Search results for: stock pattern

Authors: Sameh S. Namnqani, Yaqoob Y. Abobakar, Ahmed M. Alsewehri, Khaled M. AlQethami

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The main objective of this research is to know the impact of the application of the electronic supply system on the performance of the supply department of health organizations. To reach this goal, the study adopted independent variables to measure the dependent variable (performance of the supply department), namely: integration with suppliers, integration with intermediaries and distributors and knowledge of supply size, inventory, and demand. The study used the descriptive method and was aided by the questionnaire tool that was distributed to a sample of workers in the Supply Chain Management Department of King Abdullah Medical City. After the statistical analysis, the results showed that: The 70 sample members strongly agree with the (electronic integration with suppliers) axis with a p-value of 0.001, especially with regard to the following: Opening formal and informal communication channels between management and suppliers (Mean 4.59) and exchanging information with suppliers with transparency and clarity (Mean 4.50). It also clarified that the sample members agree on the axis of (electronic integration with brokers and distributors) with a p-value of 0.001 and this is represented in the following elements: Exchange of information between management, brokers and distributors with transparency, clarity (Mean 4.18) , and finding a close cooperation relationship between management, brokers and distributors (Mean 4.13). The results also indicated that the respondents agreed to some extent on the axis (knowledge of the size of supply, stock, and demand) with a p-value of 0.001. It also indicated that the respondents strongly agree with the existence of a relationship between electronic procurement and (the performance of the procurement department in health organizations) with a p-value of 0.001, which is represented in the following: transparency and clarity in dealing with suppliers and intermediaries to prevent fraud and manipulation (Mean 4.50) and reduce the costs of supplying the needs of the health organization (Mean 4.50). From the results, the study recommended several recommendations, the most important of which are: that health organizations work to increase the level of information sharing between them and suppliers in order to achieve the implementation of electronic procurement in the supply management of health organizations. Attention to using electronic data interchange methods and using modern programs that make supply management able to exchange information with brokers and distributors to find out the volume of supply, inventory, and demand. To know the volume of supply, inventory, and demand, it recommended the application of scientific methods of supply for storage. Take advantage of information technology, for example, electronic data exchange techniques and documents, where it can help in contact with suppliers, brokers, and distributors, and know the volume of supply, inventory, and demand, which contributes to improving the performance of the supply department in health organizations.

Keywords: healthcare supply chain, performance, electronic system, ERP

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Khadra Ahmed, Khaled Kheireldin

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In this paper, we present a pedestrian detection descriptor called Fused Structure and Texture (FST) features based on the combination of the local phase information with the texture features. Since the phase of the signal conveys more structural information than the magnitude, the phase congruency concept is used to capture the structural features. On the other hand, the Center-Symmetric Local Binary Pattern (CSLBP) approach is used to capture the texture information of the image. The dimension less quantity of the phase congruency and the robustness of the CSLBP operator on the flat images, as well as the blur and illumination changes, lead the proposed descriptor to be more robust and less sensitive to the light variations. The proposed descriptor can be formed by extracting the phase congruency and the CSLBP values of each pixel of the image with respect to its neighborhood. The histogram of the oriented phase and the histogram of the CSLBP values for the local regions in the image are computed and concatenated to construct the FST descriptor. Several experiments were conducted on INRIA and the low resolution DaimlerChrysler datasets to evaluate the detection performance of the pedestrian detection system that is based on the FST descriptor. A linear Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to train the pedestrian classifier. These experiments showed that the proposed FST descriptor has better detection performance over a set of state of the art feature extraction methodologies.

Keywords: planktons, diversity indices, water quality index, water ways

Procedia PDF Downloads 516

Authors: Pawamana Ramachandra, Jitesh Gupta, Saranga P. Pogula

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In verification of high volume and complex packet processing IPs, finer control of flow management aspects (for example, rate, bits/sec etc.) per flow class (or a virtual channel or a software thread) is needed. When any Software/Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) thread arbitration is left to the simulator (e.g., Verilog Compiler Simulator (VCS) or Incisive Enterprise Simulator core simulation engine (NCSIM)), it is hard to predict its pattern of resulting distribution of bandwidth by the simulator thread arbitration. In many cases, the patterns desired in a test scenario may not be accomplished as the simulator might give a different distribution than what was required. This can lead to missing multiple traffic scenarios, specifically deadlock and starvation related. We invented a component (namely Flow Manager Verification IP) to be intervening between the application (test case) and the protocol VIP (with UVM sequencer) to control the bandwidth per thread/virtual channel/flow. The Flow Manager has knobs visible to the UVM sequence/test to configure the required distribution of rate per thread/virtual channel/flow. This works seamlessly and produces rate stimuli to further harness the Design Under Test (DUT) with asymmetric inputs compared to the programmed bandwidth/Quality of Service (QoS) distributions in the Design Under Test.

Keywords: flow manager, UVM sequencer, rated traffic generation, quality of service

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Authors: Lei Zhang

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The carbon cycle greatly influences global change, and the land cover changes contribute to the status and rate of the carbon budget in ecosystems. This paper proposes a land cover classification system for mapping land cover, the national ecological environment assessment, and estimating carbon storage in ecosystems. The classification system consists of basic land cover classes at levels Ⅰ and Ⅱ and auxiliary features at level III. The basic 38 classes characterizing land cover features are derived from 19 criteria referring to composition, structure, pattern, phenology, etc. The basic classes reflect the status of carbon storage in ecosystems. The auxiliary classes at level III complement the attributes of higher levels by 9 criteria. The 5 environmental criteria of temperature, moisture, landform, aspect and slope mainly reflect the potential and intensity of carbon storage in ecosystems. The disturbance of vegetation succession caused by land use type influences the vegetation carbon budget. The other 3 vegetation cover criteria, growth period, and species characteristics further refine the vegetation types. The hierarchical structure of the land cover map (the classes of levels Ⅰ and Ⅱ) is independent of the products of level III, which is helpful for land cover product management and applications. The classification system has been adopted in the Chinese national land cover database for the carbon budget in ecosystems at a 30 m scale.

