Search results for: social interaction anxiety

Authors: Mosleh M. S. Duhoky, Payman A. A. Zibari

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These experiments were conducted at Tissue Culture Laboratory/ Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry/ University of Duhok during the period from January 2011 to May 2013. The objectives of this study were to study the effects of interaction between three different factors on percentage of polyploidy of Crepis capillaris by using Tissue culture technology. Concerning the data it is obvious that shaking of Crepis capillaris with 2B chromosome with 0.15 mM for ten days inscribed a high percentage of polyploidy within most fifteen passages.

Keywords: crepis capillaris, 2B chromosome, tissue culture, polyploidy

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Authors: Dibyendu Das, Santanu Kumar Pal

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Milk protein lactoferrin (Lf) exhibits potent antibacterial activity due to its interaction with Gram-negative bacterial cell membrane component, lipopolysaccharide (LPS). This paper represents fabrication of new Liquid crystals (LCs) based biosensors to explore the interaction between Lf and LPS. LPS self-assembled at aqueous/LCs interface and orients interfacial nematic 4-cyano-4’- pentylbiphenyl (5CB) LCs in a homeotropic fashion (exhibiting dark optical image under polarized optical microscope). Interestingly, on the exposure of Lf on LPS decorated aqueous/LCs interface, an optical image of LCs changed from dark to bright indicating an ordering alteration of interfacial LCs from homeotropic to tilted/planar state. The ordering transition reflects strong binding between Lf and interfacial LPS that, in turn, perturbs the orientation of LCs. With the help of epifluorescence microscopy, we further affirmed the interfacial LPS-Lf binding event by imaging the presence of FITC tagged Lf at the LPS laden aqueous/LCs interface. Finally, we have investigated the conformational behavior of Lf in solution as well as in the presence of LPS using Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and further reconfirmed with Vibrational Circular Dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy where we found that Lf undergoes alpha-helix to random coil-like structure in the presence of LPS. As a whole the entire results described in this paper establish a robust approach to envisage the interaction between LPS and Lf through the ordering transitions of LCs at aqueous/LCs interface.

Keywords: endotoxin, interface, lactoferrin, lipopolysaccharide

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Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, Saeideh Mohammadi

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Site response has a profound effect on earthquake damages. Seismic interaction of urban tunnels with surface structures could also affect seismic site response. Here, we use FLAC 2D to investigate the interaction of a single tunnel and twin tunnels-surface structures on the site response. Soil stratification and properties are selected based on Line. No 7 of the Tehran subway. The effect of surface structure is considered in two ways: Equivalent surcharge and geometrical modeling of the structure. Comparison of the results shows that consideration of the structure geometry is vital in dynamic analysis and leads to the changes in the magnitude of displacements, accelerations and response spectrum. Therefore it is necessary for the surface structures to be wholly modeled and not just considered as a surcharge in dynamic analysis. The use of twin tunnel also leads to the reduction of dynamic residual settlement.

Keywords: superstructure, tunnel, site response, surcharge, interaction

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Authors: Zeren Li, Wenkai Song

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Shanghai experienced a 3-month lockdown in 2022. This unprecedented lockdown made local residents afraid, anxious and worried about the unpredictability of the future. During the lockdown, many unethical behaviors related to lockdown are noticed by the public. Our studies documented unethical behavior during this lockdown by moral hypocrisy and moral justification examined whether or not the lockdown makes people behave more unethically, and analyzed the relationship between negative emotions and unethical behavior. In Study 1, we recruited 240 participants from Shanghai (n = 120) and other cities (n = 120) to compare people in lockdown and non-lockdown areas. Surprisingly, we found that people in lockdown areas tend to behave more ethically, exhibiting less moral hypocrisy. In addition, residents of the lockdown area have significantly higher negative emotions (afraid, nervousness, upset, and feelings of uncertainty). In Study 2, we recruited 70 respondents from Shanghai and found that people behave relatively ethically in lockdown-related scenarios (negatively correlated with anxiety about the lockdown) with relatively less moral justification than in lockdown-unrelated scenarios. We propose that negative emotions may reduce unethical behavior that may exacerbate the causes (in our study, the lockdown) of these negative emotions. Experiments may help to establish the causal relationship and verify the model in future research.

