Search results for: strategic interaction mechanism
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 8120

Search results for: strategic interaction mechanism

6500 Connotation Reform and Problem Response of Rural Social Relations under the Influence of the Earthquake: With a Review of Wenchuan Decade

Authors: Yanqun Li, Hong Geng

Abstract:

The occurrence of Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 has led to severe damage to the rural areas of Chengdu city, such as the rupture of the social network, the stagnation of economic production and the rupture of living space. The post-disaster reconstruction has become a sustainable issue. As an important link to maintain the order of rural social development, social network should be an important content of post-disaster reconstruction. Therefore, this paper takes rural reconstruction communities in earthquake-stricken areas of Chengdu as the research object and adopts sociological research methods such as field survey, observation and interview to try to understand the transformation of rural social relations network under the influence of earthquake and its impact on rural space. It has found that rural societies under the earthquake generally experienced three phases: the break of stable social relations, the transition of temporary non-normal state, and the reorganization of social networks. The connotation of phased rural social relations also changed accordingly: turn to a new division of labor on the social orientation, turn to a capital flow and redistribution in new production mode on the capital orientation, and turn to relative decentralization after concentration on the spatial dimension. Along with such changes, rural areas have emerged some social issues such as the alienation of competition in the new industry division, the low social connection, the significant redistribution of capital, and the lack of public space. Based on a comprehensive review of these issues, this paper proposes the corresponding response mechanism. First of all, a reasonable division of labor should be established within the villages to realize diversified commodity supply. Secondly, the villages should adjust the industrial type to promote the equitable participation of capital allocation groups. Finally, external public spaces should be added to strengthen the field of social interaction within the communities.

Keywords: social relations, social support networks, industrial division, capital allocation, public space

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6499 Software Transactional Memory in a Dynamic Programming Language at Virtual Machine Level

Authors: Szu-Kai Hsu, Po-Ching Lin

Abstract:

As more and more multi-core processors emerge, traditional sequential programming paradigm no longer suffice. Yet only few modern dynamic programming languages can leverage such advantage. Ruby, for example, despite its wide adoption, only includes threads as a simple parallel primitive. The global virtual machine lock of official Ruby runtime makes it impossible to exploit full parallelism. Though various alternative Ruby implementations do eliminate the global virtual machine lock, they only provide developers dated locking mechanism for data synchronization. However, traditional locking mechanism error-prone by nature. Software Transactional Memory is one of the promising alternatives among others. This paper introduces a new virtual machine: GobiesVM to provide a native software transactional memory based solution for dynamic programming languages to exploit parallelism. We also proposed a simplified variation of Transactional Locking II algorithm. The empirical results of our experiments show that support of STM at virtual machine level enables developers to write straightforward code without compromising parallelism or sacrificing thread safety. Existing source code only requires minimal or even none modi cation, which allows developers to easily switch their legacy codebase to a parallel environment. The performance evaluations of GobiesVM also indicate the difference between sequential and parallel execution is significant.

Keywords: global interpreter lock, ruby, software transactional memory, virtual machine

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6498 The Effects of Labeling Cues on Sensory and Affective Responses of Consumers to Categories of Functional Food Carriers: A Mixed Factorial ANOVA Design

Authors: Hedia El Ourabi, Marc Alexandre Tomiuk, Ahmed Khalil Ben Ayed

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the labeling cues traceability (T), health claim (HC), and verification of health claim (VHC) on consumer affective response and sensory appeal toward a wide array of functional food carriers (FFC). Predominantly, research in the food area has tended to examine the effects of these information cues independently on cognitive responses to food product offerings. Investigations and findings of potential interaction effects among these factors on effective response and sensory appeal are therefore scant. Moreover, previous studies have typically emphasized single or limited sets of functional food products and categories. In turn, this study considers five food product categories enriched with omega-3 fatty acids, namely: meat products, eggs, cereal products, dairy products and processed fruits and vegetables. It is, therefore, exhaustive in scope rather than exclusive. An investigation of the potential simultaneous effects of these information cues on the affective responses and sensory appeal of consumers should give rise to important insights to both functional food manufacturers and policymakers. A mixed (2 x 3) x (2 x 5) between-within subjects factorial ANOVA design was implemented in this study. T (two levels: completely traceable or non-traceable) and HC (three levels: functional health claim, or disease risk reduction health claim, or disease prevention health claim) were treated as between-subjects factors whereas VHC (two levels: by a government agency and by a non-government agency) and FFC (five food categories) were modeled as within-subjects factors. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the six between-subjects conditions. A total of 463 questionnaires were obtained from a convenience sample of undergraduate students at various universities in the Montreal and Ottawa areas (in Canada). Consumer affective response and sensory appeal were respectively measured via the following statements assessed on seven-point semantic differential scales: ‘Your evaluation of [food product category] enriched with omega-3 fatty acids is Unlikeable (1) / Likeable (7)’ and ‘Your evaluation of [food product category] enriched with omega-3 fatty acids is Unappetizing (1) / Appetizing (7).’ Results revealed a significant interaction effect between HC and VHC on consumer affective response as well as on sensory appeal toward foods enriched with omega-3 fatty acids. On the other hand, the three-way interaction effect between T, HC, and VHC on either of the two dependent variables was not significant. However, the triple interaction effect among T, VHC, and FFC was significant on consumer effective response and the interaction effect among T, HC, and FFC was significant on consumer sensory appeal. Findings of this study should serve as impetus for functional food manufacturers to closely cooperate with policymakers in order to improve on and legitimize the use of health claims in their marketing efforts through credible verification practices and protocols put in place by trusted government agencies. Finally, both functional food manufacturers and retailers may benefit from the socially-responsible image which is conveyed by product offerings whose ingredients remain traceable from farm to kitchen table.

