Search results for: real-time rendering
110 Authoring Tactile Gestures: Case Study for Emotion Stimulation
Authors: Rodrigo Lentini, Beatrice Ionascu, Friederike A. Eyssel, Scandar Copti, Mohamad Eid
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The haptic modality has brought a new dimension to human computer interaction by engaging the human sense of touch. However, designing appropriate haptic stimuli, and in particular tactile stimuli, for various applications is still challenging. To tackle this issue, we present an intuitive system that facilitates the authoring of tactile gestures for various applications. The system transforms a hand gesture into a tactile gesture that can be rendering using a home-made haptic jacket. A case study is presented to demonstrate the ability of the system to develop tactile gestures that are recognizable by human subjects. Four tactile gestures are identified and tested to intensify the following four emotional responses: high valence – high arousal, high valence – low arousal, low valence – high arousal, and low valence – low arousal. A usability study with 20 participants demonstrated high correlation between the selected tactile gestures and the intended emotional reaction. Results from this study can be used in a wide spectrum of applications ranging from gaming to interpersonal communication and multimodal simulations.Keywords: tactile stimulation, tactile gesture, emotion reactions, arousal, valence
Procedia PDF Downloads 371109 Water and Sanitation Challenges: A Case of King Sabatha Dalindyebo Municipality
Authors: Masibulele Fiko, Sanjay Balkara, Beauty Makiwane, Samson Asoba
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Several municipalities in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa suffer from severe infrastructure dilapidation and a backlog in repairs and replacement. This scourge is most critical in black dominated areas, such as the rural communities and townships. Several critical service delivery activities have been impaired consequent to the deteriorating facilities and a lot of human endeavors impacted adversely. As such, this study investigated the water and sanitation challenges in King Sabatha Dalindyebo municipality, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Questionnaires were distributed to the communities and interviews were conducted with the communities’ leaders. The Participants mentioned that their main sources of water supply were a dam, streams, springs and wells; and the distances to the water sources were thought to be too long and women were often attacked and sometimes raped. South African local authorities are facing problems of insufficient funds to meet their daily operations. The municipality should provide street taps. The alternative way for government to supply financial aid to local authorities is to introduce the private sector in the service rendering process.Keywords: communities, sanitation, managers, municipality
Procedia PDF Downloads 124108 Model Based Fault Diagnostic Approach for Limit Switches
Authors: Zafar Mahmood, Surayya Naz, Nazir Shah Khattak
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The degree of freedom relates to our capability to observe or model the energy paths within the system. Higher the number of energy paths being modeled leaves to us a higher degree of freedom, but increasing the time and modeling complexity rendering it useless for today’s world’s need for minimum time to market. Since the number of residuals that can be uniquely isolated are dependent on the number of independent outputs of the system, increasing the number of sensors required. The examples of discrete position sensors that may be used to form an array include limit switches, Hall effect sensors, optical sensors, magnetic sensors, etc. Their mechanical design can usually be tailored to fit in the transitional path of an STME in a variety of mechanical configurations. The case studies into multi-sensor system were carried out and actual data from sensors is used to test this generic framework. It is being investigated, how the proper modeling of limit switches as timing sensors, could lead to unified and neutral residual space while keeping the implementation cost reasonably low.Keywords: low-cost limit sensors, fault diagnostics, Single Throw Mechanical Equipment (STME), parameter estimation, parity-space
Procedia PDF Downloads 617107 Towards a Re-theatricalized Drama: Yu Shangyuan’s Translation of J. M. Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton
Authors: Li Jiawei
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In the mid-1920s, Chinese dramatist Yu Shangyuan rallied a group of intellectuals and launched the National Theatre Movement to champion the incorporation of Chinese operatic resources into modern spoken drama. In 1927, the fluctuating milieu impelled Yu and most of his comrades to leave Beijing, rendering the movement a truncated undertaking. Offering to illuminate the influence or reverberation of the movement, this research examines Yu’s translation of J. M. Barrie’ s The Admirable Crichton, the first play Yu published upon returning to Beijing in 1929. It unveils that Yu still espoused the value of Chinese opera on modern stage, but his perception of drama was more instructive and rooted in theatre’s fundamental traditions, customs, and mechanics. Influenced by Sheldon Cheney’s theatrical idea, Yu aligned Western realistic drama with “psychologic drama” and Chinese opera with “aesthetic drama” and argued for a “re-theatricalized drama” that could “present psychologic drama aesthetically.” With such a perception, Yu chose to translate a psychologic drama and strove to imbue the play with an aesthetic spirit by inserting symbolic stage designs and employing poetic language. The exploration of Yu’s translation of The Admirable Crichton sheds light on the new insights that translation studies might bring to theatre historiography.Keywords: Yu Shangyuan, translation, drama, modern China
Procedia PDF Downloads 67106 Ways for the Development of the Audit Quality Control System through the Analysis of Ongoing Problems, Experience and Challenges: Example of the Republic of Georgia
Authors: Levan Sabauri