Keywords: COVID-19, unethical behavior, emotion, anxiety, moral justification, moral hypocrisy, China

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Authors: Maria Hopkins, Sarah Koch, Fred Biasini

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Autism is lifelong disorder that affects one out of every 110 Americans. The deficits that accompany Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), such as abnormal behaviors and social incompetence, often make it extremely difficult for these individuals to gain functional independence from caregivers. These long-term implications necessitate an immediate effort to improve social skills among children with an ASD. Any technology that could teach individuals with ASD necessary social skills would not only be invaluable for the individuals affected, but could also effect a massive saving to society in treatment programs. The overall purpose of the first study was to develop, implement, and evaluate an avatar tutor for social skills training in children with ASD. “Face Say” was developed as a colorful computer program that contains several different activities designed to teach children specific social skills, such as eye gaze, joint attention, and facial recognition. The children with ASD were asked to attend to FaceSay or a control painting computer game for six weeks. Children with ASD who received the training had an increase in emotion recognition, F(1, 48) = 23.04, p < 0.001 (adjusted Ms 8.70 and 6.79, respectively) compared to the control group. In addition, children who received the FaceSay training had higher post-test scored in facial recognition, F(1, 48) = 5.09, p < 0.05 (adjusted Ms: 38.11 and 33.37, respectively) compared to controls. The findings provide information about the benefits of computer-based training for children with ASD. Recent research suggests the value of also using socially assistive robots with children who have an ASD. Researchers investigating robots as tools for therapy in ASD have reported increased engagement, increased levels of attention, and novel social behaviors when robots are part of the social interaction. The overall goal of the second study was to develop a social robot designed to teach children specific social skills such as emotion recognition. The robot is approachable, with both an animal-like appearance and features of a human face (i.e., eyes, eyebrows, mouth). The feasibility of the robot is being investigated in children ages 7-12 to explore whether the social robot is capable of forming different facial expressions to accurately display emotions similar to those observed in the human face. The findings of this study will be used to create a potentially effective and cost efficient therapy for improving the cognitive-emotional skills of children with autism. Implications and study findings using the robot as an intervention tool will be discussed.

Keywords: autism, intervention, technology, emotions

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Authors: Maryam Khalili, Fateme Ghanei

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As one of the most significant phenomena of industrialized societies, tourism plays a key role in encouraging regional developments and enhancing higher standards of living for local communities in particular. Traveling is a formative experience endowed with lessons on various aspects of life. It allows us learning how to enhance the social position as well as the social relationships. However, people forget the need to travel and gain first-hand experiences as they have to cope with the ever-increasing rate of stress created by the disorders and routines of the urban dwelling style. In this paper, various spaces of such experiences were explored through a virtual tour with two underlying aims: 1) encouraging, informing, and educating the community in terms of tourism development, and 2) introducing a temporary release from the routines. This study enjoyed a practical-qualitative research methodology, and the required data were collected through observation and using a multiple-response questionnaire. The participants (19-48 years old) included 41 citizens of both genders (63.4% male and 36.6% female) from two regions in Tehran, selected by cluster-probability sampling. The results led to development of a spatial design for a virtual tour experience in Tehran where different areas are explored to both raise people’s awareness and educate them on their cultural heritage.

Keywords: ecotourism, education, gamification, social interaction, urban design, virtual tour

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Authors: Roya Morad, W. Eirik Heintz

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The identity of a neighborhood is inevitably shaped by the architecture and the people of that place. Conventionally the streets within each neighborhood served as a semi-public-private extension of the private living spaces. The street as a design element formed a hybrid condition that was neither totally public nor private, and it encouraged social interactions. Thus through creating a sense of community, one of the most basic human needs of belonging was achieved. Similar to major global cities, Tehran has undergone serious urbanization. Developing into a capital city of high rises has resulted in an increase in urban density. Although allocating more residential units in each neighborhood was a critical response to the population boom and the limited land area of the city, it also created a crisis in terms of social communication and place attachment. District 10 in Tehran is a neighborhood that has undergone the most urban transformation among the other 22 districts in the capital and currently has the highest population density. This paper will explore how the active streets in district 10 have changed into their current condition of high rises with a lack of meaningful social interactions amongst its inhabitants. A residential building can be thought of as a large group of people. One would think that as the number of people increases, the opportunities for social communications would increase as well. However, according to the survey, there is an indirect relationship between the two. As the number of people of a residential building increases, the quality of each acquaintance reduces, and the depth of relationships between people tends to decrease. This comes from the anonymity of being part of a crowd and the lack of social spaces characterized by most high-rise apartment buildings. Without a sense of community, the attachment to a neighborhood is decreased. This paper further explores how the neighborhood participates to fulfill ones need for social interaction and focuses on the qualitative aspects of alternative spaces that can redevelop the sense of place attachment within the community.

