Search results for: case study

Authors: Metahri Leyla

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Herbal medicine is one of the oldest medicines in the world. It constitutes an interesting alternative to treat and cure without creating new diseases. Despite the progress of medicine, the increase in the number of doctors, the creation of social security, many parents have resorted to herbal medicine for their children; they are increasingly asking for "natural remedies", "without risk" for their children. Herbal tea is a very accessible way to enjoy the benefits of herbal medicine. Accordingly; the objective of our study is to obtain detailed information on the composition and mode of administration of these herbal teas and to identify the different plants used; their beneficial effects, as well as their possible toxicity. The current research work represents an ethnobotanical survey spread over one month (from January 6, 2021, to February 19, 2021) carried out by means of an electronic questionnaire concerning 753 respondents involving single or multiparous mothers. The obtained results reveal that a total of 684 mothers used herbal teas for their infants, which revealed the use of 55 herbal remedies for several indications, the most sought after are the carminative effect and relief of colic, and which 9% of users noticed undesirable effects linked to the administration of herbal teas to their infants. As a conclusion, it has been asserted that the use of herbal teas as a natural remedy by Algerian mothers is a widely accepted practice, however, the "natural" nature of the plants does not mean that they are harmless.

Keywords: herbal medicine, herbal teas, children, mothers, medicinal plants

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Authors: G. Peker, Tolga N. Aynur, E. Tinar

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In order to determine the energy consumption level and cooling characteristics of a domestic refrigerator controlled with various cooling system algorithms, a side by side type (SBS) refrigerator was tested in temperature and humidity controlled chamber conditions. Two different control algorithms; so-called drop-in and frequency controlled variable capacity compressor algorithms, were tested on the same refrigerator. Refrigerator cooling characteristics were investigated for both cases and results were compared with each other. The most important comparison parameters between the two algorithms were taken as; temperature distribution, energy consumption, evaporation and condensation temperatures, and refrigerator run times. Standard energy consumption tests were carried out on the same appliance and resulted in almost the same energy consumption levels, with a difference of %1,5. By using these two different control algorithms, the power consumptions character/profile of the refrigerator was found to be similar. By following the associated energy measurement standard, the temperature values of the test packages were measured to be slightly higher for the frequency controlled algorithm compared to the drop-in algorithm. This paper contains the details of this experimental study conducted with different cooling control algorithms and compares the findings based on the same standard conditions.

Keywords: control algorithm, cooling, energy consumption, refrigerator

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Authors: Viloria Marin Hermes, Paredes Santiago Maritza, Viloria Paredes Jonathan

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The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of Burnout syndrome in a sample of 600 professors at the University of Guayaquil (Ecuador) using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (M.B.I.). In addition, assessment was made of the effects on health from professional burnout using the General Health Questionnaire (G.H.Q.-28), and the influence of Emotional Intelligence on prevention of its symptoms using the Spanish version of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (T.M.M.S.-24). After confirmation of the underlying factor structure, the three measurement tools showed high levels of internal consistency, and specific cut-off points were proposed for the group of Latin American academics in the M.B.I. Statistical analysis showed the syndrome is present extensively, particularly on medium levels, with notably low scores given for Professional Self-Esteem. The application of Canonical Correspondence Analysis revealed that low levels of self-esteem are related to depression, with a lack of personal resources related to anxiety and insomnia, whereas the ability to perceive and control emotions and feelings improves perceptions of professional effectiveness and performance.

Keywords: burnout, academics, emotional intelligence, general health, canonical correspondence analysis

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Authors: Kashika P. H.

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The development of computer vision systems has been greatly aided by the efficient and precise detection of images and videos. Although the ability to recognize and comprehend images is a strength of the human brain, employing technology to tackle this issue is exceedingly challenging. In the past few years, the use of Deep Learning algorithms to treat object detection has dramatically expanded. One of the key issues in the realm of image recognition is the recognition and detection of certain notable people from randomly acquired photographs. Face recognition uses a way to identify, assess, and compare faces for a variety of purposes, including user identification, user counting, and classification. With the aid of an accessible deep learning-based API, this article intends to recognize various faces of people and their facial descriptors more accurately. The purpose of this study is to locate suitable individuals and deliver accurate information about them by using the Amazon Rekognition system to identify a specific human from a vast image dataset. We have chosen the Amazon Rekognition system, which allows for more accurate face analysis, face comparison, and face search, to tackle this difficulty.

