Search results for: humanitarian data management

Authors: Mohit Taneja, Ravi Kiran, S. C. Bose

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Entrepreneurs’ role in achieving Sustainable development goals is crucial as the growth potential of any region depends upon the number and the success rate of entrepreneurial firms. This paper is an effort to examine the relationship between Sustainable growth (SG) with Entrepreneurial attitude (EA) and Entrepreneurial intention (EI) in the context of the Indian economy. The mediation effect of EI between EA and SG has been considered. Partial least square (PLS) –Structural Equation Model (SEM) software was used to design the framework. Students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses of higher educational institutes (HEI) of Punjab, Haryana, and the National Capital Region NCR were contacted for data collection. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) framework was used in selecting HEIs and data collected from 589 students was considered for analysis. McGee’s multi-dimensional scale for measuring ESE and the scale of Linan & Chen for measuring EI & ES (SG) was used. Results highlight that EA has a strong impact on EI (p≤ 0.001) and EI has a positive and strong relationship with SG (ES) as β value for the same is 0.683 (p≤ 0.001). The current study also reflects the mediating effect of EI among EA and ES, as the results show that the combined β value of both EA and EI (i.e.0.684*0.683= 0.467) is more than the direct influence of EA on ES (β=0.265). EA, with the mediating effect of EI can enhance the opportunity for achieving SG, which suggests that in order to increase the venture success rate and to attain SG, emphasis should be given to EI along with EA. The study has been investigated in three regions of India. Future studies can be extended to other South Asian countries for generalization.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, sustainable growth, entrepreneurship intention, entrepreneurship attitude

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Authors: Walid Al-Qerem, Ruba Zumot

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Background: The rise of obesity among children and adolescents remains a primary challenge for healthcare providers globally and in the Middle East. The aim of the present study is to determine the prevalence of obesity among 5-20 years old Jordanians based on CDC criteria. Method: A total of 5722 Jordanians (37% males; 63% females) aged 5-20 years data were retrieved from the Jordanian Ministry of Health electronic database (Hakeem). As per the CDC selection criteria, the chosen data pertains exclusively to healthy Jordanian children and adolescents who are medically sound, not suffering from health conditions, and not undergoing any treatments that could hinder normal growth patterns, such as severe infection, chronic kidney disease (CKD), Down’s syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, cancer, heart disease, lung disease, cystic fibrosis, Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, hormonal disturbances, any stress-related conditions, hormonal therapy such as corticosteroids, Growth hormones (GHS) or gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, insulin, and amphetamines or any other stimulants. In addition, participants with missing or invalid data values for anthropometric measurements were excluded from the study. Weight for age and body mass index for age were analyzed comparatively for Jordanian children and adolescents against the international growth standards. The Z-score for each record was computed based on CDC equations. As per CDC classifications, BMI for age percentiles, values ≥85th and < 95th are classified as overweight, and value at ≥ 95th is classified as obesity. Results: The average age of the evaluated sample was 12.33 ±4.39 years (10.79 ±3.39 for males and 13.23 ± 4.66 for females). The mean weight for males and females were 33.16±14.17 Kg and 133.54±17.17 cm for males, 43.86 ±18.82 Kg, and 142.19±18.35 for females, while for BMI the mean was for boys and girls 17.81±3.88 and 20.52±5.03 respectively. The results indicated that based on CDC criteria, 8.9% of males were classified as children/adolescents with overweight, and 9.7% were classified as children/adolescents with obesity, while in females, 17.8% were classified as children/adolescents with overweight and 10.2% were classified as children/adolescents with obesity. Discussion: The high prevalence of obesity reported in the present study emphasizes the importance of applying different strategies to prevent childhood obesity, including encouraging physical activity, promoting healthier food options, and behavioral changes. Conclusion: The results presented in this study indicated the high prevalence of overweight/obesity among Jordanian adolescents and children, which must be tagged by healthcare planners and providers.

Keywords: CDC, obesity, childhood, Jordan

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Authors: Nurlisa Uke Dessy, Dwi Septian Erwinsyah, Zuprizal

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This experiment was aimed to investigate the effect of rosella flower flour in diet on broiler chicken Performace. The materials used in this experiment were 72 broiler chickens and were divided into six treatments, those were R0 = without rosella flower flour addition, R1 = 0.5% rosella flower flour addition, R2 = 1.0% rosella flower flour addition, R3 = 1.5% rosella flower flour addition, R4 = 2.0% rosella flower flour addition, and R5 = 2.5% rosella flower flour addition. Each treatment consisted of three replications and each replication consisted of four broiler chickens. This research took 35 days to collect the data. Parameters measured were feed intake, rosella flower flour consumption, body weight gain, feed conversion and mortality. The collected data were analyzed using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and the differences of mean were tested by Duncan’s New Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The result showed the average of feed consumption were 2154; 2154; 2034; 2154; 2034 and 2154 g/bird on broiler chicken that were feed respectively by 0.0; 0.5; 1.0; 1.5; 2.0; and 2.5% rosella flower flour level. The average consumptions of rosella flower flour respectively were 0; 10.77; 20.34; 32.31; 40.68; and 53.85 g/bird. The body weight gains were 1263.33±70.40; 1422.42±36.33; 1443.75±30.00; 1387.42± 35.30; 1411.17±29.58 and 1457.08±40.75 g/bird. Feed conversion results were 1.71±0.94; 1.51±0.37; 1.47±0.62; 1.55±0.40; 1.53±0.30 and 1.48±0.40. The conclusion of the experiment was known that using rosella flower flour until 2.5% level in diet was able to increase broiler chicken performance, and also to decrease broiler chicken feed conversion.

