Search results for: register transfer level

Authors: Phan Hong, David Lishner, Matthew Hanson

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Sixty-five children across four school research sites participated in the present experiment, which was designed to examine whether mindfulness promotes eating enjoyment and diverse eating behaviors in preschool- and early elementary-age children. Children, ages 3-9 years old, were randomly assigned to a 4-week mindfulness intervention condition or a 4-week exposure, control condition. Each week for four days, children received one of four different foods (celery, cauliflower, kidney beans, or garbanzo beans). Children either received instructions to mindfully engage with the food or were given the food and allowed to eat without mindfulness prompts from the researchers. Following the eating exercise, they recorded the amount eaten and rated their enjoyment level. Across all sessions, researchers modeled eating behaviors for the children by eating all the offered food. Results suggested that a brief mindfulness intervention promoted more diverse eating behaviors and more overall food consumption of typically not preferred and unfamiliar foods (celery, cauliflower, and garbanzo beans), compared with an exposure, control condition in preschool children and elementary-age children. However, food enjoyment ratings did not significantly differ between the two conditions for any of the foods. Implications of the finding for addressing eating behavior of young children are considered.

Keywords: children, control trial, eating behavior, eating enjoyment, mindfulness, schools

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Authors: Ashish Kumar Agrahari, Amit Kumar

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Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is an acquired clonal blood disorder that manifests with hemolytic anemia, thrombosis, and peripheral blood cytopenias. The disease is caused by the deficiency of two glycosylphosphatidylinositols (GPI)-anchored proteins (CD55 and CD59) in the hemopoietic stem cells. The deficiency of GPI-anchored proteins has been associated with the somatic mutations in phosphatidylinositol glycan class A (PIGA). However, the mutations that do not cause PNH is associated with the multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures syndrome 2 (MCAHS2). To best of our knowledge, no computational study has been performed to explore the atomistic level impact of PIGA mutations on the structure and dynamics of the protein. In the current work, we are mainly interested to get insights into the molecular mechanism of PIGA mutations. In the initial step, we screened the most pathogenic mutations from the pool of publicly available mutations. Further, to get a better understanding, pathogenic mutations were mapped to the modeled structure and subjected to 50ns molecular dynamics simulation. Our computational study suggests that four mutations are highly vulnerable to altering the structural conformation and stability of the PIGA protein, which illustrates its association with PNH and MCAHS2 phenotype.

Keywords: homology modeling, molecular dynamics simulation, missense mutations PNH, MCAHS2, PIGA

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Authors: D. C. Soares, J. T. S. Santos, D. G. Costa, A. K. S. Abud, T. P. Nunes, A. V. D. Figueiredo, A. M. de Oliveira Junior

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Mangabeira (Hancornia speciosa Gomes), a native plant in Brazil, is found growing spontaneously in various regions of the country. The high perishability of tropical fruits such as mangaba, causes it to be necessary to use technologies that promote conservation, aiming to increase the shelf life of this fruit and add value. The objective of this study was to compare the mangabas lyophilisation curves behaviours with different sizes and maturation stages. The fruits were freeze-dried for a period of approximately 45 hours at lyophilizer Liotop brand, model L -108. It has been considered large the fruits between 38 and 58 mm diameter and small, between 23 and 28 mm diameter and the two states of maturation, intermediate and mature. Large size mangabas drying curves in both states of maturation were linear behaviour at all process, while the kinetic drying curves related to small fruits, independent of maturation state, had a typical behaviour of drying, with all the well-defined steps. With these results it was noted that the time of lyophilisation was suitable for small mangabas, a fact that did not happen with the larger one. This may indicate that the large mangabas require a longer time to freeze until reaches the equilibrium level, as it happens with the small fruits, going to have constant moisture at the end of the process. For both types of fruit were analysed water activity, acidity, protein, lipid, and vitamin C before and after the process.

Keywords: freeze dryer, mangaba, conservation, chemical characteristics

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Authors: Chaithanya Pothuganti

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Open and semi-open spaces in educational buildings like corridors, mid landings, seating spaces, lobby, courtyards are traditionally have been the places of social communion and interaction which helps in promoting the knowledge, performance, activeness, and motivation in students. Factors like availability of land, commercialization, of educational facilities, especially in e-techno and smart schools, led to closed classrooms to accommodate students thereby lack quality open and semi-open spaces. This insufficient attention towards open space design which is a means of informal learning misses an opportunity to encourage the student’s skill development, behavior and learning skills. The core objective of this paper is to find the level of impact on student learning behavior and to identify the suitable proportions and configuration of spaces that shape the schools. In order to achieve this, different types of open spaces in schools and their impact on student’s performance in various existing models are analysed using case studies to draw some design principles. The study is limited to indoor open spaces like corridors, break out spaces and courtyards. The expected outcome of the paper is to suggest better design considerations for the development of semi-open and open spaces which functions as an element for informal learnings. Its focus is to provide further thinking on designing and development of open spaces in educational buildings.

