Search results for: nonlinear time history analysis

Authors: Raziyeh Mashhadi Moghadam

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Persian writings in the form of stories, scientific articles, historiographies, biographies, and philosophical, religious, and poetic arguments have established their presence in the past and present. Any piece of text is composed in a unique style depending on its content and subject. In this paper, a manuscript called Falnama of the Prophet is reviewed. Only a few scattered pages of this version are extant, and the author, using the name of twenty-four prophets, seeks to explore the presence and future of the reader. This version is analyzed based on Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach to unravel the underlying processes in this type of manuscript. The spelling of some words and sentences is different from that of the new written Persian version.

Keywords: application of Falnama texts, critical discourse analysis, Fairclough’s approach

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Authors: Ponghyung Lee

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This study seeks to investigate the variations occurring to Korean consonantal variations center around laryngeal features of the concerned sounds, to the exclusion of others. Our fundamental premise is that the weak contrast associated with concerned segments might be held accountable for the oscillation of the status quo of the concerned consonants. What is more, we assume that an array of notions as a measure of communicative efficiency of linguistic units would be significantly influential on triggering those variations. To this end, we have tried to compute the surprisal, entropic contribution, and relative contrastiveness associated with Korean obstruent consonants. What we found therein is that the Information-theoretic perspective is compelling enough to lend support our approach to a considerable extent. That is, the variant realizations, chronologically and stylistically, prove to be profoundly affected by a set of Information-theoretic factors enumerated above. When it comes to the biblical proper names, we use Georgetown University CQP Web-Bible corpora. From the 8 texts (4 from Old Testament and 4 from New Testament) among the total 64 texts, we extracted 199 samples. We address the issue of laryngeal feature variations associated with Korean obstruent consonants under the presumption that the variations stem from the weak contrast among the triad manifestations of laryngeal features. The variants emerge from diverse sources in chronological and stylistic senses: Christianity biblical texts, ordinary casual speech, the shift of loanword adaptation over time, and ideophones. For the purpose of discussing what they are really like from the perspective of Information Theory, it is necessary to closely look at the data. Among them, the massive changes occurring to loanword adaptation of proper nouns during the centennial history of Korean Christianity draw our special attention. We searched 199 types of initially capitalized words among 45,528-word tokens, which account for around 5% of total 901,701-word tokens (12,786-word types) from Georgetown University CQP Web-Bible corpora. We focus on the shift of the laryngeal features incorporated into word-initial consonants, which are available through the two distinct versions of Korean Bible: one came out in the 1960s for the Protestants, and the other was published in the 1990s for the Catholic Church. Of these proper names, we have closely traced the adaptation of plain obstruents, e. g. /b, d, g, s, ʤ/ in the sources. The results show that as much as 41% of the extracted proper names show variations; 37% in terms of aspiration, and 4% in terms of tensing. This study set out in an effort to shed light on the question: to what extent can we attribute the variations occurring to the laryngeal features associated with Korean obstruent consonants to the communicative aspects of linguistic activities? In this vein, the concerted effects of the triad, of surprisal, entropic contribution, and relative contrastiveness can be credited with the ups and downs in the feature specification, despite being contentiousness on the role of surprisal to some extent.

Keywords: entropic contribution, laryngeal feature variation, relative contrastiveness, surprisal

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Authors: Melissa C. Ingram

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The use of new literacies within science classrooms needs to be balanced by teachers to both teach different forms of communication while assessing content area proficiency. Using new literacies such as Twitter and Facebook needs to be incorporated into science content area literacy studies in addition to continuing to use generally-accepted forms of scientific content area presentation, which include scientific papers and textbooks. The research question this literature review seeks to answer is “What are some ways in which new forms of literacy are better suited to teach scientific content area literacy to 21st Century learners?” The research question is addressed through a literature review that highlights methods currently being used to educate the next wave of learners in the world of science content area literacy. Both temporal discourse analysis (TDA) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) were used to determine the need to use new literacies to teach science content area literacy. Increased use of digital technologies and a change in science content area pedagogy were explored.

Keywords: science content area literacy, new literacies, critical discourse analysis, temporal discourse analysis

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Authors: Waziralilah N. Fathiah, A. Aminudin, U. Alyaa Hashim, T. Vikneshvaran D. Shakirah Shukor

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This paper presents the experimental analysis conducted on a structure borne noise in a rectangular enclosure prototype made by joining of sheet aluminum metal and plywood. The study is significant as many did not realized the annoyance caused by structural borne-noise. In this study, modal analysis is carried out to seek the structure’s behaviour in order to identify the characteristics of enclosure in frequency domain ranging from 0 Hz to 200 Hz. Here, numbers of modes are identified and the characteristic of mode shape is categorized. Modal experiment is used to diagnose the structural behaviour while microphone is used to diagnose the sound. Spectral testing is performed on the enclosure. It is acoustically excited using shaker and as it vibrates, the vibrational and noise responses sensed by tri-axis accelerometer and microphone sensors are recorded respectively. Experimental works is performed on each node lies on the gridded surface of the enclosure. Both experimental measurement is carried out simultaneously. The modal experimental results of the modal modes are validated by simulation performed using MSC Nastran software. In pursuance of reducing the structure borne-noise, mitigation method is used whereby the stiffener plates are perpendicularly placed on the sheet aluminum metal. By using this method, reduction in structure borne-noise is successfully made at the end of the study.

