• Advances in environmental research
• /
• 제2권2호
• /
• pp.131-141
• /
• 2013

Agricultural practice and improper waste disposal in developing regions have resulted in environmental degradation in land and waters, for which low-cost, proven solutions are needed. We demonstrate in the laboratory the applications of composting and trickling filter techniques to treat olive mill wastes that can be implemented in the West Bank and other regions of the world. To a pomace waste sample from a California mill, we amended with saw dust (wood carbon source) and baking soda ($NaHCO_3$ alkalinity) at weight ratios of waste/wood/$NaHCO_3$ at 70:27:1 and composted it for periods of 11 and 48 days; the compost was used as an additive to potting soil for transplanting. The pomace sample was also blended into slurry and introduced to a water-circulating pond and trickling filter system (P/TF) to examine any inhibitive effect of the pomace on biological removal of the organic waste. The results showed the compost-amended potting soil supported plant growth without noticeable stress over 34 days and the P/TF system removed BOD and COD by >90% from the waste liquid within 2 days, with a first-order rate constant of 1.9 $d^{-1}$ in the pond. An onsite treatment design is proposed that promises implementation for agricultural waste disposal in developing regions.

• Advances in environmental research
• /
• 제2권2호
• /
• pp.119-129
• /
• 2013

The study examined the effect of urbanization on the water quality of Nwaorie and Otamiri Rivers in Owerri metropolis, Imo State, South-East Nigeria. Water samples were collected from Nwaorie and Otamiri Rivers from four sampling stations up and down stream. Water parameters analyzed using standard procedures were: color, turbidity, temperature, pH, total hardness, total solids, metals (Iron and magnesium), anions (nitrate and ammonia) and Fecal coliform. Results showed increased levels of coloration, iron, ammonia, turbidity and fecal coliform which exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limits for drinking water. Increase in these parameters indicated influx of industrial effluent from the nearby industries and indiscriminate disposal of wastes at the bank of the rivers. Application of ANOVA showed various degree of variation in pollutants levels between the two rivers and at different sampling points. River Nwaorie was observed to be more impacted than River Otamiri. High values of iron observed from the study could be deleterious to human health if the river water is consumed without treatment. The study, therefore, recommended proper waste management and disposal as well as effluent treatments in Owerri municipal against pollution of surface water.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제9권5호
• /
• pp.1454-1470
• /
• 2014

This paper propose a new power conditioner topology with intelligent power management controller that integrates multiple renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy and fuel cell energy with battery backup to make best use of their operating characteristics and obtain better reliability than that could be obtained by single renewable energy based power supply. The proposed embedded controller is programmed for maintaining a constant voltage at PCC, maximum power point tracking for solar PV panel and WTG and power flow control by regulating the reference currents of the controller on instantaneous basis based on the power delivered by the sources and load demand. Instantaneous variation in reference currents of the controller enhances the controller response as it accommodates the effect of continuously varying solar insolation and wind speed in the power management. The power conditioner uses a battery bank with embedded controller based online SOC estimation and battery charging system to suitably sink or source the input power based on the load demand. The simulation results of the proposed power management system for a standalone solar/WTG/fuel cell fed hybrid power supply with real time solar radiation and wind velocity data collected from solar centre, KEC for a sporadically varying load demand is presented in this paper and the results are encouraging in reliability and stability perspective.

• 보건행정학회지
• /
• 제29권3호
• /
• pp.342-356
• /
• 2019

Background: The objectives of the study are to find out the effect of the implementing reform in three Central Asian countries, identify its impact on health status and health care delivery systems. This study address to identify strong and weak points of the health systems and provide a recommendation for further health care organization. Methods: A comparative analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of implemented policy on health care system efficiency and equity. Secondary data were collected on selected health indicators using information from the World Health Organization Global Health Expenditure Database, European Health Information Platform, and World Bank Open Data. Results: In terms of population status, countries achieved relatively good results. Infant mortality and under-5 mortality rate decreased in all countries; also, life expectancy increased, and it was more than 70 years. Regulations of the health systems are still highly centralized, and the Ministry of Health is the main organ responsible for national health policy developing and implementation. Among the three countries, only Kyrgyzstan was successful in introducing a national health system. Distribution of health expenditure between public expenditure and out-of-pocket payments was decreased, and out-of-pocket payments were less the 50% of total health expenditure in all countries, in 2014. Conclusion: After independent, all three countries implemented a certain number of the policy reform, mostly it was directed to move away from the old the Soviet system. Subsequent reform should be focused on evidence-based decision making and strengthening of primary health care in terms of new public health concepts.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• 제8권11호
• /
• pp.325-332
• /
• 2021

Foreign capital inflows play an essential role in each country's socio-economic growth, particularly for undeveloped and developing countries where capital accumulation is limited in the early stages of development, and Vietnam is no exception. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of foreign capital inflows on economic growth in Vietnam. The empirical method employed secondary time-series data set during the period 1995-2018 to determine the impact of FDI, foreign aid, foreign loans, and exports on economic growth in Vietnam by using a linear approach. For this study, data was collected from the World Bank and relevant agencies in Vietnam. The results show that FDI (net inflows), foreign aid, foreign loans, exports, and GDP (current), have a positive effect at a 1% significance level on economic growth. Rather, an increase in FDI (net inflows), foreign aid, foreign loans, exports has beneficial effects on the Vietnamese economy in the study period. Based on the findings of this study, the article proposes several important policy implications for Vietnam in maintaining a high rate of economic growth via the contribution of FDI inflows, foreign aid, foreign loans, and exports.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• 제8권5호
• /
• pp.391-401
• /
• 2021