Keywords: functional foods, labeling cues, effective appeal, sensory appeal

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6497 Geochemical Modeling of Mineralogical Changes in Rock and Concrete in Interaction with Groundwater

Authors: Barbora Svechova, Monika Licbinska

Abstract:

Geochemical modeling of mineralogical changes of various materials in contact with an aqueous solution is an important tool for predicting the processes and development of given materials at the site. The modeling focused on the mutual interaction of groundwater at the contact with the rock mass and its subsequent influence on concrete structures. The studied locality is located in Slovakia in the area of the Liptov Basin, which is a significant inter-mountain lowland, which is bordered on the north and south by the core mountains belt of the Tatras, where in the center the crystalline rises to the surface accompanied by Mesozoic cover. Groundwater in the area is bound to structures with complicated geological structures. From the hydrogeological point of view, it is an environment with a crack-fracture character. The area is characterized by a shallow surface circulation of groundwater without a significant collector structure, and from a chemical point of view, groundwater in the area has been classified as calcium bicarbonate with a high content of CO2 and SO4 ions. According to the European standard EN 206-1, these are waters with medium aggression towards the concrete. Three rock samples were taken from the area. Based on petrographic and mineralogical research, they were evaluated as calcareous shale, micritic limestone and crystalline shale. These three rock samples were placed in demineralized water for one month and the change in the chemical composition of the water was monitored. During the solution-rock interaction there was an increase in the concentrations of all major ions, except nitrates. There was an increase in concentration after a week, but at the end of the experiment, the concentration was lower than the initial value. Another experiment was the interaction of groundwater from the studied locality with a concrete structure. The concrete sample was also left in the water for 1 month. The results of the experiment confirmed the assumption of a reduction in the concentrations of calcium and bicarbonate ions in water due to the precipitation of amorphous forms of CaCO3 on the surface of the sample.Vice versa, it was surprising to increase the concentration of sulphates, sodium, iron and aluminum due to the leaching of concrete. Chemical analyzes from these experiments were performed in the PHREEQc program, which calculated the probability of the formation of amorphous forms of minerals. From the results of chemical analyses and hydrochemical modeling of water collected in situ and water from experiments, it was found: groundwater at the site is unsaturated and shows moderate aggression towards reinforced concrete structures according to EN 206-1a, which will affect the homogeneity and integrity of concrete structures; from the rocks in the given area, Ca, Na, Fe, HCO3 and SO4. Unsaturated waters will dissolve everything as soon as they come into contact with the solid matrix. The speed of this process then depends on the physicochemical parameters of the environment (T, ORP, p, n, water retention time in the environment, etc.).

Keywords: geochemical modeling, concrete , dissolution , PHREEQc

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6496 Feasibility on Introducing an Alternative Solar Powered Propelling Mechanism for Multiday Fishing Boats in Sri Lanka

Authors: Oshada Gamage, Chamal Wimalasooriya, Chrismal Boteju, W. K. Wimalsiri

Abstract:

This paper presents a study on the feasibility of introducing a solar powered propelling mechanism to multi-day fishing boats as an alternative energy source. Since solar energy is readily available on the sea throughout the year, this free energy could be utilized to power multi-day fishing vessels. Multi-day boats have a large deck area where solar panels can be mounted above without much effort. This project involves studying the amount of power that can be generated using onboard solar panels and implementing an independent propelling system to run the boat. A chain drive system was designed to propel the boat, when the batteries are fully charged, from an electric motor using the same propeller. A 60 feet multi-day fishing boat built by a local boat manufacturer was chosen for the study. The service speed of the boat was around 6 knots with the electric motor, and the duration of cruising is 1 hour per day with around 11 hours of charging. 350-watt Mono-crystalline PV module, 75 kW HVH type motor, and 10 kWh lithium-ion battery packs were chosen for the study. From the calculations, it was obtained that the boat has 30 PV modules (10.5 kW), 5 batteries (47 kWh), The boat dimensions are 20 meter length of water line, 5.51 meter of beam, 1.8 meter of draught, and 77 ton of total displacement with the PV system net present value of USD 12445 for 20 years of operation and a payback period of around 8.2 years.

Keywords: multiday fishing boats, photovoltaic cells, solar energy, solar powered boat

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6495 Substituted Thiazole Analogues as Anti-Tumor Agents

Authors: Menna Ewida, Dalal Abou El-Ella, Dina Lasheen, Huessin El-Subbagh

Abstract:

Introduction: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor receptor (VEGF) is a signal protein produced by cells that stimulates vasculogenesis to create new blood vessels. VEGF family binds to three trans-membrane tyrosine kinase receptors,Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is an enzyme of crucial importance in medicinal chemistry. DHFR catalyzes the reduction 7,8 dihydro-folate to tetrahydrofolate and intimately couples with thymidylate synthase which is a pivotal enzyme that catalysis the reductive methylation of deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP) to deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP) utilizing N5,N10-methylene tetrahydrofolate as a cofactor which functions as the source of the methyl group. Purpose: Novel substituted Thiazole agents were designed as DHFR and VEGF-TK inhibitors with increased synergistic activity and decreased side effects. Methods: Five series of compounds were designed with a rational that mimic the pharmacophoric features present in the reported active compounds that target DHFR & VEGFR. These molecules were docked against Methotrexate & Sorafenib as controls. An in silico ADMET study was also performed to validate the bioavailability of the newly designed compounds. The in silico molecular docking & ADMET study were also applied to the non-classical antifolates for comparison. The interaction energy comparable to that of MTX for DHFRI and Sorafenib for VEGF-TKI activity were recorded. Results: Compound 5 exhibited the highest interaction energy when docked against Sorafenib, While Compound 9 showed the highest interaction energy when docked against MTX with the perfect binding mode. Comparable results were also obtained for the ADMET study. Most of the compounds showed absorption within (95-99) zone which varies according to the type of substituents. Conclusions: The Substituted Thiazole Analogues could be a suitable template for antitumor drugs that possess enhanced bioavailability and act as DHFR and VEGF-TK inhibitors.

Keywords: anti-tumor agents, DHFR, drug design, molecular modeling, VEGFR-TKIs

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6494 Thermodynamics of Random Copolymers in Solution

Authors: Maria Bercea, Bernhard A. Wolf

Abstract:

The thermodynamic behavior for solutions of poly (methyl methacrylate-ran-t-butyl methacrylate) of variable composition as compared with the corresponding homopolymers was investigated by light scattering measurements carried out for dilute solutions and vapor pressure measurements of concentrated solutions. The complex dependencies of the Flory Huggins interaction parameter on concentration and copolymer composition in solvents of different polarity (toluene and chloroform) can be understood by taking into account the ability of the polymers to rearrange in a response to changes in their molecular surrounding. A recent unified thermodynamic approach was used for modeling the experimental data, being able to describe the behavior of the different solutions by means of two adjustable parameters, one representing the effective number of solvent segments and another one accounting for the interactions between the components. Thus, it was investigated how the solvent quality changes with the composition of the copolymers through the Gibbs energy of mixing as a function of polymer concentration. The largest reduction of the Gibbs energy at a given composition of the system was observed for the best solvent. The present investigation proves that the new unified thermodynamic approach is a general concept applicable to homo- and copolymers, independent of the chain conformation or shape, molecular and chemical architecture of the components and of other dissimilarities, such as electrical charges.

