Search results for: multiple intelligence

Authors: Feleke Terefe Fanta

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Background: The existence of heavy metals and coliform bacteria contaminants in aquatic system of Akaki river basin, a sub city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia has become a public concern as human population increases and land development continues. Hence, it is the right time to design treatment technologies that can handle multiple pollutants. Results: In this study, we prepared a synthetic zeolites and copper doped zeolite composite adsorbents as cost effective and simple approach to simultaneously remove heavy metals and total coliforms from wastewater of Akaki river. The synthesized copper–zeolite X composite was obtained by ion exchange method of copper ions into zeolites frameworks. Iodine test, XRD, FTIR and autosorb IQ automated gas sorption analyzer were used to characterize the adsorbents. The mean concentrations of Cd, Cr, and Pb in untreated sample were 0.795, 0.654 and 0.7025 mg/L respectively. These concentrations decreased to Cd (0.005 mg/L), Cr (0.052 mg/L) and Pb (bellow detection limit, BDL) for sample treated with bare zeolite X while a further decrease in concentration of Cd (0.005 mg/L), Cr (BDL) and Pb (BDL) was observed for the sample treated with copper–zeolite composite. Zeolite X and copper-modified zeolite X showed complete elimination of total coliforms after 90 and 50 min contact time respectively. Conclusion: The results obtained in this study showed high antimicrobial disinfection and heavy metal removal efficiencies of the synthesized adsorbents. Furthermore, these sorbents are efficient in significantly reducing physical parameters such as electrical conductivity, turbidity, BOD and COD.

Keywords: WASTE WATER, COPPER DOPED ZEOITE X, ADSORPITION, HEAVY METAL, DISINFECTION, AKAKI RIVER

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Authors: Jixiang Lei, Alexander Fuchs, Franz Pernkopf, Katrin Ellermann

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Within the Space@Sea project, funded by the Horizon 2020 program, an island consisting of multiple platforms was designed. The platforms are connected by ropes and fenders. The connection is critical with respect to the safety of the whole system. Therefore, fault detection systems are investigated, which could detect early warning signs for a possible failure in the connection elements. Previously, a model-based method called Extended Kalman Filter was developed to detect the reduction of rope stiffness. This method detected several types of faults reliably, but some types of faults were much more difficult to detect. Furthermore, the model-based method is sensitive to environmental noise. When the wave height is low, a long time is needed to detect a fault and the accuracy is not always satisfactory. In this sense, it is necessary to develop a more accurate and robust technique that can detect all rope faults under a wide range of operational conditions. Inspired by this work on the Space at Sea design, we introduce a fault diagnosis method based on deep neural networks. Our method cannot only detect rope degradation by using the acceleration data from each platform but also estimate the contributions of the specific acceleration sensors using methods from explainable AI. In order to adapt to different operational conditions, the domain adaptation technique DANN is applied. The proposed model can accurately estimate rope degradation under a wide range of environmental conditions and help users understand the relationship between the output and the contributions of each acceleration sensor.

Keywords: fault diagnosis, deep learning, domain adaptation, explainable AI

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Authors: Reni Francis

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Learning has transcended the classroom boundaries to create a learner centric, interactive, and integrative teaching learning environment. This study analysed the impact of iLearn on the teaching, learning, and evaluation among 100 teacher trainees. The objectives were to cater to the different learning styles of the teacher trainees, to incorporate innovative teaching learning activities, to assist in peer tutoring, to implement different evaluation processes. i: Identifying the learning styles among the teacher trainees through VARK Learning style checklist was followed by planning the teaching-learning process to meet the learning styles of the teacher trainees. L: Leveraging innovations in teaching- learning by planning and creating modules incorporating innovative teaching learning and hence the concept based year plan was prepared. E: Engage learning through constructivism using different teaching methodology to engage the teacher trainees in the learning process through Workshop, Round Robin, Gallery walk, Co-Operative learning, Think-Pair-Share, EDMODO, Course Networking, Concept Map, Brainstorming Sessions, Video Clippings. A: Assessing the learning through an Open Book assignment, Closed book assignment, and Multiple Choice Questions and Seminar presentation. R: Remediation through peer tutoring through Mentor-mentee approach in the tutorial groups, Group work, Library Hours. N: Norming new standards. This was done in the form of extended remediation and tutorials to understand the need of the teacher trainee and support them for further achievements in learning through Face to face interaction, Supervised Study Circle, Mobile (Device) learning. The findings of the study revealed the positive impact of iLearn towards student achievement and enhanced social skills.

Keywords: academic achievement, innovative strategy, learning styles, social skills

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Authors: Lovesh Goyal, Pushkar Dave, Prajyot Jadhav, GonnaYaswanth, Sakshi Giri, Sahil Dharme, Rushika Joshi, Rishabh Verma, Shital Chiddarwar

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With the rising need for human-robot interaction, researchers have proposed and tested multiple models with varying degrees of success. A few of these models performed on aerial platforms are commonly known as Tethered Aerial Systems. These aerial vehicles may be powered continuously by a tether cable, which addresses the predicament of the short battery life of quadcopters. This system finds applications to minimize humanitarian efforts for industrial, medical, agricultural, and service uses. However, a significant challenge in employing such systems is that it necessities attaining smooth and secure robot-human interaction while ensuring that the forces from the tether remain within the standard comfortable range for the humans. To tackle this problem, a hybrid control method that could switch between two control techniques: constant control input and the steady-state solution, is implemented. The constant control approach is implemented when a person is far from the target location, and error is thought to be eventually constant. The controller switches to the steady-state approach when the person reaches within a specific range of the goal position. Both strategies take into account human velocity feedback. This hybrid technique enhances the outcomes by assisting the person to reach the desired location while decreasing the human's unwanted disturbance throughout the process, thereby keeping the interaction between the robot and the subject smooth.

