bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Thai spelling correction and word normalization on social text using a two-stage pipeline with neural contextual attention
Authors:   , Lertpiya Anuruth
Published: September 2023

Text correction systems (e.g., spell checkers) have been used to improve the quality of computerized text by detecting and correcting errors. However, the task of performing spelling correction and word normalization (text correction) for Thai social media text has remained largely unexplored. In this thesis, we investigated how current text correction systems perform on correcting errors and word variances in Thai social texts and propose a method designed for this task. We have found that currently available Thai text correction systems are insufficiently robust for correcting spelling errors and word variances, while the text correctors designed for English grammatical error correction suffer from overcorrections (text rewrites). Thus, we proposed a neural-based text corrector with a two-stage structure to alleviate issues of overcorrections while exploiting the benefits of a neural Seq2Seq corrector. Our method consists of a neural-based error detector and a Seq2Seq neural error corrector with contextual attention. This novel architecture allows the Seq2Seq network to produce corrections based on both the erroneous text and its context without the need for an end-to-end structure. Our method outperformed all the other evaluated text correction systems.
Quantum comparator circuit on superconducting quantum computer
Authors:   , Benchasattabuse Naphan
Published: September 2023

In this thesis, we present an optimised quantum comparator circuit based on Cuccaro's ripple-carry quantum adder using relative phase techniques from Maslov's multiple control Toffoli optimisation. We extend the cost function from simply counting C-Not and Toffoli gate to Qiskit cost which defines arbitrary single qubit gate cost as unity and C-Not as the only two qubit gate cost as ten. We report the comparison result between our comparator circuit with previous comparator circuits from literature using optimal Toffoli implementation with Qiskit cost, C-Not count, and circuit depth. We also report our experiment of implementing a two-bit comparator on IBM QX devices.
Semantic segmentation on remotely sensed images using deep convolutional encoder-decoder neural network
Authors:   , Panboonyuen Teerapong
Published: September 2023

One of the fundamental tasks in remote sensing is the semantic segmentation of the aerial and satellite images. It plays a vital role in applications, such as agriculture planning, map updates, route optimization, and navigation. The state-of-the-art model is the Deep Convolutional Encoder-Decoder (DCED). However, the accuracy is still limited since the architecture is not designed for recovering low-level features, e.g., river, low vegetation on remotely sensed images, and the training data in this domain are deficient. In this dissertation, we aim to propose the semantic segmentation architecture in five aspects, designed explicitly for the remotely sensed field. First, we propose applying a modern Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) called a Global Convolutional Network (GCN). Second, “channel attention" is presented to select the most discriminative filters (features). Third, “domain-specific transfer learning" is introduced to alleviate the scarcity issue. Fourth, “Feature Fusion (FF)" is added to our network to capture low-level features. Finally, “Depthwise Atrous Convolution (DA)" is introduced to refine the extracted features. The experiment was conducted on three data sets: two private corpora from Landsat-8 satellite and one public benchmark from the “ISPRS Vaihingen" challenge. The results showed that our proposed architectures outperformed the baseline model on any remote sensing imagery.
Path exploration with random network distillation on multi-agent reinforcement learning
Authors:   , Charoenpitaks Korawat
Published: September 2023

Intrinsic motivation is one of the potential candidates to help improve performance of reinforcement learning algorithm in complex environments. The method enhances exploration capability without explicitly told by the creator and works on any environment. This is suitable in the case of multi-agent reinforcement learning where the environment complexity is more than usual. The research presents an exploration model using intrinsic motivation built from the random network distillation algorithm to improve the performance of multi-agent reinforcement learning and compare with the benchmark in different scenarios. The concept of clipping ratio is introduced to enforces the limit on optimization magnitude. Based on the extrinsic reward, the limit in the form of clipping ratio helps truncate the excessive magnitude that may cause instability to the optimization. The experiments were carried out on two different multi-agent architectures: 1) Individual Intrinsic Motivation Architecture, and 2) Centralized Intrinsic Motivation Architecture. The experimental results showed that in case of very complex environments, Centralized Intrinsic Motivation Architecture accompanied with a small clipping ratio could gain an increase in performance. The result reported the achievement of up to 70% win-rate in both architectures which is higher than those of the benchmark at the best of 43% in 2s3z environment.
Ocean current prediction in the gulf of Thailand using spatio-temporal deep learning on high-frequency radar
Authors:   , Thongniran Nathachai
Published: September 2023

Ocean surface current prediction is a crucial task for a variety of marine activities, such as disaster monitoring, search and rescue operations, power forecasting, and etc. There are three traditional forecasting approaches: (i) numerical based approach, (ii) time series based approach and (iii) machine learning based approach. However, their prediction accuracy was limited as they did not cooperate with spatial and temporal effects together, including oceanic knowledge is also not considered.

