Search results for: management system

Authors: Kyonghoon Kim, Wonyoung Park, Taeil Park

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In 1994, Korea experienced a national tragedy of Seongsu Bridge collapse. The accident was severe enough to alert governmental officers to the problem of existing management policy for national infrastructures. As a result, government legislated the ‘Guidelines for the safety inspection and test of infrastructure’ which have been utilized as the primary tool to make decision for the maintenance and rehabilitation of infrastructure for last twenty years. Although it is clear that the guideline established a basics how to evaluate and manage the condition of infrastructures in systematic manner, it is equally clear that the guideline needs improvements in order to obtain reasonable investment decisions for budget allocation. Because its inspection and evaluation procedures mainly focused on the structural condition of infrastructures, it was hard to make decision when the infrastructures were in same level of structural condition. In addition, it did not properly reflect various aspects of infrastructures such as performance, public demand, capacity, etc., which were more valuable to public. Regardless of the importance, these factors were commonly neglected in governmental decision-making process, because there factors were somewhat subjective and difficult to quantify in rational manner. Thus, this study proposes a framework to properly evaluate the serviceability indicators using AHP and Fuzzy approach. The framework is expected to assist governmental agency in establishing effective investment strategies for budget planning.

Keywords: infrastructure, evaluation, serviceability, fuzzy

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Authors: Yasir Khan, Qiu Bin, Antonio-Mihi Ramirez

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This study determines the inflow of international students to China in recent years and the corresponding internationalization strategies in the higher education sector. China has placed attracting international students on in its plan along with the growing of global impact. Acknowledging the stable economy, growth rate, trade, lower renminbi rate, high wages, employment opportunities, high level income per capita, relative low taxes and political system consolidate to attract more international students. A large number of international students making a vast contribution to the higher education sector of China. Understanding the significance of education mission as well as of financial ‘bottom line’ the Chinese government gave great importance to invite more international students from worldwide. The large number of international students in the China has been particularly notable from Asian countries specifically neighboring countries, Pakistan, Thailand, India, Vietnam, South Korea, Magnolia, Malaysia, and Russia. This study summarizes internationalization of higher education in China and also provides directions for future research in this regard.

Keywords: international student mobility, 2020 Govt Planning, emerging market, internationalization of higher education

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Authors: Biao Ma, Jikai Liu, Man Chen, Jianpeng Wu, Liyong Wang, Changsong Zheng

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Proposing an appropriate control strategy is an effective and practical way to address the overheat problems of the wet multi-plate clutch in Direct Shift Gearbox under the long-time creeping condition. To do so, the temperature variation of the wet multi-plate clutch is investigated firstly by establishing a thermal resistance model for the gearbox cooling system. To calculate the generated heat flux and predict the clutch temperature precisely, the friction torque model is optimized by introducing an improved friction coefficient, which is related to the pressure, the relative speed and the temperature. After that, the heat transfer model and the reasonable friction torque model are employed by the vehicle powertrain model to construct a comprehensive co-simulation model for the Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG) vehicle. A creeping control strategy is then proposed and, to evaluate the vehicle performance, the safety temperature (250 ℃) is particularly adopted as an important metric. During the creeping process, the temperature of two clutches is always under the safety value (250 ℃), which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy in avoiding the thermal failures of clutches.

Keywords: creeping control strategy, direct shift gearbox, temperature variation, wet clutch

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Authors: Shreedevi Moharana, Subashisa Dutta

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The present study focuses on the estimation of crop biophysical parameters like crop chlorophyll, nitrogen and water stress at plot scale in the crop fields. To achieve these, we have used high-resolution satellite LISS IV imagery. A new methodology has proposed in this research work, the spectral shape function of paddy crop is employed to get the significant wavelengths sensitive to paddy crop parameters. From the shape functions, regression index models were established for the critical wavelength with minimum and maximum wavelengths of multi-spectrum high-resolution LISS IV data. Moreover, the functional relationships were utilized to develop the index models. From these index models crop, biophysical parameters were estimated and mapped from LISS IV imagery at plot scale in crop field level. The result showed that the nitrogen content of the paddy crop varied from 2-8%, chlorophyll from 1.5-9% and water content variation observed from 40-90% respectively. It was observed that the variability in rice agriculture system in India was purely a function of field topography.

