Search results for: rumen microba growth factor

Authors: Tooraj Karimi, Mohammadreza Sadeghi Moghadam

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Grey set theory has the advantage of using fewer data to analyze many factors, and it is therefore more appropriate for system study rather than traditional statistical regression which require massive data, normal distribution in the data and few variant factors. So, in this paper grey clustering and entropy of coefficient vector of grey evaluations are used to analyze energy consumption in buildings of the Oil Ministry in Tehran. In fact, this article intends to analyze the results of energy audit reports and defines most favorable characteristics of system, which is energy consumption of buildings, and most favorable factors affecting these characteristics in order to modify and improve them. According to the results of the model, ‘the real Building Load Coefficient’ has been selected as the most important system characteristic and ‘uncontrolled area of the building’ has been diagnosed as the most favorable factor which has the greatest effect on energy consumption of building. Grey clustering in this study has been used for two purposes: First, all the variables of building relate to energy audit cluster in two main groups of indicators and the number of variables is reduced. Second, grey clustering with variable weights has been used to classify all buildings in three categories named ‘no standard deviation’, ‘low standard deviation’ and ‘non- standard’. Entropy of coefficient vector of Grey evaluations is calculated to investigate greyness of results. It shows that among the 38 buildings surveyed in terms of energy consumption, 3 cases are in standard group, 24 cases are in ‘low standard deviation’ group and 11 buildings are completely non-standard. In addition, clustering greyness of 13 buildings is less than 0.5 and average uncertainly of clustering results is 66%.

Keywords: energy audit, grey set theory, grey incidence matrixes, grey clustering, Iran oil ministry

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Authors: Saqib Ali

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Sources are classified into two depending upon the factor of reviving. These sources, which cannot be revived into their original shape once they are consumed, are considered as nonrenewable energy resources, i.e., (coal, fuel) Moreover, those energy resources which are revivable to the original condition even after being consumed are known as renewable energy resources, i.e., (wind, solar, hydel) Renewable energy is a cost-effective way to generate clean and green electrical energy Now a day’s majority of the countries are paying heed to energy generation from RES Pakistan is mostly relying on conventional energy resources which are mostly nonrenewable in nature coal, fuel is one of the major resources, and with the advent of time their prices are increasing on the other hand RES have great potential in the country with the deployment of RES greater reliability and an effective power system can be obtained In this thesis, a similar concept is being used and a hybrid power system is proposed which is composed of intermixing of renewable and nonrenewable sources The Source side is composed of solar, wind, fuel cells which will be used in an optimal manner to serve load The goal is to provide an economical, reliable, uninterruptable power supply. This is achieved by optimal controller (PI, PD, PID, FOPID) Optimization techniques are applied to the controllers to achieve the desired results. Advanced algorithms (Particle swarm optimization, Flower Pollination Algorithm) will be used to extract the desired output from the controller Detailed comparison in the form of tables and results will be provided, which will highlight the efficiency of the proposed system.

Keywords: distributed generation, demand-side management, hybrid power system, micro grid, renewable energy resources, supply-side management

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Authors: H. Djaaboube, I. Loucif, Y. Bouachiba, R. Aouati, A. Maameri, A. Taabouche, A. Bouabellou

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Thin films of pure and barium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) were prepared using a spray pyrolysis process. The films were deposited on glass substrates at 450°C. The different samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction patterns reveal the formation of a single ZnO Wurtzite structure and the good crystallinity of the films. The substitution of Ba ions influences the texture of the layers and makes the (002) plane a preferential growth plane. At concentrations below 6% Ba, the hexagonal structure of ZnO undergoes compressive stresses due to barium ions which have a radius twice of the Zn ions. This result leads to the decrees of a and c parameters and, therefore, the volume of the unit cell. This result is confirmed by the decrease in the number of crystallites and the increase in the size of the crystallites. At concentrations above 6%, barium substitutes the zinc atom and modifies the structural parameters of the thin layers. The bandgap of ZnO films decreased with increasing doping; this decrease is probably due to the 4d orbitals of the Ba atom due to the sp-d spin-exchange interactions between the band electrons and the localized d-electrons of the substituted Ba ion. Although, the Urbache energy undergoes an increase which implies the creation of energy levels below the conduction band and decreases the band gap width. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO doped 9% Ba was evaluated by the photodegradation of methylene blue under UV irradiation.

Keywords: barium, doping, photodegradation, spray pyrolysis, ZnO

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Authors: Gopinath Ganapathy, Chellammal Surianarayanan

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Services are growing rapidly and generally they are aggregated into a composite service to accomplish complex business processes. There may be several services that offer the same required function of a particular task in a composite service. Hence a choice has to be made for selecting suitable services from alternative functionally similar services. Quality of Service (QoS)plays as a discriminating factor in selecting which component services should be selected to satisfy the quality requirements of a user during service composition. There are two categories of approaches for QoS based service selection, namely global and local approaches. Global approaches are known to be Non-Polynomial (NP) hard in time and offer poor scalability in large scale composition. As an alternative to global methods, local selection methods which reduce the search space by breaking up the large/complex problem of selecting services for the workflow into independent sub problems of selecting services for individual tasks are coming up. In this paper, distributed architecture for selecting services based on QoS using local selection is presented with an overview of local selection methodology. The architecture describes the core components, namely, selection manager and QoS manager needed to implement the local approach and their functions. Selection manager consists of two components namely constraint decomposer which decomposes the given global or workflow level constraints in local or task level constraints and service selector which selects appropriate service for each task with maximum utility, satisfying the corresponding local constraints. QoS manager manages the QoS information at two levels namely, service class level and individual service level. The architecture serves as an implementation model for local selection.

