Search results for: linear regression estimation

Authors: Waleed Omri

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With the growth of the small business sector in emerging markets, developing a better understanding of what drives 'day-to-day' entrepreneurial activities has become an important issue for academicians and practitioners. Innovation, as an entrepreneurial behavior, revolves around individuals who creatively engage in new organizational efforts. In a similar vein, the innovation behaviors and processes at the organizational member level are central to any corporate entrepreneurship strategy. Despite the broadly acknowledged importance of entrepreneurship and innovation at the individual level in the establishment of successful ventures, the literature lacks evidence on how entrepreneurs can effectively harness their skills and knowledge in the workplace. The existing literature illustrates that religion can impact the day-to-day work behavior of entrepreneurs, managers, and employees. Religious beliefs and practices could affect daily entrepreneurial activities by fostering mental abilities and traits such as creativity, intelligence, and self-efficacy. In the present study, we define religious capital as a set of personal and intangible resources, skills, and competencies that emanate from an individual’s religious values, beliefs, practices, and experiences and may be used to increase the quality of economic activities. Religious beliefs and practices give individuals a religious satisfaction, which can lead them to perform better in the workplace. In addition, religious ethics and practices have been linked to various positive employee outcomes in terms of organizational change, job satisfaction, and entrepreneurial intensity. As investigations of their consequences beyond direct task performance are still scarce, we explore if religious capital plays a role in entrepreneurs’ innovative behavior. In sum, this study explores the determinants of individual entrepreneurial behavior by investigating the relationship between religious capital and entrepreneurs’ innovative behavior in the context of small businesses. To further explain and clarify the religious capital-innovative behavior link, the present study proposes a model to examine the mediating role of entrepreneurial creativity. We use both Islamic work ethics (IWE) and Islamic religious practices (IRP) to measure Islamic religious capital. We use structural equation modeling with a robust maximum likelihood estimation to analyze data gathered from 289 Tunisian small businesses and to explore the relationships among the above-described variables. In line with the theory of planned behavior, only religious work ethics are found to increase the innovative behavior of small businesses’ owner-managers. Our findings also clearly demonstrate that the connection between religious capital-related variables and innovative behavior is better understood if the influence of entrepreneurial creativity, as a mediating variable of the aforementioned relationship, is taken into account. By incorporating both religious capital and entrepreneurial creativity into the innovative behavior analysis, this study provides several important practical implications for promoting innovation process in small businesses.

Keywords: entrepreneurial behavior, small business, religion, creativity

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Authors: Natalia Buderatskaya, Igor Ilyin, Julia Gontar, Sergey Lavrynenko, Olga Parnitskaya, Ekaterina Ilyina, Eduard Kapustin, Yana Lakhno

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Introduction: It is known that cryopreservation of oocytes has peculiar features due to the complex structure of the oocyte. One of the most important features is that mature oocytes contain meiotic division spindle which is very sensitive even to the slightest variation in temperature. Thus, the main objective of this study is to analyse the resulting euploid embryos obtained from thawed oocytes in comparison with the data of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) in fresh embryo cycles. Material and Methods: The study was conducted at 'Medical Centre IGR' from January to July 2016. Data were analysed for 908 donor oocytes obtained in 67 cycles of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), of which 693 oocytes were used in the 51 'fresh' cycles (group A), and 215 oocytes - 16 ART programs with vitrification female gametes (group B). The average age of donors in the groups match 27.3±2.9 and 27.8±6.6 years. Stimulation of superovulation was conducted the standard way. Vitrification was performed in 1-2 hours after transvaginal puncture and thawing of oocytes were carried out in accordance with the standard protocol of Cryotech (Japan). Manipulation ICSI was performed 4-5 hours after transvaginal follicle puncture for fresh oocytes, or after defrosting - for vitrified female gametes. For the PGS, an embryonic biopsy was done on the third or on the fifth day after fertilization. Diagnostic procedures were performed using fluorescence in situ hybridization with the study of such chromosomes as 13, 16, 18, 21, 22, X, Y. Only morphologically quality blastocysts were used for the transfer, the estimation of which corresponded to the Gardner criteria. The statistical hypotheses were done using the criteria t, x^2 at a significance levels p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001. Results: The mean number of mature oocytes per cycle in group A was 13.58±6.65 and in group B - 13.44±6.68 oocytes for patient. The survival of oocytes after thawing totaled 95.3% (n=205), which indicates a highly effective quality of performed vitrification. The proportion of zygotes in the group A corresponded to 91.1%(n=631), in the group B – 80.5%(n=165), which shows statistically significant difference between the groups (p<0.001) and explained by non-viable oocytes elimination after vitrification. This is confirmed by the fact that on the fifth day of embryos development a statistically significant difference in the number of blastocysts was absent (p>0.05), and constituted respectively 61.6%(n=389) and 63.0%(n=104) in the groups. For the PGS performing 250 embryos analyzed in the group A and 72 embryos - in the group B. The results showed that euploidy in the studied chromosomes were 40.0%(n=100) embryos in the group A and 41.7% (n=30) - in the group B, which shows no statistical significant difference (p>0.05). The indicators of clinical pregnancies in the groups amounted to 64.7% (22 pregnancies per 34 embryo transfers) and 61.5% (8 pregnancies per 13 embryo transfers) respectively, and also had no significant difference between the groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: The results showed that the vitrification does not affect the resulting euploid embryos in assisted reproductive technologies and are not reflected in their morphological characteristics in ART programs.

Keywords: euploid embryos, preimplantation genetic screening, thawing oocytes, vitrification

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Authors: Fariba Tadayon, Elmira Hassanlou, Hasan Bagheri, Mostafa Jafarian

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Heavy metals are released into water, plants, soil, and food by natural and human activities. Lead has toxic roles in the human body and may cause serious problems even in low concentrations, since it may have several adverse effects on human. Therefore, determination of lead in different samples is an important procedure in the studies of environmental pollution. In this work, an ultrasonic assisted-ionic liquid based-liquid-liquid microextraction (UA-IL-DLLME) procedure for the determination of lead in zucchini, pomegranate, and lettuce has been established and developed by using flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS). For UA-IL-DLLME procedure, 10 mL of the sample solution containing Pb2+ was adjusted to pH=5 in a glass test tube with a conical bottom; then, 120 μL of 1-Hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluoro phosphate (CMIM)(PF6) was rapidly injected into the sample solution with a microsyringe. After that, the resulting cloudy mixture was treated by ultrasonic for 5 min, then the separation of two phases was obtained by centrifugation for 5 min at 3000 rpm and IL-phase diluted with 1 cc ethanol, and the analytes were determined by FAAS. The effect of different experimental parameters in the extraction step including: ionic liquid volume, sonication time and pH was studied and optimized simultaneously by using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) employing a central composite design (CCD). The optimal conditions were determined to be an ionic liquid volume of 120 μL, sonication time of 5 min, and pH=5. The linear ranges of the calibration curve for the determination by FAAS of lead were 0.1-4 ppm with R2=0.992. Under optimized conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) for lead was 0.062 μg.mL-1, the enrichment factor (EF) was 93, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) for lead was calculated as 2.29%. The levels of lead for pomegranate, zucchini, and lettuce were calculated as 2.88 μg.g-1, 1.54 μg.g-1, 2.18 μg.g-1, respectively. Therefore, this method has been successfully applied for the analysis of the content of lead in different food samples by FAAS.

Keywords: Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction, Central composite design, Food samples, Flame atomic absorption spectrometry.

