Search results for: Alexandria library

Authors: Saqib Ali, Man-Qun Wang

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The Japanese pine sawyer, Monochamus alternatus Hope (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), is a major pest of pines and it is also the key vector of the exotic pinewood nematode in China. In the present study, we cloned, expressed, and purified a chemosensory protein (CSP) in M. alternatus. We surveyed its expression in various developmental stages of male and female adult tissues and determined its binding affinities for different pine volatiles using a competitive binding fluorescence assay. A CSP known as CSP5 in M. alternatus was obtained from an antennal cDNA library and expressed in Escherichia coli. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction results indicated that the CSP5 gene was mainly expressed in male and female antennae. Competitive binding assays were performed to test the binding affinity of recombinant CSP5 to 13 odour molecules of pine volatiles. The results showed that CSP5 showed very strong binding abilities to myrcene, (+)-β-pinene, and (−)-isolongifolene, whereas the volatiles 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, p-cymene, and (+)-limonene oxide have relatively weak binding affinity at pH 5.0. Three volatiles myrcene, (+)-β-pinene, and (−)-isolongifolene may play crucial roles in CSP5 binding with ligands, but this needs further study for confirmation. The sensitivity of insect to host plant volatiles can effectively be used to control and monitor the population through mass trapping as part of integrated pest management programs.

Keywords: olfactory-specific protein, volatiles, competitive binding assay, expression characteristics, qPCR

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Authors: Pablo Cardozo Herrera

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In a dynamic market of Information Technology (IT) Service and with high quality demands and high performance requirements in decreasing costs, it is imperative that IT companies invest organizational effort in order to increase the effectiveness of their Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) processes through the improvement of ITSM project management and through solid support to the strategic decision-making process of IT directors. In this article, the author presents an analysis of common issues of IT companies around the world, with strategic needs of information unmet that provoke their ITSM processes and projects management that do not achieve the effectiveness and efficiency expected of their results. In response to the issues raised, the author proposes a framework consisting of an innovative theoretical framework model of ITSM management and a technological solution aligned to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) good practices guidance and ISO/IEC 20000-1 requirements. The article describes a research that proves the proposed framework is able to integrate, manage and coordinate in a holistic way, measurable and auditable, all ITSM processes and projects of IT organization and utilize the effectiveness assessment achieved for their strategic decision-making process increasing the process maturity level and improving the capacity of an efficient management.

Keywords: innovation in IT services, ITSM processes, ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000-1, IT service management, IT service excellence

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Authors: Shazia Mannan, Zunera Khalid, Hammad-Ul-Mubeen

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Wingless type Mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) Integration site-10B (Wnt10B) is an important member of the Wnt protein family that functions as cellular messenger in paracrine manner. Aberrant Wnt10B activity is the cause of several abnormalities including cancers of breast, cervix, liver, gastric tract, esophagus, pancreas as well as physiological problems like obesity, and osteoporosis. The objective of this study was to determine the possible inhibitors against aberrant expression of Wnt10B in order to prevent and treat the physiological disorders associated with it. Wnt10B3D structure was predicted by using comparative modeling and then analyzed by PROCHECK, Verify3D, and Errat. The model having 84.54% quality value was selected and acylated to satisfy the hydrophobic nature of Wnt10B. For search of inhibitors, virtual screening was performed on Natural Products (NP) database. The compounds were filtered and ligand-based screening was performed using the antagonist for mouse Wnt-3A. This resulted in a library of 272 unique compounds having most potent drug like activities for Wnt-4. Out of the 271 molecules analyzed three small molecules ZINC35442871, ZINC85876388, and ZINC00754234 having activity against Wnt4 abbarent expression were found common through docking experiment of Wnt10B. It is concluded that the three molecules ZINC35442871, ZINC85876388, and ZINC00754234 can be considered as lead compounds for performing further drug designing experiments against aberrant Wnt expressions.

Keywords: Wnt10B inhibitors, comparative computational studies, proto-oncogene, molecular docking

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Authors: Essam Mansour

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The key purpose of this study is to show information-seeking behaviour of Kuwaiti Judges (KJs). Being one of the few studies about the information needs and information-seeking behaviour conducted in Arab and developing countries, this study is a pioneer one among many studies conducted in information seeking, especially with this significant group of information users. The authors tried to investigate this seeking behavior in terms of KJs' thoughts, perceptions, motivations, techniques, preferences, tools and barriers met when seeking information. The authors employed a questionnaire, with a response rate 77.2 percent. This study showed that most of KJs were likely to be older, educated and with a work experience ranged from new to old experience. There is a statistically reliable significant difference between KJs' demographic characteristics and some sources of information, such as books, encyclopedias, references and mass media. KJs were using information moderately to make a decision, to be in line with current events, to collect statistics and to make a specific/general research. The office and home were the most frequent location KJs were accessing information from. KJs' efficiency level of the English language is described to be moderately good, and a little number of them confirmed that their efficiency level of French was not bad. The assistance provided by colleagues, followed by consultants, translators, sectaries and librarians were found to be most strong types of assistance needed when seeking information. Mobile apps, followed by PCs, information networks (the Internet) and information databases were the highest technology tool used by KJs. Printed materials, followed by non-printed and audiovisual materials were the most preferred information formats KJs use. The use of languages, the recency of information and the place of information, the deficit role of the library to deliver information were at least significant barriers to KJs when seeking information.

