Search results for: cross country comparison

Authors: Mimoza Canga, Alketa Qafmolla, Vergjini Mulo, Irene Malagnino

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Aim: Assessment of oral health in young people aged 18-29 years after the Covid-19 pandemic in Albania. Materials and methods: The present study was conducted at the University of Medicine in Tirana, Albania, from March 2023 to September 2023. This is s cross-sectional study. In our research, 104 students participated, of which 64 were females (61.5%) and 40 were males (38.5%). In the present survey, the participants were divided into four age groups: 18-20, 21-23, 24-26, and 27-29 years old. Majority of the sample (69%) were 18-20 years. Participants were instructed to complete the questionnaire. The study had no dropouts. The current study was conducted in accordance to Helsinki declaration. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 23.0, Microsoft Windows Linux, Chicago, IL, USA. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: This study reported that 80 (76.9%) of the participants had passed Covid-19, while 24 (23.1%) of them had not passed Covid-19. Based on our data analysis, 70 (67.3%) of the participants had symptoms such as of fever 38°C- 40.5°C and headache. They stated that were treated with Azithromycin 500 mg tablets, Augmentin 625 mg tablets, Vitamin C 1000 mg, Magnesium, and Vitamin D. 40(38.4%) of the participants noticed hypersensitivity in gums (p = 0.004) and sensitive teeth (p = 0.001) after having passed Covid-19 compared to pre-pandemic. Nearly 40 (38.4%) of the participants who passed Covid-19 were treated with painful relievers for the gums and teeth, such as ibuprofen (Advil), used Sensodyne Toothpaste for sensitive teeth and Clove oil. Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study conducted in Albania, can concluded that Covid-19 has a direct impact on oral health.

Keywords: albania, Covid19, cross-sectional study, oral health

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Authors: Rahul Ravindranathan, R. P. Gokul

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India, in its efforts towards economic and social development, is currently experiencing a heavy demand for energy. Due to the lack of sufficient domestic energy reserves, the country is highly dependent on energy imports which has increased rapidly at a rate of about 12 % per annum since 2005. Hence, India is currently focusing its efforts to manage this energy supply and demand gap and eventually achieve energy security. One of the most cost effective means to reduce this gap is by adopting Energy efficiency measures in the country. Initial assessments have shown that Energy efficiency measures have an energy conservation potential of about 23%. For an estimated investment potential of USD 8 Billion, the annual energy savings was estimated to be about 180 Billion Units per annum. In order to explore this huge energy conservation potential, many critical factors need to be considered to achieve practical energy savings. Financing options for these investments is one such major factor. Not only has India come out with various policy level as well as technology level drives to promote Energy efficiency but it has also developed various financing schemes to promote investment in Energy Efficiency projects. The Public sector has already come out with certain financing schemes such as the Partial Risk Guarantee Fund (PRGF), Venture Capital Fund (VCF), Partial Risk Sharing Fund (PRSF) etc., and various sectors are gradually utilizing these schemes to implement energy saving measures. However, additional financing options are required in order to explore the untouched energy conservation potential in the country. Hence, there is a need to develop some innovative financing options for India which would motivate the private sectors as well as financing institutions to invest in these energy saving measures. This paper shall review the existing financing schemes launched by the Government of India and highlight the key benefits as well as challenges with respect to these schemes. In addition to this, the paper would also review new and innovative financing schemes for India and how the same could be adopted in other parts of the globe especially in South and South East Asia. This review would provide an insight to the various Governments as well as Financial Institutions in coming out with new financing schemes for their country.

Keywords: energy, efficiency, financing, India

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Authors: Yadgar Tayfur, Antony Darby, Tim Ibell, Mark Evernden, John Orr

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Fabric form-work is a technique to cast concrete structures with a great advantage of saving concrete material of up to 40%. This technique is particularly associated with the optimized concrete structures that usually have smaller cross-section dimensions than equivalent prismatic members. However, this can make the structural system produced from these members prone to smaller serviceability safety margins. Therefore, it is very important to understand the serviceability issue of non-prismatic concrete structures. In this paper, an analytical computer-based model to optimize concrete beams and to predict load-deflection behaviour of both prismatic and non-prismatic concrete beams is presented. The model was developed based on the method of sectional analysis and integration of curvatures. Results from the analytical model were compared to load-deflection behaviour of a number of beams with different geometric and material properties from other researchers. The results of the comparison show that the analytical program can accurately predict the load-deflection response of concrete beams with medium reinforcement ratios. However, it over-estimates deflection values for lightly reinforced specimens. Finally, the analytical program acceptably predicted load-deflection behaviour of on-prismatic concrete beams.

