Search results for: field test

Authors: Anna Siegler

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Bullying among peers is not uncommon; however, adults can notice only a fragment of the cases of harassment during everyday life. The systemic approaches of bullying investigation put the whole school community in the focus of attention and propose that the solution should emerge from the culture of the school. Bystanders are essential in the prevention and intervention processes as an active agent rather than passive. For combating exclusion, stigmatization and harassment, it is important that the bystanders have to realize they have the power to take action. To prevent the escalation of violence, victims must believe that students and teachers will help them and their environment is able to provide safety. The study based on scientific narrative psychological approach, and focuses on the examination of the different perspectives of students, how peers are mentalizing with each other in case of bullying. The data collection contained responses of students (N = 138) from three schools in Hungary, and from three different area of the country (Budapest, Martfű and Barcs). The test battery include Bullying Prevalence Questionnaire, Interpersonal Reactivity Index and an instruction to get narratives about bullying, which effectiveness was tested during a pilot test. The obtained results are in line with the findings of previous bullying research: the victims are mentalizing less with their peers and experience greater personal distress when they are in identity threatening situations, thus focusing on their own difficulties rather than social signals. This isolation is an adaptive response in short-term although it seems to lead to a deficit in social skills later in life and makes it difficult for students to become socially integrated to society. In addition the results also show that students use more mental state attribution when they report verbal bullying than in case of physical abuse. Those who witness physical harassment also witness concrete answers to the problem from teachers, in contrast verbal abuse often stays without consequences. According to the results students mentalizing more in these stories because they have less normative explanation to what happened. To expanding bullying literature, this research helps to find ways to reduce school violence through community development.

Keywords: bullying, mentalization, narrative, school culture

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Authors: N. Scheidegger, A. Mueller

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Job preferences are a well-developed research field. Many studies analyze the preferences using simple ratings with a sample of university graduates. The current study analyzes the preferences with a mixed method approach of a qualitative preliminary study and adaptive conjoint-analysis. Preconditions of accepting job offers are clarified for professionals in the industrial sector. It could be shown that, e.g. wages above the average are critical and that career opportunities must be seen broader than merely a focus on formal personnel development programs. The results suggest that, to be effective with their recruitment efforts, employers must take into account key desirable job attributes of their target group.

Keywords: conjoint analysis, employer attractiveness, job preferences, personnel marketing

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Authors: Zelal Çınar

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This paper claims that architecture is a contingent discipline, despite the fact that its contingency has long been denied through a retreat to Vitruvian writing. It is evident that contingency is rejected not only by architecture but also by modernity as a whole. Vitruvius attempted to cover the entire field of architecture in a systematic form in order to bring the whole body of this great discipline to a complete order. The legacy of his theory hitherto lasted not only that it is the only major work on the architecture of Classical Antiquity to have survived, but also that its conformity with the project of modernity. In the scope of the paper, it will be argued that contingency should be taken into account rather than avoided as a potential threat.

Keywords: architecture, contingency, modernity, Vitruvius

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Authors: Hugo Espinosa-Andrews

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Introduction: Yogurt is widely accepted worldwide due to its high nutritional value, consistency, and texture. Their rheological properties play a significant role in consumer acceptance and are related to the manufacturing process and formulation. Typically, the viscoelastic characteristics of yogurts are studied using the small amplitude oscillatory shear test; however, the initial stages of flow and oral processing are described in the nonlinear zone, in which a large amplitude oscillatory stress test is applied. The objective of this work was to analyze the nonlinear viscoelastic behavior of commercial yogurts using Lissajous curves. Methods: Two commercial yogurts were purchased in a local store in Guadalajara Jalisco Mexico: a natural Greek-style yogurt and a low-fat traditional yogurt. Viscoelastic properties were evaluated using a large amplitude oscillatory stress procedure (LAOS). A crosshatch geometry of 40 mm and a truncation of 1000 µm were used. Stress sweeps were performed at 6.28 rad/s from 1 to 250 Pa at 5°C. The nonlinear viscoelastic properties were analyzed using the Lissajous curves. Results: The yogurts showed strain-viscoelastic behavior related to deformation-dependent materials. In the low-strain region, the elastic modulus predominated over the viscous modulus, showing gel-elastic properties. The sol-gel transitions were observed at approximately 66.5 Pa for the Greek yogurt, double that detected for traditional yogurt. The viscoelastic behavior of the yogurts was characteristic of weak excess deformation: behavior indicating a stable molecular structure at rest, and moderate structure at medium shear-forces. The normalized Lissajous curves characterized viscoelastic transitions of the yogurt as the stress increased. Greater viscoelasticity deformation was observed in Greek yogurt than in traditional yogurt, which is related to the presence of a protein network with a greater degree of crosslinking. Conclusions: The yogurt composition influences the viscoelastic properties of the material. Yogurt with the higher percentage of protein has greater viscoelastic and viscous properties, which describe a product of greater consistency and creaminess.

Keywords: yogurt, viscoelastic properties, LAOS, elastic modulus

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Authors: R. O’Reilly Meehan, D. B. Murray

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In many practical situations, bubbles are dispersed in a liquid phase. Understanding these complex bubbly flows is therefore a key issue for applications such as shell and tube heat exchangers, mineral flotation and oxidation in water treatment. Although a large body of work exists for bubbles rising in an unbounded medium, that of bubbles rising in constricted geometries has received less attention. The particular case of a bubble sliding underneath an inclined surface is common to two-phase flow systems. The current study intends to expand this knowledge by performing experiments to quantify the streamwise flow structures associated with a single sliding air bubble under an inclined surface in quiescent water. This is achieved by means of two-dimensional, two-component particle image velocimetry (PIV), performed with a continuous wave laser and high-speed camera. PIV vorticity fields obtained in a plane perpendicular to the sliding surface show that there is significant bulk fluid motion away from the surface. The associated momentum of the bubble means that this wake motion persists for a significant time before viscous dissipation. The magnitude and direction of the flow structures in the streamwise measurement plane are found to depend on the point on its path through which the bubble enters the plane. This entry point, represented by a phase angle, affects the nature and strength of the vortical structures. This study reconstructs the vorticity field in the wake of the bubble, converting the field at different instances in time to slices of a large-scale wake structure. This is, in essence, Taylor’s ”frozen turbulence” hypothesis. Applying this to the vorticity fields provides a pseudo three-dimensional representation from 2-D data, allowing for a more intuitive understanding of the bubble wake. This study provides insights into the complex dynamics of a situation common to many engineering applications, particularly shell and tube heat exchangers in the nucleate boiling regime.

