Search results for: central nervous system

Authors: Sanpachai Huvanandana, Settapong Malisuwan, Soparwan Tongyuak, Prust Pannachet, Anong Phoepueak, Navneet Madan

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Many regions of Thailand are prone to flooding due to tropical climate. A commonly increasing precipitation in this continent results in risk of flooding. Many efforts have been implemented such as drainage control system, multiple dams, and irrigation canals. In order to decide where the drainages, dams, and canal should be appropriately located, the flooding risk area should be determined. This paper is aimed to identify the appropriate features that can be used to classify the flooding risk area in Thailand. Several features have been analyzed and used to classify the area. Non-supervised clustering techniques have been used and the results have been compared with ten years average actual flooding area.

Keywords: flood area clustering, geographical information system, flood features

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Authors: Benhenni Abdellaziz

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Irrigation is a limiting factor for agricultural production and socioeconomic development of many countries in the arid and semi-arid world. However, the sustainability of irrigation systems requires rational management of the water resource, which is becoming increasingly rare in these regions. The objective of this work is to apply a geographic information system (GIS) coupled with a model for calculating crop water requirements (CROPWATER) for the management of irrigation water in irrigated areas and offer managers an effective tool to better manage water resources in these areas. The application area of GIS is the irrigated perimeter of Western Middle Cheliff, which is located in a semi-arid region (Middle Cheliff). The scope in question is considerable agrarian dynamics and an increased need for irrigation of most crops.

Keywords: GIS, CROPWAT, irrigation, water management, middle cheliff

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Authors: Chang Su Woo, Hyun Sung Park

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Air spring system is widely accepted for railway vehicle secondary suspension to reduce and absorb the vibration and noise. The low natural frequency ensures a comfortable ride and an invariably good stiffness. In this paper, the characteristic and durability test was conducted in laboratory by using servo-hydraulic fatigue testing system to reliability evaluation of air spring for electric railway vehicle. The experimental results show that the characteristics and durability of domestically developed products are excellent. Moreover, to guarantee the adaption of air spring, the ride comfort and air pressure variation were measured in train test on subway line. Air spring developed by this study for railway vehicles can guarantee the reliability of average usage of 1 million times at 90% confidence level.

Keywords: air spring, reliability, railway, service lifetime

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Authors: Benhenni Abdellaziz

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Irrigation is a limiting factor for agricultural production and socio-economic development of many countries in arid and semiarid in the world. However, the sustainability of irrigation systems requires a rational management of the water resource that is becoming increasingly rare in these regions. The objective of this work is to apply a geographic information system (GIS) coupled to a model for calculating crop water requirements (CROPWATER) for the management of irrigation water in irrigated area and offer managers with an effective tool to better manage water resources in these areas. The application area of GIS is the irrigated perimeter of Western Middle Cheliff which is located in a semi-arid region (Middle Cheliff). The scope in question is a considerable agrarian dynamics and an increased need for irrigation of most crops.

Keywords: geographical information, irrigation, economical, use rational

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Authors: Gamze Safak, Umut Arslanoglu

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Cultural and tourism conservation and development zones and tourism centers are the boundaries declared for the purpose of protecting, using, and evaluating the sectoral development and planned development in areas where historical and cultural values are heavily involved and/or where tourism potential is high. The most rapidly changing regions in Turkey are tourism areas, especially the coastal areas. Planning these regions is not about only an economic gain but also a natural and physical environment and refers to a complex process. If the tourism sector is not well controlled, excessive use of natural resources and wrong location choices may cause damage to natural areas, historical values, and socio-cultural structure. Since the strategic decisions taken in the environmental order and zoning plans, which are the means of guiding the physical environment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which have the authority to make plans in tourism centers, are transformed into plan decisions that find the spatial expression, comprehensive evaluation of all kinds of data, following the historical development and based on the correct and current data is required. In addition, the authority has a number of competences in tourism promotion as well as the authority to plan, leading to the necessity of taking part in the applications requiring complex analysis such as the management and integration of the country's economic, political, social and cultural resources. For this purpose, Tourism Inventory System (TES) project, which consists of a series of subsystems, has been developed in order to solve complex planning and method problems in the management of site-related information. The scope of the project is based on the integration of numerical and verbal data in the regions within the jurisdiction of the authority, and the monitoring of the historical development of urban planning studies, making the spatial data of the institution easily accessible, shared, questionable and traceable in international standards. A dynamic and continuous system design has been put into practice by utilizing the advantage of the use of Geographical Information Systems in the planning process to play a role in making the right decisions, revealing the tools of social, economic, cultural development, and preservation of natural and cultural values. This paper, which is prepared by the project team members in TES (Tourism Inventory System), will present a study regarding the applicability of GIS in cultural and natural heritage conservation.

