Search results for: cultural factor

Authors: Marliana S. Palad

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The research purpose is to view and know the influence of giving blotong against growth and production of baby corn. The research was arranged as a factorial experiment in completely randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. The first is fertilizer type: blotong (B1), blotong+EM4 (B2) and bokashi blotong (B3), while of the blotong dose assigned as the second factor: blotong 5 ton ha -1 (D1), blotong 10 ton ha-1 (D2) and blotong 15 ton ha-1 (D3). The research result indicated that bokashi blotong gives the best influence compare to blotong+EM4 against all parameters. Interaction between fertilizers does 10 ton ha-1 to the bokashi. Blotong gives the best influence to the baby corn production 4.41 ton ha-1, bokasi blotong best anyway influence on baby corn vegetative growth, that is: plant height 113.00 cm, leaves number 8 (eight) pieces and stem diameter 6.02 cm. Results of analysis of variance showed that giving of bokashi blotong (B3) showed a better effect on the growth and production of baby corn and highly significant for plant height age of 60 days after planting, leaf number aged 60 days after planting, cob length cornhusk and without cornhusk, diameter stems and cobs, cob weight with cornhusk and without cornhusk and production are converted into ton ha-1. This is due to bokashi blotong has organic content of C, N, P, and K totalling more than the maximum treatment blotong (B1) and the blotong+EM4 (B2). Based on the research result, it can be summarised that sugar factory waste called blotong can be used to make bokashi as organic fertilizer, so the baby corn can growth and production better.

Keywords: blotong, bokashi, organic fertilizer, sugar factory waste

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Authors: Ke He, Wumaier Parezhati, Haruka Yamashita

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Recently, online marketplaces in the e-commerce industry, such as Rakuten and Alibaba, have become some of the most popular online marketplaces in Asia. In these shopping websites, consumers can select purchase products from a large number of stores. Additionally, consumers of the e-commerce site have to register their name, age, gender, and other information in advance, to access their registered account. Therefore, establishing a method for analyzing consumer preferences from both the store and the product side is required. This study uses the Doc2Vec method, which has been studied in the field of natural language processing. Doc2Vec has been used in many cases to analyze the extraction of semantic relationships between documents (represented as consumers) and words (represented as products) in the field of document classification. This concept is applicable to represent the relationship between users and items; however, the problem is that one more factor (i.e., shops) needs to be considered in Doc2Vec. More precisely, a method for analyzing the relationship between consumers, stores, and products is required. The purpose of our study is to combine the analysis of the Doc2vec model for users and shops, and for users and items in the same feature space. This method enables the calculation of similar shops and items for each user. In this study, we derive the real data analysis accumulated in the online marketplace and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposal.

Keywords: Doc2Vec, online marketplace, marketing, recommendation systems

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Authors: Michael Louis Sunaris, Robby Yussac Tallar

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The concept of sustainable river is evolving in Indonesia today. Many rivers condition in Indonesia have decreased by quality and quantity. The degradation of this condition is caused by rapid land use change as a result of increased population growth and human activity. It brings the degradation of the existing watersheds including some types of land use that an important factor in determining the status of river sustainability. Therefore, an evaluation method is required to determine the sustainability status of waterbody within watershed. The purpose of this study is to analyze various types of land use in determining the status of river sustainability. This study takes the watersheds of Citarum Upstream as a study area. The results of the analysis prove the index of sustainability status of the river that changes from good to bad or average in the rivers in the study area. The rapid and uncontrolled changes of land use especially in the upper watersheds area are the main causes that happened over time. It was indicated that the cumulative runoff coefficients were increased significantly. These situations indicated that the damage of watersheds has an impact on the water surplus or deficit problem yearly. Therefore, the rivers in Indonesia should be protected and conserved. The sustainability index of the rivers is an index to indicate the condition of watersheds by defining status of rivers in order to achieve sustainable water resource management.

Keywords: land use change, runoff coefficient, a simple index, sustainable river

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Authors: Prapaipan Phingchim

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The number of women approaching menopausal age in Thailand is increasing, making menopause an important health topic. In order to understand Thai women's different ways of interpreting menopausal experiences and the way they construct meaning relating to menopause, it is necessary to include the context in which meaning is constructed as well as the background of cultural attitudes to menopause existing in the Thai society. The aim of this study was to describe different discourses on menopause in Thailand that present themselves to menopausal women through the use of language and to analyze linguistic strategies used to represent such identity. This study adopts discourse theory and a close pragmatic analysis to examine the discursive construction of menopause for Thai women. Two hundreds and fifteen pieces of text under the heading or subject of `menopause' or `becoming a middle-aged woman', published from 2010 to 2019, were included. All material was addressed to Thai women, and consisted of booklets and informational material, articles from newspapers and magazines and popular science books. Five different discourses on menopause were identified: the biomedical discourse; the health-promotion discourse; the consumer discourse; the alternative discourse; and the feminist/ critical discourse. The biomedical discourse on menopause was found to be dominant, but was expanded or challenged by other discourses by offering different scopes of action and/or resting on different fundamental values. The discourses constructed and positioned individual women differently; thus, the women's position varied noticeably from one discourse to another. There are seven major linguistic strategies used to construct those identities. That is, lexical selection, presupposition manipulation, presupposition denial, the use of implication, the use of passive construction, using the cause and effect sentence structure, and rhetoric questions.

