Search results for: family quality of life scale

Authors: Patrick Nüß

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I estimate management opposition against unions in terms of hiring discrimination by a large scale field experiment in the German labor market. The results show that callback rates for union members decrease significantly in the presence of high sectoral union density and large firm size. I further explore how this effect varies with regional and sectoral labor dispute intensity and find that management opposition is stronger when a sector is exposed to an intense labor dispute. There is evidence that the observed management opposition can be explained by sectoral union threat effects. Sectors with lower hiring discrimination have lower coverage of collective agreements, and in the absence of a collective agreement, they are less likely to follow the collective agreement wage setting.

Keywords: trade unions, Industrial relations, management opposition, union threat, labor disputes, field experiments

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Authors: Srna Jenko Miholic, Marta Borovec, Josipa Persun

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The constant expansion of technology has further accelerated the development of media and vice versa. Although its promotion includes all kinds of interesting and positive sides, the poor functioning of the media is still being researched and proven. Young people, as well as children from the earliest age, resort to the media the most, so it is necessary to defend the role of adults as it were parents, teachers, and environment against virtual co-educators such as the media. The research aim of this study was to determine the time consumption of using electronic media by primary school children as well as their involvement in certain physical activities. Furthermore, to determine what is happening when parents restrict their children's access to electronic media and encourage them to participate in alternative contents during their leisure time. Result reveals a higher percentage of parents restrict their children's access to electronic media and then encourage children to socialize with family and friends, spend time outdoors, engage in physical activity, read books or learn something unrelated to school content even though it would not be children's favorite activity. The results highlight the importance of parental control when it comes to children's use of electronic media and the positive effects that parental control has in terms of encouraging children to be useful, socially desirable, physically active, and healthy activities.

Keywords: elementary school, digital media, leisure time, parents, physical engagement

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Authors: Tomas Vincze, Michal Micjan, Milan Pavuk, Martin Weis

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In recent years, alternative materials are gaining attention to replace polycrystalline and amorphous silicon, which are a standard for low requirement devices, where silicon is unnecessarily and high cost. For that reason, metal oxides are envisioned as the new materials for these low-requirement applications such as sensors, solar cells, energy storage devices, or field-effect transistors. Their most common way of layer growth is sputtering; however, this is a high-cost fabrication method, and a more industry-suitable alternative is the sol-gel method. In this group of materials, many oxides exhibit a semiconductor-like behavior with sufficiently high mobility to be applied as transistors. The sol-gel method is a cost-effective deposition technique for semiconductor-based devices. Copper oxides, as p-type semiconductors with free charge mobility up to 1 cm2/Vs., are suitable replacements for poly-Si or a-Si:H devices. However, to reach the potential of silicon devices, a fine-tuning of material properties is needed. Here we focus on the optimization of the electrical parameters of copper oxide-based field-effect transistors by modification of precursor solvent (usually 2-methoxy ethanol). However, to achieve solubility and high-quality films, a better solvent is required. Since almost no solvents have both high dielectric constant and high boiling point, an alternative approach was proposed with blend solvents. By mixing isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and 2-methoxy ethanol (2ME) the precursor reached better solubility. The quality of the layers fabricated using mixed solutions was evaluated in accordance with the surface morphology and electrical properties. The IPA:2ME solution mixture reached optimum results for the weight ratio of 1:3. The cupric oxide layers for optimal mixture had the highest crystallinity and highest effective charge mobility.

Keywords: copper oxide, field-effect transistor, semiconductor, sol-gel method

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Authors: Gaurav D. Sonawane, Vikas G. Sargade

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The present investigation is a study of the effect of advanced Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) coatings on cutting temperature residual stresses and surface roughness during Duplex Stainless Steel (DSS) 2205 turning. Austenite stabilizers like nickel, manganese, and molybdenum reduced the cost of DSS. Surface Integrity (SI) plays an important role in determining corrosion resistance and fatigue life. Resistance to various types of corrosion makes DSS suitable for applications with critical environments like Heat exchangers, Desalination plants, Seawater pipes and Marine components. However, lower thermal conductivity, poor chip control and non-uniform tool wear make DSS very difficult to machine. Cemented carbide tools (M grade) were used to turn DSS in a dry environment. AlTiN and AlTiCrN coatings were deposited using advanced PVD High Pulse Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) technique. Experiments were conducted with cutting speed of 100 m/min, 140 m/min and 180 m/min. A constant feed and depth of cut of 0.18 mm/rev and 0.8 mm were used, respectively. AlTiCrN coated tools followed by AlTiN coated tools outperformed uncoated tools due to properties like lower thermal conductivity, higher adhesion strength and hardness. Residual stresses were found to be compressive for all the tools used for dry turning, increasing the fatigue life of the machined component. Higher cutting temperatures were observed for coated tools due to its lower thermal conductivity, which results in very less tool wear than uncoated tools. Surface roughness with uncoated tools was found to be three times higher than coated tools due to lower coefficient of friction of coating used.

