Search results for: core training

Authors: Fateme Hadadian, Behnam Khaledi Paveh, Hosein Feizi

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Background: High number of patients with end-stage renal disease worldwide, and Iran and the patients required hemodialysis, As well as symptoms and treatment process and its impact on quality of life The researcher had to take a step towards solving these problems. Methods: In randomized clinical trial in 60 hemodialysis patients admitted to hospital hemodialysis Imam Reza (AS) were studied. Using questionnaires dialysis patients' QOL, quality of life was measured in patients and controls were divided randomly into two groups. Benson's relaxation method for the experimental group and two months at home, once per day, respectively and the control group received no special action. Immediately after the end of the period with was used for evaluating the quality of life in both the experimental and control groups were survey and data using independent t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results: The general dimensions of quality of life scores before and after intervention, there was significant difference (P=0/001). But this difference was not significant after QOL (P=0/2). Between QOL scores before and after treatment between the two groups was statistically significant (P=0/02). Conclusion: Benson relaxation has the desired effect on quality of life in hemodialysis patients and can be used as a useful method to enhance the quality of life in hemodialysis patients, implementation and training will be given.

Keywords: hemodialysis, quality of life, Benson muscle relaxation, biomedicine

Procedia PDF Downloads 432

Authors: Mbita Mbao

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Social work programs are grappling with changing students’ attitudes about working with older adults. Our study aimed to understand whether adding a guest speaker working in the field into weekly content would influence students’ attitudes about working with older adults. We conducted an exploratory study using a cross-sectional design with a pre and post-test to answer our question. Eighteen MSW students were enrolled in the ‘Social Work with Older Adults’ course, and 17 students completed the pre-posttests. Willingness to work with older adults was measured using the ‘Willingness to Work with Elderly People Scale (WEPS)’. Guest speakers were recruited from local area agencies on aging. A significant finding was a statistically significant (t= −3.31, p < .01) increase from pre- (M = 3.59, SD = 1.54) to post-test (M = 4.88, SD = 1.22) scores for the item, ‘My professors advise me to consider aged care career.’ In addition, there were statistically significant pre to post-test differences for all items of ‘Perceived Behavioral Control’ and ‘Intention toward working with older adults’ reflecting competence, training, skills, and capabilities to work with older adults, suggesting guest speakers may play a crucial role as influential sources to positively shape students’ attitudes and intentions toward working with older adults.

Keywords: guest speakers, workforce, aging, students

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Authors: Ailing Yang, Penghan Song, Aihua Cai

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The nonlinear maneuvering target tracking problem is mainly a state estimation problem when the target motion model is uncertain. Traditional solutions include Kalman filtering based on Bayesian filtering framework and extended Kalman filtering. However, these methods need prior knowledge such as kinematics model and state system distribution, and their performance is poor in state estimation of nonprior complex dynamic systems. Therefore, in view of the problems existing in traditional algorithms, a convolution LSTM target state estimation (SAConvLSTM-SE) algorithm based on Self-Attention memory (SAM) is proposed to learn the historical motion state of the target and the error distribution information measured at the current time. The measured track point data of airborne radar are processed into data sets. After supervised training, the data-driven deep neural network based on SAConvLSTM can directly obtain the target state at the next moment. Through experiments on two different maneuvering targets, we find that the network has stronger robustness and better tracking accuracy than the existing tracking methods.

Keywords: maneuvering target, state estimation, Kalman filter, LSTM, self-attention

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Long Chen

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With the proliferation of E-Learning, collaborative learning becomes more and more popular in various teaching and learning occasions. Studies over the years have proved that actively participating in classroom discussion can enhance student's learning experience, consolidating their knowledge and understanding of the class content. Collaborative learning can also allow students to share their resources and knowledge by exchanging, absorbing, and observing one another's opinions and ideas. Community Question Answering (CQA) services are particularly suitable paradigms for collaborative learning, since it is essentially an online collaborative learning platform where one can get information from multiple sources for he/her to choose from. However, current CQA services have only achieved limited success in collaborative learning due to the uncertainty of answers' quality. In this paper, we predict the quality of answers in a CQA service, i.e. Yahoo! Answers, for the use of online education and distance learning, which would enable a student to find relevant answers and potential answerers more effectively and efficiently, and thus greatly increase students' user experience in CQA services. Our experiment reveals that the quality of answers is influenced by a series of factors such as asking time, relations between users, and his/her experience in the past. We also show that by modelling user's profile with our proposed personalized features, student's satisfaction towards the provided answers could be accurately estimated.

Keywords: Community Question Answering, Collaborative Learning, Log File, Co-Training

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Authors: Shwetha B. S., Sirisha M., Vachana U., Aditya Kadlimatti, Manjushree N. S.

