Search results for: traditional African pharmacopoeia

Authors: Chaitanya Kanakamedala, Hansa Pradhan, Carter Gilbert

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Social media platforms, such as Twitter, are excellent datasets for understanding human interactions and sentiments. This report explores social dynamics among US Congressional members through a network analysis applied to a dataset of tweets spanning 2008 to 2017 from the ’US Congressional Tweets Dataset’. In this report, we preform network analysis where connections between users (edges) are established based on a similarity threshold: two tweets are connected if the tweets they post are similar. By utilizing the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) and NetworkX, we quantified tweet similarity and constructed a graph comprising various interconnected components. Each component represents a cluster of users with closely aligned content. We then preform sentiment analysis on each cluster to explore the prevalent emotions and opinions within these groups. Our findings reveal that despite the initial expectation of distinct ideological divisions typically aligning with party lines, the analysis exposed a high degree of topical convergence across tweets from different political affiliations. The analysis preformed in this report not only highlights the potential of social media as a tool for political communication but also suggests a complex layer of interaction that transcends traditional partisan boundaries, reflecting a complicated landscape of politics in the digital age.

Keywords: natural language processing, sentiment analysis, centrality analysis, topic modeling

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Authors: S. Assylbekova, D. Zolotareva, A. Dauletbakov, Ye. Belyankova, S. Bayazit, A. Basharimova, A. Zazybin, A. Isimberlenova, A. Kakimova, M. Aydemir, A. Kairullinova

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Transfer hydrogenation (TH) is a key process in organic chemistry, especially in pharmaceutical and agrochemical synthesis, offering a safer and more sustainable approach compared to traditional methods. This work is devoted to the synthesis and use of ruthenium catalysts containing phosphinite ligands in TH reactions. Ruthenium complexes are particularly noteworthy for their effectiveness in asymmetric TH. Their stability and adaptability to different reaction environments make them ideal for both laboratory-scale and industrial applications. Phosphinite ligands (P(OR)R'2) are used in the synthesis of complexes to improve their properties. These ligands are known for their ability to finely tune the electronic and steric properties of metal centers. The electron-donating nature of the phosphorus atom, combined with the variability in the R and R' groups, allows for significant customization of the catalyst's properties. The purpose and difference of the work is to study the incorporation of a hydrophilic ionic liquid into the composition of a phosphinite ligand, which will then be converted into a catalyst. The technique involves the synthesis of a phosphinite ligand with an ionic liquid at room temperature under an inert atmosphere and then a ruthenium complex. Next, the TH reactions of acetophenone and its derivatives are carried out using the resulting catalyst. The conversion of ketone to alcohol is analyzed using a gas chromatograph. This study contributes to the understanding of the influence of catalyst physico-chemical properties on transfer hydrogenation results.

Keywords: transfer hydrogenation, ruthenium, catalysts, phosphinite ligands

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Authors: Hameda Suwaed

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Group work, time management and accepting others' opinions are practices rooted in the socio-political culture of democratic nations. In Libya, a country transitioning towards democracy, what is the impact of encouraging college students to use such practices in the English language classroom? How to encourage teachers to use such practices in educational system characterized by using traditional methods of teaching? Using action research and classroom research gathered data; this study investigates how teachers can use education to change their students' understanding of their roles in their society by enhancing their belonging to it. This study adjusts a model of change that includes giving students clear directions, sufficient motivation and supportive environment. These steps were applied by encouraging students to participate actively in the classroom by using group work and variety of activities. The findings of the study showed that following the suggested model can broaden students' perception of their belonging to their environment starting with their classroom and ending with their country. In conclusion, although this was a small scale study, the students' participation in the classroom shows that they gained self confidence in using practices such as group work, how to present their ideas and accepting different opinions. What was remarkable is that most students were aware that is what we need in Libya nowadays.

Keywords: educational change, students' motivation, group work, foreign language teaching

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Authors: Maider Gómez Palmero, Ana Carrasco Pérez, Paula de la Sen de la Cruz, Francisco Javier Royo Herrer, Sonia Ascaso Malo

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The production of bio-based products for different purposes is one of the strategies that has grown the most at European and even global levels, seeking to contribute to mitigating the impacts associated with climate change and to achieve the ambitious objectives set in this regard. However, the substitution of fossil-based products for bio-based products requires a challenging and deep transformation and adaptation of the secondary and primary sectors and, more specifically, in the latter, the agro-industries. The first step to developing a bio-based value chain focuses on the availability of a resource with the right characteristics for the substitution sought. This, in turn, requires a significant reshaping of the forestry/agricultural sector but also of the agro-industry, which has a relevant potential to be deployed as a supplier and develop a robust logistical supply chain and to market a biobased raw material at a competitive price. However, this transformation may involve a profound restructuring of its traditional business model to incorporate biorefinery concepts. In this sense, agro-industries that generate by-products in their processes that are currently not valorized, such as potato processing rejects or the starch found in washing water, constitute a potential raw material that can be used for different bio-applications. This article aims to explore this potential to evaluate the most suitable bio applications to target and identify opportunities and challenges.

