Search results for: complicated grief

Authors: Inas Hussein

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Alice Munro is a Canadian short-story writer who has been regarded as one of the greatest writers of fiction. Owing to her great contribution to fiction, she was the first Canadian woman and the only short-story writer ever to be rewarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. Her literary works include collections of short stories and one book published as a novel. Her stories concentrate on the human condition and the human relationships as seen through the lens of daily life. The setting in most of her stories is her native Canada- small towns much similar to the one where she grew up. Her writing style is not only realistic but is also characterized by autobiographical, historical and regional features. The aim of this research is to analyze one of the key stylistic devices often adopted by Munro in her fictions: the juxtaposition of the past and the present, with reference to the title story in Munro's short story collection Too Much Happiness. The story under exploration is a brief biography of the Russian Mathematician and novelist Sophia Kovalevsky (1850 – 1891), the first woman to be appointed as a professor of Mathematics at a European University in Stockholm. Thus, the story has a historical protagonist and is set on the European continent. Munro dramatizes the severe historical and cultural constraints that hindered the career of the protagonist. A pragmatic stylistic framework is being adopted and the qualitative analysis is supported by textual reference. The stylistic analysis reveals that the juxtaposition of the past and the present is one of the distinctive features that characterize the author; in a typical Munrovian manner, the protagonist often moves between the units of time: the past, the present and, sometimes, the future. Munro's style is simple and direct but cleverly constructed and densely complicated by the presence of deeper layers and stories within the story. Findings of the research reveal that the story under investigation merits reading and analyzing. It is recommended that this story and other stories by Munro are analyzed to further explore the features of her art and style.

Keywords: Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness, style, stylistic analysis

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Authors: Emre Ipekci Cetin, Ebru Tarcan Icigen

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Personnel selection process is considered as one of the most important and most difficult issues in human resources management. At the stage of personnel selection, the applicants are handled according to certain criteria, the candidates are dealt with, and efforts are made to select the most appropriate candidate. However, this process can be more complicated in terms of the managers who will carry out the staff selection process. Candidates should be evaluated according to different criteria such as work experience, education, foreign language level etc. It is crucial that a rational selection process is carried out by considering all the criteria in an integrated structure. In this study, the problem of choosing the front office manager of a 5 star accommodation enterprise operating in Antalya is addressed by using multi-criteria decision-making methods. In this context, SWARA (Step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis) and MOORA (Multi-Objective Optimization on the basis of ratio analysis) methods, which have relatively few applications when compared with other methods, have been used together. Firstly SWARA method was used to calculate the weights of the criteria and subcriteria that were determined by the business. After the weights of the criteria were obtained, the MOORA method was used to rank the candidates using the ratio system and the reference point approach. Recruitment processes differ from sector to sector, from operation to operation. There are a number of criteria that must be taken into consideration by businesses in accordance with the structure of each sector. It is of utmost importance that all candidates are evaluated objectively in the framework of these criteria, after these criteria have been carefully selected in the selection of suitable candidates for employment. In the study, staff selection process was handled by using SWARA and MOORA methods together.

Keywords: accommodation establishments, human resource management, multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis, multi-criteria decision making, step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis

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Authors: Yu-Ching Cheng, Yi-Kai Juan, Daniel Castro

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Energy consumption of buildings has been an increasing concern for researchers and practitioners in the last decade. Sustainable building renovation can reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions; meanwhile, it also can extend existing buildings useful life and facilitate environmental sustainability while providing social and economic benefits to the society. School buildings are different from other designed spaces as they are more crowded and host the largest portion of daily activities and occupants. Strategies that focus on reducing energy use but also improve the students’ learning environment becomes a significant subject in sustainable school buildings development. A decision model is developed in this study to solve complicated and large-scale combinational, discrete and determinate problems such as school renovation projects. The task of this model is to automatically search for the most cost-effective (lower cost and higher quality) renovation strategies. In this study, the search process of optimal school building renovation solutions is by nature a large-scale zero-one programming determinate problem. A* is suitable for solving deterministic problems due to its stable and effective search process, and genetic algorithms (GA) provides opportunities to acquire global optimal solutions in a short time via its indeterminate search process based on probability. These two algorithms are combined in this study to consider trade-offs between renovation cost and improved quality, this decision model is able to evaluate current school environmental conditions and suggest an optimal scheme of sustainable school buildings renovation strategies. Through adoption of this decision model, school managers can overcome existing limitations and transform school buildings into spaces more beneficial to students and friendly to the environment.

Keywords: decision model, school buildings, sustainable renovation, genetic algorithm, A* search algorithm

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Authors: Gyozo Molnar, Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere

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Research in the area of physical activity and sport, while becoming multidisciplinary, is still dominated by post-positivist approaches that have the tendency to position the researcher as an expert and the participant as subordinate thereby perpetuating an unequal balance of power. Despite physical activity’s and sport’s universal appeal, their historic practices have excluded particular groups of people who assumed lesser forms of human capital. Adapted physical activity (APA) is a field that has responded to those segregations with specific application and relevance to people with impairments. Nevertheless, to date, similar to physical activity and sport, research in APA is still dominated by post-positivist epistemology. Stemming from this, there is gradually growing criticism within the field related to the abundance of research ‘on’ people with impairments and lack of research ‘with’ and ‘by’ people with impairments. Furthermore, research questions in the field are most often pursued from a single axis of analysis and constructed by non-disabled researchers. Concurrently, while calls for interdisciplinary approaches to understanding disability are growing in popularity, there is also a clear need to take an intersectionality-informed research methodology to understanding physical activity and sport and power (im)balances therein. In other words, impairment needs to be considered in conjunction with other socially and politically constructed and historically embedded differences such as gender, race, class, etc. when analyzing physical activity and sport experiences for people with impairments. Moreover, it is reasonable to argue that non-disabled researchers must recognize and theorize ableism in its complicated intersectional manifestation to show the structural constraints that disabled scholars face in the field. Consequently, this presentation will offer an alternative approach that acknowledges and prioritizes the perspectives and experiences of people with impairments to expand the field of APA. As such, the importance of broadening epistemologies in APA and prioritizing an appreciation for multiple bits of knowledge of people with impairments through intersections of social locations (e.g., gender, race, class) will be considered.

