Search results for: λ-statistical cluster points

Authors: Eugene Stepanov, Arcady Ponosov

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To model gene regulatory networks one uses ordinary differential equations with switching nonlinearities, where the initial value problem is known to be well-posed if the trajectories cross the discontinuities transversally. Otherwise, the initial value problem is usually ill-posed, which lead to theoretical and numerical complications. In the presentation, it is proposed to apply the theory of hybrid dynamical systems, rather than switched ones, to regularize the problem. 'Hybridization' of the switched system means that one attaches a dynamic discrete component ('automaton'), which follows the trajectories of the original system and governs its dynamics at the points of ill-posedness of the initial value problem making it well-posed. The construction of the automaton is based on the classification of the attractors of the specially designed adjoint dynamical system. Several examples are provided in the presentation, which support the suggested analysis. The method can also be of interest in other applied fields, where differential equations contain switchings, e.g. in neural field models.

Keywords: hybrid dynamical systems, ill-posed problems, singular perturbation analysis, switching nonlinearities

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Authors: Debasish Nandy

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India’s foreign policy towards all of her neighbor countries is determinate on the basis of multi-dimensional factors. India’s relations with its South Asian neighbor can be classified into three categories. In the first category, there are four countries -Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Afghanistan- whose bilateral relationships have encompassed cooperation, irritants, problems and crisis at different points in time. With Pakistan, the relationship has been perpetually adversarial. The third category includes Bhutan and Maldives whose relations are marked by friendship and cooperation, free of any bilateral problems. It is needless to say that Jawaharlal Nehru emphasized on friendly relations with the neighboring countries. The subsequent Prime Ministers of India especially I.K. Gujral had advocated in making of peaceful and friendly relations with the subcontinental countries. He had given a unique idea to foster bilateral relations with the neighbors. His idea is known as ‘Gujral Doctrine’. A dramatical change has been witnessed in Indian foreign policy since 1991.In the post-Cold War period, India’s national security has been vehemently threatened by terrorism, which originated from Pakistan-Afghanistan and partly Bangladesh. India has required a cooperative security, which can be made by mutual understanding among the South Asian countries. Additionally, the countries of South Asia need to evolve the concept of ‘Cooperative Security’ to explain the underlying logic of regional cooperation. According to C. Rajamohan, ‘cooperative security could be understood, as policies of governments, which see themselves as former adversaries or potential adversaries to shift from or avoid confrontationist policies.’ A cooperative security essentially reflects a policy of dealing peacefully with conflicts, not merely by abstention from violence or threats but by active engagement in negotiation, a search for practical solutions and with a commitment to preventive measures. Cooperative assumes the existence of a condition in which the two sides possess the military capabilities to harm each other. Establishing cooperative security runs into a complex process building confidence. South Asian nations often engaged with hostility to each other. Extra-regional powers have been influencing their powers in this region since a long time. South Asian nations are busy to purchase military equipment. In spite of weakened economic systems, these states are spending a huge amount of money for their security. India is the big power in this region in every aspect. The big states- small states syndrome is a negative factor in this respect. However, India will have to an initiative to extended ‘track II diplomacy’ or soft diplomacy for its security as well as the security of this region.Confidence building measures could help rejuvenate not only SAARC but also build trust and mutual confidence between India and its neighbors in South Asia. In this paper, I will focus on different aspects of India’s policy towards it, South-Asian neighbors. It will also be searched that how India is dealing with these countries by using a mixed type of diplomacy – both idealistic and realistic points of view. Security and cooperation are two major determinants of India’s foreign policy towards its South Asian neighbors.

Keywords: bilateral, diplomacy, infiltration, terrorism

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Authors: A. Shirazibeheshti, T. Radwan, A. Ettefaghian, G. Wilson, C. Luca, Farbod Khanizadeh

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Anticholinergic medication has been associated with events such as falls, delirium, and cognitive impairment in older patients. To further assess this, anticholinergic burden scores have been developed to quantify risk. A risk model based on clustering was deployed in a healthcare management system to cluster patients into multiple risk groups according to anticholinergic burden scores of multiple medicines prescribed to patients to facilitate clinical decision-making. To do so, anticholinergic burden scores of drugs were extracted from the literature, which categorizes the risk on a scale of 1 to 3. Given the patients’ prescription data on the healthcare database, a weighted anticholinergic risk score was derived per patient based on the prescription of multiple anticholinergic drugs. This study was conducted on over 300,000 records of patients currently registered with a major regional UK-based healthcare provider. The weighted risk scores were used as inputs to an unsupervised learning algorithm (mean-shift clustering) that groups patients into clusters that represent different levels of anticholinergic risk. To further evaluate the performance of the model, any association between the average risk score within each group and other factors such as socioeconomic status (i.e., Index of Multiple Deprivation) and an index of health and disability were investigated. The clustering identifies a group of 15 patients at the highest risk from multiple anticholinergic medication. Our findings also show that this group of patients is located within more deprived areas of London compared to the population of other risk groups. Furthermore, the prescription of anticholinergic medicines is more skewed to female than male patients, indicating that females are more at risk from this kind of multiple medications. The risk may be monitored and controlled in well artificial intelligence-equipped healthcare management systems.

