Search results for: western media

Authors: Susana P. Dias, Andrea Gomes, Fernanda M. Ferreira, Marta F. Henriques

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Thymus mastichina L. is an endogenous medicinal and aromatic plant of the Mediterranean flora. It has been used empirically over the years as a natural preservative in food. Nowadays, the antimicrobial activity of its bioactive compounds, such as essential oils and extracts, has been well recognized. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of Thymus mastichina ethanolic and aqueous extracts on pathogens and spoilage microorganisms present in cheese during ripening. The effect that the extract type and its concentration has on the development of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Yarrowia lipolytica populations during 24 hours, was studied 'in vitro' using appropriate culture media. The results achieved evidenced the antimicrobial activity of T. mastichina extracts against the studied strains, and the concentration of 2 mg/mL (w/v) was selected and used directly on the cheese surface during ripening. In addition to the microbiological evaluation in terms of total aerobic bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, yeasts (particularly Y. lipolytica) and molds, the treated cheeses physicochemical evaluation (humidity, aw, pH, colour, and texture) was also performed. The results were compared with cheeses with natamicyn (positive control) and without any treatment (negative control). The physicochemical evaluation showed that the cheeses treated with ethanolic extract of Thymus mastichina, except the fact that they lead to a faster water loss during ripening, did not present considerable differences when compared to controls. The study revealed an evident antimicrobial power of the extracts, although less effective than the one shown by the use of natamycin. For this reason, the improvement of the extraction methods and the adjustment of the extract concentrations will contribute to the use of T. mastichina as a healthier and eco-friendly alternative to natamycin, that is also more attractive from an economic point of view.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity, cheese, ethanolic extract, Thymus mastichina

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Authors: Sangita Pokhrel, Nalinda Somasiri, Rebecca Jeyavadhanam, Swathi Ganesan

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Tourism is a booming industry with huge future potential for global wealth and employment. There are countless data generated over social media sites every day, creating numerous opportunities to bring more insights to decision-makers. The integration of Big Data Technology into the tourism industry will allow companies to conclude where their customers have been and what they like. This information can then be used by businesses, such as those in charge of managing visitor centers or hotels, etc., and the tourist can get a clear idea of places before visiting. The technical perspective of natural language is processed by analysing the sentiment features of online reviews from tourists, and we then supply an enhanced long short-term memory (LSTM) framework for sentiment feature extraction of travel reviews. We have constructed a web review database using a crawler and web scraping technique for experimental validation to evaluate the effectiveness of our methodology. The text form of sentences was first classified through Vader and Roberta model to get the polarity of the reviews. In this paper, we have conducted study methods for feature extraction, such as Count Vectorization and TFIDF Vectorization, and implemented Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier algorithm for the sentiment analysis to decide the tourist’s attitude towards the destinations is positive, negative, or simply neutral based on the review text that they posted online. The results demonstrated that from the CNN algorithm, after pre-processing and cleaning the dataset, we received an accuracy of 96.12% for the positive and negative sentiment analysis.

Keywords: counter vectorization, convolutional neural network, crawler, data technology, long short-term memory, web scraping, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Elisabeth Pedersen

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Representations and interpretations of womanhood and female sexualities bring forth various questions regarding gender norms, and the implications of these norms, which are permeating and repetitive within various societies. Literature is one form of media which provides the space to represent and interpret women, their bodies, and sexualities, and also reveals the power of language as an affective and affected force. As literature allows an opportunity to explore history and the representations of gender, power dynamics, and sexuality through historical contexts, this paper uses engaged theory through a comparative analysis of two work of literature, The Duchess of Malfi by John Wester, and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. These novels span across space and time, which lends to the theory that repetitive tropes of womanhood and female sexuality in literature are influenced by and have an influence on the hegemonic social order throughout history. It analyzes how the representation of the dichotomy of male chivalry and honor, and female purity are disputed and questioned when a woman is portrayed as sexually emancipated, and explores the historical context in which these works were written to examine how socioeconomic events challenged the hegemonic social order. The analysis looks at how stereotypical ideals of womanhood and manhood have damaging implications on women, as the structure of society provides more privilege and power to men than to women, thus creating a double standard for men and women in regards to sexuality, sexual expression, and rights to sexual desire. This comparative analysis reveals how strict gender norms are permeating and have negative consequences. However, re-reading stories through a critical lens can provide an opportunity to challenge the repetitive tropes of female sexuality, and thus lead to the embrace of the complexity of female sexuality and expression.

Keywords: femininity, literature, representation, sexuality

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Authors: John Lamb, Robert Epstein, Vasundhara L. Bhupathi, Sanjeev Kumar Marimekala

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In this paper, we focus on the importance of scalable architecture for data centers and buildings in general to help an enterprise achieve environmental sustainability. The scalable architecture helps in many ways, such as adaptability to the business and user requirements, promotes high availability and disaster recovery solutions that are cost effective and low maintenance. The scalable architecture also plays a vital role in three core areas of sustainability: economy, environment, and social, which are also known as the 3 pillars of a sustainability model. If the architecture is scalable, it has many advantages. A few examples are that scalable architecture helps businesses and industries to adapt to changing technology, drive innovation, promote platform independence, and build resilience against natural disasters. Most importantly, having a scalable architecture helps industries bring in cost-effective measures for energy consumption, reduce wastage, increase productivity, and enable a robust environment. It also helps in the reduction of carbon emissions with advanced monitoring and metering capabilities. Scalable architectures help in reducing waste by optimizing the designs to utilize materials efficiently, minimize resources, decrease carbon footprints by using low-impact materials that are environmentally friendly. In this paper we also emphasize the importance of cultural shift towards the reuse and recycling of natural resources for a balanced ecosystem and maintain a circular economy. Also, since all of us are involved in the use of computers, much of the scalable architecture we have studied is related to data centers.

Keywords: scalable architectures, sustainability, application design, disruptive technology, machine learning and natural language processing, AI, social media platform, cloud computing, advanced networking and storage devices, advanced monitoring and metering infrastructure, climate change

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Authors: Laura Dumuje

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The ongoing debate in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative in Niger Delta originates from existing gap between stated objectives of organizations in the Nigerian oil sector and the activities that threaten the economy. CSR in developing countries is becoming popular, and to contribute to scientific knowledge, we need to research on CSR practices and discourse in indigenous Nigeria that is scarce. Despite governments mandate in terms of unofficial gas blazing, methane is being released into the atmosphere which contributes to global warming. Does this practice apply to indigenous companies? In this context, we need to investigate CSR policies in local Nigeria. To get a better understanding of CSR among indigenous oil companies in Nigeria, our study focuses on discourse and rhetoric in terms of CSR, as well as growth regarding CSR. This current study contribution is twofold: on the one hand, it aims to better understand practitioner’s rationale and fundamentals of CSR in Nigerian oil companies. On the other hand, it intends to identify the stages of CSR initiatives, advantages and difficulties of CSR implementation in indigenous Nigeria oil sector. This study will use the qualitative research as methodological strategy. Instrument for data collection is semi-structured interview. Besides interview, we will conduct some focus group discussions with relevant stakeholders. Participants for this study consist of employees, managers and top level executives of indigenous oil companies in Nigeria. Key informants such as government institutions, environmental organizations and community leaders will take part of our samples. It is important to note that despite significant findings in some studies, there are still some gaps. To help filling this existing gaps, we have formulated some research questions, as follows: ‘What are the stages, opportunities and obstacles of having corporate social responsibility practice in indigenous oil companies in Nigeria?’ This ongoing research sub-questions as follows: What are the CSR discourses and practices among indigenous companies in the Nigerian oil sector? What is the actual status regarding CSR development? What are the main perceptions of opportunities and obstacles with regard to CSR in indigenous Nigerian oil companies? Who are the main stakeholders of indigenous Nigerian oil companies and their different meanings and understandings of CSR practices? Important to note regarding the above questions, the following objectives have been determined: This research conducts a literature review with the aim of uncovering, understanding and identifying importance of CSR practices in western and developing countries; It aims to identify specific characteristics of the national context in respect to CSR engagement in Nigeria; Relevant to perform empirical research with employees, managers, executives, and key informants in indigenous Nigerian oil companies in order to identify different understandings of CSR initiatives and its relevance to the society; To conclude, provide managerial recommendations regarding the adoption of CSR in Nigeria.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, indigenous, organization, Nigeria