Keywords: configuration of spaces and proportions, informal learning, open spaces, schools, student’s behavior

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Authors: Abid Khan

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A recognized engineering challenge is related to personnel protection from fatal arc flash incident energy in the line side of the 480-volt switchgear incomer breakers during maintenance activities. The incident energy is typically high due to slow fault clearance, and it can be higher than the available personnel protective equipment (PPE) ratings. A fault in this section of the switchgear is cleared by breakers or fuses in the upstream higher voltage system (4160 Volt or higher). The current reflection in the higher voltage upstream system for a fault in the 480-volt switchgear is low, the clearance time is slower, and the inversely proportional incident energy is hence higher. The installation of overcurrent protection at a 480-volt system upstream of the incomer breaker will operate fast enough and trips the upstream higher voltage breaker when a fault develops at the incomer breaker. Therefore, fault current reduction as reflected in the upstream higher voltage system is eliminated. Since the fast overcurrent protection is permanently installed, it is always functional, does not require human interventions, and eliminates exposure to human errors. It is installed at the maintenance activities location, and its operations can be locally monitored by craftsmen during maintenance activities.

Keywords: arc flash, mitigation, maintenance switch, energy level

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Authors: Leila Yazdanpanah, Hajieh Shahbazian, Seyed Mahmoud Latifi, Armaghan Moravej Aleali, Saeed Ghanbari

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Introduction: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of diabetes in people aged over 20 years in Ahvaz, Iran. Material and Methods: The study population selected by cluster sampling. Fasting blood sugar (FBS) assessed after minimum 8 hours night fasting. A questionnaire included: age, sex, weight, height, blood pressure, waist circumference and previous history of diabetes were completed for each patient. FBS≥126mg/dl and/or oral hypoglycemic treatment and/or insulin was defined as diabetes, FBS=100-125 mg/dl as impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and FBS<100mg/dl as normal. Results: Study population was 936 persons (47.2 % male and 52.8% female). The mean age of a population was 42.2±14 years. Diabetes was detected in 15.1 % of population. Only 57cases(6.1%) were aware of their disease and 9% had unknown diabetes. Diabetes was detected in 14.5% of male (11.3% unknown and 3.2 % known diabetes) and in 11.7% of female (7% unknown and 4.7% known diabetes). Prevalence of diabetes had no significant difference (P=0.21) in male and female but unknown diabetes was significantly higher in male (P=0.025). Prevalence of diabetes was increased with rising of age between 20-60 years old but decreasing after 60 years old. Diabetes was related to age, waist circumference and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, TG level and BMI in both sex (P=0.0001). Conclusion: More than half of female and three-fourth of male diabetic patients are unaware of their disease in South of Iran. Diabetes screening should be intensified in this population.

Keywords: diabetes, prevalence, risk factor, awareness

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Authors: Zhuang Hou, Xiaolei Cao

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The general public and medical professionals recognized the importance of accurately measuring and storing blood oxygen levels and heart rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for accurate contactless devices was motivated by the need for cross-infection reduction and the shortage of conventional oximeters, partially due to the global supply chain issue. This paper evaluated a contactless mini program HealthyPai’s heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements compared with other wearable devices. In the HR study of 185 samples (81 in the laboratory environment, 104 in the real-life environment), the mean absolute error (MAE) ± standard deviation was 1.4827 ± 1.7452 in the lab, 6.9231 ± 5.6426 in the real-life setting. In the SpO2 study of 24 samples, the MAE ± standard deviation of the measurement was 1.0375 ± 0.7745. Our results validated that HealthyPai utilizing the Integrated Image Deep Learning Solution (IIDLS) framework, can accurately measure HR and SpO2, providing the test quality at least comparable to other FDA-approved wearable devices in the market and surpassing the consumer-grade and research-grade wearable standards.

Keywords: remote photoplethysmography, heart rate, oxygen saturation, contactless measurement, mini program

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Authors: Mearg Berhe Gebregziabher

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Wire-cut electric discharge machining (WEDM) is one of the advanced machining processes. Due to the development of the current manufacturing sector, there has been no research work done before about the optimization of the process parameters based on the availability of the workpiece of the Steel St-37 material in Ethiopia. Material Removal Rate (MRR) is considered as the experimental response of WCEDM. The main objective of this work is to investigate and optimize the process parameters on machining quality that gives high MRR during machining of Steel St-37. Throughout the investigation, Pulse on Time (TON), Pulse off Time (TOFF) and Velocities of Wire Feed (WR) are used as variable parameters at three different levels, and Wire tension, flow rate, type of dielectric fluid, type of the workpiece and wire material and dielectric flow rate are keeping as constants for each experiment. The Taguchi methodology, as per Taguchi‟ 's standard L9 (3^3) Orthogonal Array (OA), has been carried out to investigate their effects and to predict the optimal combination of process parameters over MRR. Signal to Noise ratio (S/N) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the effect of the parameters and to identify the optimum cutting parameters on MRR. MRR was measured by using the Electronic Balance Model SI-32. The results indicated that the most significant factors for MRR are TOFF, TON and lastly WR. Taguchi analysis shows that, the optimal process parameters combination is A2B2C2, i.e., TON 6μs, TOFF 29μs and WR 2 m/min. At this level, the MRR of 0.414 gram/min has been achieved.

