Abstract: Economics is not an exact science. It cannot be from the moment it is a social science that concerns society organization, a human science that depends on the behavior of the men and women who make a part of this society. Therefore, it cannot ignore morality, the instinctive sense of good and evil, the natural order which place us between certain values, and which religion often sheds light on. In terms of finance, the reference to ethics is becoming more popular than ever. This is naturally due to the growing financial crises. Finance is less and less ethical, but some financial practices have continued to do so. This is the case of ethical finance and Islamic finance. After attempting to define the concepts of ethical finance and Islamic finance, in a period when financial innovation seeks to encourage differentiation in order to create more profit margins, this article attempts to expose the particularities, the convergences and the potentialities of development of these two sensibilities.
Abstract: Any industrial company needs to determine the amount of variation that exists within its measurement process and guarantee the reliability of their data, studying the performance of their measurement system, in terms of linearity, bias, repeatability and reproducibility and stability. This issue is critical for automotive industry suppliers, who are required to be certified by the 16949:2016 standard (replaces the ISO/TS 16949) of International Automotive Task Force, defining the requirements of a quality management system for companies in the automotive industry. Measurement System Analysis (MSA) is one of the mandatory tools. Frequently, the measurement system in companies is not connected to the equipment and do not incorporate the methods proposed by the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG). To address these constraints, an R&D project is in progress, whose objective is to develop a web and cloud-based MSA tool. This MSA tool incorporates Industry 4.0 concepts, such as, Internet of Things (IoT) protocols to assure the connection with the measuring equipment, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, statistical tools, and advanced mathematical algorithms. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the project. The web and cloud-based MSA tool is innovative because it implements all statistical tests proposed in the MSA-4 reference manual from AIAG as well as other emerging methods and techniques. As it is integrated with the measuring devices, it reduces the manual input of data and therefore the errors. The tool ensures traceability of all performed tests and can be used in quality laboratories and in the production lines. Besides, it monitors MSAs over time, allowing both the analysis of deviations from the variation of the measurements performed and the management of measurement equipment and calibrations. To develop the MSA tool a ten-step approach was implemented. Firstly, it was performed a benchmarking analysis of the current competitors and commercial solutions linked to MSA, concerning Industry 4.0 paradigm. Next, an analysis of the size of the target market for the MSA tool was done. Afterwards, data flow and traceability requirements were analysed in order to implement an IoT data network that interconnects with the equipment, preferably via wireless. The MSA web solution was designed under UI/UX principles and an API in python language was developed to perform the algorithms and the statistical analysis. Continuous validation of the tool by companies is being performed to assure real time management of the ‘big data’. The main results of this R&D project are: MSA Tool, web and cloud-based; Python API; New Algorithms to the market; and Style Guide of UI/UX of the tool. The MSA tool proposed adds value to the state of the art as it ensures an effective response to the new challenges of measurement systems, which are increasingly critical in production processes. Although the automotive industry has triggered the development of this innovative MSA tool, other industries would also benefit from it. Currently, companies from molds and plastics, chemical and food industry are already validating it.
Abstract: Embodied Cognition (EC) as a learning paradigm is based on the idea of an inseparable link between body, mind, and environment. In recent years, the advent of theoretical learning approaches around EC theory has resulted in a number of empirical studies exploring the implementation of the theory in education. This systematic literature overview identifies the mainstream of EC research and emphasizes on the implementation of the theory across learning environments. Based on a corpus of 43 manuscripts, published between 2013 and 2017, it sets out to describe the range of topics covered under the umbrella of EC and provides a holistic view of the field. The aim of the present review is to investigate the main issues in EC research related to the various learning contexts. Particularly, the study addresses the research methods and technologies that are utilized, and it also explores the integration of body into the learning context. An important finding from the overview is the potential of the theory in different educational environments and disciplines. However, there is a lack of an explicit pedagogical framework from an educational perspective for a successful implementation in various learning contexts.
Abstract: This study presents a methodology of specialized translation with the objective of helping teachers to improve the strategies in teaching translation. In order to allow students to acquire skills to translate specialized texts, they need to become familiar with the semantic and syntactic features of source texts and target texts. The aim of our study is to use a corpus-based approach in the teaching of specialized translation between Chinese and Italian. This study proposes to construct a specialized Chinese - Italian comparable corpus that consists of 50 economic contracts from the domain of food. With the help of AntConc, we propose to compile a comparable corpus in for translation teaching purposes. This paper attempts to provide insight into how teachers could benefit from comparable corpus in the teaching of specialized translation from Italian into Chinese and through some examples of passive sentences how students could learn to apply different strategies for translating appropriately the voice.
