Search results for: life cycle based analysis

Authors: Maulik L. Sisodia, Tirth K. Raval, Aarsh S. Mistry

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This paper summarizes the ongoing researches about the defects in both flexible and rigid pavement and the maintenance in both flexible and rigid pavements. Various defects in pavements have been identified since the existence of both flexible and rigid pavement. Flexible Pavement failure is defined in terms of decreasing serviceability caused by the development of cracks, ruts, potholes etc. Flexible Pavement structure can be destroyed in a single season due to water penetration. Defects in flexible pavements is a problem of multiple dimensions, phenomenal growth of vehicular traffic (in terms of no. of axle loading of commercial vehicles), the rapid expansion in the road network, non-availability of suitable technology, material, equipment, skilled labor and poor funds allocation have all added complexities to the problem of flexible pavements. In rigid pavements due to different type of destress the failure like joint spalling, faulting, shrinkage cracking, punch out, corner break etc. Application of correction in the existing surface will enhance the life of maintenance works as well as that of strengthening layer. Maintenance of a road network involves a variety of operations, i.e., identification of deficiencies and planning, programming and scheduling for actual implementation in the field and monitoring. The essential objective should be to keep the road surface and appurtenances in good condition and to extend the life of the road assets to its design life. The paper describes lessons learnt from pavement failures and problems experienced during the last few years on a number of projects in India. Broadly, the activities include identification of defects and the possible cause there off, determination of appropriate remedial measures; implement these in the field and monitoring of the results.

Keywords: Flexible Pavements, Rigid Pavements, Defects, Maintenance

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Authors: E. Kharaishvili, G. Erkomaishvili, M. Chavleishvili

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The importance of agribusiness development is proved in accordance with the trends in the agricultural sector of Georgia. Agribusiness environment and the consequences of the agricultural reforms are evaluated. The factors hindering the development of agribusiness are revealed and the ways for overcoming these problems are suggested. SWOT analysis is done in order to identify the needs of agribusiness. The needs of agribusiness development in Georgia are evaluated by priorities: prevention of diseases and reduction of the harm caused by these diseases, accessibility of long-term agricultural loans with low interest rates, improving qualification of farmers, the level of education and usage of modern technologies, changes in legislation, accessibility to high quality agricultural machinery, and the development of infrastructure. Based on the outcomes of the research, agribusiness development strategies in Georgia are suggested and appropriate priorities of economic policy are determined. Conclusions are made and based on these conclusions, some recommendations are suggested.

Keywords: agribusiness development, agribusiness strategy, agribusiness in Georgia

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Authors: Mariamawit T. Belete

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Cereal production and marketing are the means of livelihood for millions of households in Ethiopia. However, cereal production is constrained by technical and socio-economic factors. Among the technical factors, cereal crop diseases are the major contributing factors to the low yield. The aim of this research is to develop an integration of data mining and knowledge based system for sorghum anthracnose disease diagnosis that assists agriculture experts and development agents to make timely decisions. Anthracnose diagnosing systems gather information from Melkassa agricultural research center and attempt to score anthracnose severity scale. Empirical research is designed for data exploration, modeling, and confirmatory procedures for testing hypothesis and prediction to draw a sound conclusion. WEKA (Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis) was employed for the modeling. Knowledge based system has come across a variety of approaches based on the knowledge representation method; case-based reasoning (CBR) is one of the popular approaches used in knowledge-based system. CBR is a problem solving strategy that uses previous cases to solve new problems. The system utilizes hidden knowledge extracted by employing clustering algorithms, specifically K-means clustering from sampled anthracnose dataset. Clustered cases with centroid value are mapped to jCOLIBRI, and then the integrator application is created using NetBeans with JDK 8.0.2. The important part of a case based reasoning model includes case retrieval; the similarity measuring stage, reuse; which allows domain expert to transfer retrieval case solution to suit for the current case, revise; to test the solution, and retain to store the confirmed solution to the case base for future use. Evaluation of the system was done for both system performance and user acceptance. For testing the prototype, seven test cases were used. Experimental result shows that the system achieves an average precision and recall values of 70% and 83%, respectively. User acceptance testing also performed by involving five domain experts, and an average of 83% acceptance is achieved. Although the result of this study is promising, however, further study should be done an investigation on hybrid approach such as rule based reasoning, and pictorial retrieval process are recommended.

Keywords: sorghum anthracnose, data mining, case based reasoning, integration

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Authors: D. Visuwan, B. Phruksaphanrat

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In this research, computer simulation is used for Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) plant layout analysis. The current layout of this manufacturing plant is a process layout, which is not suitable due to the nature of an EMS that has high-volume and high-variety environment. Moreover, quick response and high flexibility are also needed. Then, cellular manufacturing layout design was determined for the selected group of products. Systematic layout planning (SLP) was used to analyse and design the possible cellular layouts for the factory. The cellular layout was selected based on the main criteria of the plant. Computer simulation was used to analyse and compare the performance of the proposed cellular layout and the current layout. It is found that the proposed cellular layout can generate better performances than the current layout. In this research, computer simulation is used for Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) plant layout analysis. The current layout of this manufacturing plant is a process layout, which is not suitable due to the nature of an EMS that has high-volume and high-variety environment. Moreover, quick response and high flexibility are also needed. Then, cellular manufacturing layout design was determined for the selected group of products. Systematic layout planning (SLP) was used to analyse and design the possible cellular layouts for the factory. The cellular layout was selected based on the main criteria of the plant. Computer simulation was used to analyse and compare the performance of the proposed cellular layout and the current layout. It found that the proposed cellular layout can generate better performances than the current layout.

