bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Why Can't I Have the Vote?”
Authors: Banerjee Argha Kumar
Published: March 2017

The First World War came at a crucial time when British women's suffrage campaigns were gathering momentum throughout the country. The culmination of the movement during these years, in spite of various social and political differences, enhanced female solidarity and political consciousness to a considerable degree. Hectic political activism also witnessed a phenomenal rise and propagation of an exclusive and extraordinary women's culture. The onset of the Great War however, struck a fatal blow to such an unprecedented female camaraderie and political conviction. My proposed chapter traces and gathers evidences in women's verse written during this time period extending from the pre-war years of the suffrage movement to the early years of the post-war demobilisation correlating them with some of the major developments in women's socio-political history of the period.
Communist Ideology and Its Impact on Albanian Literature
Authors: Kerbizi Marisa
Published: March 2017

After the World War II, Albania fell under the totalitarian regime of Enver Hoxha. The impact of the communist dictatorship in Albania was not only political, but social and artistic as well. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the negative impact of communist ideology in Albanian literature. This study is compiled using descriptive-interpretative qualitative method. After analyzing and interpreting specific phenomena related to the development of Albanian literature, it is important to emphasize that the impact of the communist ideology should be considered as a strong shock, with evident consequences not only for the period 1945-1990, but also responsible for the state of literature today. Socialist realism method applied to literature almost killed the creativity and professionalism. The most important dimension of the literature conducted under the terror of the communist system, was the literature written in prison, which provides Albanian literature with the extraordinary dimension of human strength that exceeds the ferocity of every ideology and totalitarian system.
Marketing of Banking Services in India
Authors: Arora Rakhi
Published: March 2017

Banking sector plays an important role in Indian Financial Sector.It has a long history that has gone through various stages of development after Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization (LPG) has taken place. The Indian banking sector is broadly classified into scheduled banks and non-scheduled banks. The scheduled banks are those included under the 2nd Schedule of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The scheduled banks are further classified into: nationalised banks; State Bank of India and its associates; Regional Rural Banks (RRBs); foreign banks; and other Indian private sector banks, which are controlled and governed by Reserve Bank of India (Central Bank of India) and Ministry of Finance. In this era, the government has issued licenses to the new entrants to establish new banks to serve the Indian society. This chapter focuses on to show the various undergone phases of Indian banking system, growth of deposits and credits, technological development in Indian banking sector, services provided by the Indian banks, benefits and challenges faced by the Indian banks.
Mutual Fund
Authors: Chhabra Shalini
Published: March 2017

Mutual funds provide various facilities that make saving and investing simple, accessible and affordable, by using professional management, diversification, variety of products, liquidity, affordability, convince. Moreover, strict government regulation and full disclosure of information makes the investment more secures in India. In India mutual funds market the key area of interest of market experts are understanding the investor's expectations and meeting those expectations. The mutual fund sector is one of the fast growing sectors in Indian economy and has tremendous potential for sustained future growth. The present era of exponential growth has seen changes, refinements and innovation etc. the industry needs to identify the expectation and houses of the investors and meet their expectations in a better way by overcoming the challenges the mutual fund industry is facing. Keeping in view that ever increasing competition of similar or alternative product, marketing has been concerned the most vital area of operation of Mutual funds industry. Mutual fund Marketing is different from marketing of other goods. The present chapter tries to explore the marketing strategies adopted by Mutual funds, the different 7 Ps that are involved by the various mutual funds for attracting the investors.
Marketing of Agricultural Commodities in India
Authors: Arora Rakhi
Published: March 2017

Commodity market is a fast paced dynamic market with liquidity and Commodity Exchange providing a platform for trading in various agri and non agri commodities at nationalized exchanges for discovering the price of agricultural goods in India since 2003. This also provides an opportunity to farmers, manufacturers or individuals for hedging and arbitrage to minimizes the losses due to fluctuations in the futures as well as spot prices. Though the Government has taken many steps time to time to control the prices of listed commodities by imposing restrictions like imposing daily margin limits and banning futures trading in speculative commodity/commodities if required but it is still being questioned. This chapter emphasizes on the working of the National Level Commodity Exchanges in India in general, the share of major agricultural commodities traded across National Level Commodity Exchanges in India, the marketing mix for agricultural commodities in India and the benefits and challenges of commodity futures derivatives for investors in India.
Open Data in Australian Schools
Authors: Watson Jane
Published: March 2017

This chapter focuses on statistical literacy and the practice of statistics from the perspective of middle school students and how their experiences can be enhanced by the availability of open data. The open data sets selected illustrate the types of contexts that are available and their connections to the Australian school curriculum. The importance of visualisation is stressed and the software TinkerPlots is the tool used for students to create representations and develop the understanding necessary to analyse data and draw conclusions. Building appreciation of the practice of statistics in this way further assists students to become critical thinkers in judging the claims of others later as statistically literate adults.
Opportunities and Challenges of Visualization and Open Data in Food Security Analysis
Authors: Hlaing Thida Chaw , Prior Julian
Published: March 2017

