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Authors: Simon Quick, John Lyle

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Psychology-based research has been a characteristic of empirical enquiry in sport coaching for over fifty years and cognitive function is widely accepted as a fundamental component of sport coaching expertise. Within the academic literature, much empirical research on coaches’ cognitions has tended to adopt retrospective approaches, such as post-session interviews or stimulated recall, thus capturing coaches’ cognitions after the incident, training session or competition. Such methods are prone to a variety of issues, including memory decay and the reordering of accounts. The aim of this research was to overcome the limitations that exist with retrospective approaches and, rather, to capture coaching cognitions in situ using Think Aloud Protocol. Data that were captured was broken down into meaning units and analysed using a Thematic Analysis. Situated in the practice of 6 experienced rugby coaches, findings revealed that Think Aloud Protocol generated rich data, although problematic in a site of enquiry confounded by multiple social interactions and requiring coaches to provide frequent instruction and feedback. The resultant interaction between cognition and action is conceptualised by the tentative offering of a model that situates these elements in conjunction with cognitive triggers and thresholds. The implications of these findings can help academics and coaches to understand the dynamic relationship between types of coaching cognitions and the complexity of the coaching environment.

Keywords: sports coaching, Psychology, Pedagogy, cognition

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Daniel J. Glauber

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Knowledge transfer between personnel could benefit an organization’s improved competitive advantage in the marketplace from a strategic approach to knowledge management. The lack of information sharing between personnel could create knowledge transfer gaps while restricting the decision-making processes. Knowledge transfer between personnel can potentially improve information sharing based on an implemented knowledge management strategy. An organization’s capacity to gain more knowledge is aligned with the organization’s prior or existing captured knowledge. This case study attempted to understand the overall influence of a KMS within the corporate environment and knowledge exchange between personnel. The significance of this study was to help understand how organizations can improve the Return on Investment (ROI) of a knowledge management strategy within a knowledge-centric organization. A qualitative descriptive case study was the research design selected for this study. The lack of information sharing between personnel may create knowledge transfer gaps while restricting the decision-making processes. Developing a knowledge management strategy acceptable at all levels of the organization requires cooperation in support of a common organizational goal. Working with management and executive members to develop a protocol where knowledge transfer becomes a standard practice in multiple tiers of the organization. The knowledge transfer process could be measurable when focusing on specific elements of the organizational process, including personnel transition to help reduce time required understanding the job. The organization studied in this research acknowledged the need for improved knowledge management activities within the organization to help organize, retain, and distribute information throughout the workforce. Data produced from the study indicate three main themes including information management, organizational culture, and knowledge sharing within the workforce by the participants. These themes indicate a possible connection between an organizations KMS, the organizations culture, knowledge sharing, and knowledge transfer.

Keywords: knowledge transfer, management, knowledge management strategies, organizational learning, codification

Procedia PDF Downloads 428

Authors: Abed Hannane, Rouag Noureddine

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The present study aims to evaluate the association of fresh garlic (Allium sativum L.) and storage at 4°C in preserving the microbiological, nutritional, and sanitary quality of Merguez-type sausages prepared and sold locally from meat offal. The analysis focused on the evaluation of the microbiological quality of fifteen samples randomly taken from several butcheries in the wilaya of BBA, eastern Algeria. The bacteriological analysis revealed the presence of 6.88.10⁵ CFU/g of total aerobic bacteria, 5.39.10⁵ CFU/g of total coliforms, 2.23.10⁵ CFU/g of fecal coliforms, 2.43.103 CFU/g of Escherichia coli and 1.8.10⁵ CFU/g of coagulase-positive staphylococci, values higher than Algerian standards. The addition of fresh garlic as an antibacterial preservative at concentrations of 0.06, 0.12, 0.18, and 0.24 g/g to ground beef samples and stored in the refrigerator at 4°C for 15 days. The addition of garlic to Merguez made it possible to significantly reduce the presence of different bacterial groups during their refrigerated storage, compared to untreated meat, bringing it below the standards defined in the matter. Thus, the use of garlic as a food additive at a concentration of 0.12 g/g was sufficient to obtain levels according to Algerian standards equal to 1.8.10⁴ CFU/g of total aerobic bacteria, 9.48.10³ CFU/ g of total coliforms, 3.68.10³ UFC/g fecal coliforms, 4.56.10² UFC/g of E.coli 2.39.10⁴ UFC/g of coagulase-positive staphylococci. It is clear that thanks to the addition of garlic to Merguez, the sanitary quality has been improved by reducing the aerobic bacterial load and increasing the shelf life at 4°C.

Keywords: antimicrobial effect, garlic, sausage, storage

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: T. C. Ng, R. Radzi, T. K. Ng, H. C. Chen

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The analgesic effects of lidocaine-bupivacaine block in cats undergoing routine orchiectomy were determined in this controlled, randomized, and blinded study. Twelve cats were randomly assigned to two groups. Cats in local block group received subcutaneous infiltration of 1 mg/kg of 2% lidocaine and 1 mg/kg of 0.5% bupivacaine into the scrotal sac. Cats in control group received equivolume of saline. Both groups were induced with mixture of ketamine (15 mg/kg) and acepromazine (0.1 mg/kg) intramuscularly and maintained on sevoflurane via facemask. Non-invasive blood pressures (BP), heart (HR), and respiratory rate (RR) were measured intra-operatively at specific events. Post-operatively, all cats received meloxicam, 0.2 mg/kg subcutaneously. Pain scores were determined at 4, 8, and 24 hours postoperatively. Mechanical pressure thresholds (MPT) at the perineum and metatarsus were determined at 2, 4, 8, and 24 hours postoperatively. Intra-operatively, the BP and HR tended to be higher in the control group. The increment in HR peaked during traction and autoligation of the spermatic cord in the control group. There was no treatment difference in RR. Post-operatively, pain scores in the group given local blocks were lower than the control group at 4 hour post-operation. There was no treatment difference in the post-operative HR, RR, BP and MPT values. In conclusion, subcutaneous infiltration of lidocaine-bupivacaine into the scrotal sac before orchiectomy improved intra-operative hemodynamic stability and provided better analgesia up to 4 hours post-surgery.