Keywords: high density, place attachment, social communication, street life, urban transformation

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Authors: Amir Salamatzade, Marhamet HematPour

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Due to the increasing importance of psychological factors in the incidence and exacerbation of chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, the aim of this study was to determine the difference between emotional regulation strategies and psychological symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis and normal people. The research method was causal-comparative (post-event). The statistical population of this research included all patients with multiple sclerosis referred to the MS Association of Rasht in the first quarter of 2021, approximately 350 people. The study sample also included 120 people (60 patients with multiple sclerosis and 60 normal people) who were selected by the available sampling method and completed the emotional regulation and anxiety, depression, and stress Lavibund and Lavibund (1995) questionnaires. Data were analyzed using an independent t-test and multivariate variance analysis. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean of emotional regulation strategies and the components of emotional reassessment and emotional inhibition between the two groups of patients with multiple sclerosis and normal individuals (p < 0.01). There is a significant difference between the mean of psychological symptoms and the components of depression, anxiety, and stress in the two groups of patients with multiple sclerosis and normal individuals. (p < 0.01). Based on this, it can be concluded that patients with multiple sclerosis have lower levels of emotional regulation strategies and higher levels of psychological symptoms than normal individuals.

Keywords: emotional regulation strategies, psychological symptoms, multiple sclerosis, normal Individuals

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Authors: Shalini Arora, Sri Sivakumar

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The deep removal of high molecular weight sulphur compounds (e.g., 4,6, dimethyl dibenzothiophene) is challenging due to their steric hindrance. Hydrogenation desulfurization (HYD) pathway is the main pathway to remove these sulfur compounds, and it is mainly governed by the number of type 2 sites. The formation of type 2 sites can be enhanced by modulating the pore structure and the interaction between the active metal and support. To this end, we report the enhanced HDS catalytic activity of ultrasmall NiMo supported on amorphous alumina (A-Al₂O₃) catalysts by one pot colloidal synthesis method followed by calcination and sulfidation. The amorphous alumina (A-Al₂O₃) was chosen as the support due to its lower surface energy, better physicochemical properties, and enhanced acidic sites (due to the dominance of tetra and penta coordinated [Al] sites) than crystalline alumina phase. At 20% metal oxide composition, NiMo supported on A-Al₂O₃ catalyst showed 1.4 and 1.2 times more reaction rate constant and turn over frequency (TOF) respectively than the conventional catalyst (wet impregnated NiMo catalysts) for HDS reaction of dibenzothiophene reactant molecule. A-Al₂O₃ supported catalysts represented enhanced type 2 sites formation (because this catalystpossesses higher sulfidation degree (80%) and NiMoS sites (19.3 x 10¹⁷ sites/mg) with desired optimum stacking degree (2.5) than wet impregnated catalyst at same metal oxide composition 20%) along with higher active metal dispersion, Mo edge site fraction. The experimental observations were also supported by DFT simulations. Lower heat of adsorption (< 4.2 ev for MoS2 interaction and < 3.15 ev for Ni doped MoS2 interaction) values for A-Al₂O₃ confirmed the presence of weaker metal-support interaction in A-Al₂O₃ in contrast to crystalline ℽ-Al₂O3. The weak metal-support interaction for prepared catalysts clearly suggests the higher formation of type 2 sites which leads to higher catalytic activity for HDS reaction.

Keywords: amorphous alumina, colloidal, desulfurization, metal-support interaction

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Authors: Kumari Bandana Bhatt, Navin Bhatt

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Background: Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) are high risk of physical, mental, sexual and emotional abuse and face social stigma and discrimination which significantly increase the risk of mental and behavioral disorders such as anxiety, depression or emotional problems even they stay in well run child care homes. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of depression and determine the determinants among OVC in child care homes in Nepal. Methods: An institutional-based analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in twenty orphanages of five districts of Nepal. Six hundred two children were recruited into the study. After the informed consent form obtaining, the guardian and assent were interviewed by a semi-structured questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Logistic regression was used for detecting the association between variables at the significant level of =0.05. Results: The study revealed that 33.20% of OVC had depression. Among them 66.80% of children experienced minimal depression, 17.40% had mild depression, 11.30% had moderate depression 4.50% had severe depression. Sex, alcohol drinking, congenital problem, social support and bully were the main variables associated with depression among OVC of the child care homes in Nepal. Conclusion: Prevalence of depression was high among the orphans and vulnerable children living in child care homes especially among the female children in Nepal. Therefore, early identification and instituting of preventive measures of depression are essential to reduce this problem in this special group of children living in child care homes.

