Search results for: statistical area

Authors: Azat Eslamizadeh, Neda Akbarian

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The Zaghia Iron ore, in 15 km east of a town named Bafq, is located in Precambrian formation of Central Iran in form of a small local deposit. The Volcano-sedimentary rocks of Precambrian-Cambrian age, belonging to Rizu series have spread through the region. Substantial portion of the deposit is covered by alluvial deposits. The rocks hosting the Zaghia iron ore have a main combination of rhyolitic tuffs along with clastic sediments, carbonate include sandstone, limestone, dolomite, conglomerate and is somewhat metamorphed causing them to have appeared as slate and phyllite. Moreover, carbonate rocks are in existence as skarn compound of marble bearing tremolite with mineralization of magnetite-hematite. The basic igneous rocks have dramatically altered into green rocks consist of actinolite-tremolite and chlorite along with amount of iron (magnetite + Martite). The youngest units of ore-bearing rocks in the area are found as dolerite - diabase dikes. The dikes are cutting the rhyolitic tuffs and carbonate rocks.

Keywords: Zaghia, iron ore deposite, mineralogy, petrography Bafq, Iran

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Authors: Chayarat Tantanasarit, Sandhya Babel

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Green mussels (Perna viridis) can effectively remove nutrients from seawater through their filtration process. This study aims to estimate 'net' nutrient removal rate by green mussel through calculation of nutrient uptake and release. Nutrients (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus) uptake was calculated based on the mussel filtration rate. Nutrient release was evaluated from carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus released as mussel feces. By subtracting nutrient release from nutrient uptake, net nutrient removal by green mussel can be found as 3302, 380 and 124 mg/year/indv. Mass balance model was employed to simulate nutrient removal in actual green mussel farming conditions. Mussels farm area, seawater flow rate and amount of mussels were considered in the model. Results show that although larger quantity of green mussel farms lead to higher nutrient removal rate, the maximum green mussel cultivation should be taken into consideration as nutrients released through mussel excretion can strongly affect marine ecosystem.

Keywords: carbon, ecretion, filtration, nitrogen, phosphorus

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Authors: Frie Ayalew, Seada Hussen

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Ethio-telecom holds a variety of telecom devices that needs a consistent power source to be operational. The company got this power mainly from the national grid and used this power source alone or with a generator and/or batteries as a backup. In addition, for off-grid or remote areas, the company commonly uses generators and batteries. But unstable diesel prices, huge expenses of fuel and transportation, and high carbon emissions are the main problems associated with fuel energy. So, the design of solar power with battery backup is a highly recommended and advantageous source for the next coming years. This project designs the AC and DC standalone photovoltaic supply to Ethio-telecom access layer devices for the case of multi-service access gateway in Adama. The design is done by using Homer software for both AC and DC loads. The project shows that the design of a solar based microgrid is the best option for the designed area.

Keywords: solar power, battery, inverter, Ethio-telecom, solar radiation

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Authors: Somboon Sarasit

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This research aims to develop a model small ceramic kiln using burner from a high-pressure household gas stove. The efficiency of the kiln and community technology transfer. The study of history shows that this area used to be a source of pottery on the old capital of Ayutthaya. There is evidence from pottery kilns unearthed many types of wood kiln since 2535 and was assumed that the production will end when the war with Burma in the Ayutthaya period. The result of the research design and performance testing of ceramic kiln using burners by gas cooker and outside from 200-liter steel drums inside with ceramic fiber. It was found that the Graze Firing of the products to be at a temperature of 1230°C. The duration of the burn approximately 5-6 hours and uses only 3-4 kg of LPG products, a coffee can burn up to 40-50 pieces. It is an energy-efficient Kiln. Use safe and appropriate opportunities for entrepreneurs, small ceramic and entrepreneurs with new investments or those who want to produce ceramic products as a hobby. The community interest in the pottery to create a new one to continue the product development and manufacturing in the harshest existence forever.

Keywords: ceramics kiln design and development, ceramic gas kiln, burners application, high-pressure of household gas stove

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Authors: E. Saeedian, M. Shakerian, A. Zarif Sanayei, Z. Rakeb, F. N. Alizadeh, S. Sarshough, S. Sina

