Abstract:Seismic design methods based on the substitute equivalent linear elastic structure concept are based on the use of high-damping response spectra. They are being used also for the analysis of structures equipped with seismic isolation and energy dissipation systems. Damping is integrated in the response spectra using the so-called Damping Reduction Factors (DRF). It has been proposed in seismic codes to estimate high-damping response spectra from their 5% damping counterpart. The assessed structural damping value for a building over a ground motion may differ considerably from the value specified in the design. Due to the importance of damping in the seismic performance of structures, the uncertainties in the estimation of structural damping should be taken on consideration in the design step.\nIn this paper, the effects of damping uncertainties on DRFs for the estimation of high damping response spectra, are examined. Monte Carlo technique is used to describe the damping uncertainties by a lognormal probability distribution. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and nonlinear regression are then applied to integrate uncertainties in damping estimation. A DRF formulation capable of accounting for uncertainties in damping estimation is tentatively proposed for different levels of damping uncertainties.
Abstract:Recently, an increasing number of works have been devoted to studies of the accumulation of heterocyclic aromatic amines in food products. Basically, such works are devoted to factors affecting the amount of formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines, as well as ways to reduce their amount. The purpose of this work was to conduct monitoring studies of products sold in fast food restaurants. The results showed that each of the selected restaurants had at least 1 product, during the heat treatment of which heterocyclic aromatic amines were formed, but at the same time the obtained values did not exceed 10 ng/g of the product. Also, in most samples, only one of the two analyzed analytes was detected. Thus, products sold in fast food restaurants can potentially pose risks to human health due to their heterocyclic aromatic amines content.
Abstract:Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been identified as catalysts for the economic growth in Nigeria as they are major sources of income generation and job creation and contribute immensely to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) as well as livelihood sustainability in the country. Despite what private investors and government have done and still doing in order to enhance the performance of the SMEs, most of them are still constrained by poor management skills and lack of modern technology, which may be as a result of inadequate financing leading to inadequate sales growth. The general objective of the study was to determine the effects of entrepreneurial financing dimensions on the sales growth of selected SMEs in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study adopted cross-sectional survey research design. The population comprised 1,794 owner/managers of SMEs. The sample size was 425. A validated questionnaire was administered for data collection. The Average Variance Extracted of the constructs ranged from 0.741 to 0.908. The response rate was 82.4%. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and multiple regressions. Findings from the study revealed that eentrepreneurial financing dimensions (bank loans, government grant, venture capital, funds from family) had positive and significant effect on sales growth of SMEs in Ogun State (R = 0.601, Adj. R2 = 0.354, F (4, 345) = 48.764, p < 0.05). The study concluded that entrepreneurial financing dimensions play an important role in enhancing the performance of selected SMEs in Ogun State, Nigeria. Thus, this study recommended that the financial institutions should creatively craft and adopt the availability of cheaper funds that would spur the sales growth of SMEs with view to sustainability while enhancing economic growth.
Abstract:Price stickiness affects economic system broadly. This article focuses onduopoly innovation under sticky price with differential game theory approaches. Wefound that sticky price weakens firms� market power and stimulates firms� innovationunder both open-loop and closed-loop solution. Moreover, higher price stickinessyields more outputs and lower price. More interestingly, open-loop equilibriumstimulates innovation more than that of closed-loop. The policy implication is toencourage commitment price strategy.
Abstract:This paper reviewed the Layout Decisions and Performance Assessment Measurements in academic literature, the main research topic is: there is no conceptual model that sheds light on Performance Assessment Measurements in production management, this has been achieved throughout resounding a cavernous analysis of accessible studies which has appeared at all obtainable studies from all available resources. The joint model for consisting of cause and effect relationships that were approved by previous studies best Layout Decisions are causes for high levels of Performance Assessment Measurements
Abstract:Forensic entomology is considered a branch of general entomology which was recently founded and ruled by the Entomology Society of America in the 1990s, followed by this ruling the society approval came to establish what is known today as the American Board of Forensic Entomology (ABFE) in 1996. \nIt can be also called forensic biology which is the field of science that depends on different kinds of insects as a fundamental base to reveal the mystery of a crime circumstances especially violence crimes in general and homicides in specific. As many insects start their life cycle when the death of a living creature occurs, criminology have used many ways to reveal the mystery of a crime facts and circumstances, but even with the great scientific evolution a medical examiner is still unable to estimate the exact precise time of death after the passage of 72 hours corpse decomposition, however by using forensic entomology the exact time of death can be precisely estimated. \nIt is for sure that forensic science depends on more than field of science and method to solve and reveal the mysteries of crimes, and for every case there is a way or more that can be more analytically accurate for an incident, and sometimes more than one method are used for the same crime to reveal the identity of a murderer or the time of death in a more positively accurate way. \nConsequently insects are used in forensic science in combination with other critical important fields of science in criminal investigation like criminological psychology, Toxicology, Forensic Identification, fingerprint, hair print and memory print identification, and most importantly the DNA profiling.
