Search results for: female characters

Authors: Naso Isaiah Thanavisuth

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Medical cannabis can be used for treatment including pain, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and cancer. However, medical cannabis leads to adverse effects (AEs), which is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). In previous studies, the major of THC metabolism enzymes are CYP2C9. Especially, the variation of CYP2C9 gene consist of CYP2C9*2 on exon 3 and CYP2C9*3 on exon 7 to decrease enzyme activity. Notwithstanding, there is no data describing whether the variant of CYP2C9 genes are apharmacogenetics marker for the prediction of THC-induced AEs in Thai patients. We want to investigate the association between CYP2C9 gene and THC-induced AEs in Thai patients. We enrolled 39 Thai patients with medical cannabis treatment who were classified by clinical data. The CYP2C9*2 and *3 genotyping were conducted using the TaqMan real time PCR assay. All Thai patients who received the medical cannabis consist of twenty-four (61.54%) patients were female, and fifteen (38.46%) were male, with age range 27- 87 years. Moreover, the most AEs in Thai patients who were treated with medical cannabis between cases and controls were tachycardia, arrhythmia, dry mouth, and nausea. Particularly, thirteen (72.22%) medical cannabis-induced AEs were female and age range 33 – 69 years. In this study, none of the medical cannabis groups carried CYP2C9*2 variants in Thai patients. The CYP2C9*3 variants (*1/*3, intermediate metabolizer, IM) and (*3/*3, poor metabolizer, PM) were found, three of thirty-nine (7.69%) and one of thirty-nine (2.56%), respectively. Although, our results indicate that there is no found the CYP2C9*2. However, the variation of CYP2C9 allele might serve as a pharmacogenetics marker for screening before initiating the therapy with medical cannabis for the prevention of medical cannabis-induced AEs.

Keywords: CYP2C9, medical cannabis, adverse effects, THC, P450

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Authors: Henriette Hammill

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Background: Safe landing in netball is fundamental. Research on the biomechanics of multidirectional landings is lacking, especially among netball players. Furthermore, few studies reporting the associations between lower extremity injuries and landing kinematics and kinetics in university-level netball players have been undertaken. Objectives: The aim is to determine the relationships between lower extremity injuries and landing kinematics and kinetics in university-level netball players that have been undertaken during a single season. Methods: This cross-sectional repeated measure study consisted of ten university-level female netball players. The injury prevalence data was collected during the 2022 netball season. The kinematic and kinetic data were collected during multidirectional single-leg landing trials and was collected. Results: Generally, the ankle strength of netball players was below average. There was evidence of negative correlations between the ankle range of motion (ROM), and muscle activity amplitudes. A lack of evidence precluded the conclusion that lower extremity dominance was a predisposing factor for injury and that any specific body part was most likely to be injured among netball players. Conclusion: Landing forces and muscle activity are direction-dependent, especially for the dominant extremity. Lower extremity strength and neuromuscular control (NMC) across multiple jump-landing directions should be an area of focus for female netball players.

Keywords: netball players, landing kinetics, landing kinematics, lower extremity

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Authors: Atifa Mushtaq, Tanweer Khaliq, Hafiz Alam Sher, Asia Farid, Anila Kanwal, Maliha Sarfraz

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The study was designed to assess the various pharmacokinetic parameters of a commercially available clarithromycin Tablet (Klaricid® 250 mg Abbot, Pakistan) in plasma sample of healthy adult female volunteers by applying a rapid, sensitive and accurate HPLC-UV analytical method. The human plasma samples were evaluated by using an isocratic High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) system of Sykam consisted of a pump with a column C18 column (250×4.6mn, 5µm) UV-detector. The mobile phase comprises of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (50 mM, pH 6.8, contained 0.7% triethylamine), methanol and acetonitrile (30:25:45, v/v/v) was delivered with injection volume of 20µL at flow rate of 1 mL/min. The detection was performed at λmax 275 nm. By applying this method, important pharmacokinetic parameters Cmax, Tmax, Area under curve (AUC), half-life (t1/2), , Volume of distribution (Vd) and Clearance (Cl) were measured. The parameters of pharmacokinetics of clarithromycin were calculated by software (APO) pharmacological analysis. Maximum plasma concentrations Cmax 2.78 ±0.33 µg/ml, time to reach maximum concentration tmax 2.82 ± 0.11 h and Area under curve AUC was 20.14 h.µg/ml. The mean ± SD values obtained for the pharmacokinetic parameters showed a significant difference in pharmacokinetic parameters observed in previous literature which emphasizes the need for dose adjustment of clarithromycin in Pakistani population.

