Search results for: Joseph C. Chen

Authors: John Joseph S. Martis, Rohanchandra R. Gatty, Aaron Jose Fernandes, Rahul P. Nambiar

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Introduction: Surgery for breast cancer is either mastectomy or breast conservation surgery. The most commonly used incision for modified radical mastectomy is the transverse Stewart incision. But this incision may have the disadvantage of causing disparity between the closure lines of superior and inferior skin flaps in mastectomy and can cause overhanging of soft tissue below and behind the axilla. The curvizigzag incision, on principle, may help in this regard and can prevent scar migration beyond the anterior axillary line. This study aims to compare the two incisions in this regard. Methods: 100 patients with cancer of breast were included in the study after satisfying inclusion and exclusion criteria. They underwent surgery at Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore, India, between November 2019 to September 2021. The patients were divided into two groups. Group A patients were subjected to modified radical mastectomy with curvizigzag incision and group B patients with transverse Stewart incision. Results: Seroma on postoperative day1, day 2 was 0% in both the groups. Seroma on postoperative day 30 was present in 14% of patients in group B. 60% of patients in group B had sag of soft tissue below and behind the axilla, and none of the patients in group A had this problem. In 64% of the patients in group B, the incision crossed the anterior axillary fold, 64% of the patients in group B had tension in the incision site while approximation of the skin flaps. Conclusion: Curvizigzag incision is statistically better with lesser complications when compared to the transverse Stewart incision for modified radical mastectomy for carcinoma breast.

Keywords: breast cancer, curvizigzag incision, transverse Stewart incision, seroma, modified radical mastectomy

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Authors: Pei-Chann Chang, Jhen-Fu Liao, Chin-Hung Teng, Meng-Hui Chen

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This research combines artificial immune system with user and item based collaborative filtering to create an efficient and accurate recommendation system. By applying the characteristic of antibodies and antigens in the artificial immune system and using Pearson correlation coefficient as the affinity threshold to cluster the data, our collaborative filtering can effectively find useful users and items for rating prediction. This research uses MovieLens dataset as our testing target to evaluate the effectiveness of the algorithm developed in this study. The experimental results show that the algorithm can effectively and accurately predict the movie ratings. Compared to some state of the art collaborative filtering systems, our system outperforms them in terms of the mean absolute error on the MovieLens dataset.

Keywords: artificial immune system, collaborative filtering, recommendation system, similarity

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Authors: K. Y. Chen, H. Chua, C. W. Kan

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Environmental investment is an important issue in many countries. In this study, we will first review the environmental issues related to India and their effect on the economical development. Secondly, economic data would be collected from government yearly statistics. The statistics would also include the environmental investment information of India. Finally, we would co-relate the data in order to find out the relationship between environmental investment and sustainable development in India. Therefore, in the paper, we aim to analyse the effect of an environmental investment on the sustainable development in India. Based on the economic data collected, India is in development status with fast population and GDP growth speed. India is facing the environment problems due to its high-speed development. However, the environment investment could give a positive impact on the sustainable development in India. The environmental investment is keeping in the same growth rate with GDP. Acknowledgment: Authors would like to thank the financial support from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for this work.

Keywords: India, environmental investment, sustainable development, analysis

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Authors: Meena Kumari, Ajitha Sharma, Mohan Babu Amberkar, Hasitha Manohar, Joseph Thomas, K. L. Bairy

