Search results for: real time kinematics

Authors: Athina Thanou, Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou, Symeon Papavassiliou

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The problem of museum visitor experience and congestion management – in various forms - has come increasingly under the spotlight over the last few years, since overcrowding can significantly decrease the quality of visitors’ experience. Evidence suggests that on busy days the amount of time a visitor spends inside a crowded house museum can fall by up to 60% compared to a quiet mid-week day. In this paper we consider the aforementioned problem, by treating museums as evolving social systems that induce constraints. However, in a cultural heritage space, as opposed to the majority of social environments, the momentum of the experience is primarily controlled by the visitor himself. Visitors typically behave selfishly regarding the maximization of their own Quality of Experience (QoE) - commonly expressed through a utility function that takes several parameters into consideration, with crowd density and waiting/visiting time being among the key ones. In such a setting, congestion occurs when either the utility of one visitor decreases due to the behavior of other persons, or when costs of undertaking an activity rise due to the presence of other persons. We initially investigate how visitors’ behavioral risk attitudes, as captured and represented by prospect theory, affect their decisions in resource sharing settings, where visitors’ decisions and experiences are strongly interdependent. Different from the majority of existing studies and literature, we highlight that visitors are not risk neutral utility maximizers, but they demonstrate risk-aware behavior according to their personal risk characteristics. In our work, exhibits are organized into two groups: a) “safe exhibits” that correspond to less congested ones, where the visitors receive guaranteed satisfaction in accordance with the visiting time invested, and b) common pool of resources (CPR) exhibits, which are the most popular exhibits with possibly increased congestion and uncertain outcome in terms of visitor satisfaction. A key difference is that the visitor satisfaction due to CPR strongly depends not only on the invested time decision of a specific visitor, but also on that of the rest of the visitors. In the latter case, the over-investment in time, or equivalently the increased congestion potentially leads to “exhibit failure”, interpreted as the visitors gain no satisfaction from their observation of this exhibit due to high congestion. We present a framework where each visitor in a distributed manner determines his time investment in safe or CPR exhibits to optimize his QoE. Based on this framework, we analyze and evaluate how visitors, acting as prospect-theoretic decision-makers, respond and react to the various pricing policies imposed by the museum curators. Based on detailed evaluation results and experiments, we present interesting observations, regarding the impact of several parameters and characteristics such as visitor heterogeneity and use of alternative pricing policies, on scalability, user satisfaction, museum capacity, resource fragility, and operation point stability. Furthermore, we study and present the effectiveness of alternative pricing mechanisms, when used as implicit tools, to deal with the congestion management problem in the museums, and potentially decrease the exhibit failure probability (fragility), while considering the visitor risk preferences.

Keywords: museum resource and visitor management, congestion management, propsect theory, cyber physical social systems

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Authors: Sara S. Fouad, Omneya Messallam

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Egypt has countless prestigious buildings and diversity of cultural heritage which are located in many cities. Most of the researchers, archaeologists, stakeholders and governmental bodies are paying more attention to the big cities such as Cairo and Alexandria, due to the country’s centralization nature. However, there are other historic cities that are grossly neglected and in need of emergency conservation. For instance, Port Said which is a former colonial city that was established in nineteenth century located at the edge of the northeast Egyptian coast between the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal. This city is chosen because it presents one of the important Egyptian archaeological sites that archive Egyptian architecture of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The historic urban fabric is divided into three main districts; the Arab, the European (Al-Afrang), and Port Fouad. The European district is selected to be the research case study as it has culture diversity, significant buildings, and includes the largest number of the listed heritage buildings in Port Said. Based on questionnaires and interviews, since 2003 several initiative trials have been taken by Alliance Francaise, the National Organization for Urban Harmony (NOUH), some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and few number of community residents to highlight the important city legacy and protect it from being demolished. Unfortunately, the limitation of their participation in decision-making policies is considered a crucial threat facing sustainable heritage conservation. Therefore, encouraging the local community to participate in their architecture heritage conservation would create a self-confident one, capable of making decisions for the city’s future development. This paper aims to investigate the role of the local inhabitants in protecting their buildings heritage through listing the community level of participations twice (2012 and 2018) in preserving their heritage based on the ladder citizen participation approach. Also, it is to encourage community participation in order to promote city architecture conservation, heritage management, and sustainable development. The methodology followed in this empirical research involves using several data assembly methods such as structural observations, questionnaires, interviews, and mental mapping. The questionnaire was distributed among 92 local inhabitants aged 18-60 years. However, the outset of this research at the beginning demonstrated the majority negative attitude, motivation, and confidence of the local inhabitants’ role to safeguard their architectural heritage. Over time, there was a change in the negative attitudes. Therefore, raising public awareness and encouraging community participation by providing them with a real opportunity to take part in the decision-making. This may lead to a positive relationship between the community residents and the built heritage, which is essential for promoting its preservation and sustainable development.

Keywords: buildings preservation, community participation, heritage conservation, local inhabitant, ladder of citizen participation

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Mayank Sharma, Anubhaw Kumar, Siddharth Desai, Ankit Tomar

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With the advent of cost-effective hardware and communication technologies, the scope of digitalising operations within a supply chain has tremendously increased. This has provided the opportunity to create digital twins of entire supply chains through the use of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and communication technologies. Adverse events like the COVID-19 pandemic and unpredictable geo-political situations have further warranted the importance of digitalization and remote operability of day-to-day operations at critical nodes. Globalisation, rising consumerism & e-commerce has exponentially increased the complexities of existing supply chains. We discuss here a scalable, future-ready and inclusive framework for creating digital twins developed along with the industry leaders from Cisco, Bosch, Accenture, Intel, Deloitte & IBM. We have proposed field-tested key technologies and frameworks required for creating digital twins. We also present case studies of real-life stable deployments done by us in the supply chains of a few marquee industry leaders.

