Search results for: exponentially weighted moving average

Authors: Areej Ali Baeshen, Hanaa Kamal Galal, Batoul Mohamed Abdullatif

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In the present study, the allelopathic effects of Eruca sativa, Mentha peprinta, and Coriandrum sativum aqueous extracts, prepared by 25 gm and 50 gm of fresh leaves dissolved in 100 ml of double distilled water in addition to the crude extract (100%). The final concentrations were 100 %, 50%, 25% and 0% as control. The extracts were tested for their allelopathic effects on seed germination and other growth parameters of Phaseolous vulgaris. Laboratory experiments were conducted in sterilizes Petri dishes with 5 and 10 day time interval for seed germination and 24 h, 48 h and 72 h for radicle length on an average of 25°C. The effects of different concentrations of aqueous extract were compared to distilled water (0%). 25% and 50% aqueous extracts of Eruca sativa and Coriandrum sativum caused a pronounced inhibitory effect on seed germination and the tested growth parameters of the receptor plant. The inhibitory effect was proportional to the concentration of the extract. Mentha peprinta extracts, on the other hand, caused an increase in germination percentage and other growth parameters in Phaseolous vulgaris. Hence, it could be concluded that the aqueous extracts of Eruca sativa and Coriandrum sativum might contain water-soluble allelochemicals, which could inhibit the seed germination and reduce radicle length of Phaseolous vulgaris. Mentha peprinta has beneficial allelopathic effects on the receptor plant.

Keywords: Phaseolus vulgaris, Eruca sativa, Mentha peperinta, Coriandrum sativum, medicinal plants, seed germination

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Authors: Sana Dridi, Jalel Aouissi, Rafla Attia, Taoufik Hermassi, Thouraya Sahli

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Soil erosion is an increasing issue in Mediterranean countries. In Tunisia, the capacity of dam reservoirs continues to decrease as a consequence of soil erosion. This study aims to predict sediment yield to enrich soil management practices using Soil and Water Assessment Tools model (SWAT) in the Siliana watershed (1041.6 km²), located in the northwest of Tunisia. A database was constructed using remote sensing and Geographical Information System. Climatic and flow data were collected from water resources directorates in Tunisia. The SWAT model was built to simulate hydrological processes and sediment transport. A sensitivity analysis, calibration, and validation were performed using SWAT-CUP software. The model calibration of stream flow simulations shows a good performance with NSE and R² values of 0.77 and 0.79, respectively. The model validation shows a very good performance with values of NSE and R² for 0.8 and 0.88, respectively. After calibration and validation of stream flow simulation, the model was used to simulate the soil erosion and sediment load transport. The spatial distributions of soil loss rate for determining the critical sediment source areas show that 63 % of the study area has a low soil loss rate less than 7 t ha⁻¹y⁻¹. The annual average soil loss rate simulated with the SWAT model in the Siliana watershed is 4.62 t ha⁻¹y⁻¹.

Keywords: water erosion, SWAT model, streamflow, SWATCUP, sediment yield

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Authors: R. Sarada Jayalakshmi Devi B. Bhaskar, S. Khayum Ahammed, T. N. V. K. V. Prasad

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Use of bioagents and biofungicides is safe to manage the plant diseases and to avoid human health hazards which improves food security. Myconanotechnology is the study of nanoparticles synthesis using fungi and their applications. The present work reports on preparation, characterization and antifungal activity of biogenic silver nanoparticles produced by the fungus Trichoderma sp. which was collected from groundnut rhizosphere. The culture filtrate of Trichoderma sp. was used for the reduction of silver ions (Ag+) in AgNO3 solution to the silver (Ag0) nanoparticles. The different ages (4 days, 6 days, 8 days, 12 days, and 15 days) of culture filtrates were screened for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized using UV-Vis spectrophotometer, particle size and zeta potential analyzer, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR) and Transmission Electron Microscopy. Among all the treatments the silver nitrate solution treated with six days aged culture filtrate of Trichoderma sp. showed the UV absorption peak at 440 nm with maximum intensity (0.59) after 24 hrs incubation. The TEM micrographs showed the spherical shaped silver nanoparticles with an average size of 30 nm. The antifungal activity of silver nanoparticles against Aspergillus niger causing collar rot disease in groundnut and aspergillosis in humans showed the highest per cent inhibition at 100 ppm concentration (74.8%). The results points to the usage of these mycogenic AgNPs in agriculture to control plant diseases.

Keywords: groundnut rhizosphere, Trichoderma sp., silver nanoparticles synthesis, antifungal activity

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Authors: Maria de Fátima Lambert

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Bernardo Soares is one of Fernando Pessoa' several heteronyms (and "half-heteronyms"). Perhaps the one that brought together the majority of his qualities and characters of self-identity within the famous inner-persona-alter-diversity. The Book of Disquiet by Bernardo Soares was released in 1983, consisting of ontological remarks caught by an obsessive inquiring about self-existence. The book became a highly valuable substance when focusing upon the philosophical grounds of Pessoa's aesthetics. For sure, we cannot consider a single aesthetic, admitting that each heteronym has its own particular one, developed after different principles and convictions. Regarding Bernardo Soares, his thought arises from sequenced self-clues expressing peculiar existential doubtless presented as certainties -and vice-versa. His written self-search-images are reported, molding the painful awareness of existence through the discredited tolerance of any conclusive dialogue with others. Given the nature of Soares’ [maybe] unfinished writings, it is obvious that he headed far from his self-insurance-capsule: the office, bedroom, or even the walkscapes through Lisbon. The idea of travel/journey is one of the most relevant when recognizing his profound - although undercover - anguish as melancholy and nostalgia. In Bernardo Soares, Aesthetics is taken agonizingly, grounded upon discreet poetic phraseology and terms. His poetical awareness developed compulsive titles such "Aesthetics of Indifference", "Aesthetics of Discouragement". Soares' Aesthetics emerges directly from oneself, understanding art as inner acts and living experienced issues. Art is not freed from the intellectual expression of oneself emotions. The Disquiet Book is an existential nightmare nourished by everyday life, single written thoughts, balanced by melancholia, nostalgia, and distress. One might wonder if it was dreams that guided his fictional literary persona or the narrow facts of life itself. Along with his endless disquiet writing, Pessoa’s semi-heteronymous traveled without physically going anywhere. The complexity of inner existence is fulfilled by lonely mental walks and travels, as in two texts titled The Never Accomplished Journey. Although we also can consider other fragments, these are the deepest reflections about travelling. Let’s recall that Fernando Pessoa’s ortonyms writings -poems and essays- also addressed this issue from a philosophical perspective. We believe that this theme is one of the meaningful concepts for featuring the main principles of his aesthetics. As we know, Fernando Pessoa did not travel to foreign countries (or in Portugal), except for the journey, with his family, from Lisbon to South Africa (as a child) and, some years later, the return back to Lisbon. One may wonder why the poet never undertook other journeys. Maybe due to a disbelief in moving away from his comfort zone or due to the fear of becoming addicted to endless travels and the loss of his convenient self-closeness. In The Book of Disquiet, the poet shared his internal visions of the outer world but mainly visualizing his deepest enigmas and experiences -so strongly incorporated into reality and fiction.