Keywords: fabric-formed concrete, continuous beams, optimisation, serviceability

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Authors: Jonix Owino, Heather Fuller

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Refugees flee from their home countries due to civil unrest, war, persecution and migrate to Western countries such as the United States in search of a safe haven. Transitioning into a new society and culture can be challenging, thereby affecting refugee’s quality of life and well-being in the host communities. Moreover, as individuals age, they experience physical, cognitive and socioemotional changes that may impact their quality of life. However, little is known about the predictors of quality of life among aging refugees. It is not clear how quality of life varies by age, that is, between midlife refugees in comparison to their older counterparts. In addition to age, other sociodemographic factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, or country of origin are likely to have differential associations to quality of life, yet research on such variations among older refugees is sparse. Thus the present study seeks to explore factors associated with quality of life by asking the following research questions: 1) Do sociodemographic factors (such as age and gender) predict quality of life among older refugees, 2) Is there an association between social integration and quality of life, and 3) Is there an association between migratory related experiences (such as post migratory adjustments) and quality of life. The present study recruited 90 refugees (primarily originating from Bhutan, Somalia, Burundi, and Sudan) aged 50 or older living in the US. The participants completed a structured questionnaire which assessed factors such as participant’s sociodemographic attributes (e.g., age, gender, length of residence in the US, country of origin, employment, level of education, and marital status), and validated measures of social integration, post-migration living difficulties, and quality of life. Preliminary results suggest sociodemographic variability in quality of life among these refugees. Further analyses will be conducted using hierarchical regression analyses to address the following hypotheses: first, it is hypothesized that quality of life will vary by age and gender such that younger refugees and men will report higher quality of life. Second, it is expected that refugees with greater levels of social integration will also report better quality of life. Finally, post-migration factors such as language barriers and family stress are hypothesized to predict poorer quality of life. Further results will be analyzed, including potential moderating effects of age and gender, and resulting findings will be interpreted and discussed. The findings from this study have potential implications for communities on how they can better support older refugees as well as develop social programs that can effectively cater to their well-being. Conclusions will be drawn and discussed in light of policies related to both aging and refugee migration within the context of the US.

Keywords: aging out of place, migration, older refugees, quality of life, social integration

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Authors: Mary Ostaszewski

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For many years China was riddled by poverty among many other issues and was far from a world power. However, today China has one of the largest GDPs of any country in the world and is a global powerhouse. Since China has accomplished so much, many would presume that this means China is moving away from being a “developing country” alongside countries such as India, Brazil, Israel, etc. into the category “developed country” with countries such as the U.S. Yet, this is not the case as, despite their economic strides, China still has ways to come, especially when it comes to human rights. China faces extreme criticism regarding how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) handles human rights. China has an Orwellian-based society where technology is highly monitored, critics are quickly silenced, and freedoms are heavily restricted. One of their most recent human rights violations is attempting to repress Uyghur populations by placing them into “re-education camps,” where an already vulnerable population is being deprived of their freedoms through severe oppression. These violations create concerns as other developing countries with authoritarian governments follow the example of China. This is mainly because China has seen great success economically while simultaneously being able to maintain its authoritarian regime, thus, inspiring other countries to continue their human rights violations in hopes of gaining success similar to China’s. This idolization of China by other authoritarian regimes creates a concern especially regarding their “re-education” camps. This paper will argue that Chinese “re-education” camps are not only dangerous because they severely oppress and harm the Uyghur population. Yet they are also dangerous because other countries already impressed by China’s success may adopt similar camps in their countries to ensure their oppressive governments retain their tight grasp on power.

Keywords: China, re-education camps, developing countries, Africa, West

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Authors: Cassandra A. Skinner, Linda R. Chamberlain

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The nonprofit and public sectors are increasingly turning to Geographic Information Systems for data visualizations which can better inform programmatic and policy decisions. Additionally, the private and nonprofit sectors are turning to systems mapping to better understand the ecosystems within which they operate. This study explores the potential which combining these data visualization methods—a method which is called geographic systems mapping—to create an exhaustive and comprehensive understanding of a social problem’s ecosystem may have in social innovation efforts. Researchers with Grand Valley State University collaborated with Talent 2025 of West Michigan to conduct a mixed-methods research study to paint a comprehensive picture of the workforce development ecosystem in West Michigan. Using semi-structured interviewing, observation, secondary research, and quantitative analysis, data were compiled on workforce development organizations’ locations, programming, metrics for success, partnerships, funding sources, and service language. To best visualize and disseminate the data, a geographic system map was created which identifies programmatic, operational, and geographic gaps in workforce development services of West Michigan. By combining geographic and systems mapping methods, the geographic system map provides insight into the cross-sector relationships, collaboration, and competition which exists among and between workforce development organizations. These insights identify opportunities for and constraints around cross-sectoral social innovation in the West Michigan workforce development ecosystem. This paper will discuss the process utilized to prepare the geographic systems map, explain the results and outcomes, and demonstrate how geographic systems mapping illuminated the needs of the community and opportunities for social innovation. As complicated social problems like unemployment often require cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder solutions, there is potential for geographic systems mapping to be a tool which informs, enables, and inspires these solutions.