Keywords: random copolymers, Flory Huggins interaction parameter, Gibbs energy of mixing, chemical architecture

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6493 Effects of Feed Forms on Growth Pattern, Behavioural Responses and Fecal Microbial Load of Pigs Fed Diets Supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae Probiotics

Authors: O. A. Adebiyi, A. O. Oni, A. O. K. Adeshehinwa, I. O. Adejumo

Abstract:

In forty nine (49) days, twenty four (24) growing pigs (Landrace x Large white) with an average weight of 17 ±2.1kg were allocated to four experimental treatments T1 (dry mash without probiotics), T2 (wet feed without probiotics), T3 (dry mash + Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics) and T4 (wet feed + Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics) which were replicated three times with two pigs per replicate in a completely randomised design. The basal feed (dry feed) was formulated to meet the nutritional requirement of the animal with crude protein of 18.00% and metabolisable energy of 2784.00kcal/kgME. Growth pattern, faecal microbial load and behavioural activities (eating, drinking, physical pen interaction and frequency of visiting the drinking troughs) were accessed. Pigs fed dry mash without probiotics (T1) had the highest daily feed intake among the experimental animals (1.10kg) while pigs on supplemented diets (T3 and T4) had an average daily feed intake of 0.95kg. However, the feed conversion ratio was significantly (p < 0.05) affected with pigs on T3 having least value of 6.26 compared those on T4 (wet feed + Saccaromyces cereviseae) with means of 7.41. Total organism counts varied significantly (p < 0.05) with pigs on T1, T2, T3 and T4 with mean values of 179.50 x106cfu; 132.00 x 106cfu; 32.00 x 106cfu and 64.50 x 106cfu respectively. Coliform count was also significantly (p < 0.05) different among the treatments with corresponding values of 117.50 x 106cfu; 49.00 x 106cfu, 8.00 x 106cfu for pigs in T1, T2 and T4 respectively. The faecal Saccaromyces cereviseae was significantly lower in pigs fed supplemented diets compared to their counterparts on unsupplemented diets. This could be due to the inability of yeast organisms to be voided easily through feaces. The pigs in T1 spent the most time eating (7.88%) while their counterparts on T3 spent the least time eating. The corresponding physical pen interaction times expressed in percentage of a day for pigs in T1, T2, T3 and T4 are 6.22%, 5.92%, 4.04% and 4.80% respectively. These behavioural responses exhibited by these pigs (T3) showed that little amount of dry feed supplemented with probiotics is needed for better performance. The water intake increases as a result of the dryness of the feed with consequent decrease in pen interaction and more time was spent resting than engaging in other possible vice-habit like fighting or tail biting. Pigs fed dry feed (T3) which was supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics had a better overall performance, least faecal microbial load than wet fed pigs either supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae or non-supplemented.

Keywords: behaviour, feed forms, feed utilization, growth, microbial

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6492 Novel Molecular Mechanisms Involved in Macrophage Phenotypic Polarization

Authors: Mansi Srivastava, Uzma Saqib, Adnan Naim, Anjali Roy, Dongfang Liu, Deepak Bhatnagar, Ravinder Ravinder, Mirza S. Baig

Abstract:

Macrophages polarize to proinflammatory M1 or anti-inflammatory M2 states with distinct physiological functions. This transition within the M1 to M2 phenotypes decides the nature, duration, and severity of an inflammatory response. However, inspite of a substantial understanding of the fate of these phenotypes, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well understood. We have investigated the role of Neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS1) mediated regulation of Activator protein 1 (AP-1) transcription factor in macrophages as a critical effector of macrophage phenotypic change. Activator protein 1 (AP-1) is a group of dimeric transcription factors composed of jun, Fos, and ATF family proteins. We determined that NOS1-derived nitric oxide (NO) facilitate Fos and jun interaction which induces IL12 & IL23 expression. Pharmacological inhibition of NOS1 inhibits Fos and jun interaction but increases ATF2 and Fos dimerization. Switching of Fos and jun dimer to ATF2 and jun dimerization switches phenotype from IL–12high IL-23high IL-10low to IL–12low IL-23lowIL-10high phenotype, respectively. Together, these findings highlight a key role of the TLR4-NOS1-AP1 signaling axis in regulating macrophage polarization.

Keywords: inflammation, macrophage, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), proinflammatory cytokines, activator protein 1 (AP-1), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS1)

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6491 A Mathematical Analysis of Behavioural Epidemiology: Drugs Users Transmission Dynamics Based on Level Education for Susceptible Population

Authors: Firman Riyudha, Endrik Mifta Shaiful

Abstract:

The spread of drug users is one kind of behavioral epidemiology that becomes a threat to every country in the world. This problem caused various crisis simultaneously, including financial or economic crisis, social, health, until human crisis. Most drug users are teenagers at school age. A new deterministic model would be constructed to determine the dynamics of the spread of drug users by considering level of education in a susceptible population. Based on the analytical model, two equilibria points were obtained; there were E₀ (zero user) and E₁ (endemic equilibrium). Existence of equilibrium and local stability of equilibria depended on the Basic Reproduction Ratio (R₀). This parameter was defined as the expected rate of secondary prevalence and primary prevalence in virgin population along spreading primary prevalence. The zero-victim equilibrium would be locally asymptotically stable if R₀ < 1 while if R₀ > 1 the endemic equilibrium would be locally asymptotically stable. The result showed that R₀ was proportional to the rate of interaction of each susceptible population based on educational level with the users' population. It is concluded that there was a need to be given a control in interaction, so that drug users population could be minimized. Numerical simulations were also provided to support analytical results.

Keywords: drugs users, level education, mathematical model, stability

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6490 Self-Organizing Maps for Exploration of Partially Observed Data and Imputation of Missing Values in the Context of the Manufacture of Aircraft Engines