Keywords: Mental health, Depression, Orphans and vulnerable children, child care homes

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Authors: Pairah Bte Satariman

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This study is carried out to evaluate Malay Language Curriculum for secondary schools in Singapore. The evaluation focuses on the implementation of Spoken Interaction Skill which was recommended by the Curriculum Review Committee in 2010. The study found that the students face difficulty in communicating interactively with others in their daily activities. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the results (products) on the implementation of this skill since 2011. The research used a qualitative method which includes oral test and interview with students and teachers teaching the subject. Preliminary findings show that generally, the students are not able to communicate interactively and fluently in the oral test unless they are given enough prompts. The teachers feel that the implementation of the skill is timely as students are more keen to use English in their daily communication even in Malay Language Classes. Teachers also mentioned the challenges in the implementation such as insufficient curriculum time and teaching materials.

Keywords: evaluation, Malay language curriculum, spoken interaction skills, communication, implementation

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Authors: Alireza Monzavi Chaleshtari, Mahnaz Aliakbari Dehkordi, Amin Asadi Hieh, Majid Kazemnezhad

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This research was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of sexual cognitive behavioral therapy on psychological performance and openness to experience in women. The type of research was experimental in the form of pre-test-post-test. The statistical population of this research was made up of all working and married women with membership in the researcher's Instagram social network who had problems in marital-sexual relationships (N=900). From the statistical community, which includes working and married women who are members of the researcher's Instagram social network who have problems in marital-sexual relationships, there are 30 people including two groups (15 people in the experimental group and 15 people in the control group) as available sampling and selected randomly. They were placed in two experimental and control groups. The anxiety, stress, and depression scale (DASS) and the Costa and McCree personality questionnaire were used to collect data, and the cognitive behavioral therapy protocol of Dr. Mehrnaz Ali Akbari was used for the treatment sessions. To analyze the data, the covariance test was used in the SPSS22 software environment. The results showed that sexual cognitive behavioral therapy has a positive and significant effect on psychological performance and openness to experience in women. Conclusion: It can be concluded that interventions such as cognitive-behavioral sex can be used to treat marital problems.

Keywords: sexual cognitive behavioral therapy, psychological function, openness to experience, women

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Authors: Zhen Li

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In contemporary China, the rise of consumer culture and feminism has facilitated the ‘She-Economy’, where Chinese women’s consumption power has been boosted along with the thriving Chinese economy. Domestic reality TV shows such as Sisters Who Make Waves (hereafter SWMW) target female audiences by bringing women's issues such as age, appearance, and balance between family and career to the discussion. Against this backdrop, this study adopted multimodal content analysis to investigate how SWMW failed to live up to the feminist goals the show had claimed and how serious women’s issues were consumed and capitalized by the consumer media culture from consumer culture and feminist perspectives. The findings reveal that while the female-themed work claims to uncover the charm that age brings to women over their thirties, it merely mentions female anxiety and uses feminism in disguise to achieve commercial success without in-depth thinking and discussion of what real-life issues women in China are tackling. They further show that the mass media-promoted modern femininity combined with consumerism deepens anxiety over aging among female audiences. The study sheds light on understanding the new development of Chinese femininity and the impact of consumer culture on feminist consciousness in contemporary China.

Keywords: consumer culture, feminism, multimodal content analysis, she-economy

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Authors: Li Yuqing

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Fostering the development of intercultural (communicative) competence (IC) is one way to equip our students with the linguistic and cultural skills to communicate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds, particularly English majors who are most likely to encounter multicultural work environments in the future. The purpose of this study is to compare the English majors' intercultural competence in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects before and after a ten-week telecollaboration program between 23 English majors at a Chinese university and 23 American students enrolled in a Chinese class at an American university, and analyze their development during the program. The results indicate that subjects' cognitive, affective, and behavioral perceptions of IC improved significantly over time. In addition, the program had significant effects on the participants' “Interaction Confidence,” “Interaction Engagement,” and “Interaction Enjoyment” - three components of intercultural sensitivity - as well as their overall intercultural effectiveness (except for “Message Skills”). With the widespread use of the internet, this type of online cultural exchange has a promising future, as suggested by the findings of the current study.