Technological developments facilitate payment transactions. In 2020, Bank Indonesia issued a regulation that supports QR payments using the Indonesian Standard Quick Response Code (QRIS). PT ABC is one of the banks that launched a QR payment feature on mobile banking with QRIS standards to make it easier for customers to make payment transactions at various merchants. In its implementation, the interest of QR payment users still tends to be small, so an analysis of the interests of QR payment users is carried out. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that influence user interest by using a modified UTAUT model. The UTAUT model was modified by adding variables to perceived trust, perceived risk, perceived regulatory support, and promotional benefits. The population taken is the company's customers in the DKI Jakarta area and it takes 403 samples for this case study. The results of empirical analysis show that 8 out of 12 hypotheses are considered proven where business expectations, social influence, perceived trust, perceived risk, perceptions of regulatory support, promotion benefits, age-moderated performance expectations, and age-moderate effort expectations have a significant effect on behavioral intentions, while performance expectations, facilitation conditions, business expectations are moderated by experience and social influence.

• 디지털산업정보학회논문지
• /
• 제15권1호
• /
• pp.67-76
• /
• 2019

Despite attractive advantages such as good time-frequency localization and improved spectral efficiency, filter bank multicarrier with offset quadrature amplitude modulation (FBMC/OQAM) suffers from multipath fading. In highly frequency-selective channels, the effect of multipath interference can significantly distort the FBMC/OQAM signal due to the absence of cyclic prefix. To resolve the problem of the multipath interference in FBMC/OQAM, this paper proposes applying an antenna array that provides well shaped beam pattern for each multipath. To evaluate the performance of the proposed array system, various computer simulations have been conducted. The accuracy of direction of arrival estimation is demonstrated through spatial spectrum for a different number of antennas in a sub-array. The performance improvement is presented in terms of bit error rate. We found that the proposed array system mitigate the multipath interferences in Extended Typical Urban model with 12 antennas in a sub-array. Moreover, as the number of antennas in a sub-array increases, the system provides a signal-to-noise ratio gain.

• Human Ecology Research
• /
• 제57권2호
• /
• pp.171-183
• /
• 2019

Convergence between technology and financial services is ubiquitous and widespread. Virtual banks represent an important aspect of financial markets that can generate value added for consumers and enhance the quality of financial services. This study explores the effect of innovation characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility, and perceived risk), consumer characteristics (status quo bias), and social mechanisms (network externality: complementarity, numbers of peers) on consumers' adoption intention and resistance to virtual banks. This study adopted an innovation resistance model with two dependent variables: adoption intention and resistance to virtual banks. An online self-administered survey was conducted and 532 or non-users of virtual banks aged 20 to 69 years old were analyzed. Frequency analysis, descriptive analysis, and hierarchical multiple regression indicated that status quo bias, relative advantage, perceived risk, complementarity, and number of peers insignificantly influence the adoption intention regarding virtual banks. Furthermore, status quo bias, relative advantage, perceived risk, and number of peers insignificantly influence the resistance to virtual banks. Female respondents have a lower adoption intention and higher resistance to virtual banks than male respondents. The findings suggest that the innovation resistance model can be useful in understanding consumers'adoption and resistance behavior as well as reveal that innovation characteristics, consumer characteristics, and social mechanism are important antecedent variables of the innovation adoption decision.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• 제8권5호
• /
• pp.561-572
• /
• 2021

This study aims to analyze the causality between GDP per capita, urbanization, and education. This also aims to determine the long-term and short-term relationships between economic urbanization, education, and GDP per capita by applying Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). Data was obtained from the World Bank and UNDP from 1990 to 2018. The estimation results showed that economic growth and education on urbanization have the strongest causality in VECM. Therefore, they are pull factors with a significant effect in the long and the short term. Some suggestions concerning policy implications were stated, and they include: forming area-based urbanization, where cities within one area are integrated, to get the impact of an agglomeration economy. Also, the government needs to accelerate the distribution of infrastructure and public facilities in various regions to avoid population density in one area due to urbanization, and government needs to pay attention to easier access to education and more equitable ones in various regions. On the contrary, after education is evenly distributed in all regions, the government needs to pay attention to transportation access and infrastructure.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• 제8권1호
• /
• pp.495-505
• /
• 2021

In the current Covid-19 pandemic, technology's role is important; with technology, all activities can carry on. This study explains that technology, organizational culture, and job satisfaction at rural banks in Bali can be a motivation for improving performance, especially during a pandemic. A questionnaire is distributed online using Google Form to a total of 350 employees; the data is collected from a sample of employees from rural banks in Denpasar, Bali. Respondents had to meet the following criteria: a minimum work period of one year and a minimum high school education or equivalent. With these criteria, 100 samples were obtained. The dependent variable is employee performance; the independent variables are organizational culture, technology, and job satisfaction; the intervening variable is work motivation. This study uses Structural Equation Modeling with a variance-based or component-based approach with Partial Least Square. The study results show that organizational culture, job satisfaction, and technology provide motivation and have a significant positive effect on employee performance. However, organizational culture does not have a positive or direct impact on employee performance. The study results can be used as a basis for designing business strategies to improve employee performance in a competitive environment to advance the credibility of a bank.