Search results for: bilingual pupil group work

Authors: Kunio Yoshikawa, Ding Lu

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Small-scale, distributed and low-cost biomass power generation technologies are highly required in the modern society. There are big needs for these technologies in the disaster areas of developed countries and un-electrified rural areas of developing countries. This work aims to present a technical feasibility of the portable ultra-small power generation system based on the gasification of carbonized wood pellets/briquettes. Our project is designed for enabling independent energy production from various kinds of biomass resources in the open-field. The whole process mainly consists of two processes: biomass and waste pretreatment; gasification and power generation. The first process includes carbonization, densification (briquetting or pelletization), and the second includes updraft fixed bed gasification of carbonized pellets/briquettes, syngas purification, and power generation employing an internal combustion gas engine. A combined pretreatment processes including carbonization without external energy and densification were adopted to deal with various biomass. Carbonized pellets showed a better gasification performance than carbonized briquettes and their mixture. The 100-hour continuous operation results indicated that pelletization/briquetting of carbonized fuel realized the stable operation of an updraft gasifier if there were no blocking issues caused by the accumulation of tar. The cold gas efficiency and the carbon conversion during carbonized wood pellets gasification was about 49.2% and 70.5% with the air equivalence ratio value of around 0.32, and the corresponding overall efficiency of the gas engine was 20.3% during the stable stage. Moreover, the maximum output power was 21 kW at the air flow rate of 40 Nm³·h⁻¹. Therefore, the comprehensive system covering biomass carbonization, densification, gasification, syngas purification, and engine system is feasible for portable, ultra-small power generation. This work has been supported by Innovative Science and Technology Initiative for Security (Ministry of Defence, Japan).

Keywords: biomass carbonization, densification, distributed power generation, gasification

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Authors: Ying Zhang

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Surface waves provide critical constraints about the earth's structure in the crust and upper mantle. However, different modes of Love waves with close group velocities often arrive at a similar time and interfere with each other. This problem is typical for Love waves at intermediate periods that travel through the oceanic lithosphere. Therefore, we developed a two-step inversion approach to separate the waveforms of the fundamental and first higher mode of Love waves. We first solve the phase velocities of the two modes and their amplitude ratios. The misfit function is based on the sum of phase differences among the station pairs. We then solve the absolute amplitudes of the two modes and their initial phases using obtained phase velocities and amplitude ratio. The separated waveforms of each mode from the two-step inversion method can be further used in surface wave tomography to improve model resolution.

Keywords: surface wave inversion, waveform separation, love waves, higher-mode interference

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Authors: Chima Onwukwe

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This study examined perceptions on the effectiveness, attendant challenges and remedies of community media for effective acculturation in Nigerian languages. The qualitative survey design was adopted with Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) of 50 purposively chosen informants. It was perceived that community media could serve as veritable platform for effective acculturation in Nigerian languages since they would engender the setting of acculturation in Nigerian languages as national objective or goal. It was further held that the strengths of community media for acculturation were in being goal-defined, ensuring local content and diversification. The study identified that as palatable as the proposal for community media for effective acculturation in Nigerian languages is; it would be fraught with some set-backs or challenges that were very much surmountable. Perceptions pointed towards transient nature of community media and funding as challenges, as well as multi-based funding as one remedy. Immediate establishment of community media for the purpose of acculturation in Nigerian languages was recommended.

Keywords: perception, community media, acculturation, indigenous language

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Authors: Munir Kassa, Mengistu Hailemariam, Meghan Obermeyer, Kefelegn Baruda, Yonas Getachew, Asnakech Dessie

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Improving the quality of sexual and reproductive health services that women receive is expected to have an impact on women’s satisfaction with the services, on their continued use and, ultimately, on their ability to achieve their fertility goals or reproductive intentions. Surprisingly, however, there is little empirical evidence of either whether this expectation is correct, or how best to improve service quality within sexual and reproductive health programs so that these impacts can be achieved. The Recent focus on quality has prompted more physicians to do quality improvement work, but often without the needed skill sets, which results in poorly conceived and ultimately unsuccessful improvement initiatives. As this renders the work unpublishable, it further impedes progress in the field of health care improvement and widens the quality chasm. Moreover, since 2014, the Center for International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT) has worked diligently with 11 teaching hospitals across Ethiopia to increase access to contraception and abortion care services. This work has included improving pre-service training through education and curriculum development, expanding hands-on training to better learn critical techniques and counseling skills, and fostering a “team science” approach to research by encouraging scientific exploration. This is the first time this systematic approach has been applied and documented to improve access to high-quality services in Ethiopia. The purpose of this article is to report initiatives undertaken, and findings concluded by the clinical service team at CIRHT in an effort to provide a pragmatic approach to quality improvement projects. An audit containing nearly 300 questions about several aspects of patient care, including structure, process, and outcome indicators was completed by each teaching hospital’s quality improvement team. This baseline audit assisted in identifying major gaps and barriers, and each team was responsible for determining specific quality improvement aims and tasks to support change interventions using Shewart’s Cycle for Learning and Improvement (the Plan-Do-Study-Act model). To measure progress over time, quality improvement teams met biweekly and compiled monthly data for review. Also, site visits to each hospital were completed by the clinical service team to ensure monitoring and support. The results indicate that applying an evidence-based, participatory approach to quality improvement has the potential to increase the accessibility and quality of services in a short amount of time. In addition, continued ownership and on-site support are vital in promoting sustainability. This approach could be adapted and applied in similar contexts, particularly in other African countries.

