Search results for: number of employees

Authors: T. Holecki, J. Wozniak-Holecka, P. Romaniuk

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Due to the highly centralized model of financing health care in Poland, local self-government rarely undertook their own initiatives in the field of public health, particularly health promotion. However, since 2017 the possibility of applying for a subsidy to health policy programs has been allowed, with the additional resources to be retrieved from the National Health Fund, which is the dominant payer in the health system. The amount of subsidy depends on the number of inhabitants in a given unit and ranges about 40% of the total cost of the program. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of newly implemented solutions in financing health policy on the management of public finances, as well as on the activity provided by local self-government in health promotion. An effort to estimate the amount of expenses that both local governments, and the National Health Fund, spent on local health policy programs while implementing the new solutions. The research method is the analysis of financial data obtained from the National Health Fund and from local government units, as well as reports published by the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Pricing, which holds substantive control over the health policy programs, and releases permission for their implementation. The study was based on a comparative analysis of expenditures on the implementation of health programs in Poland in years 2010-2018. The presentation of the results includes the inclusion of average annual expenditures of local government units per 1 inhabitant, the total number of positively evaluated applications and the percentage share in total expenditures of local governments (16 voivodships areas). The most essential purpose is to determine whether the assumptions of the subsidy program are working correctly in practice, and what are the real effects of introducing legislative changes into local government levels in the context of public health tasks. The assumption of the study was that the use of a new motivation tool in the field of public management would result in multiplication of resources invested in the provision of health policy programs. Preliminary conclusions show that financial expenditures changed significantly after the introduction of public funding at the level of 40%, obtaining an increase in funding from own funds of local governments at the level of 80 to 90%.

Keywords: health care system, health policy programs, local self-governments, public health management

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Authors: L. Janská, J. Kubrický

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The article describes a research focused on the influence of the information and communication technology (ICT) on the pupils' learning. The investigation deals with the influences that distinguish between the group of pupils influenced by ICT and the group of pupils not influenced by ICT. The group influenced by ICT should evince a different approach in number of areas (in managing of two and more activities at once, in a quick orientation and searching for information on the Internet, in an ability to quickly and effectively assess the data sources, in the assessment of attitudes and opinions of the other users of the network, in critical thinking, in the preference to work in teams, in the sharing of information and personal data via the virtual social networking, in insisting on the immediate reaction on their every action etc.).

Keywords: ICT influence, digital natives, pupil´s learning

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Authors: Dmitriy Yu. Korulkin, Ravshan M. Nuraliev, Raissa A. Muzychkina

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In this research paper, we investigated the main regularities of a radical bromination reaction of decalin. We studied the temperature effect, durations of reaction, frequency rate of process, ratio of initial components, type and number of the initiator on decalin bromination degree. We found specified optimum conditions of synthesis of a perbromodecalin by the method of a decalin bromination. We developed the technological flowchart of receiving a perbromodecalin and the mass balance of process on the first and the subsequent loadings of components. The results of the research of antibacterial and antifungal activity of synthesized bromoderivatives have been represented.

Keywords: decalin, optimum technology, perbromodecalin, radical bromination

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Authors: Sourabh Joshi, Tarun Sharma, Anurag Sharma

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Ant Colony Optimization is heuristic Algorithm which has been proven a successful technique applied on number of combinatorial optimization problems. Two variants of Ant Colony Optimization algorithm named Ant System and Max-Min Ant System are implemented in MATLAB to solve travelling Salesman Problem and the results are compared. In, this paper both systems are analyzed by solving the some Travelling Salesman Problem and depict which system solve the problem better in term of cost and time.

Keywords: Ant Colony Optimization, Travelling Salesman Problem, Ant System, Max-Min Ant System

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Authors: Emanuela Zilli, Suana Tikvina, Davide Bonaldo, Monica Varotto, Scilla Rizzardi, Barbara Ruzzante, Raffaele Napolitano, Stefano Bevilacqua, Antonella Ruffatto

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A healthy workplace increases productivity, creativity and decreases absenteeism and turnover. It also contributes to creating a more secure work environment with fewer risks of violence. In the past 3 years, the healthcare system has suffered the psychological, economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the healthcare staff reductions determine high levels of work-related stress that are often unsustainable. The Hospital of Cittadella (in the province of Padua) has 400 beds and serves a territory of 300,000 inhabitants. The hospital itself counts 1.250 healthcare employees (healthcare professionals). This year, the Medical Board of Directors has requested additional staff; however, the economic situation of Italy can not sustain additional hires. At the same time, we have initiated projects that aim to increase well-being, decrease stress and encourage activities that promote self-care. One of the projects that the hospital has organized is the psychomotor practice. It is held by therapists and trainers who operate according to the traditional method. According to the literature, the psychomotor practice is specifically intended for the staff operating in the Intensive Care Unit, Emergency Department and Pneumology Ward. The project consisted of one session of 45 minutes a week for 3 months. This method brings focus to controlled breathing, posture, muscle work and movement that help manage stress and fatigue, creating a more mindful and sustainable lifestyle. In addition, a Qigong course was held every two weeks for 5 months. It is an ancient Chinese practice designed to optimize the energy within the body, reducing stress levels and increasing general well-being. Finally, Tibetan singing crystal bowls sessions, held by a music therapist, consisted of monthly guided meditation sessions using the sounds of the crystal bowls. Sound therapy uses the vibrations created from the crystal bowls to balance the vibrations within the body to promote relaxation. In conclusion, well-being and organizational performance are closely related to each other. It is crucial for any organization to encourage and maintain better physical and mental health of the healthcare staff as it directly affects productivity and, consequently, user satisfaction of the services provided.

