Search results for: transforming growth factor beta 2

Authors: Francesco Colcerasa, Fabio Pisani

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We contribute to the subjective well-being literature testing the relationship between life satisfaction and inequality of opportunity in health, measured through the Human Opportunity Index calculated at the national level using individual socio-economic data from the cross-country European Social Survey sample. We compute several indexes of opportunity inequality in health, each obtained according to a different combination of circumstances (gender, immigrant status, parents’ education). We find a robust and significant relationship where life satisfaction is higher in correspondence with low levels of health opportunity inequality. The result is twofold. On the one hand, the importance of the well-being of other types of inequality than income inequality emerges. On the other hand, the socioeconomic roots of inequality in health are investigated, suggesting that circumstances at birth have a role in future well-being. Several rationales for the nexus between life satisfaction and inequality of opportunity in health are possible, which we investigate by splitting the sample. Among others, we find a prominent role of pro-social preferences – formalized as interest towards own offspring (which can be interpreted as intergenerational justice) – as a mediating factor of the relationship.

Keywords: Inequality of opportunity, subjective wellbeing, health, health inequality, inequality of opportunity in health

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Authors: K. Suresh, M. Padmavathi, N. Darga Kumar

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The objective of this study is to investigate the significance of coal mine waste and improved clay soil when used as a fill and for the construction of embankment. To determine the bearing capacities of coal mine waste and improved clay soil, tests are conducted apart from laboratory experiments. PLAXIS 2D software is used to make the analysis simpler. Depending upon the bearing capacities obtained for different cases, a conclusion can be drawn. Load carrying capacities are determined for coal mine waste, clay and by altering their height ratio when clay (H2) is at the bottom, and coal mine waste (H1) is on the top with three different cases (H = 0.25H1 + 0.75H2, 0.5H1 + 0.5H2, 0.75H1 + 0.25H2) in addition to this bearing capacity of improved clay soil (by replacing clay with 10% CMW, 30% CMW and 50% CMW in addition polycom) is also determined. The safe height of the embankment that can be constructed with the improved clay for different slopes, i.e., for 1:1, 1.5: 1, 2: 1 is also determined by using PLAXIS 2D software by limiting the factor of safety to 1.5.

Keywords: cohesion, angle of shearing resistance, elastic modulus, coefficient of consolidation, coal mine waste

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Authors: Yue-Tzu Yang, Peng-Jen Chen

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The present study deals with the numerical optimization of wavy channel with the help of genetic algorithm (GA). Three design variables related to the wave amplitude (A), the wavelength (λ) and the channel aspect ratio (α) are chosen and their ranges are decided through preliminary calculations of three-dimensional Navier-stokes and energy equations. A parametric study is also performed to show the effects of different design variables on the overall performance of the wavy channel. Objective functions related to the heat transfer and pressure drop, performance factor (PF) is formulated to analyze the performance of the wavy channel. The numerical results show that the wave amplitude and the channel aspect ratio have significant effects on the thermal performance. It can improve the performance of the wavy channels by increasing wave amplitude or decreasing the channel aspect ratio. Increasing wavelengths have no significant effects on the heat transfer performance.

Keywords: wavy channel, genetic algorithm, optimization, numerical simulation

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Authors: Fathia Elmenghawi

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The transformation of cities under colonial rule has received a great deal of scholarly work. Colonizers interpret their colonies differently and many urban and planning approaches can be traced. This paper focuses on the colonial approaches of urban expansion in the city of Tripoli, Libya during two colonial periods, the late Ottomans and the Italians, from the 1830s to 1940s. Both had perceived their approaches to the city’s expansion as means of practicing dominance over the colonized under the disguise of facilitating the process of modernization of the city. This research uses a historical method that based on archival documents such as maps, photos, and publications to uncover the planning practices followed by the two colonizers. The findings indicate that despite the similar intentions that both colonizers had when they expanded the city, one striking difference was distinguished, which is how the Ottomans and the Italians planned to treat the Walled City as, respectively, either a context for expansion or as merely remains to marginalize.