Keywords: abortion, contraception, quality improvement, service provision

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Authors: C. John Thomas, Sabitha Jannet

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The review concentrates on mental health wellbeing at workplace to create a safe work environment. The purpose of the study is to find the existing gaps in occupational health in the manufacturing sector. Mental wellbeing is important because it is an essential component of human life and influences our emotions, attitudes, and feelings. In the workplace, mental wellbeing can encourage a culture of safety and avoid accidents. An environment where individuals are comfortable voicing themselves and being themselves. More technically, when individuals have psychological protection at work, without regard for humiliation or punishment, they feel relaxed expressing complaints and errors. They are sure they are going to speak up and not humiliate, neglect, or accuse them. Once they are uncertain about something, they know they are going to ask questions. They are inclined to trust their colleagues and respect them. The reviews were considered through keywords and health-related topics. There are different characteristics of mental wellbeing in the literature and how it impacts the workplace. There is also a possibility that their personal lives will have an impact. In every occupation, however, there is widespread acknowledgment that psychosocial hazards are an important health risk for workers, yet in many workplaces, the focus remains on physical hazards. It is alleged that the understating of workplace psychosocial hazards is primarily due to the perception that they present a more difficult and complex challenge when compared to other health and safety issues. Others, however, allege it is the paucity of awareness about psychosocial hazards and their alleviation that explains their relative neglect. The other researchers focused that following global trends, it is believed that psychosocial hazards must be minimized within our workplaces and that there is a requirement for workplace interventions to reduce psychological harm and promote mental health for all the workman employees to achieve zero harm. In common, this literature review compares various results of the individual studies on their research methods and finding to fill gaps.

Keywords: mental health wellbeing, occupational health, psychosocial hazards, safety culture, safety management systems, workman employee, workplace safety

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Authors: G. Medkour Ishak-Boushaki, A. Taibi, M. Allab

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Quantitative environmental radioactivity measurements are needed to determine the level of exposure of a population to ionizing radiations and for the assessment of the associated risks. Gamma spectrometry remains a very powerful tool for the analysis of radionuclides present in an environmental sample but the basic problem in such measurements is the low rate of detected events. Using large environmental samples could help to get around this difficulty but, unfortunately, new issues are raised by gamma rays attenuation and self-absorption. Recently, a new method has been suggested, to detect and identify without quantification, in a short time, a gamma ray of a low count source. This method does not require, as usually adopted in gamma spectrometry measurements, a pulse height spectrum acquisition. It is based on a chronological record of each detected photon by simultaneous measurements of its energy ε and its arrival time τ on the detector, the pair parameters [ε,τ] defining an event mode sequence (EMS). The EMS serials are analyzed sequentially by a Bayesian approach to detect the presence of a given radioactive source. The main object of the present work is to test the applicability of this sequential approach in radioactive environmental materials detection. Moreover, for an appropriate health oversight of the public and of the concerned workers, the analysis has been extended to get a reliable quantification of the radionuclides present in environmental samples. For illustration, we consider as an example, the problem of detection and quantification of 238U. Monte Carlo simulated experience is carried out consisting in the detection, by a Ge(Hp) semiconductor junction, of gamma rays of 63 keV emitted by 234Th (progeny of 238U). The generated EMS serials are analyzed by a Bayesian inference. The application of the sequential Bayesian approach, in environmental radioactivity analysis, offers the possibility of reducing the measurements time without requiring large environmental samples and consequently avoids the attached inconvenient. The work is still in progress.

Keywords: Bayesian approach, event mode sequence, gamma spectrometry, Monte Carlo method

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Authors: H. Ait Abderrahmane, M. Fayed, H. D. Ng, G. H. Vatistas

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The present paper expands details and confirms the transition mechanism between two subsequent polygonal patterns of the hollow-core vortex. Using power spectral analysis, we confirm in this work that the transition from any N-gon to (N+1)-gon pattern observed within a hollow-core vortex of shallow rotating flows occurs in two steps. The regime was quasi-periodic before the frequencies lock (synchronization). The ratios of locking frequencies were found to be equal to (N-1)/N.

Keywords: patterns, swirling, quasi-periodic, synchronization

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Authors: Waratthaya Maneerattana, Piyarat Dornbundit

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The study aimed to develop flipped classroom in Chemistry on ‘acid-base’ for high school students and study efficiency of students on academic achievement and problem-solving skills. The evaluating result from the experts showed that developed flipped classroom was ranked in high score level. The flipped classroom efficiency E1/E2 was higher than the criteria of 70/70. The flipped classroom was used by 24 students in grade 11 in the second semester of the academic year 2016 at Bodindecha (Sing Singhaseni) School. Sampling group was chosen using a purposive sampling approach. The results revealed that academic achievement and problem solving skills of students after studying flipped classroom was significantly higher at .05 level.

Keywords: flipped classroom, acid-base, academic achievement, problem solving skill

