Search results for: socio-economic problems

Authors: J. Jessa

Abstract:

Background: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, the incidence of which has significantly increased in recent years. Children with autism have impairments in social skills, communication, and imagination. Children with autism has more common than healthy children feeding problems: food selectivity, problems with gastrointestinal tract: diarrhea, constipations, abdominal pain, reflux and others. Many parents of autistic children report that after implementation of gluten-, casein- and sugar free diet those symptoms disappear and even cognitive functions become better. Some children begin to understand speech and to communicate with parents, regain eye contact, become more calm, sleep better and has better concentration. Probably at the root of this phenomenon lies elimination from the diet peptides construction of which is similar to opiates. Enhanced permeability of gut causes absorption of not fully digested opioid-like peptides from food, like gluten and casein and probably others (proteins from soy and corn) which impact on brain of autistic children. Aim of the study: The aim of the study is to assess the safety of gluten-free diet in children with autism, aged 2,5-7. Methods: Participants of the study (n=70) – children aged 2,5-7 with autism are divided into 3 groups. The first group (research group) are patients whose parents want to implement a gluten-free diet. The second group are patients who have been recommended to eliminate from the diet artificial substances, such as preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, and others (control group 1). The third group (control group 2) are children whose parents did not agree for implementation of the diet. Caregivers of children on the diet are educated about the specifics of the diet and how to avoid malnutrition. At the start of the study we exclude celiac disease. Before the implementation of the diet we performe a blood test for patients (morphology, ferritin, total cholesterol, dry peripheral blood drops to detect some genetic metabolic diseases), plasma aminogram) and urine tests (excretion of ions: Mg, Na, Ca, the profile of organic acids in urine), which assess nutritional status as well as the psychological test assessing the degree of the child's psychological functioning (PEP-R). All of these tests will be repeated after one year from the implementation of the diet. Results: To the present moment we examined 42 children with autism. 12 of children are on gluten- free diet. Our preliminary results are promising. Parents of 9 of them report that, there is a big improvement in child behavior, concentration, less aggression incidents, better eye contact and better verbal skills. Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggest that dietary intervention may positively affect developmental outcome for some children diagnosed with ASD.

Keywords: gluten free diet, autism spectrum disorder, autism, blood test

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Authors: H. R. Kamali, A. Sadegheih, M. A. Vahdat-Zad, H. Khademi-Zare

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In this paper, a single product, multi-echelon, multi-period closed loop supply chain is surveyed, including a variety of costs, time conditions, and capacities, to plan and determine the values and time of the components procurement, production, distribution, recycling and disposal specially for high-tech products that undergo a decreasing production cost and sale price over time. For this purpose, the mathematic model of the problem that is a kind of mixed integer linear programming is presented, and it is finally proved that the problem belongs to the category of NP-hard problems.

Keywords: closed loop supply chain, continuous price decrease, NP-hard, planning

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Authors: Mohammadamin Hashemi, Mohammadreza Kashizadeh

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Droughts pose a significant threat to sustainable water resource management, agriculture, and socioeconomic sectors, particularly in the field of climate change. This study investigates drought simulation using rainfall-runoff modelling in the Cuneo district, Italy, over the past 60-year period. The study leverages the TUW model, a lumped conceptual rainfall-runoff model with a semi-distributed operation capability. Similar in structure to the widely used Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) model, the TUW model operates on daily timesteps for input and output data specific to each catchment. It incorporates essential routines for snow accumulation and melting, soil moisture storage, and streamflow generation. Multiple catchments' discharge data within the Cuneo district form the basis for thorough model calibration employing the Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) metric. A crucial metric for reliable drought analysis is one that can accurately represent low-flow events during drought periods. This ensures that the model provides a realistic picture of water availability during these critical times. Subsequent validation of monthly discharge simulations thoroughly evaluates overall model performance. Beyond model development, the investigation delves into drought analysis using the robust Standardized Runoff Index (SRI). This index allows for precise characterization of drought occurrences within the study area. A meticulous comparison of observed and simulated discharge data is conducted, with particular focus on low-flow events that characterize droughts. Additionally, the study explores the complex interplay between land characteristics (e.g., soil type, vegetation cover) and climate variables (e.g., precipitation, temperature) that influence the severity and duration of hydrological droughts. The study's findings demonstrate successful calibration of the TUW model across most catchments, achieving commendable model efficiency. Comparative analysis between simulated and observed discharge data reveals significant agreement, especially during critical low-flow periods. This agreement is further supported by the Pareto coefficient, a statistical measure of goodness-of-fit. The drought analysis provides critical insights into the duration, intensity, and severity of drought events within the Cuneo district. This newfound understanding of spatial and temporal drought dynamics offers valuable information for water resource management strategies and drought mitigation efforts. This research deepens our understanding of drought dynamics in the Cuneo region. Future research directions include refining hydrological modelling techniques and exploring future drought projections under various climate change scenarios.