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicle, tethered system, physical human-robot interaction, hybrid control

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Authors: R. Geetha, J. Arunkumar, P. Gopal, D. Loganathan, K. Pavithra, C. Vikashini

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Mobile Number Portability is an attempt to switch over from one network to another network facility for mobile based on applications. This facility is currently not available for mobile handsets. This application is intended to assist the mobile network and its service customers in understanding the criteria; this will serve as a universal set of requirements which must be met by the customers. This application helps the user's network portability. Accessing permission from the network provider to enable services to the user and utilizing the available network signals. It is enabling the user to make a temporary switch over to other network. The main aim of this research work is to adapt multiple networks at the time of no network coverage. It can be accessed at rural and geographical areas. This can be achieved by this mobile application. The application is capable of temporary switch over between various networks. With this application both the service provider and the network user are benefited. The service provider is benefited by charging a minimum cost for utilizing other network. It provides security in terms of password that is unique to avoid unauthorized users and to prevent loss of balance. The goal intended to be attained is a complete utilization of available network at significant situations and to provide feature that satisfy the customer needs. The temporary switch over is done to manage emergency calls when user is in rural or geographical area, where there will be a very low network coverage. Since people find it trend in using Android mobile, this application is designed as an Android applications, which can be freely downloaded and installed from Play store. In the current scenario, the service provider enables the user to change their network without shifting their mobile network. This application affords a clarification for users while they are jammed in a critical situation. This application is designed by using Android 4.2 and SQLite Version3.

Keywords: mobile number, random number, alarm, imei number, call

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Authors: Barakat Adebisi Raji

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In the workplace, Artificial Intelligence has, in recent years, emerged as a transformative technology that revolutionizes how organizations operate and perform tasks. It is a technology that has a significant impact on transportation, manufacturing, education, cyber security, robotics, agriculture, healthcare, and so many other organizations. By harnessing AI technology, workplaces can enhance productivity, streamline processes, and make more informed decisions. Given the potential of AI to change the way we work and its impact on the labor market in years to come, employers understand that it entails legal challenges and risks despite the advantages inherent in it. Therefore, as AI continues to integrate into various aspects of the workplace, understanding the legal and ethical implications becomes paramount. Also central to this study is the question of who is held liable where AI makes any defaults; the person (company) who created the AI, the person who programmed the AI algorithm or the person who uses the AI? Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide a detailed overview of how AI-related liabilities are addressed under each legal tradition and shed light on potential areas of accord and divergence between the two legal cultures. The objectives of this paper are to (i) examine the ability of Common law and Islamic law to accommodate the issues and damage caused by AI in the workplace and the legality of compensation for such injury sustained; (ii) to discuss the extent to which AI can be described as a legal personality to bear responsibility: (iii) examine the similarities and disparities between Common Law and Islamic Jurisprudence on the liability of AI in the workplace. The methodology adopted in this work was qualitative, and the method was purely a doctrinal research method where information is gathered from the primary and secondary sources of law, such as comprehensive materials found in journal articles, expert-authored books and online news sources. Comparative legal method was also used to juxtapose the approach of Islam and Common Law. The paper concludes that since AI, in its current legal state, is not recognized as a legal entity, operators or manufacturers of AI should be held liable for any damage that arises, and the determination of who bears the responsibility should be dependent on the circumstances surrounding each scenario. The study recommends the granting of legal personality to AI systems, the establishment of legal rights and liabilities for AI, the establishment of a holistic Islamic virtue-based AI ethics framework, and the consideration of Islamic ethics.

Keywords: AI, health- care, agriculture, cyber security, common law, Shari'ah

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Authors: Manendra Singh Parihar, Sandip Ghosh Chowdhury

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Austenitic stainless steels are widely used and give a good combination of properties. When this steel is plastically deformed, a phase transformation of the metastable Face Centred Cubic Austenite to the stable Body Centred Cubic (α’) or to the Hexagonal close packed (ԑ) martensite may occur, leading to the enhancement in the mechanical properties like strength. The work was based on variant selection and corresponding texture analysis for the strain induced martensitic transformation during deformation of the parent austenite FCC phase to form the product HCP and the BCC martensite phases separately, obeying their respective orientation relationships. The automated method for reconstruction of the parent phase orientation using the EBSD data of the product phase orientation is done using the MATLAB and TSL-OIM software. The method of triplets was used which involves the formation of a triplet of neighboring product grains having a common variant and linking them using a misorientation-based criterion. This led to the proper reconstruction of the pre-transformation phase orientation data and thus to its micro structure and texture. The computational speed of current method is better compared to the previously used methods of reconstruction. The reconstruction of austenite from ԑ and α’ martensite was carried out for multiple samples and their IPF images, pole figures, inverse pole figures and ODFs were compared. Similar type of results was observed for all samples. The comparison gives the idea for estimating the correct sequence of the transformation i.e. γ → ε → α’ or γ → α’, during deformation of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel.

Keywords: variant selection, reconstruction, EBSD, austenitic stainless steel, martensitic transformation

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Authors: Jia Li, Huacong Li, Xiaobao Han

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Due to the more variable geometry parameters of VCE (variable cycle aircraft engine), presents an adaptive controller method based on the full-state linear model of VCE and has simulated to solve the multivariate controller design problem of the whole flight envelops. First, analyzes the static and dynamic performances of bypass ratio and other state parameters caused by variable geometric components, and develops nonlinear component model of VCE. Then based on the component model, through small deviation linearization of main fuel (Wf), the area of tail nozzle throat (A8) and the angle of rear bypass ejector (A163), setting up multiple linear model which variable geometric parameters can be inputs. Second, designs the adaptive controllers for VCE linear models of different nominal points. Among them, considering of modeling uncertainties and external disturbances, derives the adaptive law by lyapunov function. The simulation results showed that, the adaptive controller method based on full-state linear model used the angle of rear bypass ejector as input and effectively solved the multivariate control problems of VCE. The performance of all nominal points could track the desired closed-loop reference instructions. The adjust time was less than 1.2s, and the system overshoot was less than 1%, at the same time, the errors of steady states were less than 0.5% and the dynamic tracking errors were less than 1%. In addition, the designed controller could effectively suppress interference and reached the desired commands with different external random noise signals.

