Search results for: integrative oncology research

Authors: Maryam Ziaee, Himanshu Shee, Amrik Sohal

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Big Data Analytics (BDA) in supply chain management has recently drawn the attention of academics and practitioners. Big data refers to a massive amount of data from different sources, in different formats, generated at high speed through transactions in business environments and supply chain networks. Traditional statistical tools and techniques find it difficult to analyse this massive data. BDA can assist organisations to capture, store, and analyse data specifically in the field of supply chain. Currently, there is a paucity of research on BDA in the pharmaceutical supply chain context. In this research, the Australian pharmaceutical supply chain was selected as the case study. This industry is highly significant since the right medicine must reach the right patients, at the right time, in right quantity, in good condition, and at the right price to save lives. However, drug shortages remain a substantial problem for hospitals across Australia with implications on patient care, staff resourcing, and expenditure. Furthermore, a massive volume and variety of data is generated at fast speed from multiple sources in pharmaceutical supply chain, which needs to be captured and analysed to benefit operational decisions at every stage of supply chain processes. As the pharmaceutical industry lags behind other industries in using BDA, it raises the question of whether the use of BDA can improve transparency among pharmaceutical supply chain by enabling the partners to make informed-decisions across their operational activities. This presentation explores the impacts of BDA on supply chain management. An exploratory qualitative approach was adopted to analyse data collected through interviews. This study also explores the BDA potential in the whole pharmaceutical supply chain rather than focusing on a single entity. Twenty semi-structured interviews were undertaken with top managers in fifteen organisations (five pharmaceutical manufacturers, five wholesalers/distributors, and five public hospital pharmacies) to investigate their views on the use of BDA. The findings revealed that BDA can enable pharmaceutical entities to have improved visibility over the whole supply chain and also the market; it enables entities, especially manufacturers, to monitor consumption and the demand rate in real-time and make accurate demand forecasts which reduce drug shortages. Timely and precise decision-making can allow the entities to source and manage their stocks more effectively. This can likely address the drug demand at hospitals and respond to unanticipated issues such as drug shortages. Earlier studies explore BDA in the context of clinical healthcare; however, this presentation investigates the benefits of BDA in the Australian pharmaceutical supply chain. Furthermore, this research enhances managers’ insight into the potentials of BDA at every stage of supply chain processes and helps to improve decision-making in their supply chain operations. The findings will turn the rhetoric of data-driven decision into a reality where the managers may opt for analytics for improved decision-making in the supply chain processes.

Keywords: big data analytics, data-driven decision, pharmaceutical industry, supply chain management

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Authors: Mohamed Saad, Huda Ismail

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The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of cryptocurrency classification on money laundering crimes and to analyze how the preferences of criminals differ according to the type of digital currency used. Specifically, we aim to explore the roles of stablecoins, utility coins, and privacy tokens in facilitating or hindering money laundering activities and to identify the key factors that influence the choices of criminals in using these cryptocurrencies. To achieve our research objectives, we used a dataset for the most highly traded cryptocurrencies (32 currencies) that were published on the coin market cap for 2022. In addition to conducting a comprehensive review of the existing literature on cryptocurrency and money laundering, with a focus on stablecoins, utility coins, and privacy tokens, Furthermore, we conducted several Multivariate analyses. Our study reveals that the classification of cryptocurrency plays a significant role in money laundering activities, as criminals tend to prefer certain types of digital currencies over others, depending on their specific needs and goals. Specifically, we found that stablecoins are more commonly used in money laundering due to their relatively stable value and low volatility, which makes them less risky to hold and transfer. Utility coins, on the other hand, are less frequently used in money laundering due to their lack of anonymity and limited liquidity. Finally, privacy tokens, such as Monero and Zcash, are increasingly becoming a preferred choice among criminals due to their high degree of privacy and untraceability. In summary, our study highlights the importance of understanding the nuances of cryptocurrency classification in the context of money laundering and provides insights into the preferences of criminals in using digital currencies for illegal activities. Based on our findings, our recommendation to the policymakers is to address the potential misuse of cryptocurrencies for money laundering. By implementing measures to regulate stable coins, strengthening cross-border cooperation, fostering public-private partnerships, and increasing cooperation, policymakers can help prevent and detect money laundering activities involving digital currencies.

Keywords: crime, cryptocurrency, money laundering, tokens.

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Authors: Moustafa A. Fadel, Omar Al Shehhi, Mohsin Al Mussabi, Abdullah Al Ameri

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Hydroponics represents an extraordinary promising technique if used efficiently in arid regions where water resources are extremely scarce where a great portion of the used water should be recycled and saved. Available research publications studying the production of seedlings for such purpose are limited. This research paper focuses on investigating the effect of using various substrate materials on the development of seedlings for ornamental plants. Bermuda grass, Petunia (Compacta Enana Rosa) and Epipremnum aureum are used widely in landscape design. Bermuda is used as a turf grass; Petunia is used as a flowering plant and Epipremnum aureum as an indoor ornamental plant in hydroponics. Three substrate materials were used to germinate and propagate the first two and the cuttings of the third one. Synthetic sponge (Polyurethane sponge), Rockwool and sterilized cotton were used as the substrate material in each case where an experimental water-circulating apparatus was designed and installed to execute the test. An experimental setup of closed hydroponic apparatus was developed to carry out the experiment equipped with water recycling circuit and an aeration mechanism pumping air in reservoir in order to increase oxygen levels in the recycled water. Water pumping was programmed in different regimes to allow better aeration for seeds and cuttings under investigation. Results showed that Bermuda grass germinated in Rockwool reached a germination rate of 70% while it did not exceed 50% when sponge and medically treated cotton were used after 15 days. On the other hand the highest germination rate of Petunia was observed when treated cotton was used where it recorded about 30% while it was 22%, and 7% after 20 days where Rockwool and sponge were utilized respectively. Cuttings propagation of Epipremnum aureum developed the highest number of shoots when treated cotton was used where it gave 10 shoots after 10 days while it gave just 7 shoots when Rockwool and sponge were used as the propagation substrate.

