Search results for: data structure

Authors: Raja Omman Zafar, Yves Rybarczyk, Johan Borg

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This article proposes a conceptual framework for the application of digital twin technology in home care. The main goal is to bridge the gap between advanced digital twin concepts and their practical implementation in home care. This study uses a literature review and thematic analysis approach to synthesize existing knowledge and proposes a structured framework suitable for homecare applications. The proposed framework integrates key components such as IoT sensors, data-driven models, cloud computing, and user interface design, highlighting the importance of personalized and predictive homecare solutions. This framework can significantly improve the efficiency, accuracy, and reliability of homecare services. It paves the way for the implementation of digital twins in home care, promoting real-time monitoring, early intervention, and better outcomes.

Keywords: digital twin, homecare, older adults, healthcare, IoT, artificial intelligence

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Authors: A. Elbyed

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Nowadays, ontologies are used for achieving a common understanding within a user community and for sharing domain knowledge. However, the de-centralized nature of the web makes indeed inevitable that small communities will use their own ontologies to describe their data and to index their own resources. Certainly, accessing to resources from various ontologies created independently is an important challenge for answering end user queries. Ontology mapping is thus required for combining ontologies. However, mapping complete ontologies at run time is a computationally expensive task. This paper proposes a system in which mappings between concepts may be generated dynamically as the concepts are encountered during user queries. In this way, the interaction itself defines the context in which small and relevant portions of ontologies are mapped. We illustrate application of the proposed system in the context of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) where learners need to access to learning resources covering specific concepts.

Keywords: resources query, ontologies, ontology mapping, similarity measures, semantic web, e-learning

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Authors: M. Mydlárová Blaščáková, J. Bernasovská, J. Poráčová, I. Boroňová

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Obesity is frequent attendant phenomenon of patients with endocrinological disease. Between BMI and endocrinological diseases is close correlation. In thesis we focused on the allocation of hormone concentration – PTH and TSH, CHOL a mineral element Ca in a blood serum. The examined group was formed by 100 respondents (women) aged 36 – 83 years, who were divided into two groups – control group (CG), group with diagnosed endocrine disease (DED). The concentration of PTH and TSH, Ca and CHOL was measured through the medium of analyzers Cobas e411 (Japan); Cobas Integra 400 (Switzerland). At individuals was measured body weight as well as stature and thereupon from those data we enumerated BMI. On the basis of Student T-test in biochemical parameter of PTH and Ca we found out significantly meaningful difference (p<0,05) between CG and DED. In CG we made a founding the association between BMI and PTH by means of correlation analysis.

Keywords: biochemical markers, hormones, obesity, women

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Authors: Ana Paula Soares, Alexandrina Lages, Helena Oliveira, Francisco-Javier Gutiérrez-Domínguez, Marisa Lousada

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From an early age, exposure to a spoken language allows us to implicitly capture the structure underlying the succession of the speech sounds in that language and to segment it into meaningful units (words). Statistical learning (SL), i.e., the ability to pick up patterns in the sensory environment even without intention or consciousness of doing it, is thus assumed to play a central role in the acquisition of the rule-governed aspects of language and possibly to lie behind the language difficulties exhibited by children with development language disorder (DLD). The research conducted so far has, however, led to inconsistent results, which might stem from the behavioral tasks used to test SL. In a classic SL experiment, participants are first exposed to a continuous stream (e.g., syllables) in which, unbeknownst to the participants, stimuli are grouped into triplets that always appear together in the stream (e.g., ‘tokibu’, ‘tipolu’), with no pauses between each other (e.g., ‘tokibutipolugopilatokibu’) and without any information regarding the task or the stimuli. Following exposure, SL is assessed by asking participants to discriminate between triplets previously presented (‘tokibu’) from new sequences never presented together during exposure (‘kipopi’), i.e., to perform a two-alternative-forced-choice (2-AFC) task. Despite the widespread use of the 2-AFC to test SL, it has come under increasing criticism as it is an offline post-learning task that only assesses the result of the learning that had occurred during the previous exposure phase and that might be affected by other factors beyond the computation of regularities embedded in the input, typically the likelihood two syllables occurring together, a statistic known as transitional probability (TP). One solution to overcome these limitations is to assess SL as exposure to the stream unfolds using online techniques such as event-related potentials (ERP) that is highly sensitive to the time-course of the learning in the brain. Here we collected ERPs to examine the neurofunctional correlates of SL in preschool children with DLD, and chronological-age typical language development (TLD) controls who were exposed to an auditory stream in which eight three-syllable nonsense words, four of which presenting high-TPs and the other four low-TPs, to further analyze whether the ability of DLD and TLD children to extract-word-like units from the steam was modulated by words’ predictability. Moreover, to ascertain if the previous knowledge of the to-be-learned-regularities affected the neural responses to high- and low-TP words, children performed the auditory SL task, firstly, under implicit, and, subsequently, under explicit conditions. Although behavioral evidence of SL was not obtained in either group, the neural responses elicited during the exposure phases of the SL tasks differentiated children with DLD from children with TLD. Specifically, the results indicated that only children from the TDL group showed neural evidence of SL, particularly in the SL task performed under explicit conditions, firstly, for the low-TP, and, subsequently, for the high-TP ‘words’. Taken together, these findings support the view that children with DLD showed deficits in the extraction of the regularities embedded in the auditory input which might underlie the language difficulties.