Keywords: variable cycle engine (VCE), full-state linear model, adaptive control, by-pass ratio

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Authors: Raana Babadi Fathipour

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Tea, a beverage widely cherished across the globe, has captured the interest of scholars with its recent acknowledgement for possessing noteworthy health advantages. Of particular significance is its proven ability to ward off ailments such as cancer and cardiovascular afflictions. Moreover, within the realm of culinary creations, lipid oxidation poses a significant challenge for food product development. In light of these aforementioned concerns, this present discourse turns its attention towards exploring diverse methodologies employed in extracting polyphenols from various types of tea leaves and examining their utility within the vast landscape of the ever-evolving food industry. Based on the discoveries unearthed in this comprehensive investigation, it has been determined that the fundamental constituents of tea are polyphenols possessed of intrinsic health-enhancing properties. This includes an assortment of catechins, namely epicatechin, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epigallocatechin gallate. Moreover, gallic acid, flavonoids, flavonols and theaphlavins have also been detected within this aromatic beverage. Of these myriad components examined vigorously in this study's analysis, catechin emerges as particularly beneficial. Multiple techniques have emerged over time to successfully extract key compounds from tea plants, including solvent-based extraction methodologies, microwave-assisted water extraction approaches and ultrasound-assisted extraction techniques. In particular, consideration is given to microwave-assisted water extraction method as a viable scheme which effectively procures valuable polyphenols from tea extracts. This methodology appears adaptable for implementation within sectors such as dairy production along with meat and oil industries alike.

Keywords: camellia sinensis, extraction, food application, shelf life, tea

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Authors: Rui Fonseca-Pinto, Emanuel Silva, Rui Rijo, Ricardo Martinho, Bruno Carreira

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The sedentary lifestyle is associated to the development of chronic noncommunicable diseases (obesity, hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus Type 2) and the World Health Organization, given the evidence that physical activity is determinant for individual and collective health, defined the Physical Activity Level (PAL) as a vital signal. Strategies for increasing the practice of physical activity in all age groups have emerged from the various social organizations (municipalities, universities, health organizations, companies, social groups) by increasingly developing innovative strategies to promote motivation strategies and conditions to the practice of physical activity. The adaptation of cities to the new paradigms of sustainable mobility has provided the adaptation of urban training circles and mobilized citizens to combat sedentarism. This adaptation has accompanied the technological evolution and makes possible the use of mobile technology to monitor outdoor training programs and also, through the network connection (IoT), use the training data to make personalized recommendations. This work presents a physical activity counseling platform to be used in the physical maintenance circuits of urban centers, the MOVIDA.polis. The platform consists of a back office for the management of circuits and training stations, and for a mobile application for monitoring the user performance during workouts. Using a QRcode, each training station is recognized by the App and based on the individual performance records (effort perception, heart rate variation) artificial intelligence algorithms are used to make a new personalized recommendation. The results presented in this work were obtained during the proof of concept phase, which was carried out in the PolisLeiria training circuit in the city of Leiria (Portugal). It was possible to verify the increase in adherence to the practice of physical activity, as well as to decrease the interval between training days. Moreover, the AI-based recommendation acts as a partner in the training and an additional challenging factor. The platform is ready to be used by other municipalities in order to reduce the levels of sedentarism and approach the weekly goal of 150 minutes of moderate physical activity. Acknowledgments: This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia FCT- Portugal and CENTRO2020 under the scope of MOVIDA project: 02/SAICT/2016 – 23878.

Keywords: physical activity, mHealth, urban training circuits, health promotion

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Authors: Jaharlal Debbarma

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The ecological crisis has become a threat to earth’s well-being. Man’s ambitious desire of wealth, pleasure, fame, longevity and happiness has extracted natural resources so vastly that it is unable to sustain a healthy life. Man’s greed for wealth and power has caused the setting up of vast factories which further created the problem of air, water and noise pollution, which have adversely affected both fauna and flora.It is no secret that man uses his inherent powers of reason, intelligence and creativity to change his environment for his advantage. But man is not aware that the moral force he himself creates brings about corresponding changes in his environment to his weal or woe whether he likes it or not. As we are facing the global warming and the nature’s gift such as air and water has been so drastically polluted with disastrous consequences that man seek for a ways and means to overcome all this pollution problem as his health and life sustainability has been threaten and that is where man try to question about the moral ethics and value.It is where Buddhist philosophy has been emphasized deeply which gives us hope for overcoming this entire problem as Buddha himself emphasized in eradicating human suffering and Buddhism is the strongest form of humanism we have. It helps us to learn to live with responsibility, compassion, and loving kindness.It teaches us to be mindful in our action and thought as the environment unites every human being. If we fail to save it we will perish. If we can rise to meet the need to all which ecology binds us - humans, other species, other everything will survive together.My paper will look into the theory of Dependent Origination (Pratītyasamutpāda), Buddhist understanding of suffering (collective suffering), and Non-violence (Ahimsa) and an effort will be made to provide a new vision to Buddhist ecological perspective. The above Buddhist philosophy will be applied to ethical values and belief systems of modern society. The challenge will be substantially to transform the modern individualistic and consumeristic values. The stress will be made on the interconnectedness of the nature and the relation between human and planetary sustainability. In a way environmental crisis will be referred to “spiritual crisis” as A. Gore (1992) has pointed out. The paper will also give important to global consciousness, as well as to self-actualization and self-fulfillment. In the words of Melvin McLeod “Only when we combine environmentalism with spiritual practice, will we find the tools to make the profound personal transformations needed to address the planetary crisis?”