Keywords: starch valorisation, biorefinery, bio-based raw materials, bio-applications

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Authors: Y. Fekir, K. Mederbal, M. A. Hammadouche, D. Anteur

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The cultural park of the Tassili, occupying a large area of Algeria, is characterized by a rich vegetative biodiversity to be preserved and managed both in time and space. The management of a large area (case of Tassili), by its complexity, needs large amounts of data, which for the most part, are spatially localized (DEM, satellite images and socio-economic information etc.), where the use of conventional and traditional methods is quite difficult. The remote sensing, by its efficiency in environmental applications, became an indispensable solution for this kind of studies. Multispectral imaging sensors have been very useful in the last decade in very interesting applications of remote sensing. They can aid in several domains such as the de¬tection and identification of diverse surface targets, topographical details, and geological features. In this work, we try to extract vegetative areas using fusion techniques between data acquired from sensor on-board the Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) satellite and Landsat ETM+ and TM sensors. We have used images acquired over the Oasis of Djanet in the National Park of Tassili in the south of Algeria. Fusion technqiues were applied on the obtained image to extract the vegetative fraction of the different classes of land use. We compare the obtained results in vegetation end member extraction with vegetation indices calculated from both Hyperion and other multispectral sensors.

Keywords: Landsat ETM+, EO1, data fusion, vegetation, Tassili, Algeria

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Authors: Bowei Yuan, Shi Li, Liuyang Song, Huaqing Wang, Lingli Cui

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Convolutional neural networks (CNN) have received extensive attention in the field of fault diagnosis. Many fault diagnosis methods use CNN for fault type identification. However, when the amount of raw data collected by sensors is massive, the neural network needs to perform a time-consuming classification task. In this paper, a mechanical fault diagnosis method based on vibration signal down-sampling and the improved one-dimensional convolutional neural network is proposed. Through the robust principal component analysis, the low-rank feature matrix of a large amount of raw data can be separated, and then down-sampling is realized to reduce the subsequent calculation amount. In the improved one-dimensional CNN, a smaller convolution kernel is used to reduce the number of parameters and computational complexity, and regularization is introduced before the fully connected layer to prevent overfitting. In addition, the multi-connected layers can better generalize classification results without cumbersome parameter adjustments. The effectiveness of the method is verified by monitoring the signal of the centrifugal pump test bench, and the average test accuracy is above 98%. When compared with the traditional deep belief network (DBN) and support vector machine (SVM) methods, this method has better performance.

Keywords: fault diagnosis, vibration signal down-sampling, 1D-CNN

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Authors: Chen-Fu Wang, Lin-Ya Kung

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For traditional painting materials, the artisan used to combine the pigments with different binders to create colors. As time goes by, the materials used for painting evolved from natural to chemical materials. The vast variety of ingredients used in chemical materials has complicated restoration work; it makes conservation work more difficult. Conservation work also becomes harder when the materials cannot be easily identified; therefore, it is essential that we take a more scientific approach to assist in conservation work. Paintings materials are high molecular weight polymer, and their analysis is very complicated as well other contamination such as smoke and dirt can also interfere with the analysis of the material. The current methods of composition analysis of painting materials include Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), mass spectrometer, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), each of which has its own limitation. In this study, FT-IR was used to analyze the components of the paint coating. We have taken the most commonly seen materials as samples and deteriorated it. The aged information was then used for the database to exam the temple painting materials. By observing the FT-IR changes over time, we can tell all of the painting materials will be deteriorated by the UV light, but only the speed of its degradation had some difference. From the deterioration experiment, the acrylic resin resists better than the others. After collecting the painting materials aging information on FT-IR, we performed some test on the paintings on the temples. It was found that most of the artisan used tune-oil for painting materials, and some other paintings used chemical materials. This method is now working successfully on identifying the painting materials. However, the method is destructive and high cost. In the future, we will work on the how to know the painting materials more efficiently.

Keywords: temple painting, painting material, conservation, FT-IR

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Authors: Sangmo Jon, Ganghyok Kim, Kwanghyok Jong, Ilnam Jo, Hyangsun Kim, Kukhyon Pae, GyeChol Sin

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The back contact dye solar cells (BCDSCs), in which the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) is omitted, have the potential to use intact low-cost general substrates such as glass, metal foil, and papers. Herein, we introduce a facile manufacturing method of a Ti back contact electrode for the BCDSCs. We found that the polylinkers such as poly(butyl titanate) have a strong binding property to make Ti particles connect with one another. A porous Ti film, which consists of Ti particles of ≤10㎛ size connected by a small amount of polylinkers, has an excellent low sheet resistance of 10 ohm sq⁻¹ for an efficient electron collection for DSCs. This Ti back contact electrode can be prepared by using a facile printing method under normal ambient conditions. Conjugating the new back contact electrode technology with the traditional monolithic structure using the carbon counter electrode, we fabricated all TCO-less DSCs. These four-layer structured DSCs consist of a dye-adsorbed nanocrystalline TiO₂ film on a glass substrate, a porous Ti back contact layer, a ZrO₂ spacer layer, and a carbon counter electrode in a layered structure. Under AM 1.5G and 100mWcm⁻² simulated sunlight illumination, the four-layer structured DSCs with N719 dyes and I⁻/I₃⁻ redox electrolytes achieved PCEs up to 5.21%.