Keywords: information users, information-seeking behaviour, information needs, judges, Kuwait

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Authors: Fatma Refaat Ahmed, Sally Mohamed Farghaly

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Context: Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses often face pressure and constraints in their work, leading to the rationing of care when demands exceed available time and resources. Observations suggest that ICU nurses are frequently distracted from their core nursing roles by non-core tasks. This study aims to provide evidence on ICU nurses' multitasking activities and explore the association between nurses' personal and clinical characteristics and their time allocation. Research Aim: The aim of this study is to quantify the time spent by ICU nurses on multitasking activities and investigate the relationship between their personal and clinical characteristics and time allocation. Methodology: A self-observation form utilizing the "Diary" recording method was used to record the number of tasks performed by ICU nurses and the time allocated to each task category. Nurses also reported on the distractions encountered during their nursing activities. A convenience sample of 60 ICU nurses participated in the study, with each nurse observed for one nursing shift (6 hours), amounting to a total of 360 hours. The study was conducted in two ICUs within a university teaching hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. Findings: The results showed that ICU nurses completed 2,730 direct patient-related tasks and 1,037 indirect tasks during the 360-hour observation period. Nurses spent an average of 33.65 minutes on ventilator care-related tasks, 14.88 minutes on tube care-related tasks, and 10.77 minutes on inpatient care-related tasks. Additionally, nurses spent an average of 17.70 minutes on indirect care tasks per hour. The study identified correlations between nursing time and nurses' personal and clinical characteristics. Theoretical Importance: This study contributes to the existing research on ICU nurses' multitasking activities and their relationship with personal and clinical characteristics. The findings shed light on the significant time spent by ICU nurses on direct care for mechanically ventilated patients and the distractions that require attention from ICU managers. Data Collection: Data were collected using self-observation forms completed by participating ICU nurses. The forms recorded the number of tasks performed, the time allocated to each task category, and any distractions encountered during nursing activities. Analysis Procedures: The collected data were analyzed to quantify the time spent on different tasks by ICU nurses. Correlations were also examined between nursing time and nurses' personal and clinical characteristics. Question Addressed: This study addressed the question of how ICU nurses allocate their time across multitasking activities and whether there is an association between nurses' personal and clinical characteristics and time allocation. Conclusion: The findings of this study emphasize the need for a lean evaluation of ICU nurses' activities to identify and address potential gaps in patient care and distractions. Implementing lean techniques can improve efficiency, safety, clinical outcomes, and satisfaction for both patients and nurses, ultimately enhancing the quality of care and organizational performance in the ICU setting.

Keywords: motion study, ICU nurse, lean, nursing time, multitasking activities

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Authors: Amir Hossein Ashari, Sedighe Erfan Manesh

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When investigating Iranian traditional and historical urban development, such as that seen in Shiraz, our attention is drawn to mosques as a focal point. Vakil Mosque in Shiraz is completely consistent, coordinated and integrated with the Bazaar, square and school. This is a significant example of traditional urban development. The position of the mosque in the most important urban joint near bazaar in a way that it is considered part of the bazaar structure are factors that have given it social, political, and economic roles in addition to the original religious role. These are among characteristics of sustainable development. The mosque has had an important effect in formation of the city because it is connected to main gates. In terms of access, the mosque has different main and peripheral access paths from different parts of the city. The courtyard of the mosque was located next to the main elements of the city so that it was considered as an urban open space, which made it a more active and more dynamic place. This study is carried out via library and field research with the purpose of finding strategies for taking advantage of useful features of the mosque in traditional urban development. These features include its role as a gathering center for people and city in sustainable urban development. Mosque can be used as a center for enhancing social interactions and creating a sense of association that leads to sustainable social space. These can act as a model which leads us to sustainable cities in terms of social and economic factors.

Keywords: mosque, traditional urban development, sustainable social space, Vakil Mosque, Shiraz

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Authors: Nidhi Chadha, A. K. Tiwari, Marilyn D. Milton, Anil K. Mishra

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Translocator protein (18 kDa) TSPO is highly expressed during microglia activation in neuroinflammation. Although a number of PET ligands have been developed for the visualization of activated microglia, one of the advantageous approaches is to develop potential optical imaging (OI) probe. Our study involves computational screening, synthesis and evaluation of TSPO ligand through various imaging modalities namely PET/SPECT/Optical. The initial computational screening involves pharmacophore modeling from the library designing having oxo-benzooxazol-3-yl-N-phenyl-acetamide groups and synthesis for visualization of efficacy of these compounds as multimodal imaging probes. Structure modeling of monomer, Ala147Thr mutated, parallel and anti-parallel TSPO dimers was performed and docking analysis was performed for distinct binding sites. Computational analysis showed pattern of variable binding profile of known diagnostic ligands and NBMP via interactions with conserved residues along with TSPO’s natural polymorphism of Ala147→Thr, which showed alteration in the binding affinity due to considerable changes in tertiary structure. Preliminary in vitro binding studies shows binding affinity in the range of 1-5 nm and selectivity was also certified by blocking studies. In summary, this skeleton was found to be potential probe for TSPO imaging due to ease in synthesis, appropriate lipophilicity and reach to specific region of brain.