Keywords: Pharmacokinetc, Clarothromycin, HPLC, Pakistan

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Authors: Min Koo Choi

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The paper will examine Im Sun-dŭk’s two short stories, 'Iryoil' (Sunday, 1937) and 'Nazuoya' (A Godmother, 1942), which illuminate the subjects of Korean intellectuals going through the later period of a harsh and oppressive Japanese colonial rule. When Japan went to war against China in 1937, Korea, a colony of Japan since 1910, became an outpost for Japanese expansionism into China, and the Korean people were mobilized into the war effort. Nationalist movements and radical ideas that posed a threat and opposition to Japanese colonial rule in Korea and its colonial expansionism were ruthlessly suppressed, and Koreans were forcibly assimilated into becoming Japanese citizens without political rights. Racial discrimination between Koreans and Japanese was prevalent. Im Sun-dŭk, who participated in the Socialist movement in the 1930s, had his debut as a literary writer and a critic in the late 1930s, when Korean literary society was reincorporated in order to collaborate with the Japanese war effort through writing and public speech. Sun-duk's writing illuminates the unique internal landscape of a female subject who strives to live on while preserving her commitment and dignity under the circumstances that force Korean intellectuals either to collaborate with or acquiesce to Japanese colonial rule. 'Iryoil' (Sunday, 1937) foregrounds an educated intellectual, Hyeyŏng, who supplies her fiancé in prison for political involvement in resistance against Japan. On Sundays, she turns down her friends’ suggestion for enjoying holidays outside, due to her indebtedness to her fiancé. Her fiancé's imprisonment indicates the social conscience that still remains, and she seeks to share the commitment and suffering with her fiancé. The short story 'Nazuoya' (A Godmother, 1942), written in Japanese due to the suppression of Korean language publications at the time, also problematizes Japanese policy that forces Koreans to change their names into Japanese. Through the narrator I, who struggles to find a meaningful name for her cousin brother’s baby, she highlights how meaningful one’s name is for one’s life and identity. What makes her two stories unique is that her writing draws other people’s confessions into its own narrative through fragmentary forms, such as part of letter or reflection. The voices of others are intersected with the main character in 'Iryoil' (Sunday, 1937) and a narrator in 'Nazuoya' (A Godmother, 1942). In many ways, the narrator and main character provide the confessional voices who display the characters' gloomy interiorities. Even though these confessional voices do not share the commitment and values, both the main character and I in the stories reveal a more open set of viewpoints to them. In this way, they seek to form bonds and encouragement and acquire a more resilient sensibility that embraces those who strive to survive and endure in the gloomy days of the later period of Japanese colonial rule.

Keywords: Im Sun-dŭk, Japanese colonial rule, Korean literature, socialist movement

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Authors: Xingyu Pan, Laure Tougne

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For recognizing coins, the graved release date is important information to identify precisely its monetary type. However, reading characters in coins meets much more obstacles than traditional character recognition tasks in the other fields, such as reading scanned documents or license plates. To address this challenging issue in a numismatic context, we propose a training-free approach dedicated to detection and recognition of the release date of the coin. In the first step, the date zone is detected by comparing histogram features; in the second step, a topology-based algorithm is introduced to recognize coin numbers with various font types represented by binary gradient map. Our method obtained a recognition rate of 92% on synthetic data and of 44% on real noised data.

Keywords: coin, detection, character recognition, topology

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Authors: Jesús David Argueta Moreno, Taria Ruiz, Cesar Ortega

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This qualitative investigation represents the first stage of the human capital engineering analysis, along the small and medium textile manufacturing companies, located on the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras where the symptoms of the local manufacturing industry´s describe a severe gender displacement phenomenon. The evaluation of this phenomena, intends to trigger the Honduran small and medium technology manufactures into a collective performance, analysis through the development of a sectorial diagnose and the creation of a manufacturers guide, personalized. In accordance to the Honduran textile manufacturing needs, in order to strengthen their personnel capacities and thereby smoothen the gender equilibrium on this particular sector. It is worth mentioning, that on the last decade, the female gender has gathered positive statistics upon Central American job market´s, were the local business landscape describes a significant displacement of the Honduran female operators over the male gender workers that has significantly diminished their employment predominance. On the other hand, this study aims to evaluate the main features that impact on the job market local gender supplanting. On the other hand, this document aims to holistically describe the Honduran manufacturing context, as well as the current textile operator qualifications, in order to infer over the most proper human resources enforcement approaches/techniques on the industry.

Keywords: gender predominance, manufacturing, higher education institutions, emerging trends

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Authors: Abdullah A. AlShaher

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In this paper, we demonstrate how regression curves can be used to recognize 2D non-rigid handwritten shapes. Each shape is represented by a set of non-overlapping uniformly distributed landmarks. The underlying models utilize 2^nd order of polynomials to model shapes within a training set. To estimate the regression models, we need to extract the required coefficients which describe the variations for a set of shape class. Hence, a least square method is used to estimate such modes. We then proceed by training these coefficients using the apparatus Expectation Maximization algorithm. Recognition is carried out by finding the least error landmarks displacement with respect to the model curves. Handwritten isolated Arabic characters are used to evaluate our approach.

Keywords: character recognition, regression curves, handwritten Arabic letters, expectation maximization algorithm

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Authors: Emil Danehorn, Ulla Peterson, Marie Oscarsson, Goldina Smirthwaite, Katarina Swahnberg

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Swedish students who choose to study abroad are common, but there has been limited research on exchange students. There are indications that some Swedish exchange students have been exposed to violence, but it is not known if they, already before their semester abroad, are more exposed to violence than students who remain on campus. Our aim was to investigate potential differences in exposure to physical, sexual, and emotional violence between prospective exchange students and campus students and between male and female students in general, as well as to determine any associations between mental health and exposure to violence among students in the total sample. Method: Comparative cross-sectional design using an online survey containing the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire 12. A total of 565 participants took part in the study. Results: Prospective exchange students were less exposed to emotional violence compared to campus students. About one-half of all the participating female students had been exposed to sexual violence and about one-third of all the male students had been exposed to physical violence. The results also indicated that exposure to more than one form of violence was associated with poor mental health for students as a group. Conclusion: Prospective exchange students as a group do not report more exposure to physical and sexual violence than campus students but do report less exposure to emotional violence. However, the overall frequency of exposure to violence among the students was high. This highlights the need for proactive efforts for everyone, not least for exchange students who will be staying in a new environment unknown to them.