Keywords: cutting temperature, DSS2205, dry turning, HiPIMS, surface integrity

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Authors: Sufia Khowaja, Nishat Fatima

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Social networking sites are significant for visually impaired to overcome the unique challenges they face and access the resources they need to succeed in their education and beyond which might be difficult to obtain through traditional means. It provides them an opportunity to build relationships, stay connected with their support network as well as to develop social skills which give them emotional support to fell less isolated. In this connection the study is conducted with the aim to determine the use of social networking sites, purpose of using and activities performed by visually impaired at Delhi University, Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi. The study followed survey technique in which structured interview is followed to collect data from 137 visually impaired students and analysed using ‘SPSS ver23’. The findings of the study revealed that mostly used social networking sites are whatsapp by 89.23% students of DU, 95.12% of JNU, 87.09% of JMI, followed by e-mail by 78.46% of DU, 78.04% of JNU, 64.51%; youtube by 73.84% DU, 90.24% JNU, 80.64% JMI. Purpose for using these sites is for academics mentioned by 96.92% DU, 100% JNU, 93.54% JMI. Activities performed on sites are sending and receiving messaging 96.92% DU, 92.68% JNU, 93.55% JMI, communicating with friends and family as well as getting academic information. Findings of the study will be helpful for libraries to disseminate their services and resources as well as latest updates to their visually impaired users with the help of most used tools.

Keywords: social networking sites, visually impaired, Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Milia Islamia

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Authors: V. Bezverbny

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The actuality of the project deals with stable growing of deviant behavior’ statistics among Moscow citizens. During the recent years the socioeconomic health, wealth and life expectation of Moscow residents is regularly growing up, but the limits of crime and drug addiction have grown up seriously. Another serious Moscow problem has been economical stratification of population. The cost of identical residential areas differs at 2.5 times. The project is aimed at complex research and the development of methodology for main factors and reasons evaluation of deviant behavior growing in Moscow. The main project objective is finding out the links between the urban environment quality and dynamics of citizens’ deviant behavior in regional and municipal aspect using the statistical research methods and GIS modeling. The conducted research allowed: 1) to evaluate the dynamics of deviant behavior in Moscow different administrative districts; 2) to describe the reasons of crime increasing, drugs addiction, alcoholism, suicides tendencies among the city population; 3) to develop the city districts classification based on the level of the crime rate; 4) to create the statistical database containing the main indicators of Moscow population deviant behavior in 2010-2015 including information regarding crime level, alcoholism, drug addiction, suicides; 5) to present statistical indicators that characterize the dynamics of Moscow population deviant behavior in condition of expanding the city territory; 6) to analyze the main sociological theories and factors of deviant behavior for concretization the deviation types; 7) to consider the main theoretical statements of the city sociology devoted to the reasons for deviant behavior in megalopolis conditions. To explore the level of deviant behavior’ factors differentiation, the questionnaire was worked out, and sociological survey involved more than 1000 people from different districts of the city was conducted. Sociological survey allowed to study the socio-economical and psychological factors of deviant behavior. It also included the Moscow residents’ open-ended answers regarding the most actual problems in their districts and reasons of wish to leave their place. The results of sociological survey lead to the conclusion that the main factors of deviant behavior in Moscow are high level of social inequality, large number of illegal migrants and bums, nearness of large transport hubs and stations on the territory, ineffective work of police, alcohol availability and drug accessibility, low level of psychological comfort for Moscow citizens, large number of building projects.

Keywords: deviant behavior, megapolis, Moscow, urban environment, social stratification

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Authors: Joseph Carl Macalintal, Erlinda Armovit

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Magnesium sulfate has been a mainstay in the management of preeclampsia and is associated with a decreased incidence of morbidity and mortality. The syndrome has an unpredictable course, sometimes rapidly evolving to full-blown disease. In patients with deteriorating status, it is indicated to terminate the pregnancy via cesarean section. The anesthesiologists would prefer to have the procedure done under regional anesthesia; however, there may be cases when neuraxial anesthesia is contraindicated, or a general anesthesia would permit prompt delivery of the fetus. A patient with severe preeclampsia was given magnesium sulfate intrapartum, wherein a primary cesarean section was indicated for arrest in cervical dilatation, and was performed under general anesthesia. The patient developed acute respiratory failure and the causes of this occurrence were investigated in this report. It was later found out that neither the hypermagnesemia nor the muscle relaxant alone caused the patient’s condition but the interaction between the two. The patient was managed expectantly at the intensive care unit (ICU) and was eventually extubated during the 1st post-operative day. Knowledge of this drug interaction would allow obstetricians to advise their patients and their family about the possibility of prolonged intubation and ICU admission. This would also bring to the anesthesiologists’ attention the need to decrease the dose of muscle relaxant and to prepare drugs for immediate decurarisation.

Keywords: eclampsia, magnesium sulfate, preeclampsia, rocuronium bromide

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Authors: G. N. Simonian, R. F. Basalah, F. T. Abd El Halim, F. F. Abd El Latif, A. M. Adel, A. M. El Shafey.

