Search results for: leading economic indicators

Authors: Athanasia Eirini Zarkadi, Despoina Balli, Olga Elpis Kolokitha

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Objective: Impacted maxillary canines are a frequent condition and a common reason for patients seeking orthodontic treatment. Their simultaneous presence with dental anomalies raises a question about their possible connection. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of maxillary impacted canines with dental anomalies. Materials and Methods: Files of 874 patients from an orthodontic private practice in Greece were evaluated for the presence of maxillary impacted canines. From this sample, a group of 97 patients (39 males and 58 females) with at least one impacted maxillary canine were selected and consisted of the study group (canine impaction group) of this study. This group was compared to a control group of 97 patients (42 males and 55 females) that was created by random selection from the initial sample without maxillary canine impaction. The impaction diagnosis was made from the panoramic radiographs and confirmed from the surgery. The association between maxillary canine impaction and dental anomalies was examined with the chi-square test. A classification tree was created to further investigate the relations between impaction and dental anomalies. The reproducibility of diagnoses was assessed by re-examining the records of 25 patients two weeks after the first examination. Results: The found associated anomalies were cone-shaped upper lateral incisors and infraocclusion of deciduous molars. There is a significant increase in the prevalence of 12,4% of distal displacement of the unerupted mandibular second premolar in the canine impaction group compared to the control group that was 7,2%. The classification tree showed that the presence of a cone-shaped maxillary lateral incisor gave rise to the probability of an impacted canine to 83,3%. Conclusions: The presence of cone-shaped maxillary lateral incisors and infraocclusion of deciduous molars can be considered valuable early risk indicators for maxillary canine impaction.

Keywords: cone-shaped maxillary lateral incisors, dental anomalies, impacted canines, infraoccluded deciduous molars

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Authors: Chandra Shekhar Verma, Umesh Chandra Mishra

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Blast Furnace performance mainly depends on the quality of sinter as a major portion of iron-bearing material occupies by it hence its quality w.r.t. Tumbler Index (TI), Reducibility Index (RI) and Reduction Degradation Index (RDI) are the key performance indicators of sinter plant. Now it became very tough to maintain the desired quality with the increasing alumina (Al₂O₃) content in iron fines and study is focused on it. Alumina is a refractory material and required more heat input to fuse thereby affecting the desired sintering temperature, i.e. 1300°C. It goes in between the grain boundaries of the bond and makes it weaker. Sinter strength decreases with increasing alumina content, and weak sinter generates more fines thereby reduces the net sinter production as well as plant productivity. Presence of impurities beyond the acceptable norm: such as LOI, Al₂O₃, MnO, TiO₂, K₂O, Na₂O, Hydrates (Goethite & Limonite), SiO₂, phosphorous and zinc, has led to greater challenges in the thrust areas such as productivity, quality and cost. The ultimate aim of this study is maintaining the sinter strength even with high Al₂O without hampering the plant productivity. This study includes mineralogy test of iron fines to find out the fraction of different phases present in the ore and phase analysis of product sinter to know the distribution of different phases. Corrections were done focusing majorly on varying Al₂O₃/SiO₂ ratio, basicity: B2 (CaO/SiO₂), B3 (CaO+MgO/SiO₂) and B4 (CaO+MgO/SiO₂+Al₂O₃). The concept of Alumina / Silica ratio, B3 & B4 found to be useful. We used to vary MgO, Al₂O₃/SiO₂, B2, B3 and B4 to get the desired sinter strength even at high alumina (4.2 - 4.5%) in sinter. The study concludes with the establishment of B4, and Al₂O₃/SiO₂ ratio in between 1.53-1.60 and 0.63- 0.70 respectively and have achieved tumbler index (Drum Index) 76 plus with the plant productivity of 1.58-1.6 t/m2/hr. at JSPL, Raigarh. Study shows that despite of high alumina in sinter, its physical quality can be controlled by maintaining the above-mentioned parameters.

Keywords: Basicity-2, Basicity-3, Basicity-4, Sinter

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Authors: Hadach Mohamed

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In Essaouira, tourism is the main economic activity, and the destination has a place in the segment of rural and sustainable tourism. The hinterland of the destination has natural and tourist potential of great attractiveness, but the natives still appropriate the territory and are faced with the dilemma of appropriation and tourist exploitation. This article analyzes the determinants of the appropriation of a rural tourist space in light of the massive touristification and the need to set up income-generating activities for the inhabitants. After a review of the literature, a survey was carried out among the main actors of tourism in the destination to evaluate the question of the appropriation of the tourist space and the sustainability of a destination.

Keywords: rural tourism, sustainability, appropriation, tourism destination

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Authors: Awdhesh Yadav, P. S. Saravanamurthy, Shaikh Tayyaba, Uma Shah, Ashok Agarwal