Keywords: internet-of-things, digital twins, smart factory, industry 4.0, smart manufacturing

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Authors: Vicente A. Hernandez, Felipe Galleguillos, Rene Thibaut, Alejandro Muller

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Natural pigments have been proposed as an eco-friendly alternative to artificial pigments. Among the diverse organisms able to synthesize natural pigments, several wood colonizing fungi produce extracellular pigments which have been tested to dye fabrics at laboratory conditions with good results. However, the dyeing conditions used at laboratory level not necessary meet the real conditions in which dyeing of fabrics is conducted at industrial level. In this work, yellow and red pigments from the fungi Penicillium murcianum and Talaromyces australis, respectively, were used to dye yarn and linen fabrics using dyeing processes optimized according to the standard conditions used at industrial level. After dyeing treatments, fabrics were tested for color fastness to wash and to wet and dry rubbing, but also to tensile strength tests. Satisfactory result was obtained with both yellow and red pigments in yarn and linen, when used alone or mixed to different proportions. According to these results, natural pigments synthesized by both wood colonizing fungi have a great potential to be used in dyeing processes at industrial level.

Keywords: natural pigments, fungal pigments, yarn, linen

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Authors: Vivian Guo, Yan Qu

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Online marketplaces are not only digital places where consumers buy and sell merchandise, and they are also destinations for brands to connect with real consumers at the moment when customers are in the shopping mindset. For many marketplaces, brands have been important partners through advertising. There can be, however, a risk of advertising impacting a consumer’s shopping journey if it hurts the use experience or takes the user away from the site. Both could lead to the loss of transaction revenue for the marketplace. In this paper, we present user-based methods for cannibalization control by selectively turning off ads to users who are likely to be cannibalized by ads subject to business objectives. We present ways of measuring cannibalization of advertising in the context of an online marketplace and propose novel ways of measuring cannibalization through purchase propensity and uplift modeling. A/B testing has shown that our methods can significantly improve user purchase and engagement metrics while operating within business objectives. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that addresses cannibalization mitigation at the user-level in the context of advertising.

Keywords: cannibalization, machine learning, online marketplace, revenue optimization, yield optimization

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Authors: Seyyed Hossein Alavi, Soudabe Mehri Talarposhti

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Passages urban landscape is made up of various components that the component parts of the whole and vice versa has relationships. In today’s cities, we have not seen a dual relationship and only one side of the equation which is the relationships of the component parts are considered. However, the effect of the component to whole is stronger and also longer. This means that every time the outer shell of the building was constructed instant impact on the viewers while it takes a long time to understand the impact of the building in its environment and basically, it seems city portrait has the sensory and untouchable effect on observer. Today, building facades are designated individually and in isolation from the context. Designers are familiar with the details of the facade, but they are not informed with the science of combination and its impact on portrait. The importance of city and also more important than that, the city portrait haven’t confirmed for those involved in the building and authorities and the construction been changed to a market for more glaring taste of designers and attracting more business and the city and its landscape has been forgotten. This essay is an attempt to collect a part of the principles and definitions needed on perspective issues and portrait, and it is hoped that it will open arena for more research and studies in this field and other related fields.

Keywords: facade, urban housing, urban design, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Ahmed Hariri

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E-Learning has become a necessity in the advanced education. It is easier for the student and teacher communication also it speed up the process with less time and less effort. With the progress and the enormous development of distance education must keep up with this age of making a website that allows students and teachers to take all the advantages of advanced education. In this regards, we developed University Short courses web application which is specially designed for Faculty of computing and information technology, Rabigh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After an elaborate review of the current state-of-the-art methods of teaching and learning, we found that instructors deliver extra short courses and workshop to students to enhance the knowledge of students. Moreover, this process is completely manual. The prevailing methods of teaching and learning consume a lot of time; therefore in this context, University Short courses web application will help to make process easy and user friendly. The site allows for students can view and register short courses online conducted by instructor also they can see courses starting dates, finishing date and locations. It also allows the instructor to put things on his courses on the site and see the students enrolled in the study material. Finally, student can print the certificate after finished the course online. ASP.NET, SQLSERVER, JavaScript SQL SERVER Database will use to develop the University Short Courses web application.

Keywords: e-learning, short courses, ASP.NET, SQL SERVER

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Authors: M. Sorahi Nobar, V. Niknam, H. Ebrahimzadeh, H. Soltanloo

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Fusarium graminearum is one of the most destructive crop diseases in the world. Infection occurs during the flowering period in warm and humid conditions. It causes reduction in yield. Moreover, harvested grain is often contaminated with mycotoxins and its acetylated derivatives. Fusarium mycotoxines are potent inhibitor of protein synthesis, and thereby presents hazards for both human and animal health. A rapid production of reactive oxygen intermediates, primarily superoxide and hydrogen peroxide at the site of attempted infection considered as key feature underlying successful pathogen recognition. Here, we compared the time course activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) as a first line of defenses against ROS- induced oxidative burst between FHB- resistant Sumai3 and susceptible Falat at 48, 96 and 144 hours after infection. Our results showed that Sumai3 SOD activity increased with time and reached the highest-level 4 days after infection while in susceptible cultivar Falat, SOD activity decreased during the first 96 h. after infection. Decreased was followed by an increased at 6 days after infection. According to our results rapid induction of SOD activity in resistant cultivar may play an important role in resistance against FHB in wheat.