Keywords: anticholinergic medicines, clustering, deprivation, socioeconomic status

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Authors: Jiří Barta, Oldřich Svoboda, Jiří F. Urbánek

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In this paper will be discussed two coin´s sides of crisis scenarios dynamics. On the one's side is negative role of subsidiary scenario branches in its compactness weakening by means unduly chaotic atomizing, having many interactive feedbacks cases, increasing a value of a complexity here. This negative role reflects the complexity of use cases, weakening leader compliancy, which brings something as a ´readiness for controlling capabilities provision´. Leader´s dissatisfaction has zero compliancy, but factual it is a ´crossbar´ (interface in fact) between planning and executing use cases. On the other side of this coin, an advantage of rich scenarios embranchment is possible to see in a support of response awareness, readiness, preparedness, adaptability, creativity and flexibility. Here rich scenarios embranchment contributes to the steadiness and resistance of scenario mission actors. These all will be presented in live power-points ´Blazons´, modelled via DYVELOP (Dynamic Vector Logistics of Processes) on the Conference.

Keywords: leadership, controlling, complexity, DYVELOP, scenarios

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Authors: Divya Pande

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The dynamics of culture expresses itself in language. Even after India got independence in 1947 English subtly crept in the language of the masses with a silent and powerful flow towards the vernacular. The culture contact resulted in learning and emergence of a new language across the Hindi speaking belt of Northern and Central India. The hybrid words thus formed displaced the original word and got contextualized and absorbed in the language of the common masses. The research paper explores the interesting new vocabulary used extensively in the urban and rural districts of the state of Uttar- Pradesh which is the most populous state of India. The paper adopts a two way classification- formal and contextual for the analysis of the hybrid vocabulary of the linguistic items where one element is necessarily from the English language and the other from the Hindi. The new vocabulary represents languages of the wider world cutting across the geographical and the cultural barriers. The paper also broadly points out to the Hinglish commonly used in the state.

Keywords: assimilation, culture contact, Hinglish, hybrid words

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Authors: Ying Yuken, Pengfei Wang, Zhang Qilin, Xiao Ben

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Based on the main entrance and garden area (ME&G) project of Shanghai Disneyland, this paper introduces the application of BIM technology in this kind of low-rise comprehensive building with complex facade system, electromechanical system and decoration system. BIM technology is applied to the whole process of design, construction and completion of the whole project. With the construction of BIM application framework of the whole project, the key points of BIM modeling methods of different systems and the integration and coordination of BIM models are elaborated in detail. The specific application methods of BIM technology in similar complex low-rise building projects are sorted out. Finally, the paper summarizes the benefits of BIM technology application, and puts forward some suggestions for BIM management mode and practical application of similar projects in the future.

Keywords: BIM, complex low-rise building, BIM modeling, model integration and coordination, 3D scanning

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Authors: Etim, Victoria Enefiok, Dada, Oluseyi Akintunde, Bassey Okon

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Phonological disorder is a serious and disturbing issue to many parents and teachers. Efforts towards resolving the problem have been undermined by other specific disabilities which were hidden to many regular and special education teachers. It is against this background that this study was motivated to provide data on the prevalence of phonological disorders in children with specific language impairment (CWSLI) as the first step towards critical intervention. The study was a survey of 15 CWSLI from St. Louise Inclusive schools, Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. Phonological Processes Diagnostic Scale (PPDS) with 17 short sentences, which cut across the five phonological processes that were examined, were validated by experts in test measurement, phonology and special education. The respondents were made to read the sentences with emphasis on the targeted sounds. Their utterances were recorded and analyzed in the language laboratory using Praat Software. Data were also collected through friendly interactions at different times from the clients. The theory of generative phonology was adopted for the descriptive analysis of the phonological processes. Data collected were analyzed using simple percentage and composite bar chart for better understanding of the result. The study found out that CWSLI exhibited the five phonological processes under investigation. It was revealed that 66.7%, 80%, 73.3%, 80%, and 86.7% of the respondents have severe deficit in fricative stopping, velar fronting, liquid gliding, final consonant deletion and cluster reduction, respectively. It was therefore recommended that a nationwide survey should be carried out to have national statistics of CWSLI with phonological deficits and develop intervention strategies for effective therapy to remediate the disorder.