Keywords: analgesia, bupivacaine, cat, lidocaine, local block, orchiectomy

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Seyedeh-Fariba Jahanbin, Hasan Yusefzadeh, Bahram Nabilou, Cyrus Alinia, Cyrus Alinia

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Background: Due to the lack of a constant Willingness to Pay per one additional Quality Adjusted Life Years gained based on the preferences of Iran’s general public, the cost-efectiveness of health system interventions is unclear and making it challenging to apply economic evaluation to health resources priority setting. Methods: We have measured this cost-efectiveness threshold with the participation of 2854 individuals from fve provinces, each representing an income quintile, using a modifed Time Trade-Of-based Chained-Approach. In this online-based empirical survey, to extract the health utility value, participants were randomly assigned to one of two green (21121) and yellow (22222) health scenarios designed based on the earlier validated EQ-5D-3L questionnaire. Results: Across the two health state versions, mean values for one QALY gain (rounded) ranged from $6740-$7400 and $6480-$7120, respectively, for aggregate and trimmed models, which are equivalent to 1.35-1.18 times of the GDP per capita. Log-linear Multivariate OLS regression analysis confrmed that respondents were more likely to pay if their income, disutility, and education level were higher than their counterparts. Conclusions: In the health system of Iran, any intervention that is with the incremental cost-efectiveness ratio, equal to and less than 7402.12 USD, will be considered cost-efective.

Keywords: willingness to Pay, QALY, chained-approach, cost-efectiveness threshold, Iran

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Authors: Ashutosh Kumar, Irene M. C. Lo

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Ever since the discovery of TiO2 for decomposition of cyanide in water, it has been investigated extensively for the photocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants, and became the most practical and prevalent photocatalyst. The superiority of TiO2 is due to its chemical and biological inertness, nontoxicity, strong oxidizing power and cost-effectiveness. However, during degradation of pollutants in wastewater, it suffers from problems, such as (a) separation after use, and (b) its poor photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation (~45% of the solar spectrum). In order to bridge the research gaps, N-TiO2@SiO2@Fe3O4 nanophotocatalysts of average size 19 nm and effective surface area 47 m2 gm-1 were synthesized using sol-gel method. The characterization was performed using BET, TEM-EDX, VSM and XRD. The performance was improved by considering different factors involved during the synthesis, such as calcination temperature, amount of Fe3O4 nanoparticles used and amount of urea used for N-doping. The final nanophotocatalyst was calcined at 500 °C which was able to degrade 94% of the ibuprofen within 5 h of irradiation time. Under the influence of ~200 mT electromagnetic field, 95% nanophotocatalysts separation efficiency was achieved within 20-25 min. Moreover, the effect of different visible light source of similar irradiance, such as compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) and light emitting diode (LED), is also investigated in this research. The performance of nanophotocatalysts was found to be comparatively higher under ~310 µW cm-2 irradiance with peak emissive wavelengths of 543 nm emitted by CFL. Therefore, a promising visible-light-driven magnetically separable TiO2-based nanophotocatalysts was synthesized for the efficient degradation of ibuprofen.

Keywords: ibuprofen, magnetic N-TiO2, photocatalysis, visible light sources

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Authors: H. Abas Nejad, A. R. Teymoori

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Facial expression recognition is one of the open problems in computer vision. Robust neutral face recognition in real time is a major challenge for various supervised learning based facial expression recognition methods. This is due to the fact that supervised methods cannot accommodate all appearance variability across the faces with respect to race, pose, lighting, facial biases, etc. in the limited amount of training data. Moreover, processing each and every frame to classify emotions is not required, as the user stays neutral for the majority of the time in usual applications like video chat or photo album/web browsing. Detecting neutral state at an early stage, thereby bypassing those frames from emotion classification would save the computational power. In this work, we propose a light-weight neutral vs. emotion classification engine, which acts as a preprocessor to the traditional supervised emotion classification approaches. It dynamically learns neutral appearance at Key Emotion (KE) points using a textural statistical model, constructed by a set of reference neutral frames for each user. The proposed method is made robust to various types of user head motions by accounting for affine distortions based on a textural statistical model. Robustness to dynamic shift of KE points is achieved by evaluating the similarities on a subset of neighborhood patches around each KE point using the prior information regarding the directionality of specific facial action units acting on the respective KE point. The proposed method, as a result, improves ER accuracy and simultaneously reduces the computational complexity of ER system, as validated on multiple databases.

