Search results for: Agilent’s Advanced Design System (ADS)

Authors: Esra Öztürk, Erkul Karacaoglu

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Pyrochlores, having compounds of the general formula, A2B2O7 (A and B are metals/rare earths) are important class of materials thanks to having technological applications like in luminescence, ionic conductivity, nuclear waste immobilization etc. The rare earths included pyrochlore compounds have also potential photoluminescence characteristics. In this context, Er3+-activated Lu2Ti2O7 pyrochlore was chosen and synthesized through a high-temperature solid-state reaction route that was sintered under the open atmosphere in this study. The optimal reaction conditions to obtain expected single phase system, the thermal analysis (DTA/TG) were carried out. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) was used to determine phase properties of the sample. The photoluminescence (PL) results were done to obtain excitation, emission and decay time properties by a PL spectrometer under room temperature. According to the PL, there are excitation bands at 352 nm, 388 nm, 423 nm and 453 nm that are due to 4I15/2 → 2G7/2, 4I15/2 → 4G11/2 and 4I15/2 → 4F5/2 transitions of Er3+ ions, respectively. The emission bands are placed at 582 nm, 677 nm and 762 nm that are associated with 2H11/2, 4S3/2 → 4I15/2, 4F9/2 → 4I15/2, 4I9/2 → 4I15/2 transitions of Er3+ ions, respectively.

Keywords: Er3+, Lu2Ti2O7, photoluminescence, pyrochlore, rare-earths

Procedia PDF Downloads 257

Authors: Yijie Wang, Tianyue Wang

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In the past two decades, there has been a great ‘piano lesson frenzy’ among Chinese middle-class families, with a large number of parents adding piano training to children’s extra-curriculum lists. Superficially, the frenzy reflects a rather ‘leisurely’ attitude: parents typically claim that pianos lessons are ‘just for fun’ and will hopefully render children’s life more exciting. However, a closer scrutiny reveals that there is great social-status anxiety hidden beneath this ‘leisurely’ surface. Based on pre-interviews of six Chinese middle-class parents who have enthusiastically signed their children up for piano lessons, several tentative analysis are made: 1. Owing to a series of historical and social factors, the Chinese middle-class have yet to establish their cultural norms in the past few decades, resulting in great confusion concerning how to cultivate cultural tastes in their offspring. And partly due to the fact that the middle-class status of the past Chinese generation is mostly self-acquired rather than inherited, parents are much less confident about their cultural resources—which require long-time accumulation—than material ones. Both factors combine to lead to a sort of blind, overcompensating enthusiasm in culture-related education, and the piano frenzy is but a demonstration. 2. The piano has been chosen to be the object of the frenzy partly because of its inherent characteristics as well as socially-constructed ones. Costly, large in size, imported from another culture and so forth, the piano has acquired the meaning of being exclusive, high-end and exotic, which renders it a token of top-tier status among Chinese people, and piano lessons for offspring have therefore become parents’ paths towards a kind of ‘symbolic elevation’. A child playing piano is an exhibition as well as psychological assurance of the families’ middle-class status. 3. A closer look at children’s piano training process reveals that there is much more anxiety than leisurely elements involved. Despite parents’ claim that ‘piano is mainly for kids to have fun,’ the whole process is evidently of a rather ‘ascetic’ nature, with the demands of diligence and senses of time urgency throughout, and techniques rather than flair or styles are emphasized. This either means that the apparent ‘piano-for-fun’ stance is unauthentic and is only other motives in disguise, or that the Chinese middle-class parents are not yet capable of shaking off the sense of anxiety even if they sincerely intend to. 4. When viewed in relation to Chinese formal school system as well as the job market at large, it can be said that by signing children up for piano lessons, parents are consciously or unconsciously seeking to prepare for, or reduce the risks of, their children’s future social mobility. In face of possible failures in the highly-crucial, highly-competitive formal school system, piano-playing as an extra-curriculum activity may be conveniently transferred into an alternative career path. Besides, in contemporary China, as the occupational structure goes through change, and the school-related certificates decline in value, aspects such as a person’s overall deportment, which can be gained or proved by piano-learning, have been gaining in significance.

Keywords: extra-curriculum activities, middle class, piano lesson frenzy, status anxiety

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Authors: Juan Torralba

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Student digital artifacts were investigated, utilizing a qualitative exploratory research design to understand the ways in which students represented their knowledge of seventh-grade proportionality concepts as they participated in maker-based activities that culminated in the creation of digital 3-dimensional models of their dream homes. Representations of the geometric and numeric dimensions of proportionality were analyzed in the written, verbal, and visual data collected from the students. A directed content analysis approach was utilized in the data analysis, as this work aimed to build upon existing research in the field of maker-based STEAM Education. The results from this work show that students can represent their understanding of proportional reasoning through open-ended written responses more accurately than through verbal descriptions or digital artifacts. The geometric and numeric dimensions of proportionality and their respective components of attributes of similarity representation and percents, rates, and ratios representations were the most represented by the students than any other across the data, suggesting a maker-based instructional approach to teaching proportionality in the middle grades may be promising in helping students gain a solid foundation in those components. Recommendations for practice and research are discussed.

