Search results for: structural change model

Authors: Chih-Ping Chen

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Today, technology does not necessitate change; rather, social media has afforded a new arena and digital tools for users/individuals to be symbolized and marketed in meaningful exchanges of digital identities. We argue that these symbolic interactions may afford individuals the ability to create and present less restricted Line person-to-person (P2P) chats than would be possible in face-to-face communications. Individuals can select flexible influence strategies to market themselves, which enables them to create and present their digital identities and impressions in alternative ways within a dynamic sociocultural context. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the novel phenomenon of how individuals market themselves to manage their digital identities and impressions to connect with other users through the symbolic interactions created by new digital tools (e.g., stickers). A netnographic approach was developed by applying a triangulated methodology consisting of user self-diary reports, in-depth interviews, and observations. Totally, 20 participants (10 females and 10 males) were of Taiwanese origin, and their ages ranged from 20–47 years old. The findings of this research showed that individuals on Line P2P social media where traditional cultural gender norms have shifted. Both male and female participants market their modern digital identities by adopting a combination of flexible influence tactics/strategies when using digital stickers. Some findings showed that their influence tactics/strategies often flouted Taiwanese cultural gender norms or skirted traditional rules to fit individual or P2P needs. Finally, these findings potentially contributed to the literature regarding the consumer culture theory and symbolic interaction theory in digital marketing and social media fields.

Keywords: Consumer culture theory, Digital sticker, Self-marketing, Impression, Symbolic interaciton

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Authors: Ping-Ben Liu, Chien-Chou Tseng

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The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the lift coefficient and dynamic behaviors of cavitating flow around a two-dimensional Clark Y hydrofoil at 8° angle of attack, cavitation number of 0.8, and Reynolds number of 7.10⁵. The flow field is investigated numerically by using a vapor transfer equation and a modified turbulence model which applies the filter and local density correction. The results including time-averaged lift/drag coefficient and shedding frequency agree well with experimental observations, which confirmed the reliability of this simulation. According to the variation of lift coefficient, the cycle which consists of growth and shedding of cavitation can be divided into three stages, and the lift coefficient at each stage behaves similarly due to the formation and shedding of the cavity around the trailing edge.

Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics, cavitation, turbulence, lift coefficient

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Authors: D. Pérez, M. M. E. Alemany

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In this work a Framework to model the Supply Chain (SC) Collaborative Planning (CP) Process is proposed, and particularly its Decisional view. The main Framework contributions with regards to previous related works are the following, 1) the consideration of not only the Decision view, the most important one due to the Process type, but other additional three views which are the Physical, Organisation and Information ones, closely related and complementing the Decision View, 2) the joint consideration of two interdependence types, the Temporal (among Decision Centres belonging to different Decision Levels) and Spatial (among Decision Centres belonging to the same Decision Level) to support the distributed Decision-Making process in SC where several decision Centres interact among them in a collaborative manner.

Keywords: collaborative planning, decision view, distributed decision-making, framework

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Authors: Prabhakar Sathujoda

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Vibration analysis of a misaligned rotor coupling bearing system has been carried out while decelerating through its critical speed. The finite element method (FEM) is used to model the rotor system and simulate flexural vibrations. A flexible coupling with a frictionless joint is considered in the present work. The continuous wavelet transform is used to extract the misalignment features from the simulated time response. Subcritical speeds at one-half, one-third, and one-fourth the critical speed have appeared in the wavelet transformed vibration response of a misaligned rotor coupling bearing system. These features are also verified through a parametric study.

Keywords: Continuous Wavelet Transform, Flexible Coupling, Rotor System, Sub Critical Speed

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Authors: Seung Ho Park, Young Su Moon, Nam Ik Cho

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We propose a convolution neural network (CNN) for quality adaptive compression artifact reduction named QCARNet. The proposed method is different from the existing discriminative models that learn a specific model at a certain quality level. The method is composed of a quality estimation CNN (QECNN) and a compression artifact reduction CNN (CARCNN), which are two functionally separate CNNs. By connecting the QECNN and CARCNN, each CARCNN layer is able to adaptively reduce compression artifacts and preserve details depending on the estimated quality level map generated by the QECNN. We experimentally demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better performance compared to other state-of-the-art blind compression artifact reduction methods.