Keywords: dependent arising, collective ecological suffering, remediation, Buddhist approach

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Authors: Jolanta Jonak, Sylvia Tolczyk

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Students demonstrate various learning preferences and learning styles that range from visual, auditory to kinesthetic preferences. These learning preferences are further impacted by individual cognitive make up that characterizes itself in linguistic strengths, logical- special, inter-or intra- personal, just to name a few. Students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CLD) have an increased risk of being misunderstood by many school systems and even medical personnel. CLD students are influenced by many factors (like acculturation and experience) that may impact their achievements and functioning levels. CLD students who develop initial or basic interpersonal communication proficiency skills in the target language are even at a higher risk for being suspected of learning disability when they are underachieving academically. Research indicates that large numbers of students arenot provided the type of education and types of supports they need in order to be successful in an academicenvironment. Multiple research findings indicate that significant numbers of school staff self-reports that they do not feel adequately prepared to work with CLD students. It is extremely important for the school staff, especially school psychologists, who often are the first experts that are consulted, to be educated about overlapping symptoms and settle differences between learning difference and disability. It is equally important for medical personnel, mainly pediatricians, psychologists, and psychiatrists, to understand the subtle differences to avoid inaccurate opinions. Having the knowledge, school staff can avoid unnecessary referrals for special education evaluations and avoid inaccurate decisions about the presence of a disability. This presentation will illustrate distinctions based on research between learning differences and disabilities, how to recognize them, and how to assess for them.

Keywords: special education, learning disability, differentiation, differences

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Authors: Faezah Shekh Abdullah, Mohd. Azizuddin Mohd. Yussof, Komathy Thiagarajan, Hasnoorina Husin, Noor Azreena Abd Aziz

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Polycystic ovary syndrome has been associated with multiple disorders such as endocrine disorder, metabolic syndrome, infertility, and endometrial cancer. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are anticipated to develop three times more chances for endometrial cancer than women without PCOS. This study, therefore, was conducted to determine the association between polycystic ovary syndrome and endometrial cancer and to determine the cervical cytology features of PCOS. Patients attending the Subfertility Clinic of the National Population and Family Development Board were recruited and examined physically by medical practitioners. They were categorized into two groups; i) the PCOS group if they met Rotterdam Criteria 2004 and ii) the control group if they did not meet Rotterdam Criteria 2004. Cervical sampling was done on all patients via the Liquid-Based Cytology (LBC) method in the pre-and post-subfertility treatment. A total of 167 patients participated in the study, of which 79 belonged to the PCOS group and 88 to the control group. The findings showed no cervical and endometrial cancer cases in both groups. The Liquid-Based Cytology results in the PCOS group displayed more cases with cellular changes, i.e., benign inflammation, atrophic smear and Candida sp. infection. To conclude, no association was found between polycystic ovary syndrome and endometrial cancer. A more holistic study with a higher number of participants can further determine the association between endometrial cancer and PCOS. Furthermore, a longer duration between LBC pre- and post-subfertility treatment should be implied to observe changes in the cervical cells.

Keywords: endometrial cancer, liquid-based cytology, PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome

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Authors: Sourina Bej

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Since the process of decolonization in 1940, several countries in South Asia have witnessed intra-state conflicts owing to ineffective political governance. The conflicts have remained protracted as the countries have failed to make a holistic transition to a democratic state. Nepal is one such South Asian country facing a turmultous journey from monarchy to republicanism. The paper aims to focus on the democratic transition in the context of Nepal’s political, legal and economic institutions. The presence of autocratic feudalistic and centralised state structure with entrenched socio-economic inequalities has resulted in mass uprising only to see the country slip back to the old order. Even a violent civil war led by the Maoists could not overhaul the political relations or stabilize the democratic space. The paper aims to analyse the multiple political, institutional and operational challenges in the implementation of the peace agreement with the Maoist. Looking at the historical background, the paper will examine the problematic nation-building that lies at the heart of fragile peace process in Nepal. Regional dynamics have played a big role in convoluting the peace-building. The new constitution aimed at conflict resolution brought to the open, deep seated hatred among different ethnic groups in Nepal. Apart from studying the challenges to the peace process and the role of external players like India and China in the political reconstruction, the paper will debate on a viable federal solution to the ethnic conflict in Nepal. If the current government fails to pass a constitution accepted by most ethnic groups, Nepal will remain on the brink of new conflict outbreaks.

Keywords: democratisation, ethnic conflict, Nepal, peace process

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Authors: Kumara Jayapathma J. H. M. S. S., Dampegama S. D. P. J.

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Lands are valuable & limited resource which constantly changes with the growth of the population. An efficient and good land management system is essential to avoid conflicts associated with lands. This paper aims to design the prototype model of a Mobile GIS Land use and Land Information System in real-time. Homagama Divisional Secretariat Division situated in the western province of Sri Lanka was selected as the study area. The prototype model was developed after reviewing related literature. The methodology was consisted of designing and modeling the prototype model into an application running on a mobile platform. The system architecture mainly consists of a Google mapping app for real-time updates with firebase support tools. Thereby, the method of implementation consists of front-end and back-end components. Software tools used in designing applications are Android Studio with JAVA based on GeoJSON File structure. Android Studio with JAVA in GeoJSON File Synchronize to Firebase was found to be the perfect mobile solution for continuously updating Land use and Land Information System (LIS) in real-time in the present scenario. The mobile-based land use and LIS developed in this study are multiple user applications catering to different hierarchy levels such as basic users, supervisory managers, and database administrators. The benefits of this mobile mapping application will help public sector field officers with non-GIS expertise to overcome the land use planning challenges with land use updated in real-time.