Keywords: learning through making, maker-based education, maker education in the middle grades, making in mathematics, the maker movement

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Authors: Ranjith Kumar Kankala, Wei-Zhi Lin, Chia-Hung Lee

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Antibiotic resistance in bacteria has become an emergency situation clinically. To improve the efficacy of antibiotics in resistant strains, advancement of nanoparticles is inevitable than ever. Herewith, we demonstrate a design by immobilizing tetracycline (TET) in copper substituted mesoporous silica nanoparticles (Cu-MSNs) through a pH-sensitive coordination link, enabling its release in the acidic environment. Subsequently, MSNs are coated with silver nanoparticles stabilized polyethyleneimine (PEI-SNP) to act against drug-resistant (MDR) bacterial strains. Silver ions released from SNP are capable of sensitizing the resistant strains and facilitate the generation of free radicals capable of damaging the cell components. In addition, copper ions in the framework are also capable of generating free radicals through Fenton-like reaction. Furthermore, the nanoparticles are well-characterized physically, and various antibacterial efficacious tests against isolated multidrug resistant bacterial strain were highly commendable. However, this formulation has no significant toxic effect on normal mammalian fibroblast cells accounting its high biocompatibility. These MSN trio-hybrids, i.e., SNP, tetracycline, and copper ions result in synergistic effects, and their advancement could bypass resistance and allow synergism for effective treatment of antibiotic clinically.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance, copper, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, Ph-sensitive release, polyethyleneimine, silver, tetracycline

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Authors: Kitty Kioskli, Nineta Polemi

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Evaluating the levels of cyber-security risks within an enterprise is most important in protecting its information system, services and all its digital assets against security incidents (e.g. accidents, malicious acts, massive cyber-attacks). The existing risk assessment methodologies (e.g. eBIOS, OCTAVE, CRAMM, NIST-800) adopt a technical approach considering as attack factors only the capability, intention and target of the attacker, and not paying attention to the attacker’s psychological profile and personality traits. In this paper, a socio-technical approach is proposed in cyber risk assessment, in order to achieve more realistic risk estimates by considering the personality traits of the attackers. In particular, based upon principles from investigative psychology and behavioural science, a multi-dimensional, extended, quantifiable model for an attacker’s profile is developed, which becomes an additional factor in the cyber risk level calculation.

Keywords: attacker, behavioural models, cyber risk assessment, cybersecurity, human factors, investigative psychology, ISO27001, ISO27005

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Authors: Nikita Bharadia, Vikas Gupta, Sushant Koshy

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Mobile phone applications (“apps”) have generated substantial interest among marketers and researchers because of the developments in the smartphone technology and the availability of affordable phones to a large number of consumers. Apps are enabling brands to engage with consumers at any time and any place. This study utilizes a pre-test/post-test experimental design to determine if apps can have a persuasive impact on the consumer attitude towards the brand and her purchase intention. The study also tests the impact of informational vs. interactive style of apps on categories with high and low level of involvement. The results show that for high involvement brands, consumers have a predetermined brand image and apps that satisfy consumer needs through an interactive interface can increase purchase intention. For low involvement brands, while informational apps do not create substantial engagement, interactive apps can increase consumer focus on the brand and establish personal connect with the consumers. This has a positive impact in the attitude towards the brand. These results suggest that understanding how to maximize the consumer interaction with mobile phone apps will be a key topic of future research. This research indicates that managers need to evaluate the how apps can solve consumer needs before investing resources towards digital marketing campaign for their brands, following the global trend to capitalize on the digital platforms.

Keywords: App execution style, high and low involvement categories, mobile marketing, smartphone applications

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Authors: D. M. W. Munasinghe

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This study focuses on how teachers view and use play to influence creativity in preschool children. Play is strongly featured in most of the discussions about creativity in young children. Hence, it was noted through direct observation that most preschool teachers are not concerned with promoting play to develop the child’s creativity. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate how the teachers use play, for the development of creativity in the preschool environment. The survey method was used as the research design and interviews, observations and document perusal were used as data collection methods. The sample consisted of 20 preschools from selected administrative divisions in the Colombo district. It was revealed that a majority of preschool teachers used folk games as a means of involving children in play. Teachers assume that this type of guided play will motivate the child learn new words, memorization and provide enjoyment. Eighty percent of the preschool teachers used the play equipment installed in the preschool premises to encourage children to get involved in activities calculated at promoting the physical development of the child. In 40% of the preschools visited it was noticed that when children were given their break they created their own forms of free play and enjoyed themselves thoroughly in the little time available to them. Also, about 20% of preschool teachers promoted imaginative play with their preschoolers. There was also the situation where the role of play was interpreted negatively by the teachers who assigned the children to copy letters and numerals during the time assigned for play. This has a negative impact on the child’s creativity. In conclusion, it was felt that the teachers do not make the best use of the opportunity available to use the child’s enthusiasm to stimulate creative actions his/her and that there is no suitable environment to develop creativity through play.

