Search results for: focus group interview

Authors: Felicitas Pielsticker, Christoph Pielsticker, Ingo Witzke

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Neurological findings provide foundational results for many different disciplines. In this article we want to discuss these with a special focus on mathematics education. The intention is to make neuroscience research useful for the description of cognitive mathematical learning processes. A key issue of mathematics education is that students often behave as if their mathematical knowledge is constructed in isolated compartments with respect to the specific context of the original learning situation; supporting students to link these compartments to form a coherent mathematical society of mind is a fundamental task not only for mathematics teachers. This aspect goes hand in hand with the question if there is such a thing as abstract general mathematical knowledge detached from concrete reality. Educational Neuroscience may give answers to the question why students develop their mathematical knowledge in isolated subjective domains of experience and if it is generally possible to think in abstract terms. To address these questions, we will provide examples from different fields of mathematics education e.g. students’ development and understanding of the general concept of variables or the mathematical notion of universal proofs. We want to discuss these aspects in the reflection of functional studies which elucidate the role of specific brain regions in mathematical learning processes. In doing this the paper addresses concept formation processes of students in the mathematics classroom and how to support them adequately considering the results of (educational) neuroscience.

Keywords: brain regions, concept formation processes in mathematics education, proofs, teaching-learning processes

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Authors: Polina Trusova

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The majority of young enterprises is founded and run by teams and develops new, innovative products or services. While problems within the team are considered to be an important reason for the failure of young enterprises, effective teamwork on innovation may be a key success factor. It may require special teamwork design or members’ creativity not needed during work routine. However, little is known about how young enterprises develop innovative solutions in teams, what makes their teamwork special and what influences its effectivity. Extending this knowledge is essential for understanding the success and failure factors for young enterprises. Previous research focused on working on innovation or professional teams in general. Rare studies combining these issues usually concentrate on homogenous groups like IT expert teams in innovation projects of big, well-established firms. The transferability of those studies’ findings to the entrepreneurial context is doubtful because of several reasons why teamwork should differ significantly between big, well-established firms and young enterprises. First, teamwork is conducted by team members, e.g., employees. The personality of employees in young enterprises, in contrast to that of employees in established firms, has been shown to be more similar to the personality of entrepreneurs. As entrepreneurs were found to be more open to experience and show less risk aversion, it may have a positive impact on their teamwork. Persons open to novelty are more likely to develop or accept a creative solution, which is especially important for teamwork on innovation. Secondly, young enterprises are often characterized by a flat hierarchy, so in general, teamwork should be more participative there. It encourages each member (and not only the founder) to produce and discuss innovative ideas, increasing their variety and enabling the team to select the best idea from the larger idea pool. Thirdly, teams in young enterprises are often multidisciplinary. It has some advantages but also increases the risk of internal conflicts making teamwork less effective. Despite the key role of teamwork on innovation and presented barriers for transferring existing evidence to the context of young enterprises, only a few researchers have addressed this issue. In order to close the existing research gap, to explore and understand how innovations are developed in teams of young enterprises and which factors influencing teamwork may be especially relevant for such teams, a qualitative study has been developed. The study consisting of 20 half-structured interviews with (co-)founders of young innovative enterprises in the UK and USA started in September 2017. The interview guide comprises but is not limited to teamwork dimensions discussed in literature like members’ skill or authority differentiation. Data will be evaluated following the rules of qualitative content analysis. First results indicate some factors which may be relevant especially for teamwork in young innovative enterprises. They will enrich the scientific discussion and provide the evidence needed to test a possible causality between identified factors and teamwork effectivity in future research on young innovative enterprises. Results and their discussion can be presented at the conference.

Keywords: innovation, qualitative study, teamwork, young enterprises

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Authors: A. Drong, K. S. Kerkhoff

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Migration affects women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. This paper reports on the social constructs of gender, and livelihood pursuits as beauty parlours workers amongst the young Garo women in Bangladesh, and studies changes in their accessibility to the healthcare services due to migration and livelihood. The paper is based on in-depth interviews and participant-led group discussions with 30 women working in various beauty parlours across the city. The data indicate that social perceptions of ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘respectable’ determine the expression of sexuality, and often dictates sexual and reproductive practices for these women. This study also reveals that unregulated work conditions, and the current cost of local healthcare services, have a strong impact on the women’s accessibility to the healthcare services; thus often limiting their choices to only customary and/or unqualified practitioners for abortions and child-births. Development programmes on migrant indigenous women’s health must, therefore, take the contextual gender norms and livelihood choices into account.

