Search results for: curricula improvement

Authors: Chryssi Vitsilaki, Apostolos Kostas, Ilias Efthymiou

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This paper presents selected best practices on online learning and teaching derived from a novel and innovating Lifelong Learning program through e-Learning, which has during the last five years been set up at the University of the Aegean in Greece. The university, capitalizing on an award-winning, decade-long experience in e-learning and blended learning in undergraduate and postgraduate studies, recently expanded into continuous education and vocational training programs in various cutting-edge fields. So, in this article we present: (a) the academic structure/infrastructure which has been developed for the administrative, organizational and educational support of the e-Learning process, including training the trainers, (b) the mode of design and implementation based on a sound pedagogical framework of open and distance education, and (c) the key results of the assessment of the e-learning process by the participants, as they are used to feedback on continuous organizational and teaching improvement and quality control.

Keywords: distance education, e-learning, life-long programs, synchronous/asynchronous learning

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Authors: Manuel Alves, Angelica Reis, Armindo Lobo, Valdemar Leiras

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In industry 4.0, it is common to have a lot of sensor data. In this deluge of data, hints of possible problems are difficult to spot. The digital twin concept aims to help answer this problem, but it is mainly used as a monitoring tool to handle the visualisation of data. Failure detection is of paramount importance in any industry, and it consumes a lot of resources. Any improvement in this regard is of tangible value to the organisation. The aim of this paper is to add the ability to forecast test failures, curtailing detection times. To achieve this, several anomaly detection algorithms were compared with a symbolic regression approach. To this end, Isolation Forest, One-Class SVM and an auto-encoder have been explored. For the symbolic regression PySR library was used. The first results show that this approach is valid and can be added to the tools available in this context as a low resource anomaly detection method since, after training, the only requirement is the calculation of a polynomial, a useful feature in the digital twin context.

Keywords: anomaly detection, digital twin, industry 4.0, symbolic regression

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: Nasser M. Amaitik, Ngwan F. Elsagzli

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The Lean technique is very important in the service and industrial fields. It is defined as an effective tool to eliminate the wastes. In lean the wastes are defined as anything which does not add value to the end product. There are wastes that can be avoided, but some are unavoidable to many reasons. The present study aims to apply the principles of lean in two different sectors, healthcare, and industry. Two case studies have been selected to apply the experimental work. The first case was Al-Jalaa Hospital while the second case study was the Technical Company of Aluminum Sections in Benghazi, Libya. In both case studies the Value Stream Map (VSM) of the current state has been constructed. The proposed plans have been implemented by merging or eliminating procedures or processes. The results obtained from both case studies showed improvement in capacity, idle time and utilized time.

Keywords: healthcare service delivery, idle time, lean principles, utilized time, value stream mapping, wastes

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Authors: Prajakta M. Wazat, D. N. Raut

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The study consists of a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) beverage company wherein a portion of the supply chain which deals with outbound logistics is taken for improvement in order to reduce its logistics cost by using critical path method (CPM) method. Logistics is a major portion of the supply chain where customers are not willing to pay as it adds cost to product without adding value. In this study, it is necessary to ensure that products are delivered to clients at the right time while preserving high-quality standards from the beginning to the end of the supply chain. CPM is a logical sequencing method where in the most efficient route is achieved by arranging the series of events. CPM enables to identify a critical factor in order to minimize the delays and interruption by providing a feasible solution.

Keywords: FMCG, supply chain, outbound logistics, vehicle turnaround time, critical path method, cost reduction

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Authors: Prateek Singh, Arun Kumar Pandey, C. Raghu Kumar, M. R. Rath, A. S. Reddy

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Drum scrubber is widely used equipment in the washing of Iron ore. The purpose of the scrubber is to release the adhered fine clayey particles from the iron-bearing particles. Presently, the iron ore wash plants in the Eastern region of India consist of the scrubber, double deck screen followed by screw classifier as the main unit operations. Hence, scrubber performance efficiency has a huge impact on the downstream product quality. This paper illustrates the effect of scrubber feed % solids on scrubber performance and alumina distribution on downstream equipment. Further, it was established that scrubber performance efficiency could be defined as the ratio of the adhered particles (-0.15mm) released from scrubber feed during scrubbing operation with respect to the maximum possible release of -0.15mm (%) particles.

