Search results for: free speech

Authors: Dim En Nyaung, Thin Lai Lai Thein

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Due to the rapid increase of Internet, web opinion sources dynamically emerge which is useful for both potential customers and product manufacturers for prediction and decision purposes. These are the user generated contents written in natural languages and are unstructured-free-texts scheme. Therefore, opinion mining techniques become popular to automatically process customer reviews for extracting product features and user opinions expressed over them. Since customer reviews may contain both opinionated and factual sentences, a supervised machine learning technique applies for subjectivity classification to improve the mining performance. In this paper, we dedicate our work is the task of opinion summarization. Therefore, product feature and opinion extraction is critical to opinion summarization, because its effectiveness significantly affects the identification of semantic relationships. The polarity and numeric score of all the features are determined by Senti-WordNet Lexicon. The problem of opinion summarization refers how to relate the opinion words with respect to a certain feature. Probabilistic based model of supervised learning will improve the result that is more flexible and effective.

Keywords: opinion mining, opinion summarization, sentiment analysis, text mining

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Authors: Csilla Dudás, Éva Böszörményi, Bence Kutus, István Pálinkó, Pál Sipos

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In this study the behavior of alpha-D-isosaccharinate (2-hydroxymethyl-3-deoxy-D-erythro-pentonate, ISA−) in alkaline medium in the presence of calcium was studied. At first the Ca–ISA system was studied by Ca-ion selective electrode (Ca-ISE) in neutral medium at T = 25 °C and I = 1 M NaCl to determine the formation constant of the CaISA+ monocomplex, which was found to be logK = 1.01 ± 0.01 for the reaction of Ca2+ + ISA– = CaISA+. In alkaline medium pH potentiometric titrations were carried out to determine the composition and stability constant of the complex(es) formed. It was found that in these systems above pH = 12.5 the predominant species is the CaISAOH complex. Its formation constant was found to be logK = 3.04 ± 0.05 for the reaction of Ca2+ + ISA– + H2O = CaISAOH + H+ at T = 25 °C and I = 1 M NaCl. Solubility measurements resulted in data consistent with those of the potentiometric titrations. Temperature dependent NMR spectra showed that the slow exchange range between the complex and the free ligand is below 5 °C. It was also showed that ISA– acts as a multidentate ligand forming macrochelate Ca-complexes. The structure of the complexes was determined by using ab initio quantum chemical calculations.

Keywords: Ca-ISE potentiometry, calcium complexes, isosaccharinate ion, NMR spectroscopy, pH potentiometry

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Authors: Mohammad Alibakhshikenari, Ernesto Limiti, Bal S. Virdee

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The paper presents a miniature wideband antenna using composite right/left-handed transmission-line (CRLH-TL) metamaterial. The proposed planar antenna has a fractional bandwidth of 100% and is designed to operate in several frequency bands from 800MHz to 2.40GHz. The antenna is constructed using just two CRLH-TL unit cells comprising of two T-shaped slots that are inverted. The slots contribute towards generating the series left-handed (LH) capacitance CL. The rectangular patch on which the slots are created is grounded with spiral shaped high impedance stubs that contribute towards LH inductance LL. The antenna has a size of 14×6×1.6mm3 (0.037λ0×0.016λ0× 0.004λ0, where λ0 is free space wavelength at 800MHz). The peak gain and efficiency of the antenna are 1.5 dBi and ~75%, respectively, at 1.6GHz. Proposed antenna is suitable for use in wireless systems working at UHF/L/S-bands, in particular, AMPS, GSM, WCDMA, UMTS, PCS, cellular, DCS, IMT-2000, JCDMA, KPCS, GPS, lower band of WiMAX.

Keywords: miniature antenna, composite right/left-handed transmission line (CRLH-TL), wideband antenna, communication transceiver, metamaterials

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Authors: Ali Al Orf, Khawaja Bilal Waheed

