Search results for: real time model

Authors: Andrii Shalaginov, Katrin Franke, Xiongwei Huang

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One of the leading problems in Cyber Security today is the emergence of targeted attacks conducted by adversaries with access to sophisticated tools. These attacks usually steal senior level employee system privileges, in order to gain unauthorized access to confidential knowledge and valuable intellectual property. Malware used for initial compromise of the systems are sophisticated and may target zero-day vulnerabilities. In this work we utilize common behaviour of malware called ”beacon”, which implies that infected hosts communicate to Command and Control servers at regular intervals that have relatively small time variations. By analysing such beacon activity through passive network monitoring, it is possible to detect potential malware infections. So, we focus on time gaps as indicators of possible C2 activity in targeted enterprise networks. We represent DNS log files as a graph, whose vertices are destination domains and edges are timestamps. Then by using four periodicity detection algorithms for each pair of internal-external communications, we check timestamp sequences to identify the beacon activities. Finally, based on the graph structure, we infer the existence of other infected hosts and malicious domains enrolled in the attack activities.

Keywords: malware detection, network security, targeted attack, computational intelligence

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Authors: Necati Içer

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Crop-hail insurance plays a vital role in managing risks and reducing the financial consequences of hail damage on crop production. Predicting insurance premium rates with short-term data is a major difficulty in numerous nations because of the unique characteristics of hailstorms. This study aims to suggest a feasible approach for establishing equitable premium rates in crop-hail insurance for nations with short-term insurance data. The primary goal of the rate-making process is to determine premium rates for high and zero loss costs of villages and enhance their credibility. To do this, a technique was created using the author's practical knowledge of crop-hail insurance. With this approach, the rate-making method was developed using a range of temporal and spatial factor combinations with both hypothetical and real data, including extreme cases. This article aims to show how to incorporate the temporal and spatial elements into determining fair premium rates using short-term insurance data. The article ends with a suggestion on the ultimate premium rates for insurance contracts.

Keywords: crop-hail insurance, premium rate, short-term insurance data, spatial and temporal parameters

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: K. A. Bindu, T. V. Raja, P. M. Rojan, A. Siby

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The multivariate path coefficient approach was employed to study the effects of various production and reproduction traits on the slaughter body weight of rabbits. Information on 562 rabbits maintained at the university rabbit farm attached to the Centre for Advanced Studies in Animal Genetics, and Breeding, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Kerala State, India was utilized. The manifest variables used in the study were age and weight of dam, birth weight, litter size at birth and weaning, weight at first, second and third months. The linear multiple regression analysis was performed by keeping the slaughter weight as the dependent variable and the remaining as independent variables. The model explained 48.60 percentage of the total variation present in the market weight of the rabbits. Even though the model used was significant, the standardized beta coefficients for the independent variables viz., age and weight of the dam, birth weight and litter sizes at birth and weaning were less than one indicating their negligible influence on the slaughter weight. However, the standardized beta coefficient of the second-month body weight was maximum followed by the first-month weight indicating their major role on the market weight. All the other factors influence indirectly only through these two variables. Hence it was concluded that the slaughter body weight can be predicted using the first and second-month body weights. The principal components were also developed so as to achieve more accuracy in the prediction of market weight of rabbits.

Keywords: component analysis, multivariate, slaughter, regression

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Authors: D: Gupta, M. Radhakrishnan, Y. Kurhe, D. Thangaraj

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Depression is among the leading causes of death worldwide. The current pharmacotherapy is associated with poor compliance, resistance and relapse, which necessitate the development of novel compounds with better efficacy. The present study designed and synthesized EQC-34 (N-cyclohexyl-3-ethoxyquinoxalin-2-carboxamide) as novel serotonin type-3 (5HT3) antagonist and evaluated its antidepressant-like effects using neurobehavioral mouse model. 5HT3 antagonism (as pA2 value) was determined on the longitudinal smooth muscle of guinea-pig ileum against 2-methyl-5HT (a 5HT3 agonist). The doses were calculated by dose response of basal locomotor activity. Consequently, effects of EQC-34 on neurobehavioral parameters were measured in forced swim (FST) and tail suspension test (TST). The possible mechanism was estimated by interaction study with fluoxetine (a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) and mCPBG (1-(m-chlorophenyl)-biguanide, a selective 5HT3 agonist), and confirmed by potentiation of head twitch response by 5hydroxy-L-tryptophan (5HTP). EQC-34 (1-4 mg/kg, i.p.) produced significant decreased behavioral despair effects in FST and TST. It potentiated fluoxetine response, while mCPBG reduced EQC-34 activity in FST. Further, EQC-34 potentiated 5HTP induced head twitch response. EQC-34 revealed potential antidepressant-like effects, which may involve 5HT3 receptor mediated facilitation of 5HT neurotransmission, thereby reversing the pathological deficiency of monoamines (5HT) observed in depression. Thus, it may be further investigated as promising agent to improve therapeutics of depression.