Keywords: hydroponics, germination, seedlings, cuttings

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Authors: Songdi Li, Louise Spry, Tony Woodall

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Nowadays, Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) is becoming a buzz word, and more and more academics are putting efforts on CSR studies. It is believed that CSR could influence Corporate Reputation (CR), and they hold a favourable view that CSR leads to a positive CR. To be specific, the CSR related activities in the reputational context have been regarded as ways that associate to excellent financial performance, value creation, etc. Also, it is argued that CSR and CR are two sides of one coin; hence, to some extent, doing CSR is equal to establishing a good reputation. Still, there is no consensus of the CSR-CR relationship in the literature; thus, a systematic literature review is highly in need. This research conducts a systematic literature review with both bibliometric and content analysis. Data are selected from English language sources, and academic journal articles only, then, keyword combinations are applied to identify relevant sources. Data from Scopus and WoS are gathered for bibliometric analysis. Scopus search results were saved in RIS and CSV formats, and Web of Science (WoS) data were saved in TXT format and CSV formats in order to process data in the Bibexcel software for further analysis which later will be visualised by the software VOSviewer. Also, content analysis was applied to analyse the data clusters and the key articles. In terms of the topic of CSR-CR, this literature review with bibliometric analysis has made four achievements. First, this paper has developed a systematic study which quantitatively depicts the knowledge structure of CSR and CR by identifying terms closely related to CSR-CR (such as ‘corporate governance’) and clustering subtopics emerged in co-citation analysis. Second, content analysis is performed to acquire insight on the findings of bibliometric analysis in the discussion section. And it highlights some insightful implications for the future research agenda, for example, a psychological link between CSR-CR is identified from the result; also, emerging economies and qualitative research methods are new elements emerged in the CSR-CR big picture. Third, a multidisciplinary perspective presents through the whole bibliometric analysis mapping and co-word and co-citation analysis; hence, this work builds a structure of interdisciplinary perspective which potentially leads to an integrated conceptual framework in the future. Finally, Scopus and WoS are compared and contrasted in this paper; as a result, Scopus which has more depth and comprehensive data is suggested as a tool for future bibliometric analysis studies. Overall, this paper has fulfilled its initial purposes and contributed to the literature. To the author’s best knowledge, this paper conducted the first literature review of CSR-CR researches that applied both bibliometric analysis and content analysis; therefore, this paper achieves its methodological originality. And this dual approach brings advantages of carrying out a comprehensive and semantic exploration in the area of CSR-CR in a scientific and realistic method. Admittedly, its work might exist subjective bias in terms of search terms selection and paper selection; hence triangulation could reduce the subjective bias to some degree.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, corporate reputation, bibliometric analysis, software program

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Authors: Beata Bilska, Marzena Tomaszewska, Danuta Kolozyn-Krajewska

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Food loss and food waste are a global problem of the modern economy. The research undertaken aimed to analyze how food is handled in catering establishments when it comes to food waste and to demonstrate the main ways of management with foods/dishes not served to consumers. A survey study was conducted from January to June 2019. The selection of catering establishments participating in the study was deliberate. The study included establishments located only in Mazowieckie Voivodeship (Poland). Forty-two completed questionnaires were collected. In some questions, answers were based on a 5-point scale of 1 to 5 (from "always" / "every day" to "never"). The survey also included closed questions with a suggested cafeteria of answers. The respondents stated that in their workplaces, dishes served cold and hot ready meals are discarded every day or almost every day (23.7% and 20.5% of answers respectively). A procedure most frequently used for dealing with dishes not served to consumers on a given day is their storage at a cool temperature until the following day. In the research, 1/5 of respondents admitted that consumers "always" or "usually" leave uneaten meals on their plates, and over 41% "sometimes" do so. It was found additionally that food not used in the foodservice sector is most often thrown into a public container for rubbish. Most often thrown into the public container (with communal trash) were: expired products (80.0%), plate waste (80.0%) and inedible products (fruit and vegetable peels, eggshells) (77.5%). Most frequently into the container dedicated only to food waste were thrown out used deep-frying oil (62.5%). 10% of respondents indicated that inedible products in their workplaces are allocated for animal feeds. Food waste in the foodservice sector remains an insufficiently studied issue, as owners of these objects are often unwilling to disclose data about the subject. Incorrect ways of management with foods not served to consumers were observed. There is a need to develop educational activities for employees and management in the context of food waste management in the foodservice sector.

Keywords: food waste, inedible products, plate waste, used deep-frying oil

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Authors: Mohamed Moheyeldin Mahmoud

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Egypt suffers from a severe shortage of data and charts concerning the physical dimensions, measurements, qualities and consumer behavior. The shortage of needed information and appropriate methods has forced the Egyptian designer to use any other foreign standard when designing a product for the Egyptian consumer which has led to many problems. The urgently needed database concerning the physical specifications, measurements of the Egyptian consumers, as well as the need to support the Ergonomics given courses in many colleges and institutes with the latest technologies, is stated as the research problem. Descriptive analytical method relying on the compiling, comparing and analyzing of information and facts in order to get acceptable perceptions, ideas and considerations is the used methodology by the researcher. The research concludes that: 1. Good interaction relationship between users and products shows the success of that product. 2. An integration linkage between the most prominent fields of science specially Ergonomics, Interaction Design and Ethnography should be encouraged to provide an ultimately updated database concerning the nature, specifications and environment of the Egyptian consumer, in order to achieve a higher benefit for both user and product. 3. Chinese economic policy based on the study of market requirements long before any market activities should be emulated. 4. Using Ethnography supports the design activities creating new products or updating existent ones through measuring the compatibility of products with their environment and user expectations, While contracting a joint cooperation between military colleges, sports education institutes from one side, and design institutes from the other side to provide an ultimately updated (annually updated) database concerning some specifications about students of both sexes applying in those institutes (height, weight, etc.) to provide the Industrial designer with the needed information when creating a new product or updating an existing one concerning that category is recommended by the researcher.