Keywords: TSPO, molecular modeling, imaging, docking

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Authors: Mina Hojat Ansari, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani, Mohammad Reza Fattahi, Ali Reza Safarpour

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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common bowel disorder which is usually diagnosed through the abdominal pain, fecal irregularities and bloating. Alteration in the intestinal microbial composition is implicating to inflammatory and functional bowel disorders which is recently also noted as an IBS feature. Owing to the potential importance of microbiota implication in both efficiencies of the treatment and prevention of the diseases, we examined the association between the intestinal microbiota and different bowel patterns in a cohort of subjects with IBS and healthy controls. Fresh fecal samples were collected from a total of 50 subjects, 30 of whom met the Rome IV criteria for IBS and 20 Healthy control. Total DNA was extracted and library preparation was conducted following the standard protocol for small whole genome sequencing. The pooled libraries sequenced on an Illumina Nextseq platform with a 2 × 150 paired-end read length and obtained sequences were analyzed using several bioinformatics programs. The majority of sequences obtained in the current study assigned to bacteria. However, our finding highlighted the significant microbial taxa variation among the studied groups. The result, therefore, suggests a significant association of the microbiota with symptoms and bowel characteristics in patients with IBS. These alterations in fecal microbiota could be exploited as a biomarker for IBS or its subtypes and suggest the modification of the microbiota might be integrated into prevention and treatment strategies for IBS.

Keywords: irritable bowel syndrome, intestinal microbiota, small whole genome sequencing, fecal samples, Illumina

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Authors: Jiang Yuqi

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Aims: The aim is to analyze the facilitators and barriers of family resilience in cancer patients based on the theoretical domain framework, provide a basis for intervention in the family resilience of cancer patients, and identify the progress and enlightenment of existing intervention projects. Methods: NVivo software was used to code the influencing factors using the framework of 14 theoretical domains as primary nodes; secondary nodes were then refined using thematic analysis, and specific influencing factors were aggregated and analyzed for evaluator reliability. Data sources: PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CNKI, and Wanfang (search dates: from construction to November 2023). Results: A total of 35 papers were included, with 142 coding points across 14 theoretical domains and 38 secondary nodes. The three most relevant theoretical domains are social influences (norms), the environment and resources, and emotions (mood). The factors with the greatest impact were family support, mood, confidence and beliefs, external support, quality of life, economic circumstances, family adaptation, coping styles with illness, and management. Conclusion: The factors influencing family resilience in cancer patients cover most of the theoretical domains in the Theoretical Domains Framework and are cross-cutting, multi-sourced, and complex. Further in-depth exploration of the key factors influencing family resilience is necessary to provide a basis for intervention research.

Keywords: cancer, survivors, family resilience, theoretical domains framework, literature review

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Authors: Kate Benedicta Amenador, Dianjian Wang, Bright Nkrumah

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This extensive bibliometric study explores the dynamic influence of artificial intelligence in the field of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) between 2012 and 2024. The study, which examined 4,500 articles from Google Scholar, Modern Language Association Linguistics Abstracts, Web of Science, Scopus, Researchgate, and library genesis databases, indicates that AI integration in EFL is on the rise. This notable increase is ascribed to a variety of transformative events, including increased academic funding for higher education and the COVID-19 epidemic. The results of the study identify leading contributors, prominent authors, publishers and sources, with the United States, China and the United Kingdom emerging as key contributors. The co-occurrence analysis of key terms reveals five clusters highlighting patterns in AI-enhanced language instruction and learning, including evaluation strategies, educational technology, learning motivation, EFL teaching aspects, and learner feedback. The study also discusses the impact of various AIs in enhancing EFL writing skills with software such as Grammarly, Quilbot, and Chatgpt. The current study recognizes limitations in database selection and linguistic constraints. Nevertheless, the results provide useful insights for educators, researchers and policymakers, inspiring and guiding a cross-disciplinary collaboration and creative pedagogical techniques and approaches to teaching and learning in the future.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, bibliometrics study, VOSviewer visualization, English as a foreign language

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Montaha Al Yaari, Ayman Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

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Background: In spite of the fact that several language deficits, both internalizing and externalizing, have been documented in comorbidity with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and High Functioning Autism (HFA), there is a paucity of the continuity of these deficits in these individuals’ life span. Furthermore, findings regarding differences in the occurrence of these language deficits both in HFA and AS males and females are mixed. Aims: Systematic Literature Review and meta-analysis (SLR & Meta-analysis) provides a more valid indicator; that is why it has been used here to distinguish HFA and AS individuals in terms of (a) When does language deficits prevails in these individuals’ life and (b) in which gender the prevalence of these language deficits is seen more. Materials and Method: In this SLR & Meta-analysis, PubMed, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, SAGE journals online, WILEY online library, Google Scholar, CINAHL, EMBASE, Scopus, and ERIC databases in addition to unpublished literature were systematically searched between 1st of January 1980 and 30th of May 2022. Interpretations: Although overall sample sizes were small, the combined results do permit the tentative conclusion that prevalence of language deficits both in AS and HFA children and adults with more prevalence of phonological deficit in HFA male children and pragmatic deficits in AS male children. Further research should be separately undertaken in each linguistic branch to verify the occlusions of this study.

Keywords: high-functioning autism, Asperger syndrome, systematic literature review, meta-analysis

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Authors: Saurabh Farkya, Govinda Surampudi

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Optical Character Recognition is one of the current major research areas. This paper is focussed on recognition of Devanagari script and its sound generation. This Paper consists of two parts. First, Optical Character Recognition of Devnagari handwritten Script. Second, speech synthesis of the recognized text. This paper shows an implementation of support vector machines for the purpose of Devnagari Script recognition. The Support Vector Machines was trained with Multi Domain features; Transform Domain and Spatial Domain or Structural Domain feature. Transform Domain includes the wavelet feature of the character. Structural Domain consists of Distance Profile feature and Gradient feature. The Segmentation of the text document has been done in 3 levels-Line Segmentation, Word Segmentation, and Character Segmentation. The pre-processing of the characters has been done with the help of various Morphological operations-Otsu's Algorithm, Erosion, Dilation, Filtration and Thinning techniques. The Algorithm was tested on the self-prepared database, a collection of various handwriting. Further, Unicode was used to convert recognized Devnagari text into understandable computer document. The document so obtained is an array of codes which was used to generate digitized text and to synthesize Hindi speech. Phonemes from the self-prepared database were used to generate the speech of the scanned document using concatenation technique.