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Braille script holds significant importance in bridging the communication gap for visually impaired individuals. However, the challenge of interpreting Braille for non-experts creates barriers in education and day-to-day interactions. This paper aims to develop a system that translates Braille text into multilingual speech using advanced Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Google Text-to-Speech (GTTS) technology. The proposed system employs image recognition techniques powered by CNNs to accurately identify and decode Braille characters from captured images. The deep learning model undergoes training on a diverse dataset of Braille symbols to ensure high accuracy and robustness. Among the models evaluated, AlexNet demonstrated the highest accuracy in decoding Braille characters. Once recognized, the decoded text is converted into speech in the user’s preferred language using the GTTS API. This system possesses the ability to greatly improve inclusivity by enabling real-time Braille interpretation for visually impaired individuals, educators, and caregivers.

Keywords: convolutional neural networks, Braille image, image-to-speech, GTTS, AlexNet, VGG16, DenseNet121, ResNet50

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Authors: Zahra Dehghani, Hoda Dehghani, Elham Zarenezhad

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1,2,3-Triazole derivatives are important compounds in medicinal chemistry owing to their wide applications in drug discovery. They can readily associate with biologically targets through the hydrogen bonding and dipole interactions. The 1,2,3-triazole core is a key structural motif in many bioactive compounds, exhibiting a broad spectrum of biological activities, such as antiviral, anticancer, anti-HIV, antibiotic, antibacterial, and antimicrobial. Additionally, they have found significant industrial applications as dyes, agrochemicals, corrosion inhibitors, photo stabilizers, and photographic materials. we disclose the synthesis and characterization of 1-azido-3-(aryl-2-yloxy)propan-2-ol drivatives. The chemistry works well with various ß-azido alcohols involving aryloxy, alkoxy and alkyl residues, and also tolerates a wide spectrum of electron-donating and electron-withdrawing functional groups in both alkyne and azide molecules. Most of ß-azidoalcohols used in these experiments were pre-synthesized by the regioselective ring opening reaction of corresponded epoxides with sodium azide, whereas the majority of terminal alkynes were prepared via SN2-type reaction of propargyl bromide and corresponded nucleophiles. To evaluate the bioactivity of title compounds, the in vitro antifungal activity of all compound was investigated against several pathogenic fungi including Candida albicans, Candida krusei, Aspergillus niger, and Trichophyton rubrum , clotrimazole and fluconazole was used as standard antifungal drugs, also To understand the antibacterial activity of synthesized compounds, they were in vitro screened against E. coli and S. aureus as Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. The in vitro tests have shown the promising antifungal but marginal antibacterial activity against tested fungi and bacteria.

Keywords: biological activities, antibacterial, antifungal, 1, 2, 3-Triazole

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Authors: Duisenova Marzhan

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This paper considers the looking from a philosophical point of view the interactive technology and tiered developing Kazakh language teaching primary school pupils through the method of linguistic communication, content and teaching methods formed in the education system. The values determined by the formation of new practical ways that could lead to a novel qualitative level and solving the problem. In the formation of the communicative competence of elementary school students would be to pay attention to other competencies. It helps to understand the motives and needs socialization of students, the development of their cognitive abilities and participate in language relations arising from different situations. Communicative competence is the potential of its own in pupils creative language activity. In this article, the Kazakh language teaching in primary school communicative method is presented. The purpose of learning communicative method, personal development, effective psychological development of the child, himself-education, expansion and growth of language skills and vocabulary, socialization of children, the adoption of the laws of life in the social environment, analyzed the development of vocabulary richness of the language that forms the erudition to ensure continued improvement of education of the child.

Keywords: communicative, culture, training, process, method, primary, competence

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Authors: Beatrice Tayo Ajayi, Dzever Linus Terry

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Pupils with autism in the general classroom have dare need to be adequately catered for in social and academic activities for successful attainment in school work and future life. However, adequate catering for autistic children by teachers that basically received no training in content related to inclusive education and lack the ability to use inclusive strategies during classroom instruction appears to be a mirage. This paper intends to examine the current classroom environment in relation to the level to which autistic primary school pupils are catered for in the regular classroom. The study also seeks to identify the challenges teachers experience in the course of catering to the needs of children with autism and the way out. The sample consists of thirty (30) primary school teachers of Ondo West Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria (10 male, 15 female), age grades between twenty five (25) to sixty (60). Data collection will be a survey using the researcher developed 18 statements Four Point- Likert Scale type to assess the level to which participants agree or disagree with the statement about catering for pupils with autism. Results are to be evaluated using descriptive statistical methods of mean scores and t-test.

