Search results for: BERT–BiLSTM–Attention

Authors: Ali Reza Sattarzadeh, Ronny J. Kutadinata, Pubudu N. Pathirana, Van Thanh Huynh

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Traffic congestion has become a severe worldwide problem, affecting everyday life, fuel consumption, time, and air pollution. The primary causes of these issues are inadequate transportation infrastructure, poor traffic signal management, and rising population. Traffic flow forecasting is one of the essential and effective methods in urban congestion and traffic management, which has attracted the attention of researchers. With the development of technology, undeniable progress has been achieved in existing methods. However, there is a possibility of improvement in the extraction of temporal and spatial features to determine the importance of traffic flow sequences and extraction features. In the proposed model, we implement the convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) deep learning models for mining nonlinear correlations and their effectiveness in increasing the accuracy of traffic flow prediction in the real dataset. According to the experiments, the results indicate that implementing Conv-LSTM networks increases the productivity and accuracy of deep learning models for traffic flow prediction.

Keywords: deep learning algorithms, intelligent transportation systems, spatiotemporal features, traffic flow prediction

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Gülbuğ Erol, Gamze Beyge, Hakan Ekemen

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In Turkey national TV channels broadcast a wide range of programs to audience attract viewers. Since the year 2000, especially the competition programs were directed towards entertainment and audience has gained. Even today, television channels have just begun to be broadcast on entertainment channels. Except from the news, the TV collects pleasure with its broadcasts aiming to meet the expectation of the Turkish people of TV 8 TV channels. Survivor, one of the TV 8 programs, draws attention with the ratings it receives and the broad target audience it addresses. Survivor, however, is one of the most exciting competitions on the Turkish television scene, which is rightly and ambitiously competitive in television contest programs. It is a format in which women and men struggle their power borders by winning the competition with their names thanks to their intelligence and endurance games. The contestants of the program, which has been running since March 22, 2005, are seen in a platform where they must present their struggle for their various awards. In Survivor, where competition is at stake, courage and strength are reduced by the reduction of sex. In this study, the critical discourse was made taking into consideration the challenges of female competitors competing to the final stage which is behind the male competitors. Secondly, the variables from the beginning to the present day of the adaptation of the judge to Turkey have been debated in a critical context.

Keywords: television, meaning, discourse, contest program

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Authors: Xinrong Li, Jiawei Dai

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Food production, food safety, and the food supply chain are causing a great challenge to human health and the environment. Different kinds of food have different environmental costs. Therefore, a healthy diet can alleviate this problem to a certain extent. In this project, an online questionnaire was conducted to understand the purchase behaviour of consumers and their attitudes towards basic food information. However, the data shows that the public's current consumption habits and ideology do not meet the long-term development of sustainable social needs. In order to solve the environmental problems caused by the unbalanced diet of the public and the social problems of unequal food distribution, the purpose of this paper is to explore how to use the emerging media of VR to visualize food supply chain information so as to attract users' attention to the environmental cost of food. In this project, the food supply chain of imported and local cheese was compared side-by-side in the virtual reality environment, including the origin, transportation, sales, and other processes, which can effectively help users understand the difference between the two processes and environmental costs. Besides, the experimental data demonstrated that the participant would like to choose low environmental cost food after experiencing the whole process.

Keywords: virtual reality, information design, food supply chain, environmental cost

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Authors: Adebayo Muritala Adegbore

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The e-administration is increasingly being recognized as an important phenomenon in this 21st century and its place in society both at the public and private levels cannot be downplayed. Of close attention is how these platforms are adopted and used in academia due to academia’s role in shaping the overall development of the society, particularly the administrative activities of the non-teaching staff in universities since much has not been done to find out the continuance intention to use e-administration information portal by non-teaching staff in universities. This study, therefore, investigates the continuance intention to use e-administration of information portals of senior non-teaching staff in selected universities in southwest Nigeria. The study’s design was a correlational survey using simple random sampling to select three hundred and fifty-two (352) senior non-teaching staff in the selected universities. A standardized questionnaire was used for data capturing while data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentages, means, and standard deviation for the research questions and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used for the hypothesis. Findings revealed that the continuance intention of senior non-teaching staff to use e-administration information portal is positive (x = 3.13), the university portal is one of the most utilized e-administration tools (83.4%), while there was an inversely significant relationship between continuance intention to use and use of e-administration information portal (r = -.254; p< 0.05; N = 320).