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Authors: Ramesh Chinnasamy, Srishti Semalty, Vishnu S. Nair, Thirumurugan Vedagiri, Mahesh Ganeshan, Gautam Talukdar, Karthy Sivapushanam, Abhijit Das

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Snakes form an integral component of ecological systems. Human population explosion and associated acceleration of habitat destruction and degradation, has led to a rapid increase in human-snake encounters. The study aims at understanding the level of awareness, knowledge, and attitude of the people towards human-snake negative interaction and role of awareness programmes in the Moyar river valley, Tamil Nadu. The study area is part of the Mudumalai and the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserves, which are significant wildlife corridors between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The data was collected using questionnaire covering 644 respondents spread across 18 villages between 2018 and 2019. The study revealed that 86.5% of respondents had strong negative perceptions towards snakes which were propelled by fear, superstitions, and threat of snakebite which was common and did not vary among different villages (F=4.48; p = <0.05) and age groups (X2 = 1.946; p = 0.962). Cobra 27.8% (n = 294) and rat snake 21.3% (n = 225) were the most sighted species and most snake encounter occurred during the monsoon season i.e., July 35.6 (n = 218), June 19.1% (n = 117) and August 18.4% (n = 113). At least 1 out of 5 respondents was reportedly bitten by snakes during their lifetime. The most common species of snakes that were the cause of snakebite were Saw scaled viper (32.6%, n = 42) followed by Cobra 17.1% (n = 22). About 21.3% (n = 137) people reported livestock loss due to pythons and other snakes 21.3% (n = 137). Most people, preferred medical treatment for snakebite (87.3%), whereas 12.7%, still believed in traditional methods. The majority (82.3%) used precautionary measure by keeping traditional items such as garlic, kerosene, and snake plant to avoid snakes. About 30% of the respondents expressed need for technical and monetary support from the forest department that could aid in reducing the human-snake conflict. It is concluded that the general perception in the study area is driven by fear and negative attitude towards snakes. Though snakes such as Cobra were widely worshiped in the region, there are still widespread myths and misconceptions that have led to the irrational killing of snakes. Awareness and innovative education programs rooted in the local context and language should be integrated at the village level, to minimize risk and the associated threat of snakebite among the people. Results from this study shall help policy makers to devise appropriate conservation measures to reduce human-snake conflicts in India.

Keywords: Envenomation, Health-Education, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Neglected Tropical Disease, Snakebite Mitigation, Traditional Practitioners

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Authors: Mohammad Ali Al Qatawneh, Bespalchuk Pavel Ivanovich

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Computer navigation has been introduced in total knee arthroplasty to improve the accuracy of the procedure. Computer navigation improves the accuracy of bone resection in the coronal and sagittal planes. It was also noted that it normalizes the rotational alignment of the femoral component and fully assesses and balances the deformation of soft tissues in the coronal plane. The work is devoted to the advantages of using computer navigation technology in total knee arthroplasty in 62 patients (11 men and 51 women) suffering from gonarthrosis, aged 51 to 83 years, operated using a computer navigation system, followed up to 3 years from the moment of surgery. During the examination, the deformity variant was determined, and radiometric parameters of the knee joints were measured using the Knee Society Score (KSS), Functional Knee Society Score (FKSS), and Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scales. Also, functional stress tests were performed to assess the stability of the knee joint in the frontal plane and functional indicators of the range of motion. After surgery, improvement was observed in all scales; firstly, the WOMAC values decreased by 5.90 times, and the median value to 11 points (p < 0.001), secondly KSS increased by 3.91 times and reached 86 points (p < 0.001), and the third one is that FKSS data increased by 2.08 times and reached 94 points (p < 0.001). After TKA, the axis deviation of the lower limbs of more than 3 degrees was observed in 4 patients at 6.5% and frontal instability of the knee joint just in 2 cases at 3.2%., The lower incidence of sagittal instability of the knee joint after the operation was 9.6%. The range of motion increased by 1.25 times; the volume of movement averaged 125 degrees (p < 0.001). Computer navigation increases the accuracy of the spatial orientation of the endoprosthesis components in all planes, reduces the variability of the axis of the lower limbs within ± 3 °, allows you to achieve the best results of surgical interventions, and can be used to solve most basic tasks, allowing you to achieve excellent and good outcomes of operations in 100% of cases according to the WOMAC scale. With diaphyseal deformities of the femur and/or tibia, as well as with obstruction of their medullary canal, the use of computer navigation is the method of choice. The use of computer navigation prevents the occurrence of flexion contracture and hyperextension of the knee joint during the distal sawing of the femur. Using the navigation system achieves high-precision implantation for the endoprosthesis; in addition, it achieves an adequate balance of the ligaments, which contributes to the stability of the joint, reduces pain, and allows for the achievement of a good functional result of the treatment.

Keywords: knee joint, arthroplasty, computer navigation, advantages

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Authors: Tayyaba Azim, Bibi Amina

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The increase in the popularity of opinion mining with the rapid growth in the availability of social networks has attracted a lot of opportunities for research in the various domains of Sentiment Analysis and Natural Language Processing (NLP) using Artificial Intelligence approaches. The latest trend allows the public to actively use the internet for analyzing an individual’s opinion and explore the effectiveness of published facts. The main theme of this research is to account the public opinion on the most crucial and extensively discussed development projects, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), considered as a game changer due to its promise of bringing economic prosperity to the region. So far, to the best of our knowledge, the theme of CPEC has not been analyzed for sentiment determination through the ML approach. This research aims to demonstrate the use of ML approaches to spontaneously analyze the public sentiment on Twitter tweets particularly about CPEC. Support Vector Machine SVM is used for classification task classifying tweets into positive, negative and neutral classes. Word2vec and TF-IDF features are used with the SVM model, a comparison of the trained model on manually labelled tweets and automatically generated lexicon is performed. The contributions of this work are: Development of a sentiment analysis system for public tweets on CPEC subject, construction of an automatic generation of the lexicon of public tweets on CPEC, different themes are identified among tweets and sentiments are assigned to each theme. It is worth noting that the applications of web mining that empower e-democracy by improving political transparency and public participation in decision making via social media have not been explored and practised in Pakistan region on CPEC yet.

