Search results for: social general condition

Authors: Ezgi Avci-Surucu, Doganbey Akgul

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Turkey’s energy reforms has achieved energy security through a variety of interlinked measures including electricity, gas, renewable energy and energy efficiency legislation; the establishment of an energy sector regulatory authority; energy price reform; the creation of a functional electricity market; restructuring of state-owned energy enterprises; and private sector participation through privatization and new investment. However, current strategies, namely; “Electricity Sector Reform and Privatization Strategy” and “Electricity Market and Supply Security Strategy” has been criticized for various aspects. The present paper analyzes the implementation of the aforementioned strategies in the framework of generation scheduling, transmission constraints, bidding structure and general aspects; and argues the deficiencies of current strategies which decelerates power investments and creates uncertainties. We conclude by policy suggestions to eliminate these deficiencies in terms of price and risk management, infrastructure, customer focused regulations and systematic market development.

Keywords: electricity markets, risk management, regulations, balancing and settlement, bilateral trading, generation scheduling, bidding structure

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Authors: Shaykh-Luqman Jimoh

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In Nigeria, aside the eight Government hospitals designated Psychiatric hospitals, there are also many local psychiatric centers managed by muslims and non-muslim individuals. These centers have been heavily criticized for human right abuses. This study is an inquiry into the truth or otherwise of the criticism. The study focuses on the activities of local centers managed by muslim individuals in South-West Nigeria with a view to determining the extent they uphold or violate their patients’ fundamental human rights as guaranteed by Islam. Information about the activities of the centers were collected through oral interviews. Both descriptive and analytical methods were used in the study. The study revealed that while there are some activities of the local centers managed by muslims in the study area that could be regarded as outright violation of patients’ fundamental human rights, some others, in view of the rationale behind them, may not necessarily constitute outright violation of the patients’ fundamental human rights as hitherto painted except where excesses are committed. The study therefore, using Islamic paradigm, suggests general measures that could be taken to improve on the activities of the centers.

Keywords: local psychiatric centers, muslim exorcists, patients’ rights, South-West Nigeria

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Authors: Aicha Chaouay, Lahsen Bazzi, Mustapha Hilali

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Seawater has chemical and biological characteristics making it particularly aggressive in relation to the corrosion of many materials including copper and steels low or moderate allies. Note that these materials are widely used in the manufacture of port infrastructure in the marine environment. These structures are exposed to two types of corrosion including: general corrosion and localized corrosion caused by the presence of sulfite-reducing micro-organisms. This work contributes to the study of the problematic related to bacterial contamination of the marine environment of large Agadir and evaluating the impact of this pollution on the corrosion resistance of copper. For the realization of this work, we conducted monthly periodic draws between (October 2012 February 2013) of seawater from the Anza area of the Bay of Agadir. Thus, after each sampling, a study of the electro chemical corrosion behavior of copper was carried out. Electro chemical corrosion parameters such as the corrosion potential, the corrosion current density, the charge transfer resistance and the double layer capacity were evaluated. The electro chemical techniques used in this work are: the route potentiodynamic polarization curves and electro chemical impedance.

Keywords: Bay of Agadir, microbial contamination, seawater (Morocco), corrosion, copper

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Authors: He Yuhai, Ahmad Ziad Bin Sulaiman

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Tongkat Ali, or Eurycoma longifolia, is a traditional Malay and Orang Asli herb used as aphrodisiac, general tonic, anti-Malaria, and anti-Pyretic. It has been recognized as a cashcrop by Malaysia due to its high value for the pharmaceutical use. In Tongkat Ali, eurycomanone, a quassinoid is usually chosen as a marker phytochemical as it is the most abundant phytochemical. In this research, ultrasound and enzyme were used to enhance the extraction of Eurycomanone from Tongkat Ali. Ultrasonic assisted extraction (USE) enhances extraction by facilitating the swelling and hydration of the plant material, enlarging the plant pores, breaking the plant cell, reducing the plant particle size and creating cavitation bubbles that enhance mass transfer in both the washing and diffusion phase of extraction. Enzyme hydrolyses the cell wall of the plant, loosening the structure of the cell wall, releasing more phytochemicals from the plant cell, enhancing the productivity of the extraction. Possible effects of ultrasound on the activity of the enzyme during the hydrolysis of the cell wall is under the investigation by this research. The extracts was analysed by high performance liquid chromatography for the yields of Eurycomanone. In this whole process, the conventional water extraction was used as a control of comparing the performance of the ultrasound and enzyme assisted extraction.