Keywords: neutral vs. emotion classification, Constrained Local Model, procrustes analysis, Local Binary Pattern Histogram, statistical model

Procedia PDF Downloads 328

Authors: J. E. Oti, J. M. Kinuthia, R. Robinson, P. Davies

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This work reports the potential of using Palm Kernel (PK) ash and shell as a partial substitute for Portland Cement (PC) and coarse aggregate in the development of mortar and concrete. PK ash and shell are agro-waste materials from palm oil mills, the disposal of PK ash and shell is an environmental problem of concern. The PK ash has pozzolanic properties that enables it as a partial replacement for cement and also plays an important role in the strength and durability of concrete, its use in concrete will alleviate the increasing challenges of scarcity and high cost of cement. In order to investigate the PC replacement potential of PK ash, three types of PK ash were produced at varying temperature (350-750 degrees) and they were used to replace up to 50% PC. The PK shell was used to replace up to 100% coarse aggregate in order to study its aggregate replacement potential. The testing programme included material characterisation, the determination of compressive strength, tensile splitting strength and chemical durability in aggressive sulfate-bearing exposure conditions. The 90 day compressive results showed a significant strength gain (up to 26.2 N/mm2). The Portland cement and conventional coarse aggregate has significantly higher influence in the strength gain compared to the equivalent PK ash and PK shell. The chemical durability results demonstrated that after a prolonged period of exposure, significant strength losses in all the concretes were observed. This phenomenon is explained, due to lower change in concrete morphology and inhibition of reaction species and the final disruption of the aggregate cement paste matrix.

Keywords: sustainability, concrete, mortar, palm kernel shell, compressive strength, consistency

Procedia PDF Downloads 375

Authors: Ivan Samokhin

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A new two-factor model of school students’ capacity levels is proposed. It considers the academic productivity and emotional condition of children taking part in the study process. Each basic level reflects the correlation of these two factors. The teacher decides whether the required result is achieved or not and write down the grade (from 'A' to 'F') in the register. During the term, the teacher can estimate the students’ progress with any intervals, but it is not desirable to exceed a two-week period (with primary school being an exception). Each boy or girl should have a special notebook to record the emotions which they feel studying a subject. The children can make their notes the way they like it – for example, using a ten-point scale or a short verbal description. It is recommended to record the emotions twice a day: after the lesson and after doing the homework. Before the students start doing this, they should be instructed by a school psychologist, who has to emphasize that an attitude to the subject – not to a person in charge of it – is relevant. At the end of the term, the notebooks are given to the teacher, who is now able to make preliminary conclusions about academic results and psychological comfort of each student. If necessary, some pedagogical measures can be taken. The data about a supposed capacity level is available for the teacher and the school administration. In certain cases, this information can be also revealed to the student’s parents, while the student learns it only after receiving a school-leaving certificate (until this moment, the results are not considered ultimate). Then a person may take these data into consideration when choosing his/her future area of higher education. We single out four main capacity levels: 'nominally low', 'inclination', 'ability' and 'gift'.

Keywords: academic productivity, capacity level, emotional condition, school students

Procedia PDF Downloads 212

Authors: Seon Tae Kim, Robert Hegner, Goksel Ozuylasi, Panagiotis Stathopoulos, Eberhard Nicke

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High-temperature heat pumps (HTHP) that can supply heat at temperatures above 200°C can enhance the energy efficiency of industrial processes and reduce the CO₂ emissions connected with the heat supply of these processes. In the current work, the thermodynamic performance of 3 different vapor compression cycles, which use R-718 (water) as a working medium, have been evaluated by using a commercial process simulation tool (EBSILON Professional). All considered cycles use two-stage vapor compression with intercooling between stages. The main aim of the study is to compare different intercooling strategies and study possible heat recovery scenarios within the intercooling process. This comparison has been carried out by computing the coefficient of performance (COP), the heat supply temperature level, and the respective mass flow rate of water for all cycle architectures. With increasing temperature difference between the heat source and heat sink, ∆T, the COP values decreased as expected, and the highest COP value was found for the cycle configurations where both compressors have the same pressure ratio (PR). The investigation on the HTHP capacities with optimized PR and exergy analysis has also been carried out. The internal heat exchanger cycle with the inward direction of secondary flow (IHX-in) showed a higher temperature level and exergy efficiency compared to other cycles. Moreover, the available operating range was estimated by considering mechanical limitations.

Keywords: high temperature heat pump, industrial process, vapor compression cycle, R-718 (water), thermodynamic analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: M. Caporale

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French Curricula across the US have recently suffered low enrollment and have experienced difficulties with retention, thus resulting in fewer students minoring and majoring in French and enrolling in upper-level classes. Successful undergraduate programs offer French courses with a strong cultural and interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary component. The World Language Curriculum in liberal arts colleges in America needs to take into account the cultural aspects of the language and encourage students to think critically about the country or countries they are studying. Limiting the critical inquiry to language or literature narrowly defined provides and incomplete and stagnant picture of France and the Francophone world in today's global community. This essay discusses the creation and implementation of a hybrid interdisciplinary L1/L2 course titled "Topics in Francophone Cinema" (subtitle "Francophone Women on Screen and Behind the Camera"). Content-based interdisciplinary courses undoubtedly increase the profile of French and Francophone cultural Studies by introducing students of other disciplines to fundamental questions relating to the French and Francophone cultures (in this case, women's rights in the Francophone world). At the same time, this study determines that through targeted reading and writing assignments, sustained aural exposure to L2 through film,and student participation in a one-credit supplementary weekly practicum (creative film writing workshop), significant advances in L2 competence are achieved with students' oral and written production levels evolving from Advanced Low to Advanced-mid, as defined by the ACFL guidelines. Use of differentiated assessment methods for L1/L2 and student learning outcomes for both groups will also be addressed.