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Audit is an independent inspection of the financial statement of the audited person and expresses the opinion of an auditor on the reliability of this statement. The auditor’s activity (auditor’s service) is realized by auditing organizations, individual auditors in connection to conduction of an audit and rendering of audit accompanying services. The profession of auditor means a high level of responsibility for rendered service. Results of decisions made by information users depend on the quality of the auditor’s conclusion. Owners, investors, creditors, and society rely on the opinion of the auditor under the condition that inspection was conducted with good quality. Therefore, the existence of the well-functioning audit quality control system for the administering of the audit is an important issue. An efficient audit quality control system is a substantial challenge that many countries face worldwide, especially those states where these systems are being formed within the respective reform program. The presented article reflects on the best practices of the leading countries, the assumptions and recommendations for the financial accounting, reporting and audit; current reforms in Georgia are made based on this comparative analysis.Keywords: audit quality control, audit program, financial statement, perspective analysis
Procedia PDF Downloads 161105 A New 3D Shape Descriptor Based on Multi-Resolution and Multi-Block CS-LBP
Authors: Nihad Karim Chowdhury, Mohammad Sanaullah Chowdhury, Muhammed Jamshed Alam Patwary, Rubel Biswas
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In content-based 3D shape retrieval system, achieving high search performance has become an important research problem. A challenging aspect of this problem is to find an effective shape descriptor which can discriminate similar shapes adequately. To address this problem, we propose a new shape descriptor for 3D shape models by combining multi-resolution with multi-block center-symmetric local binary pattern operator. Given an arbitrary 3D shape, we first apply pose normalization, and generate a set of multi-viewed 2D rendered images. Second, we apply Gaussian multi-resolution filter to generate several levels of images from each of 2D rendered image. Then, overlapped sub-images are computed for each image level of a multi-resolution image. Our unique multi-block CS-LBP comes next. It allows the center to be composed of m-by-n rectangular pixels, instead of a single pixel. This process is repeated for all the 2D rendered images, derived from both ‘depth-buffer’ and ‘silhouette’ rendering. Finally, we concatenate all the features vectors into one dimensional histogram as our proposed 3D shape descriptor. Through several experiments, we demonstrate that our proposed 3D shape descriptor outperform the previous methods by using a benchmark dataset.Keywords: 3D shape retrieval, 3D shape descriptor, CS-LBP, overlapped sub-images
Procedia PDF Downloads 443104 Unconventional Strategies for Combating Multidrug Resistant Bacterial Biofilms
Authors: Soheir Mohamed Fathey
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Biofilms are complex biological communities which are hard to be eliminated by conventional antibiotic administration and implemented in eighty percent of humans infections. Green remedies have been used for centuries and have shown obvious effects in hindering and combating microbial biofilm infections. Nowadays, there has been a growth in the number of researches on the anti-biofilm performance of natural agents such as plant essential oil (EOs) and propolis. In this study, we investigated the antibiofilm performance of various natural agents, including four essential oils (EOs), cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia), tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), and clove (Syzygium aromaticum), as well as propolis versus the biofilm of both Gram-positive pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa which are major human and animal pathogens rendering a high risk due to their biofilm development ability. The antibiofilm activity of the tested agents was evaluated by crystal violet staining assay and detected by scanning electron and fluorescent microscopy. Antibiofilm performance declared a potent effect of the tested products versus the tested bacterial biofilms.Keywords: biofilm, essential oils, electron microscopy, fluorescent
Procedia PDF Downloads 96103 Acoustic Analysis for Comparison and Identification of Normal and Disguised Speech of Individuals
Authors: Surbhi Mathur, J. M. Vyas
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Although the rapid development of forensic speaker recognition technology has been conducted, there are still many problems to be solved. The biggest problem arises when the cases involving disguised voice samples come across for the purpose of examination and identification. Such type of voice samples of anonymous callers is frequently encountered in crimes involving kidnapping, blackmailing, hoax extortion and many more, where the speaker makes a deliberate effort to manipulate their natural voice in order to conceal their identity due to the fear of being caught. Voice disguise causes serious damage to the natural vocal parameters of the speakers and thus complicates the process of identification. The sole objective of this doctoral project is to find out the possibility of rendering definite opinions in cases involving disguised speech by experimentally determining the effects of different disguise forms on personal identification and percentage rate of speaker recognition for various voice disguise techniques such as raised pitch, lower pitch, increased nasality, covering the mouth, constricting tract, obstacle in mouth etc by analyzing and comparing the amount of phonetic and acoustic variation in of artificial (disguised) and natural sample of an individual, by auditory as well as spectrographic analysis.Keywords: forensic, speaker recognition, voice, speech, disguise, identification
Procedia PDF Downloads 368102 The Rendering of Sex-Related Expressions by Court Interpreters in Hong Kong: A Corpus-Based Approach
Authors: Yee Yan Crystal Kwong