Authors: Sara Rejeb, Catherine Duveau, Tabea Rebafka

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To monitor the production process of turbofan aircraft engines, multiple measurements of various geometrical parameters are systematically recorded on manufactured parts. Engine parts are subject to extremely high standards as they can impact the performance of the engine. Therefore, it is essential to analyze these databases to better understand the influence of the different parameters on the engine's performance. Self-organizing maps are unsupervised neural networks which achieve two tasks simultaneously: they visualize high-dimensional data by projection onto a 2-dimensional map and provide clustering of the data. This technique has become very popular for data exploration since it provides easily interpretable results and a meaningful global view of the data. As such, self-organizing maps are usually applied to aircraft engine condition monitoring. As databases in this field are huge and complex, they naturally contain multiple missing entries for various reasons. The classical Kohonen algorithm to compute self-organizing maps is conceived for complete data only. A naive approach to deal with partially observed data consists in deleting items or variables with missing entries. However, this requires a sufficient number of complete individuals to be fairly representative of the population; otherwise, deletion leads to a considerable loss of information. Moreover, deletion can also induce bias in the analysis results. Alternatively, one can first apply a common imputation method to create a complete dataset and then apply the Kohonen algorithm. However, the choice of the imputation method may have a strong impact on the resulting self-organizing map. Our approach is to address simultaneously the two problems of computing a self-organizing map and imputing missing values, as these tasks are not independent. In this work, we propose an extension of self-organizing maps for partially observed data, referred to as missSOM. First, we introduce a criterion to be optimized, that aims at defining simultaneously the best self-organizing map and the best imputations for the missing entries. As such, missSOM is also an imputation method for missing values. To minimize the criterion, we propose an iterative algorithm that alternates the learning of a self-organizing map and the imputation of missing values. Moreover, we develop an accelerated version of the algorithm by entwining the iterations of the Kohonen algorithm with the updates of the imputed values. This method is efficiently implemented in R and will soon be released on CRAN. Compared to the standard Kohonen algorithm, it does not come with any additional cost in terms of computing time. Numerical experiments illustrate that missSOM performs well in terms of both clustering and imputation compared to the state of the art. In particular, it turns out that missSOM is robust to the missingness mechanism, which is in contrast to many imputation methods that are appropriate for only a single mechanism. This is an important property of missSOM as, in practice, the missingness mechanism is often unknown. An application to measurements on one type of part is also provided and shows the practical interest of missSOM.

Keywords: imputation method of missing data, partially observed data, robustness to missingness mechanism, self-organizing maps

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6489 Conserved Stem-Loop Structure at the End of Short Interspersed Nuclear Elements (SINE) and Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements (LINE) Pairs of Different Species

Authors: Daria Grechishnikova, Maria Poptsova

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Transposable elements play an important role in the evolution of various species from bacteria to human. Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements (LINEs) and Short Interspersed Nuclear Elements (SINEs) are two major classes of retrotransposons that occupy a considerable part of any genome and their copy numbers can range form several hundreds to a million. Both LINEs and SINEs multiply through a copy-and-paste mechanism. LINEs encode proteins, which make them capable of self-propagation while SINEs are parasitic and require the machinery of LINEs to multiply. The mechanisms how LINE and SINE RNA is recognized by the LINE-encoded reverse transcriptase (RT) remain unclear. For some SINE-LINE pairs, it was shown that they share a common 3’-end with a stem-loop structure. Majority of the SINE-LINE pairs do not have a common 3’-end. Recently we have shown that in the human genome Alu-L1 pairs have structurally similar stem-loop structure at the 3’-end. Here we extended our analysis to a wide range of species and analyzed LINEs from 161 different species from Repbase and 217 SINE sequences from SINEBase. It appeared that all of the analyzed sequences contained stem-loop structures at the 3’-end. Here we conclude that it is very likely that a common evolutionary mechanism of transposon RNA recognition requires the presence of stem-loop structures at their 3’-end.

Keywords: LINE, SINE, mechanisms of retrotransposition, retrotransposons, stem-loop, stem-loop structures, transposons

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6488 Affective Robots: Evaluation of Automatic Emotion Recognition Approaches on a Humanoid Robot towards Emotionally Intelligent Machines

Authors: Silvia Santano Guillén, Luigi Lo Iacono, Christian Meder

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One of the main aims of current social robotic research is to improve the robots’ abilities to interact with humans. In order to achieve an interaction similar to that among humans, robots should be able to communicate in an intuitive and natural way and appropriately interpret human affects during social interactions. Similarly to how humans are able to recognize emotions in other humans, machines are capable of extracting information from the various ways humans convey emotions—including facial expression, speech, gesture or text—and using this information for improved human computer interaction. This can be described as Affective Computing, an interdisciplinary field that expands into otherwise unrelated fields like psychology and cognitive science and involves the research and development of systems that can recognize and interpret human affects. To leverage these emotional capabilities by embedding them in humanoid robots is the foundation of the concept Affective Robots, which has the objective of making robots capable of sensing the user’s current mood and personality traits and adapt their behavior in the most appropriate manner based on that. In this paper, the emotion recognition capabilities of the humanoid robot Pepper are experimentally explored, based on the facial expressions for the so-called basic emotions, as well as how it performs in contrast to other state-of-the-art approaches with both expression databases compiled in academic environments and real subjects showing posed expressions as well as spontaneous emotional reactions. The experiments’ results show that the detection accuracy amongst the evaluated approaches differs substantially. The introduced experiments offer a general structure and approach for conducting such experimental evaluations. The paper further suggests that the most meaningful results are obtained by conducting experiments with real subjects expressing the emotions as spontaneous reactions.

Keywords: affective computing, emotion recognition, humanoid robot, human-robot-interaction (HRI), social robots

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6487 Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Education in Nigeria: Challenge of Academic Quality

Authors: Edu Marcelina, Sule Sheidu A., Nsor Eunice

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As open and distance education is gradually becoming an acceptable means of solving the problem of access in higher education, quality has now become one of the main concerns among institutions and stakeholders of open and distance learning (ODL) and the education sector in general. This study assessed the challenges of academic quality in the open and distance learning (ODL) education in Nigeria using Distance Learning Institute (DLI), University of Lagos and National Open University of Nigeria as a case. In carrying out the study, a descriptive survey research design was employed. A researcher-designed and validated questionnaire was used to elicit responses that translated to the quantitative data for this study. The sample comprised 665 students of the Distance Learning Institute (DLI), and National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), carefully selected through the method of simple random sampling. Data collected from the study were analyzed using Chi-Square (X2) at 0.05 Level of significance. The results of the analysis revealed that; the use of ICT tools is a factor in ensuring quality in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) operations; the quality of the materials made available to ODL students will determine the quality of education that will be received by the students; and the time scheduled for students for self-study, online lecturing/interaction and face to face study and the quality of education in Open and Distance Learning Institutions has a lot of impact on the quality of education the students receive. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations were made.