Keywords: autism, catering, general classroom, way forward

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Authors: Duy M. P. Vo, Cornelia Sennewald, Gerald Hoffmann, Chokri Cherif

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The development of solutions to improve the resistance of buildings to short-term dynamic loads, particularly impact load, is driven by the urgent demand worldwide on securing human life and critical infrastructures. The research training group GRK 2250/1 aims to develop mineral-bonded composites that allow the fabrication of thin-layered strengthening layers providing available concrete members with enhanced impact resistance. This paper presents the development of 3D woven wire cellular structures that can be used as innovative reinforcement for targeted composites. 3D woven wire cellular structures are truss-like architectures that can be fabricated in an automatized process with a great customization possibility. The specific architecture allows this kind of structures to have good load bearing capability and forming behavior, which is of great potential to give strength against impact loading. An appropriate combination of topology and material enables an optimal use of thin-layered reinforcement in concrete constructions.

Keywords: 3D woven cellular structures, ductile behavior, energy absorption, fiber-based reinforced concrete, impact resistant

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Authors: Chingwen Yeh, Yu Ru Chen

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This paper aims to explore the growth and development of children in the creative dance class of Cloud Gate Dance School in Taichung Taiwan. Professor Chingwen Yeh’s qualitative research method was applied in this study. First of all, application of Dalcroze Eurhythmic teaching materials such as music, teaching aids, speaking language through classroom situation was collected and exam. Second, the in-class observation on the participation of the young children's learning situation was recorded both by words and on video screen as the research data. Finally, data analysis was categorized into the following aspects: children's body movement coordination, children’s mind concentration and imagination and children’s verbal expression. Through the in-depth interviews with the in-class teachers, parents of participating children and other in class observers were conducted from time to time; this research found the children's body rhythm, language skills, and social learning growth were improved in certain degree through the creative dance training. These authors hope the study can contribute as the further research reference on the related topic.

Keywords: Cloud Gate Dance School, creative dance, Dalcroze, Eurhythmic

Procedia PDF Downloads 299

Authors: Ibrahim Bashayreh Al-Bashtawy Mohammed, Al-Azzam Manar Ahmad Rawashda, Abdul-Monim Batiha Mohammad Sulaiman

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Background: Workplace violence against emergency department staff (EDS) is considered one of the most common and widespread phenomena of violence. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine the incidence rates of workplace violence and the predicting factors of violent behaviors among emergency departments’ staff in Jordanian hospitals. Methods: A cross-sectional study was used to investigate workplace violence towards a convenience sample of 355 emergency staff departments from 8 governmental and 4 private Jordanian hospitals. Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire that was developed for the purpose of this study. Results: 72% of workers in emergency departments within Jordanian hospitals are exposed to violent acts, and that patients and their relatives are the main source of workplace violence. The contributing factors as reported by the participants were related to overcrowding, lack of resources, staff shortages, and the absence of effective antiviolence policies. Conclusions/implications for Practice: Policies and legislation regarding violence should be instituted and developed, and emergency department staff should be given training on how to deal with violent incidents, as well as on violence-management policies.

Keywords: Jordan, emergency staff department, workplace violence, community health

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Authors: Dong Zhan

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China sports science is the core periodical of scientific research in the field of sports in China at present. It is the first academic periodical ranked in China. The author has studied the characteristics and trends of articles on sports medicine and physical fitness published in the journal since it founded. Now, the articles on sports medicine and physical fitness published in the Journal of Sports Science from 2013 to 2017 are reviewed. The results show that 1) The characteristics of previous sports medicine articles showed that there were more articles on the basis of sports medicine than that on the application. The research on animal experiments was far more than that on the human body. Moreover, the trend was getting worse and worse as time goes on. But in the past five years, there had been a marked improvement. The basic/application has been improved from 2.1/1 to 1.3/1. This shows that sports medicine researchers have been paid more attention to the application research in sports medicine. 2) There are few articles on sports injury, because the state put the sports injury specialty into the medical colleges, and the research scope of sports research institutes does not include sports injury. It cannot meet the need for the development of sports medicine, and it should change sooner or later. 3) In the past, researchers’ effort was on athletes' physical health, not on ordinary people. Now, there is a great change, they not only research on the sportsmen’s health but also research on the health of the ordinary people. 4) Researchers mainly studied on the young people’s physical fitness in the past; now, it has been greatly improved. Researchers study on the physical health of the elderly, especially those over the age of 60. Numbers of paper researching on the young were much more than those on the old. In the past 10 years, the ratio of number of paper researching on the young to the old people was (young/old) 16.6/1, while in the past 5 years, this ratio was 6.3/1. However, this is not enough. China has a large population and needs to focus on promoting the health of the people. Conclusion: It is important to pay more attention to the application research on sports medicine and on the physical fitness, and it is also important to make a research on physical health of the elderly.