Keywords: crop parameters, index model, LISS IV imagery, plot scale, shape function

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Authors: Fu-Chien Hung, Chi‐Wen Liang

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Background: People who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) frequently complain about continuous tiredness, weakness or lack of strength, but without apparent organic etiology. The prevalence rate of the CFS is nearly from 3% to 20%, yet more than 80% go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed as depression. The biopsychosocial model has suggested the associations among the CFS, depressive syndrome, and stress. This study aimed to investigate the difference between individuals with the CFS and with the depressive syndrome on psychophysiological responses under stress. Method: There were 23 participants in the CFS group, 14 participants in the depression group, and 23 participants in the healthy control group. All of the participants first completed the measures of demographic data, CFS-related symptoms, daily life functioning, and depressive symptoms. The participants were then asked to perform a stressful cognitive task. The participants’ psychophysiological responses including the HR, BVP and SC were measured during the task. These indexes were used to assess the reactivity and recovery rates of the automatic nervous system. Results: The stress reactivity of the CFS and depression groups was not different from that of the healthy control group. However, the stress recovery rate of the CFS group was worse than that of the healthy control group. Conclusion: The results from this study suggest that the CFS is a syndrome which can be independent from the depressive syndrome, although the depressive syndrome may include fatigue syndrome.

Keywords: chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, stress response, misdiagnosis

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Authors: Davit Khachatryan, Shuo Xiang

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Numerous published studies on the use of prazosin in the treatment of PTSD-related sleep disturbances in adult population have resulted in updates to the recommendation for prazosin for nightmares that showed its strength of evidence elevated from C to B in the US Department of Veterans Affairs clinical practice guideline. In addition, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline gave prazosin a level-A recommendation for the treatment of PTSD-associated nightmares. The aim of this review is to summarize the available literature for prazosin use for nightmares and other sleep disturbances in children and adolescents with PTSD. Method: A comprehensive search for studies on prazosin use for sleep disturbances in child and adolescent population with PTSD has been performed. We looked at MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, AMED, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases. Results: Compared to adult population with similar psychopathology, the available literature in child and adolescent population is scarce. Despite increased interest in prazosin in the management of PTSD, only six studies investigating this medication in children and adolescents have been published. Conclusion: A large randomized control trial on this topic is needed for more definite evidence on the efficacy and safety of prazosin in the treatment of nightmares in children and adolescents with PTSD.

Keywords: guidelines, prazosin, PTSD, sleep disturbance

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Authors: Lichung Jen, Yi Chun Liu, Kuan-Wei Lee

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Fruitful data has been accumulated in database nowadays and is commonly used as support for decision-making. In the healthcare industry, hospital, for instance, ordering pharmacy inventory is one of the key decision. With large drug inventory, the current cost increases and its expiration dates might lead to future issue, such as drug disposal and recycle. In contrast, underestimating demand of the pharmacy inventory, particularly standing drugs, affects the medical treatment and possibly hospital reputation. Prescription behaviour of hospital physicians is one of the critical factor influencing this decision, particularly irregular prescription behaviour. If a drug’s usage amount in the month is irregular and less than the regular usage, it may cause the trend of subsequent stockpiling. On the contrary, if a drug has been prescribed often than expected, it may result in insufficient inventory. We proposed a hierarchical Bayesian mixture model with two components to identify physicians’ regular/irregular prescription patterns with probabilities. Heterogeneity of hospital is considered in our proposed hierarchical Bayes model. The result suggested that modeling the prescription patterns of physician is beneficial for estimating the order quantity of medication and pharmacy inventory management of the hospital. Managerial implication and future research are discussed.

Keywords: hierarchical Bayesian model, poission mixture model, medicines prescription behavior, irregular behavior

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Authors: Regina Kulugomba, Richard Blanchard, Harold Mapoma, Gregory Gamula, Stanley Mlatho

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Malawi is a country with low energy access with only 10% of people having access to electricity and 97% of people relying on charcoal and fuel wood. The over dependence on the traditional biomass has brought in a number of negative consequences on people’s health and the environment. To curb the situation, the Government of Malawi (GoM), through its national policy of 2018 and charcoal strategies of 2007, identified biogas as a suitable alternative energy source for cooking. The GoM intends to construct tubular digesters across the country and one of the most crucial factors is the availability of livestock manure. The study was conducted to assess biogas potential from livestock manure by using Quantum Geographic information system (QGIS) software. Potential methane was calculated based on the population of livestock, amount of manure produced per capita and year, total solids, biogas yield and availability coefficient. The results of the study estimated biogas potential at 687 million m3 /year. Districts identified with highest biogas potential were Lilongwe, Ntcheu, Mangochi, Neno, Mwanza, Blantyre, Chiradzulu and Mulanje. The information will help investors and the Government of Malawi to locate potential sites for biogas plants installation.