Keywords: discourse analysis, discursive construction, menopause, Thai women

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Authors: Abdullah AlGhazali, Richard Fairchild, Yilmaz Guney

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We examine the effect of managerial overconfidence on UK firms’ payout policy for the period 2000 to 2012. The analysis incorporates, in addition to common firm-specific factors, a wide range of corporate governance factors and managerial characteristics that have been documented to affect the relationship between overconfidence and payout policy. Our results are robust to several estimation considerations. The findings show that the influence of overconfident CEOs on the amount of, and the propensity to pay, dividends is significant within the UK context. Specifically, we detect that there is a reduction in dividend payments in firms managed by overconfident managers compared to their non-overconfident counterparts. Moreover, we affirm that cash flows, firm size and profitability are positively correlated, while leverage, firm growth and investment are negatively correlated with the amount of and propensity to pay dividends. Interestingly, we demonstrate that firms with the potential for undervaluation reduce dividend payments. Some of the corporate governance factors are shown to motivate firms to pay more dividends while these factors seem to have no influence on the propensity to pay dividends. The results also show that in general higher overconfidence leads to more share repurchases but the lower total payout. Overall, managerial overconfidence should be considered as an important factor influencing payout policy in addition to other known factors.

Keywords: dividends, repurchases, UK firms, overconfidence, corporate governance, undervaluation

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Authors: Narayan Bhatta, Rodhana Pokhel

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Introduction: The link between alcohol and violence is well documented, but there is a paucity of research on alcohol use by husbands and sexual violence during pregnancy in Nepal. The aim of the study is to describe the relationship between alcohol use by the husband and sexual violence during pregnancy in Nepalese women from the Kathmandu valley. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a consecutive sampling design in one government hospital. Pregnant women (N = 495) attending the antenatal clinic of Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital (PMWH) were recruited. Results: Approximately one-fifth (19%) of pregnant women had experienced sexual violence. Women in the first trimester of pregnancy were more likely to suffer sexual violence (35.2%) than in the second (30.7%) and third trimester of pregnancy (34%). The most common type of sexual violence against women was a physical force for sexual intercourse (91.5%), followed by sexual intercourse without the women’s consent (26.6%) and forcing them to engage in humiliating sexual activities (10.6%). Women who belong to other ethnicities like Janajatis, Dalits, and religious minorities (AOR = 0.3), women who live outside Kathmandu (AOR = 3.73), women who are illiterate (AOR = 4.67), and women whose husband has alcohol-drinking behavior (AOR = 1.68) increased the odds of experiencing sexual violence during pregnancy. Conclusion: The study concludes that a husband’s drinking behavior is an important risk factor for sexual violence against pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic. It indicates a need for routine screening during the antenatal visit to identify the violence and alcohol use of both the husband and wife.

Keywords: husband alcohol drinking behavior, Kathmandu, pregnency, sexual violence

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Authors: Mária Hudáková, Mária Lusková

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This report is focused on widening the theoretical knowledge as well as controlling practical application from the risk management point of view, regarding to dynamic business changes that have occurred in Slovakia which recently has been considered to be an environment full of risk and uncertainty. The idea of the report is the proposal of the controlling operation model in the course of risk management process in an enterprise operating in Slovakia, by which the controller is able to identify early risk factors in suggested major areas of the business management upon appropriate business information integration, consecutive control and prognoses and to prepare in time full-value documents in order to suggest measures for reduction thereof. Dealing with risk factors, that can quickly limit the growth potential of the enterprise, is an essential part of managerial activities on each level. This is the reason why mutual unofficial, ergo collegial cooperation of individual departments is necessary for controlling application from the business risk management point of view. An important part of the report is elaborated survey of the most important risk factors existing in major management areas of enterprises operating in Slovakia. The outcome of the performed survey is a catalogue of the most important enterprise risk factors. The catalogue serves for better understanding risk factors affecting the Slovak enterprises, their importance and evaluation.

Keywords: controlling, information, risks, risk factor, crisis

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Authors: Hariyadi, Rili Windiasih

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Halal tourism is a recent global phenomenon that emerged out of the needs of Muslim tourists. However, works on halal tourism rarely discuss the connection of it to the rising religiosity in Indonesia since halal tourism has been mostly studied in the sphere of tourism, business, and management studies. A few works on the increase of Islamic expressions in Indonesia do mention the recent booming of non-mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca and the emergence of sharia compliant accommodation, yet they do not go into details on the issue. To our best knowledge, there is a lack of more critical, cultural political studies on halal tourism in which the paper attempts to fill in. The paper is a result of fieldwork research in Central Java, Indonesia. The study focuses on sacred sites for pilgrimage and sharia-compliant hotels. It combines in-depth interviews and participatory observation methods to gather the data. It is important for us to take a look at the network of halal tourism actors (businessperson, local government, clerics, etc.) in Central Java, how they conceive halal tourism, and how their networking shape halal tourism discourses, policies, and practices. Despite having numerous Islamic pilgrimage places and being designated by the Ministry of Tourism as one of 12 Muslim friendly tourist destinations, the province is not yet widely recognised as the main destination for halal tourism as it is known as the place for more secular, nationalist groups rather than for more Islamic oriented ones. However, in some of its municipalities, there is increasingly more attention to develop halal tourism. In this study, we found out that the development of halal tourism in Central Java connected to dynamics of Islamisation and ideological competition as well as the influence of the more pragmatist businesspersons in a 'nationalist province' in Indonesia.