Keywords: layout, electronic manufacturing service plant, computer simulation, cellular manufacturing system

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Authors: Anshuman Srivastava, Shiv Singh, Sheelendra Pratap Singh

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A simple, sensitive and effective gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) method was developed for simultaneous analysis of multi pesticide residues (organophosphate, organochlorines, synthetic pyrethroids and herbicides) in food commodities using phenolic resin based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) as reversed-dispersive solid phase extraction (r-DSPE) sorbent in modified QuEChERS (Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged Safe) method. The acetonitrile-based QuEChERS technique was used for the extraction of the analytes from food matrices followed by sample cleanup with ACFs instead of traditionally used primary secondary amine (PSA). Different physico-chemical characterization techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller surface area analysis were employed to investigate the engineering and structural properties of ACFs. The recovery of pesticides and herbicides was tested at concentration levels of 0.02 and 0.2 mg/kg in different commodities such as cauliflower, cucumber, banana, apple, wheat and black gram. The recoveries of all twenty-six pesticides and herbicides were found in acceptable limit (70-120%) according to SANCO guideline with relative standard deviation value < 15%. The limit of detection and limit of quantification of the method was in the range of 0.38-3.69 ng/mL and 1.26 -12.19 ng/mL, respectively. In traditional QuEChERS method, PSA used as r-DSPE sorbent plays a vital role in sample clean-up process and demonstrates good recoveries for multiclass pesticides. This study reports that ACFs are better in terms of removal of co-extractives in comparison of PSA without compromising the recoveries of multi pesticides from food matrices. Further, ACF replaces the need of charcoal in addition to the PSA from traditional QuEChERS method which is used to remove pigments. The developed method will be cost effective because the ACFs are significantly cheaper than the PSA. So the proposed modified QuEChERS method is more robust, effective and has better sample cleanup efficiency for multiclass multi pesticide residues analysis in different food matrices such as vegetables, grains and fruits.

Keywords: QuEChERS, activated carbon fibers, primary secondary amine, pesticides, sample preparation, carbon nanomaterials

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Authors: Zia Ul Haq, Saleem Muhammad, Naeem Ullah, Abbas Shah, Abdullah Shah

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Pakistan being the developing country is facing double burden of communicable and non-communicable disease. The aspect of secondary prevention of ischemic heart disease in developing countries is the dire need for public health specialists, clinicians and policy makers. There is some evidence that psychotherapeutic measures, including psychotherapy, recreation, exercise and stress management training have positive impact on secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases but there are some contradictory findings as well. Cardiac rehabilitation program (CRP) has not yet fully implemented in Pakistan. Psychological, physical and specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes needs assessment with respect to its practicality, effectiveness, and success. Objectives: To determine the effect of cardiac rehabilitation program (CRP) on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures of post MI patients compared to the usual care. Hypothesis: Post MI patients who receive the interventions (CRP) will have better HRQoL as compared to those who receive the usual cares. Methods: The randomized control trial was conducted at a Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Peshawar. LRH is the biggest hospital of the Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). A total 206 participants who had recent first myocardial infarction were inducted in the study. Participants were randomly allocated into two group i.e. usual care group (UCG) and cardiac rehabilitation group (CRG) by permuted-block randomization (PBR) method. CRP was conducted in CRG in two phases. Three HRQoL outcomes i.e. general health questionnaire (GHQ), self-rated health (SRH) and MacNew quality of life after myocardial infarction (MacNew QLMI) were assessed at baseline and follow-up visits among both groups. Data were entered and analyzed by appropriate statistical test in STATA version 12. Results: A total of 195 participants were assessed at the follow-up period due to lost-to-follow-up. The mean age of the participants was 53.66 + 8.3 years. Males were dominant in both groups i.e. 150 (76.92%). Regarding educational status, majority of the participants were illiterate in both groups i.e. 128 (65.64%). Surprisingly, there were 139 (71.28%) who were non-smoker on the whole. The comorbid status was positive in 120 (61.54%) among all the patients. The SRH at follow-up among UCG and CRG was 4.06 (95% CI: 3.93, 4.19) and 2.36 (95% CI: 2.2, 2.52) respectively (p<0.001). GHQ at the follow-up of UCG and CRG was 20.91 (95% CI: 18.83, 21.97) and 7.43 (95% CI: 6.59, 8.27) respectively (p<0.001). The MacNew QLMI at follow-up of UCG and CRG was 3.82 (95% CI: 3.7, 3.94) and 5.62 (95% CI: 5.5, 5.74) respectively (p<0.001). All the HRQoL measures showed strongly significant improvement in the CRG at follow-up period. Conclusion: HRQOL improved in post MI patients after comprehensive CRP. Education of the patients and their supervision is needed when they are involved in their rehabilitation activities. It is concluded that establishing CRP in cardiac units, recruiting post-discharged MI patients and offering them CRP does not impose high costs and can result in significant improvement in HRQoL measures. Trial registration no: ACTRN12617000832370

Keywords: cardiovascular diseases, cardiac rehabilitation, health-related quality of life, HRQoL, myocardial infarction, quality of life, QoL, rehabilitation, randomized control trial

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Authors: Olusegun Oguntoke, Aramide Y. Tijani, Olayide R. Adetunji