Keywords: classification system, land cover, ecosystem, carbon storage, object based

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Authors: Fatma Hsain Ali Suliman

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Personality plays an important role in acquiring a second language. For second language learners to make maximum progress with their own learning styles, their individual differences must be recognized and attended to. Personality is considered to be a pattern of unique characteristics that give a person’s behavior a kind of consistency and individuality. Therefore, the enclosed study, which is entitled “The Role of Personality in Second language Acquisition: Extroversion and Introversion”, tends to shed light on the relationship between learners’ personalities and second language acquisition process. In other words, it aims at drawing attention to how individual differences of students as being extroverts or introverts could affect the language acquisition process. As a literature review, this paper discusses the results of some studies concerning this issue as well as the point views of researchers and scholars who have focused on the effect of extrovert and introvert personality on acquiring a second language. To accomplish the goals of this study, which is divided into 5 chapters including introduction, review of related literature, research method and design, results and discussions and conclusions and recommendations, 20 students of English Department, Faculty of Arts, Misurata University, Libya were handed out a questionnaire to figure out the effect of their personalities on the learning process. Finally, to be more sure about the role of personality in a second language acquisition process, the same students who were given the questionnaire were observed in their ESL classes.

Keywords: second language acquisition, personality, extroversion, introversion, individual differences, language learning strategy, personality factors, psycho linguistics

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Authors: M. El-haj, Z. Olama, H. Holail

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Single cell oils (SCOs) accumulated by oleaginous fungi have emerged as a potential alternative feedstock for biodiesel production. Five fungal strains were isolated from the Lebanese environment namely Fusarium oxysporum, Mucor hiemalis, Penicillium citrinum, Aspergillus tamari, and Aspergillus niger that have been selected among 39 oleaginous strains for their potential ability to accumulate lipids (lipid content was more than 40% on dry weight basis). Wide variations were recorded in the environmental factors that lead to maximum lipid production by fungi under test and were cultivated under submerged fermentation on medium containing glucose as a carbon source. The maximum lipid production was attained within 6-8 days, at pH range 6-7, 24 to 48 hours age of seed culture, 4 to 6.107 spores/ml inoculum level and 100 ml culture volume. Eleven culture conditions were examined for their significance on lipid production using Plackett-Burman factorial design. Reducing sugars and nitrogen source were the most significant factors affecting lipid production process. Maximum lipid yield was noticed with 15.62, 14.48, 12.75, 13.68 and 20.41g/l for Fusarium oxysporum, Mucor hiemalis, Penicillium citrinum, Aspergillus tamari, and Aspergillus niger respectively. A verification experiment was carried out to examine model validation and revealed more than 94% validity. The profile of extracted lipids from each fungal isolate was studied using thin layer chromatography (TLC) indicating the presence of monoacylglycerols, diaacylglycerols, free fatty acids, triacylglycerols and sterol esters. The fatty acids profiles were also determined by gas-chromatography coupled with flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Data revealed the presence of significant amount of oleic acid (29-36%), palmitic acid (18-24%), linoleic acid (26.8-35%), and low amount of other fatty acids in the extracted fungal oils which indicate that the fatty acid profiles were quite similar to that of conventional vegetable oil. The cost of lipid production could be further reduced with acid-pretreated lignocellulotic corncob waste, whey and date molasses to be utilized as the raw material for the oleaginous fungi. The results showed that the microbial lipid from the studied fungi was a potential alternative resource for biodiesel production.

Keywords: agro-industrial waste products, biodiesel, fatty acid, single cell oil, Lebanese environment, oleaginous fungi

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Authors: Muhammad Tahir, Mushtaq Muhammad

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Capital structure is one of the key decisions taken by the financial managers. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing capital structure decision in Oil and Gas industry of Pakistan using secondary data from published annual reports of listed Oil and Gas Companies of Pakistan. This study covers the time-period from 2008-2014. Capital structure can be affected by profitability, firm size, growth opportunities, dividend payout, liquidity, business risk, and ownership structure. Panel data technique with Ordinary least square (OLS) regression model has been used to find the impact of set of explanatory variables on the capital structure using the Stata. OLS regression results suggest that dividend payout, firm size and government ownership have the most significant impact on financial leverage. Dividend payout and government ownership are found to have significant negative association with financial leverage however firm size indicated positive relationship with financial leverage. Other variables having significant link with financial leverage includes growth opportunities, liquidity and business risk. Results reveal significant positive association between growth opportunities and financial leverage whereas liquidity and business risk are negatively correlated with financial leverage. Profitability and managerial ownership exhibited insignificant relationship with financial leverage. This study contributes to existing Managerial Finance literature with certain managerial implications. Academically, this research study describes the factors affecting capital structure decision of Oil and Gas Companies in Pakistan and adds latest empirical evidence to existing financial literature in Pakistan. Researchers have studies capital structure in Pakistan in general and industry at specific, nevertheless still there is limited literature on this issue. This study will be an attempt to fill this gap in the academic literature. This study has practical implication on both firm level and individual investor/ lenders level. Results of this study can be useful for investors/ lenders in making investment and lending decisions. Further, results of this study can be useful for financial managers to frame optimal capital structure keeping in consideration the factors that can affect capital structure decision as revealed by this study. These results will help financial managers to decide whether to issue stock or issue debt for future investment projects.