Abstract:Regarding the disposal of agricultural wastes (such as pig manure and urine), three-stage or batch-type wastewater treatment is mostly adopted in Taiwan. The sludge produced is then used to synthesize organic fertilizers through biological technology, or to make engineering fillers for reuse directly through physical treatment. In fact, agricultural waste can generate biomass energy (such as biogas) through the principles of anaerobic digestion. Among them, the electro-fermentation technology has been proposed in recent years and has aroused widespread discussion. The concept of electro-fermentation technology uses electrochemical principles to drive microorganisms to carry out fermentation reactions, and it has been proven in the laboratory for effectively producing biogas. This biogas production even surpasses traditional anaerobic digestion systems. In addition to effectively reducing the organic content of agricultural waste, electro-fermentation technology can also convert it into value-added biomass products (such as organic acids), adequately taking into account the both environmental protection and realization of circular economy concepts. In view of this, this article systematically reviews the principles and performance of electro-fermentation technology, including reactor design, product types and practical applications, and at end proposes opportunities and prospects for applying electro-fermentation technology in the future.
Abstract:One of the critical elements for successful environmental management is the active participation of residents in all wastewater management stages to ensure public acceptance. The primary purpose of this study is to identify and implement a process based on a structured questionnaire survey useful for analyzing the views and attitudes of the inhabitants of Leros Island, Greece. The questionnaire survey deals with issues related to (a) the implementation and operation of biological treatment, operating on Leros Island (b) their level of information on natural wastewater treatment systems and (c) finally their willingness to embrace such a possible application, to propose specific campaigns for similar cases. \nGender did not appear to have a statistical correlation with any questions. On the contrary, age showed a significant correlation in questions about acceptance. People over the age of 56 years are most likely to apply a natural wastewater treatment system in remote areas of the Leros island. There is an apparent lack of information on natural wastewater treatment systems for all respondents, and it turns out that high level of education does not necessarily mean better details of alternative wastewater treatment methods or greater acceptance of innovative wastewater treatment systems
Abstract:Cement is the most widely used building material and construction activities could not possible without it. The cement industry facing the depletion in natural resources and global greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide emissions) related issues. For sustainable development, striving for the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and constraints on natural resources cause the necessitate requirement of sustainable alternatives as substitutes of traditional raw materials. Therefore, a current study has been carried out to use sewage sludge (locally available waste material) and carbide lime sludge (CLS) in construction as recycled fines (RF) which are obtained from sewage sludge in the form of ash (SSA) after its incineration and CLS as a byproduct of acetylene industry respectively. The effects of partial replacement of OPC using RF on compressive strength and split tensile strength after the 3rd, 7th and 28th day have been evaluated. The outcome from the study shows that the elevating replacements of RF up to 70% can be used in mortar as per IS: 2250 (2000) in structural applications. Utilization of RF up to 70% would be possible with OPC as it indicates an acceptable level of compressive strength of mortar, conservation of depleting natural reserves, saving in thermal and electrical energy besides emissions reduction of carbon dioxide.
Abstract:Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been found successful in implementing the solution of a significant number of optimization tasks associated with machine learning, computer vision, pattern recognition, knowledge discovery and so on due to its robust global search strategy. This article explores the development of a robust framework on selecting features in urban land cover analysis for high resolution images using GA. The approach is focused on object based classification by detecting the object area in a given image with the help of visual information of the object from remote sensing images. The classification scheme has been organized with a multilayer perceptron (MLP) with back propagation algorithm. Experimental results reveal that this MLPGA based hybrid feature selection approach achieves better than the relevant counterpart approaches considering classification accuracy.