Search results for: inclusive-cities decision matrix

Authors: Sulafah Basahel

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Nowadays, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) around the world are attempting to utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to enhance learning process and strategies of knowledge delivery for students through Distance Education (DE) system. Stakeholders in DE system face a complex situation of different ill-defined and related issues that influence decision making process. In this study system thinking as a body of knowledge is used to explore the emergent properties that produced from these connections between issues and could have either positive or negative outcomes for the DE development. Checkland Soft System Methodology (SSM) - Mode 2 is employed in a cultural context of Saudi Arabia for more knowledge acquisition purposes among multiple stakeholders in DE rather than solving problems to achieve an overall development of DE system. This paper will discuss some political, cultural issues and connections between them that impact on effectiveness of stakeholders’ activities and relations. This study will significantly contribute to both system thinking and education fields by leading decision makers in DE to reconsider future plans, strategies and right actions for more successful educational practices.

Keywords: distance education, higher education institutions, ill-defined issues, soft system methodology-Mode 2

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Authors: Chun Hsien Wu, Guan Xuan Wu, Hsia Ying Cheng, Shyh Ming Kuo

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Articular cartilage is composed of chondrocytes and extracellular matrix, such as collagen fibers, glycosaminoglycans, etc., which play an important role in lubricating and cushion joint activities. The phenotypic expression and metabolic activity of chondrocytes are extremely important in maintaining the functions of articular cartilage. In in vitro passaged culture of chondrocytes, chondrocytes gradually lose their original cell phenotype and morphology, which is called dedifferentiation. After continuous passaged culture of chondrocytes or induction by inflammatory factor IL-1, chondrocytes changed their phenotype and morphology. Also, the extracellular matrix type II collagen and GAG secretion were significantly reduced, while type I and X collagen were synthesized. Farnesol is an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant sesquiterpene compound that has the specific property of promoting collagen production. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether farnesol could restore the original type II collagen synthesis and, furthermore, the mechanisms of farnesol on the synthesis of type II collagen from the de-differentiated chondrocytes. The obtained results showed that the de-differentiated chondrocytes significantly restored to secret type II collagen and GAG (2.5-folds increases), and the secretion of collagen I and X and PGE2 synthesis were also significantly reduced after being treated with farnesol, indicating that farnesol had a restoration/re-differentiation effect on de-differentiated chondrocytes. The de-differentiated chondrocytes exhibited decreased expression of PPAR-γ and upregulated TGF-β expression to increase the MMP-13 expression. Higher expression of MMP-13 caused chondrocytes to secret type X collagen. On the contrary, increasing the expression of PPAR-γ would benefit the production of type II collagen. As shown, the PPAR-γ expression increased, and MMP-13 expression decreased after being treated with farnesol, indicating a possible signal pathway of farnesol to restore the production of type II collagen. However, more detailed mechanisms still need to evaluate.

Keywords: chondrocytes, de-differentiation, farnesol, re-differentiation

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Authors: K. S. Vedasingha, K. K. M. T. Perera, K. I. Hathurusinghe, H. W. I. Akalanka, Nelum Chathuranga Amarasena, Nalaka R. Dissanayake

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Railways provide the most convenient and economically beneficial mode of transportation, and it has been the most popular transportation method among all. According to the past analyzed data, it reveals a considerable number of accidents which occurred at railways and caused damages to not only precious lives but also to the economy of the countries. There are some major issues which need to be addressed in railways of South Asian countries since they fall under the developing category. The goal of this research is to minimize the influencing aspect of railway level crossing accidents by developing the “railway process automation system”, as there are high-risk areas that are prone to accidents, and safety at these places is of utmost significance. This paper describes the implementation methodology and the success of the study. The main purpose of the system is to ensure human safety by using the Internet of Things (IoT) and image processing techniques. The system can detect the current location of the train and close the railway gate automatically. And it is possible to do the above-mentioned process through a decision-making system by using past data. The specialty is both processes working parallel. As usual, if the system fails to close the railway gate due to technical or a network failure, the proposed system can identify the current location and close the railway gate through a decision-making system, which is a revolutionary feature. The proposed system introduces further two features to reduce the causes of railway accidents. Railway track crack detection and motion detection are those features which play a significant role in reducing the risk of railway accidents. Moreover, the system is capable of detecting rule violations at a level crossing by using sensors. The proposed system is implemented through a prototype, and it is tested with real-world scenarios to gain the above 90% of accuracy.

Keywords: crack detection, decision-making, image processing, Internet of Things, motion detection, prototype, sensors

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Authors: Anton V. Dolzhenko, Tahir Mehmood Khan

