Search results for: central processing unit

Authors: S. Alansary, M. Nagi

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This paper presents an approach of conducting semantic annotation of Arabic corpus using the Universal Networking Language (UNL) framework. UNL is intended to be a promising strategy for providing a large collection of semantically annotated texts with formal, deep semantics rather than shallow. The result would constitute a semantic resource (semantic graphs) that is editable and that integrates various phenomena, including predicate-argument structure, scope, tense, thematic roles and rhetorical relations, into a single semantic formalism for knowledge representation. The paper will also present the Interactive Analysis​ tool for automatic semantic annotation (IAN). In addition, the cornerstone of the proposed methodology which are the disambiguation and transformation rules, will be presented. Semantic annotation using UNL has been applied to a corpus of 20,000 Arabic sentences representing the most frequent structures in the Arabic Wikipedia. The representation, at different linguistic levels was illustrated starting from the morphological level passing through the syntactic level till the semantic representation is reached. The output has been evaluated using the F-measure. It is 90% accurate. This demonstrates how powerful the formal environment is, as it enables intelligent text processing and search.

Keywords: semantic analysis, semantic annotation, Arabic, universal networking language

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Authors: Eunjoo Lee

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Background: As the number of surgeries increases, the incidence of adverse events is likely to become more prevalent. Patients who are somewhat knowledgeable about surgery-related adverse events are more likely to engage in safety initiatives to prevent them. Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a smartphone application developed during the study to enhance patients’ knowledge of surgery-related adverse events during hospitalization. Design: Non-randomized, one group, measured pre- and post-intervention. Participants: Thirty-six hospitalized patients admitted to the orthopedics unit of a general hospital in South Korea. Methods. First, a smartphone application to enhance patients’ knowledge of surgery-related adverse events was developed through an iterative process, which included a literature review, expert consultation, and pilot testing. The application was installed on participants’ smartphones, and research assistants taught the participants to use it. Twenty-five true/false questions were used to assess patients’ knowledge of preoperative precautions (eight items), surgical site infection (five items), Foley catheter management (four items), drainage management (four items), and anesthesia-related complications (four items). Results: Overall, the percentage of correct answers increased significantly, from 57.02% to 73.82%, although answers related to a few specific topics did not increase that much. Although the patients’ understanding of drainage management and the Foley catheter did increase substantially after they used the smartphone application, it was still relatively low. Conclusions: The smartphone application developed during this study enhanced the patients’ knowledge of surgery-related adverse events during hospitalization. However, nurses must make an additional effort to help patients to understand certain topics, including drainage and Foley catheter management. Relevance to clinical practice: Insufficient patient knowledge increases the risk of adverse events during hospitalization. Nurses should take active steps to enhance patients’ knowledge of a range of safety issues during hospitalization, in order to decrease the number of surgery-related adverse events.

Keywords: patient education, patient participation, patient safety, smartphone application, surgical errors

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Authors: Ali Al-Dahoud, Mohamed Fezari, Thamer Al-Rawashdeh, Ismail Jannoud

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Monitoring and detecting faults on a set of Solar panels, using a wireless sensor network (WNS) is our contribution in this paper, This work is part of the project we are working on at Al-Zaytoonah University. The research problem has been exposed by engineers and technicians or operators dealing with PV panels maintenance, in order to monitor and detect faults within solar panels which affect considerably the energy produced by the solar panels. The proposed solution is based on installing WSN nodes with appropriate sensors for more often occurred faults on the 45 solar panels installed on the roof of IT faculty. A simulation has been done on nodes distribution and a study for the design of a node with appropriate sensors taking into account the priorities of the processing faults. Finally, a graphic user interface is designed and adapted to telemonitoring panels using WSN. The primary tests of hardware implementation gave interesting results, the sensors calibration and interference transmission problem have been solved. A friendly GUI using high level language Visial Basic was developed to carry out the monitoring process and to save data on Exel File.

Keywords: Arduino Mega microcnotroller, solar panels, fault-detection, simulation, node design

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Authors: Nneka Nkechi Uchegbu, Temitope Omolayo Fasuan

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This study investigated how to reduce bio-compounds and amino acids in V. amygdalina leaf during processing as a functional food ingredient. Fresh V. amygdalina leaf was processed using thermal oil-aqueous mixtures (soybean oil: aqueous and palm oil: aqueous) at 1:40 and 130 (v/v), respectively. Results indicated that the hot soybean oil-aqueous mixture was the most effective in preserving the bio-compounds and amino acids with retention potentials of 80.95% of the bio-compounds at the rate of 90-100%. Hot palm oil-aqueous mixture retained 61.90% of the bio-compounds at the rate of 90-100% and hot aqueous retained 9.52% of the bio-compounds at the same rate. During the debittering process, seven new bio-compounds were formed in the leaves treated with hot soybean oil-aqueous mixture, six in palm oil-aqueous mixture, and only four in hot aqueous leaves. The bio-compounds in the treated leaves have potential functions as antitumor, antioxidants, antihistaminic, anti-ovarian cancer, anti-inflammatory, antiarthritic, hepatoprotective, antihistaminic, haemolytic 5-α reductase inhibitor, nt, immune-stimulant, diuretic, antiandrogenic, and anaemiagenic. Alkaloids and polyphenols were retained at the rate of 81.34-98.50% using oil: aqueous mixture while aqueous recorded the rate of 33.47-41.46%. Most of the essential amino acids were retained at a rate above 90% through the aid of oil. The process is scalable and could be employed for domestic and industrial applications.