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Authors: Oti Ibiam, Alexanda O. Kalu

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Human Resource Accounting is the process of identifying and measuring data about human resources and communicating this information to interested parties in order to meaningful investment decisions. In recent time, firms focus has shifted to human resource accounting so as to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in their operations. This study focused on the effect of human resource accounting on the financial performance of Banks in Nigerian. The problem that led to the study revolves around the current trend whereby Nigeria banks do not efficiently account for the input of human resource in their annual statement, thereby instead of capitalizing human resources in their statement of financial position; they expend it in their income statement thereby reducing their profit after tax. The broad objective of this study is to determine the extent to which human resource accounting affects the financial performance and value of Nigerian Banks. This study is therefore considered significant because, there are still universally, grey areas to be sorted out on the subject matter of human resources accounting. In the bid to achieve the study objectives, the researcher gathered data from sixteen commercial banks. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources using an ex-post facto research design. The data collected were then tabulated and analyzed using the multiple regression analysis. The result of hypothesis one revealed that there is a significant relationship between Capitalized Human Resource Cost and post capitalization Profit before tax of banks in Nigeria. The finding of hypothesis two revealed that the association between Capitalized Human Resource Cost and post capitalization Net worth of banks in Nigeria is significant. The finding in Hypothesis three reveals that there is a significant difference between pre and post capitalization profit before tax of banks in Nigeria. The study concludes that human resources accounting positively influenced financial performance of banks in Nigeria within the period under study. It is recommended that standards should be set for human resources identification and measurement in the banking sector and also the management of commercial banks in Nigeria should have a proper appreciation of human resource accounting. This will enable managers to take right decision regarding investment in human resource. Also, the study recommends that policies on enhancing the post capitalization profit before tax of banks in Nigeria should pay great attention to capitalized human resources cost, net worth and total asset as the variables significantly influenced post capitalization profit before tax of the studied banks in Nigeria. The limitation of the study centers on the limited number of years and companies that was adopted for the study.

Keywords: capitalization, human resources cost, profit before tax, net worth

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Authors: M. A. Talha, M. Osman Gani, M. Ferdows

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This paper focuses on the study of two dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) steady incompressible viscous Williamson nanofluid with exponential internal heat generation containing gyrotactic microorganism over a stretching sheet. The governing equations and auxiliary conditions are reduced to a set of non-linear coupled differential equations with the appropriate boundary conditions using similarity transformation. The transformed equations are solved numerically through spectral relaxation method. The influences of various parameters such as Williamson parameter γ, power constant λ, Prandtl number P_r, magnetic field parameter M, Peclet number P_e, Lewis number Le, Bioconvection Lewis number Lb, Brownian motion parameter Nb, thermophoresis parameter Nt, and bioconvection constant σ are studied to obtain the momentum, heat, mass and microorganism distributions. Moment, heat, mass and gyrotactic microorganism profiles are explored through graphs and tables. We computed the heat transfer rate, mass flux rate and the density number of the motile microorganism near the surface. Our numerical results are in better agreement in comparison with existing calculations. The Residual error of our obtained solutions is determined in order to see the convergence rate against iteration. Faster convergence is achieved when internal heat generation is absent. The effect of magnetic parameter M decreases the momentum boundary layer thickness but increases the thermal boundary layer thickness. It is apparent that bioconvection Lewis number and bioconvection parameter has a pronounced effect on microorganism boundary. Increasing brownian motion parameter and Lewis number decreases the thermal boundary layer. Furthermore, magnetic field parameter and thermophoresis parameter has an induced effect on concentration profiles.

Keywords: convection flow, similarity, numerical analysis, spectral method, Williamson nanofluid, internal heat generation

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Authors: Olanrewaju Kafayat, O., Salman Kabir, K.

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The role of organic agriculture in providing food and income is now gaining wider recognition (Van Elzakker et al 2007). The increasing public concerns about food safety issues on the use of fertilizers, pesticide residues, growth hormones, GM organisms, and increasing awareness of environmental quality issues have led to an expanding demand for environmentally friendly products (Thompson, 1998; Rimal et al., 2005). As a result national governments are concerned about diet and health, and there has been renewed recognition of the role of public policy in promoting healthy diets, thus to provide healthier, safer, more confident citizens (Poole et al., 2007), With these benefits, a study into organic vegetables is very vital to all the major stakeholders. This study analyzed the willingness of consumers to pay for organic vegetables in Oyo state, Nigeria. Primary data was collected with the aid of structured questionnaire administered to 168 respondents. These were selected using multistage random sampling. The first stage involved the selection two (2) ADP zones out of the three (3) ADP zones in Oyo state, The second stage involved the random selection of two (2) local government areas each out of the two (2) ADP zones which are; Ibadan South West and Ogbomoso North and random selection of 4 wards each from the local government areas. The third stage involved random selection of 42 household each from of the local government areas. Descriptive statistics, the principal component analysis, and the logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Results showed 55 percent of the respondents were female while 80 percent were  50 years. 74 percent of the respondents agreed that organic vegetables are of better quality. 31 percent of the respondents were aware of organic vegetables as against 69 percent who were not aware. From the logistic model, educational attainment, amount spent on organic vegetables monthly, better quality of organic vegetables and accessibility to organic vegetables were significant and had a positive relationship on willingness to pay for organic vegetable. The variables that were significant and had a negative relationship with WTP are less attractiveness of organic vegetables and household size of the respondents. This study concludes that consumers with higher level of education were more likely to be aware and willing to pay for organic vegetables than those with low levels of education, the study therefore recommends creation of awareness on the relevance of consuming organic vegetables through effective marketing and educational campaigns.

Keywords: consumers awareness, willingness to pay, organic vegetables, Oyo State

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Authors: Sadeem Aljamaan, Reem Hariri, Rahaf Alghamdi, Batool Alotaibi, Batool Alsenan, Lama Althunayyan, Areej Alnemer

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The aim of this study is to correlate between radiological findings and histopathological results in regard to the breast imaging-reporting and data system scores, size of breast masses, molecular subtypes and suspicious radiological features, as well as to assess the concordance rate in histological grade between core biopsy and surgical excision among breast cancer patients, followed by analyzing the change of concordance rate in relation to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in a Saudi population. A retrospective review was conducted over 6-year period (2017-2022) on all breast core biopsies of women preceded by radiological investigation. Chi-squared test (χ2) was performed on qualitative data, the Mann-Whitney test for quantitative non-parametric variables, and the Kappa test for grade agreement. A total of 641 cases were included. Ultrasound, mammography, and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated diagnostic accuracies of 85%, 77.9% and 86.9%; respectively. magnetic resonance imaging manifested the highest sensitivity (72.2%), and the lowest was for ultrasound (61%). Concordance in tumor size with final excisions was best in magnetic resonance imaging, while mammography demonstrated a higher tendency of overestimation (41.9%), and ultrasound showed the highest underestimation (67.7%). The association between basal-like molecular subtypes and the breast imaging-reporting and data system score 5 classifications was statistically significant only for magnetic resonance imaging (p=0.04). Luminal subtypes demonstrated a significantly higher percentage of speculation in mammography. Breast imaging-reporting and data system score 4 manifested a substantial number of benign pathologies in all the 3 modalities. A fair concordance rate (k= 0.212 & 0.379) was demonstrated between excision and the preceding core biopsy grading with and without neoadjuvant therapy, respectively. The results demonstrated a down-grading in cases post-neoadjuvant therapy. In cases who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy, underestimation of tumor grade in biopsy was evident. In summary, magnetic resonance imaging had the highest sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and accuracy of both diagnosis and estimation of tumor size. Mammography demonstrated better sensitivity than ultrasound and had the highest negative predictive value, but ultrasound had better specificity, positive predictive value and accuracy. Therefore, the combination of different modalities is advantageous. The concordance rate of core biopsy grading with excision was not impacted by neoadjuvant therapy.

