Search results for: impact-asymmetry analysis

Authors: Dewan Hasin Mahtab, Farzana Sadia

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At present, wastewater treatment has become essential to maintain a constant supply of safe water as well as to protect the environment. Due to overpopulation and overconsumption, the water quality from various surface water sources is degrading every day. Being one of the megacities in the world, Dhaka City, is going through rapid industrialization and urbanization. The effluents from these industries and factories are mostly discharged directly into the rivers without any treatment. As such, the quality of water of Buriganga is being afflicted with a noisome problem of pollution. The water of the Buriganga River has become detrimental to humans, animals, and the environment. It has become crucial to conserve the environment so that we can save both ourselves and the environment. The first step towards it should be analyzing the wastewater to decide the further steps of the treatment process. Increased population and increased consumption both contribute to water pollution. Mohammadpur is a developing area of Dhaka City, and Kamrangirchar is one of the largest slum areas in Dhaka City. The total study area is 6.13 sq. Km of Dhaka city with a population of 4,73,310 people. Of them, 86.47% had their own latrine, 47% were directly connected to the drain, 55% had septic tanks, and 70.09% of them cleaned their septic tank once a year. The pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Chemical Oxygen Demand, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Total Dissolved Solid, Total Suspended and total coliforms of wastewater from two samples of both Mohammadpur and Kamrangirchar was analyzed. The DO level from the water bodies of Kamrangirchar was found very low, making the water bodies inhabitable for aquatic plants and animals. The BOD and COD level was extremely high from samples collected from Mohammadpur. The total coliforms count was found too high during the wet season, making it a potential health concern in the wet season in these two areas.

Keywords: Dhaka, environmental conservation rule, sanitation, wastewater

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Authors: Roman Kulikov, Svetlana Kolesnikova

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Last decade Cloud Computing technologies have been rapidly becoming ubiquitous. Each year more and more organizations, corporations, internet services and social networks trust their business sensitive information to Public Cloud. The data storage in Public Cloud is protected by security mechanisms such as firewalls, cryptography algorithms, backups, etc.. In this way, however, only outsider attacks can be prevented, whereas virtualization tools can be easily compromised by insider. The protection of Public Cloud’s critical elements from internal intruder remains extremely challenging. A hypervisor, also called a virtual machine manager, is a program that allows multiple operating systems (OS) to share a single hardware processor in Cloud Computing. One of the hypervisor's functions is to enforce access control policies. Furthermore, it prevents guest OS from disrupting each other and from accessing each other's memory or disk space. Hypervisor is the one of the most critical and vulnerable elements in Cloud Computing infrastructure. Nevertheless, it has been poorly protected from being compromised by insider. By exploiting certain vulnerabilities, privilege escalation can be easily achieved in insider attacks on hypervisor. In this way, an internal intruder, who has compromised one process, is able to gain control of the entire virtual machine. Thereafter, the consequences of insider attacks in Public Cloud might be more catastrophic and significant to virtual tools and sensitive data than of outsider attacks. So far, almost no preventive security countermeasures have been developed. There has been little attention paid for developing models to assist risks mitigation strategies. In this paper formal model of insider attacks on hypervisor is designed. Our analysis identifies critical hypervisor`s vulnerabilities that can be easily compromised by internal intruder. Consequently, possible conditions for successful attacks implementation are uncovered. Hence, development of preventive security countermeasures can be improved on the basis of the proposed model.

Keywords: insider attack, public cloud, cloud computing, hypervisor

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Authors: Natalia Feruleva

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The goal of this paper is to develop the fraud risk assessment model basing on both relational and financial data and test the impact of the relationships between Russian non-public companies on the likelihood of financial fraud commitment. Relationships mean various linkages between companies such as parent-subsidiary relationship and person-related relationships. These linkages may provide additional opportunities for committing fraud. Person-related relationships appear when firms share a director, or the director owns another firm. The number of companies belongs to CEO and managed by CEO, the number of subsidiaries was calculated to measure the relationships. Moreover, the dummy variable describing the existence of parent company was also included in model. Control variables such as financial leverage and return on assets were also implemented because they describe the motivating factors of fraud. To check the hypotheses about the influence of the chosen parameters on the likelihood of financial fraud, information about person-related relationships between companies, existence of parent company and subsidiaries, profitability and the level of debt was collected. The resulting sample consists of 160 Russian non-public firms. The sample includes 80 fraudsters and 80 non-fraudsters operating in 2006-2017. The dependent variable is dichotomous, and it takes the value 1 if the firm is engaged in financial crime, otherwise 0. Employing probit model, it was revealed that the number of companies which belong to CEO of the firm or managed by CEO has significant impact on the likelihood of financial fraud. The results obtained indicate that the more companies are affiliated with the CEO, the higher the likelihood that the company will be involved in financial crime. The forecast accuracy of the model is about is 80%. Thus, the model basing on both relational and financial data gives high level of forecast accuracy.

Keywords: financial fraud, fraud prediction, non-public companies, regression analysis, relational data

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Authors: A. Farhad Sadri, B. Ali Farhadi, C. Nasim Shalamzari

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Waste management is a principle of urban and environmental governance. Waste management in Tehran metropolitan requires good strategies for better governance. Using of good urban governance principles together with eight main indexes can be an appropriate base for this aim. One of the reasonable tools in this field is usage of SWOT methods which provides possibility of comparing the opportunities, threats, weaknesses, and strengths by using IFE and EFE matrixes. The results of the above matrixes, respectively 2.533 and 2.403, show that management system of Tehran metropolitan wastes has performed weak regarding to internal factors and has not have good performance regarding using the opportunities and dealing with threats. In this research, prioritizing and describing the real value of each 24 strategies in waste management in Tehran metropolitan have been surveyed considering good governance derived from Quantitative Strategic Planning Management (QSPM) by using Kolomogrof-Smirnoff by 1.549 and significance level of 0.073 in order to define normalization of final values and all of the strategies utilities and Variance Analysis of ANOVA has been calculated for all SWOT strategies. Duncan’s test results regarding four WT, ST, WO, and SO strategies show no significant difference. In addition to mean comparison by Duncan method in this research, LSD (Lowest Significant Difference test) has been used by probability of 5% and finally, 7 strategies and final model of Tehran metropolitan waste management strategy have been defined. Increasing the confidence of people with transparency of budget, developing and improving the legal structure (rule-oriented and law governance, more responsibility about requirements of private sectors, increasing recycling rates and real effective participation of people and NGOs to improve waste management (contribution) and etc, are main available strategies which have been achieved based on good urban governance management principles.

