Search results for: cardiovascular risk factors in CKD

Authors: Thobela Conco, Sheena Kumari, Chika Nnadozie, Mahmoud Nasr, Thor A. Stenström, Mushal Ali, Arshad Ismail, Faizal Bux

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The discharge of antibiotics and its residues into the wastewater treatment plants (WWTP’s) create a conducive environment for the development of antibiotic resistant pathogens. This presents a risk of potential dissemination of antibiotic resistant pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes into the environment. It is, therefore, necessary to study the level of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG’s) among bacterial pathogens that proliferate in biological wastewater treatment systems. In the current study, metagenomic and meta-transcriptomic sequences of samples collected from the influents, secondary effluents and post chlorinated effluents of three wastewater treatment plants treating domestic and hospital effluents in Durban, South Africa, were analyzed for profiling of ARG’s among bacterial pathogens. Results show that a variety of ARG’s, mostly, aminoglycoside, β-lactamases, tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance genes were harbored by diverse bacterial genera found at different stages of treatment. A significant variation in diversity of pathogen and ARGs between the treatment plant was observed; however, treated final effluent samples from all three plants showed a significant reduction in bacterial pathogens and detected ARG’s. Both pre- and post-chlorinated samples showed the presence of mobile genetic elements (MGE’s), indicating the inefficiency of chlorination to remove of ARG’s integrated with MGE’s. In conclusion, the study showed the wastewater treatment plant efficiently caused the reduction and removal of certain ARG’s, even though the initial focus was the removal of biological nutrients.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance, mobile genetic elements, wastewater, wastewater treatment plants

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Authors: Maha Almumaiz, Harry Evdorides

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Change in land value typically occurs when a new interurban road construction causes an increase in accessibility; this change in the adjacent lands values differs according to land characteristics such as geographic location, land use type, land area and sale time (appraisal time). A multiple regression model is obtained to predict the percent change in land value (CLV) based on four independent variables namely land distance from the constructed road, area of land, nature of land use and time from the works completion of the road. The random values of percent change in land value were generated using Microsoft Excel with a range of up to 35%. The trend of change in land value with the four independent variables was determined from the literature references. The statistical analysis and model building process has been made by using the IBM SPSS V23 software. The Regression model suggests, for lands that are located within 3 miles as the straight distance from the road, the percent CLV is between (0-35%) which is depending on many factors including distance from the constructed road, land use, land area and time from works completion of the new road.

Keywords: interurban road, land use types, new road construction, percent CLV, regression model

Procedia PDF Downloads 257

Authors: Debarati Bhaumik, Diptish Dey

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Multilevel models, increasingly deployed in industries such as insurance, food production, and entertainment within functions such as marketing and supply chain management, need to be transparent and ethical. Applications usually result in binary classification within groups or hierarchies based on a set of input features. Using open-source datasets, we demonstrate that popular explainability methods, such as SHAP and LIME, consistently underperform inaccuracy when interpreting these models. They fail to predict the order of feature importance, the magnitudes, and occasionally even the nature of the feature contribution (negative versus positive contribution to the outcome). Besides accuracy, the computational intractability of SHAP for binomial classification is a cause of concern. For transparent and ethical applications of these hierarchical statistical models, sound audit frameworks need to be developed. In this paper, we propose an audit framework for technical assessment of multilevel regression models focusing on three aspects: (i) model assumptions & statistical properties, (ii) model transparency using different explainability methods, and (iii) discrimination assessment. To this end, we undertake a quantitative approach and compare intrinsic model methods with SHAP and LIME. The framework comprises a shortlist of KPIs, such as PoCE (Percentage of Correct Explanations) and MDG (Mean Discriminatory Gap) per feature, for each of these three aspects. A traffic light risk assessment method is furthermore coupled to these KPIs. The audit framework will assist regulatory bodies in performing conformity assessments of AI systems using multilevel binomial classification models at businesses. It will also benefit businesses deploying multilevel models to be future-proof and aligned with the European Commission’s proposed Regulation on Artificial Intelligence.