Keywords: bubbly flow, particle image velocimetry, two-phase flow, wake structures

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Authors: Akram Farhadi, Mahshid Froughan, Farahnaz Mohammadi, Maryam Rassouli, Maryam Noroozian, Leila Sadeghmoghaddam

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Background: The caregivers’ assessment of their own caregiving is considered the most important concept in exploring their experiences and has a major role in care outcomes. The rising number of people with dementia and their need for care makes family caregiving really important matter to consider and evaluate. Objectives: This study was conducted with the aim to naturalize and validate the Persian version of the Revised Caregiving Appraisal Scale (RCAS) in family caregivers of older adults with dementia. Patients and Method: In this cross-sectional methodological study, the Revised Caregiving Appraisal Scale (RCAS) was translated using International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) protocol, and then a panel of experts examined its face and content validities. To ensure construct validity, the translated Revised Caregiving Appraisal Scale (RCAS) was completed by 236 family caregivers, and factor construct of the scale was assessed with 5 initial factors using confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency was found using Cronbach's alpha, and test-retest using intraclass correlation coefficient. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed in LISREL-8.8 software in Windows®. Results: Participating caregivers' mean age was 53.5±13.13 years. Content and face validities of the scale were confirmed according to the views expressed by family caregivers and panel of experts. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results showed appropriate values for all fitness indices (RMSEA=0.046, df/X2=2.428, CFI=0.98, AGFI=0.84, GFI=0.9), and the 5-factor model was confirmed with 27 items. Overall Cronbach's alpha was reported 0.894, and test retest showed overall ICC=0.94. Conclusion: The Persian version of RCAS is a valid and reliable tool for family caregivers' assessment of their caregiving of older adults with dementia, and can be useful in assessing family caregiving interventions.

Keywords: psychometric, family caregivers, reliability and validity, elderly, dementia, self-appraisal

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Authors: Jazim Sohail, Filipe Teixeira-Dias

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Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) within non-helmeted contact sports is a growing concern due to the serious risk of potential injury. Extensive research is being conducted looking into head kinematics in non-helmeted contact sports utilizing instrumented mouthguards that allow researchers to record accelerations and velocities of the head during and after an impact. This does not, however, allow the location of the impact on the head, and its magnitude and orientation, to be determined. This research proposes and validates two methods to quantify impact locations from instrumented mouthguard kinematic data, one using rigid body dynamics, the other utilizing machine learning. The rigid body dynamics technique focuses on establishing and matching moments from Euler’s and torque equations in order to find the impact location on the head. The methodology is validated with impact data collected from a lab test with the dummy head fitted with an instrumented mouthguard. Additionally, a Hybrid III Dummy head finite element model was utilized to create synthetic kinematic data sets for impacts from varying locations to validate the impact location algorithm. The algorithm calculates accurate impact locations; however, it will require preprocessing of live data, which is currently being done by cross-referencing data timestamps to video footage. The machine learning technique focuses on eliminating the preprocessing aspect by establishing trends within time-series signals from instrumented mouthguards to determine the impact location on the head. An unsupervised learning technique is used to cluster together impacts within similar regions from an entire time-series signal. The kinematic signals established from mouthguards are converted to the frequency domain before using a clustering algorithm to cluster together similar signals within a time series that may span the length of a game. Impacts are clustered within predetermined location bins. The same Hybrid III Dummy finite element model is used to create impacts that closely replicate on-field impacts in order to create synthetic time-series datasets consisting of impacts in varying locations. These time-series data sets are used to validate the machine learning technique. The rigid body dynamics technique provides a good method to establish accurate impact location of impact signals that have already been labeled as true impacts and filtered out of the entire time series. However, the machine learning technique provides a method that can be implemented with long time series signal data but will provide impact location within predetermined regions on the head. Additionally, the machine learning technique can be used to eliminate false impacts captured by sensors saving additional time for data scientists using instrumented mouthguard kinematic data as validating true impacts with video footage would not be required.

Keywords: head impacts, impact location, instrumented mouthguard, machine learning, mTBI

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Authors: Giorgi Gaganidze, Eter Kharaishvili

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The atypical crisis has created new challenges in the education system. Globally, including in Georgia, traditional methods of managing the education system have appeared particularly vulnerable. In addition, new opportunities for the introduction of innovative management of learning processes have emerged. The aim of the research is to identify the main challenges in the field of education management in the distance learning process in Georgia and to develop recommendations on the opportunities for the introduction of innovative management. The paper substantiates the relevance of the research, in particular, it notes that in Georgia, as in many countries, distance learning in higher education institutions became particularly crucial during the Covid-19 pandemic. What is more, theoretical and practical aspects of distance learning are less proven, and a number of problems have been identified in the field of education management in Georgia. The article justifies the need to study the challenges of distance learning for the formation of a sustainable education management system. Within the bibliographic research, there are grouped the opinions of researchers on the modern problems of distance learning and education management in the article. Based on scientific papers, the expectations formed about distance learning are studied, and the main focus is on the existing problems of education management during the atypical crisis. The article discusses the forms and opportunities of distance learning in different countries, evaluates different approaches and challenges to distance learning, and justifies the role of education management in effective distance learning. The paper uses various theoretical-methodological tools of research, including desk research on the research topic; Data selection-grouping, problem identification is carried out by analysis, synthesis, sampling, induction, and other methods;SWOT analysis is used to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of distance education and management; The level of student satisfaction with distance learning is determined through the Population-based / Census-based approach; The results of the research are processed by SPSS program. Quantitative research and semi-structured interviews with relevant focus groups were conducted to identify working directions for innovative management of distance learning and education. Research has shown that the demand for distance education is growing in Georgia, but the need to introduce innovative education management remains a particular challenge. Conclusions have been made on the introduction of innovative education management, and the relevant recommendations have been developed.

