Search results for: success rate

Authors: Nneka Nkechi Uchegbu, Temitope Omolayo Fasuan

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This study investigated how to reduce bio-compounds and amino acids in V. amygdalina leaf during processing as a functional food ingredient. Fresh V. amygdalina leaf was processed using thermal oil-aqueous mixtures (soybean oil: aqueous and palm oil: aqueous) at 1:40 and 130 (v/v), respectively. Results indicated that the hot soybean oil-aqueous mixture was the most effective in preserving the bio-compounds and amino acids with retention potentials of 80.95% of the bio-compounds at the rate of 90-100%. Hot palm oil-aqueous mixture retained 61.90% of the bio-compounds at the rate of 90-100% and hot aqueous retained 9.52% of the bio-compounds at the same rate. During the debittering process, seven new bio-compounds were formed in the leaves treated with hot soybean oil-aqueous mixture, six in palm oil-aqueous mixture, and only four in hot aqueous leaves. The bio-compounds in the treated leaves have potential functions as antitumor, antioxidants, antihistaminic, anti-ovarian cancer, anti-inflammatory, antiarthritic, hepatoprotective, antihistaminic, haemolytic 5-α reductase inhibitor, nt, immune-stimulant, diuretic, antiandrogenic, and anaemiagenic. Alkaloids and polyphenols were retained at the rate of 81.34-98.50% using oil: aqueous mixture while aqueous recorded the rate of 33.47-41.46%. Most of the essential amino acids were retained at a rate above 90% through the aid of oil. The process is scalable and could be employed for domestic and industrial applications.

Keywords: V. amygdalina leaf, bio-compounds, oil-aqueous mixture, amino acids

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Authors: C. F. Popoola, P. Osho, S. B. Babarinde

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This study examined economic indicators as correlates of inward FDI. An exploratory research design was used to obtained annual published data on inflation rate, market size, exchange rate, political instability, human development, and infrastructure from Central Bank of Nigeria, National Bureau of Statistics, Nigerian Capital Market, Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research, and UNCTAD. Data generated were analyzed using Pearson correlation, analysis of variance and regression. The findings of the study revealed that market size (r = 0.852, p < 0.001), infrastructure (r = 0.264, p < 0.001), human development (r = 0.154, p < 0.01) and exchange rate ( r= 0.178, p < 0.05) correlate positively with inward FDI, while inflation rate (r = -0.88, p < 0.001), and political instability (r= -0.102, p < 0.05) correlate negatively with inward FDI. Findings also revealed that the economic indicators significantly predicted inward FDI (R2 = 0.913; F(1,19) = 29.40; p < 0.05) for Nigeria. It was concluded that exchange rate, market size, human development, and infrastructure positively related to inward FDI while the high level of inflation and political instability negatively related to inward FDI. Therefore, it was suggested that policy makers and government agencies should readdress steps and design policies that would encourage more FDI into the country.

Keywords: exchange rate, foreign direct investment, human development, inflation rate, infrastructure, market size, political instability

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Authors: Piotr Muzyk, Beata Morawiec, Mariusz Opara, Andrzej Tomasik, Brygida Przywara-Chowaniec, Wojciech Jachec, Ewa Nowalany-Kozielska, Damian Kawecki

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Background: Coronary bifurcation is one of the most complex lesion in patients with coronary ar-tery disease. Provisional T-stenting is currently one of the recommended techniques. The aim was to assess optimal methods of treatment in the era of drug-eluting stents (DES). Methods: The regis-try consisted of data from 1916 patients treated with coronary percutaneous interventions (PCI) using either first- or second-generation DES. Patients with bifurcation lesion entered the analysis. Major adverse cardiac and cardiovascular events (MACCE) were assessed at one year of follow-up and comprised of death, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), repeated PCI (re-PCI) of target ves-sel and stroke. Results: Of 1916 registry patients, 204 patients (11%) were diagnosed with bifurcation lesion >50% and entered the analysis. The most commonly used technique was provi-sional T-stenting (141 patients, 69%). Optimization with kissing-balloons technique was performed in 45 patients (22%). In 59 patients (29%) second-generation DES was implanted, while in 112 pa-tients (55%), first-generation DES was used. In 33 patients (16%) both types of DES were used. The procedure success rate (TIMI 3 flow) was achieved in 98% of patients. In one-year follow-up, there were 39 MACCE (19%) (9 deaths, 17 AMI, 16 re-PCI and 5 strokes). Provisional T-stenting resulted in similar rate of MACCE to other techniques (16% vs. 5%, p=0.27) and similar occurrence of re-PCI (6% vs. 2%, p=0.78). The results of post-PCI kissing-balloon technique gave equal out-comes with 3% vs. 16% of MACCE in patients in whom no optimization technique was used (p=0.39). The type of implanted DES (second- vs. first-generation) had no influence on MACCE (4% vs 14%, respectively, p=0.12) and re-PCI (1.7% vs. 51% patients, respectively, p=0.28). Con-clusions: The treatment of bifurcation lesions with PCI represent high-risk procedures with high rate of MACCE. Stenting technique, optimization of PCI and the generation of implanted stent should be personalized for each case to balance risk of the procedure. In this setting, the operator experience might be the factor of better outcome, which should be further investigated.