Keywords: e-administration, e-portal, non-teaching staff, information systems, continuance intention, use of e-administration portals

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Authors: Sona Lorencova, Beata Hornickova

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Compulsory pre-school education in Slovakia will be established by the Education Act for all five-year-old children from September 2021. The implementation of this law will change pre-school education in our country from optional to compulsory, and children will be able to complete this education either in institutional form school facilities or in the form of individual education at the request of the parent. The primary purpose of this change is that all children achieve pre-school education before entering primary school, thus eliminating differences between children before entering primary school. The benefits of introducing compulsory pre-school education are obvious to the professional public. However, as this fundamental change in children's education is perceived by parents who have a prime position in the upbringing and education of their children, research pays minimal attention. The aim of the study is to interpret the findings of quantitatively oriented research, which was focused on finding out the attitudes of parents to the planned introduction of compulsory preschool education in Slovakia. The data were obtained through questionnaires primarily intended for parents of preschool children. In the distributed questionnaire, the degree of agreement or disagreement with individual items could be expressed on a 5-point Likert scale. The results of the research present how perceived compulsory pre-school education is perceived by the parental public in Slovakia and what perspectives and limitations parents anticipate after its introduction.

Keywords: compulsory pre-school education, education act, childs' learning and development, kindergarten, parents' perspectives

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Authors: Jim Shi, Jasmine Chang, Nesreen El-Rayes

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The world has been experiencing a steadily increasing trend in both the production and consumption of plastic. The global consumer revolution should not have been possible without plastic, thanks to its salient feature of inexpensiveness and durability. But, as a two-edged sword, its durable quality has returned to haunt and even jeopardized us. That exacerbating the plastic crisis has attracted various global initiatives and actions. Simultaneously, firms are eager to adopt new technology as they witness and perceive more potential and merit of Industry 4.0 technologies. For example, Blockchain technology (BCT) is drawing the attention of numerous stakeholders because of its wide range of outstanding features that promise to enhance supply chain operations. However, from a research perspective, most of the literature addresses the plastic crisis from either environmental or social perspectives. In contrast, analysis from the data science perspective and technology is relatively scarce. To this end, this study aims to fill this gap and cover the plastic crisis from a holistic view of environmental, social, technological, and business perspectives. In particular, we propose a mathematical model to examine the inclusion of BCT to enhance and improve the efficiency on the upstream and the downstream sides of the plastic value, where the whole value chain is coordinated systematically, and its interoperability can be optimized. Consequently, the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goal and Circular Economics (CE) sustainability can be maximized.

Keywords: blockchain technology, plastic, circular economy, sustainability

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Authors: Behbood Maashkar

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One of the principles for societies’ development is the requirement to consider past experiences. Man should always take advantage of the predecessor’s experiences and analyze their works and methods. The predecessors have had a more friendly relationship with nature and their lives less damaged the nature, and it is one of the elements of green building. One of the things the ancients have observed in regard to green building in their houses, stores, sacred places, etc. was using wind-catchers as an air conditioning and cooling system which can be considered as the first foundations of green building. In designing houses Iranian architects have paid a great attention to the factor of making use of more shaded area in hot season and insulation of wall and ceiling against influence of hot weather and also air circulation inside the building. In order to circulate the air inside closed spaces and decrease the temperature, they have considered different winds which blow in Iran and its effective power, and in order to make use of it they invented wind catcher. Direction of wind blow and its height from the earth as well as the time and duration of wind blow and other factors have been effective in making different types of wind catchers. Using wind catchers has been and is prevalent mainly in central and south regions of Iran, coastal areas of Persian Gulf, and Khorasan, especially in cities like Yazd, Kashan, Bam, Abarghoo, Jahrom, and Tabas.

Keywords: environment pollution, green building, Iran, wind catchers

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Authors: Seiied Taghi Seiied Safavian, Ebrahim Fataei, Taghi Ebadi

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Urbanized population increasing has been a major driving force for physical development and expansion. In this regard, selecting optimal management strategies for sustainable development of cities as the most important population centers has gotten more attention by the city managers. One of the most important issues in planning a sustainable development is environmental sustainability. In this research, identifying the optimal physical development strategies of Ardabil city in the future condition have been investigated based on land-use planning principles and regularities. Determination of suitable lands of urban development was conducted through natural variables comprised of slope, topography, geology, distance from fault, underground water's depth, land-use strategies and earth shape using hierarchical process method (AHP) in Geographical information system (GIS). Region's potential capabilities and talents were estimated by environmental elements extraction and its measurement based on environmental criteria. Consequently, specified suitable areas for Ardabil city development were introduced. Results of this research showed that the northern part of the Ardabil city is the most suitable sites for physical development of this city regarding the environmental sustainability criteria.