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Radiological protection for plants and animals is an area of regulatory importance. Acute doses of 0.1 Gy/d (10 rad/d) or below are highly unlikely to produce permanent, measurable negative effects on populations or communities of plants or animals. The advancement of radio diagnostics for domestic animals, particularly dogs and cats, has gained popularity in veterinary medicine. As pets are considered to be members of the family worldwide, they are entitled to the same care and protection. It is important to have a system of radiological protection for nonhuman organisms that complies with the focus on human health as outlined in ICRP publication 19. The present study attempts to assess surface-skin entrance doses in small pets undergoing abdominal radio diagnostic procedures utilizing a direct measurements technique with a thermoluminescent dosimeter. These measurements allow the determination of the entrance skin dose (ESD) by calculating the amount of radiation absorbed by the skin during exposure. A group of Thirty TLD-100 dosimeters produced by Harshaw Company, each with repeatability greater than 95% and calibration using ¹³⁷Cs gamma source, were utilized to measure doses to ten small pets, including cats and dogs in the radiological department in a veterinary clinic in Shiraz, Iran. Radiological procedures were performed using a portable imaging unit (Philips Super M100, Philips Medical System, Germany) to acquire images of the abdomen; ten exams of abdomen images of different pets were monitored, measuring the thicknesses of the two projections (lateral and ventrodorsal) and the distance of the X-ray source from the surface of each pet during the exams. A group of two dosimeters was used for each pet which has been stacked on their skin on the abdomen region. The outcome of this study involved medical procedures with the same kVp, mAs, and nearly identical positions for different diagnostic X-ray procedures executed over a period of two months. The result showed the mean ESD value was 260.34±50.06 µGy due to the approximate size of pets. Based on the results, the ESD value is associated with animal size, and larger animals have higher values. If a procedure doesn't require repetition, the dose can be optimized. For smaller animals, the main challenge in veterinary radiology is the dose increase caused by repetitions, which is most noticeable in the ventrodorsal position due to the difficulty in immobilizing the animal. Animals are an area of regulatory importance. Acute doses of 0.1 Gy/d (10 rad/d) or below are highly unlikely to produce permanent, measurable negative effects on populations or communities of plants or animals. The advancement of radio diagnostics for domestic animals, particularly dogs and cats, has gained popularity in veterinary medicine. As pets are considered to be members of the family worldwide, they are entitled to the same care and protection. It is important to have a system of radiological protection for nonhuman organisms that complies with the focus on human health as outlined in ICRP publication 19. The present study attempts to assess surface-skin entrance doses in small pets undergoing abdominal radio diagnostic procedures utilizing direct measurements.

Keywords: direct dose measuring, dosimetry, radiation protection, veterinary medicine

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Authors: Maria Ghorbanian, Mohammad Ghahramani, Mahmood Abolghasemi

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Universities and institutions of higher education in Iran, like other higher education institutions in the world, have a heavy mission and task to educate students based on the needs of the country. Taking on such a serious responsibility requires having a good governance system for planning, formulating executive plans, evaluating, and finally modifying them in accordance with the current conditions and challenges ahead. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of identifying the components of good governance in the Iranian higher education system by survey method and with a quantitative approach. In order to collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire was used, which includes two parts: personal and professional characteristics (5 questions) and the three components of good governance in the Iranian higher education system, including good management and leadership (8 items), continuous evaluation and effective (university performance, finance, and university appointments) (8 items) and civic responsibility and sustainable development (7 items). These variables were measured and coded in the form of a five-level Likert scale from "Very Low = 1" to "Very High = 5". First, the validity and reliability of the research model were examined. In order to calculate the reliability of the questionnaire, two methods of Cronbach's alpha and combined reliability were used. Fornell-Larker interaction and criterion were also used to determine the degree of diagnostic validity. The statistical population of this study included all faculty members of public universities in Tehran (N = 4429). The sample size was estimated to be 340 using the Cochran's formula. These numbers were studied using a randomized method with a proportional assignment. The data were analyzed by the structural equation method with the least-squares approach. The results showed that the component of civil responsibility and sustainable development with a factor load of 0.827 is the most important element of good governance.

Keywords: good governance, higher education, sustainable, development

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Authors: Syamimi Shamsuddin, Hanafiah Yussof, Fazah Akhtar Hanapiah, Salina Mohamed, Nur Farah Farhan Jamil, Farhana Wan Yunus

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Robot-based intervention for children with autism is an evolving research niche in human-robot interaction (HRI). Recent studies in this area mostly covered the role of robots in the clinical and experimental setting. Our previous work had shown that interaction with a robot pose no adverse effects on the children. Also, the presence of the robot, together with specific modules of interaction was associated with less autistic behavior. Extending this impact on school-going children, interactions that are in-tune with special education lessons are needed. This methodological paper focuses on how a robot can be incorporated in a current learning environment for autistic children. Six interaction scenarios had been designed based on the existing syllabus to teach communication skills, using the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) technique as the framework. Development of the robotic experience in class also covers the required set-up involving participation from teachers. The actual research conduct involving autistic children, teachers and robot shall take place in the next phase.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, ASD, humanoid robot, communication skills, robot-assisted learning

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Authors: Adamu Garba, Saidu Idi