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Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is an anionic water soluble polymer that has been introduced in paper coating as a strength agent. One of the main objectives of this research is to investigate the influence of CMC concentration in improving the strength properties of paper fiber. In this work, we coated the paper sheets; Xerox paper sheets by different concentration of carboxymethyl cellulose solution (0.1, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3%) w/v. The mechanical properties; breaking length and tearing resistance (tear factor) were measured for the treated and untreated paper specimens. The retained polymer in the coated paper samples were also calculated. The more the concentration of the coating material; CMC increases, the more the mechanical properties; breaking length and tear factor increases. It can be concluded that CMC enhance the improvement of the mechanical properties of paper sheets result in increasing paper stability. The aim of the present research was also to study the effects on the vessel element structure and vessel picking tendency of the coated paper sheets. In addition to the improved strength properties of the treated sheet, a significant decrease in the vessel picking tendency was expected whereas refining of the original paper sheets (untreated paper sheets) improved mainly the bonding ability of fibers, CMC effectively enhanced the bonding of vessels as well. Moreover, film structures were formed in the fibrillated areas of the coated paper specimens, and they were concluded to reinforce the bonding within the sheet. Also, fragmentation of vessel elements through CMC modification was found to be important and results in a decreasing picking tendency which reflects in a good printability. Moreover, Scanning – Electron Microscope (SEM) images are represented to specifically explain the improved bonding ability of vessels and fibers after CMC modification. Finally, CMC modification enhance paper mechanical properties and print quality.

Keywords: carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), breaking length, tear factor, vessel picking, printing, concentration

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Authors: Quentin Lobbe, David Chavalarias, Alexandre Delanoe

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The ICT revolution has given birth to an unprecedented world of digital traces and has impacted a wide number of knowledge-driven domains such as science, education or policy making. Nowadays, we are daily fueled by unlimited flows of articles, blogs, messages, tweets, etc. The internet itself can thus be considered as an unsteady hyper-textual environment where websites emerge and expand every day. But there are structures inside knowledge. A given text can always be studied in relation to others or in light of a specific socio-cultural context. By way of their textual traces, human beings are calling each other out: hypertext citations, retweets, vocabulary similarity, etc. We are in fact the architects of a giant web of elements of knowledge whose structures and shapes convey their own information. The global shapes of these digital traces represent a source of collective knowledge and the question of their visualization remains an opened challenge. How can we explore, browse and interact with such shapes? In order to navigate across these growing constellations of words and texts, interdisciplinary innovations are emerging at the crossroad between fields of social and computational sciences. In particular, complex systems approaches make it now possible to reconstruct the hidden structures of textual knowledge by means of multi-scale objects of research such as semantic maps and phylomemies. The phylomemy reconstruction is a generic method related to the co-word analysis framework. Phylomemies aim to reveal the temporal dynamics of large corpora of textual contents by performing inter-temporal matching on extracted knowledge domains in order to identify their conceptual lineages. This study aims to address the question of visualizing the global shapes of online political discussions related to the French presidential and legislative elections of 2017. We aim to build phylomemies on top of a dedicated collection of thousands of French political tweets enriched with archived contemporary news web articles. Our goal is to reconstruct the temporal evolution of online debates fueled by each political community during the elections. To that end, we want to introduce an iterative data exploration methodology implemented and tested within the free software Gargantext. There we combine synchronic and diachronic axis of visualization to reveal the dynamics of our corpora of tweets and web pages as well as their inner syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships. In doing so, we aim to provide researchers with innovative methodological means to explore online semantic landscapes in a collaborative and reflective way.

Keywords: online political debate, French election, hyper-text, phylomemy

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Authors: Aruna Bommareddi

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The journey of the novel is well examined in Indian academia as an offshoot of the novel in English. There have been many attempts to understand aspects of the early novel in India which shared a commonality with the English novel. The regional novel has had an entirely different trajectory which is mapped in the paper. The main focus of the paper would be to look at the historical emergence of the genre of the regional novel in Indian Literatures with specific reference to Kannada, Hindi, and Bengali. The selection of these languages is guided not only by familiarity with these languages as also based on the significance that these languages enjoy in the sub-continent and for the emergence of the regional novel as a specific category in these languages. The regional novels under study are Phaneeswaranath Renu’s Maila Anchal, Tarashankar Bandopadhyaya’s Ganadevata, and Kuvempu’s House of Kanuru for exploration of the themes of its emergence and some aspects of the regional novel common to and different from each other. The paper would explore the various movements that have shaped the genre regional novel in these Literatures. Though Phaneeswarnath Renu’s Maila Anchal is published in 1956, the novel is set in pre-Independent India and therefore shares a commonality of themes with the other two novels, House of Kanuru and Ganadevata. All three novels explore themes of superstition, ignorance, poverty, and the interventions of educated youth to salvage the crises in these backward regional worlds. In fact, it was Renu who assertively declared that he was going to write a regional novel and hence the tile of the first regional novel in Hindi is Maila Anchal meaning the soiled border. In Hindi, anchal also means the region therefore, the title is suggestive of a dirty region as well. The novel exposes the squalor, ignorance, and the conflict ridden life of the village or region as opposed to the rosy image of the village in literature. With this, all such novels which depicted conflicts of the region got recognized as regional novels even though they may have been written prior to Renu’s declaration. All three novels under study succeed in bringing out the complexity of rural life at a given point of time in its history.