Statistical literacy presents many aspects about food security in the world. It highlights weaknesses, it creates awareness of threats in current situations, helps overcome challenges and creates opportunities for the future. Statistical data analysis enables existing food security interventions and programs to be reviewed and revised, and this better understanding of current situations enables more authoritative and relevant decision-making processes for the future. Statistical literacy involves skills and expertise in data description and interpretation (in words as well as in numbers) to name, explore and amend beliefs, opinions and suggestions. It helps decision-making processes about food security in a sub-nation, nation and region, as well as the world. This chapter will demonstrate the importance of open data and visualization, including its challenges and opportunities, in the food security context at national and global level to make decision-makers aware of the need to enhance their capacity for and investment in statistical literacy.
Contagion Effects on Stock Market of Bangladesh
Authors: Chowdhury Mohammad Ashraful Ferdous , Haque Md. Mahmudul , Islam Md. Nazrul
Published: March 2017

Due to increased globalization and economic integration in the global economy, contagion effects have been considered an important matter for the investors and policymakers. In the wake of the global financial crisis of September 2008, Islamic financial products were thrust into the spotlight as alternatives to the shaken conventional equity markets. The objective of this study is to discover the Islamic stock market dynamics of Bangladesh with the global Islamic stock markets such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Europe, UK and Japan. For understanding long run relationship or the theoretical relationships among the Islamic stock market and short run co-movements among Islamic stocks, Johansen co-integration test and Vector Error Correction model (VECM) have been applied respectively. Furthermore, the investigation on short run dynamics is also carried through Impulse Response Function (IRF) analyses. The study found that the Japanese Islamic Stock market is affected to changes in other Islamic stock markets while Kuwait stock market is the leader in the sense it affects other stock market greatly. Bangladeshi Islamic stock market is found to be marginally affecting other stock markets but not as strong as Kuwait. Global Islamic stock market seems to have very little impact to Bangladesh Islamic stock market. The evidence of co-integration and short run dynamics help a diversification benefit may be derived from the cross boarder investment. The empirical evidence of co-integration and short run dynamic relationship found in this study will help investors in making efficient investment decisions and also enhance their understanding of market behavior.
Single SNN Architecture for Classical and Operant Conditioning using Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Dumesnil Etienne , Beaulieu Philippe-Olivier , Boukadoum Mounir
Published: March 2017

A bio-inspired robotic brain is presented where the same spiking neural network (SNN) can implement five variations of learning by conditioning (LC): classical conditioning (CC), and operant conditioning (OC) with positive/negative reinforcement/punishment. In all cases, the links between input stimuli, output actions, reinforcements and punishments are strengthened depending on the stability of the delays between them. To account for the parallel processing nature of neural networks, the SNN is implemented on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and the neural delays are extracted via an adaptation of the synapto-dendritic kernel adapting neuron (SKAN) model, for a low resource demanding FPGA implementation of the SNN. A custom robotic platform successfully tested the ability of the proposed architecture to implement the five LC behaviors. Hence, this work contributes to the engineering field by proposing a scalable low resource demanding architecture for adaptive systems, and the cognitive field by suggesting that both CC and OC can be modeled as a single cognitive architecture.
Impact of Facebook Ads for Sexual Health Promotion Via an Educational Web App
Authors: Gabarron Elia , Luque Luis Fernandez , Schopf Thomas Roger , Lau Annie Y.S. , Armayones Manuel , Wynn Rolf , Serrano J. Artur
Published: March 2017

Background: The authors present a case study of a public health campaign, including social media, and aiming at maximizing the use of web app on sexual health. Objective: To analyze the impact of a Facebook fan page, Facebook advertisements, and posters to maximize the number of visits to the educational web app. Methods: The campaign is assessed for 1 year, using data tracked through Facebook statistics and Google Analytics. Results: The site had 3670 visits (10.1 visitors/day, 95%CI 8.7-11.4). During the one-month Facebook Ads campaign, the site received 1263 visits (42.1 visitors/day, 95%CI 37.3-46.9), multiplying by over four the average number of visitors/day. 34.4% of all the participants were recruited during the one-month Facebook ads campaign. Conclusions: Facebook advertisements seem to be a good tool to promote an educational web app on sexual health targeting youth, and to reach a huge number of users rapidly and at a low cost.
Internet of Things
Authors: Eltayeb Mohamed A
Published: March 2017