Keywords: open and distance learning, quality, ICT, face-to-face interaction

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6486 China's Role in Promoting Regionalism in East Asia in Post-Maoist Era: An Analysis through Uneven and Combined Development

Authors: Ali Jibran

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China was considered as a revisionist state by the countries of East Asia during Maoist era; but China’s role changed from a revisionist state to a constructive member of East Asian Community in post-Maoist era. This research will mainly investigate the two phenomena: what were reasons of behavioral change of China in East Asia and what role has China played to promote regionalism in East Asia since Open Door Policy of Deng Xiaoping. To understand these two phenomena, this study applies the international relations theory of Uneven and Combined Development (U&CD). The central finding of this study is that ‘whip of external necessity’ posed by the Western dominance during the Chinese ‘century of ignominy’ resulted in a Maoist regime in China in 1948 which was hostile to its neighbors due to ideological tensions. Maoist regime in China could not solve the challenges posed by the ‘international’; therefore after Mao’s death, a new economic approach was introduced in China to deal with the challenges postured by the ‘international’. Due to Deng Xiaoping’s 'Open Door Policy' era, China used its ‘privilege of historic backwardness’ and witnessed unprecedented economic growth. As the societies are multiple and exist in real time, therefore interaction among societies is pertinent. Export oriented domestic policy pushed China to concentrate less on class struggle and improve its relations with its neighbors in East Asia. As China soon become a global hub of trade after market oriented reforms, therefore friendly relations with the states of East Asia was pertinent. This study will investigate Chinese role in regionalism in East Asia in three area: Chinese role in promoting regionalism in East Asia, China’s role in economic integration in East Asia and China’s role in combatting terrorism in East Asia. This study will be divided in two section. The first section will deal with the transformation in Chinese behavior in East Asia in post Maoist era, and the second section will analyze China’s role in East Asia by looking at Chinese role in institutional mechanism, economic integration and combatting terrorism in East Asia.

Keywords: East Asia, regionalism, institutionlism, economic integration

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6485 Development of an Auxetic Tissue Implant

Authors: Sukhwinder K. Bhullar, M. B. G. Jun

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The developments in biomedical industry have demanded the development of biocompatible, high performance materials to meet higher engineering specifications. The general requirements of such materials are to provide a combination of high stiffness and strength with significant weight savings, resistance to corrosion, chemical resistance, low maintenance, and reduced costs. Auxetic materials which come under the category of smart materials offer huge potential through measured enhancements in mechanical properties. Unique deformation mechanism, providing cushioning on indentation, automatically adjustable with its strength and thickness in response to forces and having memory returns to its neutral state on dissipation of stresses make them good candidate in biomedical industry. As simple extension and compression of tissues is of fundamental importance in biomechanics, therefore, to study the elastic behaviour of auxetic soft tissues implant is targeted in this paper. Therefore development and characterization of auxetic soft tissue implant is studied in this paper. This represents a real life configuration where soft tissue such as meniscus in knee replacement, ligaments and tendons often are taken as transversely isotropic. Further, as composition of alternating polydisperse blocks of soft and stiff segments combined with excellent biocompatibility make polyurethanes one of the most promising synthetic biomaterials. Hence selecting auxetic polyurathylene foam functional characterization is performed and compared with conventional polyurathylene foam.

Keywords: auxetic materials, deformation mechanism, enhanced mechanical properties, soft tissues

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6484 Investigating the Flow Physics within Vortex-Shockwave Interactions

Authors: Frederick Ferguson, Dehua Feng, Yang Gao

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No doubt, current CFD tools have a great many technical limitations, and active research is being done to overcome these limitations. Current areas of limitations include vortex-dominated flows, separated flows, and turbulent flows. In general, turbulent flows are unsteady solutions to the fluid dynamic equations, and instances of these solutions can be computed directly from the equations. One of the approaches commonly implemented is known as the ‘direct numerical simulation’, DNS. This approach requires a spatial grid that is fine enough to capture the smallest length scale of the turbulent fluid motion. This approach is called the ‘Kolmogorov scale’ model. It is of interest to note that the Kolmogorov scale model must be captured throughout the domain of interest and at a correspondingly small-time step. In typical problems of industrial interest, the ratio of the length scale of the domain to the Kolmogorov length scale is so great that the required grid set becomes prohibitively large. As a result, the available computational resources are usually inadequate for DNS related tasks. At this time in its development, DNS is not applicable to industrial problems. In this research, an attempt is made to develop a numerical technique that is capable of delivering DNS quality solutions at the scale required by the industry. To date, this technique has delivered preliminary results for both steady and unsteady, viscous and inviscid, compressible and incompressible, and for both high and low Reynolds number flow fields that are very accurate. Herein, it is proposed that the Integro-Differential Scheme (IDS) be applied to a set of vortex-shockwave interaction problems with the goal of investigating the nonstationary physics within the resulting interaction regions. In the proposed paper, the IDS formulation and its numerical error capability will be described. Further, the IDS will be used to solve the inviscid and viscous Burgers equation, with the goal of analyzing their solutions over a considerable length of time, thus demonstrating the unsteady capabilities of the IDS. Finally, the IDS will be used to solve a set of fluid dynamic problems related to flow that involves highly vortex interactions. Plans are to solve the following problems: the travelling wave and vortex problems over considerable lengths of time, the normal shockwave–vortex interaction problem for low supersonic conditions and the reflected oblique shock–vortex interaction problem. The IDS solutions obtained in each of these solutions will be explored further in efforts to determine the distributed density gradients and vorticity, as well as the Q-criterion. Parametric studies will be conducted to determine the effects of the Mach number on the intensity of vortex-shockwave interactions.

Keywords: vortex dominated flows, shockwave interactions, high Reynolds number, integro-differential scheme

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6483 Assessing the Effect of Grid Connection of Large-Scale Wind Farms on Power System Small-Signal Angular Stability

Authors: Wenjuan Du, Jingtian Bi, Tong Wang, Haifeng Wang

Abstract:

Grid connection of a large-scale wind farm affects power system small-signal angular stability in two aspects. Firstly, connection of the wind farm brings about the change of load flow and configuration of a power system. Secondly, the dynamic interaction is introduced by the wind farm with the synchronous generators (SGs) in the power system. This paper proposes a method to assess the two aspects of the effect of the wind farm on power system small-signal angular stability. The effect of the change of load flow/system configuration brought about by the wind farm can be examined separately by displacing wind farms with constant power sources, then the effect of the dynamic interaction of the wind farm with the SGs can be also computed individually. Thus, a clearer picture and better understanding on the power system small-signal angular stability as affected by grid connection of the large-scale wind farm are provided. In the paper, an example power system with grid connection of a wind farm is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach.