Keywords: aesthetic principles, Bernardo Soares, Fernando Pessoa , melancholia, nostalgia, non-accomplished travel, The Book of Disquiet

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Authors: M. A. N. Rasanjalee Perera

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The world is facing several problems due to increasing elderly population. In Sri Lanka, along with the complexity of the modern society and structural and functional changes of the family, “caring for elders” seems as an emerging social problem. This situation may intensify as the county is moving into a middle income society. Seeking higher education and related career opportunities, and urban living in modern housing are new trends, through which several problems are generated. Among many issues related with elders, “lack of accessible and appropriate facilities in their houses as well as public buildings” can be identified as a major problem. This study argues that welfare facilities provided for the elderly people, particularly in the home environment, in the country are not adequate. Modern housing features such as bathrooms, pantries, lobbies, and leisure areas etc. are questionable as to whether they match with elders’ physical and mental needs. Consequently, elders have to face domestic accidents and many other difficulties within their living environments. Records of hospitals in the country also proved this fact. Therefore, this study tries to identify how far modern houses are suited with elders’ needs. The study further questioned whether “aging” is a considerable matter when people are buying, planning and renovating houses. A randomly selected sample of 50 houses were observed and 50 persons were interviewed around the Maharagama urban area in Colombo district to obtain primary data, while relevant secondary data and information were used to have a depth analysis. The study clearly found that none of the houses included to the sample are considering elders’ needs in planning, renovating, or arranging the home. Instead, most of the families were giving priority to the rich and elegant appearance and modern facilities of the houses. Particularly, to the bathrooms, pantry, large setting areas, balcony, parking slots for two vehicles, ad parapet walls with roller-gates are the main concerns. A significant factor found here is that even though, many children of the aged are in middle age and reaching their older years at present, they do not plan their future living within a safe and comfortable home, despite that they are hoping to spent the latter part of their lives in the their current homes. This fact highlights that not only the other responsible parts of the society, but also those who are reaching their older ages are ignoring the problems of the aged. At the same time, it was found that more than 80% of old parents do not like to stay at their children’s homes as the living environments in such modern homes are not familiar or convenient for them. Due to this context, the aged in Sri Lanka may have to be alone in their own homes due to current trend of society of migrating to urban living in modern houses. At the same time, current urban families who live in modern houses may have to face adding accessible facilities in their home environment, as current modern housing facilities may not be appropriate them for a better life in their latter part of life.

Keywords: aging population, elderly care, home environment, housing facilities

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Authors: Treder Natalia, Siemiński Mariusz

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Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) is a recently defined clinical entity. First described by Japanese researchers, today is diagnosed worldwide in 1-2% of patients admitted with the preliminary diagnosis of Acute Coronary Syndrome. The etiology of takotsubo cardiomyopathy remains still largely unknown. Currently, the most likely cause of takotsubo is direct cytotoxicity caused by catecholamine surge triggered by emotional stress. There is a strong relation between recent severe emotional stress and TC. The aim of this study was to analysis the role of stress and personality as a risk factor of TT. The presented research involves 35 people who are diagnosed TC. All patients were women, mean age 60 years. The methods used in the research are popular psychological tests: Perceived Stress Scale, DS14 scale to measure type D personality, The Neo-Five Factor Inventory of Personality and psychological interview. The obtained results prove that stress events may directly precede or even release TC. The stressful events occurred directly before the symptoms in 75% examined. 65% assessed their family life as very stressful. Examiners have also a high level of experienced stress. Only 25% of the TC were classified as having type D personality but they have a high level of negative affectivity. The subjects had a high level of extraversion, openness to experiences and an average level of neuroticism. The results suggested that such a type of personality profile may predispose to the development of takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Patients with TT are the individuals who reveal joint tendency to the experience of negative emotions and very stressful family life.

Keywords: stress, personality trails, familiar problems, Takotsubo cardiomyopathy

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Authors: Ahmed. S. Alasmari, M. S. Soliman, Magdy M. El-Rayes

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This study focuses on the effect of the addition of magnesium (Mg) and silver (Ag) on the mechanical properties of aluminum based alloys. The alloying elements will be added at different levels using the factorial design of experiments of 2²; the two factors are Mg and Ag at two levels of concentration. The superior mechanical properties of the produced Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloys after aging will be resulted from a unique type of precipitation named as Ω-phase. The formed precipitate enhanced the tensile strength and thermal stability. This paper further investigated the microstructure and mechanical properties of as cast Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloys after being complete homogenized treatment at 520 °C for 8 hours followed by isothermally age hardening process at 190 °C for different periods of time. The homogenization at 520 °C for 8 hours was selected based on homogenization study at various temperatures and times. The alloys’ microstructures were studied by using optical microscopy (OM). In addition to that, the fracture surface investigation was performed using a scanning electronic microscope (SEM). Studying the microstructure of aged Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloys reveal that the grains are equiaxed with an average grain size of about 50 µm. A detailed fractography study for fractured surface of the aged alloys exhibited a mixed fracture whereby the random fracture suggested crack propagation along the grain boundaries while the dimples indicated that the fracture was ductile. The present result has shown that alloy 5 has the highest hardness values and the best mechanical behaviors.

