Analyzing Effects of Institutional Quality on Banking Stability: Evidence from Asean Countries

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of institutional quality on bank stability using bank-level data from 2010 to 2020.   Theoretical framework: The study considers institutions from the perspective of governance institutions. Accordingly, the concept of government institutions is related to the country's organizational foundation in terms of governance, implying institutional quality.   Design/methodology/approach: The study uses GMM method and also choose the Zscore as the primary variable for bank stability.   Findings: The results show that institutional quality increases the stability of banks. Moreover, with the threshold model, the results show that countries with institutional quality above the threshold will increase the stability of banks. In addition, macroeconomic and banking characteristics variables such as total assets, income diversification, quality of control, inflation, and GDP growth rate have a high significance in the model.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study shows The study's empirical results have specific policy implications for the Government in implementing policies related to institutional quality to improve bank stability.   Originality/value:   there are not many researches done to investigate institutional quality to improve bank stability. Moreover, from economic crisis, the matter of banking stability is among main concerns of many researches. Second, previous researches just focus on the aspect of corruption and ignore other aspects or other factors. That’s why authors conduct this research

SECURITY CAPABILITY ANALYSIS OF COGNITIVE RADIO NETWORK WITH SECONDARY USER CAPABLE OF JAMMING AND SELF-POWERING

This paper investigates a cognitive radio network where a secondary sender assists a primarytransmitter in relaying primary information to a primary receiver and also transmits its own information toa secondary recipient. This sender is capable of jamming to protect secondary and/or primary informationagainst an eavesdropper and self-powering by harvesting radio frequency energy of primary signals.Security capability of both secondary and primary networks are analyzed in terms of secrecy outageprobability. Numerous results corroborate the proposed analysis which serves as a design guidelineto quickly assess and optimize security performance. More importantly, security capability trade-offbetween secondary and primary networks can be totally controlled with appropriate selection of systemparameters

Species diversity of rotifers (Rotifera: Eurotatoria) of Phu Ninh Lake with five new records from Vietnam

A total of sixty-one taxa of rotifer, belonging to 15 families, 3 orders were identified from the Phu Ninh Lake, Vietnam. Of these, five species were recorded new to Vietnam Rotifera fauna, including Lecane acanthinula (Hauer, 1938), L. sola (Hauer, 1936), L. thailandensis Segers & Sanoamuang, 1994, L. pyriformis (Daday, 1905), and Mytilina bisulcata (Lucks, 1912). The result raised the total number of rotifers known from Vietnam to 227 species. Moreover, the results showed that the number of species recorded increased with the increase of sample size, which followed the equation y=12.85+14.12log(x) (R2 = 0.99). Based on the estimators, the α-diversity of rotifers in Phu Ninh Lake might be up to 67±4 taxa (according to the Bootstrap index), 71±8 taxa (according to the Chao index), or even up to 79 taxa (according to Jacknife 2 index)

Performing fatigue state characterization in railway steel bridges using digital twin models

Railway infrastructures play a pivotal role in developing the national transportation system. Recently, the strategy of the railway engineer has been significantly shifted; along with the development of new assets, they tend to pay increasing attention to the operation and management of existing railway assets. In this regard, this paper proposes a Digital Twin (DT) model to improve fatigue assessment efficiency in the operational processes of railway steel bridges (RSBs). The DT concept mainly lies in the federation and interaction of a Fatigue Analysis System (FAS), which is based on Eurocodes principles, and a model in Building Information Modeling (BIM). Along with the proposed DT concept, a prototyping system for a real bridge is initiated and curated. The FAS is validated in good-agreement results with the ambient vibration test of the bridge (about 1.6% variation between numerical and experimental values), and close values were found between numerical and experimental stresses, the latter obtained by installing strain gauges on the bridge. The BIM model provides access to the numerical values of fatigue state results in a given bridge connection detail but also automatically represents that information in a 3D environment using a color-scale-based visualization process. Furthermore, a simulation model with the main input variables being the traffic and geometric conditions of the bridge is continuously updated for timely re-evaluation of the damage state, which shows promise for the lifecycle management of the bridge.This work was financially supported by: Base Funding—UIDB/04708/2020 of the CONSTRUCT—Institute of R&D In Structures and Construction—funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) and by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; SFRH/BD/151229/2021. This work was also carried out in the framework of Shift2Rail projects IN2TRACK3 [101012456- H2020-S2RJU-CFM-2020] for the development of a DT framework. This work is also co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) through the Northern Regional Operational Programme (Norte 2020) [Funding Reference: NORTE-06-3559-FSE-000176]; And was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020, and under the Associate Laboratory Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems ARISE under reference LA/P/0112/2020.The authors would like to acknowledge ANI (“Agência Nacional de Inovação”) for the financial support given to the R&D Project “GOA Bridge Management System—Bridge Intelligence”, with reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-069642, co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Program (POCI)”

Fluid-soil-structure interactions in semi-buried tanks: quantitative and qualitative analysis of seismic behaviors