Keywords: compression artifact reduction, deblocking, image denoising, image restoration

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Authors: Farah Diab, Mohamad Khalil, Francesca Storace, Francesca Baldini, Piero Portincasaa, Giulio Lupidi, Laura Vergani

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Thymbra spicata is a thyme-like plant belonging to the Lamiaceae family that shows a global distribution, especially in the eastern Mediterranean region. Leaves of T. spicata contain large amounts of phenols such as phenolic acids (rosmarinic acid), phenolic monoterpenes (carvacrol), and flavonoids. In Lebanon, T. spicata is currently used as a culinary herb in salad and infusion, as well as for traditional medicinal purposes. Carvacrol (5-isopropyl-2-methyl phenol), the most abundant polyphenol in the organic extract and essential oils, has a great array of pharmacological properties. In fact, carvacrol is largely employed as a food additive and neutraceutical agent. Our aim is to investigate the beneficial effects of T. spicata ethanolic extract (TE) and its main component, carvacrol, using in vitro models of hepatic steatosis and endothelial dysfunction. As a further point, we focused on investigating if and how the binding of carvacrol to albumin, the physiological transporter for drugs in the blood, might be altered by the presence of high levels of fatty acids (FAs), thus impairing the carvacrol bio-distribution in vivo. For that reason, hepatic FaO cells treated with exogenous FAs such as oleate and palmitate mimic hepatosteatosis; endothelial HECV cells exposed to hydrogen peroxide are a model of endothelial dysfunction. In these models, we measured lipid accumulation, free radical production, lipoperoxidation, and nitric oxide release before and after treatment with carvacrol. The carvacrol binding to albumin with/without high levels of long-chain FAs was assessed by absorption and emission spectroscopies. Our findings show that both TE and carvacrol (i) counteracted lipid accumulation in hepatocytes by decreasing the intracellular and extracellular lipid contents in steatotic FaO cells; (ii) decreased oxidative stress in endothelial cells by significantly reducing lipoperoxidation and free radical production, as well as, attenuating the nitric oxide release; (ii) high levels of circulating FAs reduced the binding of carvacrol to albumin. The beneficial effects of TE and carvacrol on both hepatic and endothelial cells point to a nutraceutical potential. However, high levels of circulating FAs, such as those occurring in metabolic disorders, might hinder the carvacrol transport, bio-distribution, and pharmacodynamics.

Keywords: carvacrol, endothelial dysfunction, fatty acids, non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases, serum albumin

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Authors: Amir Gharavi, Mohamed Hassan, Amjad Shah

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The main characteristics of unconventional reservoirs include low-to ultra low permeability and low-to-moderate porosity. As a result, hydrocarbon production from these reservoirs requires different extraction technologies than from conventional resources. An unconventional reservoir must be stimulated to produce hydrocarbons at an acceptable flow rate to recover commercial quantities of hydrocarbons. Permeability for unconventional reservoirs is mostly below 0.1 mD, and reservoirs with permeability above 0.1 mD are generally considered to be conventional. The hydrocarbon held in these formations naturally will not move towards producing wells at economic rates without aid from hydraulic fracturing which is the only technique to assess these tight reservoir productions. Horizontal well with multi-stage fracking is the key technique to maximize stimulated reservoir volume and achieve commercial production. The main objective of this research paper is to investigate development options for a tight mature oilfield. This includes multistage hydraulic fracturing and spacing by building of reservoir models in the Reveal simulator to model potential development options based on sidetracking the existing vertical well. To simulate potential options, reservoir models have been built in the Reveal. An existing Petrel geological model was used to build the static parts of these models. A FBHP limit of 40bars was assumed to take into account pump operating limits and to maintain the reservoir pressure above the bubble point. 300m, 600m and 900m lateral length wells were modelled, in conjunction with 4, 6 and 8 stages of fracs. Simulation results indicate that higher initial recoveries and peak oil rates are obtained with longer well lengths and also with more fracs and spacing. For a 25year forecast, the ultimate recovery ranging from 0.4% to 2.56% for 300m and 1000m laterals respectively. The 900m lateral with 8 fracs 100m spacing gave the highest peak rate of 120m3/day, with the 600m and 300m cases giving initial peak rates of 110m3/day. Similarly, recovery factor for the 900m lateral with 8 fracs and 100m spacing was the highest at 2.65% after 25 years. The corresponding values for the 300m and 600m laterals were 2.37% and 2.42%. Therefore, the study suggests that longer laterals with 8 fracs and 100m spacing provided the optimal recovery, and this design is recommended as the basis for further study.

Keywords: unconventional, resource, hydraulic, fracturing

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Authors: Ellen Patricia, Marilou Hyson