Abstract: We present a new class of numerical techniques to
solve shallow water flows over dry areas including run-up. Many
recent investigations on wave run-up in coastal areas are based on
the well-known shallow water equations. Numerical simulations have
also performed to understand the effects of several factors on tsunami
wave impact and run-up in the presence of coastal areas. In all these
simulations the shallow water equations are solved in entire domain
including dry areas and special treatments are used for numerical
solution of singularities at these dry regions. In the present study we
propose a new method to deal with these difficulties by reformulating
the shallow water equations into a new system to be solved only in the
wetted domain. The system is obtained by a change in the coordinates
leading to a set of equations in a moving domain for which the
wet/dry interface is the reconstructed using the wave speed. To solve
the new system we present a finite volume method of Lax-Friedrich
type along with a modified method of characteristics. The method is
well-balanced and accurately resolves dam-break problems over dry
areas.
Abstract: Laser beam micro-drilling (LBMD) is one of the most important non-contact machining processes of materials that are difficult to machine by means oeqf conventional machining methods used in various industries. The paper is focused on LBMD knock-down effect on Ti-6Al-4V (Grade 5) titanium alloy sheets properties. Two various process configurations were verified with a focus on laser damages in back-structure parts affected by the process. The effects of the LBMD on the material properties were assessed by means of tensile and fatigue tests and fracture surface analyses. Fatigue limit of LBMD configurations reached a significantly lower value between 15% and 30% of the static strength as compared to the reference raw material with 58% value. The farther back-structure configuration gives a two-fold fatigue life as compared to the closer LBMD configuration at a given stress applied.
Abstract: The cardiopulmonary signal monitoring, without the
usage of contact electrodes or any type of in-body sensors, has
several applications such as sleeping monitoring and continuous
monitoring of vital signals in bedridden patients. This system has
also applications in the vehicular environment to monitor the driver,
in order to avoid any possible accident in case of cardiac failure.
Thus, the bio-radar system proposed in this paper, can measure vital
signals accurately by using the Doppler effect principle that relates
the received signal properties with the distance change between the
radar antennas and the person’s chest-wall. Once the bio-radar aim
is to monitor subjects in real-time and during long periods of time,
it is impossible to guarantee the patient immobilization, hence their
random motion will interfere in the acquired signals. In this paper,
a mathematical model of the bio-radar is presented, as well as its
simulation in MATLAB. The used algorithm for breath rate extraction
is explained and a method for DC offsets removal based in a motion
detection system is proposed. Furthermore, experimental tests were
conducted with a view to prove that the unavoidable random motion
can be used to estimate the DC offsets accurately and thus remove
them successfully.
Abstract: The use of waste rubber chips not only can be of great importance in terms of the environment, but also can be used to increase the shear strength of soils. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the variation of the internal friction angle of liquefiable sandy soil using waste rubber chips. For this purpose, the geotechnical properties of unmodified and modified soil samples by waste lining rubber chips have been evaluated and analyzed by performing the triaxial consolidated drained test. In order to prepare the laboratory specimens, the sandy soil in part of Rudsar shores in Gilan province, north of Iran with high liquefaction potential has been replaced by two percent of waste rubber chips. Samples have been compressed until reaching the two levels of density of 15.5 and 16.7 kN/m3. Also, in order to find the optimal length of chips in sandy soil, the rectangular rubber chips with the widths of 0.5 and 1 cm and the lengths of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm were used. The results showed that the addition of rubber chips to liquefiable sandy soil greatly increases the shear resistance of these soils. Also, it can be seen that decreasing the width and increasing the length-to-width ratio of rubber chips has a direct impact on the shear strength of the modified soil samples with rubber chips.
Abstract: The current study is a comparative analysis of the use of shell nouns as a cohesive device (CD) in an English for Second Language (ESL) setting in order to identify their use and relationship in the quality of second language (L2) writing. As these nouns were established to anticipate the meaning within, across or outside the text, their use has fascinated writing researchers. The corpus of the study included published articles from reputable journals and graduate students’ papers in order to analyze the frequency of shell nouns using “highly prevalent” nouns in the academic community, to identify the different lexicogrammatical patterns where these nouns occur and to the functions connected with these patterns. The result of the study implies that published authors used more shell nouns in their paper than graduate students. However, the functions of the different lexicogrammatical patterns for the frequently occurring shell nouns are somewhat similar. These results could help students in enhancing the cohesion of their text and in comprehending it.