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Objectives: HIV interventions in India has leveraged Self-Help Group (SHG) as one of the key strategies under structural intervention to empower female sex workers (FSW) to reduce their risk exposure and vulnerability to STI/HIV. Understanding the role of SHGs in light of the evolving dynamics of sex work needs to be delved into to strategize HIV interventions among FSWs in India. This paper aims to study the HIV program outcome among the FSWs associated with SHGs and FSWs not associated with SHGs in Thane, Maharashtra. Study Design: This cross-sectional study, was undertaken from the Behavioral Tracking Survey (BTS) conducted among 503 FSWs in Thane in 2015. Two-stage probability based conventional sampling was done for selection of brothel and bar based FSWs, while Time Location Cluster (TLC) sampling was done for home, lodge and street-based sex workers. Methods: Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were performed to compare and contrast between FSWs associated with SHG and those not associated with SHG with respect to the utilization of HIV related services by them. ‘Condom use’, ‘consistent condom use’, ‘contact with peer-educators’, ‘counseling sessions’ and ‘HIV testing’ were chosen as indicators on HIV service utilization. Results: 8% (38) of FSWs are registered with SHG; 92% aged ≥ 25 years, 47% illiterate, and 71% are currently married. The likelihood of utilizing HIV services including, knowledge on HIV/AIDS and its mode of transmission (OR:5.54; CI: 1.87-16.60; p < 0.05),accessed drop-in Centre (OR: 6.53; CI: 2.15-19.88; p < 0.10), heard about joint health camps (OR: 4.71; CI:2.12-10.46); p < 0.05), negotiated or stood up against police/broker/local goonda/clients (OR: 2.26; CI: 1.08-4.73; p < 0.05), turned away clients when they refused to use condom during sex (OR: 3.76; CI: 1.27-11.15; p < 0.05) and heard of ART (OR; 4.55; CI: 2.18-9.48; p < 0.01) were higher among FSWs associated with SHG in comparison to FSWs not associated with SHG. Conclusions: Considering the improved HIV program outcomes among FSWs associated with SHG; HIV interventions among FSWs could consider facilitating the formation of SHGs with FSWs as one of the key strategies to empower the community for ensuring better program outcomes.

Keywords: empowerment, female sex workers, HIV, Thane, self-help group

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Authors: Shu-Yuan Lin, Tung-Chin Chou

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As products become increasingly similar in competitive markets, achieving product segmentation and differentiation through packaging design has become the primary task when designing retail product packaging. When the main focus of brand marketing is no longer the product itself, emotional marketing, such as the use of humorous packaging designs, may be employed to successfully promote the brand. Such efforts will capture the hearts of consumers, generate discussions, and allow the brand to leave a deep impression in consumers. In this study, snack packaging was used to develop a relationship model that illustrated the effect of humorous packaging designs on brand awareness and brand attitude. The study was divided into three stages: In the first stage, in-depth interviews and focus group interviews were conducted with experts to construct 24 indicators for assessing humorous packaging designs. In the second stage, survey questionnaires were distributed to a young consumer group; the results showed that the group had a high and low product involvement with chocolate and dried shredded squid, respectively. Humorous packaging designs were subsequently created for two snack types to produce a study sample of 12 different packaging. In the third stage, packaging designs were evaluated by obtaining scores for the consumers’ brand awareness, brand attitude, and perceived effects of the packaging designs. Finally, a relationship model was developed to show the effect of humorous packaging designs on brand awareness and brand attitude, confirming that two perceived effects of humorous packaging designs (i.e., ‘pleasant and emotionally healing’ and ‘connected to people’s daily life’) exhibited a significant and positive effect on ‘perceived brand value,’ where the effect of ‘pleasant and emotionally healing’ was the most significant. In addition, ‘pleasant and emotionally healing’ exerted a significant and positive effect on ‘brand purchase intention.’ Furthermore, packaging designs with humorous elements helped foster brand awareness.

Keywords: brand awareness, brand attitude, humorous design, packaging design

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Authors: Vanessa Kummer, Maik Meusel

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Real estate demand estimates are typically derived from transaction data. However, in regions with excess demand, transactions are driven by supply and therefore do not indicate what people are actually looking for. To estimate the demand for housing in Switzerland, search subscriptions from all important Swiss real estate platforms are used. These data do, however, suffer from missing information—for example, many users do not specify how many rooms they would like or what price they would be willing to pay. In economic analyses, it is often the case that only complete data is used. Usually, however, the proportion of complete data is rather small which leads to most information being neglected. Also, the data might have a strong distortion if it is complete. In addition, the reason that data is missing might itself also contain information, which is however ignored with that approach. An interesting issue is, therefore, if for economic analyses such as the one at hand, there is an added value by using the whole data set with the imputed missing values compared to using the usually small percentage of complete data (baseline). Also, it is interesting to see how different algorithms affect that result. The imputation of the missing data is done using unsupervised learning. Out of the numerous unsupervised learning approaches, the most common ones, such as clustering, principal component analysis, or neural networks techniques are applied. By training the model iteratively on the imputed data and, thereby, including the information of all data into the model, the distortion of the first training set—the complete data—vanishes. In a next step, the performances of the algorithms are measured. This is done by randomly creating missing values in subsets of the data, estimating those values with the relevant algorithms and several parameter combinations, and comparing the estimates to the actual data. After having found the optimal parameter set for each algorithm, the missing values are being imputed. Using the resulting data sets, the next step is to estimate the willingness to pay for real estate. This is done by fitting price distributions for real estate properties with certain characteristics, such as the region or the number of rooms. Based on these distributions, survival functions are computed to obtain the functional relationship between characteristics and selling probabilities. Comparing the survival functions shows that estimates which are based on imputed data sets do not differ significantly from each other; however, the demand estimate that is derived from the baseline data does. This indicates that the baseline data set does not include all available information and is therefore not representative for the entire sample. Also, demand estimates derived from the whole data set are much more accurate than the baseline estimation. Thus, in order to obtain optimal results, it is important to make use of all available data, even though it involves additional procedures such as data imputation.