Keywords: scrubber, adhered particles, feed % solids, efficiency

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Authors: Navarro, Delaup, Lacreusette, Jahier, Destaing, Gard

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Background: A complementary feed designed to support joint metabolism and contribute to cartilage integrity in dogs was evaluated through a pet-owner study involving 21 senior dogs experiencing a decrease in mobility. The study aimed to assess the product's benefits, ease of use, and impact on quality of life over a 56-day period. Methods: Privately owned dogs over six years old with reduced mobility and no change in their mobility management within the last three months were recruited. They received a chicken cartilage hydrolysate complementary feed containing a complex of glycosaminoglycans and type II collagen (Glycosane®, MP Labo, France. One capsule per dog up to 40 kg, 2 capsules beyond) once a day for 56 days. Assessments were performed at baseline (D0), and subsequent follow-ups at D7, D28, and D56: revised LOAD (Liverpool Osteoarthritis in Dogs) and CBPI (Canine Brief Pain Inventory) were used to evaluate mobility, pain intensity, and pain interference. Owners also completed a questionnaire on quality of life (QoL), comprising 7 questions on the animal’s well-being (QoL1) and 7 questions on the owner’s well-being (QoL2). Statistical analyses were performed using mixed models for repeated measures. The significance levels were set at p<0.05. Results: (1) Population: 21 dogs were included. The mean age was 10.2 years [6 – 14.5]. (2) Mobility: 71% of owners reported enhanced mobility by D56. Improvements were observed in half of the cases after 21 days of supplementation, with notable changes evident as early as 14 days in 39% of cases. LOAD scores showed significant improvement over time (p=0.0019). (3) Comfort: CBPI severity scores decreased significantly from baseline to D28 and D56 (p=0.0300 and p=0.0271, respectively). CBPI QoL score was also significantly improved at D56 compared to D7 (p=0.0440). (4) Quality of life: The QoL total score improved significantly by D56 compared to baseline (p=0.0089), with a specific improvement of the QoL1 (p=0.0015). (4) Owners' insights: Glycosane® received a high ease-of-use rating (mean score 4.4/5), with excellent compliance (95%). Oral intake was rated at 4.3/5. Willingness to walk (19%), Increased activity, Ability to run and/or jump from short heights and a Happier animal (11%) were among the most cited benefits. Owners noted enhanced comfort (78%) and happiness (79%) in their dogs, with a 60% perception of restored good mobility. Conclusion: The complementary feed demonstrates significant benefits in enhancing mobility and quality of life in senior dogs. Its high ease of administration supports owner compliance and satisfaction. These findings support Glycosane® as a valuable nutritional aid in helping to maintain canine mobility. Further studies with larger cohorts and a controlled group are recommended to validate these results.

Keywords: canine mobility, complementary feed, LOAD, CBPI, quality of life, Glycosane

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Authors: Mahdieh Omranian, Mehran Ghanbari Motlagh

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As we know, today urban growth, development, and intelligent social evolutions have been proposed in metropolises and this matter extends urban life which can have negative items besides positive and strong items. Along with research on urban life desirable development, conditions should be provided to provide the possibility of human stable development and improvement social welfare. These conditions can reinforce social, economic, and political structures related to non-expensive housing. Demand for non-expensive housing is increasing regarding to population increase and incremental urbanizing process. Therefore, the present study by precise exploration on conceptions, challenges, and strategies, should achieve an endogenous pattern and improve housing condition by looking to instant development. Therefore, the general objective of this article recognizes the existed strategies in housing and achieving desirable conditions for all social classes by sustainable development.