This paper introduces the ocean surface prediction model that accounts for spatial and temporal characteristics by a combination between CNN and GRU and also the incorporation of oceanic inputs which are month number, lunar effect, and hour number. The experiment compared the proposed model with an existing method, e.g., ARIMA, Perceptron, Temporal kNN and etc. by using RMSE as a metrics on both U and V components of dataset that was collected by high frequency (HF) radar stations located along coastal Gulf of Thailand by GISTDA from 2014 to 2016.
Thai stock return prediction using deep learning models with stock indicators and textual features
Authors:   , Chiewhawan Tanawat
Published: September 2023

Stock prediction task is notoriously challenging due to the uncertainty and dynamic external factor which influence the stock behavior. Recently, Deep learning research is gaining popularity on this task but often focuses on only a particular type of data; numeric indicators or textual information. Moreover, most researches focus on only a single stock or a market index. In this paper, we aim to predict multiple stock returns using both types of data. The model consists of dual-stage attention recurrent neural network, our proposed stock relation inference framework, and textual features integration. The proposed stock relation inference help tackles multiple time-series features (stocks indicators such as fundamentals or technicals) as well as add the ranking ability to the model from the combined ranking loss function. We demonstrate how to represent textual features with the hierarchical neural network and the BERT embedding method. Finally, we explore the approaches to integrate all elements in order to handle both types of data effectively, aiming to improve the performance of the stock prediction task.
Projection and determinants of cognitive ability among older persons in Thailand : role of education
Authors:   , Vicerra Paolo
Published: September 2023

This thesis examines the role of education on cognitive ability among the older population of Thailand. The nationally-representative data primarily utilised in this thesis is 2016 Population Change and Well-being in the Context of Aging Society. Other datasets had been used in selected themes within this thesis. Multiple analytic approaches had been applied to this study to show various effects of education gradients on cognitive functioning.

In the first study, education and other covariates including income, health status, living arrangement, and social participation among others had been analysed by gender to test if the significant factors would be similar. It was observed that education and income are the only determinants consistently associated among genders with cognition. For the second study, the prevalence of ill health including lower cognitive performance were estimated. Two sets of models were created for the said estimations with one controlling for age and sex and the other controlling for age, sex, and education levels. These estimates were then applied to current and projected populations and what was observed was the prevalence of ill health was significantly lower when education level is integrated into the models. The functional limitations and dependency of older persons is lower when older people have higher levels of education. In the final study within this thesis, the characteristics approach is used to analyse the differences on the speed of cognitive ageing by education levels. The general observation among genders is that there is about a 10-year advantage in cognitive performance for those with higher than primary level of education compared with those who have lower than primary level. Comparing the trajectory of cognitive ageing, women with primary education and higher than primary education levels experience slower declines as they age compared with men with the same education levels.
A textual analysis of financial disclosure; evidence from the Stock Exchange Of Thailand
Authors:   , Chuthanondha Siriyos
Published: September 2023

This paper empirically explores causal relation between non-financial information and stock price performance by applying textual analysis to listed firms’ financial disclosure in Thailand. Managers generally use language in Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A) report to communicate value-relevant information to investors and other stakeholders. I applied various kinds of approach to quantify qualitative information. I found that, on average, management discussion reports four main topics, which are financial performance, financial status, external factor and industry specific topic. The result shows that managements discuss more proportion on financial performance topic with more positive net tone, when future ROA is increasing. Additionally, they tend to use ambiguous language in financial status topic, when managements expect firms’ profitability to show an upward trend. More importantly, the result shows that investors place greater value on management tone in other topics rather than tone in financial performance. Particularly, this study revealed that investors reacted to this kind of information asymmetrically. The effect of the unfavorable tone of financial disclosures on stock market price was more pronounced and had more predictive power than the favorable tone. Finally, I found that net tones in MD&A report contain the critical information in predicting the stock return volatility.
Optimal planning of wind-based distributed generation and reactive power management in a distribution system
Authors:   , Putri Ovi
Published: September 2023