Keywords: Android, Firebase, GeoJSON, GIS, JAVA, JSON, LIS, Mobile GIS, real-time, REST API

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Authors: Sumeeta Khurana, Kirti Megha, Amit Gupta, Rakesh Sehgal

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Background: Amoebic keratitis is a painful vision threatening infection caused by a free living pathogenic amoeba Acanthamoeba. It can be misdiagnosed and very difficult to treat if not suspected early. The epidemiology of Acanthamoeba genotypes causing infection in our geographical area is not yet known to the best of our knowledge. Objective: To characterize Acanthamoeba isolates from amoebic keratitis patients. Methods: A total of 19 isolates obtained from patients with amoebic keratitis presenting to the Advanced Eye Centre at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, a tertiary care centre of North India over a period of last 10 years were included. Their corneal scrapings, lens solution and lens case (in case of lens wearer) were collected for microscopic examination, culture and molecular diagnosis. All the isolates were maintained in the Non Nutrient agar culture medium overlaid with E.coli and 13 strains were axenised and maintained in modified Peptone Yeast Dextrose Agar. Identification of Acanthamoeba genotypes was based on amplification of diagnostic fragment 3 (DF3) region of the 18srRNA gene followed by sequencing. Nucleotide similarity search was performed by BLAST search of sequenced amplicons in GenBank database (http//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast). Multiple Sequence alignments were determined by using CLUSTAL X. Results: Nine out of 19 Acanthamoeba isolates were found to belong to Genotype T4 followed by 6 isolates of genotype T11, 3 T5 and 1 T3 genotype. Conclusion: T4 is the predominant Acanthamoeba genotype in our geographical area. Further studies should focus on differences in pathogenicity of these genotypes and their clinical significance.

Keywords: Acanthamoeba, free living amoeba, keratitis, genotype, ocular

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Authors: Leila Karshenas, Hamid Reza Khodaei, Behnaz Mahdavi

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We know that nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in all sexual activities of animals. It is made in body from NO synthase enzyme and L-arginin molecule. NO can bound with sulfur-iron complexes and because production of steroid sexual hormones is related to enzymes which have this complex, NO can change the activity of these enzymes. NO affects many cells including endothelial cells of veins, macrophages and mast cells. These cells are found in testis leydig cells and therefore are important source of NO in testis tissue. Minimizing damages to sperm at the time of sperm freezing and thawing is really important. The goal of this study was to determine the function of NO before freezing and its effects on quality and viability of sperms after thawing and incubation. 4 Holstein bulls were selected from the age of 4, and artificial insemination was done for 3 weeks (2 times a week). Treatments were 0, 10, 50 and 100 nm of sodium nitroprusside (SNP). Data analysis was performed by SAS98 program. Also, mean comparison was done using Duncan's multiple ranges test (P<0.05). Concentrations used was found to increase motility and viability of spermatozoa at 1, 2 and 3 hours after thawing significantly (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference at zero time. SNP levels reduced the amount of lipid peroxidation in sperm membrane, increased acrosome health and improved sample membranes especially in 50 and 100 nm treatments. According to results, adding SNP to semen diluents increases motility and viability of spermatozoa. Also, it reduces lipid peroxidation in sperm membrane and improves sperm function.

Keywords: sperm motility, nitric oxide, lipid peroxidation, spermatozoa

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Authors: Yongqin Zhang, John Lett

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Geospatial technologies have been increasingly used in agriculture for various applications and purposes in recent years. Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) fit the needs of farmers in farming operations, from field spraying to grow cycles and crop health. In this research, we conducted a practical research project that used drone technology to design and map optimal locations and layouts of irrigation systems for agriculture farms. We flew a DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone to acquire aerial remote sensing images over two agriculture fields in Forest, Mississippi, in 2022. Flight plans were first designed to capture multiple high-resolution images via a 20-megapixel RGB camera mounted on the drone over the agriculture fields. The Drone Deploy web application was then utilized to develop flight plans and subsequent image processing and measurements. The images were orthorectified and processed to estimate the area of the area and measure the locations of the water line and sprinkle heads. Field measurements were conducted to measure the ground targets and validate the aerial measurements. Geospatial analysis and photogrammetric measurements were performed for the study area to determine optimal layout and quantitative estimates for irrigation systems. We created maps and tabular estimates to demonstrate the locations, spacing, amount, and layout of sprinkler heads and water lines to cover the agricultural fields. This research project provides scientific guidance to Mississippi farmers for a precision agricultural irrigation practice.

Keywords: drone images, agriculture, irrigation, geospatial analysis, photogrammetric measurements

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Authors: Krishna Pal Singh, Shailendra Kumar Gupta, Olaf Wolkenhauer

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Background: Our study aimed to identify common genes and potential targets across the four diseases, which include rheumatoid arthritis, melanoma metastasis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. We used a network and systems biology approach to identify the hub gene, which can act as a potential target for all four disease conditions. The regulatory network was extracted from the PPI using the MCODE module present in Cytoscape. Our objective was to investigate the significance of hub genes in these diseases using gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Methods: Our methodology involved collecting disease gene-related information from DisGeNET databases and performing protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and core genes screening. We then conducted gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Results: We found that IL6 plays a critical role in all disease conditions and in different pathways that can be associated with the development of all four diseases. Conclusions: The theoretical importance of our research is that we employed various systems and structural biology techniques to identify a crucial protein that could serve as a promising target for treating multiple diseases. Our data collection and analysis procedures involved rigorous scrutiny, ensuring high-quality results. Our conclusion is that IL6 plays a significant role in all four diseases, and it can act as a potential target for treating them. Our findings may have important implications for the development of novel therapeutic interventions for these diseases.