Keywords: depression, forced swim test, 5HT3 receptor antagonist, serotonin

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Authors: H. Solomon, A. Abdul-Latif, R. Baleh, I. Deiab, K. Khanafer

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Aluminum foams were developed and tested due to their high energy absorption abilities for multifunctional applications. The aim of this research work was to investigate experimentally the effect of quasi-static biaxial loading complexity (combined compression-torsion) on the energy absorption capacity of highly uniform architecture open-cell aluminum foam manufactured by kelvin cell model. The two generated aluminum foams have 80% and 85% porosities, spherical-shaped pores having 11mm in diameter. These foams were tested by means of several square-section specimens. A patented rig called ACTP (Absorption par Compression-Torsion Plastique), was used to investigate the foam response under quasi-static complex loading paths having different torsional components (i.e., 0°, 37° and 53°). The main mechanical responses of the aluminum foams were studied under simple, intermediate and severe loading conditions. In fact, the key responses to be examined were stress plateau and energy absorption capacity of the two foams with respect to loading complexity. It was concluded that the higher the loading complexity and the higher the relative density, the greater the energy absorption capacity of the foam. The highest energy absorption was thus recorded under the most complicated loading path (i.e., biaxial-53°) for the denser foam (i.e., 80% porosity).

Keywords: open-cell aluminum foams, biaxial loading complexity, foams porosity, energy absorption capacity, characterization

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Authors: Hyun Chang Kim, Yong Hun Jung, Kyung Woon Jeung

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Background: From the viewpoint of cardiac pump theory, the area of the left ventricle (LV) subjected to compression increases as the LV lies closer to the sternum, possibly resulting in higher blood flow in patients with LV closer to the sternum. However, no study has evaluated LV position during cardiac arrest or its relationship with hemodynamic parameters during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The objectives of this study were to determine whether the position of the LV relative to the anterior-posterior axis representing the direction of chest compression shifts during cardiac arrest and to examine the relationship between LV position and hemodynamic parameters during CPR. Methods: Subcostal view echocardiograms were obtained from 15 pigs with the transducer parallel to the long axis of the sternum before inducing ventricular fibrillation (VF) and during cardiac arrest. Computed tomography was performed in three pigs to objectively observe LV position during cardiac arrest. LV position parameters including the shortest distance between the anterior-posterior axis and the mid-point of the LV chamber (DAP-MidLV), the shortest distance between the anterior-posterior axis and the LV apex (DAP-Apex), and the area fraction of the LV located on the right side of the anterior-posterior axis (LVARight/LVATotal) were measured. Results: DAP-MidLV, DAP-Apex, and LVARight/LVATotal decreased progressively during untreated VF and basic life support (BLS), and then increased during advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS). A repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant time effects for these parameters. During BLS, the end-tidal carbon dioxide and systolic right atrial pressure were significantly correlated with the LV position parameters. During ACLS, systolic arterial pressure and systolic right atrial pressure were significantly correlated with DAP-MidLV and DAP-Apex. Conclusions: LV position changed significantly during cardiac arrest compared to the pre-arrest baseline. LV position during CPR had significant correlations with hemodynamic parameters.

Keywords: heart arrest, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, heart ventricle, hemodynamics

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Authors: Teresa Azevedo PerdicoúLis, Paulo Lopes Dos Santos

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The conceptualisation of the problem of network optimisation as a noncooperative game sets up a holistic interactive approach that brings together different network features (e.g., com-pressor stations, sources, and pipelines, in the gas context) where the optimisation objectives are different, and a single optimisation procedure becomes possible without having to feed results from diverse software packages into each other. A mathematical model of this type, where independent entities take action, offers the ideal modularity and subsequent problem decomposition in view to design a decentralised algorithm to optimise the operation and management of the network. In a game framework, compressor stations and sources are under-stood as players which communicate through network connectivity constraints–the pipeline model. That is, in a scheme similar to tatonnementˆ, the players appoint their best settings and then interact to check for network feasibility. The devolved degree of network unfeasibility informs the players about the ’quality’ of their settings, and this two-phase iterative scheme is repeated until a global optimum is obtained. Due to network transients, its optimisation needs to be assessed at different points of the control interval. For this reason, the proposed approach to optimisation has two stages: (i) the first stage computes along the period of optimisation in order to fulfil the requirement just mentioned; (ii) the second stage is initialised with the solution found by the problem computed at the first stage, and computes in the end of the period of optimisation to rectify the solution found at the first stage. The liability of the proposed scheme is proven correct on an abstract prototype and three example networks.