Keywords: audit, multilevel model, model transparency, model explainability, discrimination, ethics

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Authors: P. S. Dhananjaya Swamy, B. Chinnappa, G. B. Ramesh, Naveen P. Kumar

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Kodagu district is one of the most densely forested districts in the India as around sixty five per cent of geographical areas under tree cover. Nearly 53 per cent of the flora of Kodagu is endemic. The district is also a hotspot of endemic orchids found mainly in the Thadiandamol. Shade grown, eco-friendly coffee farms are perhaps a selected few places on this planet where nature runs wild. The Kodagu accounts for more than 8.8 per cent of floral diversity of Karnataka state. Estimation of unit cost of cultivation plays a vital role in determining the governmental program their market intervention policies. On an average, planters incurred around Rs. 17041 per acre. The extent of production risk was highest among small category of planters (66 %) compared to other two exhibiting production instability. The result shows that, the coffee productivity in medium plantations was 1051.2 kg per acre as against 758.5 and 789.2 kg in the case of small and large plantations. An annual net return per acre was highest in the case of medium planters (Rs. 26109.3) as against Rs. 20566.7 and Rs. 18572.7 in the case of small and large planters. Cost of production was lowest in the case of small planters (Rs. 18.9 per kg of output) followed by medium planters (Rs. 21.2 per kg of output) and large planters (Rs. 22.5 per kg of output). The productivity of coffee is less whenever it is grown under high shade and native tree cover; it is around 6 quintals per acre when compared with low shade conditions, which is around 8.9 quintals per acre, without a significant difference in the amount invested for growing coffee. Net gain was lower by Rs. 15.5 per kg for the planters growing under high shade and native trees cover when compared with low shade and exotic trees cover.

Keywords: coffee, cultivation, economics, Kodagu

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Authors: Mohammad Khosravi, Ali Kiani, Behroz Dastar, Parvin Showrang

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Review was carried out on important anti-nutritional compounds of livestock and poultry foods and the effect of radiation usage. Nowadays, with advancement in technology, different methods have been considered for the optimum usage of nutrients in livestock and poultry foods. Steaming, extruding, pelleting, and the use of chemicals are the most common and popular methods in food processing. Use of radiation in food processing researches in the livestock and poultry industry is currently highly regarded. Ionizing (electrons, gamma) and non-ionizing beams (microwave and infrared) are the most useable rays in animal food processing. In recent researches, these beams have been used to remove and reduce the anti-nutritional factors and microbial contamination and improve the digestibility of nutrients in poultry and livestock food. The evidence presented will help researchers to recognize techniques of relevance to them. Simplification of some of these techniques, especially in developing countries, must be addressed so that they can be used more widely.

Keywords: antitrypsin, gamma anti-nutritional components, phytic acid, radiation

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Authors: Muhammad Ramzan

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STEM Education and Critical Thinking Skills are important 21st-century skills. STEM Education is necessary to promote secondary school students’ critical thinking skills. These skills are critical for teachers to respond to students. Pakistan is in the preliminary stages of integrating STEM Education in institutions like other developing countries. Unfortunately, most secondary school students in Pakistan are unaware of STEM Education and teachers are not applying critical thinking skills in classrooms. The study's objectives mainly deal with; to identify the importance of STEM Education in the teaching-learning process; to find out the factors affecting critical thinking skills that can develop interest in students in STEM Education and suggestions on how to improve critical thinking skills in students regarding STEM Education. This study was descriptive. The population of the study was secondary school students. Data was collected from 200 secondary school students through a questionnaire. The research results show that critical thinking skills develop interest in students towards STEM Education.

Keywords: STEM education, teachers, students, critical thinking skills, teaching and learning process

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Authors: Ahmed Abdelrahman, Ahmed Abdelraheem

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There are many essential factors affecting the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into teaching and learning, including technology infrastructure, institutional support, professional development, and faculty members’ beliefs regarding ICT integration. The present research project investigated the current status of integrating ICT into teaching and learning at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). A sample of 220 faculty members from six different colleges and four administrators from the Center of Educational Technology (CET) and the Center for Information Systems (CIS) at SQU in Oman were chosen, and quantitative, qualitative design using a semi-structured questionnaire, interviews and checklists were employed. The findings show that SQU had a high availability of ICT infrastructure in terms of hardware, software, and support services, as well as adequate computer labs for educational purposes. However, the results also indicated that, although SQU provided a series of professional development workshops related to using ICT in teaching, few faculty members were interested. Furthermore, the finding indicated that the degree of ICT integration into teaching at SQU was at a medium level.

Keywords: information and communication technology, integration, professional development, teaching

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Authors: Orose Rugchati, Sarawut Wattanawongpitak

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The Chainat 1 variety (CN1) of rice, which generally has high amylose starch, is distributed in the lower part of Northern Thailand. CN1 rice starch can be used in both food and non-food products. In this research, the CN1 rice starch from the wet-milling process was prepared by Pre-Gelatinization (Heat-Moisture Treatments, HMT) under different conditions: percentage of moisture contents (20% and 30%) and duration time in minutes (0, 30, 60, and 90) at a specific temperature 110°C. The physicochemical characteristics of CN1 rice starch modification, such as amylose content, viscosity, swelling, and solubility property, were evaluated and compared with native CN1 rice starch. The results showed that modification CN1 rice starch tends to have some characteristics better than native starch. The appearance color and starch granule of modified CN1 by HMT have more effective characteristics than native starch when increased duration time. The duration time and moisture content are significant factors to the CN1 starch characteristic by HMT. Moreover, physical modification of CN1 starch by HMT can be described as a modified rice starch providing in many applications and the advantage of biodegradability development.

