Search results for: communication system

Authors: Carrollyne Aasen, Laverne Seales

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With increased Latinx communities within the United States, specifically in California, and more universities receiving designations of Hispanic-Serving institutions, Spanish programs have evolved to include more targeted and applicable practical skills. The Spanish program in the Languages and Cultures Department at California Lutheran University incorporated an interdisciplinary project with the Communication Department to create student-generated Spanish-language news inserts, which serve as a sister publication to the English-language student newspaper, The Echo. California Lutheran University is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, meaning it is an accredited undergraduate institution with full-time Hispanic/Latinx students equivalent to at least 25 percent of the total students enrolled. As a Hispanic Serving Institution with growing numbers of bilingual students, faculty, staff, and community members, the need for more information aimed at Hispanic/Latinx communities increased, resulting in the opportunity to reflect topics of interest by community members. This project was developed to fulfill the Spanish program's goals for proficiency by using the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages guidelines and the university's need to support students and the community's voices. This article describes the stages from inception to production and the incorporation of journalism principles into the Spanish curriculum.

Keywords: interdisciplinary, media, foreign languages, HSI

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Authors: Dehni Abdellatif, Lounis Mourad

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The new approach of applied spatial geostatistics in materials sciences, agriculture accuracy, agricultural statistics, permitted an apprehension of managing and monitoring the water and groundwater qualities in a relationship with salt-affected soil. The anterior experiences concerning data acquisition, spatial-preparation studies on optical and multispectral data has facilitated the integration of correction models of electrical conductivity related with soils temperature (horizons of soils). For tomography apprehension, this physical parameter has been extracted from calibration of the thermal band (LANDSAT ETM+6) with a radiometric correction. Our study area is Oran region (Northern West of Algeria). Different spectral indices are determined such as salinity and sodicity index, the Combined Spectral Reflectance Index (CSRI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), emissivity, Albedo, and Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR). The approach of geostatistical modeling of electrical conductivity (salinity), appears to be a useful decision support system for estimating corrected electrical resistivity related to the temperature of surface soils, according to the conversion models by substitution, the reference temperature at 25°C (where hydrochemical data are collected with this constraint). The Brightness temperatures extracted from satellite reflectance (LANDSAT ETM+) are used in consistency models to estimate electrical resistivity. The confusions that arise from the effects of salt stress and water stress removed followed by seasonal application of the geostatistical analysis in Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques investigation and monitoring the variation of the electrical conductivity in the alluvial aquifer of Es-Sénia for the salt-affected soil.

Keywords: geostatistical modelling, landsat, brightness temperature, conductivity

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Authors: Eric Wilson Santos Cabral, Marta Monteiro Da Costa Cruz, Rodrigo Pirola Pestana, Vivian Andréa Parreira

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In the transportation sector in Brazil, there is a great challenge that is the maintenance of profit in the face of the great variation in the price of diesel. This directly affects the variable cost of transport companies. Within the railways, part of the great challenges is to overcome the annual budget, cargo and ore transported, thus reducing costs compared to previous years, becoming more efficient each year. Within this scenario, the railway companies are looking for effective measures, aiming at reducing the ratio of liter of diesel consumed by KTKB (Kilometer Gross Ton multiplied by thousand). This ratio represents the indicator of energy efficiency of some railroads in Brazil and in other countries. In this study, we sought to analyze the behavior of the energy efficiency indicator on two parts: The first, with the application of technologies used in locomotives, such as the start-stop system of the diesel engine and the system of tracking and monitoring of fuel. The second, evaluation of the behavior of the variation of the type of cargo transported (loading mix). The study focused on locomotive technology will be carried out using statistical analysis, behavioral evaluation in different operating conditions, such as maneuvers for trains, service trains and freight trains. The analysis will also cover the evaluation of the loading mix made using statistical analysis of the existing railroad database, comparing the energy efficiency per loading mine and type of product. With the completion of this study, the railway undertakings should be able to better target decision-making in order to achieve substantial reductions in transport costs.

Keywords: railway transport, energy efficiency, railway technology, fuel consumption

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Authors: Weiam Daear, Patrick Lai, Elmar Prenner

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The human body offers many avenues that could be used for drug delivery. The pulmonary route, which is delivered through the lungs, presents many advantages that have sparked interested in the field. These advantages include; 1) direct access to the lungs and the large surface area it provides, and 2) close proximity to the blood circulation. The air-blood barrier of the alveoli is about 500 nm thick. The air-blood barrier consist of a monolayer of lipids and few proteins called the lung surfactant and cells. This monolayer consists of ~90% lipids and ~10% proteins that are produced by the alveolar epithelial cells. The two major lipid classes constitutes of various saturation and chain length of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG) representing 80% of total lipid component. The major role of the lung surfactant monolayer is to reduce surface tension experienced during breathing cycles in order to prevent lung collapse. In terms of the pulmonary drug delivery route, drugs pass through various parts of the respiratory system before reaching the alveoli. It is at this location that the lung surfactant functions as the air-blood barrier for drugs. As the field of nanomedicine advances, the use of nanoparticles (NPs) as drug delivery vehicles is becoming very important. This is due to the advantages NPs provide with their large surface area and potential specific targeting. Therefore, studying the interaction of NPs with lung surfactant and whether they affect its stability becomes very essential. The aim of this research is to develop a biomimetic model of the human lung surfactant followed by a biophysical analysis of the interaction of polymeric NPs. This biomimetic model will function as a fast initial mode of testing for whether NPs affect the stability of the human lung surfactant. The model developed thus far is an 8-component lipid system that contains major PC and PG lipids. Recently, a custom made 16:0/16:1 PC and PG lipids were added to the model system. In the human lung surfactant, these lipids constitute 16% of the total lipid component. According to the author’s knowledge, there is not much monolayer data on the biophysical analysis of the 16:0/16:1 lipids, therefore more analysis will be discussed here. Biophysical techniques such as the Langmuir Trough is used for stability measurements which monitors changes to a monolayer's surface pressure upon NP interaction. Furthermore, Brewster Angle Microscopy (BAM) employed to visualize changes to the lateral domain organization. Results show preferential interactions of NPs with different lipid groups that is also dependent on the monolayer fluidity. Furthermore, results show that the film stability upon compression is unaffected, but there are significant changes in the lateral domain organization of the lung surfactant upon NP addition. This research is significant in the field of pulmonary drug delivery. It is shown that NPs within a certain size range are safe for the pulmonary route, but little is known about the mode of interaction of those polymeric NPs. Moreover, this work will provide additional information about the nanotoxicology of NPs tested.