Keywords: connectivity matrix, gas network optimisation, large-scale, noncooperative game, system decomposition

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Authors: Mustapha Bouhoun Ali, Ahmed Yacine Badjah Hadj Ahmed, Mouloud Attou, Abdel Hamid Elias, Mohamed Amine Didi

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The extraction of uranium(VI) from aqueous solutions has been investigated using 1-hydroxyhexadecylidene-1,1-diphosphonic acid (HHDPA) and 1-hydroxydodecylidene-1,1-diphosphonic acid (HDDPA), which were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis and by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 31P NMR spectroscopy. In this paper, we propose a tentative assignment for the shifts of those two ligands and their specific complexes with uranium(VI). We carried out the extraction of uranium(VI) by HHDPA and HDDPA from [carbon tetrachloride + 2-octanol (v/v: 90%/10%)] solutions. Various factors such as contact time, pH, organic/aqueous phase ratio and extractant concentration were considered. The optimum conditions obtained were: contact time = 20 min, organic/aqueous phase ratio = 1, pH value = 3.0 and extractant concentration = 0.3M. The extraction yields are more significant in the case of the HHDPA which is equipped with a hydrocarbon chain, longer than that of the HDDPA. Logarithmic plots of the uranium(VI) distribution ratio vs. pHeq and the extractant concentration showed that the ratio of extractant to extracted uranium(VI) (ligand/metal) is 2:1. The formula of the complex of uranium(VI) with the HHDPA and the DHDPA is UO2(H3L)2 (HHDPA and DHDPA are denoted as H4L). A spectroscopic analysis has showed that coordination of uranium(VI) takes place via oxygen atoms.

Keywords: liquid-liquid extraction, uranium(VI), 1-hydroxyalkylidene-1, 1-diphosphonic acids, HHDPA, HDDPA, aqueous solution

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Authors: Eman Muhammad Rashwan

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The identity of the state in many Middle East countries today, between secularity and religiousness, is an important and controversial question. Specially after the sweeping repels in number of countries that put Islamic parties in power. In this paper two role model states in this respect, are under examination to answer the question of how their identity that was expressed in their constitutions influenced the allocation of power between different state authorities. In the beginning both the criteria used to define the two concepts of secularity and religiousness, and the reason why these two states are particularly chosen for comparison, are explained. The situation in Turkey is firstly indicated. The constitutional system shows that power is divided between parliament, cabinet and the president. The first two authorities have the most significant powers, and generally, the system in Turkey is similar to many other secular states in the world. But when the research moves to the system in Iran, the importance of comparison starts to appear. In this section, the nature of Islamic Shi’a of Iran Republic is discussed, and also its influence on the main and unique authorities of this religious state, which don`t only include the president and council of ministers, but also The Supreme Leader and The Council of Guardians. This paper doesn`t aim to favor a one system over another, and doesn`t discuss the influences of the two systems on the social or economic situation in the two model states. The aim of this paper is to study the influence of excluding, and applying religion in respect to allocation of power in constitutions.

Keywords: comparative law, constitutional systems, secular states, religious states

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Authors: Saleh Alumaran, Giampaolo Bella, Feng Chen

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The study of organisations’ information security cultures has attracted scholars as well as healthcare services industry to research the topic and find appropriate tools and approaches to develop a positive culture. The vast majority of studies in Saudi national health services are on the use of technology to protect and secure health services information. On the other hand, there is a lack of research on the role and impact of an organisation’s cultural dimensions on information security. This research investigated and analysed the role and impact of cultural dimensions on information security in Saudi Arabia health service. Hypotheses were tested and two surveys were carried out in order to collect data and information from three major hospitals in Saudi Arabia (SA). The first survey identified the main cultural-dimension problems in SA health services and developed an initial information security culture framework model. The second survey evaluated and tested the developed framework model to test its usefulness, reliability and applicability. The model is based on human behaviour theory, where the individual’s attitude is the key element of the individual’s intention to behave as well as of his or her actual behaviour. The research identified six cultural dimensions: Saudi national culture, Saudi health service leadership, employees’ trust, technology, multicultural interactions and employees’ job roles. The research also identified a set of cultural sub-dimensions. These include working values and norms, tribe values and norms, attitudes towards women, power sharing, vision, social interaction, respect and understanding, hospital intra-net, hospital employees’ language(s) used, multi-national culture, communication system, employees’ job satisfaction and job security. The research identified that (a) the human behaviour towards medical information in SA is one of the main threats to information security and one of the main challenges to SA health authority, (b) The current situation of SA hospitals’ IS cultures is falling short in protecting medical information due to the current value and norms towards information security, (c) Saudi national culture and employees’ job role are the main dimensions playing major roles in the employees’ attitude, and technology is the least important dimension playing a role in the employees’ attitudes.

Keywords: cultural dimension, electronic health record, information security, privacy

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Authors: Mohammed Abdelsabour-Khalaf, F. Yusuf , B Brand-Saberi

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Purpose: Applications of nanotechnology nowadays extended to include a wide range of scientific areas such electron micrscopy and gene expression. The aim of the current study was to investigate the developmental expression pattern of genes involved in human glomerulo-nephropathies associated with massive proteinuria and podocyte differentiation using the chicken mesonephros as a model system. Method: We performed in situ hybridization using chicken specific mRNA probes for genes expressed in the early nephron and slit diaphragm genes. The probes used were cNeph1, cNeph2, cSim1, cLmx1b, and cAtoh8. Chicken embryos from Hamburger Hamilton developmental stage HH19 (E3) to HH 34 (E9) were used for the in situ hybridization (ISH). ISH was performed on whole mount embryos which were sectioned by vibratome. Results: Our result show that Neph1, Neph2, Sim1. Lmx1b and Atoh8 genes are dynamically expressed during nephron morphogenesis and Neph1 and Atoh8 are also specifically expressed in the podocytes during late stages of differentiation. Conclusion: We conclude from our results that the genes implicated in congenital and acquired glomerulo-nephropathies like Neph1 and Neph2 are dynamically expressed during mesonephros development pointing towards a role in the formation of the filtration barrier and the differentiation of the mesonephric podocytes. Thus the avian mesonephros could serve as a model to study human kidney diseases.