Keywords: breast cancer, mammography, MRI, neoadjuvant, pathology, US

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Authors: Esra Polat

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Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLSDA) is a statistical method for classification and consists a classical Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) in which the dependent variable is a categorical one expressing the class membership of each observation. PLSDA can be applied in many cases when classical discriminant analysis cannot be applied. For example, when the number of observations is low and when the number of independent variables is high. When there are missing values, PLSDA can be applied on the data that is available. Finally, it is adapted when multicollinearity between independent variables is high. The aim of this study is to determine the economic and/or demographic indicators, which are effective in grouping the 28 European Union (EU) member countries and 7 candidate countries (including potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Kosova) by using the data set obtained from database of the World Bank for 2014. Leaving the political issues aside, the analysis is only concerned with the economic and demographic variables that have the potential influence on country’s eligibility for EU entrance. Hence, in this study, both the performance of PLSDA method in classifying the countries correctly to their pre-defined groups (candidate or member) and the differences between the EU countries and candidate countries in terms of these indicators are analyzed. As a result of the PLSDA, the value of percentage correctness of 100 % indicates that overall of the 35 countries is classified correctly. Moreover, the most important variables that determine the statuses of member and candidate countries in terms of economic indicators are identified as 'external balance on goods and services (% GDP)', 'gross domestic savings (% GDP)' and 'gross national expenditure (% GDP)' that means for the 2014 economical structure of countries is the most important determinant of EU membership. Subsequently, the model validated to prove the predictive ability by using the data set for 2015. For prediction sample, %97,14 of the countries are correctly classified. An interesting result is obtained for only BiH, which is still a potential candidate for EU, predicted as a member of EU by using the indicators data set for 2015 as a prediction sample. Although BiH has made a significant transformation from a war-torn country to a semi-functional state, ethnic tensions, nationalistic rhetoric and political disagreements are still evident, which inhibit Bosnian progress towards the EU.

Keywords: classification, demographic indicators, economic indicators, European Union, partial least squares discriminant analysis

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Authors: A. Yu-Chen Chien, B. Ying-Ju Su

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Greenway is a type of linear park which links the planar parklands and connects the open spaces. In the urban environment, except for providing open spaces with recreational function as well as effectively improve the appearance of the surrounding environment, greenway and parkland also creates benefits to the social and psychological aspects of human. In 2014, the statistics of The Ministry of Home Affairs show that citizens in Taichung enjoy the green area at an average of 4.27 square kilometers per person. How to use the existing green space system effectively and enhance the quality of leisure life thus become the major issues today. The study here points out that greenway and parkland and other open spaces are closely related to the daily life of urban residents. Whether the operation could be executed in accordance with the design is our major concern. To explore the issue, we implemented the Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Taiyuan Greenway in Taichung City. In 1956, Taichung city carried out the urban plan according to Howard’s concept about “Garden City” and built the Taiyuan greenway to restrain the urban expansion. 50-year past, due to the population growth and new demands, the government started to reconstruct the program. It is a three stage modification project of “The Townspace Renaissance project in Taiwan” since 2009, of which the greenway construction is the main point. In this research, we mainly focus on the third stage of this program to investigate the user’s preference and degree of satisfaction based on the Post-Occupancy Evaluation about the finished, unfinished, and undergoing construction sectors as well as facilities. We collected and analyzed the data based on the questionnaires and explored the possible facts that might have affected the degree of satisfaction about the greenway modification project based on the chi-square test. We hope to inspect the purpose of the demonstration projects and provide reference to the Taichung government for the modification planning and the greenway design in the future.

Keywords: greenway, landscape greenway, post-occupancy evaluation, Taichung city

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Authors: Patti Kastanias, Wei Wang, Karyn Mackenzie, Sandra Robinson, Susan Wnuk

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Obesity is a worldwide epidemic and is recognized as a chronic disease. Pain in the obese individual is a multidimensional issue. An increase in BMI is positively correlated with pain incidence and severity, especially in central obesity where individuals are twice as likely to have chronic pain. Both obesity and chronic pain are also associated with mood disorders. Pain is worse among obese individuals with depression and anxiety. Bariatric surgery provides patients with an effective solution for long-term weight loss and associated health problems. However, not much is known about acute and chronic pain after bariatric surgery and its contributing factors, including mood disorders. Nurse practitioners (NPs) at one large multidisciplinary bariatric surgery centre led two studies to examine acute and chronic pain and pain management over time after bariatric surgery. The purpose of the initial study was to examine the incidence and severity of acute and chronic pain after bariatric surgery. The aim of the secondary study was to further examine chronic pain, specifically looking at psychological factors that influence severity or incidence of both neuropathic and somatic pain as well as changes in opioid use. The initial study was a prospective, longitudinal study where patients having bariatric surgery at one surgical center were followed up to 6 months postop. Data was collected at 7 time points using validated instruments for pain severity, pain interference, and patient satisfaction. In the second study, subjects were followed longitudinally starting preoperatively and then at 6 months and 1 year postoperatively to capture changes in chronic pain and influencing variables over time. Valid and reliable instruments were utilized for all major study outcomes. In the first study, there was a trend towards decreased acute post-operative pain over time. The incidence and severity of chronic pain was found to be significantly reduced at 6 months post bariatric surgery. Interestingly, interference of chronic pain in daily life such as normal work, mood, and walking ability was significantly improved at 6 months postop however; this was not the case with sleep. Preliminary results of the secondary study indicate that pain severity, pain interference, anxiety and depression are significantly improved at 6 months postoperatively. In addition, preoperative anxiety, depression and emotional regulation were predictive of pain interference, but not pain severity. The results of our regression analyses provide evidence for the impact of pre-existing psychological factors on pain, particularly anxiety in obese populations.

Keywords: bariatric surgery, mood disorders, obesity, pain

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Authors: Stephanie Yun Yu Law

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Background: This study aims to investigate into communication between trainee doctors and patients, especially how doctor’s reaction to patient’s emotional issues expressed in the consultation affect patient’s satisfaction. Objectives: Thus, there are three aims in this study, 1.) how do trainee doctors react to patients emotional cues in OSCE station? 2.) Any differences in the respond type to emotional cues between first year students and third year students? 3.) Is response type (reducing space) related to OSCE outcome (patient satisfaction and expert rating)? Methods: Fifteen OSCE stations was videotaped, in which 9 were stations with first-year students and 6 were with third-year students. OSCE outcomes were measured by Communication Assessment Tool and Examiners Checklist. Analyses: All patient’s cues/concerns and student’s reaction were coded by Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequence. Descriptive data was gathered from Observer XT and logistic regression (two-level) was carried out to see if occurrence of reducing space response can be predicted by OSCE outcomes. Results: Reducing space responses from all students were slightly less than a half in total responses to patient’s cues. The mean percentage of reducing space behaviours was lower among first year students when compared to third year students. Patient’s satisfaction significantly (p<0.05) and negatively predicted reducing space behaviours. Conclusions: Most of the medical students, to some extent, did not provide adequate responses for patient’s emotional cues. But first year students did provide more space for patients to talk about their emotional issues when compared to third year students. Lastly, patients would feel less satisfied if trainee doctors use more reducing space responses in reaction to patient’s expressed emotional cues/concerns. Practical implications: Firstly, medical training programme can be tailored on teaching students how to detect and respond appropriately to emotional cues in order to improve underperformed student’s communication skills in healthcare setting. Furthermore, trainee doctor’s relationship with patients in clinical practice can also be improved by reacting appropriately to patient’s emotive cues in consultations (such as limit the use of reducing space behaviours).

