Search results for: geometric imaging relationship

Authors: Wale Agbaje

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The aim of this research study is to assess the impact of financial statement fraud on profitability of some selected Nigerian manufacturing firms covering (2002-2016). The specific objectives focused on to ascertain the effect of incorrect asset valuation on return on assets (ROA) and to ascertain the relationship between improper expense recognition and return on assets (ROA). To achieve these objectives, descriptive research design was used for the study while secondary data were collected from the financial reports of the selected firms and website of security and exchange commission. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used and STATA II econometric method was used in the analysis of the data. Altman model and operating expenses ratio was adopted in the analysis of the financial reports to create a dummy variable for the selected firms from 2002-2016 and validation of the parameters were ascertained using various statistical techniques such as t-test, co-efficient of determination (R2), F-statistics and Wald chi-square. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested using the t-statistics at 5% level of significance. The findings of the analysis revealed that there is a significant relationship between financial statement fraud and profitability in Nigerian manufacturing industry. It was revealed that incorrect assets valuation has a significant positive relationship and so also is the improper expense recognition on return on assets (ROA) which serves as a proxy for profitability. The implication of this is that distortion of asset valuation and expense recognition leads to decreasing profit in the long run in the manufacturing industry. The study therefore recommended that pragmatic policy options need to be taken in the manufacturing industry to effectively manage incorrect asset valuation and improper expense recognition in order to enhance manufacturing industry performance in the country and also stemming of financial statement fraud should be adequately inculcated into the internal control system of manufacturing firms for the effective running of the manufacturing industry in Nigeria.

Keywords: Althman's Model, improper expense recognition, incorrect asset valuation, return on assets

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Authors: Tehila Wright

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Being involved in romantic relationships is a key task in the development of identity during emerging adulthood. To date, little research has focused on romantic relationships among young women who have coped with situations of distress and are treated by social workers. Moreover, the role of social workers in young women’s romantic relations is underexplored. This paper focuses on young women’s perception of the role played by their social workers in guiding them through romantic relationships. Methodology: This qualitative-feminist study is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 young heterosexual Jewish women aged 18-25 who are currently supported by social workers in the welfare system. Findings: The findings uncover three meanings given by participants to their relations with social workers regarding the young women's romantic relationships: 1)” The social worker as role model” namely, the social worker as setting an example for healthy conduct in romantic relationships. 2) "The social worker as savior," namely, the social worker as the one who supports participants escaping abusive romantic relationships. 3) "The present-absent social worker,” namely, despite being a significant figure in their lives, the social worker is experienced as disconnected and alienated. Conclusions and practice: Social workers can have a positive and important contribution to the romantic relationships of these young women. To be a central source of support in the young women's life, the social workers must be able to establish a relationship of trust with the young women.

Keywords: young women, emerging adulthood, romantic relationship, women in distress

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Authors: Barbara Magallona

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Given the observations between students who were active participants in a dialogue with their teacher and students who simply answered the teacher’s questions, the researcher will investigate the relationship between student-teacher dialogue in the classroom and the development of higher level thinking skills with an emphasis on the questioning techniques used by the teacher. The study posits the main question: What is the relationship between teachers’ questioning techniques and the development of students’ higher level thinking skills in a literature class (or in literature classes) in Xavier? The following are the study’s sub-questions: a) What types of questions do literature teachers at Xavier School ask? b) What types of responses do literature students at Xavier School give to teachers' questions? c) To what extent is the development of students' higher level thinking skills shown in teacher-student classroom dialogues in Xavier School's literature classroom? Since questioning techniques and student responses in the literature classroom form the core of this paper and in order to evaluate them, the study uses Andersen and Krathwohl’s revision of Harold Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Teun van Dijk’s discourse-cognition-society triangle will be used as a theoretical framework to design and to guide the classroom interaction.

Keywords: discourse analysis, literature classroom, questioning techniques, secondary education

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Authors: Jan Cernohorsky

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This article aims to assess the evolution of imperfect competition in selected banking markets, in particular in the banking markets of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Another objective is to assess the evolution of the relationship of imperfect competition and profit development in the banking markets. The article first provides an overview of literature on the topic. It then measures the degree of imperfect competition in individual markets using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The commonly used indicator of total assets was chosen as an indicator. Based on this measurement, the individual banking sectors are categorized into theoretical definitions of the various types of imperfect competition - namely all surveyed banking sectors falling within the theoretical definition of monopolistic competition. Subsequently, using correlation analysis, i.e., the Pearson correlation coefficient, or the Spearman correlation coefficient, the connection between the evolution of imperfect competition and the development of the gross profit on selected banking markets was surveyed. It was found that with the exception of the banking market in Slovenia, where there is a positive correlation; there is no correlation between the evolution of imperfect competition and profit development in the selected markets. This means a recommendation for the regulators that it is not appropriate to rationalize a higher degree of regulation in granting banking licenses on the size of the profits attained in the banking market, as the relationship between the degree of concentration in the banking market and the amount of profit according to our measurements does not exist.