Keywords: architecture of service selection, local method for service selection, QoS based service selection, approaches for QoS based service selection

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Authors: Mahsa Oroojeni Mohammad Javad

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Globalization of economic activity and rapid growth of information technology has resulted in shorter product lifecycles, reduced transport capacity, dynamic and changing customer behaviors, and an increased focus on supply chain design in recent years. The design of the supply chain network is one of the most important supply chain management decisions. These decisions will have a long-term impact on the efficacy and efficiency of the supply chain. In this paper, a two-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed for designing and optimizing a closed-loop green supply chain network that, to the greatest extent possible, includes all real-world assumptions such as multi-level supply chain, the multiplicity of production technologies, and multiple modes of transportation, with the goals of minimizing the total cost of the chain (first objective) and minimizing total emissions of emissions (second objective). The ε-constraint and CPLEX Solver have been used to solve the problem as a single-objective problem and validate the problem. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is applied to study the effect of the real-world parameters’ changes on the objective function. The optimal management suggestions and policies are presented.

Keywords: closed-loop supply chain, multi-level green supply chain, mixed-integer programming, transportation modes

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Authors: Saima Kalsoom, Sobia Masood, Muhammad Faran

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This study aimed to examine the association between emotional intelligence and gender role attitudes of married individuals. Another aim of this study was to test the moderating role of gender work status of married individuals for predicting gender role attitudes from emotional intelligence. A sample of (N = 500) married working men and women (both working & housewives) was approached through purposive convenience sampling technique. The data was collected employing cross-sectional research design. The indigenous versions of the Gender Role Attitudes Scale and perceived Emotional Intelligence Scale were used. The results of alpha coefficients for both the scales and subscales used in this study designated satisfactory evidence for internal consistency and reliability. Assessment of correlation coefficients showed significant positive correlation between gender role attitudes and emotional intelligence, subfactors of emotional intelligence i.e., emotional self-regulation, emotional self-awareness, and interpersonal skills with gender role attitudes. Results of model testing revealed that gender (the effect was significant for women) and work status (the effect was more significant for married working women than married working men and housewives) of the married individuals significantly moderated the relationship between emotional intelligence and gender role attitudes into the positive direction. Further, it was also found that gender and work status also moderated the relationship between emotional self-regulation (as sub factor of emotional intelligence) and gender role attitudes in a positive direction. In conclusion, this empirical evidence is vital contribution derived from the traditional and collectivistic socio-cultural background of Pakistan.

Keywords: gender role attitudes, emotional intelligence, emotional self-regulation, gender, work status, married working women

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Authors: Yuta Chishima, Tatsuya Murakami, Michael McKay

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Temporal focus is described as one component of an individual’s time perspective and defined as the attention individuals devote to thinking about the past, present, and future. It affects how people incorporate perceptions about past experiences, current situations, and future expectations into their attitudes, cognitions, and behavior. The 12-item Temporal Focus Scale (TFS) is comprised of three-factors (past, current and future focus). The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of TFS scores in Japanese adolescents and young adults. The TFS was translated into Japanese by a professional translator, and the original author confirmed the back translated items. Study 1 involved 979 Japanese university students aged 18-25 years old in a questionnaire-based study. The hypothesized three-factor structure (with reliability) was confirmed, although there were problems with item 10. Internal consistency estimates for scores without item 10 were over .70, and test-retest reliability was also adequate. To verify the concurrent and convergent validity, we tested the relationship between TFS scores and life satisfaction, time perspective, self-esteem, and career efficacy. Results of correlational analyses supported our hypotheses. Specifically, future focus was strongly correlated to career efficacy, while past and current focus was not. Study 2 involved 1030 Japanese junior and junior high school students aged 12-18 years old in a questionnaire-based study, and results of multigroup analyses supported the age invariance of the TFS.

Keywords: Japanese, reliability, scale, temporal focus, validity

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Authors: Abdelkader Anouzla, Soukaina Bouaouda, Roukaya Bouyakhsass, Salah Souabi, Abdeslam Taleb

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During storage and under the combined action of rainwater and natural fermentation, these wastes produce over 800.000 m3 of landfill leachates. Due to population growth and changing global economic activities, the amount of waste constantly generated increases, making more significant volumes of leachate. Leachate, when leaching into the soil, can negatively impact soil, surface water, groundwater, and the overall environment and human life. The leachate must first be treated because of its high pollutant load before being released into the environment. This article reviews the different leachate treatments in September 2022 techniques. Different techniques can be used for this purpose, such as biological, physical-chemical, and membrane methods. Young leachate is biodegradable; in contrast, these biological processes lose their effectiveness with leachate aging. They are characterized by high ammonia nitrogen concentrations that inhibit their activity. Most physical-chemical treatments serve as pre-treatment or post-treatment to complement conventional treatment processes or remove specific contaminants. After the introduction, the different types of pollutants present in leachates and their impacts have been made, followed by a discussion highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the various treatments, whether biological, physicochemical, or membrane. From this work, due to their simplicity and reasonable cost compared to other treatment procedures, biological treatments offer the most suitable alternative to limit the effects produced by the pollutants in landfill leachates.