Keywords: doctors-patients communication, applied clinical psychology, health psychology, healthcare professionals

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Authors: R. Nandhini, Gaurab Mudbhari

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Ranging from the field of health care to self-driving cars, machine learning and deep learning algorithms have revolutionized the field with the proper utilization of images and visual-oriented data. Segmentation, regression, classification, clustering, dimensionality reduction, etc., are some of the Machine Learning tasks that helped Machine Learning and Deep Learning models to become state-of-the-art models for the field where images are key datasets. Among these tasks, classification and clustering are essential but difficult because of the intricate and high-dimensional characteristics of image data. This finding examines and assesses advanced techniques in supervised classification and unsupervised clustering for image datasets, emphasizing the relative efficiency of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Vision Transformers (ViTs), Deep Embedded Clustering (DEC), and self-supervised learning approaches. Due to the distinctive structural attributes present in images, conventional methods often fail to effectively capture spatial patterns, resulting in the development of models that utilize more advanced architectures and attention mechanisms. In image classification, we investigated both CNNs and ViTs. One of the most promising models, which is very much known for its ability to detect spatial hierarchies, is CNN, and it serves as a core model in our study. On the other hand, ViT is another model that also serves as a core model, reflecting a modern classification method that uses a self-attention mechanism which makes them more robust as this self-attention mechanism allows them to lean global dependencies in images without relying on convolutional layers. This paper evaluates the performance of these two architectures based on accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score across different image datasets, analyzing their appropriateness for various categories of images. In the domain of clustering, we assess DEC, Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), and conventional clustering techniques like k-means, which are used on embeddings derived from CNN models. DEC, a prominent model in the field of clustering, has gained the attention of many ML engineers because of its ability to combine feature learning and clustering into a single framework and its main goal is to improve clustering quality through better feature representation. VAEs, on the other hand, are pretty well known for using latent embeddings for grouping similar images without requiring for prior label by utilizing the probabilistic clustering method.

Keywords: machine learning, deep learning, image classification, image clustering

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Authors: Ahmad B. Habieb, Gabriele Milani, Tavio Tavio, Federico Milani

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Housings in developing countries have often inadequate seismic protection, particularly for masonry. People choose this type of structure since the cost and application are relatively cheap. Seismic protection of masonry remains an interesting issue among researchers. In this study, we develop a low-cost seismic isolation system for masonry using fiber reinforced elastomeric isolators. The elastomer proposed consists of few layers of rubber pads and fiber lamina, making it lower in cost comparing to the conventional isolators. We present a finite element (FE) analysis to predict the behavior of the low cost rubber isolators undergoing moderate deformations. The FE model of the elastomer involves a hyperelastic material property for the rubber pad. We adopt a Yeoh hyperelasticity model and estimate its coefficients through the available experimental data. Having the shear behavior of the elastomers, we apply that isolation system onto small masonry housing. To attach the isolators on the building, we model the shear behavior of the isolation system by means of a damped nonlinear spring model. By this attempt, the FE analysis becomes computationally inexpensive. Several ground motion data are applied to observe its sensitivity. Roof acceleration and tensile damage of walls become the parameters to evaluate the performance of the isolators. In this study, a concrete damage plasticity model is used to model masonry in the nonlinear range. This tool is available in the standard package of Abaqus FE software. Finally, the results show that the low-cost isolators proposed are capable of reducing roof acceleration and damage level of masonry housing. Through this study, we are also capable of monitoring the shear deformation of isolators during seismic motion. It is useful to determine whether the isolator is applicable. According to the results, the deformations of isolators on the benchmark one story building are relatively small.

Keywords: masonry, low cost elastomeric isolator, finite element analysis, hyperelasticity, damped non-linear spring, concrete damage plasticity

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Authors: Philip Friedlander, John Rutledge, Jason Suh

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Inhibition of programmed death-1 (PD-1) or its ligand PD-L1 confers therapeutic efficacy in a wide range of solid tumor malignancies. Primary or acquired resistance can develop through activation of immunosuppressive immune cells such as tumor-associated macrophages. The renin angiotensin system (RAS) systemically regulates fluid and sodium hemodynamics, but components are expressed on and regulate the activity of immune cells, particularly of myeloid lineage. We hypothesized that inhibition of RAS would improve the efficacy of PD-1/PD-L-1 treatment. A retrospective analysis was performed through a chart review of patients with solid metastatic malignancies treated with a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor between 1/2013 and 6/2019 at Valley Hospital, a community hospital in New Jersey, USA. Efficacy was determined by medical oncologist documentation of clinical benefit in visit notes and by the duration of time on immunotherapy treatment. The primary endpoint was the determination of efficacy differences in patients treated with an inhibitor of RAS ( ace inhibitor, ACEi, or angiotensin blocker, ARB) compared to patients not treated with these inhibitors. To control for broader antihypertensive effects, efficacy as a function of treatment with beta blockers was assessed. 173 patients treated with PD-1/PD-L-1 inhibitors were identified of whom 52 were also treated with an ACEi or ARB. Chi-square testing revealed a statistically significant relationship between being on an ACEi or ARB and efficacy to PD-1/PD-L-1 therapy (p=0.001). No statistically significant relationship was seen between patients taking or not taking beta blocker antihypertensives (p= 0.33). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed statistically significant improvement in the duration of therapy favoring patients concomitantly treated with ACEi or ARB compared to patients not exposed to antihypertensives and to those treated with beta blockers. Logistic regression analysis revealed that age, gender, and cancer type did not have significant effects on the odds of experiencing clinical benefit (p=0.74, p=0.75, and p=0.81, respectively). We conclude that retrospective analysis of the treatment of patients with solid metastatic tumors with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 in a community setting demonstrates greater clinical benefit in the context of concomitant ACEi or ARB inhibition, irrespective of gender or age. This data supports the development of prospective assessment through randomized clinical trials.

Keywords: angiotensin, cancer, immunotherapy, PD-1, efficacy

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Authors: Anupam Chanda

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Presently Packaging plays a significant role for drug discoveries. The process of selecting materials and the type of packaging also offers an opportunity for the Packaging scientist to look for biological delivery choices. Most injectable protein products were supplied in some sort of glass vial, prefilled syringe, cartridge. Those product having high Ph content there is a chance of “delamination “from inner surface of glass vial. With protein-based drugs, the biggest issue is the effect of packaging derivatives on the protein’s threedimensional and surface structure. These are any effects that relate to denaturation or aggregation of the protein due to oxidation or interactions from contaminants or impurities in the preparation. The potential for these effects needs to be carefully considered in choosing the container and the container closure system to avoid putting patients in jeopardy. Cause of Delamination : -Formulations with a high pH include phosphate and citrate buffers increase the risk of glass delamination. -High alkali content in glass could accelerate erosion. -High temperature during the vial-forming process increase the risk of glass delamination. -Terminal sterilization (irradiated at 20-40 kGy for 150 min) also is a risk factor for specific products(veterinary parenteral administration),could cause delamination. -High product-storage temperatures and long exposure times can increase the rate and severity of glass delamination. How to prevent Delamination -Treating the surface of the glass vials with materials, such as ammonium sulfate or siliconization can reduce the rate of glass erosion. -Consider alternative sterilization methods only in rare cases. -The correct specification for the glass to ensure its suitability for the pH of the product. -Use Cyclic olefin copolymer(COC)/Cyclic olefin Polymer(COP) Adsorption of protein and Solutions: Option#1 Coat with linear methoxylated polyglycerol and hyperbranchedmethoxylated polyglycerol. Option#2 Thehyperbranched non-methoxylated coating performed best. Option#3 Coat with hyperbranched polyglycerol Option#4 Right selection of Sterilization of glass vial/syringe.

