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Embedding Automated Planning within Urban Traffic Management Operations
No full textThis paper is an experience report on the results of an industry-led collaborative project aimed at automating the control of traffic flow within a large city centre. A major focus of the automation was to deal with abnormal or unexpected events such as roadworks, road closures or excessive demand, resulting in periods of saturation of the network within some region of the city. We describe the resulting system which works by sourcing and semantically enriching urban traffic data, and uses the derived knowledge as input to an automated planning component to generate light signal control strategies in real time. This paper reports on the development surrounding the planning component, and in particular the engineering, configuration and validation issues that arose in the application. It discusses a range of lessons learned from the experience of deploying automated planning in the road transport area, under the direction of transport operators and technology developers
The Effect of Health Advertising on University Students
No full textThis research aims to identify the effect of the recent pictorial cigarette pack’s health warning that was imposed at the beginning of the year 2013 on smoking packs in terms of convincing smokers to quit or cut down the cigarette smoking habit. A qualitative approach of expert interviews is used to evaluate the impact of health advertising on the awareness about the risks of smoking habit for universities’ students in Jordan. Focus group and observations are also used in this research. The findings have indicated that there is a theoretical link between the effect of advertising and decision making through affective and cognitive responses. The research has highlighted that the new health warning has no direct or indirect influence over Jordanian university students in terms of cutting down or quitting smoking, although it was described by the interviewees and the media as “scary and terrifying”. This is one of few studies that explore the effect of the picture health warning on the university students in Jordan. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that provides empirical evidence about the influence of health advertising in a developing country
Institutional reform and FDI decision in transition economies: a qualitative study of Syria
No full textThe article considers the impact of institutional reform on the decision of foreign enterprises and foreign entrepreneurs
to directly invest in the transition economy of Syria. It responds to the calls for more open research design that can go
beyond the borders of the quantitative findings of previous econometric research by adopting a qualitative research
strategy. The results reveal that institutional reforms enhanced Syria’s attractiveness to foreign direct investment.
Institutional barriers proved to be less daunting to foreign investors whose backgrounds were culturally similar to that
of Syria and/or already had experience in Syria or in a similar type of economy. The impact of background similarity and
previous experience in similar contexts appeared to be less important when the foreign investor was a multinational
enterprise than for individual entrepreneur. Moreover, these factors also appeared to be less important for large
enterprises compared to small enterprises
Rotor loss reduction using segmented inverter in surface-mounted permanent magnet drive
No full textIn this paper, the influence of different switching modulation arrangements, i.e. current waveform modulation- and phase-shift, on the resultant current waveform of an electrical machine drive consisting of a two segment inter-leaved inverter feeding a surface-mounted permanent magnet (SPM) machine with two identical sets of three phase windings is investigated. The modulation- and phase-shift have been illustrated and the influence of the different modulation and frequency indices have been studied. Furthermore, the torque, and rotor eddy currents and core losses are calculated using FEA when either modulation-shifted or phase-shifted current waveforms are generated and fed to the machine. It is found that using modulation-shift can reduce the current harmonic substantially however the inverter requires two sets of input signals. On the other hand, although the current harmonic reduction is less than that of the modulation-shift, the phase-shift layout can be employed using one set of input signals with a signal delay
A systematic review of the impact of educational programs on factors that affect nurses' post-operative pain management for children
Get PDFDespite extensive research in the international arena into pain and its management, there is, as yet, little research on the topic of pain in children in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf countries generally. A systematic review was conducted to explore the impact of education programs on factors affecting paediatric nurses’ postoperative pain management practice. This was done in order to advise the creation of an educational program for nurses in Saudi Arabia. Knowledge about pain, attitudes towards pain, beliefs about children’s pain, perceptions of children’s reports of pain, self-efficacy with regard to pain management, and perceptions of barriers to optimal practice were all considered to be relevant factors. The review was restricted to randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs, excluding studies focussed on chronic pain or populations other than solely children. Studies published in English between 2000 and 2016 were identified using CINAHL, MEDLINE, Ovid SP, The Cochrane Library, ProQuest, and Google Scholar databases. Of 499 published studies identified by the search, 14 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. There was evidence of educational programs exerting a postive impact on enhancing pediatric nurses’ knowledge of pain and modifing their attitudes towards it, but only limited evidence was available about the impact on nurses’ beliefs and perceptions of children’s reports of pain, nurses’ self-efficacy, or barriers to optimal practice. None of the studies was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Studies were needed to address additional aspects of preparedness for effective postperative pain management. Details of educational programs used as experimental intervention must be included in reports
Barriers to rural women entrepreneurs in Oman
No full textPurpose:
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the barriers confronted by rural women entrepreneurs in Oman. The study focusses on women living in rural and mountain areas who aspire to move beyond their traditional family roles. It identifies several problems including accessing funding for new ventures and innovative activities, a lack of skills-based training and limited family support.
Design/methodology/approach:
Based on 57 responses to a semi-structured questionnaire, and face to face qualitative interviews with ten women entrepreneurs. Quantitative responses are evaluated and ranked in terms of their mean score, standard deviation and the intensity of each factor shaping rural women entrepreneurship. Five qualitative cases are presented.