Keywords: Brewster angle microscopy, lipids, lung surfactant, nanoparticles

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Authors: Oscar E. Cariceo

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In Chile, social workers´ professional training is developed in the undergraduate level, mainly. Despite the fact that several schools have been launched Master of Social Work programs, the Bachelor in Social Work is the minimum qualification to start a professional career. In the current Chilean higher education system, there exist different financial aid options in order to guarantee equal access to higher education. These policies, which are student loans and scholarships, basically, are applied and distributed by Government agencies. They are linked to academic performance and socio-economic needs, in terms of standardized test scores and social vulnerability criteria. In addition, institutions that enroll students with high scores, also receive direct financial support. In other words, social work students must compete for the resources to pay for college tuitions and fees with other students from different programs and knowledge fields and, as a consequence, they can indirectly enhance schools´ money income. This work aims to describe the reality of social work students to access to financial aid in Chile. The analysis presents the results of the University Selection Test of students, who were accepted in social work undergraduate programs during 2014 related to their qualifications to apply to three main financial aid programs, and their contribution to attracting resources to their schools. In general, data show that social work students participate in a low proportion in the distribution of financial aid, both student loans and scholarships. Few of them reach enough scores to guarantee direct financial resources to their institutions. Therefore, this situation has deep implications on equal access to higher education for vulnerable students and affects equal access to training options for young social workers, due to the highly competitive financial aid system.

Keywords: social work, professional training, higher education, financial aid, equity

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Authors: Rahul Jain, Pradhir Parmar, Dhruvesh Patel

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Planning and drawing are the important aspects of civil engineering. For testing theories about spatial location and interaction between land uses and related activities the computer based solution of urban models are used. The planner’s primary interest is in creation of 3D models of building and to obtain the terrain surface so that he can do urban morphological mappings, virtual reality, disaster management, fly through generation, visualization etc. 3D city models have a variety of applications in urban studies. Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) is an ongoing construction site between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. It will be built on 3590000 m2 having a geographical coordinates of North Latitude 23°9’5’’N to 23°10’55’’ and East Longitude 72°42’2’’E to 72°42’16’’E. Therefore to develop 3D city models of GIFT city, the base map of the city is collected from GIFT office. Differential Geographical Positioning System (DGPS) is used to collect the Ground Control Points (GCP) from the field. The GCP points are used for the registration of base map in QGIS. The registered map is projected in WGS 84/UTM zone 43N grid and digitized with the help of various shapefile tools in QGIS. The approximate height of the buildings that are going to build is collected from the GIFT office and placed on the attribute table of each layer created using shapefile tools. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 1 Arc-Second Global (30 m X 30 m) grid data is used to generate the terrain of GIFT city. The Google Satellite Map is used to place on the background to get the exact location of the GIFT city. Various plugins and tools in QGIS are used to convert the raster layer of the base map of GIFT city into 3D model. The fly through tool is used for capturing and viewing the entire area in 3D of the city. This paper discusses all techniques and their usefulness in 3D city model creation from the GCP, base map, SRTM and QGIS.

Keywords: 3D model, DGPS, GIFT City, QGIS, SRTM

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Authors: Rezki Omar

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Openness cosmic shares dramatically in the order of something quite a bit of neglected priorities within the community at the level of thought and consciousness, and these priorities provider of legal and human rights awareness after a long delay in the process of awareness of human rights, there is no doubt that the long and arduous road. As is obvious to any observer public affairs as well as the specialist and the observer that there is growth and development in the scene and the legal movement is unprecedented, many when dealing with many of the details sought and tries as much as possible to know what is the natural rights, and duties that must comply with legally in no charge with the issue of what is going on, any attempt of weakness and lack of self-reliance and obstacles level during the search show him by virtue of the difficulty of the availability of legal information in some cases on a particular issue, whether or not the image is complete, legally insufficient. Law relationship to society basically a close relationship, there is no law society, a society is impossible without both at the level of domestic relations or international law: «There is a close link between law and society. The law remains influenced by the society in which it grew, as well as the law affects the society, which is governed by, the relationship between the community and law affected and the impact of relationship ». The law of the most important objectives of protecting members of society, and its role is based on the distribution of rights and duties in a fair way, and protect the public interest of the citizen’s basis. The word community when some sociologists are limited to the group that gathered, including cultural unity Cultural Group distinguish between society and the last. In the recent period issued a set of regulations in the various branches of law, which is different from the class and important one hand, and here is important study of the interaction between law and society, and how to make the laws effective in the community? The opposite is true as well. The law as a social phenomenon is impossible to understand and analyzed without taking into account the extent of their impact and vulnerability within the community and accepted. Must evoke the basis that it was developed to address the problems faced by citizens. The over-age and amplify the sanctions are a contradiction of that fundamental reform of the basic objectives of the offender more than anything else Calantqam and revenge, and if the process is not human mistakes. Michel Foucault believes that «tighten laws and regulations against criminals will not reduce the crime rate in the community, so you must activate the system of moral values of society after more deterrent, and the threat of scandal on a social level.» Besson and refers to the legislators, saying the law: «The only way to reduce the crime rate to strengthen the ethical system of the society, especially in the social Amnhoha sanctity of conscience, then you will not be forced to issue harsh sentences against criminals».In summary, it is necessary to combine the enactment of laws and activate the system of moral values and educational values on the ground, and to understand the causes of social problems at the root of all for the equation is complete, and that the law was drafted to serve the citizens and not to harm him.