Keywords: landfill leachate, landfill pollution, impact, wastewater

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Authors: Ľudmila Ballová, Slavomír Kurhajec, Eva Petrovová, Jarmila Eftimová

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Angiogenesis, a formation of new blood vessels from a pre-existing vasculature, plays an important role in pathologic processes such as the growth and metastasis of tumours. Tumours cannot grow beyond a few millimetres without blood supply from the newly formed blood vessels from the host tissue, a process called tumour-induced angiogenesis. The successful research of antiangiogenic treatment of cancer has focused on nutraceuticals with angiogenesis-modulating properties. Berberine, as a major active component of the bark of Phellodendron amurense Rupr., has shown antitumour activity by intervening into different steps of carcinogenesis. The influence of ethanolic extract of Phellodendron amurese bark on the angiogenesis was tested in vivo on chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). The irritancy of the CAM after the application of the crude bark extract dissolved in normal saline (10 mg/mL) was investigated on embryonic day 7. No significant signs of the irritancy, such as vasoconstriction, hyperaemia, haemorrhage or coagulation were observed which indicates the harmless character of the extract. A significant reduction in vessel sprouting and higher percentage of avascular zone was observed in the case of CAM treated with the extract in comparison with non-treated CAM (control), which is a proof of the antiangiogenic potential of the extract. These results could contribute to the development of novel drugs for the treatment of cancer or other diseases, in which angiogenesis plays a significant role.

Keywords: angiogenesis, berberine, chorioallantoic membrane, irritancy, phellodendron amurense

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Authors: Shivani Kolarkar

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Splendid growth in Indian IT has generated women employment on a large scale in India and continues to do it. Indian IT industry has achieved this in spite of total masculine dominance in other Indian engineering industries, where the ratio of women employment is almost negligible as compared to men. Indian IT today proudly enjoys a strong pool of technically educated, intellectual, and skillful women employees. IT industry has encouraged technical education for women in India, to a great extent. The software industry has definitely contributed to developing a positive and dignified role and status of women employees in Indian IT industry. It has promoted women’s social and economic role and status. In spite of all, gender discrimination still persists in Indian IT, also, which is low as compared to other industries, but it is a matter of concern. An Indian woman is bound to carry dual roles which are equally over-stressed for IT women employees. Long working hours, night shifts, work pressures and insufficient safety majors and necessary facilities for women contributes to making her physical-mental life, family and married life troublesome. Which forces her either to cluster at low-end jobs in IT/elsewhere or to sacrifice her career. Nature, role and status of HRM needs to be broadened, deepened and shaped into research-oriented multidimensional perspective in the context of really enhancing role and status of Indian IT women with high appreciation of women employees’ dignity and entity.

Keywords: attrition, gender discrimination, HRM, Indian IT, software industry, job satisfaction, safety, technical education, women employment

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Authors: Chu Wai Ching, Kan Chi Wai

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Fashion industry is fast moving with intense competitions; it is hard for fashion retailers to stand out among their peers. In order to promote and enhance uniqueness, fashion retailers have collaborated with different brands or celebrity in their marketing campaign recently. As brand-celebrity collaboration is a growing phenomenon in the Hong Kong fashion industry, this research aims to investigate the effect of celebrity on altering consumer’s brand association and the overall attitude towards the co-branded products. One of the popular celebrity-collaborated fashion brands was chosen for this study and a survey was conducted among university students in Hong Kong which yielded 222 responses. By using factor analysis, linear regression and bootstrap test for the mediation, the results show that three celebrity attributes namely “expertise”, “trustworthiness” and “attractiveness” affect the evaluation of the co-branded products. In addition, the change in the association of the brand and co-branded product attributes mediates the relationship between the characteristics of the celebrity and the overall attitude of the co-branded product. The result shows “expertise” of the celebrity has a perfect mediation, while “trustworthiness” and “attractiveness” of the celebrity have partial mediation. This implies that expertise of the celebrity is capable in altering the association towards both the brand and core product attributes and bringing a positive attitude towards the co-brand. The trustworthiness and the attractiveness of the celebrity are able to alter the consumer association towards the brand, but do not guarantee a complete positive attitude towards the co-branded product. This means that change in brand attributes is not a definite mediator as direct relationship may happen or there may be other factors that can affect the relationship between the celebrity’s persuasiveness and the overall attitude towards the co-branded collection.