Keywords: Amazon rekognition, API, deep learning, computer vision, face detection, text detection

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Authors: Adepeju A. Opaleye, Adekunle Kolawole, Muyiwa A. Opaleye

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Consumers’ perceived quality of imported product has been an impediment to business in the Nigeria garment industry. To improve patronage of made- in-Nigeria designs, the first step is to understand what the consumer expects, then proffer ways to meet this expectation through product redesign or improvement of the garment production process. The purpose of this study is to investigate drivers of consumers’ value for typical Nigerian garment design (NGD). An integrated quality function deployment (QFD) and functional, expressive and aesthetic (FEA) Consumer Needs methodology helps to minimize incorrect understanding of potential consumer’s requirements in mass customized garments. Six themes emerged as drivers of consumer’s satisfaction: (1) Style variety (2) Dimensions (3) Finishing (4) Fabric quality (5) Garment Durability and (6) Aesthetics. Existing designs found to lead foreign designs in terms of its acceptance for informal events, style variety and fit. The latter may be linked to its mode of acquisition. A conceptual model of NGD acceptance in the context of consumer’s inherent characteristics, social and the business environment is proposed.

Keywords: Perceived quality, Garment design, Quality function deployment, FEA Model , Mass customisation

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Authors: Khryslyn Araño, Dela Cruz, Michael Leo, Dela Pena, Eden May, Leslie Joy Diaz

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Montmorillonite (MMT) is a very abundant clay mineral and is versatile such that it can be chemically or physically altered by changing the ions between the sheets of its layered structure. This clay mineral can be prepared into functional nanoparticles that can be used as fillers in other nanomaterials such as nanofibers to achieve special properties. In this study, two types of iron-modified MMT, Iron-MMT (FeMMT) and Zero Valent Iron-MMT (ZVIMMT) were synthesized via ion exchange technique. The modified clay was incorporated in polymer nanofibers which were produced using a process called electrospinning. ICP analysis confirmed that clay modification was successful where there is an observed decrease in the concentration of Na and an increase in the concentration of Fe after ion exchange. XRD analysis also confirmed that modification took place because of the changes in the d-spacing of Na-MMT from 11.5 Å to 13.6 Å and 12.6 Å after synthesis of FeMMT and ZVIMMT, respectively. SEM images of the electrospun nanofibers revealed that the ZVIMMT-filled fibers have a smaller average diameter than the FeMMT-filled fibers because of the lower resistance of the suspensions of the former to the elongation force from the applied electric field. The resistance to the electric field was measured by getting the bulk voltage of the suspensions.

Keywords: electrospinning, nanofibers, montmorillonite, materials science

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Authors: Noor-ul-Ain, Muhammad Tahir Khan, Kashif Khan, Adeela Ajmal, Hamid Mustafa

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the preservative and upgrading potential of urea (70g/kg DM) added to high moisture oat silage at laboratory scale trial and urea was hydrolysed 95%. Microbial activity measured by pH and volatile fatty acids (VFA) and lactate production was reduced (p<0.001) by the urea addition. The pH of oat silage (without treated) was measured 5.7 and increased up to 8.00 on average while; volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentration was decreased. Relative proportions of fermentation acids changed after urea addition, increasing the acetate and butyrate and decreasing the propionate and lactate proportions. The addition of urea to oat silages increased (P<0.001) water soluble and ammonium nitrogen of the forage. These nitrogen fractions represented more than 40% of total nitrogen. After urea addition, total nitrogen content of oat silages increased from 21.0 g/kg DM to 28 g/kg DM. Application of urea at a rate of 70 g/kg DM significantly increased (P<0.001) the in situ degradation of neutral-detergent fibre after 48h of rumen incubation (NDF-situ). The NDF-situ was 200 g/kg NDF higher on oat forages ensiled with urea than on oat forages ensiled without urea. Oat silages can be effectively preserved and upgraded by ensiling with 70 g urea/kg dry matter. Further studies are required to evaluate voluntary intake of this forage.