Keywords: legislators, distinguish, awareness, insufficient

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Authors: Claudia Matassa, Matthias Hohne, Dominic Ormerod, Yamini Satyawali

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Chiral amines integrate the backbone of several active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in modern medicine for the treatment of a vast range of diseases. Despite the demand, their synthesis remains challenging. Besides a range of chemicals and enzymatical methods, chiral amine synthesis using transaminases (EC 2.6.1.W) represents a useful alternative to access this important class of compounds. Even though transaminases exhibit excellent stereo and regioselectivity and the potential for high yield, the reaction suffers from a number of challenges, including the thermodynamic equilibrium, product inhibition, and low substrate solubility. In this work, we demonstrate a membrane assisted strategy for addressing these challenges. It involves the use of high molecular weight (HMW) amine donors for the transaminase-catalyzed synthesis of 4-phenyl-2-butylamine in both aqueous and organic solvent media. In contrast to common amine donors such as alanine or isopropylamine, these large molecules, provided in excess for thermodynamic equilibrium shifting, are easily retained by commercial nanofiltration membranes; thus a selective permeation of the desired smaller product amine is possible. The enzymatic transamination in aqueous media, combined with selective product removal shifted the equilibrium enhancing substrate conversion by an additional 25% compared to the control reaction. Along with very efficient amine product removal, there was undesirable loss of ketone substrate and low product concentration was achieved. The system was therefore further improved by performing the reaction in organic solvent (n-heptane). Coupling the reaction system with membrane-assisted product removal resulted in a highly concentrated and relatively pure ( > 97%) product solution. Moreover, a product yield of 60% was reached, compared to 15% without product removal.

Keywords: amine donor, chiral amines, in situ product removal, transamination

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Authors: Itamir de Morais Barroca Filho, Cephas A. S. Barreto, Ramon Malaquias, Cezar Miranda Paula de Souza, Arthur Costa Gorgônio, João C. Xavier-Júnior, Mateus Firmino, Fellipe Matheus Costa Barbosa

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Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in healthcare are crucial for efficiently delivering medical healthcare services to patients. These ICTs are also known as e-health and comprise technologies such as electronic record systems, telemedicine systems, and personalized devices for diagnosis. The focus of e-health is to improve the quality of health information, strengthen national health systems, and ensure accessible, high-quality health care for all. All the data gathered by these technologies make it possible to help clinical staff with automated decisions using machine learning. In this context, we collected patient data, such as heart rate, oxygen saturation (SpO2), blood pressure, respiration, and others. With this data, we were able to develop machine learning models for patients’ risk of death and estimate the length of stay in ICU beds. Thus, this paper presents the methodology for applying machine learning techniques to develop these models. As a result, although we implemented these models on an IoT healthcare platform, helping clinical staff in healthcare in an ICU, it is essential to create a robust clinical validation process and monitoring of the proposed models.

Keywords: ICT, e-health, machine learning, ICU, healthcare

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Authors: G. Suja, J. Sreekumar, A. N. Jyothi, V. S. Santhosh Mithra

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Worldwide concerns regarding food safety, environmental degradation and threats to human health have generated interest in alternative systems like organic farming. Tropical tuber crops, cassava, sweet potato, yams, and aroids are food-cum-nutritional security-cum climate resilient crops. These form stable or subsidiary food for about 500 million global population. Cassava, yams (white yam, greater yam, and lesser yam) and edible aroids (elephant foot yam, taro, and tannia) are high energy tuberous vegetables with good taste and nutritive value. Seven on-station field experiments at ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, India and seventeen on-farm trials in three districts of Kerala, were conducted over a decade (2004-2015) to compare the varietal response, yield, quality and soil properties under organic vs conventional system in these crops and to develop a learning system based on the data generated. The industrial, as well as domestic varieties of cassava, the elite and local varieties of elephant foot yam and taro and the three species of Dioscorea (yams), were on a par under both systems. Organic management promoted yield by 8%, 20%, 9%, 11% and 7% over conventional practice in cassava, elephant foot yam, white yam, greater yam and lesser yam respectively. Elephant foot yam was the most responsive to organic management followed by yams and cassava. In taro, slight yield reduction (5%) was noticed under organic farming with almost similar tuber quality. The tuber quality was improved with higher dry matter, starch, crude protein, K, Ca and Mg contents. The anti-nutritional factors, oxalate content in elephant foot yam and cyanogenic glucoside content in cassava were lowered by 21 and 12.4% respectively. Organic plots had significantly higher water holding capacity, pH, available K, Fe, Mn and Cu, higher soil organic matter, available N, P, exchangeable Ca and Mg, dehydrogenase enzyme activity and microbial count. Organic farming scored significantly higher soil quality index (1.93) than conventional practice (1.46). The soil quality index was driven by water holding capacity, pH and available Zn followed by soil organic matter. Organic management enhanced net profit by 20-40% over chemical farming. A case in point is the cost-benefit analysis in elephant foot yam which indicated that the net profit was 28% higher and additional income of Rs. 47,716 ha-1 was obtained due to organic farming. Cost-effective technologies were field validated. The on-station technologies developed were validated and popularized through on-farm trials in 10 sites (5 ha) under National Horticulture Mission funded programme in elephant foot yam and seven sites in yams and taro. The technologies are included in the Package of Practices Recommendations for crops of Kerala Agricultural University. A learning system developed using artificial neural networks (ANN) predicted the performance of elephant foot yam organic system. Use of organically produced seed materials, seed treatment in cow-dung, neem cake, bio-inoculant slurry, farmyard manure incubated with bio-inoculants, green manuring, use of neem cake, bio-fertilizers and ash formed the strategies for organic production. Organic farming is an eco-friendly management strategy that enables 10-20% higher yield, quality tubers and maintenance of soil health in tuber crops.