Keywords: intercultural competence, English majors, computer-mediated communication, telecollaboration

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Authors: Olusegun F. Adebowale

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Research has confirmed that the emergence of information technology is significantly reflected in the field of psychology and its related disciplines due to its widespread use at reasonable price and its user-friendliness. It is consequently affecting ordinary life in many areas like shopping, advertising, corresponding and educating. Specifically the innovations of computer technology led to several new forms of communication, all with implications and applicability for counselling and psychotherapy practices. This is premise on which online counselling is based. Most institutions of higher learning in Nigeria have established their presence on the Internet and have deployed a variety of applications through ICT. Some are currently attempting to include counselling services in such applications with the belief that many counselling needs of students are likely to be met. This study therefore explored different challenges and preferences students present in online counselling interaction in a given Nigerian university with the view to guide new universities that may want to invest into these areas as to necessary preparations and referral requirements. The study is a mixed method research incorporating qualitative and quantitative methodologies to sample the preferences and concerns students express in online interaction. The sample comprised all the 876 students who visited the university online counselling platform either voluntarily, by invitation or by referral. The instrument for data collection was the online counselling platform of the university 'OAU Online counsellors'. The period of data collection spanned between January 2011 and October 2012. Data were analysed quantitatively (using percentages and Mann-Whitney U test) and qualitatively (using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)). The results showed that the students seem to prefer real-time chatting as their online medium of communicating with the online counsellor. The majority of students resorted to e-mail when their effort to use real-time chatting were becoming thwarted. Also, students preferred to enter into online counselling relationships voluntarily to other modes of entry. The results further showed that the prevalent counselling needs presented by students during online counselling sessions were mainly in the areas of social interaction and academic/educational concerns. Academic concerns were found to be prevalent, in form of course offerings, studentship matters and academic finance matters. The personal/social concerns were in form of students’ welfare, career related concerns and relationship matters. The study concludes students’ preferences include voluntary entry into online counselling, communication by real-time chatting and a specific focus on their academic concerns. It also recommends that all efforts should be made to encourage students’ voluntary entry into online counselling through reliable and stable internet infrastructure that will be able to support real-time chatting.

Keywords: online, counselling, needs, preferences

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Authors: Eulalia Torras, Andreu Bellot

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To know whether students’ achievements are the result of online interaction and not just a consequence of individual differences themselves, it seems essential to link the teaching presence and social presence to the types of knowledge built. The research aim is to analyze the social presence in relation to two types of knowledge, declarative and procedural. Qualitative methodology has been used. The analysis of the contents was based on an observation protocol that included community of enquiry indicators and procedural and declarative knowledge indicators. The research has been conducted in three phases that focused on an observational protocol and indicators, results and conclusions. Results show that the teaching-learning processes have been characterized by the patterns of presence and types of knowledge. Results also show the importance of social presence support provided by the teacher and the students, not only in regard to the nature of the instructional support but also concerning how it is presented to the student and the importance that is attributed to it in the teaching-learning process, that is, what it is that assistance is offered on. In this study, we find that the presence based on procedural guidelines and declarative reflection, the management of shared meaning on the basis of the skills and the evidence of these skills entail patterns of learning. Nevertheless, the importance that the teacher attributes to each support aspect has a bearing on the extent to which the students reflect more on the given task.

Keywords: education, online, teaching and learning processes, knowledge

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Authors: Lakshmana Ravi Raj Gali, K. Sridhar Reddy, M. Amaranatha Reddy

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Load transfer between adjacent slabs of the jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) system is inevitable for long-lasting performance. Dowel bars are generally used to ensure sufficient degree of load transfer, in addition to the load transferred by aggregate interlock mechanism at the joints. Joint efficiency is the measure of joint quality, a major concern and therefore the dowel bar system should be designed and constructed well. The interaction between dowel bars and concrete that includes various parameters of dowel bar and concrete will explain the degree of joint efficiency. The present study focuses on the methodology of selecting contact stiffness, which quantifies dowel-concrete interaction. In addition, a parametric study which focuses on the effect of dowel diameter, dowel shape, the spacing between dowel bars, joint opening, the thickness of the slab, the elastic modulus of concrete, and concrete cover on contact stiffness was also performed. The results indicated that the thickness of the slab is most critical among various parameters to explain the joint efficiency. Further displacement equivalency method was proposed to find out the contact stiffness. The proposed methodology was validated with the available field surface deflection data collected by falling weight deflectometer (FWD).