Keywords: V. amygdalina leaf, bio-compounds, oil-aqueous mixture, amino acids

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Authors: Serges Mendomo Meye, Li Guowei, Shen Zhenzhong

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Earthquake is one of the main loads threatening dam safety. Once the dam is damaged, it will bring huge losses of life and property to the country and people. Therefore, it is very important to research the seismic safety of the dam. Due to the complex foundation conditions, high fortification intensity, and high scientific and technological content, it is necessary to adopt reasonable methods to evaluate the seismic safety performance of concrete arch dams built and under construction in strong earthquake areas. Structural seismic vulnerability analysis can predict the probability of structural failure at all levels under different intensity earthquakes, which can provide a scientific basis for reasonable seismic safety evaluation and decision-making. In this paper, the response surface method (RSM) is applied to the seismic vulnerability analysis of arch dams, which improves the efficiency of vulnerability analysis. Based on the central composite test design method, the material-seismic intensity samples are established. The response surface model (RSM) with arch crown displacement as performance index is obtained by finite element (FE) calculation of the samples, and then the accuracy of the response surface model (RSM) is verified. To obtain the seismic vulnerability curves, the seismic intensity measure ??(?1) is chosen to be 0.1~1.2g, with an interval of 0.1g and a total of 12 intensity levels. For each seismic intensity level, the arch crown displacement corresponding to 100 sets of different material samples can be calculated by algebraic operation of the response surface model (RSM), which avoids 1200 times of nonlinear dynamic calculation of arch dam; thus, the efficiency of vulnerability analysis is improved greatly.

Keywords: high concrete arch dam, performance index, response surface method, seismic vulnerability analysis, vector-valued intensity measure

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Authors: P. Caimmi, E. Bele, A. Abolfathi

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Lattice materials are cellular structures composed of a periodic network of beams. They offer high weight-specific mechanical properties and lend themselves to numerous weight-sensitive applications. The periodic internal structure responds to external vibrations through characteristic frequency bandgaps, making these materials suitable for the reduction of noise and vibration. However, the deviation from architectural homogeneity, due to, e.g., manufacturing imperfections, has a strong influence on the mechanical properties and vibration response of these materials. In this work, we present results on the influence of geometric imperfections on the vibration response of hexagonal lattices. Three classes of geometrical variables are used: the characteristics of the architecture (relative density, ligament length/cell size ratio), imperfection type (degree of non-periodicity, cracks, hard inclusions) and defect morphology (size, distribution). Test specimens with controlled size and distribution of imperfections are manufactured through selective laser sintering. The Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) in the form of accelerance are measured, and the modal shapes are captured through a high-speed camera. The finite element method is used to provide insights on the extension of these results to semi-infinite lattices. An updating procedure is conducted to increase the reliability of numerical simulation results compared to experimental measurements. This is achieved by updating the boundary conditions and material stiffness. Variations in FRFs of periodic structures due to changes in the relative density of the constituent unit cell are analysed. The effects of geometric imperfections on the dynamic response of periodic structures are investigated. The findings can be used to open up the opportunity for tailoring these lattice materials to achieve optimal amplitude attenuations at specific frequency ranges.

Keywords: lattice architectures, geometric imperfections, vibration attenuation, experimental modal analysis

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Authors: Suhaida Salleh, Tee Yei Kheng

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Black pod is the most commonly destructive disease of cacao (Theobroma cacao) which cause major losses to global production of cocoa beans. The genus of Phytophthora is the important pathogen of this disease worldwide. The species of P. megakarya causes black pod disease in West Africa, whereas P. capsici and P. citrophthora cause the incident in Central and South America. In Malaysia, this disease is caused by P. palmivora which infect all stages of pod development including flower cushion, cherelle, immature and mature pods. This pathogen destroys up to 10% of trees yearly through stem cankers and causes 20 to 30% pod damages through black pod rot. Since P. palmivora has a high impact on cocoa yield, it is crucial to identify some of the abiotic factors that can constrain their growth. In an effort to evaluate the effect of different substrates and temperatures to the growth of P. palmivora, a laboratory study was done under a different range of temperatures. Different substrate for the growth of P. palmivora were used which are corn meal agar (CMA) media and detached pod of cocoa. An agar plug of seven days old of P. palmivora growth was transferred on both substrates and incubated at 24, 27, 30, 33 and 36ᵒC, respectively. The diameter of lesion on pod and the cultural growth of pathogen was recorded for 7 consecutive days. The optimum incubation temperature of P. palmivora on both substrates is at 27ᵒC. However, the growth tends to be inhibited as the temperature increases. No lesion developed on pod surface incubated at 36ᵒC and only a small lesion observed at 33ᵒC. The sporulation with the formation of white mycelial growth on pod surface was only visible at optimum temperature, 27ᵒC. On CMA, the pathogen grew over the entire range of temperatures tested. The study is, therefore, concluded that P. palmivora grow the best at temperature of 27ᵒC on both substrates and their growth begin to inhibit when the temperature rises to more than 27ᵒC. The growth pattern of this pathogen is similar on both pod surface and cultural media.