In recent years, the incremental load demand leads to the higher presence of distributed generation (DG) in distribution system. Renewable energy-based DG has been much appreciated due to the techno-eco-environmental benefit. Wind-based DG is one of most promising renewable energy based-DG. However, in the technical aspect, distribution system planning with wind-based DG alone is not fruitful enough due to limited reactive power support. Capacitor bank is one of available devices for reactive power management in distribution system. So, installing wind-based DG and capacitor bank in distribution system is one of alternative solutions to improve electrical power system performance in term of voltage profile and power loss. However, to achieve techno-eco-environmental benefit, an appropriate place and a suitable size of wind-based DG and capacitor bank requires to be determined optimally. This study proposes a model to determine an optimal placement and sizing of wind-based DG and capacitor bank in distribution system. The planning model is managed considering techno-eco-environmental benefit such as voltage profile improvement, power loss reduction, carbon-di-oxide emission mitigation, and annualized cost of system (ACS) minimization. Wind speed uncertainty is also considered to define the number of wind-based DG requires to be installed in distribution system. The effectiveness of proposed model is verified in 33-bus IEEE test system using MATLAB R2018b.
Quality function deployment (QFD) for designing rock sugar chopping machine
Authors:   , Pannavatkulthon Janejira
Published: September 2023

The objective of this research is to study and apply the principles of quality function deployment to design rock sugar chopping machine for selected sugar factory in order to increase productivity of current chopping process. The design of machine is analyzed using House of Quality which is a part of quality function deployment methodology. The data collection was conducted by on-site investigation and face-to-face interview with the owner of sugar factory. It is found that the main problem of this factory is inadequate of in-house production capacity and the bottleneck of manufacturing processes is chopping process. The result of this research supports the factory to increase overall productivity as well as revenue. The result also ensure that factory could reduce manpower cost, maintain quality of rock sugar, and generate greater revenue for the factory in long term.
Product development of rice milk soap
Authors:   , Ekthumrong Jiradej
Published: September 2023

The objective of this research is to develop rice into rice milk soap using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in order to add value to the product. The current rice production process can produce some broken rice, which is of low value. In order to increase value, the study is conducted to develop it into rice milk soap product. Quality Function Deployment is used to analyze and develop the product that best answer customer needs. There are data collection on customers through surveys to gain insights used for product development and rough product to market business plan. The result of this research shows the benefits of using broken rice to produce rice milk soap in term of financial benefits. It also shows rough business plan on how the product can be sold in the market including, business strategy and marketing and sales plan.
An implementation of stock allocation plan of retail store based on cluster analysis
Authors:   , Natekijcharoen Punnakrit
Published: September 2023

This thesis presents an implementation of cluster analysis on retail store clustering so that better cluster-based stock allocation plans could be effectively devised and efficiently executed. For the case study company, stock allocation is one of its key strategic decisions as improper stock allocation, especially during special occurrences with high sale volumes, may lead to loss of sales – and so overstocking at some stores/clusters. Based on our initial investigations, we find that the current clustering technique is somewhat inefficient as it simply divides the stores into four groups with equal members based on store’s sales performance. Besides, the coefficient of variation of allocated stocks in each cluster is comparatively high, around 30.1% – 51.1%

To better improve the efficiency of current clustering operation, two more systematic clustering techniques have been therefore introduced and compared with the current technique, namely K-Means and Agglomerative clustering techniques. We find that both K-Means and Agglomerative clustering techniques provide clusters with much less coefficients of variations, about 9.5% and 9.3% respectively. Besides, the total differences between allocated stock target by store cluster and actual stock target by store are also improved from 17,818,056 units to 15,672,717 units and from 17,818,056 units to 15,830,644 units by these two techniques, respectively. When compared among these two new approaches, it can be seen that K-Means clustering technique outperforms Agglomerative clustering technique in terms of both coefficient of variation and total difference between allocated stock target by store cluster and actual stock target by store.
Serial cultural heritage concept, values identification, and management : case study Angkor - Phimai cultural route
Authors:   , Poshyanandana Saowalux
Published: September 2023

Serial cultural heritage refers to groups of cultural heritage sites which are formed as series by significant cultural linkage. It is a category of cultural heritage which has played important roles in World Heritage context, however, it has not been given appropriate attention in general context although it prevails in all cultures. This thesis, therefore, investigated into serial cultural heritage and has clarified its identification, concept, applications, categorization, values identification, and management, both in World Heritage and general contexts, which can be used as initiative frameworks for future works and studies in the issue of serial cultural heritage. To summarize, serial cultural heritage can be categorized into 4 types: Symbolic serial cultural heritage, Pilgrimage routes, Cultural routes of communication, and Cultural theme series; values identification depends on type of serial cultural heritage; and serial cutural heritage concept can be applied both symbolically and functionally, for instance, World Heritage nominations and cultural tourism.