Keywords: sexual violence, physical violence, emotional violence, exchange students, mental health

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Authors: Getachew Weldemichael, Sentayehu Alamerew, Leta Tulu, Gezahegn Berecha

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Coffee quality improvement program is becoming the focus of coffee research, as the world coffee consumption pattern shifted to high-quality coffee. However, there is limited information on the genetic variation of C. Arabica for quality improvement in potential specialty coffee growing areas of Ethiopia. Therefore, this experiment was conducted with the objectives of determining the magnitude of variation among 105 coffee accessions collected from east Wollega coffee growing areas and assessing correlations between the different coffee qualities attributes. It was conducted in RCRD with three replications. Data on green bean physical characters (shape and make, bean color and odor) and organoleptic cup quality traits (aromatic intensity, aromatic quality, acidity, astringency, bitterness, body, flavor, and overall standard of the liquor) were recorded. Analysis of variance, clustering, genetic divergence, principal component and correlation analysis was performed using SAS software. The result revealed that there were highly significant differences (P<0.01) among the accessions for all quality attributes except for odor and bitterness. Among the tested accessions, EW104 /09, EW101 /09, EW58/09, EW77/09, EW35/09, EW71/09, EW68/09, EW96 /09, EW83/09 and EW72/09 had the highest total coffee quality values (the sum of bean physical and cup quality attributes). These genotypes could serve as a source of genes for green bean physical characters and cup quality improvement in Arabica coffee. Furthermore, cluster analysis grouped the coffee accessions into five clusters with significant inter-cluster distances implying that there is moderate diversity among the accessions and crossing accessions from these divergent inter-clusters would result in hetrosis and recombinants in segregating generations. The principal component analysis revealed that the first three principal components with eigenvalues greater than unity accounted for 83.1% of the total variability due to the variation of nine quality attributes considered for PC analysis, indicating that all quality attributes equally contribute to a grouping of the accessions in different clusters. Organoleptic cup quality attributes showed positive and significant correlations both at the genotypic and phenotypic levels, demonstrating the possibility of simultaneous improvement of the traits. Path coefficient analysis revealed that acidity, flavor, and body had a high positive direct effect on overall cup quality, implying that these traits can be used as indirect criteria to improve overall coffee quality. Therefore, it was concluded that there is considerable variation among the accessions, which need to be properly conserved for future improvement of the coffee quality. However, the variability observed for quality attributes must be further verified using biochemical and molecular analysis.

Keywords: accessions, Coffea arabica, cluster analysis, correlation, principal component

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Authors: Irfan Mehmood

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This paper examines the Marxist ideology in Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved. Toni Morrison writes about the society she inhabits and doesn't knowingly or emotionally leave. Marxism emphasizes the working class' dire economic status as well as the bourgeoisie as the dominant capitalist class. Using the Marxist literary theory promoted by Louis Althusser in his well-known book On the Reproduction of Capitalism, the chosen Toni Morrison piece is evaluated (1976). This essay explores how Morrison uses Marxist theory in her literary work to highlight the oppression of the Afro-American society and how the upper class ruled the lower class through the use of interpellation. In spite of hegemony and interpellation, certain major characters in this essay battle with the discriminatory ruling order.

Keywords: Marxism, social class, Toni Morrison, African American literature.

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Authors: Muhammad Riaz, Muhammad Sarwar

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As a result of broad trapping program for the collection of fruit flies fauna of Pakistan, adults or larvae samples of fruit flies were collected from different localities. After sampling, to characterize fruit fly fauna involved, the collected samples were brought to the laboratory for their species identification. In this study, based on extensive literature records, the presence of one fruit fly species Bactrocera abbasi (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacinae) belonging to genus Bactrocera Macquar was recognized for the first time. This new species is described and illustrated on the basis of morphological characters, supported by data on its ecology and geographic distribution. Information is also given on host plant and location of type specimen, distinguish remarks and diagnosis are as well included.

Keywords: diptera, tephritidae, bactrocera, new species, taxonomy, Pakistan

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Authors: Ismail Okur, Betul Taspinar, Turkan Pasali Kilit, Eda O. Okur, Ferruh Taspinar

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Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most important global health emergencies and every year more and more people are affected by T2DM. T2DM causes life-changing complications by affecting organ and systems. Although diet and exercise are the best way to treat patients with T2DM, those patients generally have a sedentary life style. This study was planned to determine whether patients with T2DM have kinesiophobia (fear of movement). A controlled trial was conducted on 87 adults. Forty-one individuals with T2DM (study group, 34 female and 7 male) and 46 nondiabetic individuals (control group, 39 female and 7 male) were included in the study. Patients were screened for fear of movement using the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK). The data including age, sex, weight, height, and TSK scores were obtained. Mann Whitney U test were used to analyse the data. The mean ages and BMI of study and control groups were 51.98 ± 6.03 year and 49.52 ± 5.61 year and 31.82 ± 2.88 kg/m2 and 30.22 ± 2.91 kg/m2, respectively. The groups have similar demographic properties. The kinesiophobia scores of study and control groups were 42.78 ± 5.50 and 39.48 ± 5.05, respectively and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.05). This study showed that patients with T2DM had high kinesiophobia scores rather than nondiabetics. Those patients might avoid to do exercise. In other words, patients with T2DM might have lower physical activity level. Therefore the authors suggest that to evaluate and interfere with kinesiophobia before conducting exercise therapy will be useful for diabetes care.