Keywords: hydrologic extremes, hydrological drought, hydrological modelling, machine learning, rainfall-runoff modelling

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Authors: Shizra Waris, Saleem Akhtar

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Big data is a research area receiving attention from academia and IT communities. In the digital world, the amounts of data produced and stored have within a short period of time. Consequently this fast increasing rate of data has created many challenges. In this paper, we use functionalism and structuralism paradigms to analyze the genesis of big data applications and its current trends. This paper presents a complete discussion on state-of-the-art big data technologies based on group and stream data processing. Moreover, strengths and weaknesses of these technologies are analyzed. This study also covers big data analytics techniques, processing methods, some reported case studies from different vendor, several open research challenges and the chances brought about by big data. The similarities and differences of these techniques and technologies based on important limitations are also investigated. Emerging technologies are suggested as a solution for big data problems.

Keywords: computer, it community, industry, big data

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Authors: Jumin Zhao, Na Li, Dengao Li, Yujuan Yan

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As the rapid rise of the networking industry, the shortage of Internet of Things (IoT) talented people greatly stimulates the majority of colleges to speed up the pace of professional networking reform. Caused by the construction of the original specialty, many problems appear such as the vague specialty, the mixed theoretical, the poor practical ability and the different goal. To solve the issues above, we build a ‘theory-practice-theory-improvement’ four-step model of school-enterprise integration of personnel training. Besides, we integrate the advanced teaching philosophy: flip class and Mu class, making IoT teaching more professional and the ability of students more comprehensive.

Keywords: IoT, theory-practice-theory-promotion, major construction, school-enterprise cooperation

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Authors: Thohidul Islam, Md. Hamidul Haque, Robin Kumar Biswas

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Floods are one of the deadliest natural disasters which are very complex to model; however, machine learning is opening the door for more reliable and accurate flood prediction. In this research, a multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP) is developed to model the rainfall-water level relation, in a subtropical monsoon climatic region of the Bangladesh-India border. Our experiments show promising empirical results to forecast the water level for 1 day lead time. Our best performing MLP model achieves 98.7% coefficient of determination with lower model complexity which surpasses previously reported results on similar forecasting problems.

Keywords: flood forecasting, machine learning, multilayer perceptron network, regression

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Authors: Malika Yaici, Feriel Lalaoui, Lydia Belhoul

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As a new distributed point-to-point (P2P) technology, blockchain has become a very broad field of research, addressing various challenges, including privacy preserving, as is the case in all other technologies. In this work, a study of the existing solutions to the problems related to private life in general and in blockchains in particular is performed. User anonymity and transaction confidentiality are the two main challenges to the protection of privacy in blockchains. Mixing mechanisms and cryptographic solutions respond to this problem but remain subject to attacks and suffer from shortcomings. Taking into account these imperfections and the synthesis of our study, we present a mixing model without trusted third parties, based on group signatures, allowing reinforcing the anonymity of the users, the confidentiality of the transactions, with minimal turnaround time and without mixing costs.

Keywords: anonymity, blockchain, mixing coins, privacy

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Authors: Hashini E. Mohottala

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We report the combine use of Wikispaces (WikiS) and Group Problem Solving (GPS) sessions conducted in the introductory level physics classes. As a part of this new teaching tool, some essay type problems were posted on the WikiS in weekly basis and students were encouraged to participate in problem solving without providing numerical final answers but the steps. Wikispace is used as a platform for students to meet online and create discussions. Each week students were further evaluated on problem solving skills opening up more opportunity for peer interaction through GPS. Each group was given a different problem to solve and the answers were graded. Students developed a set of skills in decision-making, problem solving, communication, negotiation, critical and independent thinking and teamwork through the combination of WikiS and GPS.

Keywords: group problem solving (GPS), wikispace (WikiS), physics education, learning

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Authors: S. Raghibdoust, E. Kamari