Keywords: bengali, hindi, kannada, regional novel, telugu

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Authors: Su-Hyun Jung, Chang-Bin Ha, Hyoung-Kyu Song

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Recently, increasing the quality of experience (QoE) is an important issue. Since performance degradation at cell edge extremely reduces the QoE, several techniques are defined at LTE/LTE-A standard to remove inter-cell interference (ICI). However, the conventional techniques have disadvantage because there is a trade-off between resource allocation and reliable communication. The proposed scheme reduces the ICI more efficiently by using channel state information (CSI) smartly. It is shown that the proposed scheme can reduce the ICI with less resources.

Keywords: adaptive beamforming, CoMP, LTE-A, ICI reduction

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Authors: Huda Al-Awisi, Mohammed Al-Azri, Samira Al-Rasbi, Mansour Al-Moundhri

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Cancer diagnosis is invariably a profound and catastrophic life-changing experience for individuals and their families. It has been found that cancer patients and survivors are distressed with the fragility of their life and their mortality. Based on the literature, cancer patients /survivors value their spiritual experience and connecting with unknown power either related to religious belief or not as an important coping mechanism. Health care professionals including nurses are expected to provide spiritual care for cancer patients as holistic care. Yet, nurses face many challenges in providing such care mainly due to lack of clear definition of spirituality. This study aims to explore coping mechanisms of Omani women diagnosed with breast cancer throughout their cancer journey including spirituality using a qualitative approach. A purposive sample of 19 Omani women diagnosed with breast cancer at different stages of cancer treatment modalities were interviewed. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. The framework approach was used to analyze the data. One main theme related to spirituality was identified and called “The power of faith”. For the majority of participants, faith in God (the will of God) was most important in coping with all stages of their breast cancer experience. Some participants thought that the breast cancer is a test from God which they have to accept. Participants also expressed acceptance of death as the eventual end and reward from God. This belief gives them the strength to cope with cancer and seek medical treatment. In conclusion, women participated in this study believed faith in God imposed spiritual power for them to cope with cancer. They connected spirituality with religious beliefs. Therefore, regardless of nurses’ faith in spirituality, the spiritual care needs to be tailored and provided according to each patient individual need.

Keywords: breast cancer, spiritual, religion, coping, diagnosis, oman, women

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Authors: Carmen W. H. Chan, Helen Y. L. Chan, Kai Chow Choi, Ka Ming Chow, Cecilia W. M. Kwan, Nancy H. Y. Ng, Jackie Robinson

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Introduction: In Hong Kong, a significant number of deaths occur in acute care wards, which requires nurses in these settings to provide end-of-life care and lead ACP implementation. However, nurses in these settings, in fact, have very low-level involvement in ACP discussions because of limited training in ACP conversations. Objective: This study aims to assess the impact of a multi-media experiential ACP (MEACP) training program, which is guided by the experiential learning model and theory of planned behaviour, on nurses' knowledge and confidence in assisting patients with ACP. Methodology: The study utilizes a cluster randomized controlled trial with a 12-week follow-up. Eligible nurses working in acute care hospital wards are randomly assigned at the ward level, in a 1:1 ratio, to either the control group (no ACP education) or the intervention group (4-week MEACP training program). The training programme includes training through a webpage and mobile application, as well as a face-to-face training workshop with enhanced lectures and role play, which is based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Kolb's Experiential Learning Model. Questionnaires were distributed to assess nurses' knowledge (a 10-item true/false questionnaire) and level of confidence (five-point Likert scale) in ACP at baseline (T0), four weeks after the baseline assessment (T1), and 12 weeks after T1 (T2). In this interim report, data analysis was mainly descriptive in nature. Result: The interim report focuses on the preliminary results of 165 nurses at T0 (Control: 74, Intervention: 91) over a 5-month period, 69 nurses from the control group who completed the 4-week follow-up and 65 nurses from the intervention group who completed the 4-week MEACP training program at T1. The preliminary attrition rate is 6.8% and 28.6% for the control and intervention groups, respectively, as some nurses did not complete the whole set of online modules. At baseline, the two groups were generally homogeneous in terms of their years of nursing practice, weekly working hours, working title, and level of education, as well as ACP knowledge and confidence levels. The proportion of nurses who answered all ten knowledge questions correctly increased from 13.8% (T0) to 66.2% (T1) for the intervention group and from 13% (T0) to 20.3% (T1) for the control group. The nurses in the intervention group answered an average of 7.57 and 9.43 questions correctly at T0 and T1, respectively. They showed a greater improvement in the knowledge assessment at T1 with respect to T0 when compared with their counterparts in the control group (mean difference of change score, Δ=1.22). They also exhibited a greater gain in level of confidence at T1 compared to their colleagues in the control group (Δ=0.91). T2 data is yet available. Conclusion: The prevalence of nurses engaging in ACP and their level of knowledge about ACP in Hong Kong is low. The MEACP training program can enrich nurses by providing them with more knowledge about ACP and increasing their confidence in conducting ACP.

