Search results for: computer assisted strategies

Authors: Cory B. Lord

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Falls among the elderly population has become an area of concern in healthcare today. The negative impacts of falls lead to increased morbidity, mortality, and financial burdens for both patients and healthcare systems. Falls in the United States is reported at an annual rate of 36 million in those aged 65 and older. Each year, one out of four people in this age group will suffer a fall, with 20% of these falls causing injury. The setting for this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project was a memory care unit in an assisted living community, as these facilities house cognitively impaired older adults. These communities lack fall prevention programs; therefore, the need exists to add to the body of knowledge to positively impact this population. The objective of this project was to reduce fall rates through the implementation of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) STEADI (stopping elderly accidents, deaths, and injuries) program. The DNP project performed was a quality improvement pilot study with a pre and post-test design. This program was implemented in the memory care setting over 12 weeks. The project included an educational session for staff and a fall risk assessment with appropriate resident referrals. The three aims of the DNP project were to reduce fall rates among the elderly aged 65 and older who reside in the memory care unit, increase staff knowledge of STEADI fall prevention measures after an educational session, and assess the willingness of memory care unit staff to adopt an evidence-based a fall prevention program. The Donabedian model was used as a guiding conceptual framework for this quality improvement pilot study. The fall rate data for 12 months before the intervention was evaluated and compared to post-intervention fall rates. The educational session comprised of a pre and post-test to assess staff knowledge of the fall prevention program and the willingness of staff to adopt the fall prevention program. The overarching goal was to reduce falls in the elderly population who live in memory care units. The results of the study showed, on average that the fall rate during the implementation period of STEADI (μ=6.79) was significantly lower when compared to the prior 12 months (μ= 9.50) (p=0.02, α = 0.05). The mean staff knowledge scores improved from pretest (μ=77.74%) to post-test (μ=87.42%) (p=0.00, α= 0.05) after the education session. The results of the willingness to adopt a fall prevention program were scored at 100%. In summation, implementing the STEADI fall prevention program can assist in reducing fall rates for residents aged 65 and older who reside in a memory care setting.

Keywords: dementia, elderly, falls, STEADI

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Authors: Dejan Metodijeski, Elizabeta Mitreva, Nako Taskov, Oliver Filiposki

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Tourism development strategies are an important link in the tourism policy that is used to make its management better and easier. A public-public partnership (PUP) is a partnership between two or more public authorities or between a public authority and any non-profit organization with the goal of providing services and facilities or transferring technical skills. The paper presents this kind of partnership between two public authorities in Macedonia, the Municipality of Gazi Baba on one hand, and the University of Goce Delcev on the other. The main idea of this partnership is the development of a tourism strategy for the Municipality of Gazi Baba by the University on one side, and on the other, the construction of a mini park in the court of the University by the Municipality. This paper presents the causes and analyzes the procedures relating to this partnership and the methodology of the tourism development strategy. It contains a relevant literature review related to PUPs and tourism development strategy. The results and benefits of this partnership are presented with figures.

Keywords: public-public partnership, tourism development strategy, municipality of Gazi Baba, Macedonia

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Authors: Arnault Morisson

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Innovation districts are being implemented as urban regeneration strategies in cities as diverse as Barcelona (Spain), Boston (Massachusetts), Chattanooga (Tennessee), Detroit (Michigan), Medellin (Colombia), and Montréal (Canada). Little, however, is known about the concept. This paper aims to provide a framework to define innovation districts. The research methodology is based on a qualitative approach using 22@ Barcelona as a case study. 22@ Barcelona was the first innovation district ever created and has been a model for the innovation districts of Medellin (Colombia) and Boston (Massachusetts) among others. Innovation districts based on the 22@ Barcelona’s model can be defined as top-down urban innovation ecosystems designed around four multilayered and multidimensional models of innovation: urban planning, productive, collaborative, and creative, all coordinated under strong leadership, with the ultimate objectives to accelerate the innovation process and competitiveness of a locality. Innovation districts aim to respond to a new economic paradigm in which economic production flows back to cities.

Keywords: innovation ecosystem, governance, technology park, urban planning, urban policy, urban regeneration

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Authors: Emrah Denizhan

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Policing studies have drawn attention to the changing role of law enforcement in favour of harsh policing strategies throughout the world. Turkey has become part of this global transition process by restructuring its policing through a series of allegedly democratic amendments to Turkish law. Nevertheless, severe violations of human rights continue to be widely experienced phenomena. This paper suggests problematizing the changing judicial framework of policing together with the persistent aggressive policing in Turkey, by considering Agamben's concept of police as a sovereign entity – sovereign police. In so doing, the paper analytically dissects sovereign police into three premises: the criminalization of the (perceived) enemy, the militarization of the police, and finally, the discretionary use of force. This examination of the state’s early ethno-racial policies and the history of the Turkish police force, and of the changing judicial framework of police-related laws in the 2000s, demonstrates that certain ‘internal enemies’ have been criminalized by increasingly militarized police using escalating discretionary use of force.