Keywords: ultrasound, enzymatic, extraction, Eurycoma longifolia

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Authors: H. J. Kim, K. H. Kim, N. H. Park, K. T. Nam, Y. H. Jung, T. H. Kim, J. H. Shin

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Underground excavations in an urban area can cause various geotechnical problems such as ground loss and lowering of groundwater level. When the ground loss becomes uncontrollably large, sinkholes can be developed to the ground surface. A sinkhole is commonly known as the natural phenomenon associated with lime rock areas. However, sinkholes in urban areas due to pressurized sewers and/or tunneling are also frequently reported. In this study, mechanism of a sinkhole developed at the site ‘A’ where a tunneling work underwent is investigated. The sinkhole occurred in the sand strata with the high level of groundwater when excavating a tunnel of which diameter is 3.6 m. The sinkhole was progressed in two steps. The first step began with the local failure around the tunnel face followed by tons of groundwater inflow, and the second step was triggered by the TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) chamber opening which led to the progressive general failure. The possibility of the sinkhole was evaluated by using Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM), and critical height was evaluated by the empirical stability chart. It is found that the lowering of the face pressure and inflow of groundwater into the tunnel face turned to be the main reason for the sinkhole.

Keywords: limit equilibrium method, sinkhole, stability chart, tunneling

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Authors: Sujit Kumar Sinha, R. Chattopadhyay

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In the course of processing phases and use, fibres, yarns, or fabrics are subjected to a variety of stresses and strains, which cause the development of internal stresses. Given an opportunity, these inherent stresses try to bring back the structure to the original state. As an example, a twisted yarn always shows a tendency to untwist whenever its one end is made free. If the yarn is not held under tension, it may form snarls due to the presence of excessive torque. The running performance of such yarn or thread may, therefore, get negatively affected by it, as a snarl may not pass through the knitting or sewing needle smoothly, leading to an end break. A fabric shows a tendency to form wrinkles whenever squeezed. It may also shrink when brought to a relaxed state. In order to improve performance (i.e., dimensional stability or appearance), stabilization of the structure is needed. The stabilization can be attained through the release of internal stresses, which can be brought about by the process of annealing and/or other finishing treatments. When a fabric is subjected to heat, a change in the properties of the fibers, yarns, and fabric is expected. The degree to which the properties are affected would depend upon the condition of heat treatment and on the properties & structure of fibres, yarns, and fabric. In the present study, an attempt has been made to investigate the effect of annealing treatment on the properties of polyester cotton yarns with varying sheath structures.

Keywords: friction spun yarn, annealing, tenacity, structural integrity, decay

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Authors: Karen V. Lee

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The significance of this study involves autoethnographic research about a music teacher learning about the socialization of gender issues in teaching. Mentorship involving intervention helps with the consequences influencing a transgendered music teacher. Basic storytelling methodology involves the qualitative method of research as a theoretical framework where the author provides a storied reflection about political issues surrounding teachers and the sociology of gender. Sub-themes involve counseling, adult education to ensure students and teachers receive social, emotional, physical, spiritual, and educational resources that evoke visceral, emotional responses from the audience. Major findings share how stories are helpful resources for others who struggle with the socialization of gender. It is hoped the research dramatizes an episodic yet incomplete story that highlights the circumstances surrounding the protagonist having his sex reassignment surgery during his undergraduate education degree. In conclusion, the research is a reflexive storied framework that embraces a positive outlook about a transgendered teacher during his masectomy. The sensory experience seeks verisimilitude by evoking lifelike and believable feelings from others. Thus, the scholarly importance of the sociology of gender and society provides transformative aspects that contributes to social change. Overall, the surgery surrounding the story about transgendered issues are not uncommon in society. Thus, continued education supports the moral mission to help teachers overcome and understand issues of gender that can socially impacts their professional lives as teachers.

Keywords: sociology of gender, transgender, music teachers, story, autoethnography as research, ideology

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Authors: S. M. T. Mustafa, D. Raes, M. Huysmans

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Proper utilization of water resource is very important in agro-based Bangladesh. Irrigation schedule based on local environmental conditions, soil type and water availability will allow a sustainable use of water resources in agriculture. In this study, the FAO crop water model (AquaCrop) was used to simulate the different water and fertilizer management strategies in different location of Bangladesh to obtain a management guideline for the farmer. Model was calibrated and validated for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The statistical indices between the observed and simulated grain yields obtained were very good with R2, RMSE, and EF values of 0.92, 0.33, and 0.83, respectively for model calibration and 0.92, 0.68 and 0.77, respectively for model validations. Stem elongation (jointing) to booting and flowering stage were identified as most water sensitive for wheat. Deficit irrigation on water sensitive stage could increase the grain yield for increasing soil fertility levels both for loamy and sandy type soils. Deficit irrigation strategies provides higher water productivity than full irrigation strategies and increase the yield stability (reduce the standard deviation). The practical deficit irrigation schedule for wheat for four different stations and two different soils were designed. Farmer can produce more crops by using deficit irrigation schedule under water stress condition. Practical application and validation of proposed strategies will make them more credible.