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Aim: To evaluate the pattern of occurrence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) with platinum compounds in cancer chemotherapy at a tertiary care hospital. Methods: It was a retrospective, descriptive case record study done on patients admitted to the medical oncology ward of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal from July to November 2012. Inclusion criteria comprised of patients of both sexes and all ages diagnosed with cancer and were on platinum compounds, who developed at least one adverse drug reaction during or after the treatment period. CDSCO proforma was used for reporting ADRs. Causality was assessed using Naranjo Algorithm. Results: A total of 65 patients was included in the study. Females comprised of 67.69% and rest males. Around 49.23% of the ADRs were seen in the age group of 41-60 years, followed by 20 % in 21-40 years, 18.46% in patients over 60 years and 12.31% in 1-20 years age group. The anticancer agents which caused adverse drug reactions in our study were carboplatin (41.54%), cisplatin (36.92%) and oxaliplatin (21.54%). Most common adverse drug reactions observed were oral candidiasis (21.53%), vomiting (16.92%), anaemia (12.3%), diarrhoea (12.3%) and febrile neutropenia (0.08%). The results of the causality assessment of most of the cases were probable. Conclusion: The adverse effect of chemotherapeutic agents is a matter of concern in the pharmacological management of cancer as it affects the quality of life of patients. This information would be useful in identifying and minimizing preventable adverse drug reactions while generally enhancing the knowledge of the prescribers to deal with these adverse drug reactions more efficiently.

Keywords: adverse drug reactions, platinum compounds, cancer, chemotherapy

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Authors: Chen Xi, Lao Xuerui, Li Junjie, Jiang Yike, Wang Hanwei, Zeng Zihao

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To further promote the development of smart cities, the microscopic "nerve endings" of the City Intelligent Model (CIM) are extended to be more sensitive. In this paper, we develop a pedestrian trajectory twin terminal based on the CIM and CNN technology. It also uses 5G networks, architectural and geoinformatics technologies, convolutional neural networks, combined with deep learning networks for human behaviour recognition models, to provide empirical data such as 'pedestrian flow data and human behavioural characteristics data', and ultimately form spatial performance evaluation criteria and spatial performance warning systems, to make the empirical data accurate and intelligent for prediction and decision making.

Keywords: urban planning, urban governance, CIM, artificial intelligence, convolutional neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Yanyan Yu, Haiping Ding, Pengjun Chen, Yiou Sun

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Fault depth is an important parameter to be determined in ground motion simulation, and peak ground velocity (PGV) demonstrates good application prospect. Using numerical simulation method, the variations of distribution and peak value of near-fault PGV with different fault depth were studied in detail, and the reason of some phenomena were discussed. The simulation results show that the distribution characteristics of PGV of fault-parallel (FP) component and fault-normal (FN) component are distinctly different; the value of PGV FN component is much larger than that of FP component. With the increase of fault depth, the distribution region of the FN component strong PGV moves forward along the rupture direction, while the strong PGV zone of FP component becomes gradually far away from the fault trace along the direction perpendicular to the strike. However, no matter FN component or FP component, the strong PGV distribution area and its value are both quickly reduced with increased fault depth. The results above suggest that the fault depth have significant effect on both FN component and FP component of near-fault PGV.

Keywords: fault depth, near-fault, PGV, numerical simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 341

Authors: Chen Li-Ching

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The multinomial logistic regression model is used popularly for inferring the relationship of risk factors and disease with multiple categories. This study based on the discrepancy between the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator and semiparametric maximum likelihood estimator of the cumulative distribution function to propose a Kolmogorov-Smirnov type test statistic to assess adequacy of the multinomial logistic regression model for case-control data. A bootstrap procedure is presented to calculate the critical value of the proposed test statistic. Empirical type I error rates and powers of the test are performed by simulation studies. Some examples will be illustrated the implementation of the test.

Keywords: case-control studies, goodness-of-fit test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, multinomial logistic regression

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Authors: Yuan-Yu Chiang, Yu-Han Tseng, Chin-Chen Wen

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Many southeast-Asia women migrate to Taiwan by marriage, and it usually takes 4 to 8 years for them to acquire Taiwanese citizenship. This study investigates the relationships between their citizenship acquisition and whether they develop Taiwanese identities. One hundred and ninety-two immigrant women were measured using Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Revised and a global 10-point ethnic identity question. Correlation tests and hierarchical regression were performed to explore whether acquiring citizenship would help immigrant women to develop Taiwanese identities. The results revealed that citizenship acquisition does help immigrant women to identify with Taiwanese society symbolically. However, the results also indicated that acquiring citizenship would not help these immigrant women become involved in deeper cultural exploration of Taiwan nor would it encourage them to make commitments to the host society.