Keywords: waste, strategy, environmental management, urban good governance, SWOT

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Authors: Elucir Gir, Laelson Rochelle Milanês Sousa, Pedro Henrique Tertuliano Leoni, Carla Aparecida Arena Ventura, Ana Cristina de Oliveira e Silva, Renata Karina Reis

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Context and significance: Resilience is a protective agent for the physical and mental well-being of nursing professionals. Team members are constantly subjected to high levels of work stress that can negatively impact care performance and users of health services. Stress levels have been exacerbated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the resilience of nursing professionals in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach carried out with professionals from nursing teams from all regions of Brazil. Data collection took place in the first year of the pandemic between October and December 2020. Data were obtained through an online questionnaire posted on social networks. The information collected included the sociodemographic characterization of the nursing professionals and the Brief Resilient Coping Scale was applied. Student's t-test for independent samples and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare resilience scores with sociodemographic variables. Results: 8,792 nursing professionals participated in the study, 5,767 (65.6%) were nurses, 7,437 (84.6%) were female and 2,643 (30.1%) were from the Northeast region of Brazil, 5,124 (58.8% ) had low levels of resilience. The results showed a statistically significant difference between the resilience score and the variables: professional category (p<0.001); sex (p = 0.003); age range (p<0.001); region of Brazil (p<0.001); marital status (p=0.029) and providing assistance in a field hospital (p<0.001). Conclusion: Participants in this study had, in general, low levels of resilience. There is an urgent need for actions aimed at promoting the psychological health of nursing professionals inserted in pandemic contexts. Descriptors: Psychological Resilience; Nursing professionals; COVID-19; SARSCoV-2.

Keywords: psychological resilience, nursing professionals, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2

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Authors: Laurin Zemmrich, Nicolai Stickler

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With the ongoing debate over how to incorporate sustainability, resilience, and value creation into business strategies, many procurement departments are put under pressure by governments, consumers, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders to disclose more information about their supply chains. According to practitioners and experts, procurement benefits the supply chain by increasing transparency and accountability, recruiting new suppliers, and supporting sustainable and ethical sourcing strategies. While most procurement departments establish these objectives, the bulk of activities are not carried out or are not regularly monitored. With the full potential of targeted sourcing still to be realized, procurement executives, in particular, are seeking for short-term cost-cutting impacts to appease external shareholders. We overcome this limitation by using an abductive approach to research and integrating empirical data from a Gioia methodology study design with relevant literature. Our analysis demonstrates that the procurement department has six essential levers aligned with sustainability, resilience, and value creation objectives and contributes to developing a new intra- and interorganizational purpose within the supply chain. Three enablers are identified as having a value-creating effect on supply chain interactions. Additionally, we discovered two impacts that alter the power balance between buyers and suppliers during transactions and have a cost-cutting or cost-avoiding effect. While cost-cutting, cost-avoidance, and dependency-reduction impacts are desirable, redistributing power may also have negative consequences. The article establishes a first strategy framework for evaluating the influence of the procurement department on supply chain transactions, allowing managers to understand better and apply the sourcing function inside a supply chain and embed it throughout the business.

Keywords: supply chain management, resilience, sustainability, value creation, purpose

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Authors: Xiuxia Sun, Yan Jin, Zilong Liu, Shiming Wei

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As a critical mineral component of shale, illite is essential in oil exploration and development due to its surface hydration characteristics and action mechanism. This paper, starting from the perspective of the molecular structure of organic matter, uses molecular dynamics simulation technology to deeply explore the interaction mechanism between organic molecules and the illite surface. In the study, we thoroughly considered the forces such as van der Waals force, electrostatic force, and steric hindrance and constructed an illite crystal model covering C8-C18 modifiers. Subsequently, we systematically analyzed surfactants' adsorption behavior and hydration characteristics with different alkyl chain numbers, lengths, and concentrations on the illite surface. The simulation results show that surfactant molecules with shorter alkyl chains present a lateral monolayer or inclined double-layer arrangement on the illite surface, and these two arrangements may coexist under different concentration conditions. In addition, with the increase in the number of alkyl chains, the interlayer spacing of illite increases significantly. In contrast, the change in alkyl chain length has a limited effect on surface properties. It is worth noting that the change in functional group structure has a particularly significant effect on the wettability of the illite surface, and its influence even exceeds the change in the alkyl chain structure. This discovery gives us a new perspective on understanding and regulating the wetting properties. The results obtained are consistent with the XRD analysis and wettability experimental data in this paper, further confirming the reliability of the research conclusions. This study deepened our understanding of illite's hydration characteristics and mechanism. We provided new ideas and directions for the molecular design and application development of oilfield chemicals.