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Background and objective: Joubert syndrome (JS) is a rare, autosomal-recessive condition. Early recognition is important for management and counseling. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help in diagnosis. Therefore, we sought to evaluate clinical presentation and MRI findings in Joubert syndrome and related disorders. Method: A retrospective review of genetically proven cases of Joubert syndromes and related disorders was reviewed for their clinical presentation, demographic information, and magnetic resonance imaging findings in a period of the last 10 years. Two radiologists documented magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. The presence of hypoplasia of the cerebellar vermis with hypoplasia of the superior cerebellar peduncle resembling the “Molar Tooth Sign” in the mid-brain was documented. Genetic testing results were collected to label genes linked to the diagnoses. Results: Out of 12 genetically proven JS cases, most were females (9/12), and nearly all presented with hypotonia, ataxia, developmental delay, intellectual impairment, and speech disorders. 5/12 children presented at age of 1 or below. The molar tooth sign was seen in 10/12 cases. Two cases were associated with other brain findings. Most of the cases were found associated with consanguineous marriage Conclusion and discussion: The molar tooth sign is a frequent and reliable sign of JS and related disorders. Genes related to defective cilia result in malfunctioning in the retina, renal tubule, and neural cell migration, thus producing heterogeneous syndrome complexes known as “ciliopathies.” Other ciliopathies like Senior-Loken syndrome, Bardet Biedl syndrome, and isolated nephronophthisis must be considered as the differential diagnosis of JS. The main imaging findings are the partial or complete absence of the cerebellar vermis, hypoplastic cerebellar peduncles (giving MTS), and (bat-wing appearance) fourth ventricular deformity. LimitationsSingle-center, small sample size, and retrospective nature of the study were a few of the study limitations.

Keywords: Joubart syndrome, magnetic resonance imaging, molar tooth sign, hypotonia

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Authors: Haizhong Zhang, Yan-Gang Zhao

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Fundamental period, mode shape, and participation factor are important basic information for the understanding of earthquake response of ground. In this study, a simple approach is presented to calculate these basic information of layered soil profiles. To develop this method, closed form equations are derived for analysis of free vibration of layered soil profiles firstly, based on equilibrium between inertia and elastic forces. Then, by further associating with the Madera procedure developed for estimation of fundamental period, a simple method that can directly determine the fundamental period, mode shape and participation factor is proposed. The proposed approach can be conveniently implemented in simple spreadsheets and easily used by practicing engineers. In addition, the accuracy of the proposed approach is investigated by analyzing first vibration mode of 67 representative layered soil profiles, it is found that results by the proposed method agree very well with accurate results.

Keywords: layered soil profile, natural vibration, fundamental period, fundamental mode shape

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Authors: Ziad. Sh. Al Sarraf

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Ultrasonic metal welding has been the subject of ongoing research and development, most recently concentrating on metal joining in miniature devices, for example to allow solder-free wire bonding. As well as at the small scale, there are also opportunities to research the joining of thicker sheet metals and to widen the range of similar and dissimilar materials that can be successfully joined using this technology. This study presents the design, characterisation and test of a lateral-drive ultrasonic metal spot welding device. The ultrasonic metal spot welding horn is modelled using finite element analysis (FEA) and its vibration behaviour is characterised experimentally to ensure ultrasonic energy is delivered effectively to the weld coupon. The welding stack and fixtures are then designed and mounted on a test machine to allow a series of experiments to be conducted for various welding and ultrasonic parameters. Weld strength is subsequently analysed using tensile-shear tests. The results show how the weld strength is particularly sensitive to the combination of clamping force and ultrasonic vibration amplitude of the welding tip, but there are optimal combinations of these and also limits that must be clearly identified.

Keywords: ultrasonic welding, vibration amplitude, welding force, weld strength

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Authors: Gurpreet Kaur, Manoj Kumar, Vandana Bhalla

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Strong acceptor-weak acceptor system FN-TPy has been designed and synthesized which undergoes solvent dependent self-assembly in mixed aqueous media to generate through space intermolecular charge transfer assemblies. The as prepared entropically favoured assemblies of FN-TPy exhibit excellent photostability and photosensitizing properties in the assembled state to activate aerial oxygen for efficient generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) through Type-I and Type-II pathways. The FN-TPy assemblies exhibit excellent potential for regulated oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes under mild reaction conditions (visible light irradiation, aqueous media, room temperature) using aerial oxygen as the ‘oxidant’. The present study demonstrates the potential of FN-TPy assemblies to catalyze controlled oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde and to corresponding benzoic acid.

Keywords: oxidations, photosensitizer, reactive oxygen species, supramolecular assemblies, through space charge transfer.