Keywords: creativity, preschool children, preschool environment, play method

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Authors: Tsediso Makoelle

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South Africa like in other parts of the world has acknowledged the prevalence of the phenomenon of homosexuality in the society. Due to the number of homosexuality cases in the South African society, questions have been asked about the impact of homosexuality in schools and how teachers and learners deal with homosexuality within the context of an emerging inclusive education system. This qualitative study analysis the experiences of teachers and learners in selected secondary schools in relation to prevalence of transgender in schools. Interviews were conducted with principals, teachers and focus group of learners in schools were cases homosexuality have been reported. Data was analysed using an inductive analysis framework. Among the findings was that homosexuality is still viewed as a taboo in Black-African dominated school communities and that the need to create all-embracing and inclusive environment was evident. The study suggests a needs to open communications in communities about homosexuality in order to develop an all-inclusive environment for all learners regardless of their sexual orientation.

Keywords: homosexuality, inclusive education, sexual orientation, transgender

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Authors: Aliyu B. Mustapha, Poul A. Gida

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Pot experiment was conducted at the landscape unit of Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola in 2015 and 2016 to determine the effect of some chemicals namely glyphosate, salt and detergent on Golden dodder (Cuscuta campestris Yunk). The experiment was laid in a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The treatments include the following: glyphosate-T0= (control),(Og a.i/ha-1) T1=35g a.i/ha-1, T2=70g a.i/ha-1, T3=105g a.i/ha-1, T4=140 a.i/ha-1 and T5=175g a.i/ha-1: Salt (T0=control O mole/ha-1 T1=1mole/ha-1 T2=2mole/ha-1, T3=3mole/ha-1 , T4=4mole/ha-1 and T5=5mole/ha-1:washing detergent T0=Og/ha-1(control), T1=30ml detergent +70ml distilled water T2=45ml detergent+65ml distilled water T3=60ml detergent+40ml distilled water, T4=75ml detergent+25ml distilled water and T5=90ml detergent +10mldistilled water, the treatments were replicated three times. Data were collected include: plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, leaf area index and Cuscuta cover score at 3,6,9and 12 weeks after sprouting(WAS). Biomas of Vitex was also collected at the end of the experiment. Data collected were analyzed using software Genstat version 8.0. Results showed that glyphosate gave the least Cuscuta cover score and the tallest Vitex plant. However, detergent mildly controlled Cuscuta, while salt has no effect on Cuscuta campestris indicating that glyphosate could be used in the control of parasitic dodder (Cuscuta campestris) on Vitex plant.

Keywords: chemical, control, dudder, Vitex

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Authors: Orla McConnell, Cormac MacMahon, Jen Harvey

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Ireland’s national professional development framework for those who teach in higher education, aims to provide guidance and leadership in the planning, developing and engaging in professional development practices. A series of pilot projects have been initiated to help explore the framework’s likely utility and acceptance by educators and their institutions. These projects require engagement with staff in the interpretation and adaption of the framework within their working contexts. The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of one such project with engineering educators at three Institutes of Technology seeking designation as a technological university. The initiative aims to gain traction in the acceptance of the framework with the engineering education community by linking core and discipline-specific teaching and learning competencies with professional development activities most valued by engineering educators. Informed by three strands of literature: professional development in higher education; engineering education; and teaching and learning training provisions, the project begins with a survey of all those involved in teaching and learning in engineering across the three institutes. Based on engagement with key stakeholders, subsequent qualitative research informs the contextualization of the national framework for discipline-specific and institutional piloting. The paper concludes by exploring engineering educator perceptions of the national framework’s utility based on their engagement with the pilot process. Feedback from the pilot indicates that there is a significant gap between the professional development needs of engineering educators and the current professional development provision in teaching and learning.

Keywords: engineering education, pilot, professional development, teaching and learning

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Authors: Shweta Shriwas, Sumeet Dwivedi

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Knowledge of use of traditional medicine is as old as human civilization in almost every system of medicine. Traditional practitioner viz., vaidhayas, ojha, hakim have their own herbal therapy in the treatment of infertility among women’s. Infertility is very common in developed and developing countries due to busy life style of women’s. The present study was initiated with an aim to identify medicinal plants resources from traditional practitioners of Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh to treat infertility. An ethnomedicinal study of Malwa region viz., Indore, Dewas, Ratlam, Ujjain, Dhar, Mandsour and Neemuch of Madhya Pradesh, India comprising fifty-seven study site was conducted during Jan-217 to June-2017. During the course of present investigation, the traditional use of medicinal plants for infertility in women was revealed by traditional practitioner. The botanical name, family, local name, part used, habit along with mode of their administration and dose duration were enumerated.