Keywords: Fusarium graminearum, mycotoxins, resistant cultivar, superoxide dismutase

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Authors: Mohammad Ali Al-Deeb, Hamda Ateeq Al Dhaheri

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Insects cause major damage to crops and fruit trees worldwide. In the United Arab Emirates, the date palm tree is the most economically important tree which is used for date production as well as an ornamental tree. In 2002, the number of date palm trees in UAE was 40,700,000 and it is increasing over time. The longhorn stem borer (Jebusaea hammerschmidtii) and the lesser date month (Batrachedra amydraula) are important insect pests causing damage to date palm trees in UAE. Population dynamics of the Jebusaea hammerschmidtii and Batrachedra amydraula were studied by using light and pheromons traps, respectively in Al-Ain, UAE. The first trap catch of B. amydraula adults occurred on 19 April and the insect population peaked up on 26 April 2014. The first trap catch of J. hammerschmidtii occurred in April 2014. The numbers increased over time and the population peak occurred in June. The trapping was also done in 2015. The changes in insect numbers in relation to weather parameters are discussed. Also, the importance of the results on the management of these two pests is highlighted.

Keywords: date palm, integrated pest management, UAE, light trap, pheromone trap

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Authors: Yaowen Sheng, Jiuxian Liu

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In order to analyze the pedestrian bridge dynamic characteristics and degree of comfortability, the finite element method and live load time history method is used to calculate the dynamic response of the bridge. The example bridge’s dynamic characteristics and degree of human comfortability need to be analyzed. The project background is a three-way intersection. The intersection has three side blocks. An intersection bridge is designed to help people cross the streets. The finite element model of the bridge is established by the Midas/Civil software, and the analysis of the model is done. The strength, stiffness, and stability checks are also completed. Apart from the static analysis of the bridge, the dynamic analysis of the bridge is also completed to avoid the problems resulted from vibrations. The results show that the pedestrian bridge has different dynamic characteristics compared to other normal bridges. The degree of human comfortability satisfies the requirements of Chinese and British specifications. The live load time history method can be used to calculate the dynamic response of the bridge.

Keywords: pedestrian bridge, steel box girder, human-induced vibration, finite element analysis, degree of human comfortability

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Authors: Toshitaka Higashino, Naoki Wakamiya

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Human beings perform a task by perceiving information from outside, recognizing them, and responding them. There have been various attempts to analyze and understand internal processes behind the reaction to a given stimulus by conducting psychological experiments and analysis from multiple perspectives. Among these, we focused on Model Human Processor (MHP). However, it was built based on psychological experiments and thus the relation with brain activity was unclear so far. To verify the validity of the MHP and propose our model from a viewpoint of neuroscience, EEG (Electroencephalography) measurements are performed during experiments in this study. More specifically, first, experiments were conducted where Latin alphabet characters were used as visual stimuli. In addition to response time, ERPs (event-related potentials) such as N100 and P300 were measured by using EEG. By comparing cycle time predicted by the MHP and latency of ERPs, it was found that N100, related to perception of stimuli, appeared at the end of the perceptual processor. Furthermore, by conducting an additional experiment, it was revealed that P300, related to decision making, appeared during the response decision process, not at the end. Second, by experiments using Japanese Hiragana characters, i.e. Japan's own phonetic symbols, those findings were confirmed. Finally, Japanese Kanji characters were used as more complicated visual stimuli. A Kanji character usually has several readings and several meanings. Despite the difference, a reading-related task and a meaning-related task exhibited similar results, meaning that they involved similar information processing processes of the brain. Based on those results, our model was proposed which reflects response time and ERP latency. It consists of three processors: the perception processor from an input of a stimulus to appearance of N100, the cognitive processor from N100 to P300, and the decision-action processor from P300 to response. Using our model, an application system which reflects brain activity can be established.

Keywords: brain activity, EEG, information processing model, model human processor

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Authors: Flavia Laffleur, Andreas Bernkop-Schnürch

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Purpose: This study was aimed to investigate preactivated thiomers for their mucoadhesive potential. Methods: Accordingly, chitosan-thioglycolic-mercaptonicotinamide conjugates (chitosan-TGA-MNA) were synthesized by the oxidative S-S coupling of chitosan-thioglycolic acid (chitosan-TGA) with 6-mercaptonicotin amide (MNA). Unmodified chitosan, chitosan-TGA (thiomers) and chitosan-TGA-MNA conjugates were compressed into test discs to investigate cohesive properties, cytotoxicity assays and mucoadhesion studies. Results: Due to the immobilization of MNA, the chitosan-TGA-MNA conjugates exhibit comparatively higher swelling properties and cohesive properties corresponding unmodified chitosan. On the rotating cylinder, discs based on chitosan-TGA-MNA conjugates displayed 3.1-fold improved mucoadhesion time compared to thiolated polymers. Tensile study results were found in good agreement with rotating cylinder results. Moreover, preactivated thiomers showed higher stability. All polymers were found non-toxic over Caco-2 cells. Conclusion: On the basis of achieved results the pre activated thiomeric therapeutic agent seems to represent a promising generation of mucoadhesive polymers which are safe to use for a prolonged residence time to target the mucosa.