Keywords: diabetes, fear of movement, kinesiophobia, type 2 diabetes mellitus

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Authors: Xiaohua Jing

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Efficient extraction for separation of V and Cr in the leaching/aqueous solution is essential to the reuse of V and Cr in the V-Cr slag. Trioctylamine, a common tertiary amine extractant, with some good characters (e.g., weak base, insoluble in water and good stability) different from N1923, was investigated in this paper. The separation factor of Cr and V can be reached to 230.71 when initial pH of the aqueous solution is 0.5, so trioctylamine can be used for extracting Cr from the leaching/aqueous solution contained V and Cr. The highest extraction percentages of Cr and V were 98.73% and 90.22% when the initial pH values were 0.5 and 1.5, respectively. Via FT-IR spectra of loaded organic phase and trioctylamine, the hydrogen bond association mechanism of extracting V and Cr was investigated, which was the same with the way of extracting the two metals with primary amine N1923.

Keywords: selective extraction, trioctylamine, V and Cr, separation factor, hydrogen bond association

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Authors: Mostafa R. Sharaf, Shehzad Salman, Hathal M. Al Dhafer, Shahid A. Akbar, Abdulrahman S. Aldawood

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The ant genus Trichomyrmex Mayr is revised for the Arabian Peninsula based on the worker caste. Nine species are recognized and descriptions of two new species, T. almosayari sp. n. and T. shakeri sp. n. from Riyadh Province, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are given. A key to species and diagnostic characters of the treated species are presented. New country records are presented, T. abyssinicus (Forel) for the KSA and T. destructor (Jerdon) and T. mayri (Forel) for the State of Qatar. New distribution records for T. destructor (Jerdon) and T. mayri (Forel) in the KSA are provided. Regional and world distributions, and distribution maps for the treated species are included. Ecological and biological data are given where known.

Keywords: ants, Trichomyrmex, Arabian Peninsula, T. almosayari, T. shakeri

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Authors: Donghun Lee, Jiyoung Shin, Youjin Kim, Jin Joo Kim

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The sinking of Sewol ferry occurred in Korea on the morning of 16 April 2014 while carrying 476 people. In all, 304 passengers, mostly secondary school students from Danwon High School in Ansan City died in the disaster. The sinking of Sewol ferry has resulted in widespread social and political turmoil within South Korea. Many criticize the actions of the captain and crews of the ferry as well as the ferry operator and the regulators who oversaw its operations. However, huge criticism has been directed at the South Korean government for its national disaster response system. This disaster has made Korean government build up a new disaster management and psychological support system. The purpose of this study was to understand developmental and change process of a female counselor in her late fifties participated in Sewol ferry disaster counseling for a year. She has participated in providing as a counselor counseling and psychological support for the victims' families of Sewol ferry disaster, additionally as a director of community youth counseling center operated by local government by establishing governmental psychological supports plan for recovering collective trauma in the community, through which she have gotten self-reflection of whole her life. For in-depth interview data analysis, Mandelbaum’s three conceptual frameworks were employed; dimensions, turnings, and adaptation. The result of the study indicates extracted categories of life dimension, turning point and adaptation. The details of these categories are ‘having a self-image in youth’, ‘marriage in fairy-tale’, ‘unexpected death of husband’, ‘taking a step forward from darkness’, the way of counselor’, nice grown child’, ‘Sewol ferry disaster’ in life dimension, ‘death in front of life’, ‘milestone in life, counseling’ in turning points, ‘before Sewol ferry disaster’, ‘after Sewol ferry disaster’ in adaptation. Life history methods revealed the counselor’s internal developmental process by analyzing what Sewol ferry disaster influenced on an individual life, especially a counselor's one, what changes she went through, and how she adapted herself to that. Based on the results, discussions and suggestions are provided.

Keywords: development and change, disaster counseling, identity of female counselor, Mandelbaum’s life history, Sewol ferry

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Authors: Madiha Qureshi

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The study was designed to explore the morphological variation of Aseel chicken varieties in district Hyderabad. A survey was conducted during 5th April 2017 to 23rd August 2017 in four localities of district Hyderabad including Tandojam, Goth karan khan shoro, tower market and railway line colony. A total number of 54 samples (20 males and 34 females) of six varieties of Aseel chicken breed (Sindhi, Mottled, Black, Lakha, Jawa, Kulang) were studied and identify with different morphological characters such as comb type, size of wattles and earlobes, plumage color, shank color, beak color and eye color. Great morphological diversity was observed among these varieties, and this study provides baseline information for future research in the area.