In the contemporary world, we are surrounded by a complex network of interconnected sensors. These allows us to share, collate, transmit, and store vast amounts of data. These systems are known as the Internet of Things (IoT), and this technological offering has attracted a large amount of interest from academics, researchers, and developers in recent years due to its highly scalable and agile nature. However, while the IoT delivers significant benefits, it also poses some risks. The data that is stored and exchanged via the IoT is extremely valuable to individuals who have malevolent intent. In more recent years, the increasing popularity of the IoT as a means of sharing information has been associated with privacy and security risks that have undermined users' trust in the IoT. This paper examines what these risks are and some of the actions that can be taken to mitigate them.
High-Growth SMEs
Authors: El Hakioui Mohamed , Louitri Abdenbi
Published: March 2017

This essay tries to highlight the economic importance of the high-growth SMEs phenomenon. In doing so, an attempt to define and specify this type of firms was conducted. From the authors' literature review it was found that there is no single definition of high-growth. Each researcher adopts a definition according to his research interests. Trying to discuss the economic importance of SMEs gazelles, analysis led to identify three main features of high-growth: high-growth persistence, the novelty and strategic voluntarism. These characteristics make the high-growth SMEs a specific research object.
Empirical Analysis of the Relationship Between Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions and Economic Growth in Tunisia
Authors: Jouini Sana Essaber , Labidi Etidel
Published: March 2017

This paper examines the long run and causal relationship issues between economic growth, energy consumption and carbon emissions by using vector error correction model for the case of Tunisia within 1970-2010. Empirical results using time series data suggest an evidence of a long-run relationship between the variables at 5% significance level in Tunisia. A Granger causality analysis is conducted amongst the variables. The overall results indicate bidirectional causality between energy consumption and CO2 emissions and a unidirectional causality running from pollutant emissions to economic growth. But there is no direct relation between energy consumption and economic growth. Thus, our results reveal that in short term energy conservation policies, such as rationing energy consumption have no effect on the real output growth of Tunisia.
Virtual Community Based Destination Marketing with YouTube
Authors: Sambhanthan Arunasalam , Thelijjagoda Samantha , Good Alice , Scupola Ada
Published: March 2017

YouTube has now evolved into a powerful medium for social interaction. Utilizing YouTube for enhancing marketing endeavours is a strategy practiced by marketing professionals across several industries. This paper rationalizes on the different strategies of leveraging YouTube-based platforms for effective destination marketing by the hospitality industry (hotels) and provides insights on the critical drivers and challenges embedded within YouTube-based community interactions for destination marketing. The comments made by YouTube users have been subjected to a content analysis and the results are reported under the five broad clusters of virtual communities. More broadly, the typology of virtual communities is adapted to evaluate the YouTube platform for effective destination marketing.
Evaluation of Friction Properties of Magnesium Alloy during Hot Forging by Ring Compression Test
Authors: Hirawatari Sueji , Watari Hisaki , Nishida Shinichi , Sato Yuki , Suzuki Mayumi
Published: March 2017

This paper deals with friction properties and deformation resistance during hot forming of Mg-Al-Ca-Mn series magnesium alloys. Friction coefficients between dies and magnesium alloys were obtained by ring compression tests that used graphite, PTFE, and an oil lubricant in a hot-forging process. Hot forging was performed under various conditions to clarify the effects of types of lubricants and slide motion of the press machines on friction properties. Two types of slide motion, a constant velocity motion and a pulse motion were selected in the ring-compression test. It was found that graphite with an oil lubricant effectively eliminated die sticking in hot forming of magnesium alloys. The isothermal deformation resistances were derived using friction coefficients obtained by ring-compression tests as well as finite-element simulations. The predicted stress strain curves with temperature were examined with the stress-strain relationship obtained in experiments using a servo press and demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Influence of Process Conditions on Spangle Size of 55%Al-Zn Alloy Coated Steel Sheet
Authors: Guo Tai Xiong , Xu Quan , Ran Chang Rong , Dong Xue Qiang
Published: March 2017

Statistic analyses of industrial experimental datum were done to investigate the effect of pretreatment process, hot-dip process and posttreatment process on spangle size of hot-dip 55%Al-Zn alloy coated steel sheet. The results show that, with the decrease of concentration of degreasing solution, the decrease of RTF dew point temperature, the decrease of temperature at which strip entering into Al-Zn bath, and the increase of injection pressure of air knife, spangle size decreases; with the increase of hydrogen content in RTF, spangle size decreases firstly and then tends to be stable; with the increase of bath temperature, spangle size increases firstly and then decreases; The hot-dip time, the distance between air knife and steel strip, the height of air knife from Al-Zn bath, and the blowing rate of cooling fan have little effect on spangle size; the addition of mixed rare earth doesn’t affect spangle size, while the addition of titanium with trace amount leads to the decrease of spangle size.
Effect of Thermal Expansion and Sonication on Mechanical Properties and Adhesive Toughness Measurement of Polymer/Graphene Composite
Authors: Che Berhanuddin Nurul Idani , Mohd Rozlan Syaiful Azmirul , Zaman Izzuddin , Mustapa Mohammad Sukri , Abdullah Mohd Ezree , Bahrudin Ida Aryanie
Published: March 2017