Keywords: health promotion, healthcare workers management, Weel being and organizational performance, Psychomotor practice

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Authors: Wei Wang, Yannick Liu, Lu Zhen, H. Wang

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Maritime transport plays an important role in global economic development but also inevitably faces increasing pressures from all sides, such as ship operating cost reduction and environmental protection. An ideal innovation to address these pressures is electric ships. The electric ship is in the early stage. Considering the special characteristics of electric ships, i.e., travel range limit, to guarantee the efficient operation of electric ships, the service network needs to be re-designed carefully. This research designs a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly service network for electric ships, including the location of charging stations, charging plan, route planning, ship scheduling, and ship deployment. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model with the objective of minimizing total cost comprised of charging cost, the construction cost of charging stations, and fixed cost of ships. A case study using data of the shipping network along the Yangtze River is conducted to evaluate the performance of the model. Two operating scenarios are used: an electric ship scenario where all the transportation tasks are fulfilled by electric ships and a conventional ship scenario where all the transportation tasks are fulfilled by fuel oil ships. Results unveil that the total cost of using electric ships is only 42.8% of using conventional ships. Using electric ships can reduce 80% SOx, 93.47% NOx, 89.47% PM, and 42.62% CO2, but will consume 2.78% more time to fulfill all the transportation tasks. Extensive sensitivity analyses are also conducted for key operating factors, including battery capacity, charging speed, volume capacity, and a service time limit of transportation task. Implications from the results are as follows: 1) it is necessary to equip the ship with a large capacity battery when the number of charging stations is low; 2) battery capacity will influence the number of ships deployed on each route; 3) increasing battery capacity will make the electric ship more cost-effective; 4) charging speed does not affect charging amount and location of charging station, but will influence the schedule of ships on each route; 5) there exists an optimal volume capacity, at which all costs and total delivery time are lowest; 6) service time limit will influence ship schedule and ship cost.

Keywords: cost reduction, electric ship, environmental protection, sustainable shipping

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Authors: C. Scurr, J. Jeans, S. Srivastava

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Introduction: Acute type two respiratory failure (T2RF) has become a common presentation over the last two decades primarily due to an increase in the prevalence of chronic lung disease. Acute exacerbations can be managed either medically or in combination with non-invasive ventilation (NIV) which should be monitored with regular arterial blood gas samples (ABG). Arterial lines allow more frequent arterial blood sampling with less patient discomfort. We present the experience from a teaching hospital emergency department (ED) and level 2 medical high-dependency unit (HDU) that together form the pathway for management of acute type 2 respiratory failure. Methods: Patients acutely presenting to Charing Cross Hospital, London, with T2RF requiring non-invasive ventilation (NIV) over 14 months (2011 to 2012) were identified from clinical coding. Retrospective data collection included: demographics, co-morbidities, blood gas numbers and timing, if arterial lines were used and who performed this. Analysis was undertaken using Microsoft Excel. Results: Coding identified 107 possible patients. 69 notes were available, of which 41 required NIV for type 2 respiratory failure. 53.6% of patients had an arterial line inserted. Patients with arterial lines had 22.4 ABG in total on average compared to 8.2 for those without. These patients had a similar average time to normalizing pH of (23.7 with arterial line vs 25.6 hours without), and no statistically significant difference in mortality. Arterial lines were inserted by Foundation year doctors, Core trainees, Medical registrars as well as the ICU registrar. 63% of these were performed by the medical registrar rather than ICU, ED or a junior doctor. This is reflected in that the average time until an arterial line was inserted was 462 minutes. The average number of ABGs taken before an arterial line was 2 with a range of 0 – 6. The average number of gases taken if no arterial line was ever used was 7.79 (range of 2-34) – on average 4 times as many arterial punctures for each patient. Discussion: Arterial line use was associated with more frequent arterial blood sampling during each inpatient admission. Additionally, patients with an arterial line have less individual arterial punctures in total and this is likely more comfortable for the patient. Arterial lines are normally sited by medical registrars, however this is normally after some delay. ED clinicians could improve patient comfort and monitoring thus allowing faster titration of NIV if arteral lines were regularly inserted in the ED. We recommend that ED doctors insert arterial lines when indicated in order improve the patient experience and facilitate medical management.

Keywords: non invasive ventilation, arterial blood gas, acute type, arterial line

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Authors: Canga Mimoza, Irene Malagnino, Giulia Malagnino, Vito Malagnino

