Search results for: bridgestone world solar challenge

Authors: Richele P. Severino, Maria M. F. Alchaar, Lorena R. F. De Sousa, Patrik S. Vital, Ana G. Silva, Rosy I. M. A. Ribeiro

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Recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot, the Cerrado (Brazil) presents an extreme abundance of endemic species and it is considered to be one of the biologically richest tropical savanna regions in the world. Erythroxylum genus is found in Cerrado and chemically is characterized by the presence of tropane alkaloids, among them cocaine, a natural alkaloid produced by Erythroxylum coca Lam., which was used as a local anesthetic in small surgeries. However, cocaine gained notoriety due to its psychoactive activity in the Central Nervous System (CNS), becoming one of the major problems of public health today. Some species of Erythroxylum are referred to in the literature as having pharmacological potential, which provide alkaloids, terpenoids, and flavonoids. E. vacciniifolium Mart., commonly known as 'catuaba', is used as a central nervous system stimulant and has aphrodisiac properties and E. pelleterianum A. St.-Hil. in the treatment of stomach pains. Already E. myrsinites Mart. and E. suberosum A. St.-Hil. are used in the tannery industry. Species of Erythroxylum are also used in folk medicine for various diseases, against diabetes, antiviral, fungicidal, cytotoxicity, among others. The Cerrado is recognized as the richer savannah in the world in biodiversity but little explored from the chemical view. In our on-going study of the chemistry of Erythroxylum genus, we have investigated four specimens collected in central Cerrado of Brazil: E. campestre (EC), E. deciduum (ED), E. suberosum (ES) and E. tortuosum (ET). The cytotoxic activity of extracts was evaluated using HeLa cells, in vitro assays. The chemical investigation was performed preparing the extracts using n-hexane (H), dichloromethane (D), ethyl acetate (E) and methanol (M). The cells were treated with increasing concentrations of extracts (50, 75 and 100 μg/mL) diluted in DMSO (1%) and DMEM (0.5% FBS and 1% P/S). The IC₅₀ values were determined measured spectrophotometrically at 570 nm, after incubation of HeLa cell line for 48 hours using the MTT (SIGMA M5655), and calculated by nonlinear regression analysis using GraphPad Prism software. All the assays were done in triplicate and repeated at least two times. The cytotoxic assays showed some promising results with IC₅₀ values less than 100 μg/mL (ETD = 38.5 μg/mL; ETM = 92.3 μg/mL; ESM = 67.8 μg/mL; ECD = 24.0 μg/mL; ECM = 32.9; EDA = 44.2 μg/mL). The chemical profile study of ethyl acetate (E) and methanolic (M) extracts of E. tortuosum leaves was performed by LC-MS, and the structures of the compounds were determined by analysis of ¹H, HSQC and HMBC spectra, and confirmed by comparison with the literature data. The investigation led to six substances: α-amyrin, β-amyrin, campesterol, stigmastan-3,5-diene, β-sitosterol and 7,4’-di-O-methylquercetin-3-O-β-rutinoside, with flavonoid the major compound of extracts. By alkaline extraction of the methanolic extract, it was possible to identify three alkaloids: tropacocaine, cocaine and 6-methoxy-8-methyl-8-azabicyclo[3.2.1]octan-3-ol. The results obtained are important for the chemical knowledge of the Cerrado biodiversity and brought a contribution to the chemistry of Erythroxylum genus.

Keywords: cytotoxicity, Erythroxylum, chemical profile, secondary metabolites

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Authors: Oluwasegun A. Oke, Mayowa A. Abolaji, Oluwaseun A. Adefila

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Environmental problems have become a priority on the world political agenda for the last two decades and this is inevitably linked with the general degradation of our environment which calls for ultimate attention. Therefore, this study searched for better and more involving methods of imparting environmental knowledge to average learner with the view of creating awareness, increasing knowledge as well as changing their attitude positively towards conservation of the environment. The study also investigated the effectiveness of conservation club in creating awareness (among students) about environmental conservation. About 240 Students were randomly selected for data collection using validated instruments (questionnaires). T-test statistics, chi-square and simple percentage were the major statistical tools employed in data analysis. This study revealed that environmental conservation club plays a vital role in creating awareness as well as promoting students understanding of environmental issues to promote positive attitude towards natural environment.