Keywords: capital structure, multicollinearity, ordinary least square (OLS), panel data

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Authors: Slamet Subiyantoro, Mulyanto

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Revealing the structure and symbolism meaning of the walisanga’s mosque arts in Java is very important to explain the philosophy of religious foundation which is a manifestation of the norms/ value system and behavior of the Javanese Islam society that support the culture. This research's aims are also to find the structure pattern of walisanga’s mosque and its symbolic meaning in the context of Javanese Islam society. In order to obtain the research objectives, the research were done in several walisanga’s mosques in Java using anthropological approach which is focused on its interpretation and semiotic analysis. The data were collected through interviews with key informants who well informed about the shape and symbolism of walisanga’s mosques in Java. The observation technique is done through visiting walisanga’s mosques to see directly about its structure/ architecture. In completing the information of comprehensive result of the research, it is also used documents and archives as well as any other source which is analyzed to deepen the discussion in answering the problems research. The flow of analysis is done using an interactive model through stages of data collection, data reduction, data presentation and verification. The analysis is done continuously in a cycle system to draw valid conclusions. The research result indicates that the structure/architecture of walisanga’s mosque in Java is structured/built up vertically as well as horizontally. Its structure/architecture is correlated to each other which is having a sacred meaning that is a process represents the mystical belief such as sangkan paraning dumadi and manuggaling kawula gusti.

Keywords: Walisanga’s mosques, Java, structure and architecture, meaning

Procedia PDF Downloads 368

Authors: Javad Rahimipour Anaraki, Saeed Samet, Mahdi Eftekhari, Chang Wook Ahn

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Feature selection and attribute reduction are crucial problems, and widely used techniques in the field of machine learning, data mining and pattern recognition to overcome the well-known phenomenon of the Curse of Dimensionality. This paper presents a feature selection method that efficiently carries out attribute reduction, thereby selecting the most informative features of a dataset. It consists of two components: 1) a measure for feature subset evaluation, and 2) a search strategy. For the evaluation measure, we have employed the fuzzy-rough dependency degree (FRFDD) of the lower approximation-based fuzzy-rough feature selection (L-FRFS) due to its effectiveness in feature selection. As for the search strategy, a modified version of a binary shuffled frog leaping algorithm is proposed (B-SFLA). The proposed feature selection method is obtained by hybridizing the B-SFLA with the FRDD. Nine classifiers have been employed to compare the proposed approach with several existing methods over twenty two datasets, including nine high dimensional and large ones, from the UCI repository. The experimental results demonstrate that the B-SFLA approach significantly outperforms other metaheuristic methods in terms of the number of selected features and the classification accuracy.

Keywords: binary shuffled frog leaping algorithm, feature selection, fuzzy-rough set, minimal reduct

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Authors: Johannes Gantner, Michael Held, Matthias Fischer

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The refurbishment of the building stock in terms of energy supply and efficiency is one of the major challenges of the German turnaround in energy policy. As the building sector accounts for 40% of Germany’s total energy demand, additional insulation is key for energy efficient refurbished buildings. Nevertheless the energetic benefits often the environmental and economic performances of insulation materials are questioned. The methods Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as well as Life Cycle Costing (LCC) can form the standardized basis for answering this doubts and more and more become important for material producers due efforts such as Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) or Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). Due to increasing use of LCA and LCC information for decision support the robustness and resilience of the results become crucial especially for support of decision and policy makers. LCA and LCC results are based on respective models which depend on technical parameters like efficiencies, material and energy demand, product output, etc.. Nevertheless, the influence of parameter uncertainties on lifecycle results are usually not considered or just studied superficially. Anyhow the effect of parameter uncertainties cannot be neglected. Based on the example of an exterior wall the overall lifecycle results are varying by a magnitude of more than three. As a result simple best case worst case analyses used in practice are not sufficient. These analyses allow for a first rude view on the results but are not taking effects into account such as error propagation. Thereby LCA practitioners cannot provide further guidance for decision makers. Probabilistic analyses enable LCA practitioners to gain deeper understanding of the LCA and LCC results and provide a better decision support. Within this study, the environmental and economic impacts of an exterior wall system over its whole lifecycle are illustrated, and the effect of different uncertainty analysis on the interpretation in terms of resilience and robustness are shown. Hereby the approaches of error propagation and Monte Carlo Simulations are applied and combined with statistical methods in order to allow for a deeper understanding and interpretation. All in all this study emphasis the need for a deeper and more detailed probabilistic evaluation based on statistical methods. Just by this, misleading interpretations can be avoided, and the results can be used for resilient and robust decisions.