Keywords: machine learning, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, support vector machine, Word2vec

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Authors: Desta Kebede Ayana, Lies Sercu, Demelash Mengistu

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The study is set in Ethiopia, a sub-Saharan multilingual, multiethnic African country, which has seen a significant increase in the number of universities in recent years. The aim of this growth is to provide access to education for all cultural and linguistic groups across the country. However, there are challenges in promoting intercultural competence among students in this diverse context. The aim of the study is to investigate the interculturalization of Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions as perceived by university lecturers and administrators. In particular, the study aims to determine the level of support for this educational innovation and gather suggestions for its implementation and institutionalization. The researchers employed semi-structured interviews with administrators and lecturers from two large Ethiopian universities to gather data. Thematic analysis was utilized for coding and analyzing the interview data, with the assistance of the NVIVO software. The findings obtained from the grounded analysis of the interview data reveal that while there are opportunities for interculturalization in the curriculum and campus life, support for educational innovation remains low. Administrators and lecturers also emphasize the government's responsibility to prioritize interculturalization over other educational innovation goals. The study contributes to the existing literature by examining an under-researched population in an under-researched context. Additionally, the study explores whether Western perspectives of intercultural competence align with the African context, adding to the theoretical understanding of intercultural education. The data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with administrators and lecturers from two large Ethiopian universities. The interviews allowed for an in-depth exploration of the participants' views on interculturalization in higher education. Thematic analysis was applied to the interview data, allowing for the identification and organization of recurring themes and patterns. The analysis was conducted using the NVIVO software, which aided in coding and analyzing the data. The study addresses the extent to which administrators and lecturers support the interculturalization of Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions. It also explores their suggestions for implementing and institutionalizing intercultural education, as well as their perspectives on the current level of institutionalization. The study highlights the challenges in interculturalizing Ethiopian universities and emphasizes the need for greater support and prioritization of intercultural education. It also underscores the importance of considering the African context when conceptualizing intercultural competence. This research contributes to the understanding of intercultural education in diverse contexts and provides valuable insights for policymakers and educational institutions aiming to promote intercultural competence in higher education settings.

Keywords: administrators, educational change, Ethiopia, intercultural competence, lecturers

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Authors: M. Chukhryaeva, R. Skhalyakho, J. Kagazegeva, E. Pocheshkhova, L. Yepiskopossyan, O. Balanovsky, E. Balanovska

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The Middle East is crossroad of different populations at different times. The Kurds are of particular interest in this region. Historical sources suggested that the origin of the Kurds is associated with Medes. Therefore, it was especially interesting to compare gene pool of Kurds with other supposed descendants of Medes-Tats. Yezidis are ethno confessional group of Kurds. Yezidism as a confessional teaching was formed in the XI-XIII centuries in Iraq. Yezidism has caused reproductively isolation of Yezidis from neighboring populations for centuries. Also, isolation helps to retain Yezidian caste system. It is unknown how the history of Yezidis affected its genу pool because it has never been the object of researching. We have examined the Y-chromosome variation in Yezidis and Kurdish males to understand their gene pool. We collected DNA samples from 90 Yezidi males and 24 Kurdish males together with their pedigrees. We performed Y-STR analysis of 17 loci in the samples collected (Yfiler system from Applied Biosystems) and analysis of 42 Y-SNPs by real-time PCR. We compared our data with published data from other Kurdish groups and from European, Caucasian, and West Asian populations. We found that gene pool of Yezidis contains haplogroups common in the Middle East (J-M172(xM67,M12)- 24%, E-M35(xM78)- 9%) and in South Western Asia (R-M124- 8%) and variant with wide distribution area - R-M198(xM458- 9%). The gene pool of Kurdish has higher genetic diversity than Yezidis. Their dominants haplogroups are R-M198- 20,3 %, E-M35- 9%, J-M172- 9%. Multidimensional scaling also shows that the Kurds and Yezidis are part of the same frontier Asian cluster, which, in addition, included Armenians, Iranians, Turks, and Greeks. At the same time, the peoples of the Caucasus and Europe form isolated clusters that do not overlap with the Asian clusters. It is noteworthy that Kurds from our study gravitate towards Tats, which indicates that most likely these two populations are descendants of ancient Medes population. Multidimensional scaling also reveals similarity between gene pool of Yezidis, Kurds with Armenians and Iranians. The analysis of Yezidis pedigrees and their STR variability did not reveal a reliable connection between genetic diversity and caste system. This indicates that the Yezidis caste system is a social division and not a biological one. Thus, we showed that, despite many years of isolation, the gene pool of Yezidis retained a common layer with the gene pool of Kurds, these populations have common spectrum of haplogroups, but Yezidis have lower genetic diversity than Kurds. This study received primary support from the RSF grant No. 16-36-00122 to MC and grant No. 16-06-00364 to EP.

Keywords: gene pool, haplogroup, Kurds, SNP and STR markers, Yezidis

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Authors: B. Grygalewicz, R. Woroniecka, J. Rygier, K. Borkowska, A. Labak, B. Nowakowska, B. Pienkowska-Grela

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Introduction: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of adult leukemia in the Western world. Hemizygous and or homozygous loss at 13q14 occur in more than half of cases and constitute the most frequent chromosomal abnormality in CLL. It is believed that deletions 13q14 play a role in CLL pathogenesis. Two microRNA genes miR-15a and miR- 16-1 are targets of 13q14 deletions and plays a tumor suppressor role by targeting antiapoptotic BCL2 gene. Deletion size, as a single change detected in FISH analysis, has haprognostic significance. Patients with small deletions, without RB1 gene involvement, have the best prognosis and the longest overall survival time (OS 133 months). In patients with bigger deletion region, containing RB1 gene, prognosis drops to intermediate, like in patients with normal karyotype and without changes in FISH with overall survival 111 months. Aim: Precise delineation of 13q14 deletions regions in two groups of CLL patients, with mono- and biallelic deletions and qualifications of their prognostic significance. Methods: Detection of 13q14 deletions was performed by FISH analysis with CLL probe panel (D13S319, LAMP1, TP53, ATM, CEP-12). Accurate deletion size detection was performed by CGH Haematological Cancer and SNP array (8x60K). Results: Our investigated group of CLL patients with the 13q14 deletion, detected by FISH analysis, comprised two groups: 18 patients with monoallelic deletions and 18 patients with biallelic deletions. In FISH analysis, in the monoallelic group the range of cells with deletion, was 43% to 97%, while in biallelic group deletion was detected in 11% to 94% of cells. Microarray analysis revealed precise deletion regions. In the monoallelic group, the range of size was 348,12 Kb to 34,82 Mb, with median deletion size 7,93 Mb. In biallelic group discrepancy of total deletions, size was 135,27 Kb to 33,33 Mb, with median deletion size 2,52 Mb. The median size of smaller deletion regions on one copy chromosome 13 was 1,08 Mb while the average region of bigger deletion on the second chromosome 13 was 4,04 Mb. In the monoallelic group, in 8/18 deletion region covered RB1 gene. In the biallelic group, in 4/18 cases, revealed deletion on one copy of biallelic deletion and in 2/18 showed deletion of RB1 gene on both deleted 13q14 regions. All minimal deleted regions included miR-15a and miR-16-1 genes. Genetic results will be correlated with clinical data. Conclusions: Application of CGH microarrays technique in CLL allows accurately delineate the size of 13q14 deletion regions, what have a prognostic value. All deleted regions included miR15a and miR-16-1, what confirms the essential role of these genes in CLL pathogenesis. In our investigated groups of CLL patients with mono- and biallelic 13q14 deletions, patients with biallelic deletion presented smaller deletion sizes (2,52 Mb vs 7,93 Mb), what is connected with better prognosis.

