Search results for: climate change effects

Authors: Amel A. Refaie, Amal Ramadan, Abdel-Tawab H. Mossa

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This study was designed to evaluate the adverse effects of sub-chronic exposure to the fipronil on the liver of female rats at a dose equal to 400 mg /kg (1/10LD50) in drinking water and the protective role of fish oil at concentration 117.6 mg/Kg b.wt via oral routes daily for 28 days. Fipronil treatment caused a decrease in body weight gain and increase in relative liver weight. Fipronil induced a significant increase in the liver biomarkers enzymes such as alanine aminotransferases (ALT), aspartate aminotransferases (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and levels of total protein while fipronil caused a significant decrease in butyryl cholinesterase activity in FPN-treated rats. Oxidative stress biomarkers such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) were significantly decreased in liver tissue, while lipid peroxidation (LPO) was significantly increased in fipronil treating rats in a dose-dependent manner. FPN caused histopathological alterations in liver of female rats. From our results, it can be reported that FPN induced lipid peroxidation, oxidative stress, liver injury in female rats and fish oil used to protect animals against the adverse effect of pesticide exposure. These pathophysiological alterations in liver tissues could be due to the toxic effect of fipronil that associated with a generation of free radicals.

Keywords: fipronil (FPN), fish oil, hepatotoxicity, transaminases, antioxidant enzymes, female rats

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Authors: Taoues Hadour

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Twitter has become a popular means of communication used in a variety of fields, such as politics, journalism, and academia. This widely used online platform has an impact on the way people express themselves and is changing language usage worldwide at an unprecedented pace. The language used online reflects the linguistic battle that has been going on for several decades in French society. This study enables a deeper understanding of users' linguistic behavior online. The implications are important and allow for a rise in awareness of intercultural and cross-language exchanges. This project investigates the mixing of French-English language usage among French users of Twitter using a topic analysis approach. This analysis draws on Gumperz's theory of conversational switching. In order to collect tweets at a large scale, the data was collected in R using the rtweet package to access and retrieve French tweets data through Twitter’s REST and stream APIs (Application Program Interface) using the software RStudio, the integrated development environment for R. The dataset was filtered manually and certain repetitions of themes were observed. A total of nine topic categories were identified and analyzed in this study: entertainment, internet/social media, events/community, politics/news, sports, sex/pornography, innovation/technology, fashion/make up, and business. The study reveals that entertainment is the most frequent topic discussed on Twitter. Entertainment includes movies, music, games, and books. Anglicisms such as trailer, spoil, and live are identified in the data. Change in language usage is inevitable and is a natural result of linguistic interactions. The use of different languages online is just an example of what the real world would look like without linguistic regulations. Social media reveals a multicultural and multilinguistic richness which can deepen and expand our understanding of contemporary human attitudes.

Keywords: code-switching, French, sociolinguistics, Twitter

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Amin Banae Babazadeh

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In the contemporary world, NGOs are considered as important tool for motivating the community. So they committed their true mission and the promotion of civic participation and strengthen social identities. Functional characteristics of non-governmental organizations are the element to leverage the centers of political and social development of powerful governments since they are concrete and familiar with the problems of society and the operational strategies which would facilitate this process of mutual trust between the people and organizations. NGOs on the one hand offer reasonable solutions in line with approved organizations as agents to match between the facts and reality of society and on the other hand changes to a tool to have true political, social and economic behavior. However, the NGOs are active in the formulation of national relations and policy formulation in an organized and disciplined based on three main factors, i.e., resources, policies, and institutions. Organizations are not restricted to state administration in centralized system bodies and this process in the democratic system limits the accumulation of desires and expectations and at the end reaches to the desired place. Hence, this research will attempt to emphasis on field research (questionnaire) and according to the development evolution and role of NGOs analyze the effects of this center on youth. Therefore, the hypothesis is that there is a direct relationship between the Enlightenment and the effectiveness of policy towards NGOs and solving social damages.

Keywords: civic participation, community vulnerability, insightful, NGO, urmia

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Authors: Tamar Trop

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Bike sharing systems can be important elements of smart cities as they have the potential for impact on multiple levels. These systems can add a significant alternative to other modes of mass transit in cities that are continuously looking for measures to become more livable and maintain their attractiveness for citizens, businesses and tourism. Bike-sharing began in Europe in 1965, and a viable format emerged in the mid-2000s thanks to the introduction of information technology. The rate of growth in bike-sharing schemes and fleets has been very rapid since 2008 and has probably outstripped growth in every other form of urban transport. Today, public bike-sharing systems are available on five continents, including over 700 cities, operating more than 800,000 bicycles at approximately 40,000 docking stations. Since modern bike sharing systems have become prevalent only in the last decade, the existing literature analyzing these systems and their sustainability is relatively new. The purpose of the presented study is to assess the sustainability of these newly emerging transportation systems, by using the Envision™ rating system as a methodological framework and the Israeli 'Tel -O-Fun' – bike sharing project as a case study. The assessment was conducted by project team members. Envision™ is a new guidance and rating system used to assess and improve the sustainability of all types and sizes of infrastructure projects. This tool provides a holistic framework for evaluating and rating the community, environmental, and economic benefits of infrastructure projects over the course of their life cycle. This evaluation method has 60 sustainability criteria divided into five categories: Quality of life, leadership, resource allocation, natural world, and climate and risk. 'Tel -O-Fun' project was launched in Tel Aviv-Yafo on 2011 and today provides about 1,800 bikes for rent, at 180 rental stations across the city. The system is based on a complex computer terminal that is located in the docking stations. The highest-rated sustainable features that the project scored include: (a) Improving quality of life by: offering a low cost and efficient form of public transit, improving community mobility and access, enabling the flexibility of travel within a multimodal transportation system, saving commuters time and money, enhancing public health and reducing air and noise pollution; (b) improving resource allocation by: offering inexpensive and flexible last-mile connectivity, reducing space, materials and energy consumption, reducing wear and tear on public roads, and maximizing the utility of existing infrastructure, and (c) reducing of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Overall, 'Tel -O-Fun' project was highly scored as an environmentally sustainable and socially equitable infrastructure. The use of this practical framework for evaluation also yielded various interesting insights on the shortcoming of the system and the characteristics of good solutions. This can contribute to the improvement of the project and may assist planners and operators of bike sharing systems to develop a sustainable, efficient and reliable transportation infrastructure within smart cities.

