Search results for: natural dialect analysis

Authors: Hayyan ul Haq, Zainal Asikin

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This work aims to explore the appropriate solution in solving legal problems stemmed from managing and exploiting strategic natural resources in Indonesia. This discussion will be focused on the exploitation of gold mining, i.e. divestation process in the New Mont Corporation, West Nusa Tenggara. These legal problems relate to the deviation of the national budget regulation, UU. No. 19/2012, and the implementation of the divestastion process, which infringes PP. No. 50/2007 concerning the Impelementation Procedure of Regional Cooperation, which is an implementation regulation of UU No. 1/2004 on State’s Treasury. The cooperation model, have been developed by the Provincial Government, failed to create a permanent legal solution through normative approach. It has merely used practical approach that tends (instant solution), by using some loopholes in the divestation process. The above blunders have accumulated by other secondary legal blunders, i.e. good governance principles, particularly justice, transparency, efficiency, effective principles and competitiveness principle. To solve the above problems, this work offers constitutionalisation of contract that aimed at reviewing and coherencing all deviated contracts, rules and policies that have deprived the national and societies’ interest to optimize the strategic natural resources towards the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people..

Keywords: constitutionalisation of contract, strategic national resources, divestation, the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people, Indonesian Pancasila values

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Authors: Lexi Li, Vanessa H. K. Pang

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This study aims to demonstrate how native and learner corpora can be used to enhance modal verb treatment in EFL textbooks in mainland China. It contributes to a corpus-informed and learner-centered design of grammar presentation in EFL textbooks that enhances the authenticity and appropriateness of textbook language for target learners. The linguistic focus is will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must. The native corpus is the spoken component of BNC2014 (hereafter BNCS2014). The spoken part is chosen because pedagogical purpose of the textbooks is communication-oriented. Using the standard query option of CQPweb, 5% of each of the nine modals was sampled from BNCS2014. The learner corpus is the POS-tagged Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners (TECCL). All the essays under the 'secondary school' section were selected. A series of five secondary coursebooks comprise the textbook corpus. All the data in both the learner and the textbook corpora are retrieved through the concordance functions of WordSmith Tools (version, 5.0). Data analysis was divided into two parts. The first part compared the patterns of modal verbs in the textbook corpus and BNC2014 with respect to distributional features, semantic functions, and co-occurring constructions to examine whether the textbooks reflect the authentic use of English. Secondly, the learner corpus was analyzed in terms of the use (distributional features, semantic functions, and co-occurring constructions) and the misuse (syntactic errors, e.g., she can sings*.) of the nine modal verbs to uncover potential difficulties that confront learners. The analysis of distribution indicates several discrepancies between the textbook corpus and BNCS2014. The first four most frequent modal verbs in BNCS2014 are can, would, will, could, while can, will, should, could are the top four in the textbooks. Most strikingly, there is an unusually high proportion of can (41.1%) in the textbooks. The results on different meanings shows that will, would and must are the most problematic. For example, for will, the textbooks contain 20% more occurrences of 'volition' and 20% less of 'prediction' than those in BNCS2014. Regarding co-occurring structures, the textbooks over-represented the structure 'modal +do' across the nine modal verbs. Another major finding is that the structure of 'modal +have done' that frequently co-occur with could, would, should, and must is underused in textbooks. Besides, these four modal verbs are the most difficult for learners, as the error analysis shows. This study demonstrates how the synergy of native and learner corpora can be harnessed to improve EFL textbook presentation of modal verbs in a way that textbooks can provide not only authentic language used in natural discourse but also appropriate design tailed for the needs of target learners.

Keywords: English as Foreign Language, EFL textbooks, learner corpus, modal verbs, native corpus

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Authors: Lutendo Nendauni

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Colonialism breaks things, colonisers exploded native cultural solidarity, producing the spiritual confusion, psychic wounding, and economic exploitation of a new and dominated ‘other’. Colonialism as the cultural and economic exploitation began when the West defended in their seizure of foreign territories for the exploitation of its natural resources; this resulted in brutal socio-economic imbalances. The Western profited at the detriment of the weak Africa. However, colonialism has since passed, but the effects are still evident culturally, socially, and economically. This paper explored how postcolonial writers and critics attempt to reverse the socio-economic imbalances resulting from the fragmentation of colonialism, with a focus on the play 'I will Marry When I Want' by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ngugi wa Mirii, as a primary text. Using qualitative discourse-textual analysis as the research methodology, the researcher purposively extracts discourse segments from the text for analysis and interpretation. The findings reveal that Postcolonial critics and writers attempt to reverse the socio-economic effects of colonialism through various counter discourses; their literature is concerned with the destruction of colonised identity, the search for this identity, and its assertion. It is manifest in the text that writers offer corrective views about Africans; they stress that they write their literary texts to conscientise their fellow Africans. Postcolonial writers and critics argue that language is a carrier of culture and that the only way to break free from colonial influence is by not adopting a foreign language. They further through their poems, novels, plays, and music strategically shine the spotlight on the previously nameless and destitute people so that they can develop the human spirit’s desire to overcome defeat, socio-political deprivation, and isolation.