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An ability to make an evidence-based decision is a critically important skill required for practicing pharmacists. The development of this skill is incorporated into the pharmacy curriculum. We aimed in our study to estimate perception of pharmacy students regarding herbal medicines and their ability to assess information on herbal medicines professionally. The current Monash University curriculum in Pharmacy does not provide comprehensive study material on herbal medicines and students should find their way to find information, assess its quality and make a professional decision. In the Pharmacy course, students are trained how to apply this process to conventional medicines. In our survey of 93 undergraduate students from year 1-4 of Pharmacy course at Monash University Malaysia, we found that students’ view on herbal medicines is sometimes associated with common beliefs, which affect students’ ability to make evidence-based conclusions regarding the therapeutic potential of herbal medicines. The use of herbal medicines is widespread and 95.7% of the participated students have prior experience of using them. In the scale 1 to 10, students rated the importance of acquiring herbal medicine knowledge for them as 8.1±1.6. More than half (54.9%) agreed that herbal medicines have the same clinical significance as conventional medicines in treating diseases. Even more, students agreed that healthcare settings should give equal importance to both conventional and herbal medicine use (80.6%) and that herbal medicines should comply with strict quality control procedures as conventional medicines (84.9%). The latter statement also indicates that students consider safety issues associated with the use of herbal medicines seriously. It was further confirmed by 94.6% of students saying that the safety and toxicity information on herbs and spices are important to pharmacists and 95.7% of students admitting that drug-herb interactions may affect therapeutic outcome. Only 36.5% of students consider herbal medicines as s safer alternative to conventional medicines. The students use information on herbal medicines from various sources and media. Most of the students (81.7%) obtain information on herbal medicines from the Internet and only 20.4% mentioned lectures/workshop/seminars as a source of such information. Therefore, we can conclude that students attained the skills on the critical assessment of therapeutic properties of conventional medicines have a potential to use their skills for evidence-based decisions regarding herbal medicines.

Keywords: evidence-based decision, pharmacy education, student perception, traditional medicines

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Authors: Nickolay Jelev, Andy Keane, Carren Holden, András Sóbester

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In aircraft design, the jump from the conceptual to preliminary design stage introduces a level of complexity which cannot be realistically handled by a single optimiser, be that a human (chief engineer) or an algorithm. The design process is often partitioned along disciplinary lines, with each discipline given a level of autonomy. This introduces a number of challenges including, but not limited to: coupling of design variables; coordinating disciplinary teams; handling of large amounts of analysis data; reaching an acceptable design within time constraints. A number of classical Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation (MDO) architectures exist in academia specifically designed to address these challenges. Their limited use in the industrial aircraft design process has inspired the authors of this paper to develop an alternative strategy based on well established ideas from Decision Support Systems. The proposed rule based architecture sacrifices possibly elusive guarantees of convergence for an attractive return in simplicity. The method is demonstrated on analytical and aircraft design test cases and its performance is compared to a number of classical distributed MDO architectures.

Keywords: Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation, Rule Based Architecture, Aircraft Design, Decision Support System

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Authors: Musyimi Mbathi

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Information regarding social, political, demographic, economic and other attributes of human settlement is important for decision makers at all levels of planning, as they have to grapple with dynamic environments often associated with settlements. At the local level, it is particularly important for both communities and urban managers to have accurate and reliable information regarding all planning attributes. Settlement mapping, in particular, informal settlements mapping in Kenya, has over the past few years been carried out using modern tools like Geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing for spatial data analysis and planning. GIS tools offer a platform for integration of spatial and non-spatial data as well as visualisation of the settlements. The capabilities offered by these tools have enabled communities to participate especially in the planning and management of new infrastructure as well as settlement upgrading. Land tenure based projects within informal settlements have also relied on GIS and related tools with considerable success. Additionally, the adoption of participatory approaches and use of geo-information tools helped to provide a basis for all inclusive planning thus promoting accountability, transparency, legitimacy, and other dimensions of governance within human settlement planning. The paper examines the context and application of geo-information tools for planning within low-income settlements of Kenya. A case study of Kiambiu settlement will be used to demonstrate how the tools have been applied for planning and decision-making purposes.

Keywords: informal settlements, GIS, governance, modern tools

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Authors: Kiatkulchai Jitt-Aer, Graham Wall, Dylan Jones

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As a result of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, logistics applied to disaster relief operations has received great attention in the humanitarian sector. As learned from such disaster, preparing and responding to the aspect of delivering essential items from distribution centres to affected locations are of the importance for relief operations as the nature of disasters is uncertain especially in suffering figures, which are normally proportional to quantity of supplies. Thus, this study proposes a spatial decision support system (SDSS) for humanitarian logistics by integrating Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). The GIS is utilised for acquiring demands simulated from the tsunami flooding model of the affected area in the first stage, and visualising the simulation solutions in the last stage. While CVRP in this study encompasses designing the relief routes of a set of homogeneous vehicles from a relief centre to a set of geographically distributed evacuation points in which their demands are estimated by using both simulation and randomisation techniques. The CVRP is modeled as a multi-objective optimization problem where both total travelling distance and total transport resources used are minimized, while demand-cost efficiency of each route is maximized in order to determine route priority. As the model is a NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, the Clarke and Wright Saving heuristics is proposed to solve the problem for the near-optimal solutions. The real-case instances in the coastal area of Phuket, Thailand are studied to perform the SDSS that allows a decision maker to visually analyse the simulation scenarios through different decision factors.

Keywords: demand simulation, humanitarian logistics, geographical information systems, relief operations, capacitated vehicle routing problem

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Authors: Siqi Qiu, Yijian Zheng, Xin Guo Ming

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In many reliability and risk analysis, failures of components are supposed to be independent. However, in reality, the ignorance of failure dependencies among components may render the results of reliability and risk analysis incorrect. There are two principal ways to incorporate failure dependencies in system reliability and risk analysis: implicit and explicit methods. In the implicit method, failure dependencies can be modeled by joint probabilities, correlation values or conditional probabilities. In the explicit method, certain types of dependencies can be modeled in a fault tree as mutually independent basic events for specific component failures. In this paper, explicit and implicit methods based on BDD will be proposed to evaluate the reliability of systems considering failure dependencies. The obtained results prove the equivalence of the proposed implicit and explicit methods. It is found that the consideration of failure dependencies decreases the reliability of systems. This observation is intuitive, because more components fail due to failure dependencies. The consideration of failure dependencies helps designers to reduce the dependencies between components during the design phase to make the system more reliable.