Keywords: mesonephros, chicken embryo, gene expression, immunohistochemistry

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Authors: Deepak Raj Bhat, Akihiko Wakai, Shigeru Ogita, Yorihiro Tanaka, Kazushige Hayashi, Shinro Abe

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In this study, the newly developed finite element methods are used for numerical analysis ofa landslide triggered by the fluctuations of ground-water levels in different cases I-IV. In case I, the ground-water level is fixed in such a way that the overall factor of safety (Fs) would be greater or equal to 1 (i.e., stable condition). Then, the ground-water level is gradually increased up to 1.0 m for, making the overall factor of safety (Fs) less than one (i.e., stable or moving condition). Then, the newly developed finite element model is applied for numerical simulation of the slope for each case. Based on the numerical analysis results of each Cases I-IV, the details of the deformation pattern and shear strain pattern are compared to each other. Moreover, the change in mobilized shear strength and local factor of safety along the slip surface of the landslide for each case are discussed to understand the triggering behaviors of a landslide due to the increased in ground water level. It is expected that this study will help to better understand the role of groundwater fluctuation for triggering of a landslide or slope failure disasters, and it would be also helpful for the judgment of the countermeasure works for the prevention and mitigation of landslide and slope failure disasters in near future.

Keywords: finite element method, ground water fluctuations, constitutive model, landslides, long-term disaster management system

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Authors: Robab Abdolkhani, Farzin Halabchi, Reza Safdari, Goli Arji

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Background and purpose: The quality of health record depends on the quality of its content and proper documentation. Minimum data set makes a standard method for collecting key data elements that make them easy to understand and enable comparison. The aim of this study was to determine the minimum data set for Iranian athletes’ health records. Methods: This study is an applied research of a descriptive comparative type which was carried out in 2013. By using internal and external forms of documentation, a checklist was created that included data elements of athletes health record and was subjected to debate in Delphi method by experts in the field of sports medicine and health information management. Results: From 97 elements which were subjected to discussion, 85 elements by more than 75 percent of the participants (as the main elements) and 12 elements by 50 to 75 percent of the participants (as the proposed elements) were agreed upon. In about 97 elements of the case, there was no significant difference between responses of alumni groups of sport pathology and sports medicine specialists with medical record, medical informatics and information management professionals. Conclusion: Minimum data set of Iranian athletes’ health record with four information categories including demographic information, health history, assessment and treatment plan was presented. The proposed model is available for manual and electronic medical records.

Keywords: Documentation, Health record, Minimum data set, Sports medicine

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Authors: Youmen Chaaban

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The study examined the influence of a situated professional development program (PD) aimed at enhancing English language teachers’ knowledge and skills and improving their instructional practices. The PD model under examination was developed upon sound theoretical underpinnings, taking into consideration research-based principles of effective PD. However, the implementation of the PD model within several school contexts required further investigation from the perspectives of the teachers, who were receiving the PD activities, and the instructional coaches, who were providing them. The paper, thus, presents the results of a qualitative study examining the perceptions of seventeen English language teachers and nineteen instructional coaches about the strengths of the PD program, the challenges they faced in the implementation of the program, and their suggestions for the improvement of the program’s implementation and outcomes. Comparisons were further made between the two groups of participants to uncover agreements and contradictions in their perceptions. Data were collected from the teachers through in-depth interviews and observations, while the data collected from the instructional coaches were open-ended surveys followed by focus group interviews. The findings of the study confirm the necessity of structuring PD activities around sound theoretical underpinnings. However, practical considerations specific to the contexts where the PD activities take place should be considered when evaluating the PD’s effectiveness. Finally, the study provides several recommendations for maximizing the influence of the PD program on teachers’ practices and beliefs.

Keywords: English language teachers, situated professional development, teacher beliefs, teacher practices

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Authors: Nafisa Komilova, Plamena Angelova, Andrey Abramov, Ulugbek Mirkhodjaev

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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder which is induced by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. The mechanism of neurodegeneration is associated with the aggregation of misfolded proteins, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial disfunction. Considering this, the process of removal of unwanted organelles or proteins by autophagy is vitally important in neurons, and activation of these processes could be protective in PD. Short-time acidification of cytosol can activate mitophagy and autophagy, and here we used sodium pyruvate and sodium lactate in human fibroblasts with PD mutations (Pink1, Pink1/Park2, α-syn triplication, A53T) to induce changes in intracellular pH. We have found that both lactate and pyruvate in millimolar concentrations can induce short-time acidification of cytosol in these cells. It induced activation of mitophagy and autophagy in control and PD fibroblasts and protected against cell death. Importantly, the application of lactate to acute brain slices of control and Pink1 knockout mice also induced a reduction of pH in neurons and astrocytes that increase the level of mitophagy. Thus, acidification of cytosol by compounds which play important role in cell metabolism also can activate mitophagy and autophagy and protect cells in the familial form of PD.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease, mutations, mitophagy, autophagy