Keywords: gender, indigenous women, reproductive rights, sexual rights, Garo, migration, livelihood, healthcare

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Zarema Urustamova, Chunsheng Shi, Ghulam Mujtaba Kayani 

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This research paper helps to understand the comparative analysis of recruitment problems which majorly faced by HRD of Public/Semi-Govt. and private sectors of Russia. The natures of different recruitment problems faced by HRD are different in both sector of Russia. Recruitment is one of very critical and important decision taken by HR department and some recruitment problems are highly faced by HR department of public/semi Govt. sector but are not major problems for private sector. Moreover, some problems are majorly influence in private sector but are not major problems in public/semi-govt. sector of Russia in recruitment. It is also identified that some recruitment problems are majorly affect in recruitment in both sectors. This paper helps to understand the recruitment problems faced by HR department while recruiting the new employee in both sectors. This paper also identified that “environment” and “prejudice” in public sector have higher affect and considered as a major problems in employee recruitment and “reference”, “selection standards” are considered as a least affecting problems of recruitment in public sector. Further, in private sector, “prejudice” and “culture” are major issues and “selection standards” and “reference” is considered as least affecting recruitment problems in private sector of Russia. So, HR department will be able to hire right person on right time, and it is possible when different HR departments focus to overcome these recruitment problems more efficiently and effectively.

Keywords: Govt. /Semi-Govt. vs. private sector, HR department, recruitment problems, Russia

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Authors: Aravind G., Arshinder Kaur, Pushpavanam S.

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There is a strong emphasis on shifting to electric vehicles (EVs) throughout the globe for reducing the impact on global warming following the Paris climate accord. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are predominantly used in EVs, and these can be a significant threat to the environment if not disposed of safely. Lithium is also a valuable resource not widely available. There are several research groups working on developing an efficient recycling process for LIBs. Two routes - pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes have been proposed for recycling LIBs. In this paper, we focus on life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to quantify the environmental impact of these recycling processes. We have defined the boundary of the LCA to include only the recycling phase of the end-of-life (EoL) of the battery life cycle. The analysis is done assuming ideal conditions for the hydrometallurgical and a combined hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical process in the inventory analysis. CML-IA method is used for quantifying the impact assessment across eleven indicators. Our results show that cathode, anode, and foil contribute significantly to the impact. The environmental impacts of both hydrometallurgical and combined recycling processes are similar across all the indicators. Further, the results of LCA are used in developing a multi-objective optimization model for the design of lithium-ion battery recycling network. Greenhouse gas emissions and cost are the two parameters minimized for the optimization study.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, lithium-ion battery recycling, multi-objective optimization, network design, reverse supply chain

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Authors: C. Asha Poorna, N. S. Pradeep

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The biological function of lipase is to catalyze the hydrolysis of triacylglycerols to give free fatty acid, diacylglycerols, mono-acylglycerols and glycerol. They constitute the most important group of biocatalysts for biotechnological applications. The aim of the present study was to identify the lipolytic activity of Streptomyces sp. From soil sample collected from the sacred groves of southern Kerala. The culture conditions of the isolate were optimised and the enzyme was purified and characterised. The purification was attempted with acetone precipitation. The isolate observed to have high lipolytic activity and identified to be of Streptomyces strain. The purification was attempted with acetone precipitation. The purified enzyme observed to have an apparent molecular mass of ~60kDa by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The enzyme showed maximum activity at 60oC and pH-8. The lipase showed tolerance towards different organic solvents like ethanol and methanol that are commonly used in transesterification reactions to displace alcohol from triglycerides contained in renewable resources to yield fatty acid alkyl esters known as biodiesel.

Keywords: lipase, Streptomyces, biodiesel, fatty acid, transesterification

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Authors: Rose Virginy S. Bautista, Ida Marie Tabangay-Lim, Helen Bongalon-Amo, Jose Modesto B. Abellera

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Chordomas, particularly those of the spine and the head and neck region, represent a rare and locally aggressive group of malignancies. The complexity of these tumors -given the rarity, location, and involvement of neurovascular structures- imposes a challenge in the diagnosis and management. We herein report a case of spinal cord compression due to a prevertebral cervical chordoma. The patient presented with a gradually enlarging lateral neck mass, with progressive bilateral extremity weakness and urinary incontinence; preoperative biopsy showed chordoma. A multidisciplinary approach for the management of this case was made, involving neurosurgery, head and neck surgery, and radiation oncology services. Surgical collaboration between the two cutting services was done to have a radical excision of the tumor and spinal cord decompression. The patient was then referred for adjuvant radiation therapy. With this collaborative treatment strategy, more comprehensive and quality care could be provided to our patients.