Graphite has attracted both academia and researchers due to its outstanding properties such as having strength 200 times stronger than steel, great efficiency of heat and electricity conduction, low cost and also facile fabrication. In this study, two facile approaches of producing nanosize graphite were performed; thermal expansion and sonication. Graphite that was produced are used as reinforcement in epoxy composite for adhesive applications. In order to determine the mechanical properties of the composite, tensile test was performed using Dumbbell shape of sample. The outcome of the test shows that 1 wt% of expanded graphite produce the highest value of Young Modulus which is 18 MPa. It was also found that adding more expanded graphite increased the ductility of composite by lowering epoxy brittleness. As for adhesive testing, double cantilever beam was used using Universal Testing Machine where the result shows that 1 wt% of expanded graphite demonstrates the highest value of adhesive toughness which is 9398 J/m2. The result of porosity-density indicates that porosity of composites will affect the mechanical properties. From the overall results, it is conclude that smaller weight percentage of expanded graphite produces better composite while for sonication process shows no difference at all. Thus demonstrates that time of dispersion does not give significant effect on the maximum load and stress of the composites.
Shape Memory Effect in New Ti-Nb-Ta Alloy
Authors: Keshtta Alaa Mahmoud , Abdel Hady Gepreel Mohamed
Published: March 2017

Recently, Ni-free shape memory Ti-based alloys (composed of the biocompatible β-stabilizing elements such as Ta and Nb) are extensively studied. In this work, new Ni-free Ti-17Nb-6Ta is presented as a candidate for shape memory alloys with high biocompatibility. This alloy produced using arc-melting in argon atmosphere, followed by solution annealing at 900° C for 30 min. β-phase is the predominant phase beside α” martensite phase. Stress induced martensitic transformation is observed after cold rolling and during bending tests as measured by XRD. The hardness of the bended wire in the solution treated condition was around 330HV. While the cold rolled wire hardness before bending was 300 HV. The superelasticity and shape memory effect was investigated through bending tests of alloy wires. The cold rolled wire showed higher superelasticity than shape memory effect. But superelasticity and the shape memory effect were almost similar with the solution treated wire. Also, the total spring back in cold rolled wire is higher compared with solution treated wire.
Potential of Palm Oill Mill Effluent (POME) as Growth Medium for Sulfate-Reducing Bacterium in Microbial Fuel Cell
Authors: Abdul Halim Zaini , Abu Sepian Nor Raihana , Abd Karim Khairiah
Published: March 2017

This study is conducted to determine the potential of palm oil mill effluent (POME) as medium for growing sulfate-reducing bacterium (SRB) in anaerobic condition for microbial fuel cell application. In this study, effect of different percentage (20-70%) of POME was investigated on the growing cell of SRB. The bacterium was propagated in 400 ml Schott bottle at 35°C, pH 7.8 purged with nitrogen gas. The optical density during the growth of SRB was measured using UV-Vis Spectrophotometer at 600nm wavelength and the weight of dry cell was calculated to determine the specific growth rate. The highest specific growth rate (0.0636/hr) of SRB was achieved using 20% of POME compared to the media without POME (0.0464/hr). The increment is around 37%. The output voltage with 20% of POME is 0.23V which is 55.5% improvement compared to the medium without POME, thus proved that POME has the potential as growth medium for SRB in anaerobic condition for microbial fuel cell application. Booster circuit is possible to be used to boost the output voltage of the MFC until 3V which is more useful for electronic applications.
Production and Characterisation of Single and Mixed Activated Carbons from Coconut Shell and Rubber Seed Pericarp Using Microwave-Induced Chemical Activating Agent
Authors: Abdul Shukor Nurul Shazlinie , Ismail Khudzir , Deris Raja Razuan Raja , Alias Azil Bahari , Mohd Ishak Mohd Azlan
Published: March 2017

Activated carbon from biomass namely coconut shell (CS-AC), rubber seed pericarp(RSP-AC) and their mixed blend (50:50 w/w) coconut shell-rubber seed pericarp activated carbon(CSRSP-AC) were successfully produced by using ZnCl2 as chemical activating agent viamicrowave irradiation heating system. Activation process was performed in commercial microwaveoven at power of 600W for 20 min by using 30%, 40% and 50% of ZnCl2 concentrations. Theactivated carbon was characterized according to BET surface morphology, iodine number andpercentage of MB removal. The results showed that the mixed CSRSP-AC produced the highestsurface area of 584.68 mg2/g with comparison to single CS-AC and RSP-AC at 445.9 mg2/g and462.5 mg2/g respectively. Although CSRSP-AC has the highest surface area and pore volumedevelopment, RSP-AC was found to have the highest iodine number, with the opposite trend beingobserved with MB removal indicating that RSP-AC has the highest adsorptive capacity among thethree activated carbons. The iodine number value and percentages of MB removal increased as theZnCl2 concentration increase from 30% to 50%. These findings revealed that activated carbonproduced from mixed blend of coconut shell and rubber seed pericarp has almost similarcharacteristics to their respective activated carbon derived from single individual biomass.
Preparation and Characterization of Single and Mixed Activated Carbons Derived from Coconut Shell and Palm Kernel Shell through Chemical Activation Using Microwave Irradiation System
Authors: Mohd Amran Siti Anis , Ismail Khudzir , Alias Azil Bahari , Syed-Hassan Syed Shatir Asghrar , Jawad Ali H.
Published: March 2017