Keywords: power system small-signal angular stability, power system low-frequency oscillations, electromechanical oscillation modes, wind farms, double fed induction generator (DFIG)

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6482 The Impact of AI on Higher Education

Authors: Georges Bou Ghantous

Abstract:

This literature review examines the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on higher education, highlighting both the potential benefits and challenges associated with its adoption. The review reveals that AI significantly enhances personalized learning by tailoring educational experiences to individual student needs, thereby boosting engagement and learning outcomes. Automated grading systems streamline assessment processes, allowing educators to focus on improving instructional quality and student interaction. AI's data-driven insights provide valuable analytics, helping educators identify trends in at-risk students and refine teaching strategies. Moreover, AI promotes enhanced instructional innovation through the adoption of advanced teaching methods and technologies, enriching the educational environment. Administrative efficiency is also improved as AI automates routine tasks, freeing up time for educators to engage in research and curriculum development. However, the review also addresses the challenges that accompany AI integration, such as data privacy concerns, algorithmic bias, dependency on technology, reduced human interaction, and ethical dilemmas. This balanced exploration underscores the need for careful consideration of both the advantages and potential hurdles in the implementation of AI in higher education.

Keywords: administrative efficiency, data-driven insights, data privacy, ethical dilemmas, higher education, personalized learning

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6481 Gratitude, Forgiveness and Relationship Satisfaction in Dating College Students: A Parallel Multiple Mediator Model

Authors: Qinglu Wu, Anna Wai-Man Choi, Peilian Chi

Abstract:

Gratitude is one individual strength that not only facilitates the mental health, but also fosters the relationship satisfaction in the romantic relationship. In terms of moral effect theory and stress-and-coping theory of forgiveness, present study not only investigated the association between grateful disposition and relationship satisfaction, but also explored the mechanism by comprehensively examining the potential mediating roles of three profiles of forgiveness (trait forgivingness, decisional forgiveness, emotional forgiveness), another character strength that highly related to the gratitude and relationship satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was used to conduct the multiple mediator model with a sample of 103 Chinese college students in dating relationship (39 male students and 64 female students, Mage = 19.41, SD = 1.34). Findings displayed that both gratitude and relationship satisfaction positively correlated with decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness. Emotional forgiveness was the only mediator, and it completely mediated the relationship between gratitude and relationship satisfaction. Gratitude was helpful in enhancing individuals’ perception of satisfaction in romantic relationship through replacing negative emotions toward partners with positive ones after transgression in daily life. It highlighted the function of emotional forgiveness in personal healing and peaceful state, which is important to the perception of satisfaction in relationship. Findings not only suggested gratitude could provide a stability for forgiveness, but also the mechanism of prosocial responses or positive psychological processes on relationship satisfaction. The significant roles of gratitude and emotional forgiveness could be emphasized in the intervention working on the romantic relationship development or reconciliation.

Keywords: decisional forgiveness, emotional forgiveness, gratitude, relationship satisfaction, trait forgivingness

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6480 Multimedia Design in Tactical Play Learning and Acquisition for Elite Gaelic Football Practitioners

Authors: Michael McMahon

Abstract:

The use of media (video/animation/graphics) has long been used by athletes, coaches, and sports scientists to analyse and improve performance in technical skills and team tactics. Sports educators are increasingly open to the use of technology to support coach and learner development. However, an overreliance is a concern., This paper is part of a larger Ph.D. study looking into these new challenges for Sports Educators. Most notably, how to exploit the deep-learning potential of Digital Media among expert learners, how to instruct sports educators to create effective media content that fosters deep learning, and finally, how to make the process manageable and cost-effective. Central to the study is Richard Mayers Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. Mayers Multimedia Learning Theory proposes twelve principles that shape the design and organization of multimedia presentations to improve learning and reduce cognitive load. For example, the Prior Knowledge principle suggests and highlights different learning outcomes for Novice and Non-Novice learners, respectively. Little research, however, is available to support this principle in modified domains (e.g., sports tactics and strategy). As a foundation for further research, this paper compares and contrasts a range of contemporary multimedia sports coaching content and assesses how they perform as learning tools for Strategic and Tactical Play Acquisition among elite sports practitioners. The stress tests applied are guided by Mayers's twelve Multimedia Learning Principles. The focus is on the elite athletes and whether current coaching digital media content does foster improved sports learning among this cohort. The sport of Gaelic Football was selected as it has high strategic and tactical play content, a wide range of Practitioner skill levels (Novice to Elite), and also a significant volume of Multimedia Coaching Content available for analysis. It is hoped the resulting data will help identify and inform the future instructional content design and delivery for Sports Practitioners and help promote best design practices optimal for different levels of expertise.

Keywords: multimedia learning, e-learning, design for learning, ICT

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6479 Advancing Healthcare Excellence in China: Crafting a Strategic Operational Evaluation Index System for Chinese Hospital Departments amid Payment Reform Initiatives

Authors: Jing Jiang, Yuguang Gao, Yang Yu

Abstract:

Facing increasingly challenging insurance payment pressures, the Chinese healthcare system is undergoing significant transformations, akin to the implementation of DRG payment models by the United States' Medicare. Consequently, there is a pressing need for Chinese hospitals to establish optimizations in departmental operations tailored to the ongoing healthcare payment reforms. This abstract delineates the meticulous construction of a scientifically rigorous and comprehensive index system at the departmental level in China strategically aligned with the evolving landscape of healthcare payment reforms. Methodologically, it integrates key process areas and maturity assessment theories, synthesizing relevant literature and industry standards to construct a robust framework and indicator pool. Employing the Delphi method, consultations with 21 experts were conducted, revealing a collective demonstration of high enthusiasm, authority, and coordination in designing the index system. The resulting model comprises four primary indicators -technical capabilities, cost-effectiveness, operational efficiency, and disciplinary potential- supported by 14 secondary indicators and 23 tertiary indicators with varied coefficient adjustment for department types (platform or surgical). The application of this evaluation system in a Chinese hospital within the northeastern region yielded results aligning seamlessly with the actual operational scenario. In conclusion, the index system comprehensively considers the integrity and effectiveness of structural, process, and outcome indicators and stands as a comprehensive reflection of the collective expertise of the engaged experts, manifesting in a model designed to elevate the operational management of hospital departments. Its strategic alignment with healthcare payment reforms holds practical significance in guiding departmental development positioning, brand cultivation, and talent development.