Keywords: interdisciplinary, Francophone cultural studies, language competency, content-based

Procedia PDF Downloads 486

Authors: Irene Yi

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Machine learning, natural language processing, and neural network models of language are becoming more and more prevalent in the fields of technology and linguistics today. Training data for machines are at best, large corpora of human literature and at worst, a reflection of the ugliness in society. Machines have been trained on millions of human books, only to find that in the course of human history, derogatory and sexist adjectives are used significantly more frequently when describing females in history and literature than when describing males. This is extremely problematic, both as training data, and as the outcome of natural language processing. As machines start to handle more responsibilities, it is crucial to ensure that they do not take with them historical sexist and misogynistic notions. This paper gathers data and algorithms from neural network models of language having to deal with syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and text classification. Results are significant in showing the existing intentional and unintentional misogynistic notions used to train machines, as well as in developing better technologies that take into account the semantics and syntax of text to be more mindful and reflect gender equality. Further, this paper deals with the idea of non-binary gender pronouns and how machines can process these pronouns correctly, given its semantic and syntactic context. This paper also delves into the implications of gendered grammar and its effect, cross-linguistically, on natural language processing. Languages such as French or Spanish not only have rigid gendered grammar rules, but also historically patriarchal societies. The progression of society comes hand in hand with not only its language, but how machines process those natural languages. These ideas are all extremely vital to the development of natural language models in technology, and they must be taken into account immediately.

Keywords: gendered grammar, misogynistic language, natural language processing, neural networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Urooj Shafique, Salman Jamil

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In the context of an urban human life, city requires to meeting some standards which, at a glance are called the standards of a quality life. Measuring the quality of life according to particular social, economic and cultural conditions of a country and also the emphasis of a country twenty years visions on this issue has special importance. Cultural gathering spaces improve social and economic vitality on one side and on the other side provide favorable conditions for citizen leisure. But unfortunately these cultural gathering spaces in our society are losing their meaning and importance with time. Like coffee houses and libraries. Dedhee was the most prominent place among the cultural gathering spaces in Hazara division. People used to visit them in order to get something out of these spaces. At present they lie in our cities as places of no interest. Libraries are converted into storage houses where books lie untouched for years and years. The aim of my project is to create unique space that engage community members in the learning and creation process, where people can share their knowledge with others as well as enjoy their personal space. The spaces are flexible enough to accommodate people of different moods and interests, with the purpose of helping communities to become aware of their own cultures and to be socially engaged. The site for this specific project has been selected near Cantonment Park Abbottabad, Pakistan. The city of Abbottabad is famous for its writers, poets and storytellers. The site is selected next to the Cantonment Park, at a central location in the whole city so that it can attract users from almost every point of the city. The project provides a cultural gathering space for the people of the city where they can sit and discuss their ideas within a creative and expressive environment, which can represent the cultures of a community.

Keywords: cultural gathering space, Dedhee, Hazara literature, intellectuals’ hub

Procedia PDF Downloads 378

Authors: Dolly Gadhiya, Jayvadan Patel, Mihir Raval

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Lercanidipine hydrochloride is a calcium channel blockers used for treating angina pectoris and hypertension. Lercanidipine is a BCS Class II drug having poor aqueous solubility. Absolute bioavailability of Lercanidipine is very low and the main reason ascribed for this is poor aqueous solubility of the drug. Design and formulatation of nanocrystals by media milling method was main focus of this study. In this present study preliminary optimization was carried out with one factor at a time (OFAT) approach. For this different parameters like size of milling beads, amount of zirconium beads, types of stabilizer, concentrations of stabilizer, concentrations of drug, stirring speeds and milling time were optimized on the basis of particle size, polydispersity index and zeta potential. From the OFAT model different levels for above parameters selected for Plackett - Burman Design (PBD). Plackett-Burman design having 13 runs involving 6 independent variables was carried out at higher and lower level. Based on statistical analysis of PBD it was found that concentration of stabilizer, concentration of drug and stirring speed have significant impact on particle size, PDI, zeta potential value and saturation solubility. These experimental designs for preparation of nanocrystals were applied successfully which shows increase in aqueous solubility and dissolution rate of Lercanidipine hydrochloride.

Keywords: Lercanidipine hydrochloride, nanocrystals, OFAT, Plackett Burman

Procedia PDF Downloads 190

Authors: Xinyue Ma, Dishen Zhang, Yijun Liu, Yutian Jiang, Huiyan Yu, Chufeng Gu

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Conformity is defined as one in a social group changing his or her behavior to match the others’ behavior in the group. It is used to find that people show a higher level of online conformity behavior than offline. However, as anonymity can decrease the level of online conformity behavior, the difference between online and offline conformity behavior among Chinese college students still needs to be tested. In this study, college students (N = 60) have been randomly assigned into three groups: control group, offline experimental group, and online experimental group. Through comparing the results of offline experimental group and online experimental group with the Mann-Whitney U test, this study verified the results of Asch’s experiment, and found out that people show a lower level of online conformity behavior than offline, which contradicted the previous finding found in China. These results can be used to explain why some people make a lot of vicious remarks and radical ideas on the Internet but perform normally in their real life: the anonymity of the network makes the online group pressure less than offline, so people are less likely to conform to social norms and public opinions on the Internet. What is more, these results support the importance and relevance of online voting, because fewer online group pressures make it easier for people to expose their true ideas, thus gathering more comprehensive and truthful views and opinions.