Keywords: enclosure, modal analysis, sound analysis, structure borne-noise

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Authors: Nicholas Freer

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Rhythmic complexity in progressive metal is a developing area of analysis, particularly the interpretation of hyper-metric time spans as hierarchically significant rhythmic units of compositional organisation (Pieslak 2007, Charupakorn 2012, Capuzzo 2018, Calder 2018, Lucas 2018, Hannan 2020). This paper adds to this developing area by considering the relationships between the concepts of tactus, metric imposition, polymeter and rhythmic parallax in the Meshuggah composition “Do Not Look Down”. By considering an architectonic rhythmic framework within “Do Not Look Down” as the controlling organisation mechanism, an exploration of the interaction between distinct rhythmic layers and the composition’s formal segmentation and harmony (as riffs), reveals a pervasive structural misalignment between these elements. By exhibiting how Meshuggah’s manipulations of rhythmic complexities deliberately blur structural boundaries, creating misalignments in a flat approach to temporal partitioning (Nieto 2014), rhythmic characteristics of Meshuggah and the genre of Djent are exposed.

Keywords: hypermeter, rhythmic parallax, meshuggah, temporal partitioning

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Authors: Magdalena Idzikowska, Katarzyna Pająk, Kamil Kowalczyk

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Seafloor topography is a fundamental issue in geological, geophysical, and oceanographic studies. Single-beam or multibeam sonars attached to the hulls of ships are used to emit a hydroacoustic signal from transducers and reproduce the topography of the seabed. This solution provides relevant accuracy and spatial resolution. Bathymetric data from ships surveys provides National Centers for Environmental Information – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Unfortunately, most of the seabed is still unidentified, as there are still many gaps to be explored between ship survey tracks. Moreover, such measurements are very expensive and time-consuming. The solution is raster bathymetric models shared by The General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans. The offered products are a compilation of different sets of data - raw or processed. Indirect data for the development of bathymetric models are also measurements of gravity anomalies. Some forms of seafloor relief (e.g. seamounts) increase the force of the Earth's pull, leading to changes in the sea surface. Based on satellite altimetry data, Sea Surface Height and marine gravity anomalies can be estimated, and based on the anomalies, it’s possible to infer the structure of the seabed. The main goal of the work is to create regional bathymetric models and models of the sea surface in the area of the east coast of North America – a region of seamounts and undulating seafloor. The research includes an analysis of the methods and techniques used, an evaluation of the interpolation algorithms used, model thickening, and the creation of grid models. Obtained data are raster bathymetric models in NetCDF format, survey data from multibeam soundings in MB-System format, and satellite altimetry data from Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service. The methodology includes data extraction, processing, mapping, and spatial analysis. Visualization of the obtained results was carried out with Geographic Information System tools. The result is an extension of the state of the knowledge of the quality and usefulness of the data used for seabed and sea surface modeling and knowledge of the accuracy of the generated models. Sea level is averaged over time and space (excluding waves, tides, etc.). Its changes, along with knowledge of the topography of the ocean floor - inform us indirectly about the volume of the entire water ocean. The true shape of the ocean surface is further varied by such phenomena as tides, differences in atmospheric pressure, wind systems, thermal expansion of water, or phases of ocean circulation. Depending on the location of the point, the higher the depth, the lower the trend of sea level change. Studies show that combining data sets, from different sources, with different accuracies can affect the quality of sea surface and seafloor topography models.

Keywords: seafloor, sea surface height, bathymetry, satellite altimetry

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Authors: Khaled Mohammed

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This paper presents novel face recognition and identification approaches for the real-time attendance management problem in large companies/factories and government institutions. The proposed uses the Minimum Ratio (MR) approach for employee identification. Capturing the authentic face variability from a sequence of video frames has been considered for the recognition of faces and resulted in system robustness against the variability of facial features. Experimental results indicated an improvement in the performance of the proposed system compared to the Previous approaches at a rate between 2% to 5%. In addition, it decreased the time two times if compared with the Previous techniques, such as Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) & Multi-Scale Structural Similarity index (MS-SSIM). Finally, it achieved an accuracy of 99%.

Keywords: attendance management system, face detection and recognition, live face recognition, minimum ratio

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Authors: Zheng Sun, Weiwei Cui, Xiaodong Ma, Hongxin Jin, Dongpao Hong, Jinsong Yang, Jingyi Sun

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With the improvement of the performance and complexity of modern equipment, automatic test system (ATS) becomes widely used for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. However, the conventional ATS mainly works in a serial mode, and lacks the ability of testing several equipments at the same time. That leads to low test efficiency and ATS redundancy. Especially for a large majority of equipment under test, the conventional ATS cannot meet the requirement of efficient testing. To reduce the support resource and increase test efficiency, we propose a method of design for the parallel test based on the embedded system in this paper. Firstly, we put forward the general framework of the parallel test system, and the system contains a central management system (CMS) and several distributed test subsystems (DTS). Then we give a detailed design of the system. For the hardware of the system, we use embedded architecture to design DTS. For the software of the system, we use test program set to improve the test adaption. By deploying the parallel test system, the time to test five devices is now equal to the time to test one device in the past. Compared with the conventional test system, the proposed test system reduces the size and improves testing efficiency. This is of great significance for equipment to be put into operation swiftly. Finally, we take an industrial control system as an example to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The result shows that the method is reasonable, and the efficiency is improved up to 500%.