Keywords: language disorders, phonology, phonological processes, specific language impairment

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Authors: Joao Ferreira Do Rosario, Maria De Lurdes Calisto, Ana Teresa Machado, Nuno Gustavo, Rui Gonçalves

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The tourism sector is increasingly important to the economic performance of countries and a relevant theme to academic research, increasing the importance of understanding how and why tourists evaluate tourism locations. The city of Lisbon is currently a tourist destination of excellence in the European and world-wide panorama, registering a significant growth of the economic weight of its tourist activities in the Gross Added Value of the region. Although there is research on the feedback of those who visit tourist sites and different methodologies for studying tourist sites have been applied, this research seeks to be innovative in the objective of obtaining insights on the competitiveness in terms of attractiveness of the city of Lisbon as a tourist destination, based the feedback of tourists in the Facebook pages of the most visited museums and monuments of Lisbon, an interpretation that is relevant in the development of strategies of tourist attraction. The intangible dimension of the tourism offer, due to its unique condition of simultaneous production and consumption, makes eWOM particularly relevant. The testimony of consumers is thus a decisive factor in the decision-making and buying process in tourism. Online social networks are one of the most used platforms for tourists to evaluate the attractiveness's points of a tourism destination (e.g. cultural and historical heritage), with this user-generated feedback enabling relevant information about the customer-tourists. This information is related to the tourist experience representing the true voice of the customer. Furthermore, this voice perceived by others as genuine, opposite to marketing messages, may have a powerful word-of-mouth influence on other potential tourists. The relevance of online reviews sharing, however, becomes particularly complex, considering social media users’ different profiles or the possible and different sources of information available, as well as their associated reputation associated with each source. In the light of these trends, our research focuses on the tourists’ feedback on Facebook pages of the most visited museums and monuments of Lisbon that contribute to its attractiveness as a tourism destination. Sentiment Analysis is the methodology selected for this research, using public available information in the online context, which was deemed as an appropriate non-participatory observation method. Data will be collected from two museums (Museu dos Coches and Museu de Arte Antiga) and three monuments ((Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Torre de Belém and Panteão Nacional) Facebook pages during a period of one year. The research results will help in the evaluation of the considered places by the tourists, their contribution to the city attractiveness and present insights helpful for the management decisions regarding this museums and monuments. The results of this study will also contribute to a better knowledge of the tourism sector, namely the identification of attributes in the evaluation and choice of the city of Lisbon as a tourist destination. Further research will evaluate the Lisbon attraction points for tourists in different categories beyond museums and monuments, will also evaluate the tourist feedback from other sources like TripAdvisor and apply the same methodology in other cities and country regions.

Keywords: Lisbon tourism, opinion mining, sentiment analysis, tourism location attractiveness evaluation

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Authors: Tae-min Byun, Chang-soo Chon, Dong-hyun Seo, Han-sung Kim, Bum-mo Ahn, Hui-suk Yun, Cheolwoong Ko

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In this study, a 3-point bending computational analysis of normal and osteoporosis mouse models was performed based on the Micro-CT image information of the femurs. The finite element analysis (FEA) found 1.68 N (normal group) and 1.39 N (osteoporosis group) in the average maximum force, and 4.32 N/mm (normal group) and 3.56 N/mm (osteoporosis group) in the average stiffness. In the comparison of the 3-point bending test results, the maximum force and the stiffness were different about 9.4 times in the normal group and about 11.2 times in the osteoporosis group. The difference between the analysis and the test was greatly significant and this result demonstrated improvement points of the material properties applied to the computational analysis of this study. For the next study, the material properties of the mouse femur will be supplemented through additional computational analysis and test.

Keywords: 3-point bending test, mouse, osteoporosis, FEA

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Authors: Zikiou Nadia, Lahdir Mourad, Ameur Soltane

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In this paper, we propose an effective method for image compression based on SVM Regression (SVR), with three different kernels, and biorthogonal 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform. SVM regression could learn dependency from training data and compressed using fewer training points (support vectors) to represent the original data and eliminate the redundancy. Biorthogonal wavelet has been used to transform the image and the coefficients acquired are then trained with different kernels SVM (Gaussian, Polynomial, and Linear). Run-length and Arithmetic coders are used to encode the support vectors and its corresponding weights, obtained from the SVM regression. The peak signal noise ratio (PSNR) and their compression ratios of several test images, compressed with our algorithm, with different kernels are presented. Compared with other kernels, Gaussian kernel achieves better image quality. Experimental results show that the compression performance of our method gains much improvement.

Keywords: image compression, 2D discrete wavelet transform (DWT-2D), support vector regression (SVR), SVM Kernels, run-length, arithmetic coding

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Authors: Maria Georgiou

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This study examined whether there was a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest achievement scores for students who received multimedia-based instructions in science. The paired samples t-test was used to address the research question and to establish whether there was a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores that may have occurred based on the students’ learning experience with multimedia technology. Findings indicated that there was a significant difference in students’ achievement scores before and after a multimedia-based instruction. Students’ achievement scores were increased by approximately two points, after students received multimedia-based instruction. On a paired samples t-test, a high level of significance was found, p = 0.000. Opportunities to learn with multimedia are more likely to result in sustained improvements in student achievement and a deeper understanding of science content. Multimedia can make learning more active and student-centered and activate student motivation.