Keywords: housing strategies, infrastructure, metropolis, sustainable development

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Authors: F. Majeed, D. V. Thiel, M. Shahpari

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An electrically small meander line antenna is designed for impedance matching with RF transceiver chip CC1101. The design provides the flexibility of tuning the reactance of the antenna over a wide range of values: highly capacitive to highly inductive. The antenna was printed with silver ink on FR4 substrate using the screen printing design process. The antenna impedance was perfectly matched to CC1101 at 433 MHz. The measured radiation efficiency of the antenna was 81.3% at resonance. The 3 dB and 10 dB fractional bandwidth of the antenna was 14.5% and 4.78%, respectively. The read range of the antenna was compared with a copper wire monopole antenna over a distance of five meters. The antenna, with a perfect impedance match with RF transceiver chip CC1101, shows improvement in the read range compared to a monopole antenna over the specified distance.

Keywords: meander line antenna, RFID, silver ink printing, impedance matching

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Authors: Mohammad D. H. Beg, John O. Akindoyo, Suriati Ghazali, Abdullah A. Mamun

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In this study, composites were fabricated from oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber and poly(lactic) acid by extrusion followed by injection moulding. Surface of the fiber was pre-treated by ultrasound in an alkali medium and treatment efficiency was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis and Fourier transforms infrared spectrometer (FTIR). Effect of fiber treatment on composite was characterized by tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM) and impact strength (IS). Furthermore, biostrong impact modifier was incorporated into the treated fiber composite to improve its impact properties. Mechanical testing showed an improvement of up to 23.5% and 33.6% respectively for TS and TM of treated fiber composite above untreated fiber composite. On the other hand incorporation of impact modifier led to enhancement of about 20% above the initial IS of the treated fiber composite.

Keywords: fiber treatment, impact modifier, natural fibers, ultrasound

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Authors: Mirza Obaid Baig, MaimoonaYaqub

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A 51 year old lady; known case of diabetes mellitus, post wound debridement i.e. 4 open wounds of grade III presented to us with foot drop, with prominent sensory deficit over right lower leg/foot i.e. 0 on Nottingham scale for impaired sensation, marked pedal edema and 5/10 – 6/10 pain on VAS during day and night respectively, Wounds were poorly granulated and foul smelling. Physiotherapy sessions were planned including twice a day electrical muscle stimulation sessions, strategies to decrease edema and improve muscle action which resulted in noticeable improvement in motor and sensory ability, pain levels, edema and psychological status of patient. Thus, this study gives evidence of the effect of Electrical muscle stimulation in grade III open wounds associated with motor/sensory weakness post-surgery.

Keywords: EMS, foot drop, grade III wound, diabetes mellitus

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Authors: Niloufar Ghoreishi, Ali Nekouzadeh

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The stability of the flight during maneuvering and in response to probable perturbations is one of the most essential features of an aircraft that should be analyzed and designed for. In this study, we derived the non-linear governing equations of aircraft dynamics during the climb/descend phase and simulated a model aircraft. The corresponding force and moment dimensionless coefficients of the model and their variations with elevator angle and other relevant aerodynamic parameters were measured experimentally. The short-period mode and phugoid mode response were simulated by solving the governing equations numerically and then compared with the desired stability parameters for the particular level, category, and class of the aircraft model. To meet the target stability, a controller was designed and used. This resulted in significant improvement in the stability parameters of the flight.

Keywords: flight stability, phugoid mode, short period mode, climb phase, damping coefficient

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Authors: Mina Zaky Sarofim Zaky

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Experiential marketing is a form of marketing that offers a unique integration of experiential and entertainment elements into a product or service. Experiential marketing is defined as an unforgettable experience that penetrates the customer's mind. Customer satisfaction is also defined as the emotional response to the experience provided with the purchased product or service. Experiential marketing activities can, therefore, affect the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty. In this context, the study aims to determine the relationship between experiential marketing, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in cosmetic products in Konya. The least squares method (PLS) was used to analyze the research data. Existing research has shown that experiential marketing is a significant predictor of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, and that experiential marketing has a positive impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Keywords: internet, marketing, tourism, tourism management corporate responsibility, employee organizational performance, internal marketing, internal customer experiential marketing, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, social sciences