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Coaching has been showing great potential to strengthen the impact of brief group trainings and help early childhood teachers solve specific problems at work with the goal of raising the quality of early childhood services. However, there have been some doubts about the benefits that village teachers can receive from coaching. It is perceived that village teachers may struggle with the thinking skills needed to make coaching beneficial. Furthermore, there are reservations about whether principals and supervisors in villages are open to coaching’s facilitative approach, as opposed to the directive approach they have been using. As such, the use of coaching to develop the professionalism of early childhood teachers in the villages needs to be examined. The Coaching Pilot for early childhood teachers in Indonesia villages provides insights for the above issues. The Coaching Pilot is part of the ECED Frontline Pilot, which is a collaboration project between the Government of Indonesia and the World Bank with the support from the Australian Government (DFAT). The Pilot started with coordinated efforts with the local government in two districts to select principals and supervisors who have been equipped with basic knowledge about early childhood education to take part in 2-days coaching training. Afterwards, the participants were asked to collect 25 hours of coaching early childhood teachers who have participated in the Enhanced Basic Training for village teachers. The participants who completed this requirement were then invited to come for an assessment of their coaching skills. Following that, a qualitative evaluation was conducted using in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussion techniques. The evaluation focuses on the impact of the coaching pilot in helping the village teachers to develop in their professionalism, as well as on the sustainability of the intervention. Results from the evaluation indicated that although their low education may limit their thinking skills, village teachers benefited from the coaching that they received. Moreover, the evaluation results also suggested that with enough training and support, principals and supervisors in the villages were able to provide an adequate coaching service for the teachers. On top of that, beyond this small start, interest is growing, both within the pilot districts and even beyond, due to word of mouth of the benefits that the Coaching Pilot has created. The districts where coaching was piloted have planned to continue the coaching program, since a number of early childhood teachers have requested to be coached, and a number of principals and supervisors have also requested to be trained as a coach. Furthermore, the Association for Early Childhood Educators in Indonesia has started to adopt coaching into their program. Although further research is needed, the Coaching Pilot suggests that coaching can positively impact early childhood teachers in villages, and village principals and supervisors can become a promising source of future coaches. As such, coaching has a significant potential to become a sustainable model for a continuous professional development program for early childhood teachers in villages.

Keywords: coaching, coaching pilot, early childhood teachers, principals and supervisors, village teachers

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Authors: J. V. Gonzalez Fernandez, T. Mozume, S. Gozu, A. Lastras Martinez, L. F. Lastras Martinez, J. Ortega Gallegos, R. E. Balderas Navarro

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We report on a theoretical-experimental study of photoreflectance anisotropy (PRA) spectroscopy of coupled double quantum wells. By probing the in-plane interfacial optical anisotropies, we demonstrate that PRA spectroscopy has the capacity to detect and distinguish layers with quantum dimensions. In order to account for the experimental PRA spectra, we have used a theoretical model at k=0 based on a linear electro-optic effect through a piezoelectric shear strain.

Keywords: coupled double quantum well (CDQW), linear electro-optic (LEO) effect, photoreflectance anisotropy (PRA), piezoelectric shear strain

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Authors: Thomas Gerstner, Bastian von Harrach, Daniel Roth

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The Monte Carlo pathwise sensitivities approach is well established for smooth payoff functions. In this work, we present a new Monte Carlo algorithm that is able to calculate the pathwise sensitivities for discontinuous payoff functions. Our main tool is the one-step survival idea of Glasserman and Staum. Although this technique yields to new terms per observation, while differentiating, the algorithm is still efficient. As an application, we use the results for a two-dimensional calibration of a Coco-Bond, which we model with different types of discretely monitored barrier options.

Keywords: Monte Carlo, discretely monitored barrier options, pathwise sensitivities, Coco-Bond

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Authors: Noureddine Litim

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This work is to theoretical and numerical studying the real analysis of the seismic response of the soil with an Elasto-plastic behavior. To perform this analysis, we used different core drilling performed at the tunnel T4 in El Horace section of the highway east-west. The two-dimensional model (2d) was established by the code of finite element plaxis to estimate the displacement amplification and accelerations caused by the seismic wave in the different core drilling and compared with the factor of acceleration given by the RPA (2003) in the area studying. Estimate the displacement amplification and accelerations caused by the seismic wave.

Keywords: seismic response, deposition of soil, plaxis, elasto-plastic

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Authors: Mehmet Savsar

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Reliability and availability of power stations are extremely important in order to achieve a required level of power generation. In particular, in the hot desert climate of Kuwait, reliable power generation is extremely important because of cooling requirements at temperatures exceeding 50-centigrade degrees. In this paper, a particular power plant, named Sabiya Power Plant, which has 8 steam turbines and 13 gas turbine stations, has been studied in detail; extensive data are collected; and availability of station units are determined. Furthermore, a simulation model is developed and used to analyze the effects of different maintenance policies on availability of these stations. The results show that significant improvements can be achieved in power plant availabilities if appropriate maintenance policies are implemented.

Keywords: power plants, steam turbines, gas turbines, maintenance, availability, simulation

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Authors: Hanik Park, Kyungsook Jeon, Suchul Shin, Youngchul Park

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The air vent head prevents the inflow of seawater into the cargo holds when it is used for the ballast tank on heavy weather. In this study, the flow characteristics and the grid size were created by the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics by taking into the consideration of comparison of test results. Then, the accuracy of the analysis was verified by comparing with experimental results. Based on this analysis, accurate turbulence model and grid size can be selected. Thus, the design characteristic of air vent head for bulk carrier contributes the reliability based on the research results.