Keywords: demand estimate, missing-data imputation, real estate, unsupervised learning

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Authors: I. Boroňová, J. Bernasovská, J. Kmec, E. Petrejčíková

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Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a severe cardiovascular disorder characterized by progressive systolic dysfunction due to cardiac chamber dilatation and inefficient myocardial contractility often leading to chronic heart failure. Recently, a genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on DCM indicate that the ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 single nucleotide polymorphism is associated with DCM. The aim of the study was to identify the distribution of ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 polymorphism in 50 Slovak patients with DCM and 80 healthy control subjects using the Custom Taqman®SNP Genotyping assays. Risk factors detected at baseline in each group included age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, diabetes and blood pressure. The mean age of patients with DCM was 52.9±6.3 years; the mean age of individuals in control group was 50.3±8.9 years. The distribution of investigated genotypes of rs10927875 polymorphism within ZBTB17 gene in the cohort of Slovak patients with DCM was as follows: CC (38.8%), CT (55.1%), TT (6.1%), in controls: CC (43.8%), CT (51.2%), TT (5.0%). The risk allele T was more common among the patients with dilated cardiomyopathy than in normal controls (33.7% versus 30.6%). The differences in genotype or allele frequencies of ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 polymorphism were not statistically significant (p=0.6908; p=0.6098). The results of this study suggest that ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 polymorphism may be a risk factor for susceptibility to DCM in Slovak patients with DCM. Studies of numerous files and additional functional investigations are needed to fully understand the roles of genetic associations.

Keywords: ZBTB17 gene, rs10927875 polymorphism, dilated cardiomyopathy, cardiovascular disorder

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Authors: Mohammad Hossein Modarressi, Mozhgan Mondeali, Khabat Barkhordari, Ali Etemadi

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The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has led to significant concerns worldwide due to its catastrophic effects on public health. The SARS-CoV-2 infection is initiated with the binding of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in its spike protein to the ACE2 receptor in the host cell membrane. Due to the error-prone entity of the viral RNA-dependent polymerase complex, the virus genome, including the coding region for the RBD, acquires new mutations, leading to the appearance of multiple variants. These variants can potentially impact transmission, virulence, antigenicity and evasive immune properties. S477N mutation located in the RBD has been observed in the SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1. 529) variant. In this study, we investigated the consequences of S477N mutation at the molecular level using computational approaches such as molecular dynamics simulation, protein-protein interaction analysis, immunoinformatics and free energy computation. We showed that displacement of Ser with Asn increases the stability of the spike protein and its affinity to ACE2 and thus increases the transmission potential of the virus. This mutation changes the folding and secondary structure of the spike protein. Also, it reduces antibody neutralization, raising concern about re-infection, vaccine breakthrough and therapeutic values.

Keywords: S477N, COVID-19, molecular dynamic, SARS-COV2 mutations

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Authors: Musoke Ivan, Birungi Racheal

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The construction trend is characterized by increased use of modern methods yet traditional methods are cheaper in terms of costs, in addition to the benefits it offers to the construction sector, like providing more jobs that could have been worked with the intensive machines. The purpose of this research was to assess the influence of using Traditional methods of construction (TMC) on the costs and quality of building structures and determine the different ways. Traditional methods of construction (TMC) can be applicable and integrated into the construction trend, and propose ways how this can be a success. The study adopted a quantitative method approach targeting various construction professionals like Architects, Quantity surveyors, Engineers, and Construction Managers. Questionnaires and analyses of literature were used to obtain research data and findings. Simple random sampling was used to select 40 construction professionals to which questionnaires were administered. The data was then analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The findings of the research indicate that Traditional methods of construction (TMCs) in Uganda are cheaper in terms of costs, but the quality is still low. This is attributed to a lack of skilled labour and efficient supervision while undertaking tasks leading to low quality. The study identifies strategies that would improve Traditional methods of construction (TMC), which include the employment of skilled manpower and effective supervision. It also identifies the need by stakeholders like the government, clients, and professionals to appreciate Traditional methods of construction (TMCs) and allow for a levelled ground for Traditional Methods of Construction and Modern methods of construction (MMCs).

Keywords: traditional methods of construction, integration, cost, quality

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Authors: K. K. Kaidarova, Ye. K. Aibuldinov, Zh. B. Iskakova, G. Zh. Alzhanova, S. Zh. Zayrova

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Currently, the existing road infrastructure of Kazakhstan needs the reconstruction of existing highways and the construction of new roads. The solution to this problem can be achieved by replacing traditional building materials with industrial waste, which in their chemical and mineralogical composition are close to natural raw materials and can partially or completely replace some natural binding materials in road construction. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to develop building materials based on the red sludge of the Pavlodar aluminum plant, blast furnace slag of the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant, lime production waste of the Pavlodar Aluminum Plant as a binder for natural loam. Changes in physical and mechanical properties were studied for uniaxial compression strength, linear expansion coefficient, water resistance, and frost resistance of the samples. Nine mixtures were formed with different percentages of these wastes 1-20:25:4; 2-20:25:6; 3-20:25:8; 4-30:30:4; 5-30:30:6; 6-30:30:8; 7-40:35:4; 8-40:35:6; 9-40:35:8 and the mixture identifier were labeled based on the waste content and composition number. The results of strength measurement during uniaxial compression of the samples showed an almost constant increase in strength and amounted to 0.67–3.56 MPa after three days and 3.33–7.38 MPa after 90 days. This increase in compressive strength is a consequence of the addition of lime and becomes more pronounced over time. The water resistance of the developed materials after 90 days was 7.12 MPa, and the frost resistance for the same period was 7.35 MPa. The maximum values of strength determination were shown by a sample of the composition 9-40:35:8. The study of the mineral composition showed that there was no contamination with heavy metals or dangerous substances. It was determined that road materials made of red sludge, blast furnace slag, lime production waste, and natural loam mixture could be used due to their strength indicators and environmental characteristics.