Keywords: delamination of glass, ptrotien adoptions inside the glass surface, extractable & leachable solutions, injectable designs for new drugs

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Authors: Dadasaheb R. Jawre, Maya G. Unde

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Prioritization of sub-watershed plays important role in watershed management. It shows the requirement of watershed to give a treatment for the green growth of the region and conservation of the sub-watersheds. There is a number of factors like topography of the region, climatic characteristics like rainfall and runoff, land-use land-cover, social factors which are related to the development of watershed for agricultural uses and domestic purposes in the region. The present research is throwing a focus on how morphometric parameters in association with GIS analysis will help in identifying the ranking of the sub-watersheds for further development which help of suggested watershed structures. Shevgaon and Pathardi tahsils are drought prone tahsils of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. These tahsils come under the semi-arid region. Sub-watershed prioritization is necessary for proper planning and management of natural resources for sustainable development of the study area. Less rainfall and increasing population pressure on the land as well as water resources lead to scarcity of the water in the region. Hence, researcher has selected Shevgaon and Pathardi tahsils for sub-watershed prioritization. There are seven sub-watersheds which selected for the present research paper. In the morphological analysis linear aspects, aerial aspects and relief aspects are considered for the prioritization. The largest sub-watershed is Erdha which is located at Karanji in Pathardi tahsil having an area of 145.06 km2 and smallest sub-watershed is Erandgaon which is located in Shevgaon tahsil having an area of 40.143 km2. For all seven sub-watersheds, seven morphometric parameters were considered for calculating the compound parameter values. Finally, compound parameter values are grouped into three groups such as, high priority (below 4.0), moderate priority (4.0 to 5.0) and low priority (above 5.0) according to the compound value Erandgaon, Chapadgaon and Tarak sub-watersheds comes under high priority group, Erdha and Domeshwar sub-watersheds come under moderate priority group and Chandani and Kasichi sub-watershed come under low priority group. Both the tahsils falls in drought prone area, after getting the watershed structure overall development of the region will take place.

Keywords: sub-watersheds, GIS and remote sensing, morphometric analysis, compound parameter value, prioritization

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Authors: Kinza Qadeer, Muhammad Abdul Qyyum, Moonyong Lee

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Natural gas has become an attractive energy source in comparison with other fossil fuels because of its lower CO₂ and other air pollutant emissions. Therefore, compared to the demand for coal and oil, that for natural gas is increasing rapidly world-wide. The transportation of natural gas over long distances as a liquid (LNG) preferable for several reasons, including economic, technical, political, and safety factors. However, LNG production is an energy-intensive process due to the tremendous amount of power requirements for compression of refrigerants, which provide sufficient cold energy to liquefy natural gas. Therefore, one of the major issues in the LNG industry is to improve the energy efficiency of existing LNG processes through a cost-effective approach that is 'optimization'. In this context, a bio-inspired Krill-herd (KH) step-up approach was examined to enhance the energy efficiency of a single mixed refrigerant (SMR) natural gas liquefaction (LNG) process, which is considered as a most promising candidate for offshore LNG production (FPSO). The optimal design of a natural gas liquefaction processes involves multivariable non-linear thermodynamic interactions, which lead to exergy destruction and contribute to process irreversibility. As key decision variables, the optimal values of mixed refrigerant flow rates and process operating pressures were determined based on the herding behavior of krill individuals corresponding to the minimum energy consumption for LNG production. To perform the rigorous process analysis, the SMR process was simulated in Aspen Hysys® software and the resulting model was connected with the Krill-herd approach coded in MATLAB. The optimal operating conditions found by the proposed approach significantly reduced the overall energy consumption of the SMR process by ≤ 22.5% and also improved the coefficient of performance in comparison with the base case. The proposed approach was also compared with other well-proven optimization algorithms, such as genetic and particle swarm optimization algorithms, and was found to exhibit a superior performance over these existing approaches.

Keywords: energy efficiency, Krill-herd, LNG, optimization, single mixed refrigerant

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Authors: Radim Sip, Denisa Denglerova

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It’s impossible to capture complex phenomena, such as inclusion, with reductionism. The most common form of reductionism is the objectivist approach, where processes and relationships are reduced to entities and clearly outlined phases, with a consequent search for relationships between them. Constructivism as a paradigm and situational analysis as a methodological research portfolio represent a way to avoid the dominant objectivist approach. They work with a situation, i.e. with the essential blending of actors and their environment. Primary transactions are taking place between actors and their surroundings. Researchers create constructs based on their need to solve a problem. Concepts therefore do not describe reality, but rather a complex of real needs in relation to the available options how such needs can be met. For examination of a complex problem, corresponding methodological tools and overall design of the research are necessary. Using an original research on inclusion in the Czech Republic as an example, this contribution demonstrates that inclusion is not a substance easily described, but rather a relationship field changing its forms in response to its actors’ behaviour and current circumstances. Inclusion consists of dynamic relationship between an ideal, real circumstances and ways to achieve such ideal under the given circumstances. Such achievement has many shapes and thus cannot be captured by description of objects. It can be expressed in relationships in the situation defined by time and space. Situational analysis offers tools to examine such phenomena. It understands a situation as a complex of dynamically changing aspects and prefers relationships and positions in the given situation over a clear and final definition of actors, entities, etc. Situational analysis assumes creation of constructs as a tool for solving a problem at hand. It emphasizes the meanings that arise in the process of coordinating human actions, and the discourses through which these meanings are negotiated. Finally, it offers “cartographic tools” (situational maps, socials worlds / arenas maps, positional maps) that are able to capture the complexity in other than linear-analytical ways. This approach allows for inclusion to be described as a complex of phenomena taking place with a certain historical preference, a complex that can be overlooked if analyzed with a more traditional approach.

Keywords: constructivism, situational analysis, objective realism, reductionism, inclusion

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Authors: Sima Shakoorjavan, Dawid Stawski, Somaye Akbari

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In this study, great attempts have been made to initially modify polylactide (PLA) nonwoven surface with poly(amidoamine) (PAMMA) dendritic polymer to create amine active sites on PLA surface through aminolysis reaction. Further, layer-by-layer deposition of four layers of two weak polyelectrolytes, including PAMAM as polycation and polyacrylic acid (PAA) as polyanion on activated PLA, was monitored with turbidity analysis of waste-polyelectrolytes after each deposition step. The FTIR-ATR analysis confirmed the successful introduction of amine groups into PLA polymeric chains through the emerging peak around 1650 cm⁻¹ corresponding to N-H bending vibration and a double wide peak at around 3670-3170 cm⁻¹ corresponding to N-H stretching vibration. The adsorption-desorption behavior of (PAMAM) and poly (PAA) deposition was monitored by turbidity test. Turbidity results showed the desorption and removal of the previously deposited layer (second and third layers) upon the desorption of the next layers (third and fourth layers). Also, the importance of proper rinsing after aminolysis of PLA nonwoven fabric was revealed by turbidity test. Regarding the sample with insufficient rinsing process, higher desorption and removal of ungrafted PAMAM from aminolyzed-PLA surface into PAA solution was detected upon the deposition of the first PAA layer. This phenomenon can be due to electrostatic attraction between polycation (PAMAM) and polyanion (PAA). Moreover, the successful layer deposition through LBL was confirmed by the staining test of acid red 1 through spectrophotometry analysis. According to the results, layered PLA with four layers with PAMAM as the top layer showed higher dye absorption (46.7%) than neat (1.2%) and aminolyzed PLA (21.7%). In conclusion, the complicated adsorption-desorption behavior of dendritic polycation and linear polyanion systems was observed. Although desorption and removal of previously adsorbed layers occurred upon the deposition of the next layer, the remaining polyelectrolyte on the substrate is sufficient for the adsorption of the next polyelectrolyte through electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. Also, an increase in dye adsorption confirmed more introduction of PAMAM onto PLA surface through LBL.