Keywords: dye solar cells, TCO-less, back contact, printing, porous Ti film

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Authors: Divya Choudhary, Hariprasad P., S. N. Naik

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This study examines a low-alcohol nutra-beverage made with shatavari, a plant commonly used in traditional medicine. During fermentation, the addition of a specific strain of yeast affected the beverage's properties, including its pH level, yeast count, ethanol content, and antioxidant, phenolic, and flavonoid levels. We also analyzed the beverage's storage and shelf life. Despite its bitter taste, the low alcohol content of the beverage made it enjoyable to drink and visually appealing. Our analysis showed that the optimal time for fermentation was between the 14th and 21st day when the beverage had ideal levels of sugar, organic acids, and vitamins. The final product contained fructose and citric acid but not succinic, pyruvic, lactic, or acetic acids. It also contained vitamins B2, B1, B12, and B9. During the shelf life analysis, we observed changes in the beverage's pH, TSS, and cfu levels, as well as its antioxidant activity. We also identified volatile (GC-MS) and non-volatile compounds (LC-MS/MS) in the fermented product, some of which were already present in the Shatavari root. The highest yield of product contained the maximum concentration of antioxidant compounds, which depended on both the pH and the microorganisms' physiological status. Overall, our study provides insight into the properties and potential health benefits of this Nutra-beverage.

Keywords: antioxidants, fermentation, volatile compounds, acetonin, 1-butanol, non-volatile compounds, Shatavarin V, IX, kaempferol

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Authors: Sonny Dewi Judiasih

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The principle of a marriage is to achieve a happy and eternity family based on the willing of the God. The family has a fundamental role in the society as a social individual and as a nuclear family consists of father, mother, and children. Thus, each family always would like to have children who will continue the family. However, not all family will be blessed with children and consequently, there is family without children. Therefore, the said the certain family will do any effort to fulfill the wish to have children. One of the ways is to adopt children. The implementation of child adoption is conducted by the family who does not have children but sometimes child adoption is conducted by a family who has already children. The implementation of child adoption is based on the interest of the welfare and the intellectual of the said child. Moreover, it should be based on the social liability of the individual in accordance with the developing of the traditional values as part of the nation culture. The child adoption is conducted for the welfare of the child demonstrates that a change on the basic motive (value) whereby in the past the child adoption is to fulfill the wish of foster parent (to have children in the family). Nowadays the purpose of child adoption is not merely for the interest of foster parent but in particular for the interest, welfare and the future of the child. The development of the society has caused the occurrence of changes of perspective in the society which lead to a need for new law. The court of justice has an impact of such changes. It is evidenced by the court order for child adoption in the legal framework of certainty of law. The changes of motives (value) of the child adoption in the society can be fully understood in the event that the society fully understand that the ultimate purpose of Indonesia nation is to achieve a justice and prosperity society, i.e., social welfare for all Indonesian people.

Keywords: child adoption, family law, legal protection, children

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Authors: Phichak Phutrakhul

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The purposes of this research were to study concepts and strategies of human resource development in the automotive manufacturers and to articulate the proposals against the government about the human resource development for automotive industry. In the present study, qualitative study was an in-depth interview in which the qualitative data were collected from the executive or the executive of human resource division from five automotive companies - Toyota Motor (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Nissan Motor (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd., and Suzuki Motor (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Qualitative data analysis was performed by using inter-coder agreement technique. The research findings were as follows: The external factors included the current conditions of the automotive industry, government’s policy related to the automotive industry, technology, labor market and human resource development systems of the country. The internal factors included management, productive management, organizational strategies, leadership, organizational culture and philosophy of human resource development. These factors were affected to the different concept of human resources development -the traditional human resource development and the strategies of human resource development. The organization focuses on human resources as intellectual capital and uses the strategies of human resource development in all development processes. The strategies of human resource development will enhance the ability of human resources in the organization and the country.

Keywords: human resource development strategy, automotive industry, eco-cars, ASEAN

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Authors: Uzma Saqib, Mirza S. Baig

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Myeloid differentiation primary response protein 88 (MYD88) has long been considered a central player in the inflammatory pathway. Recent studies clearly suggest that it is an important therapeutic target in inflammation. On the other hand, a recent study on the interaction between the orphan nuclear receptor (Nur77) and p38α, leading to increased lipopolysaccharide-induced hyperinflammatory response, suggests this binary complex as a therapeutic target. In this study, we have designed inhibitors that can inhibit both MYD88 and Nur77 at the same time. Since both MYD88 and Nur77 are an integral part of the pathways involving lipopolysaccharide-induced activation of NF-κB-mediated inflammation, we tried to target both proteins with the same library in order to retrieve compounds having dual inhibitory properties. To perform this, we developed a homodimeric model of MYD88 and, along with the crystal structure of Nur77, screened a virtual library of compounds from the traditional Chinese medicine database containing ~61,000 compounds. We analyzed the resulting hits for their efficacy for dual binding and probed them for developing a common pharmacophore model that could be used as a prototype to screen compound libraries as well as to guide combinatorial library design to search for ideal dual-target inhibitors. Thus, our study explores the identification of novel leads having dual inhibiting effects due to binding to both MYD88 and Nur77 targets.