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The essence of rape is the absence of consent to sexual intercourse. Yet, the definition of consent is not absolute and allows for subjectivity. In this case, the accuracy of oral interpretation becomes very important as the narratives of events and situation, as well as the register and style of speakers would influence the juror decision making. This paper first adopts a corpus-based approach to investigate how court interpreters in Hong Kong handle expressions that refer to sexual activities. The data of this study will be based on online corpus :From legislation to translation, from translation to interpretation: The narrative of sexual offences. The corpus comprises the transcription of five separate rape trials and all of these trials were heard with the presence of an interpreter. Since there are plenty of sex-related expressions used by witnesses and defendants in the five cases, emphasis will be put on those which have an impact on the definition of rape. With an in-depth analysis of the interpreted utterances, different interpreting approaches will be identified to observe how interpreters retain the intended meanings. Interviews with experienced court interpreters will also be conducted to revisit the validity of the traditional verbatim standard. At the end of this research, various interpreting approaches will be compared and evaluated. A redefinition of interpreters' institutional role, as well as recommendations for interpreting learners will be provided.Keywords: court interpreting, interpreters, legal translation, slangs
Procedia PDF Downloads 262101 Effects of β-Glucan on the Release of Nitric Oxide by RAW264.7 Cells Stimulated with Escherichia coli Lipopolysaccharide
Authors: Eun Young Choi, So Hui Choe, Jin Yi Hyeon, Ji Young Jin, Bo Ram Keum, Jong Min Lim, Hyung Rae Cho, Kwang Keun Cho, In Soon Choi
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This research analyzed the effect of β-glucan that is expected to alleviate the production of inflammatory mediator in macrophagocyte, which was processed by the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Escherichia, a pathogen related to allergy. The incubated layer was used for nitric oxide (NO) analysis. The DNA-binding activation of the small unit of NF-κB was measured using ELISA-based kit. In RAW264.7 cells that were vitalized by E.coli LPS, β-glucan inhibited both the combatant and rendering phases of inducible NO synthase (iNOS)-derived NO. β-glucan increased the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in the cell that was stimulated by E.coli LPS, and HO-1 activation was inhibited by SnPP. This shows that NO production induced by LPS is related to the inhibition effect of β-glucan. The phosphorylation of JNK and p38 induced by LPS were not influenced by β-glucan, and IκB-α decomposition was not influenced either. Instead, β-glucan remarkably inhibited the phosphorylation of STAT1 that was induced by E.coli LPS. Overall, β-glucan inhibited the production of NO in macrophagocyte that was vitalized by E.coli LPS through HO-1 induction and STAT1 pathways inhibition in this research. As the host inflammation reaction control by β-glucan weakens the progress of allergy, β-glucan can be used as an effective treatment method.Keywords: β-glucan, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), nitric oxide (NO), RAW264.7 cells, STAT1
Procedia PDF Downloads 408100 The Artist and the Opera: An Analysis of Gaze, Spatiality, and Women’s Labor in Degas’s The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, 1874
Authors: Moses Abrahamson
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This paper examines Edgar Degas’s The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (1874) through the lens of gaze, spatiality, and women’s labor within the context of 19th-century Parisian modernity. Degas’s depiction of ballet dancers, who were often subject to sexual exploitation by wealthy patrons of the Paris Opera, extends beyond a mere aesthetic rendering of performance. Instead, the painting highlights the Opera’s backstage dynamics, where class and gender intersect through power imbalances. By analyzing the gazes of the Opera’s male patrons and ballet masters, the paper explores the implicit commodification of the dancers, drawing on Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze and its manifestation in the portrayal of working-class women. Degas’s positioning of these figures, coupled with his perspective as both artist and patron, reveals his engagement with the spatial layout of the Opera and the modern social hierarchies it embodies. The painting serves as a microcosm of broader sociocultural transformations, where Degas reflects on the labor of ballet dancers as both private toil and public spectacle, connecting his artistic process to the gendered and classed politics of modern Parisian society.Keywords: class dynamics, male gaze, spatiality, modernity
Procedia PDF Downloads 2499 Color Conversion Films with CuInS2/ZnS Quantum Dots Embedded Polystyrene Nanofibers by Electrospinning Process
Authors: Wonkyung Na, Namhun Kim, Heeyeop Chae
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Quantum dots (QDs) are getting attentions due to their excellent optical properties in display, solar cell, biomolecule detection and lighting applications. Energy band gap can be easilty controlled by controlling their size and QDs are proper to apply in light-emitting-diode(LED) and lighting application, especially. Typically cadmium (Cd) containing QDs show a narrow photoluminescence (PL) spectrum and high quantum yield. However, Cd is classified as a hazardous materials and the use of Cd is being tightly regulated under 100ppm level in many countries.InP and CuInS2 (CIS) are being investigated as Cd-free QD materials and it is recently demonstrated that the performance of those Cd-free QDs is comparable to their Cd-based rivals.Due to a broad emission spectrum, CuInS2 QDs are also proper to be applied to white LED.4 For the lighting applications, the QD should be made in forms of color conversion films. Various film processes are reported with QDs in polymer matrixes. In this work, we synthesized the CuInS2 (CIS) QDs and QD embedded polystyrene color conversion films were fabricated for white color emission with electro-spinning process. As a result, blue light from blue LED is converted to white light with high color rendering index (CRI) of 72 by the color conversion films.Keywords: CuInS2/ZnS, electro-spinning, color conversion films, white light emitting diodes
Procedia PDF Downloads 81398 SynKit: A Event-Driven and Scalable Microservices-Based Kitting System
Authors: Bruno Nascimento, Cristina Wanzeller, Jorge Silva, João A. Dias, André Barbosa, José Ribeiro
