspects of the business. The study gives an overview of
the parties involved in entrepreneurship to provide understanding of
the copreneurship concept as it is practiced. This study provides
academic value by creating understanding of the importance of a
harmonious family institution specifically for forming entrepreneurs
in the familial environment in Malaysia.
Abstract: Historic paths in today's cities are facing the pressure
of the urban development due to the rapid urban growth. Every new
development is tearing the old urban fabric and the socio-economic
character of the historic paths. Furthermore, in some cases historic
paths suffer from negligence and decay. Kom El Dekka historic path
was one of those deteriorated paths in the city of Alexandria, Egypt,
in spite of its high heritage and socio-economic value. Therefore,
there was a need to develop urban regeneration strategies as a part of
a wider sustainable development vision, to handle the situation and
revitalize the path as a livable space in the heart of the city. This
study aims to develop a comprehensive assessment methodology to
evaluate the different values of the path and to create community-oriented
and economic-based analysis methodology for its socio-economic
values. These analysis and assessments provide strategies
for any regeneration action plan for Kom El Dekka historic path.
Abstract: Microstructure and fabric of soils play an important
role on structural properties e.g. stiffness and strength of compacted
earthwork. Traditional quality control monitoring based on moisturedensity
tests neither reflects the variability of soil microstructure nor
provides a direct assessment of structural property, which is the
ultimate objective of the earthwork quality control. Since stiffness
and strength are sensitive to soil microstructure and fabric, any
independent test methods that provide simple, rapid, and direct
measurement of stiffness and strength are anticipated to provide an
effective assessment of compacted earthen materials’ uniformity. In
this study, the soil stiffness gauge (SSG) and the dynamic cone
penetrometer (DCP) were respectively utilized to measure and
monitor the stiffness and strength in companion with traditional
moisture-density measurements of various earthen materials used in
Thailand road construction projects. The practical earthwork quality
control criteria are presented herein in order to assure proper
earthwork quality control and uniform structural property of
compacted earthworks.
Abstract: Large scale Indian manufacturers started
implementing Six Sigma to their supply core to fulfill the endless
need of high quality products. As well, they initiated encouraging
their suppliers to apply the well-ascertain SS management practice
and kept no resource for supplier enterprises, generally small midsized
enterprises to think for the admittance of Six Sigma as a quality
promotion drive. There are many issues to study for requisite changes
before the introduction of Six Sigma in auto SMEs. This paper
converges on impeding factors while implementing SS drive and also
pinpoints the gains achieved through successful implementation. The
result of this study suggest some operational guidelines for effective
implementation of Six Sigma from evidences acquired through
research questionnaire and interviews with industrial professionals,
apportioned to assort auto sector mid-sized enterprises (MSEs) in
India.
Abstract: Nowadays, food safety is a great public concern;
therefore, robust and effective techniques are required for detecting
the safety situation of goods. Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) is an
attractive material for researchers to inspect food quality and safety
estimation such as meat quality assessment, automated poultry
carcass inspection, quality evaluation of fish, bruise detection of
apples, quality analysis and grading of citrus fruits, bruise detection
of strawberry, visualization of sugar distribution of melons,
measuring ripening of tomatoes, defect detection of pickling
cucumber, and classification of wheat kernels. HSI can be used to
concurrently collect large amounts of spatial and spectral data on the
objects being observed. This technique yields with exceptional
detection skills, which otherwise cannot be achieved with either
imaging or spectroscopy alone. This paper presents a nonlinear
technique based on kernel Fukunaga-Koontz transform (KFKT) for
detection of fat content in ground meat using HSI. The KFKT which
is the nonlinear version of FKT is one of the most effective
techniques for solving problems involving two-pattern nature. The
conventional FKT method has been improved with kernel machines
for increasing the nonlinear discrimination ability and capturing
higher order of statistics of data. The proposed approach in this paper
aims to segment the fat content of the ground meat by regarding the
fat as target class which is tried to be separated from the remaining
classes (as clutter). We have applied the KFKT on visible and nearinfrared
(VNIR) hyperspectral images of ground meat to determine
fat percentage. The experimental studies indicate that the proposed
technique produces high detection performance for fat ratio in ground
meat.
Abstract: Landfill leachates contain a number of persistent pollutants, including heavy metals. They have the ability to spread in ecosystems and accumulate in fish which most of them are classified as top-consumers of trophic chains. Fish are freely swimming organisms; but perhaps, due to their species-specific ecological and behavioral properties, they often prefer the most suitable biotopes and therefore, did not avoid harmful substances or environments. That is why it is necessary to evaluate the persistent pollutant dispersion in hydroecosystem using fish tissue metal concentration. In hydroecosystems of hybrid type (e.g. river-pond-river) the distance from the pollution source could be a perfect indicator of such a kind of metal distribution. The studies were carried out in the Kairiai landfill neighboring hybrid-type ecosystem which is located 5 km east of the Šiauliai City. Fish tissue (gills, liver, and muscle) metal concentration measurements were performed on two types of ecologically-different fishes according to their feeding characteristics: benthophagous (Gibel carp, roach) and predatory (Northern pike, perch). A number of mathematical models (linear, non-linear, using log and other transformations) have been applied in order to identify the most satisfactorily description of the interdependence between fish tissue metal concentration and the distance from the pollution source. However, the only one log-multiple regression model revealed the pattern that the distance from the pollution source is closely and positively correlated with metal concentration in all predatory fish tissues studied (gills, liver, and muscle).