Keywords: oat, silage, urea, pH, forage

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Authors: Mostafa Heidari

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Nitrogen fertilization has played a significant role in increasing crop yield, and solving problems of hunger and malnutrition worldwide. However, excessive of heavy metals such as arsenic can interfere on growth and reduced grain yield. In order to investigate the effects of different concentrations of arsenic and nitrogen fertilizer on photosynthetic pigments and antioxidant enzyme activities in safflower (cv. Goldasht), a factorial plot experiment as randomized complete block design with three replication was conducted in university of Zabol. Arsenic treatment included: A1= control or 0, A2=30, A3=60 and A4=90 mg. kg-1 soil from the Na2HASO4 source and three nitrogen levels including W1=75, W2=150 and W3=225 kg.ha-1 from urea source. Results showed that, arsenic had a significant effect on the activity of antioxidant enzymes. By increasing arsenic levels from A1 to A4, the activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and gayacol peroxidase (GPX) increased and catalase (CAT) was decreased. In this study, arsenic had no significant on chlorophyll a, b and cartoneid content. Nitrogen and interaction between arsenic and nitrogen treatment, except APX, had significant effect on CAT and GPX. The highest GPX activity was obtained at A4N3 treatment. Nitrogen increased the content of chlorophyll a, b and cartoneid.

Keywords: arsenic, physiological parameters, oxidative enzymes, nitrogen

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Authors: E. Pretorius, A. M. Viljoen, M. van der Bank

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Introduction: The phytochemistry of Agathosma crenulata and A. betulina has been studied extensively, while their molecular analysis through DNA barcoding remains virtually unexplored. This technique can confirm the identity of plant species included in a herbal product, thereby ensuring the efficacy of the herbal product and the accuracy of its label. Materials and methods: Authentic Agathosma reference material of A. betulina (n=16) and A. crenulata (n=10) were obtained. Thirteen commercial products were purchased from various health shops around Johannesburg, South Africa, using the search term “Agathosma” or “Buchu.” The plastid regions matK and ycf1 were used to barcode the Buchu products, and BRONX analysis confirmed the taxonomic identity of the samples. UPLC-MS analyses were also performed. Results: Only (30/60) 60% of the traded samples tested from 13 suppliers contained A. betulina in their herbal products. Similar results were also obtained for the UPLC-MS analysis. Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrate the application of DNA barcoding in combination with phytochemical analysis to authenticate herbal products claiming to contain Agathosma plants as an ingredient in their products. This supports manufacturing efforts to ensure that herbal products that are safe for the consumer.

Keywords: Buchu, substitution, barcoding, BRONX algorithm, matK, ycf1, UPLC-MS

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Authors: Minho Kwon, Jeonghee Lim, Yeongseok Jeong, Jongyoon Moon, Donghoon Shin, Kiyoung Kim

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In the past, the criteria and procedures for the design of concrete structures were mainly based on the stresses allowed for structural components. However, although the frequency of earthquakes has increased and the risk has increased recently, it has been difficult to determine the safety factor for earthquakes in the safety assessment of structures based on allowable stresses. Recently, limit state design method has been introduced for reinforced concrete structures, and limit state-based approach has been recognized as a more effective technique for seismic design. Therefore, in this study, the limit state of the bridge, which is a structure requiring higher stability against earthquakes, was evaluated. The finite element program LS-DYNA and twenty ground motion were used for time history analysis. The fracture caused by tensile and compression of the pier were set to the limit state. In the concrete tensile fracture, the limit state arrival rate was 100% at peak ground acceleration 0.4g. In the concrete compression fracture, the limit state arrival rate was 100% at peak ground acceleration 0.2g.

Keywords: allowable stress, limit state, safety factor, peak ground acceleration

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Authors: H. Parameshwar Naik, Shripad Kulkarni

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Powdery mildew is a serious disease among the fungal in high humid areas with varied temperature conditions. In recent days disease becomes very severe due to uncertain weather conditions and unique character of the disease is, it produces white mycelia growth on upper and lower leaf surfaces and in severe conditions it leads to defoliation. Results of the experiment revealed that sowing of crop in the I fortnight (FN) of July recorded the minimum mean disease severity (7.96 %) followed by crop sown in II FN of July (13.19 %) as against the crop sown in II FN of August (41.44 %) and I FN of September (33.78 %) and the I fortnight of October (33.77 %). In the first date of sowing infection started at 45 DAS and progressed till 73 DAS and it was up to 14.66 Percent and in second date of sowing disease progressed up to 22.66 percent and in the third date of sowing, it was up to 59.35 percent. Afterward, the disease started earlier and progressed up to 66.15 percent and in sixth and seventh date of sowing disease progressed up to 43.15 percent and 59.85 percent respectively. Disease progress is very fast after 45 days after sowing and highest disease incidence was noticed at 73 DAS irrespective of dates of sowing. From the results of the present study, it is very clear that disease development will be very high if crop sown in between 1st fortnight of August and the 1st fortnight of September.