Keywords: reliability assessment, risk assessment, failure dependencies, binary decision diagram

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Authors: Yin-Yann Chen, Jia-Ying Li

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Assembly line balancing problems can be categorized into one-sided, two-sided, and multi-manned ones by using the number of operators deployed at workstations. This study explores the balancing problem of a resource-constrained assembly line with multi-manned workstations. Resources include machines or tools in assembly lines such as jigs, fixtures, and hand tools. A mathematical programming model was developed to carry out decision-making and planning in order to minimize the numbers of workstations, resources, and operators for achieving optimal production efficiency. To improve the solution-finding efficiency, a genetic algorithm (GA) and a simulated annealing algorithm (SA) were designed and developed in this study to be combined with a practical case in car making. Results of the GA/SA and mathematics programming were compared to verify their validity. Finally, analysis and comparison were conducted in terms of the target values, production efficiency, and deployment combinations provided by the algorithms in order for the results of this study to provide references for decision-making on production deployment.

Keywords: heuristic algorithms, line balancing, multi-manned workstation, resource-constrained

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Authors: Begum Koru, Isik Aybay, Demet Celik Ulusoy

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The discipline of law is quite complex and has its own terminology. Apart from written legal rules, there is also living law, which refers to legal practice. Basic legal rules aim at the happiness of individuals in social life and have different characteristics in different branches such as public or private law. On the other hand, law is a national phenomenon. The law of one nation and the legal system applied on the territory of another nation may be completely different. People who are experts in a particular field of law in one country may have insufficient expertise in the law of another country. Today, in addition to the local nature of law, international and even supranational law rules are applied in order to protect basic human values and ensure the protection of human rights around the world. Systems that offer algorithmic solutions to legal problems using artificial intelligence (AI) tools will perhaps serve to produce very meaningful results in terms of human rights. However, algorithms to be used should not be developed by only computer experts, but also need the contribution of people who are familiar with law, values, judicial decisions, and even the social and political culture of the society to which it will provide solutions. Otherwise, even if the algorithm works perfectly, it may not be compatible with the values of the society in which it is applied. The latest developments involving the use of AI techniques in legal systems indicate that artificial law will emerge as a new field in the discipline of law. More AI systems are already being applied in the field of law, with examples such as predicting judicial decisions, text summarization, decision support systems, and classification of documents. Algorithms for legal systems employing AI tools, especially in the field of prediction of judicial decisions and decision support systems, have the capacity to create automatic decisions instead of judges. When the judge is removed from this equation, artificial intelligence-made law created by an intelligent algorithm on its own emerges, whether the domain is national or international law. In this work, the aim is to make a general analysis of this new topic. Such an analysis needs both a literature survey and a perspective from computer experts' and lawyers' point of view. In some societies, the use of prediction or decision support systems may be useful to integrate international human rights safeguards. In this case, artificial law can serve to produce more comprehensive and human rights-protective results than written or living law. In non-democratic countries, it may even be thought that direct decisions and artificial intelligence-made law would be more protective instead of a decision "support" system. Since the values of law are directed towards "human happiness or well-being", it requires that the AI algorithms should always be capable of serving this purpose and based on the rule of law, the principle of justice and equality, and the protection of human rights.

Keywords: AI and law, artificial law, protection of human rights, AI tools for legal systems

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Authors: Abubakar Sadiq Mensah

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The Knowledge of the population growth of a nation is paramount to national planning. The population of a place is studied and a model developed over a period of time, Matrices is used to form model for population growth. The eigenvalue ƛ of the matrix A and its corresponding eigenvector X is such that AX = ƛX is calculated. The stable age distribution of the population is obtained using the eigenvalue and the characteristic polynomial. Hence, estimation could be made using eigenvalues and eigenvectors.

Keywords: eigenvalues, eigenvectors, population, growth/stability

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Authors: Golshid Gilani, Albert De La Fuente, Ana Blanco

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Sustainability assessment of new and existing buildings has generated a growing interest due to the evident environmental, social and economic impacts during their construction and service life. Façades, as one of the most important exterior elements of a building, may contribute to the building sustainability by reducing the amount of energy consumption and providing thermal comfort for the inhabitants, thus minimizing the environmental impact on both the building and on the environment. Various methods have been used for the sustainability assessment of buildings due to the importance of this issue. However, most of the existing methods mainly concentrate on environmental and economic aspects, disregarding the third pillar of sustainability, which is the social aspect. Besides, there is a little focus on comprehensive sustainability assessment of facades, as an important element of a building. This confirms the need of developing methods for assessing the sustainable performance of building façades as an important step in achieving building sustainability. In this respect, this paper aims at presenting a model for assessing the global sustainability of façade systems. for that purpose, the Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment (MIVES), a Multi-Criteria Decision Making model that integrates the main sustainability requirements (economic, environmental and social) and includes the concept of value functions, used as an assessment tool.