Keywords: biogas, energy, feedstock, livestock

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Authors: Ogunremi Beatrice, Oluwole David Adebayo

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Public secondary school students are face with some challenges from the parents, government and teachers in school. Some of the challenges that arises from the parents are lack of attention and adequate communication. From the government are unavailability of useful instructional materials, competent and professionally trained teachers for each subject the students do in school. The challenges that arise from the teachers most often are mismanagement of time, inability to understand the capacity of the student and lack class management and follow up. This study investigated self-regulation, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and goal orientation as predictors of school engagement among public secondary school students in Ibadan. A structured questionnaire was administered on 258 students from six mixed secondary schools in Ibadan. Pearson Product Moment Correlation method was used for data analysis. Four hypothesis were raised and answered, the results showed there is positive and significant relationships between school engagement among public secondary school students and each of the independent variable: Self-regulation, Emotional intelligence, Self-efficacy, Goal orientation. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended that the parents have to encourage their children on how to be goal oriented ,build their self-efficacy skill, to be self-regulated and emotionally intelligent in order to be effective in school and be able to increase their intellectual ability.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, goal orientation, school engagement, self-regulation

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Authors: Dequn Teng, Tianshuo Yang, Mingrui Wang, Qiuyu Chen, Xiao Wang, Katie Atkinson

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Currently, many students are kind of at a loss in the university due to the complex environment within the campus, where every information within the campus is isolated with fewer interactions with each other. However, if the on-campus resources are gathered and combined with the artificial intelligence modelling techniques, there will be a bridge for not only students in understanding themselves, and the teachers will understand students in providing a much efficient approach in education. The objective of this paper is to provide a competency level analysis method, apparatus, electronic equipment, and storage medium. It uses a user’s target competency level analysis model from a plurality of predefined candidate competency level analysis models by obtaining a user’s promotion target parameters, promotion target parameters including at least one of the following parameters: target profession, target industry, and the target company, according to the promotion target parameters. According to the parameters, the model analyzes the user’s ability level, determines the user’s ability level, realizes the quantitative and personalized analysis of the user’s ability level, and helps the user to objectively position his ability level.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, model, university, education, recommendation system, evaluation, job hunting

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Authors: Triem T. Hoang

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Loop heat pipes (LHPs) are two-phase capillary-pumped heat transports. An appropriate working fluid is selected for the intended application temperature range. A closed-loop is evacuated to a high vacuum, back-filled partially with the working fluid, and then hermetically sealed under the fluid own pressure. Heat from a heat source conducts through the evaporator casing to vaporize liquid on the outer surface of the wick structure inside the evaporator. The generated vapor is compelled to vent out of the evaporator and into the vapor line for transport to the condenser assembly. There, heat is removed and rejected to a heat sink to condensed vapor back to liquid. The liquid exits the condenser and travels in the liquid line to return to the evaporator to complete the cycle. The circulation of fluid, and thus the heat transport in the LHP, is accomplished entirely by capillary action. The LHP contains no mechanical moving part to wear out or break down and, therefore possesses, reliability and a long life even without maintenance. In this paper, the author not only attempts to introduce the LHP technology in simplistic terms to those who are not familiar with it but also provides necessary technical information to potential users for the proper design and analysis of the LHP system.

Keywords: two-phase heat transfer, loop heat pipe, capillary pumped technology, thermal-fluid modeling

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Authors: Wu You, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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This study examines the promising potential of integrating Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to scalability in Distributed Systems within the field of supply chain finance. The finance industry is continually confronted with scalability challenges in its Distributed Systems, particularly within the supply chain finance sector, impacting efficiency and security. Blockchain, with its inherent attributes of high scalability and secure distributed ledger system, coupled with AI's strengths in optimizing data processing and decision-making, holds the key to innovating the industry's approach to these issues. This study elucidates the synergistic interplay between Blockchain and AI, detailing how their fusion can drive a significant transformation in the supply chain finance sector's Distributed Systems. It offers specific use-cases within this field to illustrate the practical implications and potential benefits of this technological convergence. The study also discusses future possibilities and current challenges in implementing this groundbreaking approach within the context of supply chain finance. It concludes that the intersection of Blockchain and AI could ignite a new epoch of enhanced efficiency, security, and transparency in the Distributed Systems of supply chain finance within the financial industry.