Keywords: bank, banking system, imperfect competition, profitability

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Authors: Tao Zhang

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As the competition of all kinds of festival events becomes more and more fierce, more and more event organizers try to design a blended festivalscape by integrating multifaceted environmental cues in order to raise the service quality of festival events and then raise visitors’ satisfaction. As the main type of festival events, food festivals are popular in all over the world. The organizers’ of food festivals also try to mix food with multifaceted environmental cues (e.g., music, stage, light, dance) to design a blended festivalscape. However, until now little studies explore the environmental cues of food festivals and their relationship with visitors’ satisfaction. Therefore, the aim of this study is to ascertain the environmental cues of food festival and their relationship with visitors’ satisfaction by using the blended festivalscape theory. Using convenient sampling method, this study investigated 1,000 food festival visitors in Macau. Factor analysis showed there are mainly six environmental cues (i.e., food, atmosphere, program, staff, facility, and information). All six environmental cues are positively related with visitors’ satisfaction, while the most influential factors are food, atmosphere, and program. This study showed that festival event organizers’ should focus on the topic of their festival event, build festival atmosphere, and create interesting programs in order to design a blended festivalscape and then raise visitors’ satisfaction.

Keywords: environmental cue, event, festival, satisfaction

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Authors: Yasser Gaber, Mohamed Ismail, Serena Bisagni, Mohamad Takwa, Rajni Hatti-Kaul

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Enzymes are safe and selective catalysts. They skillfully catalyze chemical reactions; however, the native form is not usually suitable for industrial applications. Enzymes are therefore engineered by several techniques to meet the required catalytic task. Clopidogrel is recorded among the five best selling pharmaceutical in 2010 under the brand name Plavix. The commonly used route for production of the drug on an industrial scale is the synthesis of the racemic mixture followed by diastereomeric resolution to obtain the pure S isomer. The process consumes a lot of solvents and chemicals. We have evaluated a biocatalytic cleaner approach for asymmetric hydrolysis of racemic clopidogrel. Initial screening of a selected number of hydrolases showed only one enzyme EST to exhibit activity and selectivity towards the desired stereoisomer. As the crude EST is a mixture of several isoenzymes, a homology model of EST-1 was used in molecular dynamic simulations to study the interaction of the enzyme with R and S isomers of clopidogrel. Analysis of the geometric hindrances of the tetrahedral intermediates revealed a potential site for mutagenesis in order to improve the activity and the selectivity. Single point mutation showed dramatic increase in activity and inversion of the enantioselectivity (400 fold change in E value).

Keywords: biocatalysis, biotechnology, enzyme, protein engineering, molecular modeling

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Authors: Tianyu Gao

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Digital architectures use computer-aided design, programming, simulation, and imaging to create virtual forms and physical structures. Today's customers want to know more about their buildings. They want an automatic thermostat to learn their behavior and contact them, such as the doors and windows they want to open with a mobile app. Therefore, the architectural display form is more closely related to the customer's experience. Based on the purpose of building informationization, this paper studies the steel structure design based on BIM. Taking the Zigan office building in Hangzhou as an example, it is divided into four parts, namely, the digital design modulus of the steel structure, the node analysis of the steel structure, the digital production and construction of the steel structure. Through the application of BIM software, the architectural design can be synergized, and the building components can be informationized. Not only can the architectural design be feedback in the early stage, but also the stability of the construction can be guaranteed. In this way, the monitoring of the entire life cycle of the building and the meeting of customer needs can be realized.

Keywords: digital architectures, BIM, steel structure, architectural design

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Authors: Jalal Haghighat Monfared, Zahra Akbari

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Today, business executives need to have useful information to make better decisions. Banks have also been using information tools so that they can direct the decision-making process in order to achieve their desired goals by rapidly extracting information from sources with the help of business intelligence. The research seeks to investigate whether there is a relationship between the quality of decision making and the business intelligence capabilities of Mellat Bank. Each of the factors studied is divided into several components, and these and their relationships are measured by a questionnaire. The statistical population of this study consists of all managers and experts of Mellat Bank's General Departments (including 190 people) who use commercial intelligence reports. The sample size of this study was 123 randomly determined by statistical method. In this research, relevant statistical inference has been used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. In the first stage, using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the normalization of the data was investigated and in the next stage, the construct validity of both variables and their resulting indexes were verified using confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, using the structural equation modeling and Pearson's correlation coefficient, the research hypotheses were tested. The results confirmed the existence of a positive relationship between decision quality and business intelligence capabilities in Mellat Bank. Among the various capabilities, including data quality, correlation with other systems, user access, flexibility and risk management support, the flexibility of the business intelligence system was the most correlated with the dependent variable of the present research. This shows that it is necessary for Mellat Bank to pay more attention to choose the required business intelligence systems with high flexibility in terms of the ability to submit custom formatted reports. Subsequently, the quality of data on business intelligence systems showed the strongest relationship with quality of decision making. Therefore, improving the quality of data, including the source of data internally or externally, the type of data in quantitative or qualitative terms, the credibility of the data and perceptions of who uses the business intelligence system, improves the quality of decision making in Mellat Bank.