Keywords: anonymity, Asch’s group conformity, Chinese college students, online conformity

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Sidney A. Lima, Hermann J. H. Kux, Elcio H. Shiguemori

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The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) usually navigate through the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) associated with an Inertial Navigation System (INS). However, GNSS can have its accuracy degraded at any time or even turn off the signal of GNSS. In addition, there is the possibility of malicious interferences, known as jamming. Therefore, the image navigation system can solve the autonomy problem, because if the GNSS is disabled or degraded, the image navigation system would continue to provide coordinate information for the INS, allowing the autonomy of the system. This work aims to evaluate the accuracy of the positioning though photogrammetry concepts. The methodology uses orthophotos and Digital Surface Models (DSM) as a reference to represent the object space and photograph obtained during the flight to represent the image space. For the calculation of the coordinates of the perspective center and camera attitudes, it is necessary to know the coordinates of homologous points in the object space (orthophoto coordinates and DSM altitude) and image space (column and line of the photograph). So if it is possible to automatically identify in real time the homologous points the coordinates and attitudes can be calculated whit their respective accuracies. With the methodology applied in this work, it is possible to verify maximum errors in the order of 0.5 m in the positioning and 0.6º in the attitude of the camera, so the navigation through the image can reach values equal to or higher than the GNSS receivers without differential correction. Therefore, navigating through the image is a good alternative to enable autonomous navigation.

Keywords: autonomy, navigation, security, photogrammetry, remote sensing, spatial resection, UAS

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Authors: Muhammad Arshad, Ghulam Hussain Bhatti, Abdul Qayyum

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Zinc-doped silica oxide nanoparticles having size 7.93nm were synthesized by the deposition precipitation method by using different solvents (acetonitrile, n-hexane, isoamylalchol). Biological potential such as antibacterial activities against Bacillussubtilusand Escherichia coli, and antifungal activities against Candida parapsilosis and Aspergilusniger were also investigated by Disc diffusion method. Different characterizations techniques including Fournier Transmission Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Thermo-gravimeteric Analysis (TGA), Atomic forced microscopy (AFM), and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) were used. FT-IR characterization confirmed the presence of metal oxide bond (SiO2) while XRD showed the hexagonal structure. SEM and TEM characterization showed the morphology of nanoparticles. AFM study showed good particle size distribution as depicted by a histogram. DLS study showed the gradual decease in the size of nanoparticles from 24.86nm to 13.24 nm. Highest antibacterial activities revealed by acetonitrile solvents (6%and 4.5%) followed by isoamylalchol (3% and 2.4%) while n-hexane solvent showed the lowest activity (2%and 1%) respectively. Higher antifungal activities exhibited by n-hexane (0.34 % and 0.43%) followed by isoamylalchol (0.27% and 0.19%) solvent while acetonitrile (0.21% and 0.17%) showed least activity respectively. Statistical analysis by using one-way ANOVA also indicated the significant results of both biological activities.

Keywords: nanoparticles, precipitation methods, antibacterial, antifungal, characterizations

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Authors: Dong-ping Yuan, Lin Gu, Jun Long, Jie Chen, Ni Jie, Ying-Li Shi

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Endometriosis is a common disease in women of reproductive age, whose classic characteristic is mononuclear cell infiltration into lesions. Shikonin is an anti-inflammatory phytocompound from Lithospermum erythrorhizon, whose potential therapeutic effects for the endometriosis remain unclear. The working hypothesis was that shikonin can inhibit the development of endometriosis by the inhibition of chemotactic effect. Shikonin significantly inhibited the growth of human endometrial tissue implanted into mice (P<0.05). No observable adverse effects were found. The mouse regulated upon activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted (mRANTES) level in peritoneal fluid of animal endometriosis model was higher than that in normal SCID mice (P<0.05), and decreased dramatically after shikonin treatment in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.05). Peritoneal fluid from NOD/SCID mice treated with shikonin inhibited monocytes chemotaxis, which could be abolished by mRANTES antibody. In vitro, shikonin significantly inhibited RANTES expression of U937 cells cultured alone or co-cultured with human methothelail cells and endometrial stromal cells, and inhibited RANTES-induced chemotaxis of U937 cells (P<0.05). The present results suggest that shikonin can inhibit the development of endometriosis by mechanisms that at least include the inhibition of RANTES expression and decreased migration of mononuclear cells to lesions. Shikonin may be a useful and safe new approach for treating endometriosis.

Keywords: endometriosis, shikonin, RANTES chemotaxis

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Authors: Abdulrazaq Yahaya, Omobola Okoh, Anthony Okoh

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Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are generated from short emission or leakage from capacitors and electrical transformers, industrial chemicals wastewater discharge and careless disposal of wastes. They are toxic, semi-volatile compounds which can persist in the environment, hence classified as persistent organic pollutants. Their presence in the environmental matrices has become a global concern. In this study, we assessed the concentrations and distribution patterns of 19 polychlorinated biphenyls congeners (PCB 1, 5, 18, 31, 44, 52, 66, 87, 101, 110, 138, 141, 151, 153, 170, 180, 183, 187, and 206) at six sampling points in water along the course of Buffalo River, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Solvent extraction followed by sulphuric acid, potassium permanganate and silica gel cleanup were used in this study. The analysis was done with gas chromatography electron capture detector (GC-ECD). The results of the analysis of all the 19 PCBs congeners ranged from not detectable to 0.52 ppb and 2.5 ppb during summer and autumn periods respectively. These values are generally higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) maximum permissible limit. Their presence in the waterbody suggests an increase in anthropogenic activities over the seasons. In view of their volatility, the compounds are transportable over long distances by air currents away from their point of origin putting the health of the communities at risk, thus suggesting the need for strict regulations on the use as well as save disposal of this group of compounds in the communities.