Keywords: immigrants, international marriage, ethnic identity, Taiwan

Procedia PDF Downloads 413

Authors: Han-Taw Chen, Chung-Hou Lai, Tzu-Hsiang Lin, Ge-Jang He

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This study applies the inverse method and three-dimensional CFD commercial software in conjunction with the experimental temperature data to investigate the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of the plate-fin heat sink in a closed rectangular enclosure for various values of fin height. The inverse method with the finite difference method and the experimental temperature data is applied to determine the heat transfer coefficient. The k-ε turbulence model is used to obtain the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics within the fins. To validate the accuracy of the results obtained, the comparison of the average heat transfer coefficient is made. The calculated temperature at selected measurement locations on the plate-fin is also compared with experimental data.

Keywords: inverse method, FLUENT, k-ε model, heat transfer characteristics, plate-fin heat sink

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Authors: Joseph Gear, Yue Xu, Ernest Foo, Praveen Gauravaran, Zahra Jadidi, Leonie Simpson

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Deep learning methods have been seeing an increasing application to the long-standing security research goal of automatic vulnerability detection for source code. Attention, however, must still be paid to the task of producing vector representations for source code (code embeddings) as input for these deep learning models. Graphical representations of code, most predominantly Abstract Syntax Trees and Code Property Graphs, have received some use in this task of late; however, for very large graphs representing very large code snip- pets, learning becomes prohibitively computationally expensive. This expense may be reduced by intelligently pruning this input to only vulnerability-relevant information; however, little research in this area has been performed. Additionally, most existing work comprehends code based solely on the structure of the graph at the expense of the information contained by the node in the graph. This paper proposes Semantic-enhanced Code Embedding for Vulnerability Discovery (SCEVD), a deep learning model which uses semantic-based feature selection for its vulnerability classification model. It uses information from the nodes as well as the structure of the code graph in order to select features which are most indicative of the presence or absence of vulnerabilities. This model is implemented and experimentally tested using the SARD Juliet vulnerability test suite to determine its efficacy. It is able to improve on existing code graph feature selection methods, as demonstrated by its improved ability to discover vulnerabilities.

Keywords: code representation, deep learning, source code semantics, vulnerability discovery

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Authors: Jung-Feng Lin, Wei-Tang Chen, Chung-King Hsu, Chun-Pin Lin, Feng-Huei Lin

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One of the objectives of operative dentistry is to maintain pulp health in compromised teeth. Mostly used methods for this purpose are direct pulp capping and pulpotomy, which consist of placement of biocompatible materials and bio-inductors on the exposed pulp tissue to preserve its health and stimulate repair by mineralized tissue formation. In this study, we developed a material (calcium phosphate cement (CPC)/gypsum composite) as the dental pulp capping material for shortening setting time and improving handling properties. We further discussed the influence of five different ratio of gypsum to CPC on HAP conversion, microstructure, setting time, weight loss, pH value, temperature difference, viscosity, mechanical properties, porosity, and biocompatibility.

Keywords: calcium phosphate cement, calcium sulphate hemihydrate, pulp capping, fast setting time

Procedia PDF Downloads 381

Authors: Jim Shih-Chiao Chin, Yu Ting Yeh, Shui Lien Chen, Yi-Fen Tsai

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his study is taking Adidas Company as the object, explored the brand awareness directly or indirectly affects brand affect and word of mouth. First, explored the brand awareness on category fit and image fit, and examined the influence of category fit and image fit on extension attitude. This study then designates the effect of extension attitude on brand affect and word-of-mouth. The relationship of brand awareness on brand affect and word-of-mouth was also explored. The study participants are people who have purchased Adidas extension products. A total of 700 valid questionnaires were collected and statistical software AMOS 20.0 was used to examine the research hypotheses by using structural equation modeling (SEM). Finally, theoretical implications and research directions are provided for future studies.