Keywords: constructivist learning, hyperstudio, multimedia, multimedia-based instruction

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Authors: Magdalena Jabłońska-Czapla

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The work allowed gaining knowledge about redox and speciation changes of As, Cr, and Sb ionic forms in Klodnica River water. This kind of studies never has been conducted in this region of Poland. In study optimized and validated previously HPLC-ICP-MS methods for determination of As, Sb and Cr was used. Separation step was done using high-performance liquid chromatograph equipped with ion-exchange column followed by ICP-MS spectrometer detector. Preliminary studies included determination of the total concentration of As, Sb and Cr, pH, Eh, temperature and conductivity of the water samples. The study was conducted monthly from March to August 2014, at six points on the Klodnica River. The results indicate that exceeded at acceptable concentration of total Cr and Sb was observed in Klodnica River and we should qualify Klodnica River waters below the second purity class. In Klodnica River waters dominates oxidized antimony and arsenic forms, as well as the two forms of chromium Cr(VI) and Cr(III). Studies have also shown the methyl derivative of arsenic's presence.

Keywords: antimony, arsenic, chromium, HPLC-ICP-MS, river water, speciation

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Authors: Huai-Cong Liu，Tae Chul Jeong，Ju Lee

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This paper describes characteristic analysis of a synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM)’s rotor with the Multi-segment and Multi-layer structure. The magnetic-saturation phenomenon in SynRM is often appeared. Therefore, when modeling analysis of SynRM the calculation of nonlinear magnetic field needs to be considered. An important influence factor on the convergence process is how to determine the relative permeability. An improved method, which ensures the calculation, is convergence by linear iterative method for saturated magnetic field. If there are inflection points on the magnetic curve,an optimum convergence method of solution for nonlinear magnetic field was provided. Then the equivalent magnetic circuit is calculated, and d,q-axis inductance can be got. At last, this process is applied to design a 7.5Kw SynRM and its validity is verified by comparing with the result of finite element method (FEM) and experimental test data.

Keywords: SynRM, magnetic-saturation, magnetic circuit, analytical modeling

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Authors: Mitra Sadoughi

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This study presents the knowledge-sharing model based on individual and organizational factors related to faculty members. To achieve this goal, individual and organizational factors were presented through qualitative research in the form of open codes, axial, and selective observations; then, the final model was obtained using structural equation model. Participants included 1,719 faculty members of the Azad Universities, Mazandaran Province, Region 3. The samples related to the qualitative survey included 25 faculty members experienced at teaching and the samples related to the quantitative survey included 326 faculty members selected by multistage cluster sampling. A 72-item questionnaire was used to measure the quantitative variables. The reliability of the questionnaire was 0.93. Its content and face validity was determined with the help of faculty members, consultants, and other experts. For the analysis of quantitative data obtained from structural model and regression, SPSS and LISREL were used. The results showed that the status of knowledge sharing is moderate in the universities. Individual factors influencing knowledge sharing included the sharing of educational materials, perception, confidence and knowledge self-efficiency, and organizational factors influencing knowledge sharing included structural social capital, cognitive social capital, social capital relations, organizational communication, organizational structure, organizational culture, IT infrastructure and systems of rewards. Finally, it was found that the contribution of individual factors on knowledge sharing was more than organizational factors; therefore, a model was presented in which contribution of individual and organizational factors were determined.

Keywords: knowledge sharing, social capital, organizational communication, knowledge self-efficiency, perception, trust, organizational culture

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Authors: Khairul Hasni

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A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the cessation of hostilities was signed by Aceh's longstanding adversaries (the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in August 2005. The Government of Indonesia has given the autonomy to Aceh Province of Indonesia, the Law Number 11 of 2006 the authority of the Aceh government to the implementation of the Islamic Sharia. The implementation of Islamic Sharia, Aceh can be a role model of Islam that glorifies women, the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh when enacted and got legality because it supported the socio-cultural and historical community. The value of the value of women's lives is shifted under the pressure of applying Islamic law, with this argument, the importance of justice and equality of policy enforcement in women's lives. Based on interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017 with women's activists, government officials, women non-governmental organizations in Aceh, this paper finds that there is lack of gender balance because of the many problems involving women in the enactment of regional regulations and control policies on women's bodies. The research points to ensure the implementation of Islamic Sharia practitioners have only directed to women and discrimination against women.

Keywords: women, policy, Islamic law, social

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Authors: Abdul Rehman, Bo Liu