Keywords: Aseel, Hyderabad, wattle, earlobe, comb

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Authors: Stephen Vera, Tabitha Black, Charalambos Cleanthous, Ryan Sain

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A gender comparison of USA commercial pilots’ demographics and views of CRM, social desirability and locus of control were surveyed. The Aviation safety locus of control (ASLOC) was used to measure external (ASLOC-E) or internal (ASLOC-I) aviation safety locus of control. The gender differences were explored using the ASLOC scores as a categorical variable. A differential comparison of crew resource management (CRM), based on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) guidelines was conducted. The results indicated that the proportion of female to male respondents matches the current ratio of USA commercial pilots. Moreover, there were no significant differences regarding overall education and the total number of communication classes one took. Regarding CRM issues, there were no significant differences on their views regarding the roles of the PIC, stress, time management, and managing a flight team. The females scored significantly lower on aeronautical decision making (ADM) and communications. There were no significant differences on either the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) impression management (IM) or self-deceptive enhancement (SDE). Although there were no overall significant differences on the ASLOC, the females did score higher on the internal subscale than did the males. An additional comparison of socially desirable responding indicates that all scores may be invalid, especially from the female respondents.

Keywords: social desirability, safety locus of control, crew resource management, commercial pilots

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Authors: Ana-María Gómez-Carvajal, Hernando Santamaría-García, Mateo Bernal, Mario Valderrama, Daniela Lizarazo, Juliana Restrepo, María Fernanda Barreto, Angélica Parra, Paula Torres, Diana Matallana, Jaime Silva, José Santamaría-García, Sandra Baez

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Higher levels of oxytocin are associated with better performance on social cognition tasks. However, higher levels of oxytocin have also been associated with increased levels of envy and schadenfreude. Considering these antecedents, this study aims to explore social emotions (i.e., envy and schadenfreude) and other components of social cognition (i.e. ToM and empathy), in women in the puerperal period and their respective partners, compared to a control group of men and women without children or partners. Control women should be in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle or taking oral contraceptives as they allow oxytocin levels to remain stable. We selected this population since increased levels of oxytocin are present in both mothers and fathers of newborn babies. Both groups were matched by age, sex, and education level. Twenty-two parents of newborns (11 women, 11 men) and 15 controls (8 women, 7 men) performed an experimental task designed to trigger schadenfreude and envy. In this task, each participant was shown a real-life photograph and a description of two target characters matched in age and gender with the participant. The task comprised two experimental blocks. In the first block, participants read 15 sentences describing fortunate events involving either character. After reading each sentence, participants rated the event in terms of how much envy they felt for the character (1=no envy, 9=extreme envy). In the second block, participants read and reported the intensity of their pleasure (schadenfreude, 1=no pleasure, 9=extreme pleasure) in response to 15 unfortunate events happening to the characters. Five neutral events were included in each block. Moreover, participants were assessed with ToM and empathy tests. Potential confounding variables such as general cognitive functioning, stress levels, hours of sleep and depression symptoms were also measured. Results showed that parents of newborns showed increased levels of envy and schadenfreude. These effects are not explained by any confounding factor. Moreover, no significant differences were found in ToM or empathy tests. Our results offer unprecedented evidence of specific differences in envy and schadenfreude levels in parents of newborns. Our findings support previous studies showing a negative relationship between oxytocin levels and negative social emotions. Further studies should assess the direct relationship between oxytocin levels in parents of newborns and the performance in social emotions tasks.

Keywords: envy, empathy, oxytocin, schadenfreude, social emotions, theory of mind

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Authors: Xinyu Gong, Zhilin Li, Xintao Liu

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Maps are a means of communication. Cartographic language involves established theories of natural language for understanding maps. “Cartographic words’, or “map symbols”, are crucial elements of cartographic language. Personalized mapping is increasingly popular, with growing demands for customized map-making by the general public. Automated symbol-making and customization play a key role in personalized mapping. However, formal representations for the automated construction of map symbols are still lacking. In natural language, the process of word and sentence construction can be formalized. Through the analogy between natural language and graphical language, formal representations of natural language construction can be used as a reference for constructing cartographic language. We selected Chinese character structures (i.e., S

Keywords: personalized mapping, Chinese character, cartographic language, map symbols

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Authors: Ku Yu Yiu

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Writers have included the ugly in their works for centuries, but ugliness has often served merely as a contrast to bring out the beautiful, not having emerged as an independent aesthetic category until recent history. In the 1980s, China was going through a series of changes and transformations; the wounds and scars from the Cultural Revolution, a freer literary atmosphere then, and the introduction of Western thoughts into China gave rise to a trend of penning the ugly and the repulsive among writers. Such trend of utilizing 'Ugliness' as a theme of writing in Chinese literature is especially observed among Xianfeng writers (China’s pioneer writers or avant-garde writers). As a prominent Xianfeng writer, Su Tong (1963-) also incorporates ugliness into his novels: shoddy environment, degenerate and ruthless society, distorted and decadent humanity are part and parcel of his deliberate efforts of exploring and depicting the ugly aspects of the world. His full-length novel Rice, staging the appalling protagonist Five Dragons, is a prime example. In fact, all characters in Rice exhibit Ugliness but Five Dragons’s turning into a figure of ugly spite is the most thorough and complete, making Rice a masterpiece of Su Tong’s art in projecting the Ugliness embedded in society and human nature. Approaching Rice from the angle of the aesthetics of the Ugly and selecting Five Dragons as the subject of close reading and analysis, this paper offers insights into both Su Tong’s distinct style of foregrounding and unfolding Ugliness in his novel and the workings of such text when he deploys the Ugly as a center component of his writing. In addition to citing from the discussion of Rice by literary critics and the author himself, this paper also presents textual evidence and analyzes the imageries/motifs and calculated vocabulary/narration employed by Su Tong to illustrate how Five Dragons' extreme behaviors and psychological states are integral to the plot and ultimately to the manifestation of ugliness as the novel’s theme. This study reveals that although the psyche and doings of Five Dragons and other 'ugly' characters are, as the author once stated, imagined products of the writer Su Tong himself, Rice sheds light onto the ugly aspects of life in China in 1920s-30s. Three aspects of Ugliness are identified and discussed in the paper. Lastly, this paper also suggests some effects of Su Tong’s exploration of Ugliness in Rice, proposing that the portrayal of Ugliness per se is not the ends of Su Tong’s mastery of the aesthetics of the Ugly but rather a means to making his writing transcend from provoking spontaneous moral judgment in readers on the doings of Five Dragons to prompting readers to ponder on philosophical questions such as how humanity can still be possible when an individual confronts the dark sides of a self, a society, and his/her fate.