Keywords: cultural conservation, GIS, geographic information system, tourism inventory system, urban planning

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Authors: Ayad Dalloo, Sulaf Dalloo

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Electrocardiogram (ECG) recording is prone to complications, on analysis by physicians, due to noise and artifacts, thus creating ambiguity leading to possible error of diagnosis. Such drawbacks may be overcome with the advent of high resolution Methods, such as Discrete Wavelet Analysis and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques. This ECG signal analysis is implemented in three stages: ECG preprocessing, features extraction and classification with the aim of realizing high resolution ECG diagnosis and improved detection of abnormal conditions in the heart. The preprocessing stage involves removing spurious artifacts (noise), due to such factors as muscle contraction, motion, respiration, etc. ECG features are extracted by applying DSP and suggested sloping method techniques. These measured features represent peak amplitude values and intervals of P, Q, R, S, R’, and T waves on ECG, and other features such as ST elevation, QRS width, heart rate, electrical axis, QR and QT intervals. The classification is preformed using these extracted features and the criteria for cardiovascular diseases. The ECG diagnostic system is successfully applied to 12-lead ECG recordings for 12 cases. The system is provided with information to enable it diagnoses 15 different diseases. Physician’s and computer’s diagnoses are compared with 90% agreement, with respect to physician diagnosis, and the time taken for diagnosis is 2 seconds. All of these operations are programmed in Matlab environment.

Keywords: ECG diagnostic system, QRS detection, ECG baseline removal, cardiovascular diseases

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Authors: Patarasuda Chaisupa, R. Clay Wright

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The selection of appropriate biomolecular targets is a crucial aspect of biopharmaceutical development. The Auxin-Inducible Degron Degradation (AID) technology has demonstrated remarkable potential in efficiently and rapidly degrading target proteins, thereby enabling the identification and acquisition of drug targets. The AID system also offers a viable method to deplete specific proteins, particularly in cases where the degradation pathway has not been exploited or when the adaptation of proteins, including the cell environment, occurs to compensate for the mutation or gene knockout. In this study, we have engineered an improved AID system tailored to deplete proteins of interest. This AID construct combines the auxin-responsive E3 ubiquitin ligase binding domain, AFB2, and the substrate degron, IAA17, fused to the target genes. Essential genes of fungi with the lowest percent amino acid similarity to human and plant orthologs, according to the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), were cloned into the AID construct in S. cerevisiae (AID-tagged strains) using a modular yeast cloning toolkit for multipart assembly and direct genetic modification. Each E3 ubiquitin ligase and IAA17 degron was fused to a fluorescence protein, allowing for real-time monitoring of protein levels in response to different auxin doses via cytometry. Our AID system exhibited high sensitivity, with an EC50 value of 0.040 µM (SE = 0.016) for AFB2, enabling the specific promotion of IAA17::target protein degradation. Furthermore, we demonstrate how this improved AID system enhances quantitative functional studies of various proteins in fungi. The advancements made in auxin-inducible protein degradation in this study offer a powerful approach to investigating critical target protein viability in fungi, screening protein targets for drugs, and regulating intracellular protein abundance, thus revolutionizing the study of protein function underlying a diverse range of biological processes.

Keywords: synthetic biology, bioengineering, molecular biology, biotechnology

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Authors: Temitope O. Tokosi, Visvanathan Naicker

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Patient health records contain sensitive information for which an electronic patient record (EPR) system can safely secure and transmit amongst clinicians for use in improving health delivery. Clinician’s use of the behaviour of these systems is under scrutiny to assess their attributes towards health technology. South Africa (SA) clinicians responded to a pilot study survey to assess their understanding of EPR, what attributes are important towards technology use and more importantly streamlining the survey for a larger study. Descriptive statistics using mean scores was used because of the small sample size of 11 clinicians who completed the survey. Nine (9) constructs comprising 62 items were used and a Cronbach alpha score of 0.883 was obtained. Limitations and discussions conclude the study.

Keywords: EPR, clinicians, pilot study, South Africa

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Authors: Félix David Suárez Bonilla

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A sentiment analysis service to detect polarity (positive, neural, and negative), based on transfer learning, was built using a Spanish version of BERT and applied to tweets written in Spanish. The dataset that was used consisted of 11975 reviews, which were extracted from Google Play using the google-play-scrapper package. The BETO trained model used: the AdamW optimizer, a batch size of 16, a learning rate of 2x10⁻⁵ and 10 epochs. The system was tested using tweets of three presidential pre-candidates from Costa Rica. The system was finally validated using human labeled examples, achieving an accuracy of 83.3%.