Keywords: bike sharing, Envision™, sustainability rating system, sustainable infrastructure

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Authors: Jiao Sun, Li Pan, Shijun Liu

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Recommender systems have been widely used in contemporary industry, and plenty of work has been done in this field to help users to identify items of interest. Collaborative Filtering (CF, for short) algorithm is an important technology in recommender systems. However, less work has been done in automobile recommendation system with the sharp increase of the amount of automobiles. What’s more, the computational speed is a major weakness for collaborative filtering technology. Therefore, using MapReduce framework to optimize the CF algorithm is a vital solution to this performance problem. In this paper, we present a recommendation of the users’ comment on industrial automobiles with various properties based on real world industrial datasets of user-automobile comment data collection, and provide recommendation for automobile providers and help them predict users’ comment on automobiles with new-coming property. Firstly, we solve the sparseness of matrix using previous construction of score matrix. Secondly, we solve the data normalization problem by removing dimensional effects from the raw data of automobiles, where different dimensions of automobile properties bring great error to the calculation of CF. Finally, we use the MapReduce framework to optimize the CF algorithm, and the computational speed has been improved times. UV decomposition used in this paper is an often used matrix factorization technology in CF algorithm, without calculating the interpolation weight of neighbors, which will be more convenient in industry.

Keywords: collaborative filtering, recommendation, data normalization, mapreduce

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Authors: R. C. Barbuti, M. N. Oliveira, N. P. Perina, C. Haro, P. Bosch, C. S. Bogsan, J. N. Eisig, T. Navarro-Rodriguez

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Background: The management of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication is still a matter of discussion, full effectiveness is rarely achieved and it has many adverse effects. Probiotics are believed to have a role in eradicating and possibly preventing H. pylori infection as an adjunctive treatment. The present clinical study was undertaken to see the efficacy of a specially designed fermented milk product containing Bifidobacterium lactis B420 on the eradication of H. pylori infection in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled study in humans. Method: Four test products were specially designed fermented milks, counts of viable cells in all products were 1010 Log CFU. 100 mL-1 for Bifidobacterium lactis-Bifidobacterium species 420, and 1011 Log CFU. 100 mL-1 for Streptococcus thermophiles were administered to subjects infected with H. pylori with a previous diagnosis of functional dyspepsia according to the Rome III criteria in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in humans. Results: After FM supplementation, not all subjects showed a reduction in H. pylori colonization. Conclusion: Bifidobacterium lactis B420, administered twice a day for 90 days did not show an increase in H. pylori eradication effectiveness in Brazilian patients with functional dyspepsia.

Keywords: antibacterial therapy, Bifidobacteria fermented milk, Helicobacter pylori, probiotics

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Authors: Assaad Ghazouani, Hedia Teraoui

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The purpose of this article is to try to see if the FDI actually contributes to technology transfer in Tunisia or are there other sources that can guarantee this transfer? The answer to this problem was gradual as we followed an approach using economic theory, the reality of Tunisia and econometric and statistical tools. We examined the relationship between technology transfer and FDI in Tunisia over a period of 40 years from 1970 to 2010. We estimated in two stages: first, a growth equation, then we have learned from this regression residue (proxy technology), secondly, we regressed on European FDI, exports of manufactures, imports of goods from the European Union in addition to other variables to test the robustness of the results and describing the level of infrastructure in the country. It follows from our study that technology transfer does not originate primarily and exclusively in the FDI and the latter is econometrically weakly with technology transfer and spill over effect of FDI does not seem to occur according to our results. However, the relationship between technology transfer and imports is negative and significant. Although this result is cons-intuitive, is recurrent in the literature of panel data. It has also given rise to intense debate on the microeconomic modelling as well as on the empirical applications. Technology transfer through trade or foreign investment has become a catalyst for growth recognized by numerous empirical studies in particular. However, the relationship technology transfer FDI is more complex than it appears. This complexity is due, primarily, but not exclusively to the close link between FDI and the characteristics of the host country. This is essentially the host's responsibility to establish general conditions, transparent and conducive to investment, and to strengthen human and institutional capacity necessary for foreign capital flows that can have real effects on growth.