Keywords: colonialism, postcoloniality, critics, socio-economic imbalances

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Authors: Kien Vu, Jien Min Soh, Mohamed Jahangir Abubacker, Piyawut Pattamanon, Soojin Lee, Suvro Banerjee

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Recent advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), in particular Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown promise to disrupt multiple industries at scale. However, LLMs also present unique challenges, notably, these so-called "hallucination" which is the generation of outputs that are not grounded in the input data that hinders its adoption into production. Common practice to mitigate hallucination problem is utilizing Retrieval Agmented Generation (RAG) system to ground LLMs'response to ground truth. RAG converts the grounding documents into embeddings, retrieve the relevant parts with vector similarity between user's query and documents, then generates a response that is not only based on its pre-trained knowledge but also on the specific information from the retrieved documents. However, the RAG system is not suitable for tabular data and subsequent data analysis tasks due to multiple reasons such as information loss, data format, and retrieval mechanism. In this study, we have explored a novel methodology that combines planning-and-execution and code generation agents to enhance LLMs' data analysis capabilities. The approach enables LLMs to autonomously dissect a complex analytical task into simpler sub-tasks and requirements, then convert them into executable segments of code. In the final step, it generates the complete response from output of the executed code. When deployed beta version on DataSense, the property insight tool of PropertyGuru, the approach yielded promising results, as it was able to provide market insights and data visualization needs with high accuracy and extensive coverage by abstracting the complexities for real-estate agents and developers from non-programming background. In essence, the methodology not only refines the analytical process but also serves as a strategic tool for real estate professionals, aiding in market understanding and enhancement without the need for programming skills. The implication extends beyond immediate analytics, paving the way for a new era in the real estate industry characterized by efficiency and advanced data utilization.

Keywords: large language model, reasoning, planning and execution, code generation, natural language processing, prompt engineering, data analysis, real estate, data sense, PropertyGuru

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Authors: Suthida Panwong, Jeeraporn Pekkoh, Yingmanee Tragoolpua, Aussara Panya

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Dengue virus (DENV) infection is a major public health problem in many countries, especially in tropical and subtropical countries. DENV infection causes dengue fever that can progress to serious conditions of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) or dengue shock syndrome (DSS), relevant to a high risk of mortality. However, there are no effective treatments available against the manifestation and fatalities. Currently, natural extracts have been widely used for the treatment of infectious diseases due to their safety, non-accumulation in the body, or lower side effects. Chlorella spp. is a microalgae with anti-viral activity, but there is not much report to support its ability to inhibit DENV infection. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effect of ethanolic extract from Chlorella sp. AARL G049, which was explored in Thailand on inhibition of DENV-2 infection. The inhibitory effect on viral infection was assessed using a foci-forming assay (FFA), which revealed that a concentration of 125 µg/mL could inhibit viral infection in Vero cells by 75.45±8.06% when treated at the same time as DENV-2 infection. Moreover, the extract at an equal concentration effectively reduced viral protein synthesis by 90.51±5.48% when assessed in human cell lines using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Concordantly, the number of infected cells after treatment was reduced as measured by immunofluorescent assay (IFA). Therefore, the finding of this study supports the potential use of Chlorella sp. extract to suppress DENV infection.

Keywords: viral infection, flavivirus, treatment, natural extract

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Authors: R. Tajau, R. Rohani, M. S. Alias, N. H. Mudri, K. A. Abdul Halim, M. H. Harun, N. Mat Isa, R. Che Ismail, S. Muhammad Faisal, M. Talib, M. R. Mohamed Zin

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Bio-based polymeric materials are increasingly used for a variety of applications, including surface coating, drug delivery systems, and tissue engineering. These polymeric materials are ideal for the aforementioned applications because they are derived from natural resources, non-toxic, low-cost, biocompatible, and biodegradable, and have promising thermal and mechanical properties. The nature of hydrocarbon chains, carbon double bonds, and ester bonds allows various sources of oil (edible), such as soy, sunflower, olive, and oil palm, to fine-tune their particular structures in the development of innovative materials. Palm oil can be the most eminent raw material used for manufacturing new and advanced natural polymeric materials involving radiation techniques, such as coating resins, nanoparticles, scaffold, nanotubes, nanocomposites, and lithography for different branches of the industry in countries where oil palm is abundant. The radiation technique is among the most versatile, cost-effective, simple, and effective methods. Crosslinking, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT), polymerisation, grafting, and degradation are among the radiation mechanisms. Exposure to gamma, EB, UV, or laser irradiation, which are commonly used in the development of polymeric materials, is used in these mechanisms. Therefore, this review focuses on current radiation processing technologies for the development of various radiation-curable bio-based polymeric materials with a promising future in biomedical and industrial applications. The key focus of this review is on radiation curable palm oil-based products, which have been published frequently in recent studies.

Keywords: palm oil, radiation processing, surface coatings, VOC

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Authors: Anderson dos Santos Ananias, Matheus Yuji Shigueoka, Roberto Saverio Souza Costa

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Soil and water conservation can be conceptualized as a combination of management and use methods, which have the function of protecting them against deterioration induced by anthropogenic or natural factors. Thus, the objective of this research was to evaluate the rural extension work in soil conservation carried out at Sítio do Alto in Jaboticabal-SP, through the analysis of planimetric data (latitude and longitude coordinates) and altimetric differences of the empirically constructed terraces by the rural producer and with technical guidance from CATI (Coordination of Integral Technical Assistance). A data collection procedure was carried out in the field, with GPS L1/L2, before the construction of five (5) terraces technically level and after their construction. The results showed that the greatest differences were found on terrace one (1), with a maximum latitude difference of 57 meters, the longitude of 23 m, and altitude of 2 m. These results corroborate the observations in the field, in which the presence of a great erosion caused by the incorrect construction of terrace 1 was verified rainwater to the side of the rural property, where the largest erosion furrows with the beginning of gully formation were found.