Keywords: melanoma metastasis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, integrated bioinformatics analysis

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Authors: Ahmad Alsolami, Darren Mundy, Manuel Hernandez-Perez

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Social media networks, such as Twitter, offer the perfect opportunity to either positively or negatively affect political attitudes on large audiences. The existence of influential users who have developed a reputation for their knowledge and experience of specific topics is a major factor contributing to this impact. Therefore, knowledge of the mechanisms to identify influential users on social media is vital for understanding their effect on their audience. The concept of the influential user is related to the concept of opinion leaders' to indicate that ideas first flow from mass media to opinion leaders and then to the rest of the population. Hence, the objective of this research was to provide reliable and accurate structural mechanisms to identify influential users, which could be applied to different platforms, places, and subjects. Twitter was selected as the platform of interest, and Saudi Arabia as the context for the investigation. These were selected because Saudi Arabia has a large number of Twitter users, some of whom are considerably active in setting agendas and disseminating ideas. The study considered the scientific methods that have been used to identify public opinion leaders before, utilizing metrics software on Twitter. The key findings propose multiple novel metrics to compare Twitter influencers, including the number of followers, social authority and the use of political hashtags, and four secondary filtering measures. Thus, using ratio and percentage calculations to classify the most influential users, Twitter accounts were filtered, analyzed and included. The structured approach is used as a mechanism to explore the top ten influencers on Twitter from the political domain in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Twitter, influencers, structured mechanism, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: E. Er, Y. S. Cheng

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The role of parents and caregivers in their children’s education is pivotal. Parental involvement (PI) is often associated with a range of student outcomes. This includes academic achievements, socioemotional development, adaptive skills, physical fitness and school attendance. This study is the first in Singapore to (1) explore the relationship between parental involvement and student outcomes; (2) determine the effects of family structure and socioeconomic status (SES) on parental involvement and (3) investigate factors that inform involvement in parents of children with specific developmental disabilities. Approval for the study was obtained from Nanyang Technological University’s Institutional Review Board in Singapore. The revised version of a comprehensive theoretical model on parental involvement was used as the theoretical framework in this study. Parents were recruited from a SPED school in Singapore which caters to school-aged children (7 to 21 years old). Pearson’s product moment correlation, analysis of variance and multiple regression analyses were used as statistical techniques in this study. Results indicate that there are significant associations between parental involvement and educational outcomes in students with developmental disabilities. Next, SES has a significant impact on levels of parental involvement. In addition, parents in the current study reported being more involved at home, in school activities and the community, when teachers specifically requested their involvement. Home-based involvement was also predicted by parents’ perceptions of their time and energy, efficacy and beliefs in supporting their child’s education, as well as their children’s invitations to be more involved. An interesting and counterintuitive inverse relationship was found between general school invitations and parental involvement at home. Research findings are further discussed, and suggestions are put forth to increase involvement for this specific group of parents.

Keywords: autism, developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities, parental involvement, Singapore

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Authors: Claudia Ehrentraut, Osama Ibrahim, Hercules Dalianis

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Policy making situations are real-world problems that exhibit complexity in that they are composed of many interrelated problems and issues. To be effective, policies must holistically address the complexity of the situation rather than propose solutions to single problems. Formulating and understanding the situation and its complex dynamics, therefore, is a key to finding holistic solutions. Analysis of text based information on the policy problem, using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Text analysis techniques, can support modelling of public policy problem situations in a more objective way based on domain experts knowledge and scientific evidence. The objective behind this study is to support modelling of public policy problem situations, using text analysis of verbal descriptions of the problem. We propose a formal methodology for analysis of qualitative data from multiple information sources on a policy problem to construct a causal diagram of the problem. The analysis process aims at identifying key variables, linking them by cause-effect relationships and mapping that structure into a graphical representation that is adequate for designing action alternatives, i.e., policy options. This study describes the outline of an algorithm used to automate the initial step of a larger methodological approach, which is so far done manually. In this initial step, inferences about key variables and their interrelationships are extracted from textual data to support a better problem structuring. A small prototype for this step is also presented.

Keywords: public policy, problem structuring, qualitative analysis, natural language processing, algorithm, inference extraction

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Authors: Majeda Hammoud

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Background: Anemia during pregnancy increases the risk of delivery by cesarean section, low birth weight, preterm birth, perinatal mortality, stillbirth, and maternal mortality. In this study, we aimed to assess the prevalence of anemia in pregnant women and its associated factors in the Kuwait birth cohort study. Methods: The Kuwait birth cohort (N=1108) was a prospective cohort study in which pregnant women were recruited in the third trimester. Data were collected through personal interviews with mothers who attend antenatal care visits, including data on socio-economic status and lifestyle factors. Blood samples were taken after the recruitment to measure multiple laboratory indicators. Clinical data were extracted from the medical records by a clinician including data on comorbidities. Anemia was defined as having Hemoglobin (Hb) <110 g/L with further classification as mild (100-109 g/L), moderate (70-99 g/L), or severe (<70 g/L). Predictors of anemia were classified as underlying or direct factors, and logistic regression was used to investigate their association with anemia. Results: The mean Hb level in the study group was 115.21 g/L (95%CI: 114.56- 115.87 g/L), with significant differences between age groups (p=0.034). The prevalence of anemia was 28.16% (95%CI: 25.53-30.91%), with no significant difference by age group (p=0.164). Of all 1108 pregnant women, 8.75% had moderate anemia, and 19.40% had mild anemia, but no pregnant women had severe anemia. In multivariable analysis, getting pregnant while using contraception, adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.73(95%CI:1.01-2.96); p=0.046 and current use of supplements, AOR 0.50 (95%CI: 0.26-0.95); p=0.035 were significantly associated with anemia (underlying factors). From the direct factors group, only iron and ferritin levels were significantly associated with anemia (P<0.001). Conclusion: Although the severe form of anemia is low among pregnant women in Kuwait, mild and moderate anemia remains a significant health problem despite free access to antenatal care.