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Authors: Bushra Nabi, Saleha Rehman, Sanjula Baboota, Javed Ali

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Aim: The objective of research undertaken is analytical method validation (HPLC method) of an anti-HIV drug Elvitegravir (EVG). Additionally carrying out the forced degradation studies of the drug under different stress conditions to determine its stability. It is envisaged in order to determine the suitable technique for drug estimation, which would be employed in further research. Furthermore, comparative pharmacokinetic profile of the drug from lipid architectonics and drug suspension would be obtained post oral administration. Method: Lipid Architectonics (LA) of EVR was formulated using probe sonication technique and optimized using QbD (Box-Behnken design). For the estimation of drug during further analysis HPLC method has been validation on the parameters (Linearity, Precision, Accuracy, Robustness) and Limit of Detection (LOD) and Limit of Quantification (LOQ) has been determined. Furthermore, HPLC quantification of forced degradation studies was carried out under different stress conditions (acid induced, base induced, oxidative, photolytic and thermal). For pharmacokinetic (PK) study, Albino Wistar rats were used weighing between 200-250g. Different formulations were given per oral route, and blood was collected at designated time intervals. A plasma concentration profile over time was plotted from which the following parameters were determined:

Keywords: AIDS, Elvitegravir, HPLC, nanostructured lipid carriers, pharmacokinetics

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Authors: G. Kloudova, M. Stehlik

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Optimal human performance is a key goal in the professional setting of military pilots, which is a highly challenging atmosphere. The aviation environment requires substantial cognitive effort and is rich in potential stressors. Therefore, it is important to analyze variables such as mental workload to ensure safe conditions. Pilot mental workload could be measured using several tools, but most of them are very subjective. This paper details research conducted with military pilots using psychophysiological methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and heart rate (HR) monitoring. The data were measured in a simulator as well as under real flight conditions. All of the pilots were exposed to highly demanding flight tasks and showed big individual response differences. On that basis, the individual pattern for each pilot was created counting different EEG features and heart rate variations. Later on, it was possible to distinguish the most difficult flight tasks for each pilot that should be more extensively trained. For training purposes, an application was developed for the instructors to decide which of the specific tasks to focus on during follow-up training. This complex system can help instructors detect the mentally demanding parts of the flight and enhance the training of military pilots to achieve optimal performance.

Keywords: cognitive effort, human performance, military pilots, psychophysiological methods

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Authors: Bashiru Abdullahi, Isah Bala Yabo, Ibrahim Yakubu Seini

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In this paper, the steady/transient MHD heat transfer within radiative porous channel due to convective boundary conditions is considered. The solution of the steady-state and that of the transient version were conveyed by Perturbation and Finite difference methods respectively. The heat transfer mechanism of the present work ascertains the influence of Biot number〖(B〗_i1), magnetizing parameter (M), radiation parameter(R), temperature difference, suction/injection(S) Grashof number (Gr) and time (t) on velocity (u), temperature(θ), skin friction(τ), and Nusselt number (Nu). The results established were discussed with the help of a line graph. It was found that the velocity, temperature, and skin friction decay with increasing suction/injection and magnetizing parameters while the Nusselt number upsurges with suction/injection at y = 0 and falls at y =1. The steady-state solution was in perfect agreement with the transient version for a significant value of time t. It is interesting to report that the Biot number has a cogent influence consequently, as its values upsurge the result of the present work slant the extended literature.

Keywords: heat transfer, thermal radiation, porous channel, MHD, transient, convective boundary condition

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Authors: Bahor Bahriddinovna Turaeva

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The article provides a structural analysis of the titles of the famous Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov’s creative works “The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years”, “Doomsday”. The author’s creative purpose in naming the work of art, the role of the elements of the plot, and the composition of the novels in revealing the essence of the title are explained. The criteria that are important in naming the author’s works in different genres are classified, and the titles that mean artistic time and artistic space are studied separately. Chronotope is being concerned as the literary-aesthetic category in world literary studies, expressing the scope of the universe interpretation, the author’s outlook and imagination regarding the world foundation, defining personages, and the composition means of expressing the sequence and duration of the events. A creative comprehension of the chronotope as a means of arranging the work composition, structure and constructing an epic field of the text demands a special approach to understanding the aesthetic character of the work. Since the chronotope includes all the elements of a fictional work, it is impossible to present the plot, composition, conflict, system of characters, feelings, and mood of the characters without the description of the chronotope. In the following development of the scientific-theoretical thought in the world, the chronotope is accepted to be one of the poetic means to demonstrate reality as well as to be a literary process that is basic for the expression of reality in the compositional construction and illustration of the plot relying on the writer’s intention and the ideological conception of the literary work. Literary time enables one to cognate the literary world picture created by the author in terms of the descriptive subject and object of the work. Therefore, one of the topical tasks of modern Uzbek literary studies is to describe historical evidence, event, the life of outstanding people, the chronology of the near past based on the literary time; on the example of the creative works of a certain period, creators or an individual writer are analyzed in separate or comparative-typological aspect.