Keywords: eco-agriculture, quality, root crops, healthy soil, yield

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Authors: Durjoy Lahiri, Vishal Madhukar Sawale, Ashwani Bhat, Souvik Dubey, Gautam Das, Biman Kanti Roy, Suparna Chatterjee, Goutam Gangopadhyay

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Crossed aphasia has been an area of considerable interest for cognitive researchers as it offers a fascinating insight into cerebral lateralization for language function. We conducted an observational study in the stroke unit of a tertiary care neurology teaching hospital in eastern India on subjects with crossed aphasia over a period of four years. During the study period, we detected twelve cases of crossed aphasia in strongly right-handed patients, caused by ischemic stroke. The age, gender, vernacular language and educational status of the patients were noted. Aphasia type and severity were assessed using Bengali version of Western Aphasia Battery (validated). Computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and angiography were used to evaluate the location and extent of the ischemic lesion in brain. Our series of 12 cases of crossed aphasia included 7 male and 5 female with mean age being 58.6 years. Eight patients were found to have Broca’s aphasia, 3 had trans-cortical motor aphasia and 1 patient suffered from global aphasia. Nine patients were having very severe aphasia and 3 suffered from mild aphasia. Mirror-image type of crossed aphasia was found in 3 patients, whereas 9 had anomalous variety. In our study crossed aphasia was found to be more frequent in males. Anomalous pattern was more common than mirror-image. Majority of the patients had motor-type aphasia and no patient was found to have pure comprehension deficit. We hypothesize that in Bengali-speaking right-handed population, lexical-semantic system of the language network remains loyal to the left hemisphere even if the phonological output system is anomalously located in the right hemisphere.

Keywords: aphasia, crossed, lateralization, language function, vascular

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Authors: Norbert Magyar, Jozsef Kovacs, Peter Tanos, Balazs Trasy, Tamas Garamhegyi, Istvan Gabor Hatvani

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Water is one of the most important common resources, and as a result of urbanization, agriculture, and industry it is becoming more and more exposed to potential pollutants. The prevention of the deterioration of water quality is a crucial role for environmental scientist. To achieve this aim, the operation of monitoring networks is necessary. In general, these networks have to meet many important requirements, such as representativeness and cost efficiency. However, existing monitoring networks often include sampling sites which are unnecessary. With the elimination of these sites the monitoring network can be optimized, and it can operate more economically. The aim of this study is to illustrate the applicability of the CCDA (Combined Cluster and Discriminant Analysis) to the field of water quality monitoring and optimize the monitoring networks of a river (the Danube), a wetland-lake system (Kis-Balaton & Lake Balaton), and two surface-subsurface water systems on the watershed of Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő and on the Szigetköz area over a period of approximately two decades. CCDA combines two multivariate data analysis methods: hierarchical cluster analysis and linear discriminant analysis. Its goal is to determine homogeneous groups of observations, in our case sampling sites, by comparing the goodness of preconceived classifications obtained from hierarchical cluster analysis with random classifications. The main idea behind CCDA is that if the ratio of correctly classified cases for a grouping is higher than at least 95% of the ratios for the random classifications, then at the level of significance (α=0.05) the given sampling sites don’t form a homogeneous group. Due to the fact that the sampling on the Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő was conducted at the same time at all sampling sites, it was possible to visualize the differences between the sampling sites belonging to the same or different groups on scatterplots. Based on the results, the monitoring network of the Danube yields redundant information over certain sections, so that of 12 sampling sites, 3 could be eliminated without loss of information. In the case of the wetland (Kis-Balaton) one pair of sampling sites out of 12, and in the case of Lake Balaton, 5 out of 10 could be discarded. For the groundwater system of the catchment area of Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő all 50 monitoring wells are necessary, there is no redundant information in the system. The number of the sampling sites on the Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő can decrease to approximately the half of the original number of the sites. Furthermore, neighbouring sampling sites were compared pairwise using CCDA and the results were plotted on diagrams or isoline maps showing the location of the greatest differences. These results can help researchers decide where to place new sampling sites. The application of CCDA proved to be a useful tool in the optimization of the monitoring networks regarding different types of water bodies. Based on the results obtained, the monitoring networks can be operated more economically.

Keywords: combined cluster and discriminant analysis, cost efficiency, monitoring network optimization, water quality

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Authors: Ismene Ithai Bras-Ruiz

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Learning Analytics (LA) is employed by universities not only as a tool but as a specialized ground to enhance students and professors. However, not all the academic programs apply LA with the same goal and use the same tools. In fact, LA is formed by five main fields of study (academic analytics, action research, educational data mining, recommender systems, and personalized systems). These fields can help not just to inform academic authorities about the situation of the program, but also can detect risk students, professors with needs, or general problems. The highest level applies Artificial Intelligence techniques to support learning practices. LA has adopted different techniques: statistics, ethnography, data visualization, machine learning, natural language process, and data mining. Is expected that any academic program decided what field wants to utilize on the basis of his academic interest but also his capacities related to professors, administrators, systems, logistics, data analyst, and the academic goals. The Open and Distance University System (SUAYED in Spanish) of the University National Autonomous of Mexico (UNAM), has been working for forty years as an alternative to traditional programs; one of their main supports has been the employ of new information and communications technologies (ICT). Today, UNAM has one of the largest network higher education programs, twenty-six academic programs in different faculties. This situation means that every faculty works with heterogeneous populations and academic problems. In this sense, every program has developed its own Learning Analytic techniques to improve academic issues. In this context, an investigation was carried out to know the situation of the application of LA in all the academic programs in the different faculties. The premise of the study it was that not all the faculties have utilized advanced LA techniques and it is probable that they do not know what field of study is closer to their program goals. In consequence, not all the programs know about LA but, this does not mean they do not work with LA in a veiled or, less clear sense. It is very important to know the grade of knowledge about LA for two reasons: 1) This allows to appreciate the work of the administration to improve the quality of the teaching and, 2) if it is possible to improve others LA techniques. For this purpose, it was designed three instruments to determinate the experience and knowledge in LA. These were applied to ten faculty coordinators and his personnel; thirty members were consulted (academic secretary, systems manager, or data analyst, and coordinator of the program). The final report allowed to understand that almost all the programs work with basic statistics tools and techniques, this helps the administration only to know what is happening inside de academic program, but they are not ready to move up to the next level, this means applying Artificial Intelligence or Recommender Systems to reach a personalized learning system. This situation is not related to the knowledge of LA, but the clarity of the long-term goals.