Keywords: precipitation hardening, aluminum alloys, aging, design of experiments, analysis of variance, heat treatments

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Authors: Thiago R. Pereira

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The philosophical hermeneutics is able to change the Brazilian Judiciary because of the understanding of the characteristics of the human being. It is impossible for humans, to be invested in the function of being a judge, making absolutely neutral decisions, but the philosophical hermeneutics can assist the judge making impartial decisions, based on the federal constitution. The normative legal positivism imagined a neutral judge, a judge able to try without any preconceived ideas, without allowing his/her background to influence him/her. When a judge arbitrates based on legal rules, the problem is smaller, but when there are no clear legal rules, and the judge must try based on principles, the risk of the decision is based on what they believe in. Solipsistically, this issue gains a huge dimension. Today, the Brazilian judiciary is independent, but there must be a greater knowledge of philosophy and the philosophy of law, partially because the bigger problem is the unpredictability of decisions made by the judiciary. Actually, when a lawsuit is filed, the result of this judgment is absolutely unpredictable. It is almost a gamble. There must be the slightest legal certainty and predictability of judicial decisions, so that people, with similar cases, may not receive opposite sentences. The relativism, since classical antiquity, believes in the possibility of multiple answers. Since the Greeks in in the sixth century before Christ, through the Germans in the eighteenth century, and even today, it has been established the constitution as the great law, the Groundnorm, and thus, the relativism of life can be greatly reduced when a hermeneut uses the Constitution as North interpretational, where all interpretation must act as the hermeneutic constitutional filter. For a current philosophy of law, that inside a legal system with a Federal Constitution, there is a single correct answer to a specific case. The challenge is how to find this right answer. The only answer to this question will be that we should use the constitutional principles. But in many cases, a collision between principles will take place, and to resolve this issue, the judge or the hermeneut will choose a solipsism way, using what they personally believe to be the right one. For obvious reasons, that conduct is not safe. Thus, a theory of decision is necessary to seek justice, and the hermeneutic philosophy and the linguistic turn will be necessary for one to find the right answer. In order to help this difficult mission, it will be necessary to use philosophical hermeneutics in order to find the right answer, which is the constitutionally most appropriate response. The constitutionally appropriate response will not always be the answer that individuals agree to, but we must put aside our preferences and defend the answer that the Constitution gives us. Therefore, the hermeneutics applied to Law, in search constitutionally appropriate response, should be the safest way to avoid judicial individual decisions. The aim of this paper is to present the science of law starting from the linguistic turn, the philosophical hermeneutics, moving away from legal positivism. The methodology used in this paper is qualitative, academic and theoretical, philosophical hermeneutics with the mission to conduct research proposing a new way of thinking about the science of law. The research sought to demonstrate the difficulty of the Brazilian courts to depart from the secular influence of legal positivism. Moreover, the research sought to demonstrate the need to think science of law within a contemporary perspective, where the linguistic turn, philosophical hermeneutics, will be the surest way to conduct the science of law in the present century.

Keywords: hermeneutic, right answer, solipsism, Brazilian judiciary

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Authors: Saeid Eshghi, Neeraj Saxena, Abdulmajeed Alsultan

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Carbon dioxide (CO₂) alongside other gas emissions in the atmosphere cause a greenhouse effect, resulting in an increase of the average temperature of the planet. Transportation vehicles are among the main contributors of CO₂ emission. Stationary vehicles with initiated motors produce more emissions than mobile ones. Intersections with traffic lights that force the vehicles to become stationary for a period of time produce more CO₂ pollution than other parts of the road. This paper focuses on analyzing the CO₂ produced by the traffic flow at Anzac Parade Road - Barker Street intersection in Sydney, Australia, before and after the implementation of Light rail transport (LRT). The data are gathered during the construction phase of the LRT by collecting the number of vehicles on each path of the intersection for 15 minutes during the evening rush hour of 1 week (6-7 pm, July 04-31, 2018) and then multiplied by 4 to calculate the flow of vehicles in 1 hour. For analyzing the data, the microscopic simulation software “VISSIM” has been used. Through the analysis, the traffic flow was processed in three stages: before and after implementation of light rail train, and one during the construction phase. Finally, the traffic results were input into another software called “EnViVer”, to calculate the amount of CO₂ during 1 h. The results showed that after the implementation of the light rail, CO₂ will drop by a minimum of 13%. This finding provides an evidence that light rail is a sustainable mode of transport.

Keywords: carbon dioxide, emission modeling, light rail, microscopic model, traffic flow

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Authors: Venkatalakshmi Ranganathan, Ong Hsin Ju, Tan Yinn Ming, Lim Kien Sin, Wong Man Ting, Venkata Srikanth Meka

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The mucoadhesive buccal tablet is an oral drug delivery system which attached to the buccal surface for direct drug absorption into the systemic circulation and the unidirectional drug release is ensured by formulating a hydrophobic backing layer. The objective of present study was to formulate mucoadhesive atenolol bilayer buccal tablets by using sodium alginate, hydroxyethyl cellulose, and xanthan gum as mucoadhesive polymer and the technique applied was direct compression method. Ethyl cellulose was used as backing layer of the tablet. FTIR and DSC analysis were carried out to identify the drug polymer interactions. The prepared tablets were evaluated for physicochemical parameters, ex vivo mucoadhesion time and in-vitro drug release. The formulated tablets showed the average surface pH 6-7 which is favourable for oral mucosa. The formulation containing sodium alginate showed more than 90 % of drug release at the end of the 7 hours in vitro dissolution studies. The formulation containing xanthan gum showed more than 8 hours of mucoadhesion time and all formulation exhibited non fickian release kinetics. The present study indicates enormous potential of erodible mucoadhesive buccal tablet containing atenolol for systemic delivery with an added advantage of circumventing the hepatic first pass metabolism.