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This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Dermatophilosis in cattle in Bauchi State and suggest possible control measures. Data were obtained from the State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Veterinary Division and monthly reports from Local Government Area Veterinary Offices for a period of three years ranging from 1996-1998. The result revealed that the disease is more prevalent in the rainy season which coincides with preponderance of the predisposing factors. Of the total 17,252 infected cattle in the State, Western zone had the highest cases with 8,298 (50.0%), followed by Central zone with 5,211 (30.0%) and the least was in the Northern zone with 3,753 (20.0%) cases. Rainfall pattern within the zones could be responsible for the variation in the prevalence rate. Analysis of variance revealed that there is no significant difference in the prevalence of Dermatophilosis between the years (P<0.212) while there is significant difference within the zones (P<0.012). Correlation analysis carried out showed that there is positive relationship between rainfall and Dermatophilosis (r<0.909). Since the disease is more prevalent during the rainy season, efforts should be exerted on thorough preventive measures during the period to control the disease in the State, particularly in the Western zone.

Keywords: incidence, dermatophilosis, cattle, Bauchi State

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Authors: Nahla Elazab, Mohamed Aboudina, Ghada Ibrahim, Hossam Fahmy, Ahmed Khalil

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This paper presents the developed memristor based demodulators for eight circular Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and Binary Frequency Shift Keying (BFSK) operating at relatively high frequency. In our implementations, the experimental-based ‘nonlinear’ dopant drift model is adopted along with the proposed circuits providing incorporation of all known non-idealities of practically realized memristor and gaining high operation frequency. The suggested designs leverage the distinctive characteristics of the memristor device, definitely, its changeable average memristance versus the frequency, phase and amplitude of the periodic excitation input. The proposed demodulators feature small integration area, low power consumption, and easy implementation. Moreover, the proposed QAM demodulator precludes the requirement for the carrier recovery circuits. In doing so, the designs were validated by transient simulations using the nonlinear dopant drift memristor model. The simulations results show high agreement with the theory presented.

Keywords: BFSK, demodulator, high frequency memristor applications, memristor based analog circuits, nonlinear dopant drift model, QAM

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Authors: Yeo Ryeong Jeon, Pyong Kon Cho, Eun Ok Han, Hyon Chul Jang, Yong Min Kim

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This study surveyed on recognition related to radiation safety for radiation safety managers and workers those who have been worked in Republic of Korea education and research institution. At present, South Korea has no guideline and manual of radiation safety for education and research institution. Therefore, we tried to find an educational basis for development of radiation safety guideline and manual. To check the level of knowledge, attitude, and behavior about radiation safety, we used the questionnaire that consisted of 29 questions against knowledge, attitude and behavior, 4 questions against self-efficacy and expectation based on four factors (radiation source, human, organizational and physical environment) of the Haddon's matrix. Responses were collected between May 4 and June 30, 2015. We analyzed questionnaire by means of IBM SPSS/WIN 15 which well known as statistical package for social science. The data were compared with mean, standard deviation, Pearson's correlation, ANOVA (analysis of variance) and regression analysis. 180 copies of the questionnaire were returned from 60 workplaces. The overall mean results for behavior level was relatively lower than knowledge and attitude level. In particular, organizational environment factor on the radiation safety management indicated the lowest behavior level. Most of the factors were correlated in Pearson’s correlation analysis, especially between knowledge of human factors and behavior of human factors (Pearson’s correlation coefficient 0.809, P<.01). When analysis performed in line with the main radiation source type, institutions where have been used only opened RI (radioisotope) behavior level was the lowest among all subjects. Finally, knowledge of radiation source factor (β=0.556, P<.001) and human factor(β=0.376, P<.001) had the greatest impact in terms of behavior practice. Radiation safety managers and workers think positively about radiation safety management, but are poorly informed organizational environment of their institution. Thus, each institution need to efforts to settlement of radiation safety culture. Also, pedagogical interventions for improving knowledge on radiation safety needs in terms of safety accident prevention.

Keywords: radiation safety management, factor analysis, SPSS, republic of Korea

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Authors: Joanna Dzieńdziora

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Lobbying is an instrument of influence in various decision-making processes. It is also the underestimated issue as a research problem. The lack of research on the modern lobbyist competencies is the most crucial element. The paper presents attempts of finding answers to the following questions: Who should run the lobbying activity? What competencies should a lobbyist possess in order to implement lobbying activities effectively? Searching for answers for the mentioned above questions requires positioning the opportunity to change the image of lobbying in the area of competencies of entities that provide lobbying activities. The aim of the paper is presenting the lobbyist competencies profile in the framework of his professional role. The essence of lobbying activity and its significance in the modern economy as well as areas, the scope of lobbying activities, diagnosis of a modern lobbyist’s competences, lobbyist’s competencies profile that is focused on the professionalization of the lobbying activity, will have been presented in this paper. Indicated research tasks let emerge lobbyist’s competencies in the way that allows identifying and elaborating the lobbyist competencies profile. The profile lets improve lobbying activities. Its elaboration is based on the author’s research results analysis. Taking into consideration the shortages within the theory and research on the lobbying activity, the implementation of this research enables to fill the cognitive gap existing in the theory of management sciences.