Keywords: development language disorder, statistical learning, transitional probabilities, word segmentation

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Authors: Raghav Lakhotia, Sameer Ganu, Anshul Goel, Abhishek Kumar

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In the age and times where women’s empowerment is a significant topic of discussion, we aim to analyze the potential gender diversity influence on box office revenues. The following research is carried out by collecting data from 400 Hollywood movies between the years 2014-2017 and performing regression analysis to find a correlation between the presence of female characters in movies and their return on investment (ROI). The paper finds that there is a positive relationship between the performance of the movies (its ROI) and the gender diversity i.e. the more the number of female characters, the higher the revenue generated. Another factor such as Number of Votes also has a direct impact on the revenue of the movie. The research not only takes into consideration the mere presence of women on screen but also the exchange of at least one dialogue among themselves, which is presented by the Bechdel Score of the movie.

Keywords: Bechdel, diversity, Hollywood, return on investment

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Authors: B. Gangloff, N. Malleh

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Well-being at work has many positive aspects. Our general hypothesis is that employees who feel well-being at work will be positively valued by their superiors, and that this positive value, which evokes the concept of social norms, allows us to assign to well-being at work a normative status. Three populations (line managers, students destined to become human resource managers, and employees) responded to a well-being questionnaire. Managers had to indicate, for each item, if they appreciated (or not) an employee feeling the well-being presented in the item; students had to indicate which items an employee should check if s/he wants to be positively (versus negatively) appreciated by his/her superior; and employees had to indicate to what degree each item corresponded to the well-being they used to feel. Three hypotheses are developed and confirmed: Managers positively value employees feeling some sense of well-being; students are aware of this positivity; spontaneously employees show a state of well-being, which means, knowing that spontaneous self-presentation is often produced by social desirability, that employees are aware of the well-being positivity. These data are discussed under a conceptual and applied angle.

Keywords: normativity, well-being at work, organization, evaluation

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Authors: Oliver Takawira, Thembi Hope

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This study will analyse the relationship between Bitcoin price movements and the Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE). The aim is to determine whether Bitcoin price movements affect the stock market performance. As crypto currencies continue to gain prominence as a safe asset during periods of economic distress, this raises the question of whether Bitcoin’s prosperity could affect investment in the stock market. To identify the existence of a short run and long run linear relationship, the study will apply the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) bounds test and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) after testing the data for unit roots and cointegration using the Augmented Dicker Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP). The Non-Linear Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) will then be used to check if there is a non-linear relationship between bitcoin prices and stock market prices.

Keywords: bitcoin, stock market, interest rates, ARDL

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Authors: Marina Yurievna Aleksandrova

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Research of the Holocaust retains value not only for history but also for sociology and psychology. One of the most important fields of study is how people were coping during and after this traumatic event. The aim of this paper is to identify the main contexts of the topic of love and to determine which contexts are more characteristic for different groups of victims of the Holocaust (gender, nationality, age). In this research, transcripts of interviews with Holocaust victims that were collected during 1946 for the "Voices of the Holocaust" project were used as data. Main contexts were analyzed with methods of network analysis and latent semantic analysis and classified by gender, age, and nationality with random forest. The results show that love is articulated and described significantly differently for male and female informants, nationality is shown results with lower values of quality metrics, as well as the age.

Keywords: Holocaust, latent semantic analysis, network analysis, text-mining, random forest

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Authors: Pawan Hinge, Priya Gupta

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Due to cutting edge competitions between organizations and war for talent, the workforce as an asset is gaining significance. The employees are considered as the brand ambassadors of an organization, and their interactions with the clients and customers might impact directly or indirectly on the overall value of the organization. Especially, organizations in the healthcare industry the value of an organization in the perception of their employees can be one of the revenue generating and talent retention strategy. In such context, it is essential to understand that the brand awareness among employees can effect on employer brand image and brand value since the brand ambassadors are the interface between organization and customers and clients. In this exploratory study, we have adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches for data analysis. Our study shows existing variation among nurses working in different business units of the same organization in terms of their customer interface or interactions and brand awareness.