Keywords: technology transfer, foreign direct investment, economics, finance

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Authors: Muhammad B. Ibrahim, Muhammad S. Sulaiman, Sadiq Sani

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Neem leaves were studied as plant wastes derived adsorbents for detoxification of Congo Red (CR) and Methyl Orange (MO) from aqueous solutions using batch adsorption technique. The objectives involved determining the effects of the basic adsorption parameters are namely, agitation time, adsorbent dosage, adsorbents particle size, adsorbate loading concentrations and initial pH, on the adsorption process as well as characterizing the adsorbents by determining their physicochemical properties, functional groups responsible for the adsorption process using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and surface morphology using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersion X – ray spectroscopy (EDS). The adsorption behaviours of the materials were tested against Langmuir, Freundlich, etc. isotherm models. Percent adsorption increased with increase in agitation time (5 – 240 minutes), adsorbent dosage (100-500mg), initial concentration (100-300mg/L), and with decrease in particle size (≥75μm to ≤300μm) of the adsorbents. Both processes are dye pH-dependent, increasing or decreasing percent adsorption in acidic (2-6) or alkaline (8-12) range over the studied pH (2-12) range. From the experimental data the Langmuir’s separation factor (RL) suggests unfavourable adsorption for all processes, Freundlich constant (nF) indicates unfavourable process for CR and MO adsorption; while the mean free energy of adsorption

Keywords: adsorption, congo red, methyl orange, neem leave

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Authors: Poteet Frances, Glovinski Ira

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INTRODUCTION: The interoceptive nervous system continuously senses chemical and anatomical changes and helps you recognize, understand, and feel what’s going on inside your body so it is important for energy regulation, memory, affect, and sense of self. A newborn needs predictable routines rather than confusion/chaos to make connections between internal experiences and emotions. AIM: Current legal protocols of removing babies from drug-addicted mothers impact the critical window of bonding. The newborn’s brain is social and the attachment process influences a child’s development which begins immediately after birth through nourishment, comfort, and protection. DESCRIPTION: Our project aims to educate drug-addicted mothers, and medical, nursing, and social work professionals on interoceptive concepts and practices to sustain the mother/newborn relationship. A mother’s interoceptive knowledge predicts children’s emotion regulation and social skills in middle childhood. CONCLUSION: When mothers develop an awareness of their inner bodily sensations, they can self-regulate and be emotionally available to co-regulate (support their newborn during distressing emotions and sensations). Our project has enhanced relationship preservation (mothers understand how their presence matters) and the overall mother/newborn connection.

Keywords: drug-addiction, interoception, legal, mothers, newborn, self-regulation

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Authors: Daisy Saikia

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Long-term maternal health issues with Caesarean section deliveries are significant. Thus, this study aims to investigate the prevalence of caesarean section deliveries in India and to comprehend its associated predictors in light of the high caesarean section delivery rate. The study uses data from the fifth National Family Health Surveys (NFHS-5) round. Specifically, live births to women aged 15-49 in the 5 years preceding the survey. Binary logistic regression was used to check the adjusted effects of the predictor variables on caesarean section delivery. STATA/SE v16.0 was used for the data analysis with a 5% significance level. Twenty-two per cent of the live births to women were delivered by caesarean section. There was socio-economic, demographic and geographical variation in the prevalence of caesarean section delivery in India. Increasing age, body mass index, marital status, mother’s occupation and education, birth order, place of delivery, full ANC, non-tribal status, wealth quintile and region are significantly associated with caesarean section deliveries in India. Caesarean section deliveries should only be performed when essential from a medical perspective, and regions, where the rate is too high, should follow the guidelines. Additionally, it needs to be investigated whether private hospitals compel patients to have caesarean section deliveries to increase their revenue. Thus, these unnecessary deliveries must be examined immediately for safe childbirth and the wellness of both mother and child.

Keywords: caesarean section, delivery, maternal health, India

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Authors: Seyed Ali Kimiaei, Reza Pishghadam, Fatemeh Hajizadeh, Marjan Entezari

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The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the Minnesota Spouses Communication Skills Program on reducing emotional harassment and adjusting the marital expectations of married women. The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with waiting list group and follow-up period. The statistical population of the study consisted of married women referring to counseling and psychology centers in Mashhad, from which 30 people were selected as a sample by examining the entry criteria and questionnaire scores, and randomly divided into two experimental groups (15 people) and the waiting list group (15 people) were replaced. The experimental group was given 8 sessions of communication skills program of spouses. The emotional harassment and marital expectations questionnaire was used to collect data. The results showed a significant difference between the experimental group and the waiting list group, so that the communication skills training of the spouses reduced emotional harassment and adjusted marital expectations, and these effects continued in the follow-up period. Therefore, we can conclude that teaching the husband's communication skills program in the Minnesota method reduces emotional harassment and modifies women's marital expectations.

Keywords: spouses communication skills program, emotional harassment, marital expectations, women

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Authors: Fatemeh Jaferi, Moslem Parsa, Heshmatolah Shams Khorramabadi

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In this modern fluctuating world, organizations need to outsource some parts of their activities (project) to providers in order to show a quick response to their changing requirements. In fact, a number of companies and institutes have contractors do their projects and have some specific criteria in contractor selection. Therefore, a set of scientific tools is needed to select the best contractors to execute the project according to appropriate criteria. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) has been employed in the present study as a powerful tool in ranking and selecting the appropriate contractor. In this study, devolving second-source (civil) project to contractors in the National Gas Company of Lorestan Province (Iran) has been found and therefore, 5 civil companies have been evaluated. Evaluation criteria include executive experience, qualification of technical staff, good experience and company's rate, technical interview, affordability, equipment and machinery. Criteria's weights are found through experts' opinions along with AHP and contractors ranked through TOPSIS and AHP. The order of ranking contractors based on MCDM methods differs by changing the formula in the study. In the next phase, the number of criteria and their weights has been sensitivity analysed through using AHP. Adding each criterion changed contractors' ranking. Similarly, changing weights resulted in a change in ranking. Adopting the stated strategy resulted in the facts that not only is an appropriate scientific method available to select the most qualified contractors to execute gas project, but also a great attention is paid to picking needed criteria for selecting contractors. Consequently, executing such project is undertaken by most qualified contractors resulted in optimum use of limited resource, accelerating the implementation of project, increasing quality and finally boosting organizational efficiency.