Keywords: chordoma, surgical collaboration, spinal cord compression, neurosurgery, head and neck surgery

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Authors: Shehu Hashimu

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Ever since the independence, Northern Nigeria has been experiencing a flashpoint of all sorts of conflict ranging from ethnoreligious, intra-religious, and inter-religious violence; many people are of the view and worrisome that indeed the region (North) is becoming a religious-political battle-ground. The trends of violence associated with these conflicts are a reflection of high level of misunderstanding, misinform unpolitical zeal toward uplifting peace education for greater enhancement among the religious, ethnic group or sects in the northern region. The aims of this paper, among other things, are to outline the misconception on the term inter-religious conflict. It is justifiable to state the brief historical antecedence of the making of contemporary Northern Nigeria and how conflict is fluctuating over and over without concrete resolution is another concern of the paper. The desirability of peace education in enhancing cordial relations and cementing potholes among various religious sects in the region (Northern Nigeria) cannot over emphasized considering the pivotal role play toward national cohesion; therefore, this paper strategically made a lengthy discourse for elaborations. In the conclusion aspect of it, the paper outline some relevant recommendation and suggestions for viable co-existence if properly implemented.

Keywords: anatomy, inter-religious, conflict, peace education

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Authors: A. A. Ghanim

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is heading towards a severe and rapidly expanding water crisis, which can have negative impacts on the country’s environment and economy. Of the total water consumption in KSA, the agricultural sector accounts for nearly 87% of the total water use and, therefore, any attempt that overlooks this sector will not help in improving the sustainability of the country’s water resources. KSA Vision 2030 gives priority of water use in the agriculture sector for the regions that have natural renewable water resources. It means that there is little concern for making reuse of municipal wastewater for irrigation purposes in any region in general and in water-scarce regions in particular. The use of treated wastewater is very limited in Saudi Arabia, but it has very considerable potential for future expansion due its numerous beneficial uses. This study reviews the current situation of water resources in Saudi Arabia, providing more highlights on agriculture and wastewater reuse. The reviewed study is proposing some corrective measures for development and better management of water resources in the Kingdom. Suggestions also include consideration of treated water as an alternative source for irrigation in some regions of the country. The study concluded that a sustainable solution for the water crisis in KSA requires implementation of multiple measures in an integrated manner. The integrated solution plan should focus on two main directions: first, improving the current management practices of the existing water resources; second, developing new water supplies from both conventional and non-conventional sources.

Keywords: Saudia Arabia, water resources, water crises, wastewater reuse

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Authors: Nisha Prakash, Kritika Anand, Arun Barvat, Prabir Pal, Sonachand Adhikari, Suraj P. Khanna

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Group-III nitride semiconductors (GaN, AlN, InN and their ternary and quaternary compounds) have attracted a great deal of attention for the development of high-performance Ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors. Any midgap defect states in the epitaxial grown film have a direct influence on the photodetectors responsivity. The proportion of the midgap defect states can be controlled by the growth parameters. To study this we have grown high quality epitaxial GaN films on MOCVD- grown GaN template using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE) with different growth parameters. Optical and electrical properties of the films were characterized by room temperature photoluminescence and photoconductivity measurements, respectively. The observed persistent photoconductivity behaviour is proportional to the yellow luminescence (YL) and the absolute responsivity has been found to decrease with decreasing YL. The results will be discussed in more detail later.

Keywords: gallium nitride, plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, photoluminescence, photoconductivity, persistent photoconductivity, yellow luminescence

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Authors: Erika R. Chambriard, Sandro C. Izidoro, Davidson P. Mendes, Douglas E. V. Pires

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Work-related illnesses and disorders have been a constant aspect of work. Although their nature has changed over time, from musculoskeletal disorders to illnesses related to psychosocial aspects of work, its impact on the life of workers remains significant. Despite significant efforts worldwide to protect workers, the disparity between changes in work legislation and actual benefit for workers’ health has been creating a significant economic burden for social security and health systems around the world. In this context, this study aims to propose, test and validate a modular prototype that allows for work environmental aspects to be assessed, monitored and better controlled. The main focus is also to provide a historical record of working conditions and the means for workers to obtain comprehensible and useful information regarding their work environment and legal limits of occupational exposure to different types of environmental variables, as means to improve prevention of work-related accidents and disorders. We show the developed prototype provides useful and accurate information regarding the work environmental conditions, validating them with standard occupational hygiene equipment. We believe the proposed prototype is a cost-effective and adequate approach to work environment monitoring that could help elucidate the links between work and occupational illnesses, and that different industry sectors, as well as developing countries, could benefit from its capabilities.