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Authors: A. H. Elkholy, A. H. Falah

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A new approach has been developed to estimate the load share and stress distribution of worm gear sets. The approach is based upon considering the instantaneous tooth meshing stiffness where the worm gear drive was modelled as a series of spur gear slices, and each slice was analyzed separately using the well established formulae of spur gears. By combining the results obtained for all slices, the entire envolute worm gear set loading and stressing was obtained. The geometric modelling method presented, allows tooth elastic deformation and tooth root stresses of worm gear drives under different load conditions to be investigated. On the basis of the method introduced in this study, the instantaneous meshing stiffness and load share were obtained. In comparison with existing methods, this approach has both good analysis accuracy and less computing time.

Keywords: gear, load/stress distribution, worm, wheel, tooth stiffness, contact line

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Authors: Jiewei Li, Hongyan Cui, Chunqi Chang, Yong Hu

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It was expected to benefit patient with hemiparesis after stroke by extensive arm rehabilitation, to partially regain forearm and hand function. This paper propose a robotic rehabilitation arm in assisting the hemiparetic patient to learn new ways of using and moving their weak arms. In this study, the robotic arm was driven by a somatosensory stimulated brain computer interface (BCI), which is a new modality BCI. The use of somatosensory stimulation is not only an input for BCI, but also a electrical stimulation for treatment of hemiparesis to strengthen the arm and improve its range of motion. A trial of this robotic rehabilitation arm was performed in a stroke patient with pure motor hemiparesis. The initial trial showed a promising result from the patient with great motivation and function improvement. It suggests that robotic rehabilitation arm driven by somatosensory BCI can enhance the rehabilitation performance and progress for hemiparetic patients after stroke.

Keywords: robotic rehabilitation arm, brain computer interface (BCI), hemiparesis, stroke, somatosensory stimulation

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Authors: Eunice Tan

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The purpose of this presentation is to look at an alternative to the approach and methodologies of working with special needs. The strength-based approach to education embodies a paradigm shift. It is a strategy to move away from a deficit-based methodology which inadvertently may lead to an extensive list of things that the child cannot do or is unable to do. Today, many parents of individuals with special needs are focused on the child’s deficits rather than on his or her strengths. Even when parents Recognise and identify their child’s strengths to be valuable and wish to develop their abilities, they face the challenge that there are insufficient programs committed to supporting the development and improvement of such abilities. What is a strength-based approach in education? A strength-based approach in education focuses on students' positive qualities and contributions to class instead of the skills and abilities they may not have. Many schools are focused on the child’s special educational needs rather than the whole child. Parents interviewed have said that they have to engage external tutors to help hone in on their child’s interests and strengths.

Keywords: differential learning needs, special needs, instructional style, talents

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Authors: Ahsan Ali Khan

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During past few years, researchers are emphasizing more on the need of safety in construction industry. This need of safety is an important issue in developing countries. As due to development they are facing huge construction growth. This research is done to evaluate labor safety condition in construction industry of Pakistan. The research carried out through questionnaire survey at different construction sites. Useful data are gathered from these sites which then factor analyzed resulting in five factors. These factors reflect that most of the workers are aware of the safety need, but they divert this responsibility towards management and claim that the work is more essential for management instead of safety. Moreover, those work force which is unaware of safety state that there is lack of any training and guidance from upper management which lead to many unfavorable events on construction sites. There is need of implementation safety activities by management like training, formulation of rules and policies. This research will be helpful to divert management attention towards safety need so they will make efforts for safety of their manpower—the workers.

Keywords: labor's safety, management role, Pakistan, safety factors

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Authors: Hartomo Soewardi, Bachtiar Jouhari

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Ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the building permit process in Indonesia still becomes a major problems for people to apply. Long time of service, the complicated administration process, and an expensive fees are a process that causing a dissatisfaction and discomfort for applicant. Therefore, it is critical to improve the quality of service of building permit system. Objectives of this research is to develop a better process of the system to improve productivity and quality service. Lean six sigma concept by using DMAIC procedures was used to analyze the existing system. Moreover, improvement of the system was conducted by using the Axiomatic Design method. Verification test was done to test the hypothesis of the proposed system design. Result of this research shows that proposed system can produce increasing 61.8% of efficiency on service time, and more effective and easier.