Keywords: coronary bifurcation, drug eluting stents, long-term follow-up, percutaneous coronary interventions

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Authors: Ace Mari S. Simbajon, Rhaella J. Ybañez, Mae G. Nadela, Cherry E. Sagun, Nera Mae A. Puyo

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This study determined the usability of the Philippine banknotes. An experimental design was used in the study involving twenty (n=20) randomly selected blind participants. The three aspects of usability were measured: effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. It was found out that the effectiveness rate of the current Philippine Banknotes ranges from 20 percent to 35 percent which means it is not effective basing from Cauro’s threshold of average effectiveness rate which is 78 percent. Its efficiency rate is ranging from 18.06 to 26.22 seconds per denomination. The average satisfaction rate is 1.45 which means the blind are very dissatisfied. These results were used as a guide in making the proposed tactile codification using embossed dots or embossed lines. A round of simulation was conducted with the blind to assess the usability of the two proposals. Results were then statistically treated using t-test. Results show statistically significant difference between the usability of the current banknotes versus the proposed designs. Moreover, it was found out that the use of embossed dots is more effective, more efficient, and more satisfying than the embossed lines with an effectiveness rate ranging from 90 percent to 100 percent, efficiency rate ranging from 6.73 seconds to 12.99 seconds, and satisfaction rate of 3.4 which means the blind are very satisfied.

Keywords: blind, Philippine banknotes, tactile codification, usability

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Authors: John Adebayo Oloyhede

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This paper examines effect of financial liberalization on the stability of the demand for money function and its implication for exchange rate behaviour of three African countries. As the demand for money function is regarded as one of the two main building blocks of most exchange rate determination models, the other being purchasing power parity, its stability is required for the monetary models of exchange rate determination to hold. To what extent has the liberalisation policy of these countries, for instance liberalised interest rate, affected the demand for money function and what has been the consequence on the validity and relevance of floating exchange rate models? The study adopts the Autoregressive Instrumental Package (AIV) of multiple regression technique and followed the Almon Polynomial procedure with zero-end constraint. Data for the period 1986 to 2011 were drawn from three developing countries of Africa, namely: Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria, which did not only start the liberalization and floating system almost at the same period but share similar and diverse economic and financial structures. Its findings show that the demand for money was a stable function of income and interest rate at home and abroad. Other factors such as exchange rate and foreign interest rate exerted some significant effect on domestic money demand. The short-run and long-run elasticity with respect to income, interest rates, expected inflation rate and exchange rate expectation are not greater than zero. This evidence conforms to some extent to the expected behaviour of the domestic money function and underscores its ability to serve as good building block or assumption of the monetary model of exchange rate determination. This will, therefore, assist appropriate monetary authorities in the design and implementation of further financial liberalization policy packages in developing countries.

Keywords: financial liberalisation, exchange rates, demand for money, developing economies

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Authors: Khabat M. Ahmad

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This experiment focuses on the reduction of permeability (formation damage) as a result of fines migration by changing pH and flow rate on core plugs selected from sandstone reservoir of Pannonian basin (Upper Miocene, East Hungary). The main objective of coreflooding experiments was to investigate the influence of both high and low pH fluids and the flow rate on stability of clay minerals. The selected core samples were examined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) for bulk mineralogical and clay mineral composition. The shape, position, distribution and type of clay minerals within the core samples were diagnosed by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM- EDS). The basic petrophysical properties such as porosity and initial permeability were determined prior to experiments. The special core analysis (influence of pH and flow rate) on permeability reduction was examined through a series of laboratory coreflooding experiments, testing for acidic (3) and alkaline (11) solutions at different flow rates (50, 100 and 200 ml/h). Permeability in continuously reduced for pH 11 to more than 50 % of initial permeability. However, at pH 3 after a slow decrease, a significant increase is observed, to more than 40 % of initial permeability. The variation is also influenced by flow rate.

Keywords: flow rate, pH, permeability, fine migration, formation damage, XRD, SEM- EDS

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Authors: M. Koray Cetin, Mehmet Mert

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The purpose of the study is to examine impacts on tourism revenues of the exchange rate and country overall security level. There are numerous studies that examine the bidirectional relation between macroeconomic factors and tourism revenues and tourism demand. Most of the studies support the existence of impact of tourism revenues on growth rate but not vice versa. Few studies examine the impact of factors like real exchange rate or purchasing power parity on the tourism revenues. In this context, firstly impact of real exchange rate on tourism revenues examination is aimed. Because exchange rate is one of the main determinants of international tourism services price in guests currency unit. Another determinant of tourism demand for a country is country’s overall security level. This issue can be handled in the context of the relationship between tourism revenues and overall security including turmoil, terrorism, border problem, political violence. In this study, factors are handled for several countries which have tourism revenues on a certain level. With this structure, it is a panel data, and it is evaluated with panel data analysis techniques. Panel data have at least two dimensions, and one of them is time dimensions. The panel data analysis techniques are applied to data gathered from Worldbank data web page. In this study, it is expected to find impacts of real exchange rate and security factors on tourism revenues for the countries that have noteworthy tourism revenues.