Keywords: parallel test, embedded system, automatic test system, automatic test system (ATS), central management system, central management system (CMS), distributed test subsystems, distributed test subsystems (DTS)

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Authors: Shieh Shiow-fang

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Superstitious thoughts or actions often occur during athletic competitions. Often "superstitious rituals" have a positive impact on the performance of competitive athletes. Athletes affirm the many psychological benefits of religious beliefs mostly in a positive way. Method: By snowball sampling, we recruited 10 experienced competitive athletes as participants. We used in-person and online one-to-one in-depth interview to collect their experiences about sport superstition. The total interview time was 795 minutes. We analyzed the raw data with the grounded theory processes suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1990). Results: The factors affecting athlete performance are ritual beliefs, taboo awareness, learning norms, and spontaneous attribution behaviors. Conclusion: We concluded that sports superstition reflects several psychological implications. The analysis results of this paper can provide another research perspective for the future study of sports superstition behavior.

Keywords: superstition, taboo awareness, learning norms, competitive athlete

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Authors: Diksha Kadam

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The study of images of women in literature and women writers has been a significant area of concern for the last four decades because it is as ‘the study of signification and meaning production’ play a vital role in shaping the perceptions and consciousness of various segment of society in relation to the lives, roles, problems and experiences of different categories of women as women and as autonomous citizen of society. In the history of worlds English literature the status of women and representation of her in the writings is an issue of discussion always. The essence of her existence in the literature is felt; the ecstasy of her feelings is always seen. The literature is full of facts and figures. She is one of them. Her contribution to the literature is undoubtedly a beginning of a new era. Multiple challenges and multiple identities as represented in majority of the literary texts and in real provide much hope and assurance to the new generation of mothers and daughters in the direction of transformation of the individual and collective consciousness of society paving way for the emergence of an actually empowered new woman. This paper will focus on some of the prominent Indian and American women writers in English literature and the various dimensions of her image through some of the prominent works. This attempt of mine will be merely a salute to those women who have struggled to prove their identity as one of the members of society.

Keywords: role of women’s writing, new era, contribution to the literature, consciousness, existence

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Authors: Remember Samu, Kathy Kiema, Murat Fahrioglu

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This present study is aimed at minimizing the dependence on fossil fuels thus reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and also to curb for the rising energy demands in Kenya. In this analysis, 35 locations were each considered for their techno-economic potential of installation of a 10MW grid-connected PV plant. The sites are scattered across the country but are mostly concentrated in the eastern region and were selected based on their accessibility to the national grid and availability of their meteorological parameters from NASA Solar Energy Dataset. RETScreen software 4.0 version will be employed for the analysis in this present paper. The capacity factor, simple payback, equity payback, the net present value (NPV), annual life cycle savings, energy production cost, net annual greenhouse gas emission reduction and the equivalent barrels of crude oil not consumed are outlined. Energy accounting is performed and compared to the existing grid tariff for an effective feasibility argument of this 10MW grid-connected PV power system.

Keywords: photovoltaics, project viability analysis, PV module, renewable energy

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Authors: Rosa S. Wong, Keith T.S. Tung, H.W. Tsang, Frederick K. Ho, Patrick Ip

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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention and hyperactive-impulsive behavior. Evidence shows that ADHD and mood problems such as depression and anxiety often co-occur and yet not everyone with ADHD reported elevated emotional problems. Given that cholesterol is essential for healthy brain development including the regions governing emotion regulation, reports found lower cholesterol levels in patients with major depressive disorder and those with suicide attempt behavior compared to healthy subjects. This study explored whether ADHD adolescents experienced more emotional problems and whether emotional problems correlated with cholesterol levels in these adolescents. This study used a portion of data from the longitudinal cohort study which was designed to investigate the long-term impact of family socioeconomic status on child development. In 2018/19, parents of 300 adolescents (average age: 12.57+/-0.49 years) were asked to rate their children’s emotional problems and report whether their children had doctor-diagnosed psychiatric diseases. We further collected blood samples from 263 children to study their lipid profile (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol). Regression analyses were performed to test the relationships between variables of interest. Among 300 children, 27 (9%) had ADHD diagnosis. Analysis based on overall sample found no association between ADHD and emotional problems, but when investigating the relationship by gender, there was a significant interaction effect of ADHD and gender on emotional problems (p=0.037), with ADHD males displaying more emotional problems than ADHD females. Further analyses based on 263 children (21 with ADHD diagnosis) found significant interaction effect of ADHD and gender on total cholesterol (p=0.038) and low LDL-cholesterol levels (p=0.013) after adjusting for the child’s physical disease history. Specifically, ADHD males had significantly lower total cholesterol and low lipoprotein-cholesterol levels than ADHD females. In ADHD males, more emotional problems were associated with lower LDL-cholesterol levels (B = -4.26, 95%CI (-7.46, -1.07), p=0.013). We found preliminary support for the association between more emotional problems and lower cholesterol levels in ADHD children, especially among males. Although larger prospective studies are needed to substantiate these claims, the evidence highlights the importance of healthy lifestyle to keep cholesterol levels in normal range which can have positive effects on physical and mental health.