Keywords: cucumber, India, Karnataka, powdery mildew

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Authors: Tryfon Mavropalias, Anastasia Alevriadou

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Co-teaching is a relatively recent model of providing teaching services to students with disabilities in Greece. According to recent studies, it seems that the largest number of students who take part in the Greek co-teaching programme are children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The aim of the suggested study is to investigate the effectiveness and usefulness of co-teaching to students with ASD as well as skills students with ASD develop during co-teaching in primary education classes. To conduct the research, quantitative method of research was used, with the means of research being a questionnaire including open and close type questions. The sample of this research consists of 142 primary school co-teachers from all over Northern Greece (71 general education teachers and 71 special education teachers). Given the results, it was concluded that co-teachers believe that including and educating children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders in the general class benefits those who autism is measured from the middle to the upper end of the spectrum. Additionally, children develop social skills first, followed by emotional and cognitive skills. Ultimately, educators declared that they are prepared only to a limited degree to effectively support students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders in general classes.

Keywords: Autistic spectrum disorders, co-teaching, co-teachers, co-taught class

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Authors: Baki Dursun, Kemal Benk

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English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has become an increasingly hot topic in many of the developing countries including Turkey. Likewise, in most of these expanding circle countries the way of teaching English has been redesigned in accordance with Lingua Franca Core. Admittedly, the focus was on Grammar-based teaching formerly; however, with the introduction of the ELF, the shift is now more on teaching speaking abilities and strategies of negotiation of meaning. However, there are several reasons for this shift, one of the major contributions stems from the teacher training programs offered by Turkish universities as M.A. programs. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to compare and contrast the similarities and divergences among the instructors who have taken ELF classes in their teacher-training program and those who have not. With a longitudinal design, for five months, classes of two different groups of teachers (ELF Group vs. Traditional Group) have been observed and three teachers have been selected for each group. During the observations, principles of Lingua Franca Core offered by Jenkins have been taken into account and used to form the rubric for the observations. After the five-month period, a Likert scale type questionnaire has been given to the students to explore their level of anxiety while speaking. Independent samples t-test have been administered to see the groups differences statistically. The results of the study will be presented during the conference.

Keywords: ELF, teacher training, speaking, anxiety

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Authors: Koushik Roy, Sourav Gur, Sudib K. Mishra

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Evidence of pulse type features in near-fault ground motions has raised serious concern to the structural engineering community, in view of their possible implications on the behavior of structures located on the fault regions. Studies in the recent past explore the effects of pulse type ground motion on the special structures, such as transmission towers in view of their high flexibility. Identically, long period sloshing of liquid in the storage tanks under dynamic loading might increase their failure vulnerability under near-fault pulses. Therefore, the behavior of the elevated liquid storage tank is taken up in this study. Simple lumped mass model is considered, with the bilinear force-deformation hysteresis behavior. Set of near-fault seismic ground acceleration time histories are adopted for this purpose, along with the far-field records for comparison. It has been demonstrated that pulse type motions lead to significant increase of the responses; in particular, sloshing of the fluid mass could be as high as 5 times, then the far field counterpart. For identical storage capacity, slender tanks are found to be more vulnerable than the broad ones.

Keywords: far-field motion, hysteresis, liquid storage tank, near fault earthquake, sloshing

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Authors: M. A. Hasnat, M. Amirul Islam, M. A. Rashed, Jamil. Safwan, M. Mahabubul Alam

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Symmetric (Cu–Pt|Nafion|Pt–Cu) and asymmetric(Pt|Nafion|Pt–Cu) assemblies were fabricated to study the nitrate reduction processes at the cathode. The electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reactions were performed in these assemblies in order to investigate the prerequisite for the enhanced catalytic activity, electrochemical cell durability as well as preferable product selectivity resulting from the reduction of nitrate at the cathode. It has been observed for the symmetric assembly that Cu particles were oxidized on the anode surface under an applied potential and the resulting copper ions migrated to the cathode surface through the Nafion membrane, which deposited as copper oxide on the cathode surface. The formation of this copper oxide covering layer on the Pt–Cu cathode surface is attributed as the reason for the deactivation of the cathode that governed the reduced nitrate reduction along with increasing nitrite selectivity. These problems were addressed and resolved with the asymmetric design of the electrocatalytic reactor, where enhanced hydrogen evolution activates the surface by eroding the CuO over layer as well as speeding up the slow rate determining hydrogenation reactions.