Keywords: CLL, deletion 13q14, CGH microarrays, SNP array

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Authors: Balogun R. Ayodeji, Adefisan E. Adesanya, Adeyewa Z. Debo, E. C. Okogbue

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The need to investigate diurnal weather circles in West Africa is coined in the fact that complex interactions often results from diurnal weather patterns. This study investigates diurnal circles of wind, rainfall and convective properties using six (6) hour interval data from the ERA-Interim and the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM). The seven distinct zones, used in this work and classified as rainforest (west-coast, dry, Nigeria-Cameroon), Savannah (Nigeria, and Central Africa and South Sudan (CASS)), Sudano-Sahel, and Sahel, were clearly indicated by the rainfall pattern in each zones. Results showed that the land‐ocean warming contrast was more strongly sensitive to seasonal cycle and has been very weak during March-May (MAM) but clearly spelt out during June-September (JJAS). Dipoles of wind convergence/divergence and wet/dry precipitation, between CASS and Nigeria Savannah zones, were identified in morning and evening hours of MAM, whereas distinct night and day anomaly, in the same location of CASS, were found to be consistent during the JJAS season. Diurnal variation of convective properties showed that stratiform precipitation, due to the extremely low occurrence of flashcount climatology, was dominant during morning hours for both MAM and JJAS than other periods of the day. On the other hand, diurnal variation of the system sizes showed that small system sizes were most dominant during the day time periods for both MAM and JJAS, whereas larger system sizes were frequent during the evening, night, and morning hours. The locations of flashcount and system sizes agreed with earlier results that morning and day-time hours were dominated by stratiform precipitation and small system sizes respectively. Most results clearly showed that the eastern locations of Sudano and Sahel were consistently dry because rainfall and precipitation features were predominantly few. System sizes greater than or equal to 800 km² were found in the western axis of the Sudano and Sahel zones, whereas the eastern axis, particularly in the Sahel zone, had minimal occurrences of small/large system sizes. From the results of locations of extreme systems, flashcount greater than 275 in one single system was never observed during the morning (6Z) diurnal, whereas, the evening (18Z) diurnal had the most frequent cases (at least 8) of flashcount exceeding 275 in one single system. Results presented had shown the importance of diurnal variation in understanding precipitation, flashcount, system sizes patterns at diurnal scales, and understanding land-ocean contrast, precipitation, and wind field anomaly at diurnal scales.

Keywords: convective properties, diurnal circle, flashcount, system sizes

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Authors: Andrew Green, Jiaming Liu, Kellathur Srinivasan, Raymond Chua

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Introduction: The size of Singapore’s online health product (HP) market (e-commerce) is largely unknown. However, it is recognized that a large majority comes from overseas and thus, unregulated. As buying HP from unauthorized sources significantly compromises public health safety, understanding e-commerce users’ demographics and their perceptions on online HP purchasing becomes a pivotal first step to form a basis for recommendations in Singapore’s pharmacovigilance efforts. Objective: To assess the prevalence of online HP purchasing behaviour among Singaporean e-commerce users. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study targeting Singaporean e-commerce users recruited from various local websites and online forums. Participants were not randomized into study arms but instead stratified by random sampling method based on participants’ age. A self-administered anonymous questionnaire was used to explore participants' demographics, online HP purchasing behaviour, knowledge and attitude. The association of different variables with online HP purchasing behaviour was analysed using logistic regression statistics. Main outcome measures: Prevalence of HP e-commerce users in Singapore (%) and variables that contribute to the prevalence (adjusted prevalent ratio). Results: The study recruited 372 complete and valid responses. The prevalence of online HP consumers among e-commerce users in Singapore is estimated to be 55.9% (1.7 million consumers). Online purchasing of complementary HP (46.9%) was the most prevalent, followed by medical devices (21.6%) and Western medicine (20.5%). Multivariate analysis showed that age is an independent variable that correlates with the likelihood of buying HP online. The prevalence of HP e-commerce users is highest in the 35-44 age group (64.1%) and lowest among the 16-24 age group (36.4%). The most bought HP through the internet are vitamins and minerals (21.5%), non-herbal (15.9%), herbal (13.9%), weight loss (8.7%) and sports (8.4%) supplements. While the top 3 products are distributed equally between the genders, there is a skew towards female respondents (12.4% in females vs. 4.9% in males) for weight loss supplements and towards males (13.2% in males vs. 3.7% in females) for sports supplements. Even though online consumers are in the younger age brackets, our study found that up to 72.0% of HP bought online are bought for others (buyer’s family and/or friends). Multivariate analysis showed a statistically significant association between purchasing HP through online means and the perceptions that 'internet is safe' (adjusted Prevalence Ratio=1.15, CI 1.03-1.28), 'buying HP online is time saving' (PR=1.17, CI 1.01-1.36), and 'recognition of HP brand' (PR=1.21 CI 1.06-1.40). Conclusions: This study has provided prevalence data for online HP market in Singapore, and has allowed the country’s regulatory body to formulate a targeted pharmacovigilance approach to this growing problem.

Keywords: e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, pharmacovigilance, Singapore

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Authors: Bhargavi G. Iyer, Ojaswi Bhagat

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In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about ethnic imbalance and diversity in the international context. Arbitration is now subject to the hegemony of a small number of people who are constantly reappointed. When a court system becomes exclusionary, the quality of adjudication suffers significantly. In such a framework, there is a misalignment between adjudicators' preconceived views and the interests of the parties, resulting in a biased view of the proceedings. The world is currently witnessing a slew of intellectual property battles around cultural appropriation. The term "cultural appropriation" refers to the industrial west's theft of indigenous culture, usually for fashion, aesthetic, or dramatic purposes. Selena Gomez exemplifies cultural appropriation by commercially using the “bindi,” which is sacred to Hinduism, as a fashion symbol. In another case, Victoria's Secret insulted indigenous peoples' genocide by stealing native Indian headdresses. In the case of yoga, a similar process can be witnessed, with Vedic philosophy being reduced to a type of physical practice. Such a viewpoint is problematic since indigenous groups have worked hard for generations to ensure the survival of their culture, and its appropriation by the western world for purely aesthetic and theatrical purposes is upsetting to those who practise such cultures. Because such conflicts involve numerous jurisdictions, they must be resolved through international arbitration. However, these conflicts are already being litigated, and the aggrieved parties, namely developing nations, do not believe it prudent to use the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) already established arbitration procedure. This practise, it is suggested in this study, is the outcome of Europe's exclusionary arbitral system, which fails to recognise the non-legal and non-commercial nature of indigenous culture issues. This research paper proposes a more comprehensive, inclusive approach that recognises the non-legal and non-commercial aspects of IP disputes involving cultural appropriation, which can only be achieved through an ethnically balanced arbitration structure. This paper also aspires to expound upon the benefits of arbitration and other means of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the context of disputes pertaining to cultural issues; positing that inclusivity is a solution to the existing discord between international practices and localised cultural points of dispute. This paper also hopes to explicate measures that will facilitate ensuring inclusion and ideal practices in the domain of arbitration law, particularly pertaining to cultural heritage and indigenous expression.