Keywords: brand awareness, brand image, brand value, customer interface

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Authors: Nkechi V. Osuji

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The use of blockchain to address the issue of climate change is increasingly a discourse among countries, industries, and stakeholders. For a long time, the European Union (EU) has been combating the issue of climate action in industries through sustainability programs. One of such programs is the EU monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) program of the EU ETS. However, the system has some key challenges and areas for improvement, which makes it inefficient. The main objective of the research is to look at how blockchain can be used to improve the inefficiency of the EU ETS program for the Danish energy industry with a focus on its monitoring and reporting framework. Applying empirical data from 13 semi-structured expert interviews, three case studies, and literature reviews, three outcomes are presented in the study. The first is on the current conditions and challenges of monitoring and reporting CO₂ emission trading. The second is putting into consideration if blockchain is the right fit to solve these challenges and how. The third stage looks at the factors that might affect the implementation of such a system and provides recommendations to mitigate these challenges. The first stage of the findings reveals that the monitoring and reporting of CO₂ emissions is a mandatory requirement by law for all energy operators under the EU ETS program. However, most energy operators are non-compliant with the program in reality, which creates a gap and causes challenges in the monitoring and reporting of CO₂ emission trading. Other challenges the study found out are the lack of transparency, lack of standardization in CO₂ accounting, and the issue of double-counting in the current system. The second stage of the research was guided by three case studies and requirement engineering (RE) to explore these identified challenges and if blockchain is the right fit to address them. This stage of the research addressed the main research question: how can blockchain be used for monitoring and reporting CO₂ emission trading in the energy industry. Through analysis of the study data, the researcher developed a conceptual private permissioned Hyperledger blockchain and elucidated on how it can address the identified challenges. Particularly, the smart contract of blockchain was highlighted as a key feature. This is because of its ability to automate, be immutable, and digitally enforce negotiations without a middleman. These characteristics are unique in solving the issue of compliance, transparency, standardization, and double counting identified. The third stage of the research presents technological constraints and a high level of stakeholder collaboration as major factors that might affect the implementation of the proposed system. The proposed conceptual model requires high-level integration with other technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning. Therefore, the study encourages future research in these areas. This is because blockchain is continually evolving its technology capabilities. As such, it remains a topic of interest in research and development for addressing climate change. Such a study is a good contribution to creating sustainable practices to solve the global climate issue.

Keywords: blockchain, carbon emission trading, European Union emission trading system, monitoring and reporting

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Authors: Heiko Jessen, Laura Tanus, Slobodan Ruzicic

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Objectives: The efficacy of Stribild®, an integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) -based STR, has been evaluated in randomized clinical trials and it has demonstrated durable capability in terms of achieving sustained suppression of HIV-1 RNA-levels. However, differences in monitoring frequency, existing selection bias and profile of patients enrolled in the trials, may all result in divergent efficacy of this regimen in routine clinical settings. The aim of this study was to assess the virologic outcomes, safety and tolerability profile of Stribild® in a routine clinical setting. Methods: This was a retrospective monocentric analysis on HIV-1-infected patients, who started with or were switched to Stribild®. Virological failure (VF) was defined as confirmed HIV-RNA>50 copies/ml. The minimum time of follow-up was 24 weeks. The percentage of patients remaining free of therapeutic failure was estimated using the time-to-loss-of-virologic-response (TLOVR) algorithm, by intent-to-treat analysis. Results: We analyzed the data of 197 patients (56 ART-naïve and 141 treatment-experienced patients), who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Majority (95.9%) of patients were male. The median time of HIV-infection at baseline was 2 months in treatment-naïve and 70 months in treatment-experienced patients. Median time [IQR] under ART in treatment-experienced patients was 37 months. Among the treatment-experienced patients 27.0% had already been treated with a regimen consisting of two NRTIs and one INSTI, whereas 18.4% of them experienced a VF. The median time [IQR] of virological suppression prior to therapy with Stribild® in the treatment-experienced patients was 10 months [0-27]. At the end of follow-up (median 33 months), 87.3% (95% CI, 83.5-91.2) of treatment-naïve and 80.3% (95% CI, 75.8-84.8) of treatment-experienced patients remained free of therapeutic failure. Considering only treatment-experienced patients with baseline VL<50 copies/ml, 83.0% (95% CI, 78.5-87.5) remained free of therapeutic failure. A total of 17 patients stopped treatment with Stribild®, 5.4% (3/56) of them were treatment-naïve and 9.9% (14/141) were treatment-experienced patients. The Stribild® therapy was discontinued in 2 (1.0%) because of VF, loss to follow-up in 4 (2.0%), and drug-drug interactions in 2 (1.0%) patients. Adverse events were in 7 (3.6%) patients the reason to switch from therapy with Stribild® and further 2 (1.0%) patients decided personally to switch. The most frequently observed adverse events were gastrointestinal side effects (20.0%), headache (8%), rash events (7%) and dizziness (6%). In two patients we observed an emergence of novel resistances in integrase-gene. The N155H evolved in one patient and resulted in VF. In another patient S119R evolved either during or shortly upon switch from therapy with Stribild®. In one further patient with VF two novel mutations in the RT-gene were observed when compared to historical genotypic test result (V106I/M and M184V), whereby it is not clear whether they evolved during or already before the switch to Stribild®. Conclusions: Effectiveness of Stribild® for treatment-naïve patients was consistent with data obtained in clinical trials. The safety and tolerability profile as well as resistance development confirmed clinical efficacy of Stribild® in a daily practice setting.

