Search results for: time and frequency signal analysis

Authors: Hamilton V. Niculescu

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This paper discusses findings relating to people's engagement with mobile communication technologies and remote automated systems. This interdisciplinary study employs a constructivist grounded theory methodology, with qualitative data that was generated following in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 people living in Ireland being corroborated with participants' observations and quantitative data. Additional data was collected following participants' remote interaction with six custom-built automated enclosures, located at six different sites around Dublin, Republic of Ireland. This paper argues that ownership and education play a vital role in people engaging with and adoption of new technologies. Analysis of participants' behavior and attitude towards Information Communication Technologies (ICT) suggests that innovations do not always improve peoples' social inclusion. Technological innovations are sometimes perceived as destroying communities and create a dysfunctional society. Moreover, the findings indicate that a lack of public information and support from Irish governmental institutions, as well as limited off-the-shelves availability, has led to low trust and adoption of renewable technologies. A limited variation in participants' behavior and interaction patterns with technologies was observed during the study. This suggests that people will eventually adopt new technologies according to their needs and experience, even though they initially rejected the idea of changing their lifestyle.

Keywords: automation, communication, ICT, renewables

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Authors: Farzana Sharmin, Mohammad Tipu Sultan

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Emerging new media technology such as social media and social networking sites have changed the family business dynamics in Eastern Asia. The family business trends in China has been developed at an exponential rate towards technology. In the last two decades, many of this family business has succeeded in becoming major players in the Chinese and world economy. But there are a very few availabilities of literature on Chinese context regarding social media acceptance in terms of the family business. Therefore, this study has tried to cover the gap between culture and new media technology to understand the attitude of Chinese young entrepreneurs’ towards the family business. This paper focused on two cultural dimensions (collectivism, long-term orientation), which are adopted from Greet Hofstede’s. Additionally perceived usefulness and ease of use adopted from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explore the actual behavior of technology acceptance for the family business. A quantitative survey method (n=275) used to collect data Chinese family business owners' in Shanghai. The inferential statistical analysis was applied to extract trait factors, and verification of the model, respectively. The research results found that using social media for family business promotion has highly influenced by cultural values (collectivism and long-term orientation). The theoretical contribution of this research may also assist policymakers and practitioners of other developing countries to advertise and promote the family business through social media.

Keywords: China, cultural dimensions, family business, technology acceptance model, TAM

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Authors: Jae-Hyung Jin, Kyung-Tae Lee, Yee-Seul So, Eunji Jeong, Yeonseon Lee, Dongpil Lee, Dong-Gi Lee, Yong-Sun Bahn

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Cryptococcus neoformans causes cryptococcal meningoencephalitis mainly in immunocompromised patients as well as immunocompetent people. But therapeutic options are limited to treat cryptococcosis. Some signaling pathways including cyclic AMP pathway, MAPK pathway, and calcineurin pathway play a central role in the regulation of the growth, differentiation, and virulence of C. neoformans. To understand signaling networks regulating the virulence of C. neoformans, we selected the 114 putative phosphatase genes, one of the major components of signaling networks, in the genome of C. neoformans. We identified putative phosphatases based on annotation in C. neoformans var. grubii genome database provided by the Broad Institute and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and performed a BLAST search of phosphatases of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Aspergillus nidulans, Candida albicans and Fusarium graminearum to Cryptococcus neoformans. We classified putative phosphatases into 14 groups based on InterPro phosphatase domain annotation. Here, we constructed 170 signature-tagged gene-deletion strains through homologous recombination methods for 91 putative phosphatases. We examined their phenotypic traits under 30 different in vitro conditions, including growth, differentiation, stress response, antifungal resistance and virulence-factor production.

Keywords: human fungal pathogen, phosphatase, deletion library, functional genomics

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Authors: Malik D. Halidu, Cathrine F. Moe, Tommy Haugan

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Purpose: The demand for effective school-based interventions in shaping adolescents' unmet mental health needs is growing. Grounding in the functional contextualism approach, this study investigates the role of school satisfaction (SS) in serving as a buffer to school absenteeism (SAB) among adolescents experiencing social anxiety (SA). Methods: A unique and large population-based sample of adolescents (upper secondary school pupils; n= 1864) from the Young-HUNT 3 survey dataset merged with the national educational registry from Norway. Moderation regression analysis was performed using Stata 17. Results: We find a statistically significant moderating role of school satisfaction on the relationship between social anxiety and school absenteeism (β=-0.109,p<0.01) among upper secondary school pupils. Among socially anxious adolescents associated with a higher perceived quality of school life, it functions as a buffer by reducing the positive relationship between SA and SAB. But, there was no statistically significant difference between social anxiety and school absenteeism for adolescents with low school satisfaction. Conclusion: Overall, the study's hypothesis model was statistically supported and contributes to the discourse that school satisfaction as a target of school-based interventions can effectively improve school outcomes (e.g., reduced absenteeism) among socially anxious pupils.