Keywords: blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), scaled distributed systems, supply chain finance, efficiency and security

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Authors: Uche Joyce Ogbonda, Yingchun Ji, Paul Coates

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The proximity of schools to gas flaring sites and the use of simple ventilation systems in school buildings with currently no regulation or laid down blueprint during design and construction in an environment prone to adverse environmental hazards caused by the continuous exploration of oil in the Niger Delta is worrisome. Although a wide health implication has been associated with inhalation of poor air, its effect on the performance of schoolchildren and staffs is poorly understood. Thus, the aim of this research is to explore from professionals around the region the issues surrounding the provision of clean air indoors even though, most developed and developing world are advancing in newer systems and technologies for clean indoor air. This study adopts both qualitative and quantitative approach using both open-ended and semi- structured interview techniques. This paper finds that indoor air quality is not considered during design, selection, and construction of schools. Analysis showed that rather than consider the health effect associated with the inhalation of ambient air by schoolchildren who spend 80% of their active time in schools due to the use of simple open windows and doors as source of breathable air. Advanced ventilation systems were therefore recommended to ensure supplying clean air for school buildings.

Keywords: air quality, gas flare, health implication, schools, ventilation system

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Authors: Kwabena Asare, Ezekiel N. N. Nortey, Felix O. Mettle

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Modelling of extreme events has always been of interest in fields such as hydrology and meteorology. However, after the recent global financial crises, appropriate models for modelling of such rare events leading to these crises have become quite essential in the finance and risk management fields. This paper models the extreme values of the Ghana Stock Exchange All-Shares indices (2000-2010) by applying the Extreme Value Theory to fit a model to the tails of the daily stock returns data. A conditional approach of the EVT was preferred and hence an ARMA-GARCH model was fitted to the data to correct for the effects of autocorrelation and conditional heteroscedastic terms present in the returns series, before EVT method was applied. The Peak Over Threshold (POT) approach of the EVT, which fits a Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD) model to excesses above a certain selected threshold, was employed. Maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters were obtained and the model’s goodness of fit was assessed graphically using Q-Q, P-P and density plots. The findings indicate that the GPD provides an adequate fit to the data of excesses. The size of the extreme daily Ghanaian stock market movements were then computed using the Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) risk measures at some high quantiles, based on the fitted GPD model.

Keywords: extreme value theory, expected shortfall, generalized pareto distribution, peak over threshold, value at risk

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Authors: Getaye Fisseha Gelaw

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the key physical and physiological characteristics of 16 elite male Ethiopian national team distance runners, who have an average age of 28.1±4.3 years, a height of 175.0 ±5.6 cm, a weight of 59.1 ±3.9 kg, a BMI of 19.6 ±1.5, and training age of 10.1 ±5.1 yrs. The average weekly distance is 196.3±13.8 km, the average 10,000m time is 27:14±0.5 min sec, the average half marathon time is 59:30±0.6 min sec, the average marathon time is 2hr 03min 39sec±0.02. In addition, the average Cooper test (12-minute run test) is 4525.4±139.7 meters, and the average VO2 max is 90.8±3.1ml/kg/m. All athletes have a high profile and compete on the international label, and according to the World Athletics athletes' ranking system in 2021, 56.3% of the 16 participants were platinum label status, while the remaining 43.7 % were gold label status-completed an incremental treadmill test for the assessment of VO2peak, submaximal running, lactate threshold and test during which they ran continuously at 21 km/h. The laboratory determined VO2peak was 91.4 ± 1.7 mL/kg/min with anaerobic threshold of 74.2±1.6 mL/min/Kg and VO2max 81%. The speed at the AT is 15.9 ±0.6 Kmh and the altitude is 4,0%. The respiratory compensation RC point was reached at 88.7±1.1 mL/min/Kg and 97% of VO2 max. On RCP, the speed is 17.6 ±0.4 km/h and the altitude/slope are 5.5% percent, and the speed at Maximum effort is 19.5 ±1.5 and the elevation is 6.0%. The data also suggest that Ethiopian distance top athletes have considerably higher VO2 max values than those found in earlier research.