Keywords: sports medicine, people's health, the young, the old

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Authors: Mubarak Suliman, Mohamed Hassan

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Detection of downed conductors occurring with high fault resistance (reaching kilo-ohms) has always been a challenge, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia, on which earth resistivity is very high in general (reaching more than 1000 Ω-meter). The new approaches for the detection of resistive and high impedance faults are based on the analysis of the fault current waveform. These methods are still under research and development, and they are currently lacking security and dependability. The other approach is communication-based solutions which depends on voltage measurement at the end of overhead line branches and communicate the measured signals to substation feeder relay or a central control center. However, such a detection method is costly and depends on the availability of communication medium and infrastructure. The main objective of this research is to utilize the available standard protection schemes to increase the probability of detection of downed conductors occurring with a low magnitude of fault currents and at the same time avoiding unwanted tripping in healthy conditions and feeders. By specifying the operating region of the faulty feeder, use of tripping curve for discrimination between faulty and healthy feeders, and with proper selection of core balance current transformer (CBCT) and voltage transformers with fewer measurement errors, it is possible to set the pick-up of sensitive earth fault current to minimum values of few amps (i.e., Pick-up Settings = 3 A or 4 A, …) for the detection of earth faults with fault resistance more than (1 - 2 kΩ) for 13.8kV overhead network and more than (3-4) kΩ fault resistance in 33kV overhead network. By implementation of the outcomes of this study, the probability of detection of downed conductors is increased by the utilization of existing schemes (i.e., Directional Sensitive Earth Fault Protection).

Keywords: sensitive earth fault, zero sequence current, grounded system, resistive fault detection, healthy feeder

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Mattahias Maj, Fabio Tatzgern, Karl Adam, Damir Kahrimanovic, Markus Varga

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Torpedo ladles are necessary transport carriages in steel production to move the molten crude iron from the blast furnace to the steel refining plant. This requires the ladles to be high temperature resistant and insulate well to preserve the temperature and hold the risk of solidification at bay. Therefore, the involved refractories lining the inside of the torpedo ladles are chosen mostly according to their thermal properties, although wear of the materials by the liquid iron is also of major importance. In this work, we combined investigations of the thermal behaviour with wear studies of the lining over the whole lifetime of a torpedo ladle. Additional numerical simulations enabled a detailed model of the mechanical loads and temperature propagation at the various stations (heating, filling, emptying, cooling). The core of the investigation were detailed 3D measurements of the ladle’s cavity and thereby quantitative information of the wear progress at different time intervals during the lifetime of the ladles. The measurements allowed for a separation of different wear zones according to severity, namely the “splash zone” where the melt directly hits the ladle, the “melt zone” where during transport always liquid melt is present, and the “slag zone”, where the slag floats on the melt causing the most severe wear loss. Numerical simulations of the filling process were taken to calculate stress levels and temperature gradients, which led to the different onset of wear on those zones. Thermal imaging and punctual temperature measurements allowed for a study of the thermal consequences entailed by the wear onset. Additional “classical” damage analysis of the worn refractories complete the investigation. Thereby the wear mechanisms leading to the substantial wear loss were disclosed.

Keywords: high temperature, tribology, liquid-solid interaction, refractories, thermography

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Authors: Niyati Sharma, Om Anand, Sanjeev Kumar Prasad

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Assuming future sale value for any of the organizations is one of the major essential characteristics of tactical development. Walmart Sales Forecasting is the finest illustration to work with as a beginner; subsequently, it has the major retail data set. Walmart uses this sales estimate problem for hiring purposes also. We would like to analyzing how the internal and external effects of one of the largest companies in the US can walk out their Weekly Sales in the future. Demand forecasting is the planned prerequisite of products or services in the imminent on the basis of present and previous data and different stages of the market. Since all associations is facing the anonymous future and we do not distinguish in the future good demand. Hence, through exploring former statistics and recent market statistics, we envisage the forthcoming claim and building of individual goods, which are extra challenging in the near future. As a result of this, we are producing the required products in pursuance of the petition of the souk in advance. We will be using several machine learning models to test the exactness and then lastly, train the whole data by Using linear regression and fitting the training data into it. Accuracy is 8.88%. The extra trees regression model gives the best accuracy of 97.15%.

Keywords: random forest algorithm, linear regression algorithm, extra trees classifier, mean absolute error

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Authors: Ana Paula Lisboa Sohn, Filipa Dionísio Vieria, Nelson Casarotto, Idaulo José Cunha

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This paper aims at identifying and analyzing the knowledge transmission channels in textile and clothing clusters located in Brazil and in Europe. Primary data was obtained through interviews with key individuals. The collection of primary data was carried out based on a questionnaire with ten categories of indicators of knowledge transmission. Secondary data was also collected through a literature review and through international organizations sites. Similarities related to the use of the main transmission channels of knowledge are observed in all cases. The main similarities are: influence of suppliers of machinery, equipment and raw materials; imitation of products and best practices; training promoted by technical institutions and businesses; and cluster companies being open to acquire new knowledge. The main differences lie in the relationship between companies, where in Europe the intensity of this relationship is bigger when compared to Brazil. The differences also occur in importance and frequency of the relationship with the government, with the cultural environment, and with the activities of research and development. It is also found factors that reduce the importance of geographical proximity in transmission of knowledge, and in generating trust and the establishment of collaborative behavior.