Keywords: feed intake, consumptions rosella flower flour, broiler chickens, body weight gain, feed conversion

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Authors: Yi-Ling Lin, Lu-Ming Tseng

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Customer sexual harassment is recognized as a serious problem in the personal selling industry. At a personal level, customer sexual harassment could have very negative impacts on the salespeople's physical and mental health. At the organizational level, customer sexual harassment is destructive in terms of organizational reputation. Therefore, this research takes Taiwan's life insurance salesperson as the research sample and explores the impacts of customer power and perceived behavioral control on the life insurance salespeople's whistleblowing intentions to report quid pro quo and hostile work environment types of customer sexual harassment. This study then investigates how personal factors (such as gender difference) may relate to the intentions. Questionnaires are often used as a data collection instrument in studies on workplace sexual harassment. This study collects data through questionnaire surveys, and the research sample of this research is the full-time life insurance salespeople in Taiwan. The hypotheses are examined by using PLS regression approach. The main results show that the types of customer sexual harassment, customer power, and gender are related to the whistleblowing intentions. To our best knowledge, this is the first empirical study to test the relationships among customer reward power, customer coercive power, perceived behavioral control, and the salespeople's whistleblowing intentions toward customer sexual harassment. The findings may provide some implications for the researchers and official authorities.

Keywords: customer sexual harassment, life insurance salespeople, perceived behavioral control, PLS regression

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Authors: Akinyemi Tomiwa

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The microstructure of rainfall is important for predicting and modeling various environmental processes, such as rainfall interception by vegetation, soil erosion, and radar signals in rainfall. This rain microstructure was studied with a vertically pointing Micro Rain Radar (MRR) located at a tropical location in Akure South West Nigeria (7o 15’ N, 5o 15’ E). This research utilizes two years of data (2018 and 2019), and the data obtained comprises rainfall parameters such as Rain rates, radar reflectivity, liquid water content, fall velocity and Drop Size Distribution (DSD) based on vertical profiles. The measurement and variations of rain microstructure of these parameters with heights for different rain types were presented from ground level up to the height of 4800 m at 160 m range gates. It has been found that the convective, stratiform and mixed, which are the three major rain types, have different rain microstructures at different heights and were evaluated in this research. The correlation coefficient and the regression line equation were computed for each rain event. The highest rain rate and liquid water content were observed within the height range of 160-4800. It was found that a good correlation exists between the measured parameters. Hence it shows that specific liquid water content increases with increasing rain rate for both stratiform and convective rain types in this part of the world. The results can be very useful for a better understanding of rain structure over tropical regions.

Keywords: rain microstructure, drop size distribution, rain rates, stratiform, convective.

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Authors: Zainab Fadil, Mouath Alawadhi, Abdullah Alhusainan, Fahad Alqadiri, Abdulaziz Alqadiri

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This study investigates how lightweight a fire resistance door will perform with under types of insulation materials. Data is initially collected from various websites, scientific books and research papers. Results show that different layers of insulation in a single door can perform better than one insulator. Furthermore, insulation materials that are lightweight, high strength and low thermal conductivity are the most preferred for fire-rated doors. Whereas heavy weight, low strength, and high thermal conductivity are least preferred for fire-resistance doors. Fire-rated doors specifications, theoretical test methodology, structural analysis, and comparison between five different models with diverse layers insulations are presented. Five different door models are being investigated with different insulation materials and arrangements. Model 1 contains an air gap between door layers. Model 2 includes phenolic foam, mild steel and polyurethane. Model 3 includes phenolic foam and glass wool. Model 4 includes polyurethane and glass wool. Model 5 includes only rock wool between the door layers. It is noticed that model 5 is the most efficient model and its design is simple compared to other models. For this model, numerical calculations are performed to check its efficiency and the results are compared to data from experiments for validation. Good agreement was noticed.

Keywords: fire resistance, insulation, strength, thermal conductivity, lightweight, layers

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Authors: Nkereke Mfon Essien

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In an ambisyllabic environment, one consonant sound simultaneously assumes both the coda and onset positions of a word due to its structural proclivity to affect two phonological processes or repair two ill-formed sequences in those syllable positions at the same time. This study sets out to examine the structural conditions that trigger this not-so-common phonological privilege for consonant sounds in the English language and Nigerian English and if such constraints could have any correspondence in the language studied. Data for the study were obtained from a native speaker of English who was the control and twenty (20) educated Nigerian speakers of English from the three ethnic/linguistic groups in Nigeria. Preliminary findings from the data show that ambisyllabicity in English is triggered mainly by stress, a condition which causes a consonant in a stressed syllable to become glottalised and simultaneously devoices the nearest voiced consonant in the next syllable. For example, in the word coupler,/'kʌplɜr/ is realized as ['kʌˀpl̥ɜr]. In some Nigerian English, preliminary findings show that ambisyllabicity is triggered by a sequence of intervocalic short, high central vowels and a coda nasal. Since the short vowel may not occur in an open syllable, the nasal serves to close the impermissible open syllable. However, since the Nigerian English foot structure does not permit a CVC.V syllable, the same coda nasal simultaneously repairs the impermissible syllable foot to (CV.CV) by applying the Maximal Onset Principle since this is a preliminary investigation, a conclusion would not suffice yet.