Keywords: membrane, nitrate, electrocatalysis, voltammetry, electrolysis

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Authors: Fatemeh Sadat Sharifi

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In the present study, the capabilities of WAVEWATCH-III and MIKE21-SW for predicting the characteristics of wind waves in Hormuz Strait are evaluated. The GFS wind data (Global Forecast System) were derived. The bathymetry of gride with 2 arc-minute resolution, also were extracted from the ETOPO1. WAVEWATCH-III findings illustrate more valid prediction of wave features comparing to the MIKE-21 SW in deep water. Apparently, in shallow area, the MIKE-21 provides more uniformities with altimetry measurements. This may be due to the merits of the unstructured grid which are used in MIKE-21, leading to better representations of the coastal area. The findings on the direction of waves generated by wind in the modeling area indicate that in some regions, despite the increase in wind speed, significant wave height stays nearly unchanged. This is fundamental because of swift changes in wind track over the Strait of Hormuz. After discussing wind-induced waves in the region, the impact of instability of the surface layer on wave growth has been considered. For this purpose, the average monthly mean air temperature has been used. The results in cold months, when the surface layer is unstable, indicates an acceptable increase in the accuracy of prediction of the indicator wave height.

Keywords: numerical modeling, WAVEWATCH-III, Strait of Hormuz, MIKE21-SW

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Authors: A. Ghasemipanah, R. Ziaie Moayed, H. Niroumand

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Improving the geotechnical properties of soil has always been one of the issues in geotechnical engineering. Traditional materials have been used to improve and stabilize soils to date, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Although the soil stabilization by adding materials such as cement, lime, bitumen, etc. is one of the effective methods to improve the geotechnical properties of soil, but nanoparticles are one of the newest additives which can improve the loose soils. This research is intended to study the effect of adding nanobentonite on soil engineering properties, especially the unconfined compression strength and maximum dry unit weight, using clayey soil with low liquid limit (CL) from Kerman (Iran). Nanobentonite was mixed with soil in three different percentages (i.e. 3, 5, 7% by weight of the parent soil) with different curing time (1, 7 and 28 days). The unconfined compression strength, liquid and plastic limits and plasticity index of treated specimens were measured by unconfined compression and Atterberg limits test. It was found that increase in nanobentonite content resulted in increase in the unconfined compression strength, liquid and plastic limits of the clayey soil and reduce in plasticity index.

Keywords: nanobentonite particles, clayey soil, unconfined compression stress, soil improvement.

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Authors: Huma Sarwar, Muhammad Ishtiaq Ishaq, Junaid Aftab

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The hospitality sector contributes significantly to the global economy but it is also responsible for imposing adverse influences both environmentally and socially. The objective of this research is two-fold: (1) examining the direct impact of internal CSR and external CSR and indirect impact via organizational identification on creative performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and (2) determining the moderating role of ethical leadership in the relationships of internal- and external- CSR with organizational identification in a cross-cultural context. The data was were collected using multi-respondents and time-lagged data from 260 Pakistani and 239 UK respondents working in upscale hotels of the United Kingdom and Pakistan. The results demonstrate significant differences in both cultures as external CSR has a more substantial impact on organizational identification in the UK, whereas organizational identification has a relatively stronger influence on OCB and creative performance in collectivistic culture (i.e., Pakistan). The findings also confirmed that ethical leadership significantly moderates the relationship of internal- and external - CSR on organizational identification.

Keywords: Huma Sarwar, Muhammad Ishtiaq Ishaq, Junaid Aftab

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Authors: Dedah Ahmed Babou, Nicolas Bez

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The Min-Max autocorrelation factor (MAF) approach makes it possible to express in a space formed by spatially independent factors, spatiotemporal observations. These factors are ordered in decreasing order of spatial autocorrelation. The starting observations are thus expressed in the space formed by these factors according to temporal coordinates. Each vector of temporal coefficients expresses the temporal evolution of the weight of the corresponding factor. Applying this approach has enabled us to achieve the following results: (i) Define a spatially orthogonal space in which the projections of the raw data are determined; (ii) Define a limit threshold for the factors with the strongest structures in order to analyze the weight, and the temporal evolution of these different structures (iii) Study the correlation between the temporal evolution of the persistent spatial structures and that of the observed average abundance (iv) Propose prototypes of campaigns reflecting a high vs. low abundance (v) Propose a classification of campaigns that highlights seasonal and/or temporal similarities. These results were obtained by analyzing the octopus yield during the scientific campaigns of the oceanographic vessel Al Awam during the period 1989-2017 in the Mauritanian exclusive economic zone.