Keywords: distance learning, management challenges, education management, innovative management

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Authors: Lahcen Daoudi, Soukaina Elidrissi, Nathalie Fagel

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The calcareous accumulations in the surface formations of the soil, are a very widespread phenomenon in the arid and semi-arid regions. Many aspects of physical and chemical evolution of these soils were debated for more than one century. The last two decades have witnessed a remarkable interest in the study of the calcrete. In Morocco, as in most Mediterranean countries, soils with carbonate accumulation cover large areas of the territory. The isohumic subtropical soils and red Mediterranean soils include always a horizon of calcrete accumulation. In the lowland of Tensift Al Haouz located in the central part of Morocco, the arable lands are underlain by indurate pedogenic calcrete of various thicknesses; this constitutes a serious handicap for agricultural development in the region. Our aims in this study is to analyze the characteristics of the crusts developed in this area in order to identify the various facies, their geographic distribution and the factors that played a significant role in the differentiation of these calcareous accumulations. The characterizations were based on various techniques including field observations, X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) for both raw materials and clay fractions, SEM analysis, Calcimetry and Loss On Ignition (LOI). The analysis of encrusting calcrete in a rich and varied observation field as the region of Tensift Al Haouz enabled us to specify the important types of accumulations: diffuse, nodular and massive encrusting. The shape of encrusting as well as their consistency and hardness is clearly related to the contents of CaCO3 of the profiles. Among these facies, the hardpan which results from a complex succession of processes is certainly the most morphologically advanced form of encrusting. The vertical and lateral distribution of these forms in the Tensift Al Haouz area indicates that they do not appear randomly but seem related to well defined environmental conditions. The differentiation and evolution of encrusting is under the influence of two major factors: 1) the availability of carbonate rich solution which is controlled by the topography, the nature and texture of underlying host rock and the detrital processes; 2) the climate which is responsible for the evaporation and crystallization of carbonate.

Keywords: soil calcrete, characterization, morphology, Tensift Al Haouz, Morocco

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Authors: Azam Zare

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Separation flow control for performance enhancement over airfoils at high incidence angle has become an increasingly important topic. This work details the characteristics of an efficient feedback control of the turbulent subsonic flow over NACA23012 airfoil using forced reduced‐order model based on the proper orthogonal decomposition/Galerkin projection and perturbation method on the compressible Reynolds Averaged Navier‐Stokes equations. The forced reduced‐order model is used in the optimal control of the turbulent separated flow over a NACA23012 airfoil at Mach number of 0.2, Reynolds number of 5×106, and high incidence angle of 24° using blowing/suction controlling jets. The Spallart-Almaras turbulence model is implemented for high Reynolds number calculations. The main shortcoming of the POD/Galerkin projection on flow equations for controlling purposes is that the blowing/suction controlling jet velocity does not show up explicitly in the resulting reduced order model. Combining perturbation method and POD/Galerkin projection on flow equations introduce a forced reduced‐order model that can predict the time-varying influence of the blowing/suction controlling jet velocity. An optimal control theory based on forced reduced‐order system is used to design a control law for a nonlinear reduced‐order model, which attempts to minimize the vorticity content in the turbulent flow field over NACA23012 airfoil. Numerical simulations were performed to help understand the behavior of the controlled suction jet at 12% to 18% chord from leading edge and a pair of blowing/suction jets at 15% to 18% and 24% to 30% chord from leading edge, respectively. Analysis of streamline profiles indicates that the blowing/suction jets are efficient in removing separation bubbles and increasing the lift coefficient up to 22%, while the perturbation method can predict the flow field in an accurate Manner.

Keywords: flow control, POD, Galerkin projection, separation

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Authors: Jemal Ebrahim Dessie, Lukács Zsolt

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High-strength aluminum alloys have drawn a lot of attention because of the expanding demand for lightweight vehicle design in the automotive sector. Due to poor formability at room temperature, warm and hot forming have been advised. However, warm and hot forming methods need more steps in the production process and an advanced tooling system. In contrast, since ordinary tools can be used, forming sheets at room temperature in the W temper condition is advantageous. However, springback of supersaturated sheets and their thinning are critical challenges and must be resolved during the use of this technique. In this study, AA6082-T6 aluminum alloy was solution heat treated at different oven temperatures and times using a specially designed and developed furnace in order to optimize the W-temper heat treatment temperature. A U-shaped bending test was carried out at different time periods between W-temper heat treatment and forming operation. Finite element analysis (FEA) of U-bending was conducted using AutoForm aiming to validate the experimental result. The uniaxial tensile and unload test was performed in order to determine the kinematic hardening behavior of the material and has been optimized in the Finite element code using systematic process improvement (SPI). In the simulation, the effect of friction coefficient & blank holder force was considered. Springback parameters were evaluated by the geometry adopted from the NUMISHEET ’93 benchmark problem. It is noted that the change of shape was higher at the more extended time periods between W-temper heat treatment and forming operation. Die radius was the most influential parameter at the flange springback. However, the change of shape shows an overall increasing tendency on the sidewall as the increase of radius of the punch than the radius of the die. The springback angles on the flange and sidewall seem to be highly influenced by the coefficient of friction than blank holding force, and the effect becomes increases as increasing the blank holding force.

Keywords: aluminum alloy, FEA, springback, SPI, U-bending, W-temper

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Authors: Andreas Stollwitzer, Lara Bettinelli, Josef Fink

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The expansion of the high-speed rail network over the past decades has resulted in new challenges for engineers, including traffic-induced resonance vibrations of railway bridges. Excessive resonance-induced speed-dependent accelerations of railway bridges during high-speed traffic can lead to negative consequences such as fatigue symptoms, distortion of the track, destabilisation of the ballast bed, and potentially even derailment. A realistic prognosis of bridge vibrations during high-speed traffic must not only rely on the right choice of an adequate calculation model for both bridge and train but first and foremost on the use of dynamic model parameters which reflect reality appropriately. However, comparisons between measured and calculated bridge vibrations are often characterised by considerable discrepancies, whereas dynamic calculations overestimate the actual responses and therefore lead to uneconomical results. This gap between measurement and calculation constitutes a complex research issue and can be traced to several causes. One major cause is found in the dynamic properties of the ballasted track, more specifically in the persisting, substantial uncertainties regarding the consideration of the ballasted track (mechanical model and input parameters) in dynamic calculations. Furthermore, the discrepancy is particularly pronounced concerning the damping values of the bridge, as conservative values have to be used in the calculations due to normative specifications and lack of knowledge. By using a large-scale test facility, the analysis of the dynamic behaviour of ballasted track has been a major research topic at the Institute of Structural Engineering/Steel Construction at TU Wien in recent years. This highly specialised test facility is designed for isolated research of the ballasted track's dynamic stiffness and damping properties – independent of the bearing structure. Several mechanical models for the ballasted track consisting of one or more continuous spring-damper elements were developed based on the knowledge gained. These mechanical models can subsequently be integrated into bridge models for dynamic calculations. Furthermore, based on measurements at the test facility, model-dependent stiffness and damping parameters were determined for these mechanical models. As a result, realistic mechanical models of the railway bridge with different levels of detail and sufficiently precise characteristic values are available for bridge engineers. Besides that, this contribution also presents another practical application of such a bridge model: Based on the bridge model, determination equations for the damping factor (as Lehr's damping factor) can be derived. This approach constitutes a first-time method that makes the damping factor of a railway bridge calculable. A comparison of this mathematical approach with measured dynamic parameters of existing railway bridges illustrates, on the one hand, the apparent deviation between normatively prescribed and in-situ measured damping factors. On the other hand, it is also shown that a new approach, which makes it possible to calculate the damping factor, provides results that are close to reality and thus raises potentials for minimising the discrepancy between measurement and calculation.