Keywords: ambisyllabicity, nasal, coda, stress, phonological process, syllable, foot

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Authors: Janet B. Badong-Badilla

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In Jesuit universities, laypersons, who come from the same or different faith backgrounds or traditions, are considered as collaborators in mission. The Jesuits themselves support the contributions of the lay partners in realizing the mission of the Society of Jesus and recognize the important role that they play in education. This study aims to investigate and generate particular notions and understandings of lived experiences of being a lay partner in Jesuit universities in the Philippines, particularly those involved in higher education. Using the qualitative approach as introduced by grounded theorist Barney Glaser, the lay partners’ concept of being a partner, as lived in higher education, is generated systematically from the data collected in the field primarily through in-depth interviews, field notes and observations. Glaser’s constant comparative method of analysis of data is used going through the phases of open coding, theoretical coding, and selective coding from memoing to theoretical sampling to sorting and then writing. In this study, Glaser’s grounded theory as a methodology will provide a substantial insight into and articulation of the layperson’s actual experience of being a partner of the Jesuits in education. Such articulation provides a phenomenological approach or framework to an understanding of the meaning and core characteristics of Jesuit-Lay partnership in Jesuit educational institution of higher learning in the country. This study is expected to provide a framework or model for lay partnership in academic institutions that have the same practice of having lay partners in mission.

Keywords: grounded theory, Jesuit mission in higher education, lay partner, lived experience

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Authors: Alireza Behfar, Mohammad Mahdavi

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Nowadays, in the light of progress in the world of science, technology and communications, mastery of learning international languages is a sure and needful matter. In learning any language as a second language, progress and achieving a desirable level in speaking is indeed important for approximately all learners. In this research, we find out how preparation can influence L2 learners' oral fluency with respect to individual differences in working memory capacity. The participants consisted of sixty-one advanced L2 learners including MA students of TEFL at Isfahan University as well as instructors teaching English at Sadr Institute in Isfahan. The data collection consisted of two phases: A working memory test (reading span test) and a picture description task, with a one-month interval between the two tasks. Speaking was elicited through speech generation task in which the individuals were asked to discuss four topics emerging in two pairs. The two pairs included one simple and one complex topic and was accompanied by planning time and without any planning time respectively. Each topic was accompanied by several relevant pictures. L2 fluency was assessed based on preparation. The data were then analyzed in terms of the number of syllables, the number of silent pauses, and the mean length of pauses produced per minute. The study offers implications for strategies to improve learners’ both fluency and working memory.

Keywords: two factors, fluency, working memory capacity, preparation, L2 speech production reading span test picture description

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Authors: Ahmed Emad Ahmed

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This paper aims to address the concept of human resources information systems (HRIS) and how to link it to new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to be implemented in two human resources processes. A literature view has been collected to cover the main points related to HRIS, AI, and BC. A study case has been presented by generating a random HRIS to apply some AI operations to it. Then, an algorithm was applied to the database to complete some human resources processes, including training and performance appraisal, using a pre-trained AI model. After that, outputs and results have been presented and discussed briefly. Finally, a conclusion has been introduced to show the ability of new technologies such as AI and ML to be applied to the human resources management processes.

Keywords: human resources new technologies, HR artificial intelligence, HRIS AI models, construction AI HRIS

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Authors: Z. Ulukan, E. Demircioğlu,

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Facility location is a complex real-world problem which needs a strategic management decision. This paper provides a general review on studies, efforts and developments in Facility Location Problems which are classical optimization problems having a wide-spread applications in various areas such as transportation, distribution, production, supply chain decisions and telecommunication. Our goal is not to review all variants of different studies in FLPs or to describe very detailed computational techniques and solution approaches, but rather to provide a broad overview of major location problems that have been studied, indicating how they are formulated and what are proposed by researchers to tackle the problem. A brief, elucidative table based on a grouping according to “General Problem Type” and “Methods Proposed” used in the studies is also presented at the end of the work.

Keywords: discrete location problems, exact methods, heuristic algorithms, single source capacitated facility location problems

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Authors: Neeru Deep, Kimberly McAlister

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Mental health issues have been increasing worldwide for many decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic has brought mental health issues into the spotlight. Within higher education, promoting the well-being of students has dramatically increased in focus. The Northwestern State University of Louisiana opened the Center for Positivity, Well-being, and Hope using the action research process of reflecting, planning, acting, and observing. The study’s purpose is two-fold: First, it highlights how to create a collaborative team to reflect, plan, and act to develop a well-being culture in higher education institutions. Second, it investigates the efficacy of the center through Seligman’s lenses. The researchers shared their experience in the first three phases of the action research process and then applied an identical concurrent mixed methods design. A purposive sample evaluated the efficacy of the center through Seligman’s lenses. The researcher administered PERMA-Profiler Measure, the PERMA-Profiler Measure overview, the CoPWH Evaluation I, and the CoPWH Evaluation II questionnaires to collect qualitative and quantitative data. The thematic analysis for qualitative and descriptive statistics for quantitative data concluded that the center creates a well-being culture and promotes well-being in college students. In conclusion, this action research shares the successful implementation of the cyclic process of research in promoting a well-being culture in higher education with the implications for promoting a well-being culture in various educational settings, workplaces, and communities.