Keywords: social anxiety, school satisfaction, school absenteeism, Norwegian adolescent

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Authors: B. F. Olanipekun, O. J. Oyelade, C. O. Osemobor

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Pigeon pea is a very good source of protein and micronutrient, but it is being underutilized in Nigeria because of several constraints. This research considered the effect of different processing methods on the quality attributes of pigeon pea used in bread production towards enhancing its utility. Pigeon pea was obtained at a local market and processed into the flour using three processing methods: soaking, sprouting and roasting and were used to bake bread in different proportions. Chemical composition and sensory attributes of the breads were thereafter determined. The highest values of protein and ash contents were obtained from 20 % substitution of sprouted pigeon pea in wheat flour and may be attributable to complex biochemical changes occurring during hydration, to invariably lead to protein constituent being broken down. Hydrolytic activities of the enzymes from the sprouted sample resulted in improvement in the constituent of total protein probably due to reduction in the carbohydrate content. Sensory qualities analyses showed that bread produced with soaked and roasted pigeon pea flours at 5 and 10% inclusion, respectively were mostly accepted than other blends, and products with sprouted pigeon pea flour were least accepted. The findings of this research suggest that supplementing wheat flour with sprouted pigeon peas have more nutritional potentials. However, with sensory analysis indices, the soaked and roasted pigeon peas up to 10% are majorly accepted, and also can improve the nutritional status. Overall, this will be very beneficial to population dependent on plant protein in order to combat malnutrition problems.

Keywords: pigeon pea, processing, protein, malnutrition

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Authors: Busayo Fashoto, Abdulhakeem Shaibu, Justice Agbadu, Samuel Aiyeoribe

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Data has gone from just rows and columns to being an infrastructure itself. The traditional medium of data infrastructure has been managed by individuals in different industries and saved on personal work tools; one of such is the laptop. This hinders data sharing and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 for infrastructure sustainability across all countries and regions. However, there has been a constant demand for data across different agencies and ministries by investors and decision-makers. The rapid development and adoption of open-source technologies that promote the collection and processing of data in new ways and in ever-increasing volumes are creating new data infrastructure in sectors such as lands and health, among others. This paper examines the process of developing data infrastructure and, by extension, a data portal to provide baseline data for sustainable development and decision making in Nigeria. This paper employs the FAIR principle (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) of data management using open-source technology tools to develop data portals for public use. eHealth Africa, an organization that uses technology to drive public health interventions in Nigeria, developed a data portal which is a typical data infrastructure that serves as a repository for various datasets on administrative boundaries, points of interest, settlements, social infrastructure, amenities, and others. This portal makes it possible for users to have access to datasets of interest at any point in time at no cost. A skeletal infrastructure of this data portal encompasses the use of open-source technology such as Postgres database, GeoServer, GeoNetwork, and CKan. These tools made the infrastructure sustainable, thus promoting the achievement of SDG 9 (Industries, Innovation, and Infrastructure). As of 6th August 2021, a wider cross-section of 8192 users had been created, 2262 datasets had been downloaded, and 817 maps had been created from the platform. This paper shows the use of rapid development and adoption of technologies that facilitates data collection, processing, and publishing in new ways and in ever-increasing volumes. In addition, the paper is explicit on new data infrastructure in sectors such as health, social amenities, and agriculture. Furthermore, this paper reveals the importance of cross-sectional data infrastructures for planning and decision making, which in turn can form a central data repository for sustainable development across developing countries.

Keywords: data portal, data infrastructure, open source, sustainability

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Authors: Mohamed M. El-heweity, Ahmed Shamel Fahmy, Mostafa Shawky, Ahmed Sherif

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Cold-formed steel (CFS) lipped channel sections are popular as load-bearing members in building structures. These sections are used in the construction industry because of their high strength-to-weight ratio, lightweight, quick production, and ease of construction, fabrication, transportation, and handling. When those cold formed sections with high slenderness ratios are subjected to compression bending, they do not reach failure when reaching their ultimate bending stress, however, they sustain much higher loads due stress re-distribution. Hence, there is a need to study the sectional nominal capacity of CFS lipped channel beams with different web openings subjected to pure bending and uniformly distributed loads. By using finite element (FE) simulations using ANSYS APDL for numerical analysis. The results were verified and compared to previous experimental results. Then a parametric study was conducted and validated FE model to investigate the effect of different openings shapes on their nominal capacities. The results have revealed that CFS sections with hexagonal openings and intermediate notch can resist higher nominal capacities when compared to other sectional openings.

Keywords: cold-formed steel, nominal capacity, finite element, lipped channel beam, numerical study, web opening

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Authors: Dalia. G. Aseel

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Begomoviruses are economically important plant viruses that infect dicotyledonous plants and exclusively transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Here, replicative form was isolated from Okra, Cotton, Tomato plants and whitefly infected with Begomoviruses. Using coat protein specific primers (AV1), the viral infection was verified with amplicon at 450 bp. The sequence of OLCuV-AV1 gene was recorded and received an accession number (FJ441605) from Genebank. The phylogenetic tree of OLCuV was closely related to Okra leaf curl virus previously isolated from Cameroon and USA with nucleotide sequence identity of 92%. The protein purification was carried out using His-Tag methodology by using Affinity Chromatography. The purified protein was separated on SDS-PAGE analysis and an enriched expected size of band at 30 kDa was observed. Furthermore, RAPD and SDS-PAGE were used to detect genetic variability between different hosts of okra leaf curl virus (OLCuV), cotton leaf curl virus (CLCuV), tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCuV) and the whitefly vector. Finally, the present study would help to understand the relationship between the whitefly and different economical crops in Egypt.