Keywords: axiomatic design, bbuilding permit system, DMAIC, Lean Six Sigma

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Authors: H. Kishor, G. Prabhuling, D. S. Ambika, D. P. Prakash

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The chemical mutagens have become important tool to enhance agronomic traits of banana crop. It is being used to develop fusarium resistance lines in various susceptible banana cultivars. There are several mutagens like EMS and NaN3 available for banana crop improvement and each mutagen has its own important role as positive or negative effects on growth and development of banana plants. Explants from shoot tip culture were treated with various EMS (0.30, 0.60, 0.90 and 0.12%) and NaN3 (0.01, 0.02 and 0.03%) concentrations. The putative mutants obtained after in vitro rooting were subjected for artificial inoculation of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense. Screening putative mutants resistance to Panama disease was carried out by using syringe method of inoculation. It was observed that, EMS treated mutants were more susceptible compared to NaN3 treatment. Among the NaN3 doses 0.01% found to produce 3 resistant lines during preliminary screening under greenhouse conditions.

Keywords: Nanjangud rasabale, EMS, NaN3, putative mutants

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Authors: Muhammad Shabbir

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This paper inspects the effects of the sentenced criminal women upon the socialization of their children, in the Pakistani context. The objectives of the study are to find out the socio-psychological and cultural effects of the jail environment on the children and behavior of sentenced women towards their children as well as analyze the facilities provided by the jail authorities for the socialization of the women. Quantitative variables and qualitative thematic variables caused by the opinions through open-ended questionnaire were collected and analyze by applying statistical measures, e.g. Social Sciences Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), to reflect out the results. It was found that the sentence of women shatters the socialization process of their children which commonly leads them to criminality. The government should review the ongoing sentence policies for an improvement and betterment. For this purpose, the idea of socialization centers would be a healthy initiative.

Keywords: socialization, criminal women, sentence, socio-psychological and cultural

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Authors: Rupali Mane

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Cadmium sulfide (Cds) thin films were chemically deposited at room temperature, from aqueous ammonia solution using CdCl₂ (Cadmium chloride) as a Cd²⁺ and CS(NH₂)₂ (Thiourea) as S² ion sources. ‘as-deposited’ films were uniform, well adherent to the glass substrate, secularly reflective and yellowish in color. The ‘as-deposited ’Cds layers grew with nano-crystalline in nature and exhibit cubic structure, with blue-shift in optical band gap. The films were annealed in air atmosphere for two hours at different temperatures and further characterized for compositional, structural, morphological and optical properties. The XRD and SEM studies clearly revealed the systematic changes in morphological and structural form of Cds films with an improvement in the crystal quality. The annealed films showed ‘red-shift’ in the optical spectra after thermal treatment. The Thiourea modified CdS film could be good to provide solar cell application.

Keywords: cadmium sulfide, thin films, nano-crystalline, XRD

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Authors: Zia Ul Haq, Saleem Muhammad, Naeem Ullah, Abbas Shah, Abdullah Shah