Keywords: Character Recognition (OCR), Text to Speech (TTS), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Library of Support Vector Machines (LIBSVM)

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Authors: Malihe Ahmadi

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Nowadays, stress, tension and neural problems are among the most important concerns of the present age. The environment plays key role on improving mental health and reducing stress of citizens. Establishing balance and appropriate relationship between city and natural environment is of the most important approaches of present century. Type of approach and logical planning for urban green spaces as one of the basic sections of integration with nature, not only plays key role on quality and efficiency of comprehensive urban planning; but also it increases the system of distributing social activities and happiness and lively property of urban environments that leads to permanent urban development. The main purpose of recovering urban identity is considering culture, history and human life style in past. This is a documentary-library research that evaluates the historical properties of Iranian gardens in compliance with climate condition. Results of this research reveal that in addition to following Iranian gardens from common principles of land lot, structure of flowers and plants, water, specific buildings during different ages, the role of climate at different urban areas is among the basics of determining method of designing green spaces and different buildings located at diverse areas i.e. Iranian gardens are a space for merging natural and artificial elements that has inseparable connection with semantic principles and guarantees different functions. Some of the necessities of designing present urban gardens are including: recognition and recreation.

Keywords: historical gardens, climate, properties of Iranian gardens, Iran

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Authors: Hatice Idil Gorgen

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This paper argues that discourses and textuality which is literary tool of Western ethnocentrism create aggressive foreign policy against the West by Non-West countries. Quasi-colonial experiences create an inferiority complex on officially or not colonized areas by reconstructing their identity. This reconstructed identity leads revolution and resistance movement to feel secure themselves as a psychological defense against colonial powers. Knowledge learned by successful implementation of discourses grants right to has power for authority, in addition to serving as a tool to reinforce power of authority by its cognitive traits on foreign policy decision making. The combination of these points contributes to shaping and then make predictable state policies. In the methodology of paper, secondary data was firstly reviewed through university library using a range of sources such as academic abstract, OPAC system, bibliography databases and internet search engines. The film of Argo was used to strengthen and materialize theoretical explanations as a metaphor. This paper aims to highlight the cumulative effects on the construction of the identity throughout embedded discourses by textuality. To demonstrate it by a metaphor, Argo will be used as a primary source for good story-telling about history. U.S-Iran hostage crisis is mainly applied by aiming to see foundations Iran’s behavior in the context of its revolutionary identity and major influences of actions of U.S on it.

Keywords: discourse, post colonialism, post modernism, objectivity

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Authors: Hongxin Zhao, Shibing Yang, Bingming Yi, Yi Ning

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Background: A few studies have found evidence that exposure to endogenous or postmenopausal exogenous estrogens may be associated with a lower prevalence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), but dispute over this association is ongoing due to inconsistent results reported by different studies. Objectives: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the association between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use and AMD. Methods: Relevant studies that assessed the association between HRT and AMD were searched through four databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, EMBASE) and reference lists of retrieved studies. Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment were conducted by three independent reviewers. The fixed-effect meta-analyses were performed to estimate the association between HRT ever-use and AMD by pooling risk ratio (RR) or odds ratio (OR) across studies. Results: The review identified 2 prospective and 7 cross-sectional studies with 93992 female participants that reported an estimate of the association between HRT ever-use and presence of early AMD or late AMD. Meta-analyses showed that there were no statistically significant associations between HRT ever-use and early AMD (pooled RR for cohort studies was 1.04, 95% CI 0.86 - 1.24; pooled OR for cross-sectional studies was 0.91, 95% CI 0.82 - 1.01). The pooled results from cross-sectional studies also showed no statistically significant association between HRT ever-use and late AMD (OR 1.01; 95% CI 0.89 - 1.15). Conclusions: The pooled effects from observational studies published to date indicate that HRT use is associated with neither early nor late AMD. Exposure to HRT may not protect women from developing AMD.

Keywords: hormone replacement therapy, age-related macular degeneration, meta-analysis, systematic review

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Authors: Nasibullina A., Leonov D.

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The ultrasonography method is actively used for the early diagnosis of various le-sions in the human body, including the mammary gland. The incidence of breast cancer has increased by more than 20%, and mortality by 14% since 2008. The correctness of the diagnosis often directly depends on the qualifications and expe-rience of a diagnostic medical sonographer. That is why special attention should be paid to the practical training of future specialists. Anatomical phantoms are ex-cellent teaching tools because they accurately imitate the characteristics of real hu-man tissues and organs. The purpose of this work is to create a breast phantom for practicing ultrasound diagnostic skills in grayscale and elastography imaging, as well as ultrasound-guided biopsy sampling. We used silicone-like compounds ranging from 3 to 17 on the Shore scale hardness units to simulate soft tissue and lesions. Impurities with experimentally selected concentrations were added to give the phantom the necessary attenuation and reflection parameters. We used 3D modeling programs and 3D printing with PLA plastic to create the casting mold. We developed a breast phantom with inclusions of varying shape, elasticity and echogenicity. After testing the created phantom in B-mode and elastography mode, we performed a survey asking 19 participants how realistic the sonograms of the phantom were. The results showed that the closest to real was the model of the cyst with 9.5 on the 0-10 similarity scale. Thus, the developed breast phantom can be used for ultrasonography, elastography, and ultrasound-guided biopsy training.