Keywords: façade, MCDM, MIVES, sustainability

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Authors: Zahid Ullah, Atlas Khan

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In today's data-driven world, the role of mathematics in bridging the gap between theory and applications is becoming increasingly vital. This abstract highlights the significance of mathematics as a powerful tool for analyzing, interpreting, and extracting meaningful insights from vast amounts of data. By integrating mathematical principles with real-world applications, researchers can unlock the full potential of data-driven decision-making processes. This abstract delves into the various ways mathematics acts as a bridge connecting theoretical frameworks to practical applications. It explores the utilization of mathematical models, algorithms, and statistical techniques to uncover hidden patterns, trends, and correlations within complex datasets. Furthermore, it investigates the role of mathematics in enhancing predictive modeling, optimization, and risk assessment methodologies for improved decision-making in diverse fields such as finance, healthcare, engineering, and social sciences. The abstract also emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, and domain experts to tackle the challenges posed by the data-driven landscape. By fostering synergies between these disciplines, novel approaches can be developed to address complex problems and make data-driven insights accessible and actionable. Moreover, this abstract underscores the importance of robust mathematical foundations for ensuring the reliability and validity of data analysis. Rigorous mathematical frameworks not only provide a solid basis for understanding and interpreting results but also contribute to the development of innovative methodologies and techniques. In summary, this abstract advocates for the pivotal role of mathematics in bridging theory and applications in a data-driven world. By harnessing mathematical principles, researchers can unlock the transformative potential of data analysis, paving the way for evidence-based decision-making, optimized processes, and innovative solutions to the challenges of our rapidly evolving society.

Keywords: mathematics, bridging theory and applications, data-driven world, mathematical models

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Authors: Katharina Eberhardt, Florian Klaus Kaiser, Frank Schultmann

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Last-mile distribution is one of the most critical parts of a disaster relief operation. Various uncertainties, such as infrastructure conditions, resource availability, and fluctuating beneficiary demand, render last-mile distribution challenging in disaster relief operations. The need to balance critical performance criteria like response time, meeting demand and cost-effectiveness further complicates the task. The occurrence of disasters cannot be controlled, and the magnitude is often challenging to assess. In summary, these uncertainties create a need for additional flexibility, agility, and preparedness in logistics operations. As a result, strategic planning and efficient network design are critical for an effective and efficient response. Furthermore, the increasing frequency of disasters and the rising cost of logistical operations amplify the need to provide robust and resilient solutions in this area. Therefore, we formulate a scenario-based bi-objective optimization model that integrates pre-positioning, allocation, and distribution of relief supplies extending the general form of a covering location problem. The proposed model aims to minimize underlying logistics costs while maximizing demand coverage. Using a set of disruption scenarios, the model allows decision-makers to identify optimal network solutions to address the risk of disruptions. We provide an empirical case study of the public authorities’ emergency food storage strategy in Germany to illustrate the potential applicability of the model and provide implications for decision-makers in a real-world setting. Also, we conduct a sensitivity analysis focusing on the impact of varying stockpile capacities, single-site outages, and limited transportation capacities on the objective value. The results show that the stockpiling strategy needs to be consistent with the optimal number of depots and inventory based on minimizing costs and maximizing demand satisfaction. The strategy has the potential for optimization, as network coverage is insufficient and relies on very high transportation and personnel capacity levels. As such, the model provides decision support for public authorities to determine an efficient stockpiling strategy and distribution network and provides recommendations for increased resilience. However, certain factors have yet to be considered in this study and should be addressed in future works, such as additional network constraints and heuristic algorithms.

Keywords: humanitarian logistics, bi-objective optimization, pre-positioning, last mile distribution, decision support, disaster relief networks

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Authors: Yu-Jia Jian, Emily Chia-Yu Su, Hui-Ling Hsu, Jian-Jhih Chen

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Coronary artery is the major supplier of myocardial blood flow. When fat and cholesterol are deposit in the coronary arterial wall, narrowing and stenosis of the artery occurs, which may lead to myocardial ischemia and eventually infarction. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), estimated 740 million people have died of coronary heart disease in 2015. According to Statistics from Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan, heart disease (except for hypertensive diseases) ranked the second among the top 10 causes of death from 2013 to 2016, and it still shows a growing trend. According to American Heart Association (AHA), the risk factors for coronary heart disease including: age (> 65 years), sex (men to women with 2:1 ratio), obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, smoking, family history, lack of exercise and more. We have collected a dataset of 421 patients from a hospital located in northern Taiwan who received coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography. There were 300 males (71.26%) and 121 females (28.74%), with age ranging from 24 to 92 years, and a mean age of 56.3 years. Prior to coronary CT angiography, basic data of the patients, including age, gender, obesity index (BMI), diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, smoking, family history of coronary heart disease and exercise habits, were collected and used as input variables. The output variable of the prediction module is the degree of coronary artery stenosis. The output variable of the prediction module is the narrow constriction of the coronary artery. In this study, the dataset was randomly divided into 80% as training set and 20% as test set. Four machine learning algorithms, including logistic regression, stepwise regression, neural network and decision tree, were incorporated to generate prediction results. We used area under curve (AUC) / accuracy (Acc.) to compare the four models, the best model is neural network, followed by stepwise logistic regression, decision tree, and logistic regression, with 0.68 / 79 %, 0.68 / 74%, 0.65 / 78%, and 0.65 / 74%, respectively. Sensitivity of neural network was 27.3%, specificity was 90.8%, stepwise Logistic regression sensitivity was 18.2%, specificity was 92.3%, decision tree sensitivity was 13.6%, specificity was 100%, logistic regression sensitivity was 27.3%, specificity 89.2%. From the result of this study, we hope to improve the accuracy by improving the module parameters or other methods in the future and we hope to solve the problem of low sensitivity by adjusting the imbalanced proportion of positive and negative data.