Keywords: multi-criteria decision making, project, management, contractor selection, gas company

Procedia PDF Downloads 389

Authors: Naeem Hassan

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The study intended to investigate the impact of the e banking system on the performance efficiency of the commercial banks in KP, Pakistan. In addition to this main purpose, the study also aimed at analyzing the impact of e banking on the service quality as well as satisfaction of the customers using e banking system. More over, the focus was also given to highlight the risks involved in the e banking system. The researcher has adopted the quantitative methodology in the study. in order to reach concrete finding, the researcher has analyzed the secondary data taken from the annual reports of selected banks and State bank of Pakistan as well as the primary data collected through the self-administrated questionnaire from the participants selected for the current study. The study highlighted that there is a significant impact of e banking on the financial efficiency on the commercial banks in KP, Pakistan. Additionally, the results of the study also show that the online banking is having significant effects on the customer satisfaction. The researcher recommends on the bases of findings that commercial banks should continue to adopt new technologies which will improve their margins and hence their net profit after tax in order to attract more investors. Additionally, commercial bank needs to minimize the time and risk in e-banking to attract more customers which will improve their net profit. Furthermore, the study findings also recommend the banking policy makers should also review policies related to promotion of innovation adoption and transfer of technology. Commercial banking system should encourage adoption of innovations that will improve profit of the banking industry.

Keywords: E-banking, performance efficiency, commercial banks, effect

Procedia PDF Downloads 59

Authors: Ahmad Rasyadan Arshad, A. Rahman A. Jamal, N. Mohamed Ibrahim, Nor Azian Abdul Murad

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Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a complex and asymptomatic disease where patients are usually diagnosed at late stage where about 70% of the dopaminergic neurons are lost. Therefore, identification of molecular biomarkers is crucial for early diagnosis of PD. MicroRNA (miRNA) is a short nucleotide non-coding small RNA which regulates the gene expression in post-translational process. The involvement of these miRNAs in neurodegenerative diseases includes maintenance of neuronal development, necrosis, mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Thus, miRNA could be a potential biomarkers for diagnosis of PD. Objective: This study aim to identify the miRNA involved in Late Onset PD (LOPD) and Early Onset PD (EOPD) compared to the controls. Methods: This is a case-control study involved PD patients in the Chancellor Tunku Muhriz Hospital at the UKM Medical Centre. miRNA samples were extracted using miRNeasy serum/plasma kit from Qiagen. The quality of miRNA extracted was determined using Agilent RNA 6000 Nano kit in the Bioanalyzer. miRNA expression was performed using GeneChip miRNA 4.0 chip from Affymetrix. Microarray was performed in EOPD (n= 7), LOPD (n=9) and healthy control (n=11). Expression Console and Transcriptomic Analyses Console were used to analyze the microarray data. Result: miR-129-5p was significantly downregulated in EOPD compared to LOPD with -4.2 fold change (p = <0.050. miR-301a-3p was upregulated in EOPD compared to healthy control (fold = 10.3, p = <0.05). In LOPD versus healthy control, miR-486-3p (fold = 15.28, p = <0.05), miR-29c-3p (fold = 12.21, p = <0.05) and miR-301a-3p (fold = 10.01, p =< 0.05) were upregulated. Conclusion: Several miRNA have been identified to be differentially expressed in EOPD compared to LOPD and PD versus control. These miRNAs could serve as the potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of PD. However, these miRNAs need to be validated in a larger sample size.

Keywords: early onset PD, late onset PD, microRNA (miRNA), microarray

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Authors: Che Jusoh, Mohd Rahimi, Toby Mundel

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This study was designed to investigate the physiological and performance effects of a local Malaysian native starch (Metroxylin sago) on cycling in a hot (30°C) and humid (78% RH) environment. Eight male, non-heat acclimated, well-trained club cyclists (VO2max 65 ± 10 ml kg-1 min-1, peak aerobic power 397 ± 71 W) completed one familiarization and three experimental trials in our laboratory simulating cycling in environmental conditions of heat and humidity. Each trial consisted of 45 minutes at a fixed workload (55% VO2max) followed by a 15 minute time-trial (~75% VO2max). Sago in porridge form was consumed 1h before exercise (Pre), in gel form during exercise (Dur) and compared to a control trial (Con), using a random, cross-over design. Plasma glucose concentration did not differ between trials (P = 0.06) with an increase from 4.1 ± 0.6 to 6.1 ± 1.6 mmol-1 (Con), 4.8 ± 1.7 to 5.7 ± 0.4 mmol-1 (Pre) and 4.7 ± 0.8 to 6.9 ± 1.4 mmol-1 (Dur) from start to end of exercise. Plasma lactate increased (P = 0.02) from 1.6 ± 0.3 to 7.6 ± 2.2 mmol-1 (Con), 1.7 ± 0.5 to 7.3 ± 2.9 mmol-1 (Pre) and 1.6 ± 0.2 to 7.3 ± 1.8 mmol-1 (Dur) with no effect of trial (P = 0.74). No differences were found between trials for RER (P = 0.328) with values of 0.93 ± 0.05 (Con), 0.94 ± 0.04 (Pre) and 0.92 ± 0.04 (Dur). There were no differences between trials in rectal (P = 0.64) and skin (P = 0.56) temperatures; values reaching 39.1 ± 0.5°C (Con), 38.9 ± 0.4°C (Pre) and 39.1 ± 0.4°C (Dur) for rectal and 32.7 ± 1.2°C (Con), 32.8 ± 1.4°C (Pre) and 32.8 ± 1.8°C (Dur) for skin temperature, respectively. Heart rate (P = 0.07) also did not differ between trials but reached maximal values by the end of time-trial for all trials. Performance was unaffected by trial (P = 0.98) with the average work completed in 15 minutes being 221 ± 33 kJ (Con), 222 ± 31 kJ (Pre) and 219 ± 32 kJ (Dur), respectively. Therefore, the results of this investigation do not support consumption of sago, either before or during exercise, in altering the thermoregulatory, metabolic or performance responses in a hot and humid environment.