Keywords: physicochemical characteristics, physical modification, pre-gelatinization, Heat-Moisture Treatments, rice starch, Chainat 1 variety (CN1)

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Authors: B. Engel, Sara Salman Hassan Al-Maeeni

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Human consumption of the Earth's resources increases the need for a sustainable development as an important ecological, social, and economic theme. Re-engineering of machine tools, in terms of design and failure analysis, is defined as steps performed on an obsolete machine to return it to a new machine with the warranty that matches the customer requirement. To understand the future fatigue behavior of the used machine components, it is important to investigate the possible causes of machine parts failure through design, surface, and material inspections. In this study, the failure modes of the shaft of the rotary draw bending machine are inspected. Furthermore, stress and deflection analysis of the shaft subjected to combined torsion and bending loads are carried out by an analytical method and compared with a finite element analysis method. The theoretical fatigue strength, correction factors, and fatigue life sustained by the shaft before damaged are estimated by creating a stress-cycle (S-N) diagram. In conclusion, it is seen that the shaft can work in the second life, but it needs some surface treatments to increase the reliability and fatigue life.

Keywords: failure analysis, fatigue life, FEM analysis, shaft, stress analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Valentine Ndi

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This multi-sited research will make use of primary and secondary data to understand the multiple implications of land grabbing for local food production and rural livelihoods in Cameroon. Amidst restricted access to land and forest resources, this study will demonstrate how land previously accessed by communities to grow crops and to harvest forest resources is being acquired and transformed into commercial oil palm plantations by Herakles Farms, a US-based company, with Sithe Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon as its local subsidiary. Focusing on selected land grabbing communities in Cameroon, the study uses a feminist political ecology lens to examine the gendered nature in resources access and its impacts for women’s food production in particular, and rural livelihoods in general. The paper will argue that the change in land use particularly erodes women’s rights to access land and forest resources, and in turn negatively affects local food production and rural livelihood in the region. It will show how women in the region play instrumental and dominant roles in ensuring local food production through subsistence and semi-subsistence agriculture but are unfortunately the main losers of territory that the state considers as ‘empty’ or underutilized - and is subjected to appropriation. The paper will conclude that, rural women’s active participation in the decision-making processes concerning the use of and/or allotment of land to foreign investors is indispensable to guarantee local, national and global food security, but also to ensure that alternative livelihood options are provided, particularly to those rural women facing dispossession or at risk of being dispossessed.

Keywords: land grabbing, feminst political ecology, gender, access to resources, rural livelihoods, Cameroon

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Authors: Mandob Enyegue Damaris, Oko Ndjollo Viviane

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The prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome is increasing throughout the world. The etiology of the metabolic syndrome is dependent on different factors such as ethnic group. This study aimed to evaluate the metabolic syndrome among Mbo ethnic group people leaving in Yaounde, Cameroon. The study conducted on the hundred and thirty two people 40 men and 92 women aged between 18-60 years who were referred to the Andre Fouda Medical Fundation in Yaounde. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed using Adult Treatment Panel-III (A.T.P-III) 2001 guidelines. The mean of age, high fasting blood glucose, triglycerides levels and total cholesterol levels were significantly (P<0.05) higher in women with metabolic syndrome. High blood pressure level (56.80%), high fasting glucose (20.45%) and high waist circumference (10.60%) were respectively the most frequent characteristics in comparison to others metabolic components. The overall prevalence of MetS was (4.55%) and higher in women (3.03%) than in men (1.52%). The prevalence of MetS is low in originates of Mbo ethnic group of Yaounde. High blood pressure is the most common abnormality.

Keywords: individual components, metabolic syndrome, Mbo ethnic group, Yaounde-Cameroon

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Authors: Bilal Ashraf, Qianxiao Zhang

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This study empirically investigated the linkage amid financial development and its important determinants such as information and communication technology, natural resource rents, economic growth, current account balance, and gross savings in 107 economies. This paper preferred to employ the second-generation unit root tests to handle the issues of slope heterogeneity and “cross-sectional dependence” in panel data. The “Kao, Pedroni, and Westerlund tests” confirm the long-lasting connections among the variables under study, while the significant endings of “cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL)” exposed that NRR, CAB, and S negatively affected the financial development while ICT and EG stimulates the procedure of FD. Further, the robustness analysis's application of FGLS supports the appropriateness and applicability of CS-ARDL. Finally, the findings of “DH causality analysis” endorse the bidirectional causality linkages amongst research factors. Based on the study's outcomes, we suggest some policy suggestions that empower the process of financial development, globally.