Keywords: decision support, computed tomography, coronary artery, machine learning

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Authors: Mutwakil Nafi, Abed Elaziz El Amein, Muna El Dawi, Khalafala Salih, Osma Elbahi, Abed Elhalim Abou

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Recently a large deposit of oolitic iron ore of Late Carboniferous-Permotriassic-Lower Jurassic age was discovered in Wadi Halfa and Argein areas, North Sudan. It seems that the iron ore mineralization exists in the west and east bank of the River Nile of the study area that are found on the Egyptian-Sudanese border. The Carboniferous-Lower Jurassic age strata were covered by 67 sections and each section has been examined and carefully described. The iron-ore in Wadi Halfa occurs as oolitic ironstone and contained two horizons: (A) horizon and (B) horizon. Only horizon (A) was observed in southern Argein area. The texture of the ore is variable depending on the volume of the component. In thin sections the average of the ooids were ranged between 90% - 80%. The matrix varies between 10%-20% by volume and detritus quartz in other component my reach up to 30% by volume in sandy massive ore. Ooids size ranges from 0.2mm-1.00 mm on average in very coarse ooids may attend up to 1 mm in size. The matrix around the ooids is dominated by iron hydroxide, carbonate, fine and amorphous silica. The probable ore reserve estimate of 1.234 billion at a head grade of 41.29% Fe for the Wadi Halfa Oolitic Ironstone Formation. The iron ore shows higher content of phosphorus ranges from 6.15% to 0.16%, with mean 1.45%. The new technology Hatch–Ironstone Chloride Segregation (HICS) can be used to produce commercial-quality of iron and reduce phosphorus and silica to acceptable levels for steel industry. The development of infra structures and presence huge quantity of iron ore would make exploitation of the iron ore economic.

Keywords: HICS, Late Carboniferous age, oolitic iron ore, phosphorus

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Authors: Gultekin Gurcay

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It is known that the most crucial influence of the psychological, social and emotional factors that affect any human behavior is to corrupt the rational decision making mechanism of the individuals and cause them to display irrational behaviors. In this regard, the social context of human beings influences the rationality of our decisions, and people tend to display different behaviors when they were alone compared to when they were surrounded by others. At this point, the interaction and interdependence of the behavioral finance and economics with the area of social psychology comes, where intentions and the behaviors of the individuals are being analyzed in the actual or implied presence of others comes into prominence. Within the context of this study, the prevalent theories of behavioral finance, which are The Prospect Theory, The Utility Theory Given Uncertainty and the Five Axioms of Choice under Uncertainty, Veblen’s Hidden Utility Theory, and the concept of ‘Overreaction’ has been examined and demonstrated; and the meaning, existence and validity of these theories together with the social context has been assessed. Finally, in this study the behavior of the individuals in financial crisis situations where the majority of the society is being affected from the same negative conditions at the same time has been analyzed, by taking into account how individual behavior will change according to the presence of the others.

Keywords: conditional variance coefficient, financial crisis, garch model, stock market

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Authors: G. Wojcik, J. Gindlhuber, A. Syarif, K. Hoetzenecker, P. Bohm, P. Vesely, V. Biasin, G. Kwapiszewska

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Pulmonary fibrosis is a rare disease where uncontrolled wound healing processes damage the lung structure. Intensive changes within the extracellular matrix (ECM) and its interaction with fibroblasts have a major role in pulmonary fibrosis development. Among others, collagen is one of the main components of the ECM, and it is important for lung structure. In IPF, constant production of collagen by fibroblast, through TGFβ1-SMAD2/3 pathways, leads to an uncontrolled deposition of matrix and hence lung remodeling. Abnormal changes in lipid production, alterations in fatty acids (FAs) metabolism, enhanced oxidative stress, and lipid peroxidation in fibrotic lung and fibrotic fibroblasts have been reported; however, the interplay between the collagen and lipids is not yet established. One of the FAs influx regulators is Angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4), which inhibits lipoprotein lipase work, decreasing the availability of FAs. We hypothesized that altered lipid composition or availability could have the capability to influence the phenotype of different fibroblast populations in the lung and hence influence lung fibrosis. To prove our hypothesis, we aim to investigate lipids and their influence on human, animal, and in vitro levels. In the bleomycin model, treatment with the well-known metabolic drugs Rosiglitazone or Metformin significantly lower collagen production. Similar results were noticed in ANGPTL4 KO animals, where the KO of ANGPTL4 leads to an increase of FAs availability and lower collagen deposition after the bleomycin challenge. Currently, we study the treatment of different FAs on human lung para fibroblasts (hPF) isolated from donors. To understand the lipid composition, we are collecting human lung tissue from donors and pulmonary fibrosis patients for Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. In conclusion, our results suggest the lipid influence on collagen deposition during lung fibrosis, but further research needs to be conducted to understand the matter of this relationship.

Keywords: collagen, fibroblasts, lipidomics, lung, pulmonary fibrosis

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Authors: Faith-Michael E. Uzoka, Boluwaji A. Akinnuwesi, Taiwo Amoo, Flora Aladi, Stephen Fashoto, Moses Olaniyan, Joseph Osuji

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The overarching aim of this study is to develop a soft-computing system for the differential diagnosis of tropical diseases. These conditions are of concern to health bodies, physicians, and the community at large because of their mortality rates, and difficulties in early diagnosis due to the fact that they present with symptoms that overlap, and thus become ‘confusable’. We report on the first phase of our study, which focuses on the development of a fuzzy cognitive map model for early differential diagnosis of tropical diseases. We used malaria as a case disease to show the effectiveness of the FCM technology as an aid to the medical practitioner in the diagnosis of tropical diseases. Our model takes cognizance of manifested symptoms and other non-clinical factors that could contribute to symptoms manifestations. Our model showed 85% accuracy in diagnosis, as against the physicians’ initial hypothesis, which stood at 55% accuracy. It is expected that the next stage of our study will provide a multi-disease, multi-symptom model that also improves efficiency by utilizing a decision support filter that works on an algorithm, which mimics the physician’s diagnosis process.