Keywords: advance directive, advance care planning, confidence, knowledge, multi-media experiential, randomised control trial

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Authors: M. Palizvan, M. T. Abadi, M. H. Sadr

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Due to variations in damage mechanisms in the microscale, the behavior of fiber-reinforced composites is nonlinear and difficult to model. To make use of computational advantages, homogenization method is applied to the micro-scale model in order to minimize the cost at the expense of detail of local microscale phenomena. In this paper, the effective stiffness is calculated using the homogenization of nonlinear behavior of a composite representative volume element (RVE) containing fiber-matrix debonding. The damage modes for the RVE are considered by using cohesive elements and contacts for the cohesive behavior of the interface between fiber and matrix. To predict more realistic responses of composite materials, different random distributions of fibers are proposed besides square and hexagonal arrays. It was shown that in some cases, there is quite different damage behavior in different fiber distributions. A comprehensive comparison has been made between different graphs.

Keywords: homogenization, cohesive zone model, fiber-matrix debonding, RVE

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Authors: Erin Louise Robinson, Emily Elsa Freeman

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Rough-and-tumble play (RTP) is a physical and competitive type of play that parents engage in with their children. While past research has reported RTP to be the preferred play type for western fathers, the frequency of these interactions in Australian families have not been explored. With parental perceptions of play importance playing a major role in the frequency of activity engagement, the present study investigated how perceptions and parent gender impact on RTP play frequency. By utilising child gender in our approach, we also examined the historical trend of boys receiving more physical play interactions with their parents. Three hundred and seventy-nine respondents completed the study with their 0–10-year-old children. The results indicated that, in line with past research, parents engaged more frequently in RTP with their sons than their daughters. While, both mothers and fathers participated in RTP with their children, fathers perceived RTP to be of greater important to their child’s development than mothers did. Moreover, supporting previous findings, this more positive perception of the play was related to greater frequency of RTP in these father-child dyads. Although RTP literature remains heavily focussed on fathers, the fact that mothers are engaging in these interactions as well, establishes the need to explore maternal influences in future research.

Keywords: parenting, play, child development, family, Australia

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Authors: Sara Soltanpour, Adolfo Foriero

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Frost heave is arguably the most problematic adverse phenomenon in cold region areas. Frost heave is a complex process that depends on heat and water transfer. These coupled physical fields generate considerable heave stresses as well as deformations. In the present study, a coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical (THM) model using COMSOL Multiphysics in frozen unsaturated soils, such as fine sand, is investigated. Particular attention to the frost heave and temperature distribution, as well as the water migrating during soil freezing, is assessed. The results obtained from the numerical simulations are consistent with the results measured in the full-scale tests conducted by Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL).

Keywords: frost heave, numerical simulations, COMSOL software, unsaturated freezing soil

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Authors: Maryam Kalkatechi

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The application of algorithms in architecture has been realized as geometric forms which are increasingly being used by architecture firms. The abstraction of ideas in a formulated algorithm is not possible. There is still a gap between design innovation and final built in prescribed formulas, even the most aesthetical realizations. This paper presents the application of erudite design process to conceptualize biomimetic paradigms in architecture. The process is customized to material and tectonics. The first part of the paper outlines the design process elements within four biomimetic pre-concepts. The pre-concepts are chosen from plants family. These include the pine leaf, the dandelion flower; the cactus flower and the sun flower. The choice of these are related to material qualities and natural pattern of the tectonics of these plants. It then focuses on four versions of tectonic comprehension of one of the biomimetic pre-concepts. The next part of the paper discusses the implementation of STEAM in higher education in architecture. This is shown by the relations within the design process and the manifestation of the thinking processes. The A in the SETAM, in this case, is only achieved by the design process, an engaging event as a performing arts, in which the conceptualization and development is realized in final built.

Keywords: biomimetic paradigm, erudite design process, tectonic, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematic)

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Authors: Deepshikha Shukla, C. H. Solanki, Mayank Desai

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In the last few years, it has been observed that earthquake is proving a threat to the scientist across the world. With a large number of earthquakes occurring in day to day life, the threat to life and property has increased manifolds which call for an urgent attention of all the researchers globally to carry out the research in the field of Earthquake Engineering. Any hazard related to the earthquake and seismicity is considered to be seismic hazards. The common forms of seismic hazards are Ground Shaking, Structure Damage, Structural Hazards, Liquefaction, Landslides, Tsunami to name a few. Among all the natural hazards, the most devastating and damaging is the earthquake as all other hazards are triggered only after the occurrence of an earthquake. In order to quantify and estimate the seismicity and seismic hazards, many methods and approaches have been proposed in the past few years. Such approaches are Mathematical, Conventional and Computational. Convex Set Theory, Empirical Green’s Function are some of the Mathematical Approaches whereas the Deterministic and Probabilistic Approaches are the Conventional Approach for the estimation of the seismic Hazards. Ground response and Ground Shaking of a particular area or region plays an important role in the damage caused due to the earthquake. In this paper, seismic study using Deterministic Approach and 1 D Ground Response Analysis has been carried out for Madhya Pradesh Tourism Office in Indore Region in Madhya Pradesh in Central India. Indore lies in the seismic zone III (IS: 1893, 2002) in the Seismic Zoning map of India. There are various faults and lineament in this area and Narmada Some Fault and Gavilgadh fault are the active sources of earthquake in the study area. Deepsoil v6.1.7 has been used to perform the 1 D Linear Ground Response Analysis for the study area. The Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) of the city ranges from 0.1g to 0.56g.