Keywords: determinants of financial developments, CS-ARDL, financial development, global sample, causality analysis

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Authors: Mozhgan Sabzehparvar, Mohammad Montazeri, Mahdie Jafarnejad Shahri, Neda Boroumandi, Shakib Alipour, Hamide Torabi, Zahra Dehghani

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In this article, the aesthetic criteria, which are regarded as the key factors in the product development, and design process are carefully taken into account and an attempt has been made to extract the influential concepts in successful product design. This review article was conducted from 22.05.2021 to 22.06.2021, recent published paper in English (2017-2021) in three search engines of JSTOR, IEEE, and EMERALD were selected. The selected main keywords in our search were "Customer, Behavior, Aesthetics, Marketing and Product". During the screenings, 21 articles were analyzed. The aesthetic criteria play a role in increasing the power of choice, loyalty, satisfaction and purchase intention of the customers. Also, product design has a positive effect on the customers’ perception of aesthetics and acts effectively on customer behavior. Aesthetics has a significant relationship with the customer's intention to buy products and can make the product popular and satisfy people.

Keywords: product design, design process, customer behaviour, aesthetic, marketing

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Authors: M. S. Ahmed, F. A. Mohammad

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The aim of this paper is to perform experimental modal analysis (EMA) of reinforced concrete (RC) square slabs. EMA is the process of determining the modal parameters (Natural Frequencies, damping factors, modal vectors) of a structure from a set of frequency response functions FRFs (curve fitting). Although experimental modal analysis (or modal testing) has grown steadily in popularity since the advent of the digital FFT spectrum analyzer in the early 1970’s, studying all members and materials using such method have not yet been well documented. Therefore, in this work, experimental tests were conducted on RC square specimens (0.6m x 0.6m with 40 mm). Experimental analysis is based on freely supported boundary condition. Moreover, impact testing as a fast and economical means of finding the modes of vibration of a structure was used during the experiments. In addition, Pico Scope 6 device and MATLAB software were used to acquire data, analyze and plot Frequency Response Function (FRF). The experimental natural frequencies which were extracted from measurements exhibit good agreement with analytical predictions. It is showed that EMA method can be usefully employed to perform the dynamic behavior of RC slabs.

Keywords: natural frequencies, mode shapes, modal analysis, RC slabs

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: Saeed Yazdani, Shahrbanoo Bagheri, Sepideh Nikravesh

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Considering the importance and scarcity of water resources, the efficient management of water resources is of great importance. Adoption of modern irrigation technology is considered to be a key of increasing the efficiency of water used in agriculture. Policy makers have implemented several ways to induce the adoption of new irrigation technology. The empirical studies show that farmers are reluctant to utilize the use of new irrigation methods. This study aims to assess factors affecting on farmer’s decision on the application of water saving technologies with emphasize on crop price variation and water sources. A Logit model was employed to examine the impact of different variables on use of water saving technology. The required data gathered from a sample of 204 farmers in the year 2012. The results indicate that different variables such as crop price variability, water supply source, high-value crops, farm size, income, education, membership in cooperatives have a positive effect and variables such as age and number of plots have a negative impact on the probability of adopting modern water saving technologies.