Keywords: aesthetics, Rice, Su Tong, Ugly

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Authors: Mulugeta Shegaze, Mekitie Wondafrash, Alemayehu A. Alemayehu, Shikur Mohammed, Zewdu Shewangezaw, Mukerem Abdo, Gebresilasea Gendisha

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Background: The 2004 World Health Assembly called for specific actions to halt the overweight and obesity epidemic that is currently penetrating urban populations in the developing world. Adolescents require particular attention due to their vulnerability to develop obesity and the fact that adolescent weight tracks strongly into adulthood. However, there is scarcity of information on the modifiable risk factors to be targeted for primary intervention among urban adolescents in Ethiopia. This study was aimed at determining the magnitude and risk factors of overweight and obesity among high school adolescents in Addis Ababa. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in February and March 2014 on 456 randomly selected adolescents from 20 high schools in Addis Ababa city.  Demographic data and other risk factors of overweight and obesity were collected using self-administered structured questionnaire, whereas anthropometric measurements of weight and height were taken using calibrated equipment and standardized techniques. The WHO STEPS instrument for chronic disease risk was applied to assess dietary habit and physical activity. Overweight and obesity status was determined based on BMI-for-age percentiles of WHO 2007 reference population. Results: The prevalence rates of overweight, obesity, and overall overweight/ obesity among high school adolescents in Addis Ababa were 9.7% (95%CI = 6.9-12.4%), 4.2% (95%CI = 2.3-6.0%), and 13.9% (95%CI = 10.6-17.1%), respectively. Overweight/obesity prevalence was highest among female adolescents, in private schools, and in the higher wealth category. In multivariable regression model, being female [AOR(95%CI) = 5.4(2.5,12.1)], being from private school [AOR(95%CI) = 3.0(1.4,6.2)], having >3 regular meals [AOR(95%CI) = 4.0(1.3,13.0)], consumption of sweet foods [AOR(95%CI) = 5.0(2.4,10.3)] and spending >3 hours/day sitting [AOR(95%CI) = 3.5(1.7,7.2)] were found to increase overweight/ obesity risk, whereas high Total Physical Activity level [AOR(95%CI) = 0.21(0.08,0.57)] and better nutrition knowledge [AOR(95%CI) = 0.160.07,0.37)] were found protective. Conclusions: More than one in ten of the high school adolescents were affected by overweight/obesity with dietary habit and physical activity are important modifiable risk factors. Well-tailored nutrition education program targeting lifestyle change should be initiated with more emphasis to female adolescents and students in private schools.

Keywords: adolescents, NCDs, overweight, obesity

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Authors: Mansour F. Hussein, Mohammed A. Alshaikh, Riyadh S. Al-Jumaah, A. GarelNabi, I. Al-Khalifa, Osama B. Mohammed

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Serum samples from 489 male and female camels were tested for antibodies against C. burnetii using indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Antibodies to C. burnetii were recorded in sera of 252 (51.64%) camels. Significant differences in prevalence were found between male and female camels, juvenile and adult camels, different ecotypes and different sampling locations. 307 camels were simultaneously tested for C. burnetii antibodies by ELISA and indirect immunofluorescence (IFA). Close agreement was found between the results of the two tests. A high prevalence of C. burnetii antibodies was also recorded in milk samples tested by ELISA. Clinical samples from serologically positive camels were subjected to PCR analysis using primers which amplify the repetitive transposon-like and transposase gene regions of C. burnetii. Positive DNA amplification was obtained from both regions, with highest shedding of C. burnetii in faecal samples (27.59%) followed, in descending order, by urine (23.81%), blood (15.85%) and milk (6.5%). The present results indicate that camels are a major reservoir of C. burnetii in Saudi Arabia. The high prevalence of infection in camels, the poor sanitary standards under which the animals are kept and the consumption of raw camel milk indicate that camels could also be a major source of transmission of Q fever to humans in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Arabian camel, Camelus dromedarius, Coxiella brunetii, ELISA, immunofluoresence, PCR

Procedia PDF Downloads 651

Authors: Sohail Ahmad Umer

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Since last few decades a question is raising on the subject of the importance of women in different societies of the world particularly in the developing societies of Asia and Africa. Female population constitutes almost 50% of the total population of the world and is playing a significant role in the economy with male population. In Pakistan, a developing country of Asia with majority of Muslim population, working women role is more focused. Women of rural background who are working as voluntary workers and their working hours are neither recorded nor recognized. Agricultural statistics shows that the female participation rate is below 40% while other sources claim them below 20%. Here in present study, another effort has been made to compare the women role in two different provinces of Pakistan to analyze the participation of women in agricultural activities like sowing, picking, irrigating the fields, harvesting and threshing of crops, caring and feeding of the animals, collecting the firewood and etc,as without these activities the farming would be incomplete. One hundred villages in the district Khushab (Punjab) and one hundred villages in district D.I.Khan (KPK) were selected and 33% of the families of each village have been interviewed to study their input in agriculture work. Another important feature is the social stratification therefore the contribution by different variables like the ownership, tenancy, education and caste has also been studied.