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The increasing complexity of logistics operations stems from evolving business needs, such as the shift from mass production to mass customization, which demands greater efficiency and flexibility. In response, Industry 4.0 and 5.0 technologies provide improved solutions to enhance operational agility and better meet market demands. The management of kitting zones, combined with the use of Autonomous Mobile Robots, faces challenges related to coordination, resource optimization, and rapid response to customer demand fluctuations. Additionally, implementing lean manufacturing practices in this context must be carefully orchestrated by intelligent systems and human operators to maximize efficiency without sacrificing the agility required in an advanced production environment. This paper proposes and implements a microservices-based architecture integrating principles from Industry 4.0 and 5.0 with lean manufacturing practices. The architecture enhances communication and coordination between autonomous vehicles and kitting management systems, allowing more efficient resource utilization and increased scalability. The proposed architecture focuses on the modularity and flexibility of operations, enabling seamless flexibility to change demands and the efficient allocation of resources in realtime. Conducting this approach is expected to significantly improve logistics operations’ efficiency and scalability by reducing waste and optimizing resource use while improving responsiveness to demand changes. The implementation of this architecture provides a robust foundation for the continuous evolution of kitting management and process optimization. It is designed to adapt to dynamic environments marked by rapid shifts in production demands and real-time decision-making. It also ensures seamless integration with automated systems, aligning with Industry 4.0 and 5.0 needs while reinforcing Lean Manufacturing principles.Keywords: microservices, event-driven, kitting, AMR, lean manufacturing, industry 4.0, industry 5.0
Procedia PDF Downloads 2297 Africa as Endemically a War Continent: Explaining the Changing Pattern of Armed Conflicts in Africa
Authors: Kenneth Azaigba
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The history of post-colonial African States has been dubbed a history of endemic warfare in existing literature. Indeed, Africa political environment is characterized by a multiplicity of threats to peace and security. Africa's leading drivers of conflict include abundant (especially mineral) resources, personal rule and attendant political authoritarianism, manipulation of identity politics across ethnicity, marginalization of communities, as well as electoral mal-practices resulting in contested legitimacy and resultant violence. However, the character of armed conflicts in Africa is changing. This paper attempts to reconstruct the trajectory of armed conflicts in Africa and explain the changing pattern of armed conflict. The paper contends that large scale political violence in Africa is on the decline rendering the endemic thesis an inappropriate paradigm in explaining political conflicts in Africa. The paper also posits that though small scale conflicts are springing up and exhibiting trans-border dimensions, these patterns of armed conflicts are not peculiar to Africa but emerging waves of global conflicts. The paper explains that the shift in the scale of warfare in Africa is a function of a multiplicity of post-cold war global contradictions. Inclusive governance, social justice and economic security are articulated as workable panaceas for mitigating warfare in Africa.Keywords: Africa, conflicts, pattern, war
Procedia PDF Downloads 38796 Predictive Analytics of Student Performance Determinants
Authors: Mahtab Davari, Charles Edward Okon, Somayeh Aghanavesi
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Every institute of learning is usually interested in the performance of enrolled students. The level of these performances determines the approach an institute of study may adopt in rendering academic services. The focus of this paper is to evaluate students' academic performance in given courses of study using machine learning methods. This study evaluated various supervised machine learning classification algorithms such as Logistic Regression (LR), Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Decision Tree, K-Nearest Neighbors, Linear Discriminant Analysis, and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis, using selected features to predict study performance. The accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score obtained from a 5-Fold Cross-Validation were used to determine the best classification algorithm to predict students’ performances. SVM (using a linear kernel), LDA, and LR were identified as the best-performing machine learning methods. Also, using the LR model, this study identified students' educational habits such as reading and paying attention in class as strong determinants for a student to have an above-average performance. Other important features include the academic history of the student and work. Demographic factors such as age, gender, high school graduation, etc., had no significant effect on a student's performance.Keywords: student performance, supervised machine learning, classification, cross-validation, prediction
Procedia PDF Downloads 12695 Towards Computational Fluid Dynamics Based Methodology to Accelerate Bioprocess Scale Up and Scale Down
Authors: Vishal Kumar Singh
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Bioprocess development is a time-constrained activity aimed at harnessing the full potential of culture performance in an ambience that is not natural to cells. Even with the use of chemically defined media and feeds, a significant amount of time is devoted in identifying the apt operating parameters. In addition, the scale-up of these processes is often accompanied by loss of antibody titer and product quality, which further delays the commercialization of the drug product. In such a scenario, the investigation of this disparity of culture performance is done by further experimentation at a smaller scale that is representative of at-scale production bioreactors. These scale-down model developments are also time-intensive. In this study, a computation fluid dynamics-based multi-objective scaling approach has been illustrated to speed up the process transfer. For the implementation of this approach, a transient multiphase water-air system has been studied in Ansys CFX to visualize the air bubble distribution and volumetric mass transfer coefficient (kLa) profiles, followed by the design of experiment based parametric optimization approach to define the operational space. The proposed approach is completely in silico and requires minimum experimentation, thereby rendering a high throughput to the overall process development.Keywords: bioprocess development, scale up, scale down, computation fluid dynamics, multi-objective, Ansys CFX, design of experiment