Keywords: novel, title, chronotope, motive, epigraph, analepsis, structural analysis, plot line, composition

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Authors: Chisakan Papapankiad

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The purposes of this research were 1) to study the competency of condominium managers, 2) to create the training curriculum via electronic media for condominium managers, and 3) to evaluate the training curriculum for condominium managers. The research methods included document analysis, interview, questionnaire, and a try-out. A total of 20 experts were selected to collect data by using Delphi technique. The designed curriculum was tried out with 30 condominium managers. The important steps of conducting this research included analyzing and synthesizing, creating interview questions, conducting factor analysis and developing the training curriculum, editing by experts, and trying out with sample groups. The findings revealed that there were five core competencies: leadership, human resources management, management, communication, and self-development. The training curriculum was designed and all the learning materials were put into a CD. The evaluation of the training curriculum was performed by five experts and the training curriculum was found to be cohesive and suitable for use in the real world. Moreover, the findings also revealed three important issues: 1) the competencies of the respondents after the experiment were higher than before the experiment and this had a level of significance of 0.01, 2) the competencies remained with the respondents at least 12 weeks and this also had a level of significance of 0.01, and 3) the overall level of satisfaction from the respondents were 'the highest level'.

Keywords: competency training curriculum, condominium managers, electronic media

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Authors: Tzu-I Chiang

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A central question for finite-nonfinite distinction in Mandarin Chinese is how does Mandarin encode temporal information without the grammatical contrast between past and present tense. Moreover, how do L2 learners of Mandarin whose native language is English and whose L1 system has tense morphology, acquire the temporal encoding system in L2 Mandarin? The current study reports preliminary findings on the relationship between topic prominence and the temporal encoding in L1 and L2 Chinese. Oral narratives data from 30 natives and learners of Mandarin Chinese were collected via a film-retell task. In terms of coding, predicates collected from the narratives were transcribed and then coded based on four major verb types: n-degree Statives (quality-STA), point-scale Statives (status-STA), n-atom EVENT (ACT), and point EVENT (resultative-ACT). How native speakers and non-native speakers started retelling the story was calculated. Results of the study show that native speakers of Chinese tend to express Topic Time (TT) syntactically at the topic position; whereas L2 learners of Chinese across levels rely mainly on the default time encoded in the event types. Moreover, as the proficiency level of the learner increases, learners’ appropriate use of the event predicates increased, which supports the argument that L2 development of temporal encoding is affected by lexical aspect.

Keywords: topic prominence, temporal encoding, lexical aspect, L2 acquisition

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Authors: Hiroyuki Aoki

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The physical properties of polymer materials are dependent on the conformation and molecular motion of a polymer chain. Therefore, the structure and dynamic behavior of the single polymer chain have been the most important concerns in the field of polymer physics. However, it has been impossible to directly observe the conformation of the single polymer chain in a bulk medium. In the current work, the novel techniques to study the conformation and dynamics of a single polymer chain are proposed. Since a fluorescence method is extremely sensitive, the fluorescence microscopy enables the direct detection of a single molecule. However, the structure of the polymer chain as large as 100 nm cannot be resolved by conventional fluorescence methods because of the diffraction limit of light. In order to observe the single chains, we developed the labeling method of polymer materials with a photo-switchable dye and the super-resolution microscopy. The real-space conformational analysis of single polymer chains with the spatial resolution of 15-20 nm was achieved. The super-resolution microscopy enables us to obtain the three-dimensional coordinates; therefore, we succeeded the conformational analysis in three dimensions. The direct observation by the nanometric optical microscopy would reveal the detailed information on the molecular processes in the various polymer systems.

Keywords: polymer materials, single molecule, super-resolution techniques, conformation

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Authors: Ruijia Hu, Susanna T.Y. Tong

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Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and four-channel red, green, blue, and near-infrared (RGBI) remote sensed imageries allow an accurate quantification and contiguous measurement of vegetation characteristics and forest structures. This information facilitates the generation of habitat structure variables for forest species distribution modelling. However, applications of remote sensing data, especially the combination of structural and spectral information, to support evidence-based decisions in forest managements and conservation practices at local scale are not widely adopted. In this study, we examined the habitat requirements of pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) (PW) in Hamilton County, Ohio, using ecologically relevant forest structural and vegetation characteristics derived from LiDAR and RGBI data. We hypothesized that the habitat of PW is shaped by vegetation characteristics that are directly associated with the availability of food, hiding and nesting resources, the spatial arrangement of habitat patches within home range, as well as proximity to water sources. We used 186 PW presence or absence locations to model their presence and absence in generalized additive model (GAM) at two scales, representing foraging and home range size, respectively. The results confirm PW’s preference for tall and large mature stands with structural complexity, typical of late-successional or old-growth forests. Besides, the crown size of dead trees shows a positive relationship with PW occurrence, therefore indicating the importance of declining living trees or early-stage dead trees within PW home range. These locations are preferred by PW for nest cavity excavation as it attempts to balance the ease of excavation and tree security. In addition, we found that PW can adjust its travel distance to the nearest water resource, suggesting that habitat fragmentation can have certain impacts on PW. Based on our findings, we recommend that forest managers should use different priorities to manage nesting, roosting, and feeding habitats. Particularly, when devising forest management and hazard tree removal plans, one needs to consider retaining enough cavity trees within high-quality PW habitat. By mapping PW habitat suitability for the study area, we highlight the importance of riparian corridor in facilitating PW to adjust to the fragmented urban landscape. Indeed, habitat improvement for PW in the study area could be achieved by conserving riparian corridors and promoting riparian forest succession along major rivers in Hamilton County.