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Environmental noise has become a major threat to the quality of human life, and it is generally more severe in cities. This study assessed the level of environmental noise, mapped the spatial pattern at different times of the day and examined the association with morbidity of auditory ailments in Abeokuta metropolis. The entire metropolis was divided into 80 cells (areas) of 1000 m by 1000 m; out of which 33 were randomly selected for noise levels assessment. Portable noise meter (AR824) was used to measure noise level, and Global Positioning System (Garmin GPS-72H) was employed to take the coordinates of the sample sites for mapping. Risk map of the noise levels was produced using Kriging interpolation techniques based on the spatial spread of measured noise values across the study area. Data on cases of hearing impairments were collected from four major hospitals in the city. Data collected from field measurements and medical records were subjected to descriptive (frequency and percentage) and inferential (mean, ANOVA and correlation) statistics using SPSS (version 20.0). ArcMap 10.1 was employed for spatial analysis and mapping. Results showed mean noise levels range at morning (42.4 ± 4.14 – 88.2 ± 15.1 dBA), afternoon (45.0 ± 6.72– 86.4 ± 12.5 dBA) and evening (51.0 ± 6.55–84.4 ± 5.19 dBA) across the study area. The interpolated maps identified Kuto, Okelowo, Isale-Igbein, and Sapon as high noise risk areas. These are the central business district and nucleus of Abeokuta metropolis where commercial activities, high traffic volume, and clustered buildings exist. The monitored noise levels varied significantly among the sampled areas in the morning, afternoon and evening (p < 0.05). A significant correlation was found between diagnosed cases of auditory ailments and noise levels measured in the morning (r=0.39 at p < 0.05). Common auditory ailments found across the metropolis included impaired hearing (25.8%), tinnitus (16.4%) and otitis (15.0%). The most affected age groups were between 11-30 years while the male gender had more cases of hearing impairments (51.2%) than the females. The study revealed that environmental noise levels exceeded the recommended standards in the morning, afternoon and evening in 60.6%, 61% and 72.7% of the sampled areas respectively. Summarily, environmental noise in the study area is high and contributes to the morbidity of auditory ailments. Areas identified as hot spots of noise pollution should be avoided in the location of noise sensitive activities while environmental noise monitoring should be included as part of the mandate of the regulatory agencies in Nigeria.

Keywords: noise pollution, associative analysis, auditory impairment, urban, human exposure

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Authors: Alcardo Alex Barakabitze, Tan Xiaoheng

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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a special case of Multi-Carrier Modulation (MCM) technique which transmits a stream of data over a number of lower data rate subcarriers. OFDM splits the total transmission bandwidth into a number of orthogonal and non-overlapping subcarriers and transmit the collection of bits called symbols in parallel using these subcarriers. This paper explores the Peak to Average Power Reduction (PAPR) using the Partial Transmit Sequence technique. We provide the distribution analysis and the basics of OFDM signals and then show how the PAPR increases as the number of subcarriers increases. We provide the performance analysis of CCDF and PAPR expressed in decibels through MATLAB simulations. The simulation results show that, in PTS technique, the performance of PAPR reduction in OFDM systems improves significantly as the number of sub-blocks increases. However, by keeping the same number of sub-blocks variation, oversampling factor and the number of OFDM blocks’ iteration for generating the CCDF, the OFDM systems with 128 subcarriers have an improved performance in PAPR reduction compared to OFDM systems with 256, 512 or >512 subcarriers.

Keywords: OFDM, peak to average power reduction (PAPR), bit error rate (BER), subcarriers, wireless communications

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Authors: Amna Abdalla Mohammed Khalid, Pietro Parisse, Silvia Onesti, Loredana Casalis

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Basic cellular processes as DNA replication are crucial to cell life. Understanding at the molecular level the mechanisms that govern DNA replication in proliferating cells is fundamental to understand disease connected to genomic instabilities, as a genetic disease and cancer. A key step for DNA replication to take place, is unwinding the DNA double helix and this carried out by proteins called helicases. The archaeal MCM (minichromosome maintenance) complex from Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus have being studied using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), imaging in air and liquid (Physiological environment). The accurate analysis of AFM topographic images allowed to understand the static conformations as well the interaction dynamic of MCM and DNA double helix in the present of ATP.

Keywords: DNA, protein-DNA interaction, MCM (mini chromosome manteinance) complex, atomic force microscopy (AFM)

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Authors: Mohamed Alimoussa, Alice Porebski, Nicolas Vandenbroucke, Rachid Oulad Haj Thami, Sana El Fkihi

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Color and texture are highly discriminant visual cues that provide an essential information in many types of images. Color texture representation and classification is therefore one of the most challenging problems in computer vision and image processing applications. Color textures can be represented in different color spaces by using multiple image descriptors which generate a high dimensional set of texture features. In order to reduce the dimensionality of the feature set, feature selection techniques can be used. The goal of feature selection is to find a relevant subset from an original feature space that can improve the accuracy and efficiency of a classification algorithm. Traditionally, feature selection is focused on removing irrelevant features, neglecting the possible redundancy between relevant ones. This is why some feature selection approaches prefer to use feature clustering analysis to aid and guide the search. These techniques can be divided into two categories. i) Feature clustering-based ranking algorithm uses feature clustering as an analysis that comes before feature ranking. Indeed, after dividing the feature set into groups, these approaches perform a feature ranking in order to select the most discriminant feature of each group. ii) Feature clustering-based subset search algorithms can use feature clustering following one of three strategies; as an initial step that comes before the search, binded and combined with the search or as the search alternative and replacement. In this paper, we propose a new feature clustering-based sequential selection approach for the purpose of color texture representation and classification. Our approach is a three step algorithm. First, irrelevant features are removed from the feature set thanks to a class-correlation measure. Then, introducing a new automatic feature clustering algorithm, the feature set is divided into several feature clusters. Finally, a sequential search algorithm, based on a filter model and a separability measure, builds a relevant and non redundant feature subset: at each step, a feature is selected and features of the same cluster are removed and thus not considered thereafter. This allows to significantly speed up the selection process since large number of redundant features are eliminated at each step. The proposed algorithm uses the clustering algorithm binded and combined with the search. Experiments using a combination of two well known texture descriptors, namely Haralick features extracted from Reduced Size Chromatic Co-occurence Matrices (RSCCMs) and features extracted from Local Binary patterns (LBP) image histograms, on five color texture data sets, Outex, NewBarktex, Parquet, Stex and USPtex demonstrate the efficiency of our method compared to seven of the state of the art methods in terms of accuracy and computation time.