Keywords: production waste, uniaxial compression, water resistance of materials, frost resistance of samples

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Authors: Yong Cang

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RJV001 is a subcutaneous injection containing mutated recombinant Collagenase H (ColH), leading to disruption of collagen matrix in adipose tissue and programmed cell death of adipocytes. Here we reported our clinical investigation of the safety, tolerance and pharmacodynamics of localized RJV001 injection into healthy human abdominal fat tissues (NCT04821648, Arizona Research Center). Investigate the safety, tolerance and clinical pharmacodynamics of subcutaneous RJV001 in humans. In the dose-escalating study, 18 subjects completed the study, 100% female, 78% white, with a mean age of 42[±9.9]. All three tested dose (0.05, 0.075 and 0.15 mg/injection), up to 30 injections, were safe and well-tolerated. Bruising and tenderness to palpation, mild to moderate, were the most frequent local skin reactions but nearly all resolved within 30 days. Additionally, physician-monitored ultrasound measurement showed that a reduction in abdominal fat tissue thickness was consistently observed in Cohort C (0.075, 0.15 mg/injection, 30injections), with a mean reduction of 7.37 [± 2.020] mm. Based on this clinical study, RJV001 has been advanced to phase II clinical studies. In the dose-escalating study, subcutaneously administered RJV001 was safe and well-tolerated in healthy adults up to 0.15 mg/injection, 30 injections. Fat reduction and adipocytolysis were observed by ultrasound measurements and histological analysis for exploratory purposes.

Keywords: fat reduction, mutant collagenase, clinical trial, subcutaneous injection

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Authors: Muhammad Jahanzaib, Muhammad Z. A. Khan, Junaid Khayyam

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Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan with the population of 1.365 million people and with a vehicular fleet size of 0.75 million. The vehicular fleet size is growing annually by the rate of 11%. Vehicular emissions are major source of Black carbon (BC). In developing countries like Pakistan, most of the vehicles consume conventional fuels like Petrol, Diesel, and CNG. These fuels are the major emitters of pollutants like CO, CO2, NOx, CH4, VOCs, and particulate matter (PM10). Carbon dioxide and methane are the leading contributor to the global warming with a global share of 9-26% and 4-9% respectively. NOx is the precursor of nitrates which ultimately form aerosols that are noxious to human health. In this study, COPERT (Computer program to Calculate Emissions from Road Transport) was used for vehicular emission estimation in Islamabad. COPERT is a windows based program which is developed for the calculation of emissions from the road transport sector. The emissions were calculated for the year of 2016 include pollutants like CO, NOx, VOC, and PM and energy consumption. The different variable was input to the model for emission estimation including meteorological parameters, average vehicular trip length and respective time duration, fleet configuration, activity data, degradation factor, and fuel effect. The estimated emissions for CO, CH4, CO2, NOx, and PM10 were found to be 9814.2, 44.9, 279196.7, 3744.2 and 304.5 tons respectively.

Keywords: COPERT Model, emission estimation, PM10, vehicular emission

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Authors: Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt, Apurba Das, Joel Trudell, Keanne Russell

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In this presentation, we explore options for mitigating ice-jam flooding along the Athabasca River in western Canada. Not only flood hazard, expressed in this case as the probability of flood depths and extents being exceeded, but also flood risk, in which annual expected damages are calculated. Flood risk is calculated, which allows a cost-benefit analysis to be made so that decisions on the best mitigation options are not based solely on flood hazard but also on the costs related to flood damages and the benefits of mitigation. The river ice model is used to simulate extreme ice-jam flood events with which scenarios are run to determine flood exposure and damages in flood-prone areas along the river. We will concentrate on three mitigation options – the placement of a dike, artificial breakage of the ice cover along the river, the installation of an ice-control structure, and the construction of a reservoir. However, any mitigation option is not totally failsafe. For example, dikes can still be overtopped and breached, and ice jams may still occur in areas of the river where ice covers have been artificially broken up. Hence, for all options, it is recommended that zoning of building developments away from greater flood hazard areas be upheld. Flood mitigation can have a negative effect of giving inhabitants a false sense of security that flooding may not happen again, leading to zoning policies being relaxed. (Text adapted from Lindenschmidt [2022] "Ice Destabilization Study - Phase 2", submitted to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta, Canada)

Keywords: ice jam, flood hazard, flood risk river ice modelling, flood risk

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Authors: Fentie, Belay, Mulat