Single and mixed coconut shell (CS) and palm kernel shell (PKS) were successfully converted to activated carbon by using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as activating agent. Mixed activated carbon was produced from coconut shell: palm kernel shell at different KOH concentrations of 30%, 40% and 50%. Activation process was performed in a conventional microwave oven at fixed power and time of 600W and 20 minutes respectively. The results showed that activated carbon produced from single and mixed biomass at 40% concentration of KOH exhibited higher adsorption capacity for iodine number and percentage removal of MB with comparison to 30% and 50% of KOH concentrations. The highest BET surface area of 441.19 m2/g was obtained by CSAc-40. Further both CSAc-40 and PKSAc-40 produced an average pore size diameter of less than 2.0 nm which is in the range of micropore region. On contrary, the mixed CSPKSAc-40 produced an average pore size diameter of 6.0 nm which is in the region of mesopore. All the CSAc-40, PKSAc-40 and mixed CSPKSAc-40 showed similar adsorption trend for iodine number and percentage removal of MB. Interestingly, this finding showed that in the mixed activated carbon some chemical reactions might have occurred during the activation process producing mesoporous instead of microporous as obtained by the single biomass activated carbon.
Characterization of Nanostructured Titania and Titanate Materials Synthesized by Simple Hydrothermal Method
Authors: Ismail Nur Arifah , Razali Mohd Hasmizam , Anuar Khairul , Amin Mat
Published: March 2017

In this research, the effect of different hydrothermal treatment temperature (100, 150, and 200 °C) on the products obtained by hydrothermal method was studied. Various characterization techniques was carried out such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive of x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). XRD analysis shows that titanate phase was formed at 150 and 200 °C hydrothermal treatment. On the other hand, at 100 °C anatase TiO2 phase structured was gained which is similar with the TiO2 precursor. Morphological study using FESEM revealed that nanofibers and nanorods samples obtained at 150 °C and 200 °C, respectively. At 100°C, irregular shaped particle was attained similar with TiO2 precursors. FTIR spectra for the all studied sample displayed three main broad peaks at the range of 3700-2800, and 1800-1400 assigned to –OH stretching and deformation mode due to H2O molecules and M-O stretching mode at 900-400 cm-1 assigned to Ti-O bond.
Dynamic Characteristics of Circular and Square Graphene Diaphragm for Capacitive Microphone
Authors: Mohd Mustapha Haslinawati , Mohamed Mohd Ambri , Hamzah Azrul Azlan , Majlis Burhanuddin Yeop
Published: March 2017

This research focuses on the diaphragm design of the graphene MEMS capacitive microphone. Simulation part will be first involved in order to get the optimum dimensions of each elements by COMSOL multiphysics simulation software. This study will discussed on mechanical behavior of graphene diaphragm for MEMS capacitive microphone. First stage will implicated a theoretical model of diaphragm MEMS capacitive microphone. Then, boundary element based simulation with some mathematical formula will be used to design and evaluate the model. The output value of selective parameters such as the thickness and diameter of diaphragm, air gap and others are crucial in order to further fabricate the MEMS capacitive microphone. The proposed design of graphene diaphragm are in circular shape and square shape. The mechanical sensitivity of diaphragm with the pressure changes will be the crucial parameters in early stage. The results revealed that the circular shape diaphragm shows the better deflection with the thicker diaphragm gives the lower deflection. Von mises stress for both diaphragm shape also recorded in order to avoid the failure of the proposed design.
Study on Properties of Spherical Non-Metallic Explosion Suppression Materials
Authors: Zhou You Jie , Lu Chang Bo , Xiong Chun Hua , Yang Zhen Li , An Gao Jun , Wang Xu Dong
Published: March 2017

This paper introduces the developing background of spherical non-metallic explosion suppression materials, and the cook-off experiment of imitated tank filling materials by self-made cook-off devices. During the experiment process, explosion doesn’t occur in imitated oil tanks and pipelines, and the perfectness ratio of spherical non-metallic explosion suppression materials is up to 96% after the experiment, which shows spherical non-metallic explosion suppression materials have good flame retardant and explosion suppression performance. On this basis, finally, the explosion suppression mechanism of spherical materials is analyzed and the application prospect of this material is looked.
An Improved Technique for Chirality Assignment of SWCNTs Exploiting their (2n+m) Family Behavior
Authors: Ahmed Jamal G.R. , Siddique M. Asraf , Sawon  , Hasan Khalid , Alam M. Jane
Published: March 2017