Keywords: industrial clusters, interorganizational learning, knowledge transmission channels, textile and clothing industry

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Authors: Guenther Schuh, Stephan Schroeder, Marcel Faulhaber

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Companies are facing an increasing pressure to innovate faster, cheaper and more radical in last years, due to shrinking product lifecycles and higher volatility of markets and customer demands. Especially established companies struggle meeting those demands. Thus, many producing companies are adapting their development processes to address this increasing pressure. One approach taken by many companies is the use of agile, highly iterative development processes to reduce development times and costs as well as to increase the fulfilled customer requirements and the realized level of innovation. At the same time decreasing depths of added value and increasing focus on core competencies as well as a growing product complexity result in a high dependency on suppliers and external development partners during the product development. Thus, a successful introduction of agile development methods into the development of physical products requires also a successful integration of the necessary external partners and suppliers into the new processes and procedures and an adaption of the organizational interfaces to external partners according to the new circumstances and requirements of agile development processes. For an effective and efficient product development, the design of customer-supplier-relationships should be demand-oriented. A significant influence on the required design has the characteristics of the procurement object. Examples therefore are the complexity of technical interfaces between supply object and final product or the importance of the supplied component for the major product functionalities. Thus, this paper presents an approach to derive general requirements on the design of supplier integration according to the characteristics of supply objects. First, therefore the most relevant evaluation criteria and characteristics have been identified based on a thorough literature review. Subsequently the resulting requirements on the design of the supplier integration were derived depending on the different possible values of these criteria.

Keywords: iterative development processes, agile new product development, procurement, supplier integration

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Authors: Liang Wang, Beste F. Yuksel, David Guy Brizan

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A computational model of affect that can distinguish between spontaneous and posed smiles with no errors on a large, popular data set using deep learning techniques is presented in this paper. A Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) classifier, a type of Recurrent Neural Network, is utilized and compared to human classification. Results showed that while human classification (mean of 0.7133) was above chance, the LSTM model was more accurate than human classification and other comparable state-of-the-art systems. Additionally, a high accuracy rate was maintained with small amounts of training videos (70 instances). The derivation of important features to further understand the success of our computational model were analyzed, and it was inferred that thousands of pairs of points within the eyes and mouth are important throughout all time segments in a smile. This suggests that distinguishing between a posed and spontaneous smile is a complex task, one which may account for the difficulty and lower accuracy of human classification compared to machine learning models.

Keywords: affective computing, affect detection, computer vision, deep learning, human-computer interaction, machine learning, posed smile detection, spontaneous smile detection

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Authors: Elisa Coraggio, Dawei Han, Weiru Liu, Theo Tryfonas

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Water is one of the most important resources for human society. The world is currently undergoing a wave of urban growth, and pollution problems are of a great impact. Monitoring water quality is a key task for the future of the environment and human species. In recent times, researchers, using Smart Cities technologies are trying to mitigate the problems generated by the population growth in urban areas. The availability of huge amounts of data collected by a pervasive urban IoT can increase the transparency of decision making. Several services have already been implemented in Smart Cities, but more and more services will be involved in the future. Water quality monitoring can successfully be implemented in the urban IoT. The combination of water quality sensors, cloud computing, smart city infrastructure, and IoT technology can lead to a bright future for environmental monitoring. In the past decades, lots of effort has been put on monitoring and predicting water quality using traditional approaches based on manual collection and laboratory-based analysis, which are slow and laborious. The present study proposes a methodology for implementing a water quality prediction model using artificial intelligence techniques and comparing the results obtained with different algorithms. Furthermore, a 3D numerical model will be created using the software D-Water Quality, and simulation results will be used as a training dataset for the artificial intelligence algorithm. This study derives the methodology and demonstrates its implementation based on information and data collected at the floating harbour in the city of Bristol (UK). The city of Bristol is blessed with the Bristol-Is-Open infrastructure that includes Wi-Fi network and virtual machines. It was also named the UK ’s smartest city in 2017.In recent times, researchers, using Smart Cities technologies are trying to mitigate the problems generated by the population growth in urban areas. The availability of huge amounts of data collected by a pervasive urban IoT can increase the transparency of decision making. Several services have already been implemented in Smart Cities, but more and more services will be involved in the future. Water quality monitoring can successfully be implemented in the urban IoT. The combination of water quality sensors, cloud computing, smart city infrastructure, and IoT technology can lead to a bright future for the environment monitoring. In the past decades, lots of effort has been put on monitoring and predicting water quality using traditional approaches based on manual collection and laboratory-based analysis, which are slow and laborious. The present study proposes a new methodology for implementing a water quality prediction model using artificial intelligence techniques and comparing the results obtained with different algorithms. Furthermore, a 3D numerical model will be created using the software D-Water Quality, and simulation results will be used as a training dataset for the Artificial Intelligence algorithm. This study derives the methodology and demonstrate its implementation based on information and data collected at the floating harbour in the city of Bristol (UK). The city of Bristol is blessed with the Bristol-Is-Open infrastructure that includes Wi-Fi network and virtual machines. It was also named the UK ’s smartest city in 2017.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, hydroinformatics, numerical modelling, smart cities, water quality