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Authors: Saad A. Aljlil

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Adsorption of cobalt ions on quartz and illite and calcite from waste water was investigated. The effect of pH on the adsorption of cobalt ions was studied. The maximum capacities of cobalt ions of the three adsorbents increase with increasing cobalt solution temperature. The maximum capacities were (4.66) mg/g for quartz, (3.94) mg/g for illite, and (3.44) mg/g for calcite. The enthalpy, Gibbs free energy, and entropy for adsorption of cobalt ions on the three adsorbents were calculated. It was found that the adsorption process of the cobalt ions of the adsorbent was an endothermic process. consequently increasing the temperature causes the increase of the cobalt ions adsorption of the adsorbents. Therefore, the adsorption process is preferred at high temperature levels. The equilibrium adsorption data were correlated using Langmuir model, Freundlich model. The experimental data of cobalt ions of the adsorbents correlated well with Freundlich model.

Keywords: adsorption, Langmuir, Freundlich, quartz, illite, calcite, waste water

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Authors: Nathenal Thomas

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In the food chain and in many other agricultural products, corn, also known as maize, which goes by the scientific name Zea mays subsp, is a widely produced agricultural product. Corn has the highest adaptability. It comes in many different types, is employed in many different industrial processes, and is more adaptable to different agro-climatic situations. In Ethiopia, maize is among the most widely grown crop. Small-scale corn farming may be a household's only source of food in developing nations like Ethiopia. The aforementioned data demonstrates that the country's requirement for this crop is excessively high, and conversely, the crop's productivity is very low for a variety of reasons. The most damaging disease that greatly contributes to this imbalance between the crop's supply and demand is the corn disease. The failure to diagnose diseases in maize plant until they are too late is one of the most important factors influencing crop output in Ethiopia. This study will aid in the early detection of such diseases and support farmers during the cultivation process, directly affecting the amount of maize produced. The diseases in maize plants, such as northern leaf blight and cercospora leaf spot, have distinct symptoms that are visible. This study aims to detect the most frequent and degrading maize diseases using the most efficiently used subset of machine learning technology, deep learning so, called Image Processing. Deep learning uses networks that can be trained from unlabeled data without supervision (unsupervised). It is a feature that simulates the exercises the human brain goes through when digesting data. Its applications include speech recognition, language translation, object classification, and decision-making. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for Image Processing, also known as convent, is a deep learning class that is widely used for image classification, image detection, face recognition, and other problems. it will also use this algorithm as the state-of-the-art for my research to detect maize diseases by photographing maize leaves using a mobile phone.

Keywords: CNN, zea mays subsp, leaf blight, cercospora leaf spot

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Authors: Fátima Gonçalves, Joaquim Brigas, Jorge Gonçalves

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The proliferation of mobile devices in society enables the media to disseminate information and knowledge more rapidly. Higher education students access these contents and share them with each other, in the most diverse platforms, allowing the ubiquity in access to information. This article presents the results and respective quantitative analysis of a survey applied to communication students of two higher education institutions: one in Portugal and another in Spain. The results show that, in this sample, higher education students regularly access news content believing traditional news sources to be more credible. Regarding online sources, it was verified that the access was mostly to free news contents. This study intends to promote the knowledge about the changes that occur in the relationship of higher education students with the media, characterizing how news consumption is processed by these students, considering the resulting effects of the digital media evolution. It is intended to present not only the news sources they use, but also to know some of their habits and relationship with the news media.

Keywords: students' perceptions, communication design, mass media, higher education, digital media

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Authors: Luis Alvarado, Victor Poblete, Isaac Gonzalez, Yetzabeth Gonzalez

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In MIREX 2016 (http://www.music-ir.org/mirex), the deep neural network (DNN)-Deep Chroma Extractor, proposed by Korzeniowski and Wiedmer, reached the highest score in an audio chord recognition task. In the present paper, this tool is assessed under acoustic reverberant environments and distinct source-microphone distances. The evaluation dataset comprises The Beatles and Queen datasets. These datasets are sequentially re-recorded with a single microphone in a real reverberant chamber at four reverberation times (0 -anechoic-, 1, 2, and 3 s, approximately), as well as four source-microphone distances (32, 64, 128, and 256 cm). It is expected that the performance of the trained DNN will dramatically decrease under these acoustic conditions with signals degraded by room reverberation and distance to the source. Recently, the effect of the bio-inspired Locally-Normalized Cepstral Coefficients (LNCC), has been assessed in a text independent speaker verification task using speech signals degraded by additive noise at different signal-to-noise ratios with variations of recording distance, and it has also been assessed under reverberant conditions with variations of recording distance. LNCC showed a performance so high as the state-of-the-art Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient filters. Based on these results, this paper proposes a variation of locally-normalized triangular filters called Locally-Normalized Quarter Tone (LNQT) filters. By using the LNQT spectrogram, robustness improvements of the trained Deep Chroma Extractor are expected, compared with classical triangular filters, and thus compensating the music signal degradation improving the accuracy of the chord recognition system.