Keywords: arbitration law, cultural appropriation, dispute resolution, heritage, intellectual property

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Authors: Hyoshin Kim

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Most post-secondary educational institutions have offered a wide variety of professional development programs and resources in order to advance the quality of education. Such programs are designed to support faculty members by focusing on topics such as course design, behavioral learning objectives, class discussion, and evaluation methods. These are based on good intentions and might help both new and experienced educators. However, the fundamental flaw is that these ‘effective methods’ are assumed to work regardless of what we teach and whom we teach. This paper is focused on intercultural intelligence and its application to education. It presents a comprehensive literature review on context and cultural diversity in terms of beliefs, values and worldviews. What has worked well with a group of homogeneous local students may not work well with more diverse and international students. It is because students hold different notions of what is means to learn or know something. It is necessary for educators to move away from certain sets of generic teaching skills, which are based on a limited, particular view of teaching and learning. The main objective of the research is to expand our teaching strategies by incorporating what students bring to the course. There have been a growing number of resources and texts on teaching international students. Unfortunately, they tend to be based on the deficiency model, which treats diversity not as strengths, but as problems to be solved. This view is evidenced by the heavy emphasis on assimilationist approaches. For example, cultural difference is negatively evaluated, either implicitly or explicitly. Therefore the pressure is on culturally diverse students. The following questions reflect the underlying assumption of deficiencies: - How can we make them learn better? - How can we bring them into the mainstream academic culture?; and - How can they adapt to Western educational systems? Even though these questions may be well-intended, there seems to be something fundamentally wrong as the assumption of cultural superiority is embedded in this kind of thinking. This paper examines how educators can incorporate intercultural intelligence into the course design by utilizing a variety of tools such as pre-course activities, peer learning and reflective learning journals. The main goal is to explore ways to engage diverse learners in all aspects of learning. This can be achieved by activities designed to understand their prior knowledge, life experiences, and relevant cultural identities. It is crucial to link course material to students’ diverse interests thereby enhancing the relevance of course content and making learning more inclusive. Internationalization of higher education can be successful only when cultural differences are respected and celebrated as essential and positive aspects of teaching and learning.

Keywords: intercultural competence, intercultural intelligence, teaching and learning, post-secondary education

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Authors: E. Xavier, B. Nandita

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Rohingyas are an ethnic and religious minority that resides in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. Post the military coup in 1962, Rohingyas have not been recognized as one of the ethnic tribes of Burma under the legislation. They have lost citizenship, education, health care rights, and instantly became illegal immigrants. While the historicization of this conflict is crucial, this paper wants to humanize the Rohingya population’s embodiment of violence on three different levels – individual, social, and political. In addition, the study focuses on their liminal existence in refugee camps in Bangladesh and in other parts of the world, such as Malaysia and the United States of America. A multi-medium study, it includes first-hand interviews with the Rohingya community in Wisconsin and Chicago, second-hand interviews from documentaries and past ethnographies from scholars to draw meaningful conclusions about their experience as a community. In the end, it focuses on the group of Rohingyas who have managed to resettle in another country and their transitioning experience. Rohingyas embody violence on their individual, social, and political bodies in different ways. Along with rape, murder, and physical harm, the community also encounters sexually transmitted infections, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, and poor mental health. On a social level, they encounter heightened gender discrimination, work industry shifting, and immense, shared emotional pain. As for their political body, the news media and journalism industry uses their bodies for purposes that benefit both parties and flirts with a tone of sensationalism in their reporting. In addition, the Rohingya community fluctuates with the concept of nationality, patriotism, citizenship, and refugee when they think about the future. This study provides a framework that future aid or health programs can use to determine the type of community need and its significance in the Rohingya community.

Keywords: embodiment, liminal, refugee, Rohingya

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Authors: Gokul Prasad, Pennan Chinnasamy

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The degradation of groundwater resources, attributed to factors such as excessive abstraction and contamination, has emerged as a global concern. This study delves into the stable isotopes of water) in a hard-rock aquifer situated in the Upper Godavari watershed, an agriculturally rich region in India underlain by Basalt. The higher groundwater draft (> 90%) poses significant risks; comprehending groundwater sources, flow patterns, and their environmental impacts is pivotal for researchers and water managers. The region has faced five droughts in the past 20 years; four are categorized as medium. The recharge rates are variable and show a very minimum contribution to groundwater. The rainfall pattern shows vast variability, with the region receiving seasonal monsoon rainfall for just four months and the rest of the year experiencing minimal rainfall. This research closely monitored monsoon precipitation inputs and examined spatial and temporal fluctuations in δ18O and δ2H in both groundwater and precipitation. By discerning individual recharge events during monsoons, it became possible to identify periods when evaporation led to groundwater quality deterioration, characterized by elevated salinity and stable isotope values in the return flow. The locally derived meteoric water line (LMWL) (δ2H = 6.72 * δ18O + 1.53, r² = 0.6) provided valuable insights into the groundwater system. The leftward shift of the Nashik LMWL in relation to the GMWL and LMWL indicated groundwater evaporation (-33 ‰), supported by spatial variations in electrical conductivity (EC) data. Groundwater in the eastern and northern watershed areas exhibited higher salinity > 3000uS/cm, expanding > 40% of the area compared to the western and southern regions due to geological disparities (alluvium vs basalt). The findings emphasize meteoric precipitation as the primary groundwater source in the watershed. However, spatial variations in isotope values and chemical constituents indicate other contributing factors, including evaporation, groundwater source type, and natural or anthropogenic (specifically agricultural and industrial) contaminants. Therefore, the study recommends focused hydro geochemistry and isotope analysis in areas with strong agricultural and industrial influence for the development of holistic groundwater management plans for protecting the groundwater aquifers' quantity and quality.

Keywords: groundwater quality, stable isotopes, salinity, groundwater management, hard-rock aquifer

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Authors: Sheyla Moroni

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A number of scholars around the world have analyzed the great architectural and urban planning revolution proposed by Skopje 2014, but so far, there are no readings of the parallels between the museums in the Balkan area (including Greece) that share the same name as the museum at the center of that political and cultural revolution. In the former FYROM (now renamed North Macedonia), a museum called "Macedonian Struggle" was born during the reconstruction of the city of Skopje as the new "national" capital. This new museum was built under the "Skopje 2014" plan and cost about 560 million euros (1/3 of the country's GDP). It has been a "flagship" of the government of Nikola Gruevski, leader of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party. Until 2016 this museum was close to the motivations of the Macedonian nationalist movement (and later party) active (including terrorist actions) during the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum served to narrate a new "nation-building" after "state-building" had already taken place. But there are three other museums that tell the story of the "Macedonian struggle" by understanding "Macedonia" as a territory other than present-day North Macedonia. The first one is located in Thessaloniki and primarily commemorates the "Greek battle" against the Ottoman Empire. While the first uses a new dark building and many reconstructed rooms and shows the bloody history of the quest for "freedom" for the Macedonian language and people (different from Greeks, Albanians, and Bulgarians), the second is located in an old building in Thessaloniki and in its six rooms on the ground floor graphically illustrates the modern and contemporary history of Greek Macedonia. There are also third and fourth museums: in Kastoria (toward the Albanian border) and in Chromio (near the Greek-North Macedonian border). These two museums (Kastoria and Chromio) are smaller, but they mark two important borders for the (Greek) regions bordering Albania to the east and dividing it to the northwest not only from the Ottoman past but also from two communities felt to be "foreign" (Albanians and former Yugoslav Macedonians). All museums reconstruct a different "national edifice" and emphasize the themes of language and religion. The objective of the research is to understand, through four museums bearing the same name, what are the main "mental boundaries" (religious, linguistic, cultural) of the different states (reconstructed between the late 19th century and 1991). Both classical historiographic methodology (very different between Balkan and "Western" areas) and on-site observation and interactions with different sites are used in this research. An attempt is made to highlight four different political focuses with respect to nation-building and the Public History (and/or propaganda) approaches applied in the construction of these buildings and memorials tendency often that one "defines" oneself by differences from "others" (even if close).