Keywords: cross-sector collaboration, data visualization, geographic systems mapping, social innovation, workforce development

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Authors: Oluibukun G. Ajayi, Joseph O. Odumosu, Oladimeji T. Babafemi, Azeez Z. Opeyemi, Asaleye O. Samuel

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The need for the complete automation of every procedure of surveying and most especially, its engineering applications cannot be overemphasized due to the many demerits of the conventional manual or analogue approach. This paper presents the summarized details of the development of a Route Information Management (RIM) software. The software, codenamed ‘AutoROUTE’, was encoded using Microsoft visual studio-visual basic package, and it offers complete automation of the computational procedures and plan production involved in route surveying. It was experimented using a route survey data (longitudinal profile and cross sections) of a 2.7 km road which stretches from Dama to Lunko village in Minna, Niger State, acquired with the aid of a Hi-Target DGPS receiver. The developed software (AutoROUTE) is capable of computing the various simple curve parameters, horizontal curve, and vertical curve, and it can also plot road alignment, longitudinal profile, and cross-section with a capability to store this on the SQL incorporated into the Microsoft visual basic software. The plotted plans with AutoROUTE were compared with the plans produced with the conventional AutoCAD Civil 3D software, and AutoROUTE proved to be more user-friendly and accurate because it plots in three decimal places whereas AutoCAD plots in two decimal places. Also, it was discovered that AutoROUTE software is faster in plotting and the stages involved is less cumbersome compared to AutoCAD Civil 3D software.

Keywords: automated systems, cross sections, curves, engineering construction, longitudinal profile, route surveying

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Authors: Hee-Jae Suh, Kyung-Su Kim, Min-Ji Kim, Yeon-Seong Jeong, Ok-Hwan Lee, Jae-Wook Shin, Hyang-Sook Chun, Chan Lee

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Canthaxanthin is keto-carotenoid produced from beta-carotene and it has been approved to be used in many countries as a food coloring agent. Canthaxanthin has been analyzed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) system with various ways of pretreatment methods. Four official methods for verification of canthaxanthin at FSA (UK), AOAC (US), EFSA (EU) and MHLW (Japan) were compared to improve its analytical and the pretreatment method. The Linearity, the limit of detection (LOD), the limit of quantification (LOQ), the accuracy, the precision and the recovery ratio were determined from each method with modification in pretreatment method. All HPLC methods exhibited correlation coefficients of calibration curves for canthaxanthin as 0.9999. The analysis methods from FSA, AOAC, and MLHW showed the LOD of 0.395 ppm, 0.105 ppm, and 0.084 ppm, and the LOQ of 1.196 ppm, 0.318 ppm, 0.254 ppm, respectively. Among tested methods, HPLC method of MHLW with modification in pretreatments was finally selected for the analysis of canthaxanthin in lab, because it exhibited the resolution factor of 4.0 and the selectivity of 1.30. This analysis method showed a correlation coefficients value of 0.9999 and the lowest LOD and LOQ. Furthermore, the precision ratio was lower than 1 and the accuracy was almost 100%. The method presented the recovery ratio of 90-110% with modification in pretreatment method. The cross-validation of coefficient variation was 5 or less among tested three institutions in Korea.

Keywords: analytic method, canthaxanthin, food colorants, pretreatment method

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Authors: Umit Candan, Kadir Dogan, Ozkan Akin

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In this study, the use of a modified rotor 6/4 Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) and a Brushless Direct Current Motor (BLDC) in pan-tilt systems is compared. Pan-tilt systems are critical mechanisms that enable the precise orientation of cameras and sensors, and their performance largely depends on the characteristics of the motors used. The aim of the study is to determine how the performance of the SRM can be improved through rotor modifications and how these improvements can compete with BLDC motors. Using Finite Element Method (FEM) analyses, the design characteristics and magnetic performance of the 6/4 Switched Reluctance Motor are examined in detail. The modified SRM is found to offer increased torque capacity and efficiency while standing out with its simple construction and robustness. FEM analysis results of SRM indicate that considering its cost-effectiveness and performance improvements achieved through modifications, the SRM is a strong alternative for certain pan-tilt applications. This study aims to provide engineers and researchers with a performance comparison of the modified rotor 6/4 SRM and BLDC motors in pan-tilt systems, helping them make more informed and effective motor selections.

Keywords: reluctance machines, switched reluctance machines, pan-tilt application, comparison, FEM analysis

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Authors: Andrew Green, Jiaming Liu, Kellathur Srinivasan, Raymond Chua