Keywords: cocoa, Phytophthora palmivora, substrate, temperature

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Authors: Endrick Barnacin, Jean-Luc Henry, Jack Molinié, Jimmy Nagau, Hélène Delatte, Gérard Lebreton

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Palynology is a field of interest for many disciplines. It has multiple applications such as chronological dating, climatology, allergy treatment, and even honey characterization. Unfortunately, the analysis of a pollen slide is a complicated and time-consuming task that requires the intervention of experts in the field, which is becoming increasingly rare due to economic and social conditions. So, the automation of this task is a necessity. Pollen slides analysis is mainly a visual process as it is carried out with the naked eye. That is the reason why a primary method to automate palynology is the use of digital image processing. This method presents the lowest cost and has relatively good accuracy in pollen retrieval. In this work, we propose a system combining recognition and grouping of pollen. It consists of using a Logistic Model Tree to classify pollen already known by the proposed system while detecting any unknown species. Then, the unknown pollen species are divided using a cluster-based approach. Success rates for the recognition of known species have been achieved, and automated clustering seems to be a promising approach.

Keywords: pollen recognition, logistic model tree, expectation-maximization, local binary pattern

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Authors: Zahra Soleimani Rad, Fariborz Masoudi, Shirin Tondkar

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Turquoise is one of the most well-known gemstones in Iran. The mineralogy, crystallography, and gemology of Shahr-e-Babak turquoise in Kerman were investigated and the results are presented in this research. The Miduk porphyry copper deposit is positioned in the Shahr-Babak area in Kerman province, Iran. This deposit is located 85 km NW of the Sar-Cheshmeh porphyry copper deposit. Preliminary mineral exploration was carried out from 1967 to 1970. So far, more than fifty diamond drill holes, each reaching a maximum depth of 1013 meters, have provided evidence supporting the presence of significant and promising porphyry copper mineralization at the Miduk deposit. The mineral deposit harbors a quantity of 170 million metric tons of ore, characterized by a mean composition of 0.86% copper (Cu), 0.007% molybdenum (Mo), 82 parts-per-billion gold (Au), and 1.8 parts-per-million silver (Ag). The Supergene enrichment layer, which constitutes the predominant source of copper ore, exhibits an approximate thickness of 50 meters. Petrography shows that the texture is homogeneous. In terms of a gemstone, greasy luster and blue color are seen, and samples are similar to what is commonly known as turquoise. The geometric minerals were detected in XRD analysis by analyzing the data using the x-pert software. From the mineralogical point of view; the turquoise gemstones of Miduk of Kerman consist of turquoise, quartz, mica, and hübnerite. In this article, to our best knowledge, we are stating the hübnerite mineral identified and seen in the Persian turquoise. Based on the obtained spectra, the main mineral of the Miduk samples from the six members of the turquoise family is the turquoise type with identical peaks that can be used as a reference for identification of the Miduk turquoise. This mineral is structurally composed of phosphate units, units of Al, Cu, water, and hydroxyl units, and does not include a Fe unit. In terms of gemology, the quality of a gemstone depends on the quantity of the turquoise phase and the amount of Cu in it according to SEM and XRD analysis.

Keywords: turquoise, hübnerite, XRD analysis, Miduk, Kerman, Iran

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Authors: Wisam Ismail, Brendan Wooler, Penelope McManus

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Introduction: The public perception of implants has been damaged in the wake of recent negative publicity and increasingly we are finding patients wanting to avoid them. Planned lipo-modelling to enhance the volume of a Latissimus dorsi flap is a viable alternative to silicone implants and maintains a Totally Autologous Technique (TAT). Here we demonstrate that when compared to an Implant Assisted Technique (IAT), a TAT offers patients many benefits that offset the requirement of more operations initially, with reduced short and long term complications, reduced symmetrisation surgery and reduced revision rates. Methods. Data was collected prospectively over 7 years. The minimum follows up was 3 years. The technique was generally standardized in the hand of one surgeon. All flaps were extended LD flaps (ELD). Lipo-modelling was performed using standard techniques. Outcome measures were unplanned secondary procedures, complication rates, and contralateral symmetrisation surgery rates. Key Results Were: Lower complication rates in the TAT group (18.5% vs. 33.3%), despite higher radiotherapy rates (TAT=49%, IAT=36.8%), TAT was associated with lower subsequent symmetrisation rates (30.6% vs. 50.9%), IAT had a relative risk of 3.1 for subsequent unplanned procedure, Autologous patients required an average of 1.76 sessions of lipo-modelling, Conclusions: Using lipo-modelling to enable totally autologous LD reconstruction offers significant advantages over an implant assisted technique. We have shown a lower subsequent unplanned procedure rate, lower revision surgery, and less contralateral symmetrisation surgery. We anticipate that a TAT will be supported by patient satisfaction surveys and long-term patient-reported cosmetic outcome data and intended to study this.

Keywords: breast, Latissimus dorsi, lipomodelling, reconstruction

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Authors: Pravat Ranjan Pati, Alok Satapathy

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Linz-Donawitz (LD) slag a major solid waste generated in huge quantities during steel making. It comes from slag formers such as burned lime/dolomite and from oxidizing of silica, iron etc. while refining the iron into steel in the LD furnace. Although a number of ways for its utilization have been suggested, its potential as a filler material in polymeric matrices has not yet been explored. The present work reports the possible use of this waste in glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites as a filler material. Hybrid composites consisting of bi-directional e-glass-fiber reinforced epoxy filled with different LD slag content (0, 7.5, 15, 22.5 wt%) are prepared by simple hand lay-up technique. The composites are characterized in regard to their density, porosity, micro-hardness and strength properties. X-ray diffractography is carried out in order to ascertain the various phases present in LDS. This work shows that LD slag, in spite of being a waste, possesses fairly good filler characteristics as it modifies the strength properties and improves the composite micro-hardness of the polymeric resin.