Keywords: adapted physical activity, disability, intersectionality, post-positivist, power imbalances

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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: Hong Yu, Dirk Heider, Suresh Advani

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Increasing demands for high strength and lightweight materials in aircraft industry prompted the wide use of carbon composites in recent decades. Carbon composite laminates used on aircraft structures are subject to lightning strikes. Unlike its metal/alloy counterparts, carbon fiber reinforced composites demonstrate smaller electrical conductivity, yielding more severe damages due to Joule heating. The anisotropic nature of composite laminates makes the electrical and thermal conduction within carbon composite laminates even more complicated. Good understanding of the electrical conduction behavior of carbon composites is the key to effective lightning protection design. The goal of this study is to numerically and experimentally investigate the impact of ultra-high temperature induced by simulated lightning strike on the electrical conduction of carbon composites. A lightning simulator is designed to apply standard lightning current waveform to composite laminates. Multiple carbon composite laminates made from IM7 and AS4 carbon fiber are tested and the transient resistance data is recorded. A microstructure based resistor network model is developed to describe the electrical and thermal conduction behavior, with consideration of temperature dependent material properties. Material degradations such as thermal and electrical breakdown are also modeled to include the effect of high current and high temperature induced by lightning strikes. Good match between the simulation results and experimental data indicates that the developed model captures the major conduction mechanisms. A parametric study is then conducted using the validated model to investigate the effect of system parameters such as fiber volume fraction, inter-ply interface quality, and lightning current waveforms.

Keywords: carbon composite, joule heating, lightning strike, resistor network

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Authors: Moetazza M. Alshafei, Ahmed M. Mabrouk, Emtenan M. Hanafi, Manal M. Ramadan, Reda M. S. Korany, Seham S. Kassem, Dina Mostafa Mohammed

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Metabolic syndrome (MeS) is a major health problem with a high incidence of obese individuals worldwide. Increased related morbidity of diabetes, hypertension and fatty liver disease, and complicated cardiovascular disease are inevitable. Boswellia serrata gum (Bos) is a promising traditional medicinal plant; it has several pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antilipase activities. Probiotics (Bac) supplements have good benefits on health and MeS, whether it is supplemented in combination with prebiotics or alone. Microencapsulation helps to mask unpalatable taste and odor and deliver active ingredients to targeted organs. Methodology MeS rat model was produced by feeding rats with a high fat, high CHO diet (HFD). Bos was extracted, and both Bos and the probiotic were microencapsulated with a spray drier. Female rats were divided into 5 groups (N8). HFD control, control normal receiving basic diet, HFD treated, from the start of the experiment, either with encapsulated Bos, Bac and Bos or Bac only, all treatments were received for eight weeks (after approval from NRC animal ethical committee). Serum was collected to analyze lipid profile, blood sugar, liver and kidney functions, antioxidants, leptin, and progesterone. Rat's organs and body fat were weighed and collected for histopathology. Statistical analysis was done by use of one way Anova test in the SPSS program. Results showed control of elevated body weight, lipid profile, and glucose levels as well as decrease of body fat index and improvement of histopathology of liver and heart, especially in combination. Conclusion: We concluded that both microencapsulated Bos and probiotics have a controlling effect on MeS parameters.

Keywords: metabolic syndrome, Boswellia serata, probiotic, micro-encapsulation, histopathology, liver steatosis

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Authors: A. Bertašienė

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Energy harvesting from any structure makes a challenge. Different structure of air/wind flows in industrial, environmental and residential applications emerge the real flow investigation in detail. Many of the application fields are hardly achievable to the detailed description due to the lack of up-to-date statistical data analysis. In situ measurements aim crucial investments thus the simulation methods come to implement structural analysis of the flows. Different configurations of testing environment give an overview how important is the simple structure of field in limited area on efficiency of the system operation and the energy output. Several configurations of modeled working sections in air flow test facility was implemented in CFD ANSYS environment to compare experimentally and numerically air flow development stages and forms that make effects on efficiency of devices and processes. Effective form and amount of these flows under different geometry cases define the manner of instruments/devices that measure fluid flow parameters for effective operation of any system and emission flows to define. Different fluid flow regimes were examined to show the impact of fluctuations on the development of the whole volume of the flow in specific environment. The obtained results rise the discussion on how these simulated flow fields are similar to real application ones. Experimental results have some discrepancies from simulation ones due to the models implemented to fluid flow analysis in initial stage, not developed one and due to the difficulties of models to cover transitional regimes. Recommendations are essential for energy harvesting systems in both, indoor and outdoor cases. Further investigations aim to be shifted to experimental analysis of flow under laboratory conditions using state-of-the-art techniques as flow visualization tool and later on to in situ situations that is complicated, cost and time consuming study.

Keywords: fluid flow, initial region, tube coefficient, distinct shape

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Authors: Lotsmart Fonjong

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The livelihood of rural communities in the West African state of Cameroon, which is largely dictated by natural forces (rainfall, temperatures, and soil), is today threatened by climate change and armed conflict. This paper investigates the extent to which rural communities are aware of climate change, how their perceptions of changes across different agro-ecological zones have impacted farming practices, output, and lifestyles, on the one hand, and the extent to which local armed conflicts are confounding their efforts and adaptation abilities. The paper is based on a survey conducted among small farmers in selected localities within the forest and savanna ecological zones of the conflict-ridden Northwest and Southwest Cameroon. Attention is paid to farmers’ gender, scale, and type of farming. Farmers’ perception of/and response to climate change are analysed alongside local rainfall and temperature data and mobilization for climate justice. Findings highlight the fact that farmers’ perception generally corroborates local climatic data. Climatic instability has negatively affected farmers’ output, food prices, standards of living, and food security. However, the vulnerability of the population varies across ecological zones, gender, and crop types. While these factors also account for differences in local response and adaptation to climate change, ongoing armed conflicts in these regions have further complicated opportunities for climate-driven agricultural innovations, inputs, and exchange of information among farmers. This situation underlines how poor communities, as victims, are forced into many complex problems outsider their making. It is therefore important to mainstream farmers’ perceptions and differences into policy strategies that consider both climate change and Anglophone conflict as national security concerns foe sustainable development in Cameroon.