Keywords: competencies, competencies profile, lobbying, lobbyist

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Authors: Melissa C. Monney

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Employee morale is an area in which many companies invest millions of dollars, time and effort. Whether these are attributed in benefits or additional monetary compensation, each year, such companies understand that human capital is one of their greatest assets to driving production and revenue. However, with the ever-changing economy, such emphasis on work and production may be counterproductive to employee morale as employees attempt to achieve a healthy work-life balance. A flexible work schedule may be the solution to both companies’ attempt at increasing employee morale and productivity, while affording employees the opportunity to maintain a healthy work-life balance. The information presented in this review derives mostly from research articles, in which the research conducted by means of direct employee feedback through surveys, telephone or face-to-face interviews, or a collection of both, attempted to corroborate (in one way or another) previous research on the largely debated topic of schedule flexibility as the dynamics of economies and families have over the years. This review endeavors to provide a holistic view of schedule flexibility policies, implementation, and perceptions from research in various industries in different countries.

Keywords: flexible scheduling, perceived flexibility, employee morale, productivity

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Authors: Carmela Perta

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In Italy the coexistence of standard language, its varieties and different minority languages - historical and migration languages - has been a way to study language contact in different directions; the focus of most of the studies is either the relations among the languages of the social repertoire, or the study of contact phenomena occurring in a particular structural level. However, studies on contact facts in relation to a given sociolinguistic situation of the speech community are still not present in literature. As regard the language level to investigate from the perspective of contact, it is commonly claimed that the lexicon is the most volatile part of language and most likely to undergo change due to superstrate influence, indeed first lexical features are borrowed, then, under long term cultural pressure, structural features may also be borrowed. The aim of this paper is to analyse language contact in two historical minority communities where Francoprovençal is spoken, in relation to their sociolinguistic situation. In this perspective, firstly lexical borrowings present in speakers’ speech production will be examined, trying to find a possible correlation between this part of the lexicon and informants’ sociolinguistic variables; secondly a possible correlation between a particular community sociolinguistic situation and lexical borrowing will be found. Methods used to collect data are based on the results obtained from 24 speakers in both the villages; the speaker group in the two communities consisted of 3 males and 3 females in each of four age groups, ranging in age from 9 to 85, and then divided into five groups according to their occupations. Speakers were asked to describe a sequence of pictures naming common objects and then describing scenes when they used these objects: they are common objects, frequently pronounced and belonging to semantic areas which are usually resistant and which are thought to survive. A subset of this task, involving 19 items with Italian source is examined here: in order to determine the significance of the independent variables (social factors) on the dependent variable (lexical variation) the statistical package SPSS, particularly the linear regression, was used.

Keywords: borrowing, Francoprovençal, language change, lexicon

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Authors: Manuel A. Alonso-Tarajano, Roberto Mosca, Patrick Aloy

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Protein kinases participate in a myriad of cellular processes of major biomedical interest. The in vivo substrate specificity of these enzymes is a process determined by several factors, and despite several years of research on the topic, is still far from being totally understood. In the present work, we have quantified the contributions to the kinase substrate specificity of i) the phosphorylation sites and their surrounding residues in the sequence and of ii) the association of kinases to adaptor or scaffold proteins. We have used position-specific scoring matrices (PSSMs), to represent the stretches of sequences phosphorylated by 93 families of kinases. We have found negative correlations between the number of sequences from which a PSSM is generated and the statistical significance and the performance of that PSSM. Using a subset of 22 statistically significant PSSMs, we have identified specificity determinant residues (SDRs) for 86% of the corresponding kinase families. Our results suggest that different SDRs can function as positive or negative elements of substrate recognition by the different families of kinases. Additionally, we have found that human proteins with known function as adaptors or scaffolds (kAS) tend to interact with a significantly large fraction of the substrates of the kinases to which they associate. Based on this characteristic we have identified a set of 279 potential adaptors/scaffolds (pAS) for human kinases, which is enriched in Pfam domains and functional terms tightly related to the proposed function. Moreover, our results show that for 74.6% of the kinase– pAS association found, the pAS colocalize with the substrates of the kinases they are associated to. Finally, we have found evidence suggesting that the association of kinases to adaptors and scaffolds, may contribute significantly to diminish the in vivo substrate crossed- specificity of protein kinases. In general, our results indicate the relevance of several SDRs for both the positive and negative selection of phosphorylation sites by kinase families and also suggest that the association of kinases to pAS proteins may be an important factor for the localization of the enzymes with their set of substrates.