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Aim: This study aims at evaluating the impact of total dust (LGS) and mineral dust (PM10), in the cardio vascular and respiratory systems. Also proving that these air polluters are the cause of several diseases, such as bronchopneumonia, pneumonia, bronchitis, angina pectoris and cardiac insufficiency. Material and Method: The study is concentrated in the cities of Fier and Vlora. This is a clinic-epidemiological study conducted during the time period 2014-2019. Some of the data of LGS and PM10 were obtained from the database of the Institute of Public Health. The formula to measure the mean value of LGS and PM10 is ∆X=X (mean)-Xᵢ. Results: Based on the calculations made, we noticed that: The mean value of LGS in the city of Fieri was 227,33, while the mean value of LGS in the city of Vlora was 177,4. Whereas, the mean value of PM10 in the city of Fieri was 105.5 and the mean value of PM10 in the city of Vlore was 77.5. According to, our statistics the values of LGS were 1.2 times higher in Fier than in Vlora and the PM10 values were 1.36 times higher in Fier than in Vlora. Based on the data, in the city of Fier, the incidence of the bronchopneumonia was 56.53 sick patients/1000 inhabitants, but in Vlora, it was 22 sick patients/1000 inhabitants, so the number of the sick patients was 2.5 times higher in the city of Fieri compared with Vlora city, (P=0.001). The number of the patients with bronchitis, in the city of Fier, was 18 patients/1000 inhabitants, whereas, in Vlora, it was 9 patients/1000 inhabitants, (P=0.005). Based on the data, 8 patients/1000 inhabitants in the city of Fier, suffered from the pneumonia disease, while in Vlora city, were 4 patients/1000 inhabitants, (P=0.005). Another disease taken in consideration was angina pectoris. This study can claim that in the city of Fier, 9.5 patients/1000 inhabitants suffered from this disease, while in Vlora city, were only 4 patients /1000 inhabitants, (P=0.001). Findings of the present study proved that 3.7 patients/1000 inhabitants in the city of Fieri, had cardiac insufficiency, whereas in the city of Vlora, were 1.8 patients/1000 inhabitants, (P=0.05). Conclusions: LGS and PM10 have an influential impact on the cardio vascular and respiratory system; that’s why their levels should be kept under control. The pollution levels are 1.2 and 1.4 times higher in Fier than in Vlora; also the incidences of the diseases are 2 times higher in Fier than in Vlora. Recommendations: In order to prevent the cardio vascular and respiratory diseases, we should avoid places where pollution is higher than the norm. This can be achieved by frequenting places where the air pollution is lower, such as parks, gardens, top floors, etc.

Keywords: impact of total dust, LGS, mineral dust, PM 10, cardio vascular pathologies, respiratory disease

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Authors: Evgeniya Y. Yuzbasheva, Tigran V. Yuzbashev, Natalia I. Perkovskaya, Elizaveta B. Mostova

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Cell-surface display of lipase is of great interest as it has many applications in the field of biotechnology owing to its unique advantages: simplified product purification, and cost-effective downstream processing. One promising area of application for whole-cell biocatalysts with surface displayed lipase is biodiesel synthesis. Biodiesel is biodegradable, renewable, and nontoxic alternative fuel for diesel engines. Although the alkaline catalysis method has been widely used for biodiesel production, it has a number of limitations, such as rigorous feedstock specifications, complicated downstream processes, including removal of inorganic salts from the product, recovery of the salt-containing by-product glycerol, and treatment of alkaline wastewater. Enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel can overcome these drawbacks. In this study, Lip2p lipase was displayed on Yarrowia lipolytica cells via C- and N-terminal fusion variant. The active site of lipase is located near the C-terminus, therefore to prevent the activity loosing the insertion of glycine-serine linker between Lip2p and C-domains was performed. The hydrolytic activity of the displayed lipase reached 12,000–18,000 U/g of dry weight. However, leakage of enzyme from the cell wall was observed. In case of C-terminal fusion variant, the leakage was occurred due to the proteolytic cleavage within the linker peptide. In case of N-terminal fusion variant, the leaking enzyme was presented as three proteins, one of which corresponded to the whole hybrid protein. The calculated number of recombinant enzyme displayed on the cell surface is approximately 6–9 × 105 molecules per cell, which is close to the theoretical maximum (2 × 106 molecules/cell). Thus, we attribute the enzyme leakage to the limited space available on the cell surface. Nevertheless, cell-bound lipase exhibited greater stability to short-term and long-term temperature treatment than the native enzyme. It retained 74% of original activity at 60°C for 5 min of incubation, and 83% of original activity after incubation at 50°C during 5 h. Cell-bound lipase had also higher stability in organic solvents and detergents. The developed whole-cell biocatalyst was used for recycling biodiesel synthesis. Two repeated cycles of methanolysis yielded 84.1–% and 71.0–% methyl esters after 33–h and 45–h reactions, respectively.

Keywords: biodiesel, cell-surface display, lipase, whole-cell biocatalyst

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Authors: Emanuela Chiarella, Clelia Nisticò, Nicola Lombardo, Giovanna Lucia Piazzetta, Nadia Lobello, Maria Mesuraca

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Killian’s Antrochoanal Polyp is a benign lesion of the maxillary sinus characterized by unilateral nasal obstruction, pus discharge, and headache. It affects, more commonly children and young adults. Although its etiology still remains unclear, chronic inflammation, autoreactivity, allergies, and viral infections are strongly associated with its formation and development, resulting in nasal tissue remodeling. We aimed to investigate the stem cells components which reside in this pathological tissue. In particular, we adopted a protocol for the isolation and culturing of mesenchymal stem cells from surgical biopsies of three Killian nasal polyp patients (KNP-MSCs) as well as from their healthy nasal tissue (HNT-MSCs) that were used as controls. The immunophenotype profile of HNT-MSCs and KNP-MSCs was more similar, with a marked positivity for CD73, CD90, and CD105 expression, while being negative for CD34 and CD14 haematopoietic genes. Cell proliferation assay showed that KNP-MSCs had a replicative disadvantage compared to HNT-MSCs, as evidenced by the significantly lower number of cells in the S-phase of the cell cycle. KNP-MSCs also took longer to close a wound than HNT-MSCs, indicating a partial epithelial phenotype in which low levels of ICAM-1 mRNA and a significant increase in E-CAD transcript were detectable. Subsequently, the differentiation potential of both MSCs populations was analyzed by inducing osteoblastic or adipocyte differentiation for up to 20 days. KNP-MSCs showed the ability to differentiate into osteoblasts, although ALP activity as well as the number and size of calcium deposits were lower than osteogenic induced-HNT-MSCs. Also, mRNA levels of osteoblastic marker genes (OCN, OPN, OSX, RUNX2) resulted lower compared to control cell population. Instead, the analysis of the adipogenic differentiation potential showed a similar behavior between KNP-MSCs and HNT-MSCs considering that the amount of lipid droplets, the expression of adipocyte-specific genes (FABP4, AdipoQ, PPARγ2, LPL) and the content of triacylglycerols were almost overlapping. Taken together, these results first demonstrated that Killian's nasal polyp is a source of mesenchymal stem cells with self-renewal and multi-differentiative capabilities.