Keywords: herbal medicine, infertility, traditional, Malwa, Madhya Pradesh

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Authors: Ade Dwi Utami

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Pedagogic competence is the basic competence of teachers to perform their tasks as educators. The ability to assess has become one of the demands in teachers pedagogic competence. Teachers ability to assess is related to curriculum instructions and applications. This research is aimed at obtaining data concerning teachers ability to assess that comprises of understanding assessment, determining assessment type, tools and procedure, conducting assessment process, and using assessment result information. It uses mixed method of explanatory technique in which qualitative data is used to verify the quantitative data obtained through a survey. The technique of quantitative data collection is by test whereas the qualitative data collection is by observation, interview and documentation. Then, the analyzed data is processed through a proportion study technique to be categorized into high, medium and low. The result of the research shows that teachers ability to assess can be grouped into 3 namely, 2% of high, 4% of medium and 94% of low. The data shows that teachers ability to assess is still relatively low. Teachers are lack of knowledge and comprehension in assessment application. The statement is verified by the qualitative data showing that teachers did not state which aspect was assessed in learning, record children’s behavior, and use the data result as a consideration to design a program. Teachers have assessment documents yet they only serve as means of completing teachers administration for the certification program. Thus, assessment documents were not used with the basis of acquired knowledge. The condition should become a consideration of the education institution of educators and the government to improve teachers pedagogic competence, including the ability to assess.

Keywords: assessment, early childhood education, pedagogic competence, teachers

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Authors: Ngozi Claribelle Nwogu, Mohammed Nasir Kajama, Oyoh Kechinyere, Edward Gobina

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Atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions are considered as the greatest environmental challenge the world is facing today. The challenges to control the emissions include the recovery of CO2 from flue gas. This concern has been improved due to recent advances in materials process engineering resulting in the development of inorganic gas separation membranes with excellent thermal and mechanical stability required for most gas separations. This paper therefore evaluates the performance of a highly selective inorganic membrane for CO2 recovery applications. Analysis of results obtained is in agreement with experimental literature data. Further results show the prediction performance of the membranes for gas separation and the future direction of research. The materials selection and the membrane preparation techniques are discussed. Method of improving the interface defects in the membrane and its effect on the separation performance has also been reviewed and in addition advances to totally exploit the potential usage of this innovative membrane.

Keywords: carbon dioxide, gas separation, inorganic ceramic membrane, permselectivity

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Authors: Hung-Yu Lin

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Background: Parts of researchers assert that external hyperactivity behaviors of ADHD children interfere with their abilities to perform internal cognitive tasks; however, there are still other researchers hold the opposite viewpoint, the external high level of activity may serve as the role of improving internal executive function.Objectives: Thisstudy explored the effects of external motor behavior of ADHD on internal visual attentional performance. Methods: A randomized, two-period crossover design was used in this study, a total of 80 children (aged 6-12) were recruited in this study. 40participants have received ADHD diagnosis, and others are children with typically developing. These children were measured through the visual edition of TOVA (The Test of Variables of Attention) when they wore actigraphy, their testing behavior and movement data werecollected through closely observation and the actigraphies under different research conditions. Result: According to the research result, the author found (1) Higherfrequencyof movement under attentional testing condition was found in children with ADHD, comparing to children with typically developing, and (2) Higher frequency of foot movement showed better attentional performance of the visual attentional test in children with ADHD. However, these results were not showed in children with typically developing. Conclusions: The findings support the functional working memory model, which advocated that a positive relation between gross motor activity and attentional performance within the context of attentive behavior in children with ADHD.

Keywords: ADHD, movement, visual attention, children

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Authors: J. Vasauskaite

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From the perspective of Lithuanian furniture enterprises, the role of energy efficiency is significant as it leads to direct economic benefits, increased competitiveness and higher productivity. There are various possible improvements in energy efficiency in industry: changes in the production process, investment in R&D, implementation of energy-saving technologies or energy management systems. The research aims to contribute the understanding of energy efficiency importance in industry by presenting possible improvements of energy use in different manufacturing process of enterprises. The evaluation methodology included quantitative and qualitative research methods: the comparative and statistical analysis of primary and secondary sources of information. This paper provides the detailed analysis of the energy efficiency development opportunities and challenges in Lithuanian furniture industry. The results of the study show the importance of technological innovations, energy efficiency policies and environmental management strategies in developing energy efficiency within the wood and furniture industry. The analysis of energy efficiency development in Lithuanian furniture industry showed that the industrial activities are influenced by various internal and external factors such as increasing flows of products, human resources and overall management decisions; dynamic growth and increasing competition; emerging need for environmental information. In the light of these factors, Lithuanian furniture industry has undergone significant changes – restructuring, technological advances and business model innovations, allowing it to be more export-oriented and focus on upgrading quality, design and innovation.