Keywords: exchange rate, panel data analysis, security, tourism revenues

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Authors: Mehdi Rostamzadeh

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Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are an adaptive heuristic search algorithm premised on the evolutionary ideas of natural selection and genetic. In this study, we apply GAs for fundamental and technical models of exchange rate determination in exchange rate market. In this framework, we estimated absolute and relative purchasing power parity, Mundell-Fleming, sticky and flexible prices (monetary models), equilibrium exchange rate and portfolio balance model as fundamental models and Auto Regressive (AR), Moving Average (MA), Auto-Regressive with Moving Average (ARMA) and Mean Reversion (MR) as technical models for Iranian Rial against European Union’s Euro using monthly data from January 1992 to December 2014. Then, we put these models into the genetic algorithm system for measuring their optimal weight for each model. These optimal weights have been measured according to four criteria i.e. R-Squared (R2), mean square error (MSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root mean square error (RMSE).Based on obtained Results, it seems that for explaining of Iranian Rial against EU Euro exchange rate behavior, fundamental models are better than technical models.

Keywords: exchange rate, genetic algorithm, fundamental models, technical models

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Authors: Agholor Deborah Ewere, Emmanuel Ade, Seriki Idowu

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The role women entrepreneur plays to combat unemployment should not be underestimated, especially in countries with growing unemployment rates such as South Africa. Women entrepreneurs contribute significantly to economic development in South Africa, but their contribution has not been adequately studied and developed. Hence, the study identified business strategies adopted by women entrepreneurs to sustain growth and development of entrepreneurship. Survey research design approach was adopted and convenience sampling method was used for sample selection. The structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. The findings revealed some of the operational challenges women entrepreneur faced to include lack of finance, marketing skills and planning and also showed that the strategies adopted by women entrepreneurs have a positive effect on the success of small businesses. It was recommended among others that the women entrepreneurs should take some time to study the nature of challenges other women have faced in business and possibly provide solutions to such issues before starting their own business. It was however concluded that unless the operational challenges named above are resolved, the role of women entrepreneurs in the developing nations will continue to experience deprived economic growth, development and display substandard competitiveness.

Keywords: business, entrepreneurs, small, strategies, success, women

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Authors: Yusuf Abdullahi

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The contribution of entrepreneurship in the economic development cannot be over-emphasized neither it should be underestimated for any reason as this is already a known fact that it plays an important role as a change agent and as a prime mover of economy. In developed or underdeveloped economy, the essence of entrepreneurship is highly significant as this exist in both private as well as public sectors of any economy. The roles of entrepreneurship are worldly acclaimed but yet as laudable as these roles there can be no significant success by any entrepreneur except with availability of finance. Nonetheless, mere availability of finance also cannot guarantee the success of an enterprise but there must be in place appropriate financial strategies for the funding/investment needs of an enterprise. Thus, little has been said when it comes to strategies needed to access various sources of finance. This paper, therefore, establishes appropriate strategies to obtain funds sources of finance by both small and as well as medium enterprises.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, Nigeria, financial strategies, economic development

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Authors: Fredrick Ishengoma, Leonard Mselle, Hector Mongi

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The growing number of mobile phone subscribers in Tanzania offers the government a new channel for the delivery of information and government services to citizens, thus mobile Government (m-Government). In Tanzania, m-Government services usage is in the early stages, and factors that influence its adoption are yet to be known. This study seeks to identify and understand the critical success factors (CSFs) that influence citizens’ behavioural intention (BI) to adopt m-Government services in Tanzania. The study employed the mobile services acceptance model (MSAM) and extends it with external factors relevant in the Tanzanian context. A survey questionnaire was used to collect primary data from users of m-Government services in Dar es salaam and Dodoma cities, and 253 responses were received. Data were analyzed by IBM-SPSS AMOS 23.0 software using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings of the study indicate that perceived usefulness, trust, perceived mobility, power distance, quality of service, awareness, perceived cost, personal initiatives, and characteristics significantly influence the BI to adopt m-Government services. However, perceived ease of use was found statistically insignificant to predict BI. Furthermore, the interplay between CSFs, discussion on theoretical and practical implications that follow from the results are presented.

Keywords: adoption, critical success factors, structural equation modeling, m-Government, MSAM, Tanzania

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Authors: Burak Bal, Demircan Canadinc

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Dynamic strain aging (DSA), resulting from the reorientation of C-Mn clusters in the core of dislocations, can provide a strain hardening mechanism. In addition, in Hadfield steel, negative strain rate sensitivity is observed due to the DSA. In our study, we incorporated dynamic strain aging onto crystal plasticity computations to predict the local instabilities and corresponding negative strain rate sensitivity. Specifically, the material response of Hadfield steel was obtained from monotonic and strain-rate jump experiments under tensile loading. The strain rate range was adjusted from 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻¹s ⁻¹. The crystal plasticity modeling of the material response was carried out based on Voce-type hardening law and corresponding Voce hardening parameters were determined. The solute pinning effect of carbon atom was incorporated to crystal plasticity simulations at microscale level by computing the shear stress contribution imposed on an arrested dislocation by carbon atom. After crystal plasticity simulations with modifying hardening rule, which takes into account the contribution of DSA, it was seen that the model successfully predicts both the role of DSA and corresponding strain rate sensitivity.