Keywords: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, cholesterol, emotional problems, adolescents

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Authors: Andrey V. Timofeev

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The practical efficient approach is suggested to estimate the high-speed objects instant bounds in C-OTDR monitoring systems. In case of super-dynamic objects (trains, cars) is difficult to obtain the adequate estimate of the instantaneous object localization because of estimation lag. In other words, reliable estimation coordinates of monitored object requires taking some time for data observation collection by means of C-OTDR system, and only if the required sample volume will be collected the final decision could be issued. But it is contrary to requirements of many real applications. For example, in rail traffic management systems we need to get data off the dynamic objects localization in real time. The way to solve this problem is to use the set of statistical independent parameters of C-OTDR signals for obtaining the most reliable solution in real time. The parameters of this type we can call as 'signaling parameters' (SP). There are several the SP’s which carry information about dynamic objects instant localization for each of C-OTDR channels. The problem is that some of these parameters are very sensitive to dynamics of seismoacoustic emission sources but are non-stable. On the other hand, in case the SP is very stable it becomes insensitive as a rule. This report contains describing the method for SP’s co-processing which is designed to get the most effective dynamic objects localization estimates in the C-OTDR monitoring system framework.

Keywords: C-OTDR-system, co-processing of signaling parameters, high-speed objects localization, multichannel monitoring systems

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Authors: Titanilla Komenda

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Human-machine-collaboration defines a direct interaction between humans and machines to fulfil specific tasks. Those so-called collaborative machines are used without fencing and interact with humans in predefined workspaces. Even though, human-machine-collaboration enables a flexible adaption to variable degrees of freedom, industrial applications are rarely found. The reasons for this are not technical progress but rather limitations in planning processes ensuring safety for operators. Until now, humans and machines were mainly considered separately in the planning process, focusing on ergonomics and system performance respectively. Within human-machine-collaboration, those aspects must not be seen in isolation from each other but rather need to be analysed in interaction. Furthermore, a simulation model is needed that can validate the system performance and ensure the safety for the operator at any given time. Following on from this, a holistic simulation model is presented, enabling a simulative representation of collaborative tasks – including both, humans and machines. The presented model does not only include a geometry and a motion model of interacting humans and machines but also a numerical behaviour model of humans as well as a Boole’s probabilistic sensor model. With this, error scenarios can be simulated by validating system behaviour in unplanned situations. As these models can be defined on the basis of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis as well as probabilities of errors, the implementation in a collaborative model is discussed and evaluated regarding limitations and simulation times. The functionality of the model is shown on industrial applications by comparing simulation results with video data. The analysis shows the impact of considering human factors in the planning process in contrast to only meeting system performance. In this sense, an optimisation function is presented that meets the trade-off between human and machine factors and aids in a successful and safe realisation of collaborative scenarios.

Keywords: human-machine-system, human-robot-collaboration, safety, simulation

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Authors: Radhika S. Oke, Rebecca S. Thombre

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Medicinal plants and herbs have a great history of their utility as remedy for treatment of variety of ailments. Secondary metabolites present in these plants are responsible for their medicinal activity. In the present investigation, phytochemical screening of aqueous and alcoholic leaf extract of Anethum graveolens L. was performed. Total phenolic content and total antioxidant activity of the extracts was quantitatively estimated by Folin-Ciocalteau method and DPPH (1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl) method respectively. Qualitative tests suggested that Alkaloids, tannins and phenolic compounds were present in all the extracts of the plant. Aqueous extracts was found to have more phytochemicals as compared to alcoholic extracts. Extract of Anethum graveolens L. was found to contain good amount phenolics and exhibited antioxidant activity. The extracts also demonstrated potent antimicrobial activity against selected gram positive and negative bacteria. The study revealed the potential application of Anethum graveolens L. (Dill) in medicine and health.

Keywords: Anethum graveolens L., antioxidant, antimicrobial activity, medicine and health

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Authors: A. Alzahrani, G. Arnold, W. Wang

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Background: Stroke commonly occurs in middle-aged and elderly populations, and the diagnosis of early stroke is still difficult. Patients who have suffered a stroke have different balance and gait patterns from healthy people. Advanced techniques of motion analysis have been routinely used in the clinical assessment of cerebral palsy. However, so far, little research has been done on the direct diagnosis of early stroke patients using motion analysis. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate whether patients with stroke have different balance and gait from healthy people and which biomechanical parameters could be used to predict and diagnose potential patients who are at a potential risk to stroke. Methods: Thirteen patients with stroke were recruited as subjects whose gait and balance was analysed. Twenty normal subjects at the matched age participated in this study as a control group. All subjects’ gait and balance were collected using Vicon Nexus® to obtain the gait parameters, kinetic, and kinematic parameters of the hip, knee, and ankle joints in three planes of both limbs. Participants stood on force platforms to perform a single leg balance test. Then, they were asked to walk along a 10 m walkway at their comfortable speed. Participants performed 6 trials of single-leg balance for each side and 10 trials of walking. From the recorded trials, three good ones were analysed using the Vicon Plug-in-Gait model to obtain gait parameters, e.g., walking speed, cadence, stride length, and joint parameters, e.g., joint angle, force, moments, etc. Result: The temporal-spatial variables of Stroke subjects were compared with the healthy subjects; it was found that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the groups. The step length, speed, cadence were lower in stroke subjects as compared to the healthy groups. The stroke patients group showed significantly decreased in gait speed (mean and SD: 0.85 ± 0.33 m/s), cadence ( 96.71 ± 16.14 step/min), and step length (0.509 ± 017 m) in compared to healthy people group whereas the gait speed was 1.2 ± 0.11 m/s, cadence 112 ± 8.33 step/min, and step length 0.648 ± 0.43 m. Moreover, it was observed that patients with stroke have significant differences in the ankle, hip, and knee joints’ kinematics in the sagittal and coronal planes. Also, the result showed that there was a significant difference between groups in the single-leg balance test, e.g., maintaining single-leg stance time in the stroke patients showed shorter duration (5.97 ± 6.36 s) in compared to healthy people group (14.36 ± 10.20 s). Conclusion: Our result showed that there are significantly differences between stroke patients and healthy subjects in the various aspects of gait analysis and balance test, as a consequences of these findings some of the biomechanical parameters such as joints kinematics, gait parameters, and single-leg stance balance test could be used in clinical practice to predict and diagnose potential patients who are at a high risk of further stroke.