Keywords: surface modification, layer-by-layer technique, weak polyelectrolytes, adsorption-desorption behavior

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Authors: Paul R Armstrong

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Doubled haploids (DHs) have become an important breeding tool for creating maize inbred lines, although several bottlenecks in the DH production process limit wider development, application, and adoption of the technique. DH kernels are typically sorted manually and represent about 10% of the seeds in a much larger pool where the remaining 90% are hybrid siblings. This introduces time constraints on DH production and manual sorting is often not accurate. Automated sorting based on the chemical composition of the kernel can be effective, but devices, namely NMR, have not achieved the sorting speed to be a cost-effective replacement to manual sorting. This study evaluated a single kernel near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (skNIR) platform to accurately identify DH kernels based on oil content. The skNIR platform is a higher-throughput device, approximately 3 seeds/s, that uses spectra to predict oil content of each kernel from maize crosses intentionally developed to create larger than normal oil differences, 1.5%-2%, between DH and hybrid kernels. Spectra from the skNIR were used to construct a partial least squares regression (PLS) model for oil and for a categorical reference model of 1 (DH kernel) or 2 (hybrid kernel) and then used to sort several crosses to evaluate performance. Two approaches were used for sorting. The first used a general PLS model developed from all crosses to predict oil content and then used for sorting each induction cross, the second was the development of a specific model from a single induction cross where approximately fifty DH and one hundred hybrid kernels used. This second approach used a categorical reference value of 1 and 2, instead of oil content, for the PLS model and kernels selected for the calibration set were manually referenced based on traditional commercial methods using coloration of the tip cap and germ areas. The generalized PLS oil model statistics were R2 = 0.94 and RMSE = .93% for kernels spanning an oil content of 2.7% to 19.3%. Sorting by this model resulted in extracting 55% to 85% of haploid kernels from the four induction crosses. Using the second method of generating a model for each cross yielded model statistics ranging from R2s = 0.96 to 0.98 and RMSEs from 0.08 to 0.10. Sorting in this case resulted in 100% correct classification but required models that were cross. In summary, the first generalized model oil method could be used to sort a significant number of kernels from a kernel pool but was not close to the accuracy of developing a sorting model from a single cross. The penalty for the second method is that a PLS model would need to be developed for each individual cross. In conclusion both methods could find useful application in the sorting of DH from hybrid kernels.

Keywords: NIR, haploids, maize, sorting

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Authors: Arun Joshi

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The present study deals with the report of Gangamopteriscyclopteroides from the Barakar Formation of Simlong Open Cast Mine, Rajmahal Area, Rajmahal Basin, Jharkhand, India. The genus Gangamopteriscomprises leaves which are simple, entire, symmetrical or asymmetrical, linear, lanceolate, elliptical, obovate in shape, apex broadly rounded, obtuse, acute, acuminate or mucronate, base petiolate or contracted, midrib absent. Median region occupied by subparallel veins with anastomoses of elongate or hexagonal outline. Secondary veins arise from median veins by repeated dichotomy, arched, bifurcating and anasotomosing network. The present work is significant as it represents the presence of Glossopteris flora (250- 290 ma) which is mainly responsible for the formation of coal. Coal is one of the major fuels for power production through thermal power plants. The Glossopteris flora is one of the major floras that occupied the southern continent during Carboniferous- Permian time. This southern continent is also known as Gondwana comprising Australia, South Africa, Antarctica, Madagascar and India. There is a vast geological reserve of coal with favorable stripping ratio available at the Simlong Block but the area comes under the most naxalite prone area and thus the mine has been running in an unplanned manner. It has got the potential of becoming a big project with higher capacity and is well suited for enhancing production which can be helpful in the economic growth of the country. Though, the present record is scanty, it shows the presence of Glossopteris flora responsible for the formation of coal in the Coalmine. However, there are fears of fossils disappearing from this area as the state government of Jharkhand has given out a mining lease in the area to private companies. Therefore, it is very necessary to study such coal forming vegetation and their systematic study from the area to generate a new palaeobotanical database, palaeoenvironmental interpretation, basinal correlation and for the understanding of evolutionary perspectives.

Keywords: Barakar formation, coal, Glossopteris flora, Gondwana, India, Naxalite, Rajmahal Basin

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Authors: Ankit Kumar Yadav, Nagendra R. Velaga

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Driving under the influence of alcohol impairs the driving performance and increases the crash risks worldwide. The present study investigated the effect of different Blood Alcohol Concentrations (BAC) on the accelerating and braking behaviour of drivers with the help of driving simulator experiments. Eighty-two licensed Indian drivers drove on the rural road environment designed in the driving simulator at BAC levels of 0.00%, 0.03%, 0.05%, and 0.08% respectively. Driving performance was analysed with the help of vehicle control performance indicators such as mean acceleration and mean brake pedal force of the participants. Preliminary analysis reported an increase in mean acceleration and mean brake pedal force with increasing BAC levels. Generalized linear mixed models were developed to quantify the effect of different alcohol levels and explanatory variables such as driver’s age, gender and other driver characteristic variables on the driving performance indicators. Alcohol use was reported as a significant factor affecting the accelerating and braking performance of the drivers. The acceleration model results indicated that mean acceleration of the drivers increased by 0.013 m/s², 0.026 m/s² and 0.027 m/s² for the BAC levels of 0.03%, 0.05% and 0.08% respectively. Results of the brake pedal force model reported that mean brake pedal force of the drivers increased by 1.09 N, 1.32 N and 1.44 N for the BAC levels of 0.03%, 0.05% and 0.08% respectively. Age was a significant factor in both the models where one year increase in drivers’ age resulted in 0.2% reduction in mean acceleration and 19% reduction in mean brake pedal force of the drivers. It shows that driving experience could compensate for the negative effects of alcohol to some extent while driving. Female drivers were found to accelerate slower and brake harder as compared to the male drivers which confirmed that female drivers are more conscious about their safety while driving. It was observed that drivers who were regular exercisers had better control on their accelerator pedal as compared to the non-regular exercisers during drunken driving. The findings of the present study revealed that drivers tend to be more aggressive and impulsive under the influence of alcohol which deteriorates their driving performance. Drunk driving state can be differentiated from sober driving state by observing the accelerating and braking behaviour of the drivers. The conclusions may provide reference in making countermeasures against drinking and driving and contribute to traffic safety.