Keywords: kinase, phosphorylation, substrate specificity, adaptors, scaffolds, cellular colocalization

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Authors: Jaspreet Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Rajinder Singh, Prithvipal Singh, Karanjeet Singh Kahlon, Ravinder Singh Sawhney

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Morphological evaluation of Indian languages is one of the burgeoning fields in the area of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The evaluation of a language is an eminent task in the era of information retrieval and text mining. The extraction and classification of knowledge from text can be exploited for sentiment analysis and morphological evaluation. This study coalesce morphological evaluation and sentiment analysis for the task of classification of farmer suicide cases reported in Punjab state of India. The pre-processing of Punjabi text involves morphological evaluation and normalization of Punjabi word tokens followed by the training of proposed model using deep learning classification on Punjabi language text extracted from online Punjabi news reports. The class-wise accuracies of sentiment prediction for four negatively oriented classes of farmer suicide cases are 93.85%, 88.53%, 83.3%, and 95.45% respectively. The overall accuracy of sentiment classification obtained using proposed framework on 275 Punjabi text documents is found to be 90.29%.

Keywords: deep neural network, farmer suicides, morphological processing, punjabi text, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Strahinja Kovacevic, Milica Karadzic Banjac, Jasmina Vitas, Stefan Vukmanovic, Radomir Malbasa, Lidija Jevric, Sanja Podunavac-Kuzmanovic

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The present study deals with chemometric regression analysis of quality parameters and the radical scavenging ability of kombucha fermented kefir-like products obtained with winter savory (WS), peppermint (P), stinging nettle (SN) and wild thyme tea (WT) kombucha inoculums. Each analyzed sample was described by milk fat content (MF, %), total unsaturated fatty acids content (TUFA, %), monounsaturated fatty acids content (MUFA, %), polyunsaturated fatty acids content (PUFA, %), the ability of free radicals scavenging (RSA Dₚₚₕ, % and RSA.ₒₕ, %) and pH values measured after each hour from the start until the end of fermentation. The aim of the conducted regression analysis was to establish chemometric models which can predict the radical scavenging ability (RSA Dₚₚₕ, % and RSA.ₒₕ, %) of the samples by correlating it with the MF, TUFA, MUFA, PUFA and the pH value at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of fermentation process which lasted between 11 and 17 hours, until pH value of 4.5 was reached. The analysis was carried out applying univariate linear (ULR) and multiple linear regression (MLR) methods on the raw data and the data standardized by the min-max normalization method. The obtained models were characterized by very limited prediction power (poor cross-validation parameters) and weak statistical characteristics. Based on the conducted analysis it can be concluded that the resulting radical scavenging ability cannot be precisely predicted only on the basis of MF, TUFA, MUFA, PUFA content, and pH values, however, other quality parameters should be considered and included in the further modeling. This study is based upon work from project: Kombucha beverages production using alternative substrates from the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, 142-451-2400/2019-03, supported by Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research of AP Vojvodina.

Keywords: chemometrics, regression analysis, kombucha, quality control

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Authors: Azizollah Arbabisarjou, Leila Safabakhsh, Mozhgan Jahantigh, Mahshid Nazemzadeh, Shahindokht Navabi

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Background: Health promotion is an essential strategy for reduction of health disparities. Health promotion includes all activities that encourage optimum physical, spiritual, and mental function. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a Health Promotion Program (HPP) on behavior in terms of the dimensions of the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) in patients after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG). Methods and Materials: In this clinical trial study, 80 patients who had undergone CABG surgery (2011-2012) were selected and randomly divided in two groups: Experimental and Control that investigated by (HPLP II). Then the experimental group was educated about diet, walking and stress management. The program process was followed up for 3months and after that all variables were investigated again. The overall score and the scores for the six dimensions of the HPLP (self-actualization, health responsibility, exercise, nutrition, interpersonal support and stress management) were measured in the pre- and post-test periods. Statistical analysis was performed using Student's t-test and paired t-test. Results: Results showed that Score of stress management (p=.036), diet (p=.002), Spiritual Growth (p=.001) and interrelationship (p=002) increase in experimental group after intervention .Average scores after 3 months in the control group had no significant changes; except responsibility for health (p < .05). Results of the study revealed that comparison the scores of the experimental group were significantly different from the control group in all lifestyle aspects except for spiritual growth. Conclusion: This study showed that Health promoting program on lifestyle and health promotion in patients who suffer from CAD could enhance patient's awareness of healthy behaviors and improves the quality of life.