Keywords: drug design, Nur77, MYD88, inflammation

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Authors: Eric S. Lee, Connie Bygrave, Jordan Mahar, Naina Garg, Suzanne Cottreau

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Marking exams is universally detested by lecturers. Final exams in many higher education courses often last 3.0 hrs. Do exams really need to be so long? Can we justifiably reduce the number of questions on them? Surprisingly few have researched these questions, arguably because of the complexity and difficulty of using traditional methods. To answer these questions empirically, we used a new approach based on three key elements: Use of an unusual variation of a true experimental design, equivalence hypothesis testing, and an expanded set of six psychometric criteria to be met by any shortened exam if it is to replace a current 3.0-hr exam (reliability, validity, justifiability, number of exam questions, correspondence, and equivalence). We compared student performance on each official 3.0-hr exam with that on five shortened exams having proportionately fewer questions (2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, and 0.5 hours) in a series of four experiments conducted in two classes in each of two finance courses (224 students in total). We found strong evidence that, in these courses, shortening of final exams to 2.0 hrs was warranted on all six psychometric criteria. Shortening these exams by one hour should result in a substantial one-third reduction in lecturer time and effort spent marking, lower student stress, and more time for students to prepare for other exams. Our approach provides a relatively simple, easy-to-use methodology that lecturers can use to examine the effect of shortening their own exams.

Keywords: exam length, psychometric criteria, synthetic experimental designs, test length

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Authors: Michalis Linardakis, Vasilis Grammatikopoulos, Athanasios Gregoriadis, Kalliopi Trouli

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Discrete choice models belong to the family of Conjoint analysis that are applied on the preferences of the respondents towards a set of scenarios that describe alternative choices. The scenarios have been pre-designed to cover all the attributes of the alternatives that may affect the choices. In this study, we examine how preschool educators integrate physical activities into their everyday teaching practices through the use of discrete choice models. One of the advantages of discrete choice models compared to other more traditional data collection methods (e.g. questionnaires and interviews that use ratings) is that the respondent is called to select among competitive and realistic alternatives, rather than objectively rate each attribute that the alternatives may have. We present the effort to construct and choose representative attributes that would cover all possible choices of the respondents, and the scenarios that have arisen. For the purposes of the study, we used a sample of 50 preschool educators in Greece that responded to 4 scenarios (from the total of 16 scenarios that the orthogonal design resulted), with each scenario having three alternative teaching practices. Seven attributes of the alternatives were used in the scenarios. For the analysis of the data, we used multinomial logit model with random effects, multinomial probit model and generalized mixed logit model. The conclusions drawn from the estimated parameters of the models are discussed.

Keywords: conjoint analysis, discrete choice models, educational data, multivariate statistical analysis

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Authors: Emir H. Pernet, Jeimy J. Cano

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Maturity models, used descriptively to explain changes in reality or normatively to guide managers to make interventions to make organizations more effective and efficient, are based on the principles of statistical quality control promulgated by Shewhart in the years 30, and on the principles of PDCA continuous improvement (Plan, Do, Check, Act) developed by Deming and Juran. Some frameworks developed over the concept of maturity models includes COBIT, CMM, and ITIL. This paper presents some limitations of traditional maturity models, most of them based on points of reflection and analysis done by some authors. Almost all limitations are related to the mechanistic and reductionist approach of the principles over those models are built. As Systems Theory helps the understanding of the dynamics of organizations and organizational change, the development of a systemic maturity model can help to overcome some of those limitations. This document proposes a systemic maturity model, based on a systemic conceptualization of organizations, focused on the study of the functioning of the parties, the relationships among them, and their behavior as a whole. The concept of maturity from the system theory perspective is conceptually defined as an emergent property of the organization, which arises from as a result of the degree of alignment and integration of their processes. This concept is operationalized through a systemic function that measures the maturity of an organization, and finally validated by the measuring of maturity in organizations. For its operationalization and validation, the model was applied to measure the maturity of organizational Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) processes.