Keywords: biomedical application, drug delivery, polymer, thiomer

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Authors: Neeraj Vij, Amber Brennan, Jenni Winters, Hadi Salehi, Hamy Temkit, Emily Andrisevic, Mohan V. Belthur

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Idiopathic clubfoot is a common lower extremity deformity with an incidence of 1:500. The Ponseti Method is well known as the gold standard of treatment. However, there is limited functional data demonstrating correction of the clubfoot after treatment with the Ponseti method. The purpose of this study was to study the clinical and functional outcomes after the Ponseti method with the Clubfoot Disease-Specific Instrument (CDS) and pedobarography. This IRB-approved prospective study included patients aged 3-18 who were treated for idiopathic clubfoot with the Ponseti method between January 2008 and December 2018. Age-matched controls were identified through siblings of clubfoot patients and other community members. Treatment details were collected through a chart review of the included patients. Laboratory assessment included a physical exam, gait analysis, and pedobarography. The Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument and the Clubfoot Disease-Specific Instrument were also obtained on clubfoot patients (CF). The Wilcoxson rank-sum test was used to study differences between the CF patients and the typically developing (TD) patients. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. There were a total of 37 enrolled patients in our study. 21 were priorly treated for CF and 16 were TD. 94% of the CF patients had bilateral involvement. The age at the start of treatment was 29 days, the average total number of casts was seven to eight, and the average total number of casts after Achilles tenotomy was one. The reoccurrence rate was 25%, tenotomy was required in 94% of patients, and ≥1 tenotomy was required in 25% of patients. There were no significant differences between step length, step width, stride length, force-time integral, maximum peak pressure, foot progression angles, stance phase time, single-limb support time, double limb support time, and gait cycle time between children treated with the Ponseti method and typically developing children. The average post-treatment Pirani and Dimeglio scores were 5.50±0.58 and 15.29±1.58, respectively. The average post-treatment PODCI subscores were: Upper Extremity: 90.28, Transfers: 94.6, Sports: 86.81, Pain: 86.20, Happiness: 89.52, Global: 88.6. The average post-treatment Clubfoot Disease-Specific Instrument scores subscores were: Satisfaction: 73.93, Function: 80.32, Overall: 78.41. The Ponseti Method has a very high success rate and remains to be the gold standard in the treatment of idiopathic clubfoot. Timely management leads to good outcomes and a low need for repeated Achilles tenotomy. Children treated with the Ponseti method demonstrate good functional outcomes as measured through pedobarography. Pedobarography may have clinical utility in studying congenital foot deformities. Objective measures for hours of brace wear could represent an improvement in clubfoot care.

Keywords: functional outcomes, pediatric deformity, patient-reported outcomes, talipes equinovarus

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Authors: Yan Lyu, Yiqun Pan, Zhizhong Huang

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In the design stage of a new building, the energy model of this building is often required for the analysis of the performance on energy efficiency. In practice, a certain degree of geometric simplification should be done in the establishment of building energy models, since the detailed geometric features of a real building are hard to be described perfectly in most energy simulation engine, such as ESP-r, eQuest or EnergyPlus. Actually, the detailed description is not necessary when the result with extremely high accuracy is not demanded. Therefore, this paper analyzed the relationship between the error of the simulation result from building energy models and the geometric simplification of the models. Finally, the following two parameters are selected as the indices to characterize the geometric feature of in building energy simulation: the southward projected area and total side surface area of the building, Based on the parameterization method, the simplification from an arbitrary column building to a typical shape (a cuboid) building can be made for energy modeling. The result in this study indicates that this simplification would only lead to the error that is less than 7% for those buildings with the ratio of southward projection length to total perimeter of the bottom of 0.25~0.35, which can cover most situations.

Keywords: building energy model, simulation, geometric simplification, design, regression

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Authors: V. V. Singh, Yusuf Ibrahim Gwanda, Rajesh Prasad

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In this paper, we focus on the reliability and performance analysis of Computer Centre (CC) at Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. The CC consists of three servers: one database mail server, one redundant and one for sharing with the client computers in the CC (called as a local server). Observing the different possibilities of the functioning of the CC, the analysis has been done to evaluate the various popular measures of reliability such as availability, reliability, mean time to failure (MTTF), profit analysis due to the operation of the system. The system can ultimately fail due to the failure of router, redundant server before repairing the mail server and switch failure. The system can also partially fail when a local server fails. The failed devices have restored according to Least Recently Used (LRU) techniques. The system can also fail entirely due to a cooling failure of the server, electricity failure or some natural calamity like earthquake, fire tsunami, etc. All the failure rates are assumed to be constant and follow exponential time distribution, while the repair follows two types of distributions: i.e. general and Gumbel-Hougaard family copula distribution.

Keywords: reliability, availability Gumbel-Hougaard family copula, MTTF, internet data centre

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Authors: Kate Whitman, Zahra Murad, Joe Cox, Adam Cox

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This study investigates the influence of normative communications on digital piracy intentions. Although descriptive norms are thought to influence behavior, the study examines the potential bias in one's own behavior, leading to false consensus—a phenomenon perpetuating undesirable activities. The research tests the presence of false consensus and the effect of correcting normative predictions on changes in piracy intentions, examining gender differences. Results from a controlled experiment (N = 684) indicate that normative communications, reflecting the "real" norm based on government data (N=5000), increase (decrease) piracy intentions among men (women) underestimating their peers' behavior. Conversely, neither men nor women overestimating their peers' piracy show any notable change in intentions. Considering men consume more illegal content than women, suggesting they pose a higher risk, the study highlights the need for cautious use of normative communications. Therefore, policymakers should minimize the visibility of piracy behavior for effective digital piracy management.