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Introduction: The size of Singapore’s online health product (HP) market (e-commerce) is largely unknown. However, it is recognized that a large majority comes from overseas and thus, unregulated. As buying HP from unauthorized sources significantly compromises public health safety, understanding e-commerce users’ demographics and their perceptions on online HP purchasing becomes a pivotal first step to form a basis for recommendations in Singapore’s pharmacovigilance efforts. Objective: To assess the prevalence of online HP purchasing behaviour among Singaporean e-commerce users. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study targeting Singaporean e-commerce users recruited from various local websites and online forums. Participants were not randomized into study arms but instead stratified by random sampling method based on participants’ age. A self-administered anonymous questionnaire was used to explore participants' demographics, online HP purchasing behaviour, knowledge and attitude. The association of different variables with online HP purchasing behaviour was analysed using logistic regression statistics. Main outcome measures: Prevalence of HP e-commerce users in Singapore (%) and variables that contribute to the prevalence (adjusted prevalent ratio). Results: The study recruited 372 complete and valid responses. The prevalence of online HP consumers among e-commerce users in Singapore is estimated to be 55.9% (1.7 million consumers). Online purchasing of complementary HP (46.9%) was the most prevalent, followed by medical devices (21.6%) and Western medicine (20.5%). Multivariate analysis showed that age is an independent variable that correlates with the likelihood of buying HP online. The prevalence of HP e-commerce users is highest in the 35-44 age group (64.1%) and lowest among the 16-24 age group (36.4%). The most bought HP through the internet are vitamins and minerals (21.5%), non-herbal (15.9%), herbal (13.9%), weight loss (8.7%) and sports (8.4%) supplements. While the top 3 products are distributed equally between the genders, there is a skew towards female respondents (12.4% in females vs. 4.9% in males) for weight loss supplements and towards males (13.2% in males vs. 3.7% in females) for sports supplements. Even though online consumers are in the younger age brackets, our study found that up to 72.0% of HP bought online are bought for others (buyer’s family and/or friends). Multivariate analysis showed a statistically significant association between purchasing HP through online means and the perceptions that 'internet is safe' (adjusted Prevalence Ratio=1.15, CI 1.03-1.28), 'buying HP online is time saving' (PR=1.17, CI 1.01-1.36), and 'recognition of HP brand' (PR=1.21 CI 1.06-1.40). Conclusions: This study has provided prevalence data for online HP market in Singapore, and has allowed the country’s regulatory body to formulate a targeted pharmacovigilance approach to this growing problem.

Keywords: e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, pharmacovigilance, Singapore

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Authors: Jie Zheng, Ruifeng Luo

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The United States is the world’s most developed economy with the strongest military power. China is the fastest growing country with growing comprehensive strength and its economic strength is second only to the US. However, the conflict between them is getting serious in recent years. President’s address is the representative of a nation’s ideology. The paper has built up a small sized corpus of President Xi Jinping and Trump’s speech in Davos to investigate their respective use and types of metaphors and calculate the respective percentage of each type of metaphor. The result shows President Xi Jinping employs more metaphors than Trump. The metaphors of Xi includes “building” metaphor, “plant” metaphor, “journey” metaphor, “ship” metaphor, “traffic” metaphor, “nation is a person” metaphor, “show” metaphor, etc while Trump’s comprises “war” metaphor, “building” metaphor, “journey” metaphor, “traffic” metaphor, “tax” metaphor, “book” metaphor, etc. After investigating metaphor use differences, the paper makes an analysis of the underlying ideology between the two nations. China is willing to strengthen ties with all the countries all over the world and has built a platform of development for them and itself to go to the destination of social well being while the US pays much concern to itself, emphasizing its first leading position and is also willing to help its alliances to development. The paper’s comparison of the ideology difference between the two countries will help them get a better understanding and reduce the conflict to some extent.

Keywords: metaphor; corpus; ideology; conflict

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Authors: Victor Siahaan

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Coal still become the most important energy source for electricity generation known for its contribution which take the biggest portion of energy mix that a country has, for example Indonesia. The low cost of electricity generation and quite a lot of resources make this energy still be the first choice to fill the portion of base load power. To realize its significance to produce electricity, it is necessary to know the amount of coal (volume) needed to ensure that all coal power plants (CPP) in a country can operate properly. To secure the volume of coal, in this study, discussion was carried out regarding the identification of coal mining sources in Indonesia, classification of coal typical from each coal mining sources, and determination of the port of loading. By using data above, the sources of coal mining are then selected to feed certain CPP based on the compatibility of the coal typical and the lowest transport cost.

Keywords: merit order, Indonesian coal mine, electricity, power plant

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Authors: Georgios Linardatos, Miltiadis Zamparas, Vlasoula Bekiari, Georgios Bokias, Georgios Hotos

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Hydrogels are three-dimensional, hydrophilic, polymeric networks composed of homopolymers or copolymers and are insoluble in water due to the presence of chemical or physical cross-links. When hydrogels come in contact with aqueous solutions, they can effectively sorb and retain the dissolved substances, depending on the nature of the monomeric units comprising the hydrogel. For this reason, hydrogels have been proposed in several studies as water purification agents. At the present work anionic hydrogels bearing negatively charged –COO- groups were prepared and investigated. These gels are based on sodium acrylate (ANa), either homopolymerized (poly(sodiumacrylate), PANa) or copolymerized (P(DMAM-co-ANa)) with N,N Dimethylacrylamide (DMAM). The hydrogels were used to extract some model organic dyes from water. It is found that cationic dyes are strongly sorbed and retained by the hydrogels, while sorption of anionic dyes was negligible. In all cases it was found that both maximum sorption capacity and equilibrium binding constant varied from one dye to the other depending on the chemical structure of the dye, the presence of functional chemical groups and the hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance. Finally, the nonionic hydrogel of the homopolymer poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide), PDMAM, was also used for reasons of comparison.