Keywords: GRC, maturity model, systems theory, viable system model

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Authors: Narjes Azimi

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It has been a while that narrative and storytelling turned to be the inevitable part of media. The narrative has so many aspects and among those entire aspects, the fantasy genre is consciously challenging one as fantasy readers are used to reading narratives like good versus evil plot. This paper will analyze the ASOIF TV series as a Meta narrative cultural production that deconstructs the elements of a traditional narrative. This study will shade on a grand narrative perspective from poststructuralism point of view. The theoretical framework is structuralism and post structuralism. Lyotard and Barthes are two main poststructuralists and focus of the study. Lyotard grand narrative elements will analyze in this research study. Fantasy genre generated a number of outstanding authors that explore innovative perspectives. Among all these leading authors George R.R Martin is one of the best. George R. R. Martin’s Fantasy a Song of Ice and Fire picturized the brutal world that seven kingdoms struggling for the power. Since 2011 this production has been followed and watched by millions of audiences all around the world. The methodology is the textual analysis of selected scenes. Martin’s distinctive fantasy style which makes it different from other fantasies, yet this shift does not negate how the previous fantasy writers represent the mentioned concepts of war, and etc., but Martin’ fantasy and left the mature audiences full of uncertainty.

Keywords: narrative theory, metanarrative, deconstruction, post-structuralism, Lyotard, Barthes

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Authors: Swasti Singh Ghai

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Creativity is understood as an intersubjective phenomenon shaped by socio-cultural values and economic forces. Creativity as a means to achieve progress is a very modern concept, driven by a global capitalist market economy. The dominant urban, often first-world articulations of creativity, overshadow the rural, local and cultural notions of people in the developing nations. Artisanal practices of making grounded in preindustrial and pre-capitalist contexts hold varying cultural and region-specific concepts and standards for ascribing creativity to a person or product, or process. These notions reflect the underlying philosophy that constitutes their worldview. The process of colonization through western education has blurred or overlapped some of these key philosophical concepts. This article adopts a post-colonial stance to understand the perceptions of skill, intelligence and creativity among tradition rooted textile craft practitioners of Kutch, Gujarat in India. The artisans, while negotiating their space in the contemporary markets, are making efforts to include the modern categories of art, craft, and design in their worldview. The paper will first review theories of creativity that throw light on the link between skill, intelligence and creativity. Then the paper will use secondary research and data from interviews to share crafts person notions of skill, creativity and intelligence and their interrelationship.

Keywords: traditional craft, textile, creativity, skill, intelligence

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Authors: Eurico Lima Basto, Ofélia Pinto, Anabela Silva, Amélia Ferreira-Da-Silva

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The purpose if this study is two-fold: on the one hand, to identify the accounting information systems implemented in third sector organizations, as well as its components, its tools and the decisions and control purposes they serve; on the other hand, and by confronting these two theories - institutional theory versus rational choice – we intent to go further by understanding the reasons behind the adoption of the aforementioned tools. Data has been collected from third sector organizations operating in Portugal. Our sample includes all juridical types of organizations such as foundations, cooperative, associations or private institutions of social solidarity. The questionnaire contained sixteen close-ended questions and four open-questions. Results confirm the theoretical perspective of institutionalism. Most third sector organizations operating in Portugal implemented only traditional accounting tools like standard accounting statements, cost accounting, budgeting. Moreover, there is clear evidence that the decisions about the implementation of these tools were coercive oriented. With this study it is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the context of third sector organizations in Portugal, in particular the role that accounting plays in this sector, with a special focus on management accounting tools, and the factors that influence their use and the degree of their usefulness in the process of decision making.

Keywords: third sector, accounting tools, institutional theory, Portugal, descriptive research

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Authors: Jae Young Jang, Jong Hoon Ahn, Jae-Woong Lim, So Young Kang, Mi Kyeong Lee

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Rhus verniciflua is commonly known as a lacquer tree in Korea. Stem barks of R. verniciflua have been used as an immunostimulator in traditional medicine. It contains phenolic compounds and is known for diverse biological activities such as antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. However, it also causes allergic dermatitis due to urushiols derivatives. For the development of active natural resources with less toxicity, the content of phenolic compounds and urushiols of different parts of R. verniciflua such as stem barks, lignum and leaves were quantitated by colorimetric assay and HPLC analysis. The urushiols content were the highest in stem barks, and followed by leaves. The lignum contained trace amount of urushiols. The phenolic contents, however, were the most abundant in lignum, and followed by leaves and stem barks. These results clear showed that the content of urushiols and phenolic differs depending on the parts of R. verniciflua. Antimicrobial activity of different parts of R. verniciflua against fish pathogenic bacteria was also investigated using Edwardsiella tarda. Lignum of R. verniciflua was the most effective in antimicrobial activity against E. tarda and phenolic constituents are suggested to be active constituents for activity. Taken together, phenolic compounds are responsible for antimicrobial activity of R. verniciflua. The lignum of R. verniciflua contains high content of phenolic compounds with less urushiols, which suggests efficient antimicrobial activity with less toxicity. Therefore, lignum of R. verniciflua are suggested as good sources for antimicrobial activity against fish bacterial diseases.