Keywords: NLP, transfer learning, BERT, sentiment analysis, social media, opinion mining

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Authors: Ovidiu Vlaicu, Leontina Banica, Dan Otelea, Andrei-Jose Petrescu, Costin-Ioan Popescu

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Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infects 170 million peoples worldwide. Major advances have been made recently in HCV standard of care with interferon-free therapy being already approved. Despite major progress in HCV therapy, the genotype associated treatment efficacy and toxicity still represent issues to address. To identify endogenous factors involved in different stages of HCV life cycle, we have developed a trans-packaging system for HCV subgenomic replicons lacking core protein gene. Huh7 cells were used to generate a packaging cell line expressing the core protein in an inducible manner. The core packaging cell line was able to trans-complemented various subgenomic replicons to secret infectious trans-complemented HCV particles (HCV-TCP). Further, we constructed subgenomic replicons with foreign epitopes suitable for immunoaffinity purification or fluorescence microscopy studies. We have shown that the insertion has not effects on the efficacy of trans-complementation yielding similar titers to the control subgenomic replicon. This system will be a valuable tool in studying pre- and post-assembly events in HCV life cycle and for the fast identification of HCV assembly inhibitors.

Keywords: assembly inhibitors, core protein, HCV, trans-complementation

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Authors: Kamal Agrawal, Ved Prakash Nayak, Akshay Patil

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Raipur is known as a city of water bodies. The city had around 200 man-made and natural lakes of varying sizes. These structures were constructed to collect rainwater and control flooding in the city. Due to the transition from community participation to state government, as well as rapid urbanisation, Raipur now has only about 80 lakes left. Rapid and unplanned growth has resulted in pollution, encroachment, and eutrophication of the city's lakes. The state government keeps these lakes in good condition by cleaning them and proposing lakefront developments. However, maintaining individual lakes is insufficient because urban lakes are not distinct entities. It is a system comprised of the lake, shore, catchment, and other components. While Urban lake system (ULS) is a combination of multiple such lake systems interacting in a complex urban setting. Thus, the project aims to propose a co-evolution model for urban lake systems (ULS) and rapid urbanization in Raipur. The goals are to comprehend the ULS and to identify elements and dimensions of urbanization that influence the ULS. Evaluate the impact of rapid urbanization on the ULS & vice versa in the study area. Determine how to maximize the positive impact while minimizing the negative impact identified in the study area. Propose short-, medium-, and long-term planning interventions to support the ULS's co-evolution with rapid urbanization. A complexity approach is used to investigate the ULS. It is a technique for understanding large, complex systems. A complex system is one with many interconnected and interdependent elements and dimensions. Thus, elements of ULS and rapid urbanization are identified through a literature study to evaluate statements of their impacts (Beneficial/ Adverse) on one another. Rapid urbanization has been identified as having elements such as demography, urban legislation, informal settlement, urban infrastructure, and tourism. Similarly, the catchment area of the lake, the lake's water quality, the water spread area, and lakefront developments are all being impacted by rapid urbanisation. These nine elements serve as parameters for the subsequent analysis. Elements are limited to physical parameters only. The city has designated a study area based on the definition provided by the National Plan for the Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems. Three lakes are discovered within a one-kilometer radius, establishing a tiny urban lake system. Because the condition of a lake is directly related to the condition of its catchment area, the catchment area of these three lakes is delineated as the study area. Data is collected to identify impact statements, and the interdependence diagram generated between the parameters yields results in terms of interlinking between each parameter and their impact on the system as a whole. The planning interventions proposed for the ULS and rapid urbanisation co-evolution model include spatial proposals as well as policy recommendations for the short, medium, and long term. This study's next step will be to determine how to implement the proposed interventions based on the availability of resources, funds, and governance patterns.

Keywords: urban lake system, co-evolution, rapid urbanization, complex system

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Authors: Svetlana Guryeva, Inna Kornienko, Elena Petersen

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At present, translational medicine is a rapidly developing branch of biomedicine. The main idea of translational medicine is a practical application of fundamental research. One of the possible applications for translational medicine is researching therapies that improve human age-related organism condition. To fill the gap between experiments and clinical practice, it is necessary to create the standardized system for the investigation of different effects on cellular aging models. In this study, primary human fibroblasts derived from patients of different ages were used as a cellular aging model. The senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity, lipofuscin, γ-H2AX, the reactive oxygen species level, and cell death markers (annexin V/propidium iodide) were used as biomarkers of the cell functional state. The effects of damaging exposures (oxidative stress and heat shock), potential positive factors (metformin and acetaminophen), and their combinations were investigated using the described biomarkers. Oxidative stress and heat shock caused the increase in the levels of all biomarkers, and only the cells from young patients partly coped with stress 3 days after the exposures. Metformin improved the state of pretreatment cells from young and old patients. The acetaminophen did not show significant changes in the biomarker levels compare to the action of metformin. This study proved the opportunity to develop a standardized screening system based on biomarkers of the cell functional state to identify potential positive or negative effects of some physical and chemical exposures. Moreover, such a system can be useful for the aims of regenerative medicine to determine the effect of cell pretreatment before transplantation.