Keywords: academic improvements, analytical techniques, learning analytics, personnel expertise

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Authors: T. Esteves, S. Mesquita, A. Santos, A. Campina, C. Costa-Lobo

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The theme regarding the differentiation of high-performance athletes has always aroused curiosity and fascination, becoming a target for study, especially in the social and human sciences. It was from the 60's and 70's that the concern for the study of the excellence of athletes that showed indices of high performance in sports began to arise. From the 1990s, it became possible to specify the mental competencies and psychological characteristics associated with Olympic athletes with high levels of success. Several studies considered that well-structured pre-competitive and competitive routines and plans were predictors of sports success. Likewise, the high levels of motivation, commitment and concentration; the high levels of self-confidence and optimism; the presence of effective coping strategies to deal with distractions and unexpected situations or events; adequate regulation of activation and anxiety; the establishment and formulation of objectives; and mental visualization and practice were determinants in the manifestation of excellence in these athletes. As such, the promotion of these cognitive abilities has been emphasized in the good performance of the athletes. With the objective of implementing cognitive stimulation programs to meet the specific needs of talented athletes, together with pedagogical activities to promote educational strategies and promote interpersonal relationships, this communication systematizes a proposal for a psychopedagogical service to promote cognitive abilities in competitive athletes, SPAC, to implement in a Portuguese soccer team. This service will be based on a holistic vision in order to promote talent.

Keywords: athletes, cognitive abilities, high competition, psycho-pedagogical service

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Authors: Winncy Du, Jeremy Nguyen, Harpinder Dhillon, Reinardus Justin Halim, Clayton Haske, Trent Hughes, Marissa Ortiz, Rozy Saini

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Stroke often causes death or cerebro-vascular (CV) brain damage. Most patients with CV brain damage lost their motor control on their limbs. This paper focuses on developing a reliable, safe, and non-invasive EEG-based robot-assistant stroke rehabilitation system to help stroke survivors to rapidly restore their motor control functions for their limbs. An electroencephalogram (EEG) recording device (EPOC Headset) and was used to detect a patient’s brain activities. The EEG signals were then processed, classified, and interpreted to the motion intentions, and then converted to a series of robot motion commands. A six-axis articulated robot (AdeptSix 300) was employed to provide the intended motions based on these commends. To ensure the EEG device, the computer, and the robot can communicate to each other, an Arduino microcontroller is used to physically execute the programming codes to a series output pins’ status (HIGH or LOW). Then these “hardware” commends were sent to a 24 V relay to trigger the robot’s motion. A lookup table for various motion intensions and the associated EEG signal patterns were created (through training) and installed in the microcontroller. Thus, the motion intention can be direct determined by comparing the EEG patterns obtaibed from the patient with the look-up table’s EEG patterns; and the corresponding motion commends are sent to the robot to provide the intended motion without going through feature extraction and interpretation each time (a time-consuming process). For safety sake, an extender was designed and attached to the robot’s end effector to ensure the patient is beyond the robot’s workspace. The gripper is also designed to hold the patient’s limb. The test results of this rehabilitation system show that it can accurately interpret the patient’s motion intension and move the patient’s arm to the intended position.

Keywords: brain waves, EEG sensor, motion control, robot-assistant stroke rehabilitation

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Authors: Risdiana, D. Suhendar, S. Pratiwi, W. A. Somantri, T. Saragi

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Superconductor is a promising material for future applications especially for energy saving because of their advantages properties such as zero electrical resistivity when they are cooled down to sufficiently low temperatures. However, the mechanism describing the role of physical properties in superconductor is far from being understood clearly, so that the application of this material for wider benefit in various industries is very limited. Most of superconductors are cuprate compounds, which has CuO2 as a conducting plane in their crystal structures. The study of physical properties through the partially substitution of impurity for Cu in superconducting cuprates has been one of great interests in relation to the mechanism of superconductivity. Different behaviors between the substitution of nonmagnetic impurity and magnetic impurity for Cu are observed. For examples, the superconductivity and Cu-spin fluctuations in the electron-doped system are suppressed through the substitution of magnetic Ni for Cu more markedly than through the substitution of nonmagnetic Zn for Cu, which is contrary to the result in the hole-doped system. Here, we reported the effect of partially substitution of magnetic impurity Fe for Cu to the magnetic and transport properties in electron-doped superconducting cuprates of Eu1.85+yCe0.15-yCu1-yFeyO4+α-δ (ECCFO) with y = 0.01, 0.02, and 0.05, in order to investigate the mechanism of magnetic and transport properties of ECCFO in normal-state. Magnetic properties are investigated by DC magnetic-susceptibility measurements that carried out at low temperatures down to 2 K using a standard SQUID magnetometer in a magnetic field of 5 Oe on field cooling. Transport properties addressed to electron mobility, are extracted from radius of electron localization calculated from temperature dependence of resistivity. For y = 0, temperature dependence of dc magnetic-susceptibility indicated the change of magnetic behavior from paramagnetic to diamagnetic below 15 K. Above 15 K, all samples show paramagnetic behavior with the values of magnetic moment in every volume unit increased with increasing y. Electron mobility decreased with increasing y. Some reasons for these results will be discussed.