Keywords: uncertainty, life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, Monte Carlo simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Ammar Neshati, Elham Hamidi Shishavan

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Statement of Problem: The increase in the use of metal-ceramic restorations and a high prevalence of porcelain chipping entails introducing an alloy which is more compatible with porcelain and which causes a stronger bond between the two. This study is to compare shear bond strength of three base-metal alloys and one noble alloy with the common VMK Master Porcelain. Materials and Method: Three different groups of base-metal alloys (Ni-cr-T3, Super Cast, Verabond) and one group of noble alloy (x-33) were selected. The number of alloys in each group was 15. All the groups went through the casting process and change from wax pattern into metal disks. Then, VMK Master Porcelain was fired on each group. All the specimens were put in the UTM and a shear force was loaded until a fracture occurred. The fracture force was then recorded by the machine. The data was subjected to SPSS Version 16 and One-Way ANOVA was run to compare shear strength between the groups. Furthermore, the groups were compared two by two through running Tukey test. Results: The findings of this study revealed that shear bond strength of Ni-Cr-T3 alloy was higher than the three other alloys (94 Mpa or 330 N). Super Cast alloy had the second greatest shear bond strength (80. 87 Mpa or 283.87 N). Both Verabond (69.66 Mpa or 245 N) and x-33 alloys (66.53 Mpa or 234 N) took the third place. Conclusion: Ni-Cr-T3 with VMK Master Porcelain has the greatest shear bond strength. Therefore, the use of this low-cost alloy is recommended in metal-ceramic restorations.

Keywords: shear bond, base-metal alloy, noble alloy, porcelain

Procedia PDF Downloads 485

Authors: Almalki M., Alajmi M., Qadrouh Y., Alzahrani E., Sulaiman A., Aleid M., Albaiji A., Alfaifi H., Alhadadi A., Almotairy H., Alrasheed R., Alhafedh Y.

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High-resolution marine seismic survey is a well-established technique that commonly used to characterize near-surface sediments and geological structures at shallow water. We conduct single channel seismic survey to provide high quality seismic images for near-surface sediments upto 100m depth at Jubal costal area, Arabian Gulf. Eight hydrophones streamer has been used to collect stacked seismic traces alone 5km seismic line. To reach the required depth, we have used spark system that discharges energies above 5000 J with expected frequency output span the range from 200 to 2000 Hz. A suitable processing flow implemented to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the seismic profile. We have found that shallow sedimentary layers at the study site have complex pattern of reflectivity, which decay significantly due to amount of source energy used as well as the multiples associated to seafloor. In fact, the results reveal that single channel marine seismic at shallow water is a cost-effective technique that can be easily repeated to observe any possibly changes in the wave physical properties at the near surface layers

Keywords: shallow marine single-channel data, high resolution, frequency filtering, shallow water

Procedia PDF Downloads 70

Authors: L. Siva Rama Krishna, Sriram Venkatesh, M. Sastish Kumar, M. Uma Maheswara Chary

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Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a technology that produces models and prototype parts from 3D CAD model data, CT/MRI scan data, and model data created from 3D object digitizing systems. There are several RP process like Stereolithography (SLA), Solid Ground Curing (SGC), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), 3D Printing (3DP) among them SLS and FDM RP processes are used to fabricate pattern of custom cranial implant. RP technology is useful in engineering and biomedical application. This is helpful in engineering for product design, tooling and manufacture etc. RP biomedical applications are design and development of medical devices, instruments, prosthetics and implantation; it is also helpful in planning complex surgical operation. The traditional approach limits the full appreciation of various bony structure movements and therefore the custom implants produced are difficult to measure the anatomy of parts and analyse the changes in facial appearances accurately. Cranioplasty surgery is a surgical correction of a defect in cranial bone by implanting a metal or plastic replacement to restore the missing part. This paper aims to do a comparative study on the dimensional error of CAD and SLS RP Models for reconstruction of cranial defect by comparing the virtual CAD with the physical RP model of a cranial defect.

Keywords: rapid prototyping, selective laser sintering, cranial defect, dimensional error

Procedia PDF Downloads 323

Authors: Ming Ma, Zhenyu Cai, Rui Li

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People are more vulnerable to health problems than ever before, such as overweight and obesity due to the change of built environment. In the high-rise buildings, the core-tube layout is closely associated with user’s physical activities which will affect human’s health in a long-term. As for the white-collars who spends the amount of time working in the office tower, using staircase seems to provide an opportunity for them to increase the physical activities in the workplaces. This paper is aiming to find out the specific relationship between health and core-tube in the office tower through analyzing the correlation between staircase’s layout and user’s health. The variables of staircase’s layout are consisted of two indicators: plan layout and space design, including nine factors while health variable is applying BIM as the only main factor. 14 office towers in downtown Shanghai are selected as the research samples because of its typical users’ pattern and similar core-tube layout. In the result, it is obvious that the users from these 14 cases have higher BMI than average partly because that the staircases are mainly designed for emergency and fire instead of daily use. After the regression and correlation analysis of the variables of health and staircases, it’s found that users’ BMI is significantly associated with the factors of floor guide-signs and distance from lobby to the staircase. In addition, the factors of comfort level of staircase such as width and daylighting have a certain correlation with users’ BMI.

Keywords: office tower, staircase, design, obesity, physical activity

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Authors: Awadhesh Kishore

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One of the most unique characteristics of rabbit feeding behaviour is caecotrophy, which involves the excretion and immediate consumption of specific faeces known as soft faeces. Caecotrophy in rabbits is the instinctual behaviour of eating soft faeces; reduced caecotrophy decreases rabbit growth and lipid synthesis in the liver. Caecotroph ingestion is highest when rabbits are fed a diet high in indigestible fibre. The colon produces two types of waste: hard and soft pellets. The hard pellets are expelled, but the soft pellets are re-ingested by the rabbit directly upon being expelled from the anus by twisting itself around and sucking in those pellets as they emerge from the anus. The type of alfalfa hay in the feed of the rabbits does not affect volatile fatty acid concentration, the pattern of fermentation, or pH in the faeces. The cecal content and the soft faeces contain significant amounts of retinoids and carotenoids, while in the tissues (blood, liver, and kidney), these pigments do not occur in substantial amounts. Preventing caecotrophy reduced growth and altered lipid metabolism, depressing the development of new approaches for rabbit feeding and production. Relative abundance is depressed for genes related to metabolic pathways such as vitamin C and sugar metabolism, vitamin B2 metabolism, and bile secretion. The key microorganisms that regulate the rapid growth performance of rabbits may provide useful references for future research and the development of microecological preparations.

