495 research outputs found
Harmonizing Biodiesel Fuel Standards in East Asia: Current Status, Challenges and Way Forward
No full textAbstract: This paper discusses the development of and policy towards biodiesel fuel (BDF) in the East Asia Summit (EAS) Region (hereafter East Asia), with a focus on activities related to harmonizing BDF standards. It finds that the EAS countries have actively promoted the development of BDF for a variety of reasons. To minimize problems with engines arising from the use of BDF, most EAS countries have established their national BDF standards. However, these diverse standards cause barriers for BDF trade and act against the regional interest in maximizing benefits from BDF production and utilization. Therefore, the EAS policy makers decided to harmonize BDF standards, and a regional benchmark standard has been published. Through a comparative review of existing national standards against the benchmark, it finds that the harmonization is beneficial economically and environmentally, and is technically feasible but practically stalled due to the lack of political determination. Therefore, among a few policy implications, the key message to deliver is a call for political determination to implement the harmonization in the EAS region. Since harmonization of BDF standards has been tried in other regions, the findings of this paper may supplement the literature, enhance understanding of the EAS case, and provide lessons and implications that may be helpful in advancing similar harmonization elsewhere.
Increasing Brand Awareness Through Social Media Marketing for Software as a Service of EAS
No full textThis product-based bachelor's thesis aimed to investigate how to improve brand awareness through social media marketing for a Sofware as a Service (SaaS). The commissioning company EAS is a Finnish start-up that has succeeded in utilising blockchain technology for a new purpose to automate the reporting of VAT and customs data in their SaaS. The European Union changed e-commerce cross-border trade regulations affecting VAT and customs compliance, which stepped into force last year, the 1st of July 2021. The company is working in a completely new business field, so they need a concrete social media marketing plan to increase the brand awareness of their product.
This thesis's research method was desktop research using relevant literature that covers brand awareness, business-to-business (B2B) and social media marketing. The literature review is in two theory parts, where the first one focuses on brand awareness, B2B and social media and how all of these connect. The second theory discusses in detail what the new regulations set by the European Union for VAT and customs mean, how they affect e-commerce, the problems with the new regulations, and finally, the ideal tools to solve these problems. Based on these two different theory parts, a concrete social media marketing plan was made for the commissioning company, and the plan is as an appendix in this thesis.
By using a literature review to produce a social media marketing plan, the author was able to find the best ways to combine B2B social media to increase brand awareness for a SaaS. The social media marketing plan includes a situation analysis of the commissioning company's current social media channels. In addition, the plan highlights some major B2B social media marketing trends in 2022. It also introduces goals and targets for this plan and content ideas for different social media channels, paid advertising, influencers, and marketing calendar. Finally, the social media marketing plan includes ways to measure brand awareness.
In conclusion, the commissioning company is working in a field of entirely new business which has been there for under one year. Even though social media is a popular tool part of marketing in today's world, it is not much used to promote Software as a Service company. There was not much exact literature around this business area as it is a new business territory. With the new social media marketing plan, EAS will execute it and constantly analyse the data to maintain the best results for their business and increase its brand awareness. Other similarly operating companies can get ideas from this thesis and its social media marketing plan, but not everything can be repeated similarly in other companies
Reliability and validity of the euthanasia attitude scale (EAS) for Hong Kong medical doctors
No full textThis study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale (EAS) in Hong Kong medical doctors. A total of 107 medical doctors (61.7% men) participated in a survey at clinical settings in 2008. The 21-item EAS was used to assess their attitudes toward euthanasia. The mean (standard deviation) and median of the EAS were 63.60 (60.31) and 63.00. Total EAS scores correlated well with "Ethical Considerations," "Practical Considerations," and "Treasuring Life" (Spearman ρ =.37-.96, P <.001) but not "Naturalistic Beliefs." The construct validity of the 3-factor model was appropriate (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin [KMO] value = 0.90) and showed high internal consistency (Cronbach α =.79-.92). Euthanasia Attitude Scale may be a reliable and valid measure for assessing the attitudes toward euthanasia in medical professionals. © The Author(s) 2010.link_to_subscribed_fulltex
Repeatability of innervation zone identification in the external anal sphincter muscle