For in-depth research, Angkor - Phimai cultural route was selected as case study, focusing on part of the route in Thailand, which comprises 35 components, including Phimai, the termination of the route, remains of physical road, dharmasalas, arogayasalas, temples, barays, Dvaravati site, ancients towns, and ancient industrial sites, which are testimonies of the existence and significance of the route based on the information from Preah Khan Inscription, archaeological, and historical evidences. Field survey, interviews, and questionnaires were conducted to obtain information on the case study and the perception of people on Angkor - Phimai cultural route in serial cultural heritage perspective. The case study was analysed in the aspects of values, interpretation, management and tourism, which clarified the high historical value that is contrasting with the low tangible and interpretational values of the route due to lack of evidence of the physical road, which requires specific studies in the future. Consequently, the results of case study analysis have provided information on future requirements of the case in respective issues, as well as identified points of consideration which can be applied to cultural routes and serial cultural heritage in other categories. In conclusion, the most challenging issue concerning serial cultural heritage is the establishment of perception on 'serial' characteristics of the cultural heritage series, which will lead to appropriate means for conservation and management, and most importantly, the core value of serial cultural heritage lies in its meaning, which should be conserved and conveyed as a living part of the heritage rather than a rigid set of information so that the values of serial cultural heritage can be expressed and sustained in their full potential.
Topic-comment sentence structure in written english
Authors:   , Wu Hongmei
Published: September 2023

This study investigates the topic-comment sentence structure in written English. It finds that English makes use of both the subject-predicate structure syntactically and the topic-comment structure pragmatically. The results of this study challenge the typological claim that English sentence structures are subject-prominent which mainly follows the subject-predicate structure (Li & Thompson, 1976). Via the investigation, this study proposes that English sentence structures exhibit the properties of subject-prominent and topic-prominent languages.
As is believed that the topic-comment structure in English is represented differently from that in the topic-prominent languages, this study investigates the constructions in English writing to explore the appearances of both the topic-comment and the non-topic- comment constructions. It finds that the selection of the subjects in canonical constructions is governed by the topic status of the subject and the topic-comment structure of the sentence. On the other hand, structure-preserving constructions, such as the passives, the tough and have constructions are noted to be responsible for maintaining the syntactic structure as well as supporting the topic-comment structure.
Regarding topic constituents, subject topicalization is found to be the most economical way syntactically to represent topics in English (Chomsky, 1993, in Collins, 2001, p. 55). Subject topic is thus considered the unmarked topic in English (Lambrecht, 1996). This study bases the syntactic connections between the subject and the topic on the Split CP hypothesis by Rizzi (1997) who states that subject topics undergo the movement from Spec-TP to Spec-TopP to realize the topic of the sentence. As a result, the term subject topic refers to the topicalized subject in the Spec-TopP position, which co-refers to the deleted copy in the Spec-TP position. In both data, subject topics are represented mainly by DPs, and occasionally by CPs in National Geographic. The scene-setting topics are PPs, CPs, adverbs and AdvPs. The order of the subject topics in the sentence-initial position are likely to abide by the End-Weight Principle (Quirk et al, 1972) and the Principle of Early Immediate Constituents (EIC) (Hawkins, 1994), which do not apply to multiple topics.
Semantically, non-agent outnumbers agent as the subject in the data. This in turn challenges Jackendoff’s (1990) Thematic Hierarchy which prioritizes agent rather than other semantic roles for the subject position. The topic-comment sentence structure affects the choice of constructions, so it, in turn, influences the selection of the subject. This study concludes that agent or non-agent semantic roles of the subject is influenced by the topic status of the subject.
Effects of oracy building instruction via blended learning environment on EIL students’ metacognitive awareness
Authors:   , Bangkom Kusuma
Published: September 2023

The study aim (1) to develop oracy skills instruction in a blended-learning environment, (2) to investigate the effects of students’ metacognitive awareness after implementing the oracy building instruction via  blended-learning environment, (3) and to investigate the students’ opinion towards using blended-learning environment. Twenty- nine high school students in Rayong were chosen as the sample group.