Keywords: crystal plasticity, dynamic strain aging, Hadfield steel, negative strain rate sensitivity

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Authors: Basan Shrestha

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The relationship between the household size and the poverty is not well understood. Malthus followers advocate that the increasing population add pressure to the dwindling resource base due to increasing demand that would lead to poverty. Others claim that bigger households are richer due to availability of household labour for income generation activities. Facts from Nepal were analyzed to examine the relationship between the household size and poverty rate. The analysis of data from 3,968 Village Development Committee (VDC)/ municipality (MP) located in 75 districts of all five development regions revealed that the average household size had moderate positive correlation with the poverty rate (Karl Pearson's correlation coefficient=0.44). In a regression analysis, the household size determined 20% of the variation in the poverty rate. Higher positive correlation was observed in eastern Nepal (Karl Pearson's correlation coefficient=0.66). The regression analysis showed that the household size determined 43% of the variation in the poverty rate in east. The relation was poor in far-west. It could be because higher incidence of poverty was there irrespective of household size. Overall, the facts revealed that the bigger households were relatively poorer. With the increasing level of awareness and interventions for family planning, it is anticipated that the household size will decrease leading to the decreased poverty rate. In addition, the government needs to devise a mechanism to create employment opportunities for the household labour force to reduce poverty.

Keywords: household size, poverty rate, nepal, regional development

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Authors: In Kyong Yi, Yun Jeong Chae, Jihoon Hwang, Sook-Young Lee, Jong-Yeop Kim

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Background: Pentax airway scope (AWS) is a recently developed video laryngoscope for use in both normal and difficult airways, providing a good laryngeal view. The purpose of this randomized noninferior study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Pentax-AWS regarding intubation time, laryngeal view and ease of intubation in pediatric patients with normal airway, compared to Macintosh laryngoscope. Method: A total of 136 pediatric patients aged 1 to 10 with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I or II undergoing general anesthesia required orotracheal intubation were randomly allocated into two groups: Macintosh laryngoscope (n =68) and Pentax AWS (n=68). Anesthesia was induced with propofol, rocuronium, and sevoflurane. The primary outcome was intubation time. Cormack-Lehane laryngeal view grade, application of optimal laryngeal external manipulation (OELM), intubation difficulty scale (IDS), intubation failure rate and adverse events were also measured. Result: No significant difference was observed between the two groups regarding intubation time (Macintosh; 23[22-26] sec vs. Pentax; 23.5[22-27.75] sec, p=0.713). As for the laryngeal view grade, the Pentax group showed less number of grade 2a or higher grade cases compared to the Macintosh group (1/2a/2b/3; 52.9%/41.2%/4.4%/1.5% vs. 98.5%/1.5%/0%/0%, p=0.000). No optimal laryngeal external manipulation application was required in the Pentax group (38.2% vs. 0%, p=0.000). Intubation difficulty scale resulted in lower values for Pentax group (0 [0-2] vs. 0 [0-0.55], p=0.001). Failure rate was not different between the two groups (1.5% vs. 4.4%, p=0.619). Adverse event-wise, slightly higher incidence of bleeding (1.5% vs. 5.9%, p=0.172) and teeth injury (0% vs. 5.9%, p=0.042) occurred in the Pentax group. Conclusion: In conclusion, Pentax-AWS provided better laryngeal view, similar intubation time and similar success rate compared with Macintosh laryngoscope in children with normal airway. However, the risk of teeth injury might increase and warrant special attention.

Keywords: Pentax-AWS, pediatric, video laryngoscope, intubation

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Authors: Josée Charette

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The academic and educational success of immigrant students is a current issue in education, especially in western societies such in the province of Quebec, in Canada. For people who immigrate with school-age children, the success of the family’s migratory project is often measured by the benefits drawn by children from the educational institutions of their host society. In order to support the academic achievement of their children, immigrant parents try to develop practices that derive from their representations of school and related challenges inspired by the socio-cultural context of their country of origin. These findings lead us to the following question: How does strategies implemented by immigrant parents to manage the representational distance between school of their country of origin and school of the host society support or not the academic and educational success of their child? In the context of a qualitative exploratory approach, we have made interviews in the French-, English- and Spanish-languages with 32 newly immigrated parents and 10 of their children. Parents were invited to complete a network of free associations about «School in Quebec» as a premise for the interview. The objective of this communication is to present strategies implemented by immigrant parents to manage the distance between their representations of schools in their country of origin and in the host society, and to explore the influence of this management on their child’s academic and educational trajectories. Data analysis led us to develop various types of strategies, such as continuity, adaptation, resources mobilization, compensation and "return to basics" strategies. These strategies seem to be part of a continuum from oppositional-conflict scenario, in which parental strategies act as a risk factor, to conciliator-integrator scenario, in which parental strategies act as a protective factor for immigrant students’ academic and educational success. In conclusion, we believe that our research helps in providing a more efficient support to immigrant parents and contributes to develop a wider portrait of immigrant students’ academic achievement. In addition, we think that by improving the experience of immigrant families in Quebec schools, a greater number of migratory projects will be effective.