Keywords: illite, surfactant, hydration, wettability, adsorption

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Authors: Rotondwa P. Gunununu, Mustapha Mohammed, Felix D. Dakora

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Common bean is the most importantly high protein grain legume grown in Southern Africa for human consumption and income generation. Although common bean can associate with rhizobia to fix N₂ for bacterial use and plant growth, it is reported to be a poor nitrogen fixer when compared to other legumes. N₂ fixation can vary with legume species, genotype and rhizobial strain. Therefore, screening legume germplasm can reveal rhizobia/genotype combinations with high N₂-fixing efficiency for use by farmers. This study assessed symbiotic performance and N₂ fixation in 63 common bean genotypes under field conditions at Malkerns Station in Eswatini, using the ¹⁵N natural abundance technique. The shoots of common bean genotypes were sampled at a pod-filling stage, oven-dried (65oC for 72h), weighed, ground into a fine powder (0.50 mm sieve), and subjected to ¹⁵N/¹⁴N isotopic analysis using mass spectrometry. At maturity, plants from the inner rows were harvested for the determination of grain yield. The results revealed significantly higher modulation (p≤0.05) in genotypes MCA98 and CIM-RM01-97-8 relative to the other genotypes. Shoot N concentration was highest in genotype MCA 98, followed by KAB 10 F2.8-84, with most genotypes showing shoot N concentrations below 2%. Percent N derived from atmospheric N₂ fixation (%Ndfa) differed markedly among genotypes, with CIM-RM01-92-3 and DAB 174, respectively, recording the highest values of 66.65% and 66.22 % N derived from fixation. There were also significant differences in grain yield, with CIM-RM02-79-1 producing the highest yield (3618.75 kg/ha). These results represent an important contribution in the profiling of symbiotic functioning of common bean germplasm for improved N₂ fixation.

Keywords: nitrogen fixation, %Ndfa, ¹⁵N natural abundance, grain yield

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Authors: Jacky Liu

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This paper develops a team sports outcome prediction system with potential for wide-ranging applications across various disciplines. Despite significant advancements in predictive analytics, existing studies in sports outcome predictions possess considerable limitations, including insufficient feature engineering and underutilization of advanced machine learning techniques, among others. To address these issues, we extend the Sports Cross Industry Standard Process for Data Mining (SRP-CRISP-DM) framework and propose a unique, comprehensive predictive system, using National Basketball Association (NBA) data as an example to test this extended framework. Our approach follows a holistic methodology in feature engineering, employing both Time Series and Non-Time Series Data, as well as conducting Explanatory Data Analysis and Feature Selection. Furthermore, we contribute to the discourse on target variable choice in team sports outcome prediction, asserting that point spread prediction yields higher profits as opposed to game-winner predictions. Using machine learning algorithms, particularly XGBoost, results in a significant improvement in predictive accuracy of team sports outcomes. Applied to point spread betting strategies, it offers an astounding annual return of approximately 900% on an initial investment of $100. Our findings not only contribute to academic literature, but have critical practical implications for sports betting. Our study advances the understanding of team sports outcome prediction a burgeoning are in complex system predictions and pave the way for potential profitability and more informed decision making in sports betting markets.

Keywords: machine learning, team sports, game outcome prediction, sports betting, profits simulation

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Authors: Sharmin Ferdewsi Rakhi, A. H. M. Mohsinul Reza, Brynley Davies, Jianzhong Wang, Youhong Tang, Jian Qin

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Mass production of microalgae has become a focus of research owing to their promising aspects for sustainable food, biofunctional compounds, and biofuel feedstock. However, low lipid content with optimum algal biomass is still a challenge that must be resolved for commercial use. This research aims to determine the effects of light spectral shift and reactive oxygen species (ROS) on growth and lipid biosynthesis in a green microalga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Aggregation Induced Emission (AIE)-based photosensitisers, CN-TPAQ-PF6 ([C₃₂H₂₃N₄]+) with high ROS productivity, was introduced into the algal culture media separately for effective conversion of the green-yellow-light to the red spectra. The intense photon energy and high-photon flux density in the photosystems and ROS supplementation induced photosynthesis and lipid biogenesis. In comparison to the control, maximum algal growth (0.15 g/l) was achieved at 2 µM CN-TPAQ-PF6 exposure. A significant increase in total lipid accumulation (146.87 mg/g dry biomass) with high proportion of 10-Heptadecanoic acid (C17:1) linolenic acid (C18:2), α-linolenic acid (C18:3) was observed. The elevated level of cellular NADP/NADPH triggered the Acetyl-Co-A production in lipid biogenesis cascade. Furthermore, MTT analysis suggested that this nanomaterial is highly biocompatible on HaCat cell lines with 100% cell viability. This study reveals that the AIE-based approach can strongly impact algal biofactory development for sustainable food, healthy lipids and eco-friendly biofuel.

Keywords: microalgae, photosensitiser, lipid, biomass, aggregation-induced-emission, reactive oxygen species

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Authors: Malani Herath, Sohan Wijesekera, Jagath Munasingha

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The impact of recent floods become significant, and the extraordinary flood events cause considerable damage to lives, properties, environment and negatively affect the whole development of Colombo urban region. Even though the Colombo urban region experiences recurrent flood impacts, several spatial planning interventions have been taken from time to time since early 20th century. All past plans have adopted a traditional approach to flood management, using infrastructural measures to reduce the chance of flooding together with rigid planning regulations. The existing flood risk management practices do not operate to be acceptable by the local community particular the urban poor. Researchers have constantly reported the differences in estimations of flood risk, priorities, concerns of experts and the local community. Risk-based decision making in flood management is not only a matter of technical facts; it has a significant bearing on how flood risk is viewed by local community and individuals. Moreover, sustainable flood management is an integrated approach, which highlights joint actions of experts and community. This indicates the necessity of further societal discussion on the acceptable level of flood risk indicators to prioritize and identify the appropriate flood management measures in Colombo. The understanding and evaluation of flood risk by local people are important to integrate in the decision-making process. This research questioned about the gap between the acceptable level of flood risk to spatial planners and to the local communities in Colombo. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to prepare a framework to analyze the public perception in Colombo. This research work identifies the factors that affect the variation of flood risk and acceptable levels to both local community and planning authorities.