Keywords: colonial urban planning, Italian colonization, Ottoman provinces, walled city

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Authors: R. Chouatah, E. G. Filali, B. Zouzou

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It has been well established that there are no differences between microscale and macroscale flows of incompressible liquids. However, surface roughness has been known to impact the transport phenomena. The effect of structured roughness on the dynamics and heat transfer of water flowing through minichannel was numerically investigated in this study. Our study consists in characterizing the dynamic field and heat transfer aspect of a flow in circular minichannel equipped with structured roughness using CFD software, CFX. The study is performed to understand the effect of various roughness elements (rectangular, triangular), roughness height and roughness pitch on the friction factor and heat transfer coefficient. Our work focuses on a water flow inside a circular mini-channel of 1 mm in diameter and 10 cm in length. The speed entry into the mini-channel varies from 0.1 m/s to 25 m/s. The wall of the mini-channel is submitted to a constant heat flux; q=100,000 W/m². The simulations results are compared to those obtained with smooth minichannel and the existing experimental and numerical results in the literature.

Keywords: heat transfer, laminar and turbulent flow, minichannel, structured roughness

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Authors: Ghazal Raheb

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Population growth in big cities of Iran has led to limitation of land resources, more consumption of non-renewable sources of energy and many environmental problems. Emerging of overbuilt urban areas and decreasing amount of green spaces cause the appearance of an undesirable landscape in the cities. Green roof technology is a solution to improve environmental concerns in urban areas which combines green spaces with buildings as the private or semi-private spaces. Successful implementation in different areas definitely depends on accommodation of green roof type with the environment and urban and building typology in Iran. This paper is aiming to provide some recommendation for selecting appropriate type of green roof and executive solutions considering to climatic zoning and urban situation in Iran. Two main aspects which have been considered are environmental and urban typology factors.

Keywords: green roof, urban typology, climate zone, landscape

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Authors: Zareen Shahid

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Rapid increase in population has resulted in uncontrolled and unplanned growth of metropolitan cities in Pakistan. Pakistan is facing unprecedented challenges of acute housing shortages, unhealthy living conditions and a non-existent or dilapidated infrastructure across the country. The government of Pakistan has also failed to devise a comprehensive and long-term strategy to cope with the problem of housing and better infrastructure development and management that has resulted in congestion, overcrowding and deterioration of environment in cities. On the other hand public has developed intense faith upon Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore. This research paper is about to observe the difference in residential estate development and services provided by DHA Lahore. This paper attempts to identify the factors which are contributing towards the success of DHA and recommend measures for improvement in public sector for betterment.

Keywords: residential estate, development and management, defence housing authority

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Authors: Parvin Foroughifar

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The concept of sense of community refers to residents’ sense of attachment and commitment to the other residents in a residential community. It is implicitly indicative of the mental image of a physical environment in which the residents enjoy strong social ties. Sense of community, a crucial factor in improving quality of life and social welfare, leads to life satisfaction in a residential community. Despite the important functions of such a notion, few empirical studies, to the best of the authors' knowledge, have been so far carried out in Iran to investigate the effective factors in sharpening the sense of community in residential communities. This survey research examined sense of community in 360 above 20-year old residents of three residential communities in Tehran, Iran using cluster sampling and questionnaire. The study yielded the result that variables of local social ties, social control and trust, sense of security, length of residence, use of public spaces, and mixed land use have a significant relationship with sense of community.

Keywords: sense of community, local social ties, sense of security, public space, residential community, Tehran

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Authors: Cheila Pereira, Sara C. Cunha, Miguel A. Faria, José O. Fernandes

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The increasing world population brings several concerns, one of which is food security and sustainability. To meet this challenge, aquaculture, the farming of aquatic animals and plants, including fish, mollusks, bivalves, and algae, has experienced sustained growth and development in recent years. Recent advances in this industry have focused on reducing its economic and environmental costs, for example, the substitution of protein sources in fish feed. Plant-based proteins are now a common approach, and while it is a greener alternative to animal-based proteins, there are some disadvantages, such as their putative content and intoxicants such as mycotoxins. These are naturally occurring plant contaminants, and their exposure in fish can cause health problems, stunted growth or even death, resulting in economic losses for the producers and health concerns for the consumers. Different works have demonstrated the presence of both AFB1 (aflatoxin B1) and ENNB1 (enniatin B1) in fish feed and their capacity to be absorbed and bioaccumulate in the fish organism after digestion, further reaching humans through fish ingestion. The aim of this work was to evaluate the bioaccessibility of both mycotoxins in samples of Sparus aurata muscle using a static digestion model based on the INFOGEST protocol. The samples were subjected to different cooking procedures – raw, grilled and fried – and different seasonings – none, thyme and ginger – in order to evaluate their potential reduction effect on mycotoxins bioaccessibility, followed by the evaluation of the intestinal transport of both compounds with an in vitro cell model composed of Caco-2/HT-29 co-culture monolayers, simulating the human intestinal epithelium. The bioaccessible fractions obtained in the digestion studies were used in the transport studies for a more realistic approach to bioavailability evaluation. Results demonstrated the effect of the use of different cooking procedures and seasoning on the toxin's bioavailability. Sparus aurata was chosen in this study for its large production in aquaculture and high consumption in Europe. Also, with the continued evolution of fish farming practices and more common usage of novel feed ingredients based on plants, there is a growing concern about less studied contaminants in aquaculture and their consequences for human health. In pair with greener advances in this industry, there is a convergence towards alternative research methods, such as in vitro applications. In the case of bioavailability studies, both in vitro digestion protocols and intestinal transport assessment are excellent alternatives to in vivo studies. These methods provide fast, reliable and comparable results without ethical restraints.