Keywords: digital piracy, false consensus, normative interventions, persuasive messages

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Authors: Wei Xiao, Gangzhi Cai, Xingliang Qin, Hongyan Ren, Zaidong Hua, Zhe Zhu, Hongwei Xiao, Ximin Zheng, Jie Yao, Yanzhen Bi

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Myostatin (MSTN) is the master regulator of double muscling phenotype with overgrown muscle and decreased fatness in animals, but its action mode to regulate fat deposition remains to be elucidated. In this study a swin-specific pathway through which MSTN acts to regulate the fat deposition was deciphered. Deep sequenincing of the mRNA and miRNA of fat tissues of MSTN knockout (KO) and wildtype (WT) pigs discovered the positive correlation of myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C) and fat-inhibiting miR222 expression, and the inverse correlation of miR222 and stearoyl-CoA desaturase 5 (SCD5) expression. SCD5 is rodent-absent and expressed only in pig, sheep and cattle. Fatty acid spectrum of fat tissues revealed a lower percentage of oleoyl-CoA (18:1) and palmitoleyl CoA (16:1) in MSTN KO pigs, which are the catalyzing products of SCD5-mediated desaturation of steroyl CoA (18:0) and palmitoyl CoA (16:0). Blood metrics demonstrated a 45% decline of triglyceride (TG) content in MSTN KO pigs. In light of these observations we hypothesized that MSTN might act through MEF2C/miR222/SCD5 pathway to regulate desaturation of fatty acid as well as triglyceride synthesis in pigs. To this end, real-time PCR and Western blotting were carried out to detect the expression of the three genes stated above. These experiments showed that MEF2C expression was up-regulated by nearly 2-fold, miR222 up-regulated by nearly 3-fold and SCD5 down-regulated by nearly 50% in MSTN KO pigs. These data were consistent with the expression change in deep sequencing analysis. Dual luciferase reporter was then used to confirm the regulation of MEF2C upon the promoter of miR222. Ecotopic expression of MEF2C in preadipocyte cells enhanced miR222 expression by 3.48-fold. CHIP-PCR identified a putative binding site of MEF2C on -2077 to -2066 region of miR222 promoter. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) demonstrated the interaction of MEF2C and miR222 promoter in vitro. These data indicated that MEF2C transcriptionally regulates the expression of miR222. Next, the regulation of miR222 on SCD5 mRNA as well as its physiological consequences were examined. Dual luciferase reporter testing revealed the translational inhibition of miR222 upon the 3´ UTR (untranslated region) of SCD5 in preadipocyte cells. Transfection of miR222 mimics and inhibitors resulted in the down-regulation and up-regulation of SCD5 in preadipocyte cells respectively, consistent with the results from reporter testing. RNA interference of SCD5 in preadipocyte cells caused 26.2% reduction of TG, in agreement with the results of TG content in MSTN KO pigs. In summary, the results above supported the existence of a molecular pathway that MSTN signals through MEF2C/miR222/SCD5 to regulate the fat deposition in pigs. This swine-specific pathway offers potential molecular markers for the development and breeding of a new pig line with optimised fatty acid composition. This would benefit human health by decreasing the takeup of saturated fatty acid.

Keywords: fat deposition, MEF2C, miR222, myostatin, SCD5, pig

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Authors: Nirit Gavish, Rotem Halutz, Liad Neta

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Nowadays, chatbots are gaining more and more attention due to the advent of large language models. One of the important considerations in chatbot design is how to create an interface to achieve high user satisfaction, trust, and acceptance. Since WhatsApp conversations sometimes substitute for face-to-face communication, we studied whether WhatsAppization of the chatbot -making the conversation resemble a WhatsApp conversation more- will improve user satisfaction, trust, and acceptance, or whether the opposite will occur due to the Uncanny Valley (UV) effect. The task was a drive-sharing task, in which participants communicated with a textual chatbot via WhatsApp and could decide whether to participate in a ride to college with a driver suggested by the chatbot. WhatsAppization of the chatbot was done in two ways: By a dialog-style conversation (Dialog versus No Dialog), and by adding WhatsApp indicators – “Last Seen”, “Connected”, “Read Receipts”, and “Typing…” (Indicators versus No Indicators). Our 120 participants were randomly assigned to one of the four 2 by 2 design groups, with 30 participants in each. They interacted with the WhatsApp chatbot and then filled out a questionnaire. The results demonstrated that, as expected from the manipulation, the interaction with the chatbot was longer for the dialog condition compared to the no dialog. This extra interaction, however, did not lead to higher acceptance -quite the opposite, since participants in the dialog condition were less willing to implement the decision made at the end of the conversation with the chatbot and continue the interaction with the driver they chose. The results are even more striking when considering the Indicators condition. Both for the satisfaction measures and the trust measures, participants’ ratings were lower in the Indicators condition compared to the No Indicators. Participants in the Indicators condition felt that the ride search process was harder to operate, and slower (even though the actual interaction time was similar). They were less convinced that the chatbot suggested real trips and they trusted the person offering the ride and referred to them by the chatbot less. These effects were more evident for participants who preferred to share their rides using WhatsApp compared to participants who preferred chatbots for that purpose. Considering our findings, we can say that the WhatsAppization of the chatbot was detrimental. This is true for the both chatbot WhatsAppization methods – by making the conversation more a dialog and adding WhatsApp indicators. For the chosen drive-sharing task, the results were, in addition to lower satisfaction, less trust in the chatbot’s suggestion and even in the driver suggested by the chatbot, and lower willingness to actually undertake the suggested ride. In addition, it seems that the most problematic WhatsAppization method was using WhatsApp’s indicators during the interaction with the chatbot. The current study suggests that a conversation with an artificial agent should also not imitate a WhatsApp conversation very closely. With the proliferation of WhatsApp use, the emotional and social aspect of face-to face commination are moving to WhatsApp communication. Based on the current study’s findings, it is possible that the UV effect also occurs in WhatsAppization, and not only in humanization, of the chatbot, with a similar feeling of eeriness, and is more pronounced for people who prefer to use WhatsApp over chatbots. The current research can serve as a starting point to study the very interesting and important topic of chatbots WhatsAppization. More methods of WhatsAppization and other tasks could be the focus of further studies.