Keywords: contact stiffness, displacement equivalency method, Dowel-concrete interaction, joint behavior, 3D numerical simulation

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Authors: Shilpi, Indu Gaur, Neha Bhadauria, Susmita Goswami, Prabir K. Paul

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Cultivation and consumption of organically grown fruits and vegetables have increased by several folds. However, the presence of Human Enteric Pathogens on the surface of organically grown vegetables causing Gastro-intestinal diseases, are most likely due to contaminated water and fecal matter of farm animals. Human Enteric Pathogens are adapted to colonize the human gut, and also colonize plant surface. Microbes on plant surface communicate with each other to establish quorum sensing. The cross talk study is important because the enteric pathogens on phylloplane have been reported to mask the beneficial resident bacteria of plant. In the present study, HEPs and bacterial colonizers were identified using 16s rRNA sequencing. Microbial colonization patterns after interaction between Human Enteric Pathogens and natural bacterial residents on tomato phylloplane was studied. Tomato plants raised under aseptic conditions were inoculated with a mixture of Serratia fonticola and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The molecules involved in cross-talk between Human Enteric Pathogens and regular bacterial colonizers were isolated and identified using molecular techniques and HPLC. The colonization pattern was studied by leaf imprint method after 48 hours of incubation. The associated protein-protein interaction in the host cytoplasm was studied by use of crosslinkers. From treated leaves the crosstalk molecules and interaction proteins were separated on 1D SDS-PAGE and analyzed by MALDI-TOF-TOF analysis. The study is critical in understanding the molecular aspects of HEP’s adaption to phylloplane. The study revealed human enteric pathogens aggressively interact among themselves and resident bacteria. HEPs induced establishment of a signaling cascade through protein-protein interaction in the host cytoplasm. The study revealed that the adaptation of Human Enteric Pathogens on phylloplane of Solanum lycopersicum involves the establishment of complex molecular interaction between the microbe and the host including microbe-microbe interaction leading to an establishment of quorum sensing. The outcome will help in minimizing the HEP load on fresh farm produce, thereby curtailing incidences of food-borne diseases.

Keywords: crosslinkers, human enteric pathogens (HEPs), phylloplane, quorum sensing

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Authors: Chien-Hung Chen, Yan-Chun Hsing, Yung-Chun Chang

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The Internet has grown into a powerful medium for information dispersion and social interaction that leads to a rapid growth of social media which allows users to easily post their emotions and perspectives regarding certain topics online. Our research aims at using natural language processing and text mining techniques to explore the public emotions expressed on Twitter by analyzing the sentiment behind tweets. In this paper, we propose a composite kernel method that integrates tree kernel with the linear kernel to simultaneously exploit both the tree representation and the distributed emotion keyword representation to analyze the syntactic and content information in tweets. The experiment results demonstrate that our method can effectively detect public emotion of tweets while outperforming the other compared methods.

Keywords: emotion recognition, natural language processing, composite kernel, sentiment analysis, text mining

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Authors: Susan P. Teru, Jerome Nyameh

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Many contemporary organizations are placing a greater emphasis on business enterprise systems as a means of generating higher levels of economic development. Many business research and literature has also concur that enterprise drive economic development, giving little or no credit to social enterprise, whose profit is reinvest to the community development compare to the business enterprise that share their profit to shareholders. Economic development includes economic policies that affect the beneficiaries of the economic entity. We suggest that producing social enterprise increments may be best achieved by orienting social enterprise entrepreneurs system to promote economic development. To this end, we describe a new approach to the social enterprise process that includes social entrepreneur and the key drivers of economic development at each stage. We present a model of social enterprise that incorporates the main ideas of the paper and suggests a new perspective for thinking about how to foster and manage social enterprise to achieve high levels of economic development.

Keywords: social enterprise, economic development, Nigeria, business and management

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Authors: Mohammad Mehdizadeh, Sara Miri

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In today's world, competition is one of the essential components of different markets. Therefore, in addition to economic factors, social factors can also affect the development and prosperity of businesses. In this regard, social networks are of particular importance and play a critical role in the flourishing and development of Internet businesses. The purpose of this article is to investigate the effect of different social networks in promoting digital entrepreneurship. The research method is the descriptive survey. The results show that social networks have a positive and significant impact on digital entrepreneurship development. Among the social networks studied, Instagram and Facebook have the most positive effect on digital entrepreneurship.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, Facebook, Instagram, social media

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Authors: Firman Riyudha, Endrik Mifta Shaiful

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The spread of drug users is one kind of behavioral epidemiology that becomes a threat to every country in the world. This problem caused various crisis simultaneously, including financial or economic crisis, social, health, until human crisis. Most drug users are teenagers at school age. A new deterministic model would be constructed to determine the dynamics of the spread of drug users by considering level of education in a susceptible population. Based on the analytical model, two equilibria points were obtained; there were E₀ (zero user) and E₁ (endemic equilibrium). Existence of equilibrium and local stability of equilibria depended on the Basic Reproduction Ratio (R₀). This parameter was defined as the expected rate of secondary prevalence and primary prevalence in virgin population along spreading primary prevalence. The zero-victim equilibrium would be locally asymptotically stable if R₀ < 1 while if R₀ > 1 the endemic equilibrium would be locally asymptotically stable. The result showed that R₀ was proportional to the rate of interaction of each susceptible population based on educational level with the users' population. It is concluded that there was a need to be given a control in interaction, so that drug users population could be minimized. Numerical simulations were also provided to support analytical results.