Keywords: AFB1, aquaculture, bioaccessibility, ENNB1, intestinal transport.

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Authors: Chih-Wen Wu

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This study examines the antecedents of heritage tourism loyalty and its relation to destination image, consumer travel experience, and destination satisfaction in the tourism context. In this respect, a number of important questions concerning how destination image, consumer travel experience, and destination satisfaction impact destination loyalty are raised. This study attempts to identify three key antecedents of loyalty in the heritage context. The author empirically tests predicted relationships by using personal interview data from 475 foreign tourists. The conceptual model investigated the relevant relationships among the constructs by using confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Findings from the research sample support the argument that destination image, consumer travel experience, destination satisfaction are the key determinants of destination loyalty. Destination image and consumer travel experience influence destination satisfaction. The author also discusses theoretical and managerial implications of research findings for marketing the heritage globally.

Keywords: heritage, destination loyalty, destination image, consumer travel experience, destination satisfaction, tourism

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Authors: Radia Chemlal, Youcef Hamidi, Nabil Mameri

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This study deals with the production of biosurfactant by the Pseudomonas luteola strain on three different culture media (semi-synthetic medium M1, whey, and pharmaceutical reject) in the presence of gasoil. The monitoring of bacterial growth by measuring the optical density at 600 nm by spectrophotometer and the surface tension clearly showed the ability of Pseudomonas luteola to produce biosurfactants at various conditions of the culture medium. The biosurfactant produced in the pharmaceutical reject medium generated a decrease in the surface tension with a percentage of 19.4% greater than the percentage obtained when using whey which is 7.0%. The pharmaceutical rejection is diluted at various percentages ranging from 5% to 100% in order to study the effect of the concentration on the biosurfactant production. The best result inducing the great reduction of the surface tension value is obtained at the dilution of 30% with the pharmaceutical reject.

Keywords: biosurfactant, pseudomonas luteola, whey, antiscorpionic serum, gas oil

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Authors: Hilya Mudrika Arini, Nur Aini Masruroh, Budi Hartono

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There are more than 20 terrorist threats from 2002 to 2012 in Indonesia. Despite of this fact, preventive solution through studies in the field of national security in Indonesia has not been conducted comprehensively. This study aims to provide a preventive solution by developing prediction model of the terrorist threat in Indonesia by using Bayesian network. There are eight stages to build the model, started from literature review, build and verify Bayesian belief network to what-if scenario. In order to build the model, four experts from different perspectives are utilized. This study finds several significant findings. First, news and the readiness of terrorist group are the most influent factor. Second, according to several scenarios of the news portion, it can be concluded that the higher positive news proportion, the higher probability of terrorist threat will occur. Therefore, the preventive solution to reduce the terrorist threat in Indonesia based on the model is by keeping the positive news portion to a maximum of 38%.

Keywords: Bayesian network, decision analysis, national security system, text mining

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Authors: Bartholomew Badar

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An NFT is a digital certificate with rights to own an asset, including various valuable digital goods such as art pieces, music items, collectibles, etc. The market for NFTs started developing in 2017 and has lately seen increased growth as crypto-currencies and the blockchain market continue to gain popularity. This study aims to understand potential uses for NFTs concerning the music industry and record labels. Independent artists struggle to distribute and sell their music without the help of a record label. The NFT marketplace could be a great tool to eliminate this problem. The research objective is to identify possibilities for independent artists to own their music rights and share value with an audience. We see a trend of new-school music artists trying to enter the music NFT market by creating visualizers, beats, cover art, etc. To analyze various existing music NFT assets and determine whether or not independent artists could monetize their music without a record label is the main focus of this scholarly paper.