Keywords: atenolol, mucoadhesion, in vitro drug release, direct compression, ethyl cellulose

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Authors: Behzad Ahdiharab, Senol Baskaya, Tamer Calisir

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Heat exchangers are one of the most widely used systems in factories, refineries etc. In this study, natural convection heat transfer using nano-fluids in between two cylinders is numerically investigated. The inner and outer cylinders are kept at constant temperatures. One of the most important assumptions in the project is that the working fluid is non-Newtonian. In recent years, the use of nano-fluids in industrial applications has increased profoundly. In this study, nano-Newtonian fluids containing metal particles with high heat transfer coefficients have been used. All fluid properties such as homogeneity has been calculated. In the present study, solutions have been obtained under unsteady conditions, base fluid was water, and effects of various parameters on heat transfer have been investigated. These parameters are Rayleigh number (103 < Ra < 106), power-law index (0.6 < n < 1.4), aspect ratio (0 < AR < 0.8), nano-particle composition, horizontal and vertical displacement of the inner cylinder, rotation of the inner cylinder, and volume fraction of nanoparticles. Results such as the internal cylinder average and local Nusselt number variations, contours of temperature, flow lines are presented. The results are also discussed in detail. From the validation study performed it was found that a very good agreement exists between the present results and those from the open literature. It was found out that the heat transfer is always affected by the investigated parameters. However, the degree to which the heat transfer is affected does change in a wide range.

Keywords: heat transfer, circular space, non-Newtonian, nano fluid, computational fluid dynamics.

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Authors: Alvyra Galkienė, Ona Monkevičienė

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The full participation of all pupils in the overall educational process is defined by the concept of inclusive education, which is gradually evolving in education policy and practice. It includes the full participation of all pupils in a shared learning experience and educational practices that address barriers to learning. Inclusive education applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which includes promoting students' involvement in learning processes, guaranteeing a deep understanding of the analysed phenomena, initiating self-directed learning, and using e-tools to create a barrier-free environment, is a prerequisite for the personal success of each pupil. However, the sustainability of quality education is affected by the transformation of education systems. This was particularly evident during the period of the forced transition from contact to distance education in the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Problem: The transformation of the educational environment from real to virtual one and the loss of traditional forms of educational support highlighted the need for new research, revealing the individual profiles of teachers using UDL-based learning and the pathways of sustainable transfer of successful practices to non-conventional learning environments. Research Methods: In order to identify individual latent teacher profiles that encompass the essential components of UDL-based inclusive teaching and direct leadership of students' learning, the quantitative analysis software Mplius was used for latent profile analysis (LPA). In order to reveal proven, i.e., sustainable, pathways for the transit of the components of UDL-based inclusive learning to distance learning, latent profile transit analysis (LPTA) via Mplius was used. An online self-reported questionnaire was used for data collection. It consisted of blocks of questions designed to reveal the experiences of subject teachers in contact and distance learning settings. 1432 Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian subject teachers took part in the survey. Research Results: The LPA analysis revealed eight latent teacher profiles with different characteristics of UDL-based inclusive education or traditional teaching in contact teaching conditions. Only 4.1% of the subject teachers had a profile characterised by a sustained UDL approach to teaching: promoting pupils' self-directed learning; empowering pupils' engagement, understanding, independent action, and expression; promoting pupils' e-inclusion; and reducing the teacher's direct supervision of the students. Other teacher profiles were characterised by limited UDL-based inclusive education either due to the lack of one or more of its components or to the predominance of direct teacher guidance. The LPTA analysis allowed us to highlight the following transit paths of teacher profiles in the extreme conditions of the transition from contact to distance education: teachers staying in the same profile of UDL-based inclusive education (sustainable transit) or jumping to other profiles (unsustainable transit in case of barriers), and teachers from other profiles moving to this profile (ongoing transit taking advantage of the changed new possibilities in the teaching process).

Keywords: distance education, latent teacher profiles, sustainable transit, UDL

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Authors: Saul Emilio Rivero Mejia, Estefanya Marin Tabares, Carlos Andres Rodriguez Toro, Katherine Bolano Restrepo, Sarita Santa Cortes

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Medellin is the Colombian city with the best public transportation system in the country, which is composed of two subway lines, five metro cables, two Bus Rapid Transit lines, and a streetcar. But despite the above, the Aburra Valley, the area in which the city is located, comparatively speaking, has a lower number of urban roads per inhabitant built, compared to the national average. In addition, since there is approximately one vehicle for every three inhabitants in Medellin, the problems of congestion and environmental pollution have become more acute over the years, and it has even been necessary to implement restrictive measures to the use of private vehicles on a permanent basis. In that sense, due to the limitations of physical space, the low public investment in road infrastructure, it is necessary to opt for mobility alternatives according to the above. Within the options for the city, there is what is known as micromobility. Micromobility is understood as those small and light means of transport used to travel short distances, which use electrical energy, such as skateboards and bicycles. These transport alternatives have a high potential for use by the city's young population, but this requires an adequate infrastructure and also state regulation. Taking into account the above, this paper will analyze the current state and future of micro mobility in the city of Medellin, making a prospective analysis, supported by a PEST (political, economic, social and technological) analysis. Based on the above, it is expected to identify the growth of demand for these alternative means and its impact on the mobility of the city in the medium and short term.

Keywords: electric, micromobility, transport, sustainable

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Authors: Rukminingsih Rukmi

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This paper addresses the issue of L2 teaching speaking to ESL students by fostering their active learning through project-based learning. Project-based learning was employed in classrooms where teachers support students by giving sufficient guidance and feedback. The students drive the inquiry, engage in research and discovery, and collaborate effectively with teammates to deliver the final work product. The teacher provides the initial direction and acts as a facilitator along the way. This learning approach is considered helpful for fostering students’ active learning. that the steps in implementing of project-based learning that fosters students’ critical thinking in TEFL class are in the following: (1) Discussing the materials about Speaking Class, (2) Working with the group to construct scenario of ways on speaking practice, (3) Practicing the scenario, (4) Recording the speaking practice into video, and (5) Evaluating the video product. This research is aimed to develop a strategy of teaching speaking by implementing project-based learning to improve speaking skill in the second Semester of English Department of STKIP PGRI Jombang. To achieve the purpose, the researcher conducted action research. The data of the study were gathered through the following instruments: test, observation checklists, and questionnaires. The result was indicated by the increase of students’ average speaking scores from 65 in the preliminary study, 73 in the first cycle, and 82 in the second cycle. Besides, the results of the study showed that project-based learning considered to be appropriate strategy to give students the same amount of chance in practicing their speaking skill and to pay attention in creating a learning situation.