Keywords: anemia, pregnancy, hemoglobin, ferritin

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Authors: Surbhi Aggarwal, Jaishree Paul

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Background: Role of GABA has been implicated in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, type1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis where they modulate the immune response but role in gut inflammation has not been defined. Ulcerative colitis (UC) and diarrhoeal predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) both involve inflammation of gastrointestinal tract. UC is a chronic, relapsing and idiopathic inflammation of gut. IBS is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder characterised by abdominal pain, discomfort and alternating bowel habits. Mild inflammation is known to occur in IBS-D. Aim: Aim of this study was to investigate the role of GABA in UC as well as in IBS-D. Materials and methods: Blood and biopsy samples from UC, IBS-D and controls were collected. ELISA was used for measuring level of GABA in serum of UC, IBS-D and controls. RT-PCR analysis was done to determine GABAergic signal system in colon biopsy of UC, IBS-D and controls. RT-PCR was done to check the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. CurveExpert 1.4, Graphpad prism-6 software were used for data analysis. Statistical analysis was done by unpaired, two-way student`s t-test. All sets of data were represented as mean± SEM. A probability level of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results and conclusion: Significantly decreased level of GABA and altered GABAergic signal system was detected in UC and IBS-D as compared to controls. Significantly increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines was also determined in UC and IBS-D as compared to controls. Hence we conclude that insufficient level of GABA in UC and IBS-D leads to overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines which further contributes to inflammation. GABA may be used as a promising therapeutic target for treatment of gut inflammation or other inflammatory diseases.

Keywords: diarrheal predominant irritable bowel syndrome, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), inflammation, ulcerative colitis

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Authors: Jing Li, Li Jin, Fulin Wang, Jie Dong, Wenjiang Ding

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Mg-Li dual-phase alloy exhibits better combination of yield strength and elongation than the Mg single-phase alloy. To exploit its deformation behavior, the deformation mechanisms of Mg-2Gd alloy with or without Li addition, i.e., Mg-6Li-2Gd and Mg-2Gd alloy, have been studied at both microscale and mesoscale. EBSD-assisted slip trace, twin trace, and texture evolution analysis show that the α-Mg phase of Mg-6Li-2Gd alloy exhibits different microscopic deformation mechanisms with the Mg-2Gd alloy, i.e., mainly prismatic slip in the former one, while basal slip, prismatic slip and extension twin in the latter one. Further Schmid factor analysis results attribute this different intra-phase deformation mechanisms to the higher critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) value of extension twin and lower ratio of CRSSprismatic /CRSSbasal in the α-Mg phase of Mg-6Li-2Gd alloy. Additionally, Li addition can induce dual-phase microstructure in the Mg-6Li-2Gd alloy, leading to the formation of hetero-deformation induced (HDI) stress at the mesoscale. This can be evidenced by the hysteresis loops appearing during the loading-unloading-reloading (LUR) tensile tests and the activation of multiple slip activity in the α-Mg phase neighboring β-Li phase. The Mg-6Li-2Gd alloy shows higher yield strength is due to the harder α-Mg phase arising from solid solution hardening of Li addition, as well asthe strengthening of soft β-Li phase by the HDI stress during yield stage. Since the strain hardening rate of Mg-6Li-2Gd alloy is lower than that of Mg-2Gd alloy after ~2% strain, which is partly due to the weak contribution of HDI stress, Mg-6Li-2Gd alloy shows no obvious increase of uniform elongation than the Mg-2Gd alloy.But since the β-Li phase is effective in blunting the crack tips, the Mg-6Li-2Gd alloy shows ununiform elongation, which, thus, leads to the higher total elongation than the Mg-2Gd alloy.

Keywords: Mg-Li-Gd dual-phase alloy, phase boundary, HDI stress, dislocation slip activity, mechanical properties

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Authors: Jinming Du

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With the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020, many higher education institutions and education systems are turning to hybrid or fully distance online courses to maintain social distance and provide a safe virtual space for learning and teaching. However, the majority of faculty members were not well prepared for the shift to blended or distance learning. Communication frustrations are prevalent in both hybrid and full-distance courses. A systematic literature review was conducted by a comprehensive analysis of 1688 publications that focused on the application of the adoption of chatbots in education. This study aimed to explore instructors' experiences with chatbots in online and blended undergraduate English courses. Language learners are overwhelmed by the variety of information offered by many online sites. The recently emerged chatbots (e.g.: ChatGPT) are slightly superior in performance as compared to those traditional through previous technologies such as tapes, video recorders, and websites. The field of chatbots has been intensively researched, and new methods have been developed to demonstrate how students can best learn and practice a new language in the target language. However, it is believed that among the many areas where chatbots are applied, while chatbots have been used as effective tools for communicating with business customers, in consulting and targeting areas, and in the medical field, chatbots have not yet been fully explored and implemented in the field of language education. This issue is challenging enough for language teachers; they need to study and conduct research carefully to clarify it. Pedagogical chatbots may alleviate the perception of a lack of communication and feedback from instructors by interacting naturally with students through scaffolding the understanding of those learners, much like educators do. However, educators and instructors lack the proficiency to effectively operate this emerging AI chatbot technology and require comprehensive study or structured training to attain competence. There is a gap between language teachers’ perceptions and recent advances in the application of AI chatbots to language learning. The results of the study found that although the teachers felt that the chatbots did the best job of giving feedback, the teachers needed additional training to be able to give better instructions and to help them assist in teaching. Teachers generally perceive the utilization of chatbots to offer substantial assistance to English language instruction.