Keywords: chord recognition, deep neural networks, feature extraction, music information retrieval

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Authors: Ting Wu, Feiting Hu, Xinyue Zhang, Shuxin Tang, Xiaoyun Xu

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As a by-product of yuba, processing wastewater of Yuba (PWY) contains many bioactive components such as soybean isoflavones, soybean polysaccharides and soybean oligosaccharides, which is a good source of prebiotics and has a potential of high value utilization. The use of Lactobacillus plantarum to ferment PWY can be considered as a potential biogenic element, which can regulate the balance of intestinal microbiota. In this study, firstly, Lactobacillus plantarum was used to ferment PWY to improve its content of active components and antioxidant activity. Then, the health effect of fermented processing wastewater of yuba (FPWY) was measured in vitro. Finally, microencapsulation technology was used applied to improve the sustained release of FPWY and reduce the loss of active components in the digestion process, as well as to improving the activity of FPWY. The main results are as follows: (1) FPWY presented a good antioxidant capacity with DPPH free radical scavenging ability (0.83 ± 0.01 mmol Trolox/L), ABTS free radical scavenging ability (7.47 ± 0.35 mmol Trolox/L) and iron ion reducing ability (1.11 ± 0.07 mmol Trolox/L). Compared with non-fermented processing wastewater of yuba (NFPWY), there was no significant difference in the content of total soybean isoflavones, but the content of glucoside soybean isoflavones decreased, and aglyconic soybean isoflavones increased significantly. After fermentation, PWY can effectively reduce the soluble monosaccharides, disaccharides and oligosaccharides, such as glucose, fructose, galactose, trehalose, stachyose, maltose, raffinose and sucrose. (2) FPWY can significantly enhance the growth of beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacterium, Ruminococcus and Akkermansia, significantly inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria E.coli, regulate the structure of intestinal microbiota, and significantly increase the content of short-chain fatty acids such as acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, isovaleric acid. Higher amount of lactic acid in the gut can be further broken down into short chain fatty acids. (3) In order to improve the stability of soybean isoflavones in FPWY during digestion, sodium alginate and chitosan were used as wall materials for embedding. The FPWY freeze-dried powder was embedded by the method of acute-coagulation bath. The results show that when the core wall ratio is 3:1, the concentration of chitosan is 1.5%, the concentration of sodium alginate is 2.0%, and the concentration of calcium is 3%, the embossing rate is 53.20%. In the simulated in vitro digestion stage, the release rate of microcapsules reached 59.36% at the end of gastric digestion and 82.90% at the end of intestinal digestion. Therefore, the core materials with good sustained-release performance of microcapsules were almost all released. The structural analysis results of FPWY microcapsules show that the microcapsules have good mechanical properties. Its hardness, springness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness and resilience were 117.75± 0.21 g, 0.76±0.02, 0.54±0.01, 63.28±0.71 g·sec, 48.03±1.37 g·sec, 0.31±0.01, respectively. Compared with the unembedded FPWY, the infrared spectrum results showed that the microcapsules had embedded effect on the FPWY freeze-dried powder.

Keywords: processing wastewater of yuba, lactobacillus plantarum, intestinal microbiota, microcapsule

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Authors: Nasim Nosoudi, Amir Zadeh, Hunter White, Joshua Conrad, Joon W. Shim

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De novo Malignancy has become one of the major causes of death after transplantation, so early cancer diagnosis and detection can drastically improve survival rates post-transplantation. Most previous work focuses on using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict transplant success or failure outcomes. In this work, we focused on predicting de novo malignancy after liver transplantation using AI. We chose the patients that had malignancy after liver transplantation with no history of malignancy pre-transplant. Their donors were cancer-free as well. We analyzed 254,200 patient profiles with post-transplant malignancy from the US Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). Several popular data mining methods were applied to the resultant dataset to build predictive models to characterize de novo malignancy after liver transplantation. Recipient's bilirubin, creatinine, weight, gender, number of days recipient was on the transplant waiting list, Epstein Barr Virus (EBV), International normalized ratio (INR), and ascites are among the most important factors affecting de novo malignancy after liver transplantation