Keywords: seismicity, seismic hazards, deterministic, probabilistic methods, ground response analysis

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Authors: Maroua Sbiti, Karim Beddiar, Djaoued Beladjine, Romuald Perrault

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Productivity is decreasing in construction compared to the manufacturing industry. It seems that the sector is suffering from organizational problems and have low maturity regarding technological advances. High international competition due to the growing context of globalization, complex projects, and shorter deadlines increases these challenges. Field employees are more exposed to coordination problems than design officers. Execution collaboration is then a major issue that can threaten the cost, time, and quality completion of a project. Initially, this paper will try to identify field professional requirements as to address building management process weaknesses such as the unreliability of scheduling, the fickleness of monitoring and inspection processes, the inaccuracy of project’s indicators, inconsistency of building documents and the random logistic management. Subsequently, we will focus our attention on providing solutions to improve scheduling, inspection, and hours tracking processes using emerging lean tools and field mobility applications that bring new perspectives in terms of cooperation. They have shown a great ability to connect various field teams and make informations visual and accessible to planify accurately and eliminate at the source the potential defects. In addition to software as a service use, the adoption of the human resource module of the Enterprise Resource Planning system can allow a meticulous time accounting and thus make the faster decision making. The next step is to integrate external data sources received from or destined to design engineers, logisticians, and suppliers in a holistic system. Creating a monolithic system that consolidates planning, quality, procurement, and resources management modules should be our ultimate target to build the construction industry supply chain.

Keywords: lean, last planner system, field mobility applications, construction productivity

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Authors: Soleen Karim, Meira Yasin, Rezhin Qader

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Children’s books present a colorful life for kids around the world, their current environment or what they could potentially have- a home, two loving parents, a playground, and a safe school within a short walk or bus ride. These images are only pages in a donated book for children displaced by war. The environment they live in is significantly different. Displaced children are faced with a temporary life style filled with fear and uncertainty. Children of war associate various structural institutions with a trauma and cannot enter the space, even if it is for their own future development, such as a school. This paper is a collaborative effort with students of the Kennesaw State University architecture department, architectural designers and a mental health professional to address and link the design challenges and the psychological trauma for children of war. The research process consists of a) interviews with former refugees, b) interviews with current refugee children, c) personal understanding of space through one’s own childhood, d) literature review of tested design methods to address various traumas. Conclusion: In addressing the built environment for children of war, it is necessary to address mental health and well being through the creation of space that is sensitive to the needs of children. This is achieved by understanding critical design cues to evoke normalcy and safe space through program organization, color, and symbiosis of synthetic and natural environments. By involving the children suffering from trauma in the design process, aspects of the design are directly enhanced to serve the occupant. Neglecting to involve the participants creates a nonlinear design outcome and does not serve the needs of the occupant to afford them equal opportunity learning and growth experience as other children around the world.

Keywords: activist architecture, childhood education, childhood psychology, adverse childhood experiences

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Authors: John Ayoade

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Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has gained a lot of popularity in all walks of life due to its usefulness and diverse use of the technology in almost every application. However, there have been some security concerns most especially in regards to how authentic readers and tags can confirm their authenticity before confidential data is exchanged between them. In this paper, Kerberos protocol is adopted for the mutual authentication of RFID system components in order to ensure the secure communication between those components and to realize the authenticity of the communicating components.

Keywords: RFID, security, mutual authentication, Kerberos

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Authors: Win-Jin Chang, Haw-Long Lee, Yu-Ching Yang

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In this study, we use the atomic-scale finite element method to investigate the mechanical behavior of the armchair- and zigzag-structured nanoporous graphene sheets with the clamped-free-free-free boundary condition under tension and shear loadings. The effect of porosity on Young’s modulus and shear modulus of nanoporous graphene sheets is obvious. For the armchair- and zigzag-structured nanoporous graphene sheets, Young’s modulus and shear modulus decreases with increasing porosity. Young’s modulus and shear modulus of zigzag graphene are larger than that of armchair one for the same porosity. The results are useful for application in the design of nanoporous graphene sheets.

Keywords: graphene, nanoporous, Young's modulus, shear modulus

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Authors: Madhulika Pathak, Polani Seshagiri, Vani Venkatappa