Keywords: breast ultrasound, mammary gland, mammography, training phantom, tissue-mimicking materials

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Authors: Farid Abbasi

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Geographical spaces have different relations with each other, and especially neighboring geographical spaces have more relations than other spaces due to their proximity. Meanwhile, various parameters affect the relationships between these spaces, such as environmental parameters. These parameters have become important in recent decades, affecting the political relations of the actors in neighboring spaces. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey, as two actors in the region, political relations seem to have been affected to some extent by environmental issues. Based on this, the present study tries to examine and analyze the political relations between the two countries from an environmental, and geopolitical perspective. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical. The method of data analysis is based on library and field information (questionnaire) in the form of content analysis and statistics through the Mick Mac software system and Scenario Wizard. The results of studies and analysis of theories show that 35 indicators, directly and indirectly, affect Iran-Turkey relations from an environmental, and geopolitical perspective, which are in the form of five dimensions (water resources, soil resources, Vegetation, climate, living species). Using the Mick Mac method, 9 factors were extracted as key factors affecting Iran-Turkey relations, and in the process of analyzing research scenarios, 10100 possible situations were presented by scenario wizard software. 9 strong scenarios with 3 scenarios of favorable and very favorable situations, 3 scenarios with moderate situations and also 3 scenarios with critical situations and catastrophes according to Iran-Turkey relations from the environmental aspect are presented.

Keywords: geopolitics, relations, Iran, Turkey, environment

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Authors: Sara S. Fouad, Omneya Messallam

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Egypt has countless prestigious buildings and diversity of cultural heritage which are located in many cities. Most of the researchers, archaeologists, stakeholders and governmental bodies are paying more attention to the big cities such as Cairo and Alexandria, due to the country’s centralization nature. However, there are other historic cities that are grossly neglected and in need of emergency conservation. For instance, Port Said which is a former colonial city that was established in nineteenth century located at the edge of the northeast Egyptian coast between the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal. This city is chosen because it presents one of the important Egyptian archaeological sites that archive Egyptian architecture of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The historic urban fabric is divided into three main districts; the Arab, the European (Al-Afrang), and Port Fouad. The European district is selected to be the research case study as it has culture diversity, significant buildings, and includes the largest number of the listed heritage buildings in Port Said. Based on questionnaires and interviews, since 2003 several initiative trials have been taken by Alliance Francaise, the National Organization for Urban Harmony (NOUH), some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and few number of community residents to highlight the important city legacy and protect it from being demolished. Unfortunately, the limitation of their participation in decision-making policies is considered a crucial threat facing sustainable heritage conservation. Therefore, encouraging the local community to participate in their architecture heritage conservation would create a self-confident one, capable of making decisions for the city’s future development. This paper aims to investigate the role of the local inhabitants in protecting their buildings heritage through listing the community level of participations twice (2012 and 2018) in preserving their heritage based on the ladder citizen participation approach. Also, it is to encourage community participation in order to promote city architecture conservation, heritage management, and sustainable development. The methodology followed in this empirical research involves using several data assembly methods such as structural observations, questionnaires, interviews, and mental mapping. The questionnaire was distributed among 92 local inhabitants aged 18-60 years. However, the outset of this research at the beginning demonstrated the majority negative attitude, motivation, and confidence of the local inhabitants’ role to safeguard their architectural heritage. Over time, there was a change in the negative attitudes. Therefore, raising public awareness and encouraging community participation by providing them with a real opportunity to take part in the decision-making. This may lead to a positive relationship between the community residents and the built heritage, which is essential for promoting its preservation and sustainable development.

Keywords: buildings preservation, community participation, heritage conservation, local inhabitant, ladder of citizen participation

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Authors: Ijaz Ahamad Tatlah

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The justification of this study was to identify about physical facilities as encouragement to Quality Assurance Practices (QAP) in the Universities of Pakistan concerning the views of students, teachers and Directors of Quality Enhancement Cells’ (QEC’s) and to differentiate the views of students, teachers and Directors of QECs in relation to physical facilities about quality assurance practices in the universities of Pakistan. It was a quantitative and qualitative research study. This study was conducted on a sample of 28 universities (public and private sector) of Pakistan by using random and purposive sampling technique. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were planned to gather information from students, teachers and Directors of QECs in relation to physical facilities about quality assurance practices in the universities of Pakistan. The data was analyzed by using Descriptive, inferential statistics, and thematic coding. The study revealed that students, teachers and Directors of QEC’s faced a lot of problems and issues without physical facilities. Quality assurance Agency (QAA), Quality Assurance Department (QAD) and Higher Education commission (HEC) all are relevant Pakistani Agencies, which are working consistently of both sectors i.e. public and private to supervise, guide and facilitate the universities of Pakistan for developing quality assurance practices. Majority of the students teachers and Directors’ of QECs opined that books, research journals, manuals for use of science laboratories, equipment for experiments and update computers were available for teachers and students’ in the universities. It was suggested by the students teachers and Directors of QECs of universities that Quality Assurance Practices (QAP) can be accelerated by thinking the following steps: provision of sufficient resources, add the latest software for computers laboratories and new edition of books.