Keywords: bulk carrier, FEM, SST, vent

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Authors: Noha Nagy, Hoda Mokhtar, Mohamed El Sherkawi

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The popularity of workflow delegation models and the increasing number of workflow provenance-aware systems motivate the need for finding more strict delegation models. Such models combine different approaches for enhanced security and respecting workflow privacy. Although modern enterprises seek conformance to workflow constraints to ensure correctness of their work, these constraints pose a threat to security, because these constraints can be good seeds for attacking privacy even in secure models. This paper introduces a comprehensive Workflow Delegation Model (WFDM) that utilizes provenance and workflow constraints to prevent malicious delegate from attacking workflow privacy as well as extending the delegation functionalities. In addition, we argue the need for exploiting workflow constraints to improve workflow security models.

Keywords: workflow delegation models, secure workflow, workflow privacy, workflow provenance

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Authors: Pablo Reyes, Vanessa Riveros Fiallo, Cesar Acevedo, Camila Castellanos, Catalina Moncaleano, Maria F. Parra, Laura Colmenares

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Social emotions are physiological, cognitive and behavioral phenomenon that intervene in the mechanisms of adaptation of individuals and their context. These are mediated by interpersonal relationship and language. Such emotions are subdivided into moral and comparison. The present research emphasizes two comparative emotions: Envy and Schadenfreude. Envy arises when a person lack of quality, possessions or achievements and these are superior in someone else. The Schadenfreude (SC) expresses the pleasure that someone experienced by the misfortune of the other. The relationship between both emotions has been questioned before. Hence there are reports showing that envy increases and modulates SC response. Other documents suggest that envy causes SC response. However, the methodological approach of the topic has been made through self-reports, as well as the hypothetical scenarios. Given this problematic, the neuroscience social framework provides an alternative and demonstrates that social emotions have neurophysiological correlates that can be measured. This is relevant when studying social emotions that are reprehensible like envy or SC are. When tested, the individuals tend to report low ratings due to social desirability. In this study, it was drawn up a proposal in research's protocol and the progress on its own piloting. The aim is to evaluate the effect of feeling envy and Schadenfreude has on the decision-making process, as well as the cooperative behavior in an economic game. To such a degree, it was proposed an experimental model that will provoke to feel envious by performing games against an unknown opponent. The game consists of asking general knowledge questions. The difficulty level in questions and the strangers' facial response have been manipulated in order to generate an ecological comparison framework and be able to arise both envy and SC emotions. During the game, an electromyography registry will be made for two facial muscles that have been associated with the expressiveness of envy and SC emotions. One of the innovations of the current proposal is the measurement of the effect that emotions have on a specific behavior. To that extent, it was evaluated the effect of each condition on the dictators' economic game. The main intention is to evaluate if a social emotion can modulate actions that have been associated with social norms, in the literacy. The result of the evaluation of a pilot model (without electromyography record and self-report) have shown an association between envy and SC, in a way that as the individuals report a greater sense of envy, the greater the chance to experience SC. The results of the economic game show a slight tendency towards profit maximization decisions. It is expected that at the time of using real cash this behavior will be strengthened and also to correlate with the responses of electromyography.

Keywords: envy, schadenfreude, electromyography, economic games

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Authors: Salah Kayed Kayed, Jessica Hong Yang

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This study investigates, whether earnings management in the audited financial statements is associated with tone management in the narrative sections of the annual report in the UK. Earnings management and narrative disclosure are communication strategies used from managers to communicate with investors or other users. Because earnings management and narrative disclosure stem from managers, they can exploit this by doing manipulation in their earnings, and simultaneously disclosing qualitative text (narrative information) in their reports as a tone of words, which will affect users’ perception, and hence users will be misinformed. The association between earnings and tone management can be explained by the self-serving, through cognitive reference points, theory. The sample period lasts from 2010 to 2015, and the sample comprises all non-financial firms that consider under FTSE 350 in any year during the sample period. A list of words from previous research is used to measure the tone in the narrative sections of the annual report. Because this study focuses on the managerial strategic choice and the subjective issues that come from management, it uses the abnormal tone to capture the managerial discretion on tone, and a number of different discretionary accruals proxies to measure earnings management, where accruals management is considered as a manipulation tool from managers to change the users' perception. This research is motivated to fulfil the literature gap by examining the association between earnings and tone management. Moreover, if firms that apply earnings management use tone management to mislead investors, it is beneficial for investors, policy makers, standard setters, or other users to know whether there is an association between earnings management and tone management. Clearly, we believe that this study is fundamental in the accounting context, where it evaluates the communication strategies that are used in firms' financial reports. Consistent with prior research, it is expected that tone management is positively associated with earnings management. This means that firms that use earnings management have incentives to manipulate in their narrative disclosure through tone of words, to reflect a good perception for users, which will conceal the earnings management techniques used in their reporting.