Keywords: action research, mixed methods research design, Seligman, well-being.

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Authors: Jae-Chang Kwak, Yong-Seo Koo

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The high efficiency power management IC (PMIC) with switching device is presented in this paper. PMIC is controlled with PFM control method in order to have high power efficiency at high current level. Dynamic Threshold voltage CMOS (DT-CMOS) with low on-resistance is designed to decrease conduction loss. The threshold voltage of DT-CMOS drops as the gate voltage increase, resulting in a much higher current handling capability than standard MOSFET. PFM control circuits consist of a generator, AND gate and comparator. The generator is made to have 1.2MHz oscillation voltage. The DC-DC converter based on PFM control circuit and low on-resistance switching device is presented in this paper.

Keywords: DT-CMOS, PMIC, PFM, DC-DC converter

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Authors: S. Hutasavi, D. Chen

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The built-up area is a significant proxy to measure regional economic growth and reflects the Gross Provincial Product (GPP). However, an up-to-date and reliable database of built-up areas is not always available, especially in developing countries. The cloud-based geospatial analysis platform such as Google Earth Engine (GEE) provides an opportunity with accessibility and computational power for those countries to generate the built-up data. Therefore, this study aims to extract the built-up areas in Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), Thailand using day and nighttime satellite imagery based on GEE facilities. The normalized indices were generated from Landsat 8 surface reflectance dataset, including Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), Built-up Index (BUI), and Modified Built-up Index (MBUI). These indices were applied to identify built-up areas in EEC. The result shows that MBUI performs better than BUI and NDBI, with the highest accuracy of 0.85 and Kappa of 0.82. Moreover, the overall accuracy of classification was improved from 79% to 90%, and error of total built-up area was decreased from 29% to 0.7%, after night-time light data from the Visible and Infrared Imaging Suite (VIIRS) Day Night Band (DNB). The results suggest that MBUI with night-time light imagery is appropriate for built-up area extraction and be utilize for further study of socioeconomic impacts of regional development policy over the EEC region.

Keywords: built-up area extraction, google earth engine, adaptive thresholding method, rapid mapping

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Authors: Samson Olusegun Apantaku, Adetayo K. Aromolaran, Giyatt Hammed

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The study assessed the use of participatory research methods among Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria (FUNAAB) researchers. Simple random sampling technique was used to select one hundred and twenty respondents from the study area. Data were collected using a questionnaire. Data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Results showed that 75.8% of the respondents were males while only 21.3% were female. The mean age of the respondents was 38.8 years and most (77.5%) of them were married. 15% of the respondents were in professorial cadre, 21.7% and 20% of the respondents were senior lecturers/fellow and lecturer/research fellow I&II respectively. The results further revealed that 93.3% of the respondents were aware of participatory research methods and 82.5% of the respondents have utilized it before. The average period of usage was 2.7 years and participation by consultation (86.7%) and interactive participation (76.7%) were mostly used. Most (94.2%) indicated that fund was the major hindrance to the use of participatory research methods. The result of correlation analysis showed that there was significant relationship between the years of research experience, designation post (status) of the respondents and usage of participatory research methods (r = 0.034, 0.031, p < 0.05). The study concluded that most of the researchers were aware of and used participatory research methods, which could influence the quality of their research or make it acceptable to the end users. It was recommended that more funds should be made available and accessible for participatory research. All researchers should be trained and encouraged to make use of participatory research methods in their research activities so as to achieve effective research and capacity building that could enhance adoption of technologies and increase agricultural production in the country. Farmers’ capacity to participate in agricultural research should also be enhanced.

Keywords: participatory research, participatory research methods, awareness, utilization

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Authors: Ilyas Khan. Liliane Pintelon, Harry Martin, Michael Shömig

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The increasing costs of healthcare on one hand, and the rise in aging population and associated chronic disease, on the other hand, are putting increasing burden on the current health care system in many Western countries. For instance, chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common disease and in Europe, the cost of renal replacement therapy (RRT) is very significant to the total health care cost. However, the recent advancement in healthcare technology, provide the opportunity to treat patients at home in their own comfort. It is evident that home healthcare offers numerous advantages apparently, low costs and high patients’ quality of life. Despite these advantages, the intake of home hemodialysis (HHD) therapy is still low in particular in Germany. Many factors are accounted for the low number of HHD intake. However, this paper is focusing on patients’ safety-related factors of current HHD practices in Germany. The aim of this paper is to analyze the current HHD practices in Germany and to identify risks related factors if any exist. A case study has been conducted in a dialysis center which consists of four dialysis centers in the south of Germany. In total, these dialysis centers have 350 chronic dialysis patients, of which, four patients are on HHD. The centers have 126 staff which includes six nephrologists and 120 other staff i.e. nurses and administration. The results of the study revealed several risk-related factors. Most importantly, these centers do not offer allied health services at the pre-dialysis stage, the HHD training did not have an established curriculum; however, they have just recently developed the first version. Only a soft copy of the machine manual is offered to patients. Surprisingly, the management was not aware of any standard available for home assessment and installation. The home assessment is done by a third party (i.e. the machines and equipment provider) and they may not consider the hygienic quality of the patient’s home. The type of machine provided to patients at home is similar to the one in the center. The model may not be suitable at home because of its size and complexity. Even though portable hemodialysis machines, which are specially designed for home use, are available in the market such as the NxStage series. Besides the type of machine, no assistance is offered for space management at home in particular for placing the machine. Moreover, the centers do not offer remote assistance to patients and their carer at home. However, telephonic assistance is available. Furthermore, no alternative is offered if a carer is not available. In addition, the centers are lacking medical staff including nephrologists and renal nurses.