Keywords: DC magnetic-susceptibility, electron mobility, Eu1.85+yCe0.15-yCu1-yFeyO4+α-δ, normal state

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Authors: Nikhil Kewalkrishna Mehta

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In the past researchers have questioned the effectiveness of ethics training in higher education. Also, there are observations that support the view that ethical behaviour (range of actions)/ethical decision making models used in the past make use of vignettes to explain ethical behaviour. The understanding remains in the perspective that these vignettes play a limited role in determining individual intentions and not actions. Some authors have also agreed that there are possibilities of differences in one’s intentions and actions. This paper makes an attempt to fill those gaps by evaluating real actions rather than intentions. In a way this study suggests the use of an experiential methodology to explore Berlo’s model of communication as an action along with orchestration of various principles. To this endeavor, an attempt was made to use conversational analysis in the pursuance of evaluating ethical decision making behaviour among students and middle level managers. The process was repeated six times with the set of an average of 15 participants. Similarities have been observed in the behaviour of students and middle level managers that calls for understanding that both the groups of individuals have no cognizance of their actual actions. The deliberations derived out of conversation were taken a step forward for meta-ethical evaluations to portray a clear picture of ethical behaviour among participants. This study provides insights for understanding demonstrated unconscious human behaviour which may fortuitously be termed both ethical and unethical.

Keywords: ethical behaviour, unethical behavior, ethical decision making, intentions and actions, conversational analysis, human actions, sensitivity

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Authors: Hui Shi

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This study investigates a newly emerged usage of Chinese numeral classifier mei (枚) in the cyberspace. In modern Chinese grammar, mei as a classifier should occupy the pre-nominal position, and its valid accompanying nouns are restricted to small, flat, fragile inanimate objects rather than humans. To examine the semantic change of mei, two types of data from Weibo.com were collected. First, 500 mei-included Weibo posts constructed a corpus for analyzing this classifier's word order distribution (post-nominal or pre-nominal) as well as its accompanying nouns' semantics (inanimate or human). Second, considering that mei accompanies a remarkable number of human nouns in the first corpus, the second corpus is composed of mei-involved Weibo IDs from users located in first and third-tier cities (n=8 respectively). The findings show that in the cyber community, mei frequently classifies human-related neologisms at the archaic post-normal position. Besides, the 23 to 29-year-old females as well as Weibo users from third-tier cities are the major populations who adopt mei in their user IDs for self-description and identity expression. This paper argues that the creative usage of mei gains popularity in the Chinese internet due to a humor effect. The marked word order switch and semantic misapplication combined to trigger incongruity and jocularity. This study has significance for research on Chinese cyber neologism. It may also lay a foundation for further studies on Chinese classifier change and Chinese internet communication.

Keywords: Chinese classifier, humor, neologism, semantic change

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Authors: El Oualid Mokhnache, Noureddine Ramdani

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The choice of gun barrel materials is crucial to ensure the maximum high rate of fire. The high rate of fire causes wear-out damage and shuts off mechanical properties (hardness, strength, wear resistance, etc.) and ballistic properties (bullet speed, dispersion and precision, longevity of barrel, etc). To overcome these kinds of problems, a deep understanding of the effect of the firing cycle on the mechanical and ballistic properties of the barrel is regarded as crucial to improving its characteristics. In the present work, a real experimental test of firing by using a high steel barrel with 7.62x39 ammunition was carried. Microstructural observations by using SEM were investigated. Hardness evolution through the barrel of both barrels labeled as reference barrels and as fired barrels were compared and discussed. Ballistic properties during the firing test, including speed of projectile and precision dispersion, are revealed and discussed as well. The aim of the present communication is about to discuss the relationship between pressure distribution versus mechanical properties through the wall barrel. Ballistic properties, including speed of the projectile, dispersion, and precision results during the shooting process, were investigated. Microstructure observations of the as-rifled barrel in comparison with the as-reference barrel were performed as well.

Keywords: barrel, ballistic, pressure, microstructure evolution, hardness

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Authors: Rasoul Eslami, Reza Gharakhanlou

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NT-4/5 and TrkB have been proposed to be involved in the coordinated adaptations of the neuromuscular system to elevated level of activity. Despite the persistence of this neurotrophin and its receptor expression in adult skeletal muscle, little attention has been paid to the functional significance of this complex in the mature neuromuscular system. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to study the effect of one session of resistance exercise on mRNA expression of NT4/5 and TrkB proteins in slow and fast muscles of Wistar Rats. Male Wistar rats (10 mo of age, preparation of Pasteur Institute) were housed under similar living conditions in cages (in groups of four) at room temperature under a controlled light/dark (12-h) cycle with ad libitum access to food and water. A number of sixteen rats were randomly divided to two groups (resistance exercise (T) and control (C); n=8 for each group). The resistance training protocol consisted of climbing a 1-meter–long ladder, with a weight attached to a tail sleeve. Twenty-four hours following the main training session, rats of T and C groups were anaesthetized and the right soleus and flexor hallucis longus (FHL) muscles were removed under sterile conditions via an incision on the dorsolateral aspect of the hind limb. For NT-4/5 and TrkB expression, quantitative real time RT-PCR was used. SPSS software and independent-samples t-test were used for data analysis. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05. Data indicate that resistance training significantly (P<0.05) decreased mRNA expression of NT4/5 in soleus muscle. However, no significant alteration was detected in FHL muscle (P>0.05). Our results also indicate that no significant alterations were detected for TrkB mRNA expression in soleus and FHL muscles (P>0.05). Decrease in mRNA expression of NT4/5 in soleus muscle may be as result of post-translation regulation following resistance training. Also, non-alteration in TrkB mRNA expression was indicated in probable roll of P75 receptor.

Keywords: neurotrophin-4/5 (NT-4/5), TrkB receptor, resistance training, slow and fast muscles

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Authors: Rahasanica Nariswari Pratiwi, Maulana Syaiful Haq

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The role of accounting in Islamic Banking is not only as economic reality but also as religious reality. Religious reality constructed by religious value in annual report of Islamic Bank. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to understand and analyze the existence of religious values by form of photographs in annual report, and to analyze the reason of religious values disclosure in annual report. Ontologically, this study is build on a belief that annual report is a communication media to show the ways Islamic Banks express adherence to sharia principle. The research has done by analyzing the photographs in annual report of Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM), Bank Muamalat Indonesia (BMI), Bank Nasional Indonesia (BNI) Syariah, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) Syariah, and Bank Central Asia (BCA) Syariah in Indonesia. This study is qualitative research, was carried out within interpretive paradigm using semiotic approach. By employing semiotic analysis, this research showed that annual report of Islamic Bank in Indonesia contained religious value by the form of its photographs. The results of this study also show that photographs in annual report of Islamic Banks in this research contained religious values. Furthermore, this study concludes that Islamic banks actually expressed religious reality and make them different from the other bank’s annual report which focuses only on economic reality. This indicates Islamic Banks obidience existence about responsibility, not only to the stakeholders but also to the society and Allah.