Keywords: biomarkers, primary fibroblasts, regenerative medicine, senescence, test system, translational medicine

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Authors: Bouchaib Gazzaz, Mounir Mehdi

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In order to ensure consumer food protection, the food industry has a legal obligation to provide food products that comply with the requirements of the legislation in force. National regulations in this area occupy an important place in the food control system in terms of consumer protection. This article discusses the legal and regulatory framework of food safety and consumer protection in Moroccan law. We used the doctrinal research approach by analyzing the judicial normative and bibliographic legal research. As a result, we were able to present the basic principles of consumer food protection by showing to what extent the food safety law provides effective consumer protection in Morocco. We have concluded that there is an impact -in terms of consumer legal protection- of food law reform on the concept of food safety.

Keywords: food safety, Morocco, consumer protection, framework, food law

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Authors: Aya Mousa, Mahmoud Alsaheb

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Question Answering System (QAS) aims to provide the most suitable answer to the user's question in any natural language. In the recent future, it will be a future version of web search. Much research has already been done on answering Arabic factoid questions and achieved good accuracy. In contrast, the progress in research on Arabic non-factoid question answering is still immature. In this survey, we summarize, discuss, and compare the existing Arab non-factoid question-answering systems to identify the limitations and the achievements that were accomplished. Furthermore, we investigate the challenges in developing non-factoid Arabic QAS and the possible future improvements. The survey is written to help the researchers to understand the field of Arabic non-factoid QAS and to motivate them to utilize different approaches to develop and enhance the Non-factoid Arabic QAS

Keywords: Arabic question answering system, non-factoid question answering, Arabic NLP, question answering

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Authors: R. Gharari, N. Kojouri, R. Hosseini Aghdam, E. Alibeigi, B. Salmasian

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In this research, the WWER1000/V446 (a PWR Russian type reactor) is chosen as the case study. It is assumed that radioactive materials that release into the environment are more than allowable limit due to a complete failure of the ventilation system (reactor stack). In the following, the HOTSPOT and the RASCAL computational codes have been used and coupled with a developed program using MATLAB software to evaluate Total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) and cancer risk according to the BEIR equations for various human organs. In addition, effects of the containment spray system and climate conditions on the TEDE have been investigated. According to the obtained results, there is an inverse correlation between the received dose and the wind speed; the amount of the TEDE for wind speed 2 m/s and is more than wind speed for 14 m/s during the class A of the climate (2.168 and 0.444 mSv, respectively). Also, containment spray system can effect and reduce the amount of the fission products and TEDE. Furthermore, the probability of the cancer risk for women is more than men, and for children is more than adults. In addition, a specific emergency zonal planning is proposed. Results are promising in which the site selection of the WWER1000/V446 were considered safe for the public in this situation.

Keywords: TEDE, total effective dose equivalent, RASCAL and HOTSPOT codes, BEIR equations, cancer risk

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Authors: Ozan Yavuz Baytemir, Ender Cigeroglu, Gokhan Osman Ozgen

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Vibration is an important issue in the design of various components of aerospace, marine and vehicular applications. In order not to lose the components’ function and operational performance, vibration isolation design involving the optimum isolator properties selection and isolator positioning processes appear to be a critical study. Knowing the growing need for the vibration isolation system design, this paper aims to present two types of software capable of implementing modal analysis, response analysis for both random and harmonic types of excitations, static deflection analysis, Monte Carlo simulations in addition to study of parameter and location optimization for different types of isolation problem scenarios. Investigating the literature, there is no such study developing a software-based tool that is capable of implementing all those analysis, simulation and optimization studies in one platform simultaneously. In this paper, the theoretical system model is generated for a 6-DOF rigid body. The vibration isolation system of any mechanical structure is able to be optimized using hybrid method involving both global search and gradient-based methods. Defining the optimization design variables, different types of optimization scenarios are listed in detail. Being aware of the need for a user friendly vibration isolation problem solver, two types of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are prepared and verified using a commercial finite element analysis program, Ansys Workbench 14.0. Using the analysis and optimization capabilities of those GUIs, a real application used in an air-platform is also presented as a case study at the end of the paper.

Keywords: hybrid optimization, Monte Carlo simulation, multi-degree-of-freedom system, parameter optimization, location optimization, passive vibration isolation analysis

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Authors: Pandega Gama Mahardika, Muhammad Rifki Al Iksan, Datuk Fachrul Razy

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Oil And Gas Tanker Driver is a high-risk jobdesc. drivers drive with sleep circadian rhythm disturbances. Therefore, FAMOUS (Fatigue Management Online Ultimate System) conducted a diagnostic test on the effectiveness and accuracy of the Psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) in the field to capture the fatigue level of Oil And Gas Tanker Driver. Fatigue examination with the PVP method for 3 minutes using the Pertamina FAMOUS system (Fatigue Management Online Ultimate System). The research sample was Oil And Gas Tanker Driver Elnusa petrofin drivers as many as 2205 people. PVT is categorical data that states a driver has a low or high fatigue level. The quality of sleep at home was recorded by filling in a score of 1 = not well, 2 = not well, 3 = well, per person. A total of 1852 (84%) driver had a low fatigue level, while 353 (16%) driver had a high fatigue level. Poor sleep quality was experienced by 68 (79%) driver who had a high fatigue level. Oil And Gas Tanker Driver who slept soundly at home as many as 1804 (87%) had a low fatigue level. The correlation coefficient of sleep quality home and fatigue level is significant because it shows a probability value of 0.00 (p <5%). Fatigue level can be diagnosed through examining sleep quality, using FAMOUS Program for occupational medicine, particularly in the oil and gas sector.