Keywords: organic pollutants, polychlorinated biphenyls, pollution, solvent extraction

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Authors: Kavita Jaidiya, Anju Chahar, Chitra Jaidiya

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The present study was conducted on 200 quarters from 50 apparently healthy cows. Samples are subjected to California Mastitis Test (CMT), cultural examination, and mPCR. Milk samples were also subjected to changes in composition Viz. fat, protein, and lactose. The prevalence of subclinical mastitis based on culture examination was 30(60/200), 36 (72/200), and 40 percent (93/200) based on CMT, culture examination, and mPCR on a quarterly basis. The prevalence of subclinical mastitis on animal basis was 40 (20/50), 46 (23/50), and 52 percent (26/50) based on CMT, Culture examination, and mPCR. The highest prevalence was observed in IVth parity on a quarterly basis and in Vth parity on cow basis. On culture examination, Staphylococcus aureus was the most prevalent organism (50.56%), followed by Streptococcus dysaglactiae (11.33%), E. coli (7.8 %), Staphylococcus agalactiae (13.48 %), Staphylococcus epidermidis (2.2 %), Streptococcus hyicus (6.94%), Streptococcus uberis (5.16%), Klebsiella pneumonia (6.74%). On isolation by bacterial mPCR, Staphylococcus spp. (42%) was the major pathogen. Organisms isolated in mixed infections are Streptococcus spp., Klebsiella pneumonia, E.coli and Pseudomonas aeruginous. The average mean value of fat, protein, and lactose content in subclinically affected milk samples were 3.40 ± 0.101, 3.009 ± 0.033, and 4.48 ± 0.03, and the mean value of fat, protein, and lactose content in normal milk were 4.13 ± 0.035, 3.39 ± 0.021, and 5.10 ± 0.016. The mean blood level of reduced glutathione in subclinical mastitis (30.44 ± 1.87 ng/ml) was lower than healthy cows (47.98 ± 4.04ng/ml). The concentration of malondialdehyde (10.026 ± 0.21mmol/L) in subclinical mastitis was significantly higher as compared to healthy group cows (2.19 ± 0.23mmol/L).

Keywords: cow, subclinical mastitis, mPCR, California Mastitis test

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Raghavi Janaswamy, Saraswathi K. Vasudev

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Music is ubiquitous in human lives. Ever since the fetus hears the sound inside the mother’s womb and later upon birth, the baby experiences alluring sounds, the curiosity of learning emanates and evokes exploration. Music is an education than mere entertainment. The intricate balance between music, education, and entertainment has well been recognized by the scientific community and is being explored as a viable tool to understand and improve human cognition. There are seven basic swaras (notes) Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, and Ni in the Carnatic music system that are analogous to C, D, E, F, G, A, and B of the western system. The Carnatic music builds on the conscious use of microtones, gamakams (oscillation), and rendering styles that evolved over centuries and established its stance. The complex but erudite raga system has been designed with elaborate experiments on srutis (musical sounds) and human perception abilities. In parallel, ‘rasa’- the emotions evoked by certain srutis and hence the ragas been solidified along with the power of language in combination with the musical sounds. The Carnatic music branches out as Kalpita sangeetam (pre-composed music) and Manodharma sangeetam (improvised music). This article explores the Manodharma sangeetam and its subdivisions such as raga alapana, swara kalpana, neraval, and ragam-tanam-pallavi (RTP). The intrinsic mathematical strategies in it’s practice methods toward improvising the music have been explored in detail with concert examples. The techniques on swara weaving for swara kalpana rendering and methods on the alapana development are also discussed at length with an emphasis on the impact on the human cognitive abilities. The articulation of the outlined conscious practice methods not only helps to leave a long-lasting melodic impression on the listeners but also onsets cognitive developments.

Keywords: Carnatic, Manodharmam, music cognition, Alapana

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Authors: Ebru Genc, Shih-Ching Wang

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In today’s globalized world, while companies move their production centers to developing countries in order to gain cost advantage, they receive negative responses from consumers because of the weak image of those countries. In this study, we looked at this tradeoff faced by multinational companies. Some companies that have headquarters in developed countries have devised a strategy of manipulating country-of-origin (COO) information by introducing the concept of country of design (COD). We analyzed the impact of country-of-manufacturing (COM) information on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention in the presence of different levels of COD information, namely, in terms of developed and developing countries. We found that it is not advantageous for a firm to publish a design location with a strong image if the firm is producing in a country that has a weak image. On the other hand, revealing COD information has a reinforcing effect on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention if the firm is producing in a country with a strong image. Second, we studied the impact of consumption context on this relationship (in terms of public or private use) and found that for products that are typically used in public, COM has significantly shown higher importance on product evaluation and purchase intention, compared to products typically used in private. However, our results show that consumption context shows no effect of an impact resulting from COD information.