Keywords: caecocolonic microorganisms, caecotrophy, fasting caecotrophy, rabbits, soft pellets

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Authors: Cemil Akcay, Goksun Yerlikaya

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Buildings are the living spaces of people with an active role in every aspect of life in today's world. While some structures have survived from the early ages, most of the buildings that completed their lifetime have not transported to the present day. Nowadays, buildings that do not meet the social, economic, and safety requirements of the age return to life with a transformation process. This transformation is called urban transformation. Urban transformation is the renewal of the areas with a risk of disaster and the technological infrastructure required by the structure. The transformation aims to prevent damage to earthquakes and other disasters by rebuilding buildings that have completed their non-earthquake-resistant economic life. It is essential to decide on other issues related to conversion and transformation in places where most of the building stock should transform into the first-degree earthquake belt, such as Istanbul. In urban transformation, property owners, local authority, and contractor must deal at a common point. Considering that hundreds of thousands of property owners are sometimes in the areas of transformation, it is evident how difficult it is to make the deal and decide. For the optimization of these decisions, the use of game theory is foreseeing. The main problem in this study is that the urban transformation is carried out in place, or the building or buildings are transport to a different location. There are many stakeholders in the Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty Campus, which is planned to be carried out in the process of urban transformation, was tried to solve the game theory applications. An analysis of the decisions given on a real urban transformation project and the logical suitability of decisions taken without the use of game theory were also supervised using game theory. In each step of this study, many decision-makers are classifying according to a specific logical sequence, and in the game trees that emerged as a result of this classification, Nash balances were tried to observe, and optimum decisions were determined. All decisions taken for this project have been subjected to two significant differentiated comparisons using game theory, and as decisions are taken without the use of game theory, and according to the results, solutions for the decision phase of the urban transformation process introduced. The game theory model developed from beginning to the end of the urban transformation process, particularly as a solution to the difficulty of making rational decisions in large-scale projects with many participants in the decision-making process. The use of a decision-making mechanism can provide an optimum answer to the demands of the stakeholders. In today's world for the construction sector, it is also seeing that the game theory is a non-surprising consequence of the fact that it is the most critical issues of planning and making the right decision in future years.

Keywords: urban transformation, the game theory, decision making, multi-actor project

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Authors: Oludare Olupemi Ezekiel

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This research examines the rhythmic structure of Sakara music by tracing its roots and analyzing the various rhythmic patterns of this neo-traditional genre, as well as the contributions of the major exponents and contemporary practitioners, using these as a model for understanding and establishing African rhythms. Biography of the major exponents and contemporary practitioners, interviews and participant observational methods were used to elicit information. Samples of the genre which were chosen at random were transcribed, notated and analyzed for academic use and documentation. The research affirmed that rhythms such as the Hemiola, Cross-rhythm, Clave or Bell rhythm, Percussive, Speech and Melodic rhythm and other relevant rhythmic theories were prevalent and applicable to Sakara music, while making important contributions to musical scholarship through its analysis of the music. The analysis and discussions carried out in the research pointed towards a conclusion that the Yoruba musicians are guided by some preconceptions and sound musical considerations in making their rhythmic patterns, used as compositional techniques and not mere incidental occurrence. These rhythmic patterns, with its consequential socio-cultural connotations, enhance musical values and national identity in Nigeria. The study concludes by recommending that musicologists need to carry out more research into this and other neo-traditional genres in order to advance the globalisation of African music.

Keywords: compositional techniques, globalisation, identity, neo-traditional, rhythmic theory, Sakara music

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Authors: Chaiwat Tantarangsee

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The purposes of this study are: 1) to study the frequent English writing errors of students registering the course: Reading and Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and 2) to find out the results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective feedback and writing error treatments. Samples include 28 2nd year English Major students, Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Tool for experimental study includes the lesson plan of the course; Reading and Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and tool for data collection includes 4 writing tests of short texts. The research findings disclose that frequent English writing errors found in this course comprise 7 types of grammatical errors, namely Fragment sentence, Subject-verb agreement, Wrong form of verb tense, Singular or plural noun endings, Run-ons sentence, Wrong form of verb pattern and Lack of parallel structure. Moreover, it is found that the results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective feedback and error treatment reveal the overall reduction of the frequent English writing errors and the increase of students’ achievement in the writing of short texts with the significance at .05.

Keywords: coded indirect corrective feedback, error correction, error treatment, frequent English writing errors

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Authors: Alexandra Serra, Nair Torrão, Rui G. Serôdio, José A. Lima

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The present study aimed to evaluate the incidence and the prevalence of domestic violence legitimatory beliefs, emotional regulation difficulties and, early maladaptive schemas regarding intimidate partner violence in a sample of 50 Portuguese inmates. As expected, results show high levels of legitimatory beliefs, significant difficulties of emotional regulation and a set of high levels of early maladaptive schemas that clearly compromise the inmates affective-cognitive functioning. The most prevalent set of maladaptive schemas are associated with depression, anxiety, hostility, reduced ability to empathize and, dependence on the approval of others, which, combined, may trigger aggressive responses towards the intimate’s partner. Being victimized in their childhood and having committing murder are not differentiating factors on the measures we analyzed, but alcohol consumption may be associated with an intensification of domestic violence legitimatory beliefs. In the discussion of our findings, we compare the pattern of the psychosocial measures we used with the equivalent results obtained with convicted individuals that attend a community compulsory program, specifically designed for domestic violence perpetrators. We also highlight the importance of implementing specialized interventions in prison settings focusing on an evidence-based-practice.

