Search results for: chemistry class

Authors: Anup Anand Deshmukh, Catherine Soladie, Renaud Seguier

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Emotion plays a key role in many applications like healthcare, to gather patients’ emotional behavior. Unlike typical ASR (Automated Speech Recognition) problems which focus on 'what was said', it is equally important to understand 'how it was said.' There are certain emotions which are given more importance due to their effectiveness in understanding human feelings. In this paper, we propose an approach that models human stress from audio signals. The research challenge in speech emotion detection is finding the appropriate set of acoustic features corresponding to an emotion. Another difficulty lies in defining the very meaning of emotion and being able to categorize it in a precise manner. Supervised Machine Learning models, including state of the art Deep Learning classification methods, rely on the availability of clean and labelled data. One of the problems in affective computation is the limited amount of annotated data. The existing labelled emotions datasets are highly subjective to the perception of the annotator. We address the first issue of feature selection by exploiting the use of traditional MFCC (Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) features in Convolutional Neural Network. Our proposed Emo-CNN (Emotion-CNN) architecture treats speech representations in a manner similar to how CNN’s treat images in a vision problem. Our experiments show that Emo-CNN consistently and significantly outperforms the popular existing methods over multiple datasets. It achieves 90.2% categorical accuracy on the Emo-DB dataset. We claim that Emo-CNN is robust to speaker variations and environmental distortions. The proposed approach achieves 85.5% speaker-dependant categorical accuracy for SAVEE (Surrey Audio-Visual Expressed Emotion) dataset, beating the existing CNN based approach by 10.2%. To tackle the second problem of subjectivity in stress labels, we use Lovheim’s cube, which is a 3-dimensional projection of emotions. Monoamine neurotransmitters are a type of chemical messengers in the brain that transmits signals on perceiving emotions. The cube aims at explaining the relationship between these neurotransmitters and the positions of emotions in 3D space. The learnt emotion representations from the Emo-CNN are mapped to the cube using three component PCA (Principal Component Analysis) which is then used to model human stress. This proposed approach not only circumvents the need for labelled stress data but also complies with the psychological theory of emotions given by Lovheim’s cube. We believe that this work is the first step towards creating a connection between Artificial Intelligence and the chemistry of human emotions.

Keywords: deep learning, brain chemistry, emotion perception, Lovheim's cube

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Authors: Cecilia Boakye, Joseph Ghartey Ampiah

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In this study, we present a case study in which we explored how the 2007 science curriculum of the colleges of education in Ghana was implemented at W College of Education. Purposive sampling was used to select 13 participants, comprising 2 tutors and 6 teacher trainees from W College of Education and, 5 newly qualified Junior High School (JHS) science teachers who were products of W College. Interviews, observations and content analysis were used to collect data. Using the deductive and inductive analytic approaches, the findings showed that although upgraded laboratories have provided for teaching authentic science at W College of Education, they are rather used to accommodate large classes at the expense of practical activities. The teaching and learning methods used by the tutors do not mirror effectively the objectives of the 2007 science curriculum of the colleges of education. There are challenges such as: (a) lack/inadequate equipment and materials, (b) time constraint, and (c) an examination- oriented curriculum that influence the implementation of the curriculum. Some of the suggestions that were made are that: (a) equipment and materials should be supplied to the colleges to facilitate the proper implementation of the curriculum, and (b) class sizes should be reduced to provide enough room for practical activities.

Keywords: class size, teaching, curriculum implementation, examination-oriented curriculum, teaching and time-constraint

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Ilma Robo, Rialda Xhizdari, Kers Kapaj

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The stability of an ideal disinfectant should be constant regardless of the change in the atmospheric conditions of the environment where it is kept. If the conditions such as temperature or humidity change, it is understood that it will also be necessary to approach possible changes in the holding materials such as plastic or glass bottles with the aim of protecting, for example, the disinfectant from the excessive lighting of the environment, which can also be translated as an increase in the temperature of disinfectant as a fluid. Material and Methods: In this study, an attempt was made to find the most recent published data about the best possible combination of disinfectants indicated for use after dental procedures. This purpose of the study was realized by comparing the basic literature that is studied in the field of dentistry by students with the most published data in the literature of recent years about this topic. Each disinfectant is represented by a number called the disinfectant count, in which different factors can influence the increase or reduction of variables whose production remains a specific statistic for a specific disinfectant. Results: The changes in the atmospheric conditions where the disinfectant is deposited and stored in the environment are known to affect the stability of the disinfectant as a fluid; this fact is known and even cited in the leaflets accompanying the manufactured boxes of disinfectants. It is these cares, in the form of advice, which are based not only on the preservation of the disinfectant but also on the application in order to have the desired clinical result. Aldehydes have the highest constant among the types of disinfectants, followed by acids. The lowest value of the constant belongs to the class of glycols, the predecessors of which were the halogens, in which class there are some representatives with disinfection applications. The class of phenols and acids have almost the same intervals of constants. Conclusions: If the goal were to find the ideal disinfectant among the large variety of disinfectants produced, a good starting point would be to find something unchanging or a fixed, unchanging element on the basis of which the comparison can be made properties of different disinfectants. Precisely based on the results of this study, the role of the specific constant according to the specific disinfectant is highlighted. Finding an ideal disinfectant, like finding a medication or the ideal antibiotic, is an ongoing but unattainable goal.