Keywords: energy efficiency, energy policy, furniture industry, technological innovation

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Authors: N. W. U. D. Chathurani, Shlomo Geva, Vinod Chandran, Proboda Rajapaksha

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Selecting an appropriate image representation is the most important factor in implementing an effective Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system. This paper presents a multi-feature fusion approach for efficient CBIR, based on the distance distribution of features and relative feature weights at the time of query processing. It is a simple yet effective approach, which is free from the effect of features' dimensions, ranges, internal feature normalization and the distance measure. This approach can easily be adopted in any feature combination to improve retrieval quality. The proposed approach is empirically evaluated using two benchmark datasets for image classification (a subset of the Corel dataset and Oliva and Torralba) and compared with existing approaches. The performance of the proposed approach is confirmed with the significantly improved performance in comparison with the independently evaluated baseline of the previously proposed feature fusion approaches.

Keywords: feature fusion, image retrieval, membership function, normalization

Procedia PDF Downloads 333

Authors: Kathleen Joy Hingan, Jessiraye Luienne Catubigan, Carlo Mercado, Janisse RañEses

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In this research, the researchers wanted to explore how specialists and resident doctors in the fields of surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology handle their medical errors. They are interested in understanding the factors that contributed to the disclosure of medical error, the feelings after the occurrence of an error, and the way they coped with it given the power relations in place. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews, transcribed the recordings, and analyzed the transcripts using thematic analysis. They found that doctors disclosed to their superiors and co-residents to cope with and to learn from the errors. In terms of disclosure to patients, the participants told them about the adverse event, but not about the error because of fear for themselves, their colleagues, their institution, and their patient. Doctors also performed compensatory actions to make up for the error and the nondisclosure of its occurrence. These actions functioned as a form of damage control too. Resident doctors and specialists receive different sanctions because of the power structures in the system.

Keywords: coping, disclosure, doctors, interviews, medical errors, thematic analysis

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Authors: Fatmanur Avar, Kubra G. Kostepen, Seda Lafci

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In today’s world, technological innovations have brought out entirely new business understanding. Companies operating in logistics have become more flexible to business trends such as digitalization, innovation, sustainability, flexibility, and productivity. Through the arrival of the fourth industrial revolution called as industry 4.0 approach, the logistics concepts have been redefined. By adopting automated planning and scheduling, organizing and controlling systems such as Transportation Management System (TMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), warehouse control systems, it will be possible for businesses to be ahead of logistics process. In this research, the aim is to reveal the effects of logistics 4.0 applications for a third party logistics service provider (3PL) located in Turkey. Also, the impacts of logistics 4.0 on key performance indicators (KPI) are examined under the scope of the study. As a methodology, a semi-structured interview is conducted with a global 3PL company and data collected from interviews is analyzed with content analysis. At the end of the analysis, it is presented the effects of logistics 4.0 applications on logistics activities of the company. Limitations and suggestions are also offered.

Keywords: key performance indicators, KPI, logistics activities, logistics 4.0, 3PL

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Authors: Beatrice Eyram Afi Ziorklui, Norihisa Shima

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Community Driven Development (CDD) is now a widely recommended and accepted development strategy for informal communities across the continent. Centered on the utilization of social capital through community structures, different informal settlements have different structures and different levels of social capital, which affect the implementation and ability to overcome CDD challenges. Although known to be very successful, there are few perspectives on the implementation of CDD initiatives in different informal settlements. This study assesses the implementation of CDD initiatives in migrant and indigenous informal settlements and their ability to navigate challenges. The case study research design was adopted in this research, and respondents were chosen through simple random sampling. Using the Statistical Package for social scientists (SPSS) for data analysis, the study found that migrant informal settlements implement CDD projects through the network of hierarchical structures based on government systems, whereas indigenous informal settlements implement through the hierarchical social structure based on traditions and culture. The study also found that, with the exception of the challenge of land accessibility in migrant informal settlements, all other challenges, such as participation, resource mobilization, and maintenance, have a significant relationship with social capital, although indigenous informal settlements have higher levels of social capital than migrant informal settlements. The study recommends a framework that incorporates community characteristics and the underlying social capital to facilitate upgrading strategies in informal in Ghana.

Keywords: community driven development, informal settlements, social capital, upgrading

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Authors: Asma Bettahar, Imed Eldine Nezli, Sameh Habes

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Groundwater resources in the Oued Righ valley are represented like the parts of the eastern basin of the Algerian Sahara, superposed by two major aquifers: the Intercalary Continental (IC) and the Terminal Complex (TC). From a qualitative point of view, various studies have highlighted that the waters of this region showed excessive mineralization, including the waters of the terminal complex (EC Avg equal 5854.61 S/cm). The present article is a statistical approach by two multi methods various complementary (ACP CAH), applied to the analytical data of multilayered aquifer waters Terminal Complex of the Oued Righ valley. The approach is to establish a correlation between the chemical composition of water and the lithological nature of different aquifer levels formations, and predict possible connection between groundwater’s layers. The results show that the mineralization of water is from geological origin. They concern the composition of the layers that make up the complex terminal.