In this work, an improved technique for chirality assignment of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) is proposed which work for both isolated and bundles SWCNTs. The technique exploits the (2n+m) family pattern both in optical transitions vs diameter plot and Raman G-mode frequency vs diameter plot of SWCNTs. Using two different plots can give accurate value of the family of unknown SWCNTs that can be used to find chiral index (n, m) of unknown SWCNT unambiguously in most of the cases. Unlike existing methods, graphical comparison or pattern recognition with an existing Kataura plot is not required here. Chirality of 13 SWCNTs are assigned here using this technique. Validity of assigned chirality is cross checked from previous experimental reports. The technique is especially useful for determining chirality of isolated SWCNT.
Strength and Properties of Concrete Pavement Incorporating Multiple Blended Binders
Authors: Hainin Mohd Rosli , Ramadhansyah Putra Jaya , Chan Tan Huan , Norhidayah Abdul Hassan , Nazri Fadzli Mohamed , Ichwana
Published: March 2017

This study investigated the effects of multiple blended binders on the properties and performance of concrete pavement. Mineral admixtures, namely, silica fume, metakaolin, and rice husk ash, are used to replace ordinary Portland cement at replacement levels of 0% (control mix), 5%, 10%, and 15% by mass-to-mass basis. The performance of the multiple binders on the concrete pavement properties was evaluated based on compressive strength, strength reduction, and strength activity index. Results showed that the mineral admixtures can be satisfactorily used as cement replacement materials to increase the properties of pavement concrete. Moreover, concrete pavements with 5% and 10% replacement levels exhibited excellent performance with good strength.
Analysis on Mechanical Property for Varied Geometry and Structure Parameters of Silicon Based Filtration Membrane for Artificial Kidney
Authors: Mustafa Kamarul Asyikin , Hamzah Azrul Azlan , Yunas Jumril , Majlis Burhanuddin Yeop
Published: March 2017

Silicon and Silicon Nitride are vigorously utilized and explored in micro and nano fabrication technology as they have excellent mechanical and electrical characteristics suitable for NEMS device application. In this study, both of them are analyzed using COMSOL Multiphysics software to evaluate the strength capability of the material when used as filtration membrane in artificial kidney. The artificial filtration membrane is a crucial part in an artificial kidney system as it functions to filter out all wastes from blood stream. This paper investigates the effect of membrane thickness experiencing applied pressure of 1332.3 Pa and 7332.7 Pa on membrane deflection and von Mises stress at the center of the filtration membrane. Those mechanical characteristics at different pore geometry and structure are evaluated against applied pressure on the filtration membrane surface. The results show that the pore geometry and shape for a membrane with thickness of higher than 200 nm will not have significant influences on the deflection and stress characteristics. Therefore, thicker membrane will result to a more stable filtration process that would be able to withstand simulated blood stream pressure in an artificial kidney.
A Resistive GaN-HEMT Mixer for a Cable Modem Operable up to 250°C for Downhole Communications
Authors: Salem Jebreel M. , Ha Dong Sam
Published: March 2017

It is necessary for the oil and gas industry to drill deeper due to decrease of easily accessible natural reserves. Temperatures of deep wells can exceed 210°C, and conventional cooling and heat extraction techniques are impractical in such a harsh environment. Reliable electronic designs that can sustain high temperature become necessary. This article presents a high-temperature passive radio frequency (RF) mixer for downhole communications. The proposed mixer is designed to upconvert or downconvert the incoming signal with low conversion loss (CL), high linearity, and reliable operation at the ambient temperature up to 250°C. GaN is a wide-bandgap technology that can provide a reliable operation at high ambient temperatures, and the proposed mixer adopts a commercial GaN high-electron-mobility transistor. Measurement results indicate that the proposed mixer achieves a CL of 7.1 dB at local oscillator (LO) power of 2.5 dBm for the downconversion from 230–253 to 97.5 MHz at 250°C and the input P1dB compression point lies at 5 dBm. The designed mixer also achieves 24.5 dB RF-to-intermediate frequency (IF) isolation and 28 dB LO-to-IF isolation at 250°C. The power dissipation of the mixer is virtually zero.
Recommendations for the analysis of hemocyte-related immunocompetent oxidative activity in the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis
Authors: Boisseaux P. , Noury P. , Delignette-Muller M.-L. , Thomas H. , Garric J.
Published: March 2017

Not available
Sources of inequality in South African early child development services
Authors: Aubrey Carol
Published: March 2017