Keywords: ART, HIV, integrase inhibitor, stribild

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Authors: Najaf Hamadzadeh Arbabi

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Crime scene management is the first and most critical step in criminal investigations and all the criminal investigations are based on the ability of the crime scene investigation officers for diagnosing the importance and the role of physical evidence at the crime scene. According to the role of available physical evidence at the scene to prove the crime and identify the perpetrator and prove the innocence of those accused have been unduly and also impossible due to the rejection of these reasons, the maintenance and investigation of crime scene and collect evidence are very important in the crime scene. This research, by identifying the factors affecting the management of the crime scene, looking for presenting the effective and efficient indigenous pattern for managing of the crime scene in Iran. Method: This study is an applied and development research. Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Friedman test for ranking, were used for analyzing the data and all hypotheses were tested at 95% confidence level. The target population is 50 judges and experts in Tehran.

Keywords: crime scene, identification, designation, individualization, reconstruction

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Authors: Beste Kaysı, Yasemin Topaloğlu

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Usability is one of the most important quality attributes for web-based information systems. Specifically, for e-commerce applications, usability becomes more prominent. In this study, we aimed to explore the features that experienced users seek in e-commerce applications. We used eye tracking method in evaluations. Eye movement data are obtained from the eye-tracking method and analyzed based on task completion time, number of fixations, as well as heat map and gaze plot measures. The results of the analysis show that the eye movements of participants' are too static in certain areas and their areas of interest are scattered in many different places. It has been determined that this causes users to fail to complete their transactions. According to the findings, we outlined the issues to improve the usability of e-commerce websites. Then we propose solutions to identify the issues. In this way, it is expected that e-commerce sites will be developed which will make experienced users more satisfied.

Keywords: e-commerce websites, eye tracking method, usability, website evaluations

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Authors: Julius Agaka Yusufu

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This study undertakes the development of an optimal PV-diesel hybrid power system tailored to the specific energy landscape of Vimtim Mubi, Nigeria, utilizing real-world wind speed, solar radiation, and diesel cost data. Employing HOMER simulation, the research meticulously assesses the technical and financial viability of this hybrid configuration. Additionally, a rigorous performance comparison is conducted between the PV-diesel system and the conventional grid-connected alternative, offering crucial insights into the potential advantages and economic feasibility of adopting hybrid renewable energy solutions in regions grappling with energy access and reliability challenges, with implications for sustainable electrification efforts in similar communities worldwide.

Keywords: Vimtim-Nigeria, homer, renewable energy, PV-diesel hybrid system.

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Authors: Laura Kahn, Paul Rodrigues, Onur Savas, Shannon Hahn

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An empirical understanding of an individual's personality expression can have a profound impact on organizations seeking to strengthen team performance and improve employee retention. A team's personality composition can impact overall performance. Creating a tiered information framework that leverages proxies for a user's social context and lexical and linguistic content provides insight into location-specific personality expression. We leverage the layered framework to examine domain-specific, psychological, and lexical cues within social media posts. We apply DistilBERT natural language transfer learning models with real world data to examine the relationship between Big Five personality expressions of people in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields.

Keywords: big five, personality expression, social media analysis, workforce development

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Authors: Charles Masulani Mwale

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Background: It is argued that 85% of children with the disability live in resource-poor countries where there are few available disability services. A majority of these children, including their parents, suffer a lot as a result of the disability and its associated stigmatization, leading to a marginalized life. These parents also experience more stress and mental health problems such as depression, compared with families of normal developing children. There is little research from Africa addressing these issues especially among parents of intellectually disabled children. WHO encourages research on the impact that child with a disability have on their family and appropriate training and support to the families so that they can promote the child’s development and well-being. This study investigated the parenting experiences, mechanisms of coping with these challenges and psychosocial needs while caring for children with intellectual disabilities in both rural and urban settings of Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Methods: This is part of a larger Mixed-methods study aimed at developing a contextualized psychosocial intervention for parents of intellectually disabled children. 16 focus group discussions and four in-depth interviews were conducted with parents in catchments areas for St John of God and Children of Blessings in Mzuzu and Lilongwe cities respectively. Ethical clearance was obtained from COMREC. Data were stored in NVivo software for easy retrieval and management. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and translated into English. Note-taking was performed during all the observations. Data triangulation from the interviews, note taking and the observations were done for validation and reliability. Results: Caring for intellectually disabled children comes with a number of challenges. Parents experience stigma and discrimination; fear for the child’s future; have self-blame and guilt; get coerced by neighbors to kill the disabled child; and fear violence by and to the child. Their needs include respite relief, improved access to disability services, education on disability management and financial support. For their emotional stability, parents cope by sharing with others and turning to God while other use poor coping mechanisms like alcohol use. Discussion and Recommendation: Apart from neighbors’ coercion to eliminate the child life, the findings of this study are similar to those done in other countries like Kenya and Pakistan. It is recommended that parents get educated on disability, its causes, and management to array fears of unknown. Community education is also crucial to promote community inclusiveness and correct prevailing myths associated with disability. Disability institutions ought to intensify individual as well as group counseling services to these parents. Further studies need to be done to design culturally appropriate and specific psychosocial interventions for the parents to promote their psychological resilience.