Keywords: different disinfectants, ideal, specific constant, dental procedures

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Authors: Cristiane C. B. Alves, Livia Eisler, Gustavo Mota, Kurt Faltin Jr., Cristina L. F. Ortolani

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The correct positioning of the brackets is essential for the success of orthodontic treatment. Indirect bracket placing technique has the main objective of eliminating the positioning errors, which commonly occur in the technique of direct system of brackets. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that the exact positioning of the brackets is of extreme relevance for the success of the treatment. The present work shows a case report of an adult female patient who attended the clinic with the complaint of being in orthodontic treatment for more than 5 years without noticing any progress. As a result of the intra-oral clinical examination and documentation analysis, a class III malocclusion, an anterior open bite, and absence of all third molars and first upper and lower bilateral premolars were observed. For the treatment, the indirect bonding technique with self-ligating ceramic braces was applied. The preparation of the trays was done after the intraoral digital scanning and printing of models with a 3D printer. Brackets were positioned virtually, using a specialized software. After twelve months of treatment, correction of the malocclusion was observed, as well as the closing of the anterior open bite. It is concluded that the adequate and precise positioning of brackets is necessary for a successful treatment.

Keywords: anterior open-bite, CAD/CAM, orthodontics, malocclusion, angle class III

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Authors: Nicolae Pascu

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Aside from being a fundamental tool in Complex analysis, Schwarz Lemma-which was finalized in its most complete form at the beginning of the last century-generated an important area of research in various fields of mathematics, which continues to advance even today. We present some properties of analytic functions in the half-plane which satisfy the conditions of the classical Schwarz Lemma (Carathéodory functions) and obtain a generalization of the well-known Aleksandrov-Sobolev Lemma for analytic functions in the half-plane (the correspondent of Schwarz-Pick Lemma from the unit disk). Using this Schwarz-type lemma, we obtain a characterization for the entire class of Carathéodory functions, which might be of independent interest. We prove two monotonicity properties for Carathéodory functions that do not depend upon their normalization at infinity (the hydrodynamic normalization). The method is based on conformal mapping arguments for analytic functions in the half-plane satisfying appropriate conditions, in the spirit of Schwarz lemma. According to the research findings in this paper, our main results give estimates for the modulus and the argument for the entire class of Carathéodory functions. As applications, we give several extensions of Julia-Wolf-Carathéodory Lemma in a half-strip and show that our results are sharp.

Keywords: schwarz lemma, Julia-wolf-caratéodory lemma, analytic function, normalization condition, caratéodory function

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Authors: Khanday Pervaiz Ahmad

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It was in 19th century when the Indian educated class started to reform their socio-religious set up as an imperative to respond to the challenges put forward by the colonial empire. The colonial discourse on India from the very beginning was gendered, as the colonized society was feminized and its ‘effeminate’ character, as opposed to ‘colonial masculinity’ was held to be a justification for its loss of independence. The ‘women health figure’ is prominently in these gender discourses. The women’s health received a much place in the colonial discourse. Lack of health consciousness, illiteracy, and belief in myths, rituals and superstitions were deemed the main factors taken as an indicator of miserable condition of Indian women’s health. As the low position of women caused shame to the natives, reforming the condition of women, its health occupied a major place in their intellectual as well as activist engagements. Magazines (journals) for women began to appear in various Indian languages in the mid to late 19th century with Bengal leading the front. These sources (Magazines) like Harm, Tehzib un Niswan, Saheli, Khatoon etc. are essential for the study of the emergence of an ideology of respectable domesticity in Indian Muslim upper middle class. Similarly for the study of development of Women’s health consciousness, women’s magazines are very essential. These earliest women Urdu magazines were first started by men, and then followed by the women’s own magazines. Various health issues, like pregnancy, child-rearing, menstruation, midwives training, Pardah, and health etc. were discussed at a time when it was impossible to discuss them in public sphere. These women magazines were brave pioneers, expanding the frontiers of women’s roles, and consciousness at a time when those frontiers were severely limited. This paper will try to focus on how women responded to the question of colonial discourse about their bodies. How health consciousness developed among Indian Muslim women and in what way it contributed in the development of feminist consciousness in South Asian Muslim Women community.

Keywords: Ashraf class, khatoon, haram women, feminism

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Authors: JaeYoon Park

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The ability to communicate effectively across different cultures is a necessary skill in today’s increasingly globalized world. Intercultural communication competency (ICC) is a way of being that benefits all members of a society in their living, learning, and working environments as well as in the context of mediated communications. This study examines the effects of self-reflection processes on the improvement of intercultural communication skills focusing on college students at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. A total of sixty-nine students’ works were analyzed based on the data collected in the past three years (2016, 2017 and 2018). The students in the ‘Culture and Communication’ class, each spring, completed the Diversity Awareness Profile (DAP) survey as a pre- and post-test for the course. DAP is a self-assessment tool designed by Karen Stinson and widely used in college classes, companies, and organizations to evaluate an individual’s behaviors in various intercultural settings. It can assist individuals in becoming more aware of diversity issues and also provide a foundation for developing strategies for modifying any undesirable behavior they may discover in the assessment. In addition to the DAP surveys, the students also submitted self-reflection essays that discussed their own scores. The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith is a small regional university located in the Bible Belt of the United States. White, Christian, working-class students dominate its student population. The students, whose data were collected, were predominantly seniors in college majoring in either Media Communication or International Business. Approximately, 80% of the students increased their scores, and 42% of them moved forward to a new category. The findings also indicate that the students in the underrepresented groups (i.e., women, minority, and international students) show less change in their scores and behaviors than the rest of the students (i.e., white heterosexual male students). These findings, in most part, result from the fact that the underrepresented students were already aware of diversity and intercultural issues through their personal experiences before taking the class. The white heterosexual male students demonstrated the greatest improvements, judging from their DAP scores (pre- and post-tests) and self-reflection essays. Through the class assignments and discussions, which emphasized critical thinking and self-reflection, the latter group of students not only became more aware of the meaning of their own words and behaviors, but they were also able to develop greater proficiency in intercultural communication. This e-poster presentation will analyze the findings of this research data, and also discuss the pedagogical implications of such results.