Keywords: home hemodialysis, home hemodialysis practices, patients’ related risks in the current home hemodialysis practices, patient safety in home hemodialysis

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Authors: Sareh Edalati, Nasrin Omidvar, Arezoo Haghighian Roudsari, Delaram Ghodsi, Azizollaah Zargaran

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Background and aim: Improving consumer’s food choices and providing a healthy food environment by governments is one of the essential approaches to prevent non-communicable diseases and to fulfill the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The present study aimed to provide an analysis of the nutrition labeling policy as one of the main components of the healthy food environment to provide learning lessons for the country and other low and middle-income countries. Methods: Data were collected by reviewing documents and conducting semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Respondents were selected through purposive and snowball sampling and continued until data saturation. MAXQDA software was used to manage data analysis. A deductive content analysis was used by applying the Kingdon multiple streams and the policy triangulation framework. Results: Iran is the first country in the Middle East and North Africa region, which has implemented nutrition traffic light labeling. The implementation process has gone through two phases: voluntary and mandatory. In the voluntary labeling, volunteer food manufacturers who chose to have the labels would receive an honorary logo and this helped to reduce the food-sector resistance gradually. After this phase, the traffic light labeling became mandatory. Despite these efforts, there has been poor involvement of media for public awareness and sensitization. Also, the inconsistency of nutrition traffic light colors which are based on food standard guidelines, lack of consistency between nutrition traffic light colors, the healthy/unhealthy nature of some food products such as olive oil and diet cola and the absence of a comprehensive evaluation plan were among the pitfalls and policy challenges identified. Conclusions: Strengthening the governance through improving collaboration within health and non-health sectors for implementation, more transparency of truthfulness of nutrition traffic labeling initiating with real ingredients, and applying international and local scientific evidence or any further revision of the program is recommended. Also, developing public awareness campaigns and revising school curriculums to improve students’ skills on nutrition label applications should be highly emphasized.

Keywords: nutrition labeling, policy analysis, food environment, Iran

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Authors: Tarek Aly

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The shoulder is the most mobile joint whose stability requires the interaction of both dynamic and static stabilizers. Its wide range of movement predisposes to a high susceptibility to dislocation, accounting for nearly 50% of all dislocations. This trauma typically results in ligament injury (e.g., labral tear, capsular strain) or bony fracture (e.g., loss of glenoid or humeral head bone), which frequently causes recurrent instability. Patients with significant glenoid defects may require Latarjet procedure, which involves transferring the coracoid to the antero-inferior glenoid rim. In spite of outstanding results, 15 to 30% of cases suffer complications. In this article, we discuss the diagnosis of recurrent shoulder instability, the surgical technique and various complications of Latarjet procedure.

Keywords: recurrent, anterior gleno-humeral instability, latarjet, unstable shoulder

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Authors: Shuo Mu, Guangzhi Jiang, Jinsa Chen

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The analysis of Indel for RNA sequencing of clinical samples is easily affected by sequencing experiment errors and software selection. In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of analysis, we developed an automatic reporting system for Indel recognition and annotation based on image snapshot of transcriptome reads alignment. This system includes sequence local-assembly and realignment, target point snapshot, and image-based recognition processes. We integrated high-confidence Indel dataset from several known databases as a training set to improve the accuracy of image processing and added a bioinformatical processing module to annotate and filter Indel artifacts. Subsequently, the system will automatically generate data, including data quality levels and images results report. Sanger sequencing verification of the reference Indel mutation of cell line NA12878 showed that the process can achieve 83% sensitivity and 96% specificity. Analysis of the collected clinical samples showed that the interpretation accuracy of the process was equivalent to that of manual inspection, and the processing efficiency showed a significant improvement. This work shows the feasibility of accurate Indel analysis of clinical next-generation sequencing (NGS) transcriptome. This result may be useful for RNA study for clinical samples with microsatellite instability in immunotherapy in the future.

Keywords: automatic reporting, indel, next-generation sequencing, NGS, transcriptome

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Authors: G. Henini, Y. Laidani, F. Souahi, A. Labbaci, S. Hanini