Keywords: adaptation policies, climate change, conflict, small farmers, cameroon

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Authors: Nobuyuki Takemoto, Ai Koyanagi, Masanori Yasuda, Hiroshi Yamamoto

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Background: Fluorescence imaging (FI) is one of the methods to identify sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs). However, the procedure is technically complicated and requires procedural skills, as SLN biopsy must be conducted in dim light conditions. As an improved version of this method, we introduced a combined method (Combined mixed dye and fluorescence; CMF) consisting of indigo carmine blue dye and FI. The direct visualization of SLNs under shadowless surgical light conditions is facilitated by the addition of the blue dye. We compared the SLN detection rates of CMF with that of the indocyanine green (ICG) dye method (ICG-D). Methods: A total of 202 patients with stage ≤ IIA breast cancer who underwent breast conservative therapy with separate incision from January 2004 to February 2017 were reviewed. Details of the two methods are as follows: (1) ICG-D: 2ml of ICG (10mg) was used and the green-stained SLNs were resected via a 3-4cm axillary incision; (2) CMF: A combination of 1ml of ICG (5mg) and 1-3ml of indigo carmine (4-12mg) was used. Using Photodynamic Eye (PDE), a 1.5-2 cm incision was made near the point of disappearance of the fluorescence and SLNs with intermediate color of blue and green were resected. Results: There were 92 ICG-D and 110 CMF cases. CMF resulted in a significantly higher detection rate than ICG-D (96.4% vs. 83.7%; p=0.003). This difference was particularly notable in those aged ≥ 60 years (98.3% vs. 74.3%) and individuals with BMI ≥ 25kg/m2 (90.3% vs. 58.3%). Conclusion: CMF is an effective method to identify SLNs which is safe, efficient, and cost-effective. Furthermore, radiation exposure can be avoided, and it can be performed in institutes without nuclear medicine facilities. CMF achieves a high SLN identification rate, and most of this procedure is feasible under shadowless surgical light conditions. CMF can reliably perform SLN biopsy even in those aged ≥ 60 years and individuals with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2.

Keywords: sentinel lymph node biopsy, identification rate, indocyanine green (ICG), indigocarmine, fluorescence

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Authors: Eric Jacob Bacon, Chaoyang Jin, Dianning He, Shuaishuai Hu, Lanbo Wang, Han Li, Shouliang Qi

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Objective: Refractory epilepsy is a complicated type of epilepsy that can be difficult to diagnose. Recent technological advancements have made resting-state functional magnetic resonance (rsfMRI) a vital technique for studying brain activity. However, there is still much to learn about rsfMRI. Investigating rsfMRI connectivity may aid in the detection of abnormal activities. In this paper, we propose studying the functional connectivity of rsfMRI candidates to diagnose epilepsy. Methods: 45 rsfMRI candidates, comprising 26 with refractory epilepsy and 19 healthy controls, were enrolled in this study. A data-driven approach known as independent component analysis (ICA) was used to achieve our goal. First, rsfMRI data from both patients and healthy controls were analyzed using group ICA. The components that were obtained were then spatially sorted to find and select meaningful ones. A two-sample t-test was also used to identify abnormal networks in patients and healthy controls. Finally, based on the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), a chi-square statistic test was used to distinguish the network properties of the patient and healthy control groups. Results: The two-sample t-test analysis yielded abnormal in the default mode network, including the left superior temporal lobe and the left supramarginal. The right precuneus was found to be abnormal in the dorsal attention network. In addition, the frontal cortex showed an abnormal cluster in the medial temporal gyrus. In contrast, the temporal cortex showed an abnormal cluster in the right middle temporal gyrus and the right fronto-operculum gyrus. Finally, the chi-square statistic test was significant, producing a p-value of 0.001 for the analysis. Conclusion: This study offers evidence that investigating rsfMRI connectivity provides an excellent diagnosis option for refractory epilepsy.

Keywords: ICA, RSN, refractory epilepsy, rsfMRI

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Authors: Aderemi, Moses Aderibigbe

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The supply chain of a manufacturing company can be classified into three categories, namely: 1) supplier chain, these are a network of suppliers of raw materials, machinery, and other requirements for daily operations for the company; 2) internal chain, which are departmental or functional relationships within the organization like production, finance, marketing, logistic and quality control departments all interacting together to achieve the goals and objective of the company; and 3) customer chain; these are networks used for products distribution to the final consumer which includes the product distributors and retailers in the marketplace as may be applicable. In a developing country like Nigeria, where government infrastructures are poor or, in some cases, none in existence, the survival of a small-scale manufacturing company often depends on how effectively its supply chain is managed. In Nigeria, suppliers of machinery and raw materials to most manufacturing companies are from low-cost but high-tech countries like China or India. The problem with the supply chain from these countries apart from the language barrier between these countries and Nigeria, is also that of product quality and after-sales support services. The internal chain also requires funding to employ an experienced and trained workforce to deliver the company’s goals and objectives effectively and efficiently, which is always a challenge for small-scale manufacturers, including product marketing. In Nigeria, the management of the supply chain by small-scale manufacturers is further complicated by unfavourable government policies. This empirical research is a review and analysis of the supply chain management of a small-scale manufacturing company located in Lagos, Nigeria. The company's performance for the past five years has been on the decline and company management thinks there is a need for a review of its supply chain management for business survival. The company’s supply chain is analyzed and compared with best global practices in this research, and recommendations are made to the company management. The research outcome justifies the company’s need for a strategic change in its supply chain management for business sustainability and provides a learning point to small-scale manufacturing companies from developing countries in Africa

Keywords: management, small scale, supply chain, companies, leaders

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Authors: Ben Nadler

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Cell adhesion plays a vital role in many cell activities. The motivation to model cell adhesion is to study important biological processes, such as cell spreading, cell aggregation, tissue formation, and cell adhesion, which are very challenging to study by experimental methods alone. This study provides important insight into cell adhesion, which can lead to improve regenerative medicine and tissue formation techniques. In this presentation the biological cells adhesion is mediated by receptors–ligands binding and the diffusivity of the receptor on the cell membrane surface. The ability of receptors to diffuse on the cell membrane surface yields a very unique and complicated adhesion mechanism, which is exclusive to cells. The phospholipid bilayer, which is the main component in the cell membrane, shows fluid-like behavior associated with the molecules’ diffusivity. The biological cell is modeled as a fluid-like membrane with negligible bending stiffness enclosing the cytoplasm fluid. The in-plane mechanical behavior of the cell membrane is assumed to depend only on the area change, which is motivated by the fluidity of the phospholipid bilayer. In addition, the presence of receptors influences on the local mechanical properties of the cell membrane is accounted for by including stress-free area change, which depends on the receptor density. Based on the physical properties of the receptors and ligands the attraction between the receptors and ligands is modeled as a charged-nonpolar which is a noncovalent interaction. Such interaction is a short-range type, which decays fast with distance. The mobility of the receptor on the cell membrane is modeled using the diffusion equation and Fick’s law is used to model the receptor–receptor interactions. The resultant interaction force, which includes receptor–ligand and receptor–receptor interaction, is decomposed into tangential part, which governs the receptor diffusion, and normal part, which governs the cell deformation and adhesion. The formulation of the governing equations and numerical simulations will be presented. Analysis of the adhesion characteristic and properties are discussed. The roles of various thermomechanical properties of the cell, receptors and ligands on the cell adhesion are investigated.