Keywords: De novo malignancy, bilirubin, data mining, transplantation

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Authors: Jasminka Mujic, Karin Milde-Langosch, Volkmar Mueller, Mirza Suljagic, Tea Becirevic, Jozo Coric, Daria Ler

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MACC1 (metastasis associated in colon cancer-1) is a prognostic biomarker for tumor progression, metastasis, and survival of a variety of solid cancers. MACC1 also causes tumor growth in xenograft models and acts as a master regulator of the HGF/MET signaling pathway. In breast cancer, the expression of MACC1 determined by immunohistochemistry was significantly associated with positive lymph node status and advanced clinical stage. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the prognostic or predictive value of MACC1 expression in breast cancer using western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. The results of our study have shown that high MACC1 expression in breast cancer is associated with shorter disease-free survival, especially in node-negative tumors. The MACC1 might be a suitable biomarker to select patients with a higher probability of recurrence which might benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Our results support a biologic role and potentially open the perspective for the use of MACC1 as predictive biomarker for treatment decision in breast cancer patients.

Keywords: breast cancer, biomarker, HGF/MET, MACC1

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Authors: Kadda Boumediene, Mohamed Ziani

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Mainly because of their good ratio stiffness/mass, and in addition to adjustable mechanical properties, composite materials are more and more often used as an alternative to traditional materials in several domains. Before using these materials in practical application, a detailed and precise characterization of their mechanical properties is necessary. In the present work, we will find a dynamic analyze of composite beam (natural frequencies and mode shape), an experimental vibration technique, which presents a powerful tool for the estimation of mechanical characteristics, is used to characterize a dissimilar beam of a Mortar/ natural mineral fiber. The study is completed by an analytic (Rayleigh & Rayleigh-Ritz), experimental and numerical application for non-uniform composite beam of a Mortar/ natural mineral fiber. The study is supported by a comparison between numerical and analytic results as well as a comparison between experimental and numerical results.

Keywords: composite beam, mortar/ natural mineral fiber, mechanical characteristics, natural frequencies, mode shape

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Authors: DRIS Mohammed El-Amine, BOUNIF Abdelhamid

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This paper considers an experimental and numerical investigation of variable density in axisymmetric turbulent free jets. Special attention is paid to the study of the scalar dissipation rate. In this case, dynamic field equations are coupled to scalar field equations by the density which can vary by the thermal effect (jet heating). The numerical investigation is based on the first and second order turbulence models. For the discretization of the equations system characterizing the flow, the finite volume method described by Patankar (1980) was used. The experimental study was conducted in order to evaluate dynamical characteristics of a heated axisymmetric air flow using the Laser Doppler Anemometer (LDA) which is a very accurate optical measurement method. Experimental and numerical results are compared and discussed. This comparison do not show large difference and the results obtained are in general satisfactory.

Keywords: Scalar dissipation rate, thermal effects, turbulent axisymmetric jets, second order modelling, Velocimetry Laser Doppler.

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Authors: Mahmoud Saleh Mohammed Alkathy

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Electricity generated from renewable resources may help the transition to clean energy. A reliable energy storage system is required to use this energy properly. To do this, a high breakdown strength (Eb) and a significant difference between spontaneous polarization (Pmax) and remnant polarization (Pr) are required. To achieve this, the defect dipoles in lead free BaTiO3 ferroelectric ceramics are created using Mg2+ and Ni2+ ions as acceptor co-doping in the Ti site. According to the structural analyses, the co-dopant ions were effectively incorporated into the BTO unit cell. According to the ferroelectric study, the co-doped samples display a double hysteresis loop, stronger polarization, and high breakdown strength. The formation of oxygen vacancies and defect dipoles prevent domains' movement, resulting in hysteresis loop pinching. This results in increased energy storage density and efficiency. The defect dipoles mechanism effect can be considered a fascinating technology that can guide the researcher working on developing energy storage for next-generation applications.

Keywords: microstructure, defect, energy storage, effciency

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Authors: Nikhil Jain, Bin Yu

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We explore the potential of using ultra-thin hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as both supporting substrate and gate dielectric for graphene-channel field effect transistors (GFETs). Different from commonly used oxide-based dielectric materials which are typically amorphous, very rough in surface, and rich with surface traps, h-BN is layered insulator free of dangling bonds and surface states, featuring atomically smooth surface. In a graphene-channel-last device structure with local buried metal gate electrode (TiN), thin h-BN multilayer is employed as both supporting “substrate” and gate dielectric for graphene active channel. We observed superior carrier mobility and electrical conduction, significantly improved from that in GFETs with SiO2 as substrate/gate insulator. In addition, we report excellent dielectric behavior of layered h-BN, including ultra-low leakage current and high critical electric field for breakdown.