Keywords: Colombo basin, public perception, urban flood risk, multi-criteria analysis

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Authors: Konrad Pietrykowski, Michal Bialy, Pawel Karpinski, Radoslaw Maczka

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The nozzle is an element of the rocket engine in which the conversion of the potential energy of gases generated during combustion into the kinetic energy of the gas stream takes place. The design parameters of the nozzle have a decisive influence on the ballistic characteristics of the engine. Designing a nozzle assembly is, therefore, one of the most responsible stages in developing a rocket engine design. The paper presents the results of the simulation of three types of rocket propulsion nozzles. Calculations were made using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) in ANSYS Fluent software. The next types of nozzles differ in shape. The analysis was made of a conical nozzle, a bell type nozzle with a conical supersonic part and a bell type nozzle. Calculation results are presented in the form of pressure, velocity and kinetic energy distributions of turbulence in the longitudinal section. The courses of these values along the nozzles are also presented. The results show that the cone nozzle generates strong turbulence in the critical section. Which negatively affect the flow of the working medium. In the case of a bell nozzle, the transformation of the wall caused the elimination of flow disturbances in the critical section. This reduces the probability of waves forming before or after the trailing edge. The most sophisticated construction is the bell type nozzle. It allows you to maximize performance without adding extra weight. The bell type nozzle can be used as a starter and auxiliary engine nozzle due to its advantages. The project/research was financed in the framework of the project Lublin University of Technology-Regional Excellence Initiative, funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (contract no. 030/RID/2018/19).

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, nozzle, rocket engine, supersonic flow

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Authors: R. Maher, D. Marchant, F. Fazel

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Choking in sport has been defined as ‘an acute performance breakdown’, and is generally explained through a range of contributory antecedents, factors, and explanatory theories. The influence of mental antecedents on an athlete’s performance under pressure has been widely examined through numerous studies. Researchers have only recently begun to investigate the influence of physical effort and associated residual fatigue as a potential contributor to choking in sport. Consequently, the initial aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which both physical exertion and pressure affect free-throw shooting performance. It was hypothesized that the free-throw shooting scores would decline under manipulated conditions. Design and Methods: Using a within-subjects design, 50 student-athletes were assigned to four manipulated conditions: (a) higher pressure-running, (b) higher pressure-no running, (c) lower pressure-running, and (d) lower pressure-no running. The physical exertion was manipulated by including a 56 meter shuttle-run in two of the running conditions. The pressure was manipulated with the presence of an audience, video-recording, performance contingent rewards, and weighting successful shots in the higher pressure conditions. A repeated measure analysis of variance was used to analyse the data. Results: The free-throw performance significantly deteriorated under manipulated physical exertion F (1, 49) = 10.13, p = .003, ηp 2 = .17 and pressure conditions F (1, 49) = 5.25, p = .02, ηp 2 = .09. The lowest free-throw scores were observed in the higher pressure-running condition, whereas the highest free-throw scores were reported in the lower pressure-no running condition. Conclusions: Physical exertion and the associated residual fatigue were contributors to choking. The results of the present study herald a new concept in choking research and yield a practical platform for use by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists to better manage the psychological and physiological aspects of performance under pressure.

Keywords: anxiety, basketball, choking, fatigue, free-throw shooting, physical exertion

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Authors: Suhas Kadam, Vishal Chandanshive, Niraj Rane, Sanjay Govindwar

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Fimbristylis dichotoma, Ammannia baccifera, and their co-plantation consortium FA were found to degrade methyl orange, simulated dye mixture, and real textile effluent. Wild plants of Fimbristylis dichotoma and Ammannia baccifera with equal biomass showed 91 and 89% decolorization of methyl orange within 60 h at a concentration of 50 ppm, while 95% dye removal was achieved by consortium FA within 48 h. Floating phyto-beds with co-plantation (Fimbristylis dichotoma and Ammannia baccifera) for the treatment of real textile effluent in a constructed wetland was observed to be more efficient and achieved 79, 72, 77, 66 and 56% reductions in ADMI color value, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total dissolve solid and total suspended solid of textile effluent, respectively. High performance thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Ultra violet-Visible spectroscopy and enzymatic assays confirmed the phytotransformation of parent dye in the new metabolites. T-RFLP analysis of rhizospheric bacteria of Fimbristylis dichotoma, Ammannia baccifera, and consortium FA revealed the presence of 88, 98 and 223 genera which could have been involved in dye removal. Toxicity evaluation of products formed after phytotransformation of methyl orange by consortium FA on bivalves Lamellidens marginalis revealed less damage in the gills architecture when analyzed histologically. Toxicity measurement by Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique revealed normal banding pattern in treated methyl orange sample suggesting less toxic nature of phytotransformed dye products.

Keywords: constructed wetland, phyto-bed, textile effluent, phytoremediation

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Authors: Johanrik, Arini Aprilliani, Fikri Haikal, Diyas Yuca, Muhammad A. Latif, Edijanti Goenarwo, Nurita P. Sari

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Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in many countries, as well as responsible for the deaths of millions of people each year. Previous research showed that the leaves, bark, and root bark of kedondong contains saponins, tannins, and flavonoids. Tannins have anti-diarrheal effects that work as the freeze of protein / astrigen, and may inhibit the secretion of chloride over the tannate bonding between protein in the intestines. Chemical compounds of flavonoids also have an effect as anti-diarrheal block receptors Cl ˉ in intestinal thus reducing the secretion of Cl ˉ to the intestinal lume. This research aims to know the anti-diarrheal activity of extracts kedondong leaf in mice Balb/C strain males in vivo. This research also proves kedondong leaves as an anti-diarrhea through trial efficacy of kedondong leaves as antisekretori and antimotilitas. This research using post-test only controlled group design. Analysis of statistical data normality and homogenity were tested by Kolmogorov Smirnov. If the data obtained homogenous then using ANOVA test. This research using ethanolic extracts kedondong leaf 200, 400 and 800 mg/kgBW to prove there is anti-diarrhea it makes into six treatment groups, for anti-secretory it makes into five treatment groups and anti-motility became five treatment groups. The result showed dose of ethanolic extracts kedondong leaf 800 mg/kgBW have significant value (p < 0.005). The conclusion from this extracts kedondong leaf research 800 mg/kgBW have pharmacological effects as antidiarrhea on Balb/C strain male mice with a mechanism of action as antisecretory and antimotility.