Keywords: earnings management, FTSE 350, narrative disclosure, tone management

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Authors: Saeko Toyoshima

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This research will discuss if performance tasks with technology would enhance students' willingness to communicate. The present study investigated how Japanese learners of English would change their attitude to communication in their target language by experiencing a performance task, called 'digital portfolio', in the classroom, applying the concepts of action research. The study adapted questionnaires including four-Likert and open-end questions as mixed-methods research. There were 28 students in the class. Many of Japanese university students with low proficiency (A1 in Common European Framework of References in Language Learning and Teaching) have difficulty in communicating in English due to the low proficiency and the lack of practice in and outside of the classroom at secondary education. They should need to mediate between themselves in the world of L1 and L2 with completing a performance task for communication. This paper will introduce the practice of CALL class where A1 level students have made their 'digital portfolio' related to the topics of TED® (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talk materials. The students had 'Portfolio Session' twice in one term, once in the middle, and once at the end of the course, where they introduced their portfolio to their classmates and international students in English. The present study asked the students to answer a questionnaire about willingness to communicate twice, once at the end of the first term and once at the end of the second term. The four-Likert questions were statistically analyzed with a t-test, and the answers to open-end questions were analyzed to clarify the difference between them. They showed that the students had a more positive attitude to communication in English and enhanced their willingness to communicate through the experiences of the task. It will be the implication of this paper that making and presenting portfolio as a performance task would lead them to construct themselves in English and enable them to communicate with the others enjoyably and autonomously.

Keywords: action research, digital portfoliio, computer-assisted language learning, ELT with CALL system, mixed methods research, Japanese English learners, willingness to communicate

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Authors: Ercan Yilmaz, Ali Murat Sünbül

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The aim of the study is to investigate teachers’ self-efficacy with regards to their emotional intelligence. The relational model was used in the study. The participant of the study included 194 teachers from secondary schools in Konya, Turkey. In order to assess teachers’ emotional intelligence, “Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-short Form was implemented. For teachers’ self-efficacy, “Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale” was used. As a result of the study, a significant relationship is available between teachers’ sense of self-efficacy and their emotional intelligence. Teachers’ emotional intelligence enucleates approximate eighteen percent of the variable in dimension named teachers’ self-efficacy for the students’ involvement. About nineteen percent of the variable in dimension “self-efficacy for teaching strategies is represented through emotional intelligence. Teachers’ emotional intelligence demonstrates about seventeen percent of variable aimed at classroom management.

Keywords: teachers, self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, education

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Authors: Pradyumna Mohanty

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The paper aims to explore whether accounting information of Indian companies in the Steel sector are value relevant or not. Ohlson’s model which usually takes into consideration book value per share (BV) and earnings per share (EARN) has been used and the same has been expanded to include two more variables such as cash flow from operations (CFO) and return on equity (ROE). The data were collected from CMIE-Prowess data base in respect of BSE-listed steel companies and the time frame spans from 2010 to 2014. OLS regression has been used to test the value relevance of these accounting numbers. Results indicate that both CFO and BV are having significant influence on the stock price in two out of five years of study. But, BV is emerging as the most significant and highly value relevant of all the four variables during the entire period of study.

Keywords: value relevance, accounting information, book value per share, earnings per share

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Authors: Csaba Tóth, Éva Lakatos, László Pethő, Seoyoung Cho

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The temperature effect on asphalt pavement structure is a crucial factor at the design stage. In this paper, by applying the German guidelines for temperature along the asphalt depth is estimated. The aim is to consider temperature profiles in different seasons in numerical modelling. The model is built with an elastic and isotropic solid element with 19 subdivisions of asphalt layers to reflect the temperature variation. Comparison with the simple three-layer pavement system (asphalt layers, base, and subgrade layers) will be followed to see the difference in result without temperature variation along with the depth. Finally, the fatigue life calculation was checked to prove the validity of the methodology of considering the temperature in the numerical modelling.

Keywords: temperature profile, flexible pavement modeling, finite element method, temperature modeling

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Authors: Harman Jaggi, David Steinsaltz, Shripad Tuljapurkar

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Understanding the effect of fluctuations on populations is crucial in the context of increasing habitat fragmentation, climate change, and biological invasions, among others. Migration in response to environmental disturbances enables populations to escape unfavorable conditions, benefit from new environments and thereby ride out fluctuations in variable environments. Would populations disperse if there is no uncertainty? Karlin showed in 1982 that when sub-populations experience distinct but fixed growth rates at different sites, greater mixing of populations will lower the overall growth rate relative to the most favorable site. Here we ask if and when environmental variability favors migration over no-migration. Specifically, in random environments, would a small amount of migration increase the overall long-run growth rate relative to the zero migration case? We use analysis and simulations to show how long-run growth rate changes with migration rate. Our results show that when fitness (dis)advantages fluctuate over time across sites, migration may allow populations to benefit from variability. When there is one best site with highest growth rate, the effect of migration on long-run growth rate depends on the difference in expected growth between sites, scaled by the variance of the difference. When variance is large, there is a substantial probability of an inferior site experiencing higher growth rate than its average. Thus, a high variance can compensate for a difference in average growth rates between sites. Positive correlations in growth rates across sites favor less migration. With multiple sites and large fluctuations, the length of shortest cycle (excursion) from the best site (on average) matters, and we explore the interplay between excursion length, average differences between sites and the size of fluctuations. Our findings have implications for conservation biology: even when there are superior sites in a sea of poor habitats, variability and habitat quality across space may be key to determining the importance of migration.