Keywords: Mesenchymal stem cells, adipogenic differentiation, osteogenic differentiation, EMT

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Authors: Heiko Diefenbach, Christoph H. Glock

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Order picking, i.e., the order-based retrieval of items in a warehouse, is an important time- and cost-intensive process for many logistic systems. Despite the ongoing trend of automation, most order picking systems are still manual picker-to-parts systems, where human pickers walk through the warehouse to collect ordered items. Human work in warehouses is not free from errors, and order pickers may at times pick the wrong or the incorrect number of items. Errors can cause additional costs and significant correction efforts. Moreover, age might increase a person’s likelihood to make mistakes. Hence, the negative impact of picking errors might increase for an aging workforce currently witnessed in many regions globally. A significant amount of research has focused on making order picking systems more efficient. Among other factors, storage assignment, i.e., the assignment of items to storage locations (e.g., shelves) within the warehouse, has been subject to optimization. Usually, the objective is to assign items to storage locations such that order picking times are minimized. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research concerned with picking errors and respective prevention approaches. This paper hypothesize that the storage assignment of items can affect the probability of pick errors. For example, storing similar-looking items apart from one other might reduce confusion. Moreover, storing items that are hard to count or require a lot of counting at easy-to-access and easy-to-comprehend self heights might reduce the probability to pick the wrong number of items. Based on this hypothesis, the paper discusses how to incorporate error-prevention measures into mathematical models for storage assignment optimization. Various approaches with respective benefits and shortcomings are presented and mathematically modeled. To investigate the newly developed models further, they are compared to conventional storage assignment strategies in a computational study. The study specifically investigates how the importance of error prevention increases with pickers being more prone to errors due to age, for example. The results suggest that considering error-prevention measures for storage assignment can reduce error probabilities with only minor decreases in picking efficiency. The results might be especially relevant for an aging workforce.

Keywords: an aging workforce, error prevention, order picking, storage assignment

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Authors: L. Abubakar, B. M. Sokoto, I. U. Mohammed, M. S. Na’allah, A. Mohammad, A. N. Garba, T. S. Bubuche

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Onion (Allium cepa var. cepa L.) is the most important species of the Allium group belonging to family Alliaceae and genus Allium. It can be regarded as the single important vegetable species in the world after tomatoes. Despite the similarities, which bring the species together, the genus is a strikingly diverse one, with more than five hundred species, which are perennial and mostly bulbous plants. Out of these, only seven species are in cultivation, and five are the most important species of the cultivated Allium. However, Allium cepa (onion) and Allium sativum (Garlic) are the two major cultivated species grown all over the world of which the onion crop is the most important. North Western Nigeria (Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States) constitute the major onion producing zone in Nigeria, which is primarily during the dry season. However, onion production in the zone is seriously affected by two main factors i.e. diseases and storage losses, in addition to other constraints that limits the cultivation of the crop during the rainy season which include lack of prolonged rainy season to allow for proper maturation of the crop. The major onion disease in this zone is purple blotch caused by a fungus Alternaria porri and currently efforts are on to develop onion hybrids resistant to the disease. Genetic diversity plays an important role in plant breeding either to exploit heterosis or to generate productive recombinants. Assessment of a large number of genotypes for a genetic diversity is the first step in this direction. The objective of this research therefore is to evaluate the genetic potentials of the onion cultivars of North Western Nigeria, with a view of developing new cultivars that address the major production challenges to onion cultivation in North Western, Nigeria. Thirteen onion cultivars were collected during an expedition covering North western Nigeria and Southern part of Niger Republic during 2013, which are areas noted for onion production. The cultivars were evaluated at two locations; Sokoto, in Sokoto State and Jega in Kebbi State all in Nigeria during the 2013/14 onion season (dry season) under irrigation. The objective of the research was to determine the genetic potentials of onion cultivars of north western Nigeria as a basis for breeding purposes. Combined analysis of the results revealed highly significant variation between the cultivars across the locations with respect to plant height, number of leaves/plant, bolting %, bulb height, bulb weight, mean bulb yield and cured bulb weight, with significant variation in terms of bulb diameter. Tasa from Warra Local Government Area of Kebbi State (V4) recorded the greatest mean fresh bulb yield with Jar Albasa (V8) from Illela Local Government Area of Sokoto State recording the least. Similarly Marsa (V5) from Silame Local Government Area recorded the greatest mean cured bulb yield (marketable bulb)with Kiba (V11) from Goronyo Local Government of Sokoto State recording the least. Significant variation was recorded between the locations with respect to all characters, with Sokoto being better in terms of plant height, number of leaves/plant, bolting % and bulb diameter. Jega was better in terms of bulb height, bulb yield and cured bulb weight. Significant variation was therefore observed between the cultivars.