Keywords: graphene, field-effect transistors, hexagonal boron nitride, dielectric strength, tunneling

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Authors: Francis Alterado, Jennifer Enriquez

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Semantic Based Analysis in Complaint Management System with Analytics is an enhanced tool of providing complaints by the clients as well as a mechanism for Palawan Polytechnic College to gather, process, and monitor status of these complaints. The study has a mobile application that serves as a remote facility of communication between the students and the school management on the issues encountered by the student and the solution of every complaint received. In processing the complaints, text mining and clustering algorithms were utilized. Every module of the systems was tested and based on the results; these are 100% free from error before integration was done. A system testing was also done by checking the expected functionality of the system which was 100% functional. The system was tested by 10 students by forwarding complaints to 10 departments. Based on results, the students were able to submit complaints, the system was able to process accordingly by identifying to which department the complaints are intended, and the concerned department was able to give feedback on the complaint received to the student. With this, the system gained 4.7 rating which means Excellent.

Keywords: technology adoption, emerging technology, issues challenges, algorithm, text mining, mobile technology

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Authors: Mohammad Azam

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The purpose of this study is to investigate risk and real excess portfolio returns using inflation adjusted risk-free rates, a measuring technique that focuses on the momentum augmented Fama-French six-factor model and use monthly data from 1994 to 2022. With the exception of profitability, the data show that market, size, value, momentum, and investment factors are all strongly associated to excess portfolio stock returns using ordinary lease square regression technique. According to the Gibbons, Ross, and Shanken test, the momentum augmented Fama-French six-factor model outperforms the market. This technique discovery may be utilised by academics and professionals to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the Pakistan Stock Exchange across a broad stock pattern for investing decisions and portfolio construction.

Keywords: real excess portfolio returns, momentum augmented fama & french five-factor model, GRS-test, pakistan stock exchange

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Authors: Behrang Ekrami, Amin Tamadon

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Caspian red deer or maral (Cervus elaphus maral) is a ruminant from the family of Cervidae. Maintenance and protection of maral requires knowing the behavioral, physiological, environmental characteristics and factors harmful to this species. In this article, reproductive and behavioral traits of this species in both sexes are presented based on observations and the available records of protected deer in Wildlife Refuge of Semeskande, Sari (one of the sites that preserve the maral in the Free Zones of Hyrcanian forest) from 2006 to 2011. Hart characteristics including sexual behavior, apparent changes during reproductive season and reproductive physiology; and hind characteristics including of ovulation, reproductive cycle, mating, pregnancy and parturition, have been evaluated. Identification of maral reproductive characteristics in Wildlife Refuge of Semeskande, Sari is one of the most important information requirements to preserve and breed this species and will open up new routes for performing new methods of reproduction of this species in Iran wildlife parks or other refuge areas.

Keywords: caspian red deer, reproduction, behavior, Iran

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Authors: Ahmed H. Elkholy

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The concept of applying a prescribed oscillation to viscous fluids to aid or increase flow is used to produce a maintenance free pump. Application of this technique to fluids presents unique problems such as physical separation; control of heat and mass transfer in certain industrial applications; and improvement of some fluid process methods. The problem as stated is to obtain the velocity distribution, wall shear stress and energy expended when a pipe containing a stagnant viscous fluid is externally excited by a sinusoidal pulse, one end of the pipe being pinned. On the other hand, the effect of different parameters on the results are presented. Such parameters include fluid viscosity, frequency of oscillations and pipe geometry. It was found that the flow velocity through the pump is maximum at the pipe wall, and it decreases rapidly towards the pipe centerline. The frequency of oscillation should be above a certain value in order to obtain meaningful flow velocity. The amount of energy absorbed in the system is mainly due to pipe wall strain energy, while the fluid pressure and kinetic energies are comparatively small.