Keywords: brand extension, brand awareness, product category fit, brand image fit, brand affect, word-of-mouth (WOM)

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Authors: Jin Chuhao, Chen Xiang

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In recent years, due to the rapid development of Chinese urbanization, a great deal of rural population surge into urban to make a living. This fact causes the vicious circulation of rural development including sharp decrease of agricultural labor force in rural area, the obvious increase of rural land price, the shrinking of traditional agriculture and the bigger gap between Chinese urban and rural areas. With the improvement of living condition and ideological level of the Chinese people, the use and renewal of the traditional villages are gaining more and more attention, thus agricultural cultural and creative industries appears. Basing on the investigation of practical projects, this paper discusses how the agricultural cultural and creative industries promote the sustainable development of Chinese rural areas.

Keywords: sustainable design, Chinese rural areas, renewal, agricultural cultural and creative industries

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Authors: Trina Isabel Santiago, Daniel Chua, Jumee Tayaban, Joseph Daniel Timbol, Joshua Yanes

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Numerous instances of human rights violations on healthcare workers have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This brief aims to explore these civil and political rights violations and propose recommendations to address these. Our review shows that a wide range of civic and political human rights violations have been committed by individual citizens and government agencies on individual healthcare workers and health worker groups. These violations include discrimination, red-tagging, evictions, illegal arrests, and acts of violence ranging from chemical attacks to homicide. If left unchecked, these issues, compounded by the pandemic, may lead to the exacerbations of the pre-existing problems of the Philippine healthcare system. Despite all pre-existing reports by human rights groups and public media articles, there still seems to be a lack of government action to condemn and prevent these violations. The existence of government agencies which directly contribute to these violations with the lack of condemnation from other agencies further propagate the problem. Given these issues, this policy brief recommends the establishment of an interagency task force for the protection of human rights of healthcare workers as well as the expedited passing of current legislative bills towards the same goal. For more immediate action, we call for the establishment of a dedicated hotline for these incidents with adequate appointment and training of point persons, construction of clear guidelines, and closer collaboration between government agencies in being united against these issues.

Keywords: human rights violations, healthcare workers, COVID-19 pandemic, Philippines

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Authors: R. I. You, C. L. Ho, M. S. Dai, H. M. Hung, S. F. Yen, C. S. Chen, T. Y. Chao

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Neutrophils are the most abundant innate immune cells to against invading microorganisms. Numerous data shown neutrophils have plasticity in response to physiological and pathological conditions. Tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN) exist in distinct types of tumor and play an important role in cancer biology. Different transcriptomic profiles of neutrophils in tumor and non-tumor samples have been identified. Several miRNAs have been recognized as regulators of gene expression in neutrophil, which may have key roles in neutrophil activation. However, the miRNAs expression patterns in TAN are not well known. To address this question, magnetic bead isolated neutrophils from tumor-bearing mice were used in this study. We analyzed production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence assay. The expression of miRNAs targeting NADPH oxidase, ROS generation and autophagy was explored using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Our data suggest that tumor environment influence neutrophil develop to differential states of activation via miRNAs regulation.

Keywords: tumor-associated neutrophil, miRNAs, neutrophil, ROS

Procedia PDF Downloads 467

Authors: Ruey-Yu Chen, Yao-Tsung Chang, Ching-Ying Yeh, Yu-Ting Huang

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Musculoskeletal problems in the hotel sector have been little studied. The aim of this study was to examine relationships of musculoskeletal pain and work characteristics with presenteeism, i.e., feeling sick but going to work anyway. Data of a self-reported questionnaire were collected from 1,101 employees, who joined the study on a voluntary basis from four hotels in northern Taiwan. The results showed that respondents who were female, were younger, had a higher educational level, and worked in the real-service department had higher presenteeism. There were significant positive associations between presenteeism and heavy loads, frequent beatings or hits of hard objects, improper bench height, employees’ lower limb and lower back pain. Our study results imply that knowledge of work characteristics and employees' musculoskeletal problems could be advantageously used to reduce presenteeism in the workplace.