Keywords: anionic organic hydrogels, sorption, organic dyes, water purification agents

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Authors: A. C. Rana, Abhinav Singh Rana

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Layer by layer coating of biocompatible polyelectrolytes converts the liposomes into stable version i.e 'layersomes'. This system was further used to deliver the Amphotericin B through the oral route. Extensive optimization of different process variables resulted in the formation of layersomes with the particle size of 238.4±5.1, PDI of 0.24±0.16, the zeta potential of 34.6±1.3, and entrapment efficiency of 71.3±1.2. TEM analysis further confirmed the formation of spherical particles. Trehalose (10% w/w) resulted in the formation of fluffy and easy to redisperse cake in freeze dried layersomes. Controlled release up to 50 % within 24 h was observed in the case of layersomes. The layersomes were found stable in simulated biological fluids and resulted in the 3.59 fold higher bioavailability in comparison to free Amp-B. Furthermore, the developed formulation was found to be safe in comparison to Fungizone as indicated by blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine level.

Keywords: amphotericin B, layersomes, liposomes, toxicity

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Authors: Houcine Naim, Abdelatif Hassini, Noureddine Benabadji, Alex Van Den Bossche

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In this paper, two models to estimate the overall monthly average daily radiation on a horizontal surface were applied to the site of Oran (35.38 ° N, 0.37 °W). We present a comparison between the first one is a regression equation of the Angstrom type and the second model is developed by the present authors some modifications were suggested using as input parameters: the astronomical parameters as (latitude, longitude, and altitude) and meteorological parameters as (relative humidity). The comparisons are made using the mean bias error (MBE), root mean square error (RMSE), mean percentage error (MPE), and mean absolute bias error (MABE). This comparison shows that the second model is closer to the experimental values that the model of Angstrom.

Keywords: meteorology, global radiation, Angstrom model, Oran

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Authors: Shan-Yu Hsu, Hsin-Shu Huang

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The main purpose of this teaching research is to design an interdisciplinary team-assisted teaching method for trainees and interns and review the effectiveness of this teaching method on trainees' understanding of peritoneal dialysis. The teaching research object is the fifth and sixth-grade trainees in a medical center's medical school. The teaching methods include media teaching, demonstration of technical operation, face-to-face communication with patients, special case discussions, and field visits to the peritoneal dialysis room. Evaluate learning effectiveness before, after, and verbally. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS paired-sample t-test to analyze whether there is a difference in peritoneal dialysis professional cognition before and after teaching intervention. Descriptive statistics show that the average score of the previous test is 74.44, the standard deviation is 9.34, the average score of the post-test is 95.56, and the standard deviation is 5.06. The results of the t-test of the paired samples are shown as p-value = 0.006, showing the peritoneal dialysis professional cognitive test. Significant differences were observed before and after. The interdisciplinary team-assisted teaching method helps trainees and interns to improve their professional awareness of peritoneal dialysis. At the same time, trainee physicians have positive feedback on the inter-professional team-assisted teaching method. This teaching research finds that the clinical ability development education of trainees and interns can provide cross-professional team-assisted teaching methods to assist clinical teaching guidance.

Keywords: monitor quality, patient safety, health promotion objective, cross-professional team-assisted teaching methods

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Authors: Swee Guat Yeoh, Yung Ling Tseng

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Malaysia is comprised of three major ethnic groups: The Malay, Chinese and Indian as well as a small number of indigenous peoples. With the influences of the multiple races, Malaysia is a multi-cultural country. In the era of globalization, culture has become an important soft power for a race or a country. At the same time, it provides endless inspirational source of ideas for creative business. Although jewelries are decorative objects, they function and exist as the emblems of power, wealth and contract in certain cultural systems. In the meantime, they also record the lifestyle and ideology of everyday life. Therefore, in a creative cultural industry, jewelry with cultural aspects and cultural contents are deemed to be highly important. With the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia as objects, this research aims to find out the relationships between the cultures and decorations of the three major ethnic groups in the aspects of customs, religions and lifestyles.