Keywords: crop-water model, deficit irrigation, irrigation scheduling, wheat

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Authors: Manirath Wongsim

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Information technology management has become important for the achievement of organisations. An increase in the pace of technological change has revolutionised the way accountants perform their jobs. In response to this challenge, the identification of a new comprehensive set of information technology competencies combined with information technology skills and other skills (namely, soft skills) are necessary. Thus, this study aims to investigate IT competencies among professional accountants to enhance firm performance. This research was conducted with 42 respondents at ten organisations in Thailand. This research used qualitative, interpretive evidence.The results indicate that the factor IT competencies within the organizational issues defines19 factors. Specifically, these new factors, based on the research findings and the literature and unique to IT competences for professional accountants, include ERP software skills, BI software skills and accounting law and legal skills. The evidence in this study suggests that ERP software, spreadsheets, BI software and accounting software were ranked as much-needed skills to be acquired by accountants while communication skills were ranked as the most required skills, and delegation skills as the least required. The findings of the research’s empirical evidence suggest that organizations should understand appropriate into developing information technology related competencies for knowledge workers in general and professional accountants in particular and provide assistance in all processes of decision making.

Keywords: IT competencies, IT competencies for accountants, IT skills for accounting, soft skills for accountants

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Authors: Derick Shi-Chen Ou, Liang-Yu Chen

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Background: Acupuncture, a potential alternative, and complementary therapy revealed insufficient evidence in depression treatment. The efficacy of acupuncture treatment was still uncertainty. To evaluate the effect of acupuncture in treating depression, the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were examined. Methods: RCTs of the acupuncture therapy in treating major depression were searched from MEDLINE from 2007 to 2017. Keywords used for searching strategy included acupuncture, acupoint, and major depressive disorder. Results: Among the nine RCTs, four studies demonstrated great improvement in acupuncture treatment and five studies revealed the effectiveness of acupuncture intervention in medication. General trends suggest that acupuncture treatment is as effective as antidepressants with minimal side effects. Conclusion: Despite the promising results from the RCTs, there are still a variety of limitations, including small sample size, imprecise enrollment criteria, difficulties with blinding, randomization, short duration of study and lack of longitudinal follow-up. Therefore, the evidence that acupuncture as an alternative therapy for depression is inconclusive. More rigorously designed RCTs should be conducted in the future.

Keywords: acupuncture, major depressive disorders, randomized clinical trials, antidepressants

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Authors: Shradha Parsekar, Suma Nair, Ajay Bailey, Binu V. S.

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Background: Concealing of cancer-related information is seen in many low-and-middle-income countries and may be associated with multiple factors. Comparatively, there is lack of information about, how breast cancers diagnosed women disclose cancer-related information to their social contacts and vice versa. To get more insights on the participant’s experience, opinions, expectations, and attitudes, a qualitative study is a suitable approach. Therefore, this study involving in-depth interviews was planned to lessen this gap. Methods: Interviews were conducted separately among breast cancer patients and their caregivers with semi-structured qualitative interview guide. Purposive and convenient sampling was being used to recruit patients and caregivers, respectively. Ethical clearance and permission from the tertiary hospital were obtained and participants were selected from the Udupi district, Karnataka, India. After obtaining a list of breast cancer diagnosed cases, participants were contacted in person and their willingness to take part in the study was taken. About 39 caregivers and 35 patients belonging to different breast cancer stages were recruited. Interviews were recorded with prior permission. Data was managed by Atlas.ti 8 software. The recordings were transcribed, translated and coded in two cycles. Most of the patients belonged to stage II and III cancer. Codes were grouped together into to whom breast cancer status was concealed to and underneath reason for the same. Main findings: followings are the codes and code families which emerged from the data. 1) Concealing the breast cancer status from social contacts other than close family members (such as extended family, neighbor and friends). Participants perceived the reasons as, a) to avoid questions which people probe (which doesn’t have answers), b) to avoid people paying courtesy visit (to inquire about the health as it is Indian culture to visit the sick person) making it inconvenient for patient and caregivers have to offer something and talk to them, c) to avoid people getting shocked (react as if cancer is different from other diseases) or getting emotional/sad, or getting fear of death d) to avoid getting negative suggestion or talking anything in front of patient as it may affect patient negatively, e) to avoid getting stigmatized, f) to avoid getting obstacle in child’s marriage. 2) Participant concealed the breast cancer status of young children as they perceived that it may a) affect studies, b) affect emotionally, c) children may get scared. 3) Concealing the breast cancer status from patients as the caregivers perceived that they have fear of a) worsening patient’s health, b) patient getting tensed, c) patient getting shocked, and d) patient getting scared. However, some participants stressed important in disclosing the cancer status to social contact/patient to make the people aware of the disease. Conclusion: The news of breast cancer spreads like electricity in the wire, therefore, patient or family avoid it for many reasons. Although, globally, due to physicians’ ethical obligations, there is an inclination towards more disclosure of cancer diagnosis and status of prognosis to the patient. However, it is an ongoing argument whether patient/social contacts should know the status especially in a country like India.