Keywords: adapt, ergonomics, ethnography, interaction design

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Authors: Ahmad Zamzam

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With the development of the economy in recent years, Saudi Arabia has been maintaining high economic growth. Therefore, its energy consumption has increased dramatically. This economic growth reflected on the expansion of high-rise tower's construction. Jeddah coastal strip (cornice) has many high-rise buildings planned to start next few years. These projects required a massive amount of electricity that was not planned to be supplied by the old infrastructure. This research studies the effect of the building envelope on its thermal performance. It follows a parametric simulation methodology using Ecotect software to analyze the effect of the building envelope design on its cooling energy load for an office high-rise building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which includes building geometrical form, massing treatments, orientation and glazing type effect. The research describes an integrated passive design approach to reduce the cooling requirement for high-rise building through an improved building envelope design. The research used Ecotect to make four simulation studies; the first simulation compares the thermal performance of five high-rise buildings, presenting the basic shape of the plan. All the buildings have the same plan area and same floor height. The goal of this simulation is to find out the best shape for the thermal performance. The second simulation studies the effect of orientation on the thermal performance by rotating the same building model to find out the best and the worst angle for the building thermal performance. The third simulation studies the effect of the massing treatment on the total cooling load. It compared five models with different massing treatment, but with the same total built up area. The last simulation studied the effect of the glazing type by comparing the total cooling load of the same building using five different glass type and also studies the feasibility of using these glass types by studying the glass cost effect. The results indicate that using the circle shape as building plan could reduce the thermal cooling load by 40%. Also, using shading devices could reduce the cooling loads by 5%. The study states that using any of the massing grooving, recess or any treatment that could increase the outer exposed surface is not preferred and will decrease the building thermal performance. Also, the result shows that the best direction for glazing and openings from thermal performance viewpoint in Jeddah is the North direction while the worst direction is the East one. The best direction angle for openings - regarding the thermal performance in Jeddah- is 15 deg West and the worst is 250 deg West (110 deg East). Regarding the glass type effect, comparing to the double glass with air fill type as a reference case, the double glass with Air-Low-E will save 14% from the required amount of the thermal cooling load annually. Argon fill and triple glass will save 16% and 17% from the total thermal cooling load respectively, but for the glass cost purpose, using the Argon fill and triple glass is not feasible.

Keywords: passive cooling, reduce thermal load, Jeddah, building shape, energy

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Authors: Salsabila Meutia Meutia

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Indonesia as one of the countries that agreed to SDG's must commit to achieve this SDG's goal until the deadline of 2030. The government has tried hard to realize all the goals in the SDG’s, but there is still something that has not been achieved, especially the goal in number 4 which is to ensure that every human being has a decent and inclusive education and encourages lifelong learning opportunities for everyone. Teenagers who are the golden generation for Indonesia are starting to feel dependent on Youtube. The addictive virus of teenagers about using YouTube is both good news and bad news for the sustainability of government programs in achieving goals in SDG’s, especially in term of education. One popular YouTube channel among high school teenagers is Nihongo Mantappu which has 1.8 million followers. This channel contains interesting but quality content that can have a positive influence for the audience. This research was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the Nihongo Mantappu channel on Youtube as a means of fostering enthusiasm and awareness of learning in tenth graders of SMA Muhammadiyah 10 GKB, as well as how it affected in achieving quality educational goals as an effort to succeed in the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030. The objectives of this study were carried out with distributing questionnaires to tenth graders of SMA Muhammadiyah 10 GKB and observing objects in the real life. Then the data obtained are analyzed and described properly so that this research is a descriptive study. The results of the study mentioned that YouTube as one of the websites for viewing and sharing videos is a very effective media for disseminating information, especially among teenagers. The Nihongo Mantappu channel is also considered to be a very effective channel in building enthusiasm and awareness of learning in tenth graders of SMA Muhammadiyah 10 GKB. Students as the main subject of education have a great influence on the achievement of one of SDG’s fourth goals, named quality education. Students who are always on fire in the spirit and awareness of learning will greatly help the achievement of quality education goals in the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Keywords: Youtube, Nihongo, Mantappu, SDG's

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Authors: Konja Knüppel, Gerrit Meyer, Peter Nyhuis

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The increasing interconnectedness and complexity of production processes raise the susceptibility of production systems to failure. Therefore, the ability to respond quickly to failures is increasingly becoming a competitive factor. The research project "Sustainable failure management in manufacturing SMEs" is developing a methodology to identify failures in the production and select preventive and reactive measures in order to correct failures and to establish sustainable failure management systems.

Keywords: failure categorization, failure management, logistic performance, production optimization

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Authors: V. Charaia

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This article presents SWOT analysis for Georgian - South Ossetian conflict. The research analyzes socio-economic aspects and considers future prospects for all sides including neighbor countries and regions. Also it includes the possibilities of positive intervention of neighbor countries to solve the conflict or to mitigate its negative results. The main question of the article is: What will it take to award Georgians and South Ossetians with a peace dividend?