Keywords: psychomotor vigilance test, fatigue, sleep, oil and gas tanker driver drivers, pertamina FAMOUS

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Authors: Barnali Thakuria, Labananda Choudhury

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Gender equality and women’s empowerment is one of the components of eight Millennium Development Goal (MDG).Literacy and employment are the parameters which reflect the empowerment of women. But in a developing country like India, literacy and working status among the females are not satisfactory. Both literacy and employment technically can be measured by Literate Life Expectancy (LLE) and Working Life Expectancy (WLE).One can also combine both the factors literacy and working to get a better new measure. The proposed indicator can be called literate-working life expectancy (LWLE). LLE gives an average number of years a person lives in a literate state under current mortality and literacy conditions while WLE defined as average number of years a person lives in a working state if current mortality and working condition prevails. Similarly, LWLE gives number of expected years by a person living under both literate and working state. The situation of females cannot be figured out without comparing both the sexes. In the present paper an attempt has been made to estimate LLE and WLE in India along with some selected states from various zones of India namely Assam from the North-East, Gujarat from the West, Kerala from the South, Rajasthan from the North, Uttar Pradesh from the Central and West Bengal from the East respectively for both the sexes based on 2011 census. Furthermore, we have also developed a formula for a new indicator namely Literate-Working Life Expectancy (LWLE) and the proposed index has been applied in India and the selected states mentioned above for both males and females. Data has been extracted from SRS(Sample Registration System) based Abridged Life Table and Census of India. The computation of LLE follows the method developed by Lutz while WLE has followed the method developed by Saw Swee Hock. By combining both the factors literacy and employment, the new indicator LWLE also follows the method like LLE and WLE. Contrasted results have been found in different parts of India. The result shows that LLE at birth is highest(lowest) in the state Kerala(Uttar Pradesh) with 61.66 (39.51) years among the males. A similar situation is also observed among the females with 62.58 years and 25.11 years respectively. But male WLE at birth is highest (lowest) in Rajasthan(Kerala) with 37.11 (32.64) years. Highest female WLE at birth is also observed in Rajasthan with 23.51 years and the lowest is concentrated in Uttar Pradesh with 11.76 years. It is also found that Kerala’s performance is exceptionally good in terms of LWLE at birth while the lowest LWLE at birth prevails in the state Uttar Pradesh among the males. Female LWLE at birth is highest(lowest) in Kerala(Uttar Pradesh) with 19.73(4.77)years. The corresponding value of the index increases as the number of factors involved in the life expectancy decrease. It is found that women are lagging behind in terms of both literacy and employment. Findings of the study will help the planners to take necessary steps to improve the position of women.

Keywords: life expectancy, literacy, literate life expectancy, working life expectancy

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Authors: Wahyu Kurniawan

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Indonesia developed the legal system radically since 1999. Several laws have been established and mostly the result of transplantation. Laws were made general but legal problems have been growing. In the legal enforcement, the judges have authority to interpret the laws. Authority and freedom are the source of corruption by the courts in Indonesia. Therefore, it should be built the conceptual framework to interpret the transplanted laws as the legal basis in deciding the cases. This article describes legal development based on interpretation of transplanted law in Indonesia by using the Indonesian Supervisory Commission for Business Competition (KPPU) decisions between 2000 and 2010 as the object of the research. The study was using law as a system theory and theories of legal interpretation especially the static and dynamic interpretations. The research showed that the KPPU interpreted the concept that exists in the Competition Law by using static and dynamic interpretation. Static interpretation was used to interpret the legal concepts based on two grounds, minute of meeting during law making process and the definitions that have been recognized in the Indonesian legal system. Dynamic interpretation was used when the KPPU developing the definition of the legal concepts. The general purpose of the law and the theories of the basis of the law were the conceptual framework in using dynamic interpretation. There are two recommendations in this article. Firstly, interpreting the laws by the judges should be based on the correct conceptual framework. Secondly, the technique of interpreting the laws would be the method of controlling the judges.