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Blastocyst hatching is an indispensable process for successful implantation. One of the major reasons for implantation failure in IVF clinic is poor quality of embryo, which are not development/hatching-competent. Therefore, attempts are required to develop or enhance the culture system with a molecule recapitulating the autocrine/paracrine factors containing the environment of in-vivo endometrial milieu. We have tried to explore the functional molecules involved in the hamster hatching phenomenon. Blastocyst hatching is governed by several molecules that are entwined and regulate this process, among which cytokines are known to be expressed and are still least explored. Two of such cytokines we have used for our study are IL-1β and its natural antagonist IL-1ra to understand the functional dynamics of cytokines involved in the hatching process. Using hamster, an intriguing experimental model for hatching behavior, we have shown the mRNA (qPCR) and protein (ICC) expression of IL-1β, IL-1ra and IL-1 receptor type 1 throughout all the stages of morula, blastocyst and hatched blastocyst. Post-asserting the expression, the functional role is shown by supplementation studies, where IL-1β supplementation showed enhancement in hatching level (IL-1β treated: 84.1 ± 4.2% vs control: 63.7 ± 3.1 %, N=11), further confirmed by the diminishing effect of IL-1ra on hatching rate (IL-1ra treated: 27.5 ± 11.1% vs control: 67.9 ± 3.1%). The exogenous supplementation of IL-1ra decreased the survival rate of embryos and affected the viability in dose-dependent manner, establishing the importance of IL-1β in blastocyst cell survival. Previously, the cathepsin L and B were established as the proteases that were involved in the hamster hatching process. The inducing effect of IL-1β was correlated with enhanced mRNA level, as analyzed by qPCR, for both CAT L (by 1.9 ± 0.5 fold) and CAT B (by 3.5 ± 0.1) fold which was diminished in presence of IL-1ra (Cat L by 88 percent and Cat B by 94 percent. Moreover, using a specific fluorescent substrate-based assay kit, the enzymatic activity of these proteases was found to be increased in presence of IL-1β (Cat L by 2.1 ± 0.1 fold and CAT B by 2.3 ± 0.7 fold) and was curtailed in presence of IL-1ra. These observations provide functional insights with respect to the involvement of cytokines in the hatching process. This has implications in understanding the hatching biology and improving the embryo development quality in IVF clinics.

Keywords: Blastocyst, Cytokines, Hatching, Interleukin

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Authors: Laila Almulla

Abstract:

As native plants are better adapted to the local environment, can endure long spells of drought, withstand high soil salinity levels and provide a more natural effect to landscape projects, their use in landscape projects are gaining popularity. Standardization of seed germination methods and raising the hardened plants of selected native plants for their use in landscape projects will both conserve natural resources and produce sustainable greenery. In the present study, Haloxylon salicornicum, a perennial herb with a potential use for urban greenery was selected for seed germination tests as there is an urgent need to mass multiply them for their large-scale use. Among the nine treatments tried with different concentrations of gibberelic acid (GA3) and dry heat, the seeds responded with treatments when the wings were removed. The control as well as 250 GA3 treatments produced the maximum germination of 86%.

Keywords: dormancy, gibberelic acid, germination trays , vigor index

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Authors: Mukesh Ranjan

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Applying probit model on the micro data of NSS 71st round on education for understanding the access to education post the passage of Right to Education act,2009 in India. The empirical analysis shows that at all India level the mean age of enrollment in school is 5.5 years and drop-out age is around 14 years (or studied up to class 7) and around 60 percent females never get enrolled in any school in their lifetime. Nearly 20 percent children in Bihar never seen school and surprisingly, the relatively developed states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have more than one-third of the children and half of the children in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa as educationally wasted. The relative contribution in educational wastage is maximum by Bengal (10 %) while UP contributed a maximum of 30 % in educational non-enrollment in the country. Educational wastage is more likely to increase with age. Marriage is a resistive factor in getting education. Muslims are educationally more deprived than Hindus. Larger family and rich household are less likely to be educationally deprived. Major reasons for drop-out until 9 years were lack of interest in education and financial constraint; between 10-12 years, lack of interest and unable to cope up with studies and post 12 years financial constraint, marriage and other household reasons.

Keywords: probit model, educational wastage, educational non-enrollment, educational deprivation

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Authors: Matthew J. Zagumny

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The current study reports an examination of the QUEST-25 (Q-Assessment of Undergraduate Epistemology and Scientific Thinking) online version for assessing the dispositional attitudes toward scientific thinking and intellectual curiosity among undergraduate students. The QUEST-25 consists of scientific thinking (SIQ-25) and intellectual curiosity (ICIQ-25), which were correlated in hypothesized directions with the Religious Commitment Inventory, Curiosity and Exploration Inventory, Belief in Science scale, and measures of academic self-efficacy. Additionally, concurrent validity was established by the resulting significant differences between those identifying the centrality of religious belief in their lives and those who do not self-identify as being guided daily by religious beliefs. This study demonstrates the utility of the QUEST-25 for research, evaluation, and theory development.

Keywords: guided-inquiry learning, intellectual curiosity, psychometric assessment, scientific thinking

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Authors: L. R. Valencia Pérez, J. M. Peña Aguilar, Valencia Pérez, Héctor Fernando, Lamadrid A. Alberto, Vivanco V. Martín

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Cosmology is a discipline commonly linked to philosophy. In this work, we show cosmology, from a perspective that can provide some proposals to help develop SMB in Mexico. We start from the belief that, in a complex world, the solutions to problems must nurture from different approaches. In order to be able to do this, we need to change our point of reference and use theoretical proposals and methodologies that came from other disciplines; in this case, we will try to show that between philosophy and administration exist dialogs that need to be incentivized. The work is structured in three parts. In the first one, we create a description of cosmology and how it could be applied to business. In the second, we show some of the most common problems that the SMB suffer from and in the third, we present a proposal of how cosmology can help improve the development. Finally, we concluded that better understanding of real needs, integration of knowledge at large scale and using information technologies within the cosmology framework presentment could make a difference.