Keywords: breast cancer, concealing cancer status, India, qualitative study

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Authors: Zainab Algharibi, Julie McAdam, Catherine Fagan

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The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how Omani children in the first grade experience their needs during their transition to primary school. Theoretically, the paper was built on two perspectives: Dewey's concept of continuity of experience and the boundary objects introduced by Vygotsky (CHAT). The methodology of the study is based on the crucial role of children’s agency which is a very important activity as an educational tool to enhance the child’s participation in the learning process and develop their ability to face various issues in their life. Thus, the data were obtained from 45 children in grade one from 4 different primary schools using drawing and visual narrative activities, in addition to researcher observations during the start of the first weeks of the academic year for the first grade. As the study dealt with children, all of the necessary ethical laws were followed. This paper is considered original since it seeks to deal with the issue of children's transition from kindergarten to primary school in Oman, if not in the Arab region. Therefore, it is expected to fill an important gap in this field and present a proposal that will be a door for researchers to enter this research field later. The analysis of drawing and visual narrative was performed according to the social semiotics approach in two phases. The first is to read out the surface message “denotation,” while the second is to go in-depth via the symbolism obtained from children while they talked and drew letters and signs. This stage is known as “signified”; a video was recorded of each child talking about their drawing and expressing themself. Then, the data were organised and classified according to a cross-data network. Regarding the researcher observation analyses, the collected data were analysed according to the model was developed for the "grounded theory". It is based on comparing the recent data collected from observations with data previously encoded by other methods in which children were drawing alongside the visual narrative in the current study, in order to identify the similarities and differences, and also to clarify the meaning of the accessed categories and to identify sub-categories of them with a description of possible links between them. This is a kind of triangulation in data collection. The study came up with a set of findings, the most vital being that the children's greatest interest goes to their social and psychological needs, such as friends, their teacher, and playing. Also, their biggest fears are a new place, a new teacher, and not having friends, while they showed less concern for their need for educational knowledge and skills.

Keywords: children’s academic needs, children’s social needs, transition, primary school

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Authors: I. Behroyan, P. Ganesan, S. He, S. Sivasankaran

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This study compares the predictions of five types of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models, including two single-phase models (i.e. Newtonian and non-Newtonian) and three two-phase models (Eulerian-Eulerian, mixture and Eulerian-Lagrangian), to investigate turbulent forced convection of Cu-water nanofluid in a tube with a constant heat flux on the tube wall. The Reynolds (Re) number of the flow is between 10,000 and 25,000, while the volume fraction of Cu particles used is in the range of 0 to 2%. The commercial CFD package of ANSYS-Fluent is used. The results from the CFD models are compared with results from experimental investigations from literature. According to the results of this study, non-Newtonian single-phase model, in general, does not show a good agreement with Xuan and Li correlation in prediction of Nu number. Eulerian-Eulerian model gives inaccurate results expect for φ=0.5%. Mixture model gives a maximum error of 15%. Newtonian single-phase model and Eulerian-Lagrangian model, in overall, are the recommended models. This work can be used as a reference for selecting an appreciate model for future investigation. The study also gives a proper insight about the important factors such as Brownian motion, fluid behavior parameters and effective nanoparticle conductivity which should be considered or changed by the each model.

Keywords: heat transfer, nanofluid, single-phase models, two-phase models

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Authors: Yosiya Chanta, Jantrararuk Tovaranont

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Species distribution model (SDMs) is one of the powerful tools used to create a suitability map used to predict and address ecology and conservation approaches. MaxEnt is a tool used among SDMs that is highly popular because it only uses presence data. Zanthoxylum rhetsa has more than 200 species distributed in the tropics. Most commonly found in cooler forest environments, there are 8-9 species found in Thailand. In northern Thailand, 3 varieties are commonly grown: Zanthoxylum myriacanthum, Zanthoxylum rhetsa and Zanthoxylum armatum. In the northern regions, these varieties are mainly used as a spice and as a cooking ingredient. MaxEnt has been used in this study to predict potential habitats for these Zanthoxylums in current and future times (2041and 2060). Suitable habitats are predicted using data from the EC-Earth3-Veg general circulation model with 19 climatic variables. The results indicate that the suitability of future habitats of Zanthoxylum rhetsa may expand into the lower northern part of Thailand. The habitat suitability map obtained from the MaxEnt tool shows that the Precipitation of Wettest Quarter (Bio16) is the most important climatic variable influencing the current and future spread of Zanthoxylum rhetsa.

Keywords: MaxEnt, Zanthoxylum rhets, species distribution modelling, climate change

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Authors: Bellarmine Ezumah, Michael Mawa