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Axial flow turbines are commonly designed with high loads that generate strong secondary flows and result in high secondary losses. These losses contribute to almost 30% to 50% of the total losses. Non-axisymmetric endwall profiling is one of the passive control technique to reduce the secondary flow loss. In this paper, the non-axisymmetric endwall profile construction and optimization for the stator endwalls are presented to improve the efficiency of a high pressure turbine. The commercial code NUMECA Fine/ Design3D coupled with Fine/Turbo was used for the numerical investigation, design of experiments and the optimization. All the flow simulations were conducted by using steady RANS and Spalart-Allmaras as a turbulence model. The non-axisymmetric endwalls of stator hub and shroud were created by using the perturbation law based on Bezier Curves. Each cut having multiple control points was supposed to be created along the virtual streamlines in the blade channel. For the design of experiments, each sample was arbitrarily generated based on values automatically chosen for the control points defined during parameterization. The Optimization was achieved by using two algorithms i.e. the stochastic algorithm and gradient-based algorithm. For the stochastic algorithm, a genetic algorithm based on the artificial neural network was used as an optimization method in order to achieve the global optimum. The evaluation of the successive design iterations was performed using artificial neural network prior to the flow solver. For the second case, the conjugate gradient algorithm with a three dimensional CFD flow solver was used to systematically vary a free-form parameterization of the endwall. This method is efficient and less time to consume as it requires derivative information of the objective function. The objective function was to maximize the isentropic efficiency of the turbine by keeping the mass flow rate as constant. The performance was quantified by using a multi-objective function. Other than these two classifications of the optimization methods, there were four optimizations cases i.e. the hub only, the shroud only, and the combination of hub and shroud. For the fourth case, the shroud endwall was optimized by using the optimized hub endwall geometry. The hub optimization resulted in an increase in the efficiency due to more homogenous inlet conditions for the rotor. The adverse pressure gradient was reduced but the total pressure loss in the vicinity of the hub was increased. The shroud optimization resulted in an increase in efficiency, total pressure loss and entropy were reduced. The combination of hub and shroud did not show overwhelming results which were achieved for the individual cases of the hub and the shroud. This may be caused by fact that there were too many control variables. The fourth case of optimization showed the best result because optimized hub was used as an initial geometry to optimize the shroud. The efficiency was increased more than the individual cases of optimization with a mass flow rate equal to the baseline design of the turbine. The results of artificial neural network and conjugate gradient method were compared.

Keywords: artificial neural network, axial turbine, conjugate gradient method, non-axisymmetric endwall, optimization

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Authors: Heng Han, Zhilei Liang, Xiangong Zhou

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In this paper, the finite element method is used to study the temperature field of the main cable of the suspension bridge, and the calculation method of the average temperature of the cross-section of the main cable suitable for the construction control of the cable system is proposed; By comparing and analyzing the temperature field of the main cable with five diameters, a reasonable diameter limit for calculating the average temperature of the cross section of the main cable by finite element method is proposed. The results show that the maximum error of this method is less than 1℃, which meets the requirements of construction control accuracy; For the main cable with a diameter greater than 400mm, the surface temperature measuring points combined with the finite element method shall be used to calculate the average cross-section temperature.

Keywords: suspension bridge, main cable, temperature field, finite element

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Authors: Barbora Haltofová

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In recent years, citizens have become an important source of geographic information and, therefore, geo-crowdsourcing, often known as volunteered geographic information, has provided an interesting alternative to traditional mapping practices which are becoming expensive, resource-intensive and unable to capture the dynamic nature of urban environments. In order to address a gap in research literature, this paper deals with a survey conducted to assess the current state of geo-crowdsourcing, a recent phenomenon popular with people who collect geographic information using their smartphones. This article points out that there is an increasing body of knowledge of geo-crowdsourcing mobile applications in the Visegrad countries marked by the ubiquitous Internet connection and the current massive proliferation of smartphones. This article shows how geo-crowdsourcing can be used as a complement, or in some cases a replacement, to traditionally generated sources of spatial data and information in public management. It discusses the new spaces of citizen participation constructed by these geo-crowdsourcing practices.

Keywords: citizen participation, e-Government, geo-crowdsourcing, participatory mapping, mobile applications

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Authors: Varutorn Tulnawat, Padcharee Phasuk

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This paper investigates the issue of China’s dumping on border trade between Thailand and Laos. From the pass mostly, the border trade goods are traditional textile and garment mainly served locals and tourists which majority of traders is of small and medium size. In the present day the competition is fierce, the volume of trade has expanded far beyond its original intent. The major competitors in Thai-Laos border trade are China, Vietnam and also South Korea. This research measures and compares the efficiency and ability to survive the onslaught of Thai and Laos firm along Thailand (Nong Kai province) and Laos (Vientiane) border. Two attack strategies are observed, price cutting and incense such as full facilitation for big volume order. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied to data surveyed from 90 Thai and Laos entrepreneurs. The expected results are the proportion of efficiency and inefficiency firms. Points of inefficiency and suggested improvement are also discussed.

Keywords: border trade, dea, textile, garment

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Authors: Shruti Malviya, Chris Bowler