Keywords: cross-cultural communication, diversity awareness survey, self-reflection, underrepresented students

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Authors: Jafar Akbari

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Quinolines are very important compounds partially because of their pharmacological properties which include wide applications in medicinal chemistry. notable among them are antimalarial drugs, anti-inflammatory agents, antiasthamatic, antibacterial, antihypertensive, and tyrosine kinase inhibiting agents. Despite quinoline usage in pharmaceutical and other industries, comparatively few methods for their preparation have been reported.The Friedlander annulation is one of the simplest and most straightforward methods for the synthesis of poly substituted quinolines. Although, modified methods employing lewis or br¢nsted acids have been reported for the synthesis of quinolines, the development of water stable acidic catalyst for quinoline synthesis is quite desirable. One of the most remarkable features of ionic liquids is that the yields can be optimized by changing the anions or the cations. Recently, sulfonic acid functionalized ionic liquids were used as solvent-catalyst for several organic reactions. We herein report the one pot domino approach for the synthesis of quinoline derivatives in Friedlander manner using TSIL as a catalyst. These ILs are miscible in water, and their homogeneous system is readily separated from the reaction product, combining advantages of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. In this reaction, the catalyst plays a dual role; it ensures an effective condensation and cyclization of 2-aminoaryl ketone with second carbonyl group and it also promotes the aromatization to the final product. Various types of quinolines from 2-aminoaryl ketones and β-ketoesters/ketones were prepared in 85-98% yields using the catalytic system of SO3-H functionalized ionic liquid/H2O. More importantly, the catalyst could be easily recycled for five times without loss of much activity.

Keywords: antimalarial drugs, green chemistry, ionic liquid, quinolines

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Authors: Hector Barrios-Piña, Georgia García-Arellano, Salvador García-Rodríguez, Gerardo Bocanegra-García, Shashi Kant

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This work shows the methodology of application and the effectiveness of the Flipped Learning technique for Civil Engineering laboratory classes. It was experimented by some of the professors of the Department of Civil Engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey while teaching their laboratory classes. A total of 28 videos were created. The videos primarily demonstrate instructions of the experimental practices other than the usage of tools and materials. The technique allowed the students to prepare for their classes in advance. A survey was conducted on the participating professors and students (semester of August-December 2019) to quantify the effectiveness of the Flipped Learning technique. The students reported it as an excellent way of improving their learning aptitude, including self-learning whereas, the professors felt it as an efficient technique for optimizing their class session, which also provided an extra slot for class-interaction. A comparison of grades was analyzed between the students of the traditional classes and with Flipped Learning. It did not distinguish the benefits of Flipped Learning. However, the positive responses from the students and the professors provide an impetus for continuing and promoting the Flipped Learning technique in future classes.

Keywords: flipped learning, laboratory classes, civil engineering, competences development

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Authors: Daniel M. Wolff, Patricia Gray, Rafael de la Parra Venegas

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An unsupervised machine listening system is constructed and applied to a dataset of 17,195 30-second marine hydrophone recordings. The system is then heuristically supplemented with anecdotal listening, contextual recording information, and supervised learning techniques to reduce the number of false positives. Features for classification are assembled by extracting the following data from each of the audio files: the spectral centroid, root-mean-squared values for each frequency band of a 10-octave filter bank, and mel-frequency cepstral coefficients in 5-second frames. In this way both time- and frequency-domain information are contained in the features to be passed to a clustering algorithm. Classification is performed using the k-means algorithm and then a k-nearest neighbors search. Different values of k are experimented with, in addition to different combinations of the available feature sets. Hypothesized class labels are 'primarily anthrophony' and 'primarily biophony', where the best class result conforming to the former label has 104 members after heuristic pruning. This demonstrates how a large audio dataset has been made more tractable with machine learning techniques, forming the foundation of a framework designed to acoustically monitor and gauge biological and anthropogenic activity in a marine environment.

Keywords: anthrophony, hydrophone, k-means, machine learning

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Authors: Haiyan Huang, Jan Blommaert, Ellen Van Praet

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The embrace of neoliberal economic system in China has engendered the entry of global commodity capitalism into domestic Chinese market and ushered in the post-feminism that is closely associated with consumerism from western culture. Chinese women are instilled and thus hold the belief of empowering themselves and expressing their individualism through consumption. To unravel the consumerist ideologies embedded in Li’s discursive practices, we rely on critical discourse analysis (CDA) as our research framework. The data analyses suggest that cosmopolitanism and class are two repeating themes when Li engages in persuading consumerist behaviors from the female audience. Through hints and cues such as “going on business trips”, “traveling abroad”, “international brands” and among others, Li provides the access to and possibility of imagining cosmopolitan and middle class identity for his audience. Such yearning for western culture and global citizen identity also implicates the aspiration for a well-off socioeconomic status, proving that post-feminism in China not only embodies western consumerism but also implicates the struggle of class movement. These defining elements of choice and freedom are well-situated in contemporary Chinese society where women are enjoying more educational and economic independence than before. However a closer examination reveals conflicts between hegemonic discourse of post-feminism and the status quo. First, propagating women’s power through consumption obscure the entrenched gender inequality in China. Philosophies such as employment discrimination, equal payment, education right, etc., the cornerstones of feminism did not exist in China, leading to historical gender issues unsolved. Second, the lengthy broadcastings (which normally last more than 2 hours) featured with big discounts on products beg the question who are the real audience of ecommerce livestreaming. Seemingly addressing to young well-off Chinese females, Li’s discursive practice can be targeting at young but not wealthy girls who aspire to mimic the lifestyle of middle class women. By selling the idea of empowering and constructing identity through consuming beauty products (e.g., lipsticks), capitalists are endeavoring to create the post-feminism illusion and cause anxieties among Chinese females. Through in-depth analyses of hegemonic discourse on ecommerce livestreaming of lipsticks, the paper contributes to a better understanding of post-feminism in contemporary China and meanwhile illustrates the problems Chinese women face in securing power and equality.