Keywords: hot and humid, physiology, time trial performance, thermoregulatory

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Authors: O. Afshar

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Unlike other renewable energy sources, tidal current energy is an extremely reliable, predictable and continuous energy source as the current pattern and speed can be predicted throughout the year. A key concern associated with tidal turbines is their long-term reliability when operating in the hostile marine environment. Bio-fouling changes the physical shape and roughness of turbine components, hence altering the overall turbine performance. This paper seeks to employ Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method to quantify the effects of this problem based on the obtained flow field information. The simulation is carried out on a NACA 63-618 aerofoil. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulent model are used to simulate the flow around the model. Different levels of fouling are studied on 2D aerofoil surface with quantified fouling height and density. In terms of lift and drag coefficient results, numerical results show good agreement with the experiment which was carried out in wind tunnel. Numerical results of research indicate that an increase in fouling thickness causes an increase in drag coefficient and a reduction in lift coefficient. Moreover, pressure gradient gradually becomes adverse as height of fouling increases. In addition, result by turbulent kinetic energy contour reveals it increases with fouling height and it extends into wake due to flow separation.

Keywords: tidal energy, lift coefficient, drag coefficient, roughness

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Authors: Siti Rahmah Fitrianti, Mela Milani

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Inadequate of water intake has negative effects on the health of the body, which can cause kidney failure and death. One of the factors that can affect someone intake of water is level of knowledge about the importance of water intake itself. A good knowledge of the daily water intake can increase the awareness of daily needed of water intake. Therefore, researchers initiated a study on the relationship of water intake to the level of knowledge related with water intake in food workers, at “Puspa” Hospital. Type of this research is quantitative research with cross-sectional approach. The research data was collected by measuring the independent and dependent variable at a time. This study took place in the food production unit of Nutrition Installation in "Puspa" Hospital, Jakarta in October 2016. The population target in this study were workers in food production unit aged 30-64 years. The instrument was a questionnaire question regarding water intake and 24 hours food recall. The result is 78.6% of respondents have less knowledge about the importance of water intake. Meanwhile, as many as 85.7% of respondents have adequate water intake. Tested by Chi-Square test, showed that no significant relationship between water intake with the level of knowledge related to water intake in workers of food production unit. Adequate intake of water in food workers commonly may be not caused by the level of knowledge related to water intake, but it may be cause of work environment factor which has a high temperature.

Keywords: food production unit, food workers, level of knowledge, water intake

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Authors: Nunik Junara, Sugeng Triyadi

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Sustainable Housing in Islamic perspective, can be defined as a multi-dimensional process that seeks to achieve a balance between economic and socio-cultural aspects on the side, and environmental aspect on the other. There are many quotes verses in the Quran and Hadith that leads to the belief that Islam as a Rahmatan lil Alamin, where men are encouraged to act wisely in treating nature and all living things in it. One aspect of the natural environment that closed to human is plants. In the settlement, the availability of plants or also called green open space is highly recommended. The availability of green open space in the neighborhood, both the public and private green open spaces is expected to reduce the effects of global warming that has engulfed various parts of the world. Green open space that can be viewed from the angle of eco-aestetic and eco-medical in sustainable architecture, is expected to increase the temperature and provide aesthetic impression to the surrounding environment. This paper attempts to discuss the principles of Islamic values related to the natural environment as a major resource for sustainability. This paper also aims to raise awareness of the importance of the theme of sustainability in settlements, especially in big cities. Analysis of the availability of green open space in kampung Kauman Malang is one example of the effort to apply the principles of sustainable housing.

Keywords: green open space, sustainable housing, Islamic values, Kampung Kauman Malang

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Authors: Sobia Mushtaq, Firdaus E. Bareen, Asma Tayyeb

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This study conducted to investigate the metal biosorption potential of indigenous Trichoderma species (T. harzianum KS05T01, T. longibrachiatum KS09T03, Trichoderma sp KS17T09., T. viridi KS17T011, T. atrobruneo KS21T014, and T. citrinoviride) that have been isolated from contaminated soil of Kasur Tannery Waste Management Agency. The effect of different biosorption parameters as initial metal ion concentration, pH, contact time , and temperature of incubation was investigated on the biosorption potential of these species. The metal removal efficiency and (E%) and metal uptake capacity (mg/g) increased along with the increase of initial metal concentration in media. The Trichoderma species can tolerate and survive under heavy metal stress up to 800mg/L. Among the two isotherm models were applied on the biosorption data, Langmuir isotherm model and Freundlich isotherm model, maximum correlation coefficients values (R 2 ) of 1was found for Langmuir model, which showed the better fitted model for the Trichoderma biosorption. The metal biosorption was increased with the increase of temperature and pH of the media. The maximum biosorption was observed between 25-30 o C and at pH 6.-7.5, while the biosorption rate was increased from 3-6 days of incubation, and then the rate of biosorption was slowed down. The biosorption data was better fitted for Pseudo kinetic first order during the initial days of biosorption. Thermodynamic parameters as standard Gibbs free energy (G), standard enthalpy change (H), and standard entropy (S) were calculated. The results confirmed the heavy metal biosorption by Trichoderma species was endothermic and spontaneous reaction in nature. The FTIR spectral analysis and SEM-EDX analysis of the treated and controlled mycelium revealed the changes in the active functional sites and morphological variations of the outer surface. The data analysis envisaged that high metal tolerance exhibited by Trichoderma species indicates its potential as efficacious and successful mediator for bioremediation of the heavy metal polluted environments.