Keywords: coronary artery bypass graft, health promotion, lifestyle, education

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Authors: Siavash Salamatpoor, Hossein Motaghedi, Jr., Mehrdad Nategh

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In this study, undrained triaxial tests under anisotropic consolidation were conducted on the reconstituted samples of Ramsar sand, which underlies a densely populated, seismic region of the southern coast of Caspian Sea in Mazandaran province, Iran. Ramsar costal city is regularly visited by many tourists. Accordingly, many tall building and heavy structures are going to be constructed over this coastal area. This region is overlaid by poorly graded clean sand and because of high water level, is susceptible to liquefaction. The specimens were consolidated anisotropically to simulate initial shear stress which is mobilized due to surface constructions. Different states of soil behavior were obtained by applying different levels of initial relative density, shear stress, and effective stress. It is shown that Ramsar clean sand can experience the whole possible states of liquefiable soils i.e. fully liquefaction, limited liquefaction, and dilation behaviors. It would be shown that by increasing the shear parameter in high confine pressure, the liquefaction susceptibility has increased while for low confine pressure it would be vice versa.

Keywords: anisotropic, triaxial test, shear parameter, static liquefaction

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Authors: D. Makuteniene

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Agriculture, as one of the human activities, emits a significant amount of greenhouse gas emission and undoubtedly has an impact on climate change. The main gaseous products of agricultural greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitroxadoxide. The sources and emission of these gases depend on land use, soil, crops, manure, livestock, and energy consumption. One of the indicators showing the agricultural impact on climate change is an intensity of GHG emission and its dynamics. This study analyzed the determinants of an intensity of greenhouse gas emission in Lithuanian agriculture using data decomposition. The research revealed that, although greenhouse gas emission increased during the research period, however, agricultural net value added grew more rapidly, which contributed to a reduction of intensity of greenhouse gas emission in Lithuania between 2000 and 2015. It was identified that during the research period intensity of greenhouse gas emission was mostly increased by the change of the use of nitrogen in agriculture, as compared to the change of the area of agricultural land, and by the change of the number of full-time employees, as compared to the change of net value added. Conversely, the change of energy consumption in agriculture, as compared to the change of the use of nitrogen in agriculture, had a bigger impact in decreasing intensity of greenhouse gas emission.

Keywords: agriculture, determinants of intensity, greenhouse gas emission, intensity

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Authors: Aggrey Daniel Maina Thuo

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Rapid urban population growth means an increasing demand for urban land, particularly for housing, and also for various other urban uses. This land is not available within cities but in peri-urban areas. The expansion of the cities into the peri-urban areas is creating direct and indirect impacts with those living there facing new challenges and opportunities in meeting their life needs and accommodating the by-products of urbanization. Although urbanization of these areas provides opportunities for employment, better housing, education, knowledge and technology transfer, and ready markets for the agricultural products, increase in population places enormous stress on natural resources and existing social services and infrastructure, therefore causing environmental degradation. This environmental degradation is affecting agriculture for those still holding onto their farms for agricultural purposes. This paper, using a multiple theoretical framework and qualitative research approach, attempts to describe the positive and adverse effects of urbanization on peri-urban agriculture, using the Town Council of Karuri within Nairobi peri-urban areas as a case study.

Keywords: peri-urban agriculture, urbanization, land use, environmental degradation, planning

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Authors: Kamal Heidari

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Covid-19 has borne drastic effects on different areas of society, including the education area, in that it brought virtual education to the center of attention, as an alternative to in-person education. In virtual education, the importance of flipped learning doubles, as students are supposed to take the main responsibility of teaching/learning process; and teachers play merely a facilitative/monitoring role. Given the students’ responsibility in virtual flipped learning, students’ motivation plays a pivotal role in the effectiveness of this learning method. The L2 Motivational Self-System (L2MSS) model is a currently proposed model elaborating on students’ motivation based on three sub-components: ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and L2 learning experience. Drawing on an exploratory sequential mixed-methods research design, this study probed the effect of virtual flipped learning (via SHAD platform) on 112 gifted and non-gifted students’ motivation based on the L2 MSS. This study uncovered that notwithstanding the point that virtual flipped learning improved both gifted and non-gifted students’ motivation, it differentially affected their motivation. In other words, gifted students mostly referred to ideal L2 self, while non-gifted ones referred to ought-to L2 self and L2 learning experience aspects of motivation.