Keywords: environmental conservation, biodiversity, awareness program, environmental disasters

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Authors: Clara Franch de la Cal, Christopher J Morris, Michael McArthur

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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder characterized by abnormal transport of chloride and sodium across the lung epithelium, leading to thick and viscous secretions. Within which CF patients suffer from repeated bacterial pulmonary infections, with Pseudomonas aeru-ginosa (PA) eliciting the greatest inflammatory response, causing an irreversible loss of lung func-tion that determines morbidity and mortality. The cell wall of PA is a permeability barrier to many antibacterials and the rise of Mutli-Drug Resistant strains (MDR) is eroding the efficacy of the few remaining clinical options. In addition when PA infection becomes established it forms an antibi-otic-resistant biofilm, embedded in which are slow growing cells that are refractive to drug treat-ment. Making the development of new antibacterials a major challenge. This work describes the development of new type of nanoparticulate oligonucleotide antibacterial capable of tackling PA infections, including MDR strains. It is being developed to both block growth and prevent biofilm formation. These oligonucleotide therapeutics, Transcription Factor Decoys (TFD), act on novel genomic targets by capturing key regulatory proteins to block essential bacterial genes and defeat infection. They have been successfully transfected into a wide range of pathogenic bacteria, both in vitro and in vivo, using a proprietary delivery technology. The surfactant used self-assembles with TFD to form a nanoparticle stable in biological fluids, which protects the TFD from degradation and preferentially transfects prokaryotic membranes. Key challenges are to adapt the nanoparticle so it is active against PA in the context of biofilms and to formulate it for administration by inhalation. This would allow the drug to be delivered to the respiratory tract, thereby achieving drug concentrations sufficient to eradicate the pathogenic organisms at the site of infection.

Keywords: antibacterials, transcriptional factor decoys (TFDs), pseudomonas aeruginosa

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Authors: África Vicario, Fernando J. Álvarez, Felipe Parralejo, Fernando Aranda

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The irrigation systems of traditional agriculture, such as gravity-fed irrigation, produce a great waste of water because, generally, there is no control over the amount of water supplied in relation to the water needed. The AIRON Project tries to solve this problem by implementing an IoT-based system to sensor the irrigation plots so that the state of the crops and the amount of water used for irrigation can be known remotely. The IoT system consists of a sensor network that measures the humidity of the soil, the weather conditions (temperature, relative humidity, wind and solar radiation) and the irrigation water flow. The communication between this network and a central gateway is conducted by means of long-range wireless communication that depends on the characteristics of the irrigation plot. The main objective of the AIRON project is to deploy an IoT sensor network in two different plots of the irrigation community of Aranjuez in the Spanish region of Madrid. The first plot is 2 km away from the central gateway, so LoRa has been used as the base communication technology. The problem with this plot is the absence of mains electric power, so devices with energy-saving modes have had to be used to maximize the external batteries' use time. An ESP32 SOC board with a LoRa module is employed in this case to gather data from the sensor network and send them to a gateway consisting of a Raspberry Pi with a LoRa hat. The second plot is located 18 km away from the gateway, a range that hampers the use of LoRa technology. In order to establish reliable communication in this case, the long-term evolution (LTE) standard is used, which makes it possible to reach much greater distances by using the cellular network. As mains electric power is available in this plot, a Raspberry Pi has been used instead of the ESP32 board to collect sensor data. All data received from the two plots are stored on a proprietary server located at the irrigation management company's headquarters. The analysis of these data by means of machine learning algorithms that are currently under development should allow a short-term prediction of the irrigation water demand that would significantly reduce the waste of this increasingly valuable natural resource. The major finding of this work is the real possibility of deploying a remote sensing system for irrigated plots by using Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) devices, easily scalable and adaptable to design requirements such as the distance to the control center or the availability of mains electrical power at the site.

Keywords: internet of things, irrigation water control, LoRa, LTE, smart farming

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Authors: Wahab Ali, Oyebade K. Oyedotun, Adnan Khashman

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Breast cancer remains a threat to the woman’s world in view of survival rates, it early diagnosis and mortality statistics. So far, research has shown that many survivors of breast cancer cases are in the ones with early diagnosis. Breast cancer is usually categorized into stages which indicates its severity and corresponding survival rates for patients. Investigations show that the farther into the stages before diagnosis the lesser the chance of survival; hence the early diagnosis of breast cancer becomes imperative, and consequently the application of novel technologies to achieving this. Over the year, mammograms have used in the diagnosis of breast cancer, but the inconclusive deductions made from such scans lead to either false negative cases where cancer patients may be left untreated or false positive where unnecessary biopsies are carried out. This paper presents the application of artificial neural networks in the prediction of severity of breast tumour (whether benign or malignant) using mammography reports and other factors that are related to breast cancer.

Keywords: breast cancer, intelligent classification, neural networks, mammography

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Authors: Muhammad Waiz, Rana Maruf Tahir, Fatima Javaid

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Technology in the recent times is available for everyone in the world that no one is left behind. After getting technology into our daily routine, there is a need to study the different factors regarding online shopping. This study examines the impact of online reviews, mobile shopping and computer literacy on online purchasing intention. The sample size was 200 from which 167 complete questionnaires were collected from students and employees of twin cities. SPSS programming software was used to analyze the impact of different factors on purchasing intention. The results of this study showed that those websites which have good ratings and have online shopping application will attract more customers towards them whereas the results showed that the computer literacy has no impact on online purchasing intention. Findings may help for those who want to increase their sales or to start a new online business. Future research, limitations, and implications are discussed.

