ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT OF WEATHER CRITERION FOR SHIPS WITH LARGE BREADTH AND DRAUGHT RATIOS BY A MODEL EXPERIMENT: A CASE STUDY ON AN INDONESIAN RO-RO FERRY

The weather criterion is one of stability criteria to verify ability of a ships to withstand the combined effects of severe wind and rolling criteria in dead ship condition. An overestimated roll angle is obtained when the weather criterion is applied to ships with breadth and draught ratios larger than 3.50 and ratios between vertical centre of gravity and draught larger than 1.50. This paper discusses the assessment of weather criterion for an Indonesian ro-ro ferry by model experiments. The drift test is performed in four wave steepnesses with wave frequencies near the roll natural frequency. The maximum roll amplitude is used to calculate the effective wave slope coefficient correponding to the wave steepness, with Bertin’s coefficient obtained by the roll decay test. The damping factors correspond to the breadth and draught ratio as well as the bilge keel contribution are determined using the formula of weather criterion with the roll angle obtained by the Japanese formula with a correction factor of 0.70 due to the irregularity of waves. The obtained effective wave slope coefficient and the damping factors due to breadth and draught ratio and the bilge keel are smaller than those used in the weather criterion.

BOLD signal response in primary visual cortex to flickering checkerboard increases with stimulus temporal frequency in older adults

Many older adults have difficulty seeing brief visual stimuli which younger adults can easily recognize. The primary visual cortex (V1) may induce this difficulty. However, in neuroimaging studies, the V1 response change to the increase of temporal frequency of visual stimulus in older adults was unclear. Here we investigated the association between the temporal frequency of flickering stimuli and the BOLD activity within V1 in older adults, using surface-based fMRI analysis. The fMRI data from 29 healthy older participants stimulated by contrast-reversing checkerboard at temporal flicker frequencies of 2, 4, and 8 Hz were obtained. The participants also performed a useful field of view (UFOV) test. The slope coefficient of BOLD activity regarding the temporal frequency of the visual stimulus averaged within V1 regions of interest was positive and significantly different from zero. Group analysis in the V1 showed significant clusters with positive slope and no significant clusters with a negative slope. The correlation coefficient between the slope coefficient and UFOV performance was not significant. The results indicated that V1 BOLD response to a flickering visual stimulus increases as the stimulus temporal frequency increases from 2 to 8 Hz in older adults.

The Effect of Non-Interest Income on the Performance of Selected Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

This paper investigated the effect of non-interest Income on the performance of 6 selected deposit money banks in Nigeria, between 2015 to 2019. A panel regression model was used to determine the effect of non-interest income of the DMBs’ profitability. The variables used are: fee income, commission income, e-income, and foreign transaction income which also influence the profitability of banks were considered in the model for the study using Tobin-Q as the independent variable. The analyses was done using a panel regression model on the EViews 10+ software. The coefficients reveal that with fee income as a ratio of total non-interest income (F-IN/TINC) has a positive effect on bank financial performance with slope coefficient of 6.0995 and significant at 5% (p=0.000), while that of E-income as a ratio of total non-interest income (E-IN/TINC) has a positive effect on bank financial performance with slope coefficient of 6.6879 with p value of 0.0002). Similarly, foreign transaction income as a ratio of total non-interest income (F-IN/TINC) has a positive effect on bank financial performance with slope coefficient of 6.0995 p-value of 0.000. This implies that increases in Fee based -income, E-based income and foreign transactions-based income will result in an improvement in bank financial performance. However, the operating income as a ratio of total non-interest income (OP-IN/TINC) has a negative effect on bank financial performance with slope coefficient of - 2.6035 with p-value of 0.000 at 5% critical value. The study therefore recommends among others that deposit money banks should be actively involved in customer analysis and market research in order to develop those products and services that will continually satisfy majority of their customers so as to generate high non-interest income from such service.

Estimation of fatigue S-N curves for aluminium based on tensile strength – proposed method

The paper presents its own proposition of an analytical method for determining the S-N characteristic for aluminium material. The method is based on the value of the slope coefficient of the limited fatigue lifeline, determined based on the equation, which was proposed by analyzing a database of these parameters for a given group of materials. Also, the parameters of the method are tensile strength, yield strength, and the number of load cycles assigned to the knee point of the characteristic. A verification carrying out for three materials (AW-6063 T6, 2017-T4 & 2024 T351) shown that the proposed method gave better results than other methods presented in the literature.