Keywords: feature selection, color texture classification, feature clustering, color LBP, chromatic cooccurrence matrix

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Authors: Meenakshi Srivastava, A. K. Mishra

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This study characterizes the metabolic versatility of denitrifying bacterial communities residing in the paddy soil using the GC-MS based Phospholipid Fatty Acid (PLFA) analyses simultaneously with nosZ gene based PCR-DGGE (Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis) and real time Q-PCR analysis. We have analyzed the abundance of nitrous oxide reductase (nosZ) genes, which was subsequently related to soil PLFA profile and DGGE based denitrifier community structure. Soil denitrifying bacterial community comprised majority or dominance of Ochrobactrum sp. following Cupriavidus and uncultured bacteria strains in paddy soil of selected sites. Initially, we have analyzed the abundance of the nitrous oxide reductase gene (nosZ), which was found to be related with PLFA based lipid profile. Chandauli of Eastern UP, India represented greater amount of lipid content (C18-C20) and denitrifier’s diversity. This study suggests the positive co-relation between soil PLFA profiles, DGGE, and Q-PCR data. Thus, a close networking among metabolic abilities and taxonomic composition of soil microbial communities existed, and subsequently, such work at greater extent could be helpful in managing nutrient dynamics as well as microbial dynamics of paddy soil ecosystem.

Keywords: denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, DGGE, nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria, PLFA, Q-PCR

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Authors: Sohail Yasin, Massimo Curti, Nemeshwaree Behary, Giorgio Rovero

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It is well-known that the presence of discarded textile products in municipal landfills poses environmental problems due to leaching of chemical products from the textile to the environment. Incineration of such textiles is considered to be an efficient way to produce energy and reduce environmental impacts of textile materials at their end-of life stage. However, the presence of flame retardant products on textiles would decrease the energy yield and emit toxic gases during incineration stage. While some non-durable flame retardants can be removed by wet treatments (e.g. washing), these substances pollute water and pose concerns towards environmental health. Our study shows that infrared radiation can be used efficiently to degrade flame retardant products on the textiles. This method is finalized to minimize the decrease in energy yield during the incineration or gasification processes of flame retardant cotton fabrics.

Keywords: degradation, flame retardant, infrared radiation, cotton, incineration

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Authors: Yehjune Heo

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Fingerprint Anti-Spoofing approaches have been actively developed and applied in real-world applications. One of the main problems for Fingerprint Anti-Spoofing is not robust to unseen samples, especially in real-world scenarios. A possible solution will be to generate artificial, but realistic fingerprint samples and use them for training in order to achieve good generalization. This paper contains experimental and comparative results with currently popular GAN based methods and uses realistic synthesis of fingerprints in training in order to increase the performance. Among various GAN models, the most popular StyleGAN is used for the experiments. The CNN models were first trained with the dataset that did not contain generated fake images and the accuracy along with the mean average error rate were recorded. Then, the fake generated images (fake images of live fingerprints and fake images of spoof fingerprints) were each combined with the original images (real images of live fingerprints and real images of spoof fingerprints), and various CNN models were trained. The best performances for each CNN model, trained with the dataset of generated fake images and each time the accuracy and the mean average error rate, were recorded. We observe that current GAN based approaches need significant improvements for the Anti-Spoofing performance, although the overall quality of the synthesized fingerprints seems to be reasonable. We include the analysis of this performance degradation, especially with a small number of samples. In addition, we suggest several approaches towards improved generalization with a small number of samples, by focusing on what GAN based approaches should learn and should not learn.

Keywords: anti-spoofing, CNN, fingerprint recognition, GAN

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Authors: Billy Zou

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Statement of the Problem: The burden of mental illness and problem behaviors in adolescence has risen worldwide. While less than 50% of teens have access to traditional mental health care, more than 73% have smartphones. Internet-based interventions offer advantages such as cost-effectiveness, availability, and flexibility. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: A literature review was done using a PubMed search with the words mental health app yielding 2113 results. 103 articles that met inclusion criteria were reviewed, and findings were then described and synthesized. Findings: 1. Computer-based CBT was found to be effective for OCD, depression, social phobia, and panic disorder. 2. Web-based psychoeducation reduced problem behavior and improved parental well-being. 3. There is limited evidence for mobile-phone-based apps, but preliminary results suggest computer-based interventions are transferrable to mobile apps. 4. Adherence to app-based treatment was correlated with impressions about the user interface Conclusion & Significance: There is evidence for the effectiveness of computer-based programs in filling the significant gaps that currently exist in mental health delivery in the United States and internationally. There is also potential and theoretical validity for mobile-based apps to do the same, though more data is needed.