Keywords: different parts, phenolic compounds, Rhus verniciflua, urushiols

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Authors: Berat Krasniqi, Shpëtim Thaçi, Miribane Dërmaku-Sopjani, Sokol Abazi, Mentor Sopjani

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The Mediterranean native plant, Sideritis raeseri Boiss. & Heldr. (Lamiaceae), also known as "mountain tea," has a long history of use in traditional medicine. The effects of an ethanol extract of Sideritis raeseri (SR) on uterus smooth muscle activity are evaluated in this study, and the underlying mechanism is identified. S. raeseri extract (SRE) was made from air-dried components of the SR shoot system. At 37°C, the SRE (0.5-2 mg/mL) was tested on isolated rabbit uterus rings that were suspended in a Krebs solution-filled organ bath and bubbled with a mixture of 95% O₂ and 5% CO₂. The SRE alone relaxed the muscle contraction in a concentration-dependent manner in uterine rings in in vitro tests. SRE also decreased Ca²⁺-induced contractions in the uterus by a large amount when the uterus was depolarized with carbachol (CCh, 1µM), K⁺ (80 mM), or contracted by oxytocin (5 nM). The potential involvement of NO-dependent or independent cGMP mechanisms in the uterine actions of SR was investigated. For this purpose, L-NAME (NO synthase inhibitor, 100 M) or bradykinin (NO synthase stimulator, 100 nM), or indomethacin (cyclooxygenase inhibitor, 10µM) decreased the impact of SRE. These results suggest that NO-dependent signaling is involved in SRE's mediated uterine relaxant effect. Data suggests that SRE could be a powerful tocolytic agent that reduces uterine activity and could be used to treat a number of uterine conditions.

Keywords: Sideritis raeseri, uterus, alternative medicine, intracellular mechanisms

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Authors: Amir Hossein Hejazi, Nima Amjady

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In recent years, due to environmental issues traditional energy sources had been replaced by renewable ones. Wind energy as the fastest growing renewable energy shares a considerable percent of energy in power electricity markets. With this fast growth of wind energy worldwide, owners and operators of wind farms, transmission system operators, and energy traders need reliable and secure forecasts of wind energy production. In this paper, a new forecasting strategy is proposed for short-term wind power prediction based on Echo State Networks (ESN). The forecast engine utilizes state-of-the-art training process including dynamical reservoir with high capability to learn complex dynamics of wind power or wind vector signals. The study becomes more interesting by incorporating prediction of wind direction into forecast strategy. The Big Bang-Big Crunch (BB-BC) evolutionary optimization algorithm is adopted for adjusting free parameters of ESN-based forecaster. The proposed method is tested by real-world hourly data to show the efficiency of the forecasting engine for prediction of both wind vector and wind power output of aggregated wind power production.

Keywords: wind power forecasting, echo state network, big bang-big crunch, evolutionary optimization algorithm

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Authors: Kawser Ahmed, K. Bousson, Milca F. Coelho

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4D flight trajectory optimization is one of the key ingredients to improve flight efficiency and to enhance the air traffic capacity in the current air traffic management (ATM). The present paper explores the iterative dynamic programming (IDP) as a potential numerical optimization method for 4D flight trajectory optimization. IDP is an iterative version of the Dynamic programming (DP) method. Due to the numerical framework, DP is very suitable to deal with nonlinear discrete dynamic systems. The 4D waypoint representation of the flight trajectory is similar to the discretization by a grid system; thus DP is a natural method to deal with the 4D flight trajectory optimization. However, the computational time and space complexity demanded by the DP is enormous due to the immense number of grid points required to find the optimum, which prevents the use of the DP in many practical high dimension problems. On the other hand, the IDP has shown potentials to deal successfully with high dimension optimal control problems even with a few numbers of grid points at each stage, which reduces the computational effort over the traditional DP approach. Although the IDP has been applied successfully in chemical engineering problems, IDP is yet to be validated in 4D flight trajectory optimization problems. In this paper, the IDP has been successfully used to generate minimum length 4D optimal trajectory avoiding any obstacle in its path, such as a no-fly zone or residential areas when flying in low altitude to reduce noise pollution.

Keywords: 4D waypoint navigation, iterative dynamic programming, obstacle avoidance, trajectory optimization

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Authors: Daniyar Bossinov

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This paper considers a non-isothermal stationary waxy crude oil flow in a two-dimensional axisymmetric pipe with the transition of a Newtonian fluid to a non-Newtonian fluid. The viscosity and yield stress of waxy crude oil are highly dependent on temperature changes. During the hot pumping of waxy crude oil through a buried pipeline, a non-isothermal flow occurs due to heat transfer to the surrounding soil. This leads to a decrease in flow temperature, an increase in viscosity, the appearance of yield stress, the crystallization of wax, and the deposition of solid particles on the pipeline's inner wall. The deposition of oil solid particles reduces a pipeline flow area and leads to the appearance of a stagnant zone with thermal insulation in the near-wall area. Waxy crude oil properties change. A Newtonian fluid at low temperatures transits to a non-Newtonian fluid. The one-dimensional modeling of a non-isothermal waxy crude oil flow in a two-dimensional axisymmetric pipeline by traditional averaging of temperature and velocity over the pipeline cross-section does not allow for explaining a physics phenomenon. Therefore, in this work, a two-dimensional flow model and the heat transfer of waxy oil are constructed. The calculated data show the transition of a Newtonian fluid to a non-Newtonian fluid due to the heat exchange of waxy oil with the environment.