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In today’s high decrement figure of the global economy, nations are facing many economic, social and political challenges; universally, there is high distress of food and other survival insecurity. Further, as a result of conflict, natural disasters, and leadership influences, youths are existentially less empowered and unemployed, especially in developing countries. With this situation to handle well challenges, it’s important to search, investigate and deliberate about youth, unemployment, empowerment and possible management fashions, as youths have the potential to carry and fight such battles. The method adopted is a qualitative analysis of secondary data sources in youth empowerment, unemployment and development as an inclusive framework. Youth unemployment is a major development headache for most African countries. In Ethiopia, following weak youth empowerment, youth unemployment has increased from time to time, and quality education and organization linkage matter as an important constraint. As a management challenge, although accessibility of quality education for Ethiopian youths is an important constraint, the country's youths are fortified deceptively and harassed in a vicious political challenge in their struggle to fetch social and economic changes in the country. Further, thousands of youths are inactivated, criminalized and lost their lives and this makes youths hopeless anger in their lives and pushes them further to be exposed for addictions, prostitution, violence, and illegitimate migrations. This youth challenge wasn’t only destined for African countries; rather, indeed, it was a global burden and headed as a global agenda. As a resolution, the construction of a healthy education system can create independent youths who acquire success and accelerate development. Developing countries should ensue development in the cultivation of empowerment tools through long and short-term education, implementing policy in action, diminishing wide-ranging gaps of (religion, ethnicity & region), and take high youth population as an opportunity and empower them. Further managing and empowering youths to be involved in decision-making, giving political weight and building a network of organizations to easily access job opportunities are important suggestions to save youths in work, for both increasing their income and the country's food security balance.

Keywords: development, Ethiopia, management, unemployment, youth empowerment

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Authors: Ejikeme Ugiri

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In an executive summary, UNESCO describes Framework for Cultural Statistics as a tool for organizing cultural statistics both nationally and internationally. This is based on conceptual foundation and a common understanding of culture that will enable the measurement of a wide range of cultural expressions. This means therefore that cultural expression in whatever guise has the potentiality of contributing reasonably to the development of a given society. The paper looked into the various tangible and intangible cultures in Imo State of Nigeria. Due to government’s insensitivity, there is need to remind ourselves of the need to pay adequate attention to the cultural heritage bequeathed to us by our forefathers for the sake of posterity. Documenting this information in written form therefore becomes imperative. The study concludes that culture if developed, could reasonably contribute to economic and social growth of the society.

Keywords: culture, detonation, development, statistics

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Authors: Shreya Banerjee, Roshmi Sen, Subrata Chattopadhyay

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Urbanization during the second half of the last century has created many serious environment related issues leading to global warming and climate change. India is not an exception as the country is also facing the problems of global warming and urban heat islands (UHI) in all the major metropolises. This paper discusses the effect of different housing cluster layouts, site geometry, and geometry of urban street canyons on the urban heat island profile. The study is carried out using the three dimensional microclimatic computational fluid dynamics model ENVI-met version 3.1. Simulation models are done for a typical summer day of 21st June, 2015 in four different residential neighborhoods in the city of Kolkata which predominantly belongs to Warm-Humid Monsoon Climate. The results show the changing pattern of urban heat island profile with respect to different clustering layouts, geometry, and morphology of urban street canyons. The comparison between the four neighborhoods shows that different microclimatic variables are strongly dependant on the neighborhood layout pattern and geometry. The inferences obtained from this study can be indicative towards the formulation of neighborhood design by-laws that will attenuate the urban heat island effect.

Keywords: urban heat island, neighborhood morphology, site microclimate, ENVI-met, numerical analysis

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Authors: Dheyaa Hussein, Peter Armstrong

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The phenomenon of visual disorder is prominent in contemporary townscapes. This paper provides a theoretical framework for the assessment of visual consistency in townscape in order to achieve more favourable outcomes for users. In this paper, visual consistency refers to the amount of similarity between adjacent components of townscape. The paper investigates parameters which relate to visual consistency in townscape, explores the relationships between them and highlights their significance. The paper uses arithmetic methods from outside the domain of urban design to enable the establishment of an objective approach of assessment which considers subjective indicators including users’ preferences. These methods involve the standard of deviation, colour distance and the distance between points. The paper identifies urban space as a key representative of the visual parameters of townscape. It focuses on its two components, geometry and colour in the evaluation of the visual consistency of townscape. Accordingly, this article proposes four measurements. The first quantifies the number of vertices, which are points in the three-dimensional space that are connected, by lines, to represent the appearance of elements. The second evaluates the visual surroundings of urban space through assessing the location of their vertices. The last two measurements calculate the visual similarity in both vertices and colour in townscape by the calculation of their variation using methods including standard of deviation and colour difference. The proposed quantitative assessment is based on users’ preferences towards these measurements. The paper offers a theoretical basis for a practical tool which can alter the current understanding of architectural form and its application in urban space. This tool is currently under development. The proposed method underpins expert subjective assessment and permits the establishment of a unified framework which adds to creativity by the achievement of a higher level of consistency and satisfaction among the citizens of evolving townscapes.

Keywords: townscape, urban design, visual assessment, visual consistency

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Authors: Habiba Ben Abdessalem

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The emergence of giant set of textual data was the push that has encouraged researchers to invest in this field. The purpose of textual data analysis methods is to facilitate access to such type of data by providing various graphic visualizations. Applying these methods requires a corpus pretreatment step, whose standards are set according to the objective of the problem studied. This step determines the forms list contained in contingency table by keeping only those information carriers. This step may, however, lead to noisy contingency tables, so the use of wavelet denoising function. The validity of the proposed approach is tested on a text database that offers economic and political events in Tunisia for a well definite period.