Keywords: Islamic banking, semiotics, accounting, annual report

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Authors: Chodidjah, Edi Dharmana, Hardhono, Sarjadi

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Breast cancer treatment options including surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy have not been effective. Besides, they have side effects. Keladi Tikus (Typhonium flagelliforme) has been shown to improve immune system, suppress tumor growth and induce apoptosis. One of the parameters for immune system, tumor growth and apoptosis is IFNγ (Interferon γ), VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) and Caspase 3 respectively. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the administration of Keladi Tikus tuber extract at the dose of 200 mg/kgBW, 400 mg/KgBW, and 800 mg/kgBW on the level of IFNγ, VEGF and caspase 3 expression. In this experimental study using post test randomized control group design, 24 CH3 mice with tumor were randomly divided into 4 groups including control group and treated groups: Treated with 0.2 cc extract of Keladi Tikus at the dose of 200 mg/kgBW, 400 mg/kgBW, 800 mg/kgBW, respectively for 30 days. On day 31 the lymphatic tissue was taken and evaluated for its level of IFNγ, using ELISA. The tumor tissue was taken and subjected to immunohistochemistry staining for VEGF and caspase 3 expression evaluation. The data on IFNγ, VEGF and Caspase 3 expression were analyzed using One Way Anova with significant level of 0.05. One Way Anova resulted in p<0.05. LSD test showed that the level of IFNγ and Caspase 3 for control group was different from that of treated groups. There was no significant different between the treated group of 400 mg/KgBW and 800mg/KgBW. VEGF expressions for all the treated groups were significant. In conclusion, the oral administration of ethanolic extract of Keladi Tikus (Typhonium flagelliforme) at the dose of 200mg/kgBW, 400 mg/kgBW,800 mg/kgBW increases IFNγ, Caspase 3 and decreases VEGF expression in C3H mice with adenocarsinoma mamma.

Keywords: Typhonium flagelliforme, IFNγ, caspase 3, VEGF

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Authors: Tibor Koltay

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Among varied new literacies, information literacy is not only the best-known one but displays numerous models and frameworks. Nonetheless, there is still a lack of its complex theoretical model that could be applied to information literacy education in public (K12) education, which often makes use of constructivist approaches. This paper aims to present the main features of such a model. To develop a complex model, the literature and practice of phenomenographic and sociocultural theories, as well as discourse analytical approaches to information literacy, have been reviewed. Besides these constructivist and expressive based educational approaches, the new model is intended to include the innovation of coupling them with a cognitive model that takes developing informational and operational knowledge into account. The convergences between different literacies (information literacy, media literacy, media and information literacy, and data literacy) were taken into account, as well. The model will also make use of a three-country survey that examined secondary school teachers’ attitudes to information literacy. The results of this survey show that only a part of the respondents feel properly prepared to teach information literacy courses, and think that they can teach information literacy skills by themselves, while they see a librarian as an expert in educating information literacy. The use of the resulting model is not restricted to enhancing theory. It is meant to raise the level of awareness about information literacy and related literacies, and the next phase of the model’s development will be a pilot study that verifies the usefulness of the methodology for practical information literacy education in selected Hungarian secondary schools.

Keywords: communication, data literacy, discourse analysis, information literacy education, media and information literacy media literacy, phenomenography, public education, sociocultural theory

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Authors: Auni Idi Muhire

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Background: Prior to April 2012, resuscitations were often ineffective resulting in poor patient outcomes. An initiative was implemented at Rwanda Military Hospital (RMH) to review root causes and plan strategies to improve patient outcomes. An interdisciplinary committee was developed to review this problem. Purpose: Analyze the frequency, obstacles, and outcome of patient resuscitation following cardiac and/or respiratory arrest. Methods: A form was developed to allow recording of all actions taken during resuscitation including response times, staff present, and equipment and medications used. Results:-The patient population requiring the most resuscitation effort are the intensive care patients, most frequently the neonatal the intensive care patients (42.8%) -Despite having trained staff representatives, not all resuscitations follow protocol -Lack of compliance with drug administration guidelines was noted, particularly in initiating use of drugs despite the drug being available (59%). Lesson Learned: Basic Life Support training for interdisciplinary staff resulted in more effective response to cardiac and/or respiratory arrest at RMH. Obstacles to effective resuscitation included number of staff, knowledge and skill level of staff, availability of appropriate equipment and medications, staff communication, and patient Do not Attempt Resuscitation (DNR) status.

Keywords: resuscitation, case analysis of knowledge versus practice, intensive care, critical care

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Authors: Mostafa Shahriari, Sergio Rojas, David Pardo, Angel Rodriguez- Rozas, Shaaban A. Bakr, Victor M. Calo, Ignacio Muga