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Environmental contamination is a major problem being faced by the society today. Industrial, agricultural, and domestic wastes, due to the rapid development in the technology, are discharged in the several receivers. Generally, this discharge is directed to the nearest water sources such as rivers, lakes, and seas. While the rates of development and waste production are not likely to diminish, efforts to control and dispose of wastes are appropriately rising. Wastewaters from textile industries represent a serious problem all over the world. They contain different types of synthetic dyes which are known to be a major source of environmental pollution in terms of both the volume of dye discharged and the effluent composition. From an environmental point of view, the removal of synthetic dyes is of great concern. Among several chemical and physical methods, adsorption is a promising technique due to the ease of use and low cost compared to other applications in the process of discoloration, especially if the adsorbent is inexpensive and readily available. The focus of the present study was to assess the potentiality of Brahea edulis (BE) for the removal of synthetic dye Yellow bemacid (YB) from aqueous solutions. The results obtained here may transfer to other dyes with a similar chemical structure. Biosorption studies were carried out under various parameters such as mass adsorbent particle, pH, contact time, initial dye concentration, and temperature. The biosorption kinetic data of the material (BE) was tested by the pseudo first-order and the pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Thermodynamic parameters including the Gibbs free energy ΔG, enthalpy ΔH, and entropy ΔS have revealed that the adsorption of YB on the BE is feasible, spontaneous, and endothermic. The equilibrium data were analyzed by using Langmuir, Freundlich, Elovich, and Temkin isotherm models. The experimental results show that the percentage of biosorption increases with an increase in the biosorbent mass (0.25 g: 12 mg/g; 1.5 g: 47.44 mg/g). The maximum biosorption occurred at around pH value of 2 for the YB. The equilibrium uptake was increased with an increase in the initial dye concentration in solution (C_o = 120 mg/l; q = 35.97 mg/g). Biosorption kinetic data were properly fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The best fit was obtained by the Langmuir model with high correlation coefficient (R² > 0.998) and a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 35.97 mg/g for YB.

Keywords: adsorption, Brahea edulis, isotherm, yellow Bemacid

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Authors: Saad M. Darwish, Magda M. Madbouly, Murad B. Khorsheed

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Sign Languages (SL) are the most accomplished forms of gestural communication. Therefore, their automatic analysis is a real challenge, which is interestingly implied to their lexical and syntactic organization levels. Hidden Markov models (HMM’s) have been used prominently and successfully in speech recognition and, more recently, in handwriting recognition. Consequently, they seem ideal for visual recognition of complex, structured hand gestures such as are found in sign language. In this paper, several results concerning static hand gesture recognition using an algorithm based on Type-2 Fuzzy HMM (T2FHMM) are presented. The features used as observables in the training as well as in the recognition phases are based on Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). SVD is an extension of Eigen decomposition to suit non-square matrices to reduce multi attribute hand gesture data to feature vectors. SVD optimally exposes the geometric structure of a matrix. In our approach, we replace the basic HMM arithmetic operators by some adequate Type-2 fuzzy operators that permits us to relax the additive constraint of probability measures. Therefore, T2FHMMs are able to handle both random and fuzzy uncertainties existing universally in the sequential data. Experimental results show that T2FHMMs can effectively handle noise and dialect uncertainties in hand signals besides a better classification performance than the classical HMMs. The recognition rate of the proposed system is 100% for uniform hand images and 86.21% for cluttered hand images.

Keywords: hand gesture recognition, hand detection, type-2 fuzzy logic, hidden Markov Model

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Authors: D. Venu, N. V. Koteswara Rao

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Space – time adaptive processing (STAP) is an effective tool for detecting a moving target in spaceborne or airborne radar systems. Since airborne passive radar systems utilize broadcast, navigation and excellent communication signals to perform various surveillance tasks and also has attracted significant interest from the distinct past, therefore the need of the hour is to have cost effective systems as compared to conventional active radar systems. Moreover, requirements of small number of secondary samples for effective clutter suppression in bi-static passive radar offer abundant illuminator resources for passive surveillance radar systems. This paper presents a framework for incorporating knowledge sources directly in the space-time beam former of airborne adaptive radars. STAP algorithm for clutter mitigation for passive bi-static radar has better quantitation of the reduction in sample size thereby amalgamating the earlier data bank with existing radar data sets. Also, we proposed a novel method to estimate the clutter matrix and perform STAP for efficient clutter suppression based on small sample size. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified using MATLAB simulations in order to validate STAP algorithm for passive bi-static radar. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance for various applications which augments traditional active radars using cost-effective measures.

Keywords: bistatic radar, clutter, covariance matrix passive radar, STAP

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Authors: Riccardo Pasquali, Keith Harlin, Mark Muller

Abstract:

The ShallowTherm project is focussed on developing and applying a methodology for extrapolating relatively sparsely sampled thermal conductivity measurements across Ireland using mapped Litho-Electrical (LE) units. The primary data used consist of electrical resistivities derived from the Geological Survey Ireland Tellus airborne electromagnetic dataset, GIS-based maps of Irish geology, and rock thermal conductivities derived from both the current Irish Ground Thermal Properties (IGTP) database and a new programme of sampling and laboratory measurement. The workflow has been developed across three case-study areas that sample a range of different calcareous, arenaceous, argillaceous, and volcanic lithologies. Statistical analysis of resistivity data from individual geological formations has been assessed and integrated with detailed lithological descriptions to define distinct LE units. Thermal conductivity measurements from core and hand samples have been acquired for every geological formation within each study area. The variability and consistency of thermal conductivity measurements within each LE unit is examined with the aim of defining a characteristic thermal conductivity (or range of thermal conductivities) for each LE unit. Mapping of LE units, coupled with characteristic thermal conductivities, provides a method of defining thermal conductivity properties at a regional scale and facilitating the design of ground source heat pump closed-loop collectors.