Keywords: actor networking, halal tourism, Islamisation, Indonesia

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Authors: Nandhana Vivek, Bhaskar Gogoi, Ayyavu Mahesh

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Breast cancer metastasis plays a key role in cancer progression and fatality. The present study examines the potential causes of metastasis in breast cancer by investigating the novel interactions between genes and their pathways. The gene expression profile of GSE99394, GSE1246464, and GSE103865 was downloaded from the GEO data repository to analyze the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Protein-protein interactions, target factor interactions, pathways and gene relationships, and functional enrichment networks were investigated. The proliferation pathway was shown to be highly expressed in breast cancer progression and metastasis in all three datasets. Gene Ontology analysis revealed 11 DEGs as gene targets to control breast cancer metastasis: LYN, DLGAP5, CXCR4, CDC6, NANOG, IFI30, TXP2, AGTR1, MKI67, and FTH1. Upon studying the function, genomic and proteomic data, and pathway involvement of the target genes, DLGAP5 proved to be a promising candidate due to it being highly differentially expressed in all datasets. The study takes a unique perspective on the avenues through which DLGAP5 promotes metastasis. The current investigation helps pave the way in understanding the role DLGAP5 plays in metastasis, which leads to an increased incidence of death among breast cancer patients.

Keywords: genomics, metastasis, microarray, cancer

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Authors: Lison Carlier

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The English language that is taught in school or used in media nowadays is defined as 'standard English,' although unstandardized Englishes, or 'parallel' Englishes, are practiced throughout the world. The existence of these 'parallel' Englishes has challenged standardization by imposing its own specific vocabulary or grammar. These non-standard languages tend to be regarded as inferior and, therefore, pose a problem regarding their translation. In the USA, 'slanguage', or slang, is a good example of a 'parallel' language. It consists of a particular set of vocabulary, used mostly in speech, and rarely in writing. Qualified as vulgar, often reduced to an urban language spoken by young people from lower classes, slanguage – or the language that is often first spoken between youths – is still the most common language used in the English-speaking world. Moreover, it appears that the prime meaning of 'informal' (as in an informal language) – a language that is spoken with persons the speaker knows – has been put aside and replaced in the general mind by the idea of vulgarity and non-appropriateness, when in fact informality is a sign of intimacy, not of vulgarity. When it comes to translating American slang, the main problem a translator encounters is the image and the cultural background usually associated with this 'parallel' language. Indeed, one will have, unwillingly, a predisposition to categorize a speaker of a 'parallel' language as being part of a particular group of people. The way one sees a speaker using it is paramount, and needs to be transposed into the target language. This paper will conduct an analysis of American slang – its use, perception and the image it gives of its speakers – and its translation into French, using the novel Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns) by way of example. In her autobiography/personal essay book, comedy writer, actress and author Mindy Kaling speaks with a very familiar English, including slang, which participates in the construction of her own voice and style, and enables a deeper connection with her readers.

Keywords: translation, English, slang, French

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Authors: Shabnam Naderi

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Traditional understandings of ethics considered translators, translations, technologies and other agents as separate and prioritized human agents. In fact, ethics was equated with morality. This disengaged understanding of ethics is superseded by an ethics of relation/entanglement in the posthuman philosophy. According to this ethics of entanglement, human and nonhuman agents are in constant ‘intra-action’. The human is not separate from nature, from technology and from other nonhuman entities, and an ethics of translation in this regard cannot be separated from technology and ecology and get defined merely within the realm of human-human encounter. As such, a posthuman ethics offers opportunities for change and responds to the changing nature of reality, it is negotiable and reveals itself as a moment-by-moment practice (i.e. as temporally emergent and beyond determinacy and permanence). Far from the linguistic or cultural, or individual concerns, posthuman translational ethics discusses how the former rigid norms and laws are challenged in a process ontology which puts emphasis on activity and activation and considers ethics as surfacing in activity, not as a predefined set of rules and values. In this sense, traditional ethical principles like faithfulness, accuracy and representation are superseded by principles of privacy, sustainability, multiplicity and decentralization. The present conceptual study, drawing on Ferrando’s philosophical posthumanism (as a post-humanism, as a post-dualism and as a post-anthropocentrism), Deleuze-Guattarian philosophy of immanence and Barad’s physics-philosophy strives to destabilize traditional understandings of translation ethics and bring an ethics that has loose ends and revolves around multiplicity and decentralization into the picture.

