Project Run Research Articles

친환경 이슬람 금융 연구: 그린 수쿡 이해 및 태양광 사례분석

Before entering the post-2020 climate change regime, future energy projects will be ongoing. Continuous capital flux is extremely important to keep these projects running. On the other hand, as most green finance is based on the conventional financial structure, it is vulnerable to financial market conditions. Therefore, green Islamic finance based on oil money from the Middle East and Southeast Asia are recognized as alternative capital sources. In particular, green Sukuk is considered a favored option for South Korea in diversifying the foreign bond market and providing a chance for local energy companies to expand overseas to Islamic countries. This paper proposes eight typical Sukuk structures that can be used as green Sukuk and analyzes the world’s first green Sukuk case, Tadau Energy green Sukuk. In 2009, a discussion on green Sukuk and a draft of a bill was prepared in the National Assembly but the bill is still on the threshold because Sukuk is not understood completely. This paper introduces a new type of foreign financial tool to the public that can be applicable to education and project financing.

Beyond the Neo-Liberal University: The R.O.S.I. Website Project and the Liberation of our General Intellect

The struggle to liberate our common powers of creation - our ‘general intellect’ – transcends the university. This struggle requires the development of ‘hybrid’ (combined online and offline) pedagogical technologies that empower us to democratise or re-common the ownership, means, and the objectives of knowledge production. In this paper, I describe the R.O.S.I. Website Project (Reviving Our Sociological Imaginations) – an experimental pedagogical project run at the University of Warwick in 2016 in which ten undergraduate students were invited to co-design a website that could help its users to cultivate their sociological imaginations – that essential ability to situate our personal problems within their social and historical contexts. This experience leads me to consider the politics of possibility within and beyond the neoliberal university today. Whilst everyday micro-practices of collective freedom can undermine neoliberalism within, our emancipatory objectives may demand macro-practices – the establishment of alternative commons-based institutions beyond the neoliberal university.

Electronic Medical Record System as a central ICT tool for quality healthcare services: Nigeria as a case study

This study uses mixed methods to evaluate the benefits and challenges of implementing the Electronic Medical Record System (EMRS). Using Southwestern Nigeria as a case study, the study focuses on the factors that have been delaying the introduction of EMRS; the perception of both the staff and patients and the risks associated with the implementation of the EMRS in the Nigerian health sector. The results reveal that the majority of the hospitals in the study area still engage in manual record-keeping which is time consuming and keeps the patient waiting, and is very frustrating, especially in emergent conditions. The results show that 99% of participants in the study survey perceived that EMRS would bring better effectiveness to healthcare services in Nigeria. This is evident from the representativeness that about 67.2% of respondents strongly agreed that EMRS would bring fast and efficient healthcare services while 96.7% believed that improved power supply would aid its effectiveness. Thus, the key finding of this study is that erratic power supply is an important challenging factor in the introduction and implementation of EMRS in Nigeria. Over the past decades, healthcare providers have been under pressure to give medical services in a complex and bureaucratic settings with increasing population of patients. There is a need for constant power supply for effective running of any information system project like EMRS.

Computer-Aided Cut-off Grade Optimisation for Open Pit Mines

A mine planning team is tasked among other duties with designing a feasible mine plan which in turn maps out the daily running of the mining project. A mine plan revolves around a cut-off grade which is thoughtfully and uniquely selected while considering various aspects such as grade tonnage distribution, economic and operational parameters specific to a mine. Selection of a cut-off grade can be a daunting task often involving iterative and lengthy mathematical formulas which take huge amounts of time to execute, often leaving room for error. In the occurrence of such errors, a mining project can be faced with sequential outcomes that could even lead to premature closure. The cut-off grade is therefore a strategic variable that determines the economic viability of a mine, and hence return on investment. It is critical that the cut-off grade is optimal so as to maximise the net present value. Lane’s approach is a model that utilises several steps to yield one cut-off grade value. This algorithm is flexible and can be adjusted to include other factors specific to a mine. Regrettably, many mining companies continue to operate using inaccurate cut-off grades wrongly calculated or assumed. This has continuously led to frustrations due to losses and prematurely abandoned mines. This study focused on the development and implementation of an easy to use computer application based on Lane’s approach that runs on Windows platform, and hence targeting a larger user base for choosing an optimum cut-off grade for open pit mines. Keywords: Cut-Off Optimisation, Cut-Off Optimiser, Optimum Cut-Off Grades, Whittle