Keywords: blockchain, crypto-currency, music, artist, NFT

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Authors: Elvan Ender, Murat Zencirkıran

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One of the most important criteria that increase the success of design in landscape architecture is the visual effect. The characteristics that affect visual appearance in plant design vary depending on the phenological periods of the plants. In plants, although different effects are observed in different periods of the year, this effect is felt most prominently in flowering periods. For this reason, knowing the flowering time, duration and flower characteristics should be considered as a factor increasing the success of plant design. In this study, flower characteristics of natural woody plants with attractive flowers have been examined. Because of the variability of these characteristics of plants in the region, consideration of these criteria in the planting design processes in the region may increase the success of the design. At the same time, when species selection is made considering the obtained data, visuality and sustainability of natural species can be possible in Bursa city with planting design.

Keywords: Bursa, flower characteristics, natural plants, planting design

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Authors: Mahsa Pishdar

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Food traceability through the supply chain is facing increased demand. IoT and blockchain are among the tools under consideration in the Industry 4.0 era that could be integrated to help implementation of the Circular Economy (CE) principles while enhancing food traceability solutions. However, such tools need intellectual system, and infrastructureto be settled as guidance through the way, helping overcoming obstacles. That is why the critical success factors for implementing Industry 4.0 and circular economy principles in food traceability concept are analyzed in this paper by combination of interval type 2 fuzzy Worst Best Method and Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution (Interval Type 2 fuzzy WBM-MARCOS). Results indicate that “Knowledge of Industry 4.0 obligations and CE principle” is the most important factor that is the basis of success following by “Management commitment and support”. This will assist decision makers to seize success in gaining a competitive advantage while reducing costs through the supply chain.

Keywords: food traceability, industry 4.0, internet of things, block chain, best worst method, marcos

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Authors: Ho Yeon Park, Kyoung-Jae Kim

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The purpose of this study is to investigate whether friendship in social media can be an important factor in recommender system through social scientific analysis of friendship in popular social media such as Facebook and Twitter. For this purpose, this study analyzes data on friendship in real social media using component analysis and clique analysis among sub-group analysis in social network analysis. In this study, we propose an algorithm to reflect the results of sub-group analysis on the recommender system. The key to this algorithm is to ensure that recommendations from users in friendships are more likely to be reflected in recommendations from users. As a result of this study, outcomes of various subgroup analyzes were derived, and it was confirmed that the results were different from the results of the existing recommender system. Therefore, it is considered that the results of the subgroup analysis affect the recommendation performance of the system. Future research will attempt to generalize the results of the research through further analysis of various social data.

Keywords: sub-group analysis, social media, social network analysis, recommender systems

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Authors: Ahmed E. Al-Sabri, Mohamed A. Moslem, Sarfaraz Hadi

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To avoid the harmful effects of the chemical fungicides on the human and minimize the environmental pollution, an alternative eco-friendly control strategies should be developed. The extract of Commiphora myhrra L. was tested against twenty fungal genera isolated from the indoor air collected from different rooms in King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Disc diffusion test was modified for use in this study and the collected data was statistically analyzed. Variable antifungal efficacy of different myrrh extract was recorded against the investigated fungal genera. The efficacy of the extract was increased as the concentration increased. The highest growth inhibition (74.6%) was against Acremonium strictum followed by Trichoderma psuedokoningii (70.6%). On contrast, the lowest efficacy (12.7%) was against Ulocladium consortiale. It could be concluded that myrrh extract is promised as a source of substances from which of safer and eco-friendly could be used as antimicrobial agents against a number of pathogenic fungi.

Keywords: antifungal, myrrh, antimicrobial, medicinal plant

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Authors: Zhidong Zhang, Zhi-Chao Zhang

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This study investigated the structural validity of externalizing issues of Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) via a Chinese sample. The externalizing problems consist of two sub-problems: rule-breaking behavior and aggressive behavior. The rule-breaking behavior consists of 17 items, and aggressive behavior consists of 18 items. The factor analysis model was used to examine the structure validity. For the rule breaking behavior, at the first step, the most items weighted with component 2. After the rotation, there was a clear weight on both component 1 and 2. For the aggressive behavior, at the first step, there was no clear picture about the components. After the rotation, two clusters of items were closer to component 1 and 2 respectively. It seemed that both rule breaking behavior issue and aggressive behavior issue suggested two components. Further studies should be done to examine both samples and structures of externalizing problems.