Keywords: brand attribute, brand-celebrity collaborations, co-branding, fashion industry

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Authors: Anagha Pavithran Vattamparambil, Niranjana Regimon

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Dalit and tribal communities in India have the largest suicide rate; however, the current literature does not reflect this reality. While existing research acknowledges socio-cultural risk factors, it fails to discuss structural issues pertaining to marginalized communities in India. Furthermore, the language is framed in an individualistic manner which denies room for recognizing systemic violence and injustice among causative agents of suicide. We aim to examine the representation of Dalit and tribal identities and their experiences of marginalisation as a contributive factor of suicide, as well as discuss the epistemic injustice involved in its exclusion. Electronic searches of PubMed, PsychInfo, and Web of Science databases will be carried out from inception till January 2023 to conduct a systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed articles; it will include all studies involving psychological autopsy in India. A narrative synthesis will be performed to gain insight into the inclusion of the experiences of Dalits and Tribals, the absence of which indicates a lacking understanding of suicide in India. It is also expected to highlight the alienation of lived experiences and narratives of marginalisation from mainstream discourse on suicide that constitutes epistemic injustice. There is a complex interplay of psychological, socio-cultural, economic, and political factors for suicide in the Indian setting. But, political and systemic issues are often downplayed in suicide etiology, including casteist assault, rape, violence, public humiliation, and discrimination which deserves more research attention.

Keywords: dalits, marginalisation, psychological autopsy, suicide, tribals

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: Keiko Naito, Y. Nakashima, S. Yamauchi, Y. Kunitani, Y. Ishigami, K. Numata, M. Mizobe, Y. Homma, J. Takahashi, T. Inoue, T. Shiga, H. Funakoshi

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Background: A presence of severe acidemia, defined as pH < 7.2, is common during endotracheal intubation for critically ill patients in the emergency department (ED). Severe acidemia is widely recognized as a predisposing factor for intubation failure. However, it is unclear that acidemic condition itself actually makes endotracheal intubation more difficult. We aimed to evaluate if a presence of severe acidemia before intubation is associated with the lower first attempt intubation success rate in the ED. Methods: This is a retrospective observational cohort study in the ED of an urban hospital in Japan. The collected data included patient demographics, such as age, sex, and body mass index, presence of one or more factors of modified LEMON criteria for predicting difficult intubation, reasons for intubation, blood gas levels, airway equipment, intubation by emergency physician or not, and the use of the rapid sequence intubation technique. Those with any of the following were excluded from the analysis: (1) no blood gas drawn before intubation, (2) cardiopulmonary arrest, and (3) under 18 years of age. The primary outcome was the first attempt intubation success rates between a severe acidemic patients (SA) group and a non-severe acidemic patients (NA) group. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the first attempt success rates for intubations between those two groups. Results: Over 5 years, a total of 486 intubations were performed; 105 in the SA group and 381 in the NA group. The univariate analysis showed that the first attempt intubation success rate was lower in the SA group than in the NA group (71.4% vs 83.5%, p < 0.01). The multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that severe acidemia was significantly associated with the first attempt intubation failure (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.03-3.68, p = 0.04). Conclusions: A presence of severe acidemia before endotracheal intubation lowers the first attempt intubation success rate in the ED.

Keywords: acidemia, airway management, endotracheal intubation, first-attempt intubation success rate

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Authors: Merve Gücen

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One of the aims of education is to educate individuals who have embraced universal moral principles and transform universal moral principles into moral values. Character education aims to educate behaviors of individuals in their mental activities to transform moral principles into moral values in their lives. As the result of this education, individuals are expected to develop positive character traits and become morally indifferent individuals. What are the characteristics of the factors that influence character education at this stage? How should character education help individuals develop positive character traits? Which methods are more effective? These questions come to mind when studying character education. Our research was developed within the framework of these questions. The aim of our study is to provide the most effective use of the education factor that affects character. In this context, we tried to explain character definition, character development, character education and the factors affecting character education using qualitative research methods. At this stage, character education programs applied in various countries were examined and a character education program consisting of Islamic values was prepared and implemented in an International Imam Hatip High School in Istanbul. Our application was carried out with the collaboration of school and families. Various seminars were organized in the school and participation of families was ensured. In the last phase of our study, we worked with the students and their families on the effectiveness of the events held during the program. In this study, it was found that activities such as storytelling and theater in character education programs were effective in recognizing wrong behaviors in individuals. It was determined that our program had a positive effect on the quality of education. It was seen that applications of this educational program affected the behavior of the employees in the educational institution.

Keywords: character development, family activities, values education, education program

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Authors: Seema Vaidya

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Mining association rule is a key issue in data mining. In any case, the standard models ignore the distinction among the exchanges, and the weighted association rule mining does not transform on databases with just binary attributes. This paper proposes a novel continuous example and executes a tree (FP-tree) structure, which is an increased prefix-tree structure for securing compacted, discriminating data about examples, and makes a fit FP-tree-based mining system, FP enhanced capacity algorithm is used, for mining the complete game plan of examples by illustration incessant development. Here, this paper handles the motivation behind making remarkable and weighted item sets, i.e. rare weighted item set mining issue. The two novel brightness measures are proposed for figuring the infrequent weighted item set mining issue. Also, the algorithm are handled which perform IWI which is more insignificant IWI mining. Moreover we utilized the rare item set for choice based structure. The general issue of the start of reliable definite rules is troublesome for the grounds that hypothetically no inciting technique with no other person can promise the rightness of influenced theories. In this way, this framework expects the disorder with the uncommon signs. Usage study demonstrates that proposed algorithm upgrades the structure which is successful and versatile for mining both long and short diagnostics rules. Structure upgrades aftereffects of foreseeing rare diseases of patient.