Keywords: chatbot, WhatsApp, humanization, Uncanny Valley, drive sharing

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Authors: Karthick Prasad Gunasekaran, B. Chase Babrich, Saurabh Shirodkar, Hee Hwang

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Construction preparation is crucial for the success of a construction project. By involving project participants early in the construction phase, project managers can plan ahead and resolve issues early, resulting in project success and satisfaction. This study uses quantitative data from construction management projects to determine the relationship between the pre-construction phase, construction schedule, and customer satisfaction. This study examined a total of 65 construction projects and 93 clients per job to (a) identify the relationship between the pre-construction phase and program reduction and (b) the pre-construction phase and customer retention. Based on a quantitative analysis, this study found a negative correlation between pre-construction status and project schedule in 65 construction projects. This finding means that the more preparatory work done on a particular project, the shorter the total construction time. The Net Promoter Score of 93 clients from 65 projects was then used to determine the relationship between construction preparation and client satisfaction. The pre-construction status and the projects were further analyzed, and a positive correlation between them was found. This shows that customers are happier with projects with a higher ready-to-build ratio than projects with less ready-to-build.

Keywords: NLP, BERT, LLM, deep learning, classification

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Authors: Weber A. R. Souza, Andre A. N. Dantas, Marcio A. Medeiros, Rafaella F. Costa

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The erosive processes are natural phenomena that cause changes in the soil continuously due to the actions of natural erosive agents and their speed can be intensified or retarded by factors such as climate, inclination, type of matrix rock, vegetation and anthropic activities, the latter being very relevant in occupied areas without planning and urban infrastructure. Inadequate housing sites associated with an inefficient urban drainage network and lack of vegetation cover potentiate the erosive processes that, over time, are gaining alarming proportions, as is the case of the erosion in Planaltina in Federal district, a Brazilian state in the central west. Thus, the aim of this work was to compare the use of Vetiver grass and Alfalfa as vegetation cover to slope protection. For that, a study was carried out in the scientific literature about the improvement of the soil properties provided by them and verification of the safety factor through the simulation of slopes with different heights and inclination using SLOPE / W software. The Vetiver grass presented little more satisfactory results than the Alfalfa, but these obtained results slightly closer to that of the vetiver grass in less time of planting.

Keywords: erosive processes, planting, slope protection, vegetation cover

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Authors: M. Rajabi, O. Moradi

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In this study, removal of Nickel and Zinc by graphene oxide and functionalized graphene oxide–gelaycin surfaces was examined. Amino group was added to surface of graphene oxide to produced functionalized graphene oxide–gelaycin. Effect of contact time and initial concentration of Ni (II) and Zn(II) ions were studied. Results showed that with increase of initial concentration of Ni (II) and Zn(II) adsorption capacity was increased. After 50 min has not a large change at adsorption capacity therefore, 50 min was selected as optimaze time. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy spectra used for the analysis confirmed the successful fictionalization of the Graphene oxide surface. Adsorption experiments of Ni (II) and Zn(II) ions graphene oxide and functionalized graphene oxide–gelaycin surfaces fixed at 298 K and pH=6. The Pseudo Firs-order and the Pseudo Second-order (types I, II, III and IV) kinetic models were tested for adsorption process and results showed that the kinetic parameters best fits with to type (I) of pseudo-second-order model because presented low X2 values and also high R2 values.

Keywords: graphene oxide, gelaycin, nickel, zinc, adsorption, kinetic, graphene oxide, gelaycin, nickel, zinc, adsorption, kinetic

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Authors: Sibashish Baksi, Ujjaini Sarkar, Sudeshna Saha