Biogas slurry pricing method based on nutrient content

In order to promote biogas-slurry commercialization, A method was put forward to valuate biogas slurry based on its nutrient contents. Firstly, element contents of biogas slurry was measured; Secondly, each element was valuated based on its market price, and then traffic cost, using cost and market effect were taken into account, the pricing method of biogas slurry were obtained lastly. This method could be useful in practical production. Taking cattle manure raw meterial biogas slurry and con stalk raw material biogas slurry for example, their price were 38.50 yuan RMB per ton and 28.80 yuan RMB per ton. This paper will be useful for recognizing the value of biogas projects, ensuring biogas project running, and instructing the cyclic utilization of biomass resources in China.

An integrated water-conveyance system based on Web GIS

Abstract To provide support for scientific decision-making about scheduling to keep a water-conveyance project running safely in Beijing, China, a Web geographic information system (GIS)-based conveyance system (WGCS) is proposed. The development of WGCS involves three primary modules. First, the pipe-channel hydrodynamic model with various types of hydraulic structure (reservoir, sluice, and inverted siphon) control equations is established as the engine to simulate a variety of flow regimes and hydraulic responses for different conveyance scenarios. Then, a relatively lightweight Web GIS platform without expensive mature GIS packages is implemented through rendering vector map layers based on Silverlight painting technology for model setting, simulation and data visualization. Furthermore, the employment of an asynchronous refresh mechanism facilitates the performance of particle motion animation. Finally, the database platform is used to record initial information, configuration parameters, hydraulic structure parameters converted to the hydrodynamic model for computation, result data received from the hydrodynamic model for analysis, attribute data and spatial data for map publishing and visualization. WGCS represents an effective attempt to integrate large-scale hydrodynamic numerical calculations on the web. The functionality of WGCS is illustrated through two case studies on conveyance progress. Currently, this system is successfully operating in Beijing.

Data Management Plan: Brazil's Virtual Herbarium

The goal of the Brazil Virtual Herbarium is to facilitate the identification of taxonomic and geographic information gaps of plants and fungi of Brazil. The system displays the status of online data for all valid species in the List of Species of the Brazilian Flora, including those without any record. The system also compares the Brazilian states where specialists indicate that the species occurs with the states that have occurrence points in Brazil's Virtual Herbarium, highlighting the gaps. This data management plan was prepared as part of a pilot project run on behalf of the International Development Research Centre (Canada) on data management policy for development funders (https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.2.e8880).

Teacher Narratives about Supporting Children to Read and Write in Mathematics: The Case of Kay

The impact on one teacher of a short professional development project run in a school in a low socio-economic area in a small city in rural Australia is investigated in this case study. The project aimed to support teachers to improve students’ writing in mathematics. The teacher’s reflections about her work with a small group of Year 3-4-5 students are discussed in relationship to what supported or hindered her to change her practices. Over the two months of the project, the teacher supported the children to comprehend and produce their own word problems. However, the process of deciding how to change what she did to meet the needs of the students was messy because different combinations of factors affected her willingness to try alternative practices. Her narratives, from watching the videos on her lessons and in joint meetings with the other teachers and researchers, indicated that reflecting on what she was doing contributed to her taking more risks in her teaching. This resulted in the students having more opportunities to use their mathematical literacy skills to comprehend and respond to word problems.

Molecular genetic background of an autosomal dominant hypercholesterolemia in the Czech Republic.

Autosomal dominant hypercholesterolemia (ADH), more known as familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), is a lipid metabolism disorder characterized by an elevation in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and increased risk for cardiovascular disease. In this study, we assessed a spectrum of mutations causing ADH in 3914 unrelated Czech patients with clinical diagnosis of hypercholesterolemia. Samples have been collected within the framework of the MedPed project running in the Czech Republic since 1998. So far we have found 432 patients (11.0 %) with the APOB gene mutation p.(Arg3527Gln) and 864 patients (22.1 %) with the LDLR gene mutation. In 864 probands carrying the LDLR gene mutation, 182 unique allelic variants were detected. We have identified 14 patients homozygous for mutations in the LDLR or APOB genes. We performed function analyses of p.(Leu15Pro) and p.(Gly20Arg) sequence variations.