Keywords: conflict economics, investments, trade, remittances

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Authors: Farnaz Jafari

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The surge in mass timber construction represents a pivotal moment in sustainable building practices, yet the lack of comprehensive education in construction management poses a challenge in harnessing this innovation effectively. This research endeavors to bridge this gap by developing a curriculum framework integrating mass timber construction into undergraduate and industry certificate programs. To optimize learning outcomes, the study explores the impact of two prototype formats -Virtual Reality (VR) simulations and physical mock-ups- on students' understanding and skill development. The curriculum framework aims to equip future construction managers with a holistic understanding of mass timber, covering its unique properties, construction methods, building codes, and sustainable advantages. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, commencing with a systematic literature review and leveraging surveys and interviews with educators and industry professionals to identify existing educational gaps. The iterative development process involves incorporating stakeholder feedback into the curriculum. The evaluation of prototype impact employs pre- and post-tests administered to participants engaged in pilot programs. Through qualitative content analysis and quantitative statistical methods, the study seeks to compare the effectiveness of VR simulations and physical mock-ups in conveying knowledge and skills related to mass timber construction. The anticipated findings will illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, providing insights for future curriculum development. The curriculum's expected contribution to sustainable construction education lies in its emphasis on practical application, bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills. The research also seeks to establish a standard for mass timber construction education, contributing to the field through a unique comparative analysis of VR simulations and physical mock-ups. The study's significance extends to the development of best practices and evidence-based recommendations for integrating technology and hands-on experiences in construction education. By addressing current educational gaps and offering a comparative analysis, this research aims to enrich the construction management education experience and pave the way for broader adoption of sustainable practices in the industry. The envisioned curriculum framework is designed for versatile integration, catering to undergraduate programs and industry training modules, thereby enhancing the educational landscape for aspiring construction professionals. Ultimately, this study underscores the importance of proactive educational strategies in preparing industry professionals for the evolving demands of the construction landscape, facilitating a seamless transition towards sustainable building practices.

Keywords: curriculum framework, mass timber construction, physical vs. virtual prototypes, sustainable building practices

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Authors: Dylan Elliott, Katya Pertsova

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Preposition errors are some of the most common errors created by L2 speakers. In addition, improving error correction and detection methods remains an open issue in the realm of Natural Language Processing (NLP). This research investigates whether the bidirectional encoder representations from the transformers model (BERT) have the potential to correct preposition errors accurately enough to be useful in error correction software. This research finds that BERT performs strongly when the scope of its error correction is limited to preposition choice. The researchers used an open-source BERT model and over three hundred thousand edited sentences from Wikipedia, tagged for part of speech, where only a preposition edit had occurred. To test BERT’s ability to detect errors, a technique known as multi-level masking was used to generate suggestions based on sentence context for every prepositional environment in the test data. These suggestions were compared with the original errors in the data and their known corrections to evaluate BERT’s performance. The suggestions were further analyzed to determine if BERT more often agreed with the judgements of the Wikipedia editors. Both the untrained and fined-tuned models were compared. Finetuning led to a greater rate of error-detection which significantly improved recall, but lowered precision due to an increase in false positives or falsely flagged errors. However, in most cases, these false positives were not errors in preposition usage but merely cases where more than one preposition was possible. Furthermore, when BERT correctly identified an error, the model largely agreed with the Wikipedia editors, suggesting that BERT’s ability to detect misused prepositions is better than previously believed. To evaluate to what extent BERT’s false positives were grammatical suggestions, we plan to do a further crowd-sourcing study to test the grammaticality of BERT’s suggested sentence corrections against native speakers’ judgments.

Keywords: BERT, grammatical error correction, preposition error detection, prepositions

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Authors: Cassandra Branham, Danielle Farrar

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As writing instructors and writing center administrators at a large research university with a significant population of English language learners (ELLs), we are interested in how peer feedback pedagogy can be effectively translated for writing center purposes, as well as how various modes of peer feedback can enrich the learning experiences of L1 and L2 writers in these spaces. Although peer feedback is widely used in classrooms and centers, instructor, student, and researcher opinions vary in respect to its effectiveness. We argue that peer feedback - traditional and digital, synchronous and asynchronous - is an indispensable element for both classrooms and centers and emphasize that it should occur with both L1 and L2 students to further develop an array of reading and writing skills. We also believe that further understanding of the best practices of peer feedback in such cross-cultural spaces, like the classroom and center, can optimize the benefits of peer feedback. After a critical review of the literature, we implemented an embedded tutoring program in our university’s writing center in collaboration with its First-Year Composition (FYC) program and Language Institute. The embedded tutoring program matches a graduate writing consultant with L1 and L2 writers enrolled in controlled-matriculation composition courses where ELLs make up at least 50% of each class. Furthermore, this program is informed by what we argue to be some best practices of peer feedback for both classroom and center purposes, including expectation-based training through rubrics, modeling effective feedback, hybridizing traditional and digital modes of feedback, recognizing the significance the body in composition (what we call writer embodiment), and maximizing digital technologies to exploit extended cognition. After conducting surveys and follow-up interviews with students, instructors, and writing consultants in the embedded tutoring program, we found that not only did students see an increased value in peer feedback, but also instructors saw an improvement in both writing style and critical thinking skills. Our L2 participants noted improvements in language acquisition while our L1 students recognized a broadening of their worldviews. We believe that both L1 and L2 students developed self-efficacy and agency in their identities as writers because they gained confidence in their abilities to offer feedback, as well as in the legitimacy of feedback they received from peers. We also argue that these best practices situate novice writers as experts, as writers become a valued and integral part of the revision process with their own and their peers’ papers. Finally, the use of iPads in embedded tutoring recovered the importance of the body and its senses in writing; the highly sensory feedback from these multi-modal sessions that offer audio and visual input underscores the significant role both the body and mind play in compositional practices. After beginning with a brief review of the literature that sparked this research, this paper will discuss the embedded tutoring program in detail, report on the results of the pilot program, and will conclude with a discussion of the pedagogical implications that arise from this research for both classroom and center.