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In the present study, hydrolysis of Pinus roxburghi wood powder was carried out with Viscozyme, and kinetics of the hydrolysis has been investigated. Finely ground sawdust is submerged into 2% aqueous peroxide solution (pH=11.5) and pretreated through autoclaving, probe sonication, and alkaline peroxide pretreatment. Afterward, the pretreated material is subjected to hydrolysis. A chain of experiments was executed with delignified biomass (50 g/l) and varying enzyme concentrations (24.2–60.5 g/l). In the present study, 14.32 g/l of glucose, along with 7.35 g/l of xylose, have been recovered with a viscozyme concentration of 48.8 g/l and the same condition was treated as optimum condition. Additionally, thermal deactivation of viscozyme has been investigated and found to be gradually decreasing with escalated enzyme loading from 48.4 g/l (dissociation constant= 0.05 h⁻¹) to 60.5 g/l (dissociation constant= 0.02 h⁻¹). The hydrolysis reaction is a pseudo first-order reaction, and therefore, the rate of the hydrolysis can be expressed as a fractal-like kinetic equation that communicates between the product concentration and hydrolytic time t. It is seen that the value of rate constant (K) increases from 0.008 to 0.017 with augmented enzyme concentration from 24.2 g/l to 60.5 g/l. Greater value of K is associated with stronger enzyme binding capacity of the substrate mass. However, escalated concentration of supplied enzyme ensures improved interaction with more substrate molecules resulting in an enhanced de-polymerization of the polymeric sugar chains per unit time which eventually modifies the physiochemical structure of biomass. All fractal dimensions are in between 0 and 1. Lower the value of fractal dimension, more easily the biomass get hydrolyzed. It can be seen that with increased enzyme concentration from 24.2 g/l to 48.4 g/l, the values of fractal dimension go down from 0.1 to 0.044. This indicates that the presence of more enzyme molecules can more easily hydrolyze the substrate. However, an increased value has been observed with a further increment of enzyme concentration to 60.5g/l because of diffusional limitation. It is evident that the hydrolysis reaction system is a heterogeneous organization, and the product formation rate depends strongly on the enzyme diffusion resistances caused by the rate-limiting structures of the substrate-enzyme complex. Value of the rate constant increases from 1.061 to 2.610 with escalated enzyme concentration from 24.2 to 48.4 g/l. As the rate constant is proportional to Fick’s diffusion coefficient, it can be assumed that with a higher concentration of enzyme, a larger amount of enzyme mass dM diffuses into the substrate through the surface dF per unit time dt. Therefore, a higher rate constant value is associated with a faster diffusion of enzyme into the substrate. Regression analysis of time curves with various enzyme concentrations shows that diffusion resistant constant increases from 0.3 to 0.51 for the first two enzyme concentrations and again decreases with enzyme concentration of 60.5 g/l. During diffusion in a differential scale, the enzyme also experiences a greater resistance during diffusion of larger dM through dF in dt.

Keywords: viscozyme, glucose, fractal kinetics, thermal deactivation

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Authors: Giuseppe Liverano

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Today’s school iscalledupon to take the lead role in supporting students towards the formation of conscious identity and a sense of responsible citizenship, through the development of key competencies for lifelong learning A rolethatrequiresit to be ready for change and to respond to the ever new needs of students, by adopting new pedagogical and didactic models and new didactic devices. Information and Communication Technologies, in this sense, reveal themselves to be usefulresourcesthatpermit to focus attention on the learning of eachindividualstudentunderstoodas a dynamic and relational process of constructing shared and participatedmeanings. The use of collaborative writing apps represents a democratic and shared knowledge way of constructionthroughICTs. It promotes the learning of reading-writing, literacy, and the development of transversal competencies in an inclusive perspective peer-to-peer comparison and reflectionthatstimulates the transfer of thought into speech and writing, the transformation of knowledge through a trialogicalapproach to learning generates enthusiasm and strengthensmotivationItrepresents a “different” way of expressing the training needs which come from several disciplinary fields of subjects with different cultures. The contribution aims to reflect on the formative value of collaborative writing through apps and analyse some proposals on line at school during the time of pandemic in order to highlight their critical aspects and pedagogical perspectives.

Keywords: collaborative writing, formative value, online, apps, pandemic

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Authors: Marleen Onwezen

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It is often assumed that specific consumer groups do or do not have a sustainable lifestyle or that a specific context does or does not trigger sustainable choices. Based on goal-framing theory, this article aims to understand variation in sustainable choices across contexts. We add to the literature by showing the added value of including a moral goal frame (Study 1; N = 1,100) beyond the hedonic, gain, and normative goal frames. Moreover, we add to the literature by revealing how these goal frames are recalled in real-life consumption contexts (Study 2; N = 1,100) and how they can be activated (Study 3; N = 1,651). The results reveal that different goal frames result in different preferences and consumption choices, and that the normative frames showed the most consistent association with sustainable intentions. A contrast exists between frames currently activated in food choice contexts, mainly the gain and hedonic frames, and those associated with sustainable behaviours, the moral and social frames. This indicates the relevance of further understanding and adapting the environment to activate moral and social frames to further enforce sustainable food transitions.

Keywords: goal frames, sustainable behaviour, food choice, moral

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Authors: R. Karmouch

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A thin gold metal layer was deposited on the top of silicon oxide films containing embedded Si nanocrystals (Si-nc). The sample was annealed in gas containing nitrogen, and subsequently characterized by photoluminescence. We obtained 3-fold enhancement of photon emission from the Si-nc embedded in silicon dioxide covered with a Gold layer as compared with an uncovered sample. We attribute this enhancement to the increase of the spontaneous emission rate caused by the coupling of the Si-nc emitters with the surface plasmons (SP). The evolution of PL emission with laser irradiated time was also collected from covered samples, and compared to that from uncovered samples. In an uncovered sample, the PL intensity decreases with time, approximately with two decay constants. Although the decrease of the initial PL intensity associated with the increase of sample temperature under CW pumping is still observed in samples covered with a gold layer, this film significantly contributes to reduce the permanent deterioration of the PL intensity. The resistance to degradation of light-emitting silicon nanocrystals can be increased by SP coupling to suppress the permanent deterioration. Controlling the permanent photodeterioration can allow to perform a reliable optical gain measurement.