Keywords: computer literacy, mobile shopping, online purchase intention, online reviews, theory of planned behavior

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Authors: Corrado Grassi, Achim Schröter, Yves Gloy, Thomas Gries

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Air jet weaving is the most productive, but also the most energy consuming weaving method. Increasing energy costs and environmental impact are constantly a challenge for the manufacturers of weaving machines. Current technological developments concern with low energy costs, low environmental impact, high productivity, and constant product quality. The high degree of energy consumption of the method can be ascribed to the high need of compressed air. An energy efficiency method is applied to the air jet weaving technology. Such method identifies and classifies the main relevant energy consumers and processes from the exergy point of view and it leads to the identification of energy efficiency potentials during the weft insertion process. Starting from the design phase, energy efficiency is considered as the central requirement to be satisfied. The initial phase of the method consists of an analysis of the state of the art of the main weft insertion components in order to point out a prioritization of the high demanding energy components and processes. The identified major components are investigated to reduce the high demand of energy of the weft insertion process. During the interaction of the flow field coming from the relay nozzles within the profiled reed, only a minor part of the stream is really accelerating the weft yarn, hence resulting in large energy inefficiency. Different tools such as FEM analysis, CFD simulation models and experimental analysis are used in order to design a more energy efficient design of the involved components in the filling insertion. A different concept for the metal strip of the profiled reed is developed. The developed metal strip allows a reduction of the machine energy consumption. Based on a parametric and aerodynamic study, the designed reed transmits higher values of the flow power to the filling yarn. The innovative reed fulfills both the requirement of raising energy efficiency and the compliance with the weaving constraints.

Keywords: air jet weaving, aerodynamic simulation, energy efficiency, experimental validation, weft insertion

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Authors: Y. Karbhari, A. Benamraoui, A. Fahmi Sheikh Hassan

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The study applies role theory to investigate the quality of the compliance review in Malaysia, which is perceived to have the most advanced Islamic banking governance framework in the Islamic world. Drawing from the questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews, our study reveals the existence of a well-established structure for compliance reviews which is found to be regulatory driven and contingent upon the level of commercial activity of individual Islamic bank’s. However, the compliance review process was found to be ceremonial and inadequately undertaken by some SBs with greater prominence placed on its advisory role. In particular, the study provides evidence of a lack of understanding on accounting issues when undertaking the compliance review. Problems in communication between SBs, board of directors and management were also reported to exist. Our findings raise concern over the quality and thus the credibility of the religious compliance assurance communicated in Islamic Banks annual reports.

Keywords: Islamic banks, religious compliance, Sharia board assurance, role theory

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Authors: Amani A. Saad, Ahmed A. El-Farag, El-Sayed A. Helali

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Cloud computing is an important and promising field in the recent decade. Cloud computing allows sharing resources, services and information among the people of the whole world. Although the advantages of using clouds are great, but there are many risks in a cloud. The data security is the most important and critical problem of cloud computing. In this research a new security model for cloud computing is proposed for ensuring secure communication system, hiding information from other users and saving the user's times. In this proposed model Blowfish encryption algorithm is used for exchanging information or data, and SHA-2 cryptographic hash algorithm is used for data integrity. For user authentication process a simple user-name and password is used, the password uses SHA-2 for one way encryption. The proposed system shows an improvement of the processing time of uploading and downloading files on the cloud in secure form.

Keywords: cloud computing, data security, SAAS, PAAS, IAAS, Blowfish

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Authors: M. Shahana

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Introduction: Leprosy (Hansens) is one of the major health problems in the developing countries. Sixty percent of the world leprosy cases are in India. According to the 2006 census India has about 54% of the total new cases detected globally. The National Leprosy Elimination Programme in 2012 has reported 9.7% of childhood leprosy. There are only few studies related to paediatric leprosy. Aim: To study the epidemiology and various clinical presentations of leprosy in the paediatric age group. Material and Methods: A 4-year prospective study was done in the out-patient department of dermatology in a tertiary care hospital. All the patients were screened for leprosy and children with a confirmed diagnosis of leprosy were taken up for the study. Results: Total of 321 cases of Hansens were recorded during this period out of which 41 were children. The male to female ratio was 2.72:1. A positive family history was found in 18%. Most of them presented with single hypopigmented hypoanesthetic patch. Conclusions: Children presented with more of Borderline tuberculoid type and reactions or deformities were less common.

Keywords: Hansens, hypoaneasthetic patch, leprosy, reactions

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Authors: Seyed Mehrdad Gholami

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Nowadays, using rail transport system (Metro) is increased in most cities of The world, so the need for safe and economical way of building tunnels and subway stations is felt more and more. One of the most commonly used methods for constructing underground structures in urban areas is NATM (New Austrian tunneling method). In this method, there are some key parameters such as excavation steps and cross-sectional area that have a significant effect on the surface settlement. Settlement is a very important control factor related to safe excavation. In this paper, Finite Element Method is used by Abaqus. R6 station of Tehran Metro Line 6 is built by NATM and the construction of that is studied and analyzed. Considering the outcomes obtained from numerical modeling and comparison with the results of the instrumentation and monitoring of field, finally, the excavation step of 1 meter and longitudinal distance of 14 meters between side drifts is suggested to achieve safe tunneling with allowable settlement.