Keywords: musculoskeletal pain, absenteeism, presenteeism, hotel employees

Procedia PDF Downloads 192

Authors: Feiyu Fang, Han Wang, Xin Chen, Jun Zeng, Feng Liang, Peixuan Wu

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The 'rope coiling' effect is a normal instability phenomenon widespread exists in viscous fluid, elastic rods and polymeric fibers owing to compressive stress when they fall into a moving belt. Near-field electro-spinning is the modified electro-spinning technique has the ability to direct write micro fibers. In this research, we study the “rope coiling” effect in near-field electro-spinning. By changing the distance between nozzle and collector or the speed ratio between the charge jet speed and the platform moving speed, we obtain a pile of different models coils including the meandering, alternating and coiling patterns. Therefore, this instability can be used to direct write micro structured fibers with a one-step process.

Keywords: rope coiling effects, near-field electrospinning, direct write, micro structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Harriet Kebirungi, Majaliwa Jackson-Gilbert Mwanjalolo, S. Livingstone Luboobi, Richard Joseph Kimwaga, Consolata Kabonesa

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This paper assessed gender responsiveness of water and sanitation policies and legal frameworks at Makerere University, Uganda. The objectives of the study were to i) examine the gender responsiveness of water and sanitation related policies and frameworks implemented at Makerere University; and ii) assess the challenges faced by the University in customizing national water and sanitation policies and legal frameworks into University policies. A cross-sectional gender-focused study design was adopted. A checklist was developed to analyze national water and sanitation policies and legal frameworks and University based policies. In addition, primary data was obtained from Key informants at the Ministry of Water and Environment and Makerere University. A gender responsive five-step analytical framework was used to analyze the collected data. Key findings indicated that the policies did not adequately address issues of gender, water and sanitation and the policies were gender neutral consistently. The national policy formulation process was found to be gender blind and not backed by situation analysis of different stakeholders including higher education institutions like Universities. At Makerere University, due to lack of customized and gender responsive water and sanitation policy and implementation framework, there were gender differences and deficiencies in access to and utilization of water and sanitation facilities. The University should take advantage of existing expertise within them to customize existing national water policies and gender, and water and sanitation sub-sector strategy. This will help the University to design gender responsive, culturally acceptable and environmental friendly water and sanitation systems that provide adequate water and sanitation facilities that address the needs and interests of male and female students.

Keywords: gender, Makerere University, policies, water, sanitation

Procedia PDF Downloads 398

Authors: Shui Lien Chen, Yi-Fen Tsai, Jim Shih-Chiao Chin

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—In this study, using Chunghwa Telecom as a case. The company accounted for the highest proportion of the telecommunications company in Taiwan. First, this paper would like to understand the effect of convenience performance on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Further, the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) are adopted as the factors on the company's brand perception. Afterward, the brand perception influence on customer satisfaction, and finally whether producing a good reputation and recommendation are tested. The study participants are people who have used electronic platform service of Chunghwa Telecom. A total of 478 valid questionnaires were used and AMOS 20.0 statistical software programs were adopted to analyze.

Keywords: technology acceptance model, brand association, brand awareness, brand attachment, customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth (WOM)

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Authors: Mingsiang Chen

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The increasing transactions among countries worldwide have brought about a trend of comparative law research in the legal community. An important branch of legal research, i.e., constitutional law, is no exception to the trend. The comparative study of constitutional law takes various forms, and one of these is to study the use of foreign law by constitutional courts. There are, in essence, three sources of foreign law usually used by constitutional courts: foreign constitutions, decisions by foreign constitutional courts, and legal theories developed by foreign scholars. There are two types of using foreign law by constitutional courts: citing any of the forenamed sources for reference purpose, ruling based on the contents or logic of any of the forenamed sources. This paper examines all the decisions handed down by the Constitutional Court of Taiwan from 1990 to 2017. Its purpose is to seek out the occasions, the extent, the significance, and the approach of such usage.