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Authors: Liu Jia’nan

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The default accounts hold the view that there exists a kind of scalar implicature which can be processed without context and own a psychological privilege over other scalar implicatures which depend on context. In contrast, the Relevance Theorist regards context as a must because all the scalar implicatures have to meet the need of relevance in discourse. However, in Katsos, the experimental results showed: Although quantitatively the adults rejected under-informative utterance with lexical scales (context-independent) and the ad hoc scales (context-dependent) at almost the same rate, adults still regarded the violation of utterance with lexical scales much more severe than with ad hoc scales. Neither default account nor Relevance Theory can fully explain this result. Thus, there are two questionable points to this result: (1) Is it possible that the strange discrepancy is due to other factors instead of the generation of scalar implicature? (2) Are the ad hoc scales truly formed under the possible influence from mental context? Do the participants generate scalar implicatures with ad hoc scales instead of just comparing semantic difference among target objects in the under- informative utterance? In my Experiment 1, the question (1) will be answered by repetition of Experiment 1 by Katsos. Test materials will be showed by PowerPoint in the form of pictures, and each procedure will be done under the guidance of a tester in a quiet room. Our Experiment 2 is intended to answer question (2). The test material of picture will be transformed into the literal words in DMDX and the target sentence will be showed word-by-word to participants in the soundproof room in our lab. Reading time of target parts, i.e. words containing scalar implicatures, will be recorded. We presume that in the group with lexical scale, standardized pragmatically mental context would help generate scalar implicature once the scalar word occurs, which will make the participants hope the upcoming words to be informative. Thus if the new input after scalar word is under-informative, more time will be cost for the extra semantic processing. However, in the group with ad hoc scale, scalar implicature may hardly be generated without the support from fixed mental context of scale. Thus, whether the new input is informative or not does not matter at all, and the reading time of target parts will be the same in informative and under-informative utterances. People’s mind may be a dynamic system, in which lots of factors would co-occur. If Katsos’ experimental result is reliable, will it shed light on the interplay of default accounts and context factors in scalar implicature processing? We might be able to assume, based on our experiments, that one single dominant processing paradigm may not be plausible. Furthermore, in the processing of scalar implicature, the semantic interpretation and the pragmatic interpretation may be made in a dynamic interplay in the mind. As to the lexical scale, the pragmatic reading may prevail over the semantic reading because of its greater exposure in daily language use, which may also lead the possible default or standardized paradigm override the role of context. However, those objects in ad hoc scale are not usually treated as scalar membership in mental context, and thus lexical-semantic association of the objects may prevent their pragmatic reading from generating scalar implicature. Only when the sufficient contextual factors are highlighted, can the pragmatic reading get privilege and generate scalar implicature.

Keywords: scalar implicature, ad hoc scale, dynamic interplay, default account, Mandarin Chinese processing

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Authors: Tracy-Ann Johnson-Myers

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Since the early 1990’s voter turnout in Jamaica has been abysmal. More troubling, the group less interested in voting are the ‘articulate minority’ (educated youths, aged 18-35). Using surveys, media commentaries and data from the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, this study explores the relationship between educated youths and traditional politics in Jamaica. Specifically, it raises questions about why the ‘articulate minority’ did not vote in the 2016 general election. This will be done by highlighting the political and socio-economic reasons affecting their participation in the electoral process, their opinions of who is responsible for low voter turnout in Jamaica, and what they think needs to be done to encourage people in general to vote. The findings reveal that lack of interest in the democratic and electoral process by the ‘articulate minority’ is due to their growing distrust of politicians and political parties, and lack of confidence in the political process.

Keywords: articulate minority, Jamaica, voter apathy, voter turnout

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Authors: Vishnu S. Prasad, Preeti Aghalayam

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The major harmful automobile exhausts are nitric oxide (NO) and unburned hydrocarbon (HC). Reduction of NO using unburned fuel HC as a reductant is the technique used in hydrocarbon-selective catalytic reduction (HC-SCR). In this work, we study the microkinetic modelling of NO reduction using propene as a reductant on Pt catalysts. The selectivity of NO reduction to N₂O is detected in some ranges of operating conditions, whereas the effect of inlet O₂% causes a number of changes in the feasible regimes of operation.

Keywords: microkinetic modelling, NOx, platinum on alumina catalysts, selective catalytic reduction

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Authors: Konstantinos Liagkouras, Konstantinos Metaxiotis

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In this paper we present a classification of the various technologies applied for the solution of the portfolio selection problem according to the discipline and the methodological framework followed. We provide a concise presentation of the emerged categories and we are trying to identify which methods considered obsolete and which lie at the heart of the debate. On top of that, we provide a comparative study of the different technologies applied for efficient portfolio construction and we suggest potential paths for future work that lie at the intersection of the presented techniques.

Keywords: portfolio selection, optimization techniques, financial models, stochastic, heuristics

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Authors: Ana Paula Soares, Alexandrina Lages, Helena Oliveira, Francisco-Javier Gutiérrez-Domínguez, Marisa Lousada

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From an early age, exposure to a spoken language allows us to implicitly capture the structure underlying the succession of the speech sounds in that language and to segment it into meaningful units (words). Statistical learning (SL), i.e., the ability to pick up patterns in the sensory environment even without intention or consciousness of doing it, is thus assumed to play a central role in the acquisition of the rule-governed aspects of language and possibly to lie behind the language difficulties exhibited by children with development language disorder (DLD). The research conducted so far has, however, led to inconsistent results, which might stem from the behavioral tasks used to test SL. In a classic SL experiment, participants are first exposed to a continuous stream (e.g., syllables) in which, unbeknownst to the participants, stimuli are grouped into triplets that always appear together in the stream (e.g., ‘tokibu’, ‘tipolu’), with no pauses between each other (e.g., ‘tokibutipolugopilatokibu’) and without any information regarding the task or the stimuli. Following exposure, SL is assessed by asking participants to discriminate between triplets previously presented (‘tokibu’) from new sequences never presented together during exposure (‘kipopi’), i.e., to perform a two-alternative-forced-choice (2-AFC) task. Despite the widespread use of the 2-AFC to test SL, it has come under increasing criticism as it is an offline post-learning task that only assesses the result of the learning that had occurred during the previous exposure phase and that might be affected by other factors beyond the computation of regularities embedded in the input, typically the likelihood two syllables occurring together, a statistic known as transitional probability (TP). One solution to overcome these limitations is to assess SL as exposure to the stream unfolds using online techniques such as event-related potentials (ERP) that is highly sensitive to the time-course of the learning in the brain. Here we collected ERPs to examine the neurofunctional correlates of SL in preschool children with DLD, and chronological-age typical language development (TLD) controls who were exposed to an auditory stream in which eight three-syllable nonsense words, four of which presenting high-TPs and the other four low-TPs, to further analyze whether the ability of DLD and TLD children to extract-word-like units from the steam was modulated by words’ predictability. Moreover, to ascertain if the previous knowledge of the to-be-learned-regularities affected the neural responses to high- and low-TP words, children performed the auditory SL task, firstly, under implicit, and, subsequently, under explicit conditions. Although behavioral evidence of SL was not obtained in either group, the neural responses elicited during the exposure phases of the SL tasks differentiated children with DLD from children with TLD. Specifically, the results indicated that only children from the TDL group showed neural evidence of SL, particularly in the SL task performed under explicit conditions, firstly, for the low-TP, and, subsequently, for the high-TP ‘words’. Taken together, these findings support the view that children with DLD showed deficits in the extraction of the regularities embedded in the auditory input which might underlie the language difficulties.