Keywords: okra leaf curl virus, AV1 gene, sequencing, phylogenetic, cloning, purified protein, genetic diversity and viral proteins

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Authors: Helena Susana Afonso Alves, Natália Maria Rafael Canadas, Ana Maria Rodrigues

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We examined the impact of governance rules on information asymmetry, using the turnover ratio and the bid-ask spread as proxies for the information asymmetry. We used a SEM model and analyzed the indirect relations through the voluntary disclosure of information and the organizational performance. We built a voluntary disclosure index based on the information firms provided in their annual reports and divided the governance characteristics in two constructs: directors’ and supervisors’ structures and ownership structure. We concluded that the ownership structure exerts a direct influence on share price and share liquidity, Otherwise, the directors’ and supervisors’ structures exert an indirect influence, through the organizational performance and the voluntary disclosure of information. The results also show that for firms with high levels of disclosure the bid-ask spread is lower. However, in firms with a high ownership concentration investors tend to increase the bid-ask spreads and trade less, which, in this case, reduces the liquidity of the stock. The failure to find the relationship between voluntary disclosure of information and the turnover ratio shows us that the liquidity of shares is more related to the greater or lesser concentration of shareholders, with the performance of their companies than with the access to information. Moreover, it is clear that the role that information disclosure plays is mainly at the level of price formation.

Keywords: corporate governance, information asymmetry, voluntary disclosure, structural equation modelling, SEM

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Authors: Stella Laletas, Andrea Reupert, Melinda Goodyear, Bradley Morgan

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Background: Many people with a mental illness have young children. Research has shown that early childhood is a particularly vulnerable time for children whose parents have a mental illness. Moreover, repeated research has demonstrated the effectiveness of a multiagency approach to family focused practice for improving parental functioning and preventing adverse outcomes in children whose parents have a mental illness, particularly in the early years of a child’s life. However, there is a paucity of professional development resources for professionals who work with families where a parent has a mental illness and has young children. Significance of the study: This study will make a contribution to addressing knowledge gaps around resource development and workforce needs for early childhood and mental health professionals working with young children where a parent has a mental illness. Objective: This presentation describes a newly developed resource, 'Pathways of Care', specifically designed for early childhood educators and mental health workers, alongside pilot evaluation data regarding its effectiveness. ‘Pathways of Care’ aims to promote collaborative practice and present early identification and referral processes for workers in this sector. The resource was developed by the Children of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) National Initiative which is funded by the Australian Government. Method: Using a mixed method design, the effectiveness of the training resource is also presented. Fifteen workers completed the Family Focus Mental Health Practice Questionnaire pre and post using the resource, to measure confidence and practice change; semi-structured interviews were also conducted with eight of these same workers to further explore the utility of the resource. Findings: The findings indicated the resource was effective in increasing knowledge and confidence, particularly for new and/or inexperienced staff. Examples of how the resource was used in practice by various professions emerged from the interview data. Conclusions: Collaborative practice, early identification and intervention in early childhood can potentially play a key role in altering the life trajectory of children who are at risk. This information has important implications for workforce development and staff training in both the early childhood and mental health sectors. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

Keywords: parents with mental ilnesses, early intervention, evaluation, preschool children

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Authors: Junaid N. Chauhdary, Bernard A. Engel, Allah Bakhsh

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Solar powered tubewells can be a reliable and affordable source of supplying irrigation water compared with electric or diesel operated tubewells due to frequent load shedding and soaring energy prices. A study was conducted on a solar tubewell installed at the Water Management Research Center (WMRC), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad to investigate the viability of a solar powered tubewell in terms of discharge and benefit cost ratio. The tubewell discharge was 50 m3hr-1 with a total dynamic head of 30 m. The depth of bore was 31 m (14 m blind + 17 m screen) with a casing diameter of 15.2 cm (6 inches). A 3-stage submersible pump of 10.2 cm (4 inch) diameter was lowered in the casing to a depth of 22 m. The pump was powered from 21 solar panels of 200 W capacity each. The tubewell peak discharge was observed as 6 and 7 hr day-1 in winter and summer, respectively. The breakeven analysis of the solar tubewell showed that the payback period of the solar tubewell was 1.5 years of its 10 year usable life with an IRR (internal rate of return) of 69 %. The BCR (benefit cost ratio) of the solar tubewell at 2, 4, 6, and 8 percent discount rate were 3.75, 3.45, 3.19 and 2.96, respectively. The NPV (net present value) of the solar tubewell at 2, 4, 6, and 8 % discount rates were 1.89, 1.65, 1.45 and 1.27 million rupees, respectively. These results indicated that the solar powered tubewells are a viable option as well as environmentally friendly and can be adopted by the farmers due to their affordable payback period.