Procedia PDF Downloads 8294 British Aristocratic Irony on Screen: Subtitling Shifts in Downton Abbey
Authors: Nahed Almutairi
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The subtitling process for period dramas implies a set of linguistic challenges. Audio-visual (AV) texts in this genre weave a rich tapestry of verbal irony blended with humor. The famous TV series Downtown Abbey contains such irony as one of the British aristocracy's linguistic markers. This study aims to examine subtitling strategies utilized in rendering such verbal irony. To counteract the negative postulated by Berman with the positive shifts, a qualitative analysis is conducted to examine the impact of the presence and absence of negative deforming tendencies in the Arabic subtitles of the first season of the British drama. This research is significant because it contributes to the discipline of translation studies, specifically the realm of AV translation. It seeks to provide a set of guidelines for optimal subtitling strategies that maintain the stylistic peculiarities of a social class that don’t exist in the target culture while also considering the practical aspects of translating subtitles. The findings indicate that negative shifts in the use of ironic expressions distort not only the stylistic elements of British aristocracy's utterances but also result in a loss of the intended meaning. This implies that what Berman’s model identifies as negative is also perceived as negative linguistic shifts in the Arabic subtitles of the British aristocracy’s verbal irony.Keywords: Downton Abbey, deforming tendencies, berman, subtitling shifts, verbal irony
Procedia PDF Downloads 8293 Effective Corporate Image Management as a Strategy for Enhancing Profitability
Authors: Shola Haruna Adeosun, Ajoke F. Adebiyi
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Business organizations in Nigeria have failed to realize the role of a good corporate image policy in business dealings. This is probably because they do not understand the concept of corporate image and the necessary tools for promoting it. Corporate image goes beyond attractive products or rendering quality services, advertising and paying good salary. It pervades every aspect of business concern, from the least worker’s personality to the dealings within the organization and with the large society. In the face of the societal dynamics, especially in the business world, brought by technology, companies are faced with stiff competition that maintaining a competitive edge requires aggressive strategies. One of such strategies in effective corporate image management is promotion. This study investigates the strategies that could be deployed in order to build and promote the effective corporate image, as well as enhance profit margins of an organization, using Phinomar Nigeria Limited, Ngwo as case study. The study reveals that Phinomar Nigeria Limited has a laid down corporate image policy but not effectively managed; and that, strategies deployed to promote corporate image are limited; while responses to Phinomar products are fairly high. It, therefore, suggests profitable products but requires periodical improvement in the employee's welfare and work environment; as well as, the need to increase the scope of Phinomar’s social responsibility.Keywords: corporate image, effective, enhancing, management, profitability, strategy
Procedia PDF Downloads 31292 Bakla Po Ako (I Am Gay): A Case Study on the Communication Styles of Selected Filipino Gays in Disclosing Their Sexual Orientation to Their Parents
Authors: Bryan Christian Baybay, M. Francesca Ronario
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This study is intended to answer the question “What are the communication styles of selected Filipino gays in breaking their silence on their sexual orientation to their parents?” In this regard, six cases of Filipino gay disclosures were examined through in-depth interviews. The participants were selected through purposive sampling and snowball technique. The theories, Rhetorical Sensitivity of Roderick Hart and Communicator Style of Robert Norton were used to analyze the gathered data and to give support to the communication attitudes, message processing, message rendering and communication styles exhibited in each disclosure. As secondary data and validation, parents and experts in the field of communication, sociology, and psychology were also interviewed and consulted. The study found that Filipino gays vary in the communication styles they use during the disclosure with their parents. All communication styles: impression-leaving, contentious, open, dramatic, dominant, precise, relaxed, friendly, animated, and communicator image were observed by the gays depending on their motivation, relationship and thoughts contemplated. These results lend ideas for future researchers to look into the communication patterns and/or styles of lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and queers or expand researches on the same subject and the utilization of Social Judgment and Relational Dialectics theories in determining and analyzing LGBTQ communication.Keywords: communication attitudes, communication styles, Filipino gays, self-disclosure, sexual orientation
Procedia PDF Downloads 52391 Biodiesel Production from Broiler Chicken Waste
Authors: John Abraham, Ramesh Saravana Kumar, Francis, Xavier, Deepak Mathew