Keywords: Arduino prototyping, occupational health and hygiene, work environment, work-related disorders prevention

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Authors: Sanda-Maria Ardeleanu, Ana Crăciunescu

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This paper is sustained by our previous research on discursive strategies, whichdemonstrated that tourismhas developed and employed apromotional languageper se. We have studied this concept within the framework of audio-visual advertising by analyzing its discursive structures at the level of three main strategies (textual, visual, and both textual and visual) and confirmed the applicability of the promotional language per se within the field. Tourism, at large, represents a largely potential interdisplinary field, which allowed us to use qualitative methods of research such as Discourse Analysis (DA). Due to further research which showed that in the third phase of qualitative research methodologies, scholars in tourism recognized semiotics and DA as potential paths to follow, but which were insufficiently explored at the time, we soon realized that the natural next step to take is to bring together common qualitative methodologies for both fields, such as the method of observation, the triangulation, Discourse Analysis, etc. Therefore and in the light of fast transformations of the medium that intermediates the message, in this paper, we are going to focus on the manifestations of the promotional language in social media texts, which advertise for the urban industry of accommodation in Romania. We shall constitute a corpus of study as the basis for our research methodology and, through the empirical method of observation and DA, we propose to recognize or discover new patterns developed at textual (mainly) and visual level or the mix of the two, known as strategies of the promotional language of tourism.

Keywords: discourse analysis, promotional language of tourism, social media, urban accommodation industry, tourism

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Authors: Chen Bo, Wen Zengping

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Based on the results of previous studies, we focus on the research of real ground motion selection and scaling method for structural performance-based seismic evaluation using nonlinear dynamic analysis. The input of earthquake ground motion should be determined appropriately to make them compatible with the site-specific hazard level considered. Thus, an optimized selection and scaling method are established including the use of not only Monte Carlo simulation method to create the stochastic simulation spectrum considering the multivariate lognormal distribution of target spectrum, but also a spectral shape parameter. Its applications in structural fragility analysis are demonstrated through case studies. Compared to the previous scheme with no consideration of the uncertainty of target spectrum, the method shown here can make sure that the selected records are in good agreement with the median value, standard deviation and spectral correction of the target spectrum, and greatly reveal the uncertainty feature of site-specific hazard level. Meanwhile, it can help improve computational efficiency and matching accuracy. Given the important infection of target spectrum’s uncertainty on structural seismic fragility analysis, this work can provide the reasonable and reliable basis for structural seismic evaluation under scenario earthquake environment.

Keywords: ground motion selection, scaling method, seismic fragility analysis, spectral shape

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Authors: Khan R. Rahaman, Quazi K. Hassan

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Global changes in climate, environment, economies, populations, governments, institutions, and cultures converge in localities. Changes at a local scale, in turn, contribute to global changes as well as being affected by them. Our hypothesis is built on a consideration that temperature does vary at local level (i.e., termed as local warming) in comparison to the predicted models at the regional and/or global scale. To date, the bulk of the research relating local places to global climate change has been top-down, from the global toward the local, concentrating on methods of impact analysis that use as a starting point climate change scenarios derived from global models, even though these have little regional or local specificity. Thus, our focus is to understand such trends over the southern Alberta, which will enable decision makers, scientists, researcher community, and local people to adapt their policies based on local level temperature variations and to act accordingly. Specific objectives in this study are: (i) to understand the local warming (temperature in particular) trend in context of temperature normal during the period 1961-2010 at point locations using meteorological data; (ii) to validate the data by using specific yearly data, and (iii) to delineate the spatial extent of the local warming trends and understanding influential factors to adopt situation by local governments. Existing data has brought the evidence of such changes and future research emphasis will be given to validate this hypothesis based on remotely sensed data (i.e. MODIS product by NASA).

Keywords: local warming, climate change, urban area, Alberta, Canada

Procedia PDF Downloads 324

Authors: Abdullah Abdulsalam, Adamu Balami, Olajide Olubanji Olowe, Maryam Abdu Abdulkadir

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The development and persistence of low back pain may be influenced by several factors which include lifestyle factors, previous pain symptoms, psychological factors, workplace factors as well as socio-demographic variables. The focus of this study was to determine the socio-demographic and work related variables as a predictor of persistence of back pain and disability among civil servants receiving physiotherapy in tertiary health institutions in Kano, Nigeria. One hundred and twenty nine newly referred low back pain patients for physiotherapy participated in the study. This study was a cross sectional study involving patients that were newly diagnosed of back pain, referred and received physiotherapy. The convenience sampling technique was used to select the patients based on the inclusion criteria. The data obtained was analysed using simple percentage and multiple regression for stated hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings reveal that all the variables are not significant predictor of persistence of back pain and disability. The study recommended that determinants of low back pain recovery by clinician should include other clinical factors not only reduction in pain intensity.