Keywords: ballasted track, bridge dynamics, damping, model design, railway bridges

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Authors: Susmita Ghosh

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Catchment area of Damodar River, India experiences seasonal rains due to the south-west monsoon every year and depending upon the intensity of the storms, floods occur. During the monsoon season, the rainfall in the area is mainly due to active monsoon conditions. The upstream reach of Damodar river system has five dams store the water for utilization for various purposes viz, irrigation, hydro-power generation, municipal supplies and last but not the least flood moderation. But, in the downstream reach of Damodar River, known as Lower Damodar region, is severely and frequently suffering from flood due to heavy monsoon rainfall and also release from upstream reservoirs. Therefore, an effective flood management study is required to know in depth the nature and extent of flood, water logging, and erosion related problems, affected area, and damages in the Lower Damodar region, by conducting mathematical model study. The design flood or discharge is needed to decide to assign the respective model for getting several scenarios from the simulation runs. The ultimate aim is to achieve a sustainable flood management scheme from the several alternatives. there are various methods for estimating flood discharges to be carried through the rivers and their tributaries for quick drainage from inundated areas due to drainage congestion and excess rainfall. In the present study, the flood frequency analysis is performed to decide the design flood discharge of the study area. This, on the other hand, has limitations in respect of availability of long peak flood data record for determining long type of probability density function correctly. If sufficient past records are available, the maximum flood on a river with a given frequency can safely be determined. The floods of different frequency for the Damodar has been calculated by five candidate distributions i.e., generalized extreme value, extreme value-I, Pearson type III, Log Pearson and normal. Annual peak discharge series are available at Durgapur barrage for the period of 1979 to 2013 (35 years). The available series are subjected to frequency analysis. The primary objective of the flood frequency analysis is to relate the magnitude of extreme events to their frequencies of occurrence through the use of probability distributions. The design flood for return periods of 10, 15 and 25 years return period at Durgapur barrage are estimated by flood frequency method. It is necessary to develop flood hydrographs for the above floods to facilitate the mathematical model studies to find the depth and extent of inundation etc. Null hypothesis that the distributions fit the data at 95% confidence is checked with goodness of fit test, i.e., Chi Square Test. It is revealed from the goodness of fit test that the all five distributions do show a good fit on the sample population and is therefore accepted. However, it is seen that there is considerable variation in the estimation of frequency flood. It is therefore considered prudent to average out the results of these five distributions for required frequencies. The inundated area from past data is well matched using this flood.

Keywords: design discharge, flood frequency, goodness of fit, sustainable flood management

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Authors: Mohammed Y. Abdellah, Mohamed K. Hassan, A. F. Mohamed, Shadi M. Munshi, A. M. Hashem

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Pips made from glass fiber reinforced polymer has competitive role in petroleum industry. The need of evaluating the mechanical behavior of (GRP) pipes is essential objects. Stress relaxation illustrates how polymers relieve stress under constant strain. Static relaxation test is carried out at room temperature. The material gives poor static relaxation strength, two loading cycles have been observed for the tested specimen.

Keywords: GRP, sandwich composite material, static relaxation, stress relief

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Authors: Roxane A. Legaie, Kjiana E. Schwab, Caroline E. Gargett

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Studies looking at the changes in gene expression from RNAseq data often make use of linear models. It is also common practice to focus on a subset of data for a comparison of interest, leaving aside the samples not involved in this particular comparison. This work shows the importance of including all observations in the modeling process to better estimate variance parameters, even when the samples included are not directly used in the comparison under test. The human endometrium is a dynamic tissue, which undergoes cycles of growth and regression with each menstrual cycle. The mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) present in the endometrium are likely responsible for this remarkable regenerative capacity. However recent studies suggest that MSCs also plays a role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis, one of the most common medical conditions affecting the lower abdomen in women in which the endometrial tissue grows outside the womb. In this study we compared gene expression profiles between MSCs and non-stem cell counterparts (‘non-MSC’) obtained from women with (‘E’) or without (‘noE’) endometriosis from RNAseq. Raw read counts were used for differential expression analysis using a linear model with the limma-voom R package, including either all samples in the study or only the samples belonging to the subset of interest (e.g. for the comparison ‘E vs noE in MSC cells’, including only MSC samples from E and noE patients but not the non-MSC ones). Using the full dataset we identified about 100 differentially expressed (DE) genes between E and noE samples in MSC samples (adj.p-val < 0.05 and |logFC|>1) while only 9 DE genes were identified when using only the subset of data (MSC samples only). Important genes known to be involved in endometriosis such as KLF9 and RND3 were missed in the latter case. When looking at the MSC vs non-MSC cells comparison, the linear model including all samples identified 260 genes for noE samples (including the stem cell marker SUSD2) while the subset analysis did not identify any DE genes. When looking at E samples, 12 genes were identified with the first approach and only 1 with the subset approach. Although the stem cell marker RGS5 was found in both cases, the subset test missed important genes involved in stem cell differentiation such as NOTCH3 and other potentially related genes to be used for further investigation and pathway analysis.

Keywords: differential expression, endometriosis, linear model, RNAseq

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Authors: David X. Dong, Qingming Zhang, Meng Lu