Keywords: irrigation, water, water saving technology, scarcity

Procedia PDF Downloads 210

Authors: Lynn Sheridan, Dennis Alonzo, Hoa Nguyen, Andy Gao, Tracy Durksen

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Disruptions to teaching (e.g., COVID-related) have increased work demands for teachers. There is an opportunity for research to explore evidence-informed steps to support teachers. Collective evidence informs data on teachers’ personal attributes (e.g., self-efficacy beliefs) in the workplace are seen to promote success in teaching and support teacher engagement. Teacher engagement plays a role in students’ learning and teachers’ effectiveness. Engaged teachers are better at overcoming work-related stress, burnout and are more likely to take on active roles. Teachers’ commitment is influenced by a host of personal (e.g., teacher well-being) and environmental factors (e.g., job stresses). The job demands-resources model provided a conceptual basis for examining how teachers’ well-being, and is influenced by job demands and job resources. Job demands potentially evoke strain and exceed the employee’s capability to adapt. Job resources entail what the job offers to individual teachers (e.g., organisational support), helping to reduce job demands. The application of the job demands-resources model involves gathering an evidence-base of and connection to personal attributes (job resources). The study explored the association between constructs (resilience, adaptability, commitment, self/collective efficacy) and a teacher’s engagement with the job. The paper sought to elaborate on the model and determine the associations between key constructs of well-being (resilience, adaptability), commitment, and motivation (self and collective-efficacy beliefs) to teachers’ engagement in teaching. Data collection involved online a multi-dimensional instrument using validated items distributed from 2020-2022. The instrument was designed to identify construct relationships. The participant number was 170. Data Analysis: The reliability coefficients, means, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis statistics for the six variables were completed. All scales have good reliability coefficients (.72-.96). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) were performed to provide measurement support and to obtain latent correlations among factors. The final analysis was performed using structural equation modelling. Several fit indices were used to evaluate the model fit, including chi-square statistics and root mean square error of approximation. The CFA and SEM analysis was performed. The correlations of constructs indicated positive correlations exist, with the highest found between teacher engagement and resilience (r=.80) and the lowest between teacher adaptability and collective teacher efficacy (r=.22). Given the associations; we proceeded with CFA. The CFA yielded adequate fit: CFA fit: X (270, 1019) = 1836.79, p < .001, RMSEA = .04, and CFI = .94, TLI = .93 and SRMR = .04. All values were within the threshold values, indicating a good model fit. Results indicate that increasing teacher self-efficacy beliefs will increase a teacher’s level of engagement; that teacher ‘adaptability and resilience are positively associated with self-efficacy beliefs, as are collective teacher efficacy beliefs. Implications for school leaders and school systems: 1. investing in increasing teachers’ sense of efficacy beliefs to manage work demands; 2. leadership approaches can enhance teachers' adaptability and resilience; and 3. a culture of collective efficacy support. Preparing teachers for now and in the future offers an important reminder to policymakers and school leaders on the importance of supporting teachers’ personal attributes when faced with the challenging demands of the job.

Keywords: collective teacher efficacy, teacher self-efficacy, job demands, teacher engagement

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Authors: Mohammed Jibrin Ndejiko

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Modern and current models such as flow cell technology which enhances a non-destructive growth and inspection of the sessile microbial communities revealed a great understanding of biofilms. A continuous flow system was designed to evaluate possibility of biofilm formation by Escherichia coli DH5α on the stainless steel (type 304) under continuous nutrient supply. The result of the colony forming unit (CFU) count shows that bacterial attachment and subsequent biofilm formation on stainless steel coupons with average surface roughness of 1.5 ± 1.8 µm and 2.0 ± 0.09 µm were both significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) than those of the stainless steel coupon with lower surface roughness of 0.38 ± 1.5 µm. These observations support the hypothesis that surface profile is one of the factors that influence biofilm formation on stainless steel surfaces. The SEM and FESEM micrographs of the stainless steel coupons also revealed the attached Escherichia coli DH5α biofilm and dehydrated extracellular polymeric substance on the stainless steel surfaces. Thus, the fabricated flow system represented a very useful tool to study biofilm formation under continuous nutrient supply.

Keywords: biofilm, flowcell, stainless steel, coupon

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Tamar Lazariashvili

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Introduction: The agro-insurance has great importance for agricultural development in the country. In the article, the insurance market of the Georgian agricultural sector has been studied, the level of interest of farmers with insurance products and the trend of demand for those products are revealed; also, the importance of insurance is substantiated. Methodology: The following research methods are applied in the presented paper: statistical (selection, grouping, observation, trend) and qualitative research (in-depth interview with farmers). They claim that the main reason for aggravation is the low level of trust, less awareness about the conditions of the insurance contract. In order to eradicate distrust towards agro-insurance, it is recommended to increase awareness of insured farmers in terms of an insurance agreement. In the case of disputable issues between insurance companies and the customers (farmers), it is advisable to enact the Mediation Service, which will be able to protect the rights of insured farmers. Main Findings: Insurance companies prefer to deal with large farmers, the number of them is very small in Georgia as the credit market. The government interference in this sector is also a very cautious topic. However, the government can strengthen the awareness of farmers about the characteristics and advantages of the insurance system in order to increase the number of insured and reduce insurance premiums for farmers. Conclusion: Enactment of agro-insurance will increase the interest and confidence of financial institutions in the farming sector, financial resources will be accessible to the farmers that will facilitate the stable development of the sector in the country. The size of the agro-insurance market in the country should be increased, and the new territories should be covered. The State must have an obligation to ensure the risk of farmers and subsidize insurance companies. Based on the analysis of the insurance market, the conclusions on agro-insurance issues and the relevant recommendations are proposed.