Keywords: active learning, project-based learning, speaking ability, L2 teaching speaking

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Authors: Umeora Chukwunonso Obiefuna

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The private sector in housing provision continually take steps towards addressing part of the problem of cushioning the effect of the housing shortage in Nigeria by establishing housing estates since the government alone cannot provide housing for everyone. This research examined and reported findings from research conducted on the state of repair of buildings in private housing estates in Enugu metropolis, Enugu state Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to examine the physical conditions of the building fabrics and appraise the performance of infrastructural services provided in the buildings. The questionnaire was used as a research instrument to elicit data from respondents. Stratified sampling of the estates based on building type was adopted as a sampling method for this study. Findings from the research show that the state of repair of most buildings require minor repairs to make them fit for habitation and sound to ensure the well-being of the residents. In addition, four independent variables from the nine independent variables investigated significantly explained residual variation in the dependent variable - state of repair of the buildings in the study area. These variables are: Average Monthly Income of Residents (AMIR), Length of Stay of the Residents in the estates (LSY), Type of Wall Finishes on the buildings (TWF), and Time Taken to Respond to Resident’s complaints by the estate managers (TTRC). With this, the linear model was established for predicting the state of repair of buildings in private housing estates in the study area. This would assist in identifying variables that are lucid in predicting the state of repair of the buildings.

Keywords: building, housing estate, private, repair

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Authors: Milica Karadzic, Lidija Jevric, Sanja Podunavac-Kuzmanovic, Strahinja Kovacevic, Anamarija Mandic, Katarina Penov Gasi, Marija Sakac, Aleksandar Okljesa, Andrea Nikolic

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The present paper deals with chromatographic lipophilicity prediction of newly synthesized steroid derivatives. The prediction was achieved using in silico generated molecular descriptors and quantitative structure-retention relationship (QSRR) methodology with the artificial neural networks (ANN) approach. Chromatographic lipophilicity of the investigated compounds was expressed as retention factor value logk. For QSRR modeling, a feedforward back-propagation ANN with gradient descent learning algorithm was applied. Using the novel sum of ranking differences (SRD) method generated ANN models were ranked. The aim was to distinguish the most consistent QSRR model that can be found, and similarity or dissimilarity between the models that could be noticed. In this study, SRD was performed with average values of retention factor value logk as reference values. An excellent correlation between experimentally observed retention factor value logk and values predicted by the ANN was obtained with a correlation coefficient higher than 0.9890. Statistical results show that the established ANN models can be applied for required purpose. This article is based upon work from COST Action (TD1305), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

Keywords: artificial neural networks, liquid chromatography, molecular descriptors, steroids, sum of ranking differences

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Authors: H. E. Ferrari, R. Farengo, C. F. Clauser

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Tungsten (W) will be used in ITER as one of the plasma facing components (PFCs). The W could migrate to the plasma center. This could have a potentially deleterious effect on plasma confinement. Electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) can be used to prevent W accumulation. We simulated a series of H mode discharges in ASDEX U with PFC containing W, where central ECRH was used to prevent W accumulation in the plasma center. The experiments showed that the W density profiles were flat after a sawtooth crash, and become hollow in between sawtooth crashes when ECRH has been applied. It was also observed that a saturated kink mode was active in these conditions. We studied the effect of saturated kink like instabilities on the redistribution of W impurities. The kink was modeled as the sum of a simple analytical equilibrium (large aspect ratio, circular cross section) plus the perturbation produced by the kink. A numerical code that follows the exact trajectories of the impurity ions in the total fields and includes collisions was employed. The code is written in Cuda C and runs in Graphical Processing Units (GPUs), allowing simulations with a large number of particles with modest resources. Our simulations show that when the W ions have a thermal velocity distribution, the kink has no effect on the W density. When we consider the plasma rotation, the kink can affect the W density. When the average passing frequency of the W particles is similar to the frequency of the kink mode, the expulsion of W ions from the plasma core is maximum, and the W density shows a hollow structure. This could have implications for the mitigation of W accumulation.

Keywords: impurity transport, kink instability, tungsten accumulation, tungsten dynamics

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Authors: Titap Yazicioglu

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Purpose: Losing an eye due to trauma is a challenging situation that reduces the quality of life by causing physical, cosmetic, and serious psychological problems. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of aesthetic rehabilitation on the change in psychological status and quality of life of patients with eye loss resulting in phthisis bulbi. Materials and Methods: The files of 25 males and 15 females with an average age of 27.5 years who had trauma-related phthisic eye and had applied to the Department of Ophthalmology at the Dr. Lütfi Kırdar Kartal Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey, for aesthetic rehabilitation during the years 2015-19 were retrospectively analyzed. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Scale(BAS), and Short Form 36 quality-of-life survey (SF-36) were used to collect data on admission and one-year follow-up. Results: Of the patients reviewed, 65% stated that eye loss had caused their avoidance of family and social environments; 30% had moderate anxiety and depression. The post-operative sub-dimension scores of general health, emotional role function, and physical and social functions were statistically significant (p = 0.001; p<0.01), but the variations in the sub-dimension scores of vitality, mental health, and total physical health were not (p>0.05). Conclusion: Lossing an eye is a traumatic event that can affect all aspects of a person’s social and professional life. A patient who has suffered from the psychological damage of physical loss of eye needs a prosthesis that can give the desired function and appearance in different aspects of life.

Keywords: eye loss, phthisis bulbi, quality of life, psychological trauma

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Authors: Omotayo Abidemi Funmilayo

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Skill acquisition in professional fields has been prioritized and considered important to demonstrate the mastery of subject matter and present oneself as an expert in such profession. The ability to acquire skills in different fields, however calls for different method from the instructor or teacher during training. Music is not an exception of such profession, where there exist different area of skills acquisition require practical performance. This paper, however, focused on the impact and effects of different methods on acquisition of practical knowledge in the handling of some musical instruments among the students of Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo. In this study, 30 students were selected and divided into two groups based on the selected area of learning, further division were made on each of the two major groups to consist of five students each, to be trained using different methodology for two months and three hours per week. Comparison of skill acquired were made using standard research instrument at reliable level of significance, test were carried out on the thirty students considered for the study based on area of skill acquisition. The students that were trained on the keyboard and saxophone using play way method, followed by the students that were trained using demonstration method while the set of students that received teaching instruction through lecture method performed below average. In conclusion, the study reveals that ability to acquire professional skill on handling musical instruments are better enhanced using play way method.