Keywords: English language learners, peer feedback, writing center, writing classroom

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

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

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

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Authors: Clare Cunningham

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Whilst there is a strong global research base on the benefits of structured writing retreats and similar provisions, such as Shut Up and Write events, for academic staff and postgraduate researchers, very little has been published about the worth of such events for undergraduate students. This is despite the fact that, internationally, undergraduate student researchers experience similar pressures, distractions and feelings towards writing as those who are at more senior levels within the academy. This paper reports on a mixed-methods study with cohorts of third-year undergraduate students over the course of four academic years. This involved a range of research instruments adopted over the four years of the study. They include the administration of four questionnaires across three academic years, a collection of ethnographic recordings in the second year, and the collation of reflective journal entries and evaluations from all four years. The final two years of data collection took place during the period of Covid-19 restrictions when writing retreats moved to the virtual space which adds an additional dimension of interest to the analysis. The analysis involved the collation of quantitative questionnaire data to observe patterns in expressions of attitudes towards writing. Qualitative data were analysed thematically and used to corroborate and support the quantitative data when appropriate. The resulting data confirmed that one of the biggest challenges for undergraduate students mirrors those reported in the findings of studies focused on more experienced researchers. This is not surprising, especially given the number of undergraduate students who now work alongside their studies, as well as the increasing number who have caring responsibilities, but it has, as yet, been under-reported. The data showed that the groups of writing retreat participants all had very positive experiences, with accountability, a sense of community and procrastination avoidance some of the key aspects. The analysis revealed the sometimes transformative power of these events for a number of these students in terms of changing the way they viewed writing and themselves as writers. The data presented in this talk will support the proposal that retreats should much more widely be offered to undergraduate students across the world.

Keywords: academic writing, students, undergraduates, writing retreat

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Authors: Yibo Shao, Jiajie Liu

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This article uncovers the practice of pragmatism of Singaporean foreign policy by analyzing its foreign diplomatic behavior. It also points out the Singapore’s hedging strategy on the relations between China and American and how to balance these two greater powers in Southeast Asian. This paper used qualitative approach by reviewing literature and policy documents intensively to find out the responses to our research questions.

Keywords: hedging, pragmatism, Sino-Singapore relations, South China Sea

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Authors: Diana A. Sokolova

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This article is devoted to one of the possibilities for identifying the author of an oral or written text - sociolinguistic profiling. Sociolinguistic profiling is utilized as a forensic linguistics technique to identify individuals through language patterns, particularly in criminal cases. It examines how social factors influence language use. This study aims to showcase the significance of linguistic profiling for attributing authorship in texts and emphasizes the necessity for its continuous enhancement while considering its strengths and weaknesses. The study employs semantic-syntactic, lexical-semantic, linguopragmatic, logical, presupposition, authorization, and content analysis methods to investigate linguistic profiling. The research highlights the relevance of sociolinguistic profiling in authorship attribution and underscores the importance of ongoing refinement of the technique, considering its limitations. This study emphasizes the practical application of linguistic profiling in legal settings and underscores the impact of social factors on language use, contributing to the field of forensic linguistics. Data collection involves collecting oral and written texts from criminal and civil court cases to analyze language patterns for authorship attribution. The collected data is analyzed using various linguistic analysis methods to identify individual characteristics and patterns that can aid in authorship attribution. The study addresses the effectiveness of sociolinguistic profiling in identifying authors of texts and explores the impact of social factors on language use in legal contexts. In spite of advantages challenges in linguistics profiling have spurred debates and controversies in academic circles, legal environments, and the public sphere. So, this research highlights the significance of sociolinguistic profiling in authorship attribution and emphasizes the need for further development of this method, considering its strengths and weaknesses.

Keywords: authorship attribution, detection of identifying, dialect, features, forensic linguistics, social influence, sociolinguistics, unique speech characteristics

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Authors: S. H. Nasseri, A. Ebrahimnejad

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Fuzzy set theory has been applied to many fields, such as operations research, control theory, and management sciences. In this paper, we consider two classes of fuzzy linear programming (FLP) problems: Fuzzy number linear programming and linear programming with trapezoidal fuzzy variables problems. We state our recently established results and develop fuzzy primal simplex algorithms for solving these problems. Finally, we give illustrative examples.

Keywords: fuzzy linear programming, fuzzy numbers, duality, sensitivity analysis

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Authors: Nkwenti Mbelli Njah

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This research was motivated by a project requested by AXA on the topic of pensions payable under the workers compensation (WC) line of business. There are two types of pensions: the compulsorily recoverable and the not compulsorily recoverable. A pension is compulsorily recoverable for a victim when there is less than 30% of disability and the pension amount per year is less than six times the minimal national salary. The law defines that the mathematical provisions for compulsory recoverable pensions must be calculated by applying the following bases: mortality table TD88/90 and rate of interest 5.25% (maybe with rate of management). To manage pensions which are not compulsorily recoverable is a more complex task because technical bases are not defined by law and much more complex computations are required. In particular, companies have to predict the amount of payments discounted reflecting the mortality effect for all pensioners (this task is monitored monthly in AXA). The purpose of this research was thus to develop a stochastic model for the future mortality of the worker’s compensation pensioners of both the Portuguese market workers and AXA portfolio. Not only is past mortality modeled, also projections about future mortality are made for the general population of Portugal as well as for the two portfolios mentioned earlier. The global model was split in two parts: a stochastic model for population mortality which allows for forecasts, combined with a point estimate from a portfolio mortality model obtained through three different relational models (Cox Proportional, Brass Linear and Workgroup PLT). The one-year death probabilities for ages 0-110 for the period 2013-2113 are obtained for the general population and the portfolios. These probabilities are used to compute different life table functions as well as the not compulsorily recoverable reserves for each of the models required for the pensioners, their spouses and children under 21. The results obtained are compared with the not compulsory recoverable reserves computed using the static mortality table (TD 73/77) that is currently being used by AXA, to see the impact on this reserve if AXA adopted the dynamic tables.