Keywords: caste, social stratification, tenancy, voluntary workers

Procedia PDF Downloads 369

Authors: Esmail Sadipour

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The use of social networks is increasing day by day in all societies. The purpose of this research was to know the relationship between the use of social networks (Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram) with executive functions and academic performance in first-year female high school students. This research was applied in terms of purpose, quantitative in terms of data type, and correlational in terms of technique. The population of this research consisted of all female high school students in the first year of district 2 of Tehran. Using Green's formula, the sample size of 150 people was determined and selected by cluster random method. In this way, from all 17 high schools in district 2 of Tehran, 5 high schools were selected by a simple random method and then one class was selected from each high school, and a total of 155 students were selected. To measure the use of social networks, a researcher-made questionnaire was used, the Barclay test (2012) was used for executive functions, and last semester's GPA was used for academic performance. Pearson's correlation coefficient and multivariate regression were used to analyze the data. The results showed that there is a negative relationship between the amount of use of social networks and self-control, self-motivation and time self-management. In other words, the more the use of social networks, the fewer executive functions of students, self-control, self-motivation, and self-management of their time. Also, with the increase in the use of social networks, the academic performance of students has decreased.

Keywords: social networks, executive function, academic performance, working memory

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: A. Sathiya Susuman, Hamisi F. Hamisi

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Background: Many socio-economic and demographic data are age-sex attributed. However, a variety of irregularities and misstatement are noted with respect to age-related data and less to sex data because of its biological differences between the genders. Noting the misstatement/misreporting of age data regardless of its significance importance in demographics and epidemiological studies, this study aims at assessing the quality of 2012 Tanzania Population and Housing Census Results. Methods: Data for the analysis are downloaded from Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics. Age heaping and digit preference were measured using summary indices viz., Whipple’s index, Myers’ blended index, and Age-Sex Accuracy index. Results: The recorded Whipple’s index for both sexes was 154.43; male has the lowest index of about 152.65 while female has the highest index of about 156.07. For Myers’ blended index, the preferences were at digits ‘0’ and ‘5’ while avoidance were at digits ‘1’ and ‘3’ for both sexes. Finally, Age-sex index stood at 59.8 where sex ratio score was 5.82 and age ratio scores were 20.89 and 21.4 for males and female respectively. Conclusion: The evaluation of the 2012 PHC data using the demographic techniques has qualified the data inaccurate as the results of systematic heaping and digit preferences/avoidances. Thus, innovative methods in data collection along with measuring and minimizing errors using statistical techniques should be used to ensure accuracy of age data.

Keywords: age heaping, digit preference/avoidance, summary indices, Whipple’s index, Myer’s index, age-sex accuracy index

Procedia PDF Downloads 474

Authors: Nihan Nugay, Nur Cicek Kekec, Kalman Toth, Turgut Nugay, Joseph P. Kennedy

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In recent years, polyurethane structures are paving the way for elastomer usage in biology, human medicine, and biomedical application areas. Polyurethanes having a combination of high oxidative and hydrolytic stability and excellent mechanical properties are focused due to enhancing the usage of PUs especially for implantable medical device application such as cardiac-assist. Currently, unique polyurethanes consisting of polyisobutylenes as soft segments and conventional hard segments, named as PIB-based PUs, are developed with precise NCO/OH stoichiometry (∽1.05) for obtaining PIB-based PUs with enhanced properties (i.e., tensile stress increased from ∽11 to ∽26 MPa and elongation from ∽350 to ∽500%). Static and dynamic mechanical properties were optimized by examining stress-strain graphs, self-organization and crystallinity (XRD) traces, rheological (DMA, creep) profiles and thermal (TGA, DSC) responses. Annealing procedure was applied for PIB-based PUs. Annealed PIB-based PU shows ∽26 MPa tensile strength, ∽500% elongation, and ∽77 Microshore hardness with excellent hydrolytic and oxidative stability. The surface characters of them were examined with AFM and contact angle measurements. Annealed PIB-based PU exhibits the higher segregation of individual segments and surface hydrophobicity thus annealing significantly enhances hydrolytic and oxidative stability by shielding carbamate bonds by inert PIB chains. According to improved surface and microstructure characters, greater efforts are focused on analyzing protein adsorption and calcification profiles. In biomedical applications especially for cardiological implantations, protein adsorption inclination on polymeric heart valves is undesirable hence protein adsorption from blood serum is followed by platelet adhesion and subsequent thrombus formation. The protein adsorption character of PIB-based PU examines by applying Bradford assay in fibrinogen and bovine serum albumin solutions. Like protein adsorption, calcium deposition on heart valves is very harmful because vascular calcification has been proposed activation of osteogenic mechanism in the vascular wall, loss of inhibitory factors, enhance bone turnover and irregularities in mineral metabolism. The calcium deposition on films are characterized by incubating samples in simulated body fluid solution and examining SEM images and XPS profiles. PIB-based PUs are significantly more resistant to hydrolytic-oxidative degradation, protein adsorption and calcium deposition than ElastEonTM E2A, a commercially available PDMS-based PU, widely used for biomedical applications.