Keywords: GPS, mechanical pratice, surface runoff, erosion

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Authors: Amani Tahat, Serdal Kirmizialtin

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Trajectory fragment methods such as Markov State Models (MSM), Milestoning (MS) and Transition Path sampling are the prime choice of extending the timescale of all atom Molecular Dynamics simulations. In these approaches, a set of structures that covers the accessible phase space has to be chosen a priori using cluster analysis. Structural clustering serves to partition the conformational state into natural subgroups based on their similarity, an essential statistical methodology that is used for analyzing numerous sets of empirical data produced by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. Local transition kernel among these clusters later used to connect the metastable states using a Markovian kinetic model in MSM and a non-Markovian model in MS. The choice of clustering approach in constructing such kernel is crucial since the high dimensionality of the biomolecular structures might easily confuse the identification of clusters when using the traditional hierarchical clustering methodology. Of particular interest, in the case of MS where the milestones are very close to each other, accurate determination of the milestone identity of the trajectory becomes a challenging issue. Throughout this work we present two cluster analysis methods applied to the cis–trans isomerism of dinucleotide AA. The choice of nucleic acids to commonly used proteins to study the cluster analysis is two fold: i) the energy landscape is rugged; hence transitions are more complex, enabling a more realistic model to study conformational transitions, ii) Nucleic acids conformational space is high dimensional. A diverse set of internal coordinates is necessary to describe the metastable states in nucleic acids, posing a challenge in studying the conformational transitions. Herein, we need improved clustering methods that accurately identify the AA structure in its metastable states in a robust way for a wide range of confused data conditions. The single linkage approach of the hierarchical clustering available in GROMACS MD-package is the first clustering methodology applied to our data. Self Organizing Map (SOM) neural network, that also known as a Kohonen network, is the second data clustering methodology. The performance comparison of the neural network as well as hierarchical clustering method is studied by means of computing the mean first passage times for the cis-trans conformational rates. Our hope is that this study provides insight into the complexities and need in determining the appropriate clustering algorithm for kinetic analysis. Our results can improve the effectiveness of decisions based on clustering confused empirical data in studying conformational transitions in biomolecules.

Keywords: milestoning, self organizing map, single linkage, structure clustering

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Authors: E. Soboleva, E. Sergachyova, S. G. Davydenko, T. V. Meledina

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Problem of food preservation is extremely important for mankind. Viscous damage ("illness") of bread results from development of Bacillus spp. bacteria. High temperature resistant spores of this microorganism are steady against 120°C) and remain in bread during pastries, potentially causing spoilage of the final product. Scientists are interested in further characterization of bread spoiling Bacillus spp. species. Our aim was to find weather yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that are able to produce natural antimicrobial killer factor can preserve bread illness. By diffusion method, we showed yeast antagonistic activity against spore-forming bacteria. Experimental technological parameters were the same as for bakers' yeasts production on the industrial scale. Risograph test during dough fermentation demonstrated gas production. The major finding of the study was a clear indication of the presence of killer yeast strain antagonistic activity against rope in bread causing bacteria. After demonstrating antagonistic effect of S. cerevisiae on bacteria using solid nutrient medium, we tested baked bread under provocative conditions. We also measured formation of carbon dioxide in the dough, dough-making duration and quality of the final products, when using different strains of S. cerevisiae. It is determined that the use of yeast S. cerevisiae RCAM 01730 killer strain inhibits appearance of rope in bread. Thus, natural yeast antimicrobial killer toxin, produced by some S. cerevisiae strains is an anti-rope in bread protector.

Keywords: bakers' yeasts, killer toxin, rope in bread, Saccharomyces cerevisiæ

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Authors: Sharareh Mohseni

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Purpose: The objective of this study was to find a suitable solvent to produce saffron edible extract with improved chemical properties. Design/methodology/approach: Dried and pulverized stigmas of C. sativus L. (10g) was extracted with 300 ml of solvents including: distillated water (DW), ethanol/DW, methanol/DW, propylene glycol/DW, heptan/DW, and hexan/DW, for 3 days at 25°C and then centrifuged at 3000 rpm. Then the extracts were evaporated using rotary evaporator at 40°C. The fiber and solvent-free extracts were then analyzed by UV spectrophotometer to detect saffron quality parameters including crocin, picrocrocin and safranal. Findings: Distilled water/ethanol mixture as the extraction solvent, caused larger amounts of the plant constituents to diffuse out to the extract compared to other treatments and also control. Polar solvents including distilled water, ethanol, and propylene glycol (except methanol) were more effective in extracting crocin, picrocrocin, and saffranal than non-polar solvents. Social implications: Due to an enhancement of color and flavor, saffron extract is economical compared to natural saffron. Saffron Extract saves on preparation time and reduces the amount of saffron required for imparting the same flavor, as compared to dry saffron. Liquid extract is easier to use and standardize in food preparations compared to dry stamens and can be dosed precisely compared to natural saffron. Originality/value: No research had been done on production of saffron edible extract using the solvent studied in this survey. The novelty of this research is high and the results can be used industrially.

Keywords: Crocus sativus L., saffron extract, solvent extraction, distilled water

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Authors: Neha Dimri, Varsha Gupta

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Purpose: Fast Fashion trend promotes consumption of low cost high fashion garments at a rapid rate. Frequent change in fashion trend results in higher disposability of Fast Fashion products. To cater for the Fast Fashion appetite of the present day consumer, fashion giants have ramped up production of garments, thus imposing a massive strain on the planet’s natural resources. Also, ethical issues related to cheaper methods of production are of concern. India being a large consumer base has a major role to play in proliferation of the Fast Fashion trend. This paper is an attempt to study the effect of fast fashion trends on the Indian consumer’s behaviour. It also attempts to ascertain the awareness of the consumer about the detrimental effect that the fast fashion trends manifest on the environment. Design /methodology/approach: The survey was conducted using a questionnaire targeted at a set of urban Indian consumers of varied age, profession and socio economic backgrounds. Trends regarding frequency of purchase, expenditure on clothing, disposal methods and awareness about environmental issues were analyzed using the obtained data. Findings: The result of the study indicates that urban Indian consumer has a strong affinity towards fast fashion trends, but is largely unaware of its detrimental effect on the environment and strain on natural resources. Research Limitation/implications: The sample size for survey was only of a hundred consumers, and the same could be expanded for a better estimate of trends. Also, the sample consumers were mostly urban. A big chunk of Indian fashion consumers reside in small towns and the same could be included in the survey. Practical implications: As the true cost of Fast Fashion in terms of environmental and ethical aspects is getting realized worldwide, a big market like India cannot remain isolated from this phenomenon. Globally there has been an increase in demand of ethically produced clothing. It is imperative that the Indian consumer be made aware about the unsustainable nature of Fast Fashion so that he can contribute towards conservation of natural resources and ethical production of garments. Originality/value The research attempts to ascertain consumption pattern of the Indian fashion consumer and also his awareness about the true cost and consequences of Fast Fashion. The inferences may be used by fashion giants to use ‘Green Marketing’ and ‘Social Marketing’ techniques to make the Indian consumer more aware about sustainable fashion and to market their own products as ‘Sustainable, Green and Ethical’.