Keywords: ethnicity, multi-cultural, jewelry, craft technique

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Authors: Balimu Mwiya, Mundia Muya, Chabota Kaliba, Peter Mukalula

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Factors affecting construction unit cost vary depending on a country’s political, economic, social and technological inclinations. Factors affecting construction costs have been studied from various perspectives. Analysis of cost factors requires an appreciation of a country’s practices. Identified cost factors provide an indication of a country’s construction economic strata. The purpose of this paper is to identify the essential factors that affect unit cost estimation and their breakdown using artificial neural networks. Twenty-five (25) identified cost factors in road construction were subjected to a questionnaire survey and employing SPSS factor analysis the factors were reduced to eight. The 8 factors were analysed using the neural network (NN) to determine the proportionate breakdown of the cost factors in a given construction unit rate. NN predicted that political environment accounted 44% of the unit rate followed by contractor capacity at 22% and financial delays, project feasibility, overhead and profit each at 11%. Project location, material availability and corruption perception index had minimal impact on the unit cost from the training data provided. Quantified cost factors can be incorporated in unit cost estimation models (UCEM) to produce more accurate estimates. This can create improvements in the cost estimation of infrastructure projects and establish a benchmark standard to assist the process of alignment of work practises and training of new staff, permitting the on-going development of best practises in cost estimation to become more effective.

Keywords: construction cost factors, neural networks, roadworks, Zambian construction industry

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Authors: Erdianta S, Chastiti M. Wulolo, IDK Kerta Widana

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Perang Semesta strategy is a national security system used by Republic of Indonesia. It comes from local wisdom, cultural, and hereditary of Indonesia itself. This system involves all people and all nation resources, and it is early prepared by government and conducted totality, integratedly, directly, and continously to enforce a sovereignty of country, teritorial integrity and the safety of the whole nation from threats. This study uses a qualitative content analysis method by studying, recording, and analyzing government policy. The Perang Semesta strategy divided into main, backup, and supporting components. Every component has its function and responsibility in security perspective. So when an attack comes, all people of Indonesia will voluntary to defend the country. Perang Semesta strategy is a national security system which becomes the most reliable strategy toward geography and demography of Indonesia.

Keywords: Indonesia, Perang Semesta strategy, national security, local wisdom

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Authors: Mustafa Tosun, Kevser Dincer

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In this study, analysis on whether the lightweight concrete walled structures used in four climatic regions of Turkey are also capable of insulating sound was conducted. As a new approach, first the wall’s thermal insulation sufficiency’s were calculated and then, artificial neural network (ANN) modeling was used on their cross sections to check if they are sound transmitters too. The ANN was trained and tested by using MATLAB toolbox on a personal computer. ANN input parameters that used were thickness of lightweight concrete wall, frequency and density of lightweight concrete wall, while the transmitted sound was the output parameter. When the results of the TS analysis and those of ANN modeling are evaluated together, it is found from this study, that sound transmit loss increases at higher frequencies, higher wall densities and with larger wall cross sections.

Keywords: artificial neuron network, lightweight concrete, sound insulation, sound transmit loss

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Authors: Endeshaw Assefa Derso, Maria Gabriella Campolo, Angela Alibrandi

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Objectives:Early childhood malnutrition can have long-term and irreversible effects on a child's health and development. This study uses the Bayesian method with spatial variation to investigate the flexible trends of metrical covariates and to identify communities at high risk of injury. Methods: Cross-sectional data on underweight are collected from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). The Bayesian geo-additive model is performed. Appropriate prior distributions were provided for scall parameters in the models, and the inference is entirely Bayesian, using Monte Carlo Markov chain (MCMC) stimulation. Results: The results show that metrical covariates like child age, maternal body mass index (BMI), and maternal age affect a child's underweight non-linearly. Lower and higher maternal BMI seem to have a significant impact on the child’s high underweight. There was also a significant spatial heterogeneity, and based on IDW interpolation of predictive values, the western, central, and eastern parts of the country are hotspot areas. Conclusion: Socio-demographic and community- based programs development should be considered compressively in Ethiopian policy to combat childhood underweight malnutrition.

Keywords: bayesX, Ethiopia, malnutrition, MCMC, semi-parametric bayesian analysis, spatial distribution, P- splines

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Authors: Jaffar Hussain, Farman Ali Shah

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As we know that Pakistan is the developing country so it adopts new technologies for progress. In last three decays, some new technologies were introduced in the world in which Effective Microorganism was one of them. Microorganisms are one of the most power full living forces on earth. Originally, EM was developed as an odor control, farm, and animal health, human health many industrial treatments. Effective Microorganism is an organic fertilizer that contains a mixture of co-existing valuable microorganism composed from the environment. There are vast application of the EM in the world in which the researchers are explained in literature .In Pakistan work on EM technologies are under process, researcher are doing work to make them most valuable. At that time the application of EM are in agriculture, water treatment, to increase Cement strength, improving saline soil etc. Effective microorganisms are environmentally friendly , not-naturally organized, not chemically synthesized, not dangerous and not pathogenic.