Keywords: textual data, wavelet, denoising, contingency table

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Authors: Farooq Anwar, Gokhan Zengin, Khalid M. Alkharfy

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Wild rice (Zizania sp.) is an annual cross-pollinated, emergent, aquatic grass that mainly grows naturally in the Great Lakes region of the North America. The nutritional quality attributes of wild rice are superior to the conventional brown rice (Oryza sativa L.) in terms of higher contents of important minerals (especially phosphorous, potassium, magnesium and calcium), B-complex vitamins, vitamin E and amino acids. In some parts of the world, wild rice is valued as a primary food source. The lipids content of wild rice is reported to be low in the range of 0.7 and 1.1%, however, the lipids are recognized as a rich source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (including linoleic and α-linolenic acid) and phytosterols in addition to containing reasonably good amount of tocols. Besides, wild rice is reported to contain an appreciable amount of high-value compounds such as phenolics with antioxidant properties. Presence of such nutritional bioactives contributes towards medicinal benefits and multiple biological activities of this specialty rice. The present lecture is mainly designed to focus on the detailed nutritional attributes, profile of high-value bioactive components and pharmaceutical/biological activities of wild rice leading to exploring functional food and nutraceutical potential of this food commodity.

Keywords: alpha-linolenic acid, phenolics, phytosterols, tocols, wild rice lipids

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Authors: Yash Bingi, Yiqiao Yin

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Reduction of child mortality is an ongoing struggle and a commonly used factor in determining progress in the medical field. The under-5 mortality number is around 5 million around the world, with many of the deaths being preventable. In light of this issue, Cardiotocograms (CTGs) have emerged as a leading tool to determine fetal health. By using ultrasound pulses and reading the responses, CTGs help healthcare professionals assess the overall health of the fetus to determine the risk of child mortality. However, interpreting the results of the CTGs is time-consuming and inefficient, especially in underdeveloped areas where an expert obstetrician is hard to come by. Using a support vector machine (SVM) and oversampling, this paper proposed a model that classifies fetal health with an accuracy of 99.59%. To further explain the CTG measurements, an algorithm based on Randomized Input Sampling for Explanation ((RISE) of Black-box Models was created, called Feature Alteration for explanation of Black Box Models (FAB), and compared the findings to Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) and Local Interpretable Model Agnostic Explanations (LIME). This allows doctors and medical professionals to classify fetal health with high accuracy and determine which features were most influential in the process.

Keywords: machine learning, fetal health, gradient boosting, support vector machine, Shapley values, local interpretable model agnostic explanations

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Authors: Liang Jiansheng, Zhu Wei

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Light and brassinosteroids are essential external and internal cues for plant survival. Although the coordination of light with phytohormone signals is crucial for plant growth and development, the molecular connection between light and brassinosteroid signaling during root soil penetration remains elusive. Here, we reveal that light-stabilized RACK1 couples a brassinosteroid signaling cascade to drive cell division in root meristems. RACK1 family scaffold proteins positively regulate light-induced the promotion of root elongation during soil penetration. Under the light condition, RACK1A interacts with both phyB and SPA1, then reinforces the phyB-SPA1 association to accumulate its abundance in roots. In response to brassinosteroid signals, RACK1A competes with BKI1 to attenuate the BRI1-BKI1 interaction, thereby leading to activating BRI1 actions in root development. Furthermore, RACK1A binds to BES1 to repress its DNA binding activity toward the target gene CYCD3;1. This ultimately allows to release the inhibition of CYCD3;1 transcription, and promotes cell division during root growth. Our study illustrates a new mechanistic model of how plants engage scaffold proteins in transducing light information to facilitate brassinosteroid signaling for root growth in the soil.

Keywords: root growth, cell division, light signaling, brassinosteroid signaling, soil penetration, scaffold protein, RACK1

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Authors: Felipe Riveros, Ricardo Alvarez, Claudia Rahmann, Rodrigo Moreno

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Around the world, many countries have committed to a decarbonization of their electricity system. Under this global drive, converter-interfaced generators (CIG) such as wind and photovoltaic generation appear as cornerstones to achieve these energy targets. Despite its benefits, an increasing use of CIG brings several technical challenges in power systems, especially from a stability viewpoint. Among the key differences are limited short circuit current capacity, inertia-less characteristic of CIG, and response times within the electromagnetic timescale. Along with the integration of CIG into the power system, one enabling technology for the energy transition towards low-carbon power systems is battery energy storage systems (BESS). Because of the flexibility that BESS provides in power system operation, its integration allows for mitigating the variability and uncertainty of renewable energies, thus optimizing the use of existing assets and reducing operational costs. Another characteristic of BESS is that they can also support power system stability by injecting reactive power during the fault, providing short circuit currents, and delivering fast frequency response. However, most methodologies for sizing and allocating BESS in power systems are based on economic aspects and do not exploit the benefits that BESSs can offer to system stability. In this context, this paper presents a methodology for determining the optimal allocation of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in weak power systems with high levels of CIG. Unlike traditional economic approaches, this methodology incorporates stability constraints to allocate BESS, aiming to mitigate instability issues arising from weak grid conditions with low short-circuit levels. The proposed methodology offers valuable insights for power system engineers and planners seeking to maintain grid stability while harnessing the benefits of renewable energy integration. The methodology is validated in the reduced Chilean electrical system. The results show that integrating BESS into a power system with high levels of CIG with stability criteria contributes to decarbonizing and strengthening the network in a cost-effective way while sustaining system stability. This paper potentially lays the foundation for understanding the benefits of integrating BESS in electrical power systems and coordinating their placements in future converter-dominated power systems.