Abstract: Language is communication on several discourse levels. The target of teaching a language and the literature of a foreign language is to communicate a message. Reading, appreciating, analysing, and interpreting poetry as a sophisticated rhetorical expression of human thoughts, emotions, and philosophical messages is more feasible through the use of linguistic pragmatic tools from a communicative discourse perspective. The poet's intention, speech act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary goal can be better understood when communicative situational context as well as linguistic discourse structure theories are employed. The use of linguistic theories in the teaching of poetry is, therefore, intrinsic to students' comprehension, interpretation, and appreciation of poetry of the different ages. It is the purpose of this study to show how both teachers as well as students can apply these linguistic theories and tools to dramatic poetic texts for an engaging, enlightening, and effective interpretation and appreciation of the language. Theories drawn from areas of pragmatics, discourse analysis, embedded discourse level, communicative situational context, and other linguistic approaches were applied to selected poetry texts from the different centuries. Further, in a simple statistical count of the number of poems with dialogic dramatic discourse with embedded two or three levels of discourse in different anthologies outweighs the number of descriptive poems with a one level of discourse, between the poet and the reader. Poetry is thus discourse on one, two, or three levels. It is, therefore, recommended that teachers and students in the area of ESL/EFL use the linguistics theories for a better understanding of poetry as communicative discourse. The practice of applying these linguistic theories in classrooms and in research will allow them to perceive the language and its linguistic, social, and cultural aspect. Texts will become live illocutionary acts with a perlocutionary acts goal rather than mere literary texts in anthologies.
Abstract: 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.
Abstract: Acidification is a technique used in oil reservoirs
to improve annual production, reduce the skin and increase the
pressure of an oil well while eliminating the formation damage that
occurs during the drilling process, completion and, amongst others,
to create new channels allowing the easy circulation of oil around
a producing well. This is achieved by injecting an acidizing fluid
at a relatively low pressure to prevent fracturing formation. The
treatment fluid used depends on the type and nature of the reservoir
rock traversed as well as its petrophysical properties. In order to
understand the interaction mechanisms between the treatment fluids
used for the reservoir rock acidizing, several candidate wells for
stimulation were selected in the large Hassi Messaoud deposit in
southern Algeria. The stimulation of these wells is completed using
different fluids composed mainly of HCl acid with other additives
such as corrosion inhibitors, clay stabilizers and iron controllers.
These treatment fluids are injected over two phases, namely with
clean tube (7.5% HCl) and matrix aidizing with HCl (15%). The
stimulation results obtained are variable according to the type of
rock traversed and its mineralogical composition. These results show
that there has been an increase in production flow and head pressure
respectively from 1.99 m3 / h to 3.56 m3 / h and from 13 Kgf / cm2
to 20 kgf / cm2 in the sands formation having good petrophysical
properties of (porosity = 16%) and low amount of clay (Vsh = 6%).
Abstract: In this paper, an observer-based direct adaptive fuzzy sliding mode (OAFSM) algorithm is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, the zero-input dynamics of the plant could be unknown. The input connection matrix is used to combine the sliding surfaces of individual subsystems, and an adaptive fuzzy algorithm is used to estimate an equivalent sliding mode control input directly. The fuzzy membership functions, which were determined by time consuming try and error processes in previous works, are adjusted by adaptive algorithms. The other advantage of the proposed controller is that the input gain matrix is not limited to be diagonal, i.e. the plant could be over/under actuated provided that controllability and observability are preserved. An observer is constructed to directly estimate the state tracking error, and the nonlinear part of the observer is constructed by an adaptive fuzzy algorithm. The main advantage of the proposed observer is that, the measured outputs is not limited to the first entry of a canonical-form state vector. The closed-loop stability of the proposed method is proved using a Lyapunov-based approach. The proposed method is applied numerically on a multi-link robot manipulator, which verifies the performance of the closed-loop control. Moreover, the performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with some conventional control algorithms.