Keywords: gait analysis, kinetics, kinematics, single-leg stance, Stroke

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Authors: Ryunhye Kim

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Despite its relatively short history as an independent state, Qatar has emerged as a highly regarded Gulf state and global power. Since its independence in September 1971, the state has employed deliberate policy initiatives designed to put Qatar on the map and distinguish it from other Gulf states. Because Qatar and its neighbors are resource-poor apart from energy, whoever is first to introduce a unique aspect of branding not only takes the lead but assumes what is often an insurmountable advantage. This study examines three specific modes of branding undertaken by Qatar: (1) energy policies to utilize its natural gas to become a dominant supplier; (2) the deliberate construction of a distinct cultural brand utilizing sports, architecture, museums, and media; and (3) ‘niche diplomacy’ to serve as a mediator in regional and intra-national conflicts, especially as interlocutor between the United States and Arab regimes and Muslim groups. Gleaning data from a range of sources, this study analyzes the effectiveness and significance of Qatar’s place branding on the global stage, as well as potential disadvantages and limits in this branding, including problems encountered before and after the ‘Qatar crisis.’

Keywords: national branding, national-identity, Qatar, soft-power

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Authors: Myriam Rousseau, Marie-Hélène Poulin, Suzie McKinnon, Jacinthe Bourassa

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Context: There is a growing demand for effective training programs for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. While traditional in-person training is effective, it can be difficult for some parents to participate due to distance, time, and cost. Telepractice, a form of distance education, could be a viable alternative to address these challenges. Research objective: The objective of this study is to explore the experiences of parents of children with autism who participated in a training program offered by telepractice in order to document: 1) the experience of parents who participated in a program telepractice training program for autistic children, 2) parental satisfaction with the telepractice modality, and 3) potential benefits of using telepractice to deliver training programs to parents of autistic children. Method: This study followed a qualitative research design, and Braun and Clarke's six-step procedure was used for the thematic analysis of the comments provided by parents. Data were collected through individual interviews with parents who participated in the project. The analysis focused on identifying patterns and themes in the comments in order to better understand parents' experiences with the telepractice modality. Results: The study revealed that parents were generally satisfied with the telepractice modality, as it was easy to use and enabled a better balance between work and family. This modality also enabled parents to share and receive mutual support. Despite the positive results, it is still relevant to offer training in different modalities to meet the different needs of parents. Conclusion: The study shows that parents of children with autism are generally satisfied with telepractice as a training modality. The results suggest that telepractice can be an effective alternative to traditional face-to-face training. The study highlights the importance of taking parents' needs and preferences into account when designing and implementing training programs.

Keywords: parents, children, training, telepractice

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Authors: Chandrakala Varatharajoo, Adelina Binti Asmawi, Nabeel Abdallah Mohammad Abedalaziz

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This study investigated the impact of inflectional and derivational morphemic analysis awareness on ESL secondary school students’ vocabulary learning strategy. The quasi-experimental study was conducted with 106 low proficiency secondary school students in two experimental groups (inflectional and derivational) and one control group. The students’ vocabulary acquisition was assessed through two measures: Morphemic Analysis Test and Vocabulary- Morphemic Test in the pretest and posttest before and after an intervention programme. Results of ANCOVA revealed that both the experimental groups achieved a significant score in Morphemic Analysis Test and Vocabulary-Morphemic Test. However, the inflectional group obtained a fairly higher score than the derivational group. Thus, the results indicated that ESL low proficiency secondary school students performed better on inflectional morphemic awareness as compared to derivatives. The results also showed that the awareness of inflectional morphology contributed more on the vocabulary acquisition. Importantly, learning inflectional morphology can help ESL low proficiency secondary school students to develop both morphemic awareness and vocabulary gain. Theoretically, these findings show that not all morphemes are equally useful to students for their language development. Practically, these findings indicate that morphological instruction should at least be included in remediation and instructional efforts with struggling learners across all grade levels, allowing them to focus on meaning within the word before they attempt the text in large for better comprehension. Also, by methodologically, by conducting individualized intervention and assessment this study provided fresh empirical evidence to support the existing literature on morphemic analysis awareness and vocabulary learning strategy. Thus, a major pedagogical implication of the study is that morphemic analysis awareness strategy is a definite boon for ESL secondary school students in learning English vocabulary.