Keywords: psychological distress, intellectual disability, psychosocial interventions, mental health, psychological resilience, children

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Authors: Bahloul Amel

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This study is an attempt to raise the awareness of the stakeholders and the authorities on the sensitivity of Algerian secondary school teachers of English as a Foreign Language about the students’ loss of English language skills learned during formal schooling with effort and at expense and the supposed measures to arrest that loss. Data was collected from secondary school teachers of EFL and analyzed quantitatively using a questionnaire containing open-ended and close-ended questions. The results advocate a consensus about the need for actions to be adopted to make assessment techniques outcome-oriented. Most of the participants were in favor of including curricular activities involving contextualized learning, problem-solving learning critical self-awareness, self and peer-assisted learning, use of computers and internet so as to make learners autonomous.

Keywords: lifelong learning, EFL, contextualized learning, Algeria

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Authors: F. O’Dowd, G. Murphy, M. Roche, E. Shudell, F. Keane, M. O’Kane

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Intoduction: Apremilast (Otezla®) is an oral phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor indicated for treatment of adult patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who have contraindications to have failed or intolerant of standard systemic therapy and/or phototherapy; and adult patients with active psoriatic arthritis. Apremilast influences intracellular regulation of inflammatory mediators. Two randomized, placebo-controlled trials evaluating apremilast in 1426 patients with moderate to severe plague psoriasis (ESTEEM 1 and 2) demonstrated that the commonest adverse reactions (AE’s) leading to discontinuation were nausea (1.6%), diarrhoea (1.0%), and headaches (0.8%). The overall proportion of subjects discontinuing due to adverse reactions was 6.1%. At week 16 these trials demonstrated significant more apremilast-treated patients (33.1%) achieved the primary end point PASI-75 than placebo (5.3%). We began prescribing apremilast in July 2015. Aim: To evaluate efficacy and tolerability of apremilast in an Irish teaching hospital psoriasis population. Methods: A proforma documenting clinical evaluation parameters, prior treatment experience and AE’s; was completed prospectively on all patients commenced on apremilast since July 2015 – July 2017. Data was collected at week 0,6,12,24,36 and week 52 with 20/71 patients having passed week 52. Efficacy was assessed using Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). AE’s documented included GI effects, infections, changes in weight and mood. Retrospective chart review and telephone review was utilised for missing data. Results: A total of 71 adult subjects (38 male, 33 female; age range 23-57), with moderate to severe psoriasis, were evaluated. Prior treatment: 37/71 (52%) were systemic/biologic/phototherapy naïve; 14/71 (20%) has prior phototherapy alone;20/71 (28%) had previous systemic/biologic exposure; 12/71 (17%) had both psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. PASI responses: mean baseline PASI was 10.1 and DLQI was 15.Week 6: N=71, n=15 (21%) achieved PASI 75. Week 12: N= 48, n=6 (13%) achieved a PASI 100%; n=16 (34.5%) achieved a PASI 75. Week 24: N=40, n=10 (25%) achieved a PASI 100; n=15 (37.5%) achieved a PASI 75. Week 52: N= 20, n=4 (20%) achieved a PASI 100; n= 16 (80%) achieved a PASI 75. (N= number of pts having passed the time point indicated, n= number of pts (out of N) achieving PASI or DLQI responses at that time). DLQI responses: week 24: N= 40, n=30 (75%) achieved a DLQI score of 0; n=5 (12.5%) achieved a DLQI score of 1; n=1 (2.5%) achieved a DLQI score of 10 (due to lack of efficacy). Adverse Events: The proportion of patients that discontinued treatment due to AE’s was n=7 (9.8%). One patient experienced nausea alleviated by dose reduction; another developed significant dysgeusia for certain foods, both continued therapy. Two patients lost 2-3 kg. Conclusion: Initial Irish patient experience of Apremilast appears comparable to that observed in trials with good efficacy and tolerability.

Keywords: Apremilast, introduction, Ireland, clinical audit

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Authors: Temitope Faloye

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The absence of equity and transparency in Nigeria's economic system has resulted in unemployment. Women’s unemployment rate remains higher because women's range of jobs is often narrower due to discriminatory attitudes of employers and gender segregation in the labor market. Gender inequality is one of the strong factors of unemployment, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, where the female gender is marginalized in the labor force market. However, gender equality in terms of labor market access and employment condition has not yet been attained. Feminist theory is considered as an appropriate theory for this study. The study will use a mixed-method design, collecting qualitative and quantitative data to provide answers to the research questions. Therefore, the research study aims to investigate the present situation of gender inequality in the Nigerian labor market.

Keywords: unemployment, gender inequality, gender equality, labor market, female graduate

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Authors: Wahiba Mohguen, Raïs El’hadi Bekka

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This paper presents a denoising method called EMD-Custom that was based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and the modified Customized Thresholding Function (Custom) algorithms. EMD was applied to decompose adaptively a noisy signal into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Then, all the noisy IMFs got threshold by applying the presented thresholding function to suppress noise and to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The method was tested on simulated data and real ECG signal, and the results were compared to the EMD-Based signal denoising methods using the soft and hard thresholding. The results showed the superior performance of the proposed EMD-Custom denoising over the traditional approach. The performances were evaluated in terms of SNR in dB, and Mean Square Error (MSE).