Keywords: heavy metal, fungal biomass, biosorption, kinetics

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Authors: Hassan Nabipour Afrouzi, Naser Mahmoudnia

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Broiler production has increased rapidly in tropical and subtropical regions in the past and sustained growth is forecast for the future. One of the greatest challenges to efficient production in these regions is reduced performance from warm and hot weather conditions. There are many ways to decrease these detrimental effects of heat on broiler chickens. One way is to supplement broiler diet with betaine added to feed or drinking water. A review of the results of this study suggest that betaine supplement was effective to significantly improve body weight and feed conversion ratio at the initial stages of growth but not in the finisher stages (P<0/05). It was also demonstrated that the use of betaine significantly reduced the percentage of abdominal meat and the percentage of breast meat (P<0/05), but had no effect on other carcass compositions. Betaine may improve the digestibility of specific nutrients. Betaine, as a methyl donor provides labile methyl groups for the synthesis of several metabolically active substances such as creatine and carnitine. Oil in a broiler diet is known to promote a response to dietary betaine supplements, that is, chicks have a higher demand for betaine with a high fat diet. This study implies that betaine supplement may stimulate protection of intestinal epithelium against osmotic disturbance, improve digestion and absorption conditions of the gastrointestinal tract and promote amended use of nutrients.

Keywords: heat stress, betaine, performance, broiler‚ growth

Procedia PDF Downloads 579

Authors: Jou-An Chen, Julio Castillo, Errol Duncan Cason, Gabre Kemp, Leana Esterhuizen, Angel Valverde Portal, Esta Van Heerden

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Emerging contaminants (EC) such as pharmaceutical and personal care products have been accumulating for years in water bodies all over the world. However, very little is known about the occurrences, levels, and effects of ECs in South African water resources. This study provides an initial assessment of the distribution of eight ECs (Acetaminophen, Atrazine, Terbuthlyazine, Carbamazepine, Phenyton, Sulfmethoxazole, Nevirapine and Fluconozole) in fifteen water sources from the Free State and Easter Cape provinces of South Africa. Overall, the physiochemical conditions were different in surface and groundwater samples, with concentrations of several elements such as B, Ca, Mg, Na, NO3, and TDS been statistically higher in groundwater. In contrast, ECs levels, quantified at ng/mL using the LC/MS/ESI, were much lower in groundwater samples. The ECs with higher contamination levels were Carbamazepine, Sulfmethoxazole, Nevirapine, and Terbuthlyazine, while the most widespread were Sulfmethoxazole and Fluconozole, detected in all surface and groundwater samples. Fecal and E. coli tests indicated that surface water was more contaminated than groundwater. Microbial communities, assessed using NGS, were dominated by the phyla Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, in both surface and groundwater. Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Cyanobacteria, were more dominant in surface water, while Verrucomicrobia were overrepresented in groundwater. In conclusion, ECs contamination is closely associated with human activities (human wastes). The microbial diversity identified can suggest possible biodegradation processes.

Keywords: emerging contaminants, EC, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, natural attenuation process

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Authors: Asma Perveen, M. P. Jahan

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Ni alloys have managed to cover wide range of applications such as automotive industries, oil gas industries, and aerospace industries. However, these alloys impose challenges while using conventional machining technologies. On the other hand, Micro-Electro-Discharge machining (micro-EDM) is a non-conventional machining method that uses controlled sparks energy to remove material irrespective of the materials hardness. There has been always a huge interest from the industries for developing optimum methodology and parameters in order to enhance the productivity of micro-EDM in terms of reducing machining time and tool wear for different alloys. Therefore, the aims of this study are to investigate the effects of the micro-EDM process parameters, in order to find their optimal values. The input process parameters include voltage, capacitance, and electrode rotational speed, whereas the output parameters considered are machining time, entrance diameter of hole, overcut, tool wear, and crater size. The surface morphology and element characterization are also investigated with the use of SEM and EDX analysis. The experimental result indicates the reduction of machining time with the increment of discharge energy. Discharge energy also contributes to the enlargement of entrance diameter as well as overcut. In addition, tool wears show reduction with the increase of discharge energy. Moreover, crater size is found to be increased in size along with the increment of discharge energy.