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Authors: Danila Zuffetti, Lorenzo Chiesa

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Background: A hospice narrative interview aims at putting the sick at the core of disease and treatment allowing them to explore their most intimate facets. The aim of this work is to favor authentic narration by leading towards awareness and acceptance of terminality and to face death with serenity. Narration in palliative care aims at helping to reduce the chaos generated by the disease and to elaborate interpretations on the course of reality, besides, the narration delivered to the doctor is fundamental and communicates the meaning given to symptoms. Methods: The narrative interview has become a regular activity in the Castellini Foundation since 2017. Patients take part every week, and for more days, in one hour sessions, in a welcoming and empathic setting and the interaction with the operator leads to a gradual awareness of their terminality. Patients are submitted with free answer questions with the purpose of facilitating and stimulating self-narration. Narration has not always been linear, but patients are left free to shift in time to revisit their disease process by making use of different tools, such as digital storytelling. Results: The answers provided by the patients show to which extent the narrative interview is an instrument allowing the analysis of the stories and gives the possibility to better understand and deepen the different implications of patient and caregiver’s background. Conclusion: The narration work in the hospice demonstrates that narrative medicine is an added value. This instrument has proven useful not only in the support of patients but also for the palliative doctor to identify wishes for accompanying them to the end with dignity and serenity. The narrative interview favors the construction of an authentic therapeutic relationship. The sick are taken wholly in charge, and they are guaranteed a high quality of life until their very last instant.

Keywords: construction of an authentic therapy relationship, gradual awareness of their terminality, narrative interview, reduce the chaos generated by the desease

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Authors: Joseph Wolff, Jeffrey Eilbott

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Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a spectrum of social disorders characterized by deficits in social communication, verbal ability, and interaction that can vary in severity. In recent years, researchers have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to help detect how neural patterns in individuals with ASD differ from those of neurotypical (NT) controls for classification purposes. This study analyzed the classification of ASD within males and females using functional MRI data. Functional connectivity (FC) correlations among brain regions were used as feature inputs for machine learning algorithms. Analysis was performed on 558 cases from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) I dataset. When trained specifically on females, the algorithm underperformed in classifying the ASD subset of our testing population. Although the subject size was relatively smaller in the female group, the manual matching of both male and female training groups helps explain the algorithm’s bias, indicating the altered sex abnormalities in functional brain networks compared to typically developing peers. These results highlight the importance of taking sex into account when considering how generalizations of findings on males with ASD apply to females.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, machine learning, neuroimaging, sex differences

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Authors: S. Redjala, N. Ait Hocine, M. Gratton, N. Poirot, R. Ferhoum, S. Azem

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Polycarbonate (PC) is a promising polymer with high transparency in the range of the visible spectrum and is used in various fields, for example medical, electronic, automotive. Its low weight, chemical inertia, high impact resistance and relatively low cost are of major importance. In recent decades, some materials such as metals and ceramics have been replaced by polymers because of their superior advantages. However, some characteristics of the polymers are highly modified under the effect of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and temperature. The changes induced in the material by such aging depend on the exposure time, the wavelength of the UV radiation and the temperature level. The UV energy is sufficient to break the chemical bonds leading to a cleavage of the molecular chains. This causes changes in the mechanical, thermal, optical and morphological properties of the material. The present work is focused on the study of the effects of aging under ultraviolet (UV) radiation and under different temperature values on the physical-chemical and mechanical properties of a PC. Thus, various investigations, such as FTIR and XRD analyses, SEM and optical microscopy observations, micro-hardness measurements and monotonic and cyclic tensile tests, were carried out on the PC in the initial state and after aging. Results have shown the impact of aging on the properties of the PC studied. In fact, the MEB highlighted changes in the superficial morphology of the material by the presence of cracks and material de-bonding in the form of debris. The FTIR spectra reveal an attenuation of the peaks like the hydroxyl (OH) groups located at 3520 cm-1. The XRD lines shift towards a larger angle, reaching a maximum of 3°. In addition, Vickers micro-hardness measurements show that aging affects the surface and the core of the material, which results in different mechanical behaviours under monotonic and cyclic tensile tests. This study pointed out effects of aging on the macroscopic properties of the PC studied, in relationship with its microstructural changes.