Keywords: Agro-insurance, agricultural product, Agro-market, farming

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Authors: Sonia Achour

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Owing to the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the shift to online learning took place abruptly. Neither practitioners nor learners were prepared for this sudden move. Higher education providers were compelled to implement online courses on a very short notice. Sultan Qaboos University is one among these. The question of motivation attracted a great number of educators. A case study was carried out so as to shed some lights on students' perceptions towards virtual learning and how it influenced their motivation to learning. The data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews of a focused group of 16 students along with classroom observation over a 12 week period. Both interviews and class observation revealed that there was a general negative feeling about the online teaching platform and its impact on the learners' motivation. Several factors were identified, namely the absence of interaction, social isolation, inconsistency of instructional knowledge, unfamiliarity with the new learning environment, IT illiteracy, and teacher development. The researcher aims at demonstrating the effect of virtual classrooms on students' motivation to acquire L2. The findings may be used to inform future decisions about courses, curriculum design. And teacher development

Keywords: online learning, motivation, EFL context, virtual setting

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Authors: Luis Felipe Pinzon Uribe, Hernando Sotelo Rojas

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The water is an essential factor for the development and the conservation of biological diversity in Colombia; its abundant natural wealth has its origin in their water sources. These during the past few years have been altered by anthropogenic activities, in particular pollutants such as heavy metals, given its ability to infiltrate the sediments reducing its natural capacity of absorption and clean of the ecosystem. The pollutant loads by bio-accumulation remain in the ecosystem for many years; the Bogota River, located in the Cundinamarca Department, is an example of this process. Since that form in the Villapinzón municipality up to its mouth in the Magdalena River, in the Girardot municipality, along with its route it receives large amount of polluted waters from different sources. The study focused on five points of the high basin of the river; this allowed the analysis of the impact that generates the economic development of the neighboring municipalities and where the poor conditions of the ecosystem, along with low levels of oxygen generates the high values of BOD, dissolved QOD, SS TSS and DS. They have been decisive factors in the decline of the species of its own and a decrease in the supply of the eco-services.

Keywords: anthropic activities, wastes water, water quality, heavy metals

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Authors: Behrang Ekrami, Amin Tamadon

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Caspian red deer or maral (Cervus elaphus maral) is a ruminant from the family of Cervidae. Maintenance and protection of maral requires knowing the behavioral, physiological, environmental characteristics and factors harmful to this species. In this article, reproductive and behavioral traits of this species in both sexes are presented based on observations and the available records of protected deer in Wildlife Refuge of Semeskande, Sari (one of the sites that preserve the maral in the Free Zones of Hyrcanian forest) from 2006 to 2011. Hart characteristics including sexual behavior, apparent changes during reproductive season and reproductive physiology; and hind characteristics including of ovulation, reproductive cycle, mating, pregnancy and parturition, have been evaluated. Identification of maral reproductive characteristics in Wildlife Refuge of Semeskande, Sari is one of the most important information requirements to preserve and breed this species and will open up new routes for performing new methods of reproduction of this species in Iran wildlife parks or other refuge areas.

Keywords: caspian red deer, reproduction, behavior, Iran

Procedia PDF Downloads 462

Authors: Ernest Nweke

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The work of Professional Accountants and Corporate governance are synonymous and cannot be divorced from each other. Organizations, profit and non-profit alike cannot implement sound corporate practices without inputs from Professional Accountants. In today’s dynamic corporate world, good corporate governance practice is a sine qua non. More so, following the corporate failures of the past decades like Enron and WorldCom, governments around the world, including Mongolia are becoming more proactive in ensuring sound corporate governance mechanisms. In the past fifteen years, the Mongolian government has taken several measures to establish and strengthen internal corporate governance structures in firms. This paper highlights the role of professional accountants and auditors play in ensuring that good corporate governance mechanisms are entrenched in listed companies in Mongolia. Both primary and secondary data are utilized in this research. In collection of primary data, Delphi method was used, securing responses from only knowledgeable senior employees, top managers, and some CEOs. Using this method, a total of 107 top-level company employees and executives randomly selected from 22 companies were surveyed; maximum of 5 and minimum of 4 from each company. These companies cut across several sectors. It was concluded that Professional Accountants play key roles in setting and maintaining firm governance. They do this by ensuring full compliance with all the requirements of good and sound corporate governance, establishing reporting, monitoring and evaluating standards, assisting in the setting up of proper controls, efficient and effective audit systems, sound fraud risk management and putting in place an overall vision for the enterprise. Companies with effective corporate governance mechanisms are usually strong and fraud-resilient. It was also discovered that companies with big 4 audit firms tend to have better governance structures in Mongolia.