Keywords: anti-diarrhea, anti-secretory, anti-motility, kedondong leaf

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Authors: Aliaa M. S. Salem, Soliman I. El-Hout, Amira Gaber, Hassan Nageh

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Nowadays, the development of poisonous gas detectors is considered to be an urgent matter to secure human health and the environment from poisonous gases, in view of the fact that even a minimal amount of poisonous gas can be fatal. Of these concerns, various inorganic or organic sensing materials have been used. Among these are conducting polymers, have been used as the active material in the gassensorsdue to their low-cost,easy-controllable molding, good electrochemical properties including facile fabrication process, inherent physical properties, biocompatibility, and optical properties. Moreover, conducting polymer-based chemical sensors have an amazing advantage compared to the conventional one as structural diversity, facile functionalization, room temperature operation, and easy fabrication. However, the low selectivity and conductivity of conducting polymers motivated the doping of it with varied materials, especially graphene, to enhance the gas-sensing performance under ambient conditions. There were a number of approaches proposed for producing polymer/ graphene nanocomposites, including template-free self-assembly, hard physical template-guided synthesis, chemical, electrochemical, and electrospinning...etc. In this work, we aim to prepare a novel gas sensordepending on Electrospun nanofibers of conducting polymer/RGO composite that is the effective and efficient expectation of poisonous gases like ammonia, in different application areas such as environmental gas analysis, chemical-,automotive- and medical industries. Moreover, our ultimate objective is to maximize the sensing performance of the prepared sensor and to check its recovery properties.

Keywords: electro spinning process, conducting polymer, polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, functionalized reduced graphene oxide, spin coating technique, gas sensors

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Authors: Ibrahim Magaji

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WhatsApp messaging platform brings about new opportunities for users to participate in unique storytelling experiences and audience engagement, particularly to Students of Mass communication who receive training to report events and issues accurately and objectively in accordance with official controls. Also, the complex nature of society today made it possible to use the WhatsApp platform that revolutionizes the means of sharing information, ideas, and experiences. This paper examined the WhatsApp messaging platform and how it influenced the academic performance of students in the Department of Mass Communication, Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Talata Mafara. It used in-depth interview techniques and focus group discussion with students, as well as the use of published materials as well as unpublished materials to gather related and relevant data. Also, the paper used procedures involved to analyze long interview content. This procedure includes observation of a useful utterance, development of expanded observation, the examination of the interconnection of observed comments, collective scrutiny of observation for patterns and themes, and review and analysis of the themes across all interviews for development of the thesis. The result revealed that the majority of students used WhatsApp messenger for making friends and chatting. Also, the students experienced negative effects such as poor grammar and spelling, less study time, and poor academic performance because of active participation in the use of WhatsApp messaging platform. Surprisingly, there was a high addiction rate among students in the usage of WhatsApp messenger. However, other students experienced an improvement in their readings skills as a result of participation in the use of the platform. Also, students shared ideas, discussed, and shared examination questions among themselves on WhatsApp messenger.

Keywords: WhatsApp messenger, students, participation, group

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Authors: Carine Kawakami

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In French, as well as in English, there are two types of psychological predicate constructions depending on where the experiencer argument is realized; the first type is in the subject position (e.g. Je regrette d’être venu ici. ‘I regret coming here'), hereinafter called ES construction, and the second type is in the object position (e.g. Cette nouvelle m’a surpris. ‘This new surprised me.'), referred as EO construction. In the previous studies about psychological predicates, the syntactic position of the experiencer argument has been just a matter of its connection with the syntactic or semantic structure of the predicate. So that few attentions have been paid to how two types of realization of experiencer are related to the conceptualization of psychological event and to the function of the sentence describing the psychological event, in the sense of speech act theory. In this research, focusing on the French phenomena limited to the first personal pronoun and the present tense, the ES constructions and the EO constructions will be analyzed from cognitive and functional approach. It will be revealed that, due to the possibility to be used in soliloquy and the high co-occurrence with ça (‘it’), the EO constructions may have expressive function to betray what speaker feels in hic et nunc, like interjection. And in the expressive case, the experiencer is construed as a locus where a feeling appears spontaneously and is construed subjectively (e.g. Ah, ça m’énerve! ‘Oh, it irritates me!'). On the other hand, the ES constructions describe speaker’s mental state in an assertive manner rather than the expressive and spontaneously way. In other words, they describe what speaker feels to the interlocutor (e.g. Je suis énervé. ‘I am irritated.'). As a consequence, when the experiencer argument is realized in the subject position, it is construed objectively and have a participant feature in the sense of cognitive grammar. Finally, it will be concluded that the choice of construction type, at least in French, is correlated to the conceptualization of the psychological event and the discourse feature of its expression.

Keywords: french psychological verb, conceptualization, expressive function, assertive function, experiencer realization

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Authors: Recep Yücel, Cihat Kartal, Mustafa Kara

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On the basis of strategic management, it is believed in the necessity of a number of innovations in the postmodern management approach in the management of universities in our country. In this sense, some of these requirements are the integration of public and private universities, international integration, R & D status and increasing young population will create a dynamic structure. According to the postmodern management approach, universities, in our country despite being governed by the classical approach autonomous universities; academically are thought solid, to be non-hierarchical and creative. In fact, studies that require a multidisciplinary academic environment, universities and there is a close cooperation between formal and non-formal sub-units. Moreover, terms of postmodern management approaches, the requirements specified in the direction of solving the problem of an increasing number of universities in our country is considered to be more difficult. Therefore, considering the psychological impact on the academic personnel the university organizational structure, the study are trying to aim to propose an appropriate model of university organization. In this context, the study sought to answer the question how to have an impact innovation and international integration on the academic achievement of the classical organizational structure. Finally, in the study, due to the adoption of the classical organizational structure of the university, integration is considered to be difficult, academic cooperation between universities at the international level and maintaining it. In addition, it was understood that block the efforts of this organization structure, academic motivation, development and innovation. In this study under these purposes; on the basis of the existing organization and management structure of the universities in the Marmara Region in Turkey, a study was conducted with qualitative research methods. The data have been analyzed using content analysis and assessment was based on the results obtained.