Keywords: oued righ, complex terminal, infill continental, mineralization

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Authors: Yu-Kai Ting, Jia-Ying Tu, Chung-Chun Hsiao

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New physical insights into the nonlinear Lorenz equations related to flow resistance is discussed in this work. The chaotic dynamics related to Lorenz equations has been studied in many papers, which is due to the sensitivity of Lorenz equations to initial conditions and parameter uncertainties. However, the physical implication arising from Lorenz equations about convectional motion attracts little attention in the relevant literature. Therefore, as a first step to understand the related fluid mechanics of convectional motion, this paper derives the Lorenz equations again with different forced conditions in the model. Simulation work of the modified Lorenz equations without the viscosity or buoyancy force is discussed. The time-domain simulation results may imply that the states of the Lorenz equations are related to certain flow speed and flow resistance. The flow speed of the underlying fluid system increases as the flow resistance reduces. This observation would be helpful to analyze the coupling effects of different fluid parameters in a convectional model in future work.

Keywords: Galerkin method, Lorenz equations, Navier-Stokes equations, convectional motion

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Authors: Li-Ting Chen, Chih-Tao Cheng, I-Ping Huang, Jen-Ho Chang, Nien-Tzu Chang, Fei-Hsiu Hsiao

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Background: Insecurity adult attachment style may be triggered by cancer threat, which in turn influences depression symptoms. Dispositional mindfulness may have benefits of insecure attachment on depression for colorectal patient transfer to survivor. Objective: This study examined the mediating and moderating effects of quality of life (QOL) and dispositional mindfulness on the relationship between insecure attachment style and depression symptoms. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used. Data were collected using the QOL functional and symptoms (EORTC-C30 and EORTC CR29), dispositional mindfulness (FFMQ), Short form of Experience in Close Relationships Revised Questionnaire (SF-ECRRQ), and depressive symptoms (BDI-II scale). Results: Of the 90 CRC survivors who participated, the indirect effect of both ECR anxiety (β=0.23, CI=0.05-0.44) and ECR avoidance (β=0.12, CI=0.02-0.24) on depression were significantly mediated through EORTC-C29 colorectal symptoms. Three components of dispositional mindfulness (i.e., acting of awareness, non-judging, non-reactivity) as the moderator in the relationship between ECR anxiety and depressive symptoms. Acting of awareness was a moderator in the relationship between ECR avoidance and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: There are two pathways from insecure attachment to depression: through the mediator of colorectal symptoms and the moderator of dispositional mindfulness. Cancer symptom management and mindfulness practices could improve the impact of insecure attachment on depression among CRC patients in a post-treatment transition period.

Keywords: acting of awareness, attachment style, colorectal cancer, disposisitonal mindfulness, depression

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Authors: Alok S Chauhan, Sridhar S., Pradyumna R.

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In the process of precision investment casting of turbine hollow blade/vane components, a part of the dimensional deviations observed in the castings can be attributed to the wax pattern. In the process of injection moulding of wax to produce patterns, heated wax shrinks in size during cooling in the die, leading to a reduction in the dimensions of the pattern. Also, flow and thermal induced residual stresses result in shrinkage & warpage of the component after removal from the die, further adding to the deviations. Injection moulding parameters such as wax temperature, flow rate, packing pressure, etc. affect the flow and thermal behavior of the component and hence are directly responsible for the dimensional deviations. There is a need to precisely determine and control these deviations in order to achieve stringent dimensional accuracies imposed on these castings by aerospace standards. Simulation based approaches provide a platform to predict these dimensional deviations without resorting to elaborate experimentation. In the present paper, Moldex3D simulation package has been utilized to analyze the effect of variations in injection temperature, packing pressure and cooling time on the shrinkage behavior of a stepped pattern. Two types of waxes with different rheological properties have been included in the study to gauge the effect of change in wax on the dimensional deviations. A full factorial design of experiments has been configured with these parameters and results of analysis of variance have been presented.

Keywords: wax patterns, investment casting, pattern die/mould, wax injection, Moldex3D simulation