Keywords: spatiotemporal , autocorrelation, kriging, variogram, Octopus vulgaris

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Authors: A. Falavand Jozaei, A. Ghafouri

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Operation enhancement in an air cooler (heat exchanger) depends on the rate of heat transfer, and pressure drop. In this paper, for a given heat duty, study of the effects of FPI (fin per inch) and fin type (circular and hexagonal fins) on two parameters mentioned above is considered in an air cooler in Iran, Arvand petrochemical. A program in EES (Engineering Equations Solver) software moreover, Aspen B-JAC and HTFS+ software are used for this purpose to solve governing equations. At first the simulated results obtained from this program is compared to the experimental data for two cases of FPI. The effects of FPI from 3 to 15 over heat transfer (Q) to pressure drop ratio (Q/Δp ratio). This ratio is one of the main parameters in design, rating, and simulation heat exchangers. The results show that heat transfer (Q) and pressure drop increase with increasing FPI (fin per inch) steadily, and the Q/Δp ratio increases to FPI = 12 (for circular fins about 47% and for hexagonal fins about 69%) and then decreased gradually to FPI = 15 (for circular fins about 5% and for hexagonal fins about 8%), and Q/Δp ratio is maximum at FPI = 12. The FPI value selection between 8 and 12 obtained as a result to optimum heat transfer to pressure drop ratio. Also by contrast, between circular and hexagonal fins results, the Q/Δp ratio of hexagonal fins more than Q/Δp ratio of circular fins for FPI between 8 and 12 (optimum FPI).

Keywords: air cooler, circular and hexagonal fins, fin per inch, heat transfer and pressure drop

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Authors: Varsha Gupta, Priya Datta, Gursimran Mohi, Jagdish Chander

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Fluoroquinolones form the mainstay of therapy for the treatment of infections due to Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica. There is a complex interplay between several resistance mechanisms for quinolones and various fluoroquinolones discs, giving varying results, making detection and interpretation of fluoroquinolone resistance difficult. For detection of fluoroquinolone resistance in Salmonella ssp., we compared the use of pefloxacin and nalidixic acid discs as surrogate marker. Using MIC for ciprofloxacin as the gold standard, 43.5% of strains showed MIC as ≥1 μg/ml and were thus resistant to fluoroquinoloes. Based on the performance of nalidixic acid and pefloxacin discs as surrogate marker for ciprofloxacin resistance, both the discs could correctly detect all the resistant phenotypes; however, use of nalidixic acid disc showed false resistance in the majority of the sensitive phenotypes. We have also tested newer antimicrobial agents like cefixime, imipenem, tigecycline and azithromycin against Salmonella spp. Moreover, there was a comeback of susceptibility to older antimicrobials like ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and cotrimoxazole. We can also use cefixime, imipenem, tigecycline and azithromycin in the treatment of multidrug resistant S. typhi due to their high susceptibility.

Keywords: salmonella, pefloxacin, surrogate marker, chloramphenicol

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Authors: Atinkut Atinafu Yilma, Eyob Messele Sefene

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Anomaly detection is one of the essential mechanisms to control and reduce production loss, especially in today's smart manufacturing. Quick anomaly detection aids in reducing the cost of production by minimizing the possibility of producing defective products. However, developing an anomaly detection model that can rapidly detect a production change is challenging. This paper proposes Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) combined with Random Forest (RF) to detect anomalies in the production process in real-time quickly. The GRU is used as a feature detector, and RF as a classifier using the input features from GRU. The model was tested using various synthesis and real-world datasets against benchmark methods. The results show that the proposed GRU-RF outperforms the benchmark methods with the shortest time taken to detect anomalies in the production process. Based on the investigation from the study, this proposed model can eliminate or reduce unnecessary production costs and bring a competitive advantage to manufacturing industries.