Keywords: accountants, corporate disclosure, corporate failure, corporate governance

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Authors: Liman Zhao, Jianlong Zhang, Mingman Ren, Chuang Wang, Jian Liu

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Rural migrant children have become a fast-growing population in China as a consequence of the large-scale population flow from rural to urban areas in the context of urbanization. In China, the socioeconomic status of migrant children is relatively low in comparison to non-migrant children. Parents of migrant children often work in occupations with long working hours, high labor intensity, and low pay due to their poor academic qualifications. Most migrant children's parents have not received higher education and have no time to read with their children. The family of migrant children usually does not have a good collection of books either, which leads to these children’s insufficient reading and low reading levels. Moreover, migrant children frequently relocate with their parents, and their needs for knowledge and reading are often neglected by schools, which puts migrant children at risk of academic failure in China. Therefore, the academic achievement of rural migrant children has become a focus of education in China. This study explores the relationship between the educational expectation of rural migrant children and their critical reading competence in general and the moderating effect of the difference between parental educational expectation to their children and the children’s own educational expectation. The responses to a survey from 5113 seventh-grade children in a district of the capital city in China revealed that children who moved to cities in grades 4-6 of primary school performed the best in critical reading, and children who moved to cities after middle school showed the worst performance in critical reading. In addition, parents’ educational expectations of their children and their own educational expectations were both significant predictors of rural migrant children’s reading competence. The higher a child's expectations of a degree and the smaller the gap between parents' expectations of a child's education and the child's own education expectations, the better the child's performance in critical reading.

Keywords: educational expectation, critical reading competence, rural migrant children, moderating effect

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Authors: Mana Pirhadi, Maryam Pirhadi, Fatemeh Tavakoli

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As there are several styles and attitudes among the practitioners of the present time, it is difficult to achieve a definition of beauty for contemporary architecture and aesthetic concepts has different frameworks in various disciplines. Beauty can be regarded as one of the most important elements of architecture; therefore, having a clear understanding of beauty can help architects and audiences to create or analyze an architectural work. This paper investigates the assumption that we can have a clearer understanding of the concept of aesthetics in architecture by analyzing the ideas of the contemporary analyst of architectural aesthetics, Jörg Greuther. Thus, the question is how the concept of aesthetics in architecture will be analyzed in their thoughts. In general, the paper aims to examine aesthetic concepts in the contemporary era that are expressed relying on Greuther's views. The paper adopts a descriptive-analytic approach in terms of methodology. Finally, through the study of the viewpoints of various scholars and specifically considering Greuther's definition that focuses on the effect of psychological-social factors on human perception and formation of the schema, it could be said that aesthetics means to have a good knowledge of truth and understand it.

Keywords: aesthetics, beauty perception, contemporary architecture, Jörg Greuther

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Authors: Reem Alkadeem

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This study aims at evaluating the overall satisfaction of faculty members and relating it to organizational and personal aspects in Egyptian public and private universities. These aspects are identified through an extensive study of all factors that might affect job satisfaction. The most influencing parameters selected are academics’ demographics, human resource management, organizational profile, workload, teamwork skills, recognition, autonomy, teaching activity, research activity, and motivation. A questionnaire of 94 questions was used to assess job satisfaction and the previously mentioned parameters. It was distributed among seven hundred members of different universities in Egypt. Two hundred and twenty-seven faculty members responded. This sample was gathered from twelve universities and The Supreme Council of Universities. The ANOVA showed a significant relationship (p < 0.05) between eight of the selected parameters and job satisfaction. These parameters are age, rank, human resource management, profile of organizational characteristics, workload, recognition, teaching activity, and motivation.

Keywords: job satisfaction, higher education, organizational profile, Egyptian universities

Procedia PDF Downloads 467

Authors: Mohan Ramasundaram, Amutha Prabakar Muniyandi

Abstract:

Remote user authentication is one of the important tasks for any kind of remote server applications. Several remote authentication schemes are proposed by the researcher for Telecare Medicine Information System (TMIS). Most of the existing techniques have limitations, vulnerable to various kind attacks, lack of functionalities, information leakage, no perfect forward security and ineffectiveness. Authentication is a process of user verification mechanism for allows him to access the resources of a server. Nowadays, most of the remote authentication protocols are using two-factor authentications. We have made a survey of several remote authentication schemes using three factors and this survey shows that the most of the schemes are inefficient and subject to several attacks. We observed from the experimental evaluation; the proposed scheme is very secure against various known attacks that include replay attack, man-in-the-middle attack. Furthermore, the analysis based on the communication cost and computational cost estimation of the proposed scheme with related schemes shows that our proposed scheme is efficient.