Keywords: nationalisms, museum, nation building, public history

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Authors: L. Bammou, M. Belkhaouda R. Salghi, L. Bazzi, B. Hammouti

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Steel and steel-based alloys of different grades steel are extensively used in numerous applications where acid solutions are widely applied such as industrial acid pickling, industrial acid cleaning and oil-well acidizing. The use of chemical inhibitors is one of the most practical methods for the protection against corrosion in acidic media. Most of the excellent acid inhibitors are organic compounds containing nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. The use of non-toxic inhibitors called green or eco-friendly environmental inhibitors is one of the solutions possible to prevent the corrosion of the material. These advantages have incited us to draw a large part of program of our laboratory to examine natural substances as corrosion inhibitors such as: prickly pear seed oil, Argan oil, Argan extract, Fennel oil, Rosemary oil, Thymus oil, Lavender oil, Jojoba oil, Pennyroyal Mint oil, and Artemisia. In the present work, we investigate the corrosion inhibition of steel in 1 M HCl by junipers extract using weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The result obtained of junipers extract (JE) shows excellent inhibition properties for the corrosion of C38 steel in 1M HCl at 298K, and the inhibition efficiency increases with increasing of the JE concentration. The inhibitor efficiencies determined by weight loss, Tafel polarisation and EIS methods are in reasonable agreement. Based on the polarisation results, the investigated junipers extract can be classified as mixed inhibitor. The calculated structural parameters show increase of the obtained Rct values and decrease of the capacitance, Cdl, with JE concentration increase. It is suggested to attribute this to the increase of the thickness of the adsorption layer at steel surface. The adsorption model obeys to the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The adsorption process is a spontaneous and exothermic process.

Keywords: corrosion inhibition, steel, friendly inhibitors, Tafel polarisation

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Authors: Ilyas Khan. Liliane Pintelon, Harry Martin, Michael Shömig

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The increasing costs of healthcare on one hand, and the rise in aging population and associated chronic disease, on the other hand, are putting increasing burden on the current health care system in many Western countries. For instance, chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common disease and in Europe, the cost of renal replacement therapy (RRT) is very significant to the total health care cost. However, the recent advancement in healthcare technology, provide the opportunity to treat patients at home in their own comfort. It is evident that home healthcare offers numerous advantages apparently, low costs and high patients’ quality of life. Despite these advantages, the intake of home hemodialysis (HHD) therapy is still low in particular in Germany. Many factors are accounted for the low number of HHD intake. However, this paper is focusing on patients’ safety-related factors of current HHD practices in Germany. The aim of this paper is to analyze the current HHD practices in Germany and to identify risks related factors if any exist. A case study has been conducted in a dialysis center which consists of four dialysis centers in the south of Germany. In total, these dialysis centers have 350 chronic dialysis patients, of which, four patients are on HHD. The centers have 126 staff which includes six nephrologists and 120 other staff i.e. nurses and administration. The results of the study revealed several risk-related factors. Most importantly, these centers do not offer allied health services at the pre-dialysis stage, the HHD training did not have an established curriculum; however, they have just recently developed the first version. Only a soft copy of the machine manual is offered to patients. Surprisingly, the management was not aware of any standard available for home assessment and installation. The home assessment is done by a third party (i.e. the machines and equipment provider) and they may not consider the hygienic quality of the patient’s home. The type of machine provided to patients at home is similar to the one in the center. The model may not be suitable at home because of its size and complexity. Even though portable hemodialysis machines, which are specially designed for home use, are available in the market such as the NxStage series. Besides the type of machine, no assistance is offered for space management at home in particular for placing the machine. Moreover, the centers do not offer remote assistance to patients and their carer at home. However, telephonic assistance is available. Furthermore, no alternative is offered if a carer is not available. In addition, the centers are lacking medical staff including nephrologists and renal nurses.

Keywords: home hemodialysis, home hemodialysis practices, patients’ related risks in the current home hemodialysis practices, patient safety in home hemodialysis

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Authors: Shirin Sadat Ahmadi

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The number of people, particularly university students, migrating from Iran and applying for American and European universities has been rising during recent years. Different people may have various reasons and goals for migration, but one of the common issues among all these people is the cultural challenges they experience when living in the adopted society. Immigrants usually confront obstacles during the Intercultural transition and adaption process. Different variables such as age, religion, gender, education, knowing the spoken language in destination country, financial condition, interactions with natives, and using social media can affect the cultural challenges people face after migration and how they conquer issues appearing due to intercultural differences and conflicts. In this research we have interviewed a sample consisted of 15 Iranian students living and studying abroad found by using snowball sampling technique via video call to realize what cultural challenges they have experienced in the new society, how the mentioned variables above eased these challenges or made them harder and what approaches and solutions they adopted to adjust themselves to the new society and its cultural dimensions. Based on John Berry's acculturation theory of migrant-host relationship, we have classified these 15 people in five different categories: Assimilation, Separation, Marginalization, and Integration. In addition we have considered Y.Y. Kim's communication-based theory of cross-cultural adaption to explain how communications helped migrant populations in adaption process. Based on the findings of this study, 12 of 15 interviewed members of the study used the integration strategy to adapt to the new cultural environment, 3 of them used the assimilation strategy, and none of them used marginalization or separation strategies. Communicating with natives, knowing the language, and education were the factors that helped all the interviewed members of the sample to overcome the difficulties of intercultural transition.

Keywords: acculturation, culture, intercultural transition, migration

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Authors: Vaibhav Pandey, K. Chattopadhyay, N. C. Santhi Srinivas, Vakil Singh

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Aluminium alloy 7075 consist of different intermetallic precipitate particles MgZn2, CuAl2, which result in heterogeneity of micro structure and influence the corrosion properties of the alloy. Artificial ageing was found to enhance the strength properties, but highly susceptible to stress-corrosion cracking. Various conventional surface modification techniques are developed for improving corrosion properties of aluminum alloys. This led to development of novel surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) technique the so called ultrasonic shot peening which gives nano-grain structure at surface. In the present investigation the influence of surface mechanical attrition treatment on corrosion behavior of aluminum alloy 7075 was studied in 3.5wt% NaCl solution. Two different size of 1 mm and 3 mm steel balls are used as peening media and SMAT was carried out for different time intervals 5, 15 and 30 minutes. Surface nano-grains/nano-crystallization was observed after SMAT. The formation of nano-grain structure was observed for larger size balls with time of treatment and consequent increase in micro strain. As-SMATed sample with 1 mm balls exhibits better corrosion resistance as compared to that of un-SMATed sample. The enhancement in corrosion resistance may be due to formation of surface nano-grain structure which reduced the electron release rate. In contrast the samples treated with 3 mm balls showed very poor corrosion resistance. A decrease in corrosion resistance was observed with increase in the time of peening. The decrease in corrosion resistance in the shotpeened samples with larger diameter balls may due to increase in microstrain and defect density.