Keywords: alcohol, acceleration, braking behaviour, driving simulator

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Caixia Gao, Chuanrong Li, Lingli Tang, Lingling Ma, Yaokai Liu, Xinhong Wang, Yongsheng Zhou

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Performances analysis of remote sensing sensor is required to pursue a range of scientific research and application objectives. Laboratory analysis of any remote sensing instrument is essential, but not sufficient to establish a valid inflight one. In this study, with the aid of the in situ measurements and corresponding image of three-gray scale permanent artificial target, the in-flight radiometric performances analyses (in-flight radiometric calibration, dynamic range and response linearity, signal-noise-ratio (SNR), radiometric resolution) of self-developed short-wave infrared (SWIR) camera are performed. To acquire the inflight calibration coefficients of the SWIR camera, the at-sensor radiances (L_i) for the artificial targets are firstly simulated with in situ measurements (atmosphere parameter and spectral reflectance of the target) and viewing geometries using MODTRAN model. With these radiances and the corresponding digital numbers (DN) in the image, a straight line with a formulation of L = G × DN + B is fitted by a minimization regression method, and the fitted coefficients, G and B, are inflight calibration coefficients. And then the high point (L_H) and the low point (L_L) of dynamic range can be described as L_H= (G × DN_H + B) and L_L= B, respectively, where DN_H is equal to 2ⁿ − 1 (n is the quantization number of the payload). Meanwhile, the sensor’s response linearity (δ) is described as the correlation coefficient of the regressed line. The results show that the calibration coefficients (G and B) are 0.0083 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹ and −3.5 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹; the low point of dynamic range is −3.5 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹ and the high point is 30.5 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹; the response linearity is approximately 99%. Furthermore, a SNR normalization method is used to assess the sensor’s SNR, and the normalized SNR is about 59.6 when the mean value of radiance is equal to 11.0 W·sr⁻¹m⁻²µm⁻¹; subsequently, the radiometric resolution is calculated about 0.1845 W•sr^-1m^-2μm^-1. Moreover, in order to validate the result, a comparison of the measured radiance with a radiative-transfer-code-predicted over four portable artificial targets with reflectance of 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% respectively, is performed. It is noted that relative error for the calibration is within 6.6%.

Keywords: calibration and validation site, SWIR camera, in-flight radiometric calibration, dynamic range, response linearity

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Authors: Monica Gonzalez Machorro

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Dementia is hard to diagnose because of the lack of early physical symptoms. Early dementia recognition is key to improving the living condition of patients. Speech technology is considered a valuable biomarker for this challenge. Recent works have utilized conventional acoustic features and machine learning methods to detect dementia in speech. BERT-like classifiers have reported the most promising performance. One constraint, nonetheless, is that these studies are either based on human transcripts or on transcripts produced by automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. This research contribution is to explore a method that does not require transcriptions to detect early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This is achieved by fine-tuning a pre-trained ASR model for the downstream early AD and MCI tasks. To do so, a subset of the thoroughly studied Pitt Corpus is customized. The subset is balanced for class, age, and gender. Data processing also involves cropping the samples into 10-second segments. For comparison purposes, a baseline model is defined by training and testing a Random Forest with 20 extracted acoustic features using the librosa library implemented in Python. These are: zero-crossing rate, MFCCs, spectral bandwidth, spectral centroid, root mean square, and short-time Fourier transform. The baseline model achieved a 58% accuracy. To fine-tune HuBERT as a classifier, an average pooling strategy is employed to merge the 3D representations from audio into 2D representations, and a linear layer is added. The pre-trained model used is ‘hubert-large-ls960-ft’. Empirically, the number of epochs selected is 5, and the batch size defined is 1. Experiments show that our proposed method reaches a 69% balanced accuracy. This suggests that the linguistic and speech information encoded in the self-supervised ASR-based model is able to learn acoustic cues of AD and MCI.

Keywords: automatic speech recognition, early Alzheimer’s recognition, mild cognitive impairment, speech impairment

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Authors: Getahun Nigusie Demise

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Background; antiretroviral treatment reduce HIV-related morbidity, and prolonged survival of patients however, there is lack of up-to-date information concerning the treatment long term effect on the survival of HIV positive children especially in the study area. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the incidence and predictors of mortality among HIV positive children on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in public hospitals of Harer town who were enrolled from 2011 to 2021. Methodology: Institution based retrospective cohort study was conducted among 429 HIV positive children enrolled in ART clinic from January 1st 2011 to December30th 2021. Data were collected from medical cards by using a data extraction form, Descriptive analyses were used to Summarized the results, and life table was used to estimate survival probability at specific point of time after introduction of ART. Kaplan Meier survival curve together with log rank test was used to compare survival between different categories of covariates, and Multivariate Cox-proportional hazard regression model was used to estimate adjusted Hazard rate. Variables with p-values ≤0.25 in bivariable analysis were candidates to the multivariable analysis. Finally, variables with p-values < 0.05 were considered as significant variables. Results: The study participants had followed for a total of 2549.6 child-years (30596 child months) with an overall mortality rate of 1.5 (95% CI: 1.1, 2.04) per 100 child-years. Their median survival time was 112 months (95% CI: 101–117). There were 38 children with unknown outcome, 39 deaths, and 55 children transfer out to different facility. The overall survival at 6, 12, 24, 48 months were 98%, 96%, 95%, 94% respectively. being in WHO clinical Stage four (AHR=4.55, 95% CI:1.36, 15.24), having anemia(AHR=2.56, 95% CI:1.11, 5.93), baseline low absolute CD4 count (AHR=2.95, 95% CI: 1.22, 7.12), stunting (AHR=4.1, 95% CI: 1.11, 15.42), wasting (AHR=4.93, 95% CI: 1.31, 18.76), poor adherence to treatment (AHR=3.37, 95% CI: 1.25, 9.11), having TB infection at enrollment (AHR=3.26, 95% CI: 1.25, 8.49),and no history of change their regimen(AHR=7.1, 95% CI: 2.74, 18.24), were independent predictors of death. Conclusion: more than half of death occurs within 2 years. Prevalent tuberculosis, anemia, wasting, and stunting nutritional status, socioeconomic factors, and baseline opportunistic infection were independent predictors of death. Increasing early screening and managing those predictors are required.

Keywords: human immunodeficiency virus-positive children, anti-retroviral therapy, survival, treatment, Ethiopia

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Authors: Yusuke Katayama, Tetsuhisa Kitamura, Kosuke Kiyohara, Sumito Hayashida, Taku Iwami, Takashi Kawamura, Takeshi Shimazu

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Background: Recently, the number of ambulance dispatches has been increasing in Japan and it is, therefore, difficult to accept emergency patients to hospitals smoothly and appropriately because of the limited hospital capacity. To facilitate the request for patient transport by ambulances and hospital acceptance, the emergency information system using information technology has been built up and introduced in various communities. However, its effectiveness has not been insufficiently revealed in Japan. In 2013, we developed a smartphone application system that enables the emergency-medical-service (EMS) personnel to share information about on-scene ambulance and hospital situation. The aim of this study was to assess the introduction effect of this application for EMS system in Osaka City, Japan. Methods: This study was a retrospective study with population-based ambulance records of Osaka Municipal Fire Department. This study period was six years from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2015. In this study, we enrolled emergency patients that on-scene EMS personnel conducted the hospital selection for them. The main endpoint was difficulty in hospital acceptance at the scene. The definition of difficulty in hospital acceptance at the scene was to make >=5 phone calls by EMS personnel at the scene to each hospital until a decision to transport was determined. The definition of the smartphone application group was emergency patients transported in the period of 2013-2015 after the introduction of this application, and we assessed the introduction effect of smartphone application with multivariable logistic regression model. Results: A total of 600,526 emergency patients for whom EMS personnel selected hospitals were eligible for our analysis. There were 300,131 smartphone application group (50.0%) in 2010-2012 and 300,395 non-smartphone application group (50.0%) in 2013-2015. The proportion of the difficulty in hospital acceptance was 14.2% (42,585/300,131) in the smartphone application group and 10.9% (32,819/300,395) in the non-smartphone application group, and the difficulty in hospital acceptance significantly decreased by the introduction of the smartphone application (adjusted odds ration; 0.730, 95% confidence interval; 0.718-0.741, P<0.001). Conclusions: Sharing information between ambulance and hospital by introducing smartphone application at the scene was associated with decreasing the difficulty in hospital acceptance. Our findings may be considerable useful for developing emergency medical information system with using IT in other areas of the world.