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Research show that reduced functional hearing has a detrimental influence on the ability of an individual to establish proper phonological representations of words, since the phonological representations are claimed to mediate the conceptual processing of written words. Word processing efficiency is expected to decrease with a decrease in functional hearing. In other words, it is predicted that hearing individuals would be more capable of word processing than individuals with hearing loss, as their functional hearing works normally. Studies also demonstrate that the quality of the functional hearing affects reading comprehension via its effect on their word processing skills. In other words, better hearing facilitates the development of phonological knowledge, and can promote enhanced strategies for the recognition of written words, which in turn positively affect higher-order processes underlying reading comprehension. The aims of this study were to investigate and compare the effect of deafness on the participants’ abilities to process written words at the lexical and sentence levels through using two online and one offline reading comprehension tests. The performance of a group of 8 deaf male students (ages 8-12) was compared with that of a control group of normal hearing male students. All the participants had normal IQ and visual status, and came from an average socioeconomic background. None were diagnosed with a particular learning or motor disability. The language spoken in the homes of all participants was Persian. Two tests of word processing were developed and presented to the participants using OpenSesame software, in order to measure the speed and accuracy of their performance at the two perceptual and conceptual levels. In the third offline test of reading comprehension which comprised of semantically plausible and semantically implausible subject relative clauses, the participants had to select the correct answer out of two choices. The data derived from the statistical analysis using SPSS software indicated that hearing and deaf participants had a similar word processing performance both in terms of speed and accuracy of their responses. The results also showed that there was no significant difference between the performance of the deaf and hearing participants in comprehending semantically plausible sentences (p > 0/05). However, a significant difference between the performances of the two groups was observed with respect to their comprehension of semantically implausible sentences (p < 0/05). In sum, the findings revealed that the seriously impoverished sentence reading ability characterizing the profound deaf subjects of the present research, exhibited their reliance on reading strategies that are based on insufficient or deviant structural knowledge, in particular in processing semantically implausible sentences, rather than a failure to efficiently process written words at the lexical level. This conclusion, of course, does not mean to say that deaf individuals may never experience deficits at the word processing level, deficits that impede their understanding of written texts. However, as stated in previous researches, it sounds reasonable to assume that the more deaf individuals get familiar with written words, the better they can recognize them, despite having a profound phonological weakness.

Keywords: deafness, reading comprehension, reading strategy, word processing, subject and object relative sentences

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Authors: Olga Blasco-Blasco, Vicente Liern

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The development of tourism since the mid-20th century has raised problems of overcrowding, indiscriminate construction in seaside areas and gentrification. Increasingly, the World Tourism Organisation and public institutions are promoting policies that encourage sustainability. From the perspective of sustainability, three types of tourism can be established: traditional tourism, sustainable tourism and sustainable impact tourism. Measuring sustainability is complex due to its multiple dimensions of different relative importance and diversity in nature. In order to try to answer this problem and to identify the benefits of applying policies that promote sustainable tourism, a decision-making analysis will be carried out through the application of a multicriteria analysis method. The proposal is applied to hotel reservations and to the evaluation and management of tourism sustainability in the Spanish Autonomous Communities.

Keywords: sustainable tourism, multicriteria analysis, flexible optimization, composite indicators

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Authors: Rade M. Ciric, Sasa Mandic

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Students of Higher Education Technical School of Professional Studies, in Novi Sad follow the subject Maintenance of electric power equipment at the Electrotechnical Department. This paper presents educational plan and program of the subject Maintenance of electric power equipment. The course deals with the problems of preventive and investing maintenance of transformer stations (TS), performing and maintenance of grounding of TS and pillars, as well as tracing and detection the location of the cables failure. There is a special elaborated subject concerning the safe work conditions for the electrician during network maintenance, as well as the basics of making and keeping technical documentation of the equipment.

Keywords: educational plan and program, electric power equipment, maintenance, technical documentation, safe work

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Authors: Achim Kampker, Peter Burggräf, Moritz Krunke, Hanno Voet

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As a reaction to current challenges in factory planning, many companies think about introducing factory standards to lower planning times and decrease planning costs. If these factory standards are set-up with a high level of modularity, they are defined as modular factory systems. This paper deals with the main current problems in the application of modular factory systems in practice and presents a solution approach with its basic models. The methodology is based on methods from factory planning but also uses the tools of other disciplines like product development or technology management to deal with the high complexity, which the development of modular factory systems implies. The four basic models that such a methodology has to contain are introduced and pointed out.

Keywords: factory planning, modular factory systems, factory standards, cost-benefit analysis