Keywords: development language disorder, statistical learning, transitional probabilities, word segmentation

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Authors: Atakan Efe Akpınar, Zeynep Demir

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Seed priming technologies are frequently used nowadays to increase the germination potential and stress tolerance of seeds. These treatments might be beneficial for native species as well as crops. Different priming treatments can be used depending on the type of plant, the morphology, and the physiology of the seed. Moreover, these may be various physical, chemical, and/or biological treatments. Aiming to improve studies about seed priming, ideas need to be brought into this technological sector related to the agri-seed industry. In this study, seed priming was carried out using some plant extracts. Firstly, some plant extracts prepared from plant leaves, roots, or fruit parts were obtained for use in priming treatments. Then, seeds were kept in solutions containing plant extracts at 20°C for 48 hours. Seeds without any treatment were evaluated as the control group. At the end of priming applications, seeds are dried superficially at 25°C. Seeds were analyzed for vigor (normal germination rate, germination time, germination index etc.). In the future, seed priming applications can expand to multidisciplinary research combining with digital, bioinformatic and molecular tools.

Keywords: seed priming, plant extracts, germination, biology

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Authors: Rosa L. Figueroa, Joselyn A. Hernández

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During the last couple of years, the Ministry of Health have been developing new health policies in order to regulate and improve in benefit of the patient the pharmaceutical system in our country. However, there are still some deficiencies in how medicines have been accessed, distributed, and sold. Therefore, it is necessary to empower the patient by offering new instances to improve access to drug information. This work introduces ‘the bioequivalent’ a medical drug search tool created to increase both diffusion and getting information about the therapeutic equivalence of medicines for the patient. The development of the search tool started with a study on the availability of sources of drug information accessible to the patient where advantages and disadvantages were analyzed. The information obtained was used to feed the functional design of the new tool. The design of the new tool shows an external interface that includes a header, body, sidebar and footer. The header has a menu containing ‘Home,’ ‘Who we are,’ and ‘Mission and vision.’ The Body contains the medical drug search tool, and the Sidebar is for the user logging in. It could be anonym, registered user, as well as, administrator. Anonym user could only use the tool. Registered users could add some information on existing medicines in the database; however, adding information will be restricted and limited to specific items and subject to administrator approval because the information added must be endorsed by the Chilean Public Health Institute. On the other hand, the administrator will have all the privileges, including creating or deleting drugs or information about them. The Bioequivalent was tested on different mobile devices, and no fails have been found. Moreover, a small survey was answered by ten people who tested the tool, and all of them agree that the tool was useful to get information about bioequivalent drugs, and they would recommend the tool to others. Nevertheless, an 80% of people who tested the tool says it was easy to use, and a 70% indicates that additional help is not required. These results are evidence that ‘the Bioequivalent’ may contribute to the knowledge about the therapeutic bioequivalence and bioequivalent drugs existing in Chile. As future work, the tool will be developed to make it available to the public for a first testing stage in a more massive scenario.

Keywords: collaborative database, bioequivalent drugs, search tool, web platform

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Authors: Jérôme de Reffye, Marc Antoni

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Following the development of the ERTMS system, we think it is interesting to develop another software-based track circuit system which would fit secondary railway lines with an easy-to-work implementation and a low sensitivity to rail-wheel impedance variations. We called this track circuit 'Track Railway by Automatic Circuits.' To be internationally implemented, this system must not have any mechanical component and must be compatible with existing track circuit systems. For example, the system is independent from the French 'Joints Isolants Collés' that isolate track sections from one another, and it is equally independent from component used in Germany called 'Counting Axles,' in French 'compteur d’essieux.' This track circuit is fully interoperable. Such universality is obtained by replacing the train detection mechanical system with a space-time filtering of train position. The various track sections are defined by the frequency of a continuous signal. The set of frequencies related to the track sections is a set of orthogonal functions in a Hilbert Space. Thus the failure probability of track sections separation is precisely calculated on the basis of signal-to-noise ratio. SNR is a function of the level of traction current conducted by rails. This is the reason why we developed a very powerful algorithm to reject noise and jamming to obtain an SNR compatible with the precision required for the track circuit and SIL 4 level. The SIL 4 level is thus reachable by an adjustment of the set of orthogonal functions. Our major contributions to railway engineering signalling science are i) Train space localization is precisely defined by a calibration system. The operation bypasses the GSM-R radio system of the ERTMS system. Moreover, the track circuit is naturally protected against radio-type jammers. After the calibration operation, the track circuit is autonomous. ii) A mathematical topology adapted to train space localization by following the train through a linear time filtering of the received signal. Track sections are numerically defined and can be modified with a software update. The system was numerically simulated, and results were beyond our expectations. We achieved a precision of one meter. Rail-ground and rail-wheel impedance sensitivity analysis gave excellent results. Results are now complete and ready to be published. This work was initialised as a research project of the French Railways developed by the Pi-Ramses Company under SNCF contract and required five years to obtain the results. This track circuit is already at Level 3 of the ERTMS system, and it will be much cheaper to implement and to work. The traffic regulation is based on variable length track sections. As the traffic growths, the maximum speed is reduced, and the track section lengths are decreasing. It is possible if the elementary track section is correctly defined for the minimum speed and if every track section is able to emit with variable frequencies.