Keywords: non-isothermal laminar flow, waxy crude oil, stagnant zone, yield stress

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Authors: Lizmol Mathew, Divya Thomas, Shiney Rajan

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Educational paradigm all over the globe is undergoing significant reform today. Because of this, so-called flipped classroom model is becoming increasingly popular in higher education. Flipped classroom has proved to be more effective than traditional lecture based model as flipped classroom model promotes active learning by encouraging students to work on in collaborative tasks and peer-led learning during the class-time. However, success of flipped classrooms relies on students’ ability and their attitudes towards collaboration and group work. This paper examines: 1) Students’ attitudes towards collaborative learning; 2) Main challenges to successful collaboration from students’ experience and 3) Students’ perception of criteria for successful team work. 4) Recommendations for enhancing collaborative learning. This study’s methodology involves quantitative analysis of surveys collected from students enrolled in undergraduate Architecture program at Qatar University. Analysis indicates that in general students enrolled in the program do not have positive perceptions or experiences associated with group work. Positive and negative factors that influence collaborative learning in higher education have been identified. Recommendations for improving collaborative work experience have been proposed.

Keywords: architecture, collaborative learning, female, group work, higher education, Middle East, Qatar, student experience

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Authors: Alexandra Monteiro, K. Bousson, Fernando J. O. Moreira, Ricardo Reis

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Fixed-wing flying vehicles are usually controlled by means of control surfaces such as elevators, ailerons, and rudders. The failure of these systems may lead to severe or even fatal crashes. These failures resulted in increased popularity for research activities on propulsion control in the last decades. The present work deals with a hybrid control architecture in which the propulsion-controlled vehicle maintains its traditional control surfaces, addressing the issue of robust lateral-directional dynamics control. The challenges stem from the parameter uncertainties in the stability and control derivatives and some unknown terms in the flight dynamics model. Two approaches are implemented and tested: linear quadratic regulation with robustness characteristics and H∞ control. The problem is centered on roll-yaw controller design with full state-feedback, which is able to deal with a standalone propulsion control mode as well as a hybrid mode combining both propulsion control and conventional control surface concepts while maintaining the original flight maneuverability characteristics. The results for both controllers emphasized very good control performances; however, the H∞ controller showed higher stabilization rates and robustness albeit with a slightly higher control magnitude than using the linear quadratic regulator.

Keywords: robust propulsion control, h-infinity control, lateral-directional flight dynamics, parameter uncertainties

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Authors: Wong Seng Yue

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Game dynamics and game mechanics are the two main components that used in gamification to engage and encourage students to learn. The advantages of gamified classroom are engaging students, increasing students interest, preserving students focus and remain a positive behaviour. However, the empirical studies on gamification are still at early stage, especially the effectiveness of various gamification components have not been evaluated. Thus, this study is aimed to conduct a user experience (UX) evaluation on gamified classroom through Prezi, which focused on learning experience, gaming experience, adaptivity, and gameplay experience. This study is a further study extended from the previous exploratory study to explore more on UX of gamified classroom via Prezi by interview. A focus group study, which involves 22 students from a foundation course has been conducted for the study. Besides the empirical data from the previous study, this focus group study has significantly found that 90.9% respondents show their positive perceptions on gaming experience via Prezi. They are interested, feel fresh, good, and highly motivated of the contents of Prezi. 95.5% participants have had a positive learning experience from the gamified classroom via Prezi, which can engage them, made them concentrate on learning and easy to remember what they have learned if compared to the traditional classroom slides. The adaptivity of the gamified classroom also high due to its zooming user interface, narrative, rewards and engagement features. This study has uncovered on how far the impact of gamification components in the classroom, especially UX that implemented in gamified classroom.