Occupational Health and Safety legislative compliance in the construction sites in Windhoek, Namibia

Non compliances towards occupational health and safety legislations has been on increase globally which leads to higher incidence of occupational accidents, injuries and diseases. The aim of the study is to determine the presence of occupational hazards in the construction industry and to investigate the occupational health and safety provision and compliance among construction sites in Windhoek. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to conduct the study. Census sampling was used to include ten construction sites with project running during data collection time and whose site managers agreed to participate in the study. Data was collected in ten construction sites with the site inspection checklist to assess the occupational hazards and OHS compliance in participated construction sites. Data was analysed with SPSS software. The study findings indicated that occupational hazards are prevalent in the construction industry, but there is poor mechanism to control hazards and to prevent hazard exposures. Furthermore, most construction sites are non compliant towards OHS legislations. It is recommended that OHS legislations should be enforced to promote the OHS in the construction industry.

Hydropower plant site spotting using geographic information system and a MATLAB based algorithm

Meanwhile with increasing demand for energy sources in the world, hydropower plants can be considered as clean energy sources for sustainable development. Hydropower plant environmental impact is almost none. They are easy to construct and operate with much lower cost in comparison with other types of power plants. Currently in Iran, Conventional methods for determining hydropower plant potent location are very complicated and do not always eventuated to the best result.This study focuses on run of river projects and proposes a new methodology to spot hydropower plan best location according to specific engineering criteria, using ArcGIS and an algorithm developed in MATLAB. An economic analysis is then run upon engineering selected alternatives to assess their economic feasibility.For a case study, this methodology is applied for Sefidbarg basin in Nokhan area nearby the Kermanshah province. Nokhan area is a mountainous district with steep and durable rivers. Finally, four alternatives are suggested for hydropower plant location on Sefidbarg basin considering engineering criteria. Economic parameters are then calculated for these suggested hydropower plants to assess their economic feasibility and rank them according to their economy. This procedure is able to quickly survey vast areas for spotting best location for hydropower plant.

Quality of care of hospitalised patients with heart failure in Poland in 2013: results of the second nationwide survey

Optimal management of heart failure (HF) patients is crucial to reduce both mortality and the number of hospital admissions, at the same time improving patients' quality of life. The aim of the study was to assess the quality of care of hospitalised patients with HF in Poland in 2013 and compare it with the results of a similar survey performed in 2005. The presented study was conducted from April to November 2013 in a sample of 260 hospital wards in Poland, recruited by stratified proportional sampling. Similarly to the first study edition in 2005, a trained nurse contacted physicians, who filled out the study questionnaires on the last five patients with HF, who had been discharged from an internal or cardiological ward. HF did not have to be a major cause of hospital admission. The mean age of the 1300 hospitalised patients was 72.1 years, an increase of 2.3 years since the 2005 survey. The proportion of patients classified as New York Heart Association IV decreased from 28.5% in 2005 to 22.1% in 2013. In comparison with 2005, more patients had concomitant disorders such as hypertension (79.5% vs. 71.0%), diabetes (46.2% vs. 33.2%), and chronic renal failure (33.4% vs. 19.4%). Access to echocardiography has improved in recent years: it was available for 98.9% of the surveyed hospital wards (93% in 2005) and it was performed during the hospitalisation in 60.2% of the patients (58.8% in 2005). In 2013 N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide was accessible for 80.8% of hospital wards (12.8% in 2005) and the test was performed in 31.3% of the hospitalised patients (3.3% in 2005). Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) were administered in 68.9% of HF discharged patients, beta-blockers in 84.8%, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) in 57.9%, diuretics in 85.9%, and digoxin in 23%. The respective numbers in 2005 were 85.9%, 76.0%, 65.4%, 88.9%, and 38.4%. The decrease in prescription of ACEI or ARB resulted from lesser usage of these drugs in internal medicine wards (from 84.3% in 2005 to 55.6% in 2013). In comparison to the analogous project run in 2005, an improvement in some areas of HF treatment was observed in Polish hospitals, such as accessibility to echocardiography and natriuretic peptide measurement as well as beta-blocker and MRA use. At the same time, a meaningful decrease in ACEIs or ARBs usage in internal wards was observed, which might be the result of the ageing of the HF population and an increased number of comorbidities.