Keywords: business intelligence, business intelligence capability, decision making, decision quality

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Authors: Tondani Mudau, Sherine B. Van Wyk, Zuhayr Kafaar, Janan Dietrich

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Female adolescents residing in a patriarchal society such as South Africa are more inclined to embrace feminine ideologies. Internalizing these ideologies may expose female adolescents to mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety. This study explored whether the internalisation of adolescent femininity ideologies namely, objectified relationship with own body (ORB) and inauthentic self in relationships (ISR) predicted anxiety and depression in late female adolescents at Stellenbosch University. The sample of the study consisted of 1451 (18-24) female undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled at Stellenbosch University. The mean age of the participants was 20 (SD=1.46), and most participants (39.7%) were first-year students. The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative research design. Data was collected through an online self-completion survey, the survey consisted of three sections, the first section asked biographical questions regarding age, gender, race and family background. The second section measured the internalisation of feminine ideologies by using the adolescent femininity ideology scale which has two subscales namely inauthentic self in relationship with others (ISR) and objectified relationship with one’s own body (ORB). The ISR scale had the Cronbach Alpha of 0.76, and the ORB scale had the Cronbach Alpha of 0.83. The third section measured mental health (depression and anxiety) by using the Hopkins Symptoms 25-checklist which had the Cronbach Alpha of 0.93. Data were analysed through multiple linear regression from IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 24). The overall results of the multiple linear regression showed that The AFIS combination accounted for 14% for anxiety as measured by the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist R² = .142, F (2, 682) = 56.431, p < .001. The combination also accounted for 24% for depression as measured by the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist R² = .239, F (2, 682) = 106.971, p < .0. The findings in this study affirm the objectification and feminist theory contentions that internalising femininity ideologies (ISR and ORB) predict negative mental health in female adolescents.

Keywords: adolescents, anxiety, depression, feminine ideologies, inauthentic self, mental health, self-objectification, South Africa

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Authors: Adaobi Anakwe, Wilson Majee, Kari White, Rhonda BeLue

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Background: Black men in the U.S. have overall poorer health, are more likely to experience unintended pregnancies, and have pregnancies (with their partner) at younger ages than other racial/ethnic groups. These factors increase the likelihood that pregnancies among Black fathers will occur at suboptimal paternal health. Although several community-based programs exist to support low-income Black fathers’ involvement with their families, little is known about the sexual and reproductive health, and family planning needs of fathers enrolled in these programs. The objective of this study was to quantitatively examine the relationship between Black fathers’ fertility desires and pregnancy prevention strategies and qualitatively explore the nuances of this relationship. Methods: A concurrent mixed-methods approach was used to survey 36 and interview 13 Black fathers from low-income backgrounds, who were participating in a community-based fatherhood program in a Midwestern urban area. Fathers in this study were ≥18 years old with at least one child. Differences between groups were compared using Fisher’s Exact tests and thematic analyses to examine the relationship between participants' fertility desires and reproductive planning practices. Results: Participants had a median age of 33 years, and 72% were non-residential biological parents. About 40% of men desired pregnancy, and 69% reported they or their partner always used contraception. In bivariate analysis, participants’ fertility desires were not associated with pregnancy prevention (p=0.251). Although most interview participants desired pregnancies, several factors contributed to their ability to plan for a pregnancy. Men felt that using contraception to prevent pregnancies was dependent on navigating trust with a partner. Health before pregnancy and financial stability were also important. Overall, participants thought that using an adult mindset, in which they considered the consequences of unprotected sex, was key to family planning. Conclusion: Black fathers may not desire pregnancy and consider a variety of factors, but this does not always result in active pregnancy prevention/contraceptive use. Community-based organizations already working with Black fathers can be leveraged to increase reproductive health awareness and facilitate reproductive planning for fathers.

Keywords: reproductive planning, reproductive health, preconception health, Black fathers, fertility desires, pregnancy

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Authors: Laura G. Caixeta, Maico R. Severino

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One of the biggest challenges that the industries find nowadays is to incorporate sustainability practices into its operations. The Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) concept assists industries in such incorporation. For the full application of this concept is important that enterprises of a same supply chain have the GSCM practices coordinated among themselves. Note that this type of analyses occurs on the context of developed countries and sectors considered big impactors (as automotive, mineral, among others). The propose of this paper is to analyze as the GSCM concepts are applied on the Brazilian animal nutrition industries. The method used was the Case Study. For this, it was selected a supply chain relationship composed by animal nutrition products manufacturer (Enterprise A) and its supplier of animal waste, such as blood, viscera, among others (Enterprise B). First, a literature review was carried out to identify the main GSCM practices. Second, it was done an individual analysis of each one selected enterprise of the application of GSCM concept. For the observed practices, the coordination of each practice in this supply chain was studied. And, it was developed propose of GSCM applications for the practices no observed. The findings of this research were: a) the systematization of main GSCM practices, as: Internal Environment Management, Green Consumption, Green Design, Green Manufacturing, Green Marketing, Green Packaging, Green Procurement, Green Recycling, Life Cycle Analysis, Consultation Selection Method, Environmental Risk Sharing, Investment Recovery, and Reduced Transportation Time; b) the identification of GSCM practices on Enterprise A (7 full application, 3 partial application and 3 no application); c) the identification of GSCM practices on Enterprise B (2 full application, 2 partial application and 9 no application); d) the identification of how is the incentive and the coordination of the GSCM practices on this relationship by Enterprise A; e) proposals of application and coordination of the others GSCM practices on this supply chain relationship. Based on the study, it can be concluded that its possible apply GSCM on animal nutrition industries, and when occurs the motivation on the application of GSCM concepts by a supply chain echelon, these concepts are deployed for the others supply chain echelons by the coordination (orchestration) of the first echelon.