Keywords: customized thresholding, ECG signal, EMD, hard thresholding, soft-thresholding

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Authors: Ines Oliveira, Ana Reis

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Magnetic Pulse Welding (MPW) is a cold solid-state welding process, accomplished by the electromagnetically driven, high-speed and low-angle impact between two metallic surfaces. It has the same working principle of Explosive Welding (EXW), i.e. is based on the collision of two parts at high impact speed, in this case, propelled by electromagnetic force. Under proper conditions, i.e., flyer velocity and collision point angle, a permanent metallurgical bond can be achieved between widely dissimilar metals. MPW has been considered a promising alternative to the conventional welding processes and advantageous when compared to other impact processes. Nevertheless, MPW current applications are mostly academic. Despite the existing knowledge, the lack of consensus regarding several aspects of the process calls for further investigation. As a result, the mechanical resistance, morphology and structure of the weld interface in MPW of Al/Cu dissimilar pair were investigated. The effect of process parameters, namely gap, standoff distance and energy, were studied. It was shown that welding only takes place if the process parameters are within an optimal range. Additionally, the formation of intermetallic phases cannot be completely avoided in the weld of Al/Cu dissimilar pair by MPW. Depending on the process parameters, the intermetallic compounds can appear as continuous layer or small pockets. The thickness and the composition of the intermetallic layer depend on the processing parameters. Different intermetallic phases can be identified, meaning that different temperature-time regimes can occur during the process. It is also found that lower pulse energies are preferred. The relationship between energy increase and melting is possibly related to multiple sources of heating. Higher values of pulse energy are associated with higher induced currents in the part, meaning that more Joule heating will be generated. In addition, more energy means higher flyer velocity, the air existing in the gap between the parts to be welded is expelled, and this aerodynamic drag (fluid friction) is proportional to the square of the velocity, further contributing to the generation of heat. As the kinetic energy also increases with the square of velocity, the dissipation of this energy through plastic work and jet generation will also contribute to an increase in temperature. To reduce intermetallic phases, porosity, and melt pockets, pulse energy should be minimized. The bond formation is affected not only by the gap, standoff distance, and energy but also by the mandrel’s surface conditions. No correlation was clearly identified between surface roughness/scratch orientation and joint strength. Nevertheless, the aspect of the interface (thickness of the intermetallic layer, porosity, presence of macro/microcracks) is clearly affected by the surface topology. Welding was not established on oil contaminated surfaces, meaning that the jet action is not enough to completely clean the surface.

Keywords: bonding mechanisms, impact welding, intermetallic compounds, magnetic pulse welding, wave formation

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Authors: Mareye Zeleke Mekonen

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The Kafficho language has distinct issues in information retrieval because of its restricted resources and dearth of standardized methods. In this endeavor, with the cooperation and support of linguists and native speakers, we investigate the creation of information retrieval systems specifically designed for the Kafficho language. The Kafficho information retrieval system allows Kafficho speakers to access information easily in an efficient and effective way. Our objective is to conduct an information retrieval experiment using 220 Kafficho text files, including fifteen sample questions. Tokenization, normalization, stop word removal, stemming, and other data pre-processing chores, together with additional tasks like term weighting, were prerequisites for the vector space model to represent each page and a particular query. The three well-known measurement metrics we used for our word were Precision, Recall, and and F-measure, with values of 87%, 28%, and 35%, respectively. This demonstrates how well the Kaffiho information retrieval system performed well while utilizing the vector space paradigm.

Keywords: Kafficho, information retrieval, stemming, vector space

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Authors: Panagiotis Roupas, Yota Passia

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This paper aims at establishing an index of design mechanisms - immanent in spatial objects - based on the affective capacity of their material formations. While spatial objects (design objects, buildings, urban configurations, etc.) are regarded as systems composed of interacting parts, within the premises of assemblage theory, their ability to affect and to be affected has not yet been mapped or sufficiently explored. This ability lies in excess, a latent potentiality they contain, not transcendental but immanent in their pre-subjective aesthetic power. As spatial structures are theorized as assemblages - composed of heterogeneous elements that enter into relations with one another - and since all assemblages are parts of larger assemblages, their components' ability to engage is contingent. We thus seek to unfold the mechanisms inherent in spatial objects that allow to the constituent parts of design assemblages to perpetually enter into new assemblages. To map architectural assemblage's affective ability, spatial objects are analyzed in two axes. The first axis focuses on the relations that the assemblage's material and expressive components develop in order to enter the assemblages. Material components refer to those material elements that an assemblage requires in order to exist, while expressive components includes non-linguistic (sense impressions) as well as linguistic (beliefs). The second axis records the processes known as a-signifying signs or a-signs, which are the triggering mechanisms able to territorialize or deterritorialize, stabilize or destabilize the assemblage and thus allow it to assemble anew. As a-signs cannot be isolated from matter, we point to their resulting effects, which without entering the linguistic level they are expressed in terms of intensity fields: modulations, movements, speeds, rhythms, spasms, etc. They belong to a molecular level where they operate in the pre-subjective world of perceptions, effects, drives, and emotions. A-signs have been introduced as intensities that transform the object beyond meaning, beyond fixed or known cognitive procedures. To that end, from an archive of more than 100 spatial objects by contemporary architects and designers, we have created an effective mechanisms index is created, where each a-sign is now connected with the list of effects it triggers and which thoroughly defines it. And vice versa, the same effect can be triggered by different a-signs, allowing the design object to lie in a perpetual state of becoming. To define spatial objects, A-signs are categorized in terms of their aesthetic power to affect and to be affected on the basis of the general categories of form, structure and surface. Thus, different part's degree of contingency are evaluated and measured and finally, we introduce as material information that is immanent in the spatial object while at the same time they confer no meaning; they only convey some information without semantic content. Through this index, we are able to analyze and direct the final form of the spatial object while at the same time establishing the mechanism to measure its continuous transformation.