Keywords: criminalization, discretionary use of force, policing, sovereignty

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Authors: LuoJiaoyang, Yu Hongyang

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In this paper, we experimented with a new approach to multimodal identification using RGB, RGB-D and voice data. The multimodal combination of RGB and voice data has been applied in tasks such as emotion recognition and has shown good results and stability, and it is also the same in identity recognition tasks. We believe that the data of different modalities can enhance the effect of the model through mutual reinforcement. We try to increase the three modalities on the basis of the dual modalities and try to improve the effectiveness of the network by increasing the number of modalities. We also implemented the single-modal identification system separately, tested the data of these different modalities under clean and noisy conditions, and compared the performance with the multimodal model. In the process of designing the multimodal model, we tried a variety of different fusion strategies and finally chose the fusion method with the best performance. The experimental results show that the performance of the multimodal system is better than that of the single modality, especially in dealing with noise, and the multimodal system can achieve an average improvement of 5%.

Keywords: multimodal, three modalities, RGB-D, identity verification

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Authors: Sarwat Sultan, Shahzad Gul

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This study was carried out to see the mediating role of problem solving styles (sensing, intuitive, feeling, and thinking) in the predictive relationship of gratitude with subjective well-being. A sample of 454 college students aged 20-26 years old participated in this study and provided data on the measures of gratitude, problem solving styles, and subjective well-being. Results indicated the significant relationships of gratitude with subjective well-being and problem solving styles of intuitive and thinking. Results further indicated the positive link of intuitive and thinking styles with subjective well-being. Findings also provided the evidence for the significant mediating role of problem solving styles in the relationship of gratitude with subjective well-being. The implication for this study is likely to enhance the medium to long term effects of gratitude on subjective well-being among students and as well as assessing its value in promoting psychological health and problem solving strategies among students.

Keywords: gratitude, subjective well-being, problem solving styles, college students

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Authors: Surajj Sarode, G. P. Vadnere, G. Vidya Sagar

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Compression coating is one of the strategies for delivering drug to the colon based on Gastrointestinal PH and transit time concept. The main aim of these formulations to develop rapidly disintegrating Zaltoprofen core tablets compression-coated with a mixture of time-dependent hydrophilic swellable polymer HPMC K 15 and PH responsive soluble polymer Chitosan and Guar gum in different ratios. The effect of the proportion of HPMC, Chitosan and Guar gum in the coat on premature drug release in upper part (Stomach and small intestine) of GIT and the amount of drug release in colon target area was studied. The formulations are carried out by using Direct Compression method. Sodium starch Glycolate used for rapid disintegration. FTIR used for Drug-Polymer Interaction studies. The prepared tablets were evaluated for hardness, thickness, friability, in-vitro disintegration, in-Vitro dissolution and in-vitro kinetic study.

Keywords: zaltoprofen, chitosan, formulation, drug delivery

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Authors: A. S. Salimzhanova, J. C. Sardinas, O. A. Yanovskaya

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The objective of this research work is to discuss the concept of green growth in the Republic of Kazakhstan introduced by its government in the National Sustainable Development Strategy with the objective of transition to a resource-efficient, green economy. We believe that emerging economies like Kazakhstan can pursue a cleaner and more efficient development path by introducing an environmental tax system based on resource consumption rather than only income and labor. The key issues discussed in this article are the eco-efficiency, which refers to closing the gap between economic and ecological efficiencies, and the structural change of the economy toward green growth. We also strongly believe that studying the experience of East Asian countries on green reform including eco-innovation and green solutions in business is essential to the case of Kazakhstan. All of these will raise the status of Kazakhstan to the level of one of the thirty developed countries over the next decades.

Keywords: economic strategy, green growth, green solutions, natural resource management, environmental tax system

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Authors: H. van Rensburg, B. Adcock, B. Al Mansouri

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This paper discusses the impact of pedagogical and learning differences on Arabic international students’ (AIS) learning when they come to study in Australia. It describes the difference in teaching and learning methods between the students’ home countries in the Arabic world and Australia. There are many research papers that discuss the general experiences of international students in the western learning systems, including Australia. However, there is little research conducted specifically about AIS learning in Australia. Therefore, the data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with AIS who are learning at an Australian regional university in Queensland. For that reason, this paper contributes to fill a gap by reporting on the learning experiences of AIS in Australia and, more specifically, on the AIS’ pedagogical experiences. Not only discussing the learning experiences of AIS, but also discussing the cultural adaptation using the Oberg’s cultural adaptation model. This paper suggests some learning strategies that may benefit AIS and academic lecturers when teaching students from a completely different culture and language.

Keywords: arabic international students, cultural adaption, learning differences, learning systems

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Authors: Cecilia Kunseh Betek

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Managing rural water supply systems effectively and efficiently is a challenge in the O R Tambo District Municipality due to the long distances between consumers and municipal centres. This is a couple with the low income of most residents and the government's policy of free basic water which is making rural water provision very difficult. With regard to cartage, the results reveal that the majority (84.4%) of the population covers distances of about 1kilometre to fetch water, and 15.6% travel up kilometer to access water facilities. This means that the water sources are located very far from households, outside the officially legislated array of 200metres. These are many reasons to account for this situation. Firstly, this implies that there are inadequate stand pipes to cater for all the homesteads scattered across the rugged terrain of OR Tambo District municipality. Secondly, and following from the first explanation, it would be seen that funding that is made available is not adequate, or is not efficiently spent on the targeted projects. The situation in the rural areas of South Africa is fraught with cumbersome complexity when it comes to service delivery.