Keywords: sinusoidal excitation, pump, shear stress, flow

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Authors: Ceyda Sensin

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Chios Island in Greece hosts many refugees from the Middle East since the Turkey-EU Refugee Deal. Thus, it has become commonplace for non-governmental organizations (NGO) to provide help for refugees in various ways. The purpose of this research is to identify ways in which improvements can be made in the educational services offered to young adult refugees (age group 14-22) by the NGO’s. To meet this aim, an unstructured observational technique was used in this qualitative study. The data was collected as a participant observer in February 2018. According to the observations made in this study, it came out that international NGOs may utilize volunteering team members on an urgent basis since they are a free resource from all around the world. In this study, it was observed that the volunteering team members without any teaching qualifications or teaching experience have struggled with reaching refugee students with or without potential mental health problems from exposure to stress, turmoil and trauma. Therefore, this study highly recommends the use of more relevantly trained professionals, alongside the volunteer staff. Alternatively, the volunteer staffs need to have teacher training and periodical refresher training.

Keywords: ethnographic study, non-governmental organizations, refugees, qualitative research method

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Authors: Zeina Merabi, Arij Dao

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The temporal order of information processing in the brain is an important code in many acoustic signals, including speech, music, and animal vocalizations. Despite its significance, surprisingly little is known about its underlying cellular mechanisms and network manifestations. In the songbird telencephalic nucleus HVC, a subset of neurons shows temporal combination sensitivity (TCS). These neurons show a high temporal specificity, responding differently to distinct patterns of spectral elements and their combinations. HVC neuron types include basal-ganglia-projecting HVCX, forebrain-projecting HVCRA, and interneurons (HVC¬INT), each exhibiting distinct cellular, electrophysiological and functional properties. In this work, we develop conductance-based neural network models connecting the different classes of HVC neurons via different wiring scenarios, aiming to explore possible neural mechanisms that orchestrate the combination sensitivity property exhibited by HVCX, as well as replicating in vivo firing patterns observed when TCS neurons are presented with various auditory stimuli. The ionic and synaptic currents for each class of neurons that are presented in our networks and are based on pharmacological studies, rendering our networks biologically plausible. We present for the first time several realistic scenarios in which the different types of HVC neurons can interact to produce this behavior. The different networks highlight neural mechanisms that could potentially help to explain some aspects of combination sensitivity, including 1) interplay between inhibitory interneurons’ activity and the post inhibitory firing of the HVCX neurons enabled by T-type Ca2+ and H currents, 2) temporal summation of synaptic inputs at the TCS site of opposing signals that are time-and frequency- dependent, and 3) reciprocal inhibitory and excitatory loops as a potent mechanism to encode information over many milliseconds. The result is a plausible network model characterizing auditory processing in HVC. Our next step is to test the predictions of the model.

Keywords: combination sensitivity, songbirds, neural networks, spatiotemporal integration

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Authors: Sedat Yayla, Azhin Abdullah

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In the process of constructing hydroelectric power plants, the Pelton turbine, which is characterized by its simple manufacturing and construction, is performed in high head and low water flow. Parameters of the turbine have to be comprised in the designing process for obtaining hydraulic turbine with the highest efficiency during different operating conditions. The present investigation applied three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In addition, the bucket of Pelton turbine models with different splitter angle and inlet velocity values were examined for determining the force and visualizing the flow pattern on the bucket. The study utilized two diverse bucket models at various inlet velocities (20, 25, 30,35and 40m/s) and four different splitter angles (55, 75,90and 115 degree) for finding out the impacts of every single parameter on the effective force on the bucket. The acquired outcomes revealed that there is a linear relationship between force and inlet velocity on the bucket. Furthermore, the results also uncovered that the relationship between splitter angle and force on the bucket is linear until 90 degree.

Keywords: bucket design, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), free surface flow, two-phase flow, volume of fluid (VOF)

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Authors: Muhammad Samiullah

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Religion and spirit always goes side by side. In this era spirit and religion are studied separately with thought of an anti-religious phenomenon is there with its vast impacts. Non-religious mind and religious one have a lot of things that differs, they have spiritual struggles.so there is theme arises that is in the name of non-religious spirituality(SBNR). The thinking prevailing in west and now in east in reverse of the religious institutional thought and spirituality. Religious disputes created an image to the world that is nontolerant and companionate, rising a question of god existence and self-existence. Thus giving rise in Atheism, nihilism, free thinking. The thinking of spirituality also gone in another side with superstitions and spiritual meditation. Christian religious bodies and scholar criticized the stance with their religious aspect but there should be an Islamic counter narrative should be there. Here in this dissertation the phenomenon is addressed and analyzed in respect with some of the literature presented from 2014 till present year. The phenomenon was not analyzed before in broader sense. There are some introductory and static views presented in this regard. So there is a literature gap to be filled by this effort, the Muslim counter narrative is still not there though Christians do their part.