Keywords: legal interpretation, legal transplant, competition law, KPPU

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Authors: Lotem Sarid, Meirav Trebicz-Geffen, Serge Ankri

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Queuosine (Q) is a naturally occurring modified nucleoside that occurs in the first position of transfer RNA anticodons such as Asp, Asn, His, and Tyr. As eukaryotes lack pathways to synthesize queuine, the nucleobase of queuosine, they must obtain it from their diet or gut microbiota. Our previous work investigated the effects of queuine on the physiology of the eukaryotic parasite Entamoeba histolytica and defined the enzyme EhTGT responsible for its incorporation into tRNA. To our best knowledge, it is unknown how E. histolytica salvages Q from gut bacteria. We used N-acryloyl-3-aminophenylboronic acid (APB) PAGE analysis to demonstrate that E. histolytica trophozoites can salvage queuine from Q or E. coli K12 but not from the modified E. coli QueC strain, which cannot produce queuine. Next, we examined the role of EhDUF2419, a protein with homology to DNA glycosylase, as a queuine salvage enzyme in E. histolytica. When EhDUF2419 expression is silenced, it inhibits Q's conversion to queuine, resulting in a decrease in Q-tRNA levels. We also observed that Q protects control trophozoites from oxidative stress (OS), but not siEhDUF2419 trophozoites. Overall, our data reveal that EhDUF2419 is central for the salvaging of queuine from bacteria and for the resistance of the parasite to OS.

Keywords: entamoeba histolytica, epitranscriptomics, gut microbiota, queuine, queuosine, response to oxidative stress, tRNA modification.

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Authors: Saraswati Kerketta

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Tea industry is one of the oldest organised sector of India. It employs roughly 1.5 million people directly. Since the last decade Indian tea industry, especially in the northern region is experiencing worst crisis in the post-independence period. Due to many reason the prices of tea show steady decline. The workers are paid one of the lowest wage in tea industry in the world (1.5$ a day) below the UN's $2 a day for extreme poverty. The workers rely on addition benefits from plantation which includes food, housing and medical facilities. These have been effective means of enslavement of generations of labourers by the owners. There is hardly any change in the tea estates where the owners determine the fate of workers. When the tea garden is abandoned or is closed all the facilities disappear immediately. The workers are the descendants of tribes from central India also known as 'tea tribes'. Alienated from their native place, the geographical and social isolation compounded their vulnerability of these people. The economy of the region being totally dependent on tea has resulted in absolute unemployment for the workers of these tea gardens. With no other livelihood and no land to grow food, thousands of workers faced hunger and starvation. The Plantation Labour Act which ensures the decent working and living condition is violated continuously. The labours are forced to migrate and are also exposed to the risk of human trafficking. Those who are left behind suffers from starvation, malnutrition and disease. The condition in the sick tea plantation is no better. Wage are not paid regularly, subsidised food, fuel are also not supplied properly. Health care facilities are in very bad shape. Objectives: • To study the socio-cultural and demographic characteristics of the tea garden labourers in the study area. • To examine the social situation of workers in sick estates in dooars region. • To assess the magnitude of deprivation the impact of economic crisis on abandoned and closed tea estates in the region. Data Base: The study is based on data collected from field survey. Methods: Quantative: Cross-Tabulation, Regression analysis. Qualitative: Household Survey, Focussed Group Discussion, In-depth interview of key informants. Findings: Purchasing power parity has declined since in last three decades. There has been many fold increase in migration. Males migrates long distance towards central and west and south India. Females and children migrates both long and short distance. No one has reported to migrate back to the place of origin of their ancestors. Migrant males work mostly as construction labourers and as factory workers whereas females and children work as domestic help and construction labourers. In about 37 cases either they haven't contacted their families in last six months or are not traceable. The families with single earning members are more likely to migrate. Burden of disease and the duration of sickness, abandonment and closure of plantation are closely related. Death tolls are likely to rise 1.5 times in sick tea gardens and three times in closed tea estates. Sixty percent of the people are malnourished in the sick tea gardens and more than eighty five per cent in abandoned and sick tea gardens.

Keywords: migration, trafficking, starvation death, tea garden workers

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Authors: Melanie Schinnerl, Dorothea Greiling