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Pakistan being the developing country is facing double burden of communicable and non-communicable disease. The aspect of secondary prevention of ischemic heart disease in developing countries is the dire need for public health specialists, clinicians and policy makers. There is some evidence that psychotherapeutic measures, including psychotherapy, recreation, exercise and stress management training have positive impact on secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases but there are some contradictory findings as well. Cardiac rehabilitation program (CRP) has not yet fully implemented in Pakistan. Psychological, physical and specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes needs assessment with respect to its practicality, effectiveness, and success. Objectives: To determine the effect of cardiac rehabilitation program (CRP) on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures of post MI patients compared to the usual care. Hypothesis: Post MI patients who receive the interventions (CRP) will have better HRQoL as compared to those who receive the usual cares. Methods: The randomized control trial was conducted at a Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Peshawar. LRH is the biggest hospital of the Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). A total 206 participants who had recent first myocardial infarction were inducted in the study. Participants were randomly allocated into two group i.e. usual care group (UCG) and cardiac rehabilitation group (CRG) by permuted-block randomization (PBR) method. CRP was conducted in CRG in two phases. Three HRQoL outcomes i.e. general health questionnaire (GHQ), self-rated health (SRH) and MacNew quality of life after myocardial infarction (MacNew QLMI) were assessed at baseline and follow-up visits among both groups. Data were entered and analyzed by appropriate statistical test in STATA version 12. Results: A total of 195 participants were assessed at the follow-up period due to lost-to-follow-up. The mean age of the participants was 53.66 + 8.3 years. Males were dominant in both groups i.e. 150 (76.92%). Regarding educational status, majority of the participants were illiterate in both groups i.e. 128 (65.64%). Surprisingly, there were 139 (71.28%) who were non-smoker on the whole. The comorbid status was positive in 120 (61.54%) among all the patients. The SRH at follow-up among UCG and CRG was 4.06 (95% CI: 3.93, 4.19) and 2.36 (95% CI: 2.2, 2.52) respectively (p<0.001). GHQ at the follow-up of UCG and CRG was 20.91 (95% CI: 18.83, 21.97) and 7.43 (95% CI: 6.59, 8.27) respectively (p<0.001). The MacNew QLMI at follow-up of UCG and CRG was 3.82 (95% CI: 3.7, 3.94) and 5.62 (95% CI: 5.5, 5.74) respectively (p<0.001). All the HRQoL measures showed strongly significant improvement in the CRG at follow-up period. Conclusion: HRQOL improved in post MI patients after comprehensive CRP. Education of the patients and their supervision is needed when they are involved in their rehabilitation activities. It is concluded that establishing CRP in cardiac units, recruiting post-discharged MI patients and offering them CRP does not impose high costs and can result in significant improvement in HRQoL measures. Trial registration no: ACTRN12617000832370

Keywords: cardiovascular diseases, cardiac rehabilitation, health-related quality of life, HRQoL, myocardial infarction, quality of life, QoL, rehabilitation, randomized control trial

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Authors: Amani A. Saad, Ahmed A. El-Farag, El-Sayed A. Helali

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Cloud computing is an important and promising field in the recent decade. Cloud computing allows sharing resources, services and information among the people of the whole world. Although the advantages of using clouds are great, but there are many risks in a cloud. The data security is the most important and critical problem of cloud computing. In this research a new security model for cloud computing is proposed for ensuring secure communication system, hiding information from other users and saving the user's times. In this proposed model Blowfish encryption algorithm is used for exchanging information or data, and SHA-2 cryptographic hash algorithm is used for data integrity. For user authentication process a user-name and password is used, the password uses SHA-2 for one way encryption. The proposed system shows an improvement of the processing time of uploading and downloading files on the cloud in secure form.

Keywords: cloud Ccomputing, data security, SAAS, PAAS, IAAS, Blowfish

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Authors: E. Mas de les Valls, M. Castells-Sanabra, R. Capdevila, N. Pla, Rosa M. Fernandez-Canti, V. de Medina, A. Mujal, C. Barahona, E. Velo, M. Vigo, M. A. Santos, T. Soto