Keywords: biomedical application, calcification, polyisobutylene, polyurethane, protein adsorption

Procedia PDF Downloads 257

Authors: Josef Voracek, Jan Sima

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The main purpose of our study is to state the basic types of fitness customers. This paper aims to create a specific customer typology in today’s fitness centres in the region of Prague. Our suggested typology of Prague fitness centres customers is based on answers to the questions: What are the customers like, what are their preferences, and what kinds of services do they use more often in Prague fitness centres? These are the main aspects of the presented typology. A survey was conducted on a sample of 1004 respondents from 48 fitness centres, which ran during May 2012. We used questionnaires and latent class analysis for the assessment and interpretation of data. Gender was especially the main filter criterion. In the population, there were 522 males and 482 females. Data were analysed using the LCA method. We identified 6 segments of typical customers, of which three are male and three are female. Each segment is influenced primarily by the age of customers, from which we can develop further characteristics, such as education, income, marital status, etc. Male segments use the main workout area above all, whilst female segments use a much wider range of services offered, for example, group exercises, personal training, and cardio theatres. LCA method was found to be the most suitable tool, because cluster analysis is very limited in the forms and numbers of variables and indicators. Models of 3 latent classes for each gender are optimal, as it is demonstrated by entropy indices and matrices of the likelihood of the membership to the classes. A probable weak point of the survey is the selection of fitness centres, because of the market in Prague is really specific.

Keywords: customer, fitness, latent class analysis, typology

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Diea Gamal Abo El-Hassan, Salwa Ahmed Aly, Abdelrahman Mahmoud Abdelgwad

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The major conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers have anticancer effect, especially breast cancer cells, inhibits cell growth and induces cell death. Also, CLA has several health benefits in vivo, including antiatherogenesis, antiobesity, and modulation of immune function. The present study aimed to assess the safety and anticancer effects of milk fat CLA against in vivo Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) in female Swiss albino mice. This was based on acute toxicity study, detection of the tumor growth, life span of EAC bearing hosts, and simultaneous alterations in the hematological, biochemical, and histopathological profiles. Materials and Methods: One hundred and fifty adult female mice were equally divided into five groups. Groups (1-2) were normal controls, and Groups (3-5) were tumor transplanted mice (TTM) inoculated intraperitoneally with EAC cells (2×106 /0.2 mL). Group (3) was (TTM positive control). Group (4) TTM fed orally on balanced diet supplemented with milk fat CLA (40 mg CLA/kg body weight). Group (5) TTM fed orally on balanced diet supplemented with the same level of CLA 28 days before tumor cells inoculation. Blood samples and specimens from liver and kidney were collected from each group. The effect of milk fat CLA on the growth of tumor, life span of TTM, and simultaneous alterations in the hematological, biochemical, and histopathological profiles were examined. Results: For CLA treated TTM, significant decrease in tumor weight, ascetic volume, viable Ehrlich cells accompanied with increase in life span were observed. Hematological and biochemical profiles reverted to more or less normal levels and histopathology showed minimal effects. Conclusion: The present study proved the safety and anticancer efficiency of milk fat CLA and provides a scientific basis for its medicinal use as anticancer attributable to the additive or synergistic effects of its isomers.

Keywords: anticancer activity, conjugated linoleic acid, Ehrlich ascites carcinoma, % increase in life span, mean survival time, tumor transplanted mice.

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Ali Oublal

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If any period in history seems appropriate for the study of identity, it is a period of greater mobility; the 21st century. Margaret Wetherill (2009) is thus right while asking who we can be in this age. New biographies of people, their trajectories and new locations appear on the ground; how people do make sense of the self becomes the central question not only for social scientists, and cultural theorists but also for literary critics. New-fangled technologies have resulted in the substitution of stable identities by multiple, fragmented and more uncertain identities. A liquid sense of the self as well as unstable and dynamic forms of life does not fail to inspire novelists who have given robust sense of identities attributed to their characters. The following account comes to snapshot features of identity as being presented by meta-modernist novels: the sympathizer, sisters and a girl is a half formed thing. It is a stance that refutes the claim of Elliott‘s who still adheres the stable state of identity in meta-modernist age while reconciling the two paradigms modernity and postmodernity.

Keywords: identity, metamodernism, fragmantation, stability, literature

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Aboli Dhanavade, Shweta Bhimnath, Rutuja Jumale, Ajay Nadargi

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Security to any of our personal thing is our most basic need. It is not possible to directly apply that standard Human-computer—interaction approaches. Important usability goal for authentication system is to support users in selecting best passwords. Users often select text-passwords that are easy to remember, but they are more open for attackers to guess. The human brain is good in remembering pictures rather than textual characters. So the best alternative is being designed that is Graphical passwords. However, Graphical passwords are still immature. Conventional password schemes are also vulnerable to Shoulder-surfing attacks, many shoulder-surfing resistant graphical passwords schemes have been proposed. Next, we have analyzed the security and usability of the proposed scheme, and show the resistance of the proposed scheme to shoulder-surfing and different accidental logins.

Keywords: shoulder-surfing, security, authentication, text-passwords

Procedia PDF Downloads 361