Keywords: compulsorily recoverable, life table functions, relational models, worker’s compensation pensioners

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Authors: Efthimios Kokkotos, Kostakis Marios, Beis Alexandros, Angelos Patakas, Antonios Avgeris, Vassilios Triantafyllidis

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H, C, and O stable isotope ratios were measured in different olive oils and table olives originating from different regions of Greece. In particular, the stable isotope ratios of different olive oils produced in the Lakonia region (Peloponesse – South Greece) from different varieties, i.e., cvs ‘Athinolia’ and ‘koroneiki’, were determined. Additionally, stable isotope ratios were also measured in different table olives (cvs ‘koroneiki’ and ‘kalamon’) produced in the same region (Messinia). The aim of this study was to provide sufficient isotope ratio data regarding each variety and region of origin that could be used in discriminative studies of oil olives and table olives produced by different varieties in other regions. In total, 97 samples of olive oil (cv ‘Athinolia’ and ‘koroneiki’) and 67 samples of table olives (cvs ‘kalmon’ and ‘koroneiki’) collected during two consecutive sampling periods (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) were measured. The C, H, and O isotope ratios were measured using Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), and the results obtained were analyzed using chemometric techniques. The measurements of the isotope ratio analyses were expressed in permille (‰) using the delta δ notation (δ=Rsample/Rstandard-1, where Rsample and Rstandardis represent the isotope ratio of sample and standard). Results indicate that stable isotope ratios of C, H, and O ranged between -28,5+0,45‰, -142,83+2,82‰, 25,86+0,56‰ and -29,78+0,71‰, -143,62+1,4‰, 26,32+0,55‰ in olive oils produced in Lakonia region from ‘Athinolia’ and ‘koroneiki ‘varieties, respectively. The C, H, and O values from table olives originated from Messinia region were -28,58+0,63‰, -138,09+3,27‰, 25,45+0,62‰ and -29,41+0,59‰,-137,67+1,15‰, 24,37+0,6‰ for ‘Kalamon’ and ‘koroneiki’ olives respectively. Acknowledgments: This research has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH—CREATE—INNOVATE (Project code: T2EDK-02637; MIS 5075094, Title: ‘Innovative Methodological Tools for Traceability, Certification and Authenticity Assessment of Olive Oil and Olives’).

Keywords: olive oil, table olives, Isotope ratio, IRMS, geographical origin

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Authors: Niaz Latif, Joy L. Colwell

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Following implementation of a master’s level graduate degree program in technology, a research-based assessment of the program was undertaken to determine how well the program met its goals and objectives, and the impact of the degree program on the objectives and the needs of its graduates. Upon review of the survey data, it was concluded that the program was meeting its goals and objectives and that the directed project option should be encouraged.

Keywords: master’s degree, graduate program, assessment, master's program in technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Hardik Goswami, Gayatri Swarnakar

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-Mastitis disease has been known as one of the most costly diseases of dairy cattle and observed as an inflammatory disease of cow and buffalo udder. Mastitis badly affected animal health, quality of milk and economics of milk production along with cause’s great economic loss. Bacteria have been representing the most common etiological agents of mastitis. The antibiotic sensitivity test was important to attain accurate treatment of mastitis. The aim of present research work was to explore prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolates recovered from cow and buffalo clinical mastitis milk sample. During the period of April 2010 to April 2014, total 1487 clinical mastitis milk samples of cow and buffalo were tested to check the prevalence of mastitis causing bacterial isolates. Milk samples were collected aseptically from the udder at the time of morning milking. The most prevalent bacterial isolates were Staphylococcus aureus (24.34%) followed by coliform bacteria (15.87%), coagulase negative Staphylococcus aureus (13.85%), non-coliform bacteria (13.05%), mixed infection (12.51%), Streptococcus spp. (10.96%). Out of 1487, 140 (9.42%) mastitis milk samples showed no growth on culture media. Identification of bacteria made on the basis of Standard Microbial features and procedures. Antibiotic susceptibility of bacterial isolates was investigated by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. In vitro Antibiotic susceptibility test of bacterial isolates revealed higher sensitivity to Gentamicin (74.6%), Ciprofloxacin (62.1%) and Amikacin (59.4%). The lower susceptibility was shown to Amoxicillin (21.6%), Erythromycin (26.4%) and Ceftizoxime (29.9%). Antibiotic sensitivity pattern revealed Gentamicin are the possible effective antibiotic against the major prevalent mastitis pathogens. Present research work would be helpful in increase production, quality and quantity of milk, increase annual income of dairy owners and improve health of cow and buffaloes.

Keywords: antibiotic, buffalo, cow, mastitis, prevalence

Procedia PDF Downloads 385

Authors: Gulnaz Erkomaishvili

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Introduction. One of the most important issues of state economic policy in the 21st century is the problem of environmental protection. The Georgian government considers the green economy as one of the most important means of sustainable economic development and takes the initiative to implement voluntary measures to promote sustainable development. In this context, it is important to promote the development of ecosystem services, clean production, environmental education and green jobs.The development of the green economy significantly reduces the inefficient use of natural resources, waste generation, emissions into the atmosphere and the discharge of untreated water into bodies of water.It is, therefore, an important instrument in the environmental orientation of sustainable development. Objectives.The aim of the paper is to analyze the current status of the green economy in Georgia and identify effective ways to improve the environmental, economic policy of sustainable development. Methodologies: This paper uses general and specific methods, in particular, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, scientific abstraction, comparative and statistical methods, as well as experts’ evaluation. bibliographic research of scientific works and reports of organizations was conducted; Publications of the National Statistics Office of Georgia are used to determine the regularity between analytical and statistical estimations. Also, theoretical and applied research of international organizations and scientist-economists are used. Contributions: The country should implement such an economic policy that ensures the transition to a green economy, in particular, revising water, air and waste laws, strengthening existing environmental management tools and introcing new tools (including economic tools). Perfecting the regulatory legal framework of the environmental impact assessment system, which includes the harmonization of Georgian legislation with the requirements of the European Union. To ensure the protection and rational use of Georgia's forests, emphasis should be placed on sustainable forestry, protection and restoration of forests.