Keywords: evaluation, genetic, onions, North Western Nigeria

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Authors: Dhruv Saini, Megha Sharma, Sharad Gupta

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This research is showing the use of celebrity endorsement and social media influencers and how they help in enhancing the brand loyalty of the consumers. The study aims at keeping brand image of the brand as the link between the two. However, choosing the right celebrity or social media influencer is not an easy task and it is very essential for a brand to select the right ambassador for advertising their products and for selling the product to the ultimate consumer. The purpose of the study is to create a relationship of Celebrity endorsement with brand image and with brand loyalty and creating a relationship of Social media influencers with brand image and with brand loyalty and then making a comparison between the two by measuring the effects of both simultaneously. And then by analyzing which among the two has a greater impact on brand loyalty of the consumers. The study mainly focuses on four major variables namely Celebrity endorsement, Social media influencers, Brand image and Brand loyalty. The study also focuses on interdependence and relationships that these variables have with each other and how they are linked with each other. The study also aims at looking which among Celebrity endorsement and Social media influencer has a greater impact on increasing or enhancing the loyalty for a brand. Earlier celebrity endorsers had a major impact on brand loyalty of the consumers but with time social media influencers are also playing a very vital role in impacting the brand loyalty of the consumers and are giving a fight to the celebrity endorsers as well. Also, Brand image also has a very vital role to play in enhancing the brand loyalty of a brand in the minds of the consumers as a well-known and a better perception of a brand leads to retention of more and more consumers. Also, both Celebrity endorsement and Social media influencers are two-way swords as both have a number of positives and a number of negatives as well, so these are to be compared keeping in mind their adverse effects. Examination of the current market situation has shown that the recommendations of celebrities when properly integrated by comparing product strengths. Advertisers agree that celebrity authorization does not guarantee sales but it can create buzz and make the consumer feel better by-product, which is also what customers should expect as a real star by delivering the promise. On the other hand, depending on the results of the studies, there should be a variety of conclusions planned. Some of the influential people on social media had a positive impact on the product portrait. One of the conclusions is that the product image had a positive impact on consumers. Moreover, the results of the following study states that the most influential influencers consumers in their intended purpose of the purchase, but instead produced a positive result indirectly with Brand image which would further lead to brand loyalty .

Keywords: brand image, brand loyalty, celebrity endorsement, social media influencer

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Authors: Aneeqa Suhail, Shabana Naveed

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The public sector (in both developed and developing countries) has gone through various waves of radical reforms in recent decades. In Pakistan, under the influence of New Public Management(NPM) Reforms; best practices of private sector are introduced in the public sector to modernize public organizations. Human Resource Information System (HRIS) has been popular in the private sector and proven to be a successful system, therefore it is being adopted in the public sector too. However, implementation of private business practices in public organizations us very challenging due to differences in context. This implementation gets further critical in Pakistan due to a centralizing tendency and lack of autonomy in public organizations. Adoption of HRIS by public organizations in Pakistan raises several questions: What challenges are faced by public organizations in implementation of HRIS? Are benefits of HRIS such as efficiency, process integration and cost reduction achieved? How is the previous system improved with this change and what are the impacts? Yet, it is an under-researched topic, especially in public enterprises. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by empirically exploring benefits and challenges of implementation of HRIS in public organizations. The research adopts a case study approach and uses qualitative data based on in-depth interviews conducted at various levels in the hierarchy including top management, departmental heads and employees. The unit of analysis is LESCO, the Lahore Electric Supply Company, a state-owned entity that generates, transmits and distributes electricity to 4 big cities in Punjab, Pakistan. The findings of the study show that LESCO has not achieved the benefits of HRIS as established in literature. The implementation process remained quite slow and costly. Various functions of HR are still in isolation and integration is a big challenge for the organization. Although the data is automated, the previous system of manually record maintenance and paperwork is still in work, resulting in the presence of parallel practices. The findings also identified resistance to change from top management and labor workforce, lack of commitment and technical knowledge, and costly vendors as major barriers that affect the effective implementation of HRIS. The paper suggests some potential actions to overcome these barriers and to enhance effective implementation of HR-technology. The findings are explained in light of an institutional logics perspective. HRIS’ new logic of automated and integrated HR system is in sharp contrast with the prevailing logic of process-oriented manual data maintenance, leading to resistance to change and deadlock.

Keywords: human resource information system, technological changes, state-owned enterprise, implementation challenges

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Authors: Sana Maidullah, Ankita Sharma

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The present study takes naturalistic decision-making approach to examine the role of personality in information processing in consumer decision making. In the technological era, most of the information comes in form of HTML or similar language via the internet; processing of this situation could be ambiguous, laborious and painful. The present study explores the role of impulsivity in creating an extreme effect on consumer decision making. Specifically, the study explores the role of impulsivity in extreme effect, i.e., extremeness avoidance (compromise effect) and extremeness seeking; the role of demographic variables, i.e. age and gender, in the relation between impulsivity and extreme effect. The study was conducted with the help of a questionnaire and two experiments. The experiment was designed in the form of two shopping websites with two product types: Hotel choice and Mobile choice. Both experimental interfaces were created with the Xampp software, the frontend of interfaces was HTML CSS JAVASCRIPT and backend was PHP MySQL. The mobile experiment was designed to measure the extreme effect and hotel experiment was designed to measure extreme effect with alignability of attributes. To observe the possibilities of the combined effect of individual difference and context effects, the manipulation of price, a number of alignable attributes and number of the non-alignable attributes is done. The study was conducted on 100 undergraduate and post-graduate engineering students within the age range of 18-35. The familiarity and level of use of internet and shopping website were assessed and controlled in the analysis. The analysis was done by using a t-test, ANOVA and regression analysis. The results indicated that the impulsivity leads to compromise effect and at the same time it also increases the relationship between alignability of attribute among choices and the compromise effect. The demographic variables were found to play a significant role in the relationship. The subcomponents of impulsivity were significantly influencing compromise effect, but the cognitive impulsivity was significant for women, and motor impulsivity was significant for males only. The impulsivity was significantly positively predicted by age, though there were no significant gender differences in impulsivity. The results clearly indicate the importance of individual factors in decision making. The present study, with precise and direct results, provides a significant suggestion for market analyst and business providers.