Keywords: deadwood detection, generalized additive model, individual tree crown delineation, LiDAR, pileated woodpecker, RGBI aerial imagery, species distribution models

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Authors: Azza Hashim Abbas, Wan Rosli Wan Suliman

Abstract:

The old school of study, well testing reservoir engineers used the transient pressure analyses to get certain parameters and variable factors on the reservoir's physical properties, such as, (permeability-thickness). Recently, the difficulties facing the newly discovered areas are the convincing fact that the exploration and production (E&p) team should have sufficiently accurate and appropriate data to work with due to different sources of errors. The well-test analyst does the work without going through well-informed and reliable data from colleagues which may consequently cause immense environmental damage and unnecessary financial losses as well as opportunity losses to the project. In 2003, new potential oil field (Moga) face circulation problem well-22 was safely completed. However the high mud density had caused an extensive damage to the nearer well area which also distracted the hypothetical oil rate of flow that was not representive of the real reservoir characteristics This paper presents methods to analyze and interpret the production rate and pressure data of an oil field. Specifically for Well- 22 using the Deconvolution technique to enhance the transient pressure .Applying deconvolution to get the best range of certainty of results needed for the next subsequent operation. The range determined and analysis of skin factor range was reasonable.

Keywords: well testing, exploration, deconvolution, skin factor, un certainity

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Authors: Saad Mohamed Elsaid Abdelrahman

Abstract:

The adsorption method is one of the best modern techniques used in removing pollutants, especially organic hydrocarbon compounds, from polluted water. Through this research, bentonite clay can be used to remove organic hydrocarbon compounds, such as heptane and octane, resulting from oil spills in seawater. Bentonite clay can be obtained from the Kholayaz area, located north of Jeddah, at a distance of 80 km. Chemical analysis shows that bentonite clay consists of a mixture of silica, alumina and oxides of some elements. Bentonite clay can be activated in order to raise its adsorption efficiency and to make it suitable for removing pollutants using an ionic organic solvent. It is necessary to study some of the factors that could be in the efficiency of bentonite clay in removing oily organic compounds, such as the time of contact of the clay with heptane and octane solutions, pH and temperature, in order to reach the highest adsorption capacity of bentonite clay. The temperature can be a few degrees Celsius higher. The adsorption capacity of the clay decreases when the temperature is raised more than 4°C to reach its lowest value at the temperature of 50°C. The results show that the friction time of 30 minutes and the pH of 6.8 is the best conditions to obtain the highest adsorption capacity of the clay, 467 mg in the case of heptane and 385 mg in the case of octane compound. Experiments conducted on bentonite clay were encouraging to select it to remove heavy molecular weight pollutants such as petroleum compounds under study.

Keywords: adsorbent, bentonite clay, oil spills, removal

Procedia PDF Downloads 84

Authors: Jinwooung Kim, Jae-Hwan Jung, Seong-Jun Kim, Sung-Ah Kim

Abstract:

Because the building envelope has a significant impact on the operation and maintenance stage of the building, designing the facade considering the performance can improve the performance of the building and lower the maintenance cost of the building. In general, however, optimizing two or more performance factors confronts the limits of time and computational tools. The optimization phase typically repeats infinitely until a series of processes that generate alternatives and analyze the generated alternatives achieve the desired performance. In particular, as complex geometry or precision increases, computational resources and time are prohibitive to find the required performance, so an optimization methodology is needed to deal with this. Instead of directly analyzing all the alternatives in the optimization process, applying experimental techniques (heuristic method) learned through experimentation and experience can reduce resource waste. This study proposes and verifies a method to optimize the double envelope of a building composed of a perforated panel using machine learning to the design geometry and quantitative performance. The proposed method is to achieve the required performance with fewer resources by supplementing the existing method which cannot calculate the complex shape of the perforated panel.

Keywords: building envelope, machine learning, perforated metal, multi-factor optimization, façade

Procedia PDF Downloads 217

Authors: Nazmul Shahadat, Anthony S. Maida

Abstract:

In recent years, hypercomplex inspired neural networks improved deep CNN architectures due to their ability to share weights across input channels and thus improve cohesiveness of representations within the layers. The work described herein studies the effect of replacing existing layers in an Axial Attention ResNet with their quaternion variants that use cross-channel weight sharing to assess the effect on image classification. We expect the quaternion enhancements to produce improved feature maps with more interlinked representations. We experiment with the stem of the network, the bottleneck layer, and the fully connected backend by replacing them with quaternion versions. These modifications lead to novel architectures which yield improved accuracy performance on the ImageNet300k classification dataset. Our baseline networks for comparison were the original real-valued ResNet, the original quaternion-valued ResNet, and the Axial Attention ResNet. Since improvement was observed regardless of which part of the network was modified, there is a promise that this technique may be generally useful in improving classification accuracy for a large class of networks.