Keywords: ethics of entanglement, post-anthropocentrism, post-dualism, post-humanism, translation

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Authors: Dicle Aydın, Tuba Bulbul Bahtiyar, Esra Yaldız

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Housing offers a confirmed space for individuals. In the sense of interior decoration design, housing is a kind of typology in which user’s profile and individual preferences are considered as primary determinants. In Turkish society, the transition from traditional residences to apartment buildings brings the change in interior fittings depending upon the location of houses in its wake. The social status of the users in the residence and the differences of their everyday life can be represented more evident in these interior fittings. Hence, space becomes a tool to carry the information of users and the act. From this aspect, space as a concrete tool also enables a multidirectional communication with the cinema which reflects the social, cultural and economic changes of the society. While space takes a virtual or real part of the cinema, architecture discipline has also been influenced by cinematic phenomenas in its own practice. The subject of the movie and its content commune with the space, therefore, the design of the space is formed to support the subject. The purpose of this study is to analyze the space through motion pictures that convey the information of social life with an objective perspective. In addition, this study aims to determine the space, fittings and the use of fittings with respect to the social status of users. Morever, three films in 1980s in which Kemal Sunal, protagonist of the scripts that reflect society in many ways, performed are examined in this study. Movie sets are considered in many ways. For instance, in one of these movies, different houses from an apartment are analyzed vis a vis the perspective of the study.

Keywords: housing, interior, furniture, furnishing, user

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Authors: Y. S. Mohamed, L. A. Ahmed, H. A. Salem, A. M. Agha

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Liver Fibrosis is one of the most serious conditions that affect the Egyptian society. In the present study, the effect of nicorandil was investigated in experimentally-induced liver fibrosis by bile duct ligation in rats. Nicorandil (3mg/kg/day) was given orally 24 h after bile duct ligation for 14 days till the end of the experiment. Nicorandil group showed a significant improvement in liver function tests (ALT and ALP) as well as a significant decrease in oxidative stress biomarkers (TBARS and GSH), area of fibrosis and activity of hepatic stellate cells as indicated by decreased expression of alpha smooth muscle actin.Moreover, nicorandil treatment decreased HSCs proliferation due to its inhibitory effects on protein kinase C(PKC) and Platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) . Oral administration of either glibenclamide (10 mg/kg/day)(a KATP channel blocker) or L-NAME (30 mg/kg/day) (an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase) blocked the protective effects of nicorandil. However, nicorandil and L-NAME treated group showed more or less results similar to that of untreated bile duct ligated group. In conclusion, nicorandil was effective against the development of bile duct ligated-induced liver fibrosis in rats where activation of the NO pathway plays an important role in the protective effect nicorandil.

Keywords: hepatic stellate cells, nicorandil, nitric oxide donor, liver fibrosis

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Authors: Charlotte Lucke

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This study contributes to the body of literature that analyzes and complicates oversimplified and sensationalized representations of trauma and violence through a close examination and complication of representations of perpetrators of domestic violence in the mass media. This study determines the ways the media frames perpetrators of domestic violence through a qualitative content analysis and socio-ecological approach to the perpetration of violence. While the qualitative analysis has not been carried out, through preliminary research, this study hypothesizes that the media represents perpetrators through tropes such as the 'predator' or 'offender,' or as a demonized 'other.' It is necessary to expose and work through such stereotypes because cultivation theory demonstrates that the mass media determines societal beliefs about and perceptions of the world. Thus, representations of domestic violence in the mass media can lead people to believe that perpetrators of violence are mere animals or criminals and overlook the trauma that many perpetrators experience. When the media represents perpetrators as pure evil, monsters, or absolute 'others,' it leaves out the complexities of what moves people to commit domestic violence. By analyzing and placing media representations of perpetrators into conversation with the socio-ecological approach to violence perpetration, this study complicates domestic violence stereotypes. The socio-ecological model allows researchers to consider the way the interplay between individuals and their families, friends, communities, and cultures can move people to act violently. Using this model, along with psychological and psychoanalytic approaches to the etiology of domestic violence, this paper argues that media stereotypes conceal the way people’s experiences of trauma, along with community and cultural norms, perpetuates the cycle of systemic trauma and violence in the home.

Keywords: domestic violence, media images, representing trauma, theorising trauma

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Authors: Ferreira RC, Simons HZ, Thompson WS, Cutler AJ, Dopico XC, Smyth DJ, Mashar M, Schuilenburg H, Walker NM, Dunger DB, Wallace C, Todd JA, Wicker LS, Pekalski ML

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Type 1 diabetes is caused by autoimmune destruction of insulin-secreting beta cells in the pancreas. T cells are known to play an important role in this immune-mediated destruction; however, there is no general consensus regarding alterations in cytokine production or T cell subsets in peripheral blood of patients with type 1 diabetes. Using polychromatic flow cytometry of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), we assessed production of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-21, IFN-γ and IL-17 by memory CD4 T effector (Teff) cells in 69 patients with type 1 diabetes and 61 healthy donors. We found a 21.9% (95% CI 5.8, 40.2; p = 3.9 × 10(-3)) higher frequency of IL-21(+) CD45RA(-) memory CD4(+) Teffs in patients with type 1 diabetes (geometric mean 5.92% [95% CI 5.44, 6.44]) compared with healthy donors (geometric mean 4.88% [95% CI 4.33, 5.50]). In a separate cohort of 30 patients with type 1 diabetes and 32 healthy donors, we assessed the frequency of circulating T follicular helper (Tfh) cells in whole blood. Consistent with the increased production of IL-21, we also found a 14.9% increase in circulating Tfh cells in the patients with type 1 diabetes (95% CI 2.9, 26.9; p = 0.016). Analysis of IL-21 production by PBMCs from a subset of 46 of the 62 donors immunophenotyped for Tfh showed that frequency of Tfh cells was associated with the frequency of IL-21+ cells (r2 = 0.174, p = 0.004). These results indicate that increased IL-21 production is likely to be an aetiological factor in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes that could be considered as a potential therapeutic target.