Keywords: ANOVA, MRR, parameter, Taguchi Methode

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Authors: Bhawna Verma

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Looking at the contraceptive use and unmet need specific to the different age groups would help to understand various determinants and characteristics of women from different age groups, which are often being neglected. The study explores contraceptive behavior, unmet need for family planning and its correlates among young nulliparous women aged 15-29, using data from NFHS-4 (2015-16), India. Method: The study utilized information from 26,924 currently married women, who has no child or who have had first terminated pregnancy and was aged 15-29 at the time of the survey. Chi-Square and logistic regression analysis have been used to assess the effects of socio-economic characteristics. Results: Of all the considered explanatory variables religion, caste, education, current age, age at marriage, media exposure and regional differences were found to be significantly affecting the behavior of contraceptive use. Women of the 25-29 age group are 0.6 percent less likely to have an unmet need than women of 12-19 age group. Unmet need is increasing with the increased level of education. Muslim women are 0.3 percent less likely to have an unmet need than women of Hindu category. Conclusion: Separate considerations must be given to the needs for family planning formation among nulliparous women along with the factors associated with the use and non-use of contraceptives among them. Separate considerations must be given for effective promotion of FP knowledge through print, electronic media, towards the unequal access to the contraceptives among nulliparous women. Marriages after legal minimum age and encouraging women for higher education may address existing socio-economic barriers.

Keywords: contraceptive use, unmet need, family planning, contraceptive behavior

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Authors: Fatemeh Abdollahi, Munn-Sann Lye, Jamshid Yazdani Charati, Mehran Zarghami

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Both obesity and intimate partner violence (IPV) are growing health threats. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors of both IPV and obesity and their association. In this cross-sectional study, 530 women aged 16-65 years attending Mazandaran primary health centers were recruited through the stratified random sampling method (2019-2020). Data were collected using the modified World Health Organization Domestic Violence questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale, and socio-demographic, obstetric, and anthropometric questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression. The prevalence of overweight, obesity and psychological, physical, and sexual IPV were 47.6%, 26.7%, 70.4%, 17.9%, and 6.4%, respectively. Increasing women’s educational level and exposure to violence during their lifespan increased the odds of any type of IPV while living in a nuclear family reduced it. In groups of women who were subjected to any type of IPV and only psychological IPV, experiencing violence during the lifespan was significant in predicting obesity. The alarming prevalence of IPV and obesity-overweight in this study points to the need for collaborative socio-political and health intervention. The link between experiencing violence during lifespan and obesity in some subgroups of women highlights the detrimental consequences of chronic violence and the urgent need for effective preventive programs.

Keywords: intimate partner violence, body mass index, obesity, risk factor, women

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Authors: Helena Susana Afonso Alves, Natália Maria Rafael Canadas, Ana Maria Rodrigues

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We examined the impact of governance rules on information asymmetry, using the turnover ratio and the bid-ask spread as proxies for the information asymmetry. We used a SEM model and analyzed the indirect relations through the voluntary disclosure of information and the organizational performance. We built a voluntary disclosure index based on the information firms provided in their annual reports and divided the governance characteristics in two constructs: directors’ and supervisors’ structures and ownership structure. We concluded that the ownership structure exerts a direct influence on share price and share liquidity, Otherwise, the directors’ and supervisors’ structures exert an indirect influence, through the organizational performance and the voluntary disclosure of information. The results also show that for firms with high levels of disclosure the bid-ask spread is lower. However, in firms with a high ownership concentration investors tend to increase the bid-ask spreads and trade less, which, in this case, reduces the liquidity of the stock. The failure to find the relationship between voluntary disclosure of information and the turnover ratio shows us that the liquidity of shares is more related to the greater or lesser concentration of shareholders, with the performance of their companies than with the access to information. Moreover, it is clear that the role that information disclosure plays is mainly at the level of price formation.

Keywords: corporate governance, information asymmetry, voluntary disclosure, structural equation modelling, SEM

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Authors: A. K. Tsafe

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The study investigates the efficacy of Special Mathematics Teaching Strategy (SMTS) as against Conventional Mathematics Teaching Strategy (CMTS) in teaching students identified with Mathematics Learning Disabilities (MLDs) – dyslexia, Down syndrome, dyscalculia, etc., in some junior secondary schools around Sokoto metropolis. Errors and misconceptions in learning Mathematics displayed by these categories of students were observed. Theory of variation was used to provide a prism for viewing the MLDs from theoretical perspective. Experimental research design was used, involving pretest-posttest non-randomized approach. Pretest was administered to the intact class taught using CMTS before the class was split into experimental and control groups. Experimental group of the students – those identified with MLDs was taught with SMTS and later mean performance of students taught using the two strategies was sought to find if there was any significant difference between the performances of the students. A null hypothesis was tested at α = 0.05 level of significance. T-test was used to establish the difference between the mean performances of the two tests. The null hypothesis was rejected. Hence, the performance of students, identified with MLDs taught using SMTS was found to be better than their earlier performance taught using CMTS. The study, therefore, recommends amongst other things that teachers should be encouraged to use SMTS in teaching mathematics especially when students are found to be suffering from MLDs and exhibiting errors and misconceptions in the process of learning mathematics.