Keywords: ESL, instruction, morphemic analysis, vocabulary

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Authors: Norezzine Abdelaziz, Rebouh Nazih Yacer, Kezimana Parfait, Parpura D. I., Gadzhikurbanov A., Anastasios Dranidis

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The genetic variation of Shvicezebuvides cattle from three different farms in the Tajikistan Republic was studied using 10 microsatellite markers (SSR). The trials were laid out using a multi- locus analysis system for the analysis of cattle microsatellite locus. An estimated genetic variability of the examined livestock is given in the article. The results of our SSR analysis as well as the numbers and frequencies of common alleles in studied samples, we established a high genetic similarity of studied samples. These results can also be furthermore useful in the decision making for preservation and rational genetic resources usage of the Tajik Shvicezebuvides cattle.

Keywords: genetic characteristic, frequencies of the occurrence alleles, microsatellite markers, Swiss cattle

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Authors: Chien-Chun Huang, Yi-U Chiou, Chiun-C.R. Wang

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For longer shelf life of noodles, air-dried method is the traditional way for the noodle preparation. Microwave drying has the specific advantage of rapid and uniform heating due to the penetration of microwaves into the body of the product. Microwave-assisted facility offers a quick and energy saving method during food dehydration as compares to the conventional air-dried method. Recently, numerous studies in the rheological characteristics of pasta or spaghetti were carried out with microwave–assisted air driers and many agricultural products were dried successfully. There are few researches about the evaluation of physicochemical characteristics and cooking quality of microwave-assisted air dried salted noodles. The purposes of this study were to compare the difference between conventional and microwave-assisted drying method on the physicochemical properties and eating quality of rice bran noodles. Three different microwave power including 0.5 KW, 0.75 KW and 1.0 KW installing with 50℃ hot air were applied for dehydration of rice bran noodles in this study. Three proportion of rice bran ranging in 0-20% were incorporated into salted noodles processing. The appearance, optimum cooking time, cooking yield and losses, textural profiles analysis, sensory evaluation of rice bran noodles were measured in this study. The results indicated that high power (1.0 KW) microwave facility caused partially burnt and porous on the surface of rice bran noodles. However, no characteristic of noodle was appeared on the surface of noodles preparing by low power (0.5 KW) microwave facility. The optimum cooking time of noodles was decreased as higher power microwave or higher proportion of rice bran was incorporated into noodles preparation. The higher proportion of rice bran (20%) or higher power of microwave-assisted dried noodles obtained the higher color intensity and the higher cooking losses as compared with conventional air dried noodles. The firmness of cooked rice bran noodles slightly decreased in the cooked noodles which were dried by high power microwave-assisted method. The shearing force, tensile strength, elasticity and texture profiles of cooked rice noodles decreased with the progress of the proportion of rice bran. The results of sensory evaluation indicated conventional dried noodles obtained the higher springiness, cohesiveness and acceptability of cooked noodles than high power (1.0 KW) microwave-assisted dried noodles. However, low power (0.5 KW) microwave-assisted dried noodles showed the comparable sensory attributes and acceptability with conventional dried noodles. Moreover, the sensory attributes including firmness, springiness, cohesiveness decreased, but stickiness increased, with the increases of rice bran proportion. These results inferred that incorporation of lower proportion of rice bran and lower power microwave-assisted dried noodles processing could produce faster cooking time and acceptable quality of cooked noodles as compared to conventional dried noodles.

Keywords: microwave-assisted drying method, physicochemical characteristics, rice bran noodles, sensory evaluation

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Authors: Mary M. Park

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Hollywood has had a long and enduring history of showcasing the United States military to civilian audiences, and the portrayals of soldiers in films have had a definite impact on the civilian perception of the US military. The growing gap between the civilian population and the military in the US has led to certain stereotypes of military personnel to proliferate, especially in the area of militarized masculinity, which has often been harmful to the psychological and spiritual wellbeing of military personnel. Examining Hollywood's portrayal of soldiers can serve to enhance our understanding of how civilians may be influenced in their perception of military personnel. Moreover, it can provide clues as to how male military personnel may also be influenced by Hollywood films as they form their own military identity. The post 9/11 era has seen numerous high budget films lionizing a particular type of soldier, the 'warrior-hero', who adheres to a traditional form of hegemonic masculinity and exhibits traits such as physical strength, bravery, stoicism, and an eagerness to fight. This paper examines how the portrayal of the 'warrior-hero' perpetuates a negative stereotype that soldiers are a blend of superheroes and emotionless robots and, therefore, inherently different from civilians. This paper examines the portrayal of militarized masculinity in three of the most successful war films of the post-9/11 era; Black Hawk Down (2001), The Hurt Locker (2008), and American Sniper (2014). The characters and experiences of the soldiers depicted in these films are contrasted with the lived experiences of soldiers during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Further, there is an analysis of popular films depicting ancient warriors, such as Troy (2004) and 300 (2007), which were released during the early years of the War on Terror. This paper draws on the concept of hegemonic militarised masculinity by leading scholars and feminist international relations theories on militarized masculinity. This paper uses veteran testimonies collected from a range of public sources, as well as previous studies on the link between traditional masculinity and war-related mental illness. This paper concludes that the seemingly exclusive portrayal of soldiers as 'warrior-heroes' in films in the post-9/11 era is misleading and damaging to civil-military relations and that the reality of the majority of soldiers' experiences is neglected in Hollywood films. As civilians often believe they are being shown true depictions of the US military in Hollywood films, especially in films that portray real events, it is important to find the differences between the idealized fictional 'warrior-heroes' and the reality of the soldiers on the ground in the War on Terror.