Keywords: socio-demographic, work related variables, Kano state, back pain and disability

Procedia PDF Downloads 289

Authors: Soumaya Mrabet, Imen Akkari, Amira Atig, Elhem Ben Jazia

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Introduction: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic inflammatory liver disease of unknown cause. Concomitant autoimmune disorders have been described in 30–50% of patients with AIH. The aim of our study is to determine the prevalence and the type of autoimmune disorders associated with AIH. Material and Methods: It is a retrospective study over a period of 16 years (2000-2015) including all patients followed for AIH. The diagnosis of AHI was based on the criteria of the revised International AIH group scoring system (IAIHG). Results: Twenty-for patients (21 women and 3 men) followed for AIH were collected. The mean age was 39 years (17-65 years). Among these patients, 11 patients(45.8%) had at least one autoimmune disease associated to AIH. These diseases were Hashimoto's thyroiditis (n = 5), Gougerot Sjogren syndrome (n=5), Primary biliary cirrhosis (n=2), Primitive sclerosant Cholangitis (n=1), Addison disease (n = 1) and systemic sclerosis (n=1). Patients were treated with corticosteroids alone or with azathioprine associated to the specific treatment of associated diseases with complete remission of AIH in 90% of cases and clinical improvement of other diseases. Conclusion: In our study, the prevalence of autoimmune diseases in AIH patients was 45.8%. These diseases were dominated by autoimmune thyroiditis and Gougerot Sjogren syndrome. The investigation of autoimmune diseases in autoimmune hepatitis must be systematic because of their frequency and the importance of adequate management.

Keywords: autoimmune diseases, autoimmune hepatitis, autoimmune thyroiditis, gougerot sjogren syndrome

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Authors: Jingjie Li, Wenjie Hu

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Phraseological units in academic English texts have been a central focus in recent corpus linguistic research. A wide variety of phraseological units have been explored, including collocations, chunks, lexical bundles, patterns, semantic sequences, etc. This paper describes a special category of clause-level phraseological units, namely, Characteristic Sentence Stems (CSSs), with a view to describing their defining criteria and extraction method. CSSs are contiguous lexico-grammatical sequences which contain a subject-predicate structure and which are frame expressions characteristic of academic writing. The extraction of CSSs consists of six steps: Part-of-speech tagging, n-gram segmentation, structure identification, significance of occurrence calculation, text range calculation, and overlapping sequence reduction. Significance of occurrence calculation is the crux of this study. It includes the computing of both the internal association and the boundary independence of a CSS and tests the occurring significance of the CSS from both inside and outside perspectives. A new normalization algorithm is also introduced into the calculation of LocalMaxs for reducing overlapping sequences. It is argued that many sentence stems are so recurrent in academic texts that the most typical of them have become the habitual ways of making meaning in academic writing. Therefore, studies of CSSs could have potential implications and reference value for academic discourse analysis, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching and writing.

Keywords: characteristic sentence stem, extraction method, phraseological unit, the statistical measure

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Authors: Ahmad Afif, Teuku Yuri M. Zagloel

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Sustainable supply chain management is a new pattern that has emerged recently in industry and companies. The procurement process is one of the key factors for efficiency in supply chain management practices. Partnership is one of the procurement strategies for strategic items. The success factors of the partnership must be determined to avoid things that endanger the financial and operational status of the company. The current supplier partnership research focuses on the selection of general criteria and sustainable supplier selection. Currently, there is still limited research on the success factors of supplier partnerships that focus on strategic items in the coal mining industry. Meanwhile, the procurement of coal mining has its own characteristics, and there are regulations related to the procurement of goods. Therefore, this research was conducted to determine the categories of goods that are included in the strategic items and to design the success factors of supplier partnerships. The main factors studied are general, financial, production, reputation, synergies, and sustainable. The research was conducted using the Kraljic method to determine the categories of goods that are included in the strategic items. To design a supplier partnership success factor using the Hybrid Multi Criteria Decision Making method. Integrated Fuzzy AHP-Fuzzy TOPSIS is used to determine the weight of the success factors of supplier partnerships and to rank suppliers on the factors used.