Keywords: cell adhesion, cell membrane, receptor-ligand interaction, receptor diffusion

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Authors: Majid Aldalbahi

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In 2009, over 3.4 billion people in the world resided in urban areas as a result of rapid urban growth. This figure is estimated to increase to 6.5 billion by 2050. This urban growth phenomenon has raised challenges for many countries in both the developing and developed worlds. Urban growth is a complicated process involving the spatiotemporal changes of all socio-economic and physical components at different scales. The socio-economic components of urban growth are related to urban population growth and economic growth, while physical components of urban growth and economic growth are related to spatial expansion, land cover change and land use change which are the focus of this research. The interactions between these components are complex and no-linear. Several factors and forces cause these complex interactions including transportation and communication, internal and international migrations, public policies, high natural growth rates of urban populations and public policies. Urban growth has positive and negative consequences. The positive effects relates to planned and orderly urban growth, while negative effects relate to unplanned and scattered growth, which is called sprawl. Although urban growth is considered as necessary for sustainable urbanization, uncontrolled and rapid growth cause various problems including consumption of precious rural land resources at urban fringe, landscape alteration, traffic congestion, infrastructure pressure, and neighborhood conflicts. Traditional urban planning approaches in fast growing cities cannot accommodate the negative consequences of rapid urban growth. Microsimulation programme, and modelling techniques are effective means to provide new urban development, management and planning methods and approaches. This paper aims to use these techniques to understand and analyse the complex interactions for the case study of Riyadh city, a fast growing city in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: policy implications, urban planning, traffic congestion, urban growth, Suadi Arabia, Riyadh

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Authors: Farheen Tabassum, Shoab Ahmed Khan

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The brutality of attacks on networks and decisive infrastructures are on the climb over recent years and appears to continue to do so. Distributed Denial of service attack is the most prevalent and easy attack on the availability of a service due to the easy availability of large botnet computers at cheap price and the general lack of protection against these attacks. Application layer DDoS attack is DDoS attack that is targeted on wed server, application server or database server. These types of attacks are much more sophisticated and challenging as they get around most conventional network security devices because attack traffic often impersonate normal traffic and cannot be recognized by network layer anomalies. Conventional techniques of single-hosted security systems are becoming gradually less effective in the face of such complicated and synchronized multi-front attacks. In order to protect from such attacks and intrusion, corporation among all network devices is essential. To overcome this issue, a collaborative intrusion detection system (CIDS) is proposed in which multiple network devices share valuable information to identify attacks, as a single device might not be capable to sense any malevolent action on its own. So it helps us to take decision after analyzing the information collected from different sources. This novel attack detection technique helps to detect seemingly benign packets that target the availability of the critical infrastructure, and the proposed solution methodology shall enable the incident response teams to detect and react to DDoS attacks at the earliest stage to ensure that the uptime of the service remain unaffected. Experimental evaluation shows that the proposed collaborative detection approach is much more effective and efficient than the previous approaches.

Keywords: Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS), Collaborative Intrusion Detection System (CIDS), Slowloris, OSSIM (Open Source Security Information Management tool), OSSEC HIDS

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Authors: Ishrat Zakia Sultana

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The solution to the Rohingya crisis has become complicated than it was anticipated. Because of consistent persecution, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against the Rohingya in Burma, four major influxes of the Rohingya people took place to the neighboring country Bangladesh. After the latest influx of October 2016 and August 2017, the total number of Rohingya in Bangladesh stands somewhere between 900,000 to over one million, placing Bangladesh much ahead with the number of refugees compared to Dadaab and Kakuma in Kenya, Bidibidi in Uganda, and Zaatari in Jordan. While Bangladesh received recognition and appreciation for receiving such a large number of Rohingya, eventually finding a solution to the Rohingya crisis has become a serious problem. The host country and the Rohingya themselves long for repatriation, the most desired solution to the crisis. But going back to their own country is now almost an impossible matter due to the unwillingness of the Myanmar government. The other two options to the solution to Rohingya crisis – reintegration in the host country and third country resettlement – have drawn little attention until now. On the one hand, the geopolitical factors have been making the Rohingya crisis complex. On the other, the war and conflict between Russia-Ukraine and Palestine-Israel have lessening the importance of the Rohingya issue and been diverting the world’s attention from the Rohingya crisis. Clearly, without the support of international community, Bangladesh finds no sustainable way to repatriate 1.1 million Rohingya. Yet, possibilities of a third country resettlement remain unexplored. In the past few years, some countries have expressed interest in accepting the Rohingya as part of third country resettlement but the number they wanted to take is like a drop in the ocean. This paper examines the roadblocks for third country resettlement of the Rohingya. It aims to look at the underlying reasons for which international community is less interested in accepting the Rohingya as refugees. Is it the racial and religious identity of the Rohingya that are considered problematic to the resettlement process? In what ways geopolitical complexities affecting the resettlement issue? How do the Rohingya view third country resettlement? This paper looks for the answers to these questions. The paper is based on qualitative study conducted from 2016-2018 and 2021-2023 in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The camp management authority, the Rohingya themselves, and the NGOs working in the camp participated in the study.