Keywords: association rule, data mining, IWI mining, infrequent item set, frequent pattern growth

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Authors: Silene Ten Seldam, Kiara Margarita Lu, Melina Nicole Kyranides

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Psychopathic traits are marked by a lack of empathy and an inability to maintain meaningful relationships. Yet little research has investigated differences in interpersonal relationships between primary and secondary psychopathic traits. Emotional contagion, the tendency to automatically mimic others’ facial expressions and movements, is a type of empathy contributing to relationship quality. Additionally, the motivating and pleasurable aspects of social interaction, social reward is integral to understanding relationships. Therefore, the current research investigated interpersonal relationships through relationship status, the quality of friendships, the susceptibility to positive (happiness, love) and negative (sadness, fear, anger) emotional contagion, and social reward. Recruited online, 389 participants between 18 and 76 years old (M = 33.61; of which 241 were female) completed self-report questionnaires assessing primary and secondary psychopathic traits, friendship, emotional contagion, and social rewards. Hierarchical multiple regression showed relationship status as a protective factor and that individuals with secondary psychopathic traits are less likely to be in a relationship. This study is the first to investigate emotional contagion with primary and secondary psychopathic traits. Emotional contagion for sadness predicted secondary psychopathic traits. Negative social potency (enjoying being cruel and antagonistic to others) predicted both primary and secondary traits. However, admiration and prosocial interactions only predicted primary psychopathic traits. Findings infer differences in maintaining relationships, regulating emotions, empathising with others through emotional contagion, and motivation to socially engage, perhaps due to each dimensions’distinct origins and manifestations.

Keywords: primary psychopathic traits, secondary psychopathic traits, interpersonal relationships, friendship, emotional contagion, social reward

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Authors: Ji Hun Choi, Seung Un Chae, Kyeong Suk Cho

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Synthetic resins are widely used in various fields including electricity, engineering, construction and agriculture. Many of interior and exterior finishing materials for buildings are synthetic resin products. In this study, full-scale fire tests were conducted on polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and urethane in accordance with the “ISO 9705: Fire test - Full-scale room test for surface products” to measure heat release rate, toxic gas emission and smoke production rate. Based on the tests, fire growth pattern and fire risk were analyzed. Findings from the tests conducted on polyvinyl chloride and urethane are as follows. The total heat release rate and total smoke production rate of polyvinyl chloride were 98.89MW and 5284.41m2, respectively and its highest CO2 concentration was 0.149%. The values obtained from the test with urethane were 469.94 MW, 3396.28 m2 and 1.549%. While heat release rate and CO2 concentration were higher in urethane implying its high combustibility, smoke production rate was 1.5 times higher in polyvinyl chloride. Follow-up tests are planned to be conducted to accumulate data for the evaluation of heat emission and fire risk associated with synthetic resins.

Keywords: synthetic resins, fire test, full-scale test, heat release rate, smoke production rate, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, urethane

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Authors: Dunwen Zuo, Yongfang Deng, Bo Song

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An attempt is made here to measure the forces of three directions, under conditions of different feed speeds, different tilt angles of tool and without or with the pin on the tool, by using octagonal ring dynamometer in the AA2024 aluminum FSJ (Friction Stir Joining) process, and investigate how four main factors influence forces in the FSJ process. It is found that, high feed speed lead to small feed force and small lateral force, but high feed speed leads to large feed force in the stable joining stage of process. As the rotational speed increasing, the time of axial force drop from the maximum to the minimum required increased in the push-up process. In the stable joining stage, the rotational speed has little effect on the feed force; large rotational speed leads to small lateral force and axial force. The maximum axial force increases as the tilt angle of tool increases at the downward movement stage. At the moment of start feeding, as tilt angle of tool increases, the amplitudes of the axial force increasing become large. In the stable joining stage, with the increase of tilt angle of tool, the axial force is increased, the lateral force is decreased, and the feed force almost unchanged. The tool with pin will decrease axial force in the downward movement stage. The feed force and lateral force will increase, but the axial force will reduced in the stable joining stage by using the tool with pin compare to by using the tool without pin.

Keywords: FSJ, force factor, AA2024 aluminum, friction stir joining

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Authors: A. Hameed, N. Upreti, P. Srivastava

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Main objective the present study is to investigate microscopic, sub-microscopic, clay mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of three calcic soil profiles from the western Thar Desert for the last 30 ka paleoclimatic information. Thin-sections of the soils show weakly to moderately developed pedofeatures dominated by powdery to well-indurated pedogenic calcium carbonate. Sub-microscopy of the representative calcretes show extensive growth of fibrous palygorskite in pore spaces of micritic and sparitic nodules. XRD of the total clay ( < 2 µm) and fine clay ( < 0.2 µm) fractions of the soils show dominance of smectite, palygorskite, chlorite, mica, kaolinite and small amounts of quartz and feldspar. Formation of the palygorskite is attributed to pedogenic processes associated with Bw, Bss and Bwk horizons during drier conditions over the last 30 ka. Formation of palygorskite was mainly favoured by strongly evaporating percolating water and precipitation of secondary calcite, high pH (9-10), high Mg, Si and low Al activities during pedogenesis. Age estimate and distribution of calcretes, palygorskite, and illuvial features indicate fluctuating monsoonal strength during MIS3-MIS1 stages. The pedogenic features in calcic soils of western Thar suggest relatively arid conditions during MIS3-MIS2 transition and LGM time that changed to relatively wetter conditions during post LGM time and again returned to dry conditions at ~4 ka in MIS1.