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Logging-While Drilling (LWD) is a technique to record down-hole logging measurements while drilling the well. Nowadays, LWD devices (e.g., nuclear, sonic, resistivity) are mostly used commercially for geo-steering applications. Modern borehole resistivity tools are able to measure all components of the magnetic field by incorporating tilted coils. The depth of investigation of LWD tools is limited compared to the thickness of the geological layers. Thus, it is a common practice to approximate the Earth’s subsurface with a sequence of 1D models. For a 1D model, we can reduce the dimensionality of the problem using a Hankel transform. We can solve the resulting system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) either (a) analytically, which results in a so-called semi-analytic method after performing a numerical inverse Hankel transform, or (b) numerically. Semi-analytic methods are used by the industry due to their high performance. However, they have major limitations, namely: -The analytical solution of the aforementioned system of ODEs exists only for piecewise constant resistivity distributions. For arbitrary resistivity distributions, the solution of the system of ODEs is unknown by today’s knowledge. -In geo-steering, we need to solve inverse problems with respect to the inversion variables (e.g., the constant resistivity value of each layer and bed boundary positions) using a gradient-based inversion method. Thus, we need to compute the corresponding derivatives. However, the analytical derivatives of cross-bedded formation and the analytical derivatives with respect to the bed boundary positions have not been published to the best of our knowledge. The main contribution of this work is to overcome the aforementioned limitations of semi-analytic methods by solving each 1D model (associated with each Hankel mode) using an efficient multi-scale finite element method. The main idea is to divide our computations into two parts: (a) offline computations, which are independent of the tool positions and we precompute only once and use them for all logging positions, and (b) online computations, which depend upon the logging position. With the above method, (a) we can consider arbitrary resistivity distributions along the 1D model, and (b) we can easily and rapidly compute the derivatives with respect to any inversion variable at a negligible additional cost by using an adjoint state formulation. Although the proposed method is slower than semi-analytic methods, its computational efficiency is still high. In the presentation, we shall derive the mathematical variational formulation, describe the proposed multi-scale finite element method, and verify the accuracy and efficiency of our method by performing a wide range of numerical experiments and comparing the numerical solutions to semi-analytic ones when the latest are available.

Keywords: logging-While-Drilling, resistivity measurements, multi-scale finite elements, Hankel transform

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Authors: A. A, F. Belmir, A. El Bouari, Y. Abboud

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This article presents a study of the thermal performance of a new solar mobile refrigeration prototype for the preservation of perishable foods. The simulation of the refrigeration cycle and the calculation of the thermal balances made it possible to estimate its consumption and to evaluate the capacity of each photovoltaic component necessary for the production of energy. The study provides a description of the refrigerator construction and operation, including an energy balance analysis of the refrigerator performance under typical loads. The photovoltaic system requirements are also detailed.

Keywords: composite, material, photovoltaic, refrigeration, thermal

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Authors: John Odo Ogah

Abstract:

The study investigated ways of fostering students’ interest in senior secondary two Biology, using prior knowledge of behavioural objectives and assertive questioning strategies in Benue State of Nigeria. A quasi-experimental research design was adopted; the population comprised 8,571 senior Secondary two students. The sample consisted of 265 SSII biology students selected from six government schools in the study area using a multi-staged sampling technique. Data was generated using the Biology Interest Inventory (BII). The instrument was validated and subjected to reliability analysis using Cronbach’s Alpha formula, which yielded a coefficient of 0.73. Three research questions guided the study, while three hypotheses were formulated and tested. Data collected were analyzed using means, bar graphs, and standard deviations to answer the research questions, while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was employed in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The finding revealed that there is a significant difference in the mean interest ratings of students taught cellular respiration and excretory system using assertive questioning strategy, prior knowledge of behavioural objectives strategy and lecture method (p=0.000˂0.05). There is no significant difference in the mean interest ratings of male and female students taught cellular respiration and excretory systems using an assertive questioning strategy (p=0.790>0.05). There is significant difference in the mean interest ratings of male and female students taught cellular respiration and execratory system using prior knowledge of behavioural objectives strategy (p=0.028˂0.05). It was recommended, among others, that teachers should endeavor to utilize prior knowledge of behavioral objectives strategy in teaching biology in order to harness its benefits as it enhances students’ interest.

Keywords: interest, assertive, questioning, prior, knowledge

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Authors: T. Abdelkrim, K. Ben Seddik, B. Bezza, K. Benamrane, Aeh. Benkhelifa

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This paper proposes an implementation of boost converter for a resistive load using photovoltaic energy as a source. The model of photovoltaic cell and operating principle of boost converter are presented. A PIC micro controller is used in the close loop control to generate pulses for controlling the converter circuit. To performance evaluation of boost converter, a variation of output voltage of PV panel is done by shading one and two cells.

Keywords: boost converter, microcontroller, photovoltaic power generation, shading cells

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Authors: Mafawez Alharbi, Mahdi Jemmali

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E-learning is a developing area especially in education. E-learning can provide several benefits to learners. An intelligent system to collect all components satisfying user preferences is so important. This research presents an approach that it capable to personalize e-information and give the user their needs following their preferences. This proposal can make some knowledge after more evaluations made by the user. In addition, it can learn from the habit from the user. Finally, we show a walk-through to prove how intelligent process work.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, architecture, e-learning, software engineering, processing

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Authors: S. Karthikeyan, Naveen Bindra

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Introduction: To update ourselves and understand the concept of latest electronic formats available for Health care providers and how it could be used and developed as per standards. The idea is to correlate between the patients Manual Medical Records keeping and maintaining patients Electronic Information in a Health care setup in this world. Furthermore this stands with adapting to the right technology depending upon the organization and improve our quality and quantity of Healthcare providing skills. Objective: The concept and theory is to explain the terms of Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Personal Health Record (PHR) and selecting the best technical among the available Electronic sources and software before implementing. It is to guide and make sure the technology used by the end users without any doubts and difficulties. The idea is to evaluate is to admire the uses and barriers of EMR-EHR-PHR. Aim and Scope: The target is to achieve the health care providers like Physicians, Nurses, Therapists, Medical Bill reimbursements, Insurances and Government to assess the patient’s information on easy and systematic manner without diluting the confidentiality of patient’s information. Method: Health Information Technology can be implemented with the help of Organisations providing with legal guidelines and help to stand by the health care provider. The main objective is to select the correct embedded and affordable database management software and generating large-scale data. The parallel need is to know how the latest software available in the market. Conclusion: The question lies here is implementing the Electronic information system with healthcare providers and organisation. The clinicians are the main users of the technology and manage us to ‘go paperless’. The fact is that day today changing technologically is very sound and up to date. Basically the idea is to tell how to store the data electronically safe and secure. All three exemplifies the fact that an electronic format has its own benefit as well as barriers.

Keywords: medical records, digital records, health information, electronic record system

Procedia PDF Downloads 446