Keywords: consumption, disposable, fast fashion, Indian consumer

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Authors: David Alejandro Lazo-Vasquez, Jorge Luis Balino

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In the petroleum industry, multiphase flow occurs when oil, gas, and water are transported in the same pipe through large pipeline systems. The flow can take different patterns depending on parameters like fluid velocities, pipe diameter, pipe inclination, and fluid properties. Mainly, intermittent flow is produced by the natural propagation of short and long waves, according to the Kelvin-Helmholtz Stability Theory. To model stratified flow and the onset of intermittent flow, it is crucial to have knowledge of short and long waves behavior. The two-fluid model, frequently employed for characterizing multiphase systems, becomes ill-posed for high liquid and gas velocities and large inclination angles, for short waves can develop infinite growth rates. We are interested in focusing attention on long-wave instability, which leads to the production of roll waves that may grow and result in the transition from stratified flow to intermittent flow. In this study, global and local linear stability analyses for dynamic and kinematic stability criteria predict the regions of stability of the flow for different pipe inclinations and fluid velocities in regularized and non-regularized systems, concurrently. It was possible to distinguish when: wave growth rates are absolutely bounded (stable stratified smooth flow), waves have finite growth rates (unstable stratified wavy flow), and when the equation system becomes elliptic and hyperbolization is needed. In order to bound short wave growth rates and regularize the equation system, we incorporated some lower and higher-order terms like interfacial drag and surface tension, respectively.

Keywords: linear stability analysis, multiphase flow, onset of slugging, two-fluid model regularization

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Authors: Feny Acelia Silaban

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The development of Indonesia’s infrastructure in many islands is significantly increased through the years. Based on this condition, concrete materials which are extracted from natural resources are over exploited and slowly becoming rare, thus the demand for alternative materials becomes so urgently crucial. Oil Palm is one of the biggest commodities in Indonesia with the total amount of 31 million tons in the last 2014. The production of palm oil also generates lots of solid wastes in the form of Oil Palm Shell (OPS). Constructing more environmentally sustainable structures can be achieved by producing lightweight concrete using the Oil Palm Shell (OPS). This paper investigated the effects of OPS and combination of Superplasticizer and fly ash proportion of lightweight concrete mix design to the compressive strength, flexure strength, modulus of elasticity, shrinkage behavior, and water absorption. The Oil Palm Shell had undergone special treatment by washing it with hot water and soap to reduce the oil content. This experiment used four different proportions of Superplasticizer with fly ash and 30 % OPS proportion from the weight of total compositions mixture by the result of trial mix. The experiment result showed that using OPS coarse aggregates and Superplasticizer with fly ash, the average of 28-day compressive strength reached 30-35 MPa. The highest 28-day compressive strength comes from 1.2 % Superplasticizer with 5 % fly ash proportion samples with the strength by 33 MPa. The sample with proportion of 1 % Superplasticizer and 7.5 % fly ash has the highest shrinkage value compared to other proportions. The characteristic of OPS as coarse aggregates is in a standard range of natural coarse aggregates. In general, this lightweight concrete using OPS coarse aggregate and Superplasticizer has high potential to be green-structural lightweight concrete alternative in Indonesia.

Keywords: lightweight concrete, oil palm shell, waste materials, superplasticizer

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Authors: L. Belagraa, A. Belguendouz, Y. Rouabah, A. Bouzid, A. Noui, O. Kessal

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The use of cements CRS in aggressive environments showed a lot of benefits as like good mechanical responses and therefore better durability, however, their manufacturing consume a lot of clinker, which leads to the random hazardous deposits, the shortage of natural resources and the gas and the dust emissions mainly; (CO2) with its ecological negative impact on the environment. Technical, economic and environmental benefits by the use of blended cements have been reported and being considered as a research area of great interest. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of the substitution of natural pozzolan on the physico-chemical properties of the new formulated binder and the mechanical behavior of mortar containing this binary cement. Hence, the pozzolan replacement is composed with different proportions (0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%). The physico-chemical properties of cement resistant to sulfate (CRS) alternative composition were investigated. Further, the behavior of the mortars based on this binder is studied. These characteristics includes chemical composition, density and fineness, consistency, setting time, shrinkage, absorption and the mechanical response. The results obtained showed that the substitution of pozzolan at the optimal ratio of 5% has a positive effect on the resulting cement, greater specific surface area, reduced water demand, accelerating the process of hydration, a better mechanical responses and decreased absorption. Therefore, economic and ecological cement based on mineral addition like pozzolan could be possible as well as advantageous to the formulation of environmental mortars.