Keywords: comparative constitutional law, constitutional court, judicial review, Taiwan judiciary

Procedia PDF Downloads 218

Authors: Ibrahim Iddrisu, Joseph Ayariga, Junhuan Xu, Ayomide Adebanjo, Boakai K. Robertson, Michelle Samuel-Foo, Olufemi Ajayi

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The rise of antimicrobial resistance is a global public health crisis that threatens the effective control and prevention of infections. Due to the emergence of pan drug-resistant bacteria, most antibiotics have lost their efficacy. Bacteriophages or their components are known to target bacterial cell walls, cell membranes, and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and hydrolyze them. Bacteriophages, being the natural predators of pathogenic bacteria, are inevitably categorized as ‘human friends’, thus fulfilling the adage that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Leveraging on their lethal capabilities against pathogenic bacteria, researchers are searching for more ways to overcome the current antibiotic resistance challenge. In this study, we expressed and purified epsilon 34 phage tail spike protein (E34 TSP) from the E34 TSP gene, then assessed the ability of this bacteriophage protein in the killing of two CBD-resistant strains of Salmonella spp. We also assessed the ability of the tail spike protein to cause bacteria membrane disruption and dehydrogenase depletion. We observed that the combined treatment of CBD-resistant strains of Salmonella with CBD and E34 TSP showed poor killing ability, whereas the mono treatment with E34 TSP showed considerably higher killing efficiency. This study demonstrates that the inhibition of the bacteria by E34 TSP was due in part to membrane disruption and dehydrogenase inactivation by the protein. The results of this work provide an interesting background to highlight the crucial role phage proteins such as E34 TSP could play in pathogenic bacterial control.

Keywords: cannabidiol, resistance, Salmonella, antimicrobials, phages

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Authors: Larry E. Udu, Joseph N. Edeh

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Unarguably, the land is an indispensable factor of production and has been instrumental to numerous conflicts between crop farmers and herders in Nigeria. The conflicts pose a grave challenge to life and property, food security and ultimately to sustainable socio-economic development of the nation. The paper examines the causes of the Fulani herders/farmers conflicts, particularly in the Middle Belt; numerity of occurrences and extent of damage and their socio-economic implications. Content Analytical Approach was adopted as methodology wherein data was extensively drawn from the secondary source. Findings reveal that major causes of the conflict are attributable to violation of tradition and laws, trespass and cultural factors. Consequently, the numerity of attacks and level of fatality coupled with displacement of farmers, destruction of private and public facilities impacted negatively on farmers output with their attendant socio-economic implications on sustainable livelihood of the people and the nation at large. For instance, Mercy Corps (a Global Humanitarian Organization) in its research, 2013-2016 asserts that a loss of $14billion within 3 years was incurred and if the conflict were resolved, the average affected household could see increase income by at least 64 percent and potentially 210 percent or higher and that states affected by the conflicts lost an average of 47 percent taxes/IGR. The paper therefore recommends strict adherence to grazing laws; platform for dialogue bothering on compromises where necessary and encouragement of cattle farmers to build ranches for their cattle according to international standards.