Keywords: difficulty in hospital acceptance, emergency medical service, infomation technology, smartphone application

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Authors: Siddharth Ahuja, T. M. Muruganandam

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An analytical investigation is performed to study the unsteady response of a one-dimensional, non-linear dynamic shock system to external downstream pressure perturbations in a supersonic flow in a varying area duct. For a given pressure ratio across a wind tunnel, the normal shock's location can be computed as per one-dimensional steady gas dynamics. Similarly, for some other pressure ratio, the location of the normal shock will change accordingly, again computed using one-dimensional gas dynamics. This investigation focuses on the small-time interval between the first steady shock location and the new steady shock location (corresponding to different pressure ratios). In essence, this study aims to shed light on the motion of the shock from one steady location to another steady location. Further, this study aims to create the foundation of the Unsteady Gas Dynamics field enabling further insight in future research work. According to the new pressure ratio, a pressure pulse, generated at the exit of the tunnel which travels and perturbs the shock from its original position, setting it into motion. During such activity, other numerous physical phenomena also happen at the same time. However, three broad phenomena have been focused on, in this study - Traversal of a Wave, Fluid Element Interactions and Wave Interactions. The above mentioned three phenomena create, alter and kill numerous waves for different conditions. The waves which are created by the above-mentioned phenomena eventually interact with the shock and set it into motion. Numerous such interactions with the shock will slowly make it settle into its final position owing to the new pressure ratio across the duct, as estimated by one-dimensional gas dynamics. This analysis will be extremely helpful in the prediction of inlet 'unstart' of the flow in a supersonic engine intake and its prominence with the incoming flow Mach number, incoming flow pressure and the external perturbation pressure is also studied to help design more efficient supersonic intakes for engines like ramjets and scramjets.

Keywords: analytical investigation, compression and expansion waves, fluid element interactions, shock trajectory, supersonic flow, unsteady gas dynamics, varying area duct, wave interactions

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Authors: Youssef Wardeh, Elias Kinab, Pierre Rahme, Gilles Escadeillas, Stephane Ginestet

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Urban heat islands designate a local phenomenon that appears in high density cities. This results in a rise ofambient temperature in the urban area compared to the neighboring rural area. Solar radiation plays an important role in this phenomenon since it is partially absorbed by the materials, especially roads and parking lots. Cool pavements constitute an innovative and promising technique to mitigate urban heat islands. The cool pavements studied in this work allow to limit the increase of the surface temperature, thanks to evaporation of the water conducted through capillary pores, from the humidified base to the surface exposed to solar radiation. However, the performance or the cooling capacity of a pavement sometimes remained difficult to characterize. In this work, a new definition of the cooling capacity of a pavement is presented, and a correlation between the latter and the hydrothermal properties of cool pavements is revealed. Firstly, several porous concrete pavements were characterized through their hydrothermal properties, which can be related to the cooling effect, such as albedo, thermal conductivity, water absorption, etc. Secondly, these pavements initially saturated and continuously supplied with water through their bases, were exposed to external solar radiation during three sunny summer days, and their surface temperatures were measured. For draining pavements, a strong second-degreepolynomial correlation(R² = 0.945) was found between the cooling capacity and the term, which reflects the interconnection of capillary water to the surface. Moreover, it was noticed that the cooling capacity reaches its maximum for an optimal range of capillary pores for which the capillary rise is stronger than gravity. For non-draining pavements, a good negative linear correlation (R² = 0.828) was obtained between the cooling capacity and the term, which expresses the ability to heat the capillary water by the energystored far from the surface, and, therefore, the dominance of the evaporation process by diffusion. The latest tests showed that this process is, however, likely to be disturbed by the material resistance to the water vapor diffusion.

Keywords: urban heat islands, cool pavement, cooling capacity, hydrothermal properties, evaporation

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Authors: Mohammad Noor Hisham Osman, Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff, Zaidi Mat Daud, Zulkarnain Muhamad Sori

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The problem that Malaysian auditors do not issue going concern opinion (GC opinion) to seriously financially distressed companies is still a pressing issue. Policy makers, particularly the Financial Statement Review Committee (FSRC) of Malaysian Institute of Accountant, have raised this issue as early as in 2009. Similar problem happened in the US, UK, and many developing countries. It is important for auditors to issue GC opinion properly because such opinion is one signal about the viability of a company much needed by stakeholders. There are at least two unanswered questions or research gaps in the literature on determinants of GC opinion. Firstly, is client’s probability of failure associated with GC opinion issuance? Secondly, to what extent influential owners (management, family, and institution) moderate the association between client probability of failure and GC opinion issuance. The objective of this study is, therefore, twofold; (1) To examine the extent of the relationship between the probability of client failure and the issuance of GC opinion and (2) To examine the level of management, family, and institutional ownerships moderate the association between client probability of failure and the issuance of GC opinion. This study is quantitative in nature, and the sources of data are secondary (mainly company’s annual reports). A total of four hypotheses have been developed and tested on data accumulated from annual reports of seriously financially distressed Malaysian public listed companies. Data from 2006 to 2012 on a sample of 644 observations have been analyzed using panel logistic regression. It is found that certainty (rather than probability) of client failure affects the issuance of GC opinion. In addition, it is found that only the level of family ownership does positively moderate the relationship between client probability of failure and GC opinion issuance. This study is a contribution to auditing literature as its findings can enhance our understanding about audit quality; particularly on the variables that are associated with the issuance of GC opinion. The findings of this study shed light on the roles family owners in GC opinion issuance process, and this would open ways for the researcher to suggest measures that can be used to tackle the problem of auditors do not want to issue GC opinion to financially distressed clients. The measures to be suggested can be useful to policy makers in formulating future promulgations.

Keywords: audit quality, auditing, auditor characteristics, going concern opinion, Malaysia

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Authors: Bedilu Tafesse

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Home gardens are important social and cultural spaces where knowledge related to agricultural practice is transmitted and through which households may improve their income and livelihood. High levels of inter- and intra-specific plant genetic diversity are preserved in home gardens. Plant diversity is threatened by rapid and unplanned urbanization, which increases environmental problems such as heating, pollution, loss of habitats and ecosystem disruption. Tropical home gardens have played a significant role in conserving plant diversity while providing substantial benefits to households. This research aimed to understand the relationship between household characteristics and plant diversity in western Ethiopia home gardens and the contributions of plants to the household economy. Plant diversity and different uses of plants were studied in a random sample of 111 suburban home gardens in the Ilu Ababora, Jima and Wellega suburban area, western Ethiopia, based on complete garden inventories followed by household surveys on socio-economic status during 2012. A total of 261 species of plants were observed, of which 41% were ornamental plants, 36% food plants, and 22% medicinal plants. Of these 16% were sold commercially to produce income. Avocado, bananas, and other fruits produced in excess. Home gardens contributed the equivalent of 7% of total annual household income in terms of food and commercial sales. Multiple regression analysis showed that education, time spent in gardening, land for cultivation, household expenses, primary conservation practices, and uses of special techniques explained 56% of the total plant diversity. Food, medicinal and commercial plant species had significant positive relationships with time spent gardening and land area for gardening. Education and conservation practices significantly affected food and medicinal plant diversity. Special techniques used in gardening showed significant positive relations with ornamental and commercial plants. Reassessments in different suburban and urban home gardens and proper documentation using same methodology is essential to build a firm policy for enhancing plant diversity and related values to households and surroundings.

Keywords: plant genetic diversity, urbanization, suburban home gardens, Ethiopia

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