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Broiler slaughter waste has become a major source of pollution throughout the world. Utilization of broiler slaughter waste by dry rendering process produced Rendered Chicken Oil (RCO) a cheap raw material for biodiesel production and Carcass Meal a feed ingredient for pets and fishes. Conversion of RCO into biodiesel may open new vistas for generating wealth from waste besides controlling the major havoc of environmental pollution. A two-step process to convert RCO to good quality Biodiesel was invented. Acid catalysed esterification of FFA followed by base catalysed transesterification of triglycerides was carried out after meticulously standardising the methanol molar ratio, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature and reaction time to obtain the maximum biodiesel yield of 97.62% and lowest glycerol yield of 6.96%. RCO biodiesel blended was tested in a Mahindra Scorpio CRDI engine. The results revealed that the blending of commercial diesel with 20% RCO biodiesel lead to less engine wear, a quieter engine and better fuel economy. The better lubricating qualities of RCO B20 prevented over heating of engine, which prolongs the engine life. The blending of biodiesel at 20% to commercial diesel can reduce the import of costly crude oil and simultaneously, substantially reduce the engine emissions as proved by significantly lower smoke levels, thus mitigating climatic changes.Keywords: broiler waste, rendered chicken oil, biodiesel, engine testing
Procedia PDF Downloads 43590 Recognizing Customer Preferences Using Review Documents: A Hybrid Text and Data Mining Approach
Authors: Oshin Anand, Atanu Rakshit
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The vast increment in the e-commerce ventures makes this area a prominent research stream. Besides several quantified parameters, the textual content of reviews is a storehouse of many information that can educate companies and help them earn profit. This study is an attempt in this direction. The article attempts to categorize data based on a computed metric that quantifies the influencing capacity of reviews rendering two categories of high and low influential reviews. Further, each of these document is studied to conclude several product feature categories. Each of these categories along with the computed metric is converted to linguistic identifiers and are used in an association mining model. The article makes a novel attempt to combine feature attraction with quantified metric to categorize review text and finally provide frequent patterns that depict customer preferences. Frequent mentions in a highly influential score depict customer likes or preferred features in the product whereas prominent pattern in low influencing reviews highlights what is not important for customers. This is achieved using a hybrid approach of text mining for feature and term extraction, sentiment analysis, multicriteria decision-making technique and association mining model.Keywords: association mining, customer preference, frequent pattern, online reviews, text mining
Procedia PDF Downloads 38889 Targeting Calcium Dysregulation for Treatment of Dementia in Alzheimer's Disease
Authors: Huafeng Wei
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Dementia in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the number one cause of dementia internationally, without effective treatments. Increasing evidence suggest that disruption of intracellular calcium homeostasis, primarily pathological elevation of cytosol and mitochondria but reduction of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) calcium concentrations, play critical upstream roles on multiple pathologies and associated neurodegeneration, impaired neurogenesis, synapse, and cognitive dysfunction in various AD preclinical studies. The last federal drug agency (FDA) approved drug for AD dementia treatment, memantine, exert its therapeutic effects by ameliorating N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor overactivation and subsequent calcium dysregulation. More research works are needed to develop other drugs targeting calcium dysregulation at multiple pharmacological acting sites for future effective AD dementia treatment. Particularly, calcium channel blockers for the treatment of hypertension and dantrolene for the treatment of muscle spasm and malignant hyperthermia can be repurposed for this purpose. In our own research work, intranasal administration of dantrolene significantly increased its brain concentrations and durations, rendering it a more effective therapeutic drug with less side effects for chronic AD dementia treatment. This review summarizesthe progress of various studies repurposing drugs targeting calcium dysregulation for future effective AD dementia treatment as potentially disease-modifying drugs.Keywords: alzheimer, calcium, cognitive dysfunction, dementia, neurodegeneration, neurogenesis
Procedia PDF Downloads 18288 Ideological and Poetological Tensions: Wu Mi’s Enterprise of Imitating and Translating George Gordon Byron
Authors: Hanjin Yan
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The English Romantic George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) was widely celebrated by men of letters in early republican China as a Satanic freedom fighter challenging classical poetics and traditional values. However, Wu Mi (1894-1978), the most persistent critic of contemporary iconoclasm, perceived Byron as a paragon of self-righteous poet-exiles who maintained moral integrity and achieved poetic excellence during times of frustration, just like canonized classical Chinese poets. Wu Mi not only composed lengthy imitations of the third canto of Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1816) but also patronized a rendering of the canto. Taking André Lefevere’s rewriting theory as a framework, this paper explores the interplay of ideology and poetics by examining Wu Mi’s imitations against Byron’s original and its Chinese translation patronized by Wu Mi. Textual analysis shows that Wu Mi’s approach to Byron’s poetry was informed not only by his endeavor to invigorate classical Chinese poetics, but also by his program to preserve China’s cultural traditions and integrate Western new humanism, a theory proposed by his Harvard mentor Irving Babbitt (1865-1933). This study reveals how Byron was appropriated to serve conflicting poetic and ideological purposes in early republican China and suggests that imitation as a type of rewriting merits further attention.Keywords: George Gordon Byron, ideology, imitation, poetics, translation
Procedia PDF Downloads 23087 Investigation into the Homoepitaxy of AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure via Molecular Beam Epitaxy
Authors: Jiajia Yao, Guanlin Wu, Fang Liu, Junshuai Xue, Yue Hao