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Nitrites enter waterways as runoff from croplands and are discharged from many industrial sites. Excessive nitrite inputs to water bodies lead to eutrophication. On-site rapid detection of nitrite is of increasing interest for managing fertilizer application and monitoring water source quality. Existing methods for detecting nitrites use spectrophotometry, ion chromatography, electrochemical sensors, ion-selective electrodes, chemiluminescence, and colorimetric methods. However, these methods either suffer from high cost or provide low measurement accuracy due to their poor selectivity to nitrites. Therefore, it is desired to develop an accurate and economical method to monitor nitrites in environments. We report a low-cost optical sensor, in conjunction with a machine learning (ML) approach to enable high-accuracy detection of nitrites in water sources. The sensor works under the principle of measuring molecular absorptions of nitrites at three narrowband wavelengths (295 nm, 310 nm, and 357 nm) in the ultraviolet (UV) region. These wavelengths are chosen because they have relatively high sensitivity to nitrites; low-cost light-emitting devices (LEDs) and photodetectors are also available at these wavelengths. A regression model is built, trained, and utilized to minimize cross-sensitivities of these wavelengths to the same analyte, thus achieving precise and reliable measurements with various interference ions. The measured absorbance data is input to the trained model that can provide nitrite concentration prediction for the sample. The sensor is built with i) a miniature quartz cuvette as the test cell that contains a liquid sample under test, ii) three low-cost UV LEDs placed on one side of the cell as light sources, with each LED providing a narrowband light, and iii) a photodetector with a built-in amplifier and an analog-to-digital converter placed on the other side of the test cell to measure the power of transmitted light. This simple optical design allows measuring the absorbance data of the sample at the three wavelengths. To train the regression model, absorbances of nitrite ions and their combination with various interference ions are first obtained at the three UV wavelengths using a conventional spectrophotometer. Then, the spectrophotometric data are inputs to different regression algorithm models for training and evaluating high-accuracy nitrite concentration prediction. Our experimental results show that the proposed approach enables instantaneous nitrite detection within several seconds. The sensor hardware costs about one hundred dollars, which is much cheaper than a commercial spectrophotometer. The ML algorithm helps to reduce the average relative errors to below 3.5% over a concentration range from 0.1 ppm to 100 ppm of nitrites. The sensor has been validated to measure nitrites at three sites in Ames, Iowa, USA. This work demonstrates an economical and effective approach to the rapid, reagent-free determination of nitrites with high accuracy. The integration of the low-cost optical sensor and ML data processing can find a wide range of applications in environmental monitoring and management.

Keywords: optical sensor, regression model, nitrites, water quality

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Authors: Md Azizul Islam

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Seam is the line of joining two separate fabric layers for functional or aesthetic purposes. Different kinds of seams are used for assembling the different areas or parts of the garment to increase serviceability. To empirically support the importance of seam efficiency on serviceability of garments, this study is focused on choosing the right type of seams for particular sewing parts of the garments based on the seam efficiency to ensure better serviceability. Seam efficiency is the ratio of seam strength and fabric strength. Single jersey knitted finished fabrics of four different GSMs (gram per square meter) were used to make the test garments T-shirt. Three distinct types of the seam: superimposed, lapped and flat seam was applied to the side seams of T-shirt and sewn by lockstitch (stitch class- 301) in a flat-bed plain sewing machine (maximum sewing speed: 5000 rpm) to make (3x4) 12 T-shirts. For experimental purposes, needle thread count (50/3 Ne), bobbin thread count (50/2 Ne) and the stitch density (stitch per inch: 8-9), Needle size (16 in singer system), stitch length (31 cm), and seam allowance (2.5cm) were kept same for all specimens. The grab test (ASTM D5034-08) was done in the Universal tensile tester to measure the seam strength and fabric strength. The produced T-shirts were given to 12 soccer players who wore the shirts for 20 soccer matches (each match of 90 minutes duration). Serviceability of the shirt were measured by visual inspection of a 5 points scale based on the seam conditions. The study found that T-shirts produced with lapped seam show better serviceability and T-shirts made of flat seams perform the lowest score in serviceability score. From the calculated seam efficiency (seam strength/ fabric strength), it was obvious that the performance (in terms of strength) of the lapped and bound seam is higher than that of the superimposed seam and the performance of superimposed seam is far better than that of the flat seam. So it can be predicted that to get a garment of high serviceability, lapped seams could be used instead of superimposed or other types of the seam. In addition, less stressed garments can be assembled by others seems like superimposed seams or flat seams.

Keywords: seam, seam efficiency, serviceability, T-shirt

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Authors: Trevor R. Higgins, Ben Lopez

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Australian football fans have a tendency to indulge in foreign football clubs, often assigning a greater value to foreign clubs, in preference to the Australian National football competition; the A-League. There currently exists a gap in the knowledge available in relation to football fans in Australia, their engagement with foreign football teams and the impact that this may have with their engagement with A-League. The purpose of this study was to compare the engagement of the members of the Manchester United Supporters Club - Australia (MUSC-Aus) with Manchester United and the A-League. An online survey was implemented to gather the relevant data from members of the MUSC-Aus. Results from completed surveys were collected, and analyzed in relation to engagement levels with Manchester United and the A-League. Members of MUSC-Aus who responded to the survey were predominantly male (94%) and born in Australia (46%), England (25%), Ireland (7%), were greatly influenced in their choice of Manchester United by family (43%) and team history (16%), whereas location was the overwhelming influence in supporting the A-League (88%). Importantly, there was a reduced level of engagement in the A-League on two accounts. Firstly, only 64% of MUSC-Aus engaged with the A-League, reporting perceptions of low standard as the major reason (50%). Secondly, MUSC-Aus members who engaged in the A-League reported reduced engagement in the A-League, identified through spending patterns. MUSC-Aus members’ expenditure on Manchester United engagement was 400% greater than expenditure on A-League engagement. Furthermore, additional survey responses indicated that the level of commitment towards the A-League overall was less than Manchester United. The greatest impact on fan engagement in the A-League by MUSC-Aus can be attributed to several primary factors; family support, team history and perceptions to on-field performance and quality of players. Currently, there is little that can be done in regards to enhancing family and history as the A-League is still in its infancy. Therefore, perceptions of on-field performances and player quality should be addressed. Introducing short-term international marquee contracts to A-League rosters, across the entire competition, may provide the platform to raise the perception of the A-League player quality with minimal impact on local player development. In addition, a national marketing campaign promoting the success of A-League clubs in the ACL, as well as promoting the skill on display in the A-League may address the negative association with the standard of the A-League competition.