Keywords: university, strategic management, postmodern management approaches, multidisciplinary studies

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Authors: Aminah Salim, Idrees Ahmed Nasir, Abdul Qayyum Rao, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Sohail Anjum, Ayesha Hameed, Bushra Tabassum, Anwar Khan, Arfan Ali, Mariyam Zameer, Tayyab Husnain

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Risk assessment of transgenic herbicide tolerant sugarcane having CEMB codon optimized cp4EPSPS gene was done in present study. Fifteen days old chicks taken from K&Ns Company were randomly assorted into four groups with eight chicks in each group namely control chicken group fed with commercial diet, non-transgenic group fed with non-experimental sugarcane and transgenic group fed with transgenic sugarcane with minimum and maximum level. Body weights, biochemical analysis for Urea, alkaline phosphatase, alanine transferase, aspartate transferase, creatinine and bilirubin determination and histological examination of chicks fed with four types of feed was taken at fifteen days interval and no significant difference was observed in body weight biochemical and histological studies of all four groups. Protein isolated from the serum sample was analyzed through dipstick and SDS-PAGE, showing the absence of transgene protein in the serum sample of control and experimental groups. Moreover the amplification of cp4EPSPS gene with gene specific primers of DNA isolated from chicks blood and also from commercial diet was done to determine the presence and mobility of any nucleotide fragment of the transgene in/from feed and no amplification was obtained in feed as well as in blood extracted DNA of any group. Also no mRNA expression of cp4EPSPS gene was obtained in any tissue of four groups of chicks. From the results it is clear that there is no deleterious or harmful effect of the CEMB codon optimized transgenic cp4EPSPS sugarcane on the chicks health.

Keywords: chicks, cp4EPSPS, glyphosate, sugarcane

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Authors: Marta E. Hernandez-Caballero, Veronica Borgonio-Cuadra, Antonio Miranda-Duarte, Xochitl Rojas-Toledo, Normand Garcia-Hernandez, Maura Cardenas-Garcia, Teresa Abad-Camacho

Abstract:

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common tumor in women over the world. DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification critical in CpG sites, aberrant methylation of CpG islands in promoters is a hallmark of cancer. So, gene expression can be regulated by alterations in DNA methylation. In cell lines DACT2 gene reduces the growth and migration of tumor cells by its participation in the suppression of TGFb/SMAD2/3. PHF20L1 is involved in histone acetylation therefore, it regulates transcription. Our aim was to analyze the methylation status of the DACT2 and PHF20L1 promoter regions in tumoral and healthy mammary tissue from women with BC in different progression states. The study included 77 patients from Centro Medico Nacional La Raza in Mexico City. After identifying a CpG island in DACT2 and PHF20L1 promoters, DNA methylation status was analyzed through sodium bisulfite with subsequent amplification using methylation-specific PCR. Results revealed no changes in methylation status of PHF20L1 and cancer stages (II y III) or in comparison to healthy tissues, it was demethylated. DACT2 promoter methylation was no significant between tumoral stages (II, P = 0.37; III, P = 0.17) or with healthy tissue. Previous data reported DACT2 methylated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma but in this study promoter methylation was not observed. PHF20L1 protein contains N-terminal Tudor and C-terminal plant homeodomain domains, it has been suggested that can stabilize DNMT1 regulating DNA methylation, therefore, was associated with poor prognostic in BC. We found no evidence of methylation in patients and controls in PHF20L1 promoter, so its association with BC may have no direct relation with promoter methylation. More studies including other methylation sites in these genes in BC are necessary.

Keywords: bisulfite conversion, breast cancer, DACT2, DNA methylation, PHF20L1, tumoral status

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Authors: Faiza Marrium, Masood Rabbani, Ali Ahmad Sheikh, Muhammad Yasin Tipu Javed Muhammad, Sohail Raza

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More than 75% diseases spreading in the past 10 years in human population globally are linked to veterinary sector. Veterinary diagnostic labs are the powerful ally for diagnosis, prevention and monitoring of animal diseases in any country. In order to avoid detrimental effects of errors in disease diagnostic and biorisk management, there is a dire need to establish quality control system. In current study, 3 private and 6 public sectors veterinary diagnostic labs were selected for survey. A questionnaire survey in biorisk management guidelines of CWA 15793 was designed to find quality control breaches in lab design, personal, equipment and consumable, quality control measures adopted in lab, waste management, environmental monitoring and customer care. The data was analyzed through frequency distribution statistically by using (SPSS) version 18.0. A non-significant difference was found in all parameters of lab design, personal, equipment and consumable, quality control measures adopted in lab, waste management, environmental monitoring and customer care with an average percentage of 46.6, 57.77, 52.7, 55.5, 54.44, 48.88 and 60, respectively. A non-significant difference among all nine labs were found, with highest average compliance percentage of all parameters are lab 2 (78.13), Lab 3 (70.56), Lab 5 (57.51), Lab 6 (56.37), Lab 4 (55.02), Lab 9 (49.58), Lab 7 (47.76), Lab 1 (41.01) and Lab 8 (36.09). This study shows that in Lahore district veterinary diagnostic labs are not giving proper attention to quality of their system and there is no significant difference between setups of private and public sector laboratories. These results show that most of parameters are between 50 and 80 percent, which needs some work and improvement as per WHO criteria.