Keywords: confirmatory analysis, externalizing issue, structural validity, varimax rotations

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Authors: W. Wang, Y. Zhang, J. Shuai, Z. Lv

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The interaction between defects has an essential influence on the bearing capacity of pipelines. This work developed the finite element model of pipelines containing adjacent defects, which includes longitudinally aligned, circumferentially aligned, and diagonally aligned defects. The relationships between spacing and geometries of defects and the failure pressure of pipelines, and the interaction between defects are investigated. The results show that the orientation of defects is an influential factor in the failure pressure of the pipeline. The influence of defect spacing on the failure pressure of the pipeline is non-linear, and the relationship presents different trends depending on the orientation of defects. The increase of defect geometry will weaken the failure pressure of the pipeline, and for the interaction between defects, the increase of defect depth will enhance it, and the increase of defect length will weaken it. According to the research on the interaction rule between defects with different orientations, the interacting coefficients under different orientations of defects are compared. It is determined that the diagonally aligned defects with the overlap of longitudinal projections are the most obvious arrangement of interaction between defects, and the limited distance of interaction between defects is proposed.

Keywords: pipeline, adjacent defects, interaction between defects, failure pressure

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Authors: Karima Kharroub, Mohamed Amine Gomri, Mercedes Monteoliva-Sanchez

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Sabkhas and chotts are examples of hypersaline environments inhabited by halophilic microorganisms. In the present study, a culture-dependent methodology was used to determine the archaeal diversity present within Ezzemoul sabkha located in the north-eastern of Algeria. It was assessed using different media with different substrates in attempt to initiate the growth of wide spectrum of halophiles. Several strains were isolated and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic characterization. The isolates tested placed within the family Halobacteriaceae, a group of extremely halophilic, aerobic archaea that have a salinity tolerance of 3 to 4M and associated with six genera Halorubrum, Halobacterium, Haloterrigena, Haloferax, Halomicrobium and Haloarcula. Halorubrum species were found to be the dominant archaea community as indicated by the presence of different strains recovered from this sabkha. In the other hand, two new species within Halobacteriaceae family; Halorubrum ezzemolulense sp. nov. and Halomicrobium katesii sp. nov. were described.

Keywords: sabkha, archaea, halophilic, hypersaline environments

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Authors: Muhammad Ali, Aamir Sohail, Umair Malik

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Research in entrepreneurship has gained much attention in current academic environment. Youngsters are taking interest to start their own business in spite of risk matter. The objective of the study is to explain how various personality traits (personal attitude, locus of control, instrumental readiness and perceived behavioral control) are affecting entrepreneurial intention of students. The theory of planned behavior supports out study which explains that personal attractiveness, social norms and feasibility are the main factors that affect intentions of an individual. The sample data of 120 is collected from graduating batch of three reputed universities of Islamabad through questionnaires. Our results support the hypothesis that personality traits positively influence the entrepreneurial intention. We conclude from the study that many graduating students are willing to start a new venture, but most of them are likely to do a job in their respective fields. Risk factor also exists in their minds because in our country most people are risk-averse and they do not want to lose their money in case of loss.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, instrumental readiness, locus of control, personal attitude

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Authors: T. Ito, K. Kawaguchi, R. Ohta

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The purpose of this study is to provide a guideline to assist globally-minded companies in developing task-based English-language programs for their employees. After conducting an online self-assessment questionnaire comprised of 45 job-related tasks, we analyzed responses received from 3,000 Japanese company employees and developed a checklist that considered three areas: (i) the percentage of those who need to accomplish English-language tasks in their workplace (need for English), (ii) a five-point self-assessment score (task performance level), and (iii) the impact of previous task experience on perceived performance (experience factor). The 45 tasks were graded according to five proficiency levels. Our results helped us to create a core guideline that may assist companies in two ways: first, in helping determine which tasks employees with a certain English proficiency should be able to satisfactorily carry out, and secondly, to quickly prioritize which business-related English skills they would need in future English language programs.