Keywords: benefit cost ratio, internal rate of return (IRR), net present value (NPV), solar tubewell

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Authors: Ana Fonseca, Stefany Villacis

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In this paper, the influence of several scenarios on a model of solar assisted mashing process in a brewery, while applying the model to different locations and therefore changing the environmental conditions, was analyzed. Assorted beer producer locations in different countries around the globe with contrasting climatic zones such as Guayaquil (Ecuador), Bangkok (Thailand), Mumbai (India), Veracruz (Mexico) and Brisbane (Australia) were evaluated and compared with a base case study Oldenburg (Germany), and results were drawn. The evaluation was restricted to the results obtained using TRNSYS 16 as simulating tool. On the base case, an annual Solar Fraction (SF) of 0.50 was encountered, results showed highly affection when modifying the pump control of the primary circuit and when increasing the area of collectors. A sensitivity analysis of the system for the selected locations was performed, resulting in Guayaquil the highest annual SF with a ratio of 2.5 times the expected value as compared with the base case. In contrast, Brisbane presented the lowest ratio, resulting in half of the expected one due to its lower irradiance. In conclusion, cities in Sunbelt countries have the technical potential to apply solar heat for their low-temperature industrial processes, in this case implementing a green brewery in Guayaquil.

Keywords: evacuated tubular solar collector, irradiance, mashing process, solar fraction, solar thermal

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Authors: M. Linek

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This article presents the comparison of selected evaluation methods regarding microstructure modification of hardened cement concrete intended for airfield pavements. Basic test results were presented for two pavement quality concrete lots. Analysis included standard concrete used for airfield pavements and modern material solutions based on concrete composite modification. In case of basic grain size distribution of concrete cement CEM I 42,5HSR NA, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate fractions in the form of granite chippings, water and admixtures were considered. In case of grain size distribution of modified concrete, the use of modern modifier as substitute of fine aggregate was suggested. Modification influence on internal concrete structure parameters using scanning electron microscope was defined. Obtained images were compared to the results obtained using computed tomography. Opportunity to use this type of equipment for internal concrete structure diagnostics and an attempt of its parameters evaluation was presented. Obtained test results enabled to reach a conclusion that both methods can be applied for pavement quality concrete diagnostics, with particular purpose of airfield pavements.

Keywords: scanning electron microscope, computed tomography, cement concrete, airfield pavements

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Authors: Daming Xu, Yuanyuan Wang

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Abstract: Under the trend of rapid expansion of urbanization, the motorized urban characteristics become more and more obvious, and the walkability of urban space is seriously affected. The construction of walkability of space, as the main mode of travel for the elderly in their daily lives, has become more and more important in the current social context of serious aging. Settlement is the most basic living unit of residents, and daily shopping, medical care, and other daily trips are closely related to the daily life of the elderly. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore the impact of built environment on elderly people's daily walking trips at the settlement level for the construction of pedestrian-friendly settlements for the elderly. The study takes three typical settlements in Harbin Daoli District in three different periods as examples and obtains data on elderly people's walking trips and built environment characteristics through field research, questionnaire distribution, and internet data acquisition. Finally, correlation analysis and multinomial logistic regression model were applied to analyze the influence mechanism of built environment on elderly people's walkability based on the control of personal attribute variables in order to provide reference and guidance for the construction of walkability for elderly people in built environment in the future.

Keywords: built environment, elderly, walkability, multinomial logistic regression model

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Authors: Johanna Lindstrom, Jacob Mickelsson

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Changes in the current media environment are transforming peoples’ everyday media consumption patterns all over the world. Digital media have become a natural, almost unavoidable, part of everyday lives of humans. While this has led to many positive consequences, there is also a growing concern for harmful effects. This paper contributes to knowledge about “the dark side” of media use by considering the topic of media addiction and subsequent coping strategies among young adults. The paper draws on a longitudinal media diary study conducted among young university students between the years 2013 and 2021. A total of 1029 diaries have been collected (approximately 100 each year), aiming at capturing the students’ everyday media behavior. In this paper, reflective narratives in the diaries have been analyzed, aiming at answering the following questions: Which of their own media behaviors do the students perceive as particularly destructive, addictive or problematic? How do they cope with such behaviors? Results from the study indicate a noticeable increase in reflections on addictive media behavior over the years. For example, compared to earlier years, the amount of such reflections significantly started to increase in the diaries in 2016 and 2017, and this trend has continued ever since. Furthermore, the nature of these reflections has changed, displaying a growing concern for one’s own excessive media use and general wellbeing. Media addiction seems particularly difficult to cope with as digital media is literally everywhere and media use in general is described as consistent and habitual, in terms of regularly repeated routines that are fragmented but performed continuously and often unintentionally throughout the day. Reflections on “the dark side” of everyday media consumption become particularly prominent in times of the Covid -19 pandemic. However, this trend was noticeable well before the pandemic started. The study also identifies a countertrend regarding reflections on how to deal and cope with problematic media behavioral patterns. This countertrend portrays a general development of increased awareness of factors that may trigger compulsive behavior and how to avoid or handle such trigger points. The countertrend is particularly evident in recent years, despite the ongoing pandemic and subsequent increases in time spent using media. Addictive media behavior may lead to severe consequences for students’ learning processes and general well-being. Increased awareness of this growing trend and coping strategies are needed on an individual as well as a broader educational level.