Keywords: T follicular helper cell, IL-21, IL-17, type 1 diabetes

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Authors: Ayyavu Brama Dhayala Selvam

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Herbal medicines are gaining importance due to holistic nature and lesser side effects. Cycas beddomei Dyer is one of the highly exploited medicinal plants in India. Due to over-exploitation of male and female cones, young leaves and starch-bearing pithy stems for edible, medicinal and socio-cultural practices by the locals, tribals and traders, the plant population has drastically declined in its natural habitats. Cycas beddomei is an endemic to India. The current IUCN status of this plant species in the wild is endangered. Perhaps, it is the only species of Cycas enlisted in Appendix I of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora). Endorsing the CITES decisions, the Government of India has placed C. beddomei in the “Negative List of Exports” during 1998. Though this plant has been banned legally, but illegally, it is highly exploited by different means. Therefore, conservation of this species is an urgent need of the hour. The present paper highlights unique morphological and anatomical characters of C. beddomei, along with its present status, major threats and conservation measures. Cycas beddomei can easily be identified by some of the distinguishing morphological and anatomical characters, viz., 2–4 mm wide leaflets with revolute margins; the apices of microsporophylls from the middle to apex of the pollen cones turn downwards on maturity; mucilage canal cells are seen in the midrib region of the leaflets; stomatal frequency is about 18 numbers at 250x; pollen grains are monocolpate and their diameter ranging from 22.5 to 30 µm.

Keywords: CITES, Cycas beddomei, endangered, endemic

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Authors: Mona Francesca B. Dela Cruz, Katrina Marie R. Mamaril, Mariah Hannah Kassandra Salazar, Emerald Jay D. Ilac

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One key factor that should be considered when determining sustainable solutions to various environmental problems is the potential impact of individual human beings. In order to understand an individual, there is a need to examine cognitive, emotional, dispositional, and behavioral factors which are all indicative of one’s environmental consciousness. This quantitative study explored the moderated mediation between environmental consciousness, socio-economic status, social norms as a mediator, and the perceived role of government as a moderator for 381 Filipinos, aged 25 to 65, in urban and suburban settings. Results showed social norms do not have a mediating effect between socio-economic status and environmental consciousness. This may be influenced by the collectivist culture of the Philippines and the tendency for people to copy behaviors according to the descriptive norm effect. Meanwhile, there exists a moderating effect of the perceived role of government between the relationship of social norms and environmental consciousness which can be explained by the government’s ability to impose social norms that can induce a person to think and act pro-environmentally. Practical applications of this study can be used to tap the ability of the government to strengthen their influence and control over environmental protection and to provide a basis for the development of class-specific environmental solutions that can be done by individuals depending on their socioeconomic status.

Keywords: environmental consciousness, role of government, social norms, socio-economic status

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Authors: Antonio Brigido, Maria Meireles, Francisco Barros, Gaspar Mota, Fernanda Terra, Lidia Melo, Marcelo Reis, Camilo Souza

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As the globalization of the software process advances, companies are increasingly committed to improving software development technologies across multiple locations. On the other hand, working with teams distributed in different locations also raises new challenges. In this sense, automated processes can help to improve the quality of process execution. Therefore, this work presents the development of a tool called TSS Script that automates the sample preparation process for carrier requirements validation tests. The objective of the work is to obtain significant gains in execution time and reducing errors in scenario preparation. To estimate the gains over time, the executions performed in an automated and manual way were timed. In addition, a questionnaire-based survey was developed to discover new requirements and improvements to include in this automated support. The results show an average gain of 46.67% of the total hours worked, referring to sample preparation. The use of the tool avoids human errors, and for this reason, it adds greater quality and speed to the process. Another relevant factor is the fact that the tester can perform other activities in parallel with sample preparation.

Keywords: Android, GSD, automated testing tool, mobile products

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Authors: R. Ruslee, H. Gollee

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Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a commonly used technique in rehabilitation and often associated with rapid muscle fatigue which becomes the limiting factor in its applications. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects on the onset of fatigue of conventional synchronous stimulation, as well as asynchronous stimulation that mimic voluntary muscle activation targeting different motor units which are activated sequentially or randomly via multiple pairs of stimulation electrodes. We investigate three different approaches with various electrode configurations, as well as different patterns of stimulation applied to the gastrocnemius muscle: Conventional Synchronous Stimulation (CSS), Asynchronous Sequential Stimulation (ASS) and Asynchronous Random Stimulation (ARS). Stimulation was applied repeatedly for 300 ms followed by 700 ms of no-stimulation with 40 Hz effective frequency for all protocols. Ten able-bodied volunteers (28±3 years old) participated in this study. As fatigue indicators, we focused on the analysis of Normalized Fatigue Index (NFI), Fatigue Time Interval (FTI) and pre-post Twitch-Tetanus Ratio (ΔTTR). The results demonstrated that ASS and ARS give higher NFI and longer FTI confirming less fatigue for asynchronous stimulation. In addition, ASS and ARS resulted in higher ΔTTR than conventional CSS. In this study, we proposed a randomly distributed stimulation method for the application of FES and investigated its suitability for reducing muscle fatigue compared to previously applied methods. The results validated that asynchronous stimulation reduces fatigue, and indicates that random stimulation may improve fatigue resistance in some conditions.