Keywords: migration, variable-environments, random, dispersal, fluctuations, habitat-quality

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Authors: Tomoko Fukuyama, Osamu Senbu

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Prestressed concrete is used a lot in infrastructures such as roads or bridges. However, poor grout filling and PC steel corrosion are currently major issues of prestressed concrete structures. One of the problems with nondestructive corrosion detection of PC steel is a plastic pipe which covers PC steel. The insulative property of pipe makes a nondestructive diagnosis difficult; therefore a practical technology to detect these defects is necessary for the maintenance of infrastructures. The goal of the research is a development of an electrochemical technique which enables to detect internal defects from the surface of prestressed concrete nondestructively. Ideally, the measurements should be conducted from the surface of structural members to diagnose non-destructively. In the present experiment, a prestressed concrete member is simplified as a layered specimen to simulate a current path between an input and an output electrode on a member surface. The specimens which are layered by mortar and the prestressed concrete constitution materials (steel, polyethylene, stainless steel, or galvanized steel plates) were provided to the alternating current impedance measurement. The magnitude of an applied electric field was 0.01-volt or 1-volt, and the frequency range was from 106 Hz to 10-2 Hz. The frequency spectrums of impedance, which relate to charge reactions activated by an electric field, were measured to clarify the effects of the material configurations or the properties. In the civil engineering field, the Nyquist diagram is popular to analyze impedance and it is a good way to grasp electric relaxation using a shape of the plot. However, it is slightly not suitable to figure out an influence of a measurement frequency which is reciprocal of reaction time. Hence, Bode diagram is also applied to describe charge reactions in the present paper. From the experiment results, the alternating current impedance method looks to be applicable to the insulative material measurement and eventually prestressed concrete diagnosis. At the same time, the frequency spectrums of impedance show the difference of the material configuration. This is because the charge mobility reflects the variety of substances and also the measuring frequency of the electric field determines migration length of charges which are under the influence of the electric field. However, it could not distinguish the differences of the material thickness and is inferred the difficulties of prestressed concrete diagnosis to identify the amount of an air void or a layer of corrosion product by the technique.

Keywords: capacitance, conductance, prestressed concrete, susceptance

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Authors: Bakur Gulua

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In this work, we consider some boundary value problems for the plate. The plate is the elastic material with voids. The state of plate equilibrium is described by the system of differential equations that is derived from three-dimensional equations of equilibrium of an elastic material with voids (Cowin-Nunziato model) by Vekua's reduction method. Its general solution is represented by means of analytic functions of a complex variable and solutions of Helmholtz equations. The problem is solved analytically by the method of the theory of functions of a complex variable.

Keywords: the elastic material with voids, boundary value problems, Vekua's reduction method, a complex variable

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Authors: Beverley Gallimore

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The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) has helped to improve outcomes for students with special education needs. Through IDEA, students with Special Education Needs (SEN) have opportunities for more equitable education within the General Education classroom. However, students with disabilities lack access to instructions that can help them to maximize their fullest learning potential. Recently, educational stakeholders have emphasized Integrated Co-teaching as a tool to increase engagement and learning outcomes for students with disabilities in general education classrooms. As a result of this new approach, general and special education teachers are working collaboratively to teach students with disabilities. However, co-teaching models are not properly designed and structured to effectively benefit students with disabilities. Teachers must be oriented correctly in the co-teaching models if it is to be beneficial for students.

Keywords: CO-teaching, differentiation, equitable, collaborative

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Authors: Lu-Chiu Huang, Pei-Pei Chen, Li-Chin Yu, Chiao-Wen Kuo, Tsui-Tao Liu, Rung-Chuang Feng