The findings revealed that 1) there was a significant improvement of the participants’ metacognitive awareness after taking OBIBLE, 2) there was a significant improvement of the participants’ oracy skills after taking OBIBLE, 3) the students had positive opinions towards blened-learning environment. This research provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of blended-learning environment and gives useful insights for future students, teachers, and institutions in teaching English oracy skills.
The Visegrád group and the European migrant crisis : cause factors and the case of Hungary
Authors:   , Vadhanavisala Onvara
Published: September 2023

The European migrant crisis has propelled the European Union (EU) to face many challenges, starting from the division of different ideas on how to manage a high number of refugees and migrants. The crisis is marked as a turning point for right-wing populism to gain its strength in modern European politics. The European Member States (EMS) have started to lose their trust in European institutions because of their unclear strategic direction on solving the refugee and migrant crisis. Correspondingly, Euroscepticism is spreading all over Europe. The situation has been worsened as more refugees are continuously entering Europe. Therefore, populists and right-wing leaders have taken this severe crisis as an opportunity to strengthen their political discourses and rhetoric. This kind of action can be seen in the case of the Visegrád group; of which members are the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland and the Slovak Republic. The Visegrád group has implemented negative policies towards the refugees and migrants. This can be seen especially in the case of Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Fidesz party have played an important role in keeping the refugees and migrants out of the country. The Hungarian government has conducted anti-refugee and migrant campaign series and instigated its political discourses, which have been used to establish the narrative of “protecting European identity” from “the Muslims”. This antipathy towards refugees and migrants among the Visegrád group contradicts the core values of the European Union of “unity within diversity” and “respect for human rights”.
Development of functional foods based on anthocyanin-rich riceberry rice extract (Oryza sativa L.) and its effects on postprandial biochemical parameters in human.
Authors:   , Anuyahong Tanisa
Published: September 2023

Riceberry rice (Oryza sativa L.), is a crossbreed of Kao Hom Nin, a local non-glutinous purple rice and Khoa Dawk Mali 105. Its pigment contains high amount of antioxidant compounds, especially anthocyanins. Previously, riceberry rice exhibited its food application with high antioxidant activity. However, the potential of food application of riceberry rice extract (RBE) in yogurt and beverage products and its postprandial effect on humans remains unknown. In this study, RBE was prepared from a mixture of riceberry rice and distilled water in 1:2 w/v ratio following the freeze-drying process. The results showed that RBE contained phenolic compounds and anthocyanins mainly cyanidin-3-glucoside and peonidin-3-glucoside. The supplementation of RBE to yogurt significantly increased total phenolic (TPC) content, anthocyanin content and antioxidant activity. Furthermore, yogurt representing a reduction of syneresis and firmness can be achieved by RBE. In gastrointestinal digestion, yogurt supplemented with RBE resulted in higher level of TPC, anthocyanin content and antioxidant activity than the control yogurt. The addition of 0.125-0.25% (w/w) RBE into yogurt did not negatively influence the overall acceptability, compared to the control yogurt. The higher TPC and antioxidant activity of yogurt supplemented with 0.125-0.25% (w/w) RBE was observed during 21 days of refrigerated storage. Moreover, acute consumption of yogurt enriched with 0.25% RBE significantly suppressed postprandial plasma glucose and improved postprandial antioxidant status in healthy subjects. The rating scores of hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and satiety were similarity in all types of yogurts. Interestingly, consumption of high-carbohydrate, moderate-fat (HCMF) meal with RBE beverage (0.5% w/v) significantly attenuated postprandial glucose, insulin, triglyceride, free fatty acid and MDA level in overweight and obese subjects. In addition, it significantly reduced inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α) after 3 and 6 h of HCMF-meal consumption. However, there were no significant differences in the rating scores of hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and satiety among tested meals. This study suggests that RBE offers a promising natural ingredient to produce novel yogurt and functional drink in order to reduce glycemic response, improve antioxidant capacity and reduce inflammatory cytokine in humans.
Effectiveness evaluation of fluorescent tracer in shaly-sandstone reservoir
Authors:   , Pataveepaisit Harid
Published: September 2023

In petroleum exploration and production industry, tracer is a compound added to injected fluids, and can be easily detected even in a trace amount. Fluorescein sodium, a chemical tracer that can illuminate upon receiving a specific wavelength of light, was mentioned by several literatures due to its strong fluorescence at low concentration, non-toxicity, and non-biodegradability. In this study, fluorescein sodium in the form of fluorescein solution was evaluated with shaly-sandstone to observe their interactions.