Keywords: long-distance running, Ethiopians, VO2 max, world athletics, anthropometric

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Authors: Zofia Hammerin, Goran Basic, Disa Bergnehr

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Ever since the Ottawa charter in 1986, health promotion through schools has been stressed across the globe. Both in the global and national discourse, schools are made responsible not only for providing education but also for working with pupil health and well-being. In Sweden, where the study is set, it is emphasized in national directives that promoting pupil health should be part of the school practice. Since the Swedish school system is decentralized, these directives need to be interpreted and recontextualized locally. This study aims to explore how the student comes across in Swedish local health policy documents. The data consists of 37 such documents called student health plans collected from different high schools throughout Sweden. The analysis was inspired by critical discourse analysis, and tentative results are divided into two main themes; the invisible actor and the passive recipient. The pupil is largely invisible in the documents, and the discourse instead focuses on school health service staff and, to some extent, the teachers. When the pupils are visible, they mainly come across as passive recipients of health promoting actions. Since participation, taking action, and feeling empowered are key aspects of health promotion, the findings could impact the pupils’ possibilities for health and well-being.

Keywords: health promotion, high school, student, sweden

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Authors: Hasan Alp Sahin, Ergin Ozturk

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The effects of raw bee propolis (RP) and water (WEP) or ethanol (EEP) extract of propolis on growth performance, selected immune parameters (IgA, IgY and IgM) and some blood parameters such as aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, trygliceride, total protein, albumin, calcium, phosphorus, total antioxidant status and total oxidant status were determined. The study was conducted between 15th and 20th weeks (6 weeks) and used a total of 48 broiler breeder pullets (Ross-308). The broiler breeder in control group was fed diet without propolis whereas the birds in RP, WEP and EEP groups were fed diets with RP, WEP and EEP at the level of 1200, 400 and 400 ppm, respectively. All pullets were fed mash form diet with 15% crude protein and 2800 ME kcal/kg. All propolis forms had not a beneficial effect on any studied parameters compared to control group (P > 0.05). The results of the study indicated that both the level of the active matters supplied from the bee propolis has no enough beneficial effect on performance, some immune and blood parameters on broiler breeders or they did not have such a level that would cause a beneficial effect on these variables.

Keywords: antioxidant, bee product , poultry breeders, growth performance, immune parameters, blood chemistry

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Authors: Simon B. N. Thompson

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Cortisol is essential to the regulation of the immune system and yawning is a pathological symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). Electromyography activity (EMG) in the jaw muscles typically rises when the muscles are moved and with yawning is highly correlated with cortisol levels in healthy people. Saliva samples from 59 participants were collected at the start and after yawning, or at the end of the presentation of yawning-provoking stimuli, in the absence of a yawn, together with EMG data and questionnaire data: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Yawning Susceptibility Scale, General Health Questionnaire, demographic, health details. Exclusion criteria: chronic fatigue, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart condition, high blood pressure, hormone replacement therapy, multiple sclerosis, stroke. Significant differences were found between the saliva cortisol samples for the yawners, t (23) = -4.263, p = 0.000, as compared with the non-yawners between rest and post-stimuli, which was non-significant. Significant evidence was found to support the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis suggesting that rises in cortisol levels are associated with yawning. Further research is exploring the use of cortisol as an early diagnostic tool for MS. Ethics approval granted and professional code of conduct, confidentiality, and safety issues are approved therein.

Keywords: cortisol, multiple sclerosis, yawning, thompson cortisol hypothesis

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Authors: Muhammad Atif Randhawa, Adnan Amjad

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Assessment of insecticides used for growing vegetables in comparison with their safety status was the main purpose of this study. A total of 180 samples of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) and brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) comprising 30 samples of each vegetable were collected from the peri-urban farming system of Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala. The mean value for imidacloprid residues found in brinjal (0.226 mg kg-1) and okra (0.176 mg kg-1) from Multan region were greater than the residues reported from Gujranwala and Faisalabad, showing excessive application of imidacloprid in Multan. Out of total 180 samples analysed for imidacloprid and acetamaprid residues, (90 samples for each of okra and brinjal), 104 (58%) and 117 (65%) samples contained detectable imidacloprid and acetamiprid residues, respectively. Whereas 10% and 15% samples exceeded their respective MRLs for imidacloprid and acetamiprid residues. Dietary intake assessment for imidacloprid and acetamiprid was calculated according to their MPI values 3.84 and 4.48 mg person-1day-1, respectively. The dietary intake assessment data revealed that although a reasonable proportion of samples exceeded the MRLs in studied areas but their consumption was found within safe limit in comparison to values obtained for MPI.