Keywords: immigrant students, family’s migratory project, school of origin and school of host society, immigrants parental strategies

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Authors: Chandra Prayaga, Aaron Wade, Lakshmi Prayaga, Gopi Shankar Mallu

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This paper presents the use of machine learning algorithms to predict the success of students in an introductory physics course. Data having 140 rows pertaining to the performance of two batches of students was used. The lack of sufficient data to train robust machine learning models was compensated for by generating synthetic data similar to the real data. CTGAN and CTGAN with Gaussian Copula (Gaussian) were used to generate synthetic data, with the real data as input. To check the similarity between the real data and each synthetic dataset, pair plots were made. The synthetic data was used to train machine learning models using the PyCaret package. For the CTGAN data, the Ada Boost Classifier (ADA) was found to be the ML model with the best fit, whereas the CTGAN with Gaussian Copula yielded Logistic Regression (LR) as the best model. Both models were then tested for accuracy with the real data. ROC-AUC analysis was performed for all the ten classes of the target variable (Grades A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F). The ADA model with CTGAN data showed a mean AUC score of 0.4377, but the LR model with the Gaussian data showed a mean AUC score of 0.6149. ROC-AUC plots were obtained for each Grade value separately. The LR model with Gaussian data showed consistently better AUC scores compared to the ADA model with CTGAN data, except in two cases of the Grade value, C- and A-.

Keywords: machine learning, student success, physics course, grades, synthetic data, CTGAN, gaussian copula CTGAN

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Authors: Jarek Krajewski, David Daxberger, Luzi Beyer

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Finding objective and non-intrusive measurements of emotional and psychopathological states (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD) is an important challenge. Thus, the proposed approach here uses Photoplethysmographic imaging (PPGI) applying facial RGB Cam videos to estimate heart rate levels. A pipeline for the signal processing of the raw image has been proposed containing different preprocessing approaches, e.g., Independent Component Analysis, Non-negative Matrix factorization, and various other artefact correction approaches. Under resting and constant light conditions, we reached a sensitivity of 84% for pulse peak detection. The results indicate that PPGI can be a suitable solution for providing heart rate data derived from these indirectly post-traumatic stress states.

Keywords: heart rate, PTSD, PPGI, stress, preprocessing

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Authors: Mohamed A. G. H. Abdalsadig, Amir Nourian, G. G. Nasr, Meisam Babaie

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Gas lift optimization is becoming more important now a day in petroleum industry. A proper lift optimization can reduce the operating cost, increase the net present value (NPV) and maximize the recovery from the asset. A widely accepted definition of gas lift optimization is to obtain the maximum output under specified operating conditions. In addition, gas lift, a costly and indispensable means to recover oil from high depth reservoir entails solving the gas lift optimization problems. Gas lift optimization is a continuous process; there are two levels of production optimization. The total field optimization involves optimizing the surface facilities and the injection rate that can be achieved by standard tools softwares. Well level optimization can be achieved by optimizing the well parameters such as point of injection, injection rate, and injection pressure. All these aspects have been investigated and presented in this study by using experimental data and PROSPER simulation program. The results show that the well head pressure has a large influence on the gas lift performance and also proved that smart gas lift valve can be used to improve gas lift performance by controlling gas injection from down hole. Obtaining the optimum gas injection rate is important because excessive gas injection reduces production rate and consequently increases the operation cost.

Keywords: optimization, production rate, reservoir pressure effect, gas injection rate effect, gas injection pressure

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Authors: Liaqat Ali, Ehsan, Muhammad Shahzad, Nasir Orakzai

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Introduction: Internal optical urethrotomy is the main stay treatment modality in management of urethral stricture. Being minimal invasive with less morbidity, it is commonly performed and favored procedure by urologists across the globe. Although short-term success rate of optical urethrotomy is promising but long-term efficacy of IOU is questionable with high recurrence rate in different studies. Numerous techniques had been adopted to reduce the recurrence after IOU like prolong catheterization and self-clean intermittent catheterization with varying success. Mitomycin C has anti-fibroblast and anti-collagen properties and has been used in trabeculectomy, myringotomy and after keloid scar excision in contemporary surgical practice. Present study according to the best of our knowledge is a pioneer pilot study in Pakistan to determine the efficacy of Mitomycin C in preventing recurrence of urethral stricture after internal optical urethrotomy. Objective: To determine the efficacy of Mitomycin C in reducing the recurrence of anterior urethral stricture after internal optical urethrotomy. Methods: It is a randomized control trial conducted in department of urology, Institute of Kidney Diseases Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar from March 2011 till December 2013. After approval of hospital ethical committee, we included maximum of 2 cm anterior urethral stricture irrespective of etiology. Total of 140 patients were equally divided into two groups by lottery method. Group A (Case) comprising of 70 patients in whom Mitomycin C 0.1% was injected sub mucosal in stricture area at 1,11,6 and 12 O clock position using straight working channel paediatric cystoscope after conventional optical urethrotomy. Group B (Control) 70 patients in whom only optical urethrotomy was performed. SCIC was not offered in both the groups. All the patients were regularly followed on a monthly basis for 3 months then three monthly for remaining 9 months. Recurrence was diagnosed by using diagnostic tools of retrograde urethrogram and flexible urethroscopy in selected cased. Data was collected on structured Proforma and was analyzed on SPSS. Result: The mean age in Group A was 33 ±1.5 years and Group B was 35 years. External trauma was leading cause of urethral stricture in both groups 46 (65%) Group A and 50 (71.4%) Group B. In Group A. Iatrogenic urethral trauma was 2nd etiological factor in both groups. 18(25%) Group A while 15( 21.4%) in Group B. At the end of 1 year, At the end of one year, recurrence of urethral stricture was recorded in 11 (15.71%) patient in Mitomycin C Group A and it was recorded in 27 (38.5 %) patients in group B. Significant difference p=0.001 was found in favour of group A Mitomycin group. Conclusion: Recurrence of urethral stricture is high after optical urethrotomy. Mitomycin C is found highly effective in preventing recurrence of urethral stricture after IOU.