Keywords: track section, track circuits, space-time crossing, adaptive track section, automatic railway signalling

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Authors: Wael El-Deeb

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The present study aimed to investigate the diagnostic importance of acute phase proteins in urinary tract infection (UTI) in cattle. We describe the clinical, bacteriological and biochemical findings in 99 lactating cows. Blood and urine samples from diseased (n=84) and control healthy cows (n=15) were submitted to laboratory investigations. The urine analysis revealed hematuria and pyuria in UTI group. The isolated bacteria were E.coli (43/84) Corynebacterium spp, (31/84), Proteus spp. (6/84) and Streptococcus spp (4/84). The concentrations of Haptoglobin (Hp), serum amyloid A (SAA), α1-Acid glycoprotein (AGP), fibrinogen (Fb), total protein, albumen, and globulin were higher in cows with UTI when compared to healthy ones. Fifty-one of 84 cows with UTI were successfully treated. The levels of Hp, SAA, AGP, total protein, and globulin were associated with the odds of treatment failure. Conclusively, acute phase proteins could be used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cows with UTI.

Keywords: cows, urinary, infections, haptoglobin, serum Amyloid A

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Authors: Kevin Baxter, Ron Grove, James Pitney, John Harrison, Ozlem Gumus

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The purpose of this research is to determine the mediating effect of effectiveness of the training provided by Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff and Command (SPSC), on the ability of law enforcement mid-level managers to learn transformational and authentic leadership traits. This study will also evaluate the leadership styles, of course, graduates compared to non-attendees using a static group comparison design. The Louisiana State Police pay approximately $40,000 in salary, tuition, housing, and meals for each state police lieutenant attending the 10-week program of the SPSC. This school lists the development of transformational leaders as an increasing element. Additionally, the SPSC curriculum addresses all four components of authentic leadership - self-awareness, transparency, ethical/moral, and balanced processing. Upon return to law enforcement in roles of mid-level management, there are questions as to whether or not students revert to an “autocratic” leadership style. Insufficient evidence exists to support claims for the effectiveness of management training or leadership development. Though it is widely recognized that transformational styles are beneficial to law enforcement, there is little evidence that suggests police leadership styles are changing. Police organizations continue to hold to a more transactional style (i.e., most senior police leaders remain autocrats). Additionally, research in the application of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership related to police organizations is minimal. The population of the study is law enforcement mid-level managers from various states within the United States who completed leadership training presented by the SPSC. The sample will be composed of 66 active law enforcement mid-level managers (lieutenants and captains) who have graduated from SPSC and 65 active law enforcement mid-level managers (lieutenants and captains) who have not attended SPSC. Participants will answer demographics questions, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Authentic Leadership Questionnaire, and the Kirkpatrick Hybrid Evaluation Survey. Analysis from descriptive statistics, group comparison, one-way MANCOVA, and the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model survey will be used to determine training effectiveness in the four levels of reaction, learning, behavior, and results. Independent variables are SPSC graduates (two groups: upper and lower) and no-SPSC attendees, and dependent variables are transformational and authentic leadership scores. SPSC graduates are expected to have higher MLQ scores for transformational leadership traits and higher ALQ scores for authentic leadership traits than SPSC non-attendees. We also expect the graduates to rate the efficacy of SPSC leadership training as high. This study will validate (or invalidate) the benefits, costs, and resources required for leadership development from a nationally recognized police leadership program, and it will also help fill the gap in the literature that exists between law enforcement professional development and transformational and authentic leadership styles.

Keywords: training effectiveness, transformational leadership, authentic leadership, law enforcement mid-level manager

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Authors: Enrico Gugliandolo, Salvatore Cuzzocrea, Rosalia Crupi