The first half of this study focused on the evaluation of the chemical characteristics of fluorescein. First, the detection limit of fluorescein solution in deionized water characterized by fluorescence spectrophotometer was at 500 ppt. Fluorescein concentration at 10 ppm was a critical concentration to reverse the relationship between fluorescence intensity and fluorescein concentration. Fluorescence emission wavelength at maximum fluorescence intensity was a function of fluorescein concentration and stopped to decline as emission wavelength reached the wavelength of 512 nm at the concentration of 1 ppm. Appropriate storage for fluorescein solution was recommended to be inside an amber-colored glass bottle to prevent photodegradation at neutral to basic pH values. Fluorescein solution could be used in a petroleum reservoir with a temperature range of 30-70 degrees Celsius for 12 days without substantial thermal degradation.

The second half of this study focused on the interactions between fluorescein solution and shaly-sandstone. In the static investigation of fluorescein solution, it was found that the effects of shaly-sandstone on fluorescence dominated the presence of hydrocarbon and/or drilling fluids. Nevertheless, the effects of shaly-sandstone diminished as fluorescein concentration increased and this effect disappeared at the concentration of 100 ppm. As the concentration increased above 100 ppm, fluorescein adsorption onto shaly-sandstone occurred. In the dynamic investigation, the fluorescein breakthrough time of 1-ppb fluorescein solution was similar to the ideal breakthrough time for any liquid flowing through the movable pore volume of shaly-sandstone core sample. At higher concentrations of 100 ppb and 1 ppm, the breakthrough times were delayed possibly due to diffusion of fluorescein molecules into irreducible water portions of the core sample and fluorescein adsorption onto shaly-sandstone. Lastly, positively charged ions were found that they could amplify fluorescence intensity of fluorescein solution. Hence, at very low fluorescein concentrations in the presence of shaly-sandstone, such as at the concentration of 500 ppt, fluorescence detection would be possible. Therefore, appropriate fluorescein concentrations used in the pilot project could be in a range of 500 ppt to 1 ppb depending on the type of injected water.
Pre-feasibility study of improving quality of low-grade fluorite. A case study at Phanomthuan deposit, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
Authors:   , Souvannavong Keosaychai
Published: September 2023

In this study was presented the pre-feasibility study of improving quality of low-grade fluorite from Phanomthuan deposit, Kanchanaburi province, Thailand. The purpose of this study aims to explore the optimal condition in order to remove the impurities which contained high SiO2, CaCO3 and other minerals, also evaluate the project in term of economic. Therefore, the improvement quality of fluorite by using froth flotation techniques was reach the ceramic grade. The raw material characterization contains CaF2 = 29.4 Wt.%, SiO2 = 43.9 Wt.% and CaCO3 = 6.9 Wt.%. After flotation process the optimal condition result which contains CaF2 = 96.46 Wt.%, SiO2 = 2.1 Wt.%, and CaCO3 = 0.7 Wt. %. Moreover, the financial analysis indicated that this project possibly to invest due to the Discount cashflow result were NPV = 377,575,304 baht, Discount rate = 10%, MIRR = 35% and Discount payback period 2 Years.
Geomechanical modeling of salt cavern stability for carbon dioxide storage in the Maha arakham formation, northeastern Thailand
Authors:   , Pajonpai Narumas
Published: September 2023

In Thailand, CO2 emissions quadrupled over the past three decades since 1989, with the power generation sector as the main contributor by burning fossil fuels to produce electricity. Therefore, the power generating industry has come under scrutiny and been pressed by society to take responsibility. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is one of the many methods to deal with CO2 emissions. Generally, CO2 is captured and stored in geological formations, e.g. rock salt deposits. Salt caverns have been intensively studied regarding their usage for CO2 storage because of their favourable characteristics. In this research, the Finite Element Method (FEM, ANSYS Student 2019 R2) was used to compute the optimum salt cavern shape that can be excavated by deep solution mining. Investigated shapes were spherical, teardrop, pear, bulb, and cylindrical shape. All of the caverns are designed to have a volume of ~520,000 m3, allowing for the storage of ~0.4 million tons of CO2 in its supercritical fluid state. The safety factor value and volume change were used as criteria to define which cavern shape is most suitable for CO2 storage. The area around drill hole K-89 in Ban Nong Plue, Borabue district, Maha Sarakham province, northeast Thailand, was chosen as location for CO2 storage because the sources of CO2 are in immediate vicinity of potential sinks. Input parameters used in the modeling process are cavern geometry, material properties (lithologies), and creep parameters of rock salt. The creep constitutive model used in this case study is the Norton creep power law which defines the steady-state stage of creep. The modeling steps follow the operation stages of CO2 storage, from the solution mining to the 500-year time span after cavern closure. The results indicate that the difference in the width in the upper part of the cavern (1/3 of the cavern height) influences the volume change. The smaller the width the lower the volume change, all caverns having the same height with the exception of the cylindrical cavern. Additionally, the results show that all the designed shapes have a safety factor value greater than 1, making them technically viable for being used as a Carbon Dioxide Storage in northeast Thailand. The optimum shape for storing CO2 in its supercritical fluid state, maximizing the cavern stability, is the teardrop shape with a safety factor value of 6.36, also exhibiting the lowest volume shrinkage (0.018%) of all investigated shapes.
Heavy metals in hair and nails of electronic waste dismantling workers in Buriram, Thailand
Authors:   , Silachan Jaruwan
Published: September 2023