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In the context of the 2020 strategy, poverty and its fight returned to the center of national political efforts. This served as motivation for an Austrian research grant-funded project to focus on the under-researched local government level with the aim to identify municipal best-practice cases and to derive policy implications for Austria. Designing effective poverty reduction strategies is a complex challenge which calls for an integrated multi-actor in approach. Cities are increasingly confronted to combat poverty, even in rich EU-member states. By doing so cities face substantial demographic, cultural, economic and social challenges as well as changing welfare state regimes. Furthermore, there is a low willingness of (right-wing) governments to support the poor. Against this background, the research questions are: 1. How do local governments define poverty? 2. Who are the main risk groups and what are the most pressing problems when fighting urban poverty? 3. What is regarded as successful anti-poverty initiatives? 4. What is the underlying welfare state concept? To address the research questions a multi-method approach was chosen, consisting of a systematic literature analysis, a comprehensive document analysis, and expert interviews. For interpreting the data the project follows the qualitative-interpretive paradigm. Municipal approaches for reducing poverty are compared based on deductive, as well as inductive identified criteria. In addition to an intensive literature analysis, interviews (40) were conducted in Austria since the project started in March 2018. From the other countries, 14 responses have been collected, providing a first insight. Regarding the definition of poverty the EU SILC-definition as well as counting the persons who receive need-based minimum social benefits, the Austrian form of social welfare, are the predominant approaches in Austria. In addition to homeless people, single-parent families, un-skilled persons, long-term unemployed persons, migrants (first and second generation), refugees and families with at least 3 children were frequently mentioned. The most pressing challenges for Austrian cities are: expected reductions of social budgets, a great insecurity of the central government's social policy reform plans, the growing number of homeless people and a lack of affordable housing. Together with affordable housing, old-age poverty will gain more importance in the future. The Austrian best practice examples, suggested by interviewees, focused primarily on homeless, children and young people (till 25). Central government’s policy changes have already negative effects on programs for refugees and elderly unemployed. Social Housing in Vienna was frequently mentioned as an international best practice case, other growing cities can learn from. The results from Austria indicate a change towards the social investment state, which primarily focuses on children and labour market integration. The first insights from the other countries indicate that affordable housing and labor market integration are cross-cutting issues. Inherited poverty and old-age poverty seems to be more pressing outside Austria.

Keywords: anti-poverty policies, European cities, empirical study, social investment

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Authors: Shu-Yu Hsu, Chen-Chien Hsu, Wei-Yen Wang

Abstract:

Color segmentation is a basic and simple way for recognizing the visual markers in a robotic tracking system. In this paper, we propose a new method for color segmentation by incorporating differential evolution algorithm and connected component labeling to autonomously preset the HSV threshold of visual markers. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, a ROBOTIS OP2 humanoid robot is used to conduct the experiment, where five most commonly used color including red, purple, blue, yellow, and green in visual markers are given for comparisons.

Keywords: color segmentation, differential evolution, connected component labeling, humanoid robot

Procedia PDF Downloads 599

Authors: Qasim Khan, Furkan Ahmad, Asfar A. Khan, M. Saad Alam, Faiz Ahmad

Abstract:

In this paper, partial discharge analysis is performed in cavities artificially created in insulation. The setup is according with Cigre-II Method. Circular Samples created from Perspex Sheet with different configuration with changing number of cavities. Assessment of insulation health can be performed by Partial Discharge measurement as this has been found to be important means of condition monitoring. The experiments are done using MPD 540, which is a modern partial discharge measurement system. By analyzing the PD activity obtained for various voids/cavities, it is observed that the PD voltages show variation for cavity’s diameter, depth even for its ratios. This can be employed for scrutiny of insulation system.

Keywords: partial discharges, condition monitoring, insulation defects, degradation and corrosion, PMMA

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Authors: Nina Øystad-Larsen, Miran Cemalovic, Amir M. Kaynia

Abstract:

The nonlinear static and dynamic analysis procedures presented in EN 1998-1 for the structural response of a RC wall-frame building are assessed. The structure is designed according to the guidelines for high ductility (DCH) in 1998-1. The finite element packages SeismoStruct and OpenSees are utilized and evaluated. The structural response remains nearly in the elastic range even though the building was designed for high ductility. The overstrength is a result of oversized and heavily reinforced members, with emphasis on the lower storey walls. Nonlinear response history analysis in the software packages give virtually identical results for displacements.

Keywords: behaviour factor, dual system, OpenSEES, overstrength, seismostruct

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Authors: Nawel Boucherba, Azzedine Bettache, Abdelaziz Messis, Francis Duchiron, Said Benallaoua

Abstract:

The impetus for research in the field of bioseparation has been sparked by the difficulty and complexity in the downstream processing of biological products. Indeed, 50% to 90% of the production cost for a typical biological product resides in the purification strategy. There is a need for efficient and economical large scale bioseparation techniques which will achieve high purity and high recovery while maintaining the biological activity of the molecule. One such purification technique which meets these criteria involves the partitioning of biomolecules between two immiscible phases in an aqueous system (ATPS). The Production of xylanases is carried out in 500ml of a liquid medium based on birchwood xylan. In each ATPS, PEG 1000 is added to a mixture consisting of dipotassium phosphate, sodium chloride and the culture medium inoculated with the strain Jonesia denitrificans, the mixture was adjusted to different pH. The concentration of PEG 1000 was varied: 8 to 16 % and the NaCl percentages are also varied from 2 to 4% while maintaining the other parameters constant. The results showed that the best ATPS for purification of xylanases is composed of PEG 1000 at 8.33%, 13.14 % of K2HPO4, 1.62% NaCl at pH 7. We obtained a yield of 96.62 %, a partition coefficient of 86.66 and a purification factor of 2.9. The zymogram showed that the activity is mainly detected in the top phase.

