• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.27-37
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• 2017

This study examines the behaviour of staple food price using Multivariate BEKK-GARCH Model. Understanding of staple food price behaviour is important for determining the unpredictability of staple food market and also for policy making. In this paper, we focus on the commodity prices of sugar, rice, soybean and wheat to examine the volatility behaviour of those commodities. The empirical results show that the own-volatility spillover are relatively significant for all food prices. The own-volatility spillover effect for sugar price is relatively large compared with the volatility spillover of other staple food commodities. The findings also highlight that the price volatility of wheat increases during food crisis more than it does when the condition is stable. Also, the own-volatility of rice and wheat in the period of the food crisis is significant and higher compared to the period before food crisis indicates that the past own-volatility effects during food crisis are relatively more difficult to predict because of the uncertainty and high price volatility. Policy recommendations that can be proposed based on the findings are: (1) a better trade agreement in food commodity trade, (2) lower the dependence on wheat importation in Indonesia, and (3) reliable system to minimize food price volatility risks.

• Carbon letters
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.325-331
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• 2010

This study investigates the effect of filler content (wt%), presence of interphase and agglomerates on the effective Young's modulus of polypropylene (PP) based nanocomposites reinforced with exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets ($xGnP^{TM}$) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The Young's modulus of the composites is determined using tensile testing based on ASTM D638. The reinforcement/polymer interphase is characterized in terms of width and mechanical properties using atomic force microscopy which is also used to investigate the presence and size of agglomerates. It is found that the interphase has an average width of ~30 nm and modulus in the range of 5 to 12 GPa. The Halpin-Tsai micromechanical model is modified to account for the effect of interphase and filler agglomerates and the model predictions for the effective modulus of the composites are compared to the experimental data. The presented results highlight the need of considering various experimentally observed filler characteristics such as agglomerate size and aspect ratio and presence and properties of interphase in the micromechanical models in order to develop better design tools to fabricate multifunctional polymer nanocomposites with engineered properties.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.131-147
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• 2011

The logarithmic decrement method has been long used to estimate damping ratios in systems with only one modal component such as linear single degree of freedom (SDOF) mechanical systems. This paper presents an application of a methodology that uses joint time-frequency distribution (JTFD) as input, instead of the raw signal, to systems with several vibration modes. A most important feature of the present approach is that it can be applied to a system with time-varying damping ratio. Initially the precision and robustness of the method is determined using a synthetic model with multiple harmonic components, one of them displaying a time-varying damping ratio, subsequently the results obtained from experiments with a reduced model are presented. A comparison is made between the results obtained with this methodology and those using the classical technique of Least Squares Complex Exponential Method (LSCE) in order to highlight the advantages of the former, such as, good precision, robustness and excellent performance in extreme cases, e.g., when very low frequency components and time varying damping ratio are present.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.101-113
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• 2013

Although the methodological literature is replete with advice regarding the development and validation of multi-item scales based on reflective measures, the issue of index construction using formative measures has received little attention. The aim of this paper is to enhance researchers' understanding of formative measures of high-order factor and assist them in their index construction efforts. This article is also to provide some insights into the nature of formative indicators for researchers to reach an informed choice as to the appropriate high order formative measurement model for their needs. We first provide a brief background on formative indicators, drawing from the limited and fragmented literature on the topic. Next we give an example of constructing an index based on actual survey data and highlight the procedures used to assess its quality. We conclude the article with some thoughts about the use of indexes in empirical studies.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.409-426
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• 2018

This study explores the effect of moral identity on attitude toward and purchase intention of upcycled fashion products by comparing purchasers and non-purchasers. Data from 127 purchasers and 307 non-purchasers collected through a survey was analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, model invariance check, and multiple-group comparison tests using Amos 23.0. Results indicate consumers with purchase experiences of upcycled fashion products showed a higher level of moral identity (internalization and symbolization), positive attitude toward upcycled fashion products, and purchase intention than did consumers with no purchase experience. In model tests, internalization affected attitude toward purchasing upcycled fashion products, whereas symbolization affected purchase intention, regardless of purchase experience. The effect of symbolization on purchase intention was consistent with prior studies focusing on charity behaviors that are highly visible to others. These findings demonstrate that fashion products are visible and symbolic, so it should be carefully considered in ethical consumption studies. From these results, researchers may obtain insights on the process of how consumers apply moral identity to their purchase intention regarding upcycled fashion products. Likewise, marketers may enhance satisfaction of consumers with a high level of symbolization by putting special tags and logos that clearly highlight the products' upcycled nature.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.261-273
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• 2017

