Analysis of the Export-base Commodity Supply on the Economic Growth in Aceh, Indonesia

The study aims to identify export base sectors and to analyse its impact to the economic growth based on the Cobb Douglas production function. Some relevant theories to support our arguments among others are base sector, export base and economic growth theory. Data of central government capital spending (CGB), local government capital spending (LGB), export average price (Pavg), provincial minimum wage (W) and linear multiple regression model is employed. The results show that the agriculture is the only basis sector in Aceh. The role of local government capital spending in the export based commodity supply contradicts the theory, provided indication that the local government capital spending has not been able to pull the economic growth. The role of central government capital spending, export average price and minimum wage have been in accordance with the available theoretical background. All independent variables are found to be statistically significant both partially and simultaneously, indicating that those variables are economically important to develop export base sectors in Aceh, however the impact on economic growth is relatively small

Improvement of cylinder buckling knockdown factor through imperfection sensitivity

This paper encompasses the work from numerical model by investigating the compression response of CFRP composite cylinder shells. The aim of this paper is to improve the reliability of NASA SP-8007 design guideline. The cylinder geometrical imperfections were tested through numerical modelling and validate with the experiment results. Good results comparison has been obtained through the work with small amount of errors. The cylinder shell load carrying capacity has been improved by average of 56% through imperfection study. This work builds confidence in the future use of non-linear finite element for the design of composite cylinder subjected to axial compression load

Effects of concurrent TeO2 reduction and ZnO addition on elastic and structural properties of (90 − x)TeO2–10Nb2O5–(x)ZnO glass

Niobium-containing tellurite glass with starting composition of (90 − x)TeO2–10Nb2O5–(x)ZnO (x = 0–15 mol%) have been prepared by melt-quenching method and the effect of reduction of TeO2 with simultaneous increase in ZnO on elastic properties was studied. Ultrasonic longitudinal and shear velocity showed initial decrease of 3.52% and 2.37%, respectively, at x = 5 mol%. For x > 5 mol%, longitudinal velocity showed weak recovery but shear velocity showed steady recovery with ZnO and recorded 0.95% increase in value at x = 15 mol% compared to x = 0 sample. Shear and Young's moduli recorded similar drop at x = 5 mol% followed by strong recovery at x > 5 mol%, while longitudinal and Bulk modulus showed weak and no recovery, respectively, with x. Infrared (IR) absorption spectra showed increase in intensity of NbO6-assigned peak accompanied by increase in intensity of ZnO4 tetrahedra and TeO4 trigonal bipyramid (tbp) assigned peaks indicating formation of both non-bridging oxygen, NBO and bridging oxygen, BO, respectively, with addition of ZnO. The initial drop in ultrasonic velocity and related elastic moduli observed at x = 5 mol% indicates weakening of network rigidity of the glass system due to structural modification as a direct effect of TeO2 reduction and existence of NBO. However, further replacement of TeO2 by ZnO at x > 5 mol% contributed to increase in BO causing rigidity of the glass network to improve. In addition, hardness, H, was observed to increase with ZnO indicating increase in connectivity of the glass network while Poisson's ratio, σ, decreased indicating increase in cross-link density of the glass system. The combined results of ultrasonic velocity and IR absorption spectra suggest that the role of TeO2 is very critical in the ternary glass system as, although ZnO addition showed improved rigidity due to recovery of shear modulus, the weakening of longitudinal and Bulk moduli indicates ZnO is not fully effective as glass former in place of TeO2

Finite element analysis of composite cylinder with centre cutout under axial load and internal pressure

Results from Finite Element (FE) study on the response of composite cylinder shells with cutouts and subjected to internal pressure and axial compression are presented. The objective of the study is to improving the buckling load by applying the internal pressure whilst the compression load is applied. The effect of localized stress concentration distributed around the cutout region also being examined. The numerical results are obtained using ABAQUS finite element code software package. The composite cylinder shells were tested in two conditions which are a combination of axial compression load with internal pressure and a single axial compression load. The effects of varying internal pressure and cutout size on the pre-buckling, buckling, and post-buckling responses of the shell are demonstrated. Reasonable results comparison was obtained by reviewing previous literature. Results indicated that the load distribution and displacement of the cutout significantly influence the structural response of the shell. The results also indicate that the stress distributions can be affected by the size of the cutout under axial compression load

Development of Hybrid Photovoltaic-Wind System for LED Street Lighting

This paper presents the development of hybrid Photovoltaic (PV)-Wind system connected to light emitting diode (LED) street lighting as the load. The aim of this research is to analyze the energy performance from the combination of PV system and wind system which is hybrid system to the LED lamp as the load. In this project, the PV panel and wind turbine used to generate the energy and the output of the energy control by two equipments which are solar charger controller and hybrid charger controller. The output of both PV and wind connected with the battery as storage energy for this system. In this research, the PV system produces the best energy compared to the wind system and it is reliable to charge the battery of the system and supply to the loa