Keywords: coping strategies, media addiction, media behavior, well-being

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Authors: Chong-Yang Qiao, Teeravarunyou Sakol

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Current production-oriented factories need maintenance operators to work in shifts monitoring and inspecting complex systems and different equipment in the situation of mechanical breakdown. Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging technology that embeds data into the environment for situation awareness to help maintenance operators make decisions and solve problems. An application was designed to identify the problem of steam generators and inspection centrifugal pumps. The objective of this research was to find the best medium of AR and type of problem solving strategies among analogy, focal object method and mean-ends analysis. Two scenarios of inspecting leakage were temperature and vibration. Two experiments were used in usability evaluation and future innovation, which included decision-making process and problem-solving strategy. This study found that maintenance operators prefer build-in magnifier to zoom the components (55.6%), 3D exploded view to track the problem parts (50%), and line chart to find the alter data or information (61.1%). There is a significant difference in the use of analogy (44.4%), focal objects (38.9%) and mean-ends strategy (16.7%). The marked differences between maintainers and operators are of the application of a problem solving strategy. However, future work should explore multimedia information retrieval which supports maintenance operators for decision-making.

Keywords: augmented reality, situation awareness, decision-making, problem-solving

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Authors: Ali Ait Boughrous, Said Benyoussef, Hossain El Ouarghi, Moulay Abdelazize Aboulhassan, Samah Aitbnichou, Said Benguamra

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The Rhiss-Nekor aquifer represents a primary water source for the central Rif region. Many operating structures were built for irrigation and drinking water supply. Because of the vulnerability of this aquifer, a thorough knowledge of the environment is needed to evaluate and protect resources. This work aims at the quality assessment of the water table of the plain Ghiss-Nekor and determination of pollution sources in order to establish a map of the web. The plain-Rhiss Nekor, with an area of 100 km2, is located on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. It has a particular geological structure resulting from the opening of a graben at the end of the Tertiary, which is filled by the accumulation of hundreds of meters of sediment, generating considerable heterogeneity in deposits. This heterogeneity gives various hydrodynamic properties within the aquifer of the plain. The analysis of the water quality of twenty water points, well distributed over the plain, showed high natural salinity linked to the geological nature of the area. This salinity increases in the littoral area by the seawater intrusion phenomenon. This is accentuated by overexploitation of the ground water due to the growing demand. Some wells, located inland, are characterized by organic pollution caused by wastewater seepage from septic tanks and lost wells widespread in the region.

Keywords: anthropogenic factors, groundwater quality, marine intrusion, Rhiss-Nekor aquifer

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Authors: Abhiyan Paudel, Maheshwaran M Pillai

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This paper deals with the optimization and comparison of slender delta wing and blended wing body. The objective is to study the difference between the two wing types and analyze the various aerodynamic characteristics of both of these types.The blended-wing body is an aircraft configuration that has the potential to be more efficient than conventional large transport aircraft configurations with the same capability. The purported advantages of the BWB approach are efficient high-lift wings and a wide airfoil-shaped body. Similarly, symmetric separation vortices over slender delta wing may become asymmetric as the angle of attack is increased beyond a certain value, causing asymmetric forces even at symmetric flight conditions. The transition of the vortex pattern from being symmetric to asymmetric over symmetric bodies under symmetric flow conditions is a fascinating fluid dynamics problem and of major importance for the performance and control of high-maneuverability flight vehicles that favor the use of slender bodies. With the use of Star CCM, we analyze both the fluid properties. The CL, CD and CM were investigated in steady state CFD of BWB at Mach 0.3 and through wind tunnel experiments on 1/6th model of BWB at Mach 0.1. From CFD analysis pressure variation, Mach number contours and turbulence area was observed.

Keywords: Coefficient of Lift, Coefficient of Drag, CFD=Computational Fluid Dynamics, BWB=Blended Wing Body, slender delta wing

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Authors: G. T. Mudashiru, Mayowa P. Ibitola

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Investigation was carried out at Ikorodu North local council development area of Lagos state using physiochemical parameters to study the quality drinking water. It was ascertained that the human functions and activities were dependent on the continuous and availability of good drinking water. Six water samples were collected at six different boreholes from various outlets and homes in Ikorodu North local council development area. Lagos state Nigeria. Analysis was carried out to determine the purity of water for domestic use. Physicochemical properties evaluation was adapted using standard chemical methods. A number of parameters such as PH, turbidity, conductivity, total dissolved solids, color, chloride, sulphate, nitrate, hardness were determined. Heavy metals such as Zn, Mg, Fe, Pb, Hg, and Mn as well as total coliform counts were observed. The resulted values of each parameter were justified with World Health Organization (WHO) and Lagos state water regulatory commission LSWRC standard values for quantitative comparison. The result reveals that all the water had pH value well below the WHO maximum permissible level for potable water. Other physicochemical parameters were within the safe limit of WHO standard showing the portability nature of the water. It can be concluded that though the water is potable, there should be a kind of treatment of the water before consumption to prevent outbreak of diseases.