Keywords: water, management, government, rural

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Authors: Irfan Ali, Srikant Gupta, Aquil Ahmed

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Every country needs a sustainable development (SD) for its economic growth by forming suitable policies and initiative programs for the development of different sectors of the country. This paper is comprised of modeling and optimization of different sectors of India that form a multi-criterion model. In this paper, we developed a fractional goal programming (FGP) model that helps in providing the efficient allocation of resources simultaneously by achieving the sustainable goals in gross domestic product (GDP), electricity consumption (EC) and greenhouse gasses (GHG) emission by the year 2030. Also, a weighted model of FGP is presented to obtain varying solution according to the priorities set by the policy maker for achieving future goals of GDP growth, EC, and GHG emission. The presented models provide a useful insight to the decision makers for implementing strategies in a different sector.

Keywords: sustainable and economic development, multi-objective fractional programming, fuzzy goal programming, weighted fuzzy goal programming

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Authors: M. Abdul Jalil

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Parents caring for a child with a profound disability encounter different experiences compared to the parents caring for a child without a disability. The aim of this paper is to develop a greater understanding of parenting of a child with profound disabilities in the context of developing countries with reference to Bangladesh. The paper reveals that parents caring for a child with a profound disability are experiencing increased financial burden, affiliate and courtesy stigma and negative impact on mothers in terms of additional caregiving role, instability of conjugal relations, giving up of involvement in economic activities, and shrinking kinship and social relationships. In addition, government and non-government services for children with disabilities are very limited. Moreover, the information about the services is also not available to the parents. Therefore, parents find it difficult to cope with the challenges that lead to the alienation of the parents. The paper recommended the strategies to address the issues in the context of Bangladesh, which in turn might be applicable to the developing countries as well.

Keywords: caregiving, coping, parenting, profound disability

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Authors: Sibel Çaynak, Nur Elçin Boyacıoğlu

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This study was conducted to evaluate the bereavement experiences of families of elderly individuals who died due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the qualitative research methods, the case study method, was used in the study. The sample of the research consisted of 19 people who agreed to participate in the research between April and July 2022. The research data were collected using a Personal Information Form and a Semi-Structured Interview Form, which was created to conduct individual in-depth interviews. As a result of the descriptive analysis, four main themes, the ability to perform religious rituals related to the bereavement experience, feelings and thoughts about death, attitudes of those around after death, and coping strategies in the COVID-19 process. It was determined that individuals had difficulty accepting death, felt inadequate about spirituality due to limited religious rituals, had feelings of despair and guilt, and limitedly utilized social support systems.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, bereavement, psychiatric nursing, qualitative study

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Authors: Robert Dutkiewicz, Monika Szpringer, Mariola Wojciechowska

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Physical activity is one of the factors greatly influencing healthy lifestyle. The recent research into physical activity of the Polish society reveals that contribution of physical culture to healthy lifestyle is insufficient. Students, regardless of age, spend most of free-time in front of a TV or computer. The research attempted to identify the level of physical activity and healthy lifestyle among students of medical sciences and other students doing their teaching degrees. The findings of physical activity research conducted in 2014, which covered 364 students of medical sciences and future teachers from the University of Jan Kochanowski in Kielce were analysed. The research involved the method of diagnostic survey based on a questionnaire. It attempted to establish to what extent such factors as the field of studies, the place of residence and BMI affect students’ physical activity. Empirical material was analysed by means of SPSS/PC, the leading statistical software. The field of study significantly influences physical activity of the respondents. The students of physiotherapy and public health tend to be more physically active than students of biology and geography: 46.8% students of geography and 51.8 % biology students seldom take up physical activity. Obesity and overweight are currently serious problems of university students: 6.6% of them are obese and 19% overweight. It is alarming that these students are not willing to find ways to be more physically active. Most of the obese and overweight respondents study biology or geography and live in a rural area. Unequal chances in terms of youth physical culture are determined by the differences between rural and urban environments. Young people living in rural areas are less physically active, particularly in terms of the frequency and the amount of time devoted to physical activity. This is caused by poor infrastructure to perform physical activity, the lack of or limited number of sports clubs and centres. It is thought-provoking that most of the students claim that they do not have enough time to do sports or other activities, but at the same time they spend a lot of time at a computer or watching TV.