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Glocalization is often defined as the practice of conducting business according to both local and global considerations – this epitomizes the curriculum co-development collaboration between a journalism and mass communications professor from a university in the United States and the Uganda Martyrs University in Uganda where a brand new journalism and mass communications program was recently co-developed. This paper presents the experiences and research result of this initiative which was funded through the Institute of International Education (IIE) under the umbrella of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP). Vital international and national concerns were addressed. On a global level, scholars have questioned and criticized the general Western-module ingrained in journalism and mass communication curriculum and proposed a decolonization of journalism curricula. Another major criticism is the concept of western-based educators transplanting their curriculum verbatim to other regions of the world without paying greater attention to the local needs. To address these two global concerns, an extensive assessment of local needs was conducted prior to the conceptualization of the new program. The assessment of needs adopted a participatory action model and captured the knowledge and narratives of both internal and external stakeholders. This involved review of pertinent documents including the nation’s constitution, governmental briefs, and promulgations, interviews with governmental officials, media and journalism educators, media practitioners, students, and benchmarking the curriculum of other tertiary institutions in the nation. Information gathered through this process served as blueprint and frame of reference for all design decisions. In the area of local needs, four key factors were addressed. First, the realization that most media personnel in Uganda are both academically and professionally unqualified. Second, the practitioners with academic training were found lacking in experience. Third, the current curricula offered at several tertiary institutions are not comprehensive and lack local relevance. The project addressed these problems thus: first, the program was designed to cater to both traditional and non-traditional students offering opportunities for unqualified media practitioners to get their formal training through evening and weekender programs. Secondly, the challenge of inexperienced graduates was mitigated by designing the program to adopt the experiential learning approach which many refer to as the ‘Teaching Hospital Model’. This entails integrating practice to theory - similar to the way medical students engage in hands-on practice under the supervision of a mentor. The university drew a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with reputable media houses for students and faculty to use their studios for hands-on experience and for seasoned media practitioners to guest-teach some courses. With the convergence functions of media industry today, graduates should be trained to have adequate knowledge of other disciplines; therefore, the curriculum integrated cognate courses that would render graduates versatile. Ultimately, this research serves as a template for African colleges and universities to follow in their quest to glocalize their curricula. While the general concept of journalism may remain western, journalism curriculum developers in Africa through extensive assessment of needs, and focusing on those needs and other societal particularities, can adjust the western module to fit their local needs.

Keywords: curriculum co-development, glocalization of journalism education, international journalism, needs assessment

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Authors: Yuan Yang, Mickey Lam

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Oral dissolvable films have been considered as a unique alternative approach to conventional oral dosage forms. The films could be administrated via the gastrointestinal tract as conventional dosages or through sublingual/buccal mucosa membranes, which could enhance drug bioavailability by avoiding the first-pass effect and improving permeability due to high blood flow and lymphatic circulation. This work has described a state-of-art technic using nano-emulsion/nano-suspension as a precursor for the film to enhance the bioavailability of BCS class II drugs. The drug molecules are consequentially processed through the emulsification, gelation, and film-casting processes. The gelation process is critical to stabilizing the nano-emulsion for the film-casting as well as controlling the drug release process. Furthermore, the size of the nanoparticle on the film has a strong correlation with the size of the micelles in the precursor and the condition of the gelation process. It has been discovered that nanoparticle from 200 nm to 300 nm has shown the highest permeability for sublingual administration. In one example shown in work, the bioavailability of a low solubilize drug has been increased from 10% to 24% via sublingual administration of the film. The increasing of the bioavailability was thought to be associated with the enhancement of the diffusion process of the drug in the saliva layer above the mucosa membrane and the fact that the presents of the emulsifier help lose the rigid junction of the mucosa cells.

Keywords: oral dissolvable film, nano-suspension, nano-emulsion, bioavailability

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Authors: Anantdeep Kaur, Sharanjeet Singh

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Early childhood education and assessment of children is a very essential tool that helps them in their growth and development. Techniques should be developed, and tools should be created in this field as it is a very important learning phase of life. Some information and sources are included for student assessment to provide a record of growth in all developmental areas cognitive, physical, Language, social-emotional, and approaches to learning. As an early childhood educator, it is very important to identify children who need special support and counseling to improve them because they are not mentally mature to discuss with the teacher their problems and needs. It is the duty and responsibility of the educator to assess children from their body language, behavior, and their routine actions about their skills that can be improved and which can take them forward in their future life. And also, children should be assessed with their weaker points because this is the right time to correct them, and they be improved with certain methods and tools by working on them constantly. Observing children regularly with all their facets of development, including intellectual, linguistic, social-emotional, and physical development. Every day, a physical education class should be regulated to check their physical growth activities, which can help to assess their physical activeness and motor abilities. When they are outside on the playgrounds, it is very important to instill environmental understanding among them so that they should know that they are very part of this nature, and it will help them to be one with the universe rather than feeling themselves individually. This technique assists them in living their childhood full of energy all the time. All types of assessments have unique purposes. It is important first to determine what should be measured, then find the program that best assesses those.

Keywords: special needs, motor ability, environmental understanding, physical development

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Authors: Barzan Hadi Hama Karim

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The purpose of this research study is to determine how educators, students at the university level are using storytelling to support the educational process. This study provides a general framework about educational uses of storytelling as a pedagogical too to learn English language in the higher education and describes the different perceptions of people (teachers and students) at different levels. A survey is used to collect responses from a group of educators and students in educational settings to determine how they are using storytelling for educational purposes. The results show the current situation of educational uses of storytelling and explore some of the benefits and challenges educators face in implementing storytelling in their institutions. The purpose of our research is to investigate the impact of storytelling as a pedagogical tool to learn English language in higher education and its academic achievements on ESL students. It highlights findings that address the following questions: (1) How has storytelling been approached historically? (2) Is storytelling beneficial for students in early grades at university? (3) To what extent do teacher and student prefer storytelling as a pedagogical tool to teach and learn English language in higher education?