Keywords: urethral stricture, mitomycine, internal optical urethrotomy, medical and health sciences

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Authors: Oleg Sokolov

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Despite the fact that the epoch of the Crusades ended more than 700 years ago, its legacy still remains relevant both in the Middle East and in the West. There was made a comparison of the positions of the most prominent Western and Arab medievalists of XX-XXI centuries, using the example of their interpretations of the success of the First Crusade. The analyzed corpus consists of 70 works. In the modern Arab Historiography, it is often pointed out that the Seljuks' struggle against the crusaders of the First Crusade was seriously hampered by the raids of the Arab Bedouin tribes of Jazira. At the same time, it is emphasized that the Arab rulers of Northern Syria were ‘pleased’ with the defeats of the Turks and made peace with the Crusaders, refusing to fight them. At the same time it is usually underlined that the Fatimid aggression against the Turks led both the first and the second to defeat from the Crusaders and became one of the main reasons for the success of the First Crusade and the Muslims' loss of Jerusalem in 1099. The position of Western historians about the reasons for the success of the First Crusade differs significantly. First of all, in the Western Historiography, it is noted that the deaths of the Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphs and the Seljuk Sultan between 1092 and 1094 years created political vacuum just before the crusaders appeared in the Middle East political arena. In 1097-1099, when the Crusaders advanced through Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine to Jerusalem, there was an active internecine struggle between the parts of the Seljuq state that had broken up by that time, and the crusaders were not perceived as a general threat of all Muslims of this region at that time. It is also pointed out that the main goals of the Crusaders - Antioch, Edessa, and Jerusalem - were at that time periphery since the main struggle for power in the Middle East was at this time in Iran. Thus, Arab historians see the lack of support from Arabs of Syria and Jazira and the aggression from Egypt as a crucial factors preventing the Seljuks from defeating the Crusaders, while their Western counterparts consider the internal power struggle between the Seljuks as a more important reason for the success of the First Crusade. The reason for this divergence in the treatment of the events of the First Crusade is probably the prevailing in much of Arab historiography, the idea of the Franks as an enemy of all peoples and religions of the Middle East. At the same time, in contemporary Western Historiography, the crusaders are described only as one of the many military and political forces that operated in this region at the end of the eleventh century.

Keywords: Arabs, Crusades, historiography, Turks

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Authors: Zainal A. Muchlisin, Muhammad Iqbal, Abdullah A. Muhammadar

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The objective of the present study was to determine the optimum dose of papain enzyme in the diet for growing, survival rate and feed efficacy of climbing perch (Anabas testudineus). The study was conducted at the Laboratory of Aquatic of Faculty of Veterinary, Syiah Kuala University from January to March 2016. The completely randomized design was used in this study. Six dosages level of papain enzyme were tested with 4 replications i.e. 0 g kg-1 of feed, 20.0 g kg-1 feed, 22.5 g kg-1 of feed, 25.0 g kg-1 of feed, 27.5 g kg-1 of feed, and 30.0 g kg-1 of feed. The experimental fish fed twice a day at feeding level of 5% for 60 days. The results showed that weight gain ranged from 2.41g to 7.37g, total length gain ranged from 0.67cm to 3.17cm, specific growth rate ranged from 1.46 % day to 3.41% day, daily growth rate ranged from 0.04 g day to 0.13 g day, feed conversion ratio ranged from 1.94 to 3.59, feed efficiency ranged from 27.99% to 51.37%, protein retention ranged from 3.38% to 28.28%, protein digestibility ranged from 50.63% to 90.38%, and survival rate ranged from 88.89% to 100%. The highest rate for all parameters was found in the dosage of 3.00% papain enzyme kg feed. The ANOVA test showed that enzyme papain gave a significant effect on the weight gain, total length gain, daily growth rate, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, feed efficiency, protein retention, protein digestibility, and survival rate of the climbing perch (Anabas testudieus). The best enzyme papain dosage was 3.0%.