Keywords: aluminum alloy 7075, corrosion, SMAT, ultrasonic shot peening, surface nano-grains

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Authors: Intisar Al Busaidi, Rashid Al Maamari, Daowoud Al Mahroqi, Mahvash Karimi

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In recent years, some research studies have been performed on the hybrid application of polymer and low salinity water flooding (LSWF). Numerous technical and economic benefits of low salinity polymer flooding (LSPF) have been reported. However, as with any EOR technology, there are various risks involved in using LSPF. Ions exchange between porous media and brine is one of the Crude oil/ brine/ rocks (COBR) reactions that is identified as a potential risk in LSPF. To the best of our knowledge, this conclusion was drawn based on bulk rheology measurements, and no explanation was provided on how water chemistry changed in the presence of polymer. Therefore, this study aimed to understand rock/ brine interactions with high and low salinity brine in the absence and presence of polymer with Omani reservoir core plugs. Many single-core flooding experiments were performed with low and high salinity polymer solutions to investigate the influence of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylic amide with different brine salinities on cation exchange reactions. Ion chromatography (IC), total organic carbon (TOC), rheological, and pH measurements were conducted for produced aqueous phase. A higher increase in pH and lower polymer adsorption was observed in LSPF compared with conventional polymer flooding. In addition, IC measurements showed that all produced fluids in the absence and presence of polymer showed elevated Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K+, Cl- and SO₄²⁻ ions compared to the injected fluids. However, the divalent cations levels, mainly Ca²⁺, were the highest and remained elevated for several pore volumes in the presence of LSP. The results are in line with rheological measurements where the highest viscosity reduction was recorded with the highest level of Ca²⁺ production. Despite the viscosity loss due to cation exchange reactions, LSP can be an attractive alternative to conventional polymer flooding in the Marmul field.

Keywords: polymer, ions, exchange, recovery, low salinity

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Authors: Ryan Chalk, G. M. Shafiullah

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Climate change is a pertinent issue facing governments and societies around the world. The industrial revolution has resulted in a steady increase in the average global temperature. The mining and energy production industries have been significant contributors to this change prompting government to intervene by promoting low emission technology within these sectors. This paper initially reviews the energy problem in Australia and the mining sector with a focus on the energy requirements and production methods utilised in Western Australia (WA). Renewable energy in the form of utility-scale solar photovoltaics (PV) provides a solution to these problems by providing emission-free energy which can be used to supplement the existing natural gas turbines in operation at the proposed site. This research presents a custom renewable solution for the mining site considering the specific township network, local weather conditions, and seasonal load profiles. A summary of the required PV output is presented to supply slightly over 50% of the towns power requirements during the peak (summer) period, resulting in close to full coverage in the trench (winter) period. Dig Silent Power Factory Software has been used to simulate the characteristics of the existing infrastructure and produces results of integrating PV. Large scale PV penetration in the network introduce technical challenges, that includes; voltage deviation, increased harmonic distortion, increased available fault current and power factor. Results also show that cloud cover has a dramatic and unpredictable effect on the output of a PV system. The preliminary analyses conclude that mitigation strategies are needed to overcome voltage deviations, unacceptable levels of harmonics, excessive fault current and low power factor. Mitigation strategies are proposed to control these issues predominantly through the use of high quality, made for purpose inverters. Results show that use of inverters with harmonic filtering reduces the level of harmonic injections to an acceptable level according to Australian standards. Furthermore, the configuration of inverters to supply active and reactive power assist in mitigating low power factor problems. Use of FACTS devices; SVC and STATCOM also reduces the harmonics and improve the power factor of the network, and finally, energy storage helps to smooth the power supply.

Keywords: climate change, mitigation strategies, photovoltaic (PV), power quality

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Authors: Euripides Antoniades

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In 1821, the Greek Revolution movement, under the political influence that arose from the French revolution, and the corresponding movements in Italy, Germany and America, demanded the liberation of the nation and the establishment of an independent national state. Published topics in the British press regarding the Greek Revolution, focused on: a)the right of the Greeks to claim their freedom from Turkish domination in order to establish an independent state based on the principle of national autonomy, b)criticism regarding Turkish rule as illegal and the power of the Ottoman Sultan as arbitrary, c)the recognition of the Greek identity and its distinction from the Turkish one and d)the endorsement Greeks as the descendants of ancient Greeks. The London Times is a print publication that presents, in chronological or thematic order, the news, opinions or announcements about the most important events that have occurred in a place during a specified period of time. A combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis was applied. An attempt was made to record Greek Revolution references along with the usage of specific words and expressions that contribute to the representation of the historical events and their exposure to the reading public. Key finds of this research reveal that a)there was a frequency of passionate daily articles concerning the events in Greece, their length, and context in The Times of London, b)he British public opinion was influenced by this particular newspaper and c) he newspaper published various news about the revolution by adopting the role of animator of the Greek struggle. In fact, this type of news was the main substance of the The London Times’ structure, establishing a positive image about the Greek Revolution contributing to the European diplomatic development. These factors offered a change in the attitude of the British and Russians respectively assuming a positive approach towards Greece.

Keywords: Greece, revolution, press, the london times, great britain, mass media

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Authors: Muhammad Hardyan Prastyanto, Aisah Azhari Marwangi, Yulinda Rizky Pratiwi

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Globalization has become a driving force for the current technological developments. The presence of the Virtual Space provides opportunities for people to self-actualization through access to a wider world, quickly and easily. Cities that are part of the existence of life, witness the history of civilization over time, also has been the major object to upgrading on technological sector. A smart city is one where the government and citizenry are using the best available means, including ICT, to achieve their shared goals. This often includes economic development, environmental sustainability, and improved quality of life for citizens. Thus theory is the basis for research of this study. This study aimed to know the implementation of the Urban Retrofitting at Malioboro area based on Information and Communication Technologies. The method of this study is by reviewing the effectiveness of the E-commerce uses as a major system to identification the Malioboro Smart Central Business District. By using a significance level of 5 %, it can be concluded that addresses have a significant influence on the ratings obtained, namely regarding the location of the hotel establishment. But despite the use of the website does not have a significant influence on the rating of the hotel, using the website still has influence significantly on the rating, because the p -value (Sig.) of the variable website is not so much different from the significance level determined by the researcher. In the interpretation, if a hotel is located on the Pasar Kembang streets and not to use the website, so the hotel is likely to have a rating of the constant value which is 3.183. However, if a hotel located on the Sosrowijayan streets, so the hotel rating will be increased by 0,302. Then if a hotel has been using a website, so the hotel rating will increase by 0,264. It is possible to conclude the effectiveness of ICT’s (Website) uses and location to identification the urban retrofitting through increasing of building rating in Malioboro Central Business District.