Keywords: supplier, partnership, strategic item, success factors, and coal mining industry

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Authors: B. Sabayan, A. Alidadi, S. Ebrahimi, N. M. Bakhshani

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Neuropsychological problems are more common in hemodialysis (HD) patients than in healthy individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of long term HD on memory types of HD patients. To assess the different type of memory, we used memory parts of the Persian Papers and Pencil Cognitive assessment package (PCAP) and Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (ACE-R). Our study included 80 HD patients of whom 39 had less than six months of HD and 41 patients and another group which had a history of HD more than six months. The population had a mean age of 51.60 years old and 27.5% of them were female. The scores of patients who have been hemodialyzed for a long time (median time of HD was up to 4 years) had lower score in anterograde, explicit, visual, recall and recognition memory (5.44±1.07, 9.49±3.472, 22.805±6.6913, 5.59±10.435, 11.02±3.190 score) than the HD patients who underwent HD for a shorter term, where the median time was 3 to 5 months (P<0.01). The regression result shows that, by increasing the HD duration, all memory types are reduced (R2=0.600, P<0.01). The present study demonstrated that HD patients who were under HD for a long time had significantly lower scores in the different types of memory. However, additional researches are needed in this area.

Keywords: hemodialysis patients, duration of hemodialysis, memory types, Zahedan

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Authors: H. Namazi, H. T. N. Kuan

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Brain activity can be measured by acquiring and analyzing EEG signals from an individual. In fact, the human brain response to external and internal stimuli is mapped in his EEG signals. During years some methods such as Fourier transform, wavelet transform, empirical mode decomposition, etc. have been used to analyze the EEG signals in order to find the effect of stimuli, especially external stimuli. But each of these methods has some weak points in analysis of EEG signals. For instance, Fourier transform and wavelet transform methods are linear signal analysis methods which are not good to be used for analysis of EEG signals as nonlinear signals. In this research we analyze the brain response to visual stimuli by extracting information in the form of various measures from EEG signals using a software developed by our research group. The used measures are Jeffrey’s measure, Fractal dimension and Hurst exponent. The results of these analyses are useful not only for fundamental understanding of brain response to visual stimuli but provide us with very good recommendations for clinical purposes.

Keywords: visual stimuli, brain response, EEG signal, fractal dimension, hurst exponent, Jeffrey’s measure

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Authors: B. Kędra, R. Małkowski

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This paper presents information on Power System Component Simulator – a device designed for LINTE^2 laboratory owned by Gdansk University of Technology in Poland. In this paper, we first provide an introductory information on the Power System Component Simulator and its capabilities. Then, the concept of the unit is presented. Requirements for the unit are described as well as proposed and introduced functions are listed. Implementation details are given. Hardware structure is presented and described. Information about used communication interface, data maintenance and storage solution, as well as used Simulink real-time features are presented. List and description of all measurements is provided. Potential of laboratory setup modifications is evaluated. Lastly, the results of experiments performed using Power System Component Simulator are presented. This includes simulation of under frequency load shedding, frequency and voltage dependent characteristics of groups of load units, time characteristics of group of different load units in a chosen area.

Keywords: power converter, Simulink Real-Time, Matlab, load, tap controller

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Authors: Salma Aboussalam, Karima Khalil, Khalid Elkalay

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To describe the structure, functioning, and state of the Moroccan Mediterranean Sea ecosystem, an Ecopath mass balance model has been applied. The model is based on 31 functional groups, containing 21 fishes, 7 invertebrates, 2 primary producers, and one dead group (detritus), which are considered in this work to explore the trophic interaction. The system's average trophic transfer efficiency was 23%. Both the total primary production and total respiration were calculated to be >1, suggesting that more energy is produced than respired in the system. The structure of our system is based on high respiration and consumption flows. Indicators of ecosystem stability and development showed low values of the Finn cycle index (13.97), system omnivory index (0.18), and average Finn path length (3.09), suggesting that our system is disturbed and has a more linear than web-like trophic structure. The keystone index and mixed trophic impact analysis indicated that other demersal invertebrates, zooplankton, and cephalopods had a tremendous impact on other groups and were recognized as keystone species.

Keywords: Ecopath, food web, trophic flux, Moroccan Mediterranean Sea

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Authors: Ajay Wadhwa

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A Laboratory course on computational physics is different from the conventional lab course on other topics of physics like Mechanics, Heat, Optics, etc. because it involves active participation of the teacher as well as one-to-one interaction between teacher and the student. The course content requires the teacher to teach programming language as well as numerical methods along with their applications in physics. The task becomes more daunting when about 90% of the students in the class have no previous experience of any programming language. In the presented work, we have described a methodology for conducting the computational physics course by using the Google Drive and Dropitto.me cloud storage services. We have evaluated the performance in a class of sixty students by dividing them equally into four groups. One of the groups was made the peer group on whom the presented methodology was tested. The other groups were taught by using conventional method of classroom lectures. In order to assess our methodology, we analyzed the performance of students in four class tests. A study of certain statistical parameters like the mean, standard deviation, and Z-test hypothesis revealed that the cyber methodology based on cloud storage is more efficient than the conventional method of teaching.