Keywords: animal nutrition industries, coordination, green supply chain management, supply chain management, sustainability

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Authors: Fayaz Moosavi, Saeid Moradyfard

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One of the methods in avoiding management fraud and increasing the quality of financial information, is the notification of qualitative features of financial information, including conservatism characteristic. Although taking a conservatism approach, while boosting the quality of financial information, is able to reduce the informational risk and the cost of capital stock of commercial department, by presenting an improper image about the situation of the commercial department, raises the risk of failure in returning the main and capital interest, and consequently the cost of capital of the commercial department. In order to know if conservatism finally leads to the increase or decrease of the cost of capital or does not have any influence on it, information regarding accepted companies in Tehran stock exchange is utilized by application of pooling method from 2007 to 2012 and it included 124 companies. The results of the study revealed that there is an opposite and meaningful relationship between conditional conservatism and the cost of capital of the company. In other words, if bad and unsuitable news and signs are reflected sooner than good news in accounting profit, the cost of capital of the company increases. In addition, there is a positive and meaningful relationship between the cost of capital and lack of information asymmetry.

Keywords: conditional conservatism, lack of information asymmetry, the cost of capital, stock exchange

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Authors: Muhammad Qasim, Dolors Puigjaner, Josep Maria López, Joan Herrero, Carme Olivé, Gerard Fortuny

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Computational modeling of the human pelvis using the finite element (FE) method has become extremely important to understand the mechanics of prostate motion and deformation when transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsy is performed. The number of reliable and validated hyperelastic constitutive FE models of the male pelvis region is limited, and given models did not precisely describe the anatomical behavior of pelvis organs, mainly of the prostate and its neoplasms location. The motion and deformation of the prostate during TRUS-guided biopsy makes it difficult to know the location of potential lesions in advance. When using this procedure, practitioners can only provide roughly estimations for the lesions locations. Consequently, multiple biopsy samples are required to target one single lesion. In this study, the whole pelvis model (comprised of the rectum, bladder, pelvic muscles, prostate transitional zone (TZ), and peripheral zone (PZ)) is used for the simulation results. An isotropic hyperelastic approach (Signorini model) was used for all the soft tissues except the vesical muscles. The vesical muscles are assumed to have a linear elastic behavior due to the lack of experimental data to determine the constants involved in hyperelastic models. The tissues and organ geometry is taken from the existing literature for 3D meshes. Then the biomechanical parameters were obtained under different testing techniques described in the literature. The acquired parametric values for uniaxial stress/strain data are used in the Signorini model to see the anatomical behavior of the pelvis model. The five mesh nodes in terms of small prostate lesions are selected prior to biopsy and each lesion’s final position is targeted when TRUS probe force of 30 N is applied at the inside rectum wall. Code_Aster open-source software is used for numerical simulations. Moreover, the overall effects of pelvis organ deformation were demonstrated when TRUS–guided biopsy is induced. The deformation of the prostate and neoplasms displacement showed that the appropriate material properties to organs altered the resulting lesion's migration parametrically. As a result, the distance traveled by these lesions ranged between 3.77 and 9.42 mm. The lesion displacement and organ deformation are compared and analyzed with our previous study in which we used linear elastic properties for all pelvic organs. Furthermore, the visual comparison of axial and sagittal slices are also compared, which is taken for Magnetic Resource Imaging (MRI) and TRUS images with our preliminary study.

Keywords: code-aster, magnetic resonance imaging, neoplasms, transrectal ultrasound, TRUS-guided biopsy

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Authors: Gurmeet Singh Cheema, Gurjinder Singh, Amardeep Singh Kang

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Aluminium alloy 6061 is a medium to high strength heat-treatable alloy which has very good corrosion resistance and very good weldability. Friction Stir Welding was developed and this technique has attracted considerable interest from the aerospace and automotive industries since it is able to produce defect free joints particularly for light metals i.e aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy. In the friction stir welding process, welding parameters such as tool rotational speed, welding speed and tool shoulder diameter play a major role in deciding the weld quality. In this research work, an attempt has been made to understand the effect of tool rotational speed, welding speed and tool shoulder diameter on friction stir welded AA6061 aluminium alloy joints. Statistical tool such as central composite design is used to develop the mathematical relationships. The mathematical model was developed to predict mechanical properties of friction stir welded aluminium alloy joints at the 95% confidence level.