The control of the deformative behaviour of pre-stressed concrete roof elements for a satisfactory service performance is a main issue of their structural design. Slender light-weight wing-shaped roof elements, typical of the European heritage, are particularly sensitive to this problem. The paper presents the results of deformation measurements during storage and of both torsional-flexural and purely flexural load tests carried out on a full-scale 40.5 m long innovative wing-shaped roof element. An element-based simplified integral procedure that de-couples the evolution of the deflection profile with the progressive shortening of the beam is adopted to catch the experimental visco-elastic behaviour of the element and the predictions are compared with normative close-form solutions. A linear 3D fem model is developed to investigate the torsional-flexural behaviour of the member. A mechanical non-linear beam model is used to predict the purely flexural behaviour of the roof member in the pre- and post-cracking phases and to validate the loss prediction of the adopted procedure. Both experimental and numerical results highlight that the adopted analysis method is viable and sound for an accurate simulation of the service behaviour of precast roof elements.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.43-57
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• 1998

A three-degree-of-freedom base hinged assembly (BHA) for aeroelastic model tests of tall building was developed. The integral parts of a BHA, which consists of two perpendicular plane frames and a flexural pivot, enable this modeling technique to independently simulate building translational and torsional degree-of-freedom. A program of wind tunnel aeroelastic model tests of the CAARC standard tall building was conducted with emphasis on the effect of (a) torsional motion, (b) cross-wind/torsional frequency ratio and (c) the presence of an eccentricity between center of mass and center of stiffness on wind-induced response characteristics. The experimental results highlight the significant effect of coupled translational-torsional motion and the effect of eccentricity between center of mass and center of stiffness on the resultant rms acceleration responses in both along-wind and cross-wind directions especially at operating reduced wind velocities close to a critical value of 10. In addition, it was sound that the vortex shedding process remains the main excitation mechanism in cross-wind direction even in case of tall buildings with coupled translational-torsional motion and with eccentricity.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.754-771
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• 2021

In the task of continuous dimension emotion recognition, the parts that highlight the emotional expression are not the same in each mode, and the influences of different modes on the emotional state is also different. Therefore, this paper studies the fusion of the two most important modes in emotional recognition (voice and visual expression), and proposes a two-mode dual-modal emotion recognition method combined with the attention mechanism of the improved AlexNet network. After a simple preprocessing of the audio signal and the video signal, respectively, the first step is to use the prior knowledge to realize the extraction of audio characteristics. Then, facial expression features are extracted by the improved AlexNet network. Finally, the multimodal attention mechanism is used to fuse facial expression features and audio features, and the improved loss function is used to optimize the modal missing problem, so as to improve the robustness of the model and the performance of emotion recognition. The experimental results show that the concordance coefficient of the proposed model in the two dimensions of arousal and valence (concordance correlation coefficient) were 0.729 and 0.718, respectively, which are superior to several comparative algorithms.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.569-578
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• 2018

This paper aims to investigate the transient vibration behavior of functionally graded carbon nanotube (FG-CNT) reinforced nanocomposite plate resting on Pasternak foundation under pulse excitation. The plate is considered to be composed of matrix material and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with distribution as per the functional grading concept. The functionally graded distribution patterns in nanocomposite plate are explained more appropriately with the layer-wise variation of carbon nanotubes weight fraction in the thickness coordinate. The layers are stacked up in such a way that it yields uniform and three other types of distribution patterns. The effective material properties of each layer in nanocomposite plate are obtained by modified Halpin-Tsai model and rule of mixtures. The governing equations of an illustrative case of simply-supported nanocomposite plate resting on the Pasternak foundation are derived from third order shear deformation theory and Navier's solution technique. A converge transient response of nanocompiste plate under uniformly distributed load with triangular pulse is obtained by varying number of layer in thickness direction. The validity and accuracy of the present model is also checked by comparing the results with those available in literature for isotropic case. Then, numerical examples are presented to highlight the effects of distribution patterns, foundation stiffness, carbon nanotube parameters and plate aspect ratio on the central deflection response. The results are extended with the consideration of proportional damping in the system and found that nanocomposite plate with distribution III have minimum settling time as compared to the other distributions.

• Journal of the Korean society of biological therapies in psychiatry
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.142-155
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• 2018

Insomnia in patients with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(HSCT) has been underdiagnosed and undertreated. This study reviewed the frequency, characteristics, physical and psychological effects, and treatments of insomnia in HSCT patients to highlight clinical importance in this specialized population. Furthermore, the authors intended to suggest a model that would conceptualize insomnia in the context of HSCT. In the pre-transplant period, about half of patients with HSCT suffered from sleep disturbance. A substantial number of patients experienced distressing insomnia during the HSCT procedure and recovered to the level of the pre-transplant period. However, sleep disruption could be a chronic symptom in HSCT survivors and could negatively impact quality of control, cancer-related fatigue(CRF), immune function, and psychological distress. The 3P's model(Predisposing, Precipitating, Perpetuating) explains insomnia in cancer population and could be also relevant to HSCT patients with specific consideration of CRF, graft-versus-host diseases, specific properties of hematological disease, and protective isolated milieu. Effective treatment of insomnia in HSCT includes non-pharmacological(e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy, environmental modification) and pharmacological interventions. The decision of pharmacological treatment should be based on the issue of safety due to high risk of potential drug-drug interactions. Screening, treatment, and further research of insomnia in HSCT patients using validated subjective and/or objective measures are warranted.