Abstract: The intelligent management and optimisation of radio resource technologies will lead to a considerable improvement in the overall performance in Next Generation Networks (NGNs). Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology, also known as Spectrum Aggregation, enables more efficient use of the available spectrum by combining multiple Component Carriers (CCs) in a virtual wideband channel. LTE-A (Long Term Evolution–Advanced) CA technology can combine multiple adjacent or separate CCs in the same band or in different bands. In this way, increased data rates and dynamic load balancing can be achieved, resulting in a more reliable and efficient operation of mobile networks and the enabling of high bandwidth mobile services. In this paper, several distinct CA deployment strategies for the utilisation of spectrum bands are compared in indoor-outdoor scenarios, simulated via the recently-developed Realistic Indoor Environment Generator (RIEG). We analyse the performance of the User Equipment (UE) by integrating the average throughput, the level of fairness of radio resource allocation, and other parameters, into one summative assessment termed a Comparative Factor (CF). In addition, comparison of non-CA and CA indoor mobile networks is carried out under different load conditions: varying numbers and positions of UEs. The experimental results demonstrate that the CA technology can improve network performance, especially in the case of indoor scenarios. Additionally, we show that an increase of carrier frequency does not necessarily lead to improved CF values, due to high wall-penetration losses. The performance of users under bad-channel conditions, often located in the periphery of the cells, can be improved by intelligent CA location. Furthermore, a combination of such a deployment and effective radio resource allocation management with respect to user-fairness plays a crucial role in improving the performance of LTE-A networks.
Abstract: Hypertension is one of the important reasons of morbidity and mortality in countries, including Iran. It has been shown that hypertension is a consequence of the interaction of genetics and environment. Nutrients have important roles in the controlling of blood pressure. We assessed dietary habit and anthropometric status in patients with hypertension in the north of Iran, and that have special dietary habit and according to their culture. This study was conducted on 127 patients with newly recognized hypertension and the 120 normotensive participants. Anthropometric status was measured and demographic characteristics, and medical condition were collected by valid questionnaires and dietary habit assessment was assessed with 3-day food recall (two weekdays and one weekend). The mean age of participants was 58 ± 6.7 years. The mean level of energy intake, saturated fat, vitamin D, potassium, zinc, dietary fiber, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, copper and magnesium was significantly lower in the hypertensive group compared to the control (p < 0.05). After adjusting for energy intake, positive association was observe between hypertension and some dietary nutrients including; Cholesterol [OR: 1.1, P: 0.001, B: 0.06], fiber [OR: 1.6, P: 0.001, B: 1.8], vitamin D [OR: 2.6, P: 0.006, B: 0.9] and zinc [OR: 1.4, P: 0.006, B: 0.3] intake. Logistic regression analysis showed that there was not significant association between hypertension, weight and waist circumference. In our study, the mean intake of some nutrients was lower in the hypertensive individuals compared to the normotensive individual. Health training about suitable dietary habits and easier access to vitamin D supplementation in patients with hypertension are cost-effective tools to improve outcomes in Iran.
Abstract: Recent ground motion records demonstrate that the near-field earthquakes have various properties compared to far-field earthquakes. In general, most of these properties are affected by an important phenomenon called ‘forward directivity’ in near-fault earthquakes. Measuring structural damages are one of the common activities administered after an earthquake. Predicting the amount of damage caused by the earthquake as well as determining the vulnerability of the structure is extremely significant. In order to measure the amount of structural damages, instead of calculating the acceleration and velocity spectrum, it is possible to use the damage spectra of the structure. The damage spectrum is a kind of nonlinear spectrum that is drawn by setting the nonlinear parameters related to the single degree of freedom structures and its dynamic analysis under the specific record and measuring damage of any structure. In this study, the damage spectra of steel structures have been drawn. For this purpose, different kinds of concentric and eccentric braced structures with various ductility coefficients in hard and soft soil under near-field and far-field ground motion records have been considered using the Krawinkler and Zohrei damage index. The results indicate that, by increasing the structures' fundamental period, the amount of damage increases under the near-field earthquakes compared to far-field earthquakes. In addition, by increasing the structure ductility, the amount of damage based on near-field and far-field earthquakes decreases noticeably. Furthermore, in concentric braced structures, the amount of damage under the near-field earthquakes is almost two times more than the amount of damage in eccentrically braced structures especially for fundamental periods larger than 0.6 s.