Keywords: mechanical properties, physical-chemical properties, polycarbonate, UV aging, temperature aging

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Authors: Yichao Ma, Chengsiong Chin, Wailok Woo

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Since the last decade, there has been a rapid growth in digital multimedia, such as high-resolution media files and three-dimentional movies. Hence, there is a need for large digital storage such as Hard Disk Drive (HDD). As such, users expect to have a quieter HDD in their laptop. In this paper, a jury test has been conducted on a group of 34 people where 17 of them are students who is the potential consumer, and the remaining are engineers who know the HDD. A total 13 HDD sound samples have been selected from over hundred HDD noise recordings. These samples are selected based on an agreed subjective feeling. The samples are played to the participants using head acoustic playback system which enabled them to experience as similar as possible the same environment as have been recorded. Analysis has been conducted and the obtained results have indicated different group has different perception over the noises. Two neural network-based acoustic annoyance models are established based on back propagation neural network. Four psychoacoustic metrics, loudness, sharpness, roughness and fluctuation strength, are used as the input of the model, and the subjective evaluation results are taken as the output. The developed models are reasonably accurate in simulating both training and test samples.

Keywords: hdd noise, jury test, neural network model, psychoacoustic annoyance

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Authors: L. Parisi

Abstract:

In this research work, neural networks were applied to classify two types of hip joint implants based on the relative hip joint implant side speed and three components of each ground reaction force. The condition of walking gait at normal velocity was used and carried out with each of the two hip joint implants assessed. Ground reaction forces’ kinetic temporal changes were considered in the first approach followed but discarded in the second one. Ground reaction force components were obtained from eighteen patients under such gait condition, half of which had a hip implant type I-II, whilst the other half had the hip implant, defined as type III by Orthoload®. After pre-processing raw gait kinetic data and selecting the time frames needed for the analysis, the ground reaction force components were used to train a MLP neural network, which learnt to distinguish the two hip joint implants in the abovementioned condition. Further to training, unknown hip implant side and ground reaction force components were presented to the neural networks, which assigned those features into the right class with a reasonably high accuracy for the hip implant type I-II and the type III. The results suggest that neural networks could be successfully applied in the performance assessment of hip joint implants.

Keywords: kinemic gait data, neural networks, hip joint implant, hip arthroplasty, rehabilitation engineering

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Authors: Sharda Kumari, Saiman Shetty

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Autonomous trucking is just one of the numerous significant shifts impacting fleet management services. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has defined six levels of vehicle automation that have been adopted internationally, including by the United States Department of Transportation. On public highways in the United States, organizations are testing driverless vehicles with at least Level 4 automation which indicates that a human is present in the vehicle and can disable automation, which is usually done while the trucks are not engaged in highway driving. However, completely driverless vehicles are presently being tested in the state of California. While autonomous trucking can increase safety, decrease trucking costs, provide solutions to trucker shortages, and improve efficiencies, logistics, too, requires advancements to keep up with trucking innovations. Given that artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automated procedures enable people to do their duties in other sectors with fewer resources, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can be applied to the autonomous trucking business to provide the same level of efficiency. In a society witnessing significant digital disruptions, fleet management is likewise being transformed by technology. Utilizing strategic alliances to enhance core services is an effective technique for capitalizing on innovations and delivering enhanced services. Utilizing analytics on CRM systems improves cost control of fuel strategy, fleet maintenance, driver behavior, route planning, road safety compliance, and capacity utilization. Integration of autonomous trucks with automated fleet management, yard/terminal management, and customer service is possible, thus having significant power to redraw the lines between the public and private spheres in autonomous trucking logistics.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, customer relationship management, customer experience, autonomous trucking, digital transformation

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Authors: Yang Meng, James L. Patnao

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With the rapid development of information technology and the impact of the epidemic environment, the traditional teaching model can’t longer meet the requirements of the development of the times. The development of teaching mechanism is the inevitable trend of the future development of higher education. We must further promote the informatization of higher education in teaching practice, let modern information technology penetrate and practice in classroom teaching, and provide promising opportunities for the high-quality development of higher education. This article mainly through the distribution of questionnaires to teachers of colleges and universities, so as to understand the degree of informatization in the teaching of colleges and universities. And on the basis of domestic and foreign scholars' research on higher education informatization, it analyzes the existing problems, and finds the optimal solution based on the needs of education and teaching development. According to the survey results, most college teachers will use information technology in teaching practice, but the information technology teaching tools used by teachers are relatively simple, and most of them only use slides. In addition, backward informatization infrastructure and less informatization training are the main challenges facing the current teaching informatization construction. If colleges and universities can make good use of information technology and multimedia technology and combine it with traditional teaching, it will definitely promote the development of college education and further promote the modernization and informatization of higher education.