Keywords: children's mental health, mental health app, child and adolecent psychiatry, digital therapy

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Authors: Dejene Ermias Mekango, Mussie Alemayehu, Gebremedhin Berhe Gebregergs, Araya Abrha Medhanye, Gelila Goba

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Background: Maternal near miss (MNM) can be used as a proxy indicator of maternal mortality ratio. There is a huge gap in life time risk between Sub-Saharan Africa and developed countries. In Ethiopia, a significant number of women die each year from complications during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period. Besides, a few studies have been performed on MNM, and little is known regarding determinant factors. This study aims to identify determinants of MNM among women in Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia. Methods: a case-control study in hospital found in Tigray region, Ethiopia was conducted from January 30 - March 30, 2016. The sample included 103 cases and 205 controls recruited from women seeking obstetric care at six public hospitals. Clients having a life-threatening obstetric complication including haemorrhage, hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, dystocia, infections, and anemia or clinical signs of severe anemia in women without haemorrhage were taken as cases and those with normal obstetric outcomes were considered as controls. Cases were selected based on proportional to size allocation while systematic sampling was employed for controls. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Binary and multiple variable logistic regression (odds ratio) analyses were calculated with 95% CI. Results: The largest proportion of cases and controls was among the ages of20–29 years, accounting for37.9 %( 39) of cases and 31.7 %( 65) of controls. Roughly 90% of cases and controls were married. About two-thirds of controls and 45.6 %( 47) of cases had gestational age between 37-41 weeks. History of chronic medical conditions was reported in 55.3 %(57) of cases and 33.2%(68) of controls. Women with no formal education [AOR=3.2;95%CI:1.24, 8.12],being less than 16 years old at first pregnancy [AOR=2.5; 95%CI:1.12,5.63],induced labor[AOR=3; 95%CI:1.44, 6.17], history of Cesarean section (C-section) [AOR=4.6; 95%CI: 1.98, 7.61] or chronic medical disorder[AOR=3.5;95%CI:1.78, 6.93], and women who traveled more than 60 minutes before reaching their final place of care[AOR=2.8;95% CI: 1.19,6.35] all had higher odds of experiencing MNM. Conclusions: The Government of Ethiopia should continue its effort to address the lack of road and health facility access as well as education, which will help reduce MNM. Work should also be continued to educate women and providers about common predictors of MNM like the history of C-section, chronic illness, and teenage pregnancy. These efforts should be carried out at the facility, community, and individual levels. The targeted follow-up to women with a history of chronic disease and C-section could also be a practical way to reduce MNM.

Keywords: maternal near miss, severe obstetric hemorrhage, hypertensive disorder, c-section, Tigray, Ethiopia

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Authors: Obaid AlOtaibi, Salman Hussain

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Wind energy is associated with many geographical factors including wind speed, climate change, surface topography, environmental impacts, and several economic factors, most notably the advancement of wind technology and energy prices. It is the fastest-growing and least economically expensive method for generating electricity. Wind energy generation is directly related to the characteristics of spatial wind. Therefore, the feasibility study for the wind energy conversion system is based on the value of the energy obtained relative to the initial investment and the cost of operation and maintenance. In Kuwait, wind energy is an appropriate choice as a source of energy generation. It can be used in groundwater extraction in agricultural areas such as Al-Abdali in the north and Al-Wafra in the south, or in fresh and brackish groundwater fields or remote and isolated locations such as border areas and projects away from conventional power electricity services, to take advantage of alternative energy, reduce pollutants, and reduce energy production costs. The study covers the State of Kuwait with an exception of metropolitan area. Climatic data were attained through the readings of eight distributed monitoring stations affiliated with Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). The data were used to assess the daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual available wind energy accessible for utilization. The researchers applied the Suitability Model to analyze the study by using the ArcGIS program. It is a model of spatial analysis that compares more than one location based on grading weights to choose the most suitable one. The study criteria are: the average annual wind speed, land use, topography of land, distance from the main road networks, urban areas. According to the previous criteria, the four proposed locations to establish wind farm projects are selected based on the weights of the degree of suitability (excellent, good, average, and poor). The percentage of areas that represents the most suitable locations with an excellent rank (4) is 8% of Kuwait’s area. It is relatively distributed as follows: Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdeba, Al-Salmi (5.22%), Al-Abdali (1.22%), Umm al-Hayman (0.70%), North Wafra and Al-Shaqeeq (0.86%). The study recommends to decision-makers to consider the proposed location (No.1), (Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdaba, and Al-Salmi) as the most suitable location for future development of wind farms in Kuwait, this location is economically feasible.

Keywords: Kuwait, renewable energy, spatial analysis, wind energy

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Authors: Arjita Jhingran

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The pandemic was a turning point for flexible employment. In today’s market, employees prefer companies that provide the autonomy to change their work environment and are flexible. Post pandemic employees have become accustomed to modifying, re-designing, and re-aligning their work environment, task, and the way they interact with co-workers based on their preferences after working from home for a long time. In this scenario, the concept of job crafting has come to the forefront, and research on the subject has expanded, particularly during COVID-19. Managers who provide opportunities to craft the job are driving enhanced engagement and well-being. The current study will aim to examine the impact of job crafting on work engagement and psychological well-being among 385 working professionals, ranging in the age group of 21- 39 years. (M age=30 years). The study will also draw comparisons between freelancers and full-time employees, as freelancers have been considered to have more autonomy over their job. A comparison-based among MNC or startups will be studied; as for the majority of startups, autonomy is a primary motivator. Moreover, a difference based on the level of experience will also be observed, which will add to the body of knowledge. The data will be collected through Job Crafting Questionnaire, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, and Psychological Well-Being Scale. To infer the findings, correlation analysis will be used to study the relationship among variables, and a Three way ANOVA will be used to draw comparisons.