Keywords: green economy, environmental protection, environmental protection economic policy, environmental protection policy challanges

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Rohini Hariharan, Yazhini R, Bhamidipati Naga Shrikarti

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In the realm of cricket, particularly within the context of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the ability to predict team scores accurately holds significant importance for both cricket enthusiasts and stakeholders alike. This paper presents a comprehensive study on IPL score prediction utilizing various machine learning algorithms, including Support Vector Machines (SVM), XGBoost, Multiple Regression, Linear Regression, K-nearest neighbors (KNN), and Random Forest. Through meticulous data preprocessing, feature engineering, and model selection, we aimed to develop a robust predictive framework capable of forecasting team scores with high precision. Our experimentation involved the analysis of historical IPL match data encompassing diverse match and player statistics. Leveraging this data, we employed state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to train and evaluate the performance of each model. Notably, Multiple Regression emerged as the top-performing algorithm, achieving an impressive accuracy of 77.19% and a precision of 54.05% (within a threshold of +/- 10 runs). This research contributes to the advancement of sports analytics by demonstrating the efficacy of machine learning in predicting IPL team scores. The findings underscore the potential of advanced predictive modeling techniques to provide valuable insights for cricket enthusiasts, team management, and betting agencies. Additionally, this study serves as a benchmark for future research endeavors aimed at enhancing the accuracy and interpretability of IPL score prediction models.

Keywords: indian premier league (IPL), cricket, score prediction, machine learning, support vector machines (SVM), xgboost, multiple regression, linear regression, k-nearest neighbors (KNN), random forest, sports analytics

Procedia PDF Downloads 30

Authors: Daniela Prado, Lexi Frankel, Amalia Ardeljan, Lokesh Manjani, Matthew Cardeiro, Omar Rashid

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Background: Clostridium difficile (C. diff) is a gram-positive bacterium that is known to cause life-threatening diarrhea and severe inflammation of the colon. It originates as an alteration of the gut microbiome and can be transmitted through spores. Recent studies have shown a high association between the development of C. diff in cancer patients due to extensive hospitalization. However, research is lacking regarding C. diff’s association in the causation or prevention of cancer. The objective of this study was to therefore assess the correlation between Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and the incidence of bone cancer. Methods: This retrospective analysis used data provided by a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant national database to evaluate the patients infected versus patients not infected with C. diff using ICD-10 and ICD-9 codes. Access to the database was granted by the Holy Cross Health, Fort Lauderdale, for the purpose of academic research. Standard statistical methods were used. Results: Between January 2010 and December 2019, the query was analyzed and resulted in 78863 patients in both the infected and control group, respectively. The two groups were matched by age range and CCI score. The incidence of bone cancer was 659 patients (0.835%) in the C. diff group compared to 1941 patients (2.461%) in the control group. The difference was statistically significant by a P-value < 2.2x10^-16 with an odds ratio (OR)= 0.33 (0.31-0.37) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Treatment for CDI was analyzed for both C. diff infected and noninfected populations. 91 out of 16,676 (0.55%) patients with a prior C. diff infection and treated with antibiotics were compared to the control group were 275 out of 16,676 (1.65%) patients with no history of CDI and received antibiotic treatment. Results remained statistically significant by P-value <2.2x10-16 with an OR= 0.42 (0.37, 0.48). and a 95% CI. Conclusion: The study shows a statistically significant correlation between C. diff and a reduced incidence of bone cancer. Further evaluation is recommended to assess the potential of C. difficile in reducing bone cancer incidence.

Keywords: bone cancer, colitis, clostridium difficile, microbiome

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Norzaliza Md. Nor, Sh-Hussain Salleh, Mahyar Hamedi, Hadrina Hussain, Wahab Abdul Rahman

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Motivational factor is mainly the students’ desire to involve in learning process. However, it also depends on the goal towards their involvement or non-involvement in academic activity. Even though, the students’ motivation might be in the same level, but the basis of their motivation may differ. In this study, it focuses on the intrinsic motivational factor which student enjoy learning or feeling of accomplishment the activity or study for its own sake. The intrinsic motivational factor of students in learning mathematics and science has found as difficult to be achieved because it depends on students’ interest. In the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) for mathematics and science, Malaysia is ranked as third lowest. The main problem in Malaysian educational system, students tend to have extrinsic motivation which they have to score in exam in order to achieve a good result and enrolled as university students. The use of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals has found to be scarce especially to identify the students’ intrinsic motivational factor in learning science and mathematics. In this research study, we are identifying the correlation between precursor emotion and its dynamic emotion to verify the intrinsic motivational factor of students in learning mathematics and science. The 2-D Affective Space Model (ASM) was used in this research in order to identify the relationship of precursor emotion and its dynamic emotion based on the four basic emotions, happy, calm, fear and sad. These four basic emotions are required to be used as reference stimuli. Then, in order to capture the brain waves, EEG device was used, while Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) was adopted to be used for extracting the features before it will be feed to Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) to classify the valence and arousal axes for the ASM. The results show that the precursor emotion had an influence the dynamic emotions and it identifies that most students have no interest in mathematics and science according to the negative emotion (sad and fear) appear in the EEG signals. We hope that these results can help us further relate the behavior and intrinsic motivational factor of students towards learning of mathematics and science.