Keywords: palygorskite, clay minerals, Thar, aridisol, late quaternary

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Authors: O. H. Gebril, N. A. Meguid

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Background: Iron had been a focus of interest recently as a main exaggerating factor for oxidative stresses in the central nervous system and a link to various neurological disorders is suspected. Many studies with various techniques showed evidence of disturbed iron-related proteins in the cell in human and animal models of neurodegenerative disorders. Also, linkage to significant pathological changes had been evidenced e.g. apoptosis and cell signaling. On the other hand, the role of iron in neurodevelopmental disorders is still unclear. With increasing prevalence of autism worldwide, some changes in iron parameters and its stores were documented in many studies. This study includes Haemochromatosis HFE gene polymorphisms (p.H63D and p.C282Y) and ferroportin gene (SLC40A1) Q248H polymorphism in autism and control children. Materials and Methods: Whole genome DNA was extracted; p.H63D and p.C282Y genotyping was studied using specific sequence amplification followed by restriction enzyme digestion on a sample of autism patients (25 cases) and twenty controls. Results: The p.H63D is seen more than the C282Y among both autism and control samples, with no significant association of p.H63D or p.C282Y polymorphism and autism was revealed. Also, no association with Q248H polymorphism was evidenced. Conclusion: The study results do not prove the role of cellular iron genes polymorphisms as risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders, and in turn highlights the specificity of cellular iron related pathways in neurodegeneration. These results demand further gene expression studies to elucidate the main pathophysiological pathways that are disturbed in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Keywords: iron, neurodevelopmental, oxidative stress, haemohromatosis, ferroportin, genes

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Authors: H. Li, W. Qin, Ben Ye

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Friction Push Plug Welding (FPPW) is a solid phase welding suitable for repairing defective welds and filling self-reacting weld keyholes in Friction Stir Welds. In FPPW process, a tapered shaped plug is rotated at high speed and forced into a tapered hole in the substrate. The plug and substrate metal is softened by the increasing temperature generated by friction and material plastic deformation. This paper aims to investigate the effect of process parameters on the quality of the weld. Orthogonal design methods were employed to reduce the amount of experiment. Three values were selected for each process parameter, rotation speed (1500r/min, 2000r/min, 2500r/min), plunge depth (2mm, 3mm, 4mm) and plunge speed (60mm/min, 90mm/min, 120r/min). AA6061aluminum alloy plug and substrate plate was used in the experiment. In a trial test with the plunge depth of 1mm, a noticeable defect appeared due to the short plunge time and insufficient temperature. From the recorded temperature profiles, it was found that the peak temperature increased with the increase of the rotation speed, plunge speed and plunge depth. In the initial stage, the plunge speed was the main factor affecting heat generation, while in the steady state welding stage, the rotation speed played a more important role. The FPPW weld defect includes flash and incomplete penetration in the upper, middle and bottom interface with the substrate. To obtain defect free weld, the higher rotation speed and proper plunge depth were recommended.

Keywords: friction push plug welding, process parameter, weld defect, orthogonal design

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Carlo Stephen O. Moneva, Sharon Rose M. Tabugo

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The present study aims to assess polymorphism in the prolactin (C576A) gene and determine the influence of different prolactin (PRL) genotypes to milk yield performance in crossbred Anglo-Nubian dairy goats raised from Awang, Opol, Misamis Oriental and Talay, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. Genomic DNA was extracted from hair follicles and Polymerase Chain Reaction – Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was performed for the genotyping of the C576A polymorphism located in exon 5 of goats’ prolactin gene using Eco241 restriction enzyme. Genotypic and allelic frequencies of 0.56 for AA, 0.44 for AB, 0.78 for A, and 0.22 for B were recorded. Observed heterozygosity values were higher than the expected heterozygosity. All populations followed the Hardy–Weinberg principle at p>0.05, except for dairy goats from Farm A located in Opol, Misamis Oriental. A two-way factorial (2 x 4) in a Randomized Complete Block Design was used to be able to evaluate the relationship between genotypes and milk yield performance. PRL genotypes and parity were used as main factors and farm as the blocking factor. AB genotype goats produced significantly higher average daily milk yield and total milk production than AA genotype (p<0.05), an indication that the polymorphism in the caprine PRL (C576A) gene influenced milk yield performance in the population of crossbred Anglo-Nubian goats from Opol, Misamis Oriental and Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. However, these results have to be validated in other dairy goat breeds.