Keywords: medical diagnosis, tropical diseases, fuzzy cognitive map, decision support filters, malaria differential diagnosis

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Authors: Halima Akhtar, Abhijeet Chandra

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The paper attempts to analyze the factors that influence the Consumer Behavior to purchase apparel through the internet. The intentions to buy apparels online were based on in terms of user style, orientation, size and reputation of the merchant, social influence, perceived information utility, perceived ease of use, perceived pleasure and attractiveness and perceived trust and risk. The basic framework used was Technology acceptance model to explain apparels acceptance. A survey was conducted to gather the data from 200 people. The measures and hypotheses were analyzed using Correlation testing and would be further validated by the Structural Equation Modelling. The implications of the findings for theory and practice could be used by marketers of online apparel websites. Based on the values obtained, we can conclude that the factors such as social influence, Perceived information utility, attractiveness and trust influence the decision for a user to buy apparels online. The major factors which are found to influence an online apparel buying decision are ease of use, attractiveness that a website can offer and the trust factor which a user shares with the website.

Keywords: E-tailers, consumer behaviour, technology acceptance model, structural modelling

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Authors: Michel Patiño-Sáenz, Martín Haissiner, Jorge Martínez-Cotrina, Daniel Pastor, Hernando Santamaría-García, Maria-Alejandra Tangarife, Agustin Ibáñez, Sandra Baez

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It has been shown that gruesome descriptions of harm can increase the punishment given to a transgressor. This biasing effect is mediated by negative emotions, which are elicited upon the presentation of gruesome descriptions. However, there is a lack of studies inquiring the influence of such descriptions on moral decision-making in people involved in the criminal justice system. Such populations are of special interest since they have experience dealing with gruesome evidence, but also formal education on how to assess evidence and gauge the appropriate punishment according to the law. Likewise, they are expected to be objective and rational when performing their duty, because their decisions can impact profoundly people`s lives. Considering these antecedents, the objective of this study was to explore the influence gruesome written descriptions on moral decision-making in this group of people. To that end, we recruited attorneys, judges and public prosecutors (Criminal justice group, CJ, n=30) whose field of specialty is criminal law. In addition, we included a control group of people who did not have a formal education in law (n=30), but who were paired in age and years of education with the CJ group. All participants completed an online, Spanish-adapted version of a moral decision-making task, which was previously reported in the literature and also standardized and validated in the Latin-American context. A series of text-based stories describing two characters, one inflicting harm on the other, were presented to participants. Transgressor's intentionality (accidental vs. intentional harm) and language (gruesome vs. plain) used to describe harm were manipulated employing a within-subjects and a between-subjects design, respectively. After reading each story, participants were asked to rate (a) the harmful action's moral adequacy, (b) the amount of punishment deserving the transgressor and (c) how damaging was his behavior. Results showed main effects of group, intentionality and type of language on all dependent measures. In both groups, intentional harmful actions were rated as significantly less morally adequate, were punished more severely and were deemed as more damaging. Moreover, control subjects deemed more damaging and punished more severely any type of action than the CJ group. In addition, there was an interaction between intentionality and group. People in the control group rated harmful actions as less morally adequate than the CJ group, but only when the action was accidental. Also, there was an interaction between intentionality and language on punishment ratings. Controls punished more when harm was described using gruesome language. However, that was not the case of people in the CJ group, who assigned the same amount of punishment in both conditions. In conclusion, participants with job experience in the criminal justice system or criminal law differ in the way they make moral decisions. Particularly, it seems that they are less sensitive to the biasing effect of gruesome evidence, which is probably explained by their formal education or their experience in dealing with such evidence. Nonetheless, more studies are needed to determine the impact this phenomenon has on the fulfillment of their duty.

Keywords: criminal justice system, emotions, gruesome descriptions, intentionality, moral decision-making

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Authors: Dona Primasari

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This study examines the antecedent variables of Government Financial Acccounting System (SAKD) implementation and its consequence. The antecedent variables are: decentralization of decision making, adaptation, and the manager support. The consequences are satisfaction and performance officer. This research represents the empirical test which used convenience sampling technics in data collection. The data were collected from 167 officers of local government in the Regional Coordinating Agency for Development of Cross County/City Region III Central Java Province. Data analysis used Structural Equation Model (SEM) with the AMOS 18.0 program. The result of hypothesis examination indicates that six raised hypothesis are accepted and two hypothesis are rejected.

Keywords: decentralization of decision making, adaptation officer, manager support, implementation of Government Accounting Financial System (SAKD), satisfaction and performance officer

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Authors: Eslam Mohammed Abdelkader, Mohamed Marzouk, Tarek Zayed

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Infrastructure systems are crucial to every aspect of life on Earth. Existing Infrastructure is subjected to degradation while the demands are growing for a better infrastructure system in response to the high standards of safety, health, population growth, and environmental protection. Bridges play a crucial role in urban transportation networks. Moreover, they are subjected to high level of deterioration because of the variable traffic loading, extreme weather conditions, cycles of freeze and thaw, etc. The development of Bridge Management Systems (BMSs) has become a fundamental imperative nowadays especially in the large transportation networks due to the huge variance between the need for maintenance actions, and the available funds to perform such actions. Deterioration models represent a very important aspect for the effective use of BMSs. This paper presents a probabilistic time-based model that is capable of predicting the condition ratings of the concrete bridge decks along its service life. The deterioration process of the concrete bridge decks is modeled using semi-Markov process. One of the main challenges of the Markov Chain Decision Process (MCDP) is the construction of the transition probability matrix. Yet, the proposed model overcomes this issue by modeling the sojourn times based on some probability density functions. The sojourn times of each condition state are fitted to probability density functions based on some goodness of fit tests such as Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Anderson Darling, and chi-squared test. The parameters of the probability density functions are obtained using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE). The condition ratings obtained from the Ministry of Transportation in Quebec (MTQ) are utilized as a database to construct the deterioration model. Finally, a comparison is conducted between the Markov Chain and semi-Markov chain to select the most feasible prediction model.