Keywords: asynchronous stimulation, electrode configuration, functional electrical stimulation (FES), muscle fatigue, pattern stimulation, random stimulation, sequential stimulation, synchronous stimulation

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Authors: Jyoti Ranjan Sahoo

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Communication is a social phenomenon which mediates to our everyday life and it creates, maintains, builds, circulates, and propagates for a common identity the society. The symbolic forms of communication such as aural, sounds, oral expressions, signs, and language as means of communication are being used in everyday life in helping to identify as construction of social reality. These symbolic forms of communication are treated as the social process in everyday life. Therefore, there is an intrinsic relationship between communication and culture to understand media life for village communities. Similarly, the interface of communication with social life is reflected upon it’s formulation of the notions of social structure and culture. It has been observed that there is an overlapping and new phenomenonal change of media life among marginalized communities in general and village communities in particular. Therefore, this paper is an outcome of decadal stock of literature and an empirical investigation on understanding of communication in a tribal village in India. It has examined the idea of American scientist Edward T. Hall “the culture is communication, and the communication is culture” in village society on understanding media life. Thus, the Harold Innis’s theoretical idea of “communication” has been critically examined in these contexts since author tries to explore and understand the inter-disciplinarity on understanding media life through communication and culture which is embedded in socio-cultural life bearing on epistemological and ontological implications. The paper tries to explore and understand the inter-disciplinary and historical trajectories of communication embedded with other social science disciplines; and also tries to map these studies relevant for the future directions and engagement which would have bearing on epistemological and ontological implications in the field of media and communication.

Keywords: culture, communication, history, media, oral, tradition

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Authors: Lichung Jen, Yi Chun Liu, Kuan-Wei Lee

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Fruitful data has been accumulated in database nowadays and is commonly used as support for decision-making. In the healthcare industry, hospital, for instance, ordering pharmacy inventory is one of the key decision. With large drug inventory, the current cost increases and its expiration dates might lead to future issue, such as drug disposal and recycle. In contrast, underestimating demand of the pharmacy inventory, particularly standing drugs, affects the medical treatment and possibly hospital reputation. Prescription behaviour of hospital physicians is one of the critical factor influencing this decision, particularly irregular prescription behaviour. If a drug’s usage amount in the month is irregular and less than the regular usage, it may cause the trend of subsequent stockpiling. On the contrary, if a drug has been prescribed often than expected, it may result in insufficient inventory. We proposed a hierarchical Bayesian mixture model with two components to identify physicians’ regular/irregular prescription patterns with probabilities. Heterogeneity of hospital is considered in our proposed hierarchical Bayes model. The result suggested that modeling the prescription patterns of physician is beneficial for estimating the order quantity of medication and pharmacy inventory management of the hospital. Managerial implication and future research are discussed.

Keywords: hierarchical Bayesian model, poission mixture model, medicines prescription behavior, irregular behavior

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Authors: Ikechukwu Ejim

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This research project addresses the optimization of biodiesel production from gossypium herbaceum (cottonseed) and moringa oleifera seeds. Soxhlet extractor method using n-hexane for gossypium herbaceum (cottonseed) and ethanol for moringa oleifera were used for solvent extraction. 1250 ml of oil was realized from both gossypium herbaceum (cottonseed) and moringa oleifera seeds before characterization. In transesterification process, a 4-factor-3-level experiment was conducted using an optimal design of Response Surface Methodology. The effects of methanol/oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration (%), temperature (°C) and time (mins), on the yield of methyl ester for both cottonseed and moringa oleifera oils were determined. The design consisted of 25 experimental runs (5 lack of fit points, five replicate points, 0 additional center points and I optimality) and provided sufficient information to fit a second-degree polynomial model. The experimental results suggested that optimum conditions were as follows; cottonseed yield (96.231%), catalyst concentration (0.972%), temperature (55oC), time (60mins) and methanol/oil molar ratios (8/1) respectively while moringa oleifera optimum values were yield (80.811%), catalyst concentration (1.0%), temperature (54.7oC), time (30mins ) and methanol/oil molar ratios (8/1) respectively. This optimized conditions were validated with the actual biodiesel yield in experimental trials and literature.