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Environmental processes acting at multiple spatial scales control marine diatom community structure. However, the contribution of local factors (e.g., temperature, salinity, etc.) in these highly complex systems is poorly understood. We, therefore, investigated the diatom community organization as a function of environmental predictors and determined the relative contribution of various environmental factors on the structure of marine diatoms assemblages in the world’s ocean. The dataset for this study was derived from the Tara Oceans expedition, constituting 46 sampling stations from diverse oceanic provinces. The V9 hypervariable region of 18s rDNA was organized into assemblages based on their distributional co-occurrence. Using Ward’s hierarchical clustering, nine clusters were defined. The number of ribotypes and reads varied within each cluster-three clusters (II, VIII and IX) contained only a few reads whereas two of them (I and IV) were highly abundant. Of the nine clusters, seven can be divided into two categories defined by a positive correlation with phosphate and nitrate and a negative correlation with longitude and, the other by a negative correlation with salinity, temperature, latitude and positive correlation with Lyapunov exponent. All the clusters were found to be remarkably dominant in South Pacific Ocean and can be placed into three classes, namely Southern Ocean-South Pacific Ocean clusters (I, II, V, VIII, IX), South Pacific Ocean clusters (IV and VII), and cosmopolitan clusters (III and VI). Our findings showed that co-occurring ribotypes can be significantly associated into recognizable clusters which exhibit a distinct response to environmental variables. This study, thus, demonstrated distinct behavior of each recognized assemblage displaying a taxonomic and environmental signature.

Keywords: assemblage, diatoms, hierarchical clustering, Tara Oceans

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Authors: Narissara Nuthammachot, Dimitris Stratoulias

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Fire is one of the main causes of environmental and ecosystem change. Therefore, it is a challenging task for fire risk assessment fire potential mapping. The study area is Hua Sai district, Nakorn Sri Thammarat province, which covers in a part of peat swamp forest areas. 55 fire points in peat swamp areas were reported from 2012 to 2016. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS) methods were selected for this study. The risk fire area map was arranged on these factors; elevation, slope, aspect, precipitation, distance from the river, distance from town, and land use. The results showed that the predicted fire risk areas are found to be in appreciable reliability with past fire events. The fire risk map can be used for the planning and management of fire areas in the future.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, fire risk assessment, geographic information system, peat swamp forest

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Authors: Smail Tigani, Mohamed Ouzzif

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This work presents a discrete quantitative state prediction algorithm with intelligent behavior making it able to self-improve some performance aspects. The specificity of this algorithm is the capacity of self-rectification of the prediction strategy before the final decision. The auto-rectification mechanism is based on two parallel mathematical models. In one hand, the algorithm predicts the next state based on event transition matrix updated after each observation. In the other hand, the algorithm extracts its residues trend with a linear regression representing historical residues data-points in order to rectify the first decision if needs. For a normal distribution, the interactivity between the two models allows the algorithm to self-optimize its performance and then make better prediction. Designed key performance indicator, computed during a Monte Carlo simulation, shows the advantages of the proposed approach compared with traditional one.

Keywords: discrete state, Markov Chains, linear regression, auto-adaptive systems, decision making, Monte Carlo Simulation

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Authors: Ammar Said Ahmed, M. Reissmann, R. Bortfeldt, G. A. Brockmann

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Milk protein genetic variants are of interest for characterizing domesticated mammalian species and breeds, and for studying associations with economic traits. The aim of this work was to analyze milk protein genetic variation in the Sudanese native cattle breeds, which have been gradually declining in numbers over the last years due to the breed substitution, and indiscriminate crossbreeding. The genetic variation at three milk protein genes αS1-casein (CSN1S1), αS2-casein (CSN1S2) and ƙ-casein (CSN3) was investigated in 250 animals belonging to five Bos indicus cattle breeds of Sudan (Butana, Kenana, White-nile, Erashy and Elgash). Allele specific primers were designed for five SNPs determine the CSN1S1 variants B and C, the CSN1S2 variants A and B, the CSN3 variants A, B and H. Allele, haplotype frequencies and genetic distances (D) were calculated and the phylogenetic tree was constructed. All breeds were found to be polymorphic for the studied genes. The CSN1S1*C variant was found very frequently (>0.63) in all analyzed breeds with highest frequency (0.82) in White-nile cattle. The CSN1S2*A variant (0.77) and CSN3*A variant (0.79) had highest frequency in Kenana cattle. Eleven haplotypes in casein gene cluster were inferred. Six of all haplotypes occurred in all breeds with remarkably deferent frequencies. The estimated D ranged from 0.004 to 0.049. The most distant breeds were White-nile and Kenana (D 0.0479). The results presented contribute to the genetic knowledge of indigenous cattle and can be used for proper definition and classification of the Sudanese cattle breeds as well as breeding, utilization, and potential development of conservation strategies for local breeds.

Keywords: milk protein, genetic variation, casein haplotype, Bos indicus

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Authors: Cynthia Sau Chun Yip, Richard Fielding