Keywords: disabilities, errors, learning, misconceptions

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Authors: E. A. Kiridi, A. O. Ogunlela

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Pollutants from aquacultural practices constitute environmental problems and phytoremediation could offer cheaper environmentally sustainable alternative since equipment using advanced treatment for fish tank effluent is expensive to import, install, operate and maintain, especially in developing countries. The main objective of this research was, therefore, to develop a mathematical model for phytoremediation by aquatic plants in aquaculture wastewater. Other objectives were to evaluate the retention times on phytoremediation rates using the model and to measure the nutrient level of the aquaculture effluent and phytoremediation rates of three aquatic macrophytes, namely; water hyacinth (Eichornia crassippes), water lettuce (Pistial stratoites) and morning glory (Ipomea asarifolia). A completely randomized experimental design was used in the study. Approximately 100 g of each macrophyte were introduced into the hydroponic units and phytoremediation indices monitored at 8 different intervals from the first to the 28th day. The water quality parameters measured were pH and electrical conductivity (EC). Others were concentration of ammonium–nitrogen (NH₄⁺ -N), nitrite- nitrogen (NO₂⁻ -N), nitrate- nitrogen (NO₃⁻ -N), phosphate –phosphorus (PO₄³⁻ -P), and biomass value. The biomass produced by water hyacinth was 438.2 g, 600.7 g, 688.2 g and 725.7 g at four 7–day intervals. The corresponding values for water lettuce were 361.2 g, 498.7 g, 561.2 g and 623.7 g and for morning glory were 417.0 g, 567.0 g, 642.0 g and 679.5g. Coefficient of determination was greater than 80% for EC, TDS, NO₂⁻ -N, NO₃⁻ -N and 70% for NH₄⁺ -N using any of the macrophytes and the predicted values were within the 95% confidence interval of measured values. Therefore, the model is valuable in the design and operation of phytoremediation systems for aquaculture effluent.

Keywords: aquaculture effluent, macrophytes, mathematical model, phytoremediation

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Authors: Joseph K. A. Johnson

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Hypertension affects 20 percent of the people within the ages 55 upward in Ghana. Of these, almost one-third are unaware of their condition. Also at the age of 55, more men turned to have hypertension than women. After that age, the condition becomes more prevalent with women. Hypertension is significantly more common in African Americans of both sexes than the racial or ethnic groups. This study was conducted to determine the causes of high blood pressure in Ashanti Region, Ghana. The study employed One Hundred and Seventy (170) respondents. The sample population for the study was all the available respondents at the time of the data collection. The research was conducted using primary data where convenience sampling was used to locate the respondents. A set of questionnaire were used to gather the data for the study. The gathered data was analysed using principal component analysis. The study revealed that, personal description, lifestyle behavior and risk awareness as some of the causes of high blood pressure in Ashanti Region. The study therefore recommend that people must be advice to see to their personal characteristics that may contribute to high blood pressure such as controlling of their temper and how to react perfectly to stressful situations. They must be educated on the factors that may increase the level of their blood pressure such as the essence of seeing a medical doctor before taking in any drug. People must also be made known by the public health officers to those lifestyles behaviour such as smoking and drinking of alcohol which are major contributors of high blood pressure.

Keywords: high blood pressure, principal component analysis, hypertension, public health

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Authors: Zehra Aytac, Nurdilek Gulmezoglu

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Safflower has been grown for centuries for many purposes worldwide. Especially it is important for the orange-red dye from its petal and for its high-quality oil obtained from the seeds. The crop is high adaptable to areas with insufficient rainfall and poor soil conditions. The plant has a deep taproot that can draw moisture and plant nutrients from deep to the subsoil. The research was carried out to study the nitrogen (N) uptake of different safflower cultivars and lines at different stages of growth and different plant parts in the experimental field of Faculty of Agriculture, Eskişehir Osmangazi University under semi-arid conditions. Different safflower cultivars and lines of varied origins were used as the material. The cultivars and lines were planted in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Two different growth stages (flowering and harvest) and three different plant parts (head, stem+leaf and seed) were determined. The nitrogen concentration of different plant parts was determined by the Kjeldahl method. Statistical analysis were performed by analysis of variance for each growth stage and plant parts taking a level of p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 as significant according to the LSD test. As a result, N concentration showed significant differences among different plant parts and different growth stages for different safflower genotypes of varied origins.