Keywords: job crafting, work engagement, well-being, freelancers, start-ups

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Authors: Thirasak Panyaphirawat, Pairoj Sapsmarnwong, Teeratas Pornyungyuen

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This paper presents the findings of an experimental investigation of important machining parameters for the horizontal boring tool modified to mouth with a horizontal lathe machine to bore an overlength workpiece. In order to verify a usability of a modified tool, design of experiment based on Taguchi method is performed. The parameters investigated are spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut and length of workpiece. Taguchi L9 orthogonal array is selected for four factors three level parameters in order to minimize surface roughness (Ra and Rz) of S45C steel tubes. Signal to noise ratio analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) is performed to study an effect of said parameters and to optimize the machine setting for best surface finish. The controlled factors with most effect are depth of cut, spindle speed, length of workpiece, and feed rate in order. The confirmation test is performed to test the optimal setting obtained from Taguchi method and the result is satisfactory.

Keywords: design of experiment, Taguchi design, optimization, analysis of variance, machining parameters, horizontal boring tool

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Authors: Mustarakh Gelfi, Poonam Taneja, Tiedo Vellinga, Delon Hamonangan

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The initial masterplan of New Priok in the Port of Tanjung Priok was developed in 2012 is being updated to cater to new developments and new demands. In the new masterplan (2017), Phase II of development will start from 2035-onwards, depending on the future conditions. This study is about creating a robust masterplan for Phase II, which will remain functional under future uncertainties. The methodology applied in this study is scenario-based planning in the framework of Adaptive Port Planning (APP). Scenario-based planning helps to open up the perspective of the future as a horizon of possibilities. The scenarios are built around two major uncertainties in a 2x2 matrix approach. The two major uncertainties for New Priok port are economics and sustainability awareness. The outcome is four plausible scenarios: Green Port, Business As Usual, Moderate Expansion, and No Expansion. Terminal needs in each scenario are analyzed through traffic analysis and identifying the key cargos and commodities. In conclusion, this study gives the wide perspective for Port of Tanjung Priok for the planning Phase II of the development. The port has to realize that uncertainties persevere and are very likely to influence the decision making as to the future layouts. Instead of ignoring uncertainty, the port needs to make the action plans to deal with these uncertainties.

Keywords: Indonesia Port, port's layout, port planning, scenario-based planning

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Authors: Tien S. H. Pham, Peter J. Mahon, Aimin Yu

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The detection of drug molecules by voltammetry has attracted great interest over the past years. However, many drug molecules exhibit poor electrochemical signals at common electrodes which result in low sensitivity in detection. An efficient way to overcome this problem is to modify electrodes with functional materials. Since discovered in 2004, graphene (or reduced graphene oxide) has emerged as one of the most studied two-dimensional carbon materials in condensed matter physics, electrochemistry, and so on due to its exceptional physicochemical properties. Additionally, the continuous development of technology has opened the new window for the successful fabrications of many novel graphene-based nanomaterials to serve in electrochemical analysis. This research aims to synthesize and characterize gold nanoparticle coated beta-cyclodextrin functionalized reduced graphene oxide (Au NP–β-CD–RGO) nanocomposites with highly conductive and strongly electro-catalytic properties as well as excellent supramolecular recognition abilities for the modification of electrodes. The electrochemical responses of ciprofloxacin at the as-prepared nanocomposite modified electrode was effectively amplified was much higher in comparison with that at the bare electrode. The linear concentration range was from 0.01 to 120 µM, with a detection limit of 2.7 nM using differential pulse voltammetry. Thus, Au NP–β-CD–RGO nanocomposite has great potential as an ideal material to construct sensitive sensors for the electrochemical determination of ciprofloxacin or similar antibacterial drugs in the future based on its excellent stability, selectivity, and reproducibility.

Keywords: Au nanoparticles, β-CD, ciprofloxacin, electrochemical determination, graphene based nanomaterials

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Authors: Akinola Ikudayisi, Josiah Adeyemo

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The correct estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ETₒ) is required for effective irrigation water resources planning and management. However, there are some variables that must be considered while estimating and modeling ETₒ. This study therefore determines the multivariate analysis of correlated variables involved in the estimation and modeling of ETₒ at Vaalharts irrigation scheme (VIS) in South Africa using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique. Weather and meteorological data between 1994 and 2014 were obtained both from South African Weather Service (SAWS) and Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in South Africa for this study. Average monthly data of minimum and maximum temperature (°C), rainfall (mm), relative humidity (%), and wind speed (m/s) were the inputs to the PCA-based model, while ETₒ is the output. PCA technique was adopted to extract the most important information from the dataset and also to analyze the relationship between the five variables and ETₒ. This is to determine the most significant variables affecting ETₒ estimation at VIS. From the model performances, two principal components with a variance of 82.7% were retained after the eigenvector extraction. The results of the two principal components were compared and the model output shows that minimum temperature, maximum temperature and windspeed are the most important variables in ETₒ estimation and modeling at VIS. In order words, ETₒ increases with temperature and windspeed. Other variables such as rainfall and relative humidity are less important and cannot be used to provide enough information about ETₒ estimation at VIS. The outcome of this study has helped to reduce input variable dimensionality from five to the three most significant variables in ETₒ modelling at VIS, South Africa.