Keywords: Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), insecticides, Maximum Residual Limits (MRLs), risk assessment, vegetables

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Authors: Ravi Chaithanya Mysa, Abouzar Kaboudian, Boo Cheong Khoo, Rajeev Kumar Jaiman

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Cross-flow vortex-induced vibrations of a circular cylinder are compared with the wake-induced oscillations of the downstream cylinder of a tandem cylinder arrangement. It is known that the synchronization of the frequency of vortex shedding with the natural frequency of the structure leads to large amplitude motions. In the case of tandem cylinders, the large amplitudes of the downstream cylinder found are compared to single cylinder setup. In this work, in the tandem arrangement, the upstream cylinder is fixed and the downstream cylinder is free to oscillate in transverse direction. We show that the wake from the upstream cylinder interacts with the downstream cylinder which influences the response of the coupled system. Extensive numerical experiments have been performed on single cylinder as well as tandem cylinder arrangements in cross-flow. Here, the wake interactions in connection to the forces generated are systematically studied. The ratio of the viscous loads to the pressure loads is found to play a major role in the displacement response of the single and tandem cylinder arrangements, as the viscous forces dissipate the energy.

Keywords: circular cylinder, vortex-shedding, VIV, wake-induced, vibrations

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Authors: Ariyaratna Athugala

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Mass media play a significant role in democratic societies. The Political Economy of the Mass Media postulates that elite media interlock with other institutional sectors in ownership, and editorial management effectively circumscribing their ability to remain analytically detached from other dominant institutional sectors. The production of meaning in news discourse is not valued neutral, but part of a larger process of presenting a hegemonic understanding of the world to audiences as the “production of consent.” The horse race model argues that “the raw material of news” pressures six bands that ultimately shape the news audiences receive. The six bands are as follows: Crown piece (raw material), brow band (professionalism), throat latch (gatekeeper), a bit (construction), nose band (perception), and reins (ownership). dThe horse race model suggests that media ultimately serve to “manufacture consent” for a range of self-serving elite opinion options. These bands determine what events are deemed newsworthy, how they are covered, where they are placed within the media and how much coverage they receive. Highly descriptive in nature, the horse race model of communication is concerned with the question of whether media can be seen to play a hegemonic role in the society oriented towards legitimization, hegemonic pressures and ideological construction.

Keywords: hegemonic pressures, horse race, ideological construction, six bands

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Authors: Nahla S. Abdel-Azim, Khaled A. Shams, Elsayed A. Omer, Mahmoud M. Sakr

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Medicinal plants play a significant role in the health care system in Egypt. Knowledge developed over the years by people is mostly unrecorded and orally passes on from one generation to the next. This knowledge is facing the danger of becoming extinct. Therefore there is an urgent need to document the medicinal and aromatic plants associated with traditional knowledge. The Egyptian Encyclopedia of wild medicinal plants (EEWMP) is the first attempt to collect most of the basic elements of the medicinal plant resources of Egypt and their traditional uses. It includes scientific data on about 500 medicinal plants in the form of monographs. Each monograph contains all available information and scientific data on the selected species including the following: names, description, distribution, parts used, habitat, conservational status, active or major chemical constituents, folk medicinal uses and heritage resources, pharmacological and biological activities, authentication, pharmaceutical products, and cultivation. The DNA bar-coding is also included (when available). A brief Arabic summary is given for every monograph. This work revealed the diversity in plant parts used in the treatment of different ailments. In addition, the traditional knowledge gathered can be considered a good starting point for effective in situ and ex-situ conservation of endangered plant species.

Keywords: encyclopedia, medicinal plant, traditional medicine, wild flora

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Authors: Theophilius Adekunle Tinuoye

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Trade unions are groups formed essentially to promote, articulate and enhance the welfare of workers. They are expected to defend the workers interests and participate actively in workplace exchanges. But for trade unions to function effectively and actualize their lofty aspirations in the context of the current dynamic and ever-changing industrial relations context, they must not only have qualified and competent leaders, but also flexible and effective structure, systems, organograms, constitution, and administrative processes in place to compliment their policies and programmes. An important aspect of industrial relations is the existence of cordial tripartite or bipartite interactions between stakeholders and other social partners that are indispensable to the creation of positive and mutually beneficial exchanges and outcomes. This paper canvassed that unions must be structurally viable and administratively cohesive in order to be effective, pragmatic, functional and remain relevant. It also argued that weak, structurally deficient and less organized unions often find it immensely difficult to actualize workers goals. Finally, it outlined basic principles that will enhance union administration, guarantee that unions will continue to satisfy the yearnings of its members in these trying times and finally foster peaceful industrial relations climate and cordial labor relations between trade unions, employers /management and government.