Keywords: Cement Resistant to Sulfate (CRS), environmental mortars mechanical response, physico-chemical properties, pozzolan

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Authors: P. Wlodarczak, J. Soar, M. Ally

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The dramatic rise in the use of Social Media (SM) platforms such as Facebook and Twitter provide access to an unprecedented amount of user data. Users may post reviews on products and services they bought, write about their interests, share ideas or give their opinions and views on political issues. There is a growing interest in the analysis of SM data from organisations for detecting new trends, obtaining user opinions on their products and services or finding out about their online reputations. A recent research trend in SM analysis is making predictions based on sentiment analysis of SM. Often indicators of historic SM data are represented as time series and correlated with a variety of real world phenomena like the outcome of elections, the development of financial indicators, box office revenue and disease outbreaks. This paper examines the current state of research in the area of SM mining and predictive analysis and gives an overview of the analysis methods using opinion mining and machine learning techniques.

Keywords: social media, text mining, knowledge discovery, predictive analysis, machine learning

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Authors: V. C. Shruti, P. F. Rodríguez-Espinosa, D. C. Escobedo-Urías, Estefanía Martinez Tavera, M. P. Jonathan

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Atoyac River, a major south-central river flowing through the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala in Mexico is significantly impacted by the natural volcanic inputs in addition with wastewater discharges from urban, agriculture and industrial zones. In the present study, core samples were collected from R. Atoyac and analyzed for sediment granularity, major (Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, K, P and S) and trace elemental concentrations (Ba, Cr, Cd, Mn, Pb, Sr, V, Zn, Zr). The textural studies reveal that the sediments are mostly sand sized particles exceeding 99% and with very few to no presence of mud fractions. It is observed that most of the metals like (avg: all values in μg g^-1) Ca (35,528), Mg (10,789), K (7453), S (1394), Ba (203), Cr (30), Cd (4), Pb (11), Sr (435), Zn (76) and Zr (88) are enriched throughout the sediments mainly sourced from volcanic inputs, source rock composition of Atoyac River basin and industrial influences from the Puebla city region. Contamination indices, such as anthropogenic factor (AF), enrichment factor (EF) and geoaccumulation index (I_geo), were used to investigate the level of contamination and toxicity as well as quantitatively assess the influences of human activities on metal concentrations. The AF values (>1) for Ba, Ca, Mg, Na, K, P and S suggested volcanic inputs from the study region, where as Cd and Zn are attributed to the impacts of industrial inputs in this zone. The EF and I_geo values revealed an extreme enrichment of S and Cd. The ecological risks were evaluated using potential ecological risk index (RI) and the results indicate that the metals Cd and V pose a major hazard for the biological community.

Keywords: Atoyac River, contamination indices, metal concentrations, Mexico, textural studies

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Authors: Malek Jamaliah, Robert Powell

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In spite of the influence of climate change on tourism destinations, particularly those rely heavily on natural resources, little attention paid to study the appropriate adaptation efforts to cope with, moderate and benefit from the impacts of climate change. The existing literature indicated that the research of climate change adaptation in the tourism and outdoor recreation field is at least 5-7 years behind other sectors such as water resources and agriculture. In Jordan, there are many observed changes in climate patterns such as higher temperatures, decreased precipitation and increased severity and frequency of drought. Dana Biosphere Reserve (DBR), the largest protected area and the major eco-tourism destination in Jordan, is facing climate change, which gradually degrading environment, shifting tourism seasons and changing livelihood and lifestyle of local communities. This study aims to assess climate change adaptation practices and policies used in DBR to cope with climate change related-risks. We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with key informants in DBR to assess climate change adaptation practices. Direct content analysis (or a priori content analysis) was used to determine the components and indicators of climate change adaptation. The results found that DBR has implemented a wide range of adaptation practices, including infrastructure development, diversification of tourism products, environmentally-friendly practices, visitor management, land use management, rainwater collection, environmental monitoring and research, environmental education and collaboration with stakeholders. These diverse practices implicitly and explicitly play an important role in coping with the social, economic and environmental impacts caused by climate change. Finally, this study demonstrated that climate change adaptation is closely related to sustainable management of eco-tourism.

Keywords: climate change adaptation, dana biosphere reserve, ecotourism, sustainable management

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Authors: Zainab Al-Wazzan, Luis Gimenez, Lewis Le Vay, Manaf Behbehani

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The hatching rhythm and larval release patterns of the rocky shore crab Leptoduis exaratus was investigated in relation to the tidal cycle, the time of the day, and lunar cycle. Ovigerous females were collected from rocky shores at six sites along the Kuwait coastline between April and July of 2014. The females were kept separated in aquaria under a natural photoperiod cycle and the pattern of larval release was monitored in relation to local tidal and dial cycles. Larval release occurred mostly during the night time, and was highly synchronized with neap tides that followed full moon; at the end of the hatching period, significant larval release occurred also during spring tides. Time series analysis showed a highly significant autocorrelation and the periodicity at a peak of 14-15 days. The cross-correlation analysis between hatching and the daily low tide level suggests that larvae are released about a day before neap tide. Hatching during neap tides occurred early in the night at times of the expected ebb tide. During spring tide period (late in the season), larval release occurred later during night at tides of the ebb tide. The results of this study indicated a strong relationship between the tidal cycle, time of the day and the hatching rhythm of L. exaratus. In addition, the results suggest that water level in the intertidal zone is also playing a very important role in determining the time of the hatching. Hatching and larval release synchronize with the preferred larval environmental conditions to prevent exposing larvae to physiological or environmental stress during their early larval stages. It is also an important factor in determining the larval dispersal.

Keywords: brachyura, hatching rhythm, larvae, Kuwait

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Authors: Majid A. AlSayari

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The study reported here investigated social cognitive theory (SCT) in the context of Vocational Rehab (VR) for people with disabilities. The prime purpose was to increase knowledge of VR phenomena and make recommendations for improving VR services. The sample consisted of 242 persons with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) who completed questionnaires. A further 32 participants were Trainers. Analysis of questionnaire data was carried out using factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, and thematic analysis. The analysis suggested that, in motivational terms, and consistent with research carried out in other academic contexts, self-efficacy was the best predictor of VR performance. The author concludes that that VR self-efficacy predicted VR training performance.