Keywords: urban development, environmental sustainability, Ardabil city, AHP, GIS

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Authors: Yuya Tanigami, Naoaki Yamanaka, Satoru Okamoto

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Economic losses due to delays in traffic congestion regarding urban transportation networks have become a more serious social problem as traffic volume increases. Platooning has recently been attracting attention from many researchers to alleviate traffic jams, especially on the highway. On highways, platooning can have positive effects, such as reducing inter-vehicular distance and reducing air resistance. However, the impacts of platooning on urban roads have not been addressed in detail since traffic lights may break the platoons. In this study, we propose a platooning method using L2 norm and cosine similarity to form a platoon with highly similar routes. Also, we investigate the sorting method within a platoon according to each vehicle’s straightness. Our proposed sorting platoon method, which uses two lanes, eliminates Head of Line Blocking at the intersection and improves throughput at intersections. This paper proposes a cyber-physical system (CPS) approach to collaborative urban platoon control. We conduct simulations using the traffic simulator SUMO and the road network, which imitates Manhattan Island. Results from the SUMO confirmed that our method shortens the average travel time by 10-20%. This paper shows the validity of forming a platoon based on destination vectors and sorting vehicles within a platoon.

Keywords: CPS, platooning, connected car, vector correlation

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Authors: E. Fathallahi Aghdam, V. Hosseini

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Environmental pollution is not limited to a specific region or country; that is why sustainable development, as a necessary process for improvement, pays attention to issues such as destruction of natural resources, degradation of biological system, global pollution, and climate change in the world, especially in the developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, as a developing city, Tehran (capital of Iran) is one of the most polluted cities in the world in terms of air pollution. In this study, three pollutants including particulate matter less than 10 microns, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide were evaluated in Tehran using data mining techniques and through Crisp approach. The data from 21 air pollution measuring stations in different areas of Tehran were collected from 1999 to 2013. Commercial softwares Clementine was selected for this study. Tehran was divided into distinct clusters in terms of the mentioned pollutants using the software. As a data mining technique, clustering is usually used as a prologue for other analyses, therefore, the similarity of clusters was evaluated in this study through analyzing local conditions, traffic behavior, and industrial activities. In fact, the results of this research can support decision-making system, help managers improve the performance and decision making, and assist in urban studies.

Keywords: data mining, clustering, air pollution, crisp approach

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Authors: Fatemeh Cheraghali, Saeedeh Shojaee-Aliabadi, Seyede Marzieh Hosseini, Leila Mirmoghtadaie

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In recent years, the field of natural antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds is one of the main research topics in the food industry. Application of agricultural residues is mainly cheap, and available resources are receiving increased attention. Walnut green husk is one of the agricultural residues that is considered as natural compounds with biological properties because of phenolic compounds. In this study, maltodextrin 10% was used for microencapsulation of walnut green husk extract. At first, the extract was examined to consider extraction yield, total phenolic compounds, and antioxidant activation. The results showed the extraction yield of 81.43%, total phenolic compounds of 3997 [mg GAE/100 g], antioxidant activity [DPPH] of 84.85% for walnut green husk extract. Antioxidant activity is about 75%-81% and by DPPH. At the next stage, microencapsulation was done by spry-drying method. The microencapsulation efficiency was 72%-79%. The results of SEM tests confirmed this microencapsulation process. In addition, microencapsulated and free extract was more effective on gram-positive bacteria’s rather than the gram-negative ones. According to the study, walnut green husk can be used as a cheap antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds due to sufficient value of phenolic compounds.