Keywords: Chinese women, critical discourse analysis, ecommerce livestreaming, post-feminism

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Authors: Muhammad Saeed, Sun Chao

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L-theanine is water soluble non-proteinous amino acid found in green tea leaves. Despite the availability of abundant literature on green tea, studies on the use of L-theanine as an additive in animals especially broilers are scanty. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of different dietary levels of L-theanine on growth performance, meat quality, growth, immune response and blood chemistry in broilers. A total of 400 day-old chicks were randomly divided into four treatment groups (A, B, C, and D) using a complete randomized design. Treatments were as follows: A; control (basal diet), B; basal diet+100 mg L-theanine / kg diet, C; basal diet+ 200 mg L-theanine / kg diet, and D; basal diet+ 300 mg L-theanine / kg diet. Results revealed that intermediate level of L-theanine (200 mg/ kg diet, group C) showed better results in terms of BWG, FC, and FCR compared with control and other L-theanine levels. The live weight eviscerated weight and gizzard weight was higher in all L-theanine levels as compared to that of the control group. The heaviest (P > 0.05) spleen and bursa were found in group C (200 mg L-theanine / kg diet). Analysis of meat colors according to yellowness (b*), redness (a*), and lightness (L*) showed significantly higher values of a* and b* in L-theanine groups. Supplementing broiler diet with L-theanine minimized (P=0.02) total cholesterol contents in serum. Further analysis revealed , lower mRNA expression of TNF-α and IL-6 in thymus and IFN- γ and IL-2 in spleen was observed in L-theanine group It is concluded that supplementation of L-theanine at 200mg/kg diet showed better results in terms of performance and it could be utilized as a natural feed additive alternative to antibiotics to improve overall performance of broilers. Increasing the levels up to 300 mg L-theanine /kg diet may has deleterious effects on performance and other health aspects.

Keywords: blood chemistry, broilers growth, L-theanine, meat quality

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Authors: Diane Prorak, Perri Moreno

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University students may have been born in the digital age, but they need to be taught the critical thinking skills to detect misinformation and social media manipulation online. In recent years, librarians have been active in designing instructional methods to help students learn information evaluation skills. At the University of Idaho Library (USA), librarians have developed new teaching methods for these skills. Last academic year, when classes were taught via Zoom, librarians taught these skills to an online session of each first-year rhetoric and composition course. In the Zoom sessions, students were placed in breakout groups where they practiced using an evaluation method known as lateral reading. Online collaborative software was used to give each group an evaluative task and break the task into steps. Groups reported back to the full class. Students learned to look at an information source, then search outside the source to find information about the organization, publisher or author, before evaluating the source itself. Class level pre-and post-test comparison results showed students learned better techniques for evaluation than they knew before instruction.

Keywords: critical thinking, information evaluation, information literacy instruction, lateral reading.

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Authors: Yong-Hui Zheng

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Viruses hijack host machineries to propagate and spread, which disrupts cellular homeostasis and activates various counteractive mechanisms. Infection of enveloped viruses is dependent on their fusion proteins, which bind to viral receptors to allow virus entry into cells. Fusion proteins are glycoproteins and expressed in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by hijacking the secretory pathway. Previously, we reported that Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV)-glycoprotein (GP) expression induces ER stress, and EBOV-GP is targeted by the calnexin cycle to macro-ER-phagy for degradation. We now report that expression of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2/SARS2)-spike (S) protein also causes ER stress, and its expression is strongly downregulated by mannosidase alpha class 1B member 1 (MAN1B1), a class I α-mannosidase from the ER. MAN1B1 co-localizes with SARS2-S in the ER, and its downregulation of SARS2-S is blocked by inhibitors targeting lysosomes and autophagy, but not proteasomes, indicating SARS2-S degradation by autolysosomes. Notably, the SARS2-S degradation does not require the core autophagy machinery including ATG3, ATG5, ATG7, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase catalytic subunit type 3 (PI3KC3)/vacuolar protein sorting 34 (VPS34), and instead, it requires Beclin 1 (BECN1), a core component in the PI3KC3 complex. In addition, MAN1B1 does not trigger SARS2-S polyubiquitination, and consistently, the SARS2-S degradation does not require the autophagy receptor sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1)/p62. MAN1B1 also downregulates EBOV-GP similarly, but this degradation does not require BECN1. Collectively, we conclude that MAN1B1 downregulates viral fusions by micro-ER-phagy, and importantly, we have identified BECN1-dependent and BECN1-independent mechanisms for micro-ER-phagy.