Findings:
Although Oman is arguably one of the more progressive Arab countries regarding gender equality and women empowerment, the findings exhibit socio-cultural concerns which hamper women entrepreneurial venture creations and their subsequent success. The findings of the research are discussed using the three dimensions of entrepreneurship identified by Wenneker and Thurik (1999). The three dimensions are: conditions leading to entrepreneurship, characteristics of entrepreneurship and outcomes of entrepreneurship.
Practical implications:
Suggests that Omani policymakers should consider how women entrepreneurs can be better supported so that they can diversify household income by starting new ventures while simultaneously contributing to the socio-economic development of the region. A number of suggestions on how this can be achieved are presented.
Originality/value:
Research on rural women entrepreneurship in the context of an Arab country is scarce and the study can provide an overview of the obstacles and the support required for the development of the rural women entrepreneurship in this region
Trans* citizenship in post-socialist societies
No full textThis article reports findings from research about trans* citizenship in 14 post-socialist countries. It evidences substantial deficits concerning trans policy making, and a lack of policy debate in this area. Most examined countries have a lack of protocols for official gender change in birth certificates, IDs, passports and other documents. Usually there are no guidelines, measures and procedures defining the standards of healthcare for trans persons. Practice concerning healthcare varies widely, and trans people and advocates exercise agency in negotiating access to care. The article suggests that trans citizenship studies need to foreground legal and social aspects of citizenship, as these are highlighted in the post-socialist context. Policy implications are discussed in relation to key citizenship debates including those concerning challenges to normative models of citizenship
Imaging water velocity and volume fraction distributions in water continuous multiphase flows using inductive flow tomography and electrical resistance tomography
No full textThis paper presents the design and implementation of an inductive flow tomography (IFT) system, employing a multi-electrode electromagnetic flow meter (EMFM) and novel reconstruction techniques, for measuring the local water velocity distribution in water continuous single and multiphase flows. A series of experiments were carried out in vertical-upward and upward-inclined single phase water flows and 'water continuous' gas–water and oil–gas–water flows in which the velocity profiles ranged from axisymmetric (single phase and vertical-upward multiphase flows) to highly asymmetric (upward-inclined multiphase flows). Using potential difference measurements obtained from the electrode array of the EMFM, local axial velocity distributions of the continuous water phase were reconstructed using two different IFT reconstruction algorithms denoted RT#1, which assumes that the overall water velocity profile comprises the sum of a series of polynomial velocity components, and RT#2, which is similar to RT#1 but which assumes that the zero'th order velocity component may be replaced by an axisymmetric 'power law' velocity distribution. During each experiment, measurement of the local water volume fraction distribution was also made using the well-established technique of electrical resistance tomography (ERT). By integrating the product of the local axial water velocity and the local water volume fraction in the cross section an estimate of the water volumetric flow rate was made which was compared with a reference measurement of the water volumetric flow rate.
In vertical upward flows RT#2 was found to give rise to water velocity profiles which are consistent with the previous literature although the profiles obtained in the multiphase flows had relatively higher central velocity peaks than was observed for the single phase profiles. This observation was almost certainly a result of the transfer of axial momentum from the less dense dispersed phases to the water, which occurred preferentially at the pipe centre. For upward inclined multiphase flows RT#1 was found to give rise to water velocity profiles which are more consistent with results in the previous literature than was the case for RT#2—which leads to the tentative conclusion that the upward inclined multiphase flows investigated in the present study did not contain significant axisymmetric velocity components
RF cavity design for a low cost 1 MeV proton source
No full textIn this paper we present the design for a low-cost RF cavity capable of accelerating protons from 100 keV to 1 MeV. The system is designed to meet the specifications from the proposed Alceli LTD medical proton therapy linac, to deliver a 1 nA proton beam current with a 1 kHz repetition rate.
We present a design of an RF normal conducting (NC) re-entrant Cu cavity operating at 40MHz consisting of a coupled two cavity system, both driven by a single Marx generator. The choice of such a low operating frequency for the cavity system enables us to use a relatively low-cost
cost Marx Generator as the RF source. Marx generators work in a similar fashion to a Cockcroft-Walton accelerator (without the expensive components), creating a high-voltage
pulse by charging a number of capacitors relatively slowly in parallel, then rapidly discharging in series, via spark gaps.
Marx generators can deliver 2.5GW, 1 ns pulses, with rise times of 200 ps, and (relatively) low jitter
Act 919 of 2016 and its contribution to governance of the upstream petroleum industry in Ghana.
Get PDFIn August 2016 the Ghanaian Parliament marked the advent of a new era for the country’s nascent petroleum industry with the enactment into law of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act [Act 919]. Act 919 is considered to represent a major milestone in the legislative history of the upstream oil and gas industry in Ghana. The main objective of this article is to assess the new statute’s fitness for purpose through a critical examination of its regulatory aspirations, together with its underlying legislative ambitions and presumptions. The discussion is set against the historical background of petroleum exploration and production in Ghana
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