Telepsychiatry- Prevention and Treatment in the Outskirt Areas, A Shared-Care Model within a Danish Context

This article reports on a project running over 24 months from July 2010 until July 2012, conducted by The Little Prince Psychiatric Centre in Copenhagen in cooperation with three general practitioner’s clinics on the outskirts of Denmark. The article outlines the conceptual shared care model, in which psychiatrists and psychologists collaborate with general physicians in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of mental health patients in the context of the general physician’s office by use of telepsychiatry service. A formal evaluation of the project was conducted and outcomes are discussed along with issues related to the requirements for sustaining the service over time and broadening its applicability. The results has shown that collaboration via use of videoconferencing across levels of health care sectors can be a useful alternative that offers learning, leads to continuity, reduces costs and improves the quality of care. Telepsychiatry, in the form of video conferencing, has been well received by patients (n=27) and general practitioners (n=3) as a method reducing waiting time and bridging the distance between patients and specialized psychiatric care.

Undergraduate students as co-producers in the creation of first-year practical class resources

Undergraduate students are increasingly working with academic staff to evaluate and design teaching materials in Higher Education, thereby moving from being passive consumers of knowledge to genuine partners in their education. Here we describe a student partnership project run at the University of Cambridge, which aimed to improve undergraduate biology practical class teaching. Student interns were recruited to act as researchers, pedagogical consultants and producers of teaching resources. Research by the interns revealed that students with limited practical experience at high-school level tended to have lower confidence and more negative responses to first-year university practical classes than peers with more experience. Interns and academics therefore redesigned the workflow for practicals to include online pre- and post-practical tutorials to support understanding and consolidation of laboratory-based material, which included student-produced quizzes and videos. We reflect on the process of building the partnership, and explore the value of partnership approaches in Higher Education.

The Antonine Wall's distance-slabs: LiDAR as metric survey

The “Hidden Landscape of a Roman Frontier” is a collaborative research project run and jointly funded by Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES). Intended to run for a 3-year period, it began in October 2015. The project focuses on the landscape archaeology, history, and heritage management of the Roman frontier in Scotland, part of the “Frontiers of the Roman Empire” transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. The project's primary data-set is comprised of aerial LiDAR at 0.5-m resolution covering the World Heritage Site, combined with terrestrial laser-scanning coverage for the forts at Bar Hill and Rough Castle and the fortlet at Kinneil. All data was commissioned under the auspices of the Scottish Ten Project; the aerial data was captured in spring 2010, the terrestrial data in July 2013 and April 2016. The project also draws upon a number of supplemental data sources, including the National Monuments Record of Scotland (https://canmore.org.uk/), geophysical survey data, archive aerial images, colour infra-red imagery, and additional LiDAR data from the UK Environment Agency.

Increasing Availability, Data Privacy and Copyrights of Digital Content via a Pilot Project of the National Library of Finland

Availability, data privacy and copyrights are topics which the National Library of Finland (NLF) is currently working on to increase the availability of digital content. Currently, in Finland, the digital collection of newspapers, journals and ephemera at the digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi service is available for everyone, where, e.g., newspapers are available for the years 1771-1910. The material after that period is visible in the six legal deposit libraries all over Finland. Researchers, especially, but also other customer segments are demanding better access to digital content.  We at the NLF are searching for ways to open the collections to wider audiences.  Therefore, we have established a pilot project, where we are experimenting with new modes of operation in opening digital content for education and research. In the pilot project, Aviisi, the participants are media houses, copyright organisations, universities, schools, public libraries, archives, museums and research organisations. We are creating tailored contract models to improve our responsiveness to copyright and data privacy issues. Beside the contract modes, we are also working with the technical solutions and communicating with the participants about possible ways to utilise digital content. Our objective is that, by the end of the project, we will have clarified legal, technical and availability questions, so that we will be prepared for most common scenarios and can proceed with the pilot projects, and then onwards after the overall success of all our pilot projects. Currently, we have fifteen pilot projects (hereafter, pilots) running, which cover about 40,000 people in the Mikkeli region, where about 4,000 of those people are directly involved in the pilots as an estimate of students, teachers, researchers or other contact points. In this paper, we will discuss the pilots, how we have approached them to use digital content and attempted to increase the availability to the content overall while honouring the regulations of data privacy and the rights of copyright holders. In the last few months of 2016, as we finalise the project, we will aim to take the learning forward into working models, which will pave the way to further expanding the concept.