Keywords: computational Physics, Z-test hypothesis, cloud storage, Google drive

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Authors: Shelly Sharma, Pooja Chadha

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Humans are exposed to pesticides and insecticides either directly or indirectly. Exposure to these pesticides may lead to acute toxicity to mammals and non-target organisms. Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is a broad spectrum organophosphate pesticide widely used in various countries of the world. The aim of the present study was to assess the toxicity associated with chlorpyrifos exposure and possible mitigating effect of cow urine against genotoxic and toxic effects in rat brain induced by chlorpyrifos. For this purpose LD50 was determined and rats were orally administered with 1/8th of LD50 (19mg/kg b.wt). Brain samples were taken after 24hrs, 48hrs and 72hrs of treatment. A significant increase in the % tail DNA was observed along with the increase in MDA levels of brain tissues in chlorpyrifos treated groups as compared to control. Cow urine treated groups show decrease in DNA damage and MDA levels as compared to CPF treated group. The study indicates that cow urine has ameliorative potential against neurotoxicity and genotoxicity induced by CPF. Cow urine is considered rich in vitamin A, E and volatile fatty acids which provide antioxidant potential to it. Thus, it can be used as a genoprotective agent.

Keywords: comet assay, brain, cow urine, genotoxicity, toxicity

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Authors: Muhammedamin Hussen Saad, Geoffrey Haagler, Onno Omta, Gerben Van Der Velde

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Unfolding chaos and persistent disruptions pose threats to companies’ performance especially in vulnerable settings of SME’s particularly in developing countries. Attention for resilience research in the academic world has increased considerably during the last decade looking at the number of papers published. As we are interested in adding to the understanding of the foundation and development of the concept of resilience, we focus especially on structuring the literature of business resilience in those vulnerable settings. A well-structured systematic search & review procedure was deployed. First, we defined key search terms and applied these to multiple databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Emerald, and Science Direct). To make our literature search more encompassing, we augmented with co-citation, reference checking including hand searching techniques. The paper offers (1) an overview of SMEs resilience literature from 2000 up to March 2017 comprising 88 articles, and (2) special attention, within that overview, to developing countries. This review concludes that resilience literature is very much diverse in definitions and its measurements, and is inconclusive about its influencing factors. Furthermore, resilience literature is based predominantly on research in the developed world. On the bases of how the concept resilience emerges from the literature we describe distinct features of resilience, give options to extend the theoretical bases of research into resilience and describe concrete ideas for further research.

Keywords: business resilience, systematic review, SMEs, developing countries

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Authors: Alice Schittek, Isabelle Roskam, Moira Mikolajczak

Abstract:

Background: Perfectionistic strivings (PS) and perfectionistic concerns (PC) are associated with an increase in parental burnout (PB), and PB causally increases violence towards the offspring. Objective: To our best knowledge, no study has ever investigated whether perfectionism (PS and PC) predicts violence towards the offspring and whether PB could explain this link. We hypothesized that an increase in PS and PC would lead to an increase in violence via an increase in PB. Method: 228 participants responded to an online survey, with three measurement occasions spaced two months apart. Results: Contrary to expectations, cross-lagged path models revealed that violence towards the offspring prospectively predicts an increase in PS and PC. Mediation models showed that PB is not a significant mediator. The results of all models did not change when controlling for social desirability. Conclusion: The present study shows that violence towards the offspring increases the risk of PS and PC in parents, which highlights the importance of understanding the effect of child maltreatment on the whole family system and not just on children. Results are discussed in light of the feeling of guilt experienced by parents. Considering the insignificant mediation effect, PB research should slowly shift towards more (quasi) causal designs, allowing to identify which significant correlations translate into causal effects. Implications: Clinicians should focus on preventing child maltreatment as well as treating parental perfectionism. Researchers should unravel the effects of child maltreatment on the family system.