Keywords: developing country, technologies, effective microorganism, researchers, Pakistan, agriculture

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Authors: Yuliya E. Leshchenko, Tatyana S. Ostapenko

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Language variation is a widespread linguistic phenomenon which can affect different levels of a language system: phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, etc. It is obvious that the scope of possible standard alternations within a particular language is limited by a variety of its norms and regulations which set more or less clear boundaries for what is possible and what is not possible for the speakers. The possibility of lexical variation (alternate usage of lexical items within the same contexts) is based on the fact that the meanings of words are not clearly and rigidly defined in the consciousness of the speakers. Therefore, lexical variation is usually connected with unstable relationship between words and their referents: a case when a particular lexical item refers to different types of referents, or when a particular referent can be named by various lexical items. We assume that the scope of lexical variation in bilingual speech is generally wider than that observed in monolingual speech due to the fact that, besides ‘lexical item – referent’ relations it involves the possibility of cross-language variation of L1 and L2 lexical items. We use the term ‘cross-language variation’ to denote a case when two equivalent words of different languages are treated by a bilingual speaker as freely interchangeable within the common linguistic context. As distinct from code-switching which is traditionally defined as the conscious use of more than one language within one communicative act, in case of cross-language lexical variation the speaker does not perceive the alternate lexical items as belonging to different languages and, therefore, does not realize the change of language code. In the paper, the authors present research of lexical variation of adult Komi-Permyak – Russian bilingual speakers. The two languages co-exist on the territory of the Komi-Permyak District in Russia (Komi-Permyak as the ethnic language and Russian as the official state language), are usually acquired from birth in natural linguistic environment and, according to the data of sociolinguistic surveys, are both identified by the speakers as coordinate mother tongues. The experimental research demonstrated that alternation of Komi-Permyak and Russian words within one utterance/phrase is highly frequent both in speech perception and production. Moreover, our participants estimated cross-language word combinations like ‘маленькая /Russian/ нывка /Komi-Permyak/’ (‘a little girl’) or ‘мунны /Komi-Permyak/ домой /Russian/’ (‘go home’) as regular/habitual, containing no violation of any linguistic rules and being equally possible in speech as the equivalent intra-language word combinations (‘учöтик нывка’ /Komi-Permyak/ or ‘идти домой’ /Russian/). All the facts considered, we claim that constant concurrent use of the two languages results in the fact that a large number of their words tend to be intuitively interpreted by the speakers as lexical variants not only related to the same referent, but also referring to both languages or, more precisely, to none of them in particular. Consequently, we can suppose that bilingual mental lexicon includes an extensive ‘fused’ zone of lexical representations that provide the basis for cross-language variation in bilingual speech.

Keywords: bilingualism, bilingual mental lexicon, code-switching, lexical variation

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Authors: Sahar Mobeen, Anam Rafique, Irum Baig

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Acoustic echo cancellation in multichannel is a system identification application. In real time environment, signal changes very rapidly which required adaptive algorithms such as Least Mean Square (LMS), Leaky Least Mean Square (LLMS), Normalized Least Mean square (NLMS) and average (AFA) having high convergence rate and stable. LMS and NLMS are widely used adaptive algorithm due to less computational complexity and AFA used of its high convergence rate. This research is based on comparison of acoustic echo (generated in a room) cancellation thorough LMS, LLMS, NLMS, AFA and newly proposed average normalized leaky least mean square (ANLLMS) adaptive filters.

Keywords: LMS, LLMS, NLMS, AFA, ANLLMS

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Authors: Yanping He-Ulbricht, Marc Oliver Rieger

Abstract:

Based on survey data collected from people with Chinese roots living in Germany, this paper examines the impact of assimilation degree and language priming (Chinese or German) on individuals’ perceived fairness of economic and social differences and their attitude towards these. The results show that both the language used and the length of time spent in a foreign culture have a significant impact. Subjects who had spent less than 10 years in Germany demonstrated a higher readiness to accept government intervention in markets with price limits than those who had lived there longer. Subjects who were asked and answered in German perceived the current economic situation as less fair and were also less inclined to accept inequality, even when it leads to a Pareto improvement. While the difference in fairness perception of inequality was a cultural effect, the difference in attitudes towards government intervention was rather a result of learning process. The findings imply that both learning processes of individuals and culture play an important role in perception and preferences regarding social and economic differences.

Keywords: assimilation, bilingualism, cross-cultural comparison, income inequality, language priming, price fairness

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Authors: Shuaibu Umar Abdul

Abstract:

The essence of any state as well as government is to ensure and advance the security of lives and property of its citizens. As a result, providing security in all spheres ranging from safeguarding the territorial integrity, security of lives and property of the citizens as well as economic emancipation have constitute the core objectives cum national interest of virtually all country’s foreign policy in the world. In view of this imperative above, Nigeria has enshrined in the early part of her 1999 constitution as amended, as its duty and responsibility as a state, to ensure security of lives and property of its citizens. Yet, it does not make any significant shift as it relates to the country’s fundamental security needs as exemplified by the current enormous security challenges that reduced the country’s fortune to the background in all ramifications. The study chooses realist paradigm as theoretical underpinning which emphasizes that exigency of the moment should always take priority in the pursuit of foreign policy. The study is historical, descriptive and narrative in method and character. Data for the study was sourced from secondary sources and analysed via content analysis. The study found out that it is lack of political will on the side of the government to guarantee a just and egalitarian society that will be of benefit to all citizens. This could be more appreciated when looking at the gaps between the theory in Nigerian foreign policy and the practice as exemplified by the action or inaction of the government to ensure security in the state. On this account, the study recommends that until the leaderships in Nigerian foreign policy recognized the need for political will and respect for constitutionalism to ensure security of its citizens and territory, otherwise achieving great Nigeria will remain an illusion.