Keywords: Micro-ER-phagy, reticulophagy, fusion proteins, ER stress

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Authors: V. De Sandi

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In this paper, we characterize a class of rank-weighted social welfare orderings that we call ”Excessivist.” The Excessivist Social Welfare Ordering (eSWO) judges incomes above a fixed threshold θ as detrimental to society. To accomplish this, the identification of a richness or affluence line is necessary. We employ a fixed, exogenous line of excess. We define an eSWF in the form of a weighted sum of individual’s income. This requires introducing n+1 vectors of weights, one for all possible numbers of individuals below the threshold. To do this, the paper introduces a slight modification of the class of rank weighted class of social welfare function. Indeed, in our excessivist social welfare ordering, we allow the weights to be both positive (for individuals below the line) and negative (for individuals above). Then, we introduce ethical concerns through an axiomatic approach. The following axioms are required: continuity above and below the threshold (Ca, Cb), anonymity (A), absolute aversion to excessive richness (AER), pigou dalton positive weights preserving transfer (PDwpT), sign rank preserving full comparability (SwpFC) and strong pareto below the threshold (SPb). Ca, Cb requires that small changes in two income distributions above and below θ do not lead to changes in their ordering. AER suggests that if two distributions are identical in any respect but for one individual above the threshold, who is richer in the first, then the second should be preferred by society. This means that we do not care about the waste of resources above the threshold; the priority is the reduction of excessive income. According to PDwpT, a transfer from a better-off individual to a worse-off individual despite their relative position to the threshold, without reversing their ranks, leads to an improved distribution if the number of individuals below the threshold is the same after the transfer or the number of individuals below the threshold has increased. SPb holds only for individuals below the threshold. The weakening of strong pareto and our ethics need to be justified; we support them through the notion of comparative egalitarianism and income as a source of power. SwpFC is necessary to ensure that, following a positive affine transformation, an individual does not become excessively rich in only one distribution, thereby reversing the ordering of the distributions. Given the axioms above, we can characterize the class of the eSWO, getting the following result through a proof by contradiction and exhaustion: Theorem 1. A social welfare ordering satisfies the axioms of continuity above and below the threshold, anonymity, sign rank preserving full comparability, aversion to excessive richness, Pigou Dalton positive weight preserving transfer, and strong pareto below the threshold, if and only if it is an Excessivist-social welfare ordering. A discussion about the implementation of different threshold lines reviewing the primary contributions in this field follows. What the commonly implemented social welfare functions have been overlooking is the concern for extreme richness at the top. The characterization of Excessivist Social Welfare Ordering, given the axioms above, aims to fill this gap.

Keywords: comparative egalitarianism, excess income, inequality aversion, social welfare ordering

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Authors: Veronica Botero, Karen Ortiz

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The Faculty of Mines, of the National University of Colombia, Medellín Campus, is a faculty that has 136 years of history and represents one of the most important study centers in the country in the field of engineering and scientific research, as well as a reference at a global, national, and Latin American level in this matter. Despite being a faculty with so many years of history and having trained a large number of graduates under the traditional mechanistic and androcentric paradigm, which reproduces the logic of the traditional scientific method and the differentiated and severe look between subject-object of research among other binarisms, has also been the place where professors and students have become aware of the need to transform this paradigm into engineering, and focus on the sustainability of diversity and the well-being of the natural and social systems that inhabit the territories and has opened possibilities for the implementation of classes that address feminist pedagogical theories and practices. The class: The return of the witches, is an initiative that constitutes an important training exercise that provides students with the study of feminisms, the importance of closing gender gaps and critical readings on the traditional paradigm of engineering. The objective of this article is to present a systematization of the experience of design, implementation and development of this elective class, describing the tensions that arose at the time when a subject of this style was created and proposed in the Department of Geosciences and Environment, from the Faculty of Mines in 2022; the reactions of the groups of students who have taken it and their perceptions and opinions about ecofeminism as proposals for critical analysis and practices in relation to the environment and, above all, how their readings of the world have changed after having studied this subject for a semester. The pedagogical journey and the feminist methodologies that have been designed and adjusted over two years of work will be explained based on the sharing of situated knowledge of the students and the two teachers who teach the course, who pose challenges to the dominant ideology in engineering since one of them is trained in human sciences and feminist studies and the other, although trained in civil engineering and geosciences, is a woman with diverse sexual orientation and is the first professor to have assumed the position of dean in the 135 years of history of the Faculty. The transformations in the life experience of the students are revealing since they affirm that the training process is forceful and powerful to outline a much more qualified and critical professional profile that contributes to the transformation of gender gaps in the country. This class is therefore a challenge in this Faculty of Engineering that still presents a dominant ideology on gender that has not been questioned or challenged before.

Keywords: feminisms, gender equality, gender bias, engineering for life Manifiesto.

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Authors: Usama Mohamed, Sam Booth, Aliysn J. Nedoma

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As part of the transition to electric vehicles, there has been a recent increase in demand for battery manufacturing. Cathodes typically account for approximately 50% of the total lithium-ion battery cell cost and are a pivotal factor in determining the viability of new industrial infrastructure. Cathodes which offer lower costs whilst maintaining or increasing performance, such as nickel-rich layered cathodes, have a significant competitive advantage when scaling up the manufacturing process. This project evaluates the techno-economic value proposition of an integrated industrial scale cathode active material (CAM) production process, closing the mass and energy balances, and optimizing the operation conditions using a sensitivity analysis. This is done by developing a process model of a co-precipitation synthesis route using Aspen Plus software and validated based on experimental data. The mechanism chemistry and equilibrium conditions were established based on previous literature and HSC-Chemistry software. This is then followed by integrating the energy streams, adding waste recovery and treatment processes, as well as testing the effect of key parameters (temperature, pH, reaction time, etc.) on CAM production yield and emissions. Finally, an economic analysis estimating the fixed and variable costs (including capital expenditure, labor costs, raw materials, etc.) to calculate the cost of CAM ($/kg and $/kWh), total plant cost ($) and net present value (NPV). This work sets the foundational blueprint for future research into sustainable industrial scale processes for CAM manufacturing.