Keywords: SBNR, non-spirituality, superstitions, Sam Harris

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Authors: Natalia Khvorostianov, Larissa Remennick

Abstract:

Recent immigrants seldom join the ranks of volunteers for various social causes. This gap reflects both material reasons (immigrants’ lower income and lack of free time) and cultural differences (value systems, religiosity, language barrier, attitudes towards host society, etc.). Immigrants from the former socialist countries are particularly averse to organized forms of volunteering for a host of reasons rooted in their past, including the memories of false or forced forms of collectivism imposed by the state. In this qualitative study, based on 21 semi-structured interviews, we explored the perceptions and practices of volunteer work among FSU immigrants - participants in one volunteering project run by an Israeli NGO for the benefit of elderly ex-Soviet immigrants. Our goal was to understand the motivations of immigrant volunteers and the role of volunteering in the processes of their own social and economic integration in their adopted country – Israel. The results indicate that most volunteers chose causes targeting fellow immigrants, their resettlement and well-being, and were motivated by the wish to build co-ethnic support network and overcome marginalization in the Israeli society. Other volunteers were driven by the need for self-actualization in the context of underemployment and occupational downgrading.

Keywords: FSU immigrants, integration, volunteering, participation, social capital

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Authors: Khalid Achaat

Abstract:

It is difficult to speak about freedom of the press in Algeria without first talking to fifty-seven journalists killed in the country between 1993 and 1997 and the five missing journalists. No serious investigation was conducted to find the culprits. When a State is not able to guarantee law, there is no justice and violations of the law become "systematic". How to claim the freedom of press in Algeria, when death becomes "banal"? In these circumstances, can we talk of rights of the Algerian press? It is impossible to understand the problems of the press in Algeria, focusing solely legal issues. Take into account technical, financial and political. Their respective roles varies depending on whether one focuses on the collection of information, the regime of the newspaper company or publication and dissemination. Can we say that the Algerian press is "the freest in the Arab world", while the latter reflects only partially the real problems facing the country? While any newspaper company is subject, de facto, to an authorization scheme, permanently subjected to the constant threat of withdrawal of the authorization, suspension, prohibition or closure without it has the right to a remedy? Can it be free when the majority of "media owners", head of the largest daily newspapers are derived from the single party in power since independence? Some of this release does not it serves the interests of the Algerian power?

Keywords: freedom, press, power, closure, suspension

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Authors: Mohamed Sadek Bachene, Soraya Temim, Hassina Ainbaziz, Asma Bachene

Abstract:

The present study was conducted to assess the safety and the efficacy of a vaccine containing the Algerian precocious strains of Eimeria magna and Eimeria media used separately or together against rabbit coccidiosis. The samples consisted of 56 young rabbits reared in specific pathogen-free conditions. Following the challenge inoculation, statistically significant decreases in oocyst excretion were noticed in the vaccinated rabbits with the precocious strain of Eimeria magna, Eimeria media, and both species leading toa good immune response acquired by the vaccination associated with a good growth rate. Moreover, there was a statistically significant increase in oocyst output following the challenge in all challenged groups. Unlike the vaccinated groups, the challenged groups showed poor weight gains. More than 50% of the young rabbits from all the challenged groups presented diarrhea. Consequently, these precocious strains constitute good candidates for mono or polyvalent anticoccidial vaccines in the future.

Keywords: precocious strain, rabbits, vaccination, wild strain

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Authors: Farouk Lawan Gambo

Abstract:

Data compression shrinks files into fewer bits then their original presentation. It has more advantage on internet because the smaller a file, the faster it can be transferred but learning most of the concepts in data compression are abstract in nature therefore making them difficult to digest by some students (Engineers in particular). To determine the best approach toward learning data compression technique, this paper first study the learning preference of engineering students who tend to have strong active, sensing, visual and sequential learning preferences, the paper also study the advantage that mobility of learning have experienced; Learning at the point of interest, efficiency, connection, and many more. A survey is carried out with some reasonable number of students, through random sampling to see whether considering the learning preference and advantages in mobility of learning will give a promising improvement over the traditional way of learning. Evidence from data analysis using Ms-Excel as a point of concern for error-free findings shows that there is significance different in the students after using learning content provided on smart phone, also the result of the findings presented in, bar charts and pie charts interpret that mobile learning has to be promising feature of learning.

Keywords: data analysis, compression techniques, learning content, traditional learning approach

Procedia PDF Downloads 347