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common chronic pain conditions in dogs and cats. OA pain is currently viewed as a mixed phenomenon involving both inflammatory and neuropathic mechanisms at the peripheral (joint) and central (spinal and supraspinal) levels. Oxidative stress has been implicated in OA pain. Although nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are commonly prescribed for OA pain, they should be used with caution in pets because of adverse effects in the long term and controversial efficacy on neuropathic pain. An unmet need remains for safe and effective long-term treatments for OA pain. Palmitoyl-glucosamine (PGA) is an analogue of the ALIAamide palmitoylethanolamide, i.e., a body’s own endocannabinoid-like compound playing a sentinel role in nociception. PGA, especially in the micronized formulation, was shown safe and effective in OA pain. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a co-micronized formulation of PGA with the natural antioxidant curcumin (PGA-cur) on OA pain. Ten Sprague-Dawley male rats were used for each treatment group. The University of Messina Review Board for the care and use of animals authorized the study. On day 0, rats were anesthetized (5.0% isoflurane in 100% O2) and received intra-articular injection of MIA (3 mg in 25 μl saline) in the right knee joint, with the left being injected an equal volume of saline. Starting the third day after MIA injection, treatments were administered orally three times per week for 21 days, at the following doses: PGA 20 mg/kg, curcumin 10 mg/kg, PGA-cur (2:1 ratio) 30 mg/kg. On day 0 and 3, 7, 14 and 21 days post-injection, mechanical allodynia was measured using a dynamic plantar Von Frey hair aesthesiometer and expressed as paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) and latency (PWL). Motor functional recovery of the rear limb was evaluated on the same time points by walking track analysis using the sciatic functional index. On day 21 post-MIA injection, the concentration of the following inflammatory and nociceptive mediators was measured in serum using commercial ELISA kits: tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), nerve growth factor (NGF) and matrix metalloproteinase-1-3-9 (MMP-1, MMP-3, MMP-9). The results were analyzed by ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post-hoc test for multiple comparisons. Micronized PGA reduced neuropathic pain, as shown by the significant higher PWT and PWL values compared to vehicle group (p < 0.0001 for all the evaluated time points). The effect of PGA-cur was superior at all time points (p < 0.005). PGA-cur restored motor function already on day 14 (p < 0.005), while micronized PGA was effective a week later (D21). MIA-induced increase in the serum levels of all the investigated mediators was inhibited by PGA-cur (p < 0.01). PGA was also effective, except on IL-1 and MMP-3. Curcumin alone was inactive in all the experiments at any time point. The encouraging results suggest that PGA-cur may represent a valuable option in OA pain management and warrant further confirmation in well-powered clinical trials.

Keywords: ALIAmides, curcumin, osteoarthritis, palmitoyl-glucosamine

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Authors: Saba Pajuhan, Afshin Farahbakhsh, S. M. M. Dastgheib

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Biosurfactants and bioemulsifiers are a structurally diverse group of surface-active molecules synthesized by microorganisms, they are amphipathic molecules which reduce surface and interfacial tensions and widely used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and petroleum industries. In this paper, several methods of bioemulsifer synthesis and purification by Bacillus licheniformis strains (namely ACO1, PTCC 1595 and ACO4) were investigated. Strains were grown in nutrient broth with different conditions in order to get maximum production of bioemulsifer. The purification of bio emulsifier and the quality evaluation of the product was done by adding sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) (98%), Ethanol or HCl to the solution followed by centrifuging. To determine the optimal conditions yielding the highest bioemulsifier production, the effect of various carbon and nitrogen sources, temperature, NaCl concentration, pH, O₂ levels, incubation time are indispensable and all of them were highly effective in bioemulsifiers production.

Keywords: biosurfactant, bioemulsifier, purification, surface tension, interfacial tension

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Authors: Anna Trusek-Holownia, Andrzej Noworyta

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Using an enzyme of known specificity the hydrolysis of protein was carried out in a controlled manner. The aim was to obtain oligopeptides being the so-called active peptides or their direct precursors. An original way of expression of the protein hydrolysis kinetics was introduced. Peptide bonds contained in the protein were recognized as a diverse-quality substrate for hydrolysis by the applied protease. This assumption was positively verified taking as an example the hydrolysis of albumin by thermolysin. Peptide linkages for this system should be divided into at least four groups. One of them is a group of bonds non-hydrolyzable by this enzyme. These that are broken are hydrolyzed at a rate that differs even by tens of thousands of times. Designated kinetic constants were k'F = 10991.4 L/g.h, k'M = 14.83L/g.h, k'S about 10-1 L/g.h for fast, medium and slow bonds, respectively. Moreover, a procedure for unfolding of the protein, conducive to the improved susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis (approximately three-fold increase in the rate) was proposed.

Keywords: peptide bond hydrolysis, kinetics, enzyme specificity, biologically active peptides

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Authors: Mohamed Saïd Kahaleras, François Lanzetta, Mohamed Khan, Guillaume Layes, Philippe Nika

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This paper presents an experimental work to characterize the dynamic operation of a metal regenerator crossed by dry compressible air alternating flow. Unsteady dynamic measurements concern the pressure, velocity and temperature of the gas at the ends and inside the channels of the regenerator. The regenerators are tested under isothermal conditions and thermal axial temperature gradient.

Keywords: friction factor, oscillating flow, regenerator, stirling machine

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Authors: S. Kongtun-Janphuk, S. Niwitpong Jr., J. Saengsai

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Low-sugar snack bars were formulated with 3 main formulas depending on the main ingredient, which were peanut-green bean-sesame, apple, and prune. The most acceptable formula of each group was obtained by sensory evaluation using a nine-point hedonic scale. The moisture content, total ash, protein, fat and fiber were analyzed by the standard methods of AOAC. The peanut-mung bean-sesame snack bar showed the highest protein content (88.32%) and total fat (0.48%) with the lowest of fiber content (0.01%) while the prune formula showed the lowest protein content (71.91%) and total fat (0.21%) with the highest of fiber content (0.03%). This result indicated that the prune formula could be used as diet food to assist in weight loss program.