Keywords: excavation step, NATM, numerical modeling, settlement.

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Authors: Georgios Samaras

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New media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter introduced the world to a new era of instant communication. An era where online interactions could replace a lot of offline actions. Technology can create a mediated environment in which participants can communicate (one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many) both synchronously and asynchronously and participate in reciprocal message exchanges. Currently, social networks are attracting similar academic attention to that of the internet after its mainstream implementation into public life. Websites and platforms are seen as the forefront of a new political change. There is a significant backdrop of previous methodologies employed to research the effects of social networks. New approaches are being developed to be able to adapt to the growth of social networks and the invention of new platforms. Golden Dawn was the first openly neo-Nazi party post World War II to win seats in the parliament of a European country. Its racist rhetoric and violent tactics on social networks were rewarded by their supporters, who in the face of Golden Dawn’s leaders saw a ‘new dawn’ in Greek politics. Mainstream media banned its leaders and members of the party indefinitely after Ilias Kasidiaris attacked Liana Kanelli, a member of the Greek Communist Party, on live television. This media ban was seen as a treasonous move by a significant percentage of voters, who believed that the system was desperately trying to censor Golden Dawn to favor mainstream parties. The shocking attack on live television received international coverage and while European countries were condemning this newly emerged neo-Nazi rhetoric, almost 7 percent of the Greek population rewarded Golden Dawn with 18 seats in the Greek parliament. Many seem to think that Golden Dawn mobilised its voters online and this approach played a significant role in spreading their message and appealing to wider audiences. No strict online censorship existed back in 2012 and although Golden Dawn was openly used neo-Nazi symbolism, it was allowed to use social networks without serious restrictions until 2017. This paper used qualitative methods to investigate Golden Dawn’s rise in social networks from 2012 to 2019. The focus of the content analysis was set on three social networking platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, while the existence of Golden Dawn’s website, which was used as a news sharing hub, was also taken into account. The content analysis included text and visual analyses that sampled content from their social networking pages to translate their political messaging through an ideological lens focused on extreme-right populism. The absence of hate speech regulations on social network platforms in 2012 allowed the free expression of those heavily ultranationalist and populist views, as they were employed by Golden Dawn in the Greek political scene. On YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the influence of their rhetoric was particularly strong. Official channels and MPs profiles were investigated to explore the messaging in-depth and understand its ideological elements.

Keywords: populism, far-right, social media, Greece, golden dawn

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Authors: Jianhua Wang, Ying Zhou, Han Guo

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Translation underwent culture turn for more than half a century, which brought translation and its studies beyond intra-texts. Different cultures in recent years have developed towards a translation turn, which made a great contribution to relocate national or local cultures being localized to become regional or global cultures. As China grows quickly economically integrating into the world, it becomes urgent to relate China’s story and disseminate the Chinese culture. Due to the weaknesses and drawbacks of different existing cultural translation theories for Chinese culture to go out, a new perspective on translation turn for the go-out of Chinese culture should be drawn to spread better and disseminate Chinese culture to other countries. Based on the existing cultural translation theories, the equivalence of ideology, style of the translator and agency of the support are proposed to draw a new perspective: an innovative poly-system theory for Chinese culture translation.

Keywords: cultural translation theory, Chinese culture, innovative poly system, global cultures

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Authors: Patricia Agboro

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The dominant strands of pedagogic ideas are often western in origin/orientation. This is the case because of the hegemony of the western world in global academia. For this reason, peculiarities and considerations of context are often swept to the margins as educational thinkers emphasize patently Eurocentric and one-size-fits-all solutions to the problems of effective teaching. This paper takes as a starting point the notion that pedagogy must be context specific and pragmatic in its application. It is from this perspective that it focuses on the challenges of teaching philosophy to students in the Nigerian tertiary institutions. Philosophy students in Nigeria usually come across philosophy for the first time at the tertiary level. This raises the problem of inadequate exposure. Beyond this, a substantial number of candidates are admitted into the philosophy program based on the Nigerian version of ‘affirmative action’ which is known as the quota system. This paper addresses the problems highlighted above and hosts of other issues as well as provides recommendations that can improve effectiveness of teaching philosophy at the university level.

Keywords: justice, quota system, pedagogy, federal character

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Authors: Darusalam, Jorish Hulstijn, Marijn Janssen

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Media has revealed a variety of corruption cases in the regional and local governments all over the world. Many governments pursued many anti-corruption reforms and have created a system of checks and balances. Three types of corruption are faced by citizens; administrative corruption, collusion and extortion. Accountability is one of the benchmarks for building transparent government. The public sector is required to report the results of the programs that have been implemented so that the citizen can judge whether the institution has been working such as economical, efficient and effective. Open Data is offering solutions for the implementation of good governance in organizations who want to be more transparent. In addition, Open Data can create transparency and accountability to the community. The objective of this paper is to build a framework of open data for accountability to combating corruption. This paper will investigate the relationship between open data, and accountability as part of anti-corruption initiatives. This research will investigate the impact of open data implementation on public organization.