Keywords: rohingya, refugee, resettlement, bangladesh

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Authors: Jin-Siang Shaw, Patricia Moya Caceres, Sheng-Xiang Xu

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This paper aims to integrate the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method with the adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller (AFSMC) to achieve vibration attenuation in a piezoelectric actuator subject to base excitation. The piezoelectric actuator is a complicated system made of ferroelectric materials and its performance can be affected by nonlinear hysteresis loop and unknown system parameters and external disturbances. In this study, an adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller is proposed for the vibration control of the system, because the fuzzy sliding mode controller is designed to tackle the unknown parameters and external disturbance of the system, and the adaptive algorithm is aimed for fine-tuning this controller for error converging purpose. Particle swarm optimization method is used in order to find the optimal controller parameters for the piezoelectric actuator. PSO starts with a population of random possible solutions, called particles. The particles move through the search space with dynamically adjusted speed and direction that change according to their historical behavior, allowing the values of the particles to quickly converge towards the best solutions for the proposed problem. In this paper, an initial set of controller parameters is applied to the piezoelectric actuator which is subject to resonant base excitation with large amplitude vibration. The resulting vibration suppression is about 50%. Then PSO is applied to search for an optimal controller in the neighborhood of this initial controller. The performance of the optimal fuzzy sliding mode controller found by PSO indeed improves up to 97.8% vibration attenuation. Finally, adaptive version of fuzzy sliding mode controller is adopted for further improving vibration suppression. Simulation result verifies the performance of the adaptive controller with 99.98% vibration reduction. Namely the vibration of the piezoelectric actuator subject to resonant base excitation can be completely annihilated using this PSO based adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller.

Keywords: adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller, particle swarm optimization, piezoelectric actuator, vibration suppression

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Authors: Shahin Marjan Nanaje

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The present century is the time that social worker faced complicated issues in the area of their work. All the focus are on bringing change in the life of those that they live in margin or live in poverty became the cause that we have forgotten to look at ourselves and start to bring change in the way we address issues. It seems that there is new area of needs that social worker should response to that. In need of dialogue and collaboration, to address the issues and needs of community both individually and as a group we need to have new method of dialogue as tools to reach to collaboration. The social worker as link between community, organization and government play multiple roles. They need to focus in the area of communication with new ability, to transfer all the narration of the community to those organization and government and vice versa. It is not relate only in language but it is about changing dialogue. Migration for survival by job seeker to the big cities created its own issues and difficulty and therefore created new need. Collaboration is not only requiring between government sector and non-government sectors but also it could be in new way between government, non-government and communities. To reach to this collaboration we need healthy, productive and meaningful dialogue. In this new collaboration there will not be any hierarchy between members. The methodology that selected by researcher were focusing on observation at the first place, and used questionnaire in the second place. Duration of the research was three months and included home visits, group discussion and using communal narrations which helped to bring enough evidence to understand real need of community. The sample selected randomly was included 70 immigrant families which work as sweepers in the slum community in Bangalore, Karnataka. The result reveals that there is a gap between what a community is and what organizations, government and members of society apart from this community think about them. Consequently, it is learnt that to supply any service or bring any change to slum community, we need to apply new skill to have dialogue and understand each other before providing any services. Also to bring change in the life of those marginal groups at large we need to have collaboration as their challenges are collective and need to address by different group and collaboration will be necessary. The outcome of research helped researcher to see the area of need for new method of dialogue and collaboration as well as a framework for collaboration and dialogue that were main focus of the paper. The researcher used observation experience out of ten NGO’s and their activities to create framework for dialogue and collaboration.

Keywords: collaboration, dialogue, community development, empowerment

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Authors: Venuka Kuruwita Arachchige Don, Mohamed Shaheen, Chris Goodier

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Aerated autoclaved concrete (AAC) is known for its lightweight, easy handling, high thermal insulation, and extremely porous structure. Investigation of pore behavior in AAC is crucial for characterizing the material, standardizing design and production techniques, enhancing the mechanical, durability, and thermal performance, studying the effectiveness of protective measures, and analyzing the effects of weather conditions. The significant details of pores are complicated to observe with acknowledged accuracy. The High-resolution Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) image analysis is a promising technique for investigating the pore behavior and density of AAC, which is adopted in this study. Mercury intrusion porosimeter and gas pycnometer were employed to characterize porosity distribution and density parameters. The analysis considered three different densities of AAC blocks and three layers in the altitude direction within each block. A set of understandings was presented to extract and analyze the details of pore shape, pore size, pore connectivity, and pore percentages from FESEM images of AAC. Average pore behavior outcomes per unit area were presented. Comparison of porosity distribution and density parameters revealed significant variations. FESEM imaging offered unparalleled insights into porosity behavior, surpassing the capabilities of other techniques. The analysis conducted from a multi-staged approach provides porosity percentage occupied by various pore categories, total porosity, variation of pore distribution compared to AAC densities and layers, number of two-dimensional and three-dimensional pores, variation of apparent and matrix densities concerning pore behaviors, variation of pore behavior with respect to aluminum content, and relationship among shape, diameter, connectivity, and percentage in each pore classification.

Keywords: autoclaved aerated concrete, density, imaging technique, microstructure, porosity behavior

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Authors: Tedman Cheuk-Yiu Chau, Xavier Harvey, Hung Nguyen

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Defunctioning ileostomies are frequently used as an adjunct to low anterior resection in the surgical treatment of rectal cancer. Despite reducing the rate of clinically relevant anastomotic leak, the burden of defunctioning ileostomy is significant, with up to two-thirds of patients reporting stoma-related morbidity. International data have demonstrated an increased risk of bowel dysfunction and lower quality of life in patients with delayed closure (greater than six months post-surgery). While timely reversal is safe and cost-effective, the time to the reversal in Australian and New Zealand public hospitals is not described in the published literature. Thus, it is important to assess the current timeliness of ileostomy closure in the Australian regional context and examine the reasons for the delay. A retrospective analysis of ileostomy closure in Launceston General Hospital (LGH) patients treated with low/ultra low anterior resection for rectal cancer between 2012 and 2019 was undertaken. 94 cases of rectal adenocarcinoma undergoing ultralow anterior resection were examined over the years between 2012-2019. Amongst these, 21 cases (22.3%) were not reversed due to disease progress, death prior to reversal, or surgical complication. Demographics, disease status, surgical technique, and hospital inpatient events of these cases were examined. An average waiting time of 213.2 days was noted. Reasons for the delay include non-specified/prolonged hospital waiting time (54%), delayed or complicated chemotherapy course (13%), surgical complication (11%), advanced age, and frailty(5%). Complication of a delayed ileostomy reversal includes post-operation ileus and the development of an incisional hernia. We conclude that a delayed reversal of ileostomy can contribute to a higher incidence of stoma-related co-morbidities and contribute to a longer hospital stay and therefore use of public hospital resources.