Keywords: foreign policy, nation, national security, Nigeria, security

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Authors: Yi-cheng Chen, Ming-jum Guo, Yang-ru Chen

Abstract:

Background and Objective: For safety and fair during basketball competition, FIBA proposes the definite level of physical functions in wooden surface system (WSS). There are existing various between different systems in indoor-stadium, so the aim of this study want to know how many effects in different WSS, especially for effects of ground reaction force(GRF) when player jumped. Materials and Methods: 12 participants acted counter-movement jump (CMJ) on 7 different surfaces, include 6 WSSs by 3 types rubber shock absorber pad (SAP) on cross or parallel fixed, and 1 rigid ground. GRFs of takeoff and landing had been recorded from an AMTI force platform when all participants acted vertical CMJs by counter-balance design. All data were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA to evaluate whether the test variable differed significantly between surfaces. The significance level was set at α=0.05. Results: There were non-significance in GRF between surfaces when participants taken off. For GRF of landing, we found WSS with cross fixed SAP are harder than parallel fixed. Although there were also non-significance when participant was landing on cross or parallel fixed surfaces, but there have test variable differed significantly between WSS with parallel fixed to rigid ground. In the study, landing to WSS with the hardest SAP, the GRF also have test variable differed significantly to other WSS. Conclusion: Although official basketball competition is in the WSS certificated by FIBA, there are also exist the various in GRF under takeoff or landing, any player must to warm-up before game starting. Especially, there is unsafe situation when play basketball on uncertificated WSS.

Keywords: wooden surface system, counter-movement jump, ground reaction force, shock absorber pad

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Authors: Muath Awadalla, Maen Awadallah

Abstract:

Banking sector covers different activities including lending money to customers. However, it is commonly known that customers pay money they have borrowed including an added amount called interest. Compound interest rate is an approach used in determining the interest to be paid. The instant compounded amount to be paid by a debtor is obtained through a differential equation whose main parameters are the rate and the time. The rate used by banks in a country is often defined by the government of the said country. In Switzerland, for instance, a negative rate was once applied. In this work, a new approach of modeling the compound interest is proposed using Hadamard fractional derivative. As a result, it appears that depending on the fraction value used in derivative the amount to be paid by a debtor might either be higher or lesser than the amount determined using the classical approach.

Keywords: compound interest, fractional differential equation, hadamard fractional derivative, optimization

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Authors: Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad, Muhammad Zakaria, Mobeen Ur Rehman, Saniya Khaild

Abstract:

This study examines the co-movement between the Pakistan, Indian, S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 stock markets using weekly data from 1998 to 2013. The time-frequency relationship between the selected stock markets is conducted by using measures of continuous wavelet power spectrum, cross-wavelet transform and cross (squared) wavelet coherency. The empirical evidence suggests strong dependence between Pakistan and Indian stock markets. The co-movement of Pakistani index with U.S and Japanese, the developed markets, varies over time and frequency where the long-run relationship is dominant. The results of cross wavelet and wavelet coherence analysis indicate moderate covariance and correlation between stock indexes and the markets are in phase (i.e. cyclical in nature) over varying durations. Pakistan stock market was lagging during the entire period in relation to Indian stock market, corresponding to the 8~32 and then 64~256 weeks scale. Similar findings are evident for S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 indexes, however, the relationship occurs during the later period of study. All three wavelet indicators suggest strong evidence of higher co-movement during 2008-09 global financial crises. The empirical analysis reveals a strong evidence that the portfolio diversification benefits vary across frequencies and time. This analysis is unique and have several practical implications for regional and international investors while assigning the optimal weightage of different assets in portfolio formulation.

Keywords: co-movement, Pakistan stock exchange, S&P 500, Nikkei 225, wavelet analysis

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Authors: Rasheed Gbenga Jimoh, Akinbowale Nathaniel Babatunde

Abstract:

The use of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) has become an important tool among commercial banks, customers of banks have come to depend on and trust the ATM conveniently meet their banking needs. Although the overwhelming advantages of ATM cannot be over-emphasized, its alarming fraud rate has become a bottleneck in it’s full adoption in Nigeria. This study examined the menace of ATM in the society another cost of running ATM services by banks in the country. The researcher developed a prototype of an enhanced Automated Teller Machine Authentication using Short Message Service (SMS) Verification. The developed prototype was tested by Ten (10) respondents who are users of ATM cards in the country and the data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Based on the results of the analysis, it is being envisaged that the developed prototype will go a long way in reducing the alarming rate of ATM fraud in Nigeria.

Keywords: ATM, ATM fraud, e-banking, prototyping

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