Keywords: aluminium alloy, friction stir welding, central composite design, mathematical relationship

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Authors: Daniel Tarrazó-Serrano, Sergio Pérez-López, Sergio Castiñeira-Ibáñez, Pilar Candelas, Constanza Rubio

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Zone Plates (ZPs) are used in many areas of physics where planar fabrication is advantageous in comparison with conventional curved lenses. There are several types of ZPs, such as the well-known Fresnel ZPs or the more recent Fractal ZPs and Fibonacci ZPs. The material selection of the lens plays a very important role in the beam modulation control. This work presents a comparison between two Fresnel ZP made from different materials in the ultrasound domain: Polylactic Acid (PLA) and brass. PLA is the most common material used in commercial 3D-printers due to its high design flexibility and low cost. Numerical simulations based on Finite Element Method (FEM) and experimental results are shown, and they prove that the focusing capabilities of brass ZPs and PLA ZPs are similar. For this reason, PLA is proposed as a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) compatible material with great potential for therapeutic ultrasound focusing applications.

Keywords: FZP, PLA, focus, ultrasound, MRI

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Authors: Wendy Carolina Gomez Ramirez, Rodulfo Ospina Torres

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Thygater aethiops is a species of solitary bee with a neotropical distribution that has been adapted to live in urban environments. This species of bee presents a marked sexual dimorphism since the males have antenna almost as long as their body different from the females that present antenna with smaller size. In this work, placoid sensilla were studied, which are structures that appear in the antenna and are involved in the detection of substances both, for reproduction and for the search of food. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences between these sensory structures in the different sexes, for which males and females were captured. Later some body measures were taken such as fresh weight with abdomen and without it, since the weight could be modified by the stomach content; other measures were taken as the total antenna length and length of the flagellum and flagelomere. After negative imprints of the antenna were made using nail polish, the imprint was cut with a microblade and mounted onto a microscope slide. The placoid sensilla were visible on the imprint, so they were counted manually on the 100x objective lens of the optical microscope. Initially, the males presented a specific distribution pattern in two types of sensilla: trichoid and placoid, the trichoid were found aligned in the dorsal face of the antenna and the placoid were distributed along the entire antenna; that was different to the females since they did not present a distribution pattern the sensilla were randomly organized. It was obtained that the males, because they have a longer antenna, have a greater number of sensilla in relation to the females. Additionally, it was found that there was no relationship between the weight and the number of sensilla, but there was a positive relationship between the length of the antenna, the length of the flagellum and the number of sensilla. The relationship between the number of sensilla per unit area in each of the sexes was also calculated, which showed that, on average, males have 4.2 ± 0.38 sensilla per unit area and females present 2.2 ± 0.20 and likewise a significant difference between sexes. This dimorphism found may be related to the sexual behavior of the species, since it has been demonstrated that males are more adapted to the perception of substances related to reproduction than to the search of food.

Keywords: antenna, olfactory organ, sensilla, sexual dimorphism, solitary bees

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Authors: Mohamed Barbary, Mohamed H. Abd El-azeem

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Maneuvering non-ellipsoidal extended object tracking (M-NEOT) using high-resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) observations is gaining momentum recently. This work presents a new robust implementation of the Jump Markov (JM) multi-Bernoulli (MB) filter for M-NEOT, where the M-NEOT’s ISAR observations are characterized using a skewed (SK) non-symmetrically normal distribution. To cope with the possible abrupt change of kinematic state, extension, and observation distribution over an extended object when a target maneuvers, a multiple model technique is represented based on an MB-track-before-detect (TBD) filter supported by SK-sub-random matrix model (RMM) or sub-ellipses framework. Simulation results demonstrate this remarkable impact.

Keywords: maneuvering extended objects, ISAR, skewed normal distribution, sub-RMM, JM-MB-TBD filter

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Authors: Shima Hashemi, Firoozeh Ghazanfari

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Introduction: Eating disorder is a psychiatric disorder that is increasingly growing. This study aimed to determine the relationship between eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia nervosa) with some of the demographic factors among Lorestan University of Medical Sciences students. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional and descriptive study that was done at Lorestan University of Medical Sciences in 2019. Four hundred fifty students were studied by stratified and cluster sampling methods. For gathering data, we use the standard questionnaire Eating Attitudes Test EAT (26). Data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS. Results: According to the results, 144 (32%) males and 305 (67.8%) females were studied. 88.7% were single, and 8.9% were married. In the anorexia nervosa group, the results showed that there was a significant meaning between demographic information, and the number of family members, marital status, BMI, level of education, family income, father and mother education, as well as in the bulimia nervosa group, there was no significant meaning with any demographic information (p>0.05). Conclusion: Anorexia and bulimia nervosa are two known types of eating disorders, and some demographic factors can be effective in causing or aggravating these disorders.