Keywords: anterior resection, colorectal surgery, ileostomy reversal, rectal cancer

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Authors: Debabrata Adhikari, Mikhail Matveev, Louise Brown, Jan Kočí, Andy Long

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Resin transfer molding (RTM) is increasingly used for manufacturing high-quality composite structures due to its additional advantages over prepregs of low-cost out-of-autoclave processing. However, to retain the advantages, it is critical to reduce the void content during the injection. Reinforcements commonly used in RTM, such as woven fabrics, have dual-scale porosity with mesoscale pores between the yarns and the micro-scale pores within the yarns. Due to the fabric geometry and the nature of the dual-scale flow, the flow front during injection creates a complicated fingering formation which leads to void formation. Analytical modeling of void formation for woven fabrics has been widely studied elsewhere. However, there is scope for improvement to the reduction in void formation in 3D fabrics wherein the in-plane yarn layers are confined by additional through-thickness binder yarns. In the present study, the structural morphology of the tortuous pore spaces in the 3D fabric has been studied and implemented using open-source software TexGen. An analytical model for the void and the fingering formation has been implemented based on an idealized unit cell model of the 3D fabric. Since the pore spaces between the yarns are free domains, the region is treated as flow-through connected channels, whereas intra-yarn flow has been modeled using Darcy’s law with an additional term to account for capillary pressure. Later the void fraction has been characterised using the criterion of void formation by comparing the fill time for inter and intra yarn flow. Moreover, the dual-scale two-phase flow of resin with air has been simulated in the commercial CFD solver OpenFOAM/ANSYS to predict the probable location of voids and validate the analytical model. The use of an idealised unit cell model will give the insight to optimise the mesoscale geometry of the reinforcement and injection parameters to minimise the void content during the LCM process.

Keywords: 3D fiber, void formation, RTM, process modelling

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Authors: Margarida Matos, João Pereira dos Santos, José Tavares

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Anti-minority discrimination is a persistent phenomenon with long-run effects. While there is a vast literature in economics and psychology that shows that personality and beliefs are not fixed and can be altered by experience, particularly in the so-called impressionable years in early adulthood, less is known about the long-lasting impacts of major events occurring during this time on minority attitudes. In this paper, we study the impact of serving in the military on long-term attitudes towards minorities. For many, military conscription and serving in war are unique life-shaping events. In the context of military service, individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds interact and learn with each other, potentially changing their views and attitudes in a persistent manner. A prominent theory about the change of attitudes is the contact theory. It suggests that prejudice can be decreased if members of the groups interact with one another. The present paper adds to the literature by providing evidence from a more complicated setting involving the exposure to combat. We study the attitudes of veterans of the Portuguese Colonial War between 1961 and 1974, what was the latest war between African independence movements and Europeans. More than 70 percent of military age Portuguese men were drafted every year and sent to fight in Africa in the widest draft in post-World War II Western Europe. The contact between Portuguese and African soldiers was both cooperative as well as adversarial. Portuguese fought against but also alongside locally recruited African men, who represented half of the Portuguese contingent for substantial periods. We use data from the European Social Survey to identify Portuguese citizens likely to have been drafted and were send to fight in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. We show that men likely to have fought in African wars are more accepting of immigrants than women of their same cohort, as well as than males from younger and older cohorts. The use of corresponding cohorts from Spain as placebo tests confirms our results. Our findings also hold in a regression discontinuity design setting.

Keywords: attitudes, immigration, war in Africa, veterans, portugal

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Authors: Yu Liang

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The study of heritage in different contexts has been discussed during the past decades, which the relationship with other fields such as tourism, museum, and urban regeneration has also been interested in scholars. Governmental and policy attention were also fascinated by the use of heritage, which it is a ‘heritagisation’ process, to achieve certain goals because the advantage will appear in both economic development and social inclusion with suitable planning. In the case of Belfast, this city has been through tough ages due to its complicated ideology issues in the past; however, it is obvious to see the transformation through representing their Belfast heritages in tourism. Planners are willing to use this method to attract cultural tourists, investors and also residents to reborn and retrieve their confidence. One of the target topics is the establishment of Titanic Belfast that explores the culture of Titanic and the history of the shipbuilding industry in Belfast. Even though the cultural flagship brought economic and social benefit, not all of the people agreed on the vision of relaunching a sunken ship and felt proud of it. The aim of this research is to clarify the concept of a ‘heritagisation’ that it could achieve certain goals in consolidating areas, increasing local self-identity pride, and promoting tourism activities if well-planned. Moreover, to discuss the preference and the pros and cons of its practice with the Titanic culture in Belfast’s regeneration process, especially the Titanic Belfast flagship project. From the methodological point of view, a mixed incorporating qualitative point of interviews, observation, and secondary sources with different perspectives and approaches are adopted in this case study. The expected result would show that a great majority of outsiders and the planners were pleasured about the concept of Titanic Belfast’s establishment and agreed its attraction traveling to Belfast. Nevertheless, there were still an amount of locals disagree that the Titanic culture and the flagship would be representative of this city and would bring other advantages to them. In other words, some residents doubt or less likely to support the issue since they have been ignored out of the planning process. Hence, opinions are divided among 38 residents, various outsiders, and stakeholders, and their perspectives have drawn an interesting task for sustainable research in the future.