Keywords: Jonesia denitrificans BN13, xylanase, aqueous two phases system, zymogram

Procedia PDF Downloads 396

Authors: Kang-Hyun Leem, Myung-Gyou Kim, Hye Kyung Kim

Abstract:

Velvet antler (VA), the immature antlers of male deer, is traditionally used for thousands of years in Asian countries, such as Korea, China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. It has been considered to improve immune system and physical strength. The goal of this study was to investigate the immunomodulatory effect of deer antler velvet using in vitro system. In the first step, the effects of VA (70% ethanol extract) on the proliferation of splenocytes, bone marrow cell, and macrophages were determined. Next, the effect of VA on the production of nitric oxide and phagocytic activity in macrophage were measured. The results showed that VA treatment increased concanavalin-A stimulated splenocyte, bone marrow cells, and macrophage proliferation in a dose dependent manner. VA at 50 and 100 ug/mL concentrations significantly enhanced the concanavalin-A stimulated splenocyte proliferation by 8.8% and 18.5%, respectively. The proliferation of bone marrow cells, isolated from 5wk-old ICR mice, were increased by 25.2% and 46.5% by 50 and 100 ug/mL VA treatment. RAW 264.7 cell proliferation reached peak value at 50 ug/mL of VA treatment exhibiting 108% of the basal value. Nitric oxide production by RAW 264.7 macrophage cells was slightly reduced by VA treatment but was not statistically significant. Moreover, the phagocytic activity of macrophages was enhanced by VA treatment. These results indicate that VA is effective in immune system.

Keywords: deer antler, splenocyte, bone marrow cells, macrophage proliferation, phagocytosis

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Authors: Qiang Wang, Hongyang Yu, MingRong Lai, Miao Luo

Abstract:

This paper presents a method for accurately localizing and interacting with known surface defects by overlaying patterns onto real-world surfaces using a projection system. Given the world coordinates of the defects, we project corresponding patterns onto the surfaces, providing an intuitive visualization of the specific defect locations. To enable users to interact with and retrieve more information about individual defects, we implement a gesture recognition system based on a pruned and optimized version of YOLOv6. This lightweight model achieves an accuracy of 82.8% and is suitable for deployment on low-performance devices. Our approach demonstrates the potential for enhancing defect identification, inspection processes, and user interaction in various applications.

Keywords: defect localization, projection mapping, gesture recognition, YOLOv6

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: Amri Yusoff, Shahrizuan Shafiril, Ashardi Abas, Norma Che Yusoff

Abstract:

Nowadays, illegal logging has been causing much effect to our forest. Some of it causes a flash flood, avalanche, global warming, and etc. This comprehensibly makes us wonder why, what, and who has made it happened. Often, it already has been too late after we have known the cause of it. Even the Malaysian Royal Belum forest has not been spared from land clearing or illegal activity by the natives although this area has been gazetted as a protected area preserved for future generations. Furthermore, because of its sizeable and wide area, these illegal activities are difficult to monitor and to maintain. A critical action must be called upon to prevent all of these unhealthy activities from recurrence. Therefore, a remote monitoring device must be developed in order to capture critical real-time data such as temperature, humidity, gaseous, fire, and rain detection which indicates the current and preserved natural state and habitat in the forest. Besides, this device location can be detected via GPS by showing the latitudes and longitudes of its current location and then to be transmitted by SMS via GSM system. All of its readings will be sent in real-time for data management and analysis. This result will be benefited to the monitoring bodies or relevant authority in keeping the forest in the natural habitat. Furthermore, this research is to gather a unified data and then will be analysed for its comparison with an existing method.

Keywords: remote monitoring system, forest data, GSM, GPS, wireless sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 414

Authors: Z. Ezzouine, A. Nakheli

Abstract:

This paper presents a high position electromagnetic sensor system (HPESS) that is applicable for moving object detection. The authors have developed a high-performance position sensor prototype dedicated to students’ laboratory. The challenge was to obtain a highly accurate and real-time sensor that is able to calculate position, length or displacement. An electromagnetic solution based on a two coil induction principal was adopted. The HPESS converts mechanical motion to electric energy with direct contact. The output signal can then be fed to an electronic circuit. The voltage output change from the sensor is captured by data acquisition system using LabVIEW software. The displacement of the moving object is determined. The measured data are transmitted to a PC in real-time via a DAQ (NI USB -6281). This paper also describes the data acquisition analysis and the conditioning card developed specially for sensor signal monitoring. The data is then recorded and viewed using a user interface written using National Instrument LabVIEW software. On-line displays of time and voltage of the sensor signal provide a user-friendly data acquisition interface. The sensor provides an uncomplicated, accurate, reliable, inexpensive transducer for highly sophisticated control systems.

Keywords: electromagnetic sensor, accurately, data acquisition, position measurement

Procedia PDF Downloads 281