Keywords: bridge management system, bridge decks, deterioration model, Semi-Markov chain, sojourn times, maximum likelihood estimation

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Authors: Benedict O. Muyale, Emmanuel S. Murunga

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Cities have always been the loci for nationals as well as growth of cultural fusion and innovation. Over 50%of global population dwells in cities and urban centers. This means that cities are prolific users of natural resources and generators of waste; hence they produce most of the greenhouse gases which are causing global climate change. The root cause of increase in the transport sector carbon curve is mainly the greater numbers of individually owned cars. Development in these cities is geared towards economic progress while environmental sustainability is ignored. Infrastructure projects focus on road expansion, electrification, and more parking spaces. These lead to more carbon emissions, traffic congestion, and air pollution. Recent development plans for Nairobi city are now on road expansion with little priority for electric train solutions. The Vision 2030, Kenya’s development guide, has shed some light on the city with numerous road expansion projects. This chapter seeks to realize the following objectives; (1) to assess the current transport situation of Nairobi; (2) to review green transport solutions being undertaken in the city; (3) to give an overview of alternative green transportation solutions, and (4) to provide a green transportation framework matrix. This preliminary study will utilize primary and secondary data through mainly desktop research and analysis, literature, books, magazines and on-line information. This forms the basis for formulation of approaches for incorporation into the green transportation framework matrix of the main study report.The main goal is the achievement of a practical green transportation system for implementation by the City County of Nairobi to reduce carbon emissions and congestion and promote environmental sustainability.

Keywords: cities, transport, Nairobi, green technologies

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Authors: M. Lopez-Pereyra, I. Cisneros Alvarado, M. Del Socorro Lobato Alba

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This paper aims to discuss a conceptual, pedagogical approach that foster inclusive education and that create an awareness of the use of assistive technology in Mexico. Interdisciplinary understanding of disabilities and the use of assistive technology as a frame for an inclusive education have challenged the reality of the researchers’ participation in decision-making. Drawing upon a pedagogical inquiry process within an interdisciplinary academic project that involved the sciences, design, biotechnology, psychology and education fields, this paper provides a discussion on the challenges of assistive technology and inclusive education in interdisciplinary research on disabilities and technology project. This study is frame on an educational action research design where the team is interested in integrating, disability, technology, and inclusion, theory, and practice. Major findings include: (1) the concept of inclusive education as a strategy for interdisciplinary research; (2) inclusion as a pedagogical approach that challenges the creation of assistive technology from diverse academic fields; and, (3) inclusion as a frame, problem-focused, for decision-making. The findings suggest that inclusive pedagogical approaches provide a unique insight into interdisciplinary teams on disability and assistive technology in education.

Keywords: assistive technology, inclusive education, inclusive pedagogy, interdisciplinary research

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Authors: Ulku Soydal, Mustafa Esen Marti, Gulnare Ahmetli

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In this study, precipitated calcium carbonate lime waste (LW) from sugar beet process was recycled as the raw material for the preparation of composite materials. Epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) was used as a co-matrix in 50 wt% with DGEBA type epoxy resin (ER). XRD was used for characterization of composites. Effects of ESO and LW filler amounts on mechanical properties of neat ER were investigated. Modification of ER with ESO remarkably enhanced plasticity of ER.

Keywords: epoxy resin, biocomposite, lime waste, properties

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Authors: Iva Buchberger, Vesna Kovač

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Global education policy trends and recommendations underline the importance of (distributive) school leadership as a school effectiveness key factor. In this context, the broader aim of this research (supported by the Croatian Science Foundation) is to identify school leadership characteristics in Croatian schools and to examine the correlation between school leadership and school effectiveness. The aim of the proposed conference paper is to focus on the school leadership characteristics which are additionally explained with school leadership facilitators that contribute to (distributive) school leadership development. The aforementioned school leadership characteristics include the following dimensions: (a) participation in the process of making different types of decisions, (b) influence in the decision making process, (c) social interactions between different stakeholders in the decision making process in schools. Further, the school leadership facilitators are categorized as follows: (a) principal’s activities (such as providing support to different stakeholders and developing mutual trust among them), (b) stakeholders’ characteristics (such as developed stakeholders’ interest and competence to participate in decision-making process), (c) organizational and material resources (such as school material conditions, the necessary information and time as resources for making decisions). The data were collected by a constructed and validated questionnaire for examining the school leadership characteristics and facilitators from teachers’ perspective. The main population in this study consists of all primary schools in Croatia while the sample is comprised of 100 primary schools, selected by random sampling. Furthermore, the sample of teachers was selected by an additional procedure taking into consideration the independent variables of sex, work experience, etc. Data processing was performed by standard statistical methods of descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical program IBM SPSS 20.0 was used for data processing. The results of this study show that there is a (positive) correlation between school leadership characteristics and school leadership facilitators. Specifically, it is noteworthy to mention that all the dimensions of school leadership characteristics are in positive correlation with the categories of school leadership facilitators. These results are indicative for the education policy creators who should ensure positive and supportive environment for the school leadership development including the development of school leadership characteristics and school leadership facilitators.