Keywords: civil-military relations, gender studies, militarized masculinity, social pyschology

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Authors: Yunusa Aliyu Hadejia

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Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease caused by a bacterium called Vibrio Cholerae which spread as a result of eating food or drinking water contaminated with feaces from an infected person. In this work we proposed and analyzed the impact of isolating infected people and give them therapeutic treatment, the specific objectives of the research was to formulate a mathematical model of cholera transmission incorporating treatment class, to make analysis on stability of equilibrium points of the model, positivity and boundedness was shown to ensure that the model has a biological meaning, the basic reproduction number was derived by next generation matrix approach. The result of stability analysis show that the Disease free equilibrium was both locally and globally asymptotically stable when R_0< 1 while endemic equilibrium has locally asymptotically stable when R_0> 1. Sensitivity analysis was perform to determine the contribution of each parameter to the basic reproduction number. Numerical simulation was carried out to show the impact of the model parameters using MAT Lab Software.

Keywords: mathematical model, treatment, stability, sensitivity

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Authors: Ronal Muresano, Andrea Pagano

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Nowadays, the mathematical/statistical applications are developed with more complexity and accuracy. However, these precisions and complexities have brought as result that applications need more computational power in order to be executed faster. In this sense, the multicore environments are playing an important role to improve and to optimize the execution time of these applications. These environments allow us the inclusion of more parallelism inside the node. However, to take advantage of this parallelism is not an easy task, because we have to deal with some problems such as: cores communications, data locality, memory sizes (cache and RAM), synchronizations, data dependencies on the model, etc. These issues are becoming more important when we wish to improve the application’s performance and scalability. Hence, this paper describes an optimization method developed for Systemic Model of Banking Originated Losses (SYMBOL) tool developed by the European Commission, which is based on analyzing the application's weakness in order to exploit the advantages of the multicore. All these improvements are done in an automatic and transparent manner with the aim of improving the performance metrics of our tool. Finally, experimental evaluations show the effectiveness of our new optimized version, in which we have achieved a considerable improvement on the execution time. The time has been reduced around 96% for the best case tested, between the original serial version and the automatic parallel version.

Keywords: algorithm optimization, bank failures, OpenMP, parallel techniques, statistical tool

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Authors: Md Y. Reja, Samuel D. Brody, Wesley E. Highfield, Galen D. Newman

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Historically, wetlands in the United States have been lost due to agriculture, anthropogenic activities, and rapid urbanization along the coast. Such losses of wetlands have resulted in high flooding risk for coastal communities over the period of time. In addition, alteration of wetlands via the Section 404 Clean Water Act permits can increase the flooding risk to future hurricane events, as the cumulative impact of this program is poorly understood and under-accounted. Further, recovery after hurricane events is acting as an encouragement for new development and reconstruction activities by converting wetlands under the wetland alteration permitting program. This study investigates the degree to which hurricane recovery activities in coastal communities are undermining the ability of these places to absorb the impacts of future storm events. Specifically, this work explores how and to what extent wetlands are being affected by the federal permitting program post-Hurricane Ike in 2008. Wetland alteration patterns are examined across three counties (Harris, Galveston, and Chambers County) along the Texas Gulf Coast over a 10-year time period, from 2004-2013 (five years before and after Hurricane Ike) by conducting descriptive spatial analyses. Results indicate that after Hurricane Ike, the number of permits substantially increased in Harris and Chambers County. The vast majority of individual and nationwide type permits were issued within the 100-year floodplain, storm surge zones, and areas damaged by Ike flooding, suggesting that recovery after the hurricane is compromising the ecological resiliency on which coastal communities depend. The authors expect that the findings of this study can increase awareness to policy makers and hazard mitigation planners regarding how to manage wetlands during a long-term recovery process to maintain their natural functions for future flood mitigation.

Keywords: ecological resiliency, Hurricane Ike, recovery, Section 404 Permitting, wetland alteration

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Authors: P. J. Sweeney, T. Ahtoniemi, J. Puoliväli, T. Laitinen, K. Lehtimäki, A. Nurmi, D. Wells