Keywords: low-sugar snack bar, diet food, nutrition analysis, food formulation

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Authors: Azmat Farooq Ahmad Khurram, Sadaf Aslam

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This meta-analysis systematically examines the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in instructional methods across diverse educational settings through a thorough analysis of empirical research encompassing various disciplines, educational levels, and regions. This study aims to assess the effects of AI integration on teaching methodologies, classroom dynamics, teachers' roles, and student engagement. Various research methods were used to gather data, including literature reviews, surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions. Findings indicate paradigm shifts in teaching and education, identify emerging trends, practices, and the application of artificial intelligence in learning, and provide educators, policymakers, and stakeholders with guidelines and recommendations for effectively integrating AI in educational contexts. The study concludes by suggesting future research directions and practical considerations for maximizing AI's positive influence on pedagogical practices.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, teaching practices, meta-analysis, teaching-learning

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Authors: Frank Alexis, Jenny Antonia Rodriguez Leon, Cristobal Leonardo Dominguez Borbor, Mery Rosario Ramirez Munoz

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The shrimp industry has increased in the last years to the point of becoming one of the most dynamic industries. However, the appearance of diseases that significantly affect the production of shrimps has been an obstacle for the shrimp industry. We hypothesized that natural fibers from biodiversity can stimulate the immune system to prevent shrimp diseases like vibriosis. In this project, we extracted the fibers from vegetal sources in Ecuador and characterized them using common techniques like XRD, SEM, and then we tested the effect of fibers as immunostimulants for shrimps in-vitro and in-vivo using small aquarium and large pools. Our results demonstrate that vegetal fibers can significantly increase the survival of shrimps. Moreover, the production of shrimps in a large pool was significantly increased. Lastly, the test of color and taste successfully surpass the control group of shrimps not treated with fiber food supplements.

Keywords: fibers, immunostimulant, shrimp, vibriosis

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Authors: Nourah Almulhim

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This paper takes a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to investigate discourse and ideology in political blogs, focusing in particular on the Conservative Home blog from the UK’s current governing party. The Conservative party member’s discourse strategies as the blogger, alongside the discourse used by members of the public who reply to the blog in the below-the-lines comments, will be examined. The blog discourse reflects the writer's political identity and authorial voice. The analysis of the below-the-lines comments enables members of the public to engage in creating adversative positions, introducing different language users who bring their own individual and collective identities. These language users can play the role of news reporters, political analysts, protesters or supporters of a specific agenda and current socio-political topics or events. This study takes a qualitative approach to analyze the discriminatory context towards Islam/Muslims in ' The Conservative Home' blog. A cognitive approach is adopted and an analysis of dominant discourses in the blog text and the below-the-line comments is used. The focus of the study is, firstly, on the construction of self/ collective national identity in comparison to Muslim identity, highlighting the in-group and out-group construction. Second, the type of attitudes, whether feelings or judgments, related to these social actors as they are explicated to draw on the social values. Third, the role of discursive strategies in justifying and legitimizing those Islamophobic discriminatory practices. Therefore, the analysis is based on the systematic analysis of social actors drawing on actors, actions, and arguments to explicate identity construction and its development in the different discourses. A socio-semantic categorization of social actors is implemented to draw on the discursive strategies in addition to using literature to understand these strategies. An appraisal analysis is further used to classify attitudes and elaborate on core values in both genres. Finally, the grammar of othering is applied to explain how discriminatory dichotomies of 'Us' Vs. ''Them' actions are carried in discourse. Some of the key findings of the analysis can be summarized in two main points. First, the discursive practice used to represent Muslims/Islam as different from ‘Us’ are different in both genres as the blogger uses a covert voice while the commenters generally use an overt voice. This is to say that the blogger uses a mitigated strategy to represent the Muslim identity, for example, using the noun phrase ‘British Muslim’ but then representing them as ‘radical’ and ‘terrorists'. Contrary to this is in below the lines comments, where a direct strategy with an active declarative voice is used to negatively represent the Muslim identity as ‘oppressors’ and ‘terrorists’ with no inclusion of the noun phrase ‘British Muslims’. Second, the negotiation of the ‘British’ identity and values, such as culture and democracy, are prominent in the comment section as being unique and under threat by Muslims, while in the article, these standpoints are not represented.

Keywords: xenophobia, blogs, identity, critical discourse analysis

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Authors: Giulia Fredi, Andrea Dorigato, Luca Fambri, Alessandro Pegoretti

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Thermal energy storage (TES) is the storage of heat for later use, thus filling the gap between energy request and supply. The most widely used materials for TES are the organic solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs), such as paraffin. These materials store/release a high amount of latent heat thanks to their high specific melting enthalpy, operate in a narrow temperature range and have a tunable working temperature. However, they suffer from a low thermal conductivity and need to be confined to prevent leakage. These two issues can be tackled by confining PCMs with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). TES applications include the buildings industry, solar thermal energy collection and thermal management of electronics. In most cases, TES systems are an additional component to be added to the main structure, but if weight and volume savings are key issues, it would be advantageous to embed the TES functionality directly in the structure. Such multifunctional materials could be employed in the automotive industry, where the diffusion of lightweight structures could complicate the thermal management of the cockpit environment or of other temperature sensitive components. This work aims to produce epoxy/carbon structural laminates containing CNT-stabilized paraffin. CNTs were added to molten paraffin in a fraction of 10 wt%, as this was the minimum amount at which no leakage was detected above the melting temperature (45°C). The paraffin/CNT blend was cryogenically milled to obtain particles with an average size of 50 µm. They were added in various percentages (20, 30 and 40 wt%) to an epoxy/hardener formulation, which was used as a matrix to produce laminates through a wet layup technique, by stacking five plies of a plain carbon fiber fabric. The samples were characterized microstructurally, thermally and mechanically. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests showed that the paraffin kept its ability to melt and crystallize also in the laminates, and the melting enthalpy was almost proportional to the paraffin weight fraction. These thermal properties were retained after fifty heating/cooling cycles. Laser flash analysis showed that the thermal conductivity through the thickness increased with an increase of the PCM, due to the presence of CNTs. The ability of the developed laminates to contribute to the thermal management was also assessed by monitoring their cooling rates through a thermal camera. Three-point bending tests showed that the flexural modulus was only slightly impaired by the presence of the paraffin/CNT particles, while a more sensible decrease of the stress and strain at break and the interlaminar shear strength was detected. Optical and scanning electron microscope images revealed that these could be attributed to the preferential location of the PCM in the interlaminar region. These results demonstrated the feasibility of multifunctional structural TES composites and highlighted that the PCM size and distribution affect the mechanical properties. In this perspective, this group is working on the encapsulation of paraffin in a sol-gel derived organosilica shell. Submicron spheres have been produced, and the current activity focuses on the optimization of the synthesis parameters to increase the emulsion efficiency.