Keywords: storytelling, teacher's beliefs, student’s beliefs, student’s academic achievement, narrative, pedagogy, ESL

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Authors: Michele C. Mesomo, Madeline de Souza Correa, Roberta L. Kruger, Luis R. S. Kanda, Marcos L. Corazza

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Natural extracts of plants have been used for many years for different purposes and recently they have been screened for their potential use as alternative remedies and food preservatives. Inflorescences of M. paradisiaca L., also known as the heart of the banana, have great economic interest due to its fruit. All parts of the banana are used for many different purposes, including use in folk medicine. The use of extraction via supercritical technology has grown in recent years, though it is still necessary to obtain experimental information for the construction of industrial plants. This work reports the extraction of Musa paradisiaca L. using compressed propane as solvent. The effects of the supercritical extraction conditions, pressure and temperature on the yield were evaluated. The raw material, inflorescences banana, was dried at 313.15 K and milled. The particle size used for the packaging of the extraction cell was 12 mesh (23.5%), 16 mesh (23.5%), 32 mesh (34.5%), 48 mesh (18.5%). The extractions were performed in a laboratory scale unit at pressures of 3.0 MPa, 6.5 MPa and 10.0 MPa and at 308.15 K, 323.15 K and 338.15 K. The operating conditions tested achieved a maximum yield of 2.94 wt% for the CO2 extraction at 10.0 MPa and 338.15 K, higher pressure and temperature. The lower yield, 2.29 wt%, was obtained in the condition of lower pressure and higher temperature. Temperature presented significant and positive effect on the extraction yield with supercritical CO2, while pressure had no effect on the yield. The overall extraction curves showed typical behavior obtained for the supercritical extraction procedure and and reached a constant extraction rate of about 80 to 100 min. The largest amount of extract was obtained at the beginning of the process, within 10 to 60 min.

Keywords: banana, natural products, supercritical extraction, temperature

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Authors: Aarif Rasheed, Joseph Bulbulia

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Western democracies exhibit signs of distinctive anti-Muslim prejudice, but little is known about its causes and effects on Muslim minorities. Here, drawing on nine years of responses from a nationally representative longitudinal sample of New Zealanders (New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, N > 31,000), we systematically investigate the demographic and ideological predictors of factors that predict both positive and negative change in Muslim attitudes. First, we find that that education, moderate and liberal political ideology, and positive views about religion predict greater Muslim acceptance. Second, we find a there though there is a general trend for increasing acceptance over nine years, we find evidence of increasing extremism at the margins. Third, focusing on the Muslim sub-sample and comparing it to other religious sub-groups, we find substantially higher reports of perceived anti-religious prejudice. Collectively, these results point to serious challenges to the health of New Zealand as a democracy where people can worship freely without discrimination. Finally, we find consistency in our responses with the reported experiences of victims of the Christchurch attacks, in terms of harassment, assault, slurs, and other hostile behaviour both before and after the attacks.

Keywords: democracy, longitudinal, Muslim, panel data, prejudice

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Authors: Sri Mahan Borah

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The issue of migration and displacement is considered so sensitive that states have often linked it with their sovereignty, independence and even existence. Therefor, even in the era of globalisation no nation-state is ready to compromise with its territorial boundaries. The problem of migration and displacement has generated a range of socio-political, economic, ethnic, and communal tensions in India in general and northeastern States in particular. In such situation it becomes unpreventable to look over the issue so that a viable elucidation may emerge. The present paper is an attempt to understand the impact of Bangladeshi and Nepali migration to North-Eastern states of India through historical and analytical methods. In this course it will look into the emergence of the migration and displacement problem, its causes, impacts on security and other issues of national interest especially when the migration is illegal and poses multi-layered challenges to the Indian state. The nature of migration from these countries to India has been dissimilar. This is because of their different historical backgrounds, geographical variants, ethno-religious affinities, political systems and bilateral arrangements with India. It concludes inter alia that, India’s borders with Bangladesh and Nepal must be regulated and that resident migrants need to be strategically dealt with, keeping in mind age-old relationships with these countries and, more importantly, the nature and construct of our geography.

Keywords: migration, displacement, North-East, India

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Authors: Emmanuel Adu-Ofori, Richard Amfo-Otu, Isaac O. A. Hodgson

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The study was conducted to determine the treatment performance of waste stabilization ponds in Akosombo. A total of 15 samples were taken for four consecutive months from the inlet, facultative pond and outlet of maturation pond. The samples were preserved and transported to Water Research Institute for laboratory analysis. The wastewater quality parameters analysed to assess the treatment performance were total suspended solids (TSS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia and phosphate. The results of the laboratory analysis showed that the ponds achieved TSS, BOD and COD removals of about 30, 82 and 75 per cent respectively. Statistically, the BOD (t = 10.27, p = 6.68 x 10-6) and COD (t = 4.23, p = 0.0029) of the raw sewage were significantly different from the total effluent at 95% confidence interval. The ammonia and phosphate removal was as high as 92% and 84% respectively. The quality parameters analysed for the final effluent from the Waste Stabilisation Pond was within the EPA guideline values. The general treatment performances were very good with respect to the parameters studied and does not pose threat to the receiving water body. A further study to examine the bacteriological treatment performance was recommended.