Keywords: biopolymer, microencapsulation, spray-drying, walnut green husk

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Authors: Ramin Mirzada

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This research investigates the valuation of public transport importance in decreasing congestion and in introduction of bus rapid transit in Kabul city. The main concern and main problem of the Kabul city public transport is traffic congestion. When buses and trams are stuck in traffic jams, it is clear that they fall behind from the schedule and this cause lots of problem for Kabul residence. In this research, the main attention has been given to improve current public transport in Kabul city which Public transport has large share almost 50% share among all mode. The main purpose of this research is to improve public transport system, to examine the demand and the supply of public transport in Kabul city, and to improve public transport system by introducing Bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Kabul city. The data which is used in this research is gathered by Transport Ministry, Kabul Municipality and Japan Cooperation Agency in Afghanistan (JICA). Urban transportation modeling system (UTMS) which is also known as traditional four-step modeling is used as the methodology of this research. The outcome of this research shows that by improving public transport which is local bus system mostly congestion problem of Kabul city become solve, and for those lanes which has the high demand and has more congestion, it is needed to introduce bus rapid transit system.

Keywords: transportation, planning, public transport, bus rapid transit, Kabul, Afghanistan

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Authors: Raid Hommady, Waseem Al-Talalwah, Shorok Al Dorazi, Roger Soames

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The iliolumbar artery is a regular branch of posterior division of the internal iliac artery. The present study investigate 82 specimens to identify the origin of iliolumbar artery. The present study targets the sciatic nerve root supply from iliolumbar artery based on its origin and course. In present study, the ililumbar artery arose from the posterior division of internal iliac artery in 52.2%. In few cases, it arose from dorsomedial aspect of the internal iliac artery in 28.8%. In few cases, the iliolumbar artery arose from the dorsal aspects of the internal iliac artery as well as from the common and external iliac artery 1.7%. Also, the iliolumbar artery arose from the sciatic artery as well as from superior and inferior gluteal arteries in 5.1%. Conversely, it found to be congenital absent in 8.5%. Therefore, the posterior trunk of the internal iliac artery is the most common origin of the iliolumbar artery. With the origin variability of the iliolumbar artery, there is a vascular supply variability of the lumbosacral trunk and sacral root of sciatic nerve. The iliolumbar artery provides vascular supply for lumbosacral trunk 57.3% in whereas the sacral root in 5.1%. As a result, surgeons should pay attention to these variations to decrease iatrogenic fault.

Keywords: iliolumbar, sciatic artery, internal iliac, external iliac, posterior division

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Authors: Deniz Bozoglu, Deniz Deger, Kemal Ulutas, Sahin Yakut

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In recent years, silica aerogels have attracted great attention due to their outstanding properties, and their wide variety of potential applications such as microelectronics, nuclear and high-energy physics, optics and acoustics, superconductivity, space-physics. Hydrophobic silica aerogels were successfully synthesized in one-step by surface modification at ambient pressure. FT-IR result confirmed that Si-OH groups were successfully converted into hydrophobic and non-polar Si-CH3 groups by surface modification using trimethylchloro silane (TMCS) as co-precursor. Using Alpha-A High-Resolution Dielectric, Conductivity and Impedance Analyzer, AC conductivity of samples were examined at temperature range 293-423 K and measured over frequency range between 1-106 Hz. The characteristic relaxation time decreases with increasing temperature. The AC conductivity follows σ_AC (ω)=σ_t-σ_DC=Aω^s relation at frequencies higher than 10 Hz, and the dominant conduction mechanism is found to obey the Correlated Barrier Hopping (CBH) mechanism. At frequencies lower than 10 Hz, the electrical conduction is found to be in accordance with DC conduction mechanism. The activation energies obtained from AC conductivity results and it was observed two relaxation regions.

Keywords: aerogel, synthesis, dielectric constant, dielectric loss, relaxation time

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Authors: Babak Mohajeri, Elina Ilen, Timo Nyberg

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Sustainability has become an important topic in contemporary business. The apparel industry is a good example to assess sustainability in practice. Value chains in the apparel industry are faced with various challenges regarding sustainability issues. Apparel companies pay higher attention to economic sustainability issues, and environmental and social sustainability issues of the apparel industry are often underrated. In this paper, we analyze the role of the different players in the value chain of the apparel industry in terms of sustainability. We realize that the brand owners have the highest impact on improving the sustainability of the apparel industry. We design a collaborative business model to join the forces among the brand owners for improving the sustainability of the apparel industry throughout the value chain. We have conducted a case study of shifting from conventional screen-printing to more environmentally sustainable digital textile printing. We suggest that this shift can be accelerated if the brand owners join their forces together to shift from conventional printing to digital printing technology in the apparel industry. Based on the proposed business model, we suggest future directions for using joining the forces among the brand owners for case of sustainability

Keywords: sustainability, digital textile printing , joining forces, apparel industry