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Absenteeism in universities, including polytechnical universities, is influenced by a variety of factors. Some factors overlap with those causing absenteeism in schools, while others are specific to the university and work-related environments. Indeed, these factors may stem from various sources, including students, educators, the institution itself, or even the alignment of degree curricula with professional requirements. In Spain, there has been an increase in absenteeism in polytechnical university studies, especially after the Covid crisis, posing a significant challenge for institutions to address. This study focuses on Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya• BarcelonaTech (UPC) and aims to quantify the current level of absenteeism and identify its main causes. The study is part of the teaching innovation project ASAP-UPC, which aims to minimize absenteeism through the redesign of teaching methodologies. By understanding the factors contributing to absenteeism, the study seeks to inform the subsequent phases of the ASAP-UPC project, which involve implementing methodologies to minimize absenteeism and evaluating their effectiveness. The study utilizes surveys conducted among students and polytechnical companies. Students' perspectives are gathered through both online surveys and in-person interviews. The surveys inquire about students' interest in attending classes, skill development throughout their UPC experience, and their perception of the skills required for a career in a polytechnical field. Additionally, polytechnical companies are surveyed regarding the skills they seek in prospective employees. The collected data is then analyzed to identify patterns and trends. This analysis involves organizing and categorizing the data, identifying common themes, and drawing conclusions based on the findings. This mixed-method approach has revealed that higher levels of absenteeism are observed in large student groups at both the Bachelor's and Master's degree levels. However, the main causes of absenteeism differ between these two levels. At the Bachelor's level, many students express dissatisfaction with in-person classes, perceiving them as overly theoretical and lacking a balance between theory, experimental practice, and problem-solving components. They also find a lack of relevance to professional needs. Consequently, they resort to using online available materials developed during the Covid crisis and attending private academies for exam preparation instead. On the other hand, at the Master's level, absenteeism primarily arises from schedule incompatibility between university and professional work. There is a discrepancy between the skills highly valued by companies and the skills emphasized during the studies, aligning partially with students' perceptions. These findings are of theoretical importance as they shed light on areas that can be improved to offer a more beneficial educational experience to students at UPC. The study also has potential applicability to other polytechnic universities, allowing them to adapt the surveys and apply the findings to their specific contexts. By addressing the identified causes of absenteeism, universities can enhance the educational experience and better prepare students for successful careers in polytechnical fields.

Keywords: absenteeism, polytechnical studies, professional skills, university challenges

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Authors: Sahari Japar, Rodney Jammy, M. A. Maleque

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The fabrication of melaleuca alternifolia fibre reinforced thermoplastic starch composites was successfully done. This paper aims to show the effect of melaleuca alternifolia fibres on mechanical and physical properties of composites by using starch as a matrix. The fibres were extracted from three different part i.e. tea tree trunk (TTT), tea tree bunch (TTB) and tea tree leaf (TTL) and combined with tapioca starch by casting method. All composites showed superior mechanical properties in comparison to TS. The addition of 5% (v/v) fibres as a filler to TS led to the improvement in young’s modulus by 350% for TTB/TS, 282% for TTT/TS and 220% for TTL/TS. The tensile strength also increased to 34.39% for TTL/TS, 82.80% for TTB/TS and 203.18% for TTT/TS respectively. The trend can be correlated to the amount of cellulose in the fibres. For physical properties, it can be seen that, with the addition of fibres, the water absorption and swelling of composites decreased. The addition of melaleuca alternifolia fibre improved mechanical and physical properties of thermoplastic starch composites.

Keywords: melaleuca alternifolia, fibre, starch, mechanical, physical

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Authors: James D. Beauchemin

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This study tested whether youth mental health care quality, operationalized as the extent to which youth and families experienced system-of-care principles in service interactions with providers, varied by level of youth need after adjusting for sociodemographic and treatment factors. The relationship of quality to clinical outcomes was also examined. Using administrative data and cross-sectional surveys from a stratified random sample of 1,124 caregivers of youths ages 5 to 20 within a statewide system-of-care, adjusted analyses indicated youths with the most intensive needs were significantly less likely to experience high-quality care (51% vs. 63%, p=0.016), with marked deficits on 6 of 9 items. Receipt of lower-quality care predicted less improvement in youth functioning. Despite considerable effort to develop systems-of-care for youths with the most severe mental health needs, these data suggest quality disparities remain for the most impaired youths. Policy and intervention development may be needed to improve the quality of care for this population.