Keywords: affective mechanisms index, architectural assemblages, a-signifying signs, cartography, virtual

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Authors: Soni Ariawan

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The study aims to explore the cultural diversity highlighted in EFL textbook for Senior High School grade 10 in Indonesia. The visual images are selected as the data and qualitatively analysed using content analysis. The reason to choose visual images because images are not always neutral and they might impact teaching and learning process. In the current study, cultural diversity aspects are focused on religion (Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian), gender (male, female, unclear), ethnic (Melanesian, Austronesian, Foreigner) and socioeconomic (low, middle, high, undetermined) diversity as the theoretical framework. The four aspects of cultural diversity are sufficiently representative to draw a conclusion in investigating Indonesian culture representation in EFL textbook. The finding shows that cultural diversity is not proportionally reflected in the textbook, particularly in the visual images.

Keywords: EFL textbook, cultural diversity, visual images, Indonesia

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Authors: Muhammet Baldan, Emel Timuçin

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Generally, absorption and bioavailability increase if solubility increases; therefore, it is crucial to predict them in drug discovery applications. Molecular descriptors and Molecular properties are traditionally used for the prediction of water solubility. There are various key descriptors that are used for this purpose, namely Drogan Descriptors, Morgan Descriptors, Maccs keys, etc., and each has different prediction capabilities with differentiating successes between different data sets. Another source for the prediction of solubility is structural features; they are commonly used for the prediction of solubility. However, there are little to no studies that combine three or more properties or descriptors for prediction to produce a more powerful prediction model. Unlike available models, we used a combination of those features in a random forest machine learning model for improved solubility prediction to better predict and, therefore, contribute to drug discovery systems.

Keywords: solubility, random forest, molecular descriptors, maccs keys

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Authors: O. Maklouf, Ahmed Abdulla

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A general decline in the cost, size, and power requirements of electronics is accelerating the adoption of integrated GPS/INS technologies in consumer applications such Land Vehicle Navigation. Researchers are looking for ways to eliminate additional components from product designs. One possibility is to drop one or more of the relatively expensive gyroscopes from microelectromechanical system (MEMS) versions of inertial measurement units (IMUs). For land vehicular use, the most important gyroscope is the vertical gyro that senses the heading of the vehicle and two horizontal accelerometers for determining the velocity of the vehicle. This paper presents a simplified integration algorithm for strap down (ParIMU)\GPS combination, with data post processing for the determination of 2-D components of position (trajectory), velocity and heading. In the present approach we have neglected earth rotation and gravity variations, because of the poor gyroscope sensitivities of the low-cost IMU and because of the relatively small area of the trajectory.

Keywords: GPS, ParIMU, INS, Kalman filter

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Authors: Abheyjit Singh, Kulwant Singh

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There is a gradual depletion of the water table in the earth's crust, and it is required to converse and reduce the scarcity of water. This is only done by rainwater harvesting, recycling of water and by judicially consumption/utilization of water and adopting unique treatment measures. Domestic waste is generated in residential areas, commercial settings, and institutions. Waste, in general, is unwanted, undesirable, and nevertheless an inevitable and inherent product of social, economic, and cultural life. In a cluster, a need-based system is formed where the project is designed for systematic analysis, collection of sewage from the cluster, treating it and then recycling it for multifarious work. The liquid waste may consist of Sanitary sewage/ Domestic waste, Industrial waste, Storm waste, or Mixed Waste. The sewage contains both suspended and dissolved particles, and the total amount of organic material is related to the strength of the sewage. The untreated domestic sanitary sewage has a BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) of 200 mg/l. TSS (Total Suspended Solids) about 240 mg/l. Industrial Waste may have BOD and TSS values much higher than those of sanitary sewage. Another type of impurities of wastewater is plant nutrients, especially when there are compounds of nitrogen N phosphorus P in the sewage; raw sanitary contains approx. 35 mg/l Nitrogen and 10 mg/l of Phosphorus. Finally, the pathogen in the waste is expected to be proportional to the concentration of facial coliform bacteria. The coliform concentration in raw sanitary sewage is roughly 1 billion per liter. The system of sewage disposal technique has been universally applied to all conditions, which are the nature of soil formation, Availability of land, Quantity of Sewage to be disposed of, The degree of treatment and the relative cost of disposal technique. The adopted Thappar Model (India) has the following designed parameters consisting of a Screen Chamber, a Digestion Tank, a Skimming Tank, a Stabilization Tank, an Oxidation Pond and a Water Storage Pond. The screening Chamber is used to remove plastic and other solids, The Digestion Tank is designed as an anaerobic tank having a retention period of 8 hours, The Skimming Tank has an outlet that is kept 1 meter below the surface anaerobic condition at the bottom and also help in organic solid remover, Stabilization Tank is designed as primary settling tank, Oxidation Pond is a facultative pond having a depth of 1.5 meter, Storage Pond is designed as per the requirement. The cost of the Thappar model is Rs. 185 Lakh per 3,000 to 4,000 population, and the Area required is 1.5 Acre. The complete structure will linning as per the requirement. The annual maintenance will be Rs. 5 lakh per year. The project is useful for water conservation, silage water for irrigation, decrease of BOD and there will be no longer damage to community assets and economic loss to the farmer community by inundation. There will be a healthy and clean environment in the community.