Keywords: distributive school leadership, school effectiveness , school leadership characteristics, school leadership facilitators

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Authors: V. Veeraprathap, G. S. Harish, G. Narendra Kumar

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Uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lung in the form of tumor can be either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Patients with Lung Cancer (LC) have an average of five years life span expectancy provided diagnosis, detection and prediction, which reduces many treatment options to risk of invasive surgery increasing survival rate. Computed Tomography (CT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for earlier detection of cancer are common. Gaussian filter along with median filter used for smoothing and noise removal, Histogram Equalization (HE) for image enhancement gives the best results without inviting further opinions. Lung cavities are extracted and the background portion other than two lung cavities is completely removed with right and left lungs segmented separately. Region properties measurements area, perimeter, diameter, centroid and eccentricity measured for the tumor segmented image, while texture is characterized by Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) functions, feature extraction provides Region of Interest (ROI) given as input to classifier. Two levels of classifications, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) is used for determining patient condition as normal or abnormal, while Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is used for identifying the cancer stage is employed. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) algorithm is used for the main feature extraction leading to best efficiency. The developed technology finds encouraging results for real time information and on line detection for future research.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, ANN, discrete wavelet transform, DWT, gray-level co-occurrence matrix, GLCM, k-nearest neighbor, KNN, region of interest, ROI

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Authors: A. Peyvan, D. Li, J. Komperda, F. Mashayek

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Turbulence can be observed in a variety fluid motions in nature and industrial applications. Recent investment in high-speed aircraft and propulsion systems has revitalized fundamental research on turbulent flows. In these systems, capturing chaotic fluid structures with different length and time scales is accomplished through the Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) approach since it accurately simulates flows down to smallest dissipative scales, i.e., Kolmogorov’s scales. The discontinuous spectral element method (DSEM) is a high-order technique that uses spectral functions for approximating the solution. The DSEM code has been developed by our research group over the course of more than two decades. Recently, the code has been improved to run large cases in the order of billions of solution points. Running big simulations requires a considerable amount of RAM. Therefore, the DSEM code must be highly parallelized and able to start on multiple computational nodes on an HPC cluster with distributed memory. However, some pre-processing procedures, such as determining global element information, creating a global face list, and assigning global partitioning and element connection information of the domain for communication, must be done sequentially with a single processing core. A separate code has been written to perform the pre-processing procedures on a local machine. It stores the minimum amount of information that is required for the DSEM code to start in parallel, extracted from the mesh file, into text files (pre-files). It packs integer type information with a Stream Binary format in pre-files that are portable between machines. The files are generated to ensure fast read performance on different file-systems, such as Lustre and General Parallel File System (GPFS). A new subroutine has been added to the DSEM code to read the startup files using parallel MPI I/O, for Lustre, in a way that each MPI rank acquires its information from the file in parallel. In case of GPFS, in each computational node, a single MPI rank reads data from the file, which is specifically generated for the computational node, and send them to other ranks on the node using point to point non-blocking MPI communication. This way, communication takes place locally on each node and signals do not cross the switches of the cluster. The read subroutine has been tested on Argonne National Laboratory’s Mira (GPFS), National Center for Supercomputing Application’s Blue Waters (Lustre), San Diego Supercomputer Center’s Comet (Lustre), and UIC’s Extreme (Lustre). The tests showed that one file per node is suited for GPFS and parallel MPI I/O is the best choice for Lustre file system. The DSEM code relies on heavily optimized linear algebra operation such as matrix-matrix and matrix-vector products for calculation of the solution in every time-step. For this, the code can either make use of its matrix math library, BLAS, Intel MKL, or ATLAS. This fact and the discontinuous nature of the method makes the DSEM code run efficiently in parallel. The results of weak scaling tests performed on Blue Waters showed a scalable and efficient performance of the code in parallel computing.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, direct numerical simulation, spectral element, turbulent flow

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Ahmad Alqatan

Abstract:

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze how the adoption of cloud accounting systems influences the governance practices and performance of boards of directors in MENA countries. The research aims to identify the benefits and challenges associated with cloud accounting and its role in improving board efficiency and oversight. Methodology: This research employs a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews with board members and financial officers from a diverse range of companies in the MENA region. The quantitative data is analyzed to determine patterns and correlations, while qualitative insights provide a deeper understanding of the contextual factors influencing cloud accounting adoption and its impacts. Findings: The findings indicate that cloud accounting significantly enhances the decision-making capabilities of boards by providing real-time financial information and facilitating better communication among board members. Companies using cloud accounting reports improved financial oversight and more timely and accurate financial reporting. However, the research also identifies challenges such as cybersecurity concerns, resistance to change, and the need for ongoing training and support. Practical Implications: The study suggests that MENA companies can benefit from investing in cloud accounting technologies to improve board governance and strategic decision-making. It highlights the importance of addressing cybersecurity issues and providing adequate training for board members to maximize the advantages of cloud accounting. Originality: This research contributes to the limited literature on cloud accounting in the MENA region, offering valuable insights for policymakers, business leaders, and academics. It underscores the transformative potential of cloud accounting for enhancing board performance and corporate governance in emerging markets.

Keywords: cloud accounting, board of directors, MENA region, corporate governance, financial transparency, real-time data, decision-making, cybersecurity, technology adoption

Procedia PDF Downloads 30