Keywords: impulsivity, extreme effect, personality, alignability, consumer decision making

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Authors: H. S. Kang

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Coupled electrical and optical model for conversion of electrical energy into coherent optical energy for transmitter-receiver link by solid state device is presented. Probability distribution for travelling laser beam switching time intervals and the number of switchings in the time interval is obtained. Selector function mapping is employed to regulate optical data transmission speed. It is established that regulated laser transmission from PhotoActive Laser transmitter follows principal of invariance. This considerably simplifies design of PhotoActive Laser Transmission networks.

Keywords: computational mathematics, finite difference Markov chain methods, sequence spaces, singularly perturbed differential equations

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Authors: Rasool Sadeghi, Sayed Mahdi Faghih Imani, Negar Najafi

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The inherent features of Named Data Networking (NDN) provides a robust solution for Internet of Thing (IoT). Therefore, NDN-IoT has emerged as a combined architecture which exploits the benefits of NDN for interconnecting of the heterogeneous objects in IoT. In NDN-IoT, caching schemes are a key role to improve the network performance. In this paper, we consider the effectiveness of cache replacement schemes in NDN-IoT scenarios. We investigate the impact of replacement schemes on average delay, average hop count, and average interest retransmission when replacement schemes are Least Frequently Used (LFU), Least Recently Used (LRU), First-In-First-Out (FIFO) and Random. The simulation results demonstrate that LFU and LRU present a stable performance when the cache size changes. Moreover, the network performance improves when the number of consumers increases.

Keywords: NDN-IoT, cache replacement, performance, ndnSIM

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Authors: Brouri Adil, Giri Fouad

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The problem of identifying Wiener-Hammerstein systems is addressed in the presence of two linear subsystems of structure totally unknown. Presently, the nonlinear element is allowed to be noninvertible. The system identification problem is dealt by developing a two-stage frequency identification method such a set of points of the nonlinearity are estimated first. Then, the frequency gains of the two linear subsystems are determined at a number of frequencies. The method involves Fourier series decomposition and only requires periodic excitation signals. All involved estimators are shown to be consistent.

Keywords: Wiener-Hammerstein systems, Fourier series expansions, frequency identification, automation science

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Authors: Ngoc-Hieu Vu

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Dairy production in Vietnam is a relatively new agricultural activity and milk production increased remarkably in recent years. Smallholders are still the main drivers for this development, especially in the southern part of the country. However, information on the farming practices is very limited. Therefore, this study aimed to determine factors influencing milk yield and quality (milk fat, total solids, solids-not-fat, total number of bacteria, and somatic cell count) and revenue of dairy farms in Southern Vietnam. The collection of data was at the farm level; individual animal records were unavailable. The 539 studied farms were located in the provinces Lam Dong (N=111 farms), Binh Duong (N=69 farms), Long An (N=174 farms), and Ho Chi Minh city (N=185 farms). The dataset included 9221 monthly test-day records of the farms from January 2013 to May 2015. Seasons were defined as rainy and dry. Farms sizes were classified as small (< 10 milking cows), medium (10 to 19 milking cows) and large (≥ 20 milking cows). The model for each trait contained year-season and farm region-farm size as subclass fixed effects, and individual farm and residual as random effects. Results showed that year-season, region, and farm size were determining sources of variation affecting all studied traits. Milk yield was higher in dry than in rainy seasons (P < 0.05), while it tended to increase from years 2013 to 2015. Large farms had higher yields (445.6 kg/cow) than small (396.7 kg/cow) and medium (428.0 kg/cow) farms (P < 0.05). Small farms, in contrast, were superior to large farms in terms of milk fat, total solids, solids-not-fat, total number of bacteria, and somatic cell count than large farms (P < 0.05). Revenue per cow was higher in large compared with medium and small farms. In conclusion, large farms achieved higher milk yields and revenues per cow, while small farms were superior in milk quality. Overall, milk yields were low and better training, financial support and marketing opportunities for farmers are needed to improve dairy production and increase farm revenues in Southern Vietnam.

Keywords: farm size, milk yield and quality, season, Southern Vietnam

Procedia PDF Downloads 362

Authors: C. Shekhar Parajulee

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Nepal practiced a centralized unitary governing system for a long and has gone through the federal system after the promulgation of the new constitution on 20 September 2015. There is a big paradigm shift in terms of governance after it. Now, there are three levels of governments, one federal government in the center, seven provincial governments and 753 local governments. Federalism refers to a political governing system with multiple tiers of government working together with coordination. It is preferred for self and shared rule. Though it has opened the door for rights of the people, political stability, state restructuring, and sustainable peace and development, there are many prospects and challenges for its proper implementation. This research analyzes the discourses of federalism implementation in Nepal with special reference to one of seven provinces, Gandaki. Federalism is a new phenomenon in Nepali politics and informed debates on it are required for its right evolution. This research will add value in this regard. Moreover, tracking its evolution and the exploration of the attitudes and behaviors of key actors and stakeholders in a new experiment of a new governing system is also important. The administrative and political system of Gandaki province in terms of service delivery and development will critically be examined. Besides demonstrating the performances of the provincial government and assembly, it will analyze the inter-governmental relation of Gandaki with the other two tiers of government. For this research, people from provincial and local governments (elected representatives and government employees), provincial assembly members, academicians, civil society leaders and journalists are being interviewed. The interview findings will be analyzed by supplementing with published documents. Just going into the federal structure is not the solution. As in the case of other provincial governments, Gandaki had also to start from scratch. It gradually took a shape of government and has been functioning sluggishly. The provincial government has many challenges ahead, which has badly hindered its plans and actions. Additionally, fundamental laws, infrastructures and human resources are found to be insufficient at the sub-national level. Lack of clarity in the jurisdiction is another main challenge. The Nepali Constitution assumes cooperation, coexistence and coordination as the fundamental principles of federalism which, unfortunately, appear to be lacking among the three tiers of government despite their efforts. Though the devolution of power to sub-national governments is essential for the successful implementation of federalism, it has apparently been delayed due to the centralized mentality of bureaucracy as well as a political leader. This research will highlight the reasons for the delay in the implementation of federalism. There might be multiple underlying reasons for the slow pace of implementation of federalism and identifying them is very tough. Moreover, the federal spirit is found to be absent in the main players of today's political system, which is a big irony. So, there are some doubts about whether the federal system in Nepal is just a keepsake or a substantive.