Keywords: irrigation, principal component analysis, reference evapotranspiration, Vaalharts

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Authors: Hochan Seok, Woosik Jang, Seung-Heon Han

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The stagnant global construction market has intensified competition since 2008 among firms that aim to win overseas contracts. Against this backdrop, subcontractor selection is identified as one of the most critical success factors in overseas construction project. However, it is difficult to select qualified subcontractors due to the lack of evaluation standards and reliability. This study aims to identify the problems associated with existing subcontractor evaluations using a correlations analysis and a multiple regression analysis with pre-qualification and performance evaluation of 121 firms in six countries.

Keywords: subcontractor evaluation system, pre-qualification, performance evaluation, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis

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Authors: Ahmadreza Jabalameli, Mohammad Ebrahimpour Borujeni

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According to psychodynamic theories, the major personality structure of individuals is formed in the first years of life. Trauma is an inseparable and undeniable part of everyone's life and they inevitably struggle with many traumas that can have a very significant impact on their lives. The present study deals with the relationship between childhood trauma on the formation of defense mechanisms and the role of object relations. The present descriptive study is a correlation with structural equation modeling (SEM). Sample selection is available and consists of 200 knowledgeable traders in Jabalameli Information Technology Company. The results indicate that the experience of childhood trauma with a demographic moderating effect, through the mediating role of object relations can lead to vulnerability to ego reality functionality and immature and psychically disturbed defense mechanisms. In this regard, there is a significant negative relationship between childhood trauma and object relations with mature defense mechanisms.

Keywords: childhood trauma, defense mechanisms, object relations, trade

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Authors: Anar Koli

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After the Paris agreement in 2015, a comprehensive initiative both from the developed and developing countries towards the adaptation to climate change is emerging. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF), which is financing a global portfolio of adaptation projects and programs in over 124 countries is playing a significant role to a new financing framework that included the concept of “climate-resilient development”. However, both the adaptation and sustainable development paradigms remain continuously contested, especially the role of the multilateral institutions with their technical and financial assistance to the developing world. Focusing on the adaptation initiatives of the GEF, this study aims to understand to what extent the global multilateral institutions, particularly the GEF is contributing to the climate-resilient development. From the political ecology perspective, the argument of this study is that the global financial framework is highly politicized, and understanding the contribution of the global institutions of the global climate change needs to be related both from the response and causal perspectives. A holistic perspective, which includes the contribution of the GEF as a response to the climate change and as well the cause of global climate change, are needed to understand the broader environment- political economic relation. The study intends to make a critical analysis of the way in which the political economy structure and the environment are related along with the social and ecological implications. It does not provide a narrow description of institutional responses to climate change, rather it looks at how the global institutions are influencing the relationship of the global ecologies and economies. This study thus developed a framework combining the global governance and the political economy perspective. This framework includes environment-society relation, environment-political economy linkage, global institutions as the orchestra, and division between the North and the South. Through the analysis of the GEF as the orchestra of the global governance, this study helps to understand how GEF is coordinating the interactions between the North and the South and responding the global climate resilient development. Through the other components of the framework, the study explains how the role of the global institutions is related to the cause of the human induced global climate change. The study employs a case study based on both the quantitative and qualitative data. Along with the GEF reports and data sets, this study draws from an eclectic range of literature from a range of disciplines to explain the broader relation of the environment and political economy. Based on a case study on GEF, the study found that the GEF has positive contributions in bringing developing countries’ capacity in terms of sustainable development goal, local institutional development. However, through a critical holistic analysis, this study found that this contribution to the resilient development helps the developing countries to conform the fossil fuel based capitalist political economy. The global governance institution is contributing both to the pro market based environment society relation and, to the consequences of this relation.

Keywords: climate change adaptation, global environmental facility (GEF), political economy, the north -south relation

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Authors: K. Hardy, A. Maurushat

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Policy makers are increasingly looking to make evidence-based decisions. Evidence-based decisions have historically used rigorous methodologies of empirical studies by research institutes, as well as less reliable immediate survey/polls often with limited sample sizes. As we move into the era of Big Data analytics, policy makers are looking to different methodologies to deliver reliable empirics in real-time. The question is not why did these people do this for the last 10 years, but why are these people doing this now, and if the this is undesirable, and how can we have an impact to promote change immediately. Big data analytics rely heavily on government data that has been released in to the public domain. The open data movement promises greater productivity and more efficient delivery of services; however, Australian government agencies remain reluctant to release their data to the general public. This paper considers the barriers to releasing government data as open data, and how these barriers might be overcome.

Keywords: big data, open data, productivity, data governance

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Authors: Subhanan Mandal, Bidisha Hore

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The linguistic process whereby repetition of all or part of the base word with or without internal change before or after the base itself takes place is regarded as reduplication. The reduplicated morphological construction annotates with itself a new grammatical category and meaning. Reduplication is a very frequent and abundant phenomenon in the eastern Indian languages from the states of West Bengal and Odisha, i.e. Bengali and Odia respectively. Bengali, an Indo-Aryan language and a part of the Indo-European language family is one of the largest spoken languages in India and is the national language of Bangladesh. Despite this classification, Bengali has certain influences in terms of vocabulary and grammar due to its geographical proximity to Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic language speaking communities. Bengali along with Odia belonged to a single linguistic branch. But with time and gradual linguistic changes due to various factors, Odia was the first to break away and develop as a separate distinct language. However, less of contrasts and more of similarities still exist among these languages along the line of linguistics, leaving apart the script. This paper deals with the procedure of echo word formations in Bengali and Odia. The morphological research of the two languages concerning the field of reduplication reveals several linguistic processes. The revelation is based on the information elicited from native language speakers and also on the analysis of echo words found in discourse and conversational patterns. For the purpose of partial reduplication analysis, prefixed class and suffixed class word formations are taken into consideration which show specific rule based changes. For example, in suffixed class categorization, both consonant and vowel alterations are found, following the rules: i) CVx à tVX, ii) CVCV à CVCi. Further classifications were also found on sentential studies of both languages which revealed complete reduplication complexities while forming echo words where the head word lose its original meaning. Complexities based on onomatopoetic/phonetic imitation of natural phenomena and not according to any rule-based occurrences were also found. Taking these aspects into consideration which are very prevalent in both the languages, inferences are drawn from the study which bring out many similarities in both the languages in this area in spite of branching away from each other several years ago.