Keywords: collection, treatment, utilization, economic

Procedia PDF Downloads 71

Authors: Nastaran Khoshsabk

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The evolution of communication through the Internet has influenced shaping and reshaping the self-presentation of social media users. Online communities both connect people and give voice to the voiceless allowing them to present themselves nationally and globally. People all around the world are experiencing censorship in different aspects of their life. Censorship can be externally imposed because of the political situations, or it can be self-imposed. Social media users choose the content they want to share and decide about the online audiences with whom they want to share this content. Most social media networks, such as Facebook, enable their users to be selective about the shared content and its availability to other people. However, sometimes instead of targeting a specific audience, users self-censor themselves or decide not to share various forms of information. These decisions are of particular importance in countries such as Iran where Internet is not the arena of free self-presentation and people are encouraged to stay away from political participation in the country and acting against the Islamic values. Facebook and some other social media tools are blocked in countries such as Iran. This project investigates the importance of social media in the life of Iranians to explore how they present themselves and construct their digital selves. The notion of cultural identity is applied in this research to explore the educational and informative role of social media in the identity formation and cultural representation of Facebook users. This study explores the self-censorship of Iranian adult Facebook users through their online self-representation and communication on the Internet. The data in this qualitative multiple case study have been collected through individual synchronous online interviews with the researcher’s Facebook friends and through the analysis of the participants’ Facebook profiles and activities over a period of six months. The data is analysed with an emphasis on the identity formation of participants through the recognition of the underlying themes. The exploration of online interviews is on the basis of participants’ personal accounts of self-censorship and cultural understanding through using social media. The driven codes and themes have been categorised considering censorship and place of culture on representation of self. Participants were asked to explain their views about censorship and conservatism through using social media. They reported their thoughts about deciding which content to share on Facebook and which to self-censor and their reasons behind these decisions. The codes and themes have been categorised considering censorship and its role in representation of idealised self. The ‘actual self’ showed to be hidden by an individual for different reasons such as its influence on their social status, academic achievements and job opportunities. It is hoped that this research will have implications for education contexts in countries that are experiencing social media filtering by offering an increased understanding of the importance of online communities; which can provide an educational environment to talk and learn about social taboos and constructing adults’ identity in virtual environment and through cultural self-presentation.

Keywords: cultural identity, identity formation, online communities, self-censorship

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Authors: Rika Yuliana, Budi Rahardjo

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The Role of ICT in the organization will continue to experience growth in line with business growth. However, in reality, there is a gap between ICT initiatives with the development (needs) of company business that is caused by yet inadequate of ICT strategic alignment. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim to create an enterprise architectural model rule, particularly in mining companies, using the TOGAF framework. The results from the design development phase of the mining enterprise architecture meta model represents the domain of business, applications, data, and technology. The results of the design as a whole were analyzed from four perspectives, namely the perspective of contextual, conceptual, logical and physical. In the end, the quality assessment of the mining enterprise architecture is conducted to assess the suitability of the design standards and architectural principles.

Keywords: design and development the information technology architecture, enterprise architecture, enterprise architecture design result, TOGAF architecture development method (ADM)

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Authors: S. M. Golgoun, S. M. Taheri

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Investigation of radioactive contamination of personnel working in radiation centers to identify radioactive materials and then measure the potential contamination and eliminate it has always been considered. For this purpose, various ways have been proposed so far and different devices have been designed and built. Gas sealed proportional counter has special working conditions. In this research, a gas sealed detector of proportional counter type was made and then its various parameters were investigated. Some parameters are influential on their working conditions and one of these most important parameters is the internal pressure of the proportional gas-filled detector. In this experimental research, we produced software for examination and altering high voltage, registering data, and calculating efficiency. By this, we investigated different gas pressure effects on detector efficiency and proposed optimizing working conditions of this detector. After reviewing the results, we suggested a range between 20-30 mbar pressure for this gas sealed detector.

Keywords: gas sealed, proportional detector, pressure, counter

Procedia PDF Downloads 111