Keywords: domestic violence, intimate partner offenders, incidence and prevalence of legitimatory beliefs, Portuguese inmates

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Authors: Chien-kuo Chang, Bo-wei Wu, Yi-yun Tang, Min-chiu Wu

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This paper proposes a power equipment diagnosis system based on partial discharge (PD), which is characterized by increasing the readability of experimental data and the convenience of operation. This system integrates a variety of analysis programs of different data formats and different programming languages and then establishes a set of interfaces that can follow and expand the structure, which is also helpful for subsequent maintenance and innovation. This study shows a case of using the developed Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to integrate with this system, using the designed model architecture to simplify the complex training process. It is expected that the simplified training process can be used to establish an adaptive deep learning experimental structure. By selecting different test data for repeated training, the accuracy of the identification system can be enhanced. On this platform, the measurement status and partial discharge pattern of each equipment can be checked in real time, and the function of real-time identification can be set, and various training models can be used to carry out real-time partial discharge insulation defect identification and insulation state diagnosis. When the electric power equipment entering the dangerous period, replace equipment early to avoid unexpected electrical accidents.

Keywords: partial discharge, convolutional neural network, partial discharge analysis platform, adaptive deep learning

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Authors: Pijush Roy, Vinay Kumar Rai

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The present study highlights the estimation of soil loss and identification of critical area for implementation of best management practice is central to the success of soil conservation programme. The quantification of morphometric and Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) factors using remote sensing and GIS for prioritization of micro-watersheds in Asan River catchment, western Doon valley at foothills of Siwalik ranges in the Dehradun districts of Uttarakhand, India. The watershed has classified as a dendritic pattern with sixth order stream. The area is classified into very high, high, moderately high, medium and low susceptibility zones. High to very high erosion zone exists in the urban area and agricultural land. Average annual soil loss of 64 tons/ha/year has been estimated for the watershed. The optimum management practices proposed for micro-watersheds of Asan River basin are; afforestation, contour bunding suitable sites for water harvesting structure as check dam and soil conservation, agronomical measure and bench terrace.

Keywords: erosion susceptibility zones, morphometric characteristics, prioritization, remote sensing and GIS, universal soil loss equation

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Authors: Grzegorz Kubinski

Abstract:

In the proposed paper, we would like to present the phenomenon of disease and disability as an element of discourse redefining the contemporary canons of beauty and the category of normativity. In widely understood media, and above all in social media and fashion industry, the use of the disease as an aesthetic category has long been observed. There is an interesting case of promoting and maintaining a certain, ideal pattern of physical beauty, while at the same time very clear exploitation of various types of illnesses. The categories of disease and disabled body are shown as an element of the expression of the individuality and originality of one's own identity, while at the same time the disabled person is still experiencing social exclusion. Illness or body abnormality as an aesthetic category also functions as an ethical-political category. The analysis of the interrelations of these discourses will be presented on the example of selected projects present in social media, like Instagram or Facebook. We would like to present how old forms of 'curiosities' or 'abnormalities' turned into mainstream forms of a new aesthetic. For marginalized disabled people, there is a new form of expression and built their identity. But, there is an interesting point: are this contemporary forms of using disability and illness really new? Or maybe this is just another form of Wunderkammer or even cabinets of curiosities? We propose to analyze contemporary cultural and social context in order to clarify this issue. On the other hand, we would like to present some examples from personal interviews with disabled internet influencers and statements disabled persons concerning the role of the different body in society (e.g. #bodypositive, #perfeclyflawed).

Keywords: disability, new media, defect, fashion

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Authors: Kazunari Ozaki, Mitsuru Kageyama, Kenki Miyazawa, Yoshio Nakamura

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Background: Kampo (Japanese Traditional medicine) is a medicine traditionally practiced in Japan, based on ancient Chinese medicine. Most Kampo doctors have used decoction of crude drug pieces for treatment. 93% of the Kampo drugs sold in Japan are Kampo products nowadays. Of all Kampo products, 81% of them are Kampo extract formulations for prescription, which is prepared in powdered or granulated form from medicinal crude drug extracts mixed with appropriate excipient. Physicians with medical license for Western medicine prescribe these Kampo extract formulations for prescription in Japan. Objectives: Our study aims at presenting a brief history of Kampo extract formulations for prescription in Japan. Methods: Systematic searches for relevant studies were conducted using not only printed journals but also electronic journals from the bibliographic databases, such as PubMed/Medline, Ichushi-Web, and university/institutional websites, as well as search engines, such as Google and Google Scholar. Results: The first commercialization of Kampo extract formulations for general use (or OTC (over-the-counter) Kampo extract formulation) was achieved after 1957. The number of drugs has been subsequentially increased, reaching 148 Kampo extract formulation for prescription currently. Conclusion: We provide a history of Kampo extract formulations for prescription in Japan. The originality of this research is that it analyzes the background history of Kampo in parallel with relevant transitions in the government and insurance systems.