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High meat and especially red meat intakes are significantly and positively associated with a multiple burden of diseases and also high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study investigated population meat intake patterns in Hong Kong. It quantified the burden of disease and GHG emission outcomes by modeling to adjust Hong Kong population meat intakes to recommended healthy levels. It compared age- and sex-specific population meat, fruit and vegetable intakes obtained from a population survey among adults aged 20 years and over in Hong Kong in 2005-2007, against intake recommendations suggested in the Modelling System to Inform the Revision of the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE-2011-MS) technical document. This study found that meat and meat alternatives, especially red meat intakes among Hong Kong males aged 20+ years and over are significantly higher than recommended. Red meat intakes among females aged 50-69 years and other meat and alternatives intakes among aged 20-59 years are also higher than recommended. Taking the 2005-07 age- and sex-specific population meat intake as baselines, three counterfactual scenarios of adjusting Hong Kong adult population meat intakes to AGHE-2011-MS and Pre-2011 AGHE recommendations by the year 2030 were established. Consequent energy intake gaps were substituted with additional legume, fruit and vegetable intakes. To quantify the consequent GHG emission outcomes associated with Hong Kong meat intakes, Cradle-to-ready-to-eat lifecycle assessment emission outcome modelling was used. Comparative risk assessment of burden of disease model was used to quantify the health outcomes. This study found adjusting meat intakes to recommended levels could reduce Hong Kong GHG emission by 17%-44% when compared against baseline meat intake emissions, and prevent 2,519 to 7,012 premature deaths in males and 53 to 1,342 in females, as well as multiple burden of diseases when compared to the baseline meat intake scenario. Comparing lump sum meat intake reduction and outcome measures across the entire population, and using emission factors, and relative risks from individual studies in previous co-benefit studies, this study used age- and sex-specific input and output measures, emission factors and relative risks obtained from high quality meta-analysis and meta-review respectively, and has taken government dietary recommendations into account. Hence evaluations in this study are of better quality and more reflective of real life practices. Further to previous co-benefit studies, this study pinpointed age- and sex-specific population and meat-type-specific intervention points and leverages. When compared with similar studies in Australia, this study also showed that intervention points and leverages among populations in different geographic and cultural background could be different, and that globalization also globalizes meat consumption emission effects. More regional and cultural specific evaluations are recommended to promote more sustainable meat consumption and enhance global food security.

Keywords: burden of diseases, greenhouse gas emissions, Hong Kong diet, sustainable meat consumption

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Authors: T. Jivita, M. S. Salmiah

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The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of smoking, reasons for tried smoking, factors that influence smoking, and knowledge level on health risk among male Tamil primary school students. Seven urban Tamil primary schools in Kuala Lumpur were identified based on cluster sampling. A cross-sectional study was conducted in May 2014 and a total of 380 male children in standard 4 and 5 were selected. Survey included information on history of ever smoking even a puff, smoking a whole cigarette, smoking every day at least for 7 days, reasons for tried smoking, potential factors of smoking and knowledge related to smoking and health. Fifty seven had previously smoked, with a prevalence of 15.0% (95% CI = 11.4, 18.6) and 17 had smoked a whole cigarette (4.5%, 95% CI = 2.42, 6.58) while 8 had at least smoked 7 days continuously (2.1%, 95% CI = 0.66, 3.54). The reasons for tried smoking were because of curiosity (63.2%), it is not allowed (42.6%), it is relaxing (35.2%), it is cool (33.3%), to lose weight (20.4%), style (1.8%), by mistake (0.5%), for prayers purpose (0.3%), given by uncle (0.3%), and introduced by elder brother (0.3%). None of these reasons were associated with age factors (p > 0.05). Of those who had smoked a whole cigarette, 42.9% were significantly influenced by father (χ2 (1) = 6.42, p = 0.040) and 47.8% were significantly influenced by friends (χ2 (2) = 6.27, p = 0.043). Overall 91.5% had good level of knowledge about smoking, where the majority knew that smoking was dangerous to their health. However only 61.7% and 63.1% of them knew that smoking can cause high blood pressure and stroke, respectively. There is no significant different in mean rank between 10 years old and 11 years old students (p=0.987 < 0.05) for level of knowledge, tested by Mann-Whitney U Test. Odds of smoking increased 1.37 times having seen actors smoking (95% CI= 1.01, 1.86), 1.55 times having a father who smokes (95% CI= 1.26, 1.92), 1.64 times having siblings who smokes (95% CI= 1.32, 2.04), and 10.55 times having friends who offered cigarette (95% CI= 4.17, 26.68). As a conclusion, cessation of smoking in family members, who are role models, so as to reduce rates to taking up smoking among children.

Keywords: factors influence, knowledge on smoking, prevalence on smoking, reasons

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Authors: Anne Giles

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Trauma is generally defined as an experience, or multiple experiences, overwhelming a person's ability to cope. Over time, many people recover from the neurobiological, physical, and emotional effects of trauma on their own. For some people, however, troubling symptoms develop over time that can result in distress and disability. This cluster of symptoms is classified as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). People who meet the criteria for PTSD and other trauma-related disorder diagnoses often hold a set of understandable but unfounded beliefs about traumatic events that cause undue suffering. Becoming aware of unhelpful beliefs—termed "cognitive distortions"—and challenging them is the realm of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). A form of CBT found by researchers to be especially effective for PTSD is Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). Through the compassionate use of CPT, people identify, examine, challenge, and relinquish unhelpful beliefs, thereby reducing symptoms and suffering. Widely-held cultural beliefs can interfere with the progress of recovery from trauma-related disorders. Although highly revered, largely unquestioned, and often stabilizing, cultural beliefs can be founded in simplistic, dichotomous thinking, i.e., things are all right, or all wrong, all good, or all bad. The reality, however, is nuanced and complex. After studying examples of cultural beliefs from China and the United States and how these might interfere with trauma recovery, trauma counselors can help clients derive criteria for preserving helpful beliefs, discover, examine, and jettison unhelpful beliefs, reduce trauma symptoms, and live their lives more freely and fully.