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Authors: Djallel Bouamama, Yasser R. Haddadi

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Accurate brain tumor segmentation is crucial for diagnosis and treatment planning, yet it remains a challenging task due to the variability in tumor shapes and intensities. This paper introduces a distinct approach to brain tumor image segmentation by leveraging an advanced architecture known as Mamba-Unet. Building on the well-established U-Net framework, Mamba-Unet incorporates distinct design enhancements to improve segmentation performance. Our proposed method integrates a multi-scale attention mechanism and a hybrid loss function to effectively capture fine-grained details and contextual information in brain MRI scans. We demonstrate that Mamba-Unet significantly enhances segmentation accuracy compared to conventional U-Net models by utilizing a comprehensive dataset of annotated brain MRI scans. Quantitative evaluations reveal that Mamba-Unet surpasses traditional U-Net architectures and other contemporary segmentation models regarding Dice coefficient, sensitivity, and specificity. The improvements are attributed to the method's ability to manage class imbalance better and resolve complex tumor boundaries. This work advances the state-of-the-art in brain tumor segmentation and holds promise for improving clinical workflows and patient outcomes through more precise and reliable tumor detection.

Keywords: brain tumor classification, image segmentation, CNN, U-NET

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Authors: Eric Agrie Ambele

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The norms and models for learning pronunciation in relation to the teaching and learning of English pronunciation are key issues nowadays in English Language Teaching in ESL contexts. This paper discusses these issues based on a study on the attitudes of some Francophone university students in Cameroon towards three English accents spoken in Cameroon: Cameroon Francophone English (CamFE), Cameroon English (CamE), and Hyperlectal Cameroon English (near standard British English). With the desire to know more about the treatment that these English accents receive among these students, an aspect that had hitherto received little attention in the literature, a language attitude questionnaire, and the matched-guise technique was used to investigate this phenomenon. Two methods of data analysis were employed: (1) the percentage count procedure, and (2) the semantic differential scale. The findings reveal that the participants’ attitudes towards the selected accents vary in degree. Though Hyperlectal CamE emerged first, CamE second and CamFE third, no accent, on average, received a negative evaluation. It can be deduced from this findings that, first, CamE is gaining more and more recognition and can stand as an autonomous accent; second, that the participants all rated Hyperlectal CamE higher than CamE implies that they would be less motivated in a context where CamE is the learning model. By implication, in the teaching of English pronunciation to francophone learners learning English in Cameroon, Hyperlectal Cameroon English should be the model.

Keywords: teaching pronunciation, English accents, Francophone learners, attitudes

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Authors: Dina H. Gabr, Mona A. El Bannan

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With growing worldwide concern for global warming, green finance has become the fuel that pushes the world to act in combating and mitigating climate change. Coupled with adopting the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Green finance became a vital tool in creating a pathway to sustainable development, as it connects the financial world with environmental and societal benefits. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the concepts and definitions of green finance and the importance of 'green' impact investments today. The core challenge in combating climate change is reducing and controlling Greenhouse gas emissions; therefore, this study explores the solutions green finance provides putting emphasis on the use of renewable energy, which is necessary for enhancing the transition to the green economy. With increasing attention to the concept of green finance, multiple forms of green investments and financial tools have come to fruition; the most prominent are green bonds. The rise of green bonds, a debt market to finance climate solutions, provide a promising mechanism for sustainable finance. Following the review, this paper compiles a comprehensive green bond dataset, presenting a statistical study of the evolution of the green bonds market from its first appearance in 2006 until 2021.

Keywords: climate change, GHG emissions, green bonds, green finance, sustainable finance

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Authors: Surasak Siripornadulsil, Nutt Poomai, Wilailak Siripornadulsil

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Due to a high ethanol demand, the approach for effective ethanol production is important and has been developed rapidly worldwide. Several agricultural wastes are highly abundant in celluloses and the effective cellulose enzymes do exist widely among microorganisms. Accordingly, the cellulose degradation using microbial cellulose to produce a low-cost substrate for ethanol production has attracted more attention. In this study, the cellulose producing bacterial strain has been isolated from rich straw and identified by 16S rDNA sequence analysis as Acinetobacter sp. KKU44. This strain is able to grow and exhibit the cellulose activity. The optimal temperature for its growth and cellulose production is 37 °C. The optimal temperature of bacterial cellulose activity is 60 °C. The cellulose enzyme from Acinetobacter sp. KKU44 is heat-tolerant enzyme. The bacterial culture of 36 h. showed highest cellulose activity at 120 U/mL when grown in LB medium containing 2% (w/v). The capability of Acinetobacter sp. KKU44 to grow in cellulosic agricultural wastes as a sole carbon source and exhibiting the high cellulose activity at high temperature suggested that this strain could be potentially developed further as a cellulose degrading strain for a production of low-cost substrate used in ethanol production.