Keywords: battery energy storage, power system stability, system strength, weak power system

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Authors: Saud Al Taj

Abstract:

Employer branding is considered as a useful tool for addressing the global-local problem facing complex organisations that have operations scattered across the globe and face challenges of dealing with the local environment alongside. Despite being an established field of study within the Western developed world, there is little empirical evidence concerning the relevance of employer branding to global companies that operate in the under-developed economies. This paper fills this gap by gaining rich insight into the implementation of employer branding programs in a foreign multinational operating in Pakistan dealing with the global-local problem. The study is qualitative in nature and employs semi-structured and focus group interviews with senior/middle managers and local frontline employees to deeply examine the phenomenon in case organisation. Findings suggest that authenticity is required in employer brands to enable them to respond to the local needs thereby leading to the resolution of the global-local problem. However, the role of signaling theory is key to the development of authentic employer brands as it stresses on the need to establish an efficient and effective signaling environment wherein signals travel in both directions (from signal designers to receivers and backwards) and facilitate firms with the global-local problem. The paper also identifies future avenues of research for the employer branding field.

Keywords: authenticity, counter-signals, employer branding, global-local problem, signaling theory

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Authors: Federico Pittino, Thomas Arnold

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The shredding of waste materials is a key step in the recycling process towards the circular economy. Industrial shredders for waste processing operate in very harsh operating conditions, leading to the need for frequent maintenance of critical components. Maintenance optimization is particularly important also to increase the machine’s efficiency, thereby reducing the operational costs. In this work, a monitoring system has been developed and deployed on an industrial shredder located at a waste recycling plant in Austria. The machine has been monitored for one year, and methods for predictive maintenance have been developed for two key components: the cutting knives and the drive belt. The large amount of collected data is leveraged by statistical machine learning techniques, thereby not requiring very detailed knowledge of the machine or its live operating conditions. The results show that, despite the wide range of operating conditions, a reliable estimate of the optimal time for maintenance can be derived. Moreover, the trade-off between the cost of maintenance and the increase in power consumption due to the wear state of the monitored components of the machine is investigated. This work proves the benefits of real-time monitoring system for the efficient operation of industrial shredders.

Keywords: predictive maintenance, circular economy, industrial shredder, cost optimization, statistical machine learning

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Authors: Kayode Ilesanmi Ebenezer Bowale, Dominic Azuh, Busayo Aderounmu, Alfred Ilesanmi

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There has been a debate among scholars and policymakers about the effects of oil exploration and production on industrial development. In Nigeria, there were many reforms resulting in an increase in crude oil production in the recent past. There is a controversy on the importance of oil production in the development of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. Some scholars claim that oil has been a blessing to the development of the manufacturing sector, while others regard it as a curse. The objective of the study is to determine if empirical analysis supports the presence of Dutch Disease and de-industrialisation in the Nigerian manufacturing sector between 2019- 2022. The study employed data that were sourced from World Development Indicators, Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, and the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin on manufactured exports, manufacturing employment, agricultural employment, and service employment in line with the theory of Dutch Disease using the unit root test to establish their level of stationarity, Engel and Granger cointegration test to check their long-run relationship. Autoregressive. Distributed Lagged bound test was also used. The Vector Error Correction Model will be carried out to determine the speed of adjustment of the manufacturing export and resource movement effect. The results showed that the Nigerian manufacturing industry suffered from both direct and indirect de-industrialisation over the period. The findings also revealed that there was resource movement as labour moved away from the manufacturing sector to both the oil sector and the services sector. The study concluded that there was the presence of Dutch Disease in the manufacturing industry, and the problem of de-industrialisation led to the crowding out of manufacturing output. The study recommends that efforts should be made to diversify the Nigerian economy. Furthermore, a conducive business environment should be provided to encourage more involvement of the private sector in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors of the economy.

Keywords: Dutch disease, resource movement, manufacturing sector performance, Nigeria

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Authors: Yuliya Markava

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The laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) is widely common surgical procedure, which has become an alternative for patients who are not satisfied with the performance of other correction methods. A high level of patient satisfaction functional outcomes after refractive surgery confirms the high reliability and safety of LASIK and provides a significant improvement in the quality of life and social adaptation. Purpose: To perform clinical analysis of the results of correction made to the excimer laser system SCHWIND AMARIS 500E in patients with different types of refractive anomalies. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of 1581 operations (812 patients): 413 males (50.86%) and 399 females (49.14%) at the age from 18 to 47 years with different types of ametropia. All operations were performed on excimer laser SCHWIND AMARIS 500E in the LASIK procedure. Formation of the corneal flap was made by mechanical microkeratome SCHWIND. Results: Analyzing the structure of refractive anomalies: The largest number of interventions accounted for myopia: 1505 eyes (95.2%), of which about a low myopia: 706 eyes (44.7%), moderate myopia: 562 eyes (35.5 %), high myopia: eyes 217 (13.7%) and supermyopia: 20 eyes (1.3%). Hyperopia was 0.7% (11 eyes), mixed astigmatism: 4.1% (65 eyes). The efficiency was 80% (in patients with supermyopia) to 91.6% and 95.4% (in groups with myopia low and moderate, respectively). Uncorrected visual acuity average values before and after laser operation was in groups: a low myopia 0.18 (up 0.05 to 0.31) and 0.80 (up 0.60 to 1.0); moderate myopia 0.08 (up 0.03 to 0.13) and 0.87 ( up 0.74 to 1.0); high myopia 0.05 (up 0.02 to 0.08) and 0.83 (up 0.66 to 1.0); supermyopia 0.03 (up 0.02 to 0.04) and 0.59 ( up 0.34 to 0.84); hyperopia 0.27 (up 0.16 to 0.38) and 0.57 (up 0.27 to 0.87); mixed astigmatism of 0.35 (up 0.19 to 0.51) and 0.69 (up 0.44 to 0.94). In all cases, after LASIK indicators uncorrected visual acuity significantly increased. Reoperation was 4.43%. Significance: Clinical results of refractive surgery at the excimer laser system SCHWIND AMARIS 500E in different ametropia correction is characterized by high efficiency.