Keywords: anomaly detection, multivariate time series data, smart manufacturing, gated recurrent unit network, random forest

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Authors: Bahieh Mohajeri, Mohamad Sharif Mustaf, Mahani Mokhtar

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Purpose: This paper attempts to set the stage for the exploration of female participation in administrative positions within non-western countries by reviewing the studies on female in administrative positions within non-western countries and suggesting guidelines for future studies in this area in developing countries. Methodology: The paper is based on a systematic review of papers that have been published in journals. Findings: The review focuses on constraints to female’s participation in higher education of developing countries (e.g. strong family responsibility, low levels of women faculty members, social values and gendered cultural factors). Practical Implications: Further guidelines for future examination of this field of study are suggested (e.g. adopting a different theoretical view).Value: The article is an initial attempt to gather knowledge about constraints of female administrators in higher education of developing countries. The subject has received less attention in studies on administration and gender. In addition, the article provides suggestions for future studies in order to understand women administrators’ experiences in different educational and cultural settings.

Keywords: administrative position, female administrator, developing countries, participation

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Authors: Xu Tao, Yilun Xu, Dingwei Xiang, Yaofei Sun

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Urban community is constitute the entire city and its management ‘cell’, let ‘cells’ with growth and self-regeneration capacity and persistence, to allow the city with infinite vigor and vitality of the source; with toughness community mankind's adaptation to the basic unit of social risk, toughness of the city from the community to create a point of building is urban toughness of top-down construction mode of supplement, is of positive significance on the toughness of the urban construction. Based on the basic concept of resilience, this paper reviews the research on the four main areas of the study of urban resilience (i.e., the engineering toughness, ecological resilience, economic resilience, and social resilience, etc.). Studies and comments and summarizes the basic characteristic and main content of the four kind of toughness. Based on, from the city - community level and community level for building community resilience, including the level of urban community and create a Unicom, inclusiveness and openness of the community; community-level lifted from the four angles of the engineering community toughness, ecological toughness, resilience, social resilience, mainly including enhanced the toughness of the infrastructure, green infrastructure of toughness, resilience, social network and social relations, building with a sense of belonging, inclusive, multicultural community. Finally, summarize and prospect the resilience of the community.

Keywords: resilience, community resilience, urban resilience, construction strategies

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Authors: Prasansha Kumari

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This paper intends to identify and analyze customer adoption and attitudes towards mobile banking facilities. The study uses six perceived characteristics of innovation that can be used to form a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward an innovation, namely: Relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trailability, risk, and observability. Collected data were analyzed using Pearson Chi-Square test. The results showed that mobile bank users were predominantly males. There is a growing trend among young, educated customers towards converting to mobile banking in Sri Lanka. The research outcomes suggested that all the six factors are statistically highly significant in influencing mobile banking adoption and attitude formation towards mobile banking in Sri Lanka. The major reasons for adopting mobile banking services are the accessibility and availability of services regardless of time and place. Over the 75 percent of the respondents mentioned that savings in time and effort and low financial costs of conducting mobile banking were advantageous. Issue of security was found to be the most important factor that motivated consumer adoption and attitude formation towards mobile banking. Main barriers to mobile banking were the lack of technological skills, the traditional cash‐carry banking culture, and the lack of awareness and insufficient guidance to using mobile banking.

Keywords: compatibility, complexity, mobile banking, observability, risk

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Authors: Renata Konadu

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Over the last two decades, the concept of environmental management and its related issues have received increased attention in global discourse and on management research agenda due to climate change and other environmental challenges. To abate and avert these challenges, diverse environmental policies, strategies and practices have been adopted by businesses and economies as a whole. Extant literature has placed much emphasis on whether improved environmental operational performance improves firm performance. However, there is a huge gap in the literature with regards to whether the adoption of environmental management practices and policies has a direct relationship with environmental operational performance (EOP). The current paper is intended to provide a comprehensive perspective of how different aspects of environmental management can relate to firms EOP. Using a panel regression analysis of 149 large listed firms in the UK, the study found evidence of both negative and positive statistically significant link between some Environmental Policies (EP), Environmental Processes (EPR), Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and EOP. The findings suggest that in terms of relating EP, EPR and EMS to Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emissions for instance, the latter should be viewed separately in Scopes 1, 2 and 3 as developed by GHG protocol. The results have useful implication for policy makers and managers when designing strategies and policies to reduce negative environmental impacts.