Keywords: EEG, MLP, MFCC, intrinsic motivational factor

Procedia PDF Downloads 353

Authors: Pratima Kumari, Sukha Ranjan Samadder

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This research aims to contribute to the sustainable production of graphene materials by exploring the extraction of graphite from spent primary and secondary batteries. The increasing demand for graphene materials, a versatile and high-performance material, necessitates environmentally friendly methods for its synthesis. The process involves a well-planned methodology, beginning with the gathering and categorization of batteries, followed by the disassembly and careful removal of graphite from anode structures. The use of environmentally friendly solvents and mechanical techniques ensures an efficient and eco-friendly extraction of graphite. Advanced approaches such as the modified Hummers' method and chemical reduction process are utilized for the synthesis of graphene materials, with a focus on optimizing parameters. Various analytical techniques such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and Raman spectroscopy were employed to validate the quality and structure of the produced graphene materials. The major findings of this study reveal the successful implementation of the methodology, leading to the production of high-quality graphene materials suitable for advanced material applications. Thorough characterization using various advanced techniques validates the structural integrity and purity of the graphene. The economic viability of the process is demonstrated through a comprehensive economic analysis, highlighting the potential for large-scale production. This research contributes to the field of sustainable production of graphene materials by offering a systematic methodology that efficiently transforms spent batteries into valuable graphene resources. Furthermore, the findings not only showcase the potential for upcycling electronic waste but also address the pressing need for environmentally conscious processes in advanced material synthesis.

Keywords: spent primary batteries, spent secondary batteries, graphite extraction, advanced material synthesis, circular economy approach

Procedia PDF Downloads 41

Authors: Srinaath Anbu Durai, Wang Zhaoxia

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Twitter sentiment has been used as a predictor to predict price values or trends in both the stock market and housing market. The pioneering works in this stream of research drew upon works in behavioural economics to show that sentiment or emotions impact economic decisions. Latest works in this stream focus on the algorithm used as opposed to the data used. A literature review of works in this stream through the lens of data used shows that there is a paucity of work that considers the impact of sentiments caused due to an external factor on either the stock or the housing market. This is despite an abundance of works in behavioural economics that show that sentiment or emotions caused due to an external factor impact economic decisions. To address this gap, this research studies the impact of Twitter sentiment pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic on resale Housing Development Board (HDB) apartment prices in Singapore. It leverages SNSCRAPE to collect tweets pertaining to Covid-19 for sentiment analysis, lexicon based tools VADER and TextBlob are used for sentiment analysis, Granger Causality is used to examine the relationship between Covid-19 cases and the sentiment score, and neural networks are leveraged as prediction models. Twitter sentiment pertaining to Covid-19 as a predictor of HDB price in Singapore is studied in comparison with the traditional predictors of housing prices i.e., the structural and neighbourhood characteristics. The results indicate that using Twitter sentiment pertaining to Covid19 leads to better prediction than using only the traditional predictors and performs better as a predictor compared to two of the traditional predictors. Hence, Twitter sentiment pertaining to an external factor should be considered as important as traditional predictors. This paper demonstrates the real world economic applications of sentiment analysis of Twitter data.

Keywords: sentiment analysis, Covid-19, housing price prediction, tweets, social media, Singapore HDB, behavioral economics, neural networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: Alena Skalon, Jennifer L. Beaudry

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Eyewitness misidentifications can sometimes lead to wrongful convictions of innocent people. This occurs in part because jurors tend to believe confident eyewitnesses even when the identification took place under suggestive conditions. Empirical research demonstrated that jurors are often unaware of the factors that can influence the reliability of eyewitness identification. Most common legal safeguards that are designed to educate jurors about eyewitness evidence are judicial instructions and expert testimony. To date, very few studies assessed the effectiveness of judicial instructions and most of them found that judicial instructions make jurors more skeptical of eyewitness evidence or do not have any effect on jurors’ judgments. Similar results were obtained for expert testimony. However, none of the previous studies focused on the ability of legal safeguards to improve jurors’ assessment of evidence obtained from suggestive identification procedures—this is one of the gaps addressed by this paper. Furthermore, only three studies investigated whether legal safeguards improve the ultimate accuracy of jurors’ judgments—that is, whether after listening to judicial instructions or expert testimony jurors can differentiate between accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses. This presentation includes two studies. Both studies used genuine eyewitnesses (i.e., eyewitnesses who watched the crime) and manipulated the suggestiveness of identification procedures. The first study manipulated the presence of judicial instructions; the second study manipulated the presence of one of two types of expert testimony: a traditional, verbal expert testimony or expert testimony accompanied by visual aids. All participant watched a video-recording of an identification procedure and of an eyewitness testimony. The results indicated that neither judicial instructions nor expert testimony affected jurors’ judgments. However, consistent with the previous findings, when the identification procedure was non-suggestive, jurors believed accurate eyewitnesses more often than inaccurate eyewitnesses. When the procedure was suggestive, jurors believed accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses at the same rate. The paper will discuss the implications of these studies and directions for future research.

Keywords: expert testimony, eyewitness evidence, judicial instructions, jurors’ decision making, legal safeguards

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Nouf Nasser, Nada Alotaibi, Jazzal Kandiel

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This research study is about the use of artificial intelligence in PhotoRoom. When an individual selects a photo, PhotoRoom automagically removes or separates the background from other parts of the photo through the use of artificial intelligence. This will allow an individual to select their desired background and edit it as they wish. The methodology used was an observation, where various reviews and parts of the app were observed. The review section's findings showed that many people actually like the app, and some even rated it five stars. The conclusion was that PhotoRoom is one of the best photo editing apps due to its speed and accuracy in removing backgrounds.

Keywords: removing background, app, artificial intelligence, machine learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 185