Keywords: people with physical disabilities, social cognitive theory, self-efficacy, vocational training

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Authors: Houda Kohli Kallel, Soumaya Gharsallah Falhi

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Kerkennah Islands are a group of islands lying off the eastern coast of Tunisia, 15 miles from the Sfaxian coast. This archipelago covers an area of 150 square kilometres, and it consists of two main islands : The Gharbi and The Chergui . It also covers twelve more islets. Kerkennah is endowed with an exceptional cultural, natural and ecological potential, essential for the sustainability of the island community. Hence ,the inhabitants there have mobilized the natural resources of their land for decades. However, today, and despite these heritage treasures, Kerkennian islanders are facing social, economic and environmental challenges which are currently hindering the development of the traditional activities of fishing and farming. Other than being isolated and having a non-diversified economy, we cite the erosion of the stream banks, the exodus of young people and the population aging. "This study find the solutions that are likely to allow a sustainable development of the island territory, its enhancement and the strengthening of its identity. It is also necessary to study the key factors impacting the archipelago’s cultural tourism of decision makers and citizens. First, we will present the archipelago. Second, we will describe its tangible as well as intangible heritage. Then, we will present the new modes of the site exploitation. Finally, we will identify some new projects paving the way to a sustainable tourism in Kerkennah such as Borj EL Lahssar archaeological digs and Kerkennah insular heritage museum. To conclude, the archipelago of Kerkennah needs to reintegrate all its historical, architectural and archaeological assets in order to enhance its cultural tourism based on the cultural circuits of the territorial identities and the island values.

Keywords: kerkennah, identity, heritage, historical architectural

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Authors: Kyunghee Oh, Dooho Choi

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Although there is no theoretical weakness in a cryptographic algorithm, Side Channel Analysis can find out some secret data from the physical implementation of a cryptosystem. The analysis is based on extra information such as timing information, power consumption, electromagnetic leaks or even sound which can be exploited to break the system. Differential Power Analysis is one of the most popular analyses, as computing the statistical correlations of the secret keys and power consumptions. It is usually necessary to calculate huge data and takes a long time. It may take several weeks for some devices with countermeasures. We suggest and evaluate the methods to shorten the time to analyze cryptosystems. Our methods include distributed computing and parallelized processing.

Keywords: DPA, distributed computing, parallelized processing, side channel analysis

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Authors: Valeria Dilcheva, Svetlozara Petkova, Ivelin Vladov

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Nemathodes of the genus Trichinella are zoonotic parasites with a cosmopolitan distribution. More than 100 species of mammals, birds and reptiles are involved in the natural cycle of this nematode. At present, T. spiralis, T. pseudospiralis, and T. britovi have been found in Bulgaria. The existence of natural wildlife and domestic reservoirs of Trichinella spp. can be a serious threat to human health. Three trichinella isolates caused human trichinella infection outbreaks from three regions of Sofia City Province were used for the research: sample No. 1 - Ratus norvegicus, sample No. 2 – domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica), sample No. 3 - domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica). Trichinella larvae of the studied species were isolated via digestive method (pepsin, hydrochloric acid, water) at 37ºC by standard procedure and were determined by gender (male and female) based on their morphological characteristics. As a reference trichinella species were used: T. spiralis, T. pseudospiralis, T. nativa and T. britovi. Single male and female larvae of the three isolates were crossed with single male and female larvae of the reference trichinella species as well as reciprocally. As a result of cross-breeding, offspring of muscular larvae with T. spiralis and T. britovi were obtained, while in experiments with T. pseudospiralis and T. nativa, trichinella larvae were not found in the laboratory mice. The results obtained in the control groups indicate that the trichinella larvae used from the isolates and the four trichinella species are infective. Also, the infective ability of the F1 offspring from the successful cross-breeding between isolates and reference species was investigated. Through the data obtained in the experiment was found that isolates No. 1 and No. 2 belong to the species T. spiralis, and isolate No. 3 belongs to the species T. britovi. The results were confirmed by PCR and real-time PCR analysis. Thus the presence and circulation of the species T. spiralis and T. britovi in Bulgaria was confirmed. Probably the rodents (rats) are involved in the distribution of T. spiralis in urban environment. The species T. britovi found in a domestic pig speaks of some contact with wild animals for which T. britovi is characteristic. The probable reason is that a large number of farmers in Bulgaria practice the free-range breeding of domestic pigs. Part of the farmers also used as food for domestic pigs waste products from the game (foxes, jackals, bears, wolves) and probably thus the infection was obtained. The distribution range of trichinella species in Bulgaria is not strictly outlined. It is believed that T. spiralis is most common in domestic animals and T. britovi and T. pseudospiralis are characteristic of wildlife. To answer the question whether wild and synanthropic animals are infected with the same or different trichinella species, which species predominate in nature and what their distribution among different hosts is, further research is required.