Integrating spatial valuation of ecosystem services into regional planning and development

The transition of the ecosystem service framework from academic discourse into practical land use management and policy guidance is in the making. Planners and decision makers seek spatial valuation data, comprehensive examples of which are few or hindered by sectoral research traditions. We present a case of linking land use to multimethod spatial ecosystem service valuation aiming at comprehensiveness and commensurability, based on a project run parallel to regional land-use planning in the Tampere region, Finland. A spectrum of ecosystem services was scrutinized, the annual value of which was estimated at €0.8–1B. Compared to land-use planning, core areas of ecological networks proved relatively poor in terms of valuation, but hot-spots of human–nature interaction such as recreational, groundwater and landscape areas immensely valuable. Strong urban-rural trends in ecosystem service value were found, emphasizing the importance of urban nature and the context-specificity of natural capital discourse. We argue that some mismatches exist between the ecosystem service framework and its practical applicability, and that the main problem is not necessarily the transferability of tools and indicators, but the transfer of valuation and the assumptions and choices behind it. Notwithstanding its problems, the applied framework proved valuable in evaluating and guiding future land use.

Introduction to the special issue: historical and projected climatic changes to Australian natural hazards

Australia’s size and varied climates mean that it is affected by a range of weather-related natural hazards, including tropical and extra-tropical storms and associated extreme wind and hail, coastal and inland floods, heatwaves and bushfires. These hazards cause multiple human and environmental impacts, and collectively account for 93 % of Australian insured losses (Schuster 2013). In addition, drought—often treated distinctly from other hazards due to its more gradual onset—can cause substantial reductions in agricultural productivity, and places stress on municipal and industrial water resources and natural ecosystems. Evidence is building that the frequency and cost of natural hazards are increasing both in Australia (Insurance Council of Australia 2013; Schuster 2013) and globally (Munich Re 2014). However, understanding the cause of these changes has proved to be difficult, with increases in reporting rates (Munich Re 2014), changes in societal exposure and vulnerability (Bouwer 2011; Neumayer and Barthel 2011) and anthropogenic climate change (IPCC 2013) all potentially playing a role in explaining the observed changes. Yet although the potential causes are many, correct attribution of the observed changes is necessary in order to identify appropriate policy responses, and to predict how the frequency and severity of natural hazards might change in the future. This Special Issue focuses on the specific role of large-scale climatic changes on the observed and future incidence of Australian natural hazards. The Special Issue is divided into seven papers, each covering a major class of climate-influenced natural hazard: floods, drought, storms (including wind and hail), coastal extremes, bushfires, heatwaves and frost. The work was initiated by the Working Group on Trends and Extremes from the Australian Water and Energy Exchanges (OzEWEX) initiative, which is a regional hydroclimate project run under the auspices of the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) initiative.

OC5 Project Phase Ib: Validation of Hydrodynamic Loading on a Fixed, Flexible Cylinder for Offshore Wind Applications

This paper summarizes the findings from Phase Ib of the Offshore Code Comparison, Collaboration, Continued with Correlation (OC5) project. OC5 is a project run under the International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind Research Task 30, and is focused on validating the tools used for modelling offshore wind systems through the comparison of simulated responses of select offshore wind systems (and components) to physical test data. For Phase Ib of the project, simulated hydrodynamic loads on a flexible cylinder fixed to a sloped bed were validated against test measurements made in the shallow water basin at the Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI) with support from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The first phase of OC5 examined two simple cylinder structures (Phase Ia and Ib) to focus on validation of hydrodynamic models used in the various tools before moving on to more complex offshore wind systems and the associated coupled physics. Verification and validation activities such as these lead to improvement of offshore wind modelling tools, which will enable the development of more innovative and cost-effective offshore wind designs.

Biomass local production systems and their managing – alternative to rural development in Slovakia

Local production systems (LPS) focused on biomass usage represent a viable alternative to rural development, which can contribute to solve its socio-economic problems in Slovakia. The main objective of this paper was to propose a general framework for the functioning of biomass LPS in rural areas and to summarize the main points for smooth running of biomass LPS projects aimed at the resource base, method of obtaining energy from biomass, energy production cycle and a dialogue with inhabitants of municipalities where biomass LPS are to be located. Lack of experience in implementing such projects was the root cause of problems in Banská Bystrica region. Therefore, access to information, experiences form other countries and the development of appropriate formal and informal linkages are necessary for knowledge transfer and play an important role in managing biomass LPS.