Keywords: photodeterioration, silicon nanocrystals, ion implantation, photoluminescence, surface plasmons

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Authors: Jiri Barta

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At the present time, awareness, education, computer simulation and information systems protection are very serious and relevant topics. The article deals with perspectives and possibilities of implementation of emergence or natural hazard threats into the system which is developed for communication among members of crisis management staffs. The Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute with its System of Integrated Warning Service resents the largest usable base of information. National information systems are connected to foreign systems, especially to flooding emergency systems of neighboring countries, systems of European Union and international organizations where the Czech Republic is a member. Use of outputs of particular information systems and computer simulations on a single communication interface of information system for communication among members of crisis management staff and setting the site interoperability in the net will lead to time savings in decision-making processes in solving extraordinary events and crisis situations. Faster managing of an extraordinary event or a crisis situation will bring positive effects and minimize the impact of negative effects on the environment.

Keywords: computer simulation, communication, continuity, critical infrastructure, information systems, safety

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Authors: Xi Xiao, Chunhui Chen, Xinyu Liu, Guangwu Hu, Yong Jiang

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Location sharing is a fundamental service in mobile Online Social Networks (mOSNs), which raises significant privacy concerns in recent years. Now, most location-based service applications adopt client/server architecture. In this paper, a location sharing system, named CSLocShare, is presented to provide flexible privacy-preserving location sharing with client/server architecture in mOSNs. CSLocShare enables location sharing between both trusted social friends and untrusted strangers without the third-party server. In CSLocShare, Location-Storing Social Network Server (LSSNS) provides location-based services but do not know the users’ real locations. The thorough analysis indicates that the users’ location privacy is protected. Meanwhile, the storage and the communication cost are saved. CSLocShare is more suitable and effective in reality.

Keywords: mobile online social networks, client/server architecture, location sharing, privacy-preserving

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Authors: Natalia Uribe Corrales, Santiago Henao Villegas

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Introduction: The management of pigs in the holding pens at the slaughterhouses is a key point to minimize levels of stress and fear, improve efficiency, maintain a good quality of meat and avoid economic losses. Holding pens should guarantee drinking water continuously, a minimum space of 1.2 m2/ animal; As well as an adequate management in the conduction of the animals towards stun. Objective: To characterize the management practices in holding pens in slaughterhouses in the Valle de Aburrá. Methods: A descriptive cross - sectional study was carried out in Valle de Aburrá benefit plants, which were authorized by National Institute for Food and Medicine Surveillance (INVIMA). Variables such as management mechanisms to the pens, time of housing, water supply, load density, vocalization, slips and falls of the animals in the pens and mechanism of conduction towards desensitization were analyzed. Results: 225 pigs were analyzed, finding that 35.6% were lowered with slaps from the trucks to the waiting pens; The lairage time was greater than 10 hours in 16% of the animals; 12.9% of pigs had no water permanently; 40.9% was subjected to a high load density, while 19.6% had a low load density. Regarding aspects of animal welfare, 37.3% presented high vocalizations; 29.3% and 14.2% presented slips or falls respectively. Regarding the mechanism of conduction towards desensitization, slapping was used in 56% and electrical prod in 4%. Conclusions: It is necessary to continue promoting the learning of the densities of load, since both high and low densities generate inconveniences in animal welfare, favoring the appearance of lesions and stress in the animals. Also, to promote the rule of permanent water in the pens and a time of housing less than 10 hours. In relation to the driving mechanisms, it is necessary to continue animal husbandry campaigns, encouraging the use of other alternatives such as boards or panels to assist the movement of pigs.

Keywords: animal welfare, quality of meat, swine, waiting pens

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Authors: Uma Maheshwari V., Rajanikanth Aluvalu, Kumar Gautam

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The COVID-19 disease is a highly contagious viral infection with major worldwide health implications. The global economy suffers as a result of COVID. The spread of this pandemic disease can be slowed if positive patients are found early. COVID-19 disease prediction is beneficial for identifying patients' health problems that are at risk for COVID. Deep learning and machine learning algorithms for COVID prediction using X-rays have the potential to be extremely useful in solving the scarcity of doctors and clinicians in remote places. In this paper, a convolutional neural network (CNN) with deep layers is presented for recognizing COVID-19 patients using real-world datasets. We gathered around 6000 X-ray scan images from various sources and split them into two categories: normal and COVID-impacted. Our model examines chest X-ray images to recognize such patients. Because X-rays are commonly available and affordable, our findings show that X-ray analysis is effective in COVID diagnosis. The predictions performed well, with an average accuracy of 99% on training photographs and 88% on X-ray test images.

Keywords: deep CNN, COVID–19 analysis, feature extraction, feature map, accuracy

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Authors: Dae Il Kim, Jungho Moon, Tae Yun Chung

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This paper presents a car parking monitoring system using a wireless sensor network. The presented sensor network has a line-shaped topology and adopts a TDMA-based protocol for allowing multi-hop communications. Sensor nodes are deployed in the ground of an outdoor parking lot in such a way that a sensor node monitors a parking space. Each sensor node detects the availability of the associated parking space and transmits the detection result to a sink node via intermediate sensor nodes existing between the source sensor node and the sink node. We evaluate the feasibility of the presented sensor network and the TDMA-based communication protocol through experiments using 11 sensor nodes deployed in a real parking lot. The result shows that the presented car parking monitoring system is robust to changes in the communication environments and efficient for monitoring parking spaces of outdoor parking lots.

Keywords: multi-hop communication, parking monitoring system, TDMA, wireless sensor network

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