Keywords: cathodes, industrial production, nickel-rich layered cathodes, process modelling, techno-economic analysis

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Authors: Clifford Irikefe Gbeyonron

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Applied linguists concur that there is low-level achievement in English language use among Nigerian secondary school students. One of the factors that exacerbate this is classroom feature of which large class size is obvious. This study investigated the impact of large classes on learning English as a second language (ESL) at junior secondary school (JSS) in Yobe State. To achieve this, Solomon four-group experimental design was used. 382 subjects were divided into four groups and taught ESL for thirteen weeks. 356 subjects wrote the post-test. Data from the systematic observation and post-test were analyzed via chi square and ANOVA. Results indicated that learners in large classes (LLC) attain lower linguistic progress than learners in small classes (LSC). Furthermore, LSC have more chances to access teacher evaluation and participate actively in classroom discourse than LLC. In consequence, large classes have adverse effects on learning ESL in Yobe State. This is inimical to English language education given that each learner of ESL has their individual peculiarity within each class. It is recommended that strategies that prioritize individualization, grouping, use of language teaching aides, and theorization of innovative models in respect of large classes be considered.

Keywords: large classes, achievement, classroom discourse

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Authors: Fayyaz Rasool, Shakeela Parveen

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The studies on genetic diversity of Labeo rohita by using molecular markers were carried out to investigate the genetic structure by RAPAD marker and the levels of polymorphism and similarity amongst the different groups of five populations of wild and farmed types. The samples were collected from different five locations as representatives of wild and hatchery raised populations. RAPAD data for Jaccard’s coefficient by following the un-weighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) for Hierarchical Clustering of the similar groups on the basis of similarity amongst the genotypes and the dendrogram generated divided the randomly selected individuals of the five populations into three classes/clusters. The variance decomposition for the optimal classification values remained as 52.11% for within class variation, while 47.89% for the between class differences. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for grouping of the different genotypes from the different environmental conditions was done by Spearman Varimax rotation method for bi-plot generation of the co-occurrence of the same genotypes with similar genetic properties and specificity of different primers indicated clearly that the increase in the number of factors or components was correlated with the decrease in eigenvalues. The Kaiser Criterion based upon the eigenvalues greater than one, first two main factors accounted for 58.177% of cumulative variability.

Keywords: variation, clustering, PCA, wild, hatchery, RAPAD, Labeo rohita

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Authors: WooJin KANG

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Contrary to the ideal, in the cartelized democracy, meritocracy is revealed to be a system that gives arrogance to the winners and humiliation to the losers, and more and more studies are asserting the upper-class bias of meritocracy. However, only some studies have analyzed the determinants of the perception of meritocracy and fairness among young people. This article was an attempt to fill this gap. According to the empirical results of this article, the determinants of fairness of the meritocracy in the youth were multidimensional. The social status model, the political ideology model, and the future prospect model all significantly impacted the perception of meritocracy fairness among young people. Contrary to the predictions of the system justification theory and the compensatory control theory of previous studies, the lower-class youth were critical of meritocracy. In addition, the more negative the future outlook, the less they accepted the fairness of meritocracy. In addition, ideological debates over solutions to inequality of opportunity, which began in earnest during the 20th presidential election, turned out to be a variable that significantly influenced the perception of fairness based on meritocracy among young people. The results of the empirical analysis in this article reaffirmed the multidimensional structure of the youth. This suggests the need for policy responses leading to education tailored to various subgroups within the youth.

Keywords: Meritocracy, Exam-Meritocracy, Fairness, Multiple-inequality

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Authors: Emily Rabe, Stephanie Candelaria, Rachel Malone, Olivia Lenz, Greg Newbloom

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Electrodialysis (ED) is a well-developed technology for ion removal in a variety of applications. However, many industries generate harsh wastewater streams that are incompatible with traditional ion exchange membranes. Membrion® has developed novel ceramic-based ion exchange membranes (IEMs) offering several advantages over traditional polymer membranes: high performance in low pH, chemical resistance to oxidizers, and a rigid structure that minimizes swelling. These membranes are synthesized with our patented silane-based sol-gel techniques. The pore size, shape, and network structure are engineered through a molecular self-assembly process where thermodynamic driving forces are used to direct where and how pores form. Either cationic or anionic groups can be added within the membrane nanopore structure to create cation- and anion-exchange membranes. The ceramic IEMs are produced on a roll-to-roll manufacturing line with low-temperature processing. Membrane performance testing is conducted using in-house permselectivity, area-specific resistance, and ED stack testing setups. Ceramic-based IEMs show comparable performance to traditional IEMs and offer some unique advantages. Long exposure to highly acidic solutions has a negligible impact on ED performance. Additionally, we have observed stable performance in the presence of strong oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide. This stability is expected, as the ceramic backbone of these materials is already in a fully oxidized state. This data suggests ceramic membranes, made using sol-gel chemistry, could be an ideal solution for acidic and/or oxidizing wastewater streams from processes such as semiconductor manufacturing and mining.

Keywords: ion exchange, membrane, silane chemistry, nanostructure, wastewater

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Authors: Giovanni Menichini, Salvatore Giacomo Morano, Gloria Terenzi, Luca Salvatori, Maurizio Orlando

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The “Guidelines for Risk Classification, Safety Assessment, and Structural Health Monitoring of Existing Bridges” were recently approved by the Italian Government to define technical standards for managing the national network of existing bridges. These guidelines provide a framework for risk mitigation and safety assessment of bridges, which are essential elements of the built environment and form the basis for the operation of transport systems. Within the guideline framework, a workflow based on three main points was proposed: (1) risk-based, i.e., based on typical parameters of hazard, vulnerability, and exposure; (2) multi-level, i.e., including six assessment levels of increasing complexity; and (3) multirisk, i.e., assessing structural/foundational, seismic, hydrological, and landslide risks. The paper focuses on applying the Italian Guidelines to specific case studies, aiming to identify the parameters that predominantly influence the determination of the “class of attention”. The significance of each parameter is determined via sensitivity analysis. Additionally, recommendations for enhancing the process of assigning the class of attention are proposed.