Keywords: Belfast, heritagisation, Titanic, Titanic Belfast, urban regeneration

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Authors: Radwa Elshorbagy, Alaa Elden Balbaa, Khaled Ayad, Waleed Reda

Abstract:

Introduction: Ankle sprain is a common lower limb injury that is complicated by high recurrence rate. The cause of recurrence is not clear; however, changes in motor control have been postulated. Objective: to determine the contribution of proximal hip strategy to dynamic postural control in patients with recurrent ankle sprain. Methods: Fifteen subjects with recurrent ankle sprain (group A) and fifteen healthy control subjects (group B) participated in this study. Abductor-adductors as well as flexor-extensor hip musculatures control was abolished by fatigue using the Biodex Isokinetic System. Dynamic postural control was measured before and after fatigue by the Biodex Balance System. Results: Repeated measures MANOVA was used to compare between and within group differences, in group A fatiguing of hip muscles (flexors-extensors and abductors-adductors) increased overall stability index (OASI), anteroposterior stability index (APSI) and mediolateral stability index (MLSI) significantly (p=0.00) whereas; in group B fatiguing of hip flexors-extensors increased significantly OASI and APSI only (p= 0.017, 0.010; respectively) while fatiguing of hip abductors-adductors has no significant effect on these variables. Moreover, patients with ankle sprain had significantly lower dynamic balance after hip muscles fatigue compared to the control group. Specifically, after hip flexor-extensor fatigue, the OASI, APSI and MLSI were increased significantly than those of the control values (p= 0.002, 0.011, and 0.003, respectively) whereas fatiguing of hip abductors-adductors increased significantly in OASI and APSI only (p=0.012, 0.026, respectively). Conclusion: To maintain dynamic balance, patients with recurrent ankle sprain seem to rely more on the hip strategy. This means that those patients depend on a top to down instead of down to top strategy clinical relevance: patients with recurrent ankle sprain less efficient in maintaining the dynamic postural control due to the change in motor strategies. Indicating that health care providers and rehabilitation specialists should treat CAI as a global/central and not just as a simple local or peripheral injury.

Keywords: hip strategy, ankle strategy, postural control, dynamic balance

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Authors: Thanida Sujarittham, Narumon Emarat, Jintawat Tanamatayarat, Kwan Arayathanitkul, Suchai Nopparatjamjomras

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Electric field is an important fundamental concept in electrostatics. In high-school, generally Thai students have already learned about definition of electric field, electric field due to a point charge, and superposition of electric fields due to multiple-point charges. Those are the prerequisite basic knowledge students holding before entrancing universities. In the first-year university level, students will be quickly revised those basic knowledge and will be then introduced to a more complicated topic—electric field due to continuous charged distributions. We initially found that our freshman students, who were from the Faculty of Science and enrolled in the introductory physic course (SCPY 158), often seriously struggled with the basic physics concepts—superposition of electric fields and inverse square law and mathematics being relevant to this topic. These also then resulted on students’ understanding of advanced topics within the course such as Gauss's law, electric potential difference, and capacitance. Therefore, it is very important to determine students' understanding of electric field due to continuous charged distributions. The open-ended question about sketching net electric field vectors from a uniformly charged insulating rod was administered to 260 freshman science students as pre- and post-tests. All of their responses were analyzed and classified into five levels of understandings. To get deep understanding of each level, 30 students were interviewed toward their individual responses. The pre-test result found was that about 90% of students had incorrect understanding. Even after completing the lectures, there were only 26.5% of them could provide correct responses. Up to 50% had confusions and irrelevant ideas. The result implies that teaching methods in Thai high schools may be problematic. In addition for our benefit, these students’ alternative conceptions identified could be used as a guideline for developing the instructional method currently used in the course especially for teaching electrostatics.

Keywords: alternative conceptions, electric field of continuous charged distributions, inverse square law, levels of student understandings, superposition principle

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Authors: Nadia Akbarpour

Abstract:

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a forceful and obliterating illness, which is portrayed by intrusiveness, fast movement, and significant protection from treatment. Advances in neurotic arrangement and malignant growth hereditary qualities have worked on our illustrative comprehension of this infection; be that as it may, significant parts of pancreatic disease science remain ineffectively comprehended. A superior comprehension of pancreatic disease science should lead the way to more viable medicines. In the course of the most recent couple of years, there have been significant advances in the sub-atomic and organic comprehension of pancreatic malignancy. This included comprehension of the genomic intricacy of the illness, the job of pancreatic malignant growth undifferentiated organisms, the importance of the growth microenvironment, and the one-of-a-kind metabolic transformation of pancreas disease cells to acquire supplements under hypoxic climate. Endeavors have been made towards the advancement of the practical answer for its treatment with compelled achievement due to its complicated science. It is grounded that pancreatic malignancy undifferentiated cells (CSCs), yet present in a little count, contribute extraordinarily to PC inception, movement, and metastasis. Standard chemo and radiotherapeutic choices, notwithstanding, grow general endurance, the connected aftereffects are a huge concern. In the midst of the latest decade, our understanding with regards to atomic and cell pathways engaged with PC and the job of CSCs in its movement has expanded massively. By and by, the center is to target CSCs. The natural items have acquired a lot of thought as of late as they, generally, sharpen CSCs to chemotherapy and target atomic flagging engaged with different cancers, including PC. Some arranged investigations have demonstrated promising outcomes recommending that assessments in this course bring a ton to the table for the treatment of PC. Albeit preclinical investigations uncovered the significance of natural items in lessening pancreatic carcinoma, restricted examinations have been led to assess their part in centers. The current survey gives another knowledge to late advances in pancreatic malignancy science, treatment, and the current status of natural items in its expectation.

Keywords: pancreatic, genomic, organic, cancer

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Authors: Tarek Duzan

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Fractures are a fundamental property of most reservoirs. Despite their abundance, they remain difficult to detect and quantify. The most effective characterization of fractured reservoirs is accomplished by integrating geological, geophysical, and engineering data. Detection of fractures and defines their relative contribution is crucial in the early stages of exploration and later in the production of any field. Because fractures could completely change our thoughts, efforts, and planning to produce a specific field properly. From the structural point of view, all reservoirs are fractured to some point of extent. North Gialo field is thought to be a naturally fractured reservoir to some extent. Historically, natural fractured reservoirs are more complicated in terms of their exploration and production efforts, and most geologists tend to deny the presence of fractures as an effective variable. Our aim in this paper is to determine the degree of fracturing, and consequently, our evaluation and planning can be done properly and efficiently from day one. The challenging part in this field is that there is no enough data and straightforward well testing that can let us completely comfortable with the idea of fracturing; however, we cannot ignore the fractures completely. Logging images, available well testing, and limited core studies are our tools in this stage to evaluate, model, and predict possible fracture effects in this reservoir. The aims of this study are both fundamental and practical—to improve the prediction and diagnosis of natural-fracture attributes in N. Gialo hydrocarbon reservoirs and accurately simulate their influence on production. Moreover, the production of this field comes from 2-phase plan; a self depletion of oil and then gas injection period for pressure maintenance and increasing ultimate recovery factor. Therefore, well understanding of fracturing network is essential before proceeding with the targeted plan. New analytical methods will lead to more realistic characterization of fractured and faulted reservoir rocks. These methods will produce data that can enhance well test and seismic interpretations, and that can readily be used in reservoir simulators.