Keywords: federalism, inter-governmental relations, Nepal, provincial government

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Authors: Sunita Gakkhar, Arti Mishra

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In this paper, a nonlinear host vector model has been proposed and analyzed for the two strain dengue dynamics incorporating ADE effect. The model considers that the asymptomatic infected people are more responsible for secondary infection than that of symptomatic ones and differentiates between them. The existence conditions are obtained for various equilibrium points. Basic reproduction number has been computed and analyzed to explore the effect of secondary infection enhancement parameter on dengue infection. Stability analyses of various equilibrium states have been performed. Numerical simulation has been done for the stability of endemic state.

Keywords: dengue, ade, stability, threshold, asymptomatic, infection

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Authors: Chinh Phuong Do

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Dynamic analysis of slope under seismic condition requires the elimination of spurious reflection at the bounded domain. This paper studies the performances of wave transmitting boundaries, including the standard viscous boundary and the viscoelastic boundary to the material point method (MPM) framework. First, analytical derivations of these non-reflecting conditions particularly to the implicit MPM are presented. Then, a number of benchmark and geotechnical examples will be shown. Overall, the results agree well with analytical solutions, indicating the ability to accurately simulate the radiation at the bounded domain.

Keywords: dynamic analysis, implicit, MPM, non-reflecting boundary

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Authors: Si Abdallah Mayouf

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In this work, the effects of the wavy surface on free convection heat transfer boundary layer flow between two parallel wavy plates have been studied numerically. The two plates are considered at a constant temperature. The equations and the boundary conditions are discretized by the finite difference scheme and solved numerically using the Gauss-Seidel algorithm. The important parameters in this problem are the amplitude of the wavy surfaces and the distance between the two wavy plates. Results are presented as velocity profiles, temperature profiles and local Nusselt number according to the important parameters.

Keywords: free convection, wavy surface, parallel plates, fluid dynamics

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Authors: Manoj Kumar

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Routing protocols have a central role in any mobile ad hoc network (MANET). There are many routing protocols that exhibit different performance levels in different scenarios. In this paper, we compare AODV, DSDV, DSR, and ZRP routing protocol in mobile ad hoc networks to determine the best operational conditions for each protocol. We analyze these routing protocols by extensive simulations in OPNET simulator and show how to pause time and the number of nodes affect their performance. In this study, performance is measured in terms of control traffic received, control traffic sent, data traffic received, sent data traffic, throughput, retransmission attempts.

Keywords: AODV, DSDV, DSR, ZRP

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Authors: Daniel Y. Abebe, Jaehyouk Choi

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The objective of this paper is to investigate, through an analytical study, the behavior of both stiffened and un-stiffened removable shear link with perforated web considering different number and size of web openings. Removable shear link with perforated web is a novel shear link beam proposed to be used in eccentrically braced frame (EBF). The proposed link overcomes the difficulties during construction slab due to less cross-sectional areas of the link to control the plastic deformation on the conventional EBF with removable shear link. Finite element analyses were conducted under both cyclic and monotonic loading and from the results obtained design equations are developed.

Keywords: eccentrically braced frame, removable shear link, perforated web, non-linear FE analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 363

Authors: Nabilah Filzah Mohd Radzuan, Zalinda Othman, Azuraliza Abu Bakar, Abdul Razak Hamdan

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Uncertain data is believed to be an important issue in building up a prediction model. The main objective in the time series uncertainty analysis is to formulate uncertain data in order to gain knowledge and fit low dimensional model prior to a prediction task. This paper discusses the performance of a number of techniques in dealing with uncertain data specifically those which solve uncertain data condition by minimizing the loss of compression properties.

Keywords: compression properties, uncertainty, uncertain time series, mining technique, weather prediction

Procedia PDF Downloads 428

Authors: Gema Gómez-Casado, Alba Rodríguez-Muñoz, Virginia Mela-Rivas, Pallavi Kompella, Francisco José Tinahones-Madueña, Isabel Moreno-Indias, Almudena Ortega-Gómez