Keywords: cellulose enzyme, bagasse, rice straw, rice husk, acinetobacter sp. KKU44

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Authors: Rong Liu, Kuiying Chen, Ju Chen, Jingrong Zhao, Ming Liang

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This article presents modeling studies of NiAl alloy under solid-particle erosion and liquid-drop erosion. In the solid particle erosion simulation, attention is paid to the oxide scale thickness variation on the alloy in high-temperature erosion environments. The erosion damage is assumed to be deformation wear and cutting wear mechanisms, incorporating the influence of the oxide scale on the eroded surface; thus the instantaneous oxide thickness is the result of synergetic effect of erosion and oxidation. For liquid-drop erosion, special interest is in investigating the effects of drop velocity and drop size on the damage of the target surface. The models of impact stress wave, mean depth of penetration, and maximum depth of erosion rate (Max DER) are employed to develop various maps for NiAl alloy, including target thickness vs. drop size (diameter), rate of mean depth of penetration (MDRP) vs. drop impact velocity, and damage threshold velocity (DTV) vs. drop size.

Keywords: liquid-drop erosion, NiAl alloy, oxide scale thickness, solid-particle erosion

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Authors: Warda Ajaz

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This study uses the ‘Community Capitals Framework’ (CCF) to develop a community resilience index that can serve as a useful tool for measuring resilience of communities in diverse contexts and backgrounds. CCF is an important analytical tool to assess holistic community change. This framework identifies seven major types of community capitals: natural, cultural, human, social, political, financial and built, and claims that the communities that have been successful in supporting healthy sustainable community and economic development have paid attention to all these capitals. The framework, therefore, proposes to study the community development through identification of assets in these major capitals (stock), investment in these capitals (flow), and the interaction between these capitals. Capital based approaches have been extensively used to assess community resilience, especially in the context of natural disasters and extreme events. Therefore, this study identifies key indicators for estimating each of the seven capitals through an extensive literature review and then develops an index to calculate a community resilience score. The CCF-based community resilience index presents an innovative way of operationalizing the concept of community resilience and will contribute toward decision-relevant research regarding adaptation and mitigation of community vulnerabilities to climate change-induced, as well as other adverse events.

Keywords: adverse events, community capitals, community resilience, climate change, economic development, sustainability

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Authors: Kearney Dover, Viviene Temple, Lynneth Stuart-Hill

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Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is the beat-to-beat variation in adjacent heartbeats. HRV is a non-invasive measure of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and provides information about the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) nervous systems. The HRV of a well-conditioned heart is generally high at rest, whereas low HRV has been associated with adverse outcomes/conditions, including congestive heart failure, diabetic neuropathy, depression, and hospital admissions. HRV has received very little research attention among individuals with intellectual disabilities in general or Special Olympic athletes. Purpose: 1) Having a longer post-exercise rest and recovery time to establish how long it takes for the athletes’ HRV components to return to pre-exercise levels, 2) To determine if greater familiarization with the testing processes influences HRV. Participants: Two separate samples of 10 adult Special Olympics athletes will be recruited for 2 separate studies. Athletes will be between 18 and 50 years of age and will be members of Special Olympics BC. Anticipated Findings: To answer why the Special Olympics athletes display poor cardiac responsiveness to changes in autonomic modulation during exercise. By testing the cortisol levels in the athletes, we can determine their stress levels which will then explain their measured HRV.