Keywords: consonant alteration, onomatopoetic, partial reduplication and complete reduplication, reduplication, vowel alteration

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Authors: Peng Li, Er-xiang Song

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Numerical analysis of longitudinal tunnel seismic response due to spatial variation of earthquake ground motion is an important issue that cannot be ignored in the design and safety evaluation of tunnel structures. In this paper, numerical methods for analysis of tunnel longitudinal response under asynchronous seismic wave is extensively studied, including the improvement of the 1D time-domain finite element method, three dimensional numerical simulation technique for the site asynchronous earthquake response as well as the 3-D soil-tunnel structure interaction analysis. The study outcome will be beneficial to aid further research on the nonlinear meticulous numerical analysis and seismic response mechanism of tunnel structures under asynchronous earthquake motion.

Keywords: asynchronous input, longitudinal seismic response, tunnel structure, numerical simulation, traveling wave effect

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Authors: Young-Taeg Kim, Gwang Ho Seo, Hyungju Oh, Ho Kyung Ha, Kuk Jin Kim

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Kim et al., hypothesized an increase in volume transport in the Korea Strait based on the concurrent increase in water temperature and mean sea level observed by the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency (KHOA) in the vicinity of the Korea Strait from 2000 to 2009. Since then, to our best knowledge, no definitive studies have been reported on the increase in volume transport through the Korea Strait, but the observed water temperature (2000-2021) and sea level (1989-2021) in the Korea Strait and East Sea have been found to be increasing. In particular, the rapid increase rate in the mean sea level rise (2.55~3.53 mm/y) in these areas cannot be explained by only steric effect due to the increased water temperature. It is more reasonable interpretation that the sea level rise is due to an increase in the volume transport of warm and salty currents. If the increase in the volume transport is explained by the geostrophic equation without considering the sea level rise in the Korea Strait, the current velocity should increase. However, up to now, there are no reports of an increase in current velocity from direct observations using ADCP (e.g., observations of Camellia) or from various numerical models. Therefore, the increase in volume transport cannot be explained by the geostrophic equation. Another possible explanation for the increase in the volume transport is the effect of wind. Although Korea is dominated by monsoon, it is affected by winds according to El Niño and La Niña, which have a cycle of about 3 to 4 years. During El Niño (La Niña), northerly winds (southerly winds) prevail in Korea. Consequently, it is inferred that the transported volume in the Korea Strait slowly increases interannually. However, in this study, it was difficult to find a clear correlation between annually-averaged mean sea level and El Niño (or La Niña) during 1989-2021. This is probably due to the interactions of the PDO (Pacific Decadal Oscillation) and AO (Arctic Oscillation) along with the ENSO (El niño-Southern Oscillation). However, it is clear that the interannual variability of winds is affecting the volume transport in the Korean Strait. On the other hand, the effect of global sea level rise on the volume transport in the Korea Strait is small compared to the interannual variability of the volume transport, but it seems to play a constant role.

Keywords: mean sea level, volume transport, El nino, La nina

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Authors: Wajiha Fatima

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Various approaches and methods for second language classroom teaching have been proposed since the nineteenth century. Task Based Language Teaching has been prevailing approach in a second language classroom context. It is an approach which immerses students in a naturalistic setting. Tasks are the core unit of planning and instruction. This paper aims at expounding the concept of Task Based Language Teaching and how it has been evolved. In this study, researcher will highlight the usefulness of TBLT and the role it played as a powerful tool for learning and teaching in a second language setting. The article will reflect the implementation of various tasks based activities as well as the roles played by learners and teachers and the problems faced by them. In the end, researcher will discuss how TBLT can be implemented in second language classroom pedagogy.

Keywords: implementation, second language classroom, tasks, task based language teaching

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Authors: Nadia Chagtmi, Nejla Rejab, Noureddine Boulejfen

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This paper presents a calibration approach based on artificial neural networks (ANN) to determine the envelop signal (I+jQ) of a six-port based receiver (SPR). The memory effects called also dynamic behavior and the nonlinearity brought by diode based power detector have been taken into consideration by the ANN. Experimental set-up has been performed to validate the efficiency of this method. The efficiency of this approach has been confirmed by the obtained results in terms of waveforms. Moreover, the obtained error vector magnitude (EVM) and the mean absolute error (MAE) have been calculated in order to confirm and to test the ANN’s performance to achieve I/Q recovery using the output voltage detected by the power based detector. The baseband signal has been recovered using ANN with EVMs no higher than 1 % and an MAE no higher than 17, 26 for the SPR excited different type of signals such QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and LTE (Long Term Evolution).

Keywords: six-port based receiver; calibration, nonlinearity, memory effect, artificial neural network

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