Keywords: consumption context, country of design, country of manufacturing, country of origin

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Authors: Érick Aragão Ribeiro, George André Pereira Thé, José Marques Soares

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Several problems in industrial supervision software development projects may lead to the delay or cancellation of projects. These problems can be avoided or contained by using identification methods, analysis and control of risks. These procedures can give an overview of the possible problems that can happen in the projects and what are the immediate solutions. Therefore, we propose a risk management method applied to the teaching and development of industrial supervision software. The method is developed through a literature review and previous projects can be divided into phases of management and have basic features that are validated with experimental research carried out by mechatronics engineering students and professionals. The management is conducted through the stages of identification, analysis, planning, monitoring, control and communication of risks. Programmers use a method of prioritizing risks considering the gravity and the possibility of occurrence of the risk. The outputs of the method indicate which risks occurred or are about to happen. The first results indicate which risks occur at different stages of the project and what risks have a high probability of occurring. The results show the efficiency of the proposed method compared to other methods, showing the improvement of software quality and leading developers in their decisions. This new way of developing supervision software helps students identify design problems, evaluate software developed and propose effective solutions. We conclude that the risk management optimizes the development of the industrial process control software and provides higher quality to the product.

Keywords: supervision software, risk management, industrial supervision, project management

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu

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Viability and competency during competition is the dream of every team sports so as to have a good result. But it seems factors abound which deter the performance of even a good sports team. Different individuals with different state of mind all come together to perform in team sports with different degree of satisfaction. This study investigated the role of satisfaction on performance among Afe Babalola University team sports. Descriptive survey research design was used and the population consists of all male and female athletes in the team sports that participated in the last 2019 Ekiti State Higher Institution games (ESHIGA). Total enumeration technique was used for the three team sports; football (44), basketball (24) and volleyball (24). A total of 92 participants were involved in the research. The instrument used for the study was a modified Athlete Satisfaction Scale (ASS). The questionnaire was divided into two sections. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.71 was obtained. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 significant levels. The completed questionnaire was collated, coded, and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage and inferential statistics of chi-square (X²). Findings of this study revealed that satisfaction significantly influences team sports performance among Athletes of Afe Babalola University. The responsibility of satisfying athlete lies on the coaches, fans, sports administrators as well as organizers of such event, as it is not only financial reward that gives satisfaction. The performance of a team sports is quiet important and its being determined by the degree of satisfaction of each individual that make up the team. All effort must be made to satisfy athlete in order to guarantee optimum performance.

Keywords: athlete satisfaction, optimum achievement, optimum performance, sports performance and team sports

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Authors: Shuyu Zhang

Abstract:

The waterfront historical district, as a type of historical districts on the verge of waters such as the sea, lake, and river, have a relatively special urban form. In the past preservation and renewal of traditional historic districts, there have been many discussions on the land range, and the waterfront and marginal spaces are easily overlooked. However, the waterfront space of the historic districts, as a cultural landscape heritage combining historical buildings and landscape elements, has strong ecological and sustainable values. At the same time, Suzhou and Venice, as sister water cities in history, have more waterfront spaces that can be compared in urban form and other levels. Therefore, this paper focuses on the waterfront historic districts in Venice and Suzhou, establishes quantitative evaluation indicators for environmental perception, makes analogies, and promotes the renewal and activation of the entire historical district by improving the spatial quality and vitality of the waterfront area. First, this paper uses multi-source data for analysis, such as Baidu Maps and Google Maps API to crawl the street view of the waterfront historic districts, uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the proportion of cultural landscape elements such as green viewing rate in the street view pictures, and uses space syntax software to make quantitative selectivity analysis, so as to establish environmental perception evaluation indicators for the waterfront historic districts. Finally, by comparing and summarizing the waterfront historic districts in Venice and Suzhou, it reveals their similarities and differences, characteristics and conclusions, and hopes to provide a reference for the heritage preservation and renewal of other waterfront historic districts.

Keywords: waterfront historical district, cultural landscape, perception, multi-source Data

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Authors: Muhasin Koyiloth, Sathyanarayana N. Gummadi

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Biological membranes are ordered association of lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates. Lipids except sterols possess asymmetric distribution across the bilayer. Eukaryotic membranes possess a group of lipid translocators called scramblases that disrupt phospholipid asymmetry. Their action is implicated in cell activation during wound healing and phagocytic clearance of apoptotic cells. Cholesterol is one of the major membrane lipids distributed evenly on both the leaflet and can directly influence the membrane fluidity through the ordering effect. The fluidity has an impact on the activity of several membrane proteins. The palmitoylated phospholipid scramblases localized to the lipid raft which is characterized by a higher number of sterols. Here we propose that cholesterol can interact with scramblases through putative CRAC motif and can modulate their activity. To prove this, we reconstituted phospholipid scramblase 1 of C. elegans (SCRM-1) in proteoliposomes containing different amounts of cholesterol (Liquid ordered/Lo). We noted that the presence of cholesterol reduced the scramblase activity of wild-type SCRM-1. The interaction between SCRM-1 and cholesterol was confirmed by fluorescence spectroscopy using NBD-Chol. Also, we observed loss of such interaction when one of I273 in the CRAC motif mutated to Asp. Interestingly, the point mutant has partially retained scramblase activity in Lo vesicles. The current study elucidated the important interaction between cholesterol and SCRM-1 to fine-tune its activity in artificial membranes.