Keywords: open data, accountability, anti-corruption, framework

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Authors: Ying Chern Yeoh, Mark J. Forshaw

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Although hypnosis has been widely endorsed in Europe since 1950s, it was still viewed as a typically new therapy in Asia. There are very little findings regarding hypnosis in Asian countries, especially in culturally diverse countries such as Malaysia. The knowledge of the beneficial effects of hypnosis was not widespread to the public, however knowledge of the negative effects was frequently being highlighted. Therefore, the acceptance of hypnosis as a new effective health treatment can be a challenge in Malaysia. Recognising Malaysian’s perception, belief and attitude towards hypnosis could increase the public awareness of hypnosis, which in turn will alter their misconception and increase acceptance of hypnosis as an effective therapy. Eight individuals (N = 8) from the general public with different background, ethnicity (Malays, Chinese and Indians) and religion (Islamic, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity, free-thinker) and two local experienced practitioners with minimum of five years experiences (N = 2) were being interviewed to determine their views, beliefs and level of acceptance towards hypnosis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed with pseudonyms and analyzed by using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The three emergent themes were illustrated under the captions of ‘traditional vs mainstream’, ‘myths vs truth’, and ‘dissemination and public awareness’. The finding suggested that individual knowledge and personal experience primarily influenced people’s level of acceptance towards hypnosis as a beneficial health treatment, rather than the diversity of cultural and religious background. Subsequent findings regarding hypnosis and the effort of promoting it will provide the society an opportunity to increase public education and health awareness. Several associations had started to advance its development by organizing conferences and setting up therapeutic centers. However, health promotion on hypnosis is yet to be conducted to raise public awareness of its beneficial effects. By requesting for hypnosis to be included as a subject in medical education and psychology curriculum and formatting it under Ministry of Health’s legislation body might enhance the knowledge of hypnosis for Malaysian as one of the health intervention in the future.

Keywords: awareness, hypnosis, intervention, Malaysian, promotion

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Authors: Pankaj Singh Rawat, Rajeew Kumar, Pradeep Ram, Priyanka Pandey

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Wheat is an important cereal crop for food security. Boosting the wheat production and productivity is the major challenge across the nation. Good quality of seed is required for maintaining optimum plant stand which ultimately increases grain yield. Ensuring a good germination is one of the key steps to ensure proper plant stand and moisture assurance during seed germination may help to speed up the germination. The tiny size of nanoparticles may help in entry of water into seed without disturbing their internal structure. Considering above, a laboratory experiment was conducted during 2012-13 at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India. The completely randomized design was used for statistical analysis. The experiment was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the appropriate concentration of nanoparticles for seed treatment was screened. In second phase seed soaking hours of nanoparticles for better seed germination were standardized. Wheat variety UP2526 was taken as test crop. Four nanoparticles (TiO₂, ZnO, nickel and chitosan) were taken for study. The crop germination studies were done in petri dishes and standard package and practices were used to raise the seedlings. The germination studies were done by following standard procedure. In first phase of the experiment, seeds were treated with 50 and 300 ppm of nanoparticles and control was also maintained for comparison. In the second phase of experiment, seeds were soaked for 4 hours, 6 hours and 8 hours with 50 ppm nanoparticles of TiO₂, ZnO, nickel and chitosan along with control treatment to identify the soaking time for better seed germination. Experiment revealed that the application of nanoparticles help to enhance seed germination. The study revealed that seed treatment with  nanoparticles at 50 ppm concentration increases root length, shoot length, seedling length, shoot dry weight, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index I and seedling vigour index II as compared to seed soaking at 300 ppm concentration. This experiment showed that seed soaking up to 4 hr was better as compared to 6 and 8 hrs. Seed soaking with nanoparticles specially TiO₂, ZnO, and chitosan proved to enhance germination and seedling growth indices of wheat crop.

Keywords: nanoparticles, seed germination, seed soaking, wheat

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Authors: Jessica Achebe, Susan Tighe

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The recent Canadian infrastructure report card reveals the unhealthy state of municipal infrastructure intensified challenged faced by municipalities to maintain adequate infrastructure performance thresholds and meet user’s required service levels. For a road agency, huge funding gap issue is inflated by growing concerns of the environmental repercussion of road construction, operation and maintenance activities. As the reduction of material consumption and greenhouse gas emission when maintain and rehabilitating road networks can achieve added benefits including improved life cycle performance of pavements, reduced climate change impacts and human health effect due to less air pollution, improved productivity due to optimal allocation of resources and reduced road user cost. Incorporating environmental sustainability measure into pavement management is solution widely cited and studied. However measuring the environmental performance of road network is still a far-fetched practice in road network management, more so an ostensive agency-wide environmental sustainability or sustainable maintenance specifications is missing. To address this challenge, this present research focuses on the environmental sustainability performance of network-level pavement management. The ultimate goal is to develop a framework to incorporate environmental sustainability in pavement management systems for network-level maintenance programming. In order to achieve this goal, this study reviewed previous studies that employed environmental performance measures, as well as the suitability of environmental performance indicators for the evaluation of the sustainability of network-level pavement maintenance strategies. Through an industry practice survey, this paper provides a brief forward regarding the pavement manager motivations and barriers to making more sustainable decisions, and data needed to support the network-level environmental sustainability. The trends in network-level sustainable pavement management are also presented, existing gaps are highlighted, and ideas are proposed for sustainable network-level pavement management.