Keywords: environmental management, environmental operational performance, GHGs, large listed firms

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Authors: Sana Mohammad Jafar, Hossaini Seyahi Zohreh

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Infections and food intoxication caused by microbial contamination of food is of major issues in different countries, and diseases caused by the consumption of contaminated food included a large percentage of the country's health problems. Since traditional cheese for cultural reasons, good taste and smell in many parts of the area still has the important place in people's food basket, transmission of pathogenic bacteria could be at risk human health through the consumption of this food. In this study selected randomly 100 samples of 250 grams of traditional cheeses supplied in the city Behbahan market and adjacent to the ice was transferred to the laboratory and microbiological tests were performed immediately. According to the results, from 100 samples tested traditional cheese, 94 samples (94% of samples) were contaminated with coliforms, which of this number 75 samples (75% of samples) the contamination rate was higher than the limit (more than 100 cfu/g). Of the total samples, 36 samples (36% of samples) were contaminated with fecal coliform which of this number 30 samples (30% of samples) were contaminated with Escherichia.coli bacteria. Based on the results of agglutination test,no samples was found positive as pathogenic Escherichia.coli.

Keywords: determination, traditional cheese, Behbahan, Escherichia coli

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Authors: Kay Carroll

Abstract:

Creating historical consciousness in children and young people is critical to global inclusion and engagement. In a context of international and technological flux, children are confronted with shifting national identities. Within this quantitative study of Australian children and young people, the concept and development of historical consciousness are explored. The analysis reports on how children and young people are connected through national, collective, and personal narratives to understand historically significant events and changes, anchor themselves to universal and intergenerational traditions and norms, be open to divergent perspectives and resilient to perpetual socio-cultural shifts. This paper presents the development and factors that shape national historical consciousness in children and young people using established international frameworks and stages of historical consciousness. This research reports on quantitative surveys conducted with over 680 school children from ages 12 years to 19 years within Australian schools. Concepts of global citizenship, inclusion, and engagement with national historical memory and significance are explored. Findings identify the social benefits of collective and personal historical consciousness and consider the current barriers and enablers in developing a young person’s historical consciousness for the future.

Keywords: curriculum, global citizenship, historical consciousness, significance

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: Ji-Wook Mauk, Yu-Suk Kim, Hyung-Joon Kim

Abstract:

This study carried out comparative seismic performance of reinforced concrete frames infilled by masonry walls with different heights. Partial and fully infilled RC frames were modeled for the research objectives and the analysis model for a bare reinforced concrete frame was established for comparison. Non-linear static analyses for the studied frames were performed to investigate their structural behavior under extreme loading conditions and to find out their collapse mechanism. It was observed from analysis results that the strengths of the partial infilled RC frames are increased and their ductility is reduced, as infilled masonry walls are higher. Especially, Reinforced concrete frames with a higher partial infilled masonry wall would experience shear failures. Non-linear dynamic analyses using 10 earthquake records show that the bare and fully infilled reinforced concrete frames present stable collapse mechanism while the reinforced concrete frames with a partially infilled masonry wall collapse in more brittle manner due to short-column effects.

Keywords: fully infilled RC frame, partially infilled RC frame, masonry wall, short-column effect

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: Tharntip Tawnie Chutikulrungsee, Oliver Kisalay Burmeister, Maumita Bhattacharya, Dragana Calic

Abstract:

Sharing on social network sites (SNSs) has rapidly emerged as a new social norm and has become a global phenomenon. Billions of users reveal not only their own information (self disclosure) but also information about others (other-generated disclosure), resulting in a risk and a serious threat to either personal or informational privacy. Self-disclosure (SD) has been extensively researched in the literature, particularly regarding control of individual and existing privacy management. However, far too little attention has been paid to other-generated disclosure (OGD), especially by insiders. OGD has a strong influence on self-presentation, self-image, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Moreover, OGD is more credible and less likely manipulated than SD, but lacks privacy control and legal protection to some extent. This article examines OGD in depth, ranging from motivation to both online and offline impacts, based upon lived experiences from both ‘the disclosed’ and ‘the discloser’. Using purposive sampling, this phenomenological study involves an online survey and in-depth interviews. The findings report the influence of peer disclosure as well as users’ strategies to mitigate privacy issues. This article also calls attention to the challenge of OGD privacy and inadequacies in the law related to privacy protection in the digital domain.

Keywords: facebook, online privacy, other-generated disclosure, social networks sites (SNSs)

Procedia PDF Downloads 227