No full textKnowledge of the distribution of the innervation zones (IZs) of the external anal sphincter (EAS) may be useful for preventing anal sphincter incompetence during vaginal delivery. A method proposed for the automatic estimation of the distribution of IZs of EAS from high-density surface electromyography (EMG) was evaluated for repeatability in continent volunteers. Methods: In 13 healthy female subjects (age: 35 11 years) surface EMG signals were acquired using an anal probe with three circumferential electrode arrays (of 16 contacts each) at different depths within the anal canal (15mm distance between the centers of adjacent arrays), during four independent experimental sessions. Three maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of 10 sec were performed for each session for a total of 12 contractions per subject. Repeatability of the estimation of the distribution of IZ was tested by evaluating the coefficient of multiple correlations (CMC) between the IZ distributions estimated from the signals recorded from each subject. Results: A high repeatability (CMC > 0.8) was found comparing IZ distributions estimated from signals recorded by each array within the same session. A slightly lower value was obtained considering signals recorded during different sessions (CMC > 0.7), but a higher value (CMC > 0.8) was obtained after aligning the estimated IZ distributions. The realignment compensates for the operator's error in repositioning the probe in the same position during different sessions. Conclusion: This result justifies clinical studies using high-density surface EMG in routine examinations, providing information about IZs of EAS and assessing the possibilities of preventing neuronal trauma during vaginal delivery
Dependence of the GRAPES-3 EAS particle density and trigger rate on atmospheric pressure and temperature
No full text© Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The GRAPES-3 experiment, a high density extensive air shower (EAS) array located at Ooty, India is designed for high precision measurements of cosmic ray energy spectrum and nuclear composition in energy range of 10 13 -10 16 eV. It consists of tightly packed 1 m 2 area 400 plastic scintillation detectors covering an effective area of 25,000 m 2 . The trigger rate and particle density measured by EAS array shows strong correlation with the atmospheric parameters such as the pressure, and temperature. By employing linear regression, and Fast Fourier Transform techniques, the pressure and temperature coefficients for the dependence of trigger rate and particle density, respectively were obtained. Thereafter, by applying corrections for these effects the contribution of atmospheric effects was largely eliminated in the EAS data. These corrections are expected to result in a better measurement of EAS parameters which will be presented during the conference
Meal glycaemic load of normal-weight and overweight Hong Kong children
No full textObjective: To describe the pattern of meal glycaemic load of children in Hong Kong and to determine whether the meal glycaemic load is associated with childhood overweight. Method: Dietary records (3-day) of 316 Hong Kong children aged 6-7 years were collected. Glycaemic load was calculated from the estimated weight (WT), carbohydrate content (%CHO) and glycaemic index (GI) of each food taken using the equation: (% CHO × GI × WT/100). The meal glycaemic load was then the sum of the glycaemic loads of all food taken in each meal. Logistic regression analyses were used to compare the average meal glycaemic load (of breakfast, lunch and dinner) and other dietary parameters between overweight children and normal-weight children. Results: Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks provided, respectively, 17, 29, 29 and 25% of the total glycaemic load in a day. White rice (excluding congee (rice porridge) and glutinous rice) contributed almost half of the total glycaemic load. Adjusted logistic regression showed that the meal glycaemic load was not significantly associated with childhood overweight after adjusting for parental obesity, birth weight, sleeping duration, mean energy intake and paternal smoking. Conclusion: Meal glycaemic load calculated from current diet was not an independent factor associated with childhood overweight in children aged 6-7 years. Our data suggested that modifying the type of rice/staple consumed and choosing low-GI snacks could have a major influence on the total meal glycaemic load of young Hong Kong children. © 2006 Nature Publishing Group All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex
The Impact of Asynchrony on Parallel Model-Based EAs
No full textIn a parallel EA one can strictly adhere to the generational clock, and wait
for all evaluations in a generation to be done. However, this idle time limits
the throughput of the algorithm and wastes computational resources.
Alternatively, an EA can be made asynchronous parallel. However, EAs using
classic recombination and selection operators (GAs) are known to suffer from an
evaluation time bias, which also influences the performance of the approach.
Model-Based Evolutionary Algorithms (MBEAs) are more scalable than classic GAs
by virtue of capturing the structure of a problem in a model. If this model is
learned through linkage learning based on the population, the learned model may
also capture biases. Thus, if an asynchronous parallel MBEA is also affected by
an evaluation time bias, this could result in learned models to be less suited
to solving the problem, reducing performance. Therefore, in this work, we study
the impact and presence of evaluation time biases on MBEAs in an asynchronous
parallelization setting, and compare this to the biases in GAs. We find that a
modern MBEA, GOMEA, is unaffected by evaluation time biases, while the more
classical MBEA, ECGA, is affected, much like GAs are.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, submitted to GECCO 202
- …