Keywords: characterization, glass-epoxy composites, LD slag, waste utilization

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Authors: Asmau Mukhtar Ahmed, Olga Duran

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Hydrocarbon (HC) spills constitute a significant problem that causes great concern to the environment. With the latest technology (hyperspectral images) and state of the earth techniques (image processing tools), hydrocarbon spills can easily be detected at an early stage to mitigate the effects caused by such menace. In this study; a controlled laboratory experiment was used, and clay soil was mixed and homogenized with different hydrocarbon types (diesel, bio-diesel, and petrol). The different mixtures were scanned with HYSPEX hyperspectral camera under constant illumination to generate the hypersectral datasets used for this experiment. So far, the Short Wave Infrared Region (SWIR) has been exploited in detecting HC spills with excellent accuracy. However, the Near-Infrared Region (NIR) is somewhat unexplored with regards to HC contamination and how it affects the spectrum of soils. In this study, Deep Neural Network (DNN) was applied to the controlled datasets to detect and quantify the amount of HC spills in soils in the Near-Infrared Region. The initial results are extremely encouraging because it indicates that the DNN was able to identify features of HC in the Near-Infrared Region with a good level of accuracy.

Keywords: hydrocarbon, Deep Neural Network, short wave infrared region, near-infrared region, hyperspectral image

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Authors: Rajkumar Ghosh

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The Out-of-Sequence Thrust (OOST) is a common phenomenon in collisional tectonic settings like the Himalayas. These OOSTs are activated in different locations at different time frames. These OOST are linked with the multiple Himalayan Thrusts. Apart from minimal documentation in geological mapping for OOST, there exists a lack of field data to establish OOST in the field. This work has considered three thrusts from NW Himalaya in Himachal Pradesh with published data from other sources, allowing a re-examination for correlation of OOST. For the Sutlej section, the approach has been to do fieldwork and microstructural studies. The information related to the cross-cut signature of S/C- and relative time relation could help to predict the nature of OOST. The activation timing, along with the basis of identification of OOST in Higher Himalayan, was documented in various literature. Compilation of the Grain Boundary Migration (GBM) associated temperature range (400–750 °C) was documented from microstructural studies along the Jhakri-Chaura section. No such significant temperature variation across thrusts was observed. Strain variation paths using S Ʌ C angle measurement were carried out along the Jeori-Wangtu transect to distinguish overprinting structures for OOSTs. Near the Chaura Thrust (CT), angular variation of S Ʌ C was documented, and it varies within a range of 15° - 28 °. Along the NH22 (National Highway, 22), all tectonic units of the orogen are exposed in NW Himalaya, INDIA. But there are inherent difficulties in finding field evidence of OOST, largely due to the lack of adequate surface morphology, including topography and drainage pattern.

Keywords: out-of-sequence thrust (OOST), main central thrust (MCT), south tibetan detachment system (STDS), jhakri thrust (JT), sarahan thrust (ST), chaura thrust (CT), higher himalaya (HH), greater himalayan crystalline (GHC)

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Authors: Giuseppe Spampinato, Salvatore Curti, Ivana Guarneri, Arcangelo Bruna

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This document describes an advanced system and methodology for Cross Traffic Alert (CTA), able to detect vehicles that move into the vehicle driving path from the left or right side. The camera is supposed to be not only on a vehicle still, e.g. at a traffic light or at an intersection, but also moving slowly, e.g. in a car park. In all of the aforementioned conditions, a driver’s short loss of concentration or distraction can easily lead to a serious accident. A valid support to avoid these kinds of car crashes is represented by the proposed system. It is an extension of our previous work, related to a clustering system, which only works on fixed cameras. Just a vanish point calculation and simple optical flow filtering, to eliminate motion vectors due to the car relative movement, is performed to let the system achieve high performances with different scenarios, cameras and resolutions. The proposed system just uses as input the optical flow, which is hardware implemented in the proposed platform and since the elaboration of the whole system is really speed and power consumption, it is inserted directly in the camera framework, allowing to execute all the processing in real-time.

Keywords: clustering, cross traffic alert, optical flow, real time, vanishing point

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Authors: Karin Megheșan, Alexandra Popescu, Teodora Dobre

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In the past few years, the Russian Federation has become a central point on the security agenda of the most important international actors, due to its reloaded aggressiveness of foreign policy. Vladimir Putin, the actual president of the Russian Federation, has proven that Russia can and has the willingness to become the powerful actor that used to be during the Cold War. Russia’s new behavior on the international scene showed that Russia has not only expansionist (where expansionist is not only in terms of territory but also of ideology) intentions, but also the necessary resources, to build an empire that may have the power to counterbalance the influence of the United States and stop the expansion of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization in an equation understood of multipolar Russian view. But in order to do this, there is necessary to follow a well-established plan or policy. Thus, the aim of the paper is to discuss how has the foreign policy of the Russian Federation evolved under the influence of the military and security strategies of the Russian nation, to briefly examine some of the factors that sculpture Russian foreign policy and behavior, in order to reshape a Russian (Soviet) profile so far considered antiquated. Our approach is an argument in favor of the analyses of the recent evolutions embedded in the course of history. In this context, the paper will include analytical thoughts about the Russian foreign policy and the latest strategic documents (security strategy and military doctrine) adopted by the Putin administration, with the purpose to highlight the main direction of action followed by all these documents together. The paper concludes that the military component is to be found in all these strategic documents, as well as at the core of Russian national interest, aspect that proves that Russia is still the adept of the traditional realist paradigm, reshaped in a Russian theory of the multipolar world.