Keywords: pavement management, sustainability, network-level evaluation, environment measures

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Authors: Dilip Gogoi

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This paper attempts to explore the notion of sovereign state system, its emergence and legitimization by the treaty of Westphalia, 1648 in Europe and examines how the very notion of sovereign state is subject to changes in the later part of the 20th century both politically and economically in the wake of globalisation. The paper firstly traces the tradition of Westphalian sovereign state system which influenced the dominant understanding about sovereign state system till mid 20th century. Secondly, it explores how the notion of sovereign nation state is subjected to change in the post World War II specially in the context of universal acceptance of human rights and right to intervene in internal affairs of a sovereign state to protect the same, the decolonization and legitimization of the principle of self determination and through the experience of European Integration. Thirdly, it analyses how globalisation drives certain fundamental changes and poses challenges to the sovereign state system. The concluding part of the paper argues that sovereign state system is relevant and will continue to be relevant although it needs to redefine its role in the changing global environment.

Keywords: Westphalia, sovereignty, nation-state system, intervention, globalisation

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Authors: Huang Gui

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There can be little doubt that our world is inexorably moving towards being execution-free. However, China is still on the way until now, in other words, China is still a retentionist state in the term of capital punishment but it is developing domestic criminal law toward that goal (eventual abolition of the capital punishment). The alternative sanction to capital punishment, which would be imposed on a criminal who should have been sentenced to death by law, is a substitute for execution and it should be provided with the basis of the present criminal punishment structure and with the premise of abolishing capital punishment or limiting its use. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to explore a substitute for capital punishment in China. For the criminal sanction system in China, the death penalty with suspension, naturally, is an execution, so it wouldn’t be the substitute; life sentences without parole is out of the tune with punishment policy that promoting correction and rehabilitation; life-imprisonment, which is one of the most severe punishment measure in the sanction system, should be a suitable substitute for executing but it needs to be improved, including the term of imprisonment, the commutation and parole conditions.

Keywords: alternative sanctions, capital punishment, life imprisonment, life imprisonment without parole, China

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Authors: Vedat Coskun, Fahri Soylemezgiller, Busra Ozdenizci, Kerem Ok

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In recent years, several smart card solutions for transportation services of cities with different technical infrastructures and business models has emerged considerably, which triggers new business and technical opportunities. In order to create a unique system, we present a novel, promising system called Multifunctional City Smart Card System to be used in all cities that provides transportation and loyalty services based on the MasterCard M/Chip Advance standards. The proposed system provides a unique solution for transportation services of large cities over the world, aiming to answer all transportation needs of citizens. In this paper, development of the Multifunctional City Smart Card System and system requirements are briefly described. Moreover, performance analysis results of M/Chip Advance Compatible Validators which is the system's most important component are presented.

Keywords: smart card, m/chip advance standard, city transportation, performance analysis

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Authors: Stephany Inalegwu

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Museums play a very critical role in understanding the cultural values and the history of any given society in Nigeria and the world at large. The role of Museums as an avenue through which artefacts are collected, preserved and exhibited cannot be over emphasized as they are now seen as not only with the above stated aims but also as a creator of employment and revenue generation if properly harnessed. Interestingly, despite its importance, museum studies have been limited to University curriculum alone causing a dearth of information for the younger generation up until they attain the University age. It is against this background that this paper carefully analyses the definitions of museums, the state of museums and museum studies in Nigeria today and the need to include its studies at all the levels of Education in Nigeria from the primary, to secondary and tertiary levels. It should reflect a study of all ages, as this is vital in the development of individuals. It concludes by harping on the need for a better appreciation of the Nigerian culture ranging from the famous Nok Terracotta, Benin Bronze works etc and its importance of museums as an avenue to display the rich Nigerian cultural heritage.