Keywords: waste stabilization pond, wast water, treatment performance, nutrient, Ghana

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Authors: Qingqing Gai, Junxing Shen, Yu Luo

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Due to the hardware architecture characteristics, some operators tend to acquire better performance if the input/output tensor dimensions are aligned to a certain minimum granularity, such as convolution and deconvolution commonly used in deep learning. Furthermore, if the requirements are not met, the general strategy is to pad with 0 to satisfy the requirements, potentially leading to the under-utilization of the hardware resources. Therefore, for the convolution and deconvolution whose input and output channels do not meet the minimum granularity alignment, we propose to transfer the W-dimensional data to the C-dimension for computation (W2C) to enable the C-dimension to meet the hardware requirements. This scheme also reduces the number of computations in the W-dimension. Although this scheme substantially increases computation, the operator’s speed can improve significantly. It achieves remarkable speedups on multiple hardware accelerators, including Nvidia Tensor cores, Qualcomm digital signal processors (DSPs), and Huawei neural processing units (NPUs). All you need to do is modify the network structure and rearrange the operator weights offline without retraining. At the same time, for some operators, such as the Reducemax, we observe that transferring the Cdimensional data to the W-dimension(C2W) and replacing the Reducemax with the Maxpool can accomplish acceleration under certain circumstances.

Keywords: convolution, deconvolution, W2C, C2W, alignment, hardware accelerator

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Authors: Oluwagbemiga Paul Agboola, Cornelius Olatunji Omojola, Dayo Martins Oyeshomo

Abstract:

The role of a recreational park in human and environmental development has attracted much interest in the recent time. Recreation parks' development could act as an effective planning strategy to enhance environmental sustainability, social cohesiveness, and users' quality of life. Similarly, parks enhance neighbourhood's aesthetics, refresh the air and enhance humans' contact with nature. In this connection, recreation parks create natural surroundings of rural areas for leisure, relaxation, recreation, psychological and physical comfort of the people. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of the two recreational parks' development as a strategy for neighbourhood's environmental improvement, sustainability and the recreationists' cohesiveness. A total number of 158 survey questionnaires were distributed to the tourists at Ikogosi cold and warm spring in Ekiti state as well as Olumirin waterfalls, Erin-Ijesa, Osun State, in South-West, Nigeria. The quantitative results of the analyzed data with Relative Importance Index (RII) revealed that recreation parks provide optimum opportunities for users' social cohesiveness and well-being while parks' sustainable environment could be enhanced base on the provision of essential facilities, services, and future developmental plans. It is recommended that for recreation parks to realize their full potential in environmental sustainability, adequate maintenance and provision of essential facilities becomes imperative.

Keywords: environmental sustainability, neighbourhood development, recreational park, Nigeria

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Authors: Naren Bag, S. Bhattacharyya, Partha P. Gopmandal

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In this study, we have analyzed the transport of analytes under a two dimensional steady incompressible flow of power-law fluids through rectangular nanochannel. A mathematical model based on the Cauchy momentum-Nernst-Planck-Poisson equations is considered to study the combined effect of mixed electroosmotic (EO) and pressure driven (PD) flow. The coupled governing equations are solved numerically by finite volume method. We have studied extensively the effect of key parameters, e.g., flow behavior index, concentration of the electrolyte, surface potential, imposed pressure gradient and imposed electric field strength on the net average flow across the channel. In addition to study the effect of mixed EOF and PD on the analyte distribution across the channel, we consider a nonlinear model based on general convective-diffusion-electromigration equation. We have also presented the retention factor for various values of electrolyte concentration and flow behavior index.

Keywords: electric double layer, finite volume method, flow behavior index, mixed electroosmotic/pressure driven flow, non-Newtonian power-law fluids, numerical simulation

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Authors: Anas Rao, Hao Duan, Fanhua Ma

Abstract:

The dependency on the fossil fuels can be minimized by using the hydrogen enriched compressed natural gas (HCNG) in the transportation vehicles. However, the NOx emissions of HCNG engines are significantly higher, and this turned to be its major drawback. Therefore, the study of NOx emission of HCNG engines is a very important area of research. In this context, the experiments have been performed at the different hydrogen percentage, ignition timing, air-fuel ratio, manifold-absolute pressure, load and engine speed. Afterwards, the simulation has been accomplished by the quasi-dimensional combustion model of HCNG engine. In order to investigate the NOx emission, the NO mechanism has been coupled to the quasi-dimensional combustion model of HCNG engine. The three NOx mechanism: the thermal NOx, prompt NOx and N2O mechanism have been used to predict NOx emission. For the validation purpose, NO curve has been transformed into NO packets based on the temperature difference of 100 K for the lean-burn and 60 K for stoichiometric condition. While, the width of the packet has been taken as the ratio of crank duration of the packet to the total burnt duration. The combustion chamber of the engine has been divided into three zones, with the zone equal to the product of summation of NO packets and space. In order to check the accuracy of the model, the percentage error of NOx emission has been evaluated, and it lies in the range of ±6% and ±10% for the lean-burn and stoichiometric conditions respectively. Finally, the percentage contribution of each NO formation has been evaluated.