Keywords: eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, students

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Authors: Grace Baptie, Jackie Andrade, Alison Bacon, Alyson Norman

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Background: Many women experience their childbirth as traumatic, and 4-6% of mothers present with postnatal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their birth. Aims: To measure the relationship between obstetric and subjective experience of childbirth on mothers’ experience of postnatal trauma and identify salient aspects of the birth experience considered traumatic. Methods: Women who had given birth within the last year completed an online mixed-methods survey reporting on their subjective and obstetric birth experience as well as symptoms of postnatal trauma, depression and anxiety. Findings: 29% of mothers experienced their labour as traumatic and 15% met full or partial criteria for PTSD. Feeling supported and in control mediated the relationship between obstetric intervention and postnatal trauma symptoms. Five key themes were identified from the qualitative data regarding aspects of the birth considered traumatic including: obstetric complications; lack of control; concern for baby; psychological trauma and lack of support. Conclusion: Subjective birth experience is a significantly stronger predictor of postnatal trauma than level of medical intervention, the psychological consequences of which can be buffered by an increased level of support and control.

Keywords: birth trauma, perinatal mental health, postnatal PTSD, subjective experience

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Authors: Namik Kemal Sonmez

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Based passive remote sensing technologies have been widely used in many plant species. However, use of these techniques in orange trees is limited. In this study, the relationships between chlorophyll content (Chl) and calculated red edge (RE) and vegetation index values of the citrus leave at different growth stages were formed the basis for the analysis. Canopy reflectance by hand-held spectroradiometer and total Chl analysis at the lab were measured simultaneously, from the random samples taken from four different parts of an orange orchard. Plant materials consisted of four different age groups of 15, 20, 25, and 30 years old orange trees. Reflectance measurements were conducted between 450 and 900 nanometer (nm) wavelength at four different bands (3 visible bands and 1 near-infrared band) at the four basic physiological periods (flowering, fruit setting, fruit maturity, and dormancy) of orange trees. According to the statistical analysis conducted, there was a strong relationship between the chlorophyll content and calculated indexes (p ≤ 0.01; R²= 0.925 at red edge and R²= 0.986 at vegetation index) at the fruit setting stage of 20 years old trees. Again at this stage, fruit setting, total Chl content values among all orange trees were significantly correlated at the RE and VI with the R² values of 0.672 and 0.635 at the 0.001 level, respectively. This indicated that the relationships between Chl content and index values were very strong at this stage, in comparison to the other stages.

Keywords: spectroradiometer, citrus, chlorophyll, reflectance, index

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Authors: Akram Sadat Jafari Roodbandi, Farzaneh Akbari, Vafa Feyzi, Zahra Zare, Zohreh Foroozanfar

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Introduction: Circadian rhythm or sleep-awake cycle in 24 hours is one of the important factors affecting the physiological and psychological characteristics in humans that contribute to biochemical, physiological and behavioral processes and helps people to set up brain and body for sleep or active awakening during certain hours. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the characteristics of circadian rhythms on the sleep quality and sleepiness according to their demographic characteristics such as age. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was carried out among the general population of Kerman, aged 15-84 years. After dividing the age groups into 10-year demographic characteristics questionnaire, the type of circadian questionnaire, Pittsburgh sleep quality questionnaire and Euporth sleepiness questionnaire were completed in equal numbers between men and women of that age group. Using cluster sampling with effect design equal 2, 1300 questionnaires were distributed during the various hours of 24 hours in public places in Kerman city. Data analysis was done using SPSS software and univariate tests and linear regressions at a significance level of 0.05. Results: In this study, 1147 subjects were included in the study, 584 (50.9%) were male and the rest were women. The mean age was 39.50 ± 15.38. 133 (11.60%) subjects from the study participants had sleepiness and 308 (26.90%) subjects had undesirable sleep quality. Using linear regression test, sleep quality was the significant correlation with sex, hours needed for sleep at 24 hours, chronic illness, sleepiness, and circadian rhythm amplitude. Sleepiness was the meaningful relationship with marital status, sleep-wake schedule of other family members and the stability of circadian rhythm. Both women and men, with age, decrease the quality of sleep and increase the rate of sleepiness. Conclusion: Age, sex, and type of circadian people, the need for sleep at 24 hours, marital status, sleep-wake schedule of other family members are significant factors related to the sleep quality and sleepiness and their adaptation to night shift work.

Keywords: circadian type, sleep quality, sleepiness, age, shift work

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Authors: Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, R. Nagavinothini

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Offshore platforms for ultra-deep waters are form-dominant by design; hybrid systems with large flexibility in horizontal plane and high rigidity in vertical plane are preferred due to functional complexities. Offshore triceratops is relatively a new-generation offshore platform, whose deck is partially isolated from the supporting buoyant legs by ball joints. They allow transfer of partial displacements of buoyant legs to the deck but restrain transfer of rotational response. Buoyant legs are in turn taut-moored to the sea bed using pre-tension tethers. Present study will discuss detailed dynamic analysis and preliminary design of the chosen geometric, which is necessary as a proof of validation for such design applications. A detailed numeric analysis of triceratops at 2400 m water depth under random waves is presented. Preliminary design confirms member-level design requirements under various modes of failure. Tether configuration, proposed in the study confirms no pull-out of tethers as stress variation is comparatively lesser than the yield value. Presented study shall aid offshore engineers and contractors to understand suitability of triceratops, in terms of design and dynamic response behaviour.