Abstract: Cardiologists perform cardiac auscultation to detect
abnormalities in heart sounds. Since accurate auscultation is
a crucial first step in screening patients with heart diseases,
there is a need to develop computer-aided detection/diagnosis
(CAD) systems to assist cardiologists in interpreting heart sounds
and provide second opinions. In this paper different algorithms
are implemented for automated heart sound classification using
unsegmented phonocardiogram (PCG) signals. Support vector
machine (SVM), artificial neural network (ANN) and cartesian
genetic programming evolved artificial neural network (CGPANN)
without the application of any segmentation algorithm has been
explored in this study. The signals are first pre-processed to remove
any unwanted frequencies. Both time and frequency domain features
are then extracted for training the different models. The different
algorithms are tested in multiple scenarios and their strengths and
weaknesses are discussed. Results indicate that SVM outperforms
the rest with an accuracy of 73.64%.
Abstract: The influence of a pulsatile electroosmotic flow (PEOF)
at the rate of spread, or dispersivity, for a non-reactive solute released
in a microcapillary with slippage at the boundary wall (modeled by
the Navier-slip condition) is theoretically analyzed. Based on the flow
velocity field developed under such conditions, the present study
implements an analytical scheme of scaling known as the Theory
of Homogenization, in order to obtain a mathematical expression for
the dispersivity, valid at a large time scale where the initial transients
have vanished and the solute spreads under the Taylor dispersion
influence. Our results show the dispersivity is a function of a slip
coefficient, the amplitude of the imposed electric field, the Debye
length and the angular Reynolds number, highlighting the importance
of the latter as an enhancement/detrimental factor on the dispersivity,
which allows to promote the PEOF as a strong candidate for chemical
species separation at lab-on-a-chip devices.
Abstract: Due to the economic and environmental benefits of producing less waste, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduces source reduction as one of the most important means to deal with the problems caused by increased landfills and pollution. Waste reduction involves all waste management methods, including source reduction, recycling, and composting, which reduce waste flow to landfills or other disposal facilities. Source reduction of waste can be studied from two perspectives: avoiding waste production, or reducing per capita waste production, and waste deviation that indicates the reduction of waste transfer to landfills. The present paper has investigated home composting as a managerial solution for reduction of waste transfer to landfills. Home composting has many benefits. The use of household waste for the production of compost will result in a much smaller amount of waste being sent to landfills, which in turn will reduce the costs of waste collection, transportation and burial. Reducing the volume of waste for disposal and using them for the production of compost and plant fertilizer might help to recycle the material in a shorter time and to use them effectively in order to preserve the environment and reduce contamination. Producing compost in a home-based manner requires very small piece of land for preparation and recycling compared with other methods. The final product of home-made compost is valuable and helps to grow crops and garden plants. It is also used for modifying the soil structure and maintaining its moisture. The food that is transferred to landfills will spoil and produce leachate after a while. It will also release methane and greenhouse gases. But, composting these materials at home is the best way to manage degradable materials, use them efficiently and reduce environmental pollution. Studies have shown that the benefits of the sale of produced compost and the reduced costs of collecting, transporting, and burying waste can well be responsive to the costs of purchasing home compost machine and the cost of related trainings. Moreover, the process of producing home compost may be profitable within 4 to 5 years and as a result, it will have a major role in reducing waste management.
Abstract: From August to December of 2016, a diagnostic and strategic planning study was carried out on the supply chain of the company Agropecuaria GABO S.A. de C.V. The final product of the study was the development of the strategic plan and a project portfolio to meet the demands of the three links in the supply chain of the Roma tomato exported annually to the United States of America. In this project, the strategic objective of ensuring the proper handling of the product was selected and one of the goals associated with this was the employment of quantitative methods to support decision making. Considering the antecedents, the objective of this case study was to develop a model to analyze the behavioral dynamics in the distribution chain, from the logistics of storage and shipment of Roma tomato in 81-case pallets (11.5 kg per case), to the two pre-cooling rooms and eventual loading onto transports, seeking to reduce the bottleneck and the associated costs by means of a dynamic interface. The methodology used was that of system dynamics, considering four phases that were adapted to the purpose of the study: 1) the conceptualization phase; 2) the formulation phase; 3) the evaluation phase; and 4) the communication phase. The main practical conclusions lead to the possibility of reducing both the bottlenecks in the cooling rooms and the costs by simulating scenarios and modifying certain policies. Furthermore, the creation of the dynamic interface between the model and the stakeholders was achieved by generating interaction with buttons and simple instructions that allow making modifications and observing diverse behaviors.