Keywords: veterinary lab, quality management system, accreditation, regulatory body, disease identification

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Authors: M. T. Islam, S. H. Shakif, R. Hasan, S. H. Kobi

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Investigation of rainfall trends is crucial considering climate change, food security, and the economy of a particular region. This research aims to study seasonal and annual precipitation trends and their abrupt changes over time in the south-central climatic zone of Bangladesh using monthly time series data of 50 years (1970-2019). A trend-free pre-whitening method has been employed to make necessary adjustments for autocorrelations in the rainfall data. Trends in rainfall and their intensity have been observed using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and Theil-Sen estimator. Significant changes and fluctuation points in the data series have been detected using the sequential Mann-Kendall test at the 95% confidence limit. The study findings show that most of the rainfall stations in the study area have a decreasing precipitation pattern throughout all seasons. The maximum decline in the rainfall intensity has been found for the Tangail station (-8.24 mm/year) during monsoon. Madaripur and Chandpur stations have shown slight positive trends in post-monsoon rainfall. In terms of annual precipitation, a negative rainfall pattern has been identified in each station, with a maximum decrement (-) of 14.48 mm/year at Chandpur. However, all the trends are statistically non-significant within the 95% confidence interval, and their monotonic association with time ranges from very weak to weak. From the sequential Mann-Kendall test, the year of changing points for annual and seasonal downward precipitation trends occur mostly after the 90s for Dhaka and Barishal stations. For Chandpur, the fluctuation points arrive after the mid-70s in most cases.

Keywords: trend analysis, Mann-Kendall test, Theil-Sen estimator, sequential Mann-Kendall test, rainfall trend

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Authors: Lorenzo Buti

Abstract:

This paper investigates the nature of democratic action through a critical reading of Claude Lefort’s notion of the democratic ‘regime’. Lefort provides one of the most innovative accounts of the essential features of a democratic regime. According to him, democracy is a political regime that acknowledges the indeterminacy of a society and stages it as a contestation between competing political actors. As such, democracy provides the symbolic markers of society’s openness towards the future. However, despite their democratic features, the recent decades in late capitalist societies attest to a sense of the future becoming fixed and predetermined. This suggests that Lefort’s conception of democracy harbours a misunderstanding of the character and experience of democratic action. This paper examines this underlying tension in Lefort’s work. It claims that Lefort underestimates how a democratic regime, next to its symbolic function, also takes a materially constituted form with its particular dynamics of power relations. Lefort’s systematic dismissal of this material dimension for democratic action can lead to the contemporary paradoxical situation where democracy’s symbolic markers are upheld (free elections, public debate, dynamic between government and opposition in parliament,…) but the room for political decision-making is constrained due to a myriad of material constraints (e.g., market pressures, institutional inertias). The paper draws out the implications for the notion of democratic action. Contra Lefort, it argues that democratic action necessarily targets the material conditions that impede the capacity for decision-making on the basis of equality and liberty. This analysis shapes our understanding of democratic action in two ways. First, democratic action takes an asymmetrical, insurgent form, as a contestation of material power relations from below. Second, it reveals an ambivalent position vis-à-vis the political regime: democratic action is symbolically made possible by the democratic dispositive, but it contests the constituted form that the democratic regime takes.

Keywords: Claude Lefort, democratic action, material constitution, political regime

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Authors: Jobo Dubihlela, Kofi Boamah

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The inimitable role of the internal auditing, challenges and the predicament of state-owned enterprises in emerging markets are acknowledged. Study sought to address the inter-related questions, about how does IAF complement the performance and sustainability of SOEs? How can effective IA control systems be implemented to improve the performance results and culture of SOEs in Namibia? The weaknesses inherent in the SOE sector, unfortunately, impacts on the IAF ability to effectively support the SOEs. Despite these challenges, the study has unearthed IAF potential capabilities to contribute to SOE survival in Namibia by complementing the governance practices of the sector. Using a quantitative research approach, the dataset was collected and analysed from SOEs to confirm the role of the internal auditing function (IAF) as an indispensable concomitant of SOE performance. The study adopted a data approach supported by the literary evidence, which enabled generalisation and connectedness of the issues being addressed. The outcome of the data analysis contributed to achieving the results, which are discussed and eventually support the conclusions reached. Results show that the intractable task of internal auditing depends on the leadership of the board of directors of the SOEs. Study also revealed critical priorities needed to influence policymakers and oversight bodies to overcome the iniquities influencing SOE operations, understand and embrace IAF to salvage a sector that has a lot to offer and yet is severely mismanaged. Results support literature on IA’s contribution to SOE development from a developing country’s point of view and is the first of its kind in Namibia. Findings suggest ways to possibly enhance knowledge development of future researchers and ‘wet their appetite’ for further research in emerging markets and on a global scale.

Keywords: internal auditing activity, state-owned enterprises, emerging markets, auditing function

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Authors: Kevin Montanez, Patricia Garcia

Abstract:

The confinement and restrictions adopted to avoid an exponential spread of the COVID-19 have negatively impacted the Peruvian economy. In this context, Industries offering essential products could continue operating, but they have to follow safety protocols and implement strategies to ensure employee health. In view of the increasing internet access and mobile phone ownership, “Alerta Temprana”, a mobile app, was developed to self-report COVID-19 symptoms in the work context. In this study, the usability of the mobile app “Alerta Temprana” was evaluated from the perspective of health monitors and workers. In addition to reporting the metrics related to the usability of the application, the utility of the system is also evaluated from the monitors' perspective. In this descriptive study, the participants used the mobile app for two months. Afterwards, System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire was answered by the workers and monitors. A Usefulness questionnaire with open questions was also used for the monitors. The data related to the use of the application was collected during one month. Furthermore, descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis were used. The workers rated the application as good (70.39). In the case of the monitors, usability was excellent (83.0). The most important feature for the monitors were the emails generated by the application. The average interaction per user was 30 seconds and a total of 6172 self-reports were sent. Finally, a statistically significant association was found between the acceptability scale and the work area. The results of this study suggest that Alerta Temprana has the potential to be used for surveillance and health monitoring in any context of face-to-face modality. Participants reported a high degree of ease of use. However, from the perspective of workers, SUS cannot diagnose usability issues and we suggest we use another standard usability questionnaire to improve "Alerta Temprana" for future use.