Keywords: effectiveness of laser correction, LASIK, refractive anomalies, surgical treatment

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Authors: Syed W. Hasan, Zhiqun Tian

Abstract:

Wet spinning provides a facile and economic route to fabricate graphene nanofibers (GFs) on mass scale. Nevertheless, the pristine GFs exhibit significantly low electrical and mechanical properties owing to stacked graphene sheets and weak inter-atomic bonding. In this report, we present highly conductive Ag-decorated-GFs (Ag/GFs). The SEM micrographs show Ag nanoparticles (NPs) (dia ~10 nm) are homogeneously distributed throughout the cross-section of the fiber. The Ag NPs provide a conductive network for the electrons flow raising the conductivity to 1.8(10^4) S/m which is 4 times higher than the pristine GFs. Our results surpass the conductivities of graphene fibers doped with CNTs, Nanocarbon, fullerene, and Cu. The chemical and structural attributes of Ag/GFs are further elucidated through XPS, AFM and Raman spectroscopy.

Keywords: Ag nanoparticles, Conductive fibers, Graphene, Wet spinning

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Authors: Fatemeh Ghaemi, Padideh Feyzi, Zohreh Dortaj

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Cancer is one of the common diseases that may cause death due to malignancy. The physical problems of cancer patients can have an impact on the psychological and social aspects of their lives. Depression is one of these problems that threaten the lives of these patients and can also reduce their quality of life. Helping patients with cancer to find meaning in life can increase their level of health and improve their quality of life. This study thus examines the effectiveness of group logotherapy on the depression and quality of life of women with cancer. Depression was measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and quality of life was measured using Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQL) with acceptable and reliable indicators in the pre-test and post-test stages. The experimental group received group therapy in eight, sixty-minute sessions and the control group did not receive any intervention. After collecting the questionnaires, the mean and standard deviations were used to describe the data and the statistical method of multivariate analysis of covariance was used at the significant level (P≤0.05). The results were analyzed using SPSS(22). The results showed that there was a significant difference between post-test depression scores in the experimental group and the control group. Also, there was a significant difference between the post-test scores of quality of life and its components (psychological, physical, social and environmental health) in the experimental group and control group. The findings of this study showed the effectiveness of group logotherapy in decreasing depression and improving the quality of life of cancer patients. By focusing the minds of the people on the present and changing the attitude of the human being towards themselves, life and environment can help the depressed people, and by influencing the individual's view of himself, accepting responsibility, accepting life with purpose, paying attention to life uniformly, it allows a person to maintain his quality of life even with cancer. Therefore, it is recommended that this approach be used as a group intervention in hospitals and care units for cancer patients and even in people with certain diseases.

Keywords: cancer, depression, group psychiatry, quality of life

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Authors: S. Roy, R. Rekha, K. Sriram, G. Subhadra, R. Johana

Abstract:

Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death in most industrialized countries. Many chemical drugs are available in the market which targets different receptor proteins related to cardiovascular diseases. Of late the traditional herbal drugs are safer when compared to chemical drugs because of its side effects. However, many herbal remedies used in treating cardiovascular diseases have not undergone scientific assessment to prove its pharmacological activities. There are many natural compounds, nature derived and Natural product mimic compounds are available which are in the market as approved drug. In the most of the cases drug activity at the molecular level are not known. Here we have categorized those compounds with our experimental compounds in different classes based on the structural similarity and physicochemical properties, using a tool, Chemmine and has attempted to understand the mechanism of the action of a experimental compound, which are clustered with Simvastatin, Lovastatin, Mevastatin and Pravastatin. Target protein molecule for Simvastatin, Lovastatin, Mevastatin and Pravastatin is HMG-CoA reductase, so we concluded that the experimental compound may be able to bind to the same target. Molecular docking and atomic interaction studies with simvastatin and our experimental compound were compared. A pharmacophore modeling was done based on the experimental compound and HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor.

Keywords: molecular docking, physicochemical properties, pharmacophore modeling structural similarity, pravastatin

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Authors: Esra Bora, Alper Omeroglu, Zeynep Pelin Polat, Oguzhan Kara, Fatih Akdogan, Sema Ucak Basat

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Hyponatremia is one of the most encountered electrolyte imbalance among all medical fields. It has a wide range of symptoms as well as complications from fatigue to loss of consciousness. Although a lot of factors can cause low sodium levels in serum, combining specific medications can lead to severe hyponatremia in a rapid onset which can cause high mortality and morbidity. The objective of this case report was to underline that prescribing specific medications disregarding their side effects can cause this common electrolyte imbalance but in a more severe manner. In this case report, we present a 46-year-old male patient with a serum sodium level of 104 mEq/L who consumed hydrochlorothiazide for hypertension and was under treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for major depression. The patient had tonic-clonic seizures at the second hour of the treatment and intubation was needed due to loss of consciousness and hypoxia. After proper replacement of sodium with hypertonic solutions in intensive care unit for nine days, extubation indicated. Even in healthy young males, hyponatremia due to two separately prescribed medications can lead life-threatening hyponatremia. Physicians should be aware of the side effects of diuretics, especially hydrochlorothiazides and SSRIs and their combinations.

Keywords: diuretics, hydrochlorothiazide, hyponatremia, SSRI

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