Keywords: axial attention, representational networks, weight sharing, cross-channel correlations, quaternion-enhanced axial attention, deep networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: P. Y. Tsyba, O. V. Razina, E. Güdekli, R. Myrzakulov

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In this paper, we consider the equation of motion for the F(R,T) gravity on their property of conformal invariance. It is shown that in the general case such a theory is not conformally invariant. Special cases for the functions v and u, in which the properties of the theory can appear, were studied.

Keywords: conformal invariance, gravity, space-time, metric

Procedia PDF Downloads 657

Authors: Fu-Chi Chuang, Yu-Liang, Chang, Wen-Der Wang

Abstract:

Our environment has been contaminated by many artificial chemicals, such as plastics, pesticides. Many of them have hormone-like activity and are classified as 'environmental hormone (also named endocrine disruptors)'. These chemicals interfere with or mimic hormones have adverse effects that persist into adulthood. Environmental education is an important way to teach students to become engaged in real-world issues that transcend classroom walls. Elementary education is the first stage to perform environmental education and it is an important component to help students develop adequate environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. However, elementary teachers' knowledge plays a critical role in this mission. Therefore, we use a questionnaire to survey the knowledge of environmental hormone of elementary school teachers and their learning motivation of the environmental hormone-regarding knowledge. We collected 218 questionnaires from Taiwanese elementary teachers and the results indicate around 73% of elementary teachers do not have enough knowledge about environmental hormones. Our results also reveal the in-service elementary teachers’ learning motivation of environmental hormones knowledge is positively enhanced once they realized their insufficient cognitive ability of environmental hormones. We believe our study will provide the powerful reference for Ministry of Education to set up the policy of environmental education to enrich all citizens sufficient knowledge of the effects of the environmental hormone on organisms, and further to enhance our correct environmental behaviors.

Keywords: elementary teacher, environmental hormones, learning motivation, questionnaire

Procedia PDF Downloads 307

Authors: Imen Asma Mbarek, Alexis Rusinek, Etienne Petit, Guy Sutter, Gautier List

Abstract:

Over the past two decades, the automotive, aerospace and army industries have been paying an increasing attention to Finite Elements (FE) numerical simulations of the fracture process of their structures. Thanks to the numerical simulations, it is nowadays possible to analyze several problems involving costly and dangerous extreme loadings safely and at a reduced cost such as blast or ballistic impact problems. The present paper is concerned with ballistic impact and perforation problems involving ductile fracture of thin armor steel targets. The target fracture process depends usually on various parameters: the projectile nose shape, the target thickness and its mechanical properties as well as the impact conditions (friction, oblique/normal impact...). In this work, the investigations are concerned with the normal impact of a conical head-shaped projectile on thin armor steel targets. The main aim is to establish a comparative study of four fracture criteria that are commonly used in the fracture process simulations of structures subjected to extreme loadings such as ballistic impact and perforation. Usually, the damage initiation results from a complex physical process that occurs at the micromechanical scale. On a macro scale and according to the following fracture models, the variables on which the fracture depends are mainly the stress triaxiality ƞ, the strain rate, temperature T, and eventually the Lode angle parameter Ɵ. The four failure criteria are: the critical strain to failure model, the Johnson-Cook model, the Wierzbicki model and the Modified Hosford-Coulomb model MHC. Using the SEM, the observations of the fracture facies of tension specimen and of armor steel targets impacted at low and high incident velocities show that the fracture of the specimens is a ductile fracture. The failure mode of the targets is petalling with crack propagation and the fracture facies are covered with micro-cavities. The parameters of each ductile fracture model have been identified for three armor steels and the applicability of each criterion was evaluated using experimental investigations coupled to numerical simulations. Two loading paths were investigated in this study, under a wide range of strain rates. Namely, quasi-static and intermediate uniaxial tension and quasi-static and dynamic double shear testing allow covering various values of stress triaxiality ƞ and of the Lode angle parameter Ɵ. All experiments were conducted on three different armor steel specimen under quasi-static strain rates ranging from 10-4 to 10-1 1/s and at three different temperatures ranging from 297K to 500K, allowing drawing the influence of temperature on the fracture process. Intermediate tension testing was coupled to dynamic double shear experiments conducted on the Hopkinson tube device, allowing to spot the effect of high strain rate on the damage evolution and the crack propagation. The aforementioned fracture criteria are implemented into the FE code ABAQUS via VUMAT subroutine and they were coupled to suitable constitutive relations allow having reliable results of ballistic impact problems simulation. The calibration of the four damage criteria as well as a concise evaluation of the applicability of each criterion are detailed in this work.

Keywords: armor steels, ballistic impact, damage criteria, ductile fracture, SEM

Procedia PDF Downloads 311