Keywords: cross-breeding, Sofia, trichinellosis, Trichinella britovi, Trichinella spiralis

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Authors: Hasmithaa Neha, Atul Kumar Patidar, Girish Ch Kothyari

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The northward convergence of the Indian plate has a dominating influence over the structural and geomorphic development of the Himalayan region. The highly deformed and complex stratigraphy in the area arises from a confluence of exogenic and endogenetic geological processes. This region frequently experiences natural hazards such as debris flows, flash floods, avalanches, landslides, and earthquakes due to its harsh and steep topography and fragile rock formations. Therefore, remote sensing technique-based examination and real-time monitoring of tectonically sensitive regions may provide crucial early warnings and invaluable data for effective hazard mitigation strategies. In order to identify unusual changes in the river gradients, the current study demonstrates a spatial quantitative geomorphic analysis of the upper Alaknanda River basin, Uttarakhand Himalaya, India, using gradient length anomaly analysis (GLAA). This basin is highly vulnerable to ground creeping and landslides due to the presence of active faults/thrusts, toe-cutting of slopes for road widening, development of heavy engineering projects on the highly sheared bedrock, and periodic earthquakes. The intersecting joint sets developed in the bedrocks have formed wedges that have facilitated the recurrence of several landslides. The main objective of current research is to identify abnormal gradient lengths, indicating potential landslide-prone zones. High-resolution digital elevation data and geospatial techniques are used to perform this analysis. The results of GLAA are corroborated with the historical landslide events and ultimately used for the generation of landslide susceptibility maps of the current study area. The preliminary results indicate that approximately 3.97% of the basin is stable, while about 8.54% is classified as moderately stable and suitable for human habitation. However, roughly 19.89% fall within the zone of moderate vulnerability, 38.06% are classified as vulnerable, and 29% fall within the highly vulnerable zones, posing risks for geohazards, including landslides, glacial avalanches, and earthquakes. This research provides valuable insights into the spatial distribution of landslide-prone areas. It offers a basis for implementing proactive measures for landslide risk reduction, including land-use planning, early warning systems, and infrastructure development techniques.

Keywords: landslide vulnerability, geohazard, GLA, upper Alaknanda Basin, Uttarakhand Himalaya

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Authors: Samkeliso S. Ndzimandze, Welldone Moyo, Oranso T. Mahlangu, Adolph A. Muleja, Alex T. Kuvarega, Thabo T. I. Nkambule

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The high cost of precursor materials has hindered the commercialization of ceramic membrane technology in water treatment. In this work, a ceramic membrane disc (approximately 50 mm in diameter and 4 mm thick) was prepared from low-cost starting materials, kaolin, and fly ash by pressing at 200 bar and calcining at 900 °C. The fabricated membrane was characterized for various physicochemical properties, natural organic matter (NOM) removal as well as fouling propensity using several techniques. Further, the ceramic membrane was tested on samples collected from four drinking water treatment plants in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (named plants 1-4). The membrane achieved 48.6%, 54.6%, 57.4%, and 76.4% bulk UV254 reduction for raw water at plants 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. These removal rates were comparable to UV254 reduction achieved by coagulation/flocculation steps at the respective plants. Further, the membrane outperformed sand filtration steps in plants 1-4 in removing disinfection by-product precursors (8%-32%) through size exclusion. Fluorescence excitation-emission matrices (FEEM) studies showed the removal of fluorescent NOM fractions present in the water samples by the membrane. The membrane was fabricated using an up-scalable facile method, and it has the potential for application as a polishing step to complement conventional processes in water treatment for drinking purposes.

Keywords: crossflow filtration, drinking water treatment plants, fluorescence excitation-emission matrices, ultraviolet 254 (UV₂₅₄)

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Authors: Aslihan Caliskan

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The term Mediterranean comes from the Latin “mediterraneus” (Medius, "middle" plus Terra, "land, earth"). For the ancient Romans, the Mediterranean was the center of the earth as they knew it. The desire to gain control of the Mediterranean has led to disputes between many nations throughout history, some of which continue to this day. The recent major natural gas discoveries in the Mediterranean have aggravated ongoing tensions in some neighboring countries. The sea border dispute between Turkey and Greece & Greek-Cypriot side is one of the most critical conflicts in the Mediterranean Sea region. This unresolved dispute has many implications for all countries involved, as well as for third parties that have direct or indirect interests in the region. The research question of this context is what are the implications of this controversial sea border problem on the maritime security of Turkey and its military spending. In this paper, the quantitative method is used. Records from the Turkish Defense Ministry, data from the Turkish naval forces have been obtained. In addition, literature research and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) application cases were evaluated, and an incident analysis was carried out. This research shows that the sea border dispute issue has a significant impact on the Turkish military both in terms of the structures required to ensure maritime and border security, as well as rising military costs and its macroeconomic implications. The paper begins with a brief overview of relevant principles and methods applied for delimiting th esea borders. The paper continues with a brief description and a background of the sea border dispute between Turkey and Greece & Greek-Cypriot side in the light of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). An analysis of the implications of the dispute on Turkey’s maritime security and its military spending is provided in the following chapters. The paper ends with concluding remarks of the author, including suggestions for the way forward.

Keywords: sea border security, mediterranean sea, greece-turkey dispute, limitation of sea, united nations convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS)

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Authors: Aiman Mazhar Qureshi, Ahmed Rachid

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Extreme heat events are emerging human environmental health concerns in dense urban areas due to anthropogenic activities. High spatial and temporal resolution heat maps are important for urban heat adaptation and mitigation, helping to indicate hotspots that are required for the attention of city planners. The Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) is the important approach used by decision-makers and urban planners to identify heat-vulnerable communities and areas that require heat stress mitigation strategies. Amiens is a medium-sized French city, where the average temperature has been increasing since the year 2000 by +1°C. Extreme heat events are recorded in the month of July for the last three consecutive years, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Poor air quality, especially ground-level ozone, has been observed mainly during the same hot period. In this study, we evaluated the HVI in Amiens during extreme heat days recorded last three years (2018,2019,2020). The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique is used for fine-scale vulnerability mapping. The main data we considered for this study to develop the HVI model are (a) socio-economic and demographic data; (b) Air pollution; (c) Land use and cover; (d) Elderly heat-illness; (e) socially vulnerable; (f) Remote sensing data (Land surface temperature (LST), mean elevation, NDVI and NDWI). The output maps identified the hot zones through comprehensive GIS analysis. The resultant map shows that high HVI exists in three typical areas: (1) where the population density is quite high and the vegetation cover is small (2) the artificial surfaces (built-in areas) (3) industrial zones that release thermal energy and ground-level ozone while those with low HVI are located in natural landscapes such as rivers and grasslands. The study also illustrates the system theory with a causal diagram after data analysis where anthropogenic activities and air pollution appear in correspondence with extreme heat events in the city. Our suggested index can be a useful tool to guide urban planners and municipalities, decision-makers and public health professionals in targeting areas at high risk of extreme heat and air pollution for future interventions adaptation and mitigation measures.