Keywords: BMI, healthy lifestyle, sports activity, students

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Authors: Anna Fredriksson Häägg, Charlotte Weil, Niklas Rönnberg

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Map-based dashboards are used for data exploration every day. The present study used an insight-based methodology for evaluating a map-based dashboard that presents research findings of water management and ecosystem services in the Amazon. In addition to analyzing the insights gained from using the dashboard, the evaluation method was compared to standardized questionnaires and task-based evaluations. The result suggests that the dashboard enabled the participants to gain domain-relevant, complex insights regarding the topic presented. Furthermore, the insight-based analysis highlighted unexpected insights and hypotheses regarding causes and potential adaptation strategies for remediation. Although time- and resource-consuming, the insight-based methodology was shown to have the potential of thoroughly analyzing how end users can utilize map-based dashboards for data exploration and decision making. Finally, the insight-based methodology is argued to evaluate tools in scenarios more similar to real-life usage compared to task-based evaluation methods.

Keywords: visual analytics, dashboard, insight-based evaluation, geographic visualization

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Authors: Adedayo Jeremiah Adeyekun, Samuel Olugbemiga Ishola

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This paper is intended to examine how architecture influences its occupants and how is what we design and build be used by its inhabitants. It also reviews the effect of Architecture to our convenience. According to history of architecture, this issue has materialized in various methods with control of space, through philosophy of experience with social and cultural influences and through art. What these all share in common is the area of strategies, when used from an architectural point of view, are thoughtful in nature. We thought of how architecture influences us, and thereafter we provide recommendation. As humans, we are encouraged to develop our houses to suit our living regarding to health, and it is the desire of every good architect to provide houses that will encourage comfort. We have acquired understanding from questions with rational point of views on the impact of Architecture to our health. As a result, this paper will certainly reinforce the requirement for architects to design a structure that will certainly urge the social and cultural convenience of the environment. To accomplish the goals of this study, experts in the discipline of architecture and wellness were interviewed, and information was originated from journals, publications and textbooks associated to architecture in order to establish the influence of architecture to our wellness.

Keywords: architecture, well-being, health, impact, environment

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Authors: Arda Ozkurt, Ozlem Bozkurt

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Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are devices that output commands by interpreting the data collected from the brain. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a non-invasive method to measure the brain's electrical activity. Since it was invented by Hans Berger in 1929, it has led to many neurological discoveries and has become one of the essential components of non-invasive measuring methods. Despite the fact that it has a low spatial resolution -meaning it is able to detect when a group of neurons fires at the same time-, it is a non-invasive method, making it easy to use without possessing any risks. In EEG, electrodes are placed on the scalp, and the voltage difference between a minimum of two electrodes is recorded, which is then used to accomplish the intended task. The recordings of EEGs include, but are not limited to, the currents along dendrites from synapses to the soma, the action potentials along the axons connecting neurons, and the currents through the synaptic clefts connecting axons with dendrites. However, there are some sources of noise that may affect the reliability of the EEG signals as it is a non-invasive method. For instance, the noise from the EEG equipment, the leads, and the signals coming from the subject -such as the activity of the heart or muscle movements- affect the signals detected by the electrodes of the EEG. However, new techniques have been developed to differentiate between those signals and the intended ones. Furthermore, an EEG device is not enough to analyze the data from the brain to be used by the BCI implication. Because the EEG signal is very complex, to analyze it, artificial intelligence algorithms are required. These algorithms convert complex data into meaningful and useful information for neuroscientists to use the data to design BCI devices. Even though for neurological diseases which require highly precise data, invasive BCIs are needed; non-invasive BCIs - such as EEGs - are used in many cases to help disabled people's lives or even to ease people's lives by helping them with basic tasks. For example, EEG is used to detect before a seizure occurs in epilepsy patients, which can then prevent the seizure with the help of a BCI device. Overall, EEG is a commonly used non-invasive BCI technique that has helped develop BCIs and will continue to be used to detect data to ease people's lives as more BCI techniques will be developed in the future.

Keywords: BCI, EEG, non-invasive, spatial resolution

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Authors: Yousef Rostami Gharainy

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This paper presents resource consumption accounting as an imaginative way to deal with management accounting which concentrates on administrators as the essential clients of the data and gives the best information of conventional management accounting. This system underscores that association's asset reasons costs, accordingly in costing frameworks the emphasis ought to be on assets and utilization of them. Resource consumption accounting consolidates two costing methodologies, action based and German cost accounting method known as GPK. This methodology notwithstanding giving a chance to managers to decide, makes task management accounting as operational. The reason for this article is to clarify the idea of resource consumption accounting, its parts and highlights and use of this strategy in associations. In the first place we deliver to presentation of resource consumption accounting, foundation, reasons for its development and the issues that past costing frameworks confronted it. At that point we give standards and presumptions of this technique; at last we depict the execution of this strategy in associations and its preferences over other costing strategies.