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Authors: Suparmi, Sampurna

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Sodium nitrite which is widespread used as a color fixative and preservative in foods can increase oxidative stress and cause hemolytic anemia. Consumption of food supplement containing sufficient antioxidant, e.g. chlorophyll, reported can decrease these negative effects. This study was conducted to determine the effect of chlorophyll from Sauropus androgynus leaves on Malodialdehide (MDA) and ferritin level. Experimental research with post-test only control group design was conducted using 24 female mice strain Balb-c. Sodium nitrite 0.3 ml/head/day given during 18 days, while the chlorophyll or Cu-chlorophyllin as much as 0.7 ml/head/day given the following day for 14 days. The mean of MDA levels of blood plasma in the control group, NaNO2 induction, induction NaNO2 and chlorophyll of S. androgynus leaves, induction of NaNO2 and Cu-chlorophyllin from K-Liquid in sequence is 2.10±0.11mol/L, 3.44±0.38 mol/L, 2.31±0.18 mol/L, 2.31±0.13 mol/L, whilst the ferritin levels mean in each group is 62.71±6.42 ng/ml; 63.22±7.59 ng/ml; 67.45±8.03 ng/ml, and 64.74±7.80 ng/ml, respectively. Results of Mann Whitney test found no significant difference in MDA levels (p>0.05), while the One-Way Anova test result found no significant difference in ferritin levels between the groups of mice that received S. androgynus chlorophyll with a group of mice that received Cu-chlorophyllin after induction NaNO2 (p>0.05). This indicates that chlorophyll from S. androgynus leaves as effective as Cu-chlorophyllin in decrease of MDA levels and increase of ferritin levels. Chlorophyll from S. androgynus are potential as food supplement in anemic conditions caused by sodium nitrite consumptions.

Keywords: ferritin, MDA, chlorophyll, sodium nitrite

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Authors: Aura Maria Lopera Echavarria, Angela Maria Lema Perez, Daniela Medrano David, Pedronel Araque Marin, Marta Elena Londoño Lopez

Abstract:

Bone regeneration is the process by which the formation of new bone is stimulated. Bone fractures can originate at any time due to trauma, infections, tumors, congenital malformations or skeletal diseases. Currently there are different strategies to treat bone defects that in some cases, regeneration does not occur on its own. That is why they are treated with bone substitutes, which provide a necessary environment for the cells to synthesize new bone. The Demineralized Bone Matrix (DBM) is widely used as a bone implant due to its good properties, such as osteoinduction and bioactivity. However, the use of DBM is limited, because its presentation is powder, which is difficult to implant with precision and is susceptible to migrating to other sites through blood flow. That is why the DBM is commonly incorporated into a variety of vehicles or carriers. The objective of this project is to evaluate the bioactive and confinement properties of a bone substitute based on demineralized bone matrix (DBM). Also, structural and morphological properties were evaluated. Bone substitute was obtained from EIA Biomaterials Laboratory of EIA University and the DBM was facilitated by Tissue Bank Foundation. Morphological and structural properties were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (DRX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with total attenuated reflection (FTIR-ATR). Water absorption capacity and degradation were also evaluated during three months. The cytotoxicity was evaluated by the MTT test. The bioactivity of the bone substitute was evaluated through immersion of the samples in simulated body fluid during four weeks. Confinement tests were performed on tibial fragments of a human donor with bone defects of determined size, to ensure that the substitute remains in the defect despite the continuous flow of fluid. According of the knowledge of the authors, the methodology for evaluating samples in a confined environment has not been evaluated before in real human bones. The morphology of the samples showed irregular surface and presented some porosity. DRX confirmed a semi-crystalline structure. The FTIR-ATR determined the organic and inorganic phase of the sample. The degradation and absorption measurements stablished a loss of 3% and 150% in one month respectively. The MTT showed that the system is not cytotoxic. Apatite clusters formed from the first week were visualized by SEM and confirmed by EDS. These calcium phosphates are necessary to stimulate bone regeneration and thanks to the porosity of the developed material, osteinduction and osteoconduction are possible. The results of the in vitro evaluation of the confinement of the material showed that the migration of the bone filling to other sites is negligible, although the samples were subjected to the passage of simulated body fluid. The bone substitute, putty type, showed stability, is bioactive, non-cytotoxic and has handling properties for specialists at the time of implantation. The obtained system allows to maintain the osteoinductive properties of DBM and it can fill completely fractures in any way; however, it does not provide a structural support, that is, it should only be used to treat fractures without requiring a mechanical load.

Keywords: bone regeneration, cytotoxicity, demineralized bone matrix, hydrogel

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Authors: Gerard Lawrence

Abstract:

This paper gives an in-depth discussion on Motivation in the Malaysian Armed Forces; highlighting it as a powerful and important tool upon which the well-being of an entire (or any) organization rests. It starts with the literal definition of the word and then the psychological aspects of it detailing the intricate mechanics and fundamentals in order to accurately and systematically harness it to create a motivated workforce. It then describes the types of motivation; positive and negative, its many facets and manifestation, clearly identifying each one point by point as well as drawing examples. The paper also deals with certain controversial practices like favoritism; nepotism and provides examples of military motivation both in historic and contemporary context. It strips the current system (and its flaws) to build, nurture and maintain motivation in the future. It shows how “past practice” may not necessarily be “best practice”, by providing the building blocks necessary to move forward and cautions on the inter-relation and differences between morale and motivation. As a conclusion the paper coins a theory of working in shifts for the military and urges careful research and planning as to IF this can raise if not maintain motivation in the new era.