Keywords: business settings, can-do statements, English language training programs, self-assessment, task experience

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Authors: Jelena Bašić, Višnjica Vučetić, Mislav Anić, Tomislav Bašić

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Lack of precipitation combined with high temperatures causes great damage to the agriculture and economy in Croatia. Therefore, it is important to understand water circulation and balance. We decided to gain a better insight into the spatial distribution of water balance components (WBC) and their long-term changes in Croatia. WBC are precipitation (P), potential evapotranspiration (PET), actual evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture content (S), runoff (RO), recharge (R), and soil moisture loss (L). Since measurements of the mentioned components in Croatia are very rare, the Palmer model has been applied to estimate them. We refined method by setting into the account the corrective factor to include influence effects of the wind as well as a maximum soil capacity for specific soil types. We will present one hundred years’ time series of PET and ET showing the trends at few meteorological stations and a comparison of components of two climatological periods. The meteorological data from 109 stations have been used for the spatial distribution map of the WBC of Croatia.

Keywords: croatia, long-term trends, the palmer method, water balance components

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Authors: Nihal Esam Abuzinadah, Areej Abbas Malibari, Arwa Abdulaziz Allinjawi, Paul Krause

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Deaf and hearing-impaired students face many obstacles throughout their education, especially with learning applied sciences such as computer programming. In addition, there is no clear signs in the Arabic Sign Language that can be used to identify programming logic terminologies such as while, for, case, switch etc. However, hearing disabilities should not be a barrier for studying purpose nowadays, especially with the rapid growth in educational technology. In this paper, we develop an Avatar based system to teach computer programming to deaf and hearing-impaired students using Arabic Signed language with new signs vocabulary that is been developed for computer programming education. The system is tested on a number of high school students and results showed the importance of visualization in increasing the comprehension or understanding of concepts for deaf students through the avatar.

Keywords: hearing-impaired students, isolation, self-esteem, learning difficulties

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Authors: Zakir Husain

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Main objective of a power transformer design optimization problem requires minimizing the total overall cost and/or mass of the winding and core material by satisfying all possible constraints obligatory by the standards and transformer user requirement. The constraints include appropriate limits on winding fill factor, temperature rise, efficiency, no-load current and voltage regulation. The design optimizations tasks are a constrained minimum cost and/or mass solution by optimally setting the parameters, geometry and require magnetic properties of the transformer. In this paper, present the above design problems have been formulated by using genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA) on the MATLAB platform. The importance of the presented approach is stems for two main features. First, proposed technique provides reliable and efficient solution for the problem of design optimization with several variables. Second, it guaranteed to obtained solution is global optimum. This paper includes a demonstration of the application of the genetic programming GP technique to transformer design.

Keywords: optimization, power transformer, genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing technique (SA)

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Authors: K. Khlifi, A. Haddouk, M. Hlaili, H. Mechergui

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The present paper provides a detailed analysis of prior methods and approaches for non-linear load identification in residential buildings. The main goal of this analysis is to decipher the distorted signals and to estimate the harmonics influence on power systems. We have performed an analytical study of non-linear loads behavior in the residential environment. Simulations have been performed in order to evaluate the distorted rate of the current and follow his behavior. To complete this work, an instrumental platform has been realized to carry out practical tests on single-phase non-linear loads which illustrate the current consumption of some domestic appliances supplied with single-phase sinusoidal voltage. These non-linear loads have been processed and tracked in order to limit their influence on the power grid and to reduce the Joule effect losses. As a result, the study has allowed to identify responsible circuits of harmonic pollution.

Keywords: distortion rate, harmonic analysis, harmonic pollution, non-linear load, power factor

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Authors: Sourabh R. Dinde, Rajshekar S. Talikoti

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According to the structural point of view Industrial Pallet rack structure can be considered typical steel framed structure. This work presents a general analysis of an industrial pallet rack structure, evaluating the influence of each of the components on the global stability. An analytical study for the sensitivity of pallet rack configuration in linear static equivalent lateral loads. The aim is to braced/unbraced frames were design and their analytical models are to be built in software. The finite element analysis is used to determine axial forces in beam and column, maximum storey displacement and buckling loads on braced/unbraced pallet rack structure. Bracing systems are mostly provided to enhance the stiffness factor of the structures with the seismic loads. Unbraced systems have mostly translational modes of failure and are very flexible due to excessive loads.