Keywords: conflict, farmers, herders, Nigeria, socio-economic implications

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Authors: Joseph Marfo Boaheng, Daniel Ansong, Eugenia Amporfo

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Health Insurance is proposed to provide financial protection against catastrophic health care cost arising from disease. Ghana has had a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since 2003 with the current enrolment/retention rate of 36%. The main goal of the scheme is to provide equity in the health sector as well as ensuring affordable health care for the poor. However, the current payment system is not flexible to attract significant proportion of the poor informal sector onto the scheme. Looking at the extensive use of mobiles in the Ghana where about 29,220,602.00 registered mobile phone lines are actively in used as of June 2014, paying health insurance premium through mobile phone could be feasible to attract larger proportion of the informal sector onto the scheme. Methodology: The quantitative cross-sectional survey was used to solicit the required information from 877 respondents living in Kumasi, the second capital city of Ghana. The magnitude of the effect of Pro-rata system (flexible payment terms) on NHIS enrollment rate was estimated with binary logistic regression model. Results: The odds for an individual to enroll onto NHIS with mobile phone increases about 2 times more when payment of insurance premium is on pro-rata basis ie. flexible payment terms (p=0.008, CI=1.212-3.565). Conclusion: The study advocates the National Health Insurance Authority consider this alternative payment system that has the potential of attracting a greater proportion of the informal sector to be enrolled or retained onto the scheme.

Keywords: enrollment, health insurance, mobile phone, pro-rata

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Authors: Lican Wang, Rongqian Chen, Yancheng You, Ruofan Qiu

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In the applications of jet engine, open-jet wind tunnel and airframe, there wildly exists a shear layer formed by the velocity and temperature gradients between jet flow and surrounded medium. The presence of shear layer will refract and reflect the sound path that consequently influences the measurement results in far-field. To investigate and evaluate the shear layer effect, a gradient term suppression and filtering method is adopted to simulate sound propagation through a steady sheared flow in three dimensions. Two typical configurations are considered: one is an incompressible and cold jet flow in wind tunnel and the other is a compressible and hot jet flow in turbofan engine. A numerically linear microphone array is used to localize the position of given sound source. The localization error is presented and linearly fitted.

Keywords: aeroacoustic, linearized Euler equation, acoustic propagation, source localization

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Authors: M. W. Sun, Y. Zhang, L. M. Zhang, Z. H. Wang, Z. Q. Chen

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In the realm of flight control, the Proportional- Derivative (PD) control is still widely used for the attitude control in practice, particularly for the pitch control, and the attitude dynamics using PD controller should be investigated deeply. According to the empirical knowledge about the unstable flight dynamics, the control parameter combination conditions to generate sole or finite number of closed-loop oscillations, which is a quite smooth response and is more preferred by practitioners, are presented in analytical or numerical manners. To analyze the effects of the combination conditions of the control parameters, the roots of several polynomials are sought to obtain feasible solutions. These conditions can also be plotted in a 2-D plane which makes the conditions be more explicit by using multiple interval operations. Finally, numerical examples are used to validate the proposed methods and some comparisons are also performed.

Keywords: attitude control, dynamic performance, numerical solving method, interval, unstable flight dynamics

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Authors: Bin Yang, Xiaofang Chen, Guangxin Wang

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Zinc coating as a sacrificial protection plays an important role in the traditional steel anticorrosion field. Adding second-phase reinforcement particles into zinc matrix is an interesting approach to further enhance its corrosion performance. In this paper, pure Zn and Zn–graphene composite coatings of different graphene contents were prepared by direct current electrodeposition on 304 stainless steel substrate. The coatings were characterized by XRD, SEM/EDS, and Raman spectroscopy. Tafel polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic methods were used to study their corrosion behavior. Result obtained have shown that the concentration of grapheme oxide (GO) in zinc sulfate bath has an important effect on textured structure and surface morphology of Zn–graphene composite coatings. The coating prepared with 1.0g/L GO has shown the best corrosion resistance compared to other coatings prepared in this study.

Keywords: Zn-graphene coatings, electrodeposition, microstructure, corrosion behavior

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Authors: P. W. Chen, C. T. Chang, Y. Peng, J. Y. Wu, D. J. Jan, Md. Manirul Ali

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In the last decade, the nature of cathode spot splitting and the current per spot depended on an oblique magnetic field was investigated. This model for cathode current splitting is developed that we have investigated with relationship the magnetic pressures produced by kinetic pressure, self-magnetic pressure, and changed with an external magnetic field. We propose a theoretical model that has been established to an external magnetic field with components normal and tangential to the cathode surface influenced on magnetic pressure strength. We mainly focus on developed to understand the current per spot influenced with the tangential magnetic field strength and normal magnetic field strength.