This article seeks to examine critically South African early child development (ECD) in order to uncover some of the challenges that lie ahead in creating a more equitable future for its youngest children. An investigation of play and learning within varied ECD contexts, using observation and interview, is presented. The social constructionist approach adopted allowed exploration of play and learning from the perspectives of a range of stakeholders. Three themes, role of play, sources of inequality and barriers to play, are interrogated. The role and contribution of the concepts of readiness, needs and play to maintaining unequal treatment of vulnerable children are identified. The possibility that these concepts may serve as mechanisms to reproduce social and cultural inequality is considered.
Pediatric hematological malignancy: Identification of issues involved in the road to diagnosis
Authors: Venkatasai Jeyaanth P. , Srinivasamaharaj Srividya , Sneha Latha Magatha , Scott Julius Xavier , Baby Anu Kurian , Rajan Mahalakshmi
Published: March 2017

Introduction: Childhood malignancy, although a rare phenomenon, is still the leading cause of mortality in the pediatric population. Early diagnosis and treatment are imperative for the achievement of optimal prognosis. The study of factors facilitating the delay in diagnosis is thus of utmost importance, to both shorten the diagnostic delay and allow for early therapeutic intervention, facilitating a higher prognosis. Objective: To assess the referral pattern and the identification of potential delays in the diagnosis of childhood malignancy in a developing country. Methodology: The study was conducted in the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology department of Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, India. The study included randomly selected 70 pediatric patients diagnosed with a hematological malignancy, from July 2012-August 2013. The parents were interviewed using a prepared questionnaire about patient symptomatology, interaction with healthcare providers, final diagnosis, and referral details. Data were statistically analyzed using Statistica® (STATsoft). Results: 70 patients were included in the study (69% boys, 31% girls). The diagnostic delay was primarily due to the delay experienced in the healthcare system, with a mean delay of 26 days (Median: 18; Range: 5-39). Those from a lower socioeconomic background and whom opted for a non-allopathic treatment approach experienced higher diagnostic delays. Diagnostic time was significantly shorter for those who visited a pediatrician versus the patients who visited a general physician or super specialties (P = 0.043). Conclusions: Diagnostic delay is often associated with an extensive disease presentation, an aggressive therapeutic approach, and has a negative impact on patient prognosis. To lower mortality rate and facilitate a favourable prognosis, diagnosis requires a high degree of clinical suspicion and immediate intervention.
Epedimiologic, clinical profile and factors affecting the outcome in febrile neutropenia
Authors: Krishnamani Kalpathi , Gandhi Linga Vijay , Sadashivudu Gundeti , Raghunadharao Digumarti
Published: March 2017

Background: Febrile neutropenia (FN) is common in cancer patients particularly hematologic malignancies due to intensive cytotoxic chemotherapy. It is an important cause of morbidity, mortality and treatment delays. The risk is greater in patients with ANC < 500/ mm3 and increases dramatically in those with ANC < 100/ mm3 and duration of neutropenia more than 1 week. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence, demographic characteristics, clinical profile, mortality, outcome and factors affecting the outcome in patients with febrile neutropenia (FN) admitted at our Center between January 2011 and November 2012. Materials and Methods: All cases of FN admitted in our Institute between January 2011 and November 2012 were analyzed. Data was analyzed using IBM statistic SPSS version 19. Results: A total of 333 episodes of FN were reviewed. Hematologic malignancies accounted for 299 (89.7%) episodes and 88% of all the episodes had grade 4 neutropenia. There was a significant association noted between high serum bilirubin, creatinine and outcome. Isolation of an organism from blood culture, positive findings on chest X-ray and fungal infection was associated with higher mortality . Association between transfusion requirements and outcome was analyzed and it was observed that patients who had multiple component transfusions vs single component ones were at a significantly higher risk of death. There were only 7 deaths noted among the patient population. Conclusion: Leukemias are the leading cause of FN at our Institute. Higher bilirubin, creatinine, chest imaging favoring pneumonia, positive isolates and multiple transfusions had significant association with mortality. Large scale prospective studies are needed to determine the association of preemptive therapy with higher mortality. The outcome of high risk FN in this study is favorable.
El paradigma relacional en las estrategias de las organizaciones de marketing de destinos. Interactividad y función social en las webs turísticas oficiales
Authors: Martínez-Sala Alba-María , Monserrat-Gauchi Juan , Campillo Alhama Concepción
Published: March 2017

Esta investigación analiza el grado de interactividad de las páginas webs turísticas oficiales de los principales destinos de sol y playa españoles, dada su importancia en la consecución de una comunicación bidireccional. Del mismo modo se evalúan aspectos relativos a los medios sociales y a la web social, igualmente necesarios para lograr esa comunicación bidireccional a partir de la cual establecer relaciones con sus públicos. Metodología. En ambos casos se recurre a un análisis de contenido y funcional de una serie de indicadores que proporciona información descriptiva de su estado y una puntuación que permite un análisis comparativo. Resultados y conclusiones. Los resultados muestran importantes deficiencias en el ámbito de la interactividad, pero una notable evolución en lo que respecta a los medios sociales y herramientas de la web social. Del mismo modo señalan una serie de buenas prácticas en orden a favorecer los aspectos relacionales de los sitios webs turísticos oficiales, herramientas imprescindibles en las estrategias de marketing y comunicación turística.
A national-scale seasonal hydrological forecast system: development and evaluation over Britain
Authors: Bell Victoria A. , Davies Helen N. , Kay Alison L. , Brookshaw Anca , Scaife Adam A.
Published: March 2017