Keywords: bridge safety assessment, Italian guidelines implementation, risk classification, structural health monitoring

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Authors: PB Venkataraman

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Most of the real-life problems are ill-structured. They do not have a single solution but many competing solutions. The solution paths are non-linear and ambiguous, and the problem definition itself is many times a challenge. Students of professional education learn to solve such problems through internships. The current pandemic situation has constrained on-site internship opportunities; thus the students have no option but to pursue this learning online. This research assessed the learning gain of four undergraduate students in engineering as they undertook an online internship in an organisation over a period of eight weeks. A clinical interview at the end of the internship provided the primary data to assess the team’s problem-solving skills using a tested rubric. In addition to this, change in their learning attitudes were assessed through a pre-post study using a repurposed CLASS instrument for Electrical Engineering. Analysis of CLASS data indicated a shift in the sophistication of their learning attitude. A learning engagement survey adopting a 6-point Likert scale showed active participation and motivation in learning. We hope this new research will stimulate educators to exploit online internships even beyond the time of pandemic as more and more business operations are transforming into virtual.

Keywords: ill-structured problems, learning attitudes, internship, assessment, student engagement

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Authors: Ben Clapperton, Daniel Stahl, Kimberley Goldsmith, Trudie Chalder

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Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a condition characterised by chronic disabling fatigue and other symptoms that currently can't be explained by any underlying medical condition. Although clinical trials support the effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), the success rate for individual patients is modest. Patients vary in their response and little is known which factors predict or moderate treatment outcomes. The aim of the project is to develop a prediction model from baseline characteristics of patients, such as demographics, clinical and psychological variables, which may predict likely treatment outcome and provide guidance for clinical decision making and help clinicians to recommend the best treatment. The project is aimed at identifying subgroups of patients with similar baseline characteristics that are predictive of treatment effects using modern cluster analyses and data mining machine learning algorithms. The characteristics of these groups will then be used to inform the types of individuals who benefit from a specific treatment. In addition, results will provide a better understanding of for whom the treatment works. The suitability of different clustering methods to identify subgroups and their response to different treatments of CFS patients is compared.

Keywords: chronic fatigue syndrome, latent class analysis, prediction modelling, self-organizing maps

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Authors: Maho Komura

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The purpose of this study was to determine from a questionnaire survey of teachers the status of implementation of individualized support for the pupils with suspected developmental disabilities in regular elementary school classes in Japan. In inclusive education, the goal is for all pupils to learn in the same place as much as possible by receiving the individualized support they need. However, in the Japanese school culture, strong "homogeneity" sometimes surfaces, and it is pointed out that it is difficult to provide individualized support from the viewpoint of formal equality. Therefore, we decided to conduct this study in order to examine whether there is a difference in the frequency of implementation depending on the content of individualized support and to consider the direction of future individualized support. The subjects of the survey were 196 public elementary school teachers who had been in charge of regular classes within the past five years. In the survey, individualized support was defined as individualized consideration including rational consideration, and did not include support for the entire class or all pupils enrolled in the class (e.g., reducing the amount of homework for pupils who have trouble learning, changing classroom rules, etc.). (e.g., reducing the amount of homework for pupils with learning difficulties, allowing pupils with behavioral concerns to use the library or infirmary when they are unstable). The respondents were asked to choose one answer from four options, ranging from "very much" to "not at all," regarding the degree to which they implemented the nine individual support items that were set up with reference to previous studies. As a result, it became clear that the majority of teachers had pupils with developmental disabilities or pupils who require consideration in terms of learning and behavior, and that the majority of teachers had experience in providing individualized support to these pupils. Investigating the content of the individualized support that had been implemented, it became clear that the frequency with which it was implemented varied depending on the individualized support. Individualized support that allowed pupils to perform the same learning tasks was implemented more frequently, but individualized support that allowed different learning tasks or use of places other than the classroom was implemented less frequently. It was suggested that flexible support methods tailored to each pupil may not have been considered.

Keywords: inclusive education, ndividualized support, regular class, elementary school

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Authors: Wu Hong, Pan Cuilian, Wu Panzifan

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The student’s attention during the class is one of the most important indicators for the learning evaluation; the level of attention is directly related to the results of primary education. In recent years, extensive research has been conducted across China on improving primary school students’ attention during class. During the specific teaching activities in primary school, students have the characteristics of short concentration periods, high probability of distraction, and difficulty in long-term immersive learning. In physical education teaching, where there are mostly outdoor activities, this characteristic is particularly prominent due to the large changes in the environment and the strong sense of freshness among students. It is imperative to overcome this characteristic in a targeted manner, improve the student’s experience in the course, and raise the degree of systematization. There are many ways to improve the systematization of teaching and learning, but most of them lack quantitative indicators, which makes it difficult to evaluate the improvements before and after changing the teaching methods. Based on the situation above, we use the case analysis method, combined with a literature review, to study the negative impact of low systematization levels in primary school physical education teaching, put forward targeted improvement suggestions, and make a quantitative evaluation of the method change.