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Purpose: People put increasing emphasis on demands of medical quality and protecting their interests. Patients' or family's dissatisfaction with medical care may easily lead to medical dispute. Physician-family communication plays an essential role in medical care. A sound communication cannot only strengthen patients' belief in the medical team but make patient have definite insight into treatment course of the disease. A family meeting provides an effective platform for communication between clinical staff, patients and family. Decisions and consensuses formed in family meetings can promote patients' or family's satisfaction with medical care. Clinical staff's attitudes toward family meeting may determine behavioral intentions to hold family meeting. This study aims to explore clinical staff's difficulties in holding family meeting and evaluate how their attitudes and behavior influence the effect of family meetings. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. It was conducted at a regional teaching hospital in Taipei city. The research team developed its own structural questionnaires, whose expert validity was checked by the nursing experts. Participants filled in the questionnaires online. Data were collected by convenience sampling. A total of 568 participants were invited. They included doctors, nurses, social workers, and so on. Results: 1) The average score of ‘clinical staff’s attitudes to family meetings’ was 5.15 (SD=0.898). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. It indicated that clinical staff had positive attitudes toward family meetings, 2) The average score of ‘clinical staff’s behavior to family meetings’ was 5.61 (SD=0.937). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. It meant clinical staff tended to have positive behavior at the family meeting, and 3) The average score of ‘Difficulty in conducting family meetings’ was 5.15 (SD=0.897). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. The higher the score was, the less difficulty the clinical staff felt. It demonstrated clinical staff felt less difficulty in conducting family meetings. Clinical staff's identification with family meetings brought favored effects. Persistent and active promotion for family meetings can bring patients and family more benefits. Implications for practice: Understanding clinical staff's difficulty in participating family meeting and exploring their attitudes or behavior toward physician-family communication are helpful to develop modes of interaction. Consequently, quality and satisfaction of physician-family communication can be increased.

Keywords: clinical staff, communication, family meeting, physician-family

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Authors: Nneka U. Igboeli, Maxwell O. Adibe

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Iron and folate supplementation in pregnancy are important interventions that prevent maternal anaemia and fetal anomaly. Thus, daily oral doses of iron and folic acid are recommended throughout pregnancy as part of antenatal care. However, low adherence has been a major drawback leading to low effectiveness of these programs. The effect of mobile text message reminders to pregnant women to take their routine medications on adherence was evaluated in this study. The first 100 women who consented to the study were recruited and randomized to either receive a text message reminder on adherence to routine medications or not. Adherence was assessed using the 8-item Modified Morisky Adherence Scale (8-MMAS). The folders of successfully recruited women were tagged with the a study number assigned to each of them. The womens’ phone numbers were collected and these were used to send text messages reminders on adhering to routine drugs only to women in the intervention group. The text messages were sent three times per week for a period of four weeks with an adherence reassessment at the one month follow-up antenatal visit for recruited women. At one month follow-up, the lost to follow-up were 6 (16%) women for the intervention group and 17 (34%) for the control group. The across group mean difference in adherence score was 0.07 (-0.96 – 1.10) at baseline and 0.3 (-0.31 – 0.92) after intervention, both insignificant at p > 0.05. The within group change were increases of 0.58 (0.00 – 1.16) (p = 0.05) from baseline for the intervention group and a 0.35 (-0.51 – 1.20) (p = 0.395) for the control group. Non-significant increase in adherence scores were recorded for both groups. However, the increase in adherence scores of women in the intervention group was greater and may be potentially transformed into more positive results if the study period is increased with possibly reduced study drop-outs shows great promise for more positive results.

Keywords: adherence, mobile phone, pregnant women, reminders

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Authors: A. Gokulram

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Industrial waste is often categorized as commercial and non-commercial waste by market value. In many Indian industries and other industrialized countries, the commercial value waste is capitalized and non-commercial waste is dumped to landfill. A lack of adequate research on industrial waste leads to the failure of effective resource management and the non-commercial waste are being considered as commercially non-viable residues. The term Industrial symbiosis refers to the direct inter-firm reuse or exchange of material and energy resource. The resource efficiency of commercial waste is mainly followed by an informal symbiosis in our research area. Some Industrial residues are reused within the facility where they are generated, others are reused directly nearby industrial facilities and some are recycled via the formal and informal market. The act of using industrial waste as a resource for another product faces challenges in India. This research study has observed a major negligence of trust and communication among several bodies to implement effective circular economy in India. This study applies interviewing process across researchers, government bodies, industrialist and designers to understand the challenges of circular economy in India. The study area encompasses an industrial estate in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat which comprises of 1200 industries. The research study primarily focuses on making industrial waste as commercial ready resource and implementing Indigenous sustainable practice in modern context to improve resource efficiency. This study attempted to initiate waste exchange platform among several industrialist and used varied methodologies from mail questionnaire to telephone survey. This study makes key suggestions to policy change and sustainable finance to improve circular economy in India.