Keywords: buckling capacity, cold formed steel, finite element analysis, pallets Rrack, seismic design

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Authors: Lindsey Giunta

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This review examines the current literature regarding the impact of COVID-19 on academic functioning and anxiety in children and adolescents. The objective was to determine the ways in which the pandemic affected youth mental health and academics, in addition to the extent that these factors were transformed as a result of the worldwide state of affairs. Twenty papers were selected and reviewed, and data showed long term consequences in youth mental health resulting from the current pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns led to disrupted childhood education, and data showed that the growth of cognitive executive functions was impacted to varying degrees dependent upon geographic location. The literature recommends supplemental education on the national level, as well as mental health promotion within communities and schools.

Keywords: pandemic, children, adolescents, anxiety, academic functioning

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Authors: Fatna Benmessaoud, Mohammed Cheikh, Vencent Velay, Vanessa Vedal, Farhad Rezai-Aria, Christine Boher

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The global mechanical behavior of materials is strongly linked to their microstructure, especially their crystallographic texture and their grains morphology. These material aspects determine the mechanical fields character (heterogeneous or homogeneous), thus, they give to the global behavior a degree of anisotropy according the initial microstructure. For these reasons, the prediction of global behavior of materials in relationship with the microstructure must be performed with a multi-scale approach. Therefore, multi-scale modeling in the context of crystal plasticity is widely used. In this present contribution, a phenomenological elasto-viscoplastic model developed in the crystal plasticity context and finite element method are used to investigate the effects of crystallographic texture and grains sizes on global behavior of a polycrystalline equiaxed Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The constitutive equations of this model are written on local scale for each slip system within each grain while the strain and stress mechanical fields are investigated at the global scale via finite element scale transition. The beta phase of Ti-6Al-4V alloy modeled is negligible; its percent is less than 10%. Three families of slip systems of alpha phase are considered: basal and prismatic families with a burgers vector and pyramidal family with a burgers vector. The twinning mechanism of plastic strain is not observed in Ti-6Al-4V, therefore, it is not considered in the present modeling. Nine representative elementary volumes (REV) are generated with Voronoi tessellations. For each individual equiaxed grain, the own crystallographic orientation vis-à-vis the loading is taken into account. The meshing strategy is optimized in a way to eliminate the meshing effects and at the same time to allow calculating the individual grain size. The stress and strain fields are determined in each Gauss point of the mesh element. A post-treatment is used to calculate the local behavior (in each grain) and then by appropriate homogenization, the macroscopic behavior is calculated. The developed model is validated by comparing the numerical simulation results with an experimental data reported in the literature. It is observed that the present model is able to predict the global mechanical behavior of Ti-6Al-4V alloy and investigate the microstructural parameters' effects. According to the simulations performed on the generated volumes (REV), the macroscopic mechanical behavior of Ti-6Al-4V is strongly linked to the active slip systems family (prismatic, basal or pyramidal). The crystallographic texture determines which family of slip systems can be activated; therefore it gives to the plastic strain a heterogeneous character thus an anisotropic macroscopic mechanical behavior. The average grains size influences also the Ti-6Al-4V mechanical proprieties, especially the yield stress; by decreasing of the average grains size, the yield strength increases according to Hall-Petch relationship. The grains sizes' distribution gives to the strain fields considerable heterogeneity. By increasing grain sizes, the scattering in the localization of plastic strain is observed, thus, in certain areas the stress concentrations are stronger than other regions.

Keywords: microstructural parameters, multi-scale modeling, crystal plasticity, Ti-6Al-4V alloy

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Authors: Jian Shao

Abstract:

The effect of entrepreneurship on economic, innovation, and employment has been widely acknowledged by scholars and governments. As an essential factor of influencing entrepreneurship activities, entrepreneurship policy creates a conducive environment to support and develop entrepreneurship. However, the challenge in developing entrepreneurship policy is that policy is normally a combination of many different goals and instruments. Instead of examining the effect of individual policy instruments, we argue that attention to a policy mix is necessary. In recent years, much attention has been focused on comparing a single policy instrument to a policy mix, evaluating the interactions between different instruments within a mix or assessment of particular policy mixes. However, another required step in understanding policy mixes is to understand how and why mixes evolve and change over time and to determine whether any changes are an improvement. In this paper, we try to trace the development of the policy mix for entrepreneurship in China by mapping the policy goals and instruments and reveal the process of policy mix changing over time. We find two main process mechanisms of the entrepreneurship policy mix in China: patching and stretching. Compared with policy repackaging, patching and stretching are more realistic processes in the real world of the policy mix, and they are possible to achieve effectiveness by avoiding conflicts and promoting synergies among policy goals and instruments.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, China, policy design, policy mix, policy patching

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