Keywords: engagement, football, perceptions of performance, team

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Authors: S. F. Kanaan, Fatima Al-Kadi, H. Khrais

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Background: Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that is characterized by chronic pain that limits physical and functional activities. To our best knowledge, there is currently no key physiotherapy approach recommended to reduce pain and improve function. In addition, there are scarce studies that investigated the effect of manual therapy in the management of Fibromyalgia, and no study investigated the efficacy of Mulligan´s mobilization with movement (MWM) in particular. Methods: A 51-year-old female diagnosed with Fibromyalgia for more than a year. The patient was complaining of generalized pain including neck, lower back, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. In addition, the patient reported severe limitation in activities and inability to complete her work as a lawyer. The Intervention provided for the patient consisted of 4 sessions (in two weeks) of MWM for neck, lower back, shoulders, elbows, sacroiliac joint, hips, and knees. The Visual Analogue Scale of pain (VAS), Range of Motion (ROM), 10-minute walk test, Roland Morris Low Back Pain and Disability Questionnaire (RMQ), Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Score (DASH) were collected at the baseline and at the end of treatment. Results: Average improvement of ROM in the neck, lower back, shoulder, elbows, hips, and knees was 45%. VAS scale changed from pre-treatment to post-treatment as the following: neck pain (9 to 0), lower back pain (8 to 1), shoulders pain (8 to 2), elbows pain (7 to 1), and knees pain (9 to 0). The patient demonstrated improvement in all functional scale from pre-intervention to post-intervention: 10-meter walk test (9.8 to 4.5 seconds), RMQ (21 to 11/24), and DASH (88.7% to 40.5%). The patient did not report any side effect of using this approach. Conclusion: Fibromyalgia can cause joint 'faulty position' leading to pain and dysfunction, which can be reversed by using MWM. MWM showed to have clinically significant improvement in ROM, pain, and ability to walk and a clinically significant reduction in disability in only 4 sessions. This work can be expanded in a larger sample.

Keywords: mobilization, fibromyalgia, dysfunction, manual therapy

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Authors: Atin Mukherjee, Amitabha Sinha, Debesh Choudhury

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Fast Fourier transform (FFT) of large-number of samples requires larger hardware resources of field programmable gate arrays and it asks for more area as well as power. In this paper, an area efficient architecture of FFT processor is proposed, that reuses the butterfly units more than once. The FFT processor is emulated and the results are validated on Virtex-6 FPGA. The proposed architecture outperforms the conventional architecture of a N-point FFT processor in terms of area which is reduced by a factor of log_N(2) with the negligible increase of processing time.

Keywords: FFT, FPGA, resource optimization, butterfly units

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Authors: Pejman Taghibeikzadehbadr

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Background and Aim: PGC-1 alpha is a transcription factor that was first detected in brown adipose tissue. Since its discovery, PGC-1 alpha has been known to facilitate beneficial adaptations such as mitochondrial biogenesis and increased angiogenesis in skeletal muscle following aerobic exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of PGC-1 alpha isoforms in response to eccentric and concentric resistance training in healthy subjects. Materials and Methods: Ten healthy men were randomly divided into two groups (5 patients in eccentric group - 5 in eccentric group). Isokinetic contraction protocols included eccentric and concentric knee extension with maximum power and angular velocity of 60 degrees per second. The torques assigned to each subject were considered to match the workload in both protocols, with a rotational speed of 60 degrees per second. Contractions consisted of a maximum of 12 sets of 10 repetitions for the right leg, a rest time of 30 seconds between each set. At the beginning and end of the study, biopsy of the lateral broad muscle tissue was performed. Biopsies were performed in both distal and proximal directions of the lateral flank. To evaluate the expression of PGC1α-1 and PGC1α-4 genes, tissue analysis was performed in each group using Real-Time PCR technique. Data were analyzed using dependent t-test and covariance test. SPSS21 software and Exell 2013 software were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that intra-group changes of PGC1α-1 after one session of activity were not significant in eccentric (p = 0.168) and concentric (p = 0.959) groups. Also, inter-group changes showed no difference between the two groups (p = 0.681). Also, intra-group changes of PGC1α-4 after one session of activity were significant in an eccentric group (p = 0.012) and concentric group (p = 0.02). Also, inter-group changes showed no difference between the two groups (p = 0.362). Conclusion: It seems that the lack of significant changes in the desired variables due to the lack of exercise pressure is sufficient to stimulate the increase of PGC1α-1 and PGC1α-4. And with regard to reviewing the answer, it seems that the compatibility debate has different results that need to be addressed.

Keywords: eccentric contraction, concentric contraction, PGC1α-1 و PGC1α-4, human subject

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Authors: Priyanka Tiwari, Uma Devi Ranjit, Ritesh Thapa

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Background and Significance: Cerebral Palsy (CP) influences not only the child's everyday functioning but also the functioning of whole family. Application of study findings can be used in clinical or community setting to screen the parents of children with cerebral palsy in order to identify the compromised domain of stress which in turn will help to improve the interaction between parent and child with disability and thus ultimately affect the progress that a child makes in his or her therapeutic or educational programs. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the level of stress in mothers of children with CP by adopting mixed method design. Methodology: Cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted in the quantitative design where Parental Stress Scale (PSS) was utilized to collect data from a convenient sample of 40 mothers of children with CP who were under regular follow-up by home visitor of Self-help Group for Cerebral Palsy while embedded qualitative design was used to explore the stress of mothers of CP affected children. From the parent population of quantitative sample 4 mothers were chosen for in-depth exploration, regarding their stress by means of case study method. Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage, mean, median, standard deviation, correlation and inferential statistics like Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to describe and assess relationship between variables. Findings: The mean stress experienced by mothers of children with cerebral palsy was 53.62±9.53 with 15% percent of the mothers experiencing severe stress. There was significant association between age group of mother and total stress score and negative themes of stress. Similarly, signification association was found between educational status of the mother and positive themes of stress which was convergent with the qualitative finding as well, where literate mothers had more positive view of their child's disability which could be attributed to their educational level as education provides us with a broad perspective to look at a situation. Conclusions: Still one-sixth of the mothers experienced severe stress so if we want to ensure the well-being of the children affected by cerebral palsy, then parents caring for them need to be looked after as well.

Keywords: stress, cerebral palsy, mothers, mixed method

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Authors: E. Maoz

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Background: As a teaching method, project-based learning is strongly linked to developing students’ critical thinking skills. It combines creative independent thinking, team work, and disciplinary subject-field integration. In the 'Introduction to Nursing Research Methods' course (year 3, Generic Track), project based learning is used to teach the topic of 'Evidence-Based Nursing'. This topic examines a clinical care issue encountered by students in the field. At the end of their project, students present proposals for managing the said issue. Proposals are the product of independent integrative thinking integrating a wide range of factors influencing the issue’s management. Method: Papers by 27 groups of students (165 students) were content analyzed to identify which themes emerged from the students' recommendations for managing the clinical issue. Findings: Five main themes emerged—current management approach; adapting procedures in line with current recent research recommendations; training for change (veteran nursing staff, beginner students, patients, significant others); analysis of 'economic benefit vs. patient benefit'; multidisciplinary team engagement in implementing change in practice. Two surprising themes also emerged: advertising and marketing using new technologies, which reflects how the new generation thinks. Summary and Recommendations: Among the main challenges in nursing education is training nursing graduates to think independently, integratively, and critically. Combining PBL with classical teaching methods stimulates students cognitively while opening new vistas with implications on all levels of the profession: management, research, education, and practice. Advanced students can successfully grasp and interpret the current state of clinical practice. They are competent and open to leading change and able to consider the diverse factors and interconnections that characterize the nurse's work.