Keywords: effective resource management, environmental policy, indigenous technique, industrial symbiosis, sustainable finance

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Authors: Haoming Ma, Guo Yu, Peiru Zhou

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Background: Previous studies show that dysglycemia, mostly hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia and glycemic variability(GV), are associated with excess mortality in critically ill patients, especially those without diabetes. Glycemic variability is an increasingly important measure of glucose control in the intensive care unit (ICU) due to this association. However, there is limited data pertaining to the relationship between different clinical factors and glycemic variability and clinical outcomes categorized by their DM status. This retrospective study of 958 intensive care unit(ICU) patients was conducted to investigate the relationship between GV and outcome in critically ill patients and further to determine the significant factors that contribute to the glycemic variability. Aim: We hypothesize that the factors contributing to mortality and the glycemic variability are different from critically ill patients with or without diabetes. And the primary aim of this study was to determine which dysglycemia (hyperglycemia\hypoglycemia\glycemic variability) is independently associated with an increase in mortality among critically ill patients in different groups (DM/Non-DM). Secondary objectives were to further investigate any factors affecting the glycemic variability in two groups. Method: A total of 958 diabetic and non-diabetic patients with severe diseases in the ICU were selected for this retrospective analysis. The glycemic variability was defined as the coefficient of variation (CV) of blood glucose. The main outcome was death during hospitalization. The secondary outcome was GV. The logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with mortality. The relationships between GV and other variables were investigated using linear regression analysis. Results: Information on age, APACHE II score, GV, gender, in-ICU treatment and nutrition was available for 958 subjects. Predictors remaining in the final logistic regression model for mortality were significantly different in DM/Non-DM groups. Glycemic variability was associated with an increase in mortality in both DM(odds ratio 1.05; 95%CI:1.03-1.08,p＜0.001) or Non-DM group(odds ratio 1.07; 95%CI:1.03-1.11,p=0.002). For critically ill patients without diabetes, factors associated with glycemic variability included APACHE II score(regression coefficient, 95%CI:0.29,0.22-0.36,p＜0.001), Mean BG(0.73,0.46-1.01,p＜0.001), total parenteral nutrition(2.87,1.57-4.17,p＜0.001), serum albumin(-0.18,-0.271 to -0.082,p＜0.001), insulin treatment(2.18,0.81-3.55,p=0.002) and duration of ventilation(0.006,0.002-1.010,p=0.003).However, for diabetes patients, APACHE II score(0.203,0.096-0.310,p＜0.001), mean BG(0.503,0.138-0.869,p=0.007) and duration of diabetes(0.167,0.033-0.301,p=0.015) remained as independent risk factors of GV. Conclusion: We found that the relation between dysglycemia and mortality is different in the diabetes and non-diabetes groups. And we confirm that GV was associated with excess mortality in DM or Non-DM patients. Furthermore, APACHE II score, Mean BG, total parenteral nutrition, serum albumin, insulin treatment and duration of ventilation were significantly associated with an increase in GV in Non-DM patients. While APACHE II score, mean BG and duration of diabetes (years) remained as independent risk factors of increased GV in DM patients. These findings provide important context for further prospective trials investigating the effect of different clinical factors in critically ill patients with or without diabetes.

Keywords: diabetes, glycemic variability, predictors, severe disease

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Authors: Abdul Basit, Shahid Latif, Shah Mehmood

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Lawn fabric was usually prepared from originally of linen but at present chiefly cotton. Lawn fabric is worn in summer. Cotton Lawn is a lightweight pure cloth which is heavier than voile. It is so fine that it is somewhat transparent. It is soft and superb to wear thus it is perfect for summer clothes or for regular wear in hotter climates. Tencel (Lyocell) fiber is considered as the fiber of the future as Tencel fibers are absorbent, soft, and extremely strong when wet or dry, and resistant to wrinkles. Fibers are more absorbent than cotton, softer than silk and cooler than linen. High water absorption and water vapor absorption give more heat capacity and heat balancing effect for thermo-regulation. This thermo-regulation is analogous with the action of phase-change-materials. The thermal wear properties result in cool and dry touch that gives cooling effect in sportswear, and the warmth properties (when used as an insulation layer). These cooling and warming effects are adaptive to the environment giving comfort in a broad range of climatic conditions. In this work, single yarns of Ne 80s were made. Yarns were made from conventional ring spinning. Different yarns of 100% cotton, 100% micro-Tencel and Cotton:micro-Tencel blends (67:33, 50:50:33:67) were made. The mechanical and comfort properties of the woven fabrics were compared. The mechanical properties include the tensile and tear strength, bending length, pilling and abrasion resistance whereas comfort properties include the air permeability, moisture management and thermal resistance. It is found that as the content of the micro-Tencel is increased, the mechanical and comfort properties of the woven fabric are also increased.

Keywords: combed cotton, comfort properties , mechanical properties, micro-Tencel

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Authors: N. Targui, H. Kahalerras

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The present work is a numerical simulation of nanofluids flow in a double pipe heat exchanger provided with porous baffles. The hot nanofluid flows in the inner cylinder, whereas the cold nanofluid circulates in the annular gap. The Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model is adopted to describe the flow in the porous regions, and the governing equations with the appropriate boundary conditions are solved by the finite volume method. The results reveal that the addition of metallic nanoparticles enhances the rate of heat transfer in comparison to conventional fluids but this augmentation is accompanied by an increase in pressure drop. The highest heat exchanger performances are obtained when nanoparticles are added only to the cold fluid.

Keywords: double pipe heat exchanger, nanofluids, nanoparticles, porous baffles

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