Keywords: artificial intelligence in education, chatbots, education and technology, education system, pedagogical chatbot, chatbots and language education

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Authors: Yong Eun Yoon, Eric N. Johnson, Liling Ren

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Multirotor is one of the most popular types of small unmanned aircraft systems and has already been used in many areas including transport, military, surveillance, and leisure. Together with its popularity, the needs for proper flight control is growing because in most applications it is required to conduct its missions autonomously, which is in many aspects based on autonomous flight control. There have been many studies about the flight control for multirotor, but there is still room for enhancements in terms of performance and efficiency. This paper presents an autonomous flight control method for multirotor based on alternative input output linearization coupled with nested saturations. With alternative choice of the output of the multirotor flight control system, we can reduce computational cost regarding Lie algebra, and the linearized system can be stabilized with the introduction of nested saturations with real poles of our own design. Stabilization of internal dynamics is also based on the nested saturations and accompanies the determination of part of desired states. In particular, outer control loops involving state variables which originally are not included in the output of the flight control system is naturally rendered through this internal dynamics stabilization. We can also observe that desired tilting angles are determined by error dynamics from outer loops. Simulation results show that in any tracking situations multirotor stabilizes itself with small time constants, preceded by tuning process for control parameters with relatively low degree of complexity. Future study includes control of piecewise linear behavior of multirotor with actuator saturations, and the optimal determination of desired states while tracking multiple waypoints.

Keywords: automatic flight control, input output linearization, multirotor, nested saturations

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Authors: Elhem Zaatir, Taher Hamza

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Several governments seek to implement gender parity on boards, but the results of doing so are not clear and could harm corporations and economies. The present paper aims to investigate the relationship between women’s presence on boards and firms’ performance in the context of the French listed firms during the quota period. A dynamic panel generalized method of moment estimation is applied to control the endogenous effect of board structure and reverse the causality impact of the financial performance. Our results show that the impact of gender diversity manifests in conflicting directions, positively affecting accounting performance and negatively influencing market performance. These results suggest that female directors create economic value, but the market discounts their impact. Apparently, they are subject to a biased evaluation by the market, which undervalues their presence on boards. Added to that, our results confirm a twofold nature of female representation in the French market. The effect of female directorship on firm performance varies with the affiliation of the directors. In other words, the positive impact of gender diversity on return on assets primarily originates from the positive effect of non-family-affiliated women directors on market performance rather than on the effect of family-affiliated women directors on ROA. Finally, according to our results, women’s demographic attributes namely the level of education and multiple directorships strongly and positively impact firm performance as measured by return on assets (ROA). Obviously, women directors seem to be appointed to the business case rather than as token directors.

Keywords: corporate governance, board of directors, women, gender diversity, demographic attributes, firm performance

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Authors: I. Schäfer, B. Kohn, M. Volkmann, E. Müller

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Introduction: Blood-feeding arthropods transmit parasitic, bacterial, or viral pathogens to domestic animals and wildlife. Vector-borne infections are gaining significance due to the increase of travel, import of domestic animals from abroad, and the changing climate in Europe. Aims of the study: The main objective of this retrospective study was to assess the prevalence of vector-borne infections in cats in which a ‘Feline Travel Profile’ had been conducted. Material and Methods: This retrospective study included test results from cats for which a ‘Feline Travel Profile’ established by LABOKLIN had been requested by veterinarians between April 2012 and December 2019. This profile contains direct detection methods via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Hepatozoon spp. and Dirofilaria spp. as well as indirect detection methods via immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) for Ehrlichia spp. and Leishmania spp. This profile was expanded to include an IFAT for Rickettsia spp. from July 2015 onwards. The prevalence of the different vector-borne infectious agents was calculated. Results: A total of 602 cats were tested using the ‘Feline Travel Profile’. Positive test results were as follows: Rickettsia spp. IFAT 54/442 (12.2%), Ehrlichia spp. IFAT 68/602 (11.3%), Leishmania spp. IFAT 21/602 (3.5%), Hepatozoon spp. PCR 51/595 (8.6%), and Dirofilaria spp. PCR 1/595 cats (0.2%). Co-infections with more than one pathogen could be detected in 22/602 cats. Conclusions: 170/602 cats (28.2%) were tested positive for at least one vector-borne pathogen. Infections with multiple pathogens could be detected in 3.7% of the cats. The data emphasizes the importance of considering vector-borne infections as potential differential diagnoses in cats.

Keywords: arthopod-transmitted infections, feline vector-borne infections, Germany, laboratory diagnostics

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Authors: Preeti Nakhat

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Background: Values are essential part of one's life. They are inculcated since the early years of life and shape the personality of the individual. They play a tremendous role in decision making. Teenagers are seen perplexed about the values of their life. The challenge faced by majority of the teenage population in choosing between a positive and negative value is high. The values they adopt remain throughout their life and in every decision, hence it is a crucial topic of research. Research Methodology: This research aimed at finding out the value conflict of teenagers in relations. Hypothesis of the study are: H₀- There is no significant association between the life values and value conflict of higher secondary students; H₁– There is a significant association between the life values and value conflict of higher secondary students. For the same, the standardized tool, value conflict scale by R. L. Bhardwaj has been used. The tool consists 24 questions of different life situations with multiple choice options. Findings: There is 96% variation in value conflict due to evasion vs. fortitude, dependence vs. self-reliance, selfishness vs. probity, hate vs. love, fear vs. assertion and pragmatism vs. idealism life values. There is a positive association between all the life values and value conflict of higher secondary school students. Percentages of association are: 0.17% between value conflict and evasion vs. fortitude value, 0.16% between value conflict and dependence vs. self-reliance value, 0.17% between value conflict and selfishness vs. probity value, 0.16% between value conflict and hate vs. love value, 0.17% between value conflict and fear vs. assertion, 0.17% between value conflict and pragmatism vs. idealism value. Discussions: The dilemma faced by the students regarding value conflict is high. Bewilderment of being honest or lying, of loving or hating family and friends, being pragmatic or idealistic in life decision, being selfish or selfless is seen among the students. It is the challenge for the future. Teaching of values with a practical aspect should be added in the school curriculum.

Keywords: dilemma, conflict, school, values

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