Keywords: music education, skill acquisition, keyboard, saxophone

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Authors: Nirit Gavish, Rotem Halutz, Liad Neta

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Nowadays, chatbots are gaining more and more attention due to the advent of large language models. One of the important considerations in chatbot design is how to create an interface to achieve high user satisfaction, trust, and acceptance. Since WhatsApp conversations sometimes substitute for face-to-face communication, we studied whether WhatsAppization of the chatbot -making the conversation resemble a WhatsApp conversation more- will improve user satisfaction, trust, and acceptance, or whether the opposite will occur due to the Uncanny Valley (UV) effect. The task was a drive-sharing task, in which participants communicated with a textual chatbot via WhatsApp and could decide whether to participate in a ride to college with a driver suggested by the chatbot. WhatsAppization of the chatbot was done in two ways: By a dialog-style conversation (Dialog versus No Dialog), and by adding WhatsApp indicators – “Last Seen”, “Connected”, “Read Receipts”, and “Typing…” (Indicators versus No Indicators). Our 120 participants were randomly assigned to one of the four 2 by 2 design groups, with 30 participants in each. They interacted with the WhatsApp chatbot and then filled out a questionnaire. The results demonstrated that, as expected from the manipulation, the interaction with the chatbot was longer for the dialog condition compared to the no dialog. This extra interaction, however, did not lead to higher acceptance -quite the opposite, since participants in the dialog condition were less willing to implement the decision made at the end of the conversation with the chatbot and continue the interaction with the driver they chose. The results are even more striking when considering the Indicators condition. Both for the satisfaction measures and the trust measures, participants’ ratings were lower in the Indicators condition compared to the No Indicators. Participants in the Indicators condition felt that the ride search process was harder to operate, and slower (even though the actual interaction time was similar). They were less convinced that the chatbot suggested real trips and they trusted the person offering the ride and referred to them by the chatbot less. These effects were more evident for participants who preferred to share their rides using WhatsApp compared to participants who preferred chatbots for that purpose. Considering our findings, we can say that the WhatsAppization of the chatbot was detrimental. This is true for the both chatbot WhatsAppization methods – by making the conversation more a dialog and adding WhatsApp indicators. For the chosen drive-sharing task, the results were, in addition to lower satisfaction, less trust in the chatbot’s suggestion and even in the driver suggested by the chatbot, and lower willingness to actually undertake the suggested ride. In addition, it seems that the most problematic WhatsAppization method was using WhatsApp’s indicators during the interaction with the chatbot. The current study suggests that a conversation with an artificial agent should also not imitate a WhatsApp conversation very closely. With the proliferation of WhatsApp use, the emotional and social aspect of face-to face commination are moving to WhatsApp communication. Based on the current study’s findings, it is possible that the UV effect also occurs in WhatsAppization, and not only in humanization, of the chatbot, with a similar feeling of eeriness, and is more pronounced for people who prefer to use WhatsApp over chatbots. The current research can serve as a starting point to study the very interesting and important topic of chatbots WhatsAppization. More methods of WhatsAppization and other tasks could be the focus of further studies.

Keywords: chatbot, WhatsApp, humanization, Uncanny Valley, drive sharing

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Authors: Christian H. Girsang, M. Razi B. Mansoor, Noorizal N. Huang

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An offshore platform was installed in 1977 at about 260km offshore West Malaysia at the water depth of 73.6m. Twelve (12) piles were installed with four (4) are skirt piles. The piles have 1.219m outside diameter and wall thickness of 31mm and were driven to 109m below seabed. Deterministic analyses of the pile capacity under axial loading were conducted using the current API (American Petroleum Institute) method and the four (4) CPT-based methods: the ICP (Imperial College Pile)-method, the NGI (Norwegian Geotechnical Institute)-Method, the UWA (University of Western Australia)-method and the Fugro-method. A statistical analysis of the model uncertainty associated with each pile capacity method was performed. There were two (2) piles analysed: Pile 1 and piles other than Pile 1, where Pile 1 is the pile that was most affected by shallow gas problems. Using the mean estimate of soil properties, the five (5) methods used for deterministic estimation of axial pile capacity in compression predict an axial capacity from 28 to 42MN for Pile 1 and 32 to 49MN for piles other than Pile 1. These values refer to the static capacity shortly after pile installation. They do not include the effects of cyclic loading during the design storm or time after installation on the axial pile capacity. On average, the axial pile capacity is expected to have increased by about 40% because of ageing since the installation of the platform in 1977. On the other hand, the cyclic loading effects during the design storm may reduce the axial capacity of the piles by around 25%. The study concluded that all piles have sufficient safety factor when the pile aging and cyclic loading effect are considered, as all safety factors are above 2.0 for maximum operating and storm loads.

Keywords: axial capacity, cyclic loading, pile ageing, shallow gas

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Authors: Aditi Mittal, Nishit Gupta, Tina Dadu, Anil Handoo

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Introduction: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curative treatment done for hematologic malignancies and other clinical conditions. Its main objective is to reconstitute the hematopoietic system of the recipient by administering an infusion of donor hematopoietic stem cells. Transplant engraftment is the first sign of bone marrow recovery. The main objective of this study is to assess immature platelet fraction (IPF) and immature reticulocyte fraction (IRF) as early indicators of post-hematopoietic stem cell transplant engraftment. Methods: Patients of all age groups and both genders undergoing both autologous and allogeneic transplants were included in the study. All the CBC samples were run on Mindray CAL-8000 (BC-6800 plus; Shenzhen, China) analyser and assessed for IPF and IRF. Neutrophil engraftment was defined as the first of three consecutive days with an ANC >0.5 x 109/L and platelet engraftment with a count >20 x 109/L. The cut-off values for IRF were calculated as 13.5% with a CV of 5% and for IPF was 19% with a CV of 12%. Results: The study sample comprised 200 patients, of whom 116 had undergone autologous HSCT, and 84 had undergone allogeneic HSCT. We observed that IRF anticipated the neutrophil recovery by an average of 5 days prior to IPF. Though there was no significant variation in IPF and IRF for the prediction of platelet recovery, IRF was preceded by 1 or 2 days to IPF in 25% of cases. Conclusions: Both IPF and IRF can be used as reliable parameters as predictors for post-transplant engraftment; however, IRF seems to be more reliable than IPF as a simple, inexpensive, and widely available tool for predicting marrow recovery several days before engraftment.