Keywords: drinking water, physiology, boreholes, heavy metals, domestic

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Authors: Junie B. Billones, Maria Constancia O. Carrillo, Voltaire G. Organo, Stephani Joy Y. Macalino, Inno A. Emnacen, Jamie Bernadette A. Sy

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The drug discovery and development process is generally known to be a very lengthy and labor-intensive process. Therefore, in order to be able to deliver prompt and effective responses to cure certain diseases, there is an urgent need to reduce the time and resources needed to design, develop, and optimize potential drugs. Computer-aided drug design (CADD) is able to alleviate this issue by applying computational power in order to streamline the whole drug discovery process, starting from target identification to lead optimization. This drug design approach can be predominantly applied to diseases that cause major public health concerns, such as tuberculosis. Hitherto, there has been no concrete cure for this disease, especially with the continuing emergence of drug resistant strains. In this study, CADD is employed for tuberculosis by first identifying a key enzyme in the mycobacterium’s metabolic pathway that would make a good drug target. One such potential target is the lipoate protein ligase B enzyme (LipB), which is a key enzyme in the M. tuberculosis metabolic pathway involved in the biosynthesis of the lipoic acid cofactor. Its expression is considerably up-regulated in patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and it has no known back-up mechanism that can take over its function when inhibited, making it an extremely attractive target. Using cutting-edge computational methods, compounds from AnalytiCon Discovery Natural Derivatives database were screened and docked against the LipB enzyme in order to rank them based on their binding affinities. Compounds which have better binding affinities than LipB’s known inhibitor, decanoic acid, were subjected to in silico toxicity evaluation using the ADMET and TOPKAT protocols. Out of the 31,692 compounds in the database, 112 of these showed better binding energies than decanoic acid. Furthermore, 12 out of the 112 compounds showed highly promising ADMET and TOPKAT properties. Future studies involving in vitro or in vivo bioassays may be done to further confirm the therapeutic efficacy of these 12 compounds, which eventually may then lead to a novel class of anti-tuberculosis drugs.

Keywords: pharmacophore, molecular docking, lipoate protein ligase B (LipB), ADMET, TOPKAT

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Authors: Seemal Mazhar Khan, Tahira Mubashar

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The present research aimed to investigate the relationship in perceived organizational justice, organizational trust and employee engagement in bank employees. It was hypothesized: there is likely to be a relationship in perceived organizational justices, organizational trust and employee engagement; perceived organizational justice and organizational trust are likely to predict employee engagement; there is likely to be effect of bank type and designation on perceived organizational justice, organizational trust and employee engagement. The sample consisted of 150 bank employees (50 from government, 50 from private and 50 from privatized banks) selected from different banks in Lahore, Pakistan. Correlational research design was used to conduct this study. Perceived Organizational Justices Questionnaire, Organizational Trust Questionnaire and Employee Engagement Scale were used for assessment. Pearson product moment correlation, hierarchical regression and multivariate analysis of covariance were applied. Results showed a positive significant relationship in perceived organizational justice and organizational engagement and there were also a positive significant relation between organizational trust and job and organizational engagement. Results showed that organizational trust predicts organizational engagement after controlling the effect of age, marital status and socio-economic status and there is a significant interaction effect of bank type and designation level on organizational trust in bank employees. The findings of the research can serve as a platform for the awareness of important antecedents of employee engagement and organizations can inculcate trust for better and improved engagement of its employees, thereby, enhancing the productivity of their employees.

Keywords: bank employees, organizational engagement, perceived organizational justice, trust

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Authors: Shreya Banerjee, Roshmi Sen, Subrata Chattopadhyay

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Urbanization during the second half of the last century has created many serious environment related issues leading to global warming and climate change. India is not an exception as the country is also facing the problems of global warming and urban heat islands (UHI) in all the major metropolises. This paper discusses the effect of different housing cluster layouts, site geometry, and geometry of urban street canyons on the urban heat island profile. The study is carried out using the three dimensional microclimatic computational fluid dynamics model ENVI-met version 3.1. Simulation models are done for a typical summer day of 21st June, 2015 in four different residential neighborhoods in the city of Kolkata which predominantly belongs to Warm-Humid Monsoon Climate. The results show the changing pattern of urban heat island profile with respect to different clustering layouts, geometry, and morphology of urban street canyons. The comparison between the four neighborhoods shows that different microclimatic variables are strongly dependant on the neighborhood layout pattern and geometry. The inferences obtained from this study can be indicative towards the formulation of neighborhood design by-laws that will attenuate the urban heat island effect.