Keywords: user experience (UX), gamification, gamified classroom, Prezi

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Authors: Jonathan A. Noble

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‘Origins’ is an exhibition designed and installed by MMA Design Studio, at the 2023 Venice Biennale. The instillation formed part of the ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ group exhibition at the Arsenale building. An immersive experience was created for those who visited, where video projection and the bodies of visitors interacted with the scene. Designed by South African architect, Mphethi Morojele – founder and owner of MMA – the primary inspiration for ‘Origins’ was the recent discovery by Professor Karim Sadr in 2019, of a substantial Tswana settlement. Situated in present day Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, some 45km south of Johannesburg, this precolonial city named Kweneng, has been dated back to the fifteenth century. This remarkable discovery was achieved thanks to advanced aerial, LiDAR scanning technology, which was used to capture the traces of Kweneng, spanning a terrain of some 10km long and 2km wide. Discovered by light (LiDAR) and exhibited through light, Origins presents a simulated experience of Kweneng. The presentation of Kweneng was achieved primarily though video, with a circular projection onto the floor of an animated LiDAR data sequence, and onto the walls a filmed dance sequence choreographed to embody the architectural, spatial and symbolic significance of Kweneng. This paper documents the design process that was involved in the conceptualization, development and final realization of this noteworthy exhibition, with an elucidation upon key social and cultural questions pertaining to precolonial heritage, reimagined histories and postcolonial identity. Periods of change and of social awakening sometimes spark an interest in questions of origin, of cultural lineage and belonging – and which certainly is the case for contemporary, post-Apartheid South Africa. Researching this paper has required primary study of MMA Design Studio’s project archive, including various proposals and other design related documents, conceptual design sketches, architectural drawings and photographs. This material is supported by the authors first-hand interviews with Morejele and others who were involved, especially with respect to the choreography of the interpretive dance, LiDAR visualization techniques and video production that informed the simulated, immersive experience at the exhibition. Presenting a ‘dangerous liaison’ between architecture and dance, Origins looks into the distant past to frame contemporary questions pertaining to intangible heritage, animism and embodiment through architecture and dance – considerations which are required “to survive the future”, says Morojele.

Keywords: architecture and dance, Kweneng, MMA design studio, origins, Venice Biennale

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Authors: Zohra Mekranfar, Ahmed Saidi, Abdellah Mebrek

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This work aims to develop multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) and spatial data warehouse (SDW) methods, which will be integrated into a GIS according to a ‘GIS dominant’ approach. The GIS operating tools will be operational to operate the SDW. The MCDM methods can provide many solutions to a set of problems with various and multiple criteria. When the problem is so complex, integrating spatial dimension, it makes sense to combine the MCDM process with other approaches like data mining, ascending analyses, we present in this paper an experiment showing a geo-decisional methodology of SWD construction, On-line analytical processing (OLAP) technology which combines both basic multidimensional analysis and the concepts of data mining provides powerful tools to highlight inductions and information not obvious by traditional tools. However, these OLAP tools become more complex in the presence of the spatial dimension. The integration of OLAP with a GIS is the future geographic and spatial information solution. GIS offers advanced functions for the acquisition, storage, analysis, and display of geographic information. However, their effectiveness for complex spatial analysis is questionable due to their determinism and their decisional rigor. A prerequisite for the implementation of any analysis or exploration of spatial data requires the construction and structuring of a spatial data warehouse (SDW). This SDW must be easily usable by the GIS and by the tools offered by an OLAP system.

Keywords: data warehouse, GIS, MCDM, SOLAP

Procedia PDF Downloads 178

Authors: Olakunle Felix Adekunle

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Risk management is recognised as an essential tool to tackle the inevitable uncertainty associated with business and projects at all levels. But it frequently fails to meet expectations, with projects continuing to run late, over budget or under performing, and business is not gaining the expected benefits. The evident disconnect which often occurs between strategic vision and tactical project delivery typically arises from poorly defined project objectives and inadequate attention to the proactive management of risks that could affect those objectives. One of the main failings in the traditional approach to risk management arises from a narrow focus on the downside, restricted to the technical or operational field, addressing tactical threats to processes, performance or people. This shortcoming can be overcome by widening the scope of risk management to encompass both strategic risks and upside opportunities, creating an integrated approach which can bridge the gap between strategy and tactics. Integrated risk management addresses risk across a variety of levels in the organisation, including strategy and tactics, and covering both opportunity and threat. Effective implementation of integrated risk management can produce a number of benefits to the organisation which are not available from the typical limited-scope risk process. This paper explores how to expand risk management to deliver strategic advantage while retaining its use as a tactical tool.

Keywords: risk management, success, organization, strategy, project, tactis, vision

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Authors: Sri Widati, Ira Nurmala

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The Se’i Tradition was considered to contribute highly to the high maternal mortality rate in South Amanuban, East Nusa Tenggara. This tradition is still preserved due to the social support that has influenced the decision to carry out the Se’i to pregnant women and post-partum women. The purpose of this study is to analyze this social support towards the Se’i Tradition on pregnant women in East Nusa Tenggara. This research was an explorative study with in-depth interviews, observations, and focus group discussions (FGD) in collecting the data. This study showed that emotional support towards Se’i was commonly given by families, specifically by the mother-in laws. Instrumental support was shown by the husbands and the traditional midwives who helped delivered the babies. Informational support was found on the pregnant women and their mother-in laws. Appraisal support was given by all the neighbors and relatives of the pregnant women by telling how comfortable it was to go through this tradition which eventually affected those women to carry it out themselves. The Se’i Tradition is still carried out and mostly supported by the relatives of the pregnant women. The first recommendation of this study is to suggest people to only follow the suggestions from the local health staff to give birth in the local health centers and not to do the tradition anymore. The second recommendation is to urge the government to give support in the form of transportation facilities for pregnant women to reach the local health staff.

Keywords: the Se’i tradition, social support, pregnant women, maternal mortality, post-partum women

Procedia PDF Downloads 530