Keywords: higher education, teaching practice, informatization construction, e-education

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Authors: Megan Chaney

Abstract:

In the United States, research continues to show school administrators do not view themselves as adequately prepared in the area of special education. Often, special education is an omitted topic of study for school administrator preparation programs. The majority of special education teachers do not view their principals as well-prepared to support them in the educational context. Administrator preparation in the area of special education may begin at the foundational levels of understanding but is fundamentally an equity issue when serving individuals from marginalized populations with an urgent need to increase inclusionary practices. Special education and building-level administrators have a direct impact on teacher quality, instructional practices, inclusion, and equity with the opportunity to shape positive school culture. The current study was situated within an innovative IHE/LEA partnership pathway implemented with current K-12 administrators earning a Mild/Moderate Education Specialist Credential or coursework equivalent. Specifically, the study examined administrator’s perception of the Special Education Laws and Ethics’ course value and impact on the capacity to serve children with exceptionalities within the comprehensive school site context.

Keywords: special education laws and ethics, school adminstrator perspectives, school administrator training, inclusive practices

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Authors: Andrew Anis Fakhrey Mosaad

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Introduction: Sports- and physical activity-related injuries may be more likely if there is a genetic predisposition, improper coaching and/or training, and no follow-up care from sports medicine. Goal: To evaluate the frequency of injuries among athletes receiving care at a sportsfocused physical therapy clinic. Methods: The survey of injuries in athletes' treatment records over a period of eight years of activity was done to obtain data. The data collected included: the patient's features, the sport, the type of injury, the injury's characteristics, and the body portion injured. Results: The athletes were drawn from 1090 patient/athlete records, had an average age of 25, participated in 44 different sports, and were 75% men on average. Joint injuries were the most frequent type of injury, then damage to the muscles and bones. The most prevalent type of injury was chronic (47%), while the knee, ankle, and shoulder were the most frequently damaged body parts. The most injured athletes were seen in soccer, futsal, and track and field, respectively, out of all the sports. Conclusion: The most popular sport among injured players was soccer, and the most common injury type was joint damage, with the knee being the most often damaged body area. The majority of the injuries were chronic.

Keywords: sports injuries, athletes, joint injuries, injured players

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Authors: Tsai Su Hui

Abstract:

Background: Hyperphosphatemia in patients receiving dialysis can cause hyperparathyroidism, which can lead to renal osteodystrophy, cardiovascular disease and mortality. Data showed that 26% of patients receiving dialysis had blood phosphate levels of >6.0 mg/dl at this unit from January to March 2017, higher than the Taiwan Society of Nephrology evaluation criteria of < 20%. After analysis, possible reasons included: 1. Incomprehensive education for nurse and lack of relevant training. 2. Insufficient assistive aids for nursing health education instruction. 3. Patients were unsure which foods are high or low in phosphate. 4. Patients did not have habits of taking medicine with them and how to correctly administer the medication. Purpose: To reduce the percentage of patients receiving dialysis with blood phosphate levels of >6.0 mg/dl to less than 20% at this unit. Method: (1) Improve understanding of hyperphosphatemia and food for patients receiving dialysis and their families, (2) Acquire more nursing instruction assistive aids and improve knowledge of hyperphosphatemia for nurse. Results: After implementing the project, the percentage of patients receiving dialysis with blood phosphate levels of >6.0 mg/dl decreased from 26.0% to 18.8% at this unit. By implementing the project, the professional skills of nurse improved, blood phosphate levels of patients receiving dialysis were reduced, and the quality of care for patients receiving dialysis at this unit was enhanced.

Keywords: hemodialysis, hyperphosphatemia, incidence, reducing

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Authors: Kashif Habib, Zeeshan Ayyub

Abstract:

ZnO voltage dependent resistor was widely used as components of the electrical system for over-voltage protection. It has a wide application prospect in superconducting energy-removal, generator de-excitation, overvoltage protection of electrical & electronics equipment. At present, the research for the application of ZnO voltage dependent resistor stop, it uses just in the field of its nonlinear voltage current characteristic and overvoltage protection areas. There is no further study over the over-voltage breakdown characteristics, such as the combustion phenomena and the measure of the voltage/current when it breakdown, and the affect to its surrounding equipment. It is also a blind spot in its application. So, when we do the feature test of ZnO voltage dependent resistor, we need to design a reasonable test power supply, making the terminal voltage keep for sine wave, simulating the real use of PF voltage in power supply conditions. We put forward the solutions of using inverter to generate a controllable power. The paper mainly focuses on the breakdown characteristic test power supply of nonlinear ZnO voltage dependent resistor. According to the current mature switching power supply technology, we proposed power control system using the inverter as the core. The power mainly realize the sin-voltage output on the condition of three-phase PF-AC input, and 3 control modes (RMS, Peak, Average) of the current output. We choose TMS320F2812M as the control part of the hardware platform. It is used to convert the power from three-phase to a controlled single-phase sin-voltage through a rectifier, filter, and inverter. Design controller produce SPWM, to get the controlled voltage source via appropriate multi-loop control strategy, while execute data acquisition and display, system protection, start logic control, etc. The TMS320F2812M is able to complete the multi-loop control quickly and can be a good completion of the inverter output control.

Keywords: ZnO, multi-loop control, SPWM, non-linear load

Procedia PDF Downloads 326