EQUATIONS OF INTENSITY, DURATION AND FREQUENCY FOR THE PERUÍPE, ITANHÉM AND JUCURUÇU RIVER BASINS

The intense rainfall equations present a great technical interest for hydraulic works projects. In the State of Bahia, there are only 19 equations of intensity, duration and frequency modeling, requiring a greater number of equations for the State. The most recent ones are almost 15 years old, with only two in the Peruípe, Itanhém and Jucuruçu river basins. Thus, the objective of this work was to determine the parameters of the equations of intensity, duration and frequency (IDF) of the rainfall stations for different locations of the basins of the Peruípe, Itanhém and Jucuruçu rivers, located in the far southern Bahia State. Initially, 59 stations were selected, out of which only those with over 20 year-old data and records from 1980 onwards. Rainfall disaggregation was carried out using the method proposed by Cetesb (Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo, Brazil) and the parameters (K, a, b and c) were adjusted through nonlinear multiple regression using the nonlinear-generalized reduced gradient interaction method, where adjustment was evaluated by the coefficient of determination (R2). In the end, 29 equations were adjusted, with coefficient of determination greater than 0.99, therefore, improving the perspective of planning hydraulic works in the region. This correlation could also be observed by the regression equation of the observed data with the adjusted ones, where the slope coefficient of the line was close to 1.0 for all rainfall stations.

NEW METHODS TO PROTECT YEAR-AROUND OPERATION CANALS FROM SNOW

On the canals of year-around operation, severe snowdrifts concentrated on the surface of the ice cover simultaneously affect both thermal and static loads. When ice melts intensively from the lower surface in areas of accumulation of snow masses, and also due to an increase in the static load from snow, longitudinal cracks form on the ice. The snow saturated with water rising up along the cracks, and a gradual sinking of the snow-ice mass occurs. All this leads to decrease in canal capacity, and in some cases to complete blockage of the flow section by snow-ice mass. The purpose of the paper is to find new ways to protect the canal drift and create an impervious canal profile in areas heavily covered in snow. Snow deposition in the canal bed occurs gradually, starting from the edge of canal closest to the snow collection basin side, followed by an increase in the snowdrift shaft in the direction of the wind as snow blizzard arrives to the canal. We propose the method of protecting the canals from snowdrifts by changing the transverse profile of the canal in the sections highly covered by snow. The transverse canal profile is changed by adding a berm to it with a slope coefficient equal to the coefficient the leeward slope and a height equal to the depth of the canal from the leeward slope depending on exact establishing the limit position of the surface of the snowdrifts, at which the canal is blown without snow deposition, regardless of the amount of snow transfer. The proposed methods can be applied in areas of snow transfer on watering and irrigation canals designed for year-around operation.

Forward Rate Bias in Developed and Developing Countries: More Risky Not Less Rational

This paper examines the stability of the Bilson–Fama regression for a panel of 55 developed and developing countries. We find multiple break points for nearly every country in our panel. Subperiod estimates of the slope coefficient show a negative bias during some time periods and a positive bias during other time periods in nearly every country. The subperiod biases display two key patterns that shed light on the literature’s linear regression findings. The results point toward the importance of risk in currency markets. We find that risk is greater for developed country markets. The evidence undercuts the widespread view that currency returns are predictable or that developed country markets are less rational.

Inequalities in health and health-related indicators: a spatial geographic analysis of Pakistan

Background In developing countries, Pakistan is one of the countries where access to health and health-related indicators is a major concern. Their improvement would reduce inequalities among various Communities/Districts or groups of Communities. A Community health index (CHI) in this regard is estimated to explore inequality ratio, inequality slope, and spatial analysis of inequalities among all Communities at regional and geographical levels. Methods Data from Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement (PSLM) survey, Round-VI, 2014–15 were used to construct CHI. The index was constructed in two steps. In the first step, the study indicators were standardized while in the second step, the standardized indicators were aggregated into a single metric by applying non-linear Geometric Mean formula. Results The inequality ratio of 16.59 estimated for Pakistan was found to be higher than the ratio of Atlanta city, GA (5.92), whereas, a lower slope coefficient was estimated for Pakistan than Atlanta city, GA (0.38 < 0.54). This ratio of disparity was also found to be lower for urban regions as compared to rural (7.78 < 17.54). While the slope coefficient was slightly higher for urban regions (0.45 > 0.43). The results of the spatial analysis revealed different patterns of inequalities. A cluster of healthy districts was found in Punjab province, whereas districts from Baluchistan had made a bunch of deprived/unhealthy districts in terms of CHI scores. Besides, separate maps for all provinces showed that capital districts of all provinces were relatively well-off/developed. Conclusion The instant results concluded that inequalities in access to health and health-related indicators exist across countries as well as across geographical regions. To reduce or eradicate these inequalities, government and public health workers are recommended to set priorities based on access to composite index.

Earthquakes: Slope coefficient, potential energy coefficient or latitude coefficient?

Tangshan earthquake in China occurred with a periodicity of 297 years with focal depth of 11 km. An average of 0.10147 meter of earth crust is uplifted every day. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake was said to occur once every other 1100 years off the northeastern pacific coast of Japan with a focal depth of 20 km. An average of 0.04981 meter of earth’s crust is uplifted daily. These results can be viewed as slope coefficient or potential energy coefficient. Other coefficient such as latitude needs to be incorporated for theoretical calculations.