Keywords: health insurance system, history, Kampo, Kampo extract formulation for prescription, OTC Kampo extract formulation, pattern corresponding prescription (Ho-sho-so-tai) system

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Authors: Ian Walsh, Terry Nguyen-Khuong, Christopher H. Taron, Pauline M. Rudd

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Glycoproteins and their covalently bonded glycans play critical roles in the immune system, cell communication, disease and disease prognosis. Ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled with mass spectrometry is conventionally used to qualitatively and quantitatively characterise glycan structures in a given sample. Exoglycosidases are enzymes that catalyze sequential removal of monosaccharides from the non-reducing end of glycans. They naturally have specificity for a particular type of sugar, its stereochemistry (α or β anomer) and its position of attachment to an adjacent sugar on the glycan. Thus, monitoring the peak movements (both in the UPLC and MS1) after application of exoglycosidases provides a unique and effective way to annotate sugars with high detail - i.e. differentiating positional and linkage isomers. Manual annotation of an exoglycosidase experiment is difficult and time consuming. As such, with increasing sample complexity and the number of exoglycosidases, the analysis could result in manually interpreting hundreds of peak movements. Recently, we have implemented pattern recognition software for automated interpretation of UPLC-MS1 exoglycosidase digestions. In this work, we explain the software, indicate how much time it will save and provide example usage showing the annotation of positional and linkage isomers in Immunoglobulin G, apolipoprotein J, and simple glycan standards.

Keywords: bioinformatics, automated glycan assignment, liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry

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Authors: Ahmed Fawzy, Khaled Ayad, Gh. M. Koura, W. Reda

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The excessive frontal plane motion of the lower extremity during sports activities is thought to be a contributing factor to many traumatic and overuse injuries of the knee joint, little is known about the biomechanical factors that contribute to this loading pattern. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate if there is a relationship between hip external rotators isometric strength and the value of frontal plane projection angle (FPPA) during single leg landing tasks in normal male subjects. Methods: One hundred (male) subjects free from lower extremity injuries for at least six months ago participated in this study. Their mean age was (23.25 ± 2.88) years, mean weight was (74.76 ± 13.54) (Kg), mean height was (174.23 ± 6.56) (Cm). The knee frontal plane projection angle was measured by digital video camera using single leg landing task. Hip external rotators isometric strength were assessed by portable hand held dynamometer. Muscle strength had been normalized to the body weight to obtain more accurate measurements. Results: The results demonstrated that there was no significant relationship between hip external rotators isometric strength and the value of FPPA during single leg landing tasks in normal male subjects. Conclusion: It can be concluded that there is no relationship between hip external rotators isometric strength and the value of FPPA during functional activities in normal male subjects.

Keywords: 2-dimensional motion analysis, hip strength, kinematics, knee injuries

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Authors: Alfrina Marwan, Erna Sulistyawati

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Class III malocclusion shows both skeletal and dentoalveolar component. Sketal Class III malocclusion can have variants in different region, maxilla or mandibular. Skeletal Class III malocclusion during growth period is considered to treat to prevent its severity in adulthood. Orthopedics treatment of skeletal Class III malocclusion in growing patient can be treated by using reverse twin block with expansion screw to modify the growth pattern. The objective of this case report was to describe the functional correction of skeletal Class III maloclussion using reverse twin block with expansion screw in growing patient. A patient with concave profile came with a chief complaint of aesthetic problems. The cephalometric analysis showed that patient had skeletal Class III malocclusion (ANB -5⁰, SNA 75º, Wits appraisal -3 mm) with anterior cross bite and deep bite (overjet -3 mm, overbite 6 mm). In this case report, the patient was treated with reverse twin block appliance with expansion screw. After three months of treatment, the skeletal problems have been corrected (ANB -1°), overjet, overbite and aesthetic were improved. Reverse twin block appliance with expansion screw can be used as orthopedics treatment for skeletal Class III malocclusion in growing patient and can improve the aesthetic with great satisfaction which was the main complaint in this patient.

Keywords: maxilla retrognatism, reverse twin block, skeletal class III malocclusion, growing patient

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Authors: Yi-Xuan Huang, Kung-Ming Chung, Ping-Han Chung

Abstract:

Pressure sensitive paint (PSP), which relies on the oxygen quenching of a luminescent molecule, is an optical technique used in wind-tunnel models. A full-field pressure pattern with low aerodynamic interference can be obtained, and it is becoming an alternative to pressure measurements using pressure taps. In this study, a polymer-ceramic PSP was used, using toluene as a solvent. The porous particle and polymer were silica gel (SiO₂) and RTV-118 (3g:7g), respectively. The compound was sprayed onto the model surface using a spray gun. The absorption and emission spectra for Ru(dpp) as a luminophore were respectively 441-467 nm and 597 nm. A Revox SLG-55 light source with a short-pass filter (550 nm) and a 14-bit CCD camera with a long-pass (600 nm) filter were used to illuminate PSP and to capture images. This study determines surface pressure patterns for a forebody of an AGARD B model in a compressible flow. Since there is no experimental data for surface pressure distributions available, numerical simulation is conducted using ANSYS Fluent. The lift and drag coefficients are calculated and in comparison with the data in the open literature. The experiments were conducted using a transonic wind tunnel at the Aerospace Science and Research Center, National Cheng Kung University. The freestream Mach numbers were 0.83, and the angle of attack ranged from -4 to 8 degree. Deviation between PSP and numerical simulation is within 5%. However, the effect of the setup of the light source should be taken into account to address the relative error.