Keywords: betok, feed conversion ratio, freshwater fish, nutrition, feeding

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Authors: Rashmi Uchil, A. H. Sequeira

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Post-liberalization era in India has seen an unprecedented growth of mergers, both domestic as well as cross-border deals. Indian organizations have slowly begun appreciating this inorganic method of growth. However, all is not well as is evidenced in the lowering value creation of organizations after mergers. Several studies have identified that organizational culture is one of the key factors that affects the success of mergers. But very few studies have been attempted in this realm in India. The current study attempts to identify the factors in the organizational culture variable that may be unique to India. It also focuses on the difference in the impact of organizational culture on merger of organizations in the manufacturing and service sectors in India. The study uses a mixed research approach. An exploratory research approach is adopted to identify the variables that constitute organizational culture specifically in the Indian scenario. A few hypotheses were developed from the identified variables and tested to arrive at the Grounded Theory. The Grounded Theory approach used in the study, attempts to integrate the variables related to organizational culture. Descriptive approach is used to validate the developed grounded theory with a new empirical data set and thus test the relationship between the organizational culture variables and the success of mergers. Empirical data is captured from merged organizations situated in major cities of India. These organizations represent significant proportions of the total number of organizations which have adopted mergers. The mix of industries included software, banking, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and financial services. Mixed sampling approach was adopted for this study. The first phase of sampling was conducted using the probability method of stratified random sampling. The study further used the non-probability method of judgmental sampling. Adequate sample size was identified for the study which represents the top, middle and junior management levels of the organizations that had adopted mergers. Validity and reliability of the research instrument was ensured with appropriate tests. Statistical tools like regression analysis, correlation analysis and factor analysis were used for data analysis. The results of the study revealed a strong relationship between organizational culture and its impact on the success of mergers. The study also revealed that the results were unique to the extent that they highlighted a marked difference in the manner of internalization of change of organizational culture after merger by the organizations in the manufacturing sector. Further, the study reveals that the organizations in the service sector internalized the changes at a slower rate. The study also portrays the industries in the manufacturing sector as more proactive and can contribute to a change in the perception of the said organizations.

Keywords: manufacturing industries, mergers, organizational culture, service industries

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: M. S. Sarkar, J. A. Johnson, S. Sen, G. K. Saha, K. Ramesh

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There is growing recognition of several important roles played by tigers for maintaining sustainable biodiversity at diverse ecosystems in South and South-East Asia. Only <3200 individuals are left in the wild because of poaching and habitat loss. Thus, restoring wild population is an emerging as well as important conservation initiative, but such efforts still remain challenging due to their elusive and solitary behavior. After careful translocation of few individuals, how reintroduced individuals colonize into suitable habitat and achieve stable stage population through reproduction is vital information for forest managers and policy makers of its 13 distribution range countries. Four wild and two captive radio collared tigers were reintroduced at Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya-pradesh, India during 2009-2014. We critically examined their settlement behavior and population growth over the period. Results from long term telemetry data showed that male explored larger areas rapidly in short time span, while females explored small area in long time period and with significant high rate of movement in both sexes during exploratory period. Significant difference in home range sizes of tigers were observed in exploratory and settlement period. Though all reintroduced tigers preferred densely vegetated undisturbed forest patches within the core area of tiger reserve, a niche based k select analysis showed that individual variation in habitat selection was prominent among reintroduced tigers. Total 18 litter of >42 known cubs were born with low mortality rate, high maternity rate, high observed growth rate and short generation time in both the sexes. The population achieved its carrying capacity in a very short time span, marking success of this current tiger conservation programme. Our study information could provide significant insights on the tiger biology of translocated tigers with implication for future conservation strategies that consider translocation based recovery in their range countries.

Keywords: reintroduction, tiger, home range, demography

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

Authors: Bruno T. Gomes, José A. Menezes, Giordano Cabral

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With the popularity of smartphones, mobile apps emerge to meet the diverse needs, however the resources at the disposal are limited, either by the hardware, due to the low computing power, or the software, that does not have the same robustness of desktop environment. For example, in automatic audio classification (AC) tasks, musical information retrieval (MIR) subarea, is required a fast processing and a good success rate. However the mobile platform has limited computing power and the best AC tools are only available for desktop. To solve these problems the fast classifier suits, to mobile environments, the most widespread MIR technologies, seeking a balance in terms of speed and robustness. At the end we found that it is possible to enjoy the best of MIR for mobile environments. This paper presents the results obtained and the difficulties encountered.

Keywords: audio classification, audio extraction, environment mobile, musical information retrieval

Procedia PDF Downloads 530

Authors: Daniel Olshansky, Ramiro Rodrıguez Colmeiro

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Relay Mining presents a scalable solution employing probabilistic mechanisms and crypto-economic incentives to estimate RPC volume usage, facilitating decentralized multitenant rate limiting. Network traffic from individual applications can be concurrently serviced by multiple RPC service providers, with costs, rewards, and rate limiting governed by a native cryptocurrency on a distributed ledger. Building upon established research in token bucket algorithms and distributed rate-limiting penalty models, our approach harnesses a feedback loop control mechanism to adjust the difficulty of mining relay rewards, dynamically scaling with network usage growth. By leveraging crypto-economic incentives, we reduce coordination overhead costs and introduce a mechanism for providing RPC services that are both geopolitically and geographically distributed.