Keywords: cognitive processing therapy (CPT), cultural beliefs, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma recovery

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Authors: Yuriy A. Knirel

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Enteric bacteria Escherichia coli is the predominant facultative anaerobe of the colonic flora, and some specific serotypes are associated with enteritis, hemorrhagic colitis, and hemolytic uremic syndrome. Shigella spp. are human pathogens that cause diarrhea and bacillary dysentery (shigellosis). They are in effect E. coli with a specific mode of pathogenicity. Strains of Salmonella enterica are responsible for a food-borne infection (salmonellosis), and specific serotypes cause typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever. All these bacteria are closely related in respect to structure and genetics of the lipopolysaccharide, including the O-polysaccharide part (O‑antigen). Being exposed to the bacterial cell surface, the O antigen is subject to intense selection by the host immune system and bacteriophages giving rise to diverse O‑antigen forms and providing the basis for typing of bacteria. The O-antigen forms of many bacteria are unique, but some are structurally and genetically related to others. The sequenced O-antigen gene clusters between conserved galF and gnd genes were analyzed taking into account the O-antigen structures established by us and others for all S. enterica and Shigella and most E. coli O-serogroups. Multiple genetic mechanisms of diversification of the O-antigen forms, such as lateral gene transfer and mutations, were elucidated and are summarized in the present paper. They include acquisition or inactivation of genes for sugar synthesis or transfer or recombination of O-antigen gene clusters or their parts. The data obtained contribute to our understanding of the origins of the O‑antigen diversity, shed light on molecular evolutionary relationships between the O-antigens of enteric bacteria, and open a way for studies of the role of gene polymorphism in pathogenicity.

Keywords: enteric bacteria, O-antigen gene cluster, polysaccharide biosynthesis, polysaccharide structure

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Authors: Mokhtar Nikgoo

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Definition of bridge: A bridge is a structure that allows people to pass through the communication road with two points. There are many different types of bridges, each of which is designed to perform a specific function. This article introduces the concept, history, components, uses, types, construction methods, selected factors, damage factors and principles of bridge maintenance. A bridge is a structure to cross a passage such as a water, valley or road without blocking another path underneath. This structure makes it possible to pass obstacles that are difficult or impossible to pass. There are different designs for bridge construction, each of which is used for a particular function and condition. In the old definition, a bridge is an arch over a river, valley, or any type of passage that makes traffic possible. But today, in the topic of urban management, the bridge is considered as a structure to cross physical barriers, so that while using space (not just the surface of the earth), it can facilitate the passage and access to places. The useful life of bridges may be between 30 and 80 years depending on the location and the materials used. But with proper maintenance and improvement, their life may last for hundreds of years.

Keywords: bridge, road construction, surveying, transportation

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Authors: Ghassan Al-Dulaimi

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This paper studied the biochemical parameter (BOD5) and (DO) for the Thames River (Canada-Ontario). Water samples have been collected from Thames River along different points between Chatham to Woodstock and were analysed for various water quality parameters during the low flow season (April). The study involves the application of the stream water quality model QUAL2K model to simulate and predict the dissolved oxygen (DO) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) profiles for Thames River in a stretch of 251 kilometers. The model output showed that DO in the entire river was within the limit of not less than 4 mg/L. For Carbonaceous Biochemical Oxygen Demand CBOD, the entire river may be divided into two main reaches; the first one is extended from Chatham City (0 km) to London (150 km) and has a CBOD concentration of 2 mg/L, and the second reach has CBOD range (2–4) mg/L in which begins from London city and extend to near Woodstock city (73km).

Keywords: biochemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, Thames river, QUAL2K model

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Authors: Ahmed Tarek, Ahmed Alveed

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In the theory of computing, there are a wide variety of direct and indirect proof techniques. However, mathematical induction (MI) stands out to be one of the most powerful proof techniques for proving hypotheses, theorems, and new results. There are variations of mathematical induction-based proof techniques, which are broadly classified into three categories, such as structural induction (SI), weak induction (WI), and strong induction (SI). In this expository paper, several different variants of the mathematical induction techniques are explored, and the specific scenarios are discussed where a specific induction technique stands out to be more advantageous as compared to other induction strategies. Also, the essential difference among the variants of mathematical induction are explored. The points of separation among mathematical induction, recursion, and logical deduction are precisely analyzed, and the relationship among variations of recurrence relations, and mathematical induction are being explored. In this context, the application of recurrence relations, and mathematical inductions are considered together in a single framework for codewords over a given alphabet.

Keywords: alphabet, codeword, deduction, mathematical, induction, recurrence relation, strong induction, structural induction, weak induction

Procedia PDF Downloads 150