This study aimed to investigate and compare the concentration of eight heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in hair and nails of e-waste workers and non-e-waste workers. Hair and nails samples were collected from participants in Daeng Yai sub-district, Ban Mai Chaiyapot district, and Ban Pao sub-district, Puttatisong district, Buriram, Thailand from December 2018 to January 2019. All sampled were digested with nitric acid by microwave digester and the concentration of heavy metals was analyzed by using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results showed that the concentration of As and Cd in both hair and nails of both groups was lower than the LOD (0.75 µg/g and 0.5 µg/g, respectively). The concentrations of Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb, and Zn in the hair of e-waste workers group were significantly greater than those of non-e-waste worker group at significance level of 0.05. The average concentrations of Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn in the hair of e-waste workers group were 6.44, 18.38, 2.85, 6.64 and 185.5 µg/g-Hair, respectively, while non-e-waste workers groups were 1.24, 6.68, 1.35, 1.28 and 121.56 µg/g-Hair, respectively. For nails, the concentrations of Cr, Cu, Mn, and Pb of the e-waste workers group were significantly greater than non-e-waste worker group at significance level of 0.05. The average concentrations of Cr, Cu, Mn, and Pb in nails of e-waste workers group were 15.91, 39.71, 3.78, and 4.92 µg/g-Nail, respectively, while those of non-e-waste workers groups were 9.73, 18.33, 1.78, and 1.76 µg/g-Nail, respectively. Some associated factors including, e-waste dismantling occupation, working time, PPE using, gender, living time, and the behavior of participants include smoking habits, second-hand smoking habits, seafood consumption, bare feet direct walking expose to soil were probably increase the level of heavy metals in hair and nails.
Characterization of dissolved organic matter in treated textile wastewater from membrane bioreactor
Authors:   , Puangmalai Nichapach
Published: September 2023

This research aims to investigate the DOM removal efficiency in textile wastewater by MBR at different sludge retention time. In addition, the characteristics of DOM was investigated by using resin fractionation and fluorescent excitation-emission matrix techniques. Textile wastewater was synthesized by using commercial dyes and used in all experiment. The characteristics of synthesis textile wastewater showed that the COD concentration was high as 2,000 mg/L. In addition, the DOC concentration in synthesis textile wastewater was also high at 466.1 mg/L. MBR was conducted under HRT 2.5 days and SRT was varied at 15 days, 30 days and infinite, respectively. MBR was operated continuous until it reaches steady state (60 days). The effluent of MBR were collected and measuring various parameters including COD, colour and DOC concentration. From the result, it was found that MBR at all SRT conditions can provided the high percent COD reduction (>95%). However, MBR cannot reduced colour to meet the standard of discharge wastewater; nevertheless,�the high percent colour reduction was obtained (>80%). Trends of colour value was not significantly different for non-adjusted pH and adjusted pH to 7. Furthermore, MBR has provided high percent DOC reduction more than 80% for all SRT conditions. MBR has very high efficiency for retained suspended solid (SS) and volatile suspended solids (VSS) in the reactor with 99%. In term of trihalomethane formation potential, MBR can reduced the formation potential of THMs by reduced the organic matter. The formation of THMs was increased with the increasing of SRT conditions. The obtained results of DOM characteristics confirmed that the formation of THMs not only depend on the organic matter concentration but also the characteristics of organic matter. The specific THMFP revealed that the organic matter that removed by MBR was low ability to form THMs. However, the THMFP was decreased due to the amount of organic matter was removed.�
The impact of family structure and family income on child physical health in China
Authors:   , Zhao Baode
Published: September 2023

The purpose of this article is to study the relationship between child health and family income and family structure. The main use of the Height-for-Age Z score (HAZ) indicator and whether the child has been sick in the past four weeks (Ill) is used as an indicator to measure children's physical health. The main explanatory variables are family income and family structure. In terms of family structure, we mainly focus on the special group of single-parent families. In addition, it also explores other factors that affect children's health, such as demographic factors, sociological factors, and economic factors. This research will link children's health with family income and family structure, trying to explore the influencing factors and paths of children's physical health from the perspective of family.