Keywords: optimization, Gossypium herbaceum, Moringa oleifera, biodiesel

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Ola I. S. El Dardery, Ismail Gomaa, Adel R.M. Rayan, Ghada El Khayat, Sara H. Sabry

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Continuous improvement activities are becoming a key factor of the success of any organization, those improvement activities include but not limited to kaizen, six sigma, lean projects, and continuous improvement projects. Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement by making small incremental changes to improve an organization’s performance, reduce costs, reduce delay time, reduce waste in production, etc. This study aims at proposing a new measuring technique for kaizen activities using a Sustainable balanced scorecard structure. A survey questionnaire was developed and introduced to kaizen participants in both Egypt and Japan with the purpose of allocating key performance indicators for both kaizen process (critical success factors) and result (kaizen benefits) into the five perspectives of sustainable balanced scorecard. The study contributes to the literature by presenting a new kaizen measurement of both kaizen process and results, that will illuminate the benefits of using kaizen. Also, the presented measurement can help in the sustainability of kaizen implementation. Determining the combination of the proper kaizen measures could be used by any industry whether service or manufacturing to better measure kaizen activates. The comparison between Japanese measures, as the leaders of kaizen philosophy, and Egyptian measures will help recommending better practices of kaizen in Egypt, and contributing to the 2030 sustainable development goals.

Keywords: continuous improvements, kaizen, performance, sustainable balanced scorecard

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Paula A. Cruise, Carvell McLeary

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Employee turnover leads to lowered productivity, decreased morale and work quality, and psychological effects associated with employee separation and replacement. Yet, it remains unknown why talented employees willingly withdraw from organizations. This uncertainty is worsened as studies; a) priorities organizational over individual predictors resulting in restriction in range in turnover measurement; b) focus on actual rather than intended turnover thereby limiting conceptual understanding of the turnover construct and its relationship with other variables and; c) produce inconsistent findings across cultures, contexts and industries despite a clear need for a unified perspective. The current study addressed these gaps by adopting the theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework to examine socio-cognitive factors in organizational trust and individual turnover intentions among bankers and energy employees in Jamaica. In a comparative study of n=369 [n_bank= 264; male=57 (22.73%); n_energy =105; male =45 (42.86)], it was hypothesized that organizational trust was a predictor of employee turnover intention, and the effect of individual, group, cognitive and socio-affective variables varied across industry. Findings from structural equation modelling confirmed the hypothesis, with a model of both cognitive and socio-affective variables being a better fit [CMIN (χ²) = 800.067, df = 364, p ≤ .000; CFI = 0.950; RMSEA = 0.057 with 90% C.I. (0.052 - 0.062); PCLOSE = 0.016; PNFI = 0.818 in predicting turnover intention. The findings are discussed in relation to socio-cognitive components of trust models and predicting negative employee behaviors across cultures and industries.

Keywords: context-specific organizational trust, cross-cultural psychology, theory of planned behavior, employee turnover intention

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Authors: Zhang Shuqi, Liu Dan

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For the problems in intelligent network anomaly traffic detection models, such as low detection accuracy caused by the lack of training samples, poor effect with small sample attack detection, a classification model enhancement method, F-ACGAN(Flow Auxiliary Classifier Generative Adversarial Network) which introduces generative adversarial network and adversarial training, is proposed to solve these problems. Generating adversarial data with category labels could enhance the training effect and improve classification accuracy and model robustness. FACGAN consists of three steps: feature preprocess, which includes data type conversion, dimensionality reduction and normalization, etc.; A generative adversarial network model with feature learning ability is designed, and the sample generation effect of the model is improved through adversarial iterations between generator and discriminator. The adversarial disturbance factor of the gradient direction of the classification model is added to improve the diversity and antagonism of generated data and to promote the model to learn from adversarial classification features. The experiment of constructing a classification model with the UNSW-NB15 dataset shows that with the enhancement of FACGAN on the basic model, the classification accuracy has improved by 8.09%, and the score of F1 has improved by 6.94%.

Keywords: data imbalance, GAN, ACGAN, anomaly detection, adversarial training, data augmentation

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Anwar U. Haque, Waqar Asrar, Ashraf Ali Omar, Erwin Sulaeman, Jaffer Sayed Mohamed Ali

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Due to the interference effects, the intrinsic aerodynamic parameters obtained from the individual component testing are always fundamentally different than those obtained for complete model testing. Consideration and limitation for such testing need to be taken into account in any design work related to the component buildup method. In this paper, the scaled model of a straight rectangular canard of a hybrid buoyant aircraft is tested at 50 m/s in IIUM-LSWT (Low-Speed Wind Tunnel). Model and its attachment with the balance are kept rigid to have results free from the aeroelastic distortion. Based on the velocity profile of the test section’s floor; the height of the model is kept equal to the corresponding boundary layer displacement. Balance measurements provide valuable but limited information of the overall aerodynamic behavior of the model. Zero lift coefficient is obtained at -2.2o and the corresponding drag coefficient was found to be less than that at zero angles of attack. As a part of the validation of low fidelity tool, the plot of lift coefficient plot was verified by the experimental data and except the value of zero lift coefficient, the overall trend has under-predicted the lift coefficient. Based on this comparative study, a correction factor of 1.36 is proposed for lift curve slope obtained from the panel method.