Keywords: urban retrofitting, e-commerce, information and communication technology, statistic regression, SCBD, Malioboro

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Authors: Avinash Vellore Sunder, Shikha Shah, Pramod P. Wangikar

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The enzymatic conversion of nitriles to carboxylic acids by nitrilases has gained significance in the green synthesis of several pharmaceutical precursors and fine chemicals. While nitrilases have been characterized from different sources, the industrial application requires the identification of nitrilases that possess higher substrate tolerance, wider specificity and better thermostability, along with the development of an efficient bioprocess for producing large amounts of nitrilase. To produce large amounts of nitrilase, we developed a fed-batch fermentation process on defined media for the high cell density cultivation of E. coli cells expressing the well-studied nitrilase from Alcaligenes fecalis. A DO-stat feeding approach was employed combined with an optimized post-induction strategy to achieve nitrilase titer of 2.5*105 U/l and 78 g/l dry cell weight. We also identified 16 novel nitrilase sequences from genome mining and analysis of substrate binding residues. The nitrilases were expressed in E. coli and their biocatalytic potential was evaluated on a panel of 22 industrially relevant nitrile substrates using high-throughput screening and HPLC analysis. Nine nitrilases were identified to exhibit high activity on structurally diverse nitriles including aliphatic and aromatic dinitriles, heterocyclic, -hydroxy and -keto nitriles. With fed-batch biotransformation, whole-cell Zobelia galactanivorans nitrilase achieved yields of 2.4 M nicotinic acid and 1.8 M isonicotinic acid from 3-cyanopyridine and 4-cyanopyridine respectively within 5 h, while Cupravidus necator nitrilase enantioselectively converted 740 mM mandelonitrile to (R)–mandelic acid. The nitrilase from Achromobacter insolitus could hydrolyze 542 mM iminodiacetonitrile in 1 h. The availability of highly active nitrilases along with bioprocesses for enzyme production expands the toolbox for industrial biocatalysis.

Keywords: biocatalysis, isonicotinic acid, iminodiacetic acid, mandelic acid, nitrilase

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Authors: Jigar Shaileshumar Halpati, Aravind Kumar Chandiran

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Vacancy ordered double perovskites (VOPs) have been significantly attracting researchers due to their chemical structure diversity and interesting optoelectronic properties. Some VOPs have been recently reported to be suitable photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical water-splitting reactions due to their high stability and panchromatic absorption. In this work, we systematically synthesized mixed tetravalent VOPs based on Cs₂RuₘPt₁-ₘX₆ (X = Cl-, Br-) and reported their structural, optical, electrochemical and photoelectrochemical properties. The structural characterization confirms that the mixed tetravalent site intermediates formed their own phases. The parent materials, as well as their intermediates, were found to be stable in ambient conditions for over 1 year and also showed incredible stability in harsh pH media ranging from pH 1 to pH 11. Moreover, these materials showed panchromatic absorption with onset up to 1000 nm depending upon the mixture stoichiometry. The extraordinary stability and excellent absorption properties make them suitable materials for photoelectrochemical water-splitting applications. PEC studies of these series of materials showed a high water oxidation photocurrent of 0.56 mA cm-² for Cs₂Ru₀.₅Pt₀.₅Cl₆. Fundamental investigation from photoelectrochemical reactions revealed that the intrinsic ruthenium-based VOP showed enhanced hole transfer to the electrolyte, while the intrinsic platinum-based VOP showed higher photovoltage. The mix of these end members at the tetravalent site showed a synergic effect of reduced charge transfer resistance from the material to the electrolyte and increased photovoltage, which led to increased PEC performance of the intermediate materials.

Keywords: solar water splitting, photo electrochemistry, photo absorbers, material characterization, device characterization, green hydrogen

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Authors: Yonas Shuke Kitawa

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Background: Although malaria incidence has substantially fallen sharply over the past few years, the rate of decline varies by district, time, and malaria type. Despite this turn-down, malaria remains a major public health threat in various districts of Ethiopia. Consequently, the present study is aimed at developing a predictive model that helps to identify the spatio-temporal variation in malaria risk by multiple plasmodium species. Methods: We propose a multivariate spatio-temporal Bayesian model to obtain a more coherent picture of the temporally varying spatial variation in disease risk. The spatial autocorrelation in such a data set is typically modeled by a set of random effects that assign a conditional autoregressive prior distribution. However, the autocorrelation considered in such cases depends on a binary neighborhood matrix specified through the border-sharing rule. Over here, we propose a graph-based optimization algorithm for estimating the neighborhood matrix that merely represents the spatial correlation by exploring the areal units as the vertices of a graph and the neighbor relations as the series of edges. Furthermore, we used aggregated malaria count in southern Ethiopia from August 2013 to May 2019. Results: We recognized that precipitation, temperature, and humidity are positively associated with the malaria threat in the area. On the other hand, enhanced vegetation index, nighttime light (NTL), and distance from coastal areas are negatively associated. Moreover, nonlinear relationships were observed between malaria incidence and precipitation, temperature, and NTL. Additionally, lagged effects of temperature and humidity have a significant effect on malaria risk by either species. More elevated risk of P. falciparum was observed following the rainy season, and unstable transmission of P. vivax was observed in the area. Finally, P. vivax risks are less sensitive to environmental factors than those of P. falciparum. Conclusion: The improved inference was gained by employing the proposed approach in comparison to the commonly used border-sharing rule. Additionally, different covariates are identified, including delayed effects, and elevated risks of either of the cases were observed in districts found in the central and western regions. As malaria transmission operates in a spatially continuous manner, a spatially continuous model should be employed when it is computationally feasible.

Keywords: disease mapping, MSTCAR, graph-based optimization algorithm, P. falciparum, P. vivax, waiting matrix

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Authors: Hoyeon Park, Kyoung-jae Kim

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The product recommendation is a field of research that has received much attention in the recent information overload phenomenon. The proliferation of the mobile environment and social media cannot help but affect the results of the recommendation depending on how the factors of the user's situation are reflected in the recommendation process. Recently, research has been spreading attention to the context-aware recommender system which is to reflect user's contextual information in the recommendation process. However, until now, most of the context-aware recommender system researches have been limited in that they reflect the passive context of users. It is expected that the user will be able to express his/her contextual information through his/her active behavior and the importance of the context-aware recommender system reflecting this information can be increased. The purpose of this study is to propose a context-aware recommender system that can reflect the user's emotional state as an active context information to recommendation process. The context-aware recommender system is a recommender system that can make more sophisticated recommendations by utilizing the user's contextual information and has an advantage that the user's emotional factor can be considered as compared with the existing recommender systems. In this study, we propose a method to infer the user's emotional state, which is one of the user's context information, by using the user's facial expression data and to reflect it on the recommendation process. This study collects the facial expression data of a user who is looking at a specific product and the user's product preference score. Then, we classify the facial expression data into several categories according to the previous research and construct a model that can predict them. Next, the predicted results are applied to existing collaborative filtering with contextual information. As a result of the study, it was shown that the recommended results of the context-aware recommender system including facial expression information show improved results in terms of recommendation performance. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that future research will be conducted on recommender system reflecting various contextual information.

Keywords: context-aware, emotional state, recommender systems, business analytics

Procedia PDF Downloads 219