Keywords: polymorphism, prolactin, milk yield, Anglo-Nubian, PCR-RFLP

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Authors: M. F. Amado, A. Amado, F. Poggi, J. Correia de Freitas

Abstract:

Today it is widely understood that global energy consumption patterns are directly related to the ongoing urban expansion and development process. This expansion is based on the natural growth of human activities and has left most urban areas totally dependent on fossil fuel derived external energy inputs. This status-quo of production, transportation, storage and consumption of energy has become inefficient and is set to become even more so when the continuous increases in energy demand are factored in. The territorial management of land use and related activities is a central component in the search for more efficient models of energy use, models that can meet current and future regional, national and European goals. In this paper, a methodology is developed and discussed with the aim of improving energy efficiency at the municipal level. The development of this methodology is based on the monitoring of energy consumption and its use patterns resulting from the natural dynamism of human activities in the territory and can be utilized to assess sustainability at the local scale. A set of parameters and indicators are defined with the objective of constructing a systemic model based on the optimization, adaptation and innovation of the current energy framework and the associated energy consumption patterns. The use of the model will enable local governments to strike the necessary balance between human activities, economic development, and the local and global environment while safeguarding fairness in the energy sector.

Keywords: solar urban planning, solar smart city, urban development, energy efficiency

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Authors: Jonathan J. Foo, Keng Hao Chew

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Interest in virtual reality (VR) technologies as virtual learning environments have been on the rise in recent years. With thanks to the aggressively competitive consumer electronics environment, VR technology has been made affordable and accessible to the average person with developments like Google Cardboard and Oculus Go. While the promise of virtual access to unique virtual learning environments with the benefits of experiential learning sounds extremely attractive, there are still concerns over user comfort in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains. Reports of motion sickness and short durations create doubt and have stunted its growth. In this paper, a multidimensional framework is proposed for the evaluation of VR learning environments within the three dimensions: tactual quality, didactic quality, and autodidactic quality. This paper further proposes a mixed-methods experimental research plan that sets out to evaluate a virtual reality training simulator in the context of amateur sports fencing. The study will investigate if an immersive VR learning environment can effectively simulate an authentic learning environment suitable for instruction, practice, and assessment while providing the user comfort in the tactual, didactic, and autodidactic dimensions. The models and recommendations developed for this study are designed in the context of fencing, but the potential impact is a guide for the future design and evaluation of all VR developments across sports and technical classroom education.

Keywords: autodidactic quality, didactic quality, tactual quality, virtual reality

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Authors: Kalu Samuel Ukanwa, Kumar Patchigolla, Ruben Sakrabani

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The use of biosolids from thermal conversion of palm waste for soil fertility enhancement was tested in acidic soil of Southern Nigeria for the growing of Habanero chili pepper (Capsicum chinense jacq.). Soil samples from the two sites, showed pH 4.8 and 4.8 for site A and B respectively, below 5.6-6.8 optimum range and other fertility parameters indicating a low threshold for pepper growth. Nursery planting was done at different weeks to determine the optimum planting period. Ash analysis showed that it contains 26% of total K, 20% of total Ca, 0.27% of total P, and pH 11. The two sites were laid for an experiment in randomized complete block design and setup with three replications side by side. Each plot measured 3 x 2 m and a total of 15 plots for each site, four treatments, and one control. Outlined as control, 2, 4, 6 and 8 tonnes/hectare of palm waste ash, the combined average for both sites with correspondent yield after six harvests in one season are; 0, 5.8, 6, 6, 14.5 tonnes/hectare respectively to treatments. Optimum nursery survival rate was high in July; the crop yield was linear to the ash application. Site A had 6% yield higher than site B. Fruit development, weight, and total yield in relation to the control plot showed that palm waste ash is effective for soil amendment, nutrient delivery, and exchange.

Keywords: ash, palm waste, pepper, soil amendment

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Authors: Fernanda Garcia

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With the recent growth of refugees in the world, there has been an exponential increase in requests for asylum seeking in Brazil. When asylum seekers arrive in the country, the government initiates a process to evaluate the case, which will serve as grounds to determine the refugee status of the asylum seekers. During this process, an interview where the migrant has the chance to tell their story takes place. The aim of this article is to analyse how community interpreting is conducted in Brazil with regard to asylum seeking, as well as to analyse the role of the interpreter in the context of these official interviews to request refuge in Brazil. We investigate how the presence of an interpreter influences this interview, but more specifically, we study some of the linguistic techniques used by the interpreter in order to make the interaction more effective, as well as the challenges and difficulties they encounter during the interview. To do so, surveys with the interpreters took place, in addition to on-site observations. The interpreters involved in this research are volunteers as part of an extra-curricular extension programme from the University of Brasilia, in Brazil. Community Interpreting is a somewhat new field in Brazil, still facing several obstacles, such as the lack of professional community interpreters. This research illustrates some of these issues and, thus, has the potential to foster Brazilian literature in the matter as well as help understand the role of the interpreter in the interview to seek asylum in Brazil. The refugees’ situation in the world is certainly a pressing matter, and the language barrier is an issue of great importance. Hence, translation and interpretation studies have a fundamental role in this area, when it comes to contributing to a more inclusive world to those in need.