Keywords: quasi-dimensional combustion , thermal NO, prompt NO, NO packet

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Authors: Aroona Hashmi

Abstract:

The prime motive for this endeavor was to explore the tenth grade English class students’ preferred learning styles studying in government secondary school so that English subject teachers could tailor their pedagogical strategies in relation to their students learning needs. The further aim of this study was to identify any significance difference among the students on a gender basis, area basis and different categories of school basis. The population of this study consisting of all the secondary level schools working in the government sector and positioned in the province of Punjab. The multi-stage cluster sampling method was employed while selecting the study sample from the population. The scale used for the identification of students’ learning styles in this study was developed by Grasha-Riechmann. The data collected through learning style scale was analyzed by employing descriptive statistics technique. The results from data analysis depict that learning styles of the majority of students found to be Collaborative and Competitive. Overall, no considerable difference was surfaced between male-female, urban-rural, general-other categories of 10th grade English class students learning styles.

Keywords: learning style, learning style scale, grade, government sector

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Authors: Jose Carlos Montemayor, Kendrick Thomas Angelo Santos

Abstract:

Filipinos have been divided on President Rodrigo Duterte’s leadership ever since his election in 2016. This study aimed to gain a thorough, in-depth understanding of the opinions of Filipinos from different age and income brackets on these issues in order to address the lack of studies analysing the current Philippine political landscape. An interview tackling relevant national issues were conducted with twelve respondents from the intersections of four age groups and three income brackets. The government’s handling of some issues received mixed opinions, some had neutral viewpoints, while others had more unfavorable ones. The responses differed on three levels: (1) the general stance on an issue; (2) the strength of a stance; and (3) the factoring in of an issue in forming an overall perception on the administration’s performance. Contrary to previous studies on political thought, opinions varied greatly such that no unique set of viewpoints could be attributed to any of the defined age or income groups. These results will be most useful to political science researchers, political analysts, and candidates shaping their platforms for the upcoming elections. Future studies are recommended to tackle more national issues and to consider other factors that may affect political opinions and behavior.

Keywords: age groups, opinion formation, socioeconomic brackets, Philippine politics, Rodrigo Duterte

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Authors: Shormin Choudhury, Nazrul Islam, Atiqur Rahman Shaon

Abstract:

High tunnels can provide several benefits to horticultural crops, including environmental stress protection such as hail, frost, excessive rainfall, and high wind. In hot and sunny areas, high tunnel is one of the cooling ways for modifying the microclimate and maximizing crop development. Present study was carried out to assess the effect of different type of high tunnels on banana growth, yield, and fruit quality characteristics. Net houses, poly net houses, UV poly shed houses, and open field (control) conditions are among the experimental treatments. The results revealed that the plants produced in the poly net house condition had maximum pseudo stem height (171.00cm), stem girth (68.66 cm), chlorophyll content (57.63), number of fruits (140), number of hands (9.66), individual fruit weight (125.00) and pulp: peel ratio (3.35) of bananas as compared to the other treatments. Quality parameters like total soluble solid (21.78°Brix), ascorbic acid (10.24 mg/100g), total sugar (25.44%), and reducing sugar (15.75%) were higher in fruits grown in poly net house. The study revealed that the poly net house is the best growing environment for bananas in terms of growth, yield, and quality attributes.

Keywords: shed houses, banana, chlorophyll content, fruit yield, quality

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Authors: Asma Osivand, Hossein Mardani, Hiroshi Araya, Yoshiharu Fujii

Abstract:

Wild mushrooms have always been considered as valuable source of bioactive compounds, while edible mushrooms have been known for their importance as food source. However, their interaction with plants through chemicals that could lead to find new biochemical have not been well undertaken. A special bioassay method (Sandwich method) was applied to compare eight common edible mushrooms (Pleurotus eryngii, Pleurotus citrinopileatus, Pleurotus ostreatus, Lentinula edodes, Grifola frondosa, Flammulina velutipes, Hypsizygus tessellatus and Pholiota namako) with some wild species (Ganoderma appelanatum, Amanita pantherina, Artomyces pyxidatus, Morchella conica, Tricholosporum porphyrophyllum, Trametes hirsuta) for their phytotoxicity against lettuce. Among all tested edible mushrooms, application of 5 mg of P. ostreatus showed stronger allelopathic activity by inhibiting the growth of radicle and hypocotyl of lettuce by 84% and 63% respectively. Moreover, same amount of T. porphyrophyllum exerted 77% and 67% growth inhibition on radicle and hypocotyl of lettuce. In general, biochemicals contributed in tested mushrooms could be the main cause for their inhibitory activity and could lead to find new allelochemicals.

Keywords: allelopathy, interaction, mushroom, phytotoxicity, Pleurotus sp., sandwich method

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