Keywords: 6MWT, autonomic modulation, cortisol levels, intellectual disability

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Authors: A. Albaridi Najla

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Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum) is well known to have beneficial effect on health. The seeds are rich in protein, α-linolenic fatty acid and dietary fiber. Bakery products are important part of our daily meals. Functional food recently received considerable attention among consumers. The increase in bread daily consumption leads to the production of breads with functional ingredients such as flaxseed The aim of this Study was to improve the nutritional value of bread by adding flaxseed flour and assessing the effect of adding 0, 5, 10 and 15% flaxseed on whole wheat bread rheological and sensorial properties. The total consumer's acceptability of the flaxseed bread was assessed. Dough characteristics were determined using Farinograph (C.W. Brabender® Instruments, Inc). The result shows no change was observed in water absorption between the stander dough (without flaxseed) and the bread with flaxseed (67%). An Increase in the peak time and dough stickiness was observed with the increase in flaxseed level. Further, breads were evaluated for sensory parameters, colour and texture. High flaxseed level increased the bread crumb softness. Bread with 5% flaxseed was optimized for total sensory evaluation. Overall, flaxseed bread produced in this study was highly acceptable for daily consumption as a functional foods with a potentially health benefits.

Keywords: bread, flaxseed, rheological properties, whole-wheat bread

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Authors: Kamel A. Abd-Elsalam, Alexei R. Khokhlov

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Studies on bioefficacy (in vitro and in vivo) and mode of action of the nanocides against the most important plant diseases in Egypt and Russia might assist in the goal of sustainable agriculture. To our knowledge, few researchers have evaluated the combined antimicrobial effect of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) with bioorganic pesticides for controlling plant pathogens in the greenhouse and open field, decontrol investigated synergistic effect. In the current project, we will develop eco-friendly alternative management strategies including the use of heavy nanometal-tolerant Trichoderma strains and the main effective material in conventional fungicides (curpic, sulfur, phosphorus and zinc) for controlling plant diseases. Studies on bioefficacy and the mechanism of the nanocides against the most important plant diseases in Egypt were evaluated. There is a growing need to establish mechanisms of action for nano bio and/or fungicides to assist the design of new compounds or combinations of compounds, in order to understand resistance mechanisms and to provide a focus for toxicological attention. Nanofungicides represent an emerging technological development that could offer a range of benefits including increased efficacy, durability, and a reduction in the amounts of active ingredients that need to be used.

Keywords: biohybrids, biocides, bioagent, plant pathogenic fungi

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Authors: Hideki Kitamura

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Since Islamic banking has broadly started in the late 1970s, Islamic economy has been paid much attention by both academia and the business world. However, despite abundant studies, descriptive exploration of practices of Islamic economy from a sociological/anthropological perspective is underrepresented, and most are basically designed for evaluating current practice or proposing ideal types of Islamic economy in accordance with their religious conviction. Overall, their interest is not paid to actors of Islamic economy such as practitioner’s decision-making and thought, while sociological/anthropological studies on Muslim’s religious life can be observed well. Herein, the paper aims to look into the possibilities of sociology/anthropology for exploration of the role of actors of Islamic economy, by revisiting the benefit of sociological/anthropological studies on the religion of Islam and its adaptability to the research on Islamic economy. The paper suggests that practices of Islamic economy can be assumed as results of practitioner’s dilemma between Islamic ideals and market realities in each society, by applying the perspective of social constructivism. The paper then proposes focusing on the human agency of practitioners in translating Islamic principles into economic behavior, thereby enabling a more descriptive inquiry into how Islamic economy is produced and operated.

Keywords: Islamic economy, economic sociology/anthropology, human agency, social constructivism

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Authors: Supriya, J. K. Basu, S. Sengupta

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Silver nanoparticles have caught a lot of attention because of its unique physical and chemical properties. Silver nanoparticles embedded in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA/Ag) free-standing film have been prepared by microwave irradiation in few minutes. PVA performed as a reducing agent, stabilizing agents as well as support for silver nanoparticles. UV-Vis spectrometry, scanning transmission electron (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques affirmed the reduction of silver ion to silver nanoparticles in the polymer matrix. Effect of irradiation time, the concentration of PVA and concentration of silver precursor on the synthesis of silver nanoparticle has been studied. Particles size of silver nanoparticles decreases with increase in irradiation time. Concentration of silver nanoparticles increases with increase in concentration of silver precursor. Good dispersion of silver nanoparticles in the film has been confirmed by TEM analysis. Particle size of silver nanoparticle has been found to be in the range of 2-10nm. Catalytic property of prepared silver nanoparticles as a heterogeneous catalyst has been studied in the reduction of p-Nitrophenol (a water pollutant) with >98% conversion. From the experimental results, it can be concluded that PVA encapsulated Ag nanoparticles film as a catalyst shows better efficiency and reusability in the reduction of p-Nitrophenol.