Keywords: Telecare Medicine Information System, elliptic curve cryptography, three-factor, biometric, random oracle

Procedia PDF Downloads 208

Authors: Satyavati Shukla, Lakhan V. Rathod, Mohan V. Khire

Abstract:

Rapid urbanization changes the land use/land cover pattern of a developing region. Due to these land surface changes, stream flow of the rivers also changes. It is important to investigate the factors affecting hydrological characteristics of the river basin for better river basin management planning. This study is aimed to understand the effect of Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) changes on stream flow of Upper Bhima River basin which is highly stressed in terms of water resources. In this study, Upper Bhima River basin is divided into two adjacent sub-watersheds: Mula-Mutha (urbanized) sub-watershed and Bhima (non-urbanized) sub-watershed. First of all, LU/LC changes were estimated over 1980, 2002, and 2009 for both Mula-Mutha and Bhima sub-watersheds. Further, stream flow simulations were done using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for the streams draining both watersheds. Results revealed that stream flow was relatively higher for urbanized sub-watershed. Through Sensitivity Analysis it was observed that out of all the parameters used, base flow was the most sensitive parameter towards LU/LC changes.

Keywords: land use/land cover, remote sensing, stream flow, urbanization

Procedia PDF Downloads 305

Authors: Oyenike M. Olanrewaju, Faith O. Echobu, Aderemi G. Adesoji, Emmy Danny Ajik, Joseph Nda Ndabula, Stephen Lucas

Abstract:

Nutrients are required for any soil with which plants thrive to improve efficient growth and productivity. Amongst these nutrients required for proper plant productivity are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK). Due to factors like leaching, nutrients uptake by plants, soil erosion and evaporation, these elements tend to be in low quantity and the need to replenish them arises. But these replenishment of soil nutrients cannot be done without a timely soil test to enable farmers to know the amount of each element in short quantity and evaluate the amount required to be added. Though wet soil analysis is good but it comes with a lot of challenges ranging from soil test gargets availability to the technical knowledge of how to conduct such soil test by the common farmer. Internet of things test kit was developed to fill in the gaps created by wet soil analysis, as it can test for N, P, K, soil temperature and soil moisture in a given soil at the time of test. In this implementation, sample test was carried out within 0.2 hectares of land divided into smaller plots. The kits perform adequately well as the range of values obtained across the segments were within a very close range.

Keywords: Internet of Things, soil nutrients, test kit, soil temperature

Procedia PDF Downloads 60

Authors: Ming Fang Hsieh

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reading responses of infants and toddlers across different contexts in nursery centers. The study adopted Sipe’s framework for children’s literacy education to explore the reading behavior of infants and toddlers. The study was conducted at two nurseries. The sample comprised 46 infants and toddlers and 6 caregivers. The methods of data collection included observation of various reading activities, including shared reading in a group, one-on-one reading, and unstructured reading activities, as well as interviews with caregivers. The data obtained through observations and interviews were transcribed and analyzed. The caregivers and the children’s parents signed an informed consent form before the start of the study. There was no risk anticipated during the course of the study. The analysis revealed five types of reading responses exhibited by the infants and toddlers: (1) linguistic- verbally responding to reading, repeating vocabulary, and answering questions; (2) affective- concentrating on reading or requesting for repeated reading, leaning on books, and gazing at caregivers; (3) explosive- children under 18 months were observed manipulating books through their bodies or different movements like flipping, rotating, or tapping on books; (4) social- during unstructured reading context, children were seen interacting with peers or following the rules of reading, sitting properly, and choosing one book at a time; and (5) distracted responses- paying attention to something else instead of reading, walking around, and playing, which was usually observed during shared reading in a group. The study concluded that children’s distraction and explosive reading behaviors may be a part of the process of their emergent reading behavior. As children develop, they demonstrate an increase in verbal responses, improved concentration, and better behavior. The study suggests that adults should continue to provide appropriate reading opportunities beginning from infancy to nurture children’s reading behaviors.

Keywords: reading response, infants and toddlers, early reading, picture books

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Khaled Ramadan Elbeydi

Abstract:

This study is carried out to provide an insight into the analysis of the impact of selected macro-economic variables on gross fixed capital formation in Libya using annual data over the period (1970-2010). The importance of this study comes from the ability to show the relative important factors that impact the Libyan gross fixed capital formation. This understanding would give indications to decision makers on which policy they must focus to stimulate the economy. An Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modeling process is employed to investigate the impact of the gross domestic product, monetary base, and trade openness on gross fixed capital formation in Libya. The results of this study reveal that there is an equilibrium relationship between capital formation and its determinants. The results also indicate that GDP and trade openness largely explain the pattern of capital formation in Libya. The findings and recommendations provide vital information relevant for policy formulation and implementation aimed to improve capital formation in Libya.

Keywords: ARDL, bounds test, capital formation, co-integration, Libya

Procedia PDF Downloads 347