Keywords: maltreatment, parental burnout, perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, perfectionism, violence

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Authors: Fariba Rahimi, Morteza Zendedel, Mohammad Jaafar Rezaee, Bita Vazir, Shahin Fakour

Abstract:

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of melatonin (Mel) with and without zinc (Zn) on the gonadotropin hormones, also thyroid (T3 and T4) hormone concentration in female rat. A total of 40 adult female rats were randomly grouped into five treatment groups, each of 2 rats in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) entire research time. Daily were treated by gavaging with Zn and melatonin as following: T1 (control1, basal diet), T2 (control 2, treated with normal saline) and other experimental groups including T3, T4 and T5 were treated with dose of zinc (40 ppm), melatonin (5 mg/kg), and combination zinc plus melatonin with the same level, respectively. Blood FSH and LH concentration were measured. Result showed no significantly differences between treatments in FSH and LH levels. The estrogen and progesterone and TSH levels in rats that received 5 mg of melatonin per day were higher than other groups, but not statistically significant (P>0.05). However, T3 (thyroid) concentration significantly (P<0.05) decreased in group that received 40 mg/zinc per Kg compared other groups. No significant (P>0.05) difference was detected among treatments in T4 levels. In conclusion, except for T3, had not significantly (P>0.05) effect on another parameters in the female rats that received melatonin or zinc and blend of melatonin and Zn.

Keywords: zinc, melatonin, hormone, rat

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Jaiprakash Dargad

Abstract:

CdMnSe dilute semiconductor or semimagnetic semiconductors have become the focus of intense research due to their interesting combination of magnetic and semiconducting properties, and are employed in a variety of devices including solar cells, gas sensors etc. A series of thin films of this material, Cd1−xMnxSe (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5), were therefore synthesized onto precleaned amorphous glass substrates using a solution growth technique. The sources of cadmium (Cd2+) and manganese (Mn2+) were aqueous solutions of cadmium sulphate and manganese sulphate, and selenium (Se2−) was extracted from a reflux of sodium selenosulphite. The different deposition parameters such as temperature, time of deposition, speed of mechanical churning, pH of the reaction mixture etc were optimized to yield good quality deposits. The as-grown samples were thin, relatively uniform, smooth and tightly adherent to the substrate support. The colour of the deposits changed from deep red-orange to yellowish-orange as the composition parameter, x, was varied from 0 to 0.5. The terminal layer thickness decreased with increasing value of, x. The optical energy gap decreased from 1.84 eV to 1.34 eV for the change of x from 0 to 0.5. The coefficient of optical absorption is of the order of 10-4 - 10-5 cm−1 and the type of transition (m = 0.5) is of the band-to-band direct type. The dc electrical conductivities were measured at room temperature and in the temperature range 300 K - 500 K. It was observed that the room temperature electrical conductivity increased with the composition parameter x up to 0.1, gradually decreasing thereafter. The thermo power measurements showed n-type conduction in these films.

Keywords: dilute semiconductor, reflux, CBD, thin film

Procedia PDF Downloads 221

Authors: Azade Sedigh, Mehrdad Modaresi, Akbar Pirestani

Abstract:

Appropriate nutrition is necessary today for desire reproduction and profitable livestock industry. Minerals including zinc element are from nutritional factors. Studies show that zinc plays an important role in reproduction process and secretion of reproductive hormones. This study was carried out to determine the effects of organic zinc on some reproductive hormones, fertility of male mice. The study was done as completely randomized design with one control and six treatment groups. Seventy male mature mice were kept for 35 days to adapt to environment and then divided in seven groups with ten replications. Samples received zinc (organic) daily in 50,100, and 150 ppm doses of each type for 35 days. At the end, blood samples were taken to measure LH, FSH, and testosterone hormones. Meanwhile, fertility rates were measured. Results were analyzed using one way ANOVA and means were compared using Duncan multiple ranges test at 5% probability level. According to results, LH concentration of all groups except 50 ppm was increased significantly (p<0.05). FSH amount was increased significantly (p<0.05) in 100 ppm mineral group and reduced in 50 ppm mineral but was not changed in other groups.

Keywords: organic supplements, zinc, reproductive hormones, fertility

Procedia PDF Downloads 455

Authors: Muhammad Ajmair

Abstract:

This empirical study followed structural vector auto regression (SVAR) approach proposed by the so-called AB-model of Amisano and Giannini (1997) to check the impact of relevant macroeconomic determinants on economic growth in Pakistan. Before that auto regressive distributive lag (ARDL) bound testing technique and time varying parametric approach along with general to specific approach was employed to find out relevant significant determinants of economic growth. To our best knowledge, no author made such a study that employed auto regressive distributive lag (ARDL) bound testing and time varying parametric approach with general to specific approach in empirical literature, but current study will bridge this gap. Annual data was taken from World Development Indicators (2014) during period 1976-2014. The widely-used Schwarz information criterion and Akaike information criterion were considered for the lag length in each estimated equation. Main findings of the study are that remittances received, gross national expenditures and inflation are found to be the best relevant positive and significant determinants of economic growth. Based on these empirical findings, we conclude that government should focus on overall economic growth augmenting factors while formulating any policy relevant to the concerned sector.

Keywords: economic growth, gross national expenditures, inflation, remittances

Procedia PDF Downloads 185