Keywords: Carthamus tinctorius L., growth stages, head N, leaf N, N uptake, seed N, Safflower

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Authors: Marcia Figueira

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Context: Positivist transformations in agriculture were responsible for top-down – often coercive – mechanisms of uniformed modernization that weathered local diversities and agency. New development pathways need to now shift according to comprehensive integrations of knowledge - scientific, indigenous, and local, and to be sustained on political interventions, bottom-up change, and social learning if climate goals are to be met – both in mitigation and adaptation. Objectives The objectives of this research are to understand how social-ecological and socio-technical systems characterisation can be nested to bridge scientific research/knowledge into a local context and knowledge system; and, with it, stem sustainable innovation. Methods To do so, we conducted a scoping review to explore theoretical and empirical works linked to Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems framework and Geels’ multi-level perspective of socio-technical systems transformations in the context of agriculture. Results As a result, we were able to identify key variables and connections to 1- understand the rules in use and the community attributes influencing resource management; and 2- how they are and have been shaped and shaping systems innovations. Conclusion Based on these results, we discuss how to leverage action research for mutual learning toward a replicable but highly place-based agriculture transformation frame.

Keywords: agriculture systems innovations, social-ecological systems, socio-technical systems, action research

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Authors: Atheer Al-Maqbali, Mohammed Al-Rizeiqi, Pankaj Pathare

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There is an ever-increased demand for the consumption of banana products in Oman and elsewhere in the region due to the nutritional value and the decent taste of the product. There are approximately 3,751 acres of land designated for banana cultivation in the Sultanate of Oman, which produces approximately 18,447 tons of banana product. The fresh banana product is extremely perishable, resulting in a significant post-harvest economic loss. Since the product has high sensory acceptability, the drying method is a common method for processing fresh banana products. This study aims to use the drying technology in the production of dried bananas to preserve the largest amount of natural color and delicious taste for the consumer. The study also aimed to assess the shelf stability of both water activity (aw) and color (L*, a*, b*) for fresh and finished dried bananas by using a Conventional Air Drying System. Water activity aw, color characteristic L a b, and product’s hardness were analyzed for 3mm, 5mm, and7 mm thickness at different temperaturesoC. All data were analyzed statistically using STATA 13.0, and α ≤ 0.05 was considered for the significance level. The study is useful to banana farmers to improve cultivation, food processors to optimize producer’s output and policy makers in the optimization of banana processing and post-harvest management of the products.

Keywords: banana, drying, oman, quality, thickness, hardness, color

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Authors: Daming Xu, Yuanyuan Wang

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Abstract: Under the trend of rapid expansion of urbanization, the motorized urban characteristics become more and more obvious, and the walkability of urban space is seriously affected. The construction of walkability of space, as the main mode of travel for the elderly in their daily lives, has become more and more important in the current social context of serious aging. Settlement is the most basic living unit of residents, and daily shopping, medical care, and other daily trips are closely related to the daily life of the elderly. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore the impact of built environment on elderly people's daily walking trips at the settlement level for the construction of pedestrian-friendly settlements for the elderly. The study takes three typical settlements in Harbin Daoli District in three different periods as examples and obtains data on elderly people's walking trips and built environment characteristics through field research, questionnaire distribution, and internet data acquisition. Finally, correlation analysis and multinomial logistic regression model were applied to analyze the influence mechanism of built environment on elderly people's walkability based on the control of personal attribute variables in order to provide reference and guidance for the construction of walkability for elderly people in built environment in the future.

Keywords: built environment, elderly, walkability, multinomial logistic regression model

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Authors: Benga Ebouele, Thomas Tengen

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Implementing either periodic or continuous inventory review model within most manufacturing-companies-supply chains as a management tool may incur higher costs. These high costs affect the system flexibility which in turn affects the level of service required to satisfy customers. However, these effects are not clearly understood because the parameters of both inventory review policies (protection demand interval, order quantity, etc.) are not designed to be fully utilized under different and uncertain conditions such as poor manufacturing, supplies and delivery performance. Coming up with a hybrid model which may combine in some sense the feature of both continuous and a periodic inventory review models should be useful. Therefore, there is a need to build and evaluate such hybrid model on the annual total cost, stock out probability and system’s flexibility in order to search for the most cost effective inventory review model. This work also seeks to find the optimal sets of parameters of inventory management under stochastic condition so as to optimise each policy independently. The results reveal that a continuous inventory system always incurs lesser cost than a periodic (R, S) inventory system, but this difference tends to decrease as time goes by. Although the hybrid inventory is the only one that can yield lesser cost over time, it is not always desirable but also natural to use it in order to help the system to meet high performance specification.