Keywords: governance, labor relations, trade unions, workers

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Authors: Abdulsalami Muyideen Deji

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Nigeria as nation got independence in 1960 from British government which allowed indigenous people to form self-government and rule themselves base on the acceptable laws and orders provided by indigenes. All citizens saw it as a welcome development that gave them opportunity to develop at their own pace. Certainly, this occurred at the first instance up to the first republic of 1963. But things became worse for the country when the first military coup of January 15, 1966 sowed apple of discord between the three major tribes in Nigeria Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo as a result of miscarriage of well-conceived plan of master-minder of that coup Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. Although, the argument had emanated from different quarters that if Nigeria was given opportunity to develop at the pace it was going at that time probably the Nigeria would have been among developed nation today, but that ill-fated coup was a clog in the wheel of nation’s progress. The base of this argument is that Nigeria achievements after independence still depend on the work of leaders who secure independence and also directed the affairs of nation within that short period of time up till today. Since then Nigeria has been grasping with different system of government, yet, the nation is still far from the solution. This paper will analyze Nigeria politics from independence, offer suggestion on the way forward. The source is strictly base on secondary source from textbook, newspapers, internet and journals.

Keywords: politics, government, independence, development

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Authors: Shizra Waris, Bilal Shoaib, Munib Ahmad

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Background; The using of clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) may recover unceasing disease organization, which requires regular visits to multiple health professionals, treatment monitoring, disease control, and patient behavior modification. The objective of this survey is to determine if these CDSSs improve the processes of unceasing care including diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of diseases. Though artificial intelligence is not a new idea it has been widely documented as a new technology in computer science. Numerous areas such as education business, medical and developed have made use of artificial intelligence Methods: The survey covers articles extracted from relevant databases. It uses search terms related to information technology and viral hepatitis which are published between 2000 and 2016. Results: Overall, 80% of studies asserted the profit provided by information technology (IT); 75% of learning asserted the benefits concerned with medical domain;25% of studies do not clearly define the added benefits due IT. The CDSS current state requires many improvements to hold up the management of liver diseases such as HCV, liver fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Conclusion: We concluded that the planned model gives earlier and more correct calculation of hepatitis B and it works as promising tool for calculating of custom hepatitis B from the clinical laboratory data.

Keywords: detection, hapataties, observation, disesese

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Authors: Alime Cengiz, Talip Kahyaoglu

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Roasting process has the major importance to obtain desired aromatic taste of nuts. In this study, two kinds of roasting process were applied to hulled sesame seeds - vacuum oven and hot air roasting. Efficiency of Gene Expression Programming (GEP), a new soft computing technique of evolutionary algorithm that describes the cause and effect relationships in the data modelling system, and response surface methodology (RSM) were examined in the modelling of roasting processes over a range of temperature (120-180°C) for various times (30-60 min). Color attributes (L*, a*, b*, Browning Index (BI)), textural properties (hardness and fracturability) and moisture content were evaluated and modelled by RSM and GEP. The GEP-based formulations and RSM approach were compared with experimental results and evaluated according to correlation coefficients. The results showed that both GEP and RSM were found to be able to adequately learn the relation between roasting conditions and physical and textural parameters of roasted seeds. However, GEP had better prediction performance than the RSM with the high correlation coefficients (R2 >0.92) for the all quality parameters. This result indicates that the soft computing techniques have better capability for describing the physical changes occuring in sesame seeds during roasting process.

Keywords: genetic expression programming, response surface methodology, roasting, sesame seed

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Authors: V. Balamuralidhara

Abstract:

The aim of the present work was to develop Paclitaxel loaded polyacrylamide grafted guar gum nanoparticles as pH responsive nanoparticle systems for targeting colon. The pH sensitive nanoparticles were prepared by modified ionotropic gelation technique. The prepared nanoparticles showed mean diameters in the range of 264±0.676 nm to 726±0.671nm, and a negative net charge 10.8 mV to 35.4mV. Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) studies suggested that there was no chemical interaction between drug and polymers. The encapsulation efficiency of the drug was found to be 40.92% to 48.14%. The suitability of the polyacrylamide grafted guar gum ERN’s for the release of Paclitaxel was studied by in vitro release at pH 1.2 and 7.4. It was observed that, there was no significant amount of drug release at gastric pH and 97.63% of drug release at pH 7.4 was obtained for optimized formulation F3 at the end of 12 hrs. In vivo drug targeting performance for the prepared optimized formulation (F3) and pure drug Paclitaxel was evaluated by HPLC. It was observed that the polyacrylamide grafted guar gum can be used to prepare nanoparticles for targeting the drug to the colon. The release performance was greatly affected by the materials used in ERN’s preparation, which allows maximum release at colon’s pH. It may be concluded that polyacrylamide grafted guar gum nanoparticles loaded with paclitaxel have desirable release responsive to specific pH. Hence it is a unique approach for colonic delivery of drug having appropriate site specificity and feasibility and controlled release of drug.