Keywords: drugs users, level education, mathematical model, stability

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Authors: Hooman Dabirmanesh, Attila M. Zsaki

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The toppling failure mode in a rock mass is considerably different from the most common sliding failure type along an existing or an induced slip plane. Block toppling is observed in a rock mass which consists of both a widely-spaced basal cross-joint set and a closely-spaced discontinuity set dipping into the slope. For this case, failure occurs when the structure cannot bear the tensile portion of bending stress, and the columns or blocks overturn by their own weight. This paper presents a particle-based discrete element model of rock blocks subjected to a toppling failure where geometric conditions and interaction among blocks are investigated. A series of parametric studies have been conducted on particles’ size, arrangement and bond contact among of particles which are made the blocks. Firstly, a numerical investigation on a one-block system was verified. Afterward, a slope consisting of multi-blocks was developed to study toppling failure and interaction forces between blocks. The results show that the formation of blocks, especially between the block and basal plane surface, can change the process of failure. The results also demonstrate that the initial configuration of particles used to form the blocks has a significant role in achieving accurate simulation results. The size of particles and bond contacts have a considerable influence to change the progress of toppling failure.

Keywords: block toppling failure, contact interaction, discrete element, particle size, random generation

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Authors: Khalil Khanafer

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This study emphasizes on analyzing the effect of flow conditions and the geometric variation of the microcantilever’s bluff body on the microcantilever detection capabilities within a fluidic device using a finite element fluid-structure interaction model. Such parameters include inlet velocity, flow direction, and height of the microcantilever’s supporting system within the fluidic cell. The transport equations are solved using a finite element formulation based on the Galerkin method of weighted residuals. For a flexible microcantilever, a fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis is utilized and the fluid domain is described by an Arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation that is fully coupled to the structure domain. The results of this study showed a profound effect on the magnitude and direction of the inlet velocity and the height of the bluff body on the deflection of the microcantilever. The vibration characteristics were also investigated in this study. This work paves the road for researchers to design efficient microcantilevers that display least errors in the measurements.

Keywords: fluidic cell, FSI, microcantilever, flow direction

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Authors: Thapa Sirjana, Clifton R. Emery

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This paper examines the family order and Informal Social Control (ISC) by the extended families as a protective factor against Child Maltreatment. The findings are discussed using the main effects and the interaction effects of family order and informal social control by the extended families. The findings suggest that IPV mothers are associated with child abuse and child neglect. The children are neglected in the home more and physical abuse occurs in the case, if mothers are abused by their husbands. The mother’s difficulties of being abused may lead them to neglect their children. The findings suggest that ‘family order’ is a significant protective factor against child maltreatment. The results suggest that if the family order is neither too high nor too low than that can play a role as a protective factor. Soft type of ISC is significantly associated with child maltreatment. This study suggests that the soft type of ISC by the extended families is a helpful approach to develop child protection in both the countries. This study is analyzed the data collected from Seoul and Kathmandu families and neighborhood study (SKFNS). Random probability cluster sample of married or partnered women in 20 Kathmandu wards and in Seoul 34 dongs were selected using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling. Overall, the study is to make a comparative study of Korea and Nepal and examine how the cultural differences and similarities associate with the child maltreatment.

Keywords: child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, informal social control and family order Seoul, Kathmandu

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Authors: Aref Maalej, Marwa Fakhfakh, Wael Ben Amira

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We present in this work a numerical investigation of fluid-structure interaction to study the elastic behavior of flexible rotors. The principal aim is to provide the effect of the aero/hydrodynamic parameters on the bending deformation of flexible rotors. This study is accomplished using the strong two-way fluid-structure interaction (FSI) developed by the ANSYS Workbench software. This method is used for coupling the fluid solver to the transient structural solver to study the elastic behavior of flexible rotors in water. In this study, we use a moderately flexible rotor modeled by a single blade with simplified rectangular geometry. In this work, we focus on the effect of the rotational frequency on the flapwise bending deformation. It is demonstrated that the blade deforms in the downstream direction, and the amplitude of these deformations increases with the rotational frequencies. Also, from a critical frequency, the blade begins to deform in the upstream direction.