Qualitative and quantitative assessments evaluate the structural vulnerability of liquid storage tanks. Liquid storage tanks are typically constructed and operated in areas with hard soils to minimize confining influences. However, many of these critical structures are in coastal areas with soft soils. The research conducted in this study entails the utilization of the finite element method accurately model the seismic behavior of a semi-buried concrete tank under various conditions, including changing water levels and soil properties. The study examines fluid–structure and soil–structure interactions through dynamic analyses of the rectangular semi-buried tank and comparing its different parameters. It also identifies sensitive areas where there is a probability of liquid leakage in storage tanks. The modeling is compared with the qualitative evaluation in the Japanese vibration capability diagnosis table. The results show that the tensile stress in the wall adjacent to the expansion joint is greater than the corresponding stress in the wall in all cases. In the dynamic analyses of the soil types, the pressure on the surface increases with increasing water height. A comparison of the quantitative and qualitative evaluation results shows the possible leakage of the tank in soft soil in the expansion joint.EC -European Commission(ID 101103978

Developing a comprehensive quality control framework for roadway bridge management: a case study approach using key performance indicators

Transportation infrastructures, especially roadway bridges, play a pivotal role in socioeconomic development. Recently, bridge engineers are increasingly facing the challenge in terms of shifting their strategy from building new facilities to maintaining the existing aging infrastructures, to preserve their service performance during the operational stage. In fact, the infrastructure administrators lack a quality control (QC) strategy for the existing roadway bridges, which leads to the decision-making application and tool being still minor. To overcome those challenging issues, this paper proposes a quality control framework for roadway bridge management using key performance indicators (KPIs). The case study methodology is suggested to be used and then conducted for several bridges, mostly in European countries. In which the performance indicators (PIs) and goals (PGs) are defined, after assessing the bridges and vulnerable zones, the derivation KPIs from those PIs are introduced and developed considering time functions and different maintenance scenarios. Eventually, a two-stage quality control framework will be proposed in which the static stage includes preparatory works, inspection responsibilities, and a quick assessment of KPIs; while the dynamic stage helps the decision maker in estimating the time remaining of the bridge service life, managing the evolution of KPIs as well as planning the best possible maintenance strategy. The selected two case studies are present and curated, which show the excellent potential to develop a long-term strategy for roadway bridge management on a lifecycle level.This research was funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) from the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under the reference UIDB/04029/2020, and from the Associate Laboratory Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems ARISE, under the reference LA/P/0112/2020, as well as financial support of the project re-search “B2022-GHA-03” from the Ministry of Education and Training. And The APC was funded by ANI (“Agência Nacional de Inovação”) through the financial support given to the R&D Project “GOA Bridge Management System—Bridge Intelligence”, with reference PO-CI-01-0247- FEDER-069642, which was cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the Operational Competitiveness and Internationalisation Program (POCI).Minh Q. Tran acknowledges the support by the doctoral grant reference PRT/BD/154268/2022, financed by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the MIT Portugal Program (2022 MPP2030-FCT)

Finite element model updating for composite plate structures using particle swarm optimization algorithm

In the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, particularly civil engineering, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is a widely applied method for computational designs. In this regard, computational simulation has increasingly become challenging due to uncertain parameters, significantly affecting structural analysis and evaluation results, especially for composite and complex structures. Therefore, determining the exact computational parameters is crucial since the structures involve many components with different material properties, even removing some additional components affects the calculation results. This study presents a solution to increase the accuracy of the finite element (FE) model using a swarm intelligence-based approach called the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The FE model is created based on the structure’s easily observable characteristics, in which uncertainty parameters are assumed empirically and will be updated via PSO using dynamic experimental results. The results show that the finite element model achieves high accuracy, significantly improved after updating (shown by the evaluation parameters presented in the article). In this way, a precise and reliable model can be applied to reliability analysis and structural design optimization tasks. During this research project, the FE model considering the PSO algorithm was integrated into an actual bridge’s structural health monitoring (SHM) system, which was the premise for creating the initial digital twin model for the advanced digital twinning technologyThis work was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020, and under the Associate Laboratory Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems ARISE under reference LA/P/0112/2020. The authors also acknowledge ANI (“Agência Nacional de Inovação”) for the financial support given to the R&D Project “GOA Bridge Management System—Bridge Intelligence”, with reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-069642, cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Program (POCI).Minh Q. Tran was supported by the doctoral grant reference PRT/BD/154268/2022 financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the MIT Portugal Program (2022 MPP2030-FCT). Minh Q. Tran acknowledges Huan X. Nguyen (Faculty of Science and Technology, Middlesex University, London NW4 4BT, UK) and Thuc V. Ngo (Mien Tay Construction University, Institute of Science and International Cooperation, 85100 Vĩnh Long, Vietnam) for their support as cosupervisors as well as specific suggestions in terms of the “conceptualization” and “methodology” of this paper. Helder S. Sousa acknowledges the funding by FCT through the Scientific Employment Stimulus—4th Editio