Keywords: physical facilities, quality assurance practices, library, laboratory

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Authors: Yi Xiong, Tao Kong

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Traditional safety, risk and reliability analysis approaches are problem-oriented, which make it great workload when analyzing complicated and huge system, besides, too much repetitive work would to do if the analyzed system composed by many similar components. It is pressing need an object and function oriented approach to maintain high consistency with problem domain. A new approach is proposed to overcome these shortcomings of traditional approaches, the concepts: class, abstract, inheritance, polymorphism and encapsulation are introduced into FTA and establish the professional class library that the abstractions of physical objects in real word, four areas relevant information also be proposed as the establish help guide. The interaction between classes is completed by the inside or external methods that mapping the attributes to base events through fully search the knowledge base, which forms good encapsulation. The object oriented fault tree analysis system that analyze and evaluate the system safety and reliability according to the original appearance of the problem is set up, where could mapped directly from the class and object to the problem domain of the fault tree analysis. All the system failure situations can be analyzed through this bottom-up fault tree construction approach. Under this approach architecture, FTA approach is developed, which avoids the human influence of the analyst on analysis results. It reveals the inherent safety problems of analyzed system itself and provides a new way of thinking and development for safety analysis. So that object oriented technology in the field of safety applications and development, safety theory is conducive to innovation.

Keywords: FTA, knowledge base, object-oriented technology, reliability analysis

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Authors: Cherifi Katia, Al-Hawat Marie-Lynn, Tricou Leo-Paul, Lamontagne Stephanie, Tran Minh, Ngu Amy Ching Yie, Manrique Gabriela, Guirguis Natalie, Machuca Parra Arturo Israel, Matoori Simon

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Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a serious and prevalent complication of diabetes. Current diagnostic options are limited to macroscopic wound analysis such as wound size, depth, and infection. Molecular diagnostics promise to improve DFU diagnosis, staging, and assessment of treatment response. Here, we developed a rapid and easy-to-use fluorescent pH-sensing bandage for wound diagnostics. In a fluorescent dye screen, we identified pyranine as the lead compound due to its suitable pH-sensing properties in the clinically relevant pH range of 6 to 9. To minimize the release of this dye into the wound bed, we screened a library of ionic microparticles and found a strong adhesion of the anionic dye to a cationic polymeric microparticle. These dye-loaded microparticles showed a strong fluorescence response in the clinically relevant pH range of 6 to 9 and a dye release below 1% after one day in biological media. The dye-loaded microparticles were subsequently encapsulated in a calcium alginate hydrogel to minimize the interaction of the microparticles with the wound tissue. This pH-sensing diagnostic wound dressing was tested on full-thickness dorsal wounds of mice, and a linear fluorescence response (R2 = 0.9909) to clinically relevant pH values was observed. These findings encourage further development of this pH-sensing system for molecular diagnostics in DFUs.

Keywords: wound ph, fluorescence, diagnostics, diabetic foot ulcer, wound healing, chronic wounds, diabetes

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Authors: Surichai Butcha, Dararat Khampusaen

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As the Internet is recognized as a high potential and powerful educational tool to access sources of knowledge, plagiarism is an increasing unethical issue found in students’ writing. This paper is deriving from the 1st phase of an on-going study investigating the effects of the supplementary on citing sources on undergraduate students’ writing. The 40 participants were divided into 1 experimental group and 1 control group. Both groups were administered with a questionnaire on knowledge and an interview on attitude related to using sources in writing. Only the experimental group undertook the 4 lessons focusing on using outside sources and citing the original work (quoting, synthesizing, summarizing and paraphrasing) were delivered to them via e-learning tools throughout a semester. Participants were required to produce 4 writing tasks after each lesson. The results were concerned with types and factors on using outside sources in writing of Thai undergraduate EFL students from the survey. The interview results supported and clarified the survey result. In addition, the writing rubrics confirmed the types of plagiarism frequently occurred in students’ writing. The results revealed the types and factors on plagiarism including their perceptions on using the outside sources in their writing from the interview. The discussion shed the lights on cultural dimensions of plagiarism in student writing, roles of teachers, library, and university policy on the rate of plagiarism. Also, the findings promoted the awareness on ethics in writing and prevented the rate of potential unintentional plagiarism. Additionally, the results of this phase of study could lead to the appropriate contents to be considered for inclusion in the supplementary on using sources for writing for future research.

Keywords: citing source, EFL writing, e-learning, Internet, plagiarism

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Li Lin Ong, Duc Thinh Khong, Zaher M. A. Judeh

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Phenylpropanoid sucrose esters (PSEs) are natural compounds found in various medicinal plants which exhibit important biological activities such as antiproliferation and α- and β-glucosidase inhibitory activities. Despite their potential as new therapeutics, total synthesis of PSEs has been very limited as their inherent structures contain one or more (substituted) cinnamoyl groups randomly allocated on the sucrose core via ester linkage. Since direct acylation of unprotected sucrose would be complex and tedious due to the presence of eight free hydroxyl groups, partially protected 2,1’:4,6-di-O-diisopropylidene sucrose was used as the starting material instead. However, similar reactivity between the remaining four hydroxyl groups still pose a challenge in the total synthesis of PSEs as the lack of selectivity can restrict customisation where acylation at specific OH is desired. To overcome this problem, a 4-step orthogonal protection scheme was developed. In this scheme, the remaining four hydroxyl groups on 2,1’:4,6-di-O-diisopropylidene sucrose, 6’-OH, 3’-OH, 4’-OH, and 3-OH, were protected with different protecting groups with an overall yield of > 40%. This orthogonally protected intermediate would provide a convenient and divergent access to a wider range of natural and synthetic PSEs as (substituted) cinnamoyl groups can be selectively introduced at desired positions. Using this scheme, three different series of monosubstituted PSEs were successfully synthesized where (substituted) cinnamoyl groups were introduced selectively at O-3, O-3’, and O-4’ positions, respectively. The expanded library of PSEs would aid in structural-activity relationship study of PSEs for identifying key components responsible for their biological activities.