Keywords: attention, adolescent, evaluation, systematism, training-method

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Authors: Ghada Salem, Nihal Kabel

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Objective: This in vitro study was carried out to assess the microleakage properties of nano-filled glass ionomer in comparison to resin-reinforced glass ionomers. Material and Methods: 40 deciduous molar teeth were included in this study. Class-II cavity was prepared in a standard form for all the specimens. The teeth were randomly distributed into two groups (20 per group) according to the restorative material used either nano-glass ionomer or Photac Fill glass ionomer restoration. All specimens were thermocycled for 1000 cycles between 5 and 55 °C. After that, the teeth were immersed in 2% methylene blue dye then sectioned and evaluated under a stereomicroscope. Microleakage was assessed using linear dye penetration and on a scale from zero to five. Results: Two way ANOVA test revealed a statistically significant lower degree of microleakage in both occlusal and gingival restorations (0.4±0.2), (0.9±0.1) for nano-filled glass ionomer group in comparison to resin modified glass ionomer (2.3±0.7), (2.4±0.5). No statistical difference was found between gingival and occlusal leakage regarding the effect of the measured site. Conclusion: Nano-filled glass ionomer shows superior sealing ability which enables this type of restoration to be used in minimum invasive treatment.

Keywords: microleakage, nanoionomer, resin-reinforced glass ionomer, proximal cavity preparation

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Authors: Musatafa Abbas Abbood Albadr, Masri Ayob, Sabrina Tiun, Fahad Taha Al-Dhief, Mohammad Kamrul Hasan

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Breast Cancer (BC) is considered one of the most frequent reasons of cancer death in women between 40 to 55 ages. The BC is diagnosed by using digital images of the FNA (Fine Needle Aspirate) for both benign and malignant tumors of the breast mass. Therefore, this work proposes the Online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (OSELM) algorithm for diagnosing BC by using the tumor features of the breast mass. The current work has used the Wisconsin Diagnosis Breast Cancer (WDBC) dataset, which contains 569 samples (i.e., 357 samples for benign class and 212 samples for malignant class). Further, numerous measurements of assessment were used in order to evaluate the proposed OSELM algorithm, such as specificity, precision, F-measure, accuracy, G-mean, MCC, and recall. According to the outcomes of the experiment, the highest performance of the proposed OSELM was accomplished with 97.66% accuracy, 98.39% recall, 95.31% precision, 97.25% specificity, 96.83% F-measure, 95.00% MCC, and 96.84% G-Mean. The proposed OSELM algorithm demonstrates promising results in diagnosing BC. Besides, the performance of the proposed OSELM algorithm was superior to all its comparatives with respect to the rate of classification.

Keywords: breast cancer, machine learning, online sequential extreme learning machine, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Nola Nahla Bacha

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Research has indicated that ESL/EFL (nonnative students of English) students have difficulty in reading at the university as often times the requirements are long texts in which both cultural and linguistic factors impede their understanding and thus their motivation. This is especially the case in literature courses. It is the author’s view that if readings are selected according to the students’ interests and linguistic level, related to life situations and coupled with film study they will not only be motivated to read, but they will find reading interesting and exciting. They will view novels, and thus literature, as a picture of life. Students will also widen their vocabulary repertoire and overcome many of their linguistic problems. This study describes the procedure used in in a 20th Century American Novel class at one English medium university in Lebanon and explores students’ views on the novels assigned and their recommendations. Findings indicate that students significantly like to read novels, contrary to what some faculty claim and view the inclusion of novels as helping them with expanding their vocabulary repertoire and learning about real life which helps them linguistically, pedagogically, and above all personally during their life in and out of the university. Annotated texts, pictures and film will be used through technological aids to show how the class was conducted and how the students’ interacted with the novels assigned. Implications for teaching reading in the classroom are made.

Keywords: language, literature, novels, reading, university teaching

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Authors: Sakshi Gupta, Seema Joshi

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Thiosemicarbazones (TSCs) have garnered significant attention in coordination chemistry due to their versatile coordination modes and pharmacological properties. Mixed ligand complexes of TSCs represent a promising area of research, offering enhanced antimicrobial activities compared to their parent compounds. This review provides an overview of the synthesis, characterization, and antimicrobial properties of mixed ligand complexes incorporating thiosemicarbazones. The synthesis of mixed ligand complexes typically involves the reaction of a metal salt with TSC ligands and additional ligands, such as nitrogen- or oxygen-based ligands. Various transition metals, including copper, nickel, and cobalt, have been employed to form mixed ligand complexes with TSCs. Characterization techniques such as spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, and elemental analysis are commonly utilized to confirm the structures of these complexes. One of the key advantages of mixed ligand complexes is their enhanced antimicrobial activity compared to pure TSC compounds. The synergistic effect between the TSC ligands and additional ligands contributes to increased efficacy, possibly through improved metal-ligand interactions or enhanced membrane permeability. Furthermore, mixed ligand complexes offer the potential for selective targeting of microbial species while minimizing toxicity to mammalian cells. This selectivity arises from the specific interactions between the metal center, TSC ligands, and biological targets within microbial cells. Such targeted antimicrobial activity is crucial for developing effective treatments with minimal side effects. Moreover, the versatility of mixed ligand complexes allows for the design of tailored antimicrobial agents with optimized properties. By varying the metal ion, TSC ligands, and additional ligands, researchers can fine-tune the physicochemical properties and biological activities of these complexes. This tunability opens avenues for the development of novel antimicrobial agents with improved efficacy and reduced resistance. In conclusion, mixed ligand complexes of thiosemicarbazones represent a promising class of compounds with potent antimicrobial activities. Further research in this field holds great potential for the development of novel therapeutic agents to combat microbial infections effectively.

Keywords: metal complex, thiosemicarbazones, mixed ligand, selective targeting, antimicrobial activity

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