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Authors: Richard Abel

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In the United States, increased incarceration rates have caused many adolescents to feel the strain of parental absence. This absence is then manifest through adolescent feelings of parental rejection. Additionally, upon reentry maternal incarceration may be related to adolescents experienced perceived excessive disciple. It is possible parents engage in this manner of discipline attempting to prevent the child from taking the same path to incarceration as the parent. According to General Strain Theory, adolescents encountering strain are likely to experience negative emotions. The emotion that is most likely to lead to delinquency is anger through reduced inhibitions and motivation to act. Additionally, males are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior, regardless of experiencing strain. This is not the case for every male who experiences maternal incarceration, parental rejection, excessive discipline, or anger. There are protective factors that enable agency within individuals. One such protective factor is mastery, or the perception that one is in control of his or her own future. The model proposed in this research suggests maternal incarceration is associated with increased parental rejection and excessive discipline in males. Males experiencing parental rejection and excessive discipline are likely to experience increased anger, which is then associated with increases in delinquent behavior. This model explores whether agency, in the form of mastery, mediates the relationship between strains and negative emotions, or between negative emotions and delinquent behavior. The Kaplan Longitudinal and Multigenerational Study (KLAMS) dataset is uniquely situated to analyze this model providing longitudinal data collected from both parents and their offspring. Maternal incarceration is constructed using parental responses such that the mother was incarcerated after the child’s birth, and any incarceration that happened prior to birth is excluded. The remaining variables of the study are all constructed from varying waves of the adolescent survey. Parental rejection, along with control variables for age, race, parental socioeconomic status, neighborhood effects, delinquent peers, and prior delinquent behavior are all constructed using Wave I data. To increase causal inference, the negative emotion of anger and the mediating variable of mastery are measured during Wave II. Lastly, delinquent behavior is measured at Wave III. Results of the analysis show expected relationships such that adolescent males encountering maternal incarceration show increased perception of parental rejection and excessive discipline. Additionally, there is a positive relationship between parental rejection and excessive discipline at Wave I and feelings of anger at Wave II for males. For males experiencing either of these strains in Wave I, feelings of anger in Wave II are found to be associated with increased delinquent behavior in Wave III. Mastery was found to mediate the relationship between both parental rejection and excessive discipline and anger, but no such mediation occurs in the relationship between anger and delinquency, regardless of the strain being experienced. These findings suggest adolescent males who feel they are in control of their own lives are less likely to experience negative emotions produced by the occurrence of strain, thereby decreasing male engagement in delinquent behavior later in life.

Keywords: delinquency, mastery, maternal incarceration, strain

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Authors: S. Mehrab Amiri, Nasser Talebbeydokhti

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Modeling sediment transport processes by means of numerical approach often poses severe challenges. In this way, a number of techniques have been suggested to solve flow and sediment equations in decoupled, semi-coupled or fully coupled forms. Furthermore, in order to capture flow discontinuities, a number of techniques, like artificial viscosity and shock fitting, have been proposed for solving these equations which are mostly required careful calibration processes. In this research, a numerical scheme for solving shallow water and Exner equations in fully coupled form is presented. First-Order Centered scheme is applied for producing required numerical fluxes and the reconstruction process is carried out toward using Monotonic Upstream Scheme for Conservation Laws to achieve a high order scheme.  In order to satisfy C-property of the scheme in presence of bed topography, Surface Gradient Method is proposed. Combining the presented scheme with fourth order Runge-Kutta algorithm for time integration yields a competent numerical scheme. In addition, to handle non-prismatic channels problems, Cartesian Cut Cell Method is employed. A trained Multi-Layer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network which is of Feed Forward Back Propagation (FFBP) type estimates sediment flow discharge in the model rather than usual empirical formulas. Hydrodynamic part of the model is tested for showing its capability in simulation of flow discontinuities, transcritical flows, wetting/drying conditions and non-prismatic channel flows. In this end, dam-break flow onto a locally non-prismatic converging-diverging channel with initially dry bed conditions is modeled. The morphodynamic part of the model is verified simulating dam break on a dry movable bed and bed level variations in an alluvial junction. The results show that the model is capable in capturing the flow discontinuities, solving wetting/drying problems even in non-prismatic channels and presenting proper results for movable bed situations. It can also be deducted that applying Artificial Neural Network, instead of common empirical formulas for estimating sediment flow discharge, leads to more accurate results.

Keywords: artificial neural network, morphodynamic model, sediment continuity equation, shallow water equations

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Authors: Dil Ware Alam, Faiza Zebeen, Sumaya Binte Masud

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COVID-19) has impacted the whole world, including Bangladesh. The epidemic has reduced access to health care, particularly for women, creating challenges for an increasingly disadvantaged population. Women's health and well-being in Bangladesh are susceptible to a rise in domestic violence and need to be addressed quickly. The planet has been greatly influenced by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and Bangladesh is no difference. The pandemic has resulted in a decline in the availability of health care, notably for women's health problems, leading to an increase in difficulties for an increasingly marginalized group. Maternity care, maternal health programs, medical interventions, nutritional counseling and mental health care, are not discussed, and women's health and well-being in Bangladesh is vulnerable with a spike in domestic violence and needs to be resolved urgently.

Keywords: Covid-19, mental health, reproductive health, Bangladesh

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Authors: Kadi-Hanifi