Keywords: orthogonal protection, phenylpropanoid sucrose esters, selectivity, sucrose

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Abiodun Ezekiel Adesina, Alice M. Olagunju

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This study determined the effects of Computer Assisted Instructions (CAI) and Academic Self-Concepts (ASC) on pre-service teachers’ achievement in AE concepts in CoE in Southwest, Nigeria. The study adopted pretest-posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design. Six CoE with e-library facilities were purposively selected. Two hundred and thirty-two intact 200 level Agricultural education students offering introduction to AE course across the six CoE were participants. The participants were assigned to three groups (D&PM, 77, TM, 73 and control, 82). Treatment lasted eight weeks. The AE achievement test (r=0.76), pre-service teachers’ ASC Scale (r=0.81); instructional guides for tutorial (r=0.76), drill and practice (r=0.81) and conventional lecture modes (r=0.83), and teacher performance assessment sheet were used for data collection. Data were analysed using analysis of covariance and Scheffe post-hoc at 0.05 level of significance. The participants were 55.6% female with mean age of 20.8 years. Treatment had significant main effects on pre-service teachers’ achievement (F(2,207)=60.52; η²=0.21; p < 0.05). Participants in D&PM (x̄ =27.83) had the best achievement compared to those in TM (x̄ =25.41) and control (x̄ =18.64) groups. ASC had significant main effect on pre-service teachers’ achievement (F(1,207)=22.011; η²=0.166; p < 0.05). Participants with high ASC (x̄ =27.52) had better achievement compared to those with low ASC (x̄ =22.37). The drill and practice and tutorial instructional modes enhanced students’ achievement in Agricultural Economics concepts. Therefore, the two instructional modes should be adopted for improved learning outcomes in agricultural economics concepts among pre-service teachers.

Keywords: achievement in agricultural economics concepts, colleges of education in southwestern Nigeria, computer-assisted instruction, drill and practice instructional mode, tutorial instructional mode

Procedia PDF Downloads 203

Authors: Cengiz Tavşan, Niloufar Akbarzadeh

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Architecture in Iran has a continuous history from at least 5000 BC to the present, and numerous Iranian pre-Islamic elements have contributed significantly to the formation of Islamic art. At first, decoration was limited to small objects and containers and then progressed in the art of plaster and brickwork. They later applied in architecture as well. The art of gypsum and brickwork, which was prevalent in the form of motifs (animals and plants) in pre-Islam, was used in the aftermath of Islam with the art of calligraphy in decorations. The splendor and beauty of Iranian architecture, especially during the Islamic era, are related to decoration and design. After the invasion of Iran by the Arabs and the introduction of Islam to Iran, the arrival of the Iranian classical architecture significantly changed, and we saw the Arabic calligraphy decoration of the mosques in Iran. The principles of aesthetics in the art of calligraphy in Iran are based precisely on the principles of the beauty of ancient Iranian and Islamic art. On the other hand, after Islam, calligraphy was one of the most important sources of Islamic art in Islam and one of the important features of Islamic culture. First, the calligraphy had no cultural meaning and was only for decoration and beautification, it had the same meaning only in the inscriptions; however, over time, it became meaningful. This article provides a summary of the history of calligraphy in the mosques (from the entrance to Islam until the Safavid period), which cannot ignore the role of the calligraphy in their decorative ideas; and also, the important role that decorative elements play in creating a public space in terms of social and aesthetic performance. This study was conducted using library studies and field studies. The purpose of this study is to show the characteristics of architecture and art of decorations in Iran, especially in the mosque's architecture, which reaches the pinnacle of progress. We will see that religious beliefs and artistic practices are merging and trying to bring a single concept.

Keywords: Islamic art, Islamic architecture, decorations in Iranian mosques, calligraphy

Procedia PDF Downloads 275

Authors: Ritwik Dutta, Marylin Wolf

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This paper describes the trade-offs and the design from scratch of a self-contained, easy-to-use health dashboard software system that provides customizable data tracking for patients in smart homes. The system is made up of different software modules and comprises a front-end and a back-end component. Built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, the front-end allows adding users, logging into the system, selecting metrics, and specifying health goals. The back-end consists of a NoSQL Mongo database, a Python script, and a SimpleHTTPServer written in Python. The database stores user profiles and health data in JSON format. The Python script makes use of the PyMongo driver library to query the database and displays formatted data as a daily snapshot of user health metrics against target goals. Any number of standard and custom metrics can be added to the system, and corresponding health data can be fed automatically, via sensor APIs or manually, as text or picture data files. A real-time METAR request API permits correlating weather data with patient health, and an advanced query system is implemented to allow trend analysis of selected health metrics over custom time intervals. Available on the GitHub repository system, the project is free to use for academic purposes of learning and experimenting, or practical purposes by building on it.