Keywords: transplantation, stem cells, reticulocyte, engraftment

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Authors: Amer A. Hasan, Mehri Igci, Ersin Borazan, Rozhgar A. Khailany, Emine Bayraktar, Ahmet Arslan

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Gastric cancer (GC) has high morbidity and fatality rate in various countries and is still one of the most frequent and deadly diseases. Novel mitogenic and motogenic Gastrokine1 (GKN1) and Gastrokine 2 (GKN2) genes that are highly expressed in the normal stomach epithelium and plays an important role in maintaining the integrity and homeostasis of stomach mucosal epithelial cells. Significant loss of copy number and mRNA transcript of GKN1 and GKN2 gene expression were frequently observed in all types of gastric cancer. In this study, 47 paired samples that were grouped according to the types of gastric cancer and the clinical characteristics of the patients, including gender and average of age were investigated with gene expression analysis and mutation screening by monetering RT-PCR, SSCP and nucleotide sequencing techniques. Both GKN1 and GKN2 genes were observed significantly reduced found by (Wilcoxon signed rank test; p<0.05). As a result of gene screening, no mutation (no different genotype) was detected. It is considered that gene mutations are not the cause of inactivation of gastrokines. In conclusion, the mRNA expression level of GKN1 and GKN2 genes statistically was decreased regardless the gender, age or cancer type of patients. Reduced of gastrokine genes seems to occur at the initial steps of cancer development. In order to understand the investigation between gastric cancer and diagnostic biomarker; further analysis is necessary.

Keywords: gastric cancer, diagnostic biomarker, nucleotide sequencing, semi-quantitative RT-PCR

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Authors: Aloysius Colman Chukwuemeka Ezeabasili, Chibuike Patrick Ezeabasili

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Medium Sized Construction Companies in Nigeria are those employing 50-250 workers that are mostly involved in roads, Commercial and domestic building Construction, among others. These companies are in the majority and contribute immensely to infrastructural development in Nigeria. Despite the last eight years of economic downturn and the past years of COVID-19 pandemic, signs of these Companies recovering from the economic recession and pandemic seem bright. Nigeria has recorded 213,000 confirmed cases 3968 deaths from COVID-19 as at now. These medium sized companies are currently trying to explore various opportunities to grow their businesses to achieve competitive advantages over others by studying and improving on their bidding efficiency, Strategies for selecting businesses, bidding markup Strategies, and cash flow. These strategies were studied through the recruitment of construction experts and professionals. Many of them have acquired new technologies that have impacted positively on their strategies. The impact of these technologies like the BIM, e-tendering, conditions of contract, and claim management strategies are advantages to them and has given them good advantages over their peers. Monte Carlo solution, Swot analysis, and average bid methods have also clearly added advantages to bidding practices. New and existing strategies are Scrutinized, and training of young Nigerians in advanced countries to acquire knowledge in best practices have elevated some of these companies. The Covid-19 has not been very harsh to Nigeria, and the country is surely not as devastated as the advanced countries. Nigeria has therefore been able to cope with the combination of the downturn and the pandemic.

Keywords: medium sized construction companies, competitive advantage, new bidding technologies, Nigeria

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Authors: Rohit Gupta, Ravinder Agarwal

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Surface electromyographic (sEMG) signal has the potential to identify the human activities and intention. This potential is further exploited to control the artificial limbs using the sEMG signal from residual limbs of amputees. The paper deals with the development of multichannel cost efficient sEMG signal interface for research application, along with evaluation of proposed class dependent statistical approach of the feature selection method. The sEMG signal acquisition interface was developed using ADS1298 of Texas Instruments, which is a front-end interface integrated circuit for ECG application. Further, the sEMG signal is recorded from two lower limb muscles for three locomotions namely: Plane Walk (PW), Stair Ascending (SA), Stair Descending (SD). A class dependent statistical approach is proposed for feature selection and also its performance is compared with 12 preexisting feature vectors. To make the study more extensive, performance of five different types of classifiers are compared. The outcome of the current piece of work proves the suitability of the proposed feature selection algorithm for locomotion recognition, as compared to other existing feature vectors. The SVM Classifier is found as the outperformed classifier among compared classifiers with an average recognition accuracy of 97.40%. Feature vector selection emerges as the most dominant factor affecting the classification performance as it holds 51.51% of the total variance in classification accuracy. The results demonstrate the potentials of the developed sEMG signal acquisition interface along with the proposed feature selection algorithm.

Keywords: classifiers, feature selection, locomotion, sEMG

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Authors: Tebogo Emma Makaba, Barnabas Ndlovu Gatsheni

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The cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria both located in the Gauteng province are separated by a distance of 58 km. The traffic queues on the Ben Schoeman freeway which connects these two cities can stretch for almost 1.5 km. Vehicle traffic congestion impacts negatively on the business and the commuter’s quality of life. The goal of this paper is to identify variables that influence the flow of traffic and to design a vehicle traffic prediction model, which will predict the traffic flow pattern in advance. The model will unable motorist to be able to make appropriate travel decisions ahead of time. The data used was collected by Mikro’s Traffic Monitoring (MTM). Multi-Layer perceptron (MLP) was used individually to construct the model and the MLP was also combined with Bagging ensemble method to training the data. The cross—validation method was used for evaluating the models. The results obtained from the techniques were compared using predictive and prediction costs. The cost was computed using combination of the loss matrix and the confusion matrix. The predicted models designed shows that the status of the traffic flow on the freeway can be predicted using the following parameters travel time, average speed, traffic volume and day of month. The implications of this work is that commuters will be able to spend less time travelling on the route and spend time with their families. The logistics industry will save more than twice what they are currently spending.