Keywords: natural fracture, sandstone reservoir, geological, geophysical, and engineering data

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: Radwa El Shorbagy, Alaa El Din Balbaa, Khaled Ayad, Waleed Reda

Abstract:

Introduction: Ankle sprain is a common lower limb injury that is complicated by high recurrence rate. The cause of recurrence is not clear; however, changes in motor control have been postulated. Objective: to determine the contribution of proximal hip strategy to dynamic postural control in patients with recurrent ankle sprain. Methods: Fifteen subjects with recurrent ankle sprain (group A) and fifteen healthy control subjects (group B) participated in this study. Abductor-adductors as well as flexor-extensor hip musculatures control was abolished by fatigue using the Biodex Isokinetic System. Dynamic postural control was measured before and after fatigue by the Biodex Balance System Results: Repeated measures MANOVA was used to compare between and within group differences, In group A fatiguing of hip muscles (flexors-extensors and abductors-adductors) increased overall stability index (OASI), anteroposterior stability index (APSI) and mediolateral stability index (MLSI) significantly (p= 0.00) whereas; in group B fatiguing of hip flexors-extensors increased significantly OASI and APSI only (p= 0.017, 0.010; respectively) while fatiguing of hip abductors-adductors has no significant effect on these variables. Moreover, patients with ankle sprain had significantly lower dynamic balance after hip muscles fatigue compared to the control group. Specifically, after hip flexor-extensor fatigue, the OASI, APSI and MLSI were increased significantly than those of the control values (p= 0.002, 0.011, and 0.003, respectively) whereas fatiguing of hip abductors-adductors increased significantly in OASI and APSI only (p=0.012, 0.026, respectively). Conclusion: To maintain dynamic balance, patients with recurrent ankle sprain seem to relay more on the hip strategy. This means that those patients depend on a top to down instead of down to top strategy clinical relevance: patients with recurrent ankle sprain less efficient in maintaining the dynamic postural control due to the change in motor strategies. Indicating that health care providers and rehabilitation specialists should treat CAI as a global/central and not just as a simple local or peripheral injury.

Keywords: ankle sprain, fatigue hip muscles, dynamic balance

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Authors: Ju-Hong Lee, Ching-Wei Liao

Abstract:

Owing to close antenna spacing between antenna sensors within a compact space, a part of data in one antenna sensor would outflow to other antenna sensors when the antenna sensors in an antenna array operate simultaneously. This phenomenon is called mutual coupling effect (MCE). It has been shown that the performance of antenna array systems can be degraded when the antenna sensors are in close proximity. Especially, in a systems equipped with massive antenna sensors, the degradation of beamforming performance due to the MCE is significantly inevitable. Moreover, it has been shown that even a small angle error between the true direction angle of the desired signal and the steering angle deteriorates the effectiveness of an array beamforming system. However, the true direction vector of the desired signal may not be exactly known in some applications, e.g., the application in land mobile-cellular wireless systems. Therefore, it is worth developing robust techniques to deal with the problem due to the MCE and steering angle error for array beamforming systems. In this paper, we present an efficient technique for performing adaptive beamforming with robust capabilities against the MCE and the steering angle error. Only the data vector received by an antenna array is required by the proposed technique. By using the received array data vector, a correlation matrix is constructed to replace the original correlation matrix associated with the received array data vector. Then, the mutual coupling matrix due to the MCE on the antenna array is estimated through a recursive algorithm. An appropriate estimate of the direction angle of the desired signal can also be obtained during the recursive process. Based on the estimated mutual coupling matrix, the estimated direction angle, and the reconstructed correlation matrix, the proposed technique can effectively cure the performance degradation due to steering angle error and MCE. The novelty of the proposed technique is that the implementation procedure is very simple and the resulting adaptive beamforming performance is satisfactory. Simulation results show that the proposed technique provides much better beamforming performance without requiring complicated complexity as compared with the existing robust techniques.

Keywords: adaptive beamforming, mutual coupling effect, recursive algorithm, steering angle error

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Authors: Mohammad Nazri Abdul Bahari, Nurshafika Mohd Sakeh, Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah

Abstract:

Basal stem rot (BSR) is the most devastating disease in oil palm. Among the oil palm pathogenic fungi, the most prevalent and virulent species associated with BSR is Ganoderma boninense. Early detection of G. boninense attack in oil palm wherein physical symptoms has not yet appeared can offer opportunities to prevent the spread of the necrotrophic fungus. However, poor understanding of molecular defense responses and roles of antifungal metabolites in oil palm against G. boninense has complicated the resolving measures. Hence, characterization of defense-related molecular responses and production of antifungal compounds during early interaction with G. boninense is of utmost important. Four month-old oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) seedlings were artificially infected with G. boninense-inoculated rubber wood block via sitting technique. RNA of samples were extracted from roots and leaves tissues at 0, 3, 7 and 11 days post inoculation (d.p.i) followed with sequencing using RNA-Seq method. Differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) of oil palm-G. boninense interaction were identified, while changes in metabolite profile will be scrutinized related to the DEGs. The RNA-Seq data generated a total of 113,829,376 and 313,293,229 paired-end clean reads from untreated (0 d.p.i) and treated (3, 7, 11 d.p.i) samples respectively, each with two biological replicates. The paired-end reads were mapped to Elaeis guineensis reference genome to screen out non-oil palm genes and subsequently generated 74,794 coding sequences. DEG analysis of phytohormone biosynthetic genes in oil palm roots revealed that at p-value ≤ 0.01, ethylene and jasmonic acid may act in antagonistic manner with salicylic acid to coordinate defense response at early interaction with G. boninense. Findings on metabolite profiling of G. boninense-infected oil palm roots and leaves are hoped to explain the defense-related compounds elicited by Elaeis guineensis in response to G. boninense colonization. The study aims to shed light on molecular defense response of oil palm at early interaction with G. boninense and promote prevention measures against Ganoderma infection.

Keywords: Ganoderma boninense, metabolites, phytohormones, RNA-Seq

Procedia PDF Downloads 265