The data used in this research is secondary data from the Peking University Open Database. Its name is the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). This study uses CFPS2016 cross-sectional data. After data clean, the sample comprised 4,513 children. Multiple linear regression models (OLS) are used to study the relationship between child health (long-term) and family income and family structure and the Binary logit regression is used to study the relationship between child health (short-term) and family income and family structure. The significance of variables was tested at a P-value of 10 percent and 90 percent Confidence interval.

The results of the study found that family structure has a significant effect on the HAZ value, and children from single-father parent families have significant disadvantages compared to children from the dual-parent family. The impact of family income on children's health is positive, the higher the family income, the greater the HAZ value. Short-term child health has no significant correlation with family structure and family income. The results can help to provide some useful information in particular special attention can be given to certain family types to improve the health of children.
Parental and peer influence on adolescent smoking in Vietnam
Authors:   , Yen Duong
Published: September 2023

To estimate the magnitude of the association between parent and peer influences on adolescent smoking as non-; light-; and heavy current smokers. By using data from 18,912 adolescents, ages from 13 to 15 years, from two years 2007 and 2014 of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey in Vietnam, were selected for these analyses. Data collected included measures for the smoking status of the adolescent and their parents and friends. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the characteristics of each individual variable. After that, the ordered logistic regression was applied to estimate the relationship between smoking behaviour of parents and peer, with the level of addiction of current smoking among school-going students. I also added up other variables in the regression model as control variables to further examine the association between the dependent and independent variables. Then, examine this association by some subsample to observe the gender and age trends of these relationships. This analysis confirmed that young people were more likely to use cigarettes when their parents and friends smoked, the status of current smoking here was at a light- and heavy- level as well. Especially, the probability of smoking from the effect of friends’ cigarette use was generally higher compared to the effect of smoking of parents. In addition, there were differences in influence from the smoking of parent and peer by groups of age and gender of adolescents. The influence of parent and peer were increased when students became older from 13 to 15 years old. While gender-specific influences were identified in the peer impacts on adolescent smoking for both boy and girl; parental smoking only significantly associated with boy.
The impact of economic development on health : a country-level analysis
Authors:   , Wang Huiying
Published: September 2023

This study investigates the impact of economic development on health, using a panel of 217 countries (139 high-income and 78 low-income countries for the period 1995-2018). Five dependent variables are included, which are life expectancy at birth, infant mortality, under-5 mortality, survival to age 65 for the female and the male population. The preferred regression method used is fixed effects - two stage least squares modeling (FE-2SLS). The specification includes two measures of economic development, including GDP per capita and the Gini index, as well as other macro-level variables that have been identified as important determinants for population health in the literature. GDP per capita and the Gini index are treated as endogenous variables in the estimation. The results show that, in both country groups, GDP per capita has a positive and statistically significant impact on health, improving life expectancy and survival to age 65 (P <0.05). The Gini coefficient is found to be statistically significant in low-income countries. Other important determinants of population health include CO2 emissions and population growth, especially in low-income countries. This study shows that population health can be boosted through economic growth and the impact is disproportionately felt across country groups.
Poverty and corruption as determinants of global antimicrobial resistance
Authors:   , Dumast Lyvia
Published: September 2023

Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to global public health and is believed to cause over 700,000 deaths per year. Efforts to tackle this problem have tended to focus on reducing antibiotic consumption and promoting the appropriate use of medicines. This study examines the relative importance of other socio-economic factors, more specifically poverty (Gross National Income per capita) and corruption (measured by quality of governance), in determining antibiotic resistance compared to use of antibiotics. Using panel data of 48 countries in 2008-2017, a fixed-effects multivariate analysis was used. Sobel tests and mediation analyses were also carried out to determine the extent to which the effects of poverty and corruption on antimicrobial resistance were mediated through other explanatory variables in the model, including human antibiotic usage, healthcare expenditure, access to basic sanitation and the availability of medical personnel. Poverty and corruption were found to be significant factors in determining the level of resistance. No significant association was found between antibiotic consumption and resistance, and health expenditure as a proportion of government expenditure was found to be the only variable with a mediating effect (for poverty) in determining the level of antibiotic resistance. This is the first study to examine antimicrobial resistance and its association with poverty and corruption using panel data and including countries outside Europe. The findings support the hypothesis that poor governance and poverty contribute to levels of antibiotic resistance and population health.