Keywords: resource consumption accounting, management accounting, action based method, German cost accounting method

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Authors: Asma Ben Abdallah

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Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP) Instruction has brought a lot of enlightenment for Foreign Language Teaching and has secured itself a deserved position in SLA research. In the Tunisian context, ILP instruction remains less explored for academics and educational practitioners. In our experience as teachers, both at secondary school and at university levels, the instruction and assessment of pragmatics seem to be contentious. This paper firstly introduces the theoretical models of Interlanguage pragmatics Instruction and focuses on their implications for foreign language teaching. This study builds on the work of Ben Abdallah (2015) that investigated the effects of pragmatic Instruction on Tunisian EFL Learners where pragmatic Instruction has been approached from the perspective of students and their learning strategies. The data for the present study, however, come from Tunisian EFL teachers by investigating their pragmatics practices and their perceptions of pragmatic instruction. The findings indicated that EFL teachers have pragmatic awareness; yet, their reflections revealed that their awareness was mostly on theoretical pragmatic knowledge, and not explicitly brought into practical pragmatic applications. The paper concludes by promoting pragmatics instruction with the suggestion that EFL teachers should teach pragmatics in class.

Keywords: interlanguage pragmatics theory, pragmatics, pragmatic instruction, SLA

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Authors: Oleg Reva, Ilya Korotetskiy, Marina Lankina, Murat Kulmanov, Aleksandr Ilin

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Molecular docking approaches are widely used for design of new antibiotics and modeling of antibacterial activities of numerous ligands which bind specifically to active centers of indispensable enzymes and/or key signaling proteins of pathogens. Widespread drug resistance among pathogenic microorganisms calls for development of new antibiotics specifically targeting important metabolic and information pathways. A generally recognized problem is that almost all molecular targets have been identified already and it is getting more and more difficult to design innovative antibacterial compounds to combat the drug resistance. A promising way to overcome the drug resistance problem is an induction of reversion of drug resistance by supplementary medicines to improve the efficacy of the conventional antibiotics. In contrast to well established computer-based drug design, modeling of drug resistance reversion still is in its infancy. In this work, we proposed an approach to identification of compensatory genetic variants reducing the fitness cost associated with the acquisition of drug resistance by pathogenic bacteria. The approach was based on an analysis of the population genetic of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and on results of experimental modeling of the drug resistance reversion induced by a new anti-tuberculosis drug FS-1. The latter drug is an iodine-containing nanomolecular complex that passed clinical trials and was admitted as a new medicine against MDR-TB in Kazakhstan. Isolates of M. tuberculosis obtained on different stages of the clinical trials and also from laboratory animals infected with MDR-TB strain were characterized by antibiotic resistance, and their genomes were sequenced by the paired-end Illumina HiSeq 2000 technology. A steady increase in sensitivity to conventional anti-tuberculosis antibiotics in series of isolated treated with FS-1 was registered despite the fact that the canonical drug resistance mutations identified in the genomes of these isolates remained intact. It was hypothesized that the drug resistance phenotype in M. tuberculosis requires an adjustment of activities of many genes to compensate the fitness cost of the drug resistance mutations. FS-1 cased an aggravation of the fitness cost and removal of the drug-resistant variants of M. tuberculosis from the population. This process caused a significant increase in genetic heterogeneity of the Mtb population that was not observed in the positive and negative controls (infected laboratory animals left untreated and treated solely with the antibiotics). A large-scale search for linkage disequilibrium associations between the drug resistance mutations and genetic variants in other genomic loci allowed identification of target proteins, which could be influenced by supplementary drugs to increase the fitness cost of the drug resistance and deprive the drug-resistant bacterial variants of their competitiveness in the population. The approach will be used to improve the efficacy of FS-1 and also for computer-based design of new drugs to combat drug-resistant infections.

Keywords: complete genome sequencing, computational modeling, drug resistance reversion, Mycobacterium tuberculosis

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Authors: R. Daira

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The electronic speckle interferometry technique used to measure the deformations of scatterers process is based on the subtraction of interference patterns. A speckle image is first recorded before deformation of the object in the RAM of a computer, after a second deflection. The square of the difference between two images showing correlation fringes observable in real time directly on monitor. The interpretation these fringes to determine the deformation. In this paper, we present experimental results of deformation out of the plane of two samples in aluminum, electronic boards and stainless steel.

Keywords: optical method, holography, interferometry, deformation

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Authors: Hayoung Cho, Gabi Cho

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In response to the continuing increase of demands for living environment safety, the Korean government has established and implemented various environmental health policies and set a high priority to the related R&D. However, the level of related technologies such as environmental risk assessment are still relatively low, and there is a need for detailed investment strategies in the field of environmental health research. As scientific research papers can give valuable implications on the development of a certain field, this study analyzed the global research trends in the field of environmental health over the past 10 years (2005~2015). Research topics were extracted from abstracts of the collected SCI papers using topic modeling to study the changes in research trends and discover emerging technologies. The method of topic modeling can improve the traditional bibliometric approach and provide a more comprehensive review of the global research development. The results of this study are expected to help provide insights for effective policy making and R&D investment direction.

Keywords: environmental health, paper analysis, research trends, topic modeling

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Authors: Mohammed Hassan Alshaikhi

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Vocabulary is essential factor of learning and mastering any languages, and it helps learners to communicate with others and to be understood. The aim of this study was to examine whether semantic mapping technique was helpful in terms of improving student's English vocabulary learning comparing to the traditional technique. The students’ age was between 11 and 13 years old. There were 60 students in total who participated in this study. 30 students were in the treatment group (target vocabulary items were taught with semantic mapping). The other 30 students were in the control group (the target vocabulary items were taught by a traditional technique). A t-test was used with the results of pre-test and post-test in order to examine the outcomes of using semantic mapping when teaching vocabulary. The results showed that the vocabulary mastery in the treatment group was increased more than the control group.