Keywords: demand and lead time randomness, hybrid Inventory model, optimization, supply chain

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Authors: G. T. Mudashiru, Mayowa P. Ibitola

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Investigation was carried out at Ikorodu North local council development area of Lagos state using physiochemical parameters to study the quality drinking water. It was ascertained that the human functions and activities were dependent on the continuous and availability of good drinking water. Six water samples were collected at six different boreholes from various outlets and homes in Ikorodu North local council development area. Lagos state Nigeria. Analysis was carried out to determine the purity of water for domestic use. Physicochemical properties evaluation was adapted using standard chemical methods. A number of parameters such as PH, turbidity, conductivity, total dissolved solids, color, chloride, sulphate, nitrate, hardness were determined. Heavy metals such as Zn, Mg, Fe, Pb, Hg, and Mn as well as total coliform counts were observed. The resulted values of each parameter were justified with World Health Organization (WHO) and Lagos state water regulatory commission LSWRC standard values for quantitative comparison. The result reveals that all the water had pH value well below the WHO maximum permissible level for potable water. Other physicochemical parameters were within the safe limit of WHO standard showing the portability nature of the water. It can be concluded that though the water is potable, there should be a kind of treatment of the water before consumption to prevent outbreak of diseases.

Keywords: drinking water, physiology, boreholes, heavy metals, domestic

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Authors: Sundaresan Sivapatham, B. Prabhu

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Cancer results from a multistage, multi-mechanism carcinogenesis process that involves mutagenic, cell death and epigenetic mechanisms, during the three distinguishable but closely allied stages: initiation, promotion, and progression. Chemoprevention is promising in the realm of cancer prevention and it has been shown to reduce the risk of development of carcinoma in highly susceptible individuals such as those with known genetic mutations or high level of risk factors. The present study is aimed at the need of early detection of bladder cancer in order to improve performance in the treatment of this disease. Consumption of certain natural products like DIM is associated with a reduction in cancer incidence in humans. The study showed the protective effects of Diindolylmethane in N-Butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine treated rats. Results of the study had shown the changes in the tumor markers, biomarkers and histopathological alterations in experimental rats when compared to control rats. The protective effects of DIM were shown from the results of cell proliferation, apoptotic markers and histopathological findings when compared with experimental control animals. Hence, our results speculate that the tumor markers, apoptotic markers, histopathological changes and cell proliferation index measured as PCNA serves as an indicator suggestive of protective effects of DIM in BBN induced urinary bladder carcinogenesis.

Keywords: bladder cancer, N-Butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine, diindolylmethane, histopathology

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Authors: S. Srikiran, Dharmala Venkata Padmaja, P. N. L. Pavani, R. Pola Rao, K. Ramji

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Technological advancements in the development of cutting tools and coolant/lubricant chemistry have enhanced the machining capabilities of hard materials under higher machining conditions. Generation of high temperatures at the cutting zone during machining is one of the most important and pertinent problems which adversely affect the tool life and surface finish of the machined components. Generally, cutting fluids and solid lubricants are used to overcome the problem of heat generation, which is not effectively addressing the problems. With technological advancements in the field of tribology, nano-level particulate solid lubricants are being used nowadays in machining operations, especially in the areas of turning and grinding. The present investigation analyses the effect of using nano-particulate graphite powder as lubricant in the turning of AISI 1040 steel under variable machining conditions and to study its effect on cutting forces, tool temperature and surface roughness of the machined component. Experiments revealed that the increase in cutting forces and tool temperature resulting in the decrease of surface quality with the decrease in the size of nano-particulate graphite powder as lubricant.

Keywords: solid lubricant, graphite, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), nano–particles

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Authors: Seemal Mazhar Khan, Tahira Mubashar

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The present research aimed to investigate the relationship in perceived organizational justice, organizational trust and employee engagement in bank employees. It was hypothesized: there is likely to be a relationship in perceived organizational justices, organizational trust and employee engagement; perceived organizational justice and organizational trust are likely to predict employee engagement; there is likely to be effect of bank type and designation on perceived organizational justice, organizational trust and employee engagement. The sample consisted of 150 bank employees (50 from government, 50 from private and 50 from privatized banks) selected from different banks in Lahore, Pakistan. Correlational research design was used to conduct this study. Perceived Organizational Justices Questionnaire, Organizational Trust Questionnaire and Employee Engagement Scale were used for assessment. Pearson product moment correlation, hierarchical regression and multivariate analysis of covariance were applied. Results showed a positive significant relationship in perceived organizational justice and organizational engagement and there were also a positive significant relation between organizational trust and job and organizational engagement. Results showed that organizational trust predicts organizational engagement after controlling the effect of age, marital status and socio-economic status and there is a significant interaction effect of bank type and designation level on organizational trust in bank employees. The findings of the research can serve as a platform for the awareness of important antecedents of employee engagement and organizations can inculcate trust for better and improved engagement of its employees, thereby, enhancing the productivity of their employees.