Keywords: cathode spot, vacuum arc discharge, oblique magnetic field, tangential magnetic field

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Authors: Joseph Abiodun Ayo

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The main purpose of this study was to investigate the science laboratory management practices employed in some colleges of education in Kano State, Nigeria. Four specific objectives were stated to guide the study, four research questions were investigated, four null hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance. A survey design was used and science laboratory management questionnaires which solicit responses that was used in answering the research questions and testing of hypotheses. These questionnaires were distributed to the respective respondents in the sampled colleges. The respondents for the study comprised biology chemistry, physics, integrated science teacher trainers and the paraprofessionals. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the questions. Chi-square statistical technique was used to test the hypothesis. The findings of the study revealed that all procedures on control of laboratory activities were rarely observed. Safety procedures were occasionally practiced. On provision and procurement of laboratory equipment and materials it was observed that both academic and the paraprofessional were not fully involved. While maintenance measures were occasionally observed, furthermore science laboratory management procedures are not frequently practiced. Hence making the acquisition of science process skills by students becoming difficult. To arrest these anomalies, it is recommended that direct labor in the maintenance of laboratory equipment and other apparatus by paraprofessional is crucial. Training of academic and paraprofessional through workshops to acquire technical skills in maintenance of science laboratory equipment be instituted to increase professionalism. Periodic supervision of activities in the science laboratories should be done promptly.

Keywords: laboratory, management, standard, facility

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Authors: Ragu Sasikumar, Palraj Ranganathan, Shen-Ming Chen, Syang-Peng Rwei

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A highly sensitive, and selective α-Lipoic acid (ALA) sensor based on a functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes-polyindole/Ti2O3 (f-MWCNTs-PIN/Ti2O3) nanocomposite modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was developed. The fabricated f-MWCNTs-PIN/Ti2O3/GCE displayed an enhanced voltammetric response for oxidation towards ALA relative to that of a f-MWCNTs/GCE, f-MWCNTs-PIN/GCE, Ti2O3/GCE, and a bare GCE. Under optimum conditions, the f-MWCNTs-PIN/Ti2O3/GCE showed a wide linear range at ALA concentrations of 0.39-115.8 µM. The limit of detection of 12 nM and sensitivity of about 6.39 µA µM-1cm-2. The developed sensor showed anti-interference, reproducibility, good repeatability, and operational stability. Applied possibility of the sensor has been confirmed in vegetable samples.

Keywords: f-MWCNT, polyindole, Ti2O3, Alzheimer’s diseases, ALA sensor

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Authors: Kai Chen, Shuguang Cui, Feng Yin

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Gaussian process (GP) with spectral mixture (SM) kernel demonstrates flexible non-parametric Bayesian learning ability in modeling unknown function. In this work a novel time-varying and non-stationary convolution spectral mixture (TN-CSM) kernel with a significant enhancing of interpretability by using process convolution is introduced. A way decomposing the SM component into an auto-convolution of base SM component and parameterizing it to be input dependent is outlined. Smoothly, performing a convolution between two base SM component yields a novel structure of non-stationary SM component with much better generalized expression and interpretation. The TN-CSM perfectly allows compatibility with the stationary SM kernel in terms of kernel form and spectral base ignored and confused by previous non-stationary kernels. On synthetic and real-world datatsets, experiments show the time-varying characteristics of hyper-parameters in TN-CSM and compare the learning performance of TN-CSM with popular and representative non-stationary GP.

Keywords: Gaussian process, spectral mixture, non-stationary, convolution

Procedia PDF Downloads 191