Keywords: virtual flipped learning, giftedness, motivation, L2MSS

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

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

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

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Authors: Parthasarathi Pramanik

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Body packing is a way of transfer drugs across the international border or any drug prohibited area. The drugs are usually hidden in body packets inside the anatomical body cavities like mouth, intestines, rectum, ear, vagina etc. Cocaine is a very common drug for body packing across the world. A 48 year old male was reported dead in his hotel after complaining of chest pain and vomiting. At autopsy, there were eighty-two white cylindrical body packs in the stomach, small and large intestines. Seals of few of the packets were opened. Toxicological examination revealed presence of cocaine in the stomach, liver, kidney and hair samples. Microscopically, presence of myocardial necrosis with interstitial oedema along with hypertrophy and fibrosis of the myocardial fibre suggested heart failure due to cocaine cardio toxicity. However, focal lymphocyte infiltration and perivascular fibrosis in the myocardium also indicated chronic cocaine toxicity of the deceased. After careful autopsy examination it was considered the victim was died due congestive heart failure secondary to acute and chronic cocaine poisoning.

Keywords: cardiac failure, cocaine, body packer, sudden death

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Authors: Tien Nguyen

Abstract:

The relationship between mentors and mentees in teaching practicum has received the attention of researchers and been widely investigated. Mentors’ authority and power have captured a large and growing body of the literature in the field of teaching practicum. This article revisits mentor-mentee relationship and shifts the focus to mentees’ agency in planning and delivering lessons, an area which has been under-researched. Drawing on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and Harré’s Positioning Theory, this qualitative study examines how mentees responded to mentors’ instructions in practicum. Interviews and classroom observations were conducted with 20 participants including both mentors and mentees across two English language teacher education programs in two different geographical locations in Vietnam. The result indicates that regardless of the similarities and/or differences of the programs, mentees’ agency varied in accordance with their identities in specific contexts. Specifically, mentees follow or resist to mentors’ feedback and instruction in revising their lesson plans and delivery these lessons, depending on their professional identities and institutional conditions. This study contributes to the importance of supporting the agency of mentees in teacher education.

Keywords: mentors, mentees, relationship, agency, professional identity, teacher education

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Authors: Ehsan Abshirini

Abstract:

Rivers as one of the most important topographic factors have played a strategic role not only on the appearance of cities but they also affect the structure and morphology of cities. In this paper author intends to find out how a city in its physical network interacts with a river flowing inside. The pilot study is Angers, a city in western France, in which it is influenced by the Maine River. To this purpose space syntax method integrating with GIS is used to extract the properties of physical form of cities in terms of global and local integration value, accessibility and choice value. Simulating the state of absence of river in this city and comparing the result to the current state of city according to the effect of river on the morphology of areas located in different banks of river is also part of interest in this paper. The results show that although a river is not comparable to the city based on size and the area occupied by, it has a significant effect on the form of the city in both global and local properties. In addition, this study endorses that tracking the effect of river-cities and their interaction to rivers in a hybrid of space syntax and GIS may lead researchers to improve their interpretation of physical form of these types of cities.

Keywords: river-cities, Physical form, space syntax properties, GIS, topographic factor

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Authors: Chatarina Muryani, Sarwono, Sugiyanto Heribentus

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Major part of Grobogan District, Central Java Province, Indonesia, always suffers from drought every year. The drought has implications toward almost all of the community activities, both domestic, agriculture, livestock, and industrial. The aim of this study was to determine (1) the drought distribution area in Grobogan District in 2015; (2) the impact of drought; and (3) the community adaptation toward the drought. The subject of the research was people who were impacted by the drought, purposive sampling technique was used to draw the sample. The data collection method was using field observation and in-depth interview while the data analysis was using descriptive analysis. The results showed that (1) in 2015, there were 14 districts which were affected by the drought and only 5 districts which do not suffer from drought, (2) the drought impacted to the reduction of water for domestic compliance, reduction of agricultural production, reduction of public revenue, (3) community adaptation to meet domestic water need was by making collective deep-wells and building water storages, adaptation in agriculture was done by setting the cropping pattern, while adaptation on economics was by allocating certain amount of funds for the family in anticipation of drought, which was mostly to purchase water.

Keywords: adaptation, distribution, drought, impacts

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Authors: Tamas Garamhegyi, Jozsef Kovacs, Rita Pongracz, Peter Tanos, Balazs Trasy, Norbert Magyar, Istvan G. Hatvani

Abstract:

Like most environmental processes, shallow groundwater fluctuation under natural circumstances also behaves periodically. With the statistical tools at hand, it can easily be determined if a period exists in the data or not. Thus, the question may be raised: Does the estimated average period time characterize the whole time period, or not? This is especially important in the case of such complex phenomena as shallow groundwater fluctuation, driven by numerous factors. Because of the continuous changes in the oscillating components of shallow groundwater time series, the most appropriate method should be used to investigate its periodicity, this is wavelet spectrum analysis. The aims of the research were to investigate the periodic behavior of the shallow groundwater time series of an agriculturally important and drought sensitive region in Central-Eastern Europe and its relationship to the European pressure action centers. During the research ~216 shallow groundwater observation wells located in the eastern part of the Great Hungarian Plain with a temporal coverage of 50 years were scanned for periodicity. By taking the full-time interval as 100%, the presence of any period could be determined in percentages. With the complex hydrogeological/meteorological model developed in this study, non-periodic time intervals were found in the shallow groundwater levels. On the local scale, this phenomenon linked to drought conditions, and on a regional scale linked to the maxima of the regional air pressures in the Gulf of Genoa. The study documented an important link between shallow groundwater levels and climate variables/indices facilitating the necessary adaptation strategies on national and/or regional scales, which have to take into account the predictions of drought-related climatic conditions.