Keywords: bagging ensemble methods, confusion matrix, multi-layer perceptron, vehicle traffic flow

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Authors: N. Musayeva, N. Rustamova, N. Bagirov, S. Ibadov

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Purpose: to analyze the long-term results of external dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR), which remains the preferred primary procedure in the surgical treatment of lacrimal duct obstruction in chronic dacryocystitis. Methodology: long-term results of external DCR (after 3 years) performed on 90 patients (90 eyes) with chronic dacryocystitis from 2018 to 2020 were evaluated. The Azerbaijan National Center of Ophthalmology, named after acad. Zarifa Aliyeva. 15 of the patients were men, 75 – women. The average age was 45±3.2 years. Surgical operations were performed under local anesthesia. All patients suffered from diabetes mellitus for more than 3 years. All patients underwent external DCR and silicone drainage (tube) was implanted. In the postoperative period (after 3 years), lacrimation, purulent discharge, and the condition of the scar at the operation site were assessed. Results: All patients were under observation for more than 18 months. In general, the effectiveness of the surgical operation was 93.34%. Recurrence of disease was observed in 6 patients and in 3 patients (3.33%), the scar at the site of the operation was rough (non-cosmetic). In 3 patients (3.33%) – the surgically formed anastomosis between the lacrimal sac and the nasal bone was obstructed by scar tissue. These patients were reoperated by trans canalicular laser DCR. Conclusion: Despite the long-term (more than a hundred years) use of external DCR, it remains one of the primary techniques in the surgery of chronic dacryocystitis. Due to the high success rate and good long-term results of DCR in the treatment of chronic dacryocystitis in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus, we recommend external DCR for this group of patients.

Keywords: chronic dacryocystitis, diabetes mellitus, external dacryocystorhinostomy, long-term results

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Authors: P. Intaracharoen, P. Chantraket, C. Detyothin, S. Kirtsaeng

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Radar reflectivity data from Phimai weather radar station of DRRAA (Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation) were used to analyzed the rainstorm characteristics via Thunderstorm Identification Tracking Analysis and Nowcasting (TITAN) algorithm. The Phimai weather radar station was situated at Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeastern Thailand. The data from 277 days of rainstorm events occurring from May 2016 to May 2017 were used to investigate temporal distribution characteristics of convective individual rainclouds. The important storm properties, structures, and their behaviors were analyzed by 9 variables as storm number, storm duration, storm volume, storm area, storm top, storm base, storm speed, storm orientation, and maximum storm reflectivity. The rainstorm characteristics were also examined by separating the data into two periods as wet and dry season followed by an announcement of TMD (Thai Meteorological Department), under the influence of southwest monsoon (SWM) and northeast monsoon (NEM). According to the characteristics of rainstorm results, it can be seen that rainstorms during the SWM influence were found to be the most potential rainstorms over northeastern region of Thailand. The SWM rainstorms are larger number of the storm (404, 140 no./day), storm area (34.09, 26.79 km²) and storm volume (95.43, 66.97 km³) than NEM rainstorms, respectively. For the storm duration, the average individual storm duration during the SWM and NEM was found a minor difference in both periods (47.6, 48.38 min) and almost all storm duration in both periods were less than 3 hours. The storm velocity was not exceeding 15 km/hr (13.34 km/hr for SWM and 10.67 km/hr for NEM). For the rainstorm reflectivity, it was found a little difference between wet and dry season (43.08 dBz for SWM and 43.72 dBz for NEM). It assumed that rainstorms occurred in both seasons have same raindrop size.

Keywords: rainstorm characteristics, weather radar, TITAN, Northeastern Thailand

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Authors: Niphattha Hannapha

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This paper examines how the classroom environment influences slow learners’ learning achievement; it focuses on how seating patterns affect students’ behaviours and which patterns best contribute to students’ learning performance. The researcher studied how slow learners’ characteristics and seating patterns influenced their behaviours and performance at Ban Hin Lad School. As a nonparticipant observation, the target groups included 15 slow learners from Prathomsueksa (Grades) 4 and 5. Students’ behaviours were recorded during their learning activities in order to minimize their reading and written expression disorder in Thai language tutorials. The result showed four seating patterns and two behaviors which obstructed students’ learning. The average of both behaviours mostly occurred when students were seated with patterns 1 (the seat facing the door, with the corridor alongside) and 3 (the seat alongside the door, facing the aisle) respectively. Seating patterns 1 and 3 demonstrated visibility (the front and side) of a walking path with two-way movement. However, seating patterns 2 (seating with the door alongside and the aisle at the back) and 4 (sitting with the door at the back and the aisle alongside) demonstrated visibility (the side) of a walking path with one-way movement. In Summary, environmental design is important to enhance concentration in slow learners who have reading and writing disabilities. This study suggests that students should be seated where they can have the least visibility of movement to help them increase continuous learning. That means they can have a better chance of developing reading and writing abilities in comparison with other patterns of seating.

Keywords: slow learning, interior design, interior environment, classroom

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Authors: Alexander Cho, Harsho Sanyal, Joseph Cataldo

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A quantitative analysis of the different variables on both the South and North green roofs of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center was taken to find mathematical relationships between net radiation and evapotranspiration (ET), average outside temperature, and the lysimeter weight. Groups of datasets were analyzed, and the relationships were plotted on linear and semi-log graphs to find consistent relationships. Antecedent conditions for each rainstorm were also recorded and plotted against the volumetric water difference within the lysimeter. The first relation was the inverse parabolic relationship between the lysimeter weight and the net radiation and ET. The peaks and valleys of the lysimeter weight corresponded to valleys and peaks in the net radiation and ET respectively, with the 8/22/15 and 1/22/16 datasets showing this trend. The U-shaped and inverse U-shaped plots of the two variables coincided, indicating an inverse relationship between the two variables. Cross variable relationships were examined through graphs with lysimeter weight as the dependent variable on the y-axis. 10 out of 16 of the plots of lysimeter weight vs. outside temperature plots had R² values > 0.9. Antecedent conditions were also recorded for rainstorms, categorized by the amount of precipitation accumulating during the storm. Plotted against the change in the volumetric water weight difference within the lysimeter, a logarithmic regression was found with large R² values. The datasets were compared using the Mann Whitney U-test to see if the datasets were statistically different, using a significance level of 5%; all datasets compared showed a U test statistic value, proving the null hypothesis of the datasets being different from being true.

Keywords: green roof, green infrastructure, Javits Center, evapotranspiration, net radiation, lysimeter

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