Keywords: English language, learning vocabulary, Saudi teachers, semantic mapping, teaching vocabulary strategies

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Authors: Othman E. Othman, Amira M. Nowier, Medhat El-Denary

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Camels play an important socio-economic role within the pastoral and agricultural system in the dry and semidry zones of Asia and Africa. Camels are economically important animals in Egypt where they are dual purpose animals (meat and milk). The analysis of chemical composition of camel milk showed that the total protein contents ranged from 2.4% to 5.3% and it is divided into casein and whey proteins. The casein fraction constitutes 52% to 89% of total camel milk protein and it divided into 4 fractions namely αs1, αs2, β and κ-caseins which are encoded by four tightly genes. In spite of the important role of casein genes and the effects of their genetic polymorphisms on quantitative traits and technological properties of milk, the studies for the detection of genetic polymorphism of camel milk genes are still limited. Due to this fact, this work focused - using PCR-RFP and sequencing analysis - on the identification of genetic polymorphisms and SNPs of two casein genes in Maghrabi camel breed which is a dual purpose camel breed in Egypt. The amplified fragments at 488-bp of the camel κ-CN gene were digested with AluI endonuclease. The results showed the appearance of three different genotypes in the tested animals; CC with three digested fragments at 203-, 127- and 120-bp, TT with three digested fragments at 203-, 158- and 127-bp and CT with four digested fragments at 203-, 158-, 127- and 120-bp. The frequencies of three detected genotypes were 11.0% for CC, 48.0% for TT and 41.0% for CT genotypes. The sequencing analysis of the two different alleles declared the presence of a single nucleotide polymorphism (C→T) at position 121 in the amplified fragments which is responsible for the destruction of a restriction site (AG/CT) in allele T and resulted in the presence of two different alleles C and T in tested animals. The nucleotide sequences of κ-CN alleles C and T were submitted to GenBank with the accession numbers; KU055605 and KU055606, respectively. The primers used in this study amplified 942-bp fragments spanning from exon 4 to exon 6 of camel αS1-Casein gene. The amplified fragments were digested with two different restriction enzymes; SmlI and AluI. The results of SmlI digestion did not show any restriction site whereas the digestion with AluI endonuclease revealed the presence of two restriction sites AG^CT at positions 68^69 and 631^632 yielding the presence of three digested fragments with sizes 68-, 563- and 293-bp.The nucleotide sequences of this fragment from camel αS1-Casein gene were submitted to GenBank with the accession number KU145820. In conclusion, the genetic characterization of quantitative traits genes which are associated with the production traits like milk yield and composition is considered an important step towards the genetic improvement of livestock species through the selection of superior animals depending on the favorable alleles and genotypes; marker assisted selection (MAS).

Keywords: genetic polymorphism, SNP polymorphism, Maghrabi camels, κ-Casein gene, αS1-Casein gene

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Authors: Noelia L. Alchapar, Cláudia C. Pezzuto, Erica N. Correa

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Mitigating urban overheating is key to achieving the environmental and energy sustainability of cities. The management of the optical properties of the materials that make up the urban envelope -roofing, pavement, and facades- constitutes a profitable and effective tool to improve the urban microclimate and rehabilitate urban areas. Each material that makes up the urban envelope has a different capacity to reflect received solar radiation, which alters the fraction of solar radiation absorbed by the city. However, the paradigm of increasing solar reflectance in all areas of the city without distinguishing their relative position within the urban canyon can cause serious problems of overheating and discomfort among its inhabitants. The hypothesis that supports the research postulates that not all reflective technologies that contribute to urban radiative cooling favor the thermal comfort conditions of pedestrians to equal measure. The objective of this work is to determine to what degree the management of the optical properties of the facades modifies outdoor thermal comfort, given that the mitigation potential of materials with high reflectance in facades is strongly conditioned by geographical variables and by the geometric characteristics of the urban profile aspect ratio (H/W). This research was carried out under two climatic contexts, that of the city of Mendoza-Argentina and that of the city of Campinas-Brazil, according to the Köppen climate classification: BWk and Cwa, respectively. Two areas in two different climatic contexts (Mendoza - Argentina and Campinas - Brazil) were selected. Both areas have comparable urban morphology patterns. These areas are located in a region with low horizontal building density and residential zoning. The microclimatic conditions were monitored during the summer period with temperature and humidity fixed sensors inside vial channels. The microclimate model was simulated in ENVI-Met V5. A grid resolution of 3.5 x 3.5 x 3.5m was used for both cities, totaling an area of 145x145x30 grids. Based on the validated theoretical model, ten scenarios were simulated, modifying the height of buildings and the solar reflectivity of facades. The solar reflectivity façades ranges were: low (0.3) and high (0.75). The density scenarios range from 1th to the 5th level. The study scenarios' performance was assessed by comparing the air temperature, physiological equivalent temperature (PET), and thermal climate index (UTCI). As a result, it is observed that the behavior of the materials of the urban outdoor space depends on complex interactions. Many urban environmental factors influence including constructive characteristics, urban morphology, geographic locations, local climate, and so forth. The role of the vertical urban envelope is decisive for the reduction of urban overheating. One of the causes of thermal gain is the multiple reflections within the urban canyon, which affects not only the air temperature but also the pedestrian thermal comfort. One of the main findings of this work leads to the remarkable importance of considering both the urban warming and the thermal comfort aspects of pedestrians in urban mitigation strategies.