Keywords: bank employees, organizational engagement, perceived organizational justice, trust

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Authors: Ali Bakhtiari Gharibdosti, Mohammad Hosein Bijeh Keshavarzi, Samira Alijani

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To understand internal characteristics relationships and determine factors which explain under consideration characteristics in rapeseed varieties, 10 rapeseed genotypes were implemented in complete accidental plot with three-time repetitions under drought stress in 2009-2010 in research field of agriculture college, Islamic Azad University, Karaj branch. In this research, 11 characteristics include of characteristics related to growth, production and functions stages was considered. Variance analysis results showed that there is a significant difference among rapeseed varieties characteristics. By calculating simple correlation coefficient under both conditions, normal and drought stress indicate that seed function characteristics in plant and pod number have positive and significant correlation in 1% probable level with seed function and selection on the base of these characteristics was effective for improving this function. Under normal and drought stress, analyzing the main factors showed that numbers of factors which have more than one amount, had five factors under normal conditions which were 82.72% of total variance totally, but under drought stress four factors diagnosed which were 76.78% of total variance. By considering total results of this research and by assessing effective characteristics for factor analysis and selecting different components of these characteristics, they can be used for modifying works to select applicable and tolerant genotypes in drought stress conditions.

Keywords: correlation, drought stress, factor analysis, rapeseed

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Authors: Onder Aldemir, Ercan Ceyhan

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The research was conducted to determine effects of salt concentrations on emergence and seedling development of chickpea genotypes. Trials were performed during the year of 2013 on the laboratory and greenhouse of Agricultural Faculty, Selcuk University. Emergency trial was set up according to ‘Randomized Plots Design’ by two factors and four replications; greenhouse trial was also set up according to ‘Randomized Plots Design’ by two factors with three replications. The chickpea genotypes; CA119, CA132, CA149, CA150, CA215, CA222, CA235, CA261, Bozkır and Gokce were used as material for both of the trials. Effects of the five doses of salt concentrations (control, 30 mM, 60 mM, 90 mM and 120 mM) on the ratio of emergency, speed of emergency, average time for emergency, index of sensibility, length of shoot and root, fresh weight of shoot and root, dry weight of shoot and root, index of salt tolerance were evaluated. Responses of the chickpea genotypes for salt concentrations were found different. Comparing to the control, all of the investigated characteristics on the chickpea genotypes showed significant reduction by depending on the increasing salt level. According to the effects of salt application, the chickpea genotypes Gokce, CA215 and CA222 were the most tolerant in respect to plant dry weights while the chickpea genotypes CA149 and CA150 were the most sensitive.

Keywords: chickpea, emergence, salt tolerant, seedling development

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Authors: Ekaterina Tikhonova

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This research is aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of T&D (Training and Development) on the example of two T&D programs for the Executive TOP Management run in 2012, 2015-2016 in Komos Group. This study is commissioned to research the effectiveness of two similar corporate T&D programs (within one company) in two periods of time (2012, 2015-2016) through evaluating the programs’ effectiveness using the four-level Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluating T&D programs and calculating ROI as an instrument for T&D program measuring by Phillips’ formula. The research investigates the correlation of two figures: the ROI calculated and the rating percentage scale per the ROI implementation (Wagle’s scale). The study includes an assessment of feedback 360 (Kirkpatrick's model) and Phillips’ ROI Methodology that provides a step-by-step process for collecting data, summarizing and processing the collected information. The data is collected from the company accounting data, the HR budgets, MCFO and the company annual reports for the research periods. All analyzed data and reports are organized and presented in forms of tables, charts, and graphs. The paper also gives a brief description of some constrains of the research considered. After ROI calculation, the study reveals that ROI ranges between the average implementation (65% to 75%) by Wagle’s scale that can be considered as a positive outcome. The paper also gives some recommendations how to use ROI in practice and describes main benefits of ROI implementation.

Keywords: ROI, organizational performance, efficacy of T&D program, employee performance

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Authors: Helia Barzegar Sedigh, Farzaneh Hamedi, Payam Ashtari

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There are some limitations in common structural systems, such as providing appropriate lateral stiffness, adequate ductility, and architectural openings at the same time. Consequently, the concept of T-Resisting Frame (TRF) has been introduced to overcome all these deficiencies. The configuration of TRF in this study is a Vertical Plate Girder (VPG) which is placed within the span and two Horizontal Plate Girders (HPGs) connect VPG to side columns at each story level by the use of rigid connections. System performance is improved by utilizing rigid connections in side columns base joint. Shear yield of HPGs causes energy dissipation in TRF; therefore, high plastic deformation in web of HPGs and VPG affects the ductility of system. Moreover, in order to prevent shear buckling in web of TRF’s members and appropriate criteria for placement of web stiffeners are applied. In this paper, an experimental study is conducted by applying cyclic loading and using finite element models and numerical studies such as push over method are assessed on shear and flexural yielding of HPGs. As a result, seismic parameters indicate adequate lateral stiffness, and high ductility factor of 6.73, and HPGs’ shear yielding achieved as a proof of TRF’s better performance.