Keywords: offshore structures, triceratops, random waves, buoyant legs, preliminary design, dynamic analysis

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Authors: Chaoren Lu

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Public policy is playing as one driving force that influencing service innovation implementation in public sector. However, public policy implications cannot be automatically derived from the analyses of innovation issues, and there lacks of researches about the influences of public policy onto innovation. Moreover, innovation in service system is hard to predictable and whether policy encourages or hidden innovation is still lack of study. Especially, by given the context that multiple actors are active involving within the service delivery process in public transport sector, the complex driving forces and challenges are emerged towards the service operation. This study is aim to analysis the service innovation practices within service operating organizations to understand the drivers and challenges of service operation based on policy requirements, and where the innovation idea generating from. The case studies of Changzhou Transit Group and Nanjing Jiangnan Public Transit Group will be launched. This paper reveals the ambidexterity between top-down and bottom-up demands within the public transport service operating organizations contribute to the innovation ideas. Meanwhile, it contributes to the understanding of fundamental elements of service innovation is the new relationship creation and new way of sharing knowledge. The policy contributes to the trigger of creation of such relationship. The research question is: what are the sources of service innovation practices in local public transport system in China in in facing the policy implementation?

Keywords: public value, service innovation, public transport service, China

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Authors: Virendra J. Majarikar, Harikrishnan N. Unni

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This paper sets to demonstrate a modeling of electrokinetic mixing employing electroosmotic stationary and time-dependent microchannel using alternate zeta patches on the lower surface of the micromixer in a lab on chip microfluidic device. Electroosmotic flow is amplified using different 2D and 3D model designs with alternate and geometric zeta potential values such as 25, 50, and 100 mV, respectively, to achieve high concentration mixing in the electrokinetically-driven microfluidic system. The enhancement of electrokinetic mixing is studied using Finite Element Modeling, and simulation workflow is accomplished with defined integral steps. It can be observed that the presence of alternate zeta patches can help inducing microvortex flows inside the channel, which in turn can improve mixing efficiency. Fluid flow and concentration fields are simulated by solving Navier-Stokes equation (implying Helmholtz-Smoluchowski slip velocity boundary condition) and Convection-Diffusion equation. The effect of the magnitude of zeta potential, the number of alternate zeta patches, etc. are analysed thoroughly. 2D simulation reveals that there is a cumulative increase in concentration mixing, whereas 3D simulation differs slightly with low zeta potential as that of the 2D model within the T-shaped micromixer for concentration 1 mol/m³ and 0 mol/m³, respectively. Moreover, 2D model results were compared with those of 3D to indicate the importance of the 3D model in a microfluidic design process.

Keywords: COMSOL Multiphysics®, electrokinetic, electroosmotic, microfluidics, zeta potential

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Authors: Sai Maniveer Adapa, Sai Guptha Perla, Adithya Reddy P.

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Thyroid nodules can often be diagnosed with ultrasound imaging, although differentiating between benign and malignant nodules can be challenging for medical professionals. This work suggests a novel approach to increase the precision of thyroid nodule identification by combining machine learning and deep learning. The new approach first extracts information from the ultrasound pictures using a deep learning method known as a convolutional autoencoder. A support vector machine, a type of machine learning model, is then trained using these features. With an accuracy of 92.52%, the support vector machine can differentiate between benign and malignant nodules. This innovative technique may decrease the need for pointless biopsies and increase the accuracy of thyroid nodule detection.

Keywords: thyroid tumor diagnosis, ultrasound images, deep learning, machine learning, convolutional auto-encoder, support vector machine

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Authors: Emma Serwaa Obobisa, Winifred Essaah

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Significant worldwide trends including urbanization, industrialization, globalization, and the impending digitization have all contributed to human prosperity. However, the majority of these advancements fail to take sustainability into account, which caused the earth to manifest its retaliation in many forms. Since the world is already well-advanced, mankind needs a mature development that instills sustainability in its acts. As a result, the United Nations established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which set forth guidelines for human behavior to ensure that the ecosystem and mankind coexist as a unified, autonomous system. The study investigates the role of eco-innovation, renewable energy consumption, human capital, environmental tax, and natural resources in achieving European Union countries' sustainable development goals. The results show that eco-innovation, renewable energy consumption, human capital, and environmental tax have a negative relationship with consumption-based CO₂ emissions but a positive relationship with natural resources. These findings suggest that governments in European Union countries commit to encouraging environmentally friendly technology advances and green investment. It also stresses the need to enforce regulations that regulate the activities of polluting firms in the region with strictness.