Keywords: evidence based nursing, critical thinking skills, project based learning, students education

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Authors: Olatunji Sabitu Alimi

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This study investigated the extent to which administrators’ information storage, retrieval and processing capacities influence decisions on staff promotion in the Teaching Service Commissions (TESCOMs) in The South-West, Nigeria. One research question and two research hypotheses were formulated and tested respectively at 0.05 level of significance. The study used the descriptive research of the survey type. One hundred (100) staff on salary grade level 09 constituted the sample. Multi- stage, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 100 staff from the TESCOMs in The South-West, Nigeria. Two questionnaires titled Administrators’ Information Storage, Retrieval and Processing Capacities (AISRPC), and Staff Promotion Effectiveness (SPE) were used for data collection. The inventory was validated and subjected to test-re-test and reliability coefficient of r = 0.79 was obtained. The data were collected and analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient and simple percentage. The study found that Administrators at TESCOM stored their information in files, hard copies, soft copies, open registry and departmentally in varying degrees while they also processed information manually and through electronics for decision making. In addition, there is a significant relationship between administrators’ information storage and retrieval capacities in the TESCOMs in South – West, Nigeria, (r cal = 0.598 > r table = 0.195). Furthermore, administrators’ information processing capacity and staff promotion effectiveness were found to be significantly related (r cal = 0.209 > r table = 0.195 at 0.05 level of significance). The study recommended that training, seminars, workshops should be organized for administrators on information management, while educational organizations should provide Information Management Technology (ICT) equipment for the administrators in the TESCOMs. The staff of TESCOM should be promoted having satisfied the promotion criteria such as spending required number of years on a grade level, a clean record of service and vacancy.

Keywords: information processing capacity, staff promotion effectiveness, teaching service commission, Nigeria

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Authors: Parastou Kharazmi

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Degradation of building materials particularly pipelines causes environmental damage during the renovation or replacement, disturbance for people living in the buildings, is time-consuming and last but not least is very costly. Rehabilitation by composite materials is a solution for renovation of degraded pipeline in residential buildings and any other structures which is less costly, faster and causes less damage to the environment. This study provides a brief state of technology, methods, and materials which are being used in Nordic and some other European countries and an investigation on the performance of the relined pipes after they have been in working condition. The investigation was carried by different analyses in laboratory as well as numerous field inspections.

Keywords: buildings, pipeline, rehabilitation, polymer materials

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Authors: Elachouri Mostafa, Fakchich Jamila, Lazaar Jamila, Elmadmad Mohammed, Marhom Mostafa

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Of course, there has been a great growth in scientific information about medicinal plants in recent decades, but in many ways this has proved poor compensation, because such information is accessible, in practice, only to a very few people and anyway, rather little of it is relevant to problems of management and utilization, as encountered in the field. Active compounds are used in most traditional medicines and play an important role in advancing sustainable rural livelihoods through their conservation, cultivation, propagation, marketing and commercialization. Medicinal herbs are great resources for various pharmaceutical compounds and urgent measures are required to protect these plant species from their natural destruction and disappearance. Indeed, there is a real danger of indigenous Arab medicinal practices and knowledge disappearing altogether, further weakening traditional Arab culture and creating more insecurity, as well as forsaking a resource of inestimable economic and health care importance. As scientific approach, the ethnopharmacological investigation remains the principal way to improve, evaluate, and increase the odds of finding of biologically active compounds derived from medicinal plants. As developing country, belonging to the Mediterranean basin, Morocco country is endowed with resources of medicinal and aromatic plants. These plants have been used over the millennia for human welfare, even today. Besides, Morocco has a large plant biodiversity, in fact, its medicinal flora account more than 4200 species growing on various bioclimatic zones from subhumide to arid and Saharan. Nevertheless, the human and animal pressure resulting from the increase of rural population needs has led to degradation of this patrimony. In this paper, we focus our attention on ethnopharmacological studies carried out in Morocco. The goal of this work is to clarify the importance of herbs as platform for drugs discovery and further development, to highlight the importance of ethnopharmacological study as approach on discovery of natural products in the health care field, and to discuss the limit of ethnopharmacological investigation of drug discovery in Morocco.

Keywords: Morocco, medicinal plants, ethnopharmacology, natural products, drug-discovery

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Authors: Hiroki Tsuneda, Takamasa Suzuki, Hideki Yamamoto, Kimito Kawamura, Eiji Tamura, Katharina Wochner, Roberto Plasenzotti

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Flow property of human blood is one of the important factors on the prevention of the circulatory condition such as a high blood pressure, a diabetes mellitus, and a cardiac infarction. However, the measurement of flow property of human blood, especially blood viscosity, is not so easy, because of their coagulation or aggregation behaviors after taking a sample from blood vessel. In the experiment, some kinds of anticoagulant were added into the human blood to avoid its solidification. Anticoagulant used in the blood test has been chosen for each purpose of blood test, for anticoagulant effect on blood is different mechanism for each. So that, there is a problem that the evaluation of measured blood property with different anticoagulant is so difficult. Therefore, it is so important to make clear the difference of anticoagulant effect on the blood property. In the previous work, a compact-size falling needle rheometer (FNR) has been developed in order to measure the flow property of human blood such as a flow curve, an apparent viscosity. It was found that FNR system can apply to a rheometer or a viscometry for various experimental conditions for not only human blood but also mammalians blood. In this study, the measurements of human blood viscosity with different anticoagulant (EDTA and Heparin) were carried out using newly developed FNR system. The effect of anticoagulant on blood viscosity was also tested by using the standard liquid for each. The accuracy on the viscometry was also tested by using the standard liquid for calibrating materials (JS-10, JS-20) and observed data have satisfactory agreement with reference data around 1.0% at 310K. The flow curve of six males and females with different anticoagulant were measured using FNR. In this experiment, EDTA and Heparin were chosen as anticoagulant for blood. Heparin can inhibit the coagulation of human blood by activating the body of anti-thrombin. To examine the effect of human blood viscosity on anticoagulant, flow curve was measured at high shear rate (＞350s-1), and apparent viscosity of each person were determined with different anticoagulant. The apparent viscosity of human blood with heparin was 2%-9% higher than that with EDTA. However, the difference of blood viscosity for two anticoagulants for same blood was different for each. Further discussion, we need the consideration of effect on other physical property, such as cellular component and plasma component.