Keywords: micro holes, micro EDM, Ni Alloy, discharge energy

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Authors: Zuxinsun, Samuel Eyley, Yongjian Guo, Reeta Salminen, Wim Thielemans

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Polypyrrole(PPy), as one of the most promising pseudocapacitor electrode materials, has attracted large research interest due to its low cost, high electrical conductivity and easy fabrication, limited capacitance, and cycling stability of PPy films hinder their practical applications. In this study, through adding different amounts of KCl into the pyrrole and CNC-COO⁻ system, three-dimensional, porous, and reticular PPy films were electropolymerized at last without the assistance of any template or substrate. Replacing KCl with NaCl, KBr, and NaClO4, the porous PPy films were still obtained rather than relatively dense PPy films which were deposited with pyrrole and CNC-COO⁻ or pyrrole and KCl. The nucleation and growth mechanisms of PPy films were studied in the deposited electrolyte with or without salts to illustrate the evolution of morphology from relatively dense to porous structure. The capacitance of PPy/CNC-COO⁻-Cl-(ClO4-)_0.5 films increased from 160.6 to 183.4 F g⁻¹ at 0.2 A g⁻¹. More importantly, at a high current density of 2.0 A g⁻¹ (20 mA cm⁻²), the PPy/CNC-COO⁻-Cl-(ClO4-)_0.5 films exhibited an excellent capacitance of 125.0 F g⁻¹ (1.19 F cm⁻²), increasing about 203.7 % over PPy/CNC-COO- films. 103.3 % of its initial capacitance was retained after 5000 cycles at 2 A g⁻¹ (20 mA cm⁻²) for the PPy/CNC-COO⁻-Cl-(ClO4-)_0.5 supercapacitor. The analyses reveal that the porous and reticular PPy/CNC-COO⁻-salts films open up more active reaction areas to store charges. The stiff and ribbonlike CNC-COO⁻ as the permanent dopants improve strength and stability of PPy/CNC-COO⁻-salts films. Our demonstration provides a simple and practical way to deposit PPy-based supercapacitors with high capacitance and cycling ability.

Keywords: polypyrrole, supercapacitors, cellulose nanocrystals, porous and reticular structure, inorganic salts

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Authors: Ahmed M. F. El Shiwi

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Background: Low back pain affects about 60% to 90% of the working-age population in modern industrial society. Myofascial pain syndrome is a condition characterized by muscles shortening with increased tone and associated with trigger points that aggravated with the activity of daily living. Purpose: To examine the effects of magnetic field therapy in patients with lower back myofascial pain syndrome. Methods: Thirty patients were assigned randomly into two groups. Subjects in the experimental group (n=15) with main age of 36.73 (2.52) received traditional physical therapy program (Infrared radiation, ultrasonic, stretching and strengthening exercises for back muscles) as well as magnetic field, and control group (n=15) with main age of 37.27 (2.52) received traditional physical therapy only. The following parameters including pain severity, functional disability and lumbar range of motion (flexion, extension, right side bending, and left side bending) were measured before and after four weeks of treatment. Results: The results showed significant improvement in all parameters in the experimental group compared with those in the control group. Interpretation/Conclusion: By the present date, it is possible to conclude that a magnetic field is effective as a method of treatment for lower back myofascial pain syndrome patients with the parameters used in the present study.

Keywords: magnetic field, lower back pain, myofascial pain syndrome, biological systems engineering

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Authors: Mohsin Javed

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School Education department is usually criticized for utilizing quite low or fewer academic days due to many reasons like extreme weather conditions, sudden holidays, summer vocations, pandemics and, terrorism etc. The purpose of the experimental study was to determine the efficacy of online cooperative learning (OCL) integrated in the rotation model of blended learning. The effects on academic achievement of students and students' attitude about OCL embedded learning were assessed. By using a posttest only control group design, sixty-two first-year students were randomly allocated to either the experimental (30) or control (32) group. The control group received face to face classes for six sessions per week, while the experimental group had three OCL and three formal sessions per week under rotation model. Students' perceptions of OCL were evaluated using a survey questionnaire. Data was analyzed by independent sample t test and one sample t test. According to findings, the intervention greatly improved the state of the dependent variables. The results demonstrate that OCL can be successfully implemented in formal education using a blended learning rotation approach. Higher secondary institutions are advised to use this model in situations like Covid 19, smog, unexpected holidays, instructor absence from class due to increased responsibilities, and summer vacations.

Keywords: blended learning, online cooperative learning, rotation model of blended learning, supplementing

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Authors: Adeela Abu Bakar, Minder Kaur, Parthaman Singh

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In the Malaysian education system, a formal setting of English language learning takes place in a content-based classroom (CBC). Until recently, there is less study in Malaysia, which researched the effects of code-switching (CS) behaviour towards the students’ knowledge sharing (KS) with their peers. The aim of this study is to investigate the frequency, reasons, and effect that CS, from the English language to Bahasa Melayu, has among local STEM and N-STEM undergraduates towards KS in a content-based classroom. The study implies a mixed-method research design with questionnaire and interviews as the instruments. The data is collected through distribution of questionnaires and interviews with the undergraduates. The quantitative data is analysed using SPSS in simple frequencies and percentages, whereas qualitative data involves organizing the data into themes, followed by analysis. Findings found that N-STEM undergraduates code-switch more as compared to STEM undergraduates. In addition to that, both the STEM and N-STEM undergraduates agree that CS acts as a catalyst towards KS in a content-based classroom. However, they also acknowledge that excess use of CS can be a hindrance towards KS. The findings of the study can benefit STEM and N-STEM undergraduates, education policymakers, language teachers, university educators, and students with significant insights into the role of CS towards KS in a content-based classroom. Some of the recommendations that can be applied for future studies are that the number of participants can be increased, an observation to be included for the data collection.