Abstract. Skilful winter seasonal predictions for the North Atlantic circulation and Northern Europe have now been demonstrated and the potential for seasonal hydrological forecasting in the UK is now being explored. One of the techniques being used combines seasonal rainfall forecasts provided by operational weather forecast systems with hydrological modelling tools to provide estimates of river flows up to a few months ahead. The work presented here shows how spatial information contained in a distributed hydrological model typically requiring high resolution (daily or better) rainfall data can be used to provide an initial condition for a much simpler forecast model tailored to use low-resolution monthly rainfall forecasts. Rainfall forecasts (hindcasts) from the GloSea5 model (1996 to 2009) are used to provide the first assessment of skill in these national-scale flow forecasts. The skill in the combined modelling system is assessed for different seasons and regions of Britain, and compared to what might be achieved using other approaches such as use of an ensemble of historical rainfall in a hydrological model, or a simple flow persistence forecast. The analysis indicates that only limited forecast skill is achievable for Spring/Summer seasonal hydrological forecasts, however, Autumn/Winter flows can be reasonably well forecast using (ensemble mean) rainfall forecasts based on either GloSea5 forecasts or historical rainfall (the preferred type of forecast depends on the region). Flow forecasts using ensemble mean GloSea5 rainfall perform the most consistently well across Britain, and provide the most skilful forecasts overall at the 3-month lead time. Much of the skill (64 %) in the 1-month ahead seasonal flow forecasts can be attributed to the hydrological initial condition (particularly in regions with a significant groundwater contribution to flows), whereas for the 3-month ahead lead time, GloSea5 forecasts account for ~ 70 % of the forecast skill (mostly in areas of high rainfall to the North and West) and only 30 % of the skill arises from hydrological memory (typically groundwater-dominated areas). Given the high spatial heterogeneity in typical patterns of UK rainfall and evaporation, future development of skilful spatially distributed seasonal forecasts could lead to substantial improvements in seasonal flow forecast capability, benefitting practitioners interested in predicting hydrological extremes, not only in the UK, but potentially across Europe.
Research on a Hierarchical and Simultaneous Gravity Unloading Method for Antenna Pointing Mechanism
Authors: Yang Guoyong , Wang Hongguang , Xiao Jizhong , Wang Zuowei , Ling Lie
Published: March 2017

Abstract. This paper presents a hierarchical and simultaneous gravity unloading method. An air bearing gravity unloading facility for two-orthogonal-axis antenna pointing mechanism (APM) is designed based on this method. This method is proposed based on the characteristics analysis of the two-orthogonal-axis APM and air bearings. The mechanism of the hierarchical and simultaneous gravity unloading method is described in detail. It solves the coupling problem of two axes and unloads the gravity of both joints hierarchically and simultaneously. The air bearing gravity unloading facility which is a structure mechanism with two layers based on this method is designed with planar air bearing and air spindle. The structure of the facility is described in detail. The dynamic models of the APM with its load in space environment and on the air bearing gravity unloading facility are derived respectively. With the analysing of the driving torques and vertical forces of the APM joints in both models, the results demonstrate that the gravity unloading facility can simulate the microgravity environment successfully. This conclusion is also proved by the dynamic simulation with ADAMS software. The simulation also provides some optimization targets for the gravity unloading facility. At last, the gravity unloading facility is established and some experiments are done. The dynamic models, the simulation results and the experiments all show the effectiveness of the hierarchical and simultaneous gravity unloading method.
Community-based early warning systems for flood risk mitigation in Nepal
Authors: Smith Paul J. , Brown Sarah , Dugar Sumit
Published: March 2017

Abstract. This paper focuses on the use of community-based early warning systems for flood resilience in Nepal. The first part of the work outlines the evolution and current status of these community-based systems, highlighting the limited lead times currently available for early warning. The second part of the paper focuses on the development of a robust operational flood forecasting methodology for use by the Nepal Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) to enhance early warning lead times. The methodology uses data-based physically interpretable time series models and data assimilation to generate probabilistic forecasts, which are presented in a simple visual tool. The approach is designed to work in situations of limited data availability with an emphasis on sustainability and appropriate technology. The successful application of the forecast methodology to the flood-prone Karnali River basin in western Nepal is outlined, increasing lead times from 2–3 to 7–8 h. The challenges faced in communicating probabilistic forecasts to the last mile of the existing community-based early warning systems across Nepal is discussed. The paper concludes with an assessment of the applicability of this approach in basins and countries beyond Karnali and Nepal and an overview of key lessons learnt from this initiative.