Keywords: pressure sensitive paint, forebody, surface pressure, compressible flow

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Authors: T. Hari Prasath, P. Ithaya Rani

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In the world of visual technology, recognizing emotions from the face images is a challenging task. Several related methods have not utilized the dynamic facial features effectively for high performance. This paper proposes a method for emotions recognition using dynamic facial features with high performance. Initially, local features are captured by Gabor filter with different scale and orientations in each frame for finding the position and scale of face part from different backgrounds. The Gabor features are sent to the ensemble classifier for detecting Gabor facial features. The region of dynamic features is captured from the Gabor facial features in the consecutive frames which represent the dynamic variations of facial appearances. In each region of dynamic features is normalized using Z-score normalization method which is further encoded into binary pattern features with the help of threshold values. The binary features are passed to Multi-class AdaBoost classifier algorithm with the well-trained database contain happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, disgust, and neutral expressions to classify the discriminative dynamic features for emotions recognition. The developed method is deployed on the Ryerson Multimedia Research Lab and Cohn-Kanade databases and they show significant performance improvement owing to their dynamic features when compared with the existing methods.

Keywords: detecting face, Gabor filter, multi-class AdaBoost classifier, Z-score normalization

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Authors: Mohamed Al Araby, Amany Salman, Mostafa Amin, Mohamed Madbully, Dalia Keraa, Mariam Ali, Marah Abdelfatah, Mariam Ahmed, Ahmed Hassab

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In recent years, the architecture, engineering, and construction (A.E.C.) industry have been exposed to important innovations, most notably the global integration of digital design and fabrication (D.D.F.) processes in the industry’s workflow. Despite this evolution in that sector, Africa was excluded from the examination of this development. The reason behind this exclusion is the preconceived view of it as a developing region that still employs traditional methods of construction. The primary objective of this review is to investigate the trend of digital construction (D.C.) in the African environment and the difficulties in its regular utilization of it. This objective can be attained by recognizing the notion of distributed computing in Africa and evaluating the impact of the projects deploying this technology on both the immediate and broader contexts. The paper’s methodology begins with the collection of data from 224 initiatives throughout Africa. Then, 50 of these projects were selected based on the criteria of the project's recency, typology variety, and location diversity. After that, a literature-based comparative analysis was undertaken. This study’s findings reveal a pattern of motivation for applying digital fabrication processes. Moreover, it is essential to evaluate the socio-economic effects of these projects on the population living near the analyzed subject. The last step in this study is identifying the influence on the neighboring nations.

Keywords: Africa, digital construction, digital design, fabrication

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Authors: Leila Noori, Rosario Barone, Francesca Rappa, Antonella Marino Gammazza, Alessandra Maria Vitale, Giuseppe Donato Mangano, Giusy Sentiero, Filippo Macaluso, Kathryn H. Myburgh, Francesco Cappello, Federica Scalia

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The neuromuscular system controls, directs, and allows movement of the body through the action of neural circuits, which include motor neurons, sensory neurons, and skeletal muscle fibers. Protein homeostasis of the involved cytotypes appears crucial to maintain the correct and prolonged functions of the neuromuscular system, and both neuronal cells and skeletal muscle fibers express significant quantities of protein chaperones, the molecular machinery responsible to maintain the protein turnover. Genetic mutations or defective post-translational modifications of molecular chaperones (i.e., genetic or acquired chaperonopathies) may lead to neuromuscular disorders called as neurochaperonopathies. The limited knowledge of the effects of the defective chaperones on skeletal muscle fibers and neurons impedes the progression of therapeutic approaches. A distinct genetic variation of CCT5 gene encoding for the subunit 5 of the chaperonin CCT (Chaperonin Containing TCP1; also known as TRiC, TCP1 Ring Complex) was recently described associated with severe distal motor neuropathy by our team. In this study, we investigated the histopathological abnormalities of the skeletal muscle biopsy of the pediatric patient affected by the mutation Leu224Val in the CCT5 subunit. We provide molecular and structural features of the diseased skeletal muscle tissue that we believe may be useful to identify undiagnosed cases of this rare genetic disorder. We investigated the histological abnormalities of the affected tissue via hematoxylin and eosin staining. Then we used immunofluorescence and qPCR techniques to explore the expression and distribution of CCT5 in diseased and healthy skeletal muscle tissue. Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry assays were performed to study the sarcomeric and structural proteins of skeletal muscle, including actin, myosin, tubulin, troponin-T, telethonin, and titin. We performed Western blot to examine the protein expression of CCT5 and some heat shock proteins, Hsp90, Hsp60, Hsp27, and α-B crystallin, along with the main client proteins of the CCT5, actin, and tubulin. Our findings revealed muscular atrophy, abnormal morphology, and different sizes of muscle fibers in affected tissue. The swollen nuclei and wide interfiber spaces were seen. Expression of CCT5 had been decreased and showed a different distribution pattern in the affected tissue. Altered expression, distribution, and bandage pattern were detected by confocal microscopy for the interested muscular proteins in tissue from the patient compared to the healthy control. Protein levels of the studied Hsps normally located at the Z-disk were reduced. Western blot results showed increased levels of the actin and tubulin proteins in the diseased skeletal muscle biopsy compared to healthy tissue. Chaperones must be expressed at high levels in skeletal muscle to counteract various stressors such as mechanical, oxidative, and thermal crises; therefore, it seems relevant that defects of molecular chaperones may result in damaged skeletal muscle fibers. So far, several chaperones or cochaperones involved in neuromuscular disorders have been defined. Our study shows that alteration of the CCT5 subunit is associated with the damaged structure of skeletal muscle fibers and alterations of chaperone system components and paves the way to explore possible alternative substrates of chaperonin CCT. However, further studies are underway to investigate the CCT mechanisms of action to design applicable therapeutic strategies.

Keywords: molecular chaperones, neurochaperonopathy, neuromuscular system, protein homeostasis

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