Keywords: artificial membranes, CRAC motif, plasma membrane, PL scramblase

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Authors: P. B. Thumar

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Today’s athletes face acute and unique challenges as the competition standards are higher and tougher. There are certain moments during a competition that appear to carry great psychological significance when the momentum starts to shift in one direction or another. These situations require athletes to remain completely focused and calm in facing the difficult circumstances. The purpose of the study was to compare the Mental Toughness level among the players of the team and individual sports. Purposive sampling was done in which subjects for the present study were the male students of The M. S. University of Baroda, Vadodara studying various courses in the academic year 2014-15. Thus, a total number of 120 boys were identified and included in the study from which 60 boys had participated in individual sports and 60 in team sports. ‘The Mental Toughness Questionnaire’ prepared by Dr. Alan Goldberg was used to determine mental toughness level of the players of the team and individual sports. The scores arrived from 60 individual players and 60 team players were compared by applying the t-test. Significant difference was found on overall Mental Toughness and in subcomponents there was significant difference in ability to handle pressure, concentration and confidence whereas there was no significant difference in reboundability and motivation among team and individual sports players. This could be largely due the nature of both sports. Team players of MSU found to be having more overall mental toughness, and team players are able to handle pressure more than individual players, can concentrate more and are also more confident while playing in the team. Team preparation and training prior to competition could have increased the level of ability to handle pressure, concentration and confidence of team players.

Keywords: mental toughness, reboundability, confidence, team sports, individual sports

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Authors: Zarema Urustamova, Chunsheng Shi, Ghulam Mujtaba Kayani 

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This research paper helps to understand the comparative analysis of recruitment problems which majorly faced by HRD of Public/Semi-Govt. and private sectors of Russia. The natures of different recruitment problems faced by HRD are different in both sector of Russia. Recruitment is one of very critical and important decision taken by HR department and some recruitment problems are highly faced by HR department of public/semi Govt. sector but are not major problems for private sector. Moreover, some problems are majorly influence in private sector but are not major problems in public/semi-govt. sector of Russia in recruitment. It is also identified that some recruitment problems are majorly affect in recruitment in both sectors. This paper helps to understand the recruitment problems faced by HR department while recruiting the new employee in both sectors. This paper also identified that “environment” and “prejudice” in public sector have higher affect and considered as a major problems in employee recruitment and “reference”, “selection standards” are considered as a least affecting problems of recruitment in public sector. Further, in private sector, “prejudice” and “culture” are major issues and “selection standards” and “reference” is considered as least affecting recruitment problems in private sector of Russia. So, HR department will be able to hire right person on right time, and it is possible when different HR departments focus to overcome these recruitment problems more efficiently and effectively.

Keywords: Govt. /Semi-Govt. vs. private sector, HR department, recruitment problems, Russia

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Authors: Salah Al-Enezi, Rashed Al-Zufairi, Naseer Ahmad

Abstract:

A Thermo-mechanical technique was developed to determine softening point temperature/glass transition temperature (Tg) of polystyrene exposed to high pressures. The design utilizes the ability of carbon dioxide to lower the glass transition temperature of polymers and acts as plasticizer. In this apparatus, the sorption of carbon dioxide to induce softening of polymers as a function of temperature/pressure is performed and the extent of softening is measured in three-point-flexural-bending mode. The polymer strip was placed in the cell in contact with the linear variable differential transformer (LVDT). CO₂ was pumped into the cell from a supply cylinder to reach high pressure. The results clearly showed that full softening point of the samples, accompanied by a large deformation on the polymer strip. The deflection curves are initially relatively flat and then undergo a dramatic increase as the temperature is elevated. It was found that increasing the pressure of CO₂ causes the temperature curves to shift from higher to lower by increment of about 45 K, over the pressure range of 0-120 bars. The obtained experimental Tg values were validated with the values reported in the literature. Finally, it is concluded that the defection model fits consistently to the generated experimental results, which attempts to describe in more detail how the central deflection of a thin polymer strip affected by the CO₂ diffusions in the polymeric samples.

Keywords: softening, high-pressure, polystyrene, CO₂ diffusions

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Authors: David Calderon Villegas, Thomas Kaltizky

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Run-of-river (RoR) hydropower projects represent a viable, clean, and cost-effective alternative to dam-based plants and provide decentralized power production. However, RoR schemes cost-effectiveness depends on the proper selection of site and design flow, which is a challenging task because it requires multivariate analysis. In this respect, this study presents the development of an investment decision support tool for assessing the optimal size of an RoR scheme considering the technical, environmental, and cost constraints. The net present value (NPV) from a project perspective is used as an objective function for supporting the investment decision. The tool has been tested by applying it to an actual RoR project recently proposed in Colombia. The obtained results show that the optimum point in financial terms does not match the flow that maximizes energy generation from exploiting the river's available flow. For the case study, the flow that maximizes energy corresponds to a value of 5.1 m3/s. In comparison, an amount of 2.1 m3/s maximizes the investors NPV. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the NPV as a function of the debt rate changes and the electricity prices and the CapEx. Even for the worst-case scenario, the optimal size represents a positive business case with an NPV of 2.2 USD million and an IRR 1.5 times higher than the discount rate.

Keywords: small hydropower, renewable energy, RoR schemes, optimal sizing, objective function

Procedia PDF Downloads 117