Keywords: switching, content-based classroom, content and language integrated learning, knowledge sharing, STEM and N-STEM undergraduates

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Authors: Khodzhaberdi Allaberdiev

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Substituted phenols are widely used for the synthesis of advanced polycondensation polymers. In terms of the structure regularity and practical value of obtained polymers are of special interest the p-substituted phenols. The lanthanide induced shifts (LIS) of the aromatic ring and the OH protons by addition Eu(fod)3 to various p-substituted phenols in CDCL3 solvent were measured Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. A linear relationship has been observed between the LIS of protons (∆=δcomplex –δsubstrate) and Eu(fod)3/substrate molar ratios. The LIS protons of the investigated phenols decreases in the following order: ОН > ortho > meta. The LIS of these protons also depends on both steric and electronic effects of p-substituents. The effect on the LIS of protons steric hindrance of substituents by way of example p-substituted alkyl phenols was studied. Alkyl phenols exhibit pronounced europium- induced shifts, their sensitivity increasing in the order: CH3 > C2H5 > sym-C5H11 > tert-C5H11 > tert-C4H9, i.e. in parallel with decreasing steric hindrance. The influence steric hindrance p-substituents of phenols on the LIS of protons in sequence following decreases: OH> meta >ortho. Contrary to the expectations, it is found that the LIS of the ortho protons an excellent linear correlation with meta-substituent constants, σm for 14 p-substituted phenols: ∆H2, 6=8.165-9.896 σm (r2=0,999). Moreover, a linear correlation between the LIS of the ortho protons and ionization constants, РКa of p-substituted phenols has been revealed. Similarly, the linear relationships for the LIS of the meta and the OH protons were obtained. Use the LIS of the phenolic hydroxyl groups for linear relationships is necessary with care, because of the signal broadening of the OH protons. New constants may be determinate with unusual case by this approach.

Keywords: novel correlations, NMR spectroscopy, phenols, shift reagent

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Authors: A. I. O. Zaid

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Deep drawing is considered to be the most widely used sheet metal forming processes among the particularly in automobile and aircraft industries. It is widely used for manufacturing a large number of the body and spare parts. In its simplest form it may be defined as a secondary forming process by which a sheet metal is formed into a cylinder or alike by subjecting the sheet to compressive force through a punch with a flat end of the same geometry as the required shape of the cylinder end while it is held by a blank holder which hinders its movement but does not stop it. The punch and die profile radii play In this paper, the effects of punch and die profile radii on the autographic record, the minimum thickness strain location where the cracks normally start and cause the fracture, the maximum deep drawing force and the total consumed work in the drawing flat ended cylindrical brass cups are investigated. Five punches and five dies each having different profile radii were manufactured for this investigation. Furthermore, their effect on the quality of the drawn cups is also presented and discussed. It was found that the die profile radius has more effect on the maximum drawing force and the total consumed work than the punch profile radius.

Keywords: punch and die profile radii, deep drawing process, maximum drawing force, total consumed work, quality of produced parts, flat ended cylindrical brass cups

Procedia PDF Downloads 328

Authors: Sara Dalma Galgoczi, Judith Gabriella Kengyel

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Sex scandals are quite an engaging topic to work with, especially with their judgment in society. Most people are interested in other people's lives, specifically in public figures' such as celebrities or politicians, because ordinary people feel like they have the right to know more things about the famous and notorious ones than they would probably willing to share. Intimacy and sexual acts aren't exceptions; moreover, sexuality is one of the central interests of humans ever since. Besides, knowing and having an opinion about any kind of scandal can change even whole social groups or classes estimation of anyone. This study aims to research the social judgment of some Hungarian politicians' sex scandals and asks important questions like diverse public opinions in the light of gender or delegates’ abuse of power. Considering that this study is about collecting and evaluating opinions from the public, and no one before researched and published this exact topic and cases, an online survey was created. In the survey were different sections. We collected data about party-preference, conservativism-liberalism scale; then we used the following questionnaires: from Zero-sum perspective with regard to gender equality (Ruthig, Kehn, Gamblin, Vanderzanden & Jones, 2017), Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI; Glick & Fiske, 1996), Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory (AMI; Glick & Fiske, 1999). Finally, 5 short summaries were presented about five Hungarian politicians' sex scandal cases (3 males, 2 females) from the recent past. These stories were followed by questions about their opinion of the party and attitudes towards the parties' reactions to the cases. We came to the conclusion that people are more permissive with the scandals of men, and benevolent sexism and ambivalence towards men mediate this relation. Men tend to see these cases as part of politicians' private lives more than women. Party preference had a significant effect - people tend to pass a sentence the delegates of the opposing parties, and they rather release the delegates of their preferred party.

Keywords: sex scandal, sexism, social judgement, politician

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Authors: Saima Iftikhar Rida Shabbir, Zeeshan Hassan

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Water shortage, energy crisis and natural misfortunes are the glitches which reduce the efficacy of agricultural ecosystems especially in Pakistan where these are more frequent besides being intense. Accordingly, the agricultural water resources, food security and country’s economy are at risk. To address this, we have used Geospatial techniques incorporating ASTER Global DEM, Geological map, rainfall data, discharge data, Landsat 5 image of Swat valley in order to assess the viability of selected sites. The sites have been studied via GIS tools, Hydrological investigation and multiparametric analysis for their potentialities of collecting and securing the rain water; regulating floods by storing the surplus water bulks by check dams and developing them for power generation. Our results showed that Siat1-1 was very useful for low-cost dam with main objective of as Debris dam; Site-2 and Site 3 were check dams sites having adequate storing reservoir so as to arrest the inconsistent flow accompanied by catering the sedimentation effects and the debris flows; Site 4 had a huge reservoir capacity but it entails enormous edifice cost over very great flood plain. Thus, there is necessity of active Hydrological developments to estimate the flooded area using advanced and multifarious GIS and remote sensing approaches so that the sites could be developed for harnessing those sites for agricultural and energy drives.

Keywords: site suitability, check dams, SHP, terrain analysis, volume estimation

Procedia PDF Downloads 302