Automatic materials tracking practices through RFID implementation in construction projects

Materials tracking for materials management play a vital role and contributed a major portion of the total cost in a construction project. In addition, the improper handling and storage of materials at the construction site has made it difficult to track and locate at the time are needed to carry out construction works. These problems subsequently contribute to the project delays and increase in the total project costs. Thus, this paper seeks to identify problems regarding current material tracking practices in materials management processes. In this paper, ICT and potential implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for automatic materials tracking is also scrutinised. Data for this paper was obtained from the literature review and the case studies conducted in several construction projects. Semi-structured interviews with construction practitioners were carried out in order to gain insights into current problems, information and communication technologies (ICT) implementation, and RFID capability in assisting materials tracking practices. This paper reveals that construction projects in Malaysia are still using manual materials tracking practices, basic ICT implementation, and totally none RFID existence. Thus, there is a need for the application of RFID in order to facilitate materials tracking automatically for enhancing construction industry processes through IR 4.0

Efficient estimation in ZIP models with applications to count data

Estimating functions have been used in estimating parameters of many continuous time series models. However, this method has not been applied to models involving count data. In this paper, we use quadratic estimating functions (QEF) to derive estimators for the joint estimation of the conditional mean and variance parameters of count data models, specifically the basic zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model, ZIP regression model and integer-valued generalized autoregressive heteroscedastic model with ZIP conditional distribution. Results show that the estimators derived from QEF method, which uses information from combined estimating functions, is more informative than linear estimating functions (LEF) method that only uses information from component estimating functions. Finally, we also fit the real data sets using the ZIP models via QEF, LEF and maximum likelihood methods, and in so doing, demonstrate the superiority of the QEF method in practice

Perceived barriers to leisure time physical activity in adults with type 2 diabetes attending primary healthcare in Oman:a cross-sectional survey

Objectives: Physical activity is fundamental in diabetes management for good metabolic control. This study aimed to identify barriers to performing leisure time physical activity and explore differences based on gender, age, marital status, employment, education, income and perceived stages of change in physical activity in adults with type 2 diabetes in Oman.Design: Cross-sectional study using an Arabic version of the “Barriers to Being Active” 27 item questionnaire.Setting: Seventeen primary health centres randomly selected in Muscat.Participants: Individuals >18 years with type 2 diabetes, attending diabetes clinic for > 2 years and with no contraindications to performing physical activity.Primary and secondary outcome measures: Participants were asked to rate how far different factors influenced their physical activity, under the following categories: fear of injury, lack of time, social support, energy, willpower, skills, resources, religion and environment. On a scale of 0-9, barriers were considered important if scored ≥5.Results: A total of 305 questionnaires were collected. Most (96%) reported at least one barrier to performing leisure time physical activity. Lack of willpower (44.4%), lack of resources (30.5%) and lack of social support (29.2%) were the most frequently reported barriers. Using chi-square test, lack of willpower was significantly different in individuals with low vs high income (54.2% vs 40%, P=0.002) and in those reporting inactive vs active stages of change for physical activity (50.7% vs 34.7%, P=0.029), lack of resources was significantly different in those with low vs high income (40% vs 24.3%, P=0.004) and married vs unmarried (33.8% vs 18.5%, P=0.018). Lack of social support was significant in females vs males (35.4% vs 20.8%, P=0.005).Conclusions: The findings can inform the design on physical activity intervention studies by testing the impact of strategies which incorporate ways to address reported barriers including approaches that enhance self-efficacy and social support

Optical fiber coated Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanorods decorated with Palladium (Pd) for hydrogen sensing

A novel hydrogen (H2) sensor was developed using acid-etched optical fiber coated with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods. The sensing performance was done by comparing the acid-etched fiber coated with ZnO nanorods with and without decorated Palladium (Pd). The conventional optical single-mode fiber (SMF) with a diameter of 125 μm has been modified as a transducing platform by etching it to 11 μm diameter using hydrofluoric acid (HF) to enhance the evanescent field of the light propagates in the fiber core. The etched fiber was coated with ZnO nanorods via hydrothermal process by using seeding and growth solution method. The sensing layer was characterized through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) to verify the properties of ZnO. Catalyst Palladium (Pd) was sputtered onto the ZnO nanorods to improve H2 detection. The developed sensor operating temperature was found to be 150 °C that produces 6.36 dBm increase in response towards the 1% concentration of H2 in synthetic air. It was then tested with different concentration of H2. The sensor decorated with Pd has better performance in sensing compared to non-decorated Pd based on the output power versus time. The sensor best response and recovery times is 6 and 5 min respectively, for acid-etched optical fiber coated with ZnO nanorods decorated with Pd for 0.75% of H2 concentrations at 150 °C. The results indicate the optical fiber sensor might improve the performance towards H2 as oppose to the conventional electrical sensor