Keywords: remote procedure call, crypto-economic, commit-reveal, decentralization, scalability, blockchain, rate limiting, token bucket

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Authors: Maia Seturi, Tamari Todua

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Economic growth is seen as the increase in the production capacity of a country. It enables a country to produce more and more material wealth and social benefits. Today, the success of any product on the market is closely related to the issue of branding. The brand is a source of information for a user/consumer, which helps to simplify the choice of goods and reduce consumer risk. The paper studies the role of branding in order to promote Georgian tea brands. The main focus of the research is directed to consumer attitudes regarding Georgian tea brands. The methodology of the paper is based on marketing research. The findings study revealed that the majority of consumers prefer foreign tea brands. The final part of the article presents the main recommendations.

Keywords: marketing research, customer behavior, brand, successful brand

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Osman Zorbaz, Selen Demirtas-Zorbaz, Ozlem Ulas

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The factors that cause adolescents to drop out school were several. One of the frameworks about school dropout focuses on the contextual factors around the adolescents whereas the other one focuses on individual factors. It can be said that both factors are important equally. In this study, both adolescent’s individual factors (anti-social behaviors, academic success) and contextual factors (parent academic involvement, parent academic support, number of siblings, living with parent) were examined in the term of school dropout. The study sample consisted of 346 high school students in the public schools in Ankara who continued their education in 2015-2016 academic year. One hundred eighty-five the students (53.5%) were girls and 161 (46.5%) were boys. In addition to this 118 of them were in ninth grade, 122 of them in tenth grade and 106 of them were in eleventh grade. Multiple regression and one-way ANOVA statistical methods were used. First, it was examined if the data meet the assumptions and conditions that are required for regression analysis. After controlling the assumptions, regression analysis was conducted. Parent academic involvement, parent academic support, number of siblings, anti-social behaviors, academic success variables were taken into the regression model and it was seen that parent academic involvement (t=-3.023, p < .01), anti-social behaviors (t=7.038, p < .001), and academic success (t=-3.718, p < .001) predicted school dropout whereas parent academic support (t=-1.403, p > .05) and number of siblings (t=-1.908, p > .05) didn’t. The model explained 30% of the variance (R=.557, R2=.300, F5,345=30.626, p < .001). In addition to this the variance, results showed there was no significant difference on high school students school dropout levels according to living with parents or not (F2;345=1.183, p > .05). Results discussed in the light of the literature and suggestion were made. As a result, academic involvement, academic success and anti-social behaviors will be considered as an important factors for preventing school drop-out.

Keywords: adolescents, anti-social behavior, parent academic involvement, parent academic support, school dropout

Procedia PDF Downloads 257

Authors: J. B. Clapp, S. Croarkin, C. Dolphin, S. K. Lyons

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Chronic pain or stress in farm animals impacts both on their welfare and productivity. Measuring chronic pain or stress can be problematic using hormonal or behavioural changes because hormones are modulated by homeostatic mechanisms and observed behaviour can be highly subjective. We propose that heart rate variability (HRV) can quantify chronic pain or stress in farmed animal and represents a more robust and objective measure of their welfare.

Keywords: dairy calf, welfare, heart rate variability, non-invasive, biomonitor

Procedia PDF Downloads 584

Authors: Md. Shahriar Sabuz

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Bangladesh, a South Asian developing country, has experienced an increasing rate of contraceptive use in the last few decades. But one-third of the pregnancies are still unintended, and the fertility rate surpasses the desired rate of children. It may be because of the discontinuation of the use of contraceptive methods. So, it is necessary to find out the reasons for the discontinuation of the use of contraceptives. Moreover, the rate of contraception discontinuation varies from rural to urban, region to region. In this study, our objectives are to find out the reasons behind the discontinuation of the use of the contraceptive method, and the regional variations of the rate of those reasons. We are using the dataset of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHS) 2014 for this study and the ever-married women of Bangladesh who have discontinued the use of contraceptive methods aged 15-49. The data was collected from the seven districts of the country. The finding shows that currently there are 23% of women have stopped using their contraception. The most common reasons for stopping using the method are that either they are pregnant or want to be pregnant. A significant number of people are not using the contraceptive method because of the fear of side effects. Though the rate of non-user is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, reasons for method discontinuation are not significantly different between urban and rural areas. However, reasons for discontinuing contraceptive methods significantly vary from region to region.

Keywords: discontinuation of contraceptive, health, pregnant, fertility

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Rami Rami Mahmoud Bakr

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The constant rate of strain (CRS) test is a rapid technique that effectively measures specific properties of cohesive soil, including the rate of consolidation, hydraulic conductivity, compressibility, and stress history. Its simple operation and frequent readings enable efficient definition, especially of the compression curve. However, its limitations include an inability to handle strain-rate-dependent soil behavior, initial transient conditions, and pore pressure evaluation errors. There are currently no effective techniques for interpreting CRS data. In this study, experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of different parameters on CRS results. Extensive tests were performed on two types of clay to analyze the soil behavior during strain consolidation at a constant rate. The results were used to evaluate the transient conditions and pore pressure system.

Keywords: constant rate of strain (CRS), resedimented boston blue clay (RBBC), resedimented vicksburg buckshot clay (RVBC), compression index

Procedia PDF Downloads 14