Keywords: materials facades, solar reflectivity, thermal comfort, urban cooling

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Authors: Ziyu Liu, Martin Buijsen

Abstract:

Although great achievements have been made since the beginning of the Chinese healthcare system reform in 1978, there still remain unresolved problems. Currently, the two leading social issues are accessibility and affordability of healthcare. Facing those challenges, Chinese government initiated the third round of healthcare system reform, accompanied by an array of measures. The newly launched strategies show a tendency to deliver healthcare as welfare goods, achieving equality through an ex-post perspective instead of an ex-ante view. However, if the reform efforts rely solely on the notion of “welfare”, the wrong idea of the government as the only duty-bearer in healthcare will arise. Several major threats, such as high costs as a result of inefficiencies and free riding then become imminent. Therefore, on the basis of Dworkin’s theory, this paper argues that individual responsibility should be introduced when constructing a sustainable healthcare system. And it should be equally highlighted as the duties of government. Furthermore, the notion of individual responsibility is believed to be necessary for promoting the justice of a healthcare system.

Keywords: Chinese healthcare system reform, individual responsibility, right to healthcare, social justice

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Authors: Fernanda Bravo Cornejo, Camilo Cerda Sarabia, Belén Díaz Díaz, Diego Santibañez Oyarce, Esteban Gómez Terán, Hugo Osses Prado, Raúl Caulier-Cisterna, Jorge Vergara-Quezada, Ana Moya-Beltrán

Abstract:

Streptococcus pyogenes is a gram-positive bacteria involved in a wide range of diseases and is a major-human-specific bacterial pathogen. In Chile, this year the 'Ministerio de Salud' declared an alert due to the increase in strains throughout the year. This increase can be attributed to the multitude of factors including antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and Virulence Factors (VF). Understanding these VF and AMR is crucial for developing effective strategies and improving public health responses. Moreover, experimental identification and characterization of these pathogenic mechanisms are labor-intensive and time-consuming. Therefore, new computational methods are required to provide robust techniques for accelerating this identification. Advances in Machine Learning (ML) algorithms represent the opportunity to refine and accelerate the discovery of VF associated with Streptococcus pyogenes. In this work, we evaluate the accuracy of various machine learning models in predicting the virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance of Streptococcus pyogenes, with the objective of providing new methods for identifying the pathogenic mechanisms of this organism.Our comprehensive approach involved the download of 32,798 genbank files of S. pyogenes from NCBI dataset, coupled with the incorporation of data from Virulence Factor Database (VFDB) and Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) which contains sequences of AMR gene sequence and resistance profiles. These datasets provided labeled examples of both virulent and non-virulent genes, enabling a robust foundation for feature extraction and model training. We employed preprocessing, characterization and feature extraction techniques on primary nucleotide/amino acid sequences and selected the optimal more for model training. The feature set was constructed using sequence-based descriptors (e.g., k-mers and One-hot encoding), and functional annotations based on database prediction. The ML models compared are logistic regression, decision trees, support vector machines, neural networks among others. The results of this work show some differences in accuracy between the algorithms, these differences allow us to identify different aspects that represent unique opportunities for a more precise and efficient characterization and identification of VF and AMR. This comparative analysis underscores the value of integrating machine learning techniques in predicting S. pyogenes virulence and AMR, offering potential pathways for more effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Future work will focus on incorporating additional omics data, such as transcriptomics, and exploring advanced deep learning models to further enhance predictive capabilities.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance, streptococcus pyogenes, virulence factors., machine learning

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Authors: B. Ozarisoy, E. Ampatzi, G. Z. Lancaster

Abstract:

This research project is undertaken in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (T.R.N.C). The study focuses on identifying refurbishment activities capable of diagnosing and detecting the underlying problems alongside the challenges offered by the buildings’ typology in addition to identifying the correct construction materials in the refurbishment process which allow for the maximisation of expected energy savings. Attention is drawn to, the level of awareness and understanding of refurbishment activity that needs to be raised in the current construction process alongside factors that include the positive environmental impact and the saving of energy. The approach here is to look at buildings that have been built by private construction companies that have already been refurbished by occupants and to suggest additional control mechanisms for retrofitting that can further enhance the process of renewal. The objective of the research is to investigate the occupants’ behaviour and role in the refurbishment activity; to explore how and why occupants decide to change building components and to understand why and how occupants consider using energy-efficient materials. The present work is based on data from this researcher’s first-hand experience and incorporates the preliminary data collection on recent housing sector statistics, including the year in which housing estates were built, an examination of the characteristics that define the construction industry in the T.R.N.C., building typology and the demographic structure of house owners. The housing estates are chosen from 16 different projects in four different regions of the T.R.N.C. that include urban and suburban areas. There is, therefore, a broad representation of the common drivers in the property market, each with different levels of refurbishment activity and this is coupled with different samplings from different climatic regions within the T.R.N.C. The study is conducted through semi-structured interviews to identify occupants’ behaviour as it is associated with refurbishment activity. The interviews provide all the occupants’ demographic information, needs and intentions as they relate to various aspects of the refurbishment process. This research paper presents the results of semi-structured interviews with 70 homeowners in a selected group of 16 housing estates in five different parts of the T.R.N.C. The people who agreed to be interviewed in this study are all residents of single or multi-family housing units. Alongside the construction process and its impact on the environment, the results point out the need for control mechanisms in the housing sector to promote and support the adoption of retrofit strategies and minimize non-controlled refurbishment activities, in line with diagnostic information of the selected buildings. The expected solutions should be effective, environmentally acceptable and feasible given the type of housing projects under review, with due regard for their location, the climatic conditions within which they were undertaken, the socio-economic standing of the house owners and their attitudes, local resources and legislative constraints. Furthermore, the study goes on to insist on the practical and long-term economic benefits of refurbishment under the proper conditions and why this should be fully understood by the householders.

Keywords: construction process, energy-efficiency, refurbishment activity, retrofitting

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Authors: Ayola D. N. Jayamaha, Gihan V. Dias, Surangika Ranathunga

Abstract:

Currently there are lot of educational tools designed for mathematics. Open source software such as GeoGebra and Octave are bulky in their architectural structure. In addition, there is MathLab software, which facilitates much more than what we ask for. Many of the computer aided online grading and assessment tools require integrating editors to their software. However, there are not exist suitable editors that cater for all their needs in editing equations and geometrical diagrams and graphs. Some of the existing software for editing equations is Alfred’s Equation Editor, Codecogs, DragMath, Maple, MathDox, MathJax, MathMagic, MathFlow, Math-o-mir, Microsoft Equation Editor, MiraiMath, OpenOffice, WIRIS Editor and MyScript. Some of them are commercial, open source, supports handwriting recognition, mobile apps, renders MathML/LaTeX, Flash / Web based and javascript display engines. Some of the diagram editors are GeoKone.NET, Tabulae, Cinderella 1.4, MyScript, Dia, Draw2D touch, Gliffy, GeoGebra, Flowchart, Jgraph, JointJS, J painter Online diagram editor and 2D sketcher. All these software are open source except for MyScript and can be used for editing mathematical diagrams. However, they do not fully cater the needs of a typical computer aided assessment tool or Educational Platform for Mathematics. This solution provides a Web based, lightweight, easy to implement and integrate solution of an html5 canvas that renders on all of the modern web browsers. The scope of the project is an editor that covers equations and mathematical diagrams and drawings on the O/L Mathematical Exam Papers in Sri Lanka. Using the tool the students can enter any equation to the system which can be on an online remote learning platform. The users can also create and edit geometrical drawings, graphs and do geometrical constructions that require only Compass and Ruler from the Editing Interface provided by the Software. The special feature of this software is the geometrical constructions. It allows the users to create geometrical constructions such as angle bisectors, perpendicular lines, angles of 600 and perpendicular bisectors. The tool correctly imitates the functioning of rulers and compasses to create the required geometrical construction. Therefore, the users are able to do geometrical drawings on the computer successfully and we have a digital format of the geometrical drawing for further processing. Secondly, we can create and edit Venn Diagrams, color them and label them. In addition, the students can draw probability tree diagrams and compound probability outcome grids. They can label and mark regions within the grids. Thirdly, students can draw graphs (1st order and 2nd order). They can mark points on a graph paper and the system connects the dots to draw the graph. Further students are able to draw standard shapes such as circles and rectangles by selecting points on a grid or entering the parametric values.

Keywords: geometrical drawings, html5 canvas, mathematical equations, toolbox

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Authors: Ashish Kumar, Kaptan Singh, Amit Saxena

Abstract:

Today, it is believed that crimes have the greatest impact on a person's ability to progress financially and personally. Identifying places where individuals shouldn't go is crucial for preventing crimes and is one of the key considerations. As society and technologies have advanced significantly, so have crimes and the harm they wreak. When there is a concentration of people in one place and changes happen quickly, it is even harder to prevent. Because of this, many crime prevention strategies have been embraced as a component of the development of smart cities in numerous cities. However, crimes can occur anywhere; all that is required is to identify the pattern of their occurrences, which will help to lower the crime rate. In this paper, an analysis related to crime has been done; information related to crimes is collected from all over India that can be accessed from anywhere. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between several factors and India's crime rate. The review has covered information related to every state of India and their associated regions of the period going in between 2001- 2014. However various classes of violations have a marginally unique scope over the years.

Keywords: K-nearest neighbor, random forest, decision tree, pre-processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 93