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Obesity is a high-priority health problem worldwide due to its high prevalence. The proportion of obese and overweight subjects in industrialized countries exceeds half of the population in most cases. Beyond the metabolic problem, obesity boosts inflammation levels in the organism. The gut microbiota, considered an organ by itself, controls a high variety of processes at a systemic level. In fact, the microbiota interacts closely with the immune system, being crucial in determining the maturation state of neutrophils, key effectors of the innate immune response. It is known that changes in the diet exert strong effects on the variety and activity of the gut microbiota. The effect that those changes have on the axis microbiota-immune response is an unexplored field. In this study, 10 patients with obesity (weight 114,3 ± 14,5Kg, BMI 40,47±3,66) followed a Mediterranean-hypocaloric diet for 3 months, reducing their initial weight by 12,71 ± 3%. A transplant of microbiota from these patients before and after the diet was performed into wild type “germ-free” mice (n=10/group), treated with antibiotics. Six weeks after the transplant, mice were euthanized, and the presence of cells from the innate immune system were analysed in different organs (bone marrow, blood, spleen, visceral adipose tissue, and intestine) by flow cytometry. No differences were observed in the number of myeloid cells in bone marrow, blood, spleen, or visceral adipose tissue of mice transplanted with patient’s microbiota before and after following the Mediterranean diet. However, the intestine of mice that received post-diet microbiota presented a marked decrease in the number of neutrophils (whose presence is associated with tissue inflammation), as well as macrophages. In line with these findings, intestine monocytes from mice with post-diet microbiota showed a less inflammatory profile (lower Ly6Gˡᵒʷ proportion of cells). These results point toward a decrease in the inflammatory state of the intestinal tissue, derived from changes in the gut microbiota, which occurred after a 3-month Mediterranean diet.

Keywords: obesity, nutrition, Mediterranean diet, gut microbiota, immune system

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Shreya Goyal

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The study aims to build user-friendly software to understand patient arrival patterns and compute the number of potential patients who will visit a particular health facility for a given period by using a machine learning algorithm. The underlying machine learning algorithm used in this study is the Support Vector Machine (SVM). Accurate prediction of patient arrival allows hospitals to operate more effectively, providing timely and efficient care while optimizing resources and improving patient experience. It allows for better allocation of staff, equipment, and other resources. If there's a projected surge in patients, additional staff or resources can be allocated to handle the influx, preventing bottlenecks or delays in care. Understanding patient arrival patterns can also help streamline processes to minimize waiting times for patients and ensure timely access to care for patients in need. Another big advantage of using this software is adhering to strict data protection regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States as the hospital will not have to share the data with any third party or upload it to the cloud because the software can read data locally from the machine. The data needs to be arranged in. a particular format and the software will be able to read the data and provide meaningful output. Using software that operates locally can facilitate compliance with these regulations by minimizing data exposure. Keeping patient data within the hospital's local systems reduces the risk of unauthorized access or breaches associated with transmitting data over networks or storing it in external servers. This can help maintain the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive patient information. Historical patient data is used in this study. The input variables used to train the model include patient age, time of day, day of the week, seasonal variations, and local events. The algorithm uses a Supervised learning method to optimize the objective function and find the global minima. The algorithm stores the values of the local minima after each iteration and at the end compares all the local minima to find the global minima. The strength of this study is the transfer function used to calculate the number of patients. The model has an output accuracy of >95%. The method proposed in this study could be used for better management planning of personnel and medical resources.

Keywords: machine learning, SVM, HIPAA, data

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Authors: Leigha Inman

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One of the most cutting-edge interdisciplinary topics in the social sciences is the application of understandings from the humanities to traditionally social scientific disciplines such as education studies. This paper proposes such a topic. It has often been observed that children enjoy literature. The role of reading in the development of reading ability is an important area of research. However, the role of vocabulary in reading development has long been neglected. This paper reports an investigation into the number of words found in key works of children's literature and attempts to correlate that figure with years elapsed since publication of the work. Pedagogical implications will be discussed.

Keywords: educational pedagogy, young learners, vocabulary teaching, reading development

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Scholz Heiko, Kuhne Petra, Heckenberger Gerd

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Problems during the calving period (December to May) often result in a high body condition score (BCS) at this time. At the end of the grazing period (frequently after early weaning), however, an increase of BCS can often be observed under German conditions. In the last eight weeks before calving, the body condition should be reduced or at least not increased. Rations with a higher amount of crude fiber can be used (rations with straw or late mowed grass silage). Fermentative digestion of fiber is slow and incomplete; that’s why the fermentative process in the rumen can be reduced over a long feeding time. Viewed in this context, feed intake of suckler cows (8 weeks before calving) in different rations and fermentation in the rumen should be checked by taking rumen fluid. Eight suckler cows (Charolais) were feeding a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) in the last eight weeks before calving and grass silage after calving. By the addition of straw (30 % [TMR1] vs. 60 % [TMR2] of dry matter) was varied the amount of crude fiber in the TMR (grass silage, straw, mineral) before calving. After calving of the cow's grass, silage [GS] was fed ad libitum, and the last measurement of rumen fluid took place on the pasture [PS]. Rumen fluid, plasma, body weight, and backfat thickness were collected. Rumen fluid pH was assessed using an electronic pH meter. Volatile fatty acids (VFA), sedimentation, methylene-blue and amount of infusorians were measured. From these 4 parameters, an “index of rumen fermentation” [IRF] in the rumen was formed. Fixed effects of treatment (TMR1, TMR2, GS and PS) and a number of lactations (3-7 lactations) were analyzed by ANOVA using SPSS Version 25.0 (significant by p ≤ 5 %). Rumen fluid pH was significant influenced by variants (TMR 1 by 6.6; TMR 2 by 6.9; GS by 6.6 and PS by 6.9) but was not affected by other effects. The IRF showed disturbed fermentation in the rumen by feeding the TMR 1+2 with a high amount of crude fiber (Score: > 10.0 points) and a very good environment for fermentation during grazing the pasture (Score: 6.9 points). Furthermore, significant differences were found for VFA, methylene blue and the number of infusorians. The use of rations with the high amount of crude fiber from weaning to calving may cause deviations from undisturbed fermentation in the rumen and adversely affect the utilization of the feed in the rumen.

Keywords: suckler cow, feeding systems, crude fiber, digestibilty of organic matter

Procedia PDF Downloads 146