Keywords: experimental study, finite element model, flexural and shear yielding, t-resisting frame

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Authors: Boumaraf Malak

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The development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and artificial intelligence (AI) are spurring us to pave the way for the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles (AVs). This is open again opportunities for smart roads, smart traffic safety, and mobility comfort. A highly intelligent decision-making system is essential for autonomous driving around dense, dynamic objects. It must be able to handle complex road geometry and topology, as well as complex multiagent interactions, and closely follow higher-level commands such as routing information. Autonomous vehicles have become a very hot research topic in recent years due to their significant ability to reduce traffic accidents and personal injuries. Using new artificial intelligence-based technologies handles important functions in scene understanding, motion planning, decision making, vehicle control, social behavior, and communication for AV. This paper focuses only on deep reinforcement learning-based methods; it does not include traditional (flat) planar techniques, which have been the subject of extensive research in the past because reinforcement learning (RL) has become a powerful learning framework now capable of learning complex policies in high dimensional environments. The DRL algorithm used so far found solutions to the four main problems of autonomous driving; in our paper, we highlight the challenges and point to possible future research directions.

Keywords: deep reinforcement learning, autonomous driving, deep deterministic policy gradient, deep Q-learning

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Authors: Şeyma Dombaycıoğlu, Hilal Köse, Ali Osman Aydın, Hatem Akbulut

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Rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have been considered as one of the most attractive energy storage choices for laptop computers, electric vehicles and cellular phones owing to their high energy and power density. Compared with conventional carbonaceous materials, transition metal oxides (TMOs) have attracted great interests and stand out among versatile novel anode materials due to their high theoretical specific capacity, wide availability and good safety performance. ZnO, as an anode material for LIBs, has a high theoretical capacity of 978 mAh g-1, much higher than that of the conventional graphite anode (∼370 mAhg-1). However, several major problems such as poor cycleability, resulting from the severe volume expansion and contraction during the alloying-dealloying cycles with Li+ ions and the associated charge transfer process, the pulverization and the agglomeration of individual particles, which drastically reduces the total entrance/exit sites available for Li+ ions still hinder the practical use of ZnO powders as an anode material for LIBs. Therefore, a great deal of effort has been devoted to overcome these problems, and many methods have been developed. In most of these methods, it is claimed that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) will radically improve the performance of batteries, because their unique structure may especially enhance the kinetic properties of the electrodes and result in an extremely high specific charge compared with the theoretical limits of graphitic carbon. Due to outstanding properties of CNTs, MWCNT buckypaper substrate is considered a buffer material to prevent mechanical disintegration of anode material during the battery applications. As the bridge connecting the positive and negative electrodes, the electrolyte plays a critical role affecting the overall electrochemical performance of the cell including rate, capacity, durability and safety. Commercial electrolytes for Li-ion batteries normally consist of certain lithium salts and mixed organic linear and cyclic carbonate solvents. Most commonly, LiPF6 is attributed to its remarkable features including high solubility, good ionic conductivity, high dissociation constant and satisfactory electrochemical stability for commercial fabrication. Besides LiPF6, LiBF4 is well known as a conducting salt for LIBs. LiBF4 shows a better temperature stability in organic carbonate based solutions and less moisture sensitivity compared to LiPF6. In this work, free standing zinc oxide (ZnO) and multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposite materials were prepared by a sol gel technique giving a high capacity anode material for lithium ion batteries. Electrolyte solutions (including 1 m Li+ ion) were prepared with different Li salts in glove box. For this purpose, LiPF6 and LiBF4 salts and also mixed of these salts were solved in EC:DMC solvents (1:1, w/w). CR2016 cells were assembled by using these prepared electrolyte solutions, the ZnO/MWCNT buckypaper nanocomposites as working electrodes, metallic lithium as cathode and polypropylene (PP) as separator. For investigating the effect of different Li salts on the electrochemical performance of ZnO/MWCNT nanocomposite anode material electrochemical tests were performed at room temperature.

Keywords: anode, electrolyte, Li-ion battery, ZnO/MWCNT

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Authors: Amina Bouzitouna, Kheireddine Ouali, Sandra Amri, Houria Rahmoun, Mourad Bensouilah

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Aim of this study: To evaluate the effect of Cisthanche tinctoria treatment on maternal-fetal outcome and antioxidant systems of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Materials and methods: Virgin female Wistar rats were injected with 50 mg/kg streptozotocin before mating. Oral administration of an methanolic extract of Cistanche tinctoria was given to non-diabetic and diabetic pregnant rats at doses of 200 mg/kg from 0 to 19th day of pregnancy. At day 20 of pregnancy the rats were killed and a maternal blood sample was collected for the determination Vitamin C (Vit C) and malonaldehyde (MDA). The gravid uterus was weighed with its contents and fetuses were analyzed. Results and conclusion: The data showed that the diabetic dams presented an increased glycemic level, resorption, placental weight, placental index, and fetal anomalies, and reduced VIT C and MDA determinations, live fetuses, maternal weight gain, gravid uterine weight, and fetal weight. It was also verified that Cisthanche tictoria treatment had no hypoglycemic effect, did not improve maternal outcomes in diabetic rats, but it contributed to maintain GSH concentration similarly to non-diabetic groups, suggesting relation with the decreased incidence of visceral anomalies.

Keywords: cistanche tinctoria, diabetes, pregnancy, reproductive outcome, anomaly, orobanchacées

Procedia PDF Downloads 438