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As the production process of self-standing GaN substrates evolves, the commercialization of low dislocation density, large-scale, semi-insulating self-standing GaN substrates is gradually becoming a reality. This advancement has given rise to increased interest in GaN materials' homoepitaxial technology. However, at the homoepitaxial interface, there are considerable concentrations of impurity elements, including C, Si, and O, which generate parasitic leakage channels at the re-growth junction. This phenomenon results in leaked HEMTs that prove difficult to switch off, rendering them effectively non-functional. The emergence of leakage channels can also degrade the high-frequency properties and lower the power devices' breakdown voltage. In this study, the uniform epitaxy of AlGaN/GaN heterojunction with high electron mobility was accomplished through the surface treatment of the GaN substrates prior to growth and the design of the AlN isolation layer structure. By employing a procedure combining gallium atom in-situ cleaning and plasma nitridation, the C and O impurity concentrations at the homoepitaxial interface were diminished to the scale of 10¹⁷ cm-³. Additionally, the 1.5 nm nitrogen-rich AlN isolation layer successfully prevented the diffusion of Si impurities into the GaN channel layer. The result was an AlGaN/GaN heterojunction with an electron mobility of 1552 cm²/Vs and an electron density of 1.1 × 10¹³ cm-² at room temperature, obtained on a Fe-doped semi-insulating GaN substrate.Keywords: MBE, AlGaN/GaN, homogenerous epitaxy, HEMT
Procedia PDF Downloads 6886 The Syntactic Features of Islamic Legal Texts and Their Implications for Translation
Authors: Rafat Y. Alwazna
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Certain religious texts are deemed part of legal texts that are characterised by high sensitivity and sacredness. Amongst such religious texts are Islamic legal texts that are replete with Islamic legal terms that designate particular legal concepts peculiar to Islamic legal system and legal culture. However, from the syntactic perspective, Islamic legal texts prove lengthy, condensed and convoluted, with little use of punctuation system, but with an extensive use of subordinations and co-ordinations, which separate the main verb from the subject, and which, of course, carry a heavy load of legal detail. The present paper seeks to examine the syntactic features of Islamic legal texts through analysing a short text of Islamic jurisprudence in an attempt at exploring the syntactic features that characterise this type of legal text. A translation of this text into legal English is then exercised to find the translation implications that have emerged as a result of the English translation. Based on these implications, the paper compares and contrasts the syntactic features of Islamic legal texts to those of legal English texts. Finally, the present paper argues that there are a number of syntactic features of Islamic legal texts, such as nominalisation, passivisation, little use of punctuation system, the use of the Arabic cohesive device, etc., which are also possessed by English legal texts except for the last feature and with some variations. The paper also claims that when rendering an Islamic legal text into legal English, certain implications emerge, such as the necessity of a sentence break, the omission of the cohesive device concerned and the increase in the use of nominalisation, passivisation, passive participles, and so on.Keywords: English legal texts, Islamic legal texts, nominalisation, participles, passivisation, syntactic features, translation implications
Procedia PDF Downloads 23385 Reconfigurable Device for 3D Visualization of Three Dimensional Surfaces
Authors: Robson da C. Santos, Carlos Henrique de A. S. P. Coutinho, Lucas Moreira Dias, Gerson Gomes Cunha
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The article refers to the development of an augmented reality 3D display, through the control of servo motors and projection of image with aid of video projector on the model. Augmented Reality is a branch that explores multiple approaches to increase real-world view by viewing additional information along with the real scene. The article presents the broad use of electrical, electronic, mechanical and industrial automation for geospatial visualizations, applications in mathematical models with the visualization of functions and 3D surface graphics and volumetric rendering that are currently seen in 2D layers. Application as a 3D display for representation and visualization of Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and Digital Surface Models (DSM), where it can be applied in the identification of canyons in the marine area of the Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The same can execute visualization of regions subject to landslides, as in Serra do Mar - Agra dos Reis and Serranas cities both in the State of Rio de Janeiro. From the foregoing, loss of human life and leakage of oil from pipelines buried in these regions may be anticipated in advance. The physical design consists of a table consisting of a 9 x 16 matrix of servo motors, totalizing 144 servos, a mesh is used on the servo motors for visualization of the models projected by a retro projector. Each model for by an image pre-processing, is sent to a server to be converted and viewed from a software developed in C # Programming Language.Keywords: visualization, 3D models, servo motors, C# programming language
Procedia PDF Downloads 34284 Unsteady Three-Dimensional Adaptive Spatial-Temporal Multi-Scale Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Solver to Simulate Rarefied Gas Flows in Micro/Nano Devices
Authors: Mirvat Shamseddine, Issam Lakkis
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We present an efficient, three-dimensional parallel multi-scale Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) algorithm for the simulation of unsteady rarefied gas flows in micro/nanosystems. The algorithm employs a novel spatiotemporal adaptivity scheme. The scheme performs a fully dynamic multi-level grid adaption based on the gradients of flow macro-parameters and an automatic temporal adaptation. The computational domain consists of a hierarchical octree-based Cartesian grid representation of the flow domain and a triangular mesh for the solid object surfaces. The hybrid mesh, combined with the spatiotemporal adaptivity scheme, allows for increased flexibility and efficient data management, rendering the framework suitable for efficient particle-tracing and dynamic grid refinement and coarsening. The parallel algorithm is optimized to run DSMC simulations of strongly unsteady, non-equilibrium flows over multiple cores. The presented method is validated by comparing with benchmark studies and then employed to improve the design of micro-scale hotwire thermal sensors in rarefied gas flows.Keywords: DSMC, oct-tree hierarchical grid, ray tracing, spatial-temporal adaptivity scheme, unsteady rarefied gas flows