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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is caused by an X linked mutation in the dystrophin gene; lack of dystrophin causes a progressive muscle necrosis which leads to a progressive decrease in mobility in those suffering from the disease. The MDX mouse, a mutant mouse model which displays a frank dystrophinopathy, is currently widely employed in pre clinical efficacy models for treatments and therapies aimed at DMD. In general the end-points examined within this model have been based on invasive histopathology of muscles and serum biochemical measures like measurement of serum creatine kinase (sCK). It is established that a “critical period” between 4 and 6 weeks exists in the MDX mouse when there is extensive muscle damage that is largely sub clinical but evident with sCK measurements and histopathological staining. However, a full characterization of the MDX model remains largely incomplete especially with respect to the ability to aggravate of the muscle damage beyond the critical period. The purpose of this study was to attempt to aggravate the muscle damage in the MDX mouse and to create a wider, more readily translatable and discernible, therapeutic window for the testing of potential therapies for DMD. The study consisted of subjecting 15 male mutant MDX mice and 15 male wild-type mice to an intense chronic exercise regime that consisted of bi-weekly (two times per week) treadmill sessions over a 12 month period. Each session was 30 minutes in duration and the treadmill speed was gradually built up to 14m/min for the entire session. Baseline plasma creatine kinase (pCK), treadmill training performance and locomotor activity were measured after the “critical period” at around 10 weeks of age and again at 14 weeks of age, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months of age. In addition, kinematic gait analysis was employed using a novel analysis algorithm in order to compare changes in gait and fine motor skills in diseased exercised MDX mice compared to exercised wild type mice and non exercised MDX mice. In addition, a morphological and metabolic profile (including lipid profile), from the muscles most severely affected, the gastrocnemius muscle and the tibialis anterior muscle, was also measured at the same time intervals. Results indicate that by aggravating or exacerbating the underlying muscle damage in the MDX mouse by exercise a more pronounced and severe phenotype in comes to light and this can be picked up earlier by kinematic gait analysis. A reduction in mobility as measured by open field is not apparent at younger ages nor during the critical period, but changes in gait are apparent in the mutant MDX mice. These gait changes coincide with pronounced morphological and metabolic changes by non-invasive anatomical MRI and proton spectroscopy (1H-MRS) we have reported elsewhere. Evidence of a progressive asymmetric pathology in imaging parameters as well as in the kinematic gait analysis was found. Taken together, the data show that chronic exercise regime exacerbates the muscle damage beyond the critical period and the ability to measure through non-invasive means are important factors to consider when performing preclinical efficacy studies in the MDX mouse.

Keywords: Gait, muscular dystrophy, Kinematic analysis, neuromuscular disease

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Authors: Gabriel Woldu, Maria Sassi

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Coffee performs a pivotal role in Ethiopia's GDP, revenue, employment, domestic demand, and export earnings. Ethiopia's coffee production and exports show high variability in the amount of production and export earnings. Despite being the continent's fifth-largest coffee producer, Ethiopia has not developed its ability to shine as a major exporter in the globe's green coffee exports. Ethiopian coffee exports were not stable and had high volume and earnings fluctuations. The main aim of this study was to analyze the dynamics of the export of coffee variation to different importing nations using a first-order Markov Chain model. 14 years of time-series data has been used to examine the direction and structural change in the export of coffee. A compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was used to determine the annual growth rate in the coffee export quantity, value, and per-unit price over the study period. The major export markets for Ethiopian coffee were Germany, Japan, and the USA, which were more stable, while countries such as France, Italy, Belgium, and Saudi Arabia were less stable and had low retention rates for Ethiopian coffee. The study, therefore, recommends that Ethiopia should again revitalize its market to France, Italy, Belgium, and Saudi Arabia, as these countries are the major coffee-consuming countries in the world to boost its export stake to the global coffee markets in the future. In order to further enhance export stability, the Ethiopian Government and other stakeholders in the coffee sector should have to work on reducing the volatility of coffee output and exports in order to improve production and quality efficiency, so that stabilize markets as well as to make the product attractive and price competitive in the importing countries.

Keywords: coffee, CAGR, Markov chain, direction of trade, Ethiopia

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Authors: Kianoosh Ahadi, Mustafa Ergil

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In this study, the event of vibrations caused by vortexes and the distribution of induced hydrodynamic forces due to vortexes on the sliding gate valves has been investigated. For this reason, a sliding valve with the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was simulated in two-dimensional )2D(, where the flow and turbulence equations were solved for three different valve openings (full, half, and 16.7 %) models. The variety of vortexes formed within the vicinity of the valve structure was investigated based on time where the trend of fluctuations and their occurrence regions have been detected. From the gathered solution dataset of the numerical simulations, the pressure coefficient (CP), the lift force coefficient (CL), the drag force coefficient (CD), and the momentum coefficient due to hydrodynamic forces (CM) were examined, and relevant figures were generated were from these results, the vortex-induced vibrations were analyzed.

Keywords: induced vibrations, computational fluid dynamics, sliding gate valves, vortexes

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Authors: J. R. Wang, Y. Chiang, W. S. Hsu, S. H. Chen, J. H. Yang, S. W. Chen, C. Shih, Y. F. Chang, Y. H. Huang, B. R. Shen

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In this research, the RASCAL code was used to simulate and analyze the postulated UF₆ fire accident which may occur in the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER). There are four main steps in this research. In the first step, the UF₆ data of INER were collected. In the second step, the RASCAL analysis methodology and model was established by using these data. Third, this RASCAL model was used to perform the simulation and analysis of the postulated UF₆ fire accident. Three cases were simulated and analyzed in this step. Finally, the analysis results of RASCAL were compared with the hazardous levels of the chemicals. According to the compared results of three cases, Case 3 has the maximum danger in human health.

Keywords: RASCAL, UF₆, safety, hydrogen fluoride

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Authors: Jianqin Qu

Abstract:

This paper proposes a rigid point set matching algorithm in arbitrary dimensions based on the idea of symmetric covariant function. A group of functions of the points in the set are formulated using rigid invariants. Each of these functions computes a pair of correspondence from the given point set. Then the computed correspondences are used to recover the unknown rigid transform parameters. Each computed point can be geometrically interpreted as the weighted mean center of the point set. The algorithm is compact, fast, and dimension free without any optimization process. It either computes the desired transform for noiseless data in linear time, or fails quickly in exceptional cases. Experimental results for synthetic data and 2D/3D real data are provided, which demonstrate potential applications of the algorithm to a wide range of problems.

Keywords: covariant point, point matching, dimension free, rigid registration

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