Keywords: hybrid warfare, military component, military doctrine, Russian foreign policy, security strategy

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Authors: Ruchi Yadav, Shivani Pandey, Prachi Srivastava

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Microarrays provide a rich source of data on the molecular working of cells. Each microarray reports on the abundance of tens of thousands of mRNAs. Virtually every human disease is being studied using microarrays with the hope of finding the molecular mechanisms of disease. Bioinformatics analysis plays an important part of processing the information embedded in large-scale expression profiling studies and for laying the foundation for biological interpretation. A basic, yet challenging task in the analysis of microarray gene expression data is the identification of changes in gene expression that are associated with particular biological conditions. Careful statistical design and analysis are essential to improve the efficiency and reliability of microarray experiments throughout the data acquisition and analysis process. One of the most popular platforms for microarray analysis is Bioconductor, an open source and open development software project based on the R programming language. This paper describes specific procedures for conducting quality assessment, visualization and preprocessing of Affymetrix Gene Chip and also details the different bioconductor packages used to analyze affymetrix microarray data and describe the analysis and outcome of each plots.

Keywords: microarray analysis, R language, affymetrix visualization, bioconductor

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Authors: Zwelenkani Mdlalose

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From the moment Covid 19 was declared a pandemic it became clear that conspiracy theories would significantly impact our response to the crisis that the virus was to become. Central to the interest in conspiracy theories evoked by a pandemic is a more general concern for the impact they have on society and social harmony. The specific brand of Conspiracy Theory that is in question is not any and all theories about conspiracies but rather those conspiracy theories which contradict official accounts. For example, where the official account on the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 is of a conspiracy involving 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against targets in the United States, the nature of conspiracy theory under study is the one contradicting this official account to the extent that its attributes the attacks not to al-Qaeda militants but to actors in the United States government itself. The study is not an investigation into the truth value of conspiracy theories but rather an attempt at observing the essential qualities of the type of belief that is belief in conspiracy theories compared to belief in official accounts provided by authoritative sources such as governments, experts and mainstream media. These qualities include the psychological, epistemic and socio-political foundations on which belief in conspiracy theories are established. Based on a foundational understanding of the sort of belief that are beliefs in conspiracy theories, we may then extrapolate implied ethical demands on both authoritative bodies and actors as well as believers in conspiracy theories. For example: in their unofficial ‘non-factual’ status, is there not some violation of epistemic right in the same way we observe in cases where people are prejudiced because of their religious beliefs? In other words, is there an epistemic injustice suffered by believers in conspiracy theories in the way their beliefs are rejected as illegitimate? Conversely, to what extent do believers bear an epistemic responsibility in their adoption of their beliefs in conspiracy theories. From this position, perhaps we can then develop responses to the problem that foster greater social harmony even in the midst of suspicion and distrust.

Keywords: conspiracy theories, subjugated knowledge, epistemic injustice, epistemic responsibility

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Authors: Ye Tian

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Soft power has replaced hard power and become one of the most attractive ways nations pursue to expand their international influence. One of the ways to improve a nation’s soft power is to commercialise the country and brand or rebrand it to the international audience, and thus attract interests or foreign investments. In this process, translation has often been regarded as merely a tool, and researches in it are either in translating literature as culture export or in how (in)accuracy of translation influences the branding campaign. This paper proposes to analyse nation branding campaign with framing theory, and thus gives an entry for translation studies to come to a central stage in today’s soft power research. To frame information or elements of a text, an event, or, as in this paper, a nation is to put them in a mental structure. This structure can be built by outsiders or by those who create the text, the event, or by citizens of the nation. To frame information like this can be regarded as a process of translation, as what translation does in its traditional meaning of ‘translating a text’ is to put a framework on the text to, deliberately or not, highlight some of the elements while hiding the others. In the discourse of nations, then, people unavoidably simplify a national image and put the nation into their imaginary framework. In this way, problems like stereotype and prejudice come into being. Meanwhile, if nations seek ways to frame or reframe themselves, they make efforts to have in control what and who they are in the eyes of international audiences, and thus make profits, economically or politically, from it. The paper takes African nations, which are usually perceived as a whole, and the United Kingdom as examples to justify passive and active framing process, and assesses both positive and negative influence framing has on nations. In conclusion, translation as framing causes problems like prejudice, and the image of a nation is not always in the hands of nation branders, but reframing the nation in a positive way has the potential to turn the tide.

Keywords: framing, nation branding, stereotype, translation

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Authors: P. Efstathiou, E. Kouskouni, Z. Manolidou, K. Karageorgou, M. Tseroni, A. Efstathiou, V. Karyoti, I. Agrafa