Keywords: falling-needle rheometer, human blood, viscosity, anticoagulant

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Authors: Leonid Zhukov, Dmytro Petrenko

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Optical thermometry has no alternative in many cases of industrial most effective continuous temperature control. Classical optical thermometry technologies can be used on available for pyrometers controlled objects with stable radiation characteristics and transmissivity of the intermediate medium. Without using temperature corrections, it is possible in the case of a “black” body for energy pyrometry and the cases of “black” and “grey” bodies for spectral ratio pyrometry or with using corrections – for any colored bodies. Consequently, with increasing the number of operating waves, optical thermometry possibilities to reduce methodical errors significantly expand. That is why, in recent 25-30 years, research works have been reoriented on more perfect spectral (multicolor) thermometry technologies. There are two physical material substances, i.e., substance (controlled object) and electromagnetic field (thermal radiation), to be operated in optical thermometry. Heat is transferred by radiation; therefore, radiation has the energy, entropy, and temperature. Optical thermometry was originating simultaneously with the developing of thermal radiation theory when the concept and the term "radiation temperature" was not used, and therefore concepts and terms "conditional temperatures" or "pseudo temperature" of controlled objects were introduced. They do not correspond to the physical sense and definitions of temperature in thermodynamics, molecular-kinetic theory, and statistical physics. Launched by the scientific thermometric society, discussion about the possibilities of temperature measurements of objects, including colored bodies, using the temperatures of their radiation is not finished. Are the information about controlled objects transferred by their radiation enough for temperature measurements? The positive and negative answers on this fundamental question divided experts into two opposite camps. Recent achievements of spectral thermometry develop events in her favour and don’t leave any hope for skeptics. This article presents the results of investigations and developments in the field of spectral thermometry carried out by the authors in the Department of Thermometry and Physics-Chemical Investigations. The authors have many-year’s of experience in the field of modern optical thermometry technologies. Innovative technologies of optical continuous temperature control have been developed: symmetric-wave, two-color compensative, and based on obtained nonlinearity equation of spectral emissivity distribution linear, two-range, and parabolic. Тhe technologies are based on direct measurements of physically substantiated and proposed by Prof. L. Zhukov, radiation temperatures with the next calculation of the controlled object temperature using this radiation temperatures and corresponding mathematical models. Тhe technologies significantly increase metrological characteristics of continuous contactless and light-guide temperature control in energy, metallurgical, ceramic, glassy, and other productions. For example, under the same conditions, the methodical errors of proposed technologies are less than the errors of known spectral and classical technologies in 2 and 3-13 times, respectively. Innovative technologies provide quality products obtaining at the lowest possible resource-including energy costs. More than 600 publications have been published on the completed developments, including more than 100 domestic patents, as well as 34 patents in Australia, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Canada, the USA, Sweden, and Japan. The developments have been implemented in the enterprises of USA, as well as Western Europe and Asia, including Germany and Japan.

Keywords: emissivity, radiation temperature, object temperature, spectral thermometry

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Authors: Faezeh Jahanpour, Shahin Dezhdar, Saeedeh Firouz Bakht, Afshin Ostovar

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Objective: The hospitalized premature babies often undergo various painful procedures such as venous sampling. The Kangaroo mother care (KMC) method is one of the pain reduction methods, but as mother’s presence is not always possible, this research was done to compare the effect of swaddling and KMC method on venous sampling pain on premature neonates. Methods: In this randomized clinical trial 90 premature infants selected and randomly alocated into three groups; Group A (swaddling), Group B (the kangaroo care), and group C (the control). From 10 minutes before blood sampling to 2 minutes after that in group A, the infant was wrapped in a thin sheet, and in group B, the infant was under Kangaroo care. In all three groups, the heart rate and arterial oxygen saturation in time intervals of 30 seconds before, during, 30-60-90, and 120 seconds after sampling were measured and recorded. The infant’s face was video recorded since sampling till 2 minutes and the videos were checked by a researcher who was unaware of the kind of intervention and the pain assessment tools for infants (PIPP) for time intervals of 30 seconds were completed. Data analyzed by t-test, Q square, Repeated Measure ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, Post-hoc and Bonferroni test. Results: Findings revealed that the pain was reduced to a great extent in swaddling and kangaroo method compared to that in control group. But there was not a significant difference between kangaroo and swaddling care method (P ≥ 0.05). In addition, the findings showed that the heart rate and arterial oxygen saturation was low and stable in swaddling and Kangaroo care method and returned to base status faster, whereas, the changes were severe in control group and did not return to base status even after 120 seconds. Discussion: The results of this study showed that there was not a meaningful difference between swaddling and kangaroo care method on physiological indexes and pain in infants. Therefore, swaddling method can be a good substitute for kangaroo care method in this regard.

Keywords: Kangaroo mother care, neonate, pain, premature, swaddling, venipuncture,

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Authors: Xinyu Wang

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In the context of the rapid development of Internet technology and the increasing prevalence of online social media, this study investigates the impact of digital communication on social learning. Through three behavioral experiments, we explore both affective and cognitive social learning in online environments. Experiment 1 manipulates the content of experimental materials and two forms of feedback, emotional valence, sociability, and repetition, to verify whether individuals can achieve online emotional social learning through reinforcement using two social learning strategies. Results reveal that both social learning strategies can assist individuals in affective, social learning through reinforcement, with feedback-based learning strategies outperforming frequency-dependent strategies. Experiment 2 similarly manipulates the content of experimental materials and two forms of feedback to verify whether individuals can achieve online knowledge social learning through reinforcement using two social learning strategies. Results show that similar to online affective social learning, individuals adopt both social learning strategies to achieve cognitive social learning through reinforcement, with feedback-based learning strategies outperforming frequency-dependent strategies. Experiment 3 simultaneously observes online affective and cognitive social learning by manipulating the content of experimental materials and feedback at different levels of social pressure. Results indicate that online affective social learning exhibits different learning effects under different levels of social pressure, whereas online cognitive social learning remains unaffected by social pressure, demonstrating more stable learning effects. Additionally, to explore the sustained effects of online social learning and differences in duration among different types of online social learning, all three experiments incorporate two test time points. Results reveal significant differences in pre-post-test scores for online social learning in Experiments 2 and 3, whereas differences are less apparent in Experiment 1. To accurately measure the sustained effects of online social learning, the researchers conducted a mini-meta-analysis of all effect sizes of online social learning duration. Results indicate that although the overall effect size is small, the effect of online social learning weakens over time.

Keywords: online social learning, affective social learning, cognitive social learning, social learning strategies, social reinforcement, social pressure, duration

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