Keywords: asylum seeking, community interpreting, interviews, refugees

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Authors: Nicolas D. Norboge

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Purchasers of municipal bonds in primary and secondary markets are increasingly expecting issuers to disclose environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG) inissuance and continuing disclosure documents. U.S. tolling authorities are slowly catching up with other transportation sectors, such as public transit, in integrating ESG factors into their bond disclosure documents. A systematic mixed-methods evaluation of publicly available bond disclosure documents from 2010-2022 suggest that only a small number of U.S. tolling authorities disclosedall ESG factors; however, the pace has accelerated significantly from 2020-2022. Because many tolling authorities have a direct financial stake in the growth of passenger vehicle miles traveled on their toll facilities, and in turn the burning of more climate-warming fossil fuels, one crucial questionthat remains is how bond purchasers will view increasedESG transparency. Recent moves by large institutional investors, credit rating agencies, and regulators suggestan expectation of ESG disclosure is a trend likely to endure. This researchsuggests tolling authorities will need to proactively consider these emerging trends and carefully adapt their disclosure practiceswhere possible. Building on these findings, this research also provides a basic sketch framework for how issuers can responsibly position themselves within the changing global municipal debt marketplace.

Keywords: debt policy, ESG, municipal bonds, public-private partnerships, public tolling authorities, transportation finance, and policy

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Authors: Alireza Monzavi Chaleshtari, Mahnaz Aliakbari Dehkordi, Afsaneh Bayat, Amin Asadi Hieh

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The purpose of this research was to investigate the pattern of structural relationships of quality of life based on anxiety and rumination with the mediation of personality types in psoriasis patients. Methods: The community of this research is made up of the members of Psoriasis Society of Iran - Sadafak. In the sample size of 2266 people, according to Morgan's table, 327 people will be considered as a statistical sample. To assess the quality of life, the 26-item questionnaire of the World Health Organization, anxiety with software SPSS and appropriate to the conditions were used to test the hypotheses, correlation matrix tests and factor analysis. Results: There is a relationship between quality of life with anxiety and rumination in psoriasis patients. The mediating role of personality types showed Psychotic annoyance has a significant relationship with anxiety (physical and emotional symptoms). Extraversion, agreeing and being conscientious play a mediating role in a significant relationship between quality of life in psoriasis patients. Also, irritability plays a mediating role in a meaningful relationship between rumination in psoriasis patients. Conclusion: According to the obtained results, it can be said that psoriasis patients with physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety and rumination have a low quality of life. Also, negative personality types (perfectionism and neuroticism) can cause or aggravate skin disorders in these patients. In other words, psychological factors are considered predisposing, accelerating and perpetuating factors in psoriasis skin disorders, so it is suggested to pay attention to these variables in the success of treating patients with psoriasis.

Keywords: quality of life, anxiety, rumination, personality types, psoriasis.

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Authors: Jiahui Song

Abstract:

The application of an electric field can cause poration at cell membranes. This includes the outer plasma membrane, as well as the membranes of intracellular organelles. In order to analyze and predict such electroporation effects, it becomes necessary to first evaluate the electric fields and the transmembrane voltages. This information can then be used to assess changes in the pore formation energy that finally yields the pore distributions and their radii based on the Smolchowski equation. The dynamic pore model can be achieved by including a dynamic aspect and a dependence on the pore population density into the pore formation energy equation. These changes make the pore formation energy E(r) self-adjusting in response to pore formation without causing uncontrolled growth and expansion. By using dynamic membrane tension, membrane electroporation in response to a 180kV/cm trapezoidal pulse with a 10 ns on time and 1.5 ns rise- and fall-times is discussed. Poration is predicted to occur at times beyond the peak at around 9.2 ns. Modeling also yields time-dependent distributions of the membrane pore population after multiple pulses. It shows that the pore distribution shifts to larger values of the radius with multiple pulsing. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are also carried out for a fixed field of 0.5 V/nm to demonstrate nanopore formation from a microscopic point of view. The result shows that the pore is predicted to be about 0.9 nm in diameter and somewhat narrower at the central point.

Keywords: high-intensity, nanosecond, dynamics, electroporation

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Authors: Andrey Kupriyanov

Abstract:

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the problems of ionospheric disturbances and their influence on the signals of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) around the world. This is due to the increase in solar activity, the expansion of the scope of GNSS, the emergence of new satellite systems, the introduction of new frequencies and many others. The influence of the Earth's ionosphere on the propagation of radio signals is an important factor in many applied fields of science and technology. The paper considers the application of the method of transionospheric sounding using measurements from signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems to determine the TEC distribution and scintillations of the ionospheric layers. To calculate these parameters, the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model of the ionosphere, refined in the local area, is used. The organization of operational monitoring of ionospheric parameters is analyzed using several NovAtel GPStation6 base stations. It allows performing primary processing of GNSS measurement data, calculating TEC and fixing scintillation moments, modeling the ionosphere using the obtained data, storing data and performing ionospheric correction in measurements. As a result of the study, it was proved that the use of the transionospheric sounding method for reconstructing the altitude distribution of electron concentration in different altitude range and would provide operational information about the ionosphere, which is necessary for solving a number of practical problems in the field of many applications. Also, the use of multi-frequency multisystem GNSS equipment and special software will allow achieving the specified accuracy and volume of measurements.

Keywords: global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), GPstation6, international reference ionosphere (IRI), ionosphere, scintillations, total electron content (TEC)

Procedia PDF Downloads 181