Keywords: heat vulnerability index, heat mapping, heat health-illness, remote sensing, urban heat mitigation

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Authors: Laura Canagueral-Pellice, Antonio Munar-Frau, Adaia Valls-Ontanon, Joao Carames, Federico Hernandez-Alfaro, Jordi Caballe-Serrano

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Objective: Guided bone regeneration (GBR) aims to replace the missing bone with a new structure to achieve long-term stability of rehabilitations. The aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine the effect of barrier membranes on histological outcomes after GBR procedures. Moreover, the effect of the grafting material and tissue gain were analyzed. Materials & methods: Two independent reviewers performed an electronic search in Pubmed and Scopus, identifying all eligible publications up to March 2020. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing a histological analysis of augmented areas were included. Results: A total of 6 publications were included for the present systematic review. A total of 110 biopsied sites were analysed; 10 corresponded to vertical bone augmentation procedures, whereas 100 analysed horizontal regeneration procedures. A mean tissue gain of 3 ± 1.48mm was obtained for horizontal defects. Histological assessment of new bone formation, residual particle and sub-epithelial connective tissue (SCT) was reported. The four main barrier membranes used were natural collagen membranes, e-PTFE, polylactic resorbable membranes and acellular dermal matrix membranes (AMDG). The analysis demonstrated that resorbable membranes result in higher values of new bone formation and lower values of residual particles and SCT. Xenograft resulted in lower new bone formation compared to allograft; however, no statistically significant differences were observed regarding residual particle and SCT. Overall, regeneration procedures adding autogenous bone, plasma derivate or growth factors achieved in general greater new bone formation and tissue gain. Conclusions: There is limited evidence favoring the effect of a certain type of barrier membrane in GBR. Data needs to be evaluated carefully; however, resorbable membranes are correlated with greater new bone formation values, especially when combined with allograft materials and/or the addition of autogenous bone, platelet reach plasma (PRP) or growth factors in the regeneration area. More studies assessing the histological outcomes of different GBR protocols and procedures testing different biomaterials are needed to maximize the clinical and histological outcomes in bone regeneration science.

Keywords: barrier membrane, graft material, guided bone regeneration, implant surgery, histology

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Authors: Migena Ceyhan, Zeynep Orhan, Dimitrios Karras

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People in modern societies are continuously sharing their experiences, emotions, and thoughts in different areas of life. The information reaches almost everyone in real-time and can have an important impact in shaping people’s way of living. This phenomenon is very well recognized and advantageously used by the market representatives, trying to earn the most from this means. Given the abundance of information, people and organizations are looking for efficient tools that filter the countless data into important information, ready to analyze. This paper is a modest contribution in this field, describing the process of automatically classifying social media comments in the Turkish language into positive or negative. Once data is gathered and preprocessed, feature sets of selected single words or groups of words are build according to the characteristics of language used in the texts. These features are used later to train, and test a system according to different machine learning algorithms (Naïve Bayes, Sequential Minimal Optimization, J48, and Bayesian Linear Regression). The resultant high accuracies can be important feedback for decision-makers to improve the business strategies accordingly.

Keywords: feature selection, machine learning, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, social media reviews

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Authors: Shahbaz Abbas, Lin Han Chiang Hsieh

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The significant population growth and climate change issues have contributed to the natural resources depletion and their sustainability in the future. Manufacturing industries have a substantial impact on every country’s economy, but the sustainability of the industrial resources is challenging, and the policymakers have been developing the possible solutions to manage the sustainability of industrial resources such as raw material, energy, water, and industrial supply chain. In order to address these challenges, nexus approach is one of the optimization and modelling techniques in the recent sustainable environmental research. The interactions between the nexus components acknowledge that all components are dependent upon each other, and they are interrelated; therefore, their sustainability is also associated with each other. In addition, the nexus concept does not only provide the resources sustainability but also environmental sustainability can be achieved through nexus approach by utilizing the industrial waste as a resource for the industrial processes. Based on energy-water nexus, this study has developed a resource-energy-water for the sugar industry to understand the interactions between sugarcane, energy, and water towards the sustainable sugar industry. In particular, the focus of the research is the Taiwanese sugar industry; however, the same approach can be adapted worldwide to optimize the sustainability of sugar industries. It has been concluded that there are significant interactions between sugarcane, energy consumption, and water consumption in the sugar industry to manage the scarcity of resources in the future. The interactions between sugarcane and energy also deliver a mechanism to reuse the sugar industrial waste as a source of energy, consequently validating industrial and environmental sustainability. The desired outcomes from the nexus can be achieved with the modifications in the policy and regulations of Taiwanese industrial sector.

Keywords: energy-water nexus, environmental sustainability, industrial sustainability, natural resource management

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Authors: Liang Zhao, Jili Zhang, Chongquan Zhong

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Energy consumption data, in particular those involving public buildings, are impacted by many factors: the building structure, climate/environmental parameters, construction, system operating condition, and user behavior patterns. Traditional methods for data analysis are insufficient. This paper delves into the data mining technology to determine its application in the analysis of building energy consumption data including energy consumption prediction, fault diagnosis, and optimal operation. Recent literature are reviewed and summarized, the problems faced by data mining technology in the area of energy consumption data analysis are enumerated, and research points for future studies are given.

Keywords: data mining, data analysis, prediction, optimization, building operational performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 853