Keywords: harmonic fusion, national sustainability, financial management, triple helix

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Authors: R. Faiez, M. Mashhoudi, F. Najafi

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Implicit in most large-scale numerical analyses of the crystal growth from the melt is the assumption that the shape and position of the phase boundary are determined by the transport phenomena coupled strongly to the melt hydrodynamics. In the present numerical study, the interface shape-effect on the convective interactions in a Czochralski oxide melt is described. It was demonstrated that thermos-capillary flow affects inversely the phase boundaries of distinct shapes. The in homogenity of heat flux and the location of the stagnation point at the crystallization front were investigated. The forced convection effect on the point displacement at the boundary found to be much stronger for the flat plate interface compared to the cone-shaped one with and without the Marangoni flow.

Keywords: computer simulation, fluid flow, interface shape, thermos-capillary effect

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Dylan Santos De Pinho, Nabil Ouerhani

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Energy consumption of machine-tools is becoming critical for machine-tool builders and end-users because of economic, ecological and legislation-related reasons. Many machine-tool builders are seeking for solutions that allow the reduction of energy consumption of machine-tools while preserving the same productivity rate and the same quality of machined parts. In this paper, we present the first results of a project conducted jointly by academic and industrial partners to reduce the energy consumption of a Swiss-Type lathe. We employ genetic algorithms to find optimal machining parameters – the set of parameters that lead to the best trade-off between energy consumption, part quality and tool lifetime. Three main machining process parameters are considered in our optimization technique, namely depth of cut, spindle rotation speed and material feed rate. These machining process parameters have been identified as the most influential ones in the configuration of the Swiss-type machining process. A state-of-the-art multi-objective genetic algorithm has been used. The algorithm combines three fitness functions, which are objective functions that permit to evaluate a set of parameters against the three objectives: energy consumption, quality of the machined parts, and tool lifetime. In this paper, we focus on the investigation of the fitness function related to energy consumption. Four different energy consumption related fitness functions have been investigated and compared. The first fitness function refers to the Kienzle cutting force model. The second fitness function uses the Material Removal Rate (RMM) as an indicator of energy consumption. The two other fitness functions are non-deterministic, learning-based functions. One fitness function uses a simple Neural Network to learn the relation between the process parameters and the energy consumption from experimental data. Another fitness function uses Lasso regression to determine the same relation. The goal is, then, to find out which fitness functions predict best the energy consumption of a Swiss-Type machining process for the given set of machining process parameters. Once determined, these functions may be used for optimization purposes – determine the optimal machining process parameters leading to minimum energy consumption. The performance of the four fitness functions has been evaluated. The Tornos DT13 Swiss-Type Lathe has been used to carry out the experiments. A mechanical part including various Swiss-Type machining operations has been selected for the experiments. The evaluation process starts with generating a set of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) programs for machining the part at hand. Each CNC program considers a different set of machining process parameters. During the machining process, the power consumption of the spindle is measured. All collected data are assigned to the appropriate CNC program and thus to the set of machining process parameters. The evaluation approach consists in calculating the correlation between the normalized measured power consumption and the normalized power consumption prediction for each of the four fitness functions. The evaluation shows that the Lasso and Neural Network fitness functions have the highest correlation coefficient with 97%. The fitness function “Material Removal Rate” (MRR) has a correlation coefficient of 90%, whereas the Kienzle-based fitness function has a correlation coefficient of 80%.

Keywords: adaptive machining, genetic algorithms, smart manufacturing, parameters optimization

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Authors: M. Sivakumar, D. Chamundeeswari

Abstract:

Glycosmis pentaphylla is one of the medicinally important plants belonging to the family Rutaceae, commonly known as “Anam or Panal” in Tamil. Traditionally, leaves are useful in fever, hepatopathy, eczema, skin disease, helminthiasis, wounds, and erysipelas. The fruits are sweet and are useful in vitiated conditions of vata, kapha, cough, and bronchitis. The roots are good for facial inflammations, rheumatism, jaundice, and anemia. The preliminary phytochemical investigations indicated the presence of alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, tannins, sugar, glycoside, and phenolic compounds. In the present study, the root part of Glycosmis pentaphylla was used, and the root was collected from Western Ghats of South India. The root was sun/shade dried and pulverized to powder in a mechanical grinder. The powder was successively extracted with various solvents, and the ethyl acetate extract of Glycosmis pentaphylla has been subjected to the GC-MS analysis. Amongst the 46 chemical constituents identified from this plant, three major phytoconstituents were reported for the first time. Marmesin, a furanocumarin compound with the chemical structure 7H-Furo (3,2-G) (1)Benzopyran-7-one,2,3–dihydro–2 - (1-Hydroxy-1methylethyl)-(s) is one of the three compounds identified for the first time at the concentration of 11-60% in ethyl acetate extract of Glycosmis pentaphylla. Others include, Beta.-Fagarine (4.71%) and Paverine (13.08%).

Keywords: ethyl acetate extract, Glycosmis pentaphylla, GC-MS analysis, Phytochemicals

Procedia PDF Downloads 288