Keywords: carbon fibers, carbon nanotubes, lightweight materials, multifunctional composites, thermal energy storage

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Authors: Chin-Yun Chen

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Numerical integration is an essential tool for deriving different physical quantities in engineering and science. The effectiveness of a numerical integrator depends on different factors, where the crucial one is the error estimation. This work presents an error estimator that combines a derivative free method to improve the performance of verified numerical quadrature.

Keywords: numerical quadrature, error estimation, derivative free method, interval computation

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Authors: Christina Y. P. Ting

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Migration is a global phenomenon with movements of migrants from developed and developing countries to the host societies. Migrants have changed the host countries’ demography – its population structure and also its ethnic cultural diversity. Acculturation of migrants in terms of their adoption of the host culture is seen as important to ensure that they ‘fit into’ their adopted country so as to participate in everyday public life. However, this research found that the increase of the China-born migrants’ post-migration consumption level had impact on Australia’s environment reflected not only because of their adoption of elements of the host culture, but also retention of aspects of Chinese culture – indicating that the influence of bi-culturalism was in operation. This research, which was based on the face-to-face interview with 61 China-born migrants in the suburb of Box Hill, Melbourne, investigated the pattern of change in the migrants’ consumption upon their settlement in Australia. Using an ecological footprint calculator, their post-migration footprints were found to be larger than pre-migration footprint. The uniquely-derived CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) Index was used to measure individuals’ strength of connectedness to ethnic culture. Multi-variant analysis was carried out to understand which independent factors that influence consumption best explain the change in footprint (which is the difference between pre-and post-migration footprints, as a dependent factor). These independent factors ranged from socio-economic and demographics to the cultural context, that is, the CALD Index and indicators of acculturation. The major findings from the analysis were: Chinese culture (as measured by the CALD Index) and indicators of acculturation such as length of residency and using English in communications besides the traditional factors such as age, income and education level made significant contributions to the large increase in the China-born group’s post-migration consumption level. This paper as part of a larger study found that younger migrants’ large change in their footprint were related to high income and low level of education. This group of migrants also practiced bi-cultural consumption in retaining ethnic culture and adopting the host culture. These findings have importantly highlighted that for a host society to tackle environmental crisis, governments need not only to understand the relationship between age and consumption behaviour, but also to understand and embrace the migrants’ ethnic cultures, which may act as bridges and/or fences in relationships. In conclusion, for governments to deal with national issues such as environmental crisis within a cultural diverse population, it necessitates an understanding of age and aspects of ethnic culture that may act as bridges and fences. This understanding can aid in putting in place policies that enable the co-existence of a hybrid of the ethnic and host cultures in order to create and maintain a harmonious and secured living environment for population groups.

Keywords: bicultural consumer, CALD index, consumption, ethnic culture, migrants

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Authors: Leticia Leandro Rade, Amanda Silva de Sousa, Suman Das, Wesley Generoso, Mayara Chagas Ávila, Plinio Salmazo Vieira, Antonio Bonomi, Gabriela Persinoti, Mario Tyago Murakami, Thomas Michael Makris, Leticia Maria Zanphorlin

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Alkenes have an economic appeal, especially in the biofuels field, since they are precursors for drop-in biofuels production, which have similar chemical and physical properties to the conventional fossil fuels, with no oxygen in their composition. After the discovery of the first P450 CYP152 OleTJE in 2011, reported with its unique property of decarboxylating fatty acids (FA), by using hydrogen peroxide as a cofactor and producing 1-alkenes as the main product, the scientific and technological interest in this family of enzymes vastly increased. In this context, the present work presents a new decarboxylase (OleTRN) with low similarity with OleTJE (32%), its biochemical characterization, and structure elucidation. As main results, OleTRN presented a high yield of expression and purity, optimum reaction conditions at 35 °C and pH from 6.5 to 8.0, and higher specificity for oleic acid. Besides that, structure-guided mutations were performed and according to the functional characterizations, it was observed that some mutations presented different specificity and chemoselectivity by varying the chain-length of FA substrates from 12 to 20 carbons. These results are extremely interesting from a biotechnological perspective as those characteristics could diversify the applications and contribute to designing better cytochrome P450 decarboxylases. Considering that peroxygenases have the potential activity of decarboxylating and hydroxylating fatty acids and that the elucidation of the intriguing mechanistic involved in the decarboxylation preferential from OleTJE is still a challenge, the elucidation of OleTRN structure and the functional characterizations of OleTRN and its mutants contribute to new information about CYP152. Besides that, the work also contributed to the discovery of a new decarboxylase with a different selectivity profile from OleTJE, which allows a wide range of applications.

Keywords: P450, decarboxylases, alkenes, biofuels

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