Keywords: Chinese healthcare system, Delphi method, departmental management, evaluation indicators, hospital operations, weight coefficients

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6478 Ambient Vibration Test and Numerical Modelling of Wind Turbine Towers including Soil Structure Interaction

Authors: Heba Kamal, Ghada Saudi

Abstract:

Due to The rapid expansion of energy and growing number of wind turbines construction in earthquake areas, a design method for simple and accurate evaluation of seismic load to ensure structural integrity is required. In Egypt, there are some appropriate places to build wind turbine towers lie in active seismically regions, so accurate analysis is necessary for prediction of seismic loads with consideration of intensity of the earthquake, soil and structural characteristics. In this research, seismic behavior of wind turbine towers Gamesa Type G52 in Zafarana Wind Farm Egypt is investigated using experimental work by ambient vibration test, and fully dynamic analysis based on time history from El Aqaba Earthquake 1995 using 3D by PLAXIS 3D software, including the soil structure interaction effect. The results obtained from dynamic analyses are discussed. From this study, it is concluded that, the fully dynamic seismic analysis based on used PLAXIS 3D with the aid of the full scale ambient vibration test gives almost good simulation for the seismic loads that can be applied to wind turbine tower design in Egypt.

Keywords: Wind turbine towers, Zafarana Wind Farm, Gamesa Type G52, ambient vibration test

Procedia PDF Downloads 206
6477 Investigating the Relationship between Job Satisfaction, Role Identity, and Turnover Intention for Nurses in Outpatient Department

Authors: Su Hui Tsai, Weir Sen Lin, Rhay Hung Weng

Abstract:

There are numerous outpatient departments at hospitals with enormous amounts of outpatients. Although the work of outpatient nursing staff does not include the ward, emergency and critical care units that involve patient life-threatening conditions, the work is cumbersome and requires facing and dealing with a large number of outpatients in a short period of time. Therefore, nursing staff often do not feel satisfied with their work and cannot identify with their professional role, leading to intentions to leave their job. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between the job satisfaction and role identity of nursing staff with turnover intention. This research was conducted using a questionnaire, and the subjects were outpatient nursing staff in three regional hospitals in Southern Taiwan. A total of 175 questionnaires were distributed, and 166 valid questionnaires were returned. After collecting the data, the reliability and validity of the study variables were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. The influence of role identity and job satisfaction on nursing staff’s turnover intention was analyzed by descriptive analysis, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results showed that 'role identity' had significant differences in different types of marriages. Job satisfaction of 'grasp of environment' had significant differences in different levels of education. Job satisfaction of 'professional growth' and 'shifts and days off' showed significant differences in different types of marriages. 'Role identity' and 'job satisfaction' were negatively correlated with turnover intention respectively. Job satisfaction of 'salary and benefits' and 'grasp of environment' were significant predictors of role identity. The higher the job satisfaction of 'salary and benefits' and 'grasp of environment', the higher the role identity. Job satisfaction of 'patient and family interaction' were significant predictors of turnover intention. The lower the job satisfaction of 'patient and family interaction', the higher the turnover intention. This study found that outpatient nursing staff had the lowest satisfaction towards salary structure. It is recommended that bonuses, promotion opportunities and other incentives be established to increase the role identity of outpatient nursing staff. The results showed that the higher the job satisfaction of 'salary and benefits' and 'grasp of environment', the higher the role identity. It is recommended that regular evaluations be conducted to reward nursing staff with excellent service and invite nursing staff to share their work experiences and thoughts, to enhance nursing staff’s expectation and identification of their occupational role, as well as instilling the concept of organizational service and organizational expectations of emotional display. The results showed that the lower the job satisfaction of 'patient and family interaction', the higher the turnover intention. It is recommended that interpersonal communication and workplace violence prevention educational training courses be organized to enhance the communication and interaction of nursing staff with patients and their families.

Keywords: outpatient, job satisfaction, turnover, intention

Procedia PDF Downloads 144
6476 Developing A Third Degree Of Freedom For Opinion Dynamics Models Using Scales

Authors: Dino Carpentras, Alejandro Dinkelberg, Michael Quayle

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Opinion dynamics models use an agent-based modeling approach to model people’s opinions. Model's properties are usually explored by testing the two 'degrees of freedom': the interaction rule and the network topology. The latter defines the connection, and thus the possible interaction, among agents. The interaction rule, instead, determines how agents select each other and update their own opinion. Here we show the existence of the third degree of freedom. This can be used for turning one model into each other or to change the model’s output up to 100% of its initial value. Opinion dynamics models represent the evolution of real-world opinions parsimoniously. Thus, it is fundamental to know how real-world opinion (e.g., supporting a candidate) could be turned into a number. Specifically, we want to know if, by choosing a different opinion-to-number transformation, the model’s dynamics would be preserved. This transformation is typically not addressed in opinion dynamics literature. However, it has already been studied in psychometrics, a branch of psychology. In this field, real-world opinions are converted into numbers using abstract objects called 'scales.' These scales can be converted one into the other, in the same way as we convert meters to feet. Thus, in our work, we analyze how this scale transformation may affect opinion dynamics models. We perform our analysis both using mathematical modeling and validating it via agent-based simulations. To distinguish between scale transformation and measurement error, we first analyze the case of perfect scales (i.e., no error or noise). Here we show that a scale transformation may change the model’s dynamics up to a qualitative level. Meaning that a researcher may reach a totally different conclusion, even using the same dataset just by slightly changing the way data are pre-processed. Indeed, we quantify that this effect may alter the model’s output by 100%. By using two models from the standard literature, we show that a scale transformation can transform one model into the other. This transformation is exact, and it holds for every result. Lastly, we also test the case of using real-world data (i.e., finite precision). We perform this test using a 7-points Likert scale, showing how even a small scale change may result in different predictions or a number of opinion clusters. Because of this, we think that scale transformation should be considered as a third-degree of freedom for opinion dynamics. Indeed, its properties have a strong impact both on theoretical models and for their application to real-world data.

Keywords: degrees of freedom, empirical validation, opinion scale, opinion dynamics

Procedia PDF Downloads 154
6475 "Project" Approach in Urban: A Response to Uncertainty

Authors: Mouhoubi Nedjima, Sassi Boudemagh Souad

Abstract:

In this paper, we will try to demonstrate the importance of the project approach in the urban to deal with uncertainty, the importance of the involvement of all stakeholders in the urban project process and that the absence of an actor can lead to project failure but also the importance of the urban project management. These points are handled through the following questions: Does the urban adhere to the theory of complexity? Does the project approach bring hope and solution to make urban planning "sustainable"? How converging visions of actors for the same project? Is the management of urban project the solution to support the urban project approach?