Keywords: colon targeting, polyacrylamide grafted guar gum nanoparticles, paclitaxel, nanoparticles

Procedia PDF Downloads 341

Authors: Y. N. Fung, R. Liu, T. M. Choi

Abstract:

Over the past decades, previous studies have explored different consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable fashion and how these attitudes affect consumer behaviors. Researchers have attempted to provide solutions for product suppliers (e.g., retailers, designers, developers, and manufacturers) through studying consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable fashion. However, based on the studies of consumer attitudes, investigations on the sales and market share of sustainable sportswear products remain under-explored. Gaps may exist between the consumers’ expectations and the developed sustainable sportswear products. In this study, a novel study has been carried out to examine the attitude gaps existing between the sustainable sportswear suppliers’ (SSSs) and the sustainable sportswear consumers (SSCs). This study firstly identifies the key attitudes towards sustainable sportswear product development. It analyses how sustainable attitudes affect the products being developed, as well as the effects of the attitude’s difference between the SSSs and the SSCs on the consumers’ satisfaction towards sportswear product consumption. A gap analysis research framework is adopted with the use of collected questionnaire survey data. The results indicate that a significant difference exists between SSSs and SSCs’ attitudes towards sustainable design, manufacture, product features, and branding. Based on in-depth interviews, the major causes of the difference in attitudes are studied to provide managerial insights for sustainable sportswear product management and business development.

Keywords: sustainability, sportswear, attitude, gap analysis, suppliers, consumers

Procedia PDF Downloads 98

Authors: Ekrem Canli, Thomas Glade

Abstract:

The precise prediction of rainfall in space and time is a key element to most landslide early warning systems. Unfortunately, the spatial variability of rainfall in many early warning applications is often disregarded. A common simplification is to use uniformly distributed rainfall to characterize aerial rainfall intensity. With spatially differentiated rainfall information, real-time comparison with rainfall thresholds or the implementation in process-based approaches might form the basis for improved landslide warnings. This study suggests an automated workflow from the hourly, web-based collection of rain gauge data to the generation of spatially differentiated rainfall predictions based on kriging. Because the application of kriging is usually a labor intensive task, a simplified and consequently automated variogram modeling procedure was applied to up-to-date rainfall data. The entire workflow was carried out purely with open source technology. Validation results, albeit promising, pointed out the challenges that are involved in pure distance based, automated geostatistical interpolation techniques for ever-changing environmental phenomena over short temporal and spatial extent.

Keywords: kriging, landslide early warning system, spatial rainfall prediction, variogram modelling, web scraping

Procedia PDF Downloads 268

Authors: Jarosław Milewski, Rafał Bernat

Abstract:

This paper presents an analysis of using cryogenic separation unit for recovering fuel from anode off gas of molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) in order to upgrade the efficiently of the unit. In the proposed solution, the CSU is used for condensing water and carbon dioxide from anode off gas, and re-cycling the rest of the stream to the anode, saving certain amount of fuel (at least 30%). The resulting system efficiency is increased considerably. CSU, virtually consumes power, thus this solution has energy penalty as well, on the other hand, MCFC generates large amount of heat at elevated temperature, thus part of the CSU can be based on absorption chiller. In all cases, a high amount of fuel is obtained after condensation of water and carbon dioxide and re-cycled to the anode inlet. Based on mathematical modeling done previously, the concept and guidelines for forthcoming experimental investigations are presented in this paper. During planned experiments, an existing single cell laboratory stand will be equipped with re-cycle device (a fan, a peristaltic pump, etc.). Parallel, a mixture of anode off gas will be cooled down for determining the proper temperature for the separation of water and carbon dioxide.

Keywords: cryogenic separation, experiments, fuel cells, molten carbonate fuel cells

Procedia PDF Downloads 230