Keywords: flask, Java, JavaScript, health monitoring, long-term care, Mongo, Python, smart home, software engineering, webserver

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: John Gibbs, Benjamin Flanders, Dylan Pozorski, Weixuan Liu

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Weight Painting–adjusting the influence a skeletal joint has on a given vertex in a character mesh–is an arduous and time con- suming part of the 3D animation pipeline. This process generally requires a trained technical animator and many hours of work to complete. Our skiNNer plug-in, which works within Autodesk’s Maya 3D animation software, uses Machine Learning and data pro- cessing techniques to create a deep neural network model that can accomplish the weight painting task in seconds rather than hours for bipedal quasi-humanoid character meshes. In order to create a properly trained network, a number of challenges were overcome, including curating an appropriately large data library, managing an arbitrary 3D mesh size, handling arbitrary skeletal architectures, accounting for extreme numeric values (most data points are near 0 or 1 for weight maps), and constructing an appropriate neural network model that can properly capture the high frequency alter- ation between high weight values (near 1.0) and low weight values (near 0.0). The arrived at neural network model is a cross between a traditional CNN, deep residual network, and fully dense network. The resultant network captures the unusually hard-edged features of a weight map matrix, and produces excellent results on many bipedal models.

Keywords: 3d animation, animation, character, rigging, skinning, weight painting, machine learning, artificial intelligence, neural network, deep neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Marian Sagat, Mariana Remesikova

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In civil engineering, there is a problem how to industrially produce tensile membrane structures that are non-developable surfaces. Nondevelopable surfaces can only be developed with a certain error and we want to minimize this error. To that goal, the non-developable surfaces are cut into plates along to the geodesic curves. We propose a numerical algorithm for finding approximations of open geodesics on meshes and surfaces based on geodesic curvature flow. For practical reasons, it is important to automatize the choice of the time step. We propose a method for automatic setting of the time step based on the diagonal dominance criterion for the matrix of the linear system obtained by discretization of our partial differential equation model. Practical experiments show reliability of this method. Because approximation of the model is made by numerical method based on classic derivatives, it is necessary to solve obstacles which occur for meshes with sharp corners. We solve this problem for big family of meshes with sharp corners via special rotations which can be seen as partial unfolding of the mesh. In practical applications, it is required that the approximation of geodesic has its vertices only on the edges of the mesh. This problem is solved by a specially designed pointing tracking algorithm. We also partially solve the problem of finding geodesics on meshes with holes. We implemented the whole algorithm in Rhinoceros (commercial 3D computer graphics and computer-aided design software ). It is done by using C# language as C# assembly library for Grasshopper, which is plugin in Rhinoceros.

Keywords: geodesic, geodesic curvature flow, mesh, Rhinoceros software

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Nadine Abuqtaish

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Females’ participation in athletic sports events has increased in the last decades, and the discovery of eating disorders and menstrual dysfunction has been evident since the early 1980s. The term “Female athlete triad” was initially defined by the Task Force on Women’s Issues of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in 1992. Menstrual irregularities have been prevalent in competitive female athletes, especially in their adolescence and early adulthood age. Nutritional restrictions to maintain a certain physique and lean look are sought to be advantageous in female athletes such as gymnastics, cheerleading, or weight-sensitive sports such as endurance sports (cycling and marathoners). This stress places the female at risk of irregularities in their menstrual cycle which can lead them to lose their circadian estrogen levels. Estrogen is an important female reproductive hormone that plays a role in maintaining bone mass. Bone mineral density peaks by the age 25. Inadequate estrogen due to missed menstrual cycle or amenorrhea has been estimated to cause a yearly loss of 2% of bone mass, increasing the risk of osteoporosis in the postmenopausal phase. This paper is intended to have a better depth understanding of whether female athletes are being monitored by their official entities or coaches. A qualitative research method through online search engines and keywords “females, athletes, triad, amenorrhea, anorexia, osteoporosis” were used to collect the available primary sources from official public library databases. The latest consensus was published in 2014 by the Female Athlete Triad Coalition and the need for further research and emphasis on this issue is still lacking.

Keywords: female, athlete, triad, amenorrhea, anorexia, bone loss

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: Sedat Simsek, Tugay Arat

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Today's communication concept, which has a great revolution with the printing press which has been found by Gutenberg, has no boundary thanks to advanced communication devices and the internet. It is possible to take advantage in many areas, such as from medicine to social sciences or from mathematics to education, from the computers that was first produced for the purpose of military services. The use of these developing technologies in the field of education has created a great vision changes in both training and having education. Materials, which can be considered as basic communication resources and used in traditional education has begun to lose its significance, and some technologies have begun to replace them such as internet, computers, smart boards, projection devices and mobile phone. On the other hand, the programs and applications used in these technologies have also been developed. University students use virtual books instead of the traditional printed book, use cell phones instead of note books, use the internet and virtual databases instead of the library to research. They even submit their homework with interactive methods rather than printed materials. The traditional education system, these technologies, which increase productivity, have brought a new dimension to education. The aim of this study is to determine the influence of technologies in the learning process of students and to find whether is there any similarities and differences that arise from the their faculty that they have been educated and and their learning process. In addition to this, it is aimed to determine the level of ICT usage of students studying at the university level. In this context, the advantages and conveniences of the technology used by students are also scrutinized. In this study, we used surveys to collect data. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 16 statistical program with the appropriate testing.

Keywords: education, communication technologies, role of technology, teaching

Procedia PDF Downloads 303