Keywords: wind tunnel testing, boundary layer displacement, lift curve slope, canard, aerodynamics

Procedia PDF Downloads 456

Authors: Shahanaz Aboobacker Ahmed, P. Ajilal

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We live in the ‘age of migration’ where global migration and repatriation is the stark reality of human lives in the contemporary world. With increasing number of people migrating and repatriating for education, work, or crisis situations, there is an ever-growing need for active research into the effects of repatriation and migration on the psychological well-being of the migrants and expatriates. Moving across borders has resulted in individual developing a third culture and hence such individual are known as Third Culture Kids (TCKs). The aim of the study was to understand the difference in the resilience between Third Culture Kids and Non- Third Culture Kids and gain an insight into how resilience is shaped by migratory experience. The sample comprised of 200 participants that included 100 TCKs and 100 Non-TCKs. The participants were in the age range group of 17-26 years and were pursuing their college education in various parts of the world. The variable of Resilience was measured using the Resilience scale developed and standardized on TCK population which included subtests; Emotional Regulation, Impulse Control, Causal Analysis, Self Efficacy, Realistic Optimism, Empathy and Reaching Out. The data was obtained from in-person sessions and over Skype. The data was analyzed using independent sample t-tests. Results indicated that there is a significant difference between TCKs and Non-TCKs on Impulse Control, Causal Analysis, Realistic Optimism, Empathy and Reaching Out. However, no significant difference was found on the sub-variables of Self Efficacy and Emotional Regulation.

Keywords: third culture kids, resilience, immigration, cross-cultural psychology, repatriation, emotional maturity, emotional regulation, impulse control, causal analysis, self-efficacy, realistic optimism, empathy, reaching out

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Youmen Chaaban, Maha Ellili-Cherif

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of teachers’ individual characteristics and perceptions of environmental factors that impact their technology integration into their EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms. To this end, a national survey examining EFL teachers’ perceptions was conducted at Qatari Independent schools. 263 EFL teachers responded to the survey which investigated several factors known to impact technology integration. These factors included technology availability and support, EFL teachers’ perceptions of importance, obstacles facing technology integration, competency with technology use, and formal technology preparation. The impact of these factors on teachers’ and students’ educational technology use was further measured. The analysis of the data included descriptive statistics and a chi-square analysis test in order to examine the relationship between these factors. The results revealed important cultural factors that impact teachers’ practices and attitudes towards technology in the Qatari context. EFL teachers were found to integrate technology most prominently for instructional delivery and preparation. The use of technology as a learning tool received less emphasis. Teachers further revealed consistent perceptions about obstacles to integration, high levels of confidence in using technology, and consistent beliefs about the importance of using technology as a learning tool. Further analyses of the factors impacting technology integration can assist with Qatar’s technology advancement and development efforts by indicating the areas of strength and areas where additional efforts are needed. The results will lay the foundation for conducting context-specific professional development suitable for the needs of EFL teachers in Qatari Independent Schools.

Keywords: educational technology integration, Qatar, EFL, independent schools, ICT

Procedia PDF Downloads 367

Authors: B. Sathyanarayana

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As per the report of World Health Organization, more than 80% of world population uses medicines made from herbal and natural materials. They have stood the test of time for their safety, efficacy, cultural acceptability and lesser side effects. Quality assurance and control measures, such as national quality specification and standards for herbal materials, good manufacturing practices (GMP) for herbal medicines, labelling, and licensing schemes for manufacturing, imports and marketing, should be in place in every country where herbal medicines are regulated. These measures are vital for ensuring the safety and efficacy of herbal medicines. In the case of herbal products challenge begins at the stage of designing itself except the classical products. Selection of herbal ingredients, officinal parts to be used, proportions are vital. Once the formulation is designed one should take utmost care to produce the standardized product of assured quality and safety. Quality control measures should cover the validation of quality and identity of raw materials, in process control (as per SOP and GMP norms) and at the level of final product. Quality testing, safety and efficacy studies of the final product are required to ensure the safe and effective use of the herbal products in human beings. Medicinal plants being the materials of natural resource are subjected to great variation making it really difficult to fix quality standards especially in the case of polyherbal preparations. Manufacturing also needs modification according to the type of ingredients present. Hence, it becomes essential to develop Standard operative Procedure for a specific herbal product. Present paper throws a light on the challenges that are encountered during the design and development of herbal products.

Keywords: herbal product, challenges, quality, safety, efficacy

Procedia PDF Downloads 486

Authors: Amessis-Ouchemoukh Nadia, Salhi Rim, Ouchemoukh Salim, Ayad Rabha, Sadou Dyhia, Guenaoui Nawel, Hamouche Sara, Madani Khodir

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The cooking method is a key factor influencing the quality of vegetables. In this study, the effect of the most common cooking methods on the nutritional composition, phenolic content, pigment content and antioxidant activities (evaluated by DPPH, ABTS, CUPRAC, FRAP, reducing power and phosphomolybdene method) of fresh, steamed, and boiled red beet was investigated. The fresh samples showed the highest nutritional and bioactive composition compared to the cooked ones. The boiling method didn’t lead to a significant reduction (p< 0.05) in the content of phenolics, flavonoids, flavanols and DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, CUPRAC, phosphomolybdeneum and reducing power capacities. This effect was less pronounced when steam cooking was used, and the losses of bioactive compounds were lower. As a result, steam cooking resulted in greater retention of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity compared to boiling. Overall, this study suggests that steam cooking is a better method in terms of retention of pigments and bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of beetroot.

Keywords: beta vulgaris, cooking methods, bioactive compounds, antioxidant activities

Procedia PDF Downloads 38