Keywords: public health in informatics, mobile app, usability, self-report

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Elvin Çomo, Edlira Tako, Albana Hasimi, Rrapo Ormeni, Olger Gjuzi, Mirela Ndrita

Abstract:

In Albania, only low enthalpy geothermal springs and wells are known, the temperatures of some of them are almost at the upper limits of low enthalpy, reaching over 60°C. These resources can be used to improve the country's energy balance, as well as for profitable economic purposes. The region of Elbasan has the greatest geothermal energy potential in Albania. This bass is one of the most popular and used in our country. This area is a surface with a number of sources, located in the form of a chain, in the sector between Llixha and Hidraj and constitutes a thermo-mineral basin with stable discharge and high temperature. The sources of Elbasan Springs, with the current average flow of thermo mineral water of 12-18 l/s and its temperature 55-65oC, have specific reserves of 39.6 GJ/m2 and potential power to install 2760 kW. For the assessment of physico-chemical parameters and heavy metals, water samples were taken at 5 monitoring stations throughout the year 2022. The levels of basic parameters were analyzed using ISO, EU and APHA 21-th edition standard methods. This study presents the current state of the physico-chemical parameters of this thermal basin, the evaluation of these parameters for curative activities and for industrial processes, as well as the integrated utilization of geothermal energy. Possibilities for using thermomineral waters for heating homes in the area around them or even further, depending on the flow from the source or geothermal well. Sensitization of Albanian investors, medical research and the community for the high economic and curative effectiveness, for the integral use of geothermal energy in this area and the development of the tourist sector. An analysis of the negative environmental impact from the use of thermal water is also provided.

Keywords: geothermal energy, Llixha, physic-chemical parameters, thermal water

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Authors: Laszlo Dorner

Abstract:

Background: In the last few decades there has been a significant discussion within the researchers of prosocial behavior about to what extent personality characteristics matter in determining the quality and frequency of helping behaviors. Of these community activities the most important is formal volunteering which mainly realises in civil services and organizations. Recently many researches have been showed up regarding the personality factors and motivations behind volunteering). Most of these researches found strong correlation between Agreeableness and Extraversion as global traits and the time spent on volunteering and its frequency as well. Aims of research: In this research we investigate the relation between formal volunteer activities and global traits in a Hungarian volunteer sample. We hypothetise that the results appeared in the previous researches show the same pattern in Hungary as well: volunteering would be related to Agreeableness and Extraversion. We also assume that the time spent on volunteering is related to these traits, since these traits would serve as an indicator of long-term volunteering. Methods: We applied the Hungarian adaptation of Big Five Questionnaire created by Caprara, Barbaranelli és Borgogni. This self-reported questionnaire contains 132 items, and explore 5 main traits examining the person’s most important emotional and motivational features regarding its personality. This research took into account the most important socio-economical factors (age, gender, religiosity, income) which can determine volunteer activities per se. The data is evaluated by SPSS 19.0 Statistical Software. Sample: 92 volunteer (formal, mainly the volunteers of Hungarian Red Cross and Hospice Organizations)and 92 non volunteer person, with matched subsamples by the factors of age, gender and qualification. Results: The volunteer subsample shows higher values of Energy and significantly higher values of Agreeableness and Openness, however, regarding Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability the differences are not significant between the volunteer and non-volunteer subsamples.

Keywords: Big Five, comparative analysis, global traits, volunteering

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Authors: Neda Nabid

Abstract:

Friction-based supplemental devices have been extensively used for seismic protection and strengthening of structures, however, the conventional use of these dampers may not necessarily lead to an efficient structural performance. Conventionally designed friction dampers follow a uniform height-wise distribution pattern of slip load values for more practical simplicity. This can lead to localizing structural damage in certain story levels, while the other stories accommodate a negligible amount of relative displacement demand. A practical performance-based optimization methodology is developed to tackle with structural damage localization of RC frame buildings with friction energy dissipation devices under severe earthquakes. The proposed methodology is based on the concept of uniform damage distribution theory. According to this theory, the slip load values of the friction dampers redistribute and shift from stories with lower relative displacement demand to the stories with higher inter-story drifts to narrow down the discrepancy between the structural damage levels in different stories. In this study, the efficacy of the proposed design methodology is evaluated through the seismic performance of five different low to high-rise RC frames equipped with friction wall dampers under six real spectrum-compatible design earthquakes. The results indicate that compared to the conventional design, using the suggested methodology to design friction wall systems can lead to, by average, up to 40% reduction of maximum inter-story drift; and incredibly more uniform height-wise distribution of relative displacement demands under the design earthquakes.

Keywords: friction damper, nonlinear dynamic analysis, RC structures, seismic performance, structural damage

Procedia PDF Downloads 226

Authors: H. Abas Nejad, A. R. Teymoori

Abstract:

Facial expression recognition is one of the open problems in computer vision. Robust neutral face recognition in real time is a major challenge for various supervised learning based facial expression recognition methods. This is due to the fact that supervised methods cannot accommodate all appearance variability across the faces with respect to race, pose, lighting, facial biases, etc. in the limited amount of training data. Moreover, processing each and every frame to classify emotions is not required, as the user stays neutral for the majority of the time in usual applications like video chat or photo album/web browsing. Detecting neutral state at an early stage, thereby bypassing those frames from emotion classification would save the computational power. In this work, we propose a light-weight neutral vs. emotion classification engine, which acts as a preprocessor to the traditional supervised emotion classification approaches. It dynamically learns neutral appearance at Key Emotion (KE) points using a textural statistical model, constructed by a set of reference neutral frames for each user. The proposed method is made robust to various types of user head motions by accounting for affine distortions based on a textural statistical model. Robustness to dynamic shift of KE points is achieved by evaluating the similarities on a subset of neighborhood patches around each KE point using the prior information regarding the directionality of specific facial action units acting on the respective KE point. The proposed method, as a result, improves ER accuracy and simultaneously reduces the computational complexity of ER system, as validated on multiple databases.

Keywords: neutral vs. emotion classification, Constrained Local Model, procrustes analysis, Local Binary Pattern Histogram, statistical model

Procedia PDF Downloads 339