Keywords: numerical simulation, flexible blade, fluid-structure interaction, ANSYS workbench, flapwise deformation

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Authors: Sirisak Choedkiatphon, Tanya Niyamapa

Abstract:

This research aimed to indeed understand the soil-rotary blade interaction of the newly-design rotary blade for Thai walking tractor. Therefore, this study was carried out to clarify the characteristics of the horizontal and the vertical forces and the moment around a rotary shaft of prototype rotary blade 15 lengthwise slice angle. It was set up and tested in laboratory soil bin at Kasetsart University under sandy loam and clay soil at soil dry bulk density and soil specific weight of 9.81 kN/m3 and 11.3% (d.b.), respectively. The tests were conducted at travel speeds of 0.069 and 0.142 m/s and rotational speeds of 150, 250 and 350 rpm. The characteristic of pushing-forward and lifting-up forces and moment around a rotor shaft were obtained by using the EOR transducer. Also, the acting point of resultant force of these soil-blade reaction forces was determined. The pushing-forward and lifting-up forces, moment around a rotor shaft and resultant force increased at higher travel speed and higher soil moisture content. In tilling stage, the acting points of resultant force located inside the circumstance of the blade locus. The results showed that the variation of magnitude and direction of pushing-forward, lifting-up and resultant forces corresponded to soil-blade interaction of the newly-design in tilling stage.

Keywords: rotary blde, soil-blade interaction, walking tractor, clay, sandy loam

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Authors: Behrang Dadfar, Hossein Bidhendi, Jimmy Susetyo, John Paul Abbatangelo

Abstract:

Finding structural demand under various conditions that a structure may experience during its service life is an important step towards structural life-cycle analysis. In this paper, structural demand for the precast concrete tunnel lining (PCTL) segments of Toronto’s 60-year-old subway tunnels is investigated. Numerical modelling was conducted using FLAC3D, a finite difference-based software capable of simulating ground-structure interaction and ground material’s flow in three dimensions. The specific structural details of the segmental tunnel lining, such as the convex shape of the PCTL segments at radial joints and the PCTL segment pockets, were considered in the numerical modelling. Also, the model was developed in a way to accommodate the flexibility required for the simulation of various deterioration scenarios, shapes, and patterns that have been observed over more than 20 years. The soil behavior was simulated by using plastic-hardening constitutive model of FLAC3D. The effect of the depth of the tunnel, the coefficient of lateral earth pressure as well as the patterns of deterioration of the segments were studied. The structural capacity under various deterioration patterns and the existing loading conditions was evaluated using axial-flexural interaction curves that were developed for each deterioration pattern. The results were used to provide recommendations for the next phase of tunnel lining rehabilitation program.

Keywords: precast concrete tunnel lining, ground-structure interaction, numerical modelling, deterioration, tunnels

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Authors: P. Mbecke

Abstract:

Developmental social welfare implemented through developmental social work is being applauded internationally as an approach that facilitates social development theory and practice. However, twenty-two years into democracy, there are no tangible evidences that the much-desired developmental social welfare approach has assisted the post-apartheid macroeconomic policy frameworks in addressing poverty and inequality, thus, the derailment of the post-apartheid development approach in South Africa. Based on the implementation research theory, and the literature review technique, this paper recognizes social work as a principal role-player in social development. It recommends the redesign and implementation of an effective developmental social welfare approach with specific strategies, programs, activities and sufficient resources aligned to and appropriate in delivering on the promises of the government’s macroeconomic policy frameworks. Such approach should be implemented by skilled and dedicated developmental social workers in order to achieve transformation in South Africa.

Keywords: apartheid, developmental social welfare, developmental social work, inequality, poverty alleviation, social development, South Africa

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Authors: Ritu Shitak

Abstract:

Humans are social mammals, of the primate order. Our biology, behaviour, and pathologies are unique to us. In our desire to understand, reduce solitary confinement one source of information is the many reports of social isolation of other social mammals, especially primates. A behavioural study was conducted in the department of pharmacology at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh province in India using white albino mice. Different behavioural parameters were observed by using open field, tail suspension, tests for aggressive behaviour and social interactions and the effect of isolation was studied. The results were evaluated and the standard statistics were applied. The said study was done to establish facts that isolation itself impairs social behaviour and can lead to alcohol dependence as well as related drug dependence.

Keywords: social isolation, albino mice, drug dependence, isolation on social behaviour

Procedia PDF Downloads 468