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Aim: The aim of this prospective comparative study is to evaluate the reduction of microbial flora on the surface of an axillary digital thermometer, made of antimicrobial copper, in relation with a common digital thermometer. Material – Methods: A brand new digital electronic thermometer implemented with antimicrobial copper (Cu 70% - Nic 30%, low lead) on the two edges of the device (top and bottom: World Patent Number WO2013064847 and Register Number by the Hellenic Copper Development Institute No 11/2012) was manufactured and a comparative study with common digital electronic thermometer was conducted on 18 ICU (Intensive Care Unit) patients of three different hospitals. The thermometry was performed in accordance with the projected International Nursing Protocols for body temperature measurement. A total of 216 microbiological samples were taken from the axillary area of the patients, using both of the investigated body temperature devises. Simultaneously the “Halo” phenomenon (phenomenon “Stefanis”) was studied at the non-antimicrobial copper-implemented parts of the antimicrobial digital electronic thermometer. Results: In all samples collected from the surface of the antimicrobial electronic digital thermometer, the reduction of microbial flora (Klebsiella spp, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermitis, Candida spp, Pneudomonas spp) was progressively reduced to 99% in two hours after the thermometry. The above flora was found in the axillary cavity remained the same in common thermometer. The statistical analysis (SPSS 21) showed a statistically significant reduction of the microbial load (N = 216, < 0.05). Conclusions: The hospital-acquired infections are linked to the transfer of pathogens due to the multi-usage of medical devices from both health professionals and patients, such as axillary thermometers. The use of antimicrobial digital electronic thermometer minimizes microbes' transportation between patients and health professionals while having all the conditions of reliability, proper functioning, security, ease of use and reduced cost.

Keywords: antimicrobial copper, cross infections, digital thermometers, ICU

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Authors: Renata Kurpiewska-Korbut

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Making an assumption that the use and sharing of data generated in humanitarian action constitute a core function of humanitarian organizations, the paper analyzes the position of the largest Polish humanitarian non-governmental organizations in the humanitarian data ecosystem in Ukraine and their approach to non-personal and personal data management since February of 2022. Both expert interviews and document analysis of non-profit organizations providing a direct response in the Ukrainian crisis context, i.e., the Polish Humanitarian Action, Caritas, Polish Medical Mission, Polish Red Cross, and the Polish Center for International Aid and the applicability of theoretical perspective of contingency theory – with its central point that the context or specific set of conditions determining the way of behavior and the choice of methods of action – help to examine the significance of data complexity and adaptive approach to data management by relief organizations in the humanitarian supply chain network. The purpose of this study is to determine how the existence of well-established and accurate internal procedures and good practices of using and sharing data (including safeguards for sensitive data) by the surveyed organizations with comparable human and technological capabilities are implemented and adjusted to Ukrainian humanitarian settings and data infrastructure. The study also poses a fundamental question of whether this crisis experience will have a determining effect on their future performance. The obtained finding indicate that Polish humanitarian organizations in Ukraine, which have their own unique code of conduct and effective managerial data practices determined by contingencies, have limited influence on improving the situational awareness of other assistance providers in the data ecosystem despite their attempts to undertake interagency work in the area of data sharing.

Keywords: humanitarian data ecosystem, humanitarian data management, polish NGOs, Ukraine

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Authors: Victor Pesco Kassa

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This research deals with the assessment of the contribution of GIS Technology in NRW. This research was conducted at Dar, Kawe Mzimuni Street. The data collection was obtained from existing source which is DAWASA HQ. The interpretation of the data was processed by using ArcGIS software. The data collected from the existing source reveals a good coverage of DAWASA’s water network at Mzimuni Street. Most of residents are connected to the DAWASA’s customer service. Also the collected data revealed that by using GIS DAWASA’s customer Geodatabase has been improved. Through GIS we can prepare customer location map purposely for site surveying also this map will be able to show different type of customer that are connected to DAWASA’s water service. This is a perfect contribution of the GIS Technology to address and manage the problem of NRW in DAWASA. Finally, the study recommends that the same study should be conducted in other DAWASA’s zones such as Temeke, Boko and Bagamoyo not only at Kawe Mzimuni Street. Through this study it is observed that ArcGIS software can offer powerful tools for managing and processing information geographically and in water and sanitation authorities such as DAWASA.

Keywords: DAWASA, NRW, Esri, EURA, ArcGIS

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Authors: Marwan Jarrah

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This research paper provides two pieces of phonological and syntactic evidence from Arabic for biolinguistics perspective of language processing. The first piece of evidence concerns the instances where a singular noun is converted to a plural noun in Arabic. Based on the findings of several research papers, this study shows that a singular word does not lose any of its moras when it is pluralized either regularly or irregularly. This mora conservation principle complies with the general physical law of the conservation of mass which states that mass is neither created nor destroyed but changed from one form into another. The second piece of evidence concerns the observation that when the object in some Arabic dialects including Jordanian Arabic and Najdi Arabic is a topic and positioned in situ (i.e. after the verb), the verb agrees with it, something that generates an agreeing inflection marker of the verb that agrees in Number, Person, and Gender with the in-situ topicalized object. This interaction between the verb and the object in such cases is invoked because of the extra feature the object bears, i.e. TOPIC feature. We suggest that such an interaction complies with the general natural law that elements become active when they, e.g., get an additional electron, when the mass number is not equal to the atomic number.

Keywords: biolinguistics, Arabic, physics, interaction

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Authors: Yousif Mohamed Y. Abdallah, Eltayeb Wagallah

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Image enhancement allows the observer to see details in images that may not be immediately observable in the original image. Image enhancement is the transformation or mapping of one image to another. The enhancement of certain features in images is accompanied by undesirable effects. To achieve maximum image quality after denoising, a new, low order, local adaptive Gaussian scale mixture model and median filter were presented, which accomplishes nonlinearities from scattering a new nonlinear approach for contrast enhancement of bones in bone scan images using both gamma correction and negative transform methods. The usual assumption of a distribution of gamma and Poisson statistics only lead to overestimation of the noise variance in regions of low intensity but to underestimation in regions of high intensity and therefore to non-optional results. The contrast enhancement results were obtained and evaluated using MatLab program in nuclear medicine images of the bones. The optimal number of bins, in particular the number of gray-levels, is chosen automatically using entropy and average distance between the histogram of the original gray-level distribution and the contrast enhancement function’s curve.