Keywords: sustainable development, Eco-innovation, renewable energy, CO₂ emissions

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Authors: Heike Pintor Pirzkall

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The positive economic evolution of many countries in the Latin American Continent, mainly in South America, has changed the geopolitical position of the region in the world. It is no longer the Hinterland or backyard of the United States, now it has become the Heartland for Europe and Asia. This position has favored the interest of countries like China or India, who are combining trade agreements with special assistance and aid agreements in many fields like agriculture, alternative energy resources, defense and mining. As many countries in the region are no longer low income countries, a more equal relationship in development aid has been created were the donor and the recipient have become partners and where new actors intervene in a triangular relationship that promotes new alternative aid structures. Triangular co-operation brings together the best of different actors who are providers of development co-operation, partners in SouthSouth co-operation and international organizations. The objective is to share knowledge and implement projects that support the common goal of reducing poverty and promoting development. The intention of this paper is to explain the reasons for Latin America´s “virage” to the east and to give examples of projects and agreements between Latin American countries, China and India which will help to understand the intensification of south-east relations in recent years.

Keywords: development cooperation, China, Latin America, triangular cooperation, natural resources, partnership

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Authors: Şeyda Kaya

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The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility perception and organizational commitment among Turkish cabin crew. At the same time, the social responsibility perception and organizational commitment scores of the participants were compared according to their gender, age, education level, title, and work experience. In the globalizing world, businesses have developed some innovative marketing methods in order to survive and strengthen their place in the market. Nowadays, consumers who are connected to the brand with an emotional bond rather than being just consumers. Corporate Social Responsibility Projects, on the one hand, provide social benefit, on the other hand, increase the brand awareness of businesses by providing credibility in the eyes of consumers. The rapid increase of competition, requires businesses to use their human resources, which is the most important resource to sustain their existence, in the most effective and efficient way. For this reason, the concept of ‘Organizational Commitment’ has become an important research topic for business and academics. Although there are studies in the literature to determine the effect of the perception of corporate social Responsibility on Organizational Commitment in Banking and Finance and Tourism sectors, there are no studies conducted specifically for the Turkish aviation sector to our best knowledge. Personal information form, CSR scale, Importance of CSR scale, Organizational commitment scale were used as data collection tools in the research. CSR Scale created by Türker (2006). was used to find out how employees felt about CSR. Importance of CSR Scale through a subscale of the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility (PRESOR) that Etheredge (1999) converted into a two-factor framework, the significance of social responsibility for employees was assessed. Organizational Commitment Scale, Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) created the OCQ, which uses 15 measures to evaluate global commitment to the organization. As a result of the study, there is a significant positive relationship between the participants' CSR scale sub-dimensions, CSR to Employees, CSR to Customers, CSR to Society, CSR to Government, CSR to Natural Environment, CSR to Next Generation, CSR to Governmental Organizations, Importance of CSR, and Organizational Commitment scores. As a result; as the participants' Corporate Social Responsibility scores increase, their organizational commitment increases. To summarize the findings of our study, the scores obtained from the CSR scale and the scores obtained from the Organizational Commitment scale were found to have a positive and significant relationship. In other words, if the participants value the corporate social responsibility projects of the institution they work for and think that they spare time and effort, the importance they attach to the corporate social responsibility projects and their organizational commitment to the institution they work for, increase. Similarly, the scores obtained from the Importance of CSR and the scores obtained from the Organizational Commitment scale also have a positive and significant relationship. As the importance given to corporate social responsibility projects by the participants increases, their organizational commitment to the institution they work for also increases.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, organizational commitment, Turkish cabin crew, aviation

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Authors: Sukanya Sripho

Abstract:

This paper aims to examine the level of roles performed in tourism development by local people residing in Chiang Khan Sub-District Municipality, Loei Province in Northeast of Thailand. In addition, this study also tested whether personal factors had a relationship with the level of roles performed in tourism development. These personal factors included gender, age, educational level, career, position and duty in the community, average income per month, length of residence and involvement in the tourism industry. The findings revealed a high level in each role performed. These roles were ranked from the highest mean score to the lowest mean score as follows: (1) improving and rejuvenating tourist attractions; (2) improving tourist facilities; (3) promoting people participation; (4) publicizing tourist attractions; (5) protecting for safety and security; and (6) surveying and managing the information of tourist attractions. Furthermore, it was found that position and duty in the community, length of residence and involvement in tourism industry had a relationship with the level of roles performed in tourism development at a significance level of 0.05.

Keywords: Role, local municipality administration, tourism development, Thailand

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Authors: Jasmine Latiolais

Abstract:

Much of the disaster-related literature finds a positive relationship between the impact of a natural disaster and the growth of wages. Panel datasets are often used to explore these effects. However, natural disasters do not impact a single variable in the economy. Rather, natural disasters affect all facets of the economy, simultaneously, upon impact. It is difficult to control for all factors that would be influenced by the impact of a natural disaster, which can lead to lead to omitted variable bias in those studies employing panel datasets. To address this issue of omitted variable bias, an interrupted time series analysis is used to test the short-run relationship between the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on parish wage levels in Southern Louisiana, inherently controlling for economic conditions. This study provides evidence that natural disasters do increase wages in the very short term (one quarter following the impact of the hurricane) but that these results are not seen in the longer term and are not robust. In addition, the significance of the coefficients changes depending on the parish. Overall, this study finds that previous literature on this topic may not be robust when considered through a time-series lens.

Keywords: economic recovery, local economies, local wage growth, natural disasters

Procedia PDF Downloads 127