Keywords: climate change, drought, groundwater periodicity, wavelet spectrum and coherence analyses

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Authors: Mafunda Esther

Abstract:

The paper seeks to find out and document the impact of culture and religion on disability, specifically language impairment and health care seeking practices of the Shona people. Its main objectives are to explore the cultural and religious beliefs that affect the utilization of rehabilitation services in a rural community in Zimbabwe. The other objective of the paper is to describe how language impairment is presented and understood by people living in a Zimbabwean rural area. The research is qualitative interpretive phenomenological research, and it utilizes the case study approach using semi structured interviews and focus group discussions. Results from the research established that religious and cultural beliefs determine how the Shona people view disability, and this guides their health care seeking practices. The research is important since communication disorders occur in populations worldwide though they are not always recognized as such. The lack of recognition of and the attitudes toward speech and languages disorders, as well as the beliefs about the causes of such disorders, affect people's attitudes toward the treatment of the disorders.

Keywords: culture, religion, disability, language impairment

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Authors: Samir Chawdhury, Guido Morgenthal

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The paper presents a novel extension of Vortex Particle Methods (VPM) where the study aims to reproduce a template simulation of complex flow field that is generated from impulsively started flow past an upstream bluff body at certain Reynolds number Re-Vibration of a structural system under upstream wake flow is often considered its governing design criteria. Therefore, the attention is given in this study especially for the reproduction of wake flow simulation. The basic methodology for the implementation of the flow reproduction requires the downstream velocity sampling from the template flow simulation; therefore, at particular distances from the upstream section the instantaneous velocity components are sampled using a series of square sampling-cells arranged vertically where each of the cell contains four velocity sampling points at its corner. Since the grid free Lagrangian VPM algorithm discretises vorticity on particle elements, the method requires transformation of the velocity components into vortex circulation, and finally the simulation of the reproduction of the template flow field by seeding these vortex circulations or particles into a free stream flow. It is noteworthy that the vortex particles have to be released into the free stream exactly at same rate of velocity sampling. Studies have been done, specifically, in terms of different sampling rates and velocity sampling positions to find their effects on flow reproduction quality. The quality assessments are mainly done, using a downstream flow monitoring profile, by comparing the characteristic wind flow profiles using several statistical turbulence measures. Additionally, the comparisons are performed using velocity time histories, snapshots of the flow fields, and the vibration of a downstream bluff section by performing wake buffeting analyses of the section under the original and reproduced wake flows. Convergence study is performed for the validation of the method. The study also describes the possibilities how to achieve flow reproductions with less computational effort.

Keywords: vortex particle method, wake flow, flow reproduction, wake buffeting analysis

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Authors: M. Varmaziar

Abstract:

Magnesium (Mg) is an essential mineral that plays a crucial role in the human body. Certain types of foods, including nuts, grains, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, are rich sources of magnesium. Mg serves as an essential cofactor for numerous enzymatic reactions, including energy metabolism, cellular growth, glycolysis, and protein synthesis. The Mg-ATP complex serves as an energy source and is vital for many physiological functions, including nerve conduction, muscle contraction, and blood pressure regulation. Despite the vital role of magnesium in energy metabolism, maintaining adequate magnesium intake is often overlooked among the general population and athletes. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of magnesium supplementation on the physical activities of field athletes. Field athletes were divided into two groups: those who consumed magnesium supplements and those who received a placebo. These two groups received either 500 mg of magnesium oxide or a placebo daily for 8 weeks. At the beginning and end of the study, athletes completed ISI questionnaires and physical activity assessments. Nutritional analyses were performed using N4 software, and statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS19 software. The results of this study revealed a significant difference between the two study groups. Athletes who received magnesium supplements experienced less fatigue related to field athletic activities and muscle soreness. In contrast, athletes who received the placebo reported more significant fatigue and muscle soreness. A concerning finding in these results is that the performance of athletic activities may be at risk with low magnesium levels. Therefore, magnesium is essential for maintaining health and plays a crucial role in athletic performance. Consuming a variety of magnesium-rich foods ensures that individuals receive an adequate amount of this essential nutrient in their diet. The consumption of these foods improves performance parameters in athletic exercises.

Keywords: athletic performance, effect, field athletes, magnesium supplement

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