Keywords: armed forces, Malaysia, motivation, military psychology

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Authors: Seyed Abdolreza Mosavi, Alireza Babakhan, Elham Sadat Hoseinifard

Abstract:

Knowledge-based firms need to design mechanisms for continuous absorptive and creation of knowledge in order to ensure their survival in the competitive arena and to follow the path of development. Considering the project-oriented nature of product development activities in knowledge-based firms on the one hand and the importance of analyzing the factors affecting knowledge absorptive capacity in these firms on the other, the purpose of this study is to identify and classify the factors affecting project management practices on absorptive knowledge capacity. For this purpose, we have studied and reviewed the theoretical literature in the field of project management and absorptive knowledge capacity so as to clarify its dimensions and indexes. Then, using the ISM method, the relationship between them has been studied. To collect data, 21 questionnaires were distributed in project-oriented knowledge-based companies. The results of the ISM method analysis provide a model for the relationship between project management activities and knowledge absorptive capacity, which includes knowledge acquisition capacity, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communications management, procurement management, risk management, stakeholders management and integration management. Having conducted the MICMAC analysis, we divided the variables into three groups of independent, relational and dependent variables and came up with no variables to be included in the group of autonomous variables.

Keywords: knowledge absorptive capacity, project management practices, knowledge-based firms, interpretive structural modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 185

Authors: Ebru Aktepe Erkoç, Atilla Uluğ

Abstract:

In this research which has been prepared to show the relationship between Gökova Bay’s morphotectonic structure and seismicity, it is clear that there are many active faults in the region. The existence of a thick sedimentary accumulation since Late Quaternary times is obvious as a result of the geophysical workings in the region and the interpretation of seismic data which has been planning to be taken from the Bay. In the regions which have been tectonically active according to the interpretation of the taken data, the existence of the successive earthquakes in the last few years is remarkable. By analyzing large earthquakes affecting the areas remaining inside the sediments in West Anatolian Collapse System, this paper aims to reveal the fault systems constituting earthquakes with the information obtained from this study and to determine seismicity of the present residential areas right next to them. It is also aimed to anticipate the measures to be taken against possible earthquake hazards, to identify these areas posing a risk in terms of residential and urban planning and to determine at least partly the characteristics of the basin.

Keywords: Gökova Bay, sedimentation, seismic, West Anatolian

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: Nagwa Abouserie Soliman

Abstract:

The Victorian era, which started with the reign of Queen Victoria from June 1837 to January 1901, could be considered as one of the most significant eras that had a crucial impact which formed contemporary British life despite the fact that with the rise of the British empire many negative aspects surfaced, namelysocial inequalities such as class differences, child labor, population increase and poverty due to the industrial revolution. Charles Dickens was one of the most prominent writers of the Victorian era who perceived the hypocrisy of the Victorian mores. The appropriate researchstyle that was chosen for this literary analysis is a qualitative research method in which the researcher used the conceptual approach to analyse theDickensian characterisation andwriting style through diction, narrative voice, and images. The aim of this paper is to argue that Charles Dickens inGreat Expectations (1861) was highly satirical of the Victorian mores, as he uses a lot of sharp irony-to satirize various Victorian traditions such as class divisions, the justice system, the poor working class, and the upper-class snobbery that he thought are inhumane and unjust.

Keywords: victorian, child labour, poverty, class division, snobbery

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: Amit Kumar Baghel, Sisir Kumar Nayak

Abstract:

The proposed metamaterial design help to increase the radiation efficiency at 2.9 GHz by reducing the side and back lobes by making the phase difference of the waves emerging from the phase center of the horn antenna same after passing through metamaterial array. The unit cell of the metamaterial is having concentric ring structure made of copper of 0.035 mm thickness on both sides of FR4 sheet. The inner ring diameter is kept as 3 mm, and the outer ring diameters are changed according to the path and tramission phase difference of the unit cell from the phase center of the antenna in both the horizontal and vertical direction, i.e., in x- and y-axis. In this case, the ring radius varies from 3.19 mm to 6.99 mm with the respective S21 phase difference of -62.25° to -124.64°. The total phase difference can be calculated by adding the path difference of the respective unit cell in the array to the phase difference of S21. Taking one of the unit cell as the reference, the total phase difference between the reference unit cell and other cells must be integer multiple of 360°. The variation of transmission coefficient S21 with the ring radius is greater than -6 dB. The array having 5 x 5 unit cell is kept inside the pyramidal horn antenna (L X B X H = 295.451 x 384.233 x 298.66 mm3) at a distance of 36.68 mm from the waveguide throat. There is an improvement in side lobe level in E-plane by 14.6 dB when the array is used. The front to back lobe ration is increased by 1 dB by using the array. The proposed antenna with metamaterial array can be used in beam shaping for wireless power transfer applications.

Keywords: metamaterial, side lobe level, front to back ratio, beam forming

Procedia PDF Downloads 241