Procedia PDF Downloads 29983 Ideology Shift in Political Translation
Authors: Jingsong Ma
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In political translation, ideology plays an important role in conveying implications accurately. Ideological collisions can occur in political translation when there existdifferences of political environments embedded in the translingual political texts in both source and target languages. To reach an accurate translationrequires the translatorto understand the ideologies implied in (and often transcending) the texts. This paper explores the conditions, procedure, and purpose of processingideological collision and resolution of such issues in political translation. These points will be elucidated by case studies of translating English and Chinese political texts. First, there are specific political terminologies in certain political environments. These terminological peculiarities in one language are often determined by ideological elements rather than by syntactical and semantical understanding. The translation of these ideological-loaded terminologiesis a process and operation consisting of understanding the ideological context, including cultural, historical, and political situations. This will be explained with characteristic Chinese political terminologies and their renderings in English. Second, when the ideology in the source language fails to match with the ideology in the target language, the decisions to highlight or disregard these conflicts are shaped by power relations, political engagement, social context, etc. It thus is necessary to go beyond linguisticanalysis of the context by deciphering ideology in political documents to provide a faithful or equivalent rendering of certain messages. Finally, one of the practical issues is about equivalence in political translation by redefining the notion of faithfulness and retainment of ideological messages in the source language in translations of political texts. To avoid distortion, the translator should be liberated from grip the literal meaning, instead diving into functional meanings of the text.Keywords: translation, ideology, politics, society
Procedia PDF Downloads 11182 Composition and Acaricidal Activity of Elettaria cardamomum Essential Oil Against Oligonychus afrasiaticus
Authors: Abid Hussain, Muhammad Rizwan-ul-Haq, Hassan Al-Ayedh, Ahmed M. Al-Jabr
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Oligonychus afrasiaticus, is an important pest that devastates date palms (Phoenix dactylifera). They caused serious damage to date palm fruits. They start feeding on dates at Kimri stage (greenish color dates with high sugar and moisture level) resulting severe fruit losses and rendering them unfit for human consumption. Currently, acaricides are the only tool available to Saudi growers to prevent O. afrasiaticus damage. Many acaricides are available in the Saudi markets in order to control the mites on date palm trees but their efficacy against O. afrasiaticus is questionable. The intensive use of acaricides has led to resistance in many mite species around the globe and their control becomes exceedingly challenging. The current investigation explored for the first time the acaricidal potential of Elettaria cardamomum essential oil for the environmentally safe management of date mites in the laboratory. E. cardamomum exhibited acaricidal activities in a dose dependent manner. GC-MS fractionation of E. cardamomum detected numerous compounds. Among the identified compounds, Guaniol caused 100% mortality compared to other identified compounds including (+)-α-Pinene, Camphene, (-)-B-Pinene, 3-Carene, (R)-(+)-Limonene, and Citral. Our laboratory results showed that E. cardamomum and its constituents especially Guaniol are promising for the eco-friendly management of date mites, O. afrasiaticus, although their field efficacy remains to be evaluated.Keywords: cardamom, old world date mite, natural acaricide, toxicity
Procedia PDF Downloads 31081 The Effect of Cooling Tower Fan on the Performance of the Chiller Plant
Authors: Ankitsinh Chauhan, Vimal Patel, A. D. Parekh, Ishant patil
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This study delves into the crucial influence of cooling tower fan operation on the performance of a chiller plant, with a specific focus on the Chiller Plant at SVNIT. Continuous operation of the chiller plant led to unexpected damage to the cooling tower's belt drive, rendering the cooling tower fan non-operational. Consequently, the efficiency of heat transfer in the condenser was significantly impaired. In response, we analyzed and calculated several vital parameters, including the Coefficient of Performance (COP), heat rejection in the condenser (Qc), work required for the compressor (Wc), and heat absorbed by the refrigerant in the evaporator (Qe). Our findings revealed that in the absence of the cooling tower fan, relying solely on natural convection, the COP of the chiller plant reached a minimum value of 5.49. However, after implementing a belt drive to facilitate forced convection for the cooling tower fan, the COP of the chiller plant experienced a noteworthy improvement, reaching approximately 6.27. Additionally, the utilization of forced convection resulted in an impressive reduction of 8.9% in compressor work, signifying enhanced energy efficiency. This study underscores the critical role of cooling tower fan operation in optimizing chiller plant performance, with practical implications for energy-efficient HVAC systems. It highlights the potential benefits of employing forced convection mechanisms, such as belt drives, to ensure efficient heat transfer in the condenser, ultimately contributing to improved energy utilization and reduced operational costs in cooling.Keywords: cooling tower, chiller Plant, cooling tower fan, energy efficiency, VCRS.
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