Keywords: culture, curriculum, education, museum

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Authors: Siddharth Rana

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As we know so far, there are 3 dimensions that we are capable of interpreting and perceiving, and there is a 4th dimension, called time, about which we don’t know much yet. We, as humans, live in the 4th dimension, not the 3rd. We travel 3 dimensionally but cannot yet travel 4 dimensionally; perhaps if we could, then visiting the past and the future would be like climbing a mountain or going down a road. So far, we humans are not even capable of imagining any higher dimensions than the three dimensions in which we can travel. We are the beings of the 4th dimension; we are the beings of time; that is why we can travel 3 dimensionally; however, if, say, there were beings of the 5th dimension, then they would easily be able to travel 4 dimensionally, i.e., they could travel in the 4th dimension as well. Beings of the 5th dimension can easily time travel. However, beings of the 4th dimension, like us, cannot time travel because we live in a 4-D world, traveling 3 dimensionally. That means to ever do time travel, we just need to go to a higher dimension and not only perceive it but also be able to travel in it. However, traveling to the past is not very possible, unlike traveling to the future. Even if traveling to the past were possible, it would be very unlikely that an event in the past would be changed. In this paper, some approaches are provided to define time, our movement in time to the future, some aspects of time travel using dimensions, and how we can perceive a higher dimension.

Keywords: time, dimensions, String theory, relativity

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Authors: Marwa Brahim, Nicolas Brosse, Nadia Boussetta, Nabil Grimi, Eugene Vorobiev

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Rapeseed plant is an established product in France which is mainly dedicated to oil production. However, the economic potential of residues from this industry (rapeseed hulls, rapeseed cake, rapeseed straw etc.), has not been fully exploited. Currently, only low-grade applications are found in the market. As a consequence, it was deemed of interest to develop a technological platform aiming to convert rapeseed residues into value- added products. Specifically, a focus is given on the conversion of rapeseed straw into valuable molecules (e.g. lignin, glucose). Existing pretreatment technologies have many drawbacks mainly the production of sugar degradation products that limit the effectiveness of saccharification and fermentation steps in the overall scheme of the lignocellulosic biorefinery. In addition, the viability of fractionation strategies is a challenge in an environmental context increasingly standardized. Hence, the need to find cleaner alternatives with comparable efficiency by implementing physical phenomena that could destabilize the structural integrity of biomass without necessarily using chemical solvents. To meet environmental standards increasingly stringent, the present work aims to study the new pretreatment strategies involving lower consumption of chemicals with an attenuation of the severity of the treatment. These strategies consist on coupling physical treatments either high voltage electrical discharges or ultrasounds to conventional chemical pretreatments (soda and organosolv). Ultrasounds treatment is based on the cavitation phenomenon, and high voltage electrical discharges cause an electrical breakdown accompanied by many secondary phenomena. The choice of process was based on a technological feasibility study taking into account the economic profitability of the whole chain after products valorization. Priority was given to sugars valorization into bioethanol and lignin sale.

Keywords: high voltage electrical discharges, organosolv, pretreatment strategies, rapeseed straw, soda, ultrasounds

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Authors: Ana Julia C. Kfouri

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A prerequisite of any building design is to provide security to the users, taking the climate and its physical and physical-geometrical variables into account. It is also important to highlight the relevance of the right material elements, which arise between the person and the agent, and must provide improved thermal comfort conditions and low environmental impact. Furthermore, technology is constantly advancing, as well as computational simulations for projects, and they should be used to develop sustainable building and to provide higher quality of life for its users. In relation to comfort, the more satisfied the building users are, the better their intellectual performance will be. Based on that, the study of thermal comfort in educational buildings is of relative relevance, since the thermal characteristics in these environments are of vital importance to all users. Moreover, educational buildings are large constructions and when they are poorly planned and executed they have negative impacts to the surrounding environment, as well as to the user satisfaction, throughout its whole life cycle. In this line of thought, to evaluate university classroom conditions, it was accomplished a detailed case study on the thermal comfort situation at Federal University of Parana (UFPR). The main goal of the study is to perform a thermal analysis in three classrooms at UFPR, in order to address the subjective and physical variables that influence thermal comfort inside the classroom. For the assessment of the subjective components, a questionnaire was applied in order to evaluate the reference for the local thermal conditions. Regarding the physical variables, it was carried out on-site measurements, which consist of performing measurements of air temperature and air humidity, both inside and outside the building, as well as meteorological variables, such as wind speed and direction, solar radiation and rainfall, collected from a weather station. Then, a computer simulation based on results from the EnergyPlus software to reproduce air temperature and air humidity values of the three classrooms studied was conducted. The EnergyPlus outputs were analyzed and compared with the on-site measurement results to be possible to come out with a conclusion related to the local thermal conditions. The methodological approach included in the study allowed a distinct perspective in an educational building to better understand the classroom thermal performance, as well as the reason of such behavior. Finally, the study induces a reflection about the importance of thermal comfort for educational buildings and propose thermal alternatives for future projects, as well as a discussion about the significant impact of using computer simulation on engineering solutions, in order to improve the thermal performance of UFPR’s buildings.