Keywords: urban heat island, neighborhood morphology, site microclimate, ENVI-met, numerical analysis

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Authors: Ehi E. Aimiuwu

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As of 2017, many online learning professionals, institutions, and journals are still wondering how instructors can keep student engaged in the online learning environment to facilitate active learning effectively. The purpose of this qualitative single-case and narrative research is to explore whether online professors understand their role as mentors and facilitators of students’ academic success by keeping students engaged in active learning based on personalized experience in the field. Data collection tools that were used in the study included an NVivo 12 Plus qualitative software, an interview protocol, a digital audiotape, an observation sheet, and a transcription. Seven online professors in the United States from LinkedIn and residencies were interviewed for this study. Eleven online teaching techniques from previous research were used as the study framework. Data analysis process, member checking, and key themes were used to achieve saturation. About 85.7% of professors agreed on rubric as the preferred online grading technique. About 57.1% agreed on professors logging in daily, students logging in about 2-5 times weekly, knowing students to increase accountability, email as preferred communication tool, and computer access for adequate online learning. About 42.9% agreed on syllabus for clear class expectations, participation to show what has been learned, and energizing students for creativity.

Keywords: class facilitation, class management, online teaching, online education, pedagogy

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Authors: Fariba Dortaj, H. Bashir Nejad, Akram Dortaj,

Abstract:

Investigate the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Education on Emotional, Psychological, and Social Well-being in 12th grade students in Tehran city is the aim of present study. The research method is semi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population of the study includes all 12th grade students of the 12th district of Tehran city in the academic year of 2017 to 2018. From the mentioned population, 60 students had earned low scores in three dimensions of Subjective Well-Being Questionnaire of Keyes and Magyar-Moe (2003) by using random sampling method and they were selected and randomly assigned into 2 experimental and control groups. Then experimental groups were received a Mindfulness protocol in 8 sessions during 2 hours. After completion of the sessions, all subjects were re-evaluated. Data were analyzed by using multivariate analysis of covariance. The findings of this study showed that in the emotional well-being aspect with the components of positive emotional affection (P < 0.025, F = 17/80) and negative emotions (P <0.025, F = 5/41), in the psychological well-being of the components Self-esteem (P < 0.008, F = 25.26), life goal (P < 0.008, F = 38.19), environmental domination (P <0.008, F=82.82), relationships with others (P < 0.008, F = 19.12), personal development with (P < 0.008, F = 87.38), and in the social well-being aspect, the correlation coefficients with (P<0.01, F=12/21), admission and acceptability with (P <0.01, F =18.09) and realism with (P <0.01, F = 11.30), there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups and it can be said that the education of mindfulness affects the improvement of components of psychological, social and emotional well-being in students.

Keywords: mindfulness, emotional well-being, psychological well-being, social well-being

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Authors: Basuki Supartono, Nunuk Nugrohowati, Ryan Gamma Andiraldi

Abstract:

Osteoarthritis of the knee can occur due to scoliosis. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of scoliosis cause secondary osteoarthritis on the knee. This research use an analytic cross-sectional design. The total sample of 92 athletes scoliosis taken by simple random sampling technique. The data obtained were analyzing with Chi-square test, Fisher and Prevalence Ratio. The results of analysis show that there are influences on the incidence of scoliosis secondary osteoarthritis on the knee in athletes at the National Sports Hospital. Based on the criteria in the Cobbs angle had the results (p = 0.022 (p <0.05)), moderate Cobbs angle degree were 7.5 times more at risk of causing secondary osteoarthritis on the knee than a mild degree. While the shape of the curve scoliosis is getting results (p = 0.038 (p <0.05)), the shape of the S curve scoliosis 3.2 times more at risk of causing secondary osteoarthritis on the knee than the curve C. It can be concluded that there is significant influence between the Cobbs angle, shape of the curve scoliosis on the incidence of secondary osteoarthritis on the knee in National Sports Cibubur Hospital on July 2013- April 2014

Keywords: Cobbs angle, curve shape scoliosis, secondary osteoarthritis on the knee, analytic cross-sectional design

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Authors: John McNamara

Abstract:

Growing up creative is an important idea in today’s classrooms. As education seeks to prepare children for their futures, it is important that the system considers traditional as well as non-traditional pathways. This poster describes the findings of a research study investigating creative potential in children with learning disabilities. Children with learning disabilities were administered the Torrance Test of Creative Problem Solving along with subtests from the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing. A quantitative comparative analysis was computed using paired-sample t-tests. Results indicated statistically significant difference between children’s creative problem-solving skills and their reading-based skills. The results lend support to the idea that children with learning disabilities have inherent strengths in the area of creativity. It can be hypothesized that the success of these children may be associated with the notion that they are using a type of neurological processing that is not otherwise used in academic tasks. Children with learning disabilities, a presumed left-side neurological processing problem, process information with the right side of the brain – even with tasks that should be processed with the left side (i.e. language). In over-using their right hemisphere, it is hypothesized that children with learning disabilities have well-developed right hemispheres and, as such, have strengths associated with this type of processing, such as innovation and creativity. The current study lends support to the notion that children with learning disabilities may be particularly primed to succeed in areas that call on creativity and creative thinking.