Keywords: system-of-care, adherence, mental health, youth

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Ramesh Chandra Patra, Ajay P. Gautam, Patitapaban Mohanty

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Headache disorders are one of the 10 most disabling conditions for men and women. Headache that originated from upper cervical spine and refereed to the one side of the head and/or face is known as cervicogenic headache (CH) which constitute15% to 20% among all the headaches. In our best knowledge manual therapy is often advocated for managing CH, but very little focus given on muscle system although it is a musculoskeletal disorder. In this study, 75 patients with CH were selected and divided into two groups Group A: Manual therapy and Group B: dry needling along with manual therapy group. Assessment was done using NPRS (0-10) for pain, wide spread pressure pain threshold using an algometer at the beginning and end of the study. There is a consistent reduction in pain and tenderness in both the group but significant improvement was shown in combined group. Outcome of the study has explored that the effectiveness of dry needling along with Mulligan is more beneficial in patients with cervicogenic headaches.

Keywords: cervicogenic headaches, dry needling, NPRS, pressure point threshold

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Authors: Khoshnaw Khalid Hama Saleh, Ergun Ercelebi

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Increasingly complex modern power systems require stability, especially for transient and small disturbances. Transient stability plays a major role in stability during fault and large disturbance. This paper compares a power system stabilizer (PSS) and static Var compensator (SVC) to improve damping oscillation and enhance transient stability. The effectiveness of a PSS connected to the exciter and/or governor in damping electromechanical oscillations of isolated synchronous generator was tested. The SVC device is a member of the shunt FACTS (flexible alternating current transmission system) family, utilized in power transmission systems. The designed model was tested with a multi-machine system consisting of four machines six bus, using MATLAB/SIMULINK software. The results obtained indicate that SVC solutions are better than PSS.

Keywords: FACTS, MATLAB/SIMULINK, multi-machine system, PSS, SVC, transient stability

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Authors: İbrahim Hakkı Erkan, Özcan Tan

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The performance of jet grout columns was affected by many controlled and uncontrolled parameters. The leading parameters for the controlled ones can be listed as injection pressure, rod pulling speed, rod rotation speed, number of nozzles, nozzle diameter and Water/Cement ratio. And the uncontrolled parameters are soil type, soil structure, soil layering condition, underground water level, the changes in strength parameters and the rheologic properties of cement in time. In this study, the performance of jet grout columns and the effects of pulling speed and rotation speed were investigated experimentally. For this purpose, a laboratory type jet grouting system was designed for the experiments. Through this system, jet grout columns were produced in three different conditions. The results of the study showed that the grout pressure and the lifting speed significantly affect the performance of the jet grouting columns.

Keywords: jet grout, sandy soils, soil improvement, soilcreate

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Authors: Tetsiki Taniguchi, Yoshio Karasawa

Abstract:

This paper describes a subarray based low computational design method of multiuser massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system. In our previous works, use of large array is assumed only in transmitter, but this study considers the case both of transmitter and receiver sides are equipped with large array antennas. For this aim, receive arrays are also divided into several subarrays, and the former proposed method is modified for the synthesis of a large array from subarrays in both ends. Through computer simulations, it is verified that the performance of the proposed method is degraded compared with the original approach, but it can achieve the improvement in the aspect of complexity, namely, significant reduction of the computational load to the practical level.

Keywords: large array, massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), multiuser, singular value decomposition, subarray, zero forcing

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Authors: Innocent Felix Idoko

Abstract:

The development of indigenous entrepreneurship is critical to the achievement of sustainable development in the internationalized economy. Sustainable development implies a continuous stimulus of growth and improvement of an economy in a fairly stable manner. The paradigms of a globalization are numerous to mention. However, to a great extent, these are trade-offs and dilemmas for indigenous entrepreneurship, particularly in the developing economies with infant industries that are essentially crucial to development. This paper analyses the pros and cons of globalization as relates to the complementary role of both foreign and indigenous entrepreneurs, the conflict of values between globalization and protectionism for local entrepreneurship. Using analytical and descriptive approach, the views of academicians, research fellows, literature reviews and both the theories of the mercantilists and those of free trade mainstream economists, and the G20, the paper concludes that there is a legitimate need for protectionism for domestic entrepreneurship in the developing economies as doing otherwise amount to stifling them.

Keywords: developing countries, entrepreneurship, globalization, infant-industries, protectionism, sustainable development

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