Keywords: strategic planning, project, urban project stakeholders, management

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6474 Enhancing Large Language Models' Data Analysis Capability with Planning-and-Execution and Code Generation Agents: A Use Case for Southeast Asia Real Estate Market Analytics

Authors: Kien Vu, Jien Min Soh, Mohamed Jahangir Abubacker, Piyawut Pattamanon, Soojin Lee, Suvro Banerjee

Abstract:

Recent advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), in particular Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown promise to disrupt multiple industries at scale. However, LLMs also present unique challenges, notably, these so-called "hallucination" which is the generation of outputs that are not grounded in the input data that hinders its adoption into production. Common practice to mitigate hallucination problem is utilizing Retrieval Agmented Generation (RAG) system to ground LLMs'response to ground truth. RAG converts the grounding documents into embeddings, retrieve the relevant parts with vector similarity between user's query and documents, then generates a response that is not only based on its pre-trained knowledge but also on the specific information from the retrieved documents. However, the RAG system is not suitable for tabular data and subsequent data analysis tasks due to multiple reasons such as information loss, data format, and retrieval mechanism. In this study, we have explored a novel methodology that combines planning-and-execution and code generation agents to enhance LLMs' data analysis capabilities. The approach enables LLMs to autonomously dissect a complex analytical task into simpler sub-tasks and requirements, then convert them into executable segments of code. In the final step, it generates the complete response from output of the executed code. When deployed beta version on DataSense, the property insight tool of PropertyGuru, the approach yielded promising results, as it was able to provide market insights and data visualization needs with high accuracy and extensive coverage by abstracting the complexities for real-estate agents and developers from non-programming background. In essence, the methodology not only refines the analytical process but also serves as a strategic tool for real estate professionals, aiding in market understanding and enhancement without the need for programming skills. The implication extends beyond immediate analytics, paving the way for a new era in the real estate industry characterized by efficiency and advanced data utilization.

Keywords: large language model, reasoning, planning and execution, code generation, natural language processing, prompt engineering, data analysis, real estate, data sense, PropertyGuru

Procedia PDF Downloads 84
6473 Effects of Deficit Watering and Potassium Fertigation on Growth and Yield Response of Cassava

Authors: Daniel O. Wasonga, Jouko Kleemola, Laura Alakukku, Pirjo Makela

Abstract:

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a major food crop for millions of people in the tropics. Growth and yield of cassava in the arid-tropics are seriously constrained by intermittent water deficit and low soil K content. Therefore, experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of interaction between water deficit and K fertigation on growth and yield response of biofortified cassava at early growth phase. Yellow cassava cultivar was grown under controlled glasshouse conditions in 5-L pots containing 1.7 kg of pre-fertilized potting mix. Plants were watered daily for 30 days after planting. Treatments were three watering levels (30%, severe water deficit; 60%, mild water deficit; 100%, well-watered), on which K (0.01, 1, 4, 16 and 32 mM) was split. Plants were harvested at 90 days after planting. Leaf area was smallest in plants grown with 30% watering and 0.01 mM K, and largest in plants grown with 100% watering and 32 mM K. Leaf, root, and total dry mass decreased in water-stressed plants. However, dry mass was markedly higher when plants were grown with 16 mM K under all watering levels in comparison to other K concentrations. The highest leaf, root and total dry mass were in plants with 100% watering and 16 mM K. In conclusion, K improved the growth of plants under water deficit and thus, K application on soils with low moisture and low K may improve the productivity of cassava.

Keywords: dry mass, interaction, leaf area, Manihot esculenta

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6472 Effects of New Anthraquinone Derivatives on Resistance Ovarian Cancer Cells and The Mechanism Investigation

Authors: Hui-Hsin Huang, Sheng-Tung Huang, Chi-Ming Lee, Chiao-Han Yen, Chun-Mao Lin

Abstract:

At initiation stage, there are no symptoms at initiation stage; however, at late stage, patients suffer symptoms as soon as ovarian cancer metastasis. Moreover, ovarian cancer cells are resistant to some anti-ovarian cancer drugs in clinical. Thus, it is very important to find an effective treatment for resistant ovarian cancer. Anthraquinone derivatives are able to induce DNA damage and lead to cell apoptosis, so several derivatives have been used for clinical application. Therefore, to explore more effective anti-ovarian cancer drugs, this study investigates the mechanism of three new anthraquinone compounds bearing different functional groups to camptothecin-resistance ovarian cell line A2780R2000. Cell viability was determined by MTT assay after treating A2780R2000 with the three new anthraquinone compounds. The results indicated that IC50 values are 33.44μM (Compound I), 25.77μM (Compound II) and 24.59μM (Compound III). Next, through cell cycle analysis, the results demonstrated that three new anthraquinone compounds not only induced A2780R2000 cell cycle arrest at early stage but also apoptosis at late stage. Besides, through apoptosis assay, the results indicated new anthraquinone compound induced apoptosis at late stage. Furthermore, the results of western blot show that the three new anthraquinone compounds lead to A2780R2000 apoptosis through intrinsic pathway. Theses results suggested that three new anthraquinone compounds may be potential new drugs for clinical cancer treatment in the future.

Keywords: anthraquinone, camptothecin, resistance, ovarian cancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 388
6471 Effect of Supplemental Phytase on the Digestibility of Crude Protein and Phosphorus of Rice Husk in Broiler Chicken

Authors: Ibinabo I. Ilaboya, Eustace A. Iyayi

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Phosphorus (P) is an indispensable mineral in broiler diets. Rice husk contains phytate-P and other nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, which are poorly digested in broiler chickens. Broiler chickens (BC) lacks sufficient phytase to help hydrolyse phytate-bound P. Hence excess of P is excreted by these chickens into the environment causing environmental pollution. Supplementation of such diets with microbial phytase helps to improve the digestibility of these nutrients. The study was conducted to determine the effect of phytase supplementation on the digestibility of crude protein (CP) and P of rice husk in BC. Six semi-purified diets of three levels of total P (3.46, 4.91 and 6.37g/kg) without and with 1,000 units of phytase per kg were formulated. Titanium dioxide was added to the diets at the rate of 5g/kg as an indigestible marker. At 20dposthatch, 288 broilers (Abor Acre) were weighed and allotted to the diets with 6 replicates of 8 birds each in a randomized complete block design. The birds had free access to the experimental diets until day 26 post-hatch. Phytase supplementation increased (p < 0.05) digestibility of P from 75-93%. Rice husk and its interaction with phytase had no significant (p > 0.05) effect on P digestibility, whereas there was significant (p < 0.01) effect on the interaction of rice husk with phytase on CP digestibility. There were linear increases (p < 0.01) in digested P and CP with phytase supplementation. The P and CP losses from the BC was reduced with the addition of phytase. Results suggest that supplementation of rice husk-based diets with microbial phytase improved pre-caecal digestibility of P and CP in broilers.

Keywords: crude protein, phosphorus, phytase, rice husk

Procedia PDF Downloads 139