Keywords: learning disabilities, educational psychology, education, creativity

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Authors: Sapana Purandare

Abstract:

The landscape of school leadership is evolving with the changing world of the 21st century. In this era, it is crucial to adapt our approaches to school leadership, with the school leader playing an important role in shaping the educational system. During the implementation of the LEAD project, the volume of 67 practices was impractical for any school leader to effectively incorporate. Consequently, this study aims to address this issue by administering a questionnaire to school leaders, including those from Kotak Education Foundation partner schools and others operating within similar contexts. The goal is to pinpoint the practices that can enhance school leadership and Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) both presently and in the near future. Utilizing the Qualtrics tool, a survey was conducted to identify the top 15 practices that respondents believe will be crucial for improving SLO over the next 10-15 years. Additionally, focus group discussions (FGDs) and interviews were conducted to elucidate the challenges hindering the implementation of these practices within schools. The recommendations derived from the identified top 15 practices will be instrumental in devising scalable models for LEAD and advocating for their adoption at the state level. Practices with higher standard deviations and average scores hold particular significance for future development. Furthermore, demographic factors such as age, gender, and years of service influence individuals' perceptions of these practices and thus warrant consideration in our analysis.

Keywords: exploring top sustainable practices, practice implementation, school leadership, student learning outcomes

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Authors: Juei-Hsin Wang, Yen-Ting Chen

Abstract:

The paper examines teacher professional learning community theory and implementation by using technology and media tools in Taiwan. After literature review, the researcher concluded in five elements of teacher professional learning community theory. They are ‘sharing the vision and value', ‘collaborative cooperation’, ‘ to support the situation', ‘to share practice' and 'Pay Attention to Student Learning Effectiveness' five levels by using technology and media in flipped education. Teacher professional learning community is one kind of models for teacher professional development in flipped education. Due to Taiwan education culture, there is no summative evaluation for teachers. So, there are multiple kinds of ways and education practice in teacher professional learning community nowadays. This study used literature review and quality analysis to analyze the connection theory and practice and discussed the official and non‐official strategies on teacher professional learning community by using technology and media in flipped education. The tablet is used as a camera tool for classroom students to solve problems. The students can instantly see and enable other students to watch the whole class discussion by operating the tablet. This would allow teachers and students to focus on discussing the connotation of subjects, especially bottom‐up and non‐official cases from teachers become an important influence in Taiwan.

Keywords: professional learning community, collaborative cooperation, flipped education, technology application, media application

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Authors: Reem Muaid, Thomas Chesney

Abstract:

Background: Attitude towards organ donation is predominantly positive in the UK; however, the donation rate remains low. To develop more effective interventions, this research aims to examine the behavioural barriers in organ donations using Q methodology to elicit patterns of overlap among different barriers and motivators. Method: A Q methodology study was conducted with 40 participants aged 19-64 who were asked to rank 47 statements on issues that are associated with organ donation. By-person factor analysis using Centroid method and Varimax rotation was conducted to bring out patterns in the way statements were ranked to obtain groupings of participants who had arranged the statements in similar fashion. Results: Four viewpoints were extracted: The Realist, the Optimist Hesitant, the Pessimist Determinant, and the Empathetic. Salient barriers to organ donation presented in each viewpoint suggest that perceived lack of knowledge, anxiety, mistrust in the healthcare system, and lack of cue to action are the main barriers to organ donation. Consensus statements suggest that religion and family agreement are inconsequential if the attitude to organ donation is well-formed. Conclusion: There are different attitudes around deceased organ donation that were uncovered using Q methodology. These results suggest that people respond to behavioural change campaigns differently depending on their own perceptions of organ donation. We argue that a paradigm shift in behavioural interventions is underpinned by understanding the overlapping yet distinctive nature of perceived perspectives.

Keywords: organ donation, Q methodology, behavioural interventions, post Q Survey

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Authors: Ipek Kivanc, Demet Ozgur-Unluakin

Abstract:

Over the past years, technological innovations and advancements have played an important role in the industrial world. Due to technological improvements, the degree of complexity of the systems has increased. Hence, all systems are getting more uncertain that emerges from increased complexity, resulting in more cost. It is challenging to cope with this situation. So, implementing efficient planning of maintenance activities in such systems are getting more essential. Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) are powerful tools for stochastic sequential decision problems under uncertainty. Although maintenance optimization in a dynamic environment can be modeled as such a sequential decision problem, POMDPs are not widely used for tackling maintenance problems. However, they can be well-suited frameworks for obtaining optimal maintenance policies. In the classical representation of the POMDP framework, the system is denoted by a single node which has multiple states. The main drawback of this classical approach is that the state space grows exponentially with the number of state variables. On the other side, factored representation of POMDPs enables to simplify the complexity of the states by taking advantage of the factored structure already available in the nature of the problem. The main idea of factored POMDPs is that they can be compactly modeled through dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs), which are graphical representations for stochastic processes, by exploiting the structure of this representation. This study aims to demonstrate how maintenance planning of dynamic systems can be modeled with factored POMDPs. An empirical maintenance planning problem of a dynamic system consisting of four partially observable components deteriorating in time is designed. To solve the empirical model, we resort to Symbolic Perseus solver which is one of the state-of-the-art factored POMDP solvers enabling approximate solutions. We generate some more predefined policies based on corrective or proactive maintenance strategies. We execute the policies on the empirical problem for many replications and compare their performances under various scenarios. The results show that the computed policies from the POMDP model are superior to the others. Acknowledgment: This work is supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) under grant no: 117M587.

Keywords: factored representation, maintenance, multi-component system, partially observable Markov decision processes

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