Keywords: computer simulation, educational buildings, EnergyPlus, humidity, temperature, thermal comfort

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Authors: Chalachew Gashu, Yoseph Kassa, Habtamu Geremew, Mengestie Mulugeta

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Background and Aims: Severe acute malnutrition remains a significant health challenge, particularly in low‐ and middle‐income countries. The aim of this study was to determine the survival time of under‐five children with severe acute malnutrition. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted at a hospital, focusing on under‐five children with severe acute malnutrition. The study included 322 inpatients admitted to the Chiro hospital in Chiro, Ethiopia, between September 2019 and August 2020, whose data was obtained from medical records. Survival functions were analyzed using Kaplan‒Meier plots and log‐rank tests. The survival time of severe acute malnutrition was further analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards model and Bayesian parametric survival models, employing integrated nested Laplace approximation methods. Results: Among the 322 patients, 118 (36.6%) died as a result of severe acute malnutrition. The estimated median survival time for inpatients was found to be 2 weeks. Model selection criteria favored the Bayesian Weibull accelerated failure time model, which demonstrated that age, body temperature, pulse rate, nasogastric (NG) tube usage, hypoglycemia, anemia, diarrhea, dehydration, malaria, and pneumonia significantly influenced the survival time of severe acute malnutrition. Conclusions: This study revealed that children below 24 months, those with altered body temperature and pulse rate, NG tube usage, hypoglycemia, and comorbidities such as anemia, diarrhea, dehydration, malaria, and pneumonia had a shorter survival time when affected by severe acute malnutrition under the age of five. To reduce the death rate of children under 5 years of age, it is necessary to design community management for acute malnutrition to ensure early detection and improve access to and coverage for children who are malnourished.

Keywords: Bayesian analysis, severe acute malnutrition, survival data analysis, survival time

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Authors: Adedeji W. Oyediran, Yekini N. Asafe

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Mechatronics is synergistic integration of mechanical engineering, with electronics and intelligent computer control in the design and manufacturing of industrial products and processes. Automobile (auto car, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor) is a mechatronic system which served as major means of transportation around the world. Virtually all community has a need for automobile. This makes automobile issues as related to diagnostic and repair interesting to all communities. Consequent to the diversification of skill in diagnosing automobile faults and approaches in solving some problems and innovation in automobile industry. It is appropriate to say that repair and diagnostic of automobile will be better enhanced if community has opportunity of sharing knowledge and idea globally. This paper discussed the desirable elements in automobile as mechatronics system and present conceptual framework of virtual community model for automobile users.

Keywords: automobile, automobile users, knowledge sharing, mechatronics system, virtual community

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Authors: Adam Johnbull

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The paper discusses ICT in Education as a quest for quality learning in the 21st century. Education is the key that unlock the door to development, without adequate education of the citizenry, the development of a nation becomes a sham. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) has revolutionized the way people work today and are now transforming education systems. As a result, if schools train children in yesterday’s skills and technologies they may not be effective and fit in tomorrow’s world. This is a sufficient reason for ICT’s to win global recognition and attention and thus ensure desire quality in our school system. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to discuss amongst others, what is ICT. The roles of ICT’s in education, limitation and key challenges of integrating ICT to education in the enhancement of student learning and experiences in other to encourage policy makers, school administrators and teachers pay the required attention to integrate this technology in the education system. The paper concludes that regardless of all the limitation characterizing it. ICT benefit education system to provide quality education in the 21st century.

Keywords: ICTs, quest, information, global, sham, century

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Authors: Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh

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This study describes tourism can be a ray of hope to overcome terrorism, especially in places having great tourism potential but could not successfully market their breathtaking beauty and enormous tourism potential because of terrorism threats. It is not so that the area is dangerous, but it does not look attractive. In Asia, regardless of a famous and most important tourist destination, the growth of tourism in Kashmir is stalled by terrorism in the valley. Kashmir has many seasonal tourist destinations like Walur Lake, Pahalgam, Sonamarg, Gulmarg, Dal Lake and other undiscovered virgin tourist destinations, which makes it the preferred tourist destination throughout the year. This research is based on the ideas of the local people who are suffering because of this social evil and have seen changes happen from prosperity to perish. Tourism can be the right adopted measure that brings back life to its virgin origin and makes it a heaven for the rest of the world. Tourism has the power to heal up all the wounds which have been created in this long gap of war and terrorism. In this paper, we will describe the influence of tourism is be the best solution for the harmony and fortune of Kashmir.

Keywords: Kashmir, tourism, solution to peace, culture

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Authors: Balwinder Singh, Veerpaul Kaur Mann

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The COVID-19 had a dramatic impact on several countries across the world. National governments have imposed widespread restrictions to prevent the growth of this pandemic. The new health competitive scenario induced by the COVID-19 crisis raised many issues on how business activities should be reorganized due to the difficulties of physical interactions with distributors, suppliers and customers. The pandemic has particularly affected the whole marketing processes because of the relevant issues emerged in managing physical sale channels and interactions with one another, both in the Business-to-Consumer and in the Business-to-Business markets. Recent research about the appropriate actions and strategies that could help firms overcome the crisis has highlighted the key role of digital technologies that may ensure connections and, thus, help business activities to run smoothly. This could be true, especially with the emergence of strong limitations on physical interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In such a scenario, the online channel becomes the most important conducive for online customers to get in contact with the firm and carry out online purchasing activities.

Keywords: COVID-19, business, digital marketing, online customers

Procedia PDF Downloads 61