Keywords: thermal conductivity, ground source heat pumps, resistivity, heat exchange, shallow geothermal, Ireland

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Sherine S. Aly, Fahd A. Hemeida, Mohamed A. Elshamy

Abstract:

In the face of rapid urbanization and the myriad challenges posed by climate change, population growth, and socio-economic disparities, fostering urban resilience has become paramount. This abstract offers a comprehensive overview of the study on "Urban Resilience Challenges," exploring the background, methodologies, major findings, and concluding insights. The paper unveils a spectrum of challenges encompassing environmental stressors and deep-seated socio-economic issues, such as unequal access to resources and opportunities. Emphasizing their interconnected nature, the study underscores the imperative for holistic and integrated approaches to urban resilience, recognizing the intricate web of factors shaping the urban landscape. Urbanization has witnessed an unprecedented surge, transforming cities into dynamic and complex entities. With this growth, however, comes an array of challenges that threaten the sustainability and resilience of urban environments. This study seeks to unravel the multifaceted urban resilience challenges, exploring their origins and implications for contemporary cities. Cities serve as hubs of economic, social, and cultural activities, attracting diverse populations seeking opportunities and a higher quality of life. However, the urban fabric is increasingly strained by climate-related events, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and social inequalities. Understanding the nuances of these challenges is crucial for developing strategies that enhance urban resilience and ensure the longevity of cities as vibrant and adaptive entities. This paper endeavors to discern strategic guidelines for enhancing urban resilience amidst the dynamic challenges posed by rapid urbanization. The study aims to distill actionable insights that can inform strategic approaches. Guiding the formulation of effective strategies to fortify cities against multifaceted pressures. The study employs a multifaceted approach to dissect urban resilience challenges. A qualitative method will be employed, including comprehensive literature reviews and data analysis of urban vulnerabilities that provided valuable insights into the lived experiences of resilience challenges in diverse urban settings. In conclusion, this study underscores the urgency of addressing urban resilience challenges to ensure the sustained vitality of cities worldwide. The interconnected nature of these challenges necessitates a paradigm shift in urban planning and governance. By adopting holistic strategies that integrate environmental, social, and economic considerations, cities can navigate the complexities of the 21st century. The findings provide a roadmap for policymakers, planners, and communities to collaboratively forge resilient urban futures that withstand the challenges of an ever-evolving urban landscape.

Keywords: resilient principles, risk management, sustainable cities, urban resilience

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Gul Nihal Gugul, Merih Aydinalp-Koksal

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In this study, hourly energy consumption model of a single detached house in Ankara, Turkey is developed using ESP-r building energy simulation software. Natural gas is used for space heating, cooking, and domestic water heating in this two story 4500 square feet four-bedroom home. Hourly electricity consumption of the home is monitored by an automated meter reading system, and daily natural gas consumption is recorded by the owners during 2013. Climate data of the region and building envelope data are used to develop the model. The heating energy consumption of the house that is estimated by the ESP-r model is then compared with the actual heating demand to determine the performance of the model. Scenarios are applied to the model to determine the amount of reduction in the total energy consumption of the house. The scenarios are using photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, ground source heat pumps for space heating and solar panels for domestic hot water generation. Alternative scenarios such as improving wall and roof insulations and window glazing are also applied. These scenarios are evaluated based on annual energy, associated CO2 emissions, and fuel expenditure savings. The pay-back periods for each scenario are also calculated to determine best alternative energy source or technology option for this home to reduce annual energy use and CO2 emission.

Keywords: ESP-r, building energy simulation, residential energy saving, CO2 reduction

Procedia PDF Downloads 199

Authors: Roman Graf, Sergiu Gordea, Heather M. Ryan

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This paper presents an approach for the classification of an unstructured format description for identification of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the employment of data mining techniques to support file format selection with just the unstructured text description that comprises the most important format features for a particular organisation. Subsequently, the file format indentification method employs file format classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation experts with an estimation of required file format. Our goal is to make use of a format specification knowledge base aggregated from a different Web sources in order to select file format for a particular institution. Using the naive Bayes method, the decision support system recommends to an expert, the file format for his institution. The proposed methods facilitate the selection of file format and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented approach is meant to facilitate decision making for the preservation of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert knowledge and specifications of file formats. To facilitate decision-making, the aggregated information about the file formats is presented as a file format vocabulary that comprises most common terms that are characteristic for all researched formats. The goal is to suggest a particular file format based on this vocabulary for analysis by an expert. The sample file format calculation and the calculation results including probabilities are presented in the evaluation section.

Keywords: data mining, digital libraries, digital preservation, file format

Procedia PDF Downloads 499

Authors: Ibitoye Olabode Clement

Abstract:

The huge amount of grants for infrastructures development in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria calls for transparency and accountability in the procurement process. However, questions have been raised concerning the judicious and appropriate use of the funds, and it was doubtful if the institutions complied with due process. This paper examined the causes of non-compliance with the Public Procurement Act (2007) in the procurement of Goods, Works, and Services through either direct or indirect processes of procurement, mostly in Tertiary Institutions of State government subvention institutions in Nigeria. Nigeria has over 120 public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of Education. This paper will take samples of some selected Institutions in southwest Nigeria. The institutions comprise 5 Universities, 5 Polytechnics, and 5 Colleges of Education / Health and Technology. The opinions of the institutions’ Procurement Officers on the tremendous investment through grants and interventions for infrastructure development in Tertiary Education Institutions (TEI) in Nigeria call for transparency and accountability in the procurement process. However, there are a lot of questions have been raised as to the judicious use of the funds, and it was doubtful if the institutions complied with due process. This study examined the causes of non-compliance with the Public Procurement Act (2007) in the procurement of Goods, Works, and Services in most State Government Public Institutions in Southwest Nigeria. Over, 120 public institutions comprising 5 Universities, 5 Polytechnics, and 5 Colleges of Education / Health and Technology were used for the study. The opinions of the institutions’ Procurement Officers on the causes of non-compliance with the Act in their procurement process were sought using a structured questionnaire. The results revealed that non-independent of Procurement Officers, non-compliance with the Act by some at the managerial level, claiming inadequate knowledge of the Act, non-employment of qualified and experienced Procurement officers, insufficient publicity of the Act, and non-existence of corporate governance led to poor management of procurement record and non-provision of incentive, Inability to separate the duties of Internal Auditors and Procurement Officers, Inability to translate procurement entity at large which makes nearly all at departmental level believe they procurement officers. Conclusively, on taking the Procurement Officers through interviewing having it that: the right educational and professional qualifications, understanding of the Act, sufficient cognate working experience, recruiting most professionals needed if not all, and occupying management position will enhance compliance. Hence, in addition, adopting an external empowered department from the Bureau should raise for monitoring the compliance mostly in State Government Tertiary Education Institution. Also, an organizational culture with a corporate governance structure that supports the engagement of the right and qualified personnel to handle procurement, encourages them to perform at their best and rewards excellent service by giving incentives, and operates within an administrative environment devoid of corruption.

Keywords: non compliance of procurement act, tertiary education institution, university, polytechnic and college of education/ health science and technology, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 104

Authors: Salwa Hagag Abdelaziz, Naglaa Fathy Youssef, Nadia Abdellatif Hassan, Rasha Wesam Abdelrahman

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Breast cancer is considered as a substantial health concern and practicing mammography screening [MS] is important in minimizing its related morbidity. So it is essential to have a better understanding of breast cancer screening behaviors of women and factors that influence utilization of them. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that are linked to MS behaviors among the Egyptian women. A cross-sectional descriptive design was carried out to provide a snapshot of the factors that are linked to MS behaviors. A convenience sample of 311 women was utilized and all eligible participants admitted to the Women Imaging Unit who are 40 years of age or above, coming for mammography assessment, not pregnant or breast feeding and who accepted to participate in the study were included. A structured questionnaire was developed by the researchers and contains three parts; Socio-demographic data; Motivating factors associated with MS; and association between MS and model of behavior change. The analyzed data indicated that most of the participated women (66.6 %) belonged to the age group of 40-49.A high proportion of participants (58.1%) of group having previous MS influenced by their neighbors to practice MS, whereas 32.7 % in group not having previous MS were influenced by family members which indicated significant differences (P <0.05). Doctors and media are shown to be the least influence of others to practice MS. Women with intention to have a future mammogram had higher OR (1.404) for practicing MS compared with women with no intention. Further studies are needed to examine the relation between Trans-theoretical Model [TTM] and practicing MS.

Keywords: breast cancer, mammography, screening behaviors, morbidity

Procedia PDF Downloads 442

Authors: F. Ghandehari, H. Lu, L. El-Jahel, D. Jayasuriya

Abstract:

Disagreement among investors is a fundamental aspect of financial markets, significantly influencing market dynamics. Measuring this disagreement has traditionally posed challenges, often relying on proxies like analyst forecast dispersion, which are limited by biases and infrequent updates. Recent movements in social media indicate that retail investors actively seek financial advice online and can influence the stock market. The evolution of the investing landscape, particularly the rise of social media as a hub for financial advice, provides an alternative avenue for real-time measurement of investor sentiment and disagreement. Platforms like Reddit offer rich, community-driven discussions that reflect genuine investor opinions. This research explores how social media empowers retail investors and the potential of leveraging textual analysis of social media content to capture daily fluctuations in investor disagreement. This study investigates the relationship between daily investor disagreement and trading volume, focusing on the role of social media platforms in shaping market dynamics, specifically using data from WallStreetBets (WSB) on Reddit. This paper uses data from 2020 to 2023 from WSB and analyses 4,896 firms with enough social media activity in WSB to define stock-day level disagreement measures. Consistent with traditional theories that disagreement induces trading volume, the results show significant evidence supporting this claim through different disagreement measures derived from WSB discussions.

Keywords: disagreement, retail investor, social finance, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 39

Authors: M. Babul Hasan

Abstract:

Management sciences (MS), big group of companies and industries or government policies (GP) is affiliated with a huge number of decision ingredients and complicated restrictions. Every factor in MS, every product in Industries or decision in GP is not always bankable in practice. After formulating these models there arises large-scale mixed integer programming (MIP) problem. In this paper, we developed decomposition-based pricing procedure to filter the unnecessary decision ingredients from MIP where the variables in huge number will be abated and the complicacy of restrictions will be elementary. A real life numerical example has been illustrated to demonstrate the methods. We develop the computer techniques for these methods by using a mathematical programming language (AMPL).

Keywords: Lagrangian relaxation, decomposition, sub-problem, master-problem, pricing, mixed IP, AMPL

Procedia PDF Downloads 505