Keywords: biopolymer, microwave irradiation, silver nanoparticles, water pollutant

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Authors: Der-Feng Guo

Abstract:

Optoelectronic switches have attracted a considerable attention in the semiconductor research field due to their potential applications in optical computing systems and optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs). With high gains and high-speed operations, npn heterostructures can be used to produce promising optoelectronic switches. It is known that the bulk barrier and heterostructure-induced potential spike act important roles in the characteristics of the npn heterostructures. To investigate the effects of bulk barrier and potential spike heights on the optoelectronic switching of the npn heterostructures, GaAs/InGaP and AlGaAs/GaAs/InAlGaP npn heterostructural optoelectronic switches (HSOSs) have been fabricated in this work. It is seen that the illumination decreases the switching voltage Vs and increases the switching current Is, and thus the OFF state is under dark and ON state under illumination in the optical switching of the GaAs/InGaP HSOS characteristics. But in the AlGaAs/GaAs/InAlGaP HSOS characteristics, the Vs and Is present contrary trends, and the OFF state is under illumination and ON state under dark. The studied HSOSs show quite different switching variations with incident light, which are mainly attributed to the bulk barrier and potential spike heights affected by photogenerated carriers.

Keywords: bulk barrier, heterostructure, optoelectronic switch, potential spike

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Authors: Adisorn Bansong, Walai Isarankura Na Ayudhaya, Aumporn Makanong

Abstract:

A Development of an Instructional Model for Health Education was the aim to develop and study the effectiveness of an instructional model for health education to enhance self-regulation and learning achievement of lower secondary school students. It was the Quasi-Experimental Designs, used a Single-group Interrupted Time-series Designs, conducted by 2 phases: 1. To develop an instructional model based on Social Cognitive Theory and Strategic Life Planning. 2. To trial and evaluate effectiveness of an instructional model. The results as the following: i. An Instructional Model for Health Education consists of five main components: a) Attention b) Forethought c) Tactic Planning d) Execution and e) Reflection. ii. After an Instructional Model for Health Education has used for a semester trial, found the 4.07 percent of sample’s Self-Regulation higher and learning achievement on post-test were significantly higher than pre-test at .05 levels (p = .033, .000).

Keywords: social cognitive theory, strategic life planning, self-regulation, learning achievement

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Authors: Ananya Sharma

Abstract:

International Relations is a discipline of paradoxes. The State is the dominant political institution, with mainstream analysis theorizing the State, but theory remains at best a reactionary monolith. Critical Theorists have been pushing the envelope and to that extent, there has been a clear shift in the dominant discourse away from State-centrism to individuals and group-level behaviour. This paradigm shift has been accompanied with more nuanced conceptualizations of other variables at play–power, security, and trust, to name a few. Yet, the ambit of “what is discussed” remains primarily embedded in realist conceptualizations. With this background in mind, this paper will attempt to understand, juxtapose and evaluate how “order” has been conceptualized in International Relations theory. This paper is a tentative attempt to present a “state of the art” and in the process, set the stage for a deeper study to draw attention to what the author feels is a gaping lacuna in IR theory. The paper looks at how different branches of international relations theory envisage world order and the silences embedded therein. Further, by locating order and disorder inhabiting the same reality along a continuum, alternative readings of world orders are drawn from the critical theoretical traditions, in which various articulations of justice impart the key normative pillar to the world order.

Keywords: global justice, international relations theory, legitimacy, world order

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Authors: Cheikh Bamba Dione, Alla Lo, Elhadji Mamadou Nguer, Siley O. Ba

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose two neural machine translation (NMT) systems (French-to-Wolof and Wolof-to-French) based on sequence-to-sequence with attention and transformer architectures. We trained our models on a parallel French-Wolof corpus of about 83k sentence pairs. Because of the low-resource setting, we experimented with advanced methods for handling data sparsity, including subword segmentation, back translation, and the copied corpus method. We evaluate the models using the BLEU score and find that transformer outperforms the classic seq2seq model in all settings, in addition to being less sensitive to noise. In general, the best scores are achieved when training the models on word-level-based units. For subword-level models, using back translation proves to be slightly beneficial in low-resource (WO) to high-resource (FR) language translation for the transformer (but not for the seq2seq) models. A slight improvement can also be observed when injecting copied monolingual text in the target language. Moreover, combining the copied method data with back translation leads to a substantial improvement of the translation quality.

Keywords: backtranslation, low-resource language, neural machine translation, sequence-to-sequence, transformer, Wolof

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