Keywords: bone scan, nuclear medicine, Matlab, image processing technique

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Authors: Rahul Mohite, Lahcen Ouarbya

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This paper focuses on the interplay between humans and computer systems and the ability of these systems to understand and respond to human emotions, including non-verbal communication. Current emotion recognition systems are based solely on either facial or verbal expressions. The limitation of these systems is that it requires large training data sets. The paper proposes a system for recognizing human emotions that combines both speech and emotion recognition. The system utilizes advanced techniques such as deep learning and image recognition to identify facial expressions and comprehend emotions. The results show that the proposed system, based on the combination of facial expression and speech, outperforms existing ones, which are based solely either on facial or verbal expressions. The proposed system detects human emotion with an accuracy of 86%, whereas the existing systems have an accuracy of 70% using verbal expression only and 76% using facial expression only. In this paper, the increasing significance and demand for facial recognition technology in emotion recognition are also discussed.

Keywords: facial reputation, expression reputation, deep gaining knowledge of, photo reputation, facial technology, sign processing, photo type

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Authors: Desmond Okorie, Emmanuel Prince

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Availability of portable water has been a global challenge especially to the developing continents/nations such as Africa/Nigeria. The World Health Organization WHO has produced the guideline for drinking water quality GDWQ which aims at ensuring water safety from source to consumer. Portable water parameters test include physical (colour, odour, temperature, turbidity), chemical (PH, dissolved solids) biological (algae, plytoplankton). This paper discusses the use of wireless sensor networks to monitor water quality using efficient and effective sensors that have the ability to sense, process and transmit sensed data. The integration of wireless sensor network to a portable sensing device offers the feasibility of sensing distribution capability, on site data measurements and remote sensing abilities. The current water quality tests that are performed in government water quality institutions in Benue State Nigeria are carried out in problematic locations that require taking manual water samples to the institution laboratory for examination, to automate the entire process based on wireless sensor network, a system was designed. The system consists of sensor node containing one PH sensor, one temperature sensor, a microcontroller, a zigbee radio and a base station composed by a zigbee radio and a PC. Due to the advancement of wireless sensor network technology, unexpected contamination events in water environments can be observed continuously. local area network (LAN) wireless local area network (WLAN) and internet web-based also commonly used as a gateway unit for data communication via local base computer using standard global system for mobile communication (GSM). The improvement made on this development show a water quality monitoring system and prospect for more robust and reliable system in the future.

Keywords: local area network, Ph measurement, wireless sensor network, zigbee

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Authors: Chang-Jen Lan

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Current Level of Service (LOS) index adopted in Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) for signalized intersections on surface streets is based on the intersection average delay. The delay thresholds for defining LOS grades are subjective and is unrelated to critical traffic condition. For example, an intersection delay of 80 sec per vehicle for failing LOS grade F does not necessarily correspond to the intersection capacity. Also, a specific measure of average delay may result from delay minimization, delay equality, or other meaningful optimization criteria. To that end, a reliability version of the intersection critical degree of saturation (v/c) as the LOS index is introduced. Traditionally, the level of saturation at a signalized intersection is defined as the ratio of critical volume sum (per lane) to the average saturation flow (per lane) during all available effective green time within a cycle. The critical sum is the sum of the maximal conflicting movement-pair volumes in northbound-southbound and eastbound/westbound right of ways. In this study, both movement volume and saturation flow are assumed log-normal distributions. Because, when the conditions of central limit theorem obtain, multiplication of the independent, positive random variables tends to result in a log-normal distributed outcome in the limit, the critical degree of saturation is expected to be a log-normal distribution as well. Derivation of the risk index predictive limits is complex due to the maximum and absolute value operators, as well as the ratio of random variables. A fairly accurate functional form for the predictive limit at a user-specified significant level is yielded. The predictive limit is then compared with the designated LOS thresholds for the intersection critical degree of saturation (denoted as X

Keywords: reliability analysis, level of service, intersection critical degree of saturation, risk based index

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Authors: Jeounghee Kim

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Objective: To describe the incidence of complication, according to the stage of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (TSCI) which was treated at Asan Medical Center (AMC), Korea. Hereafter, it should be developed in nursing management protocol of traumatic SCI. Methods. Retrospectively reviewed hospital records about the patients who were admitted AMC Patients with traumatic spinal cord injury until January 2005 and December 2016 were analyzed (n=97). AMC is a single institution of 2,700 beds where patients with trauma and severe trauma can be treated. Patients who were admitted to the emergency room due to spinal cord injury and who underwent intensive care unit, general ward, and rehabilitation ward. To identify long-term complications, we excluded patients who were operated on to other hospitals after surgery. Complications such as respiratory(pneumonia, atelectasis, pulmonary embolism, and others), cardiovascular (hypotension), urinary (autonomic dysreflexia, urinary tract infection (UTI), neurogenic bladder, and others), and skin systems (pressure ulcers) from the time of admission were examined through medical records and images. Results: SCI was graded according to ASIA scale. The initial grade was checked at admission. (grade A 55(56.7%), grade B 14(14.4)%, grade C 11(11.3%), grade D 15(15.5%), and grade E 2(2.1%). The grade was rechecked when the patient was discharged after treatment. (grade A 43(44.3%), grade B 15(15.5%), grade C 12(12.4%), grade D 21(21.6%), and grade E 6(6.2%). The most common complication after SCI was UTI 24cases (mean 36.5day), sore 24cases (40.5day), and Pneumonia which was 23 cases after 10days averagely. The other complications after SCI were neuropathic pain 19 cases, surgical site infection 4 cases. 53.6% of patient who had SCI were educated about intermittent catheterization at discharge from hospital. The mean hospital stay of all SCI patients was 61days. Conclusion: The Complications after traumatic SCI were developed at various stages from acute phase to chronic phase. Nurses need to understand fully the time-course of complication in traumatic SCI to provide evidence-based practice.

Keywords: spinal cord injury, complication, nursing, rehabilitation

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Authors: Libin Ouyang

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China has experienced a very fast urbanization process in the past two decades. Due to the uncoordinated characteristics of regional development in China, a large number of people from rural areas or small towns have flooded into regional central cities, which are building new cities around them due to the shortage of construction land or the need for urban development. However, the construction of some new cities has not achieved the expected effect, the absorption capacity of industry and population is limited, and the phenomenon of capital and land waste is obvious. This paper takes the Xixian New Area in Shaanxi Province, an inland region in Northwest China, as an example, and tries to analyse the reasons for the lack of vitality in the current situation of the Xixian New Area from the perspective of site layout and urban design, analyses the practical experience of the construction of new city cores in developed countries and regions, and studies how to optimise at the level of site layout planning and urban design to improve the vitality and attractiveness of the new city, decongest the population of large cities, effectively solve the problems of large cities, and promote The study will also examine how to optimise land use planning and urban design to enhance the vitality and attractiveness of new cities, relieve the population of large cities, effectively solve the problems of large cities and promote sustainable development of new cities. The study can serve as a reference for urban planners and policy makers, provide theoretical assistance for new city construction in other less developed regions of China, and provide some case references for urban construction in other developing countries undergoing rapid urbanisation.

Keywords: new city, land use layout, urban design, attraction

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Authors: Onur Özdemir, M.Erhan ORHAN

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Knowledge Development (KD) is just one of the important phases of Knowledge Management (KM). KD is the phase in which intelligence is used to see the big picture. In order to understand whether information is important or not, we have to use the intelligence cycle that includes four main steps: aiming, collecting data, processing and utilizing. KD also needs these steps. To make a precise decision, the decision maker has to be aware of his subordinates’ ideas. If the decision maker ignores the ideas of his subordinates or participants of the organization, it is not possible for him to get the target. KD is a way of using wisdom to accumulate the puzzle. If the decision maker does not bring together the puzzle pieces, he cannot get the big picture, and this shows its effects on the battlefield. In order to understand the battlefield, the decision maker has to use the intelligence cycle. To convert information to knowledge, KD is the main means for the intelligence cycle. On the other hand, the “Z Generation” born after the millennium are really the game changers. They have different attitudes from their elders. Their understanding of life is different - the definition of freedom and independence have different meanings to them than others. Decision makers have to consider these factors and rethink their decisions accordingly. This article tries to explain the relation between KD and Generation Z. KD is the main method of target managing. But if leaders neglect their people, the world will be seeing much more movements like the Arab Spring and other insurgencies.

Keywords: knowledge development, knowledge management, generation Z, intelligence cycle

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Authors: Gjergji Buzo

Abstract:

This paper presents the communist policy about tangible and intangible religious heritage in Pogradec District, Albania. The district of Pogradec lies in the southeast of Albania and consists of the municipality, located on the shore of Ohrid Lake, and 7 Administrative Units, with a population of about 61,530 inhabitants. From the statistical data provided by the Institute of Statistics, the city of Pogradec has 55.9% Muslims, 19.9% Orthodox, 1.4% Catholic and 1.1% Bektashi. While the religious affiliation in the Administrative Unit is as follows: Muslim 72.1%, Orthodox 3.32%, Catholic 1.18%, Bektashi 0.2%. The percentages are approximate values, taking into consideration that 13.8% of the total population preferred not to answer the question on religion and that for 2.4% of the persons who answered, the information provided was not relevant or stated. The percentage of the persons who declared themselves as believers without belonging to any religion was 5.5 and the persons who declared themselves as a non-believer and not belonging to any religion was 2.5. Number of persons who declared themselves as evangelists was 0.1% and the number of them declared as "other Christians" was 0.1%. About 80% of the population believe in God, and most of them practice one of the monotheist religions. We have divided religious practices into three major periods. The first is until 1967, when different religions were practiced in Pogradec in harmony with each other; the second is the period 1967-1990, during which the practice of religion was prohibited, and the period after 1990, when religious freedom was restored. This article is focused on the communist period 1967-1990 when Albania (and Pogradec as part of it) became the only atheist country in the world. The object of the study is the impact of these policies on spiritual and material religious identity. The communist regime destroyed or transformed the religious objects, whether Islamic or Christian and prohibited practicing religious rituals in Albania. They followed an education policy with an atheistic spirituality among young people, characterizing religion as opium for the people. All these left traces on the people and brought a deformation of the religious identity. In order to better understand the reality of that time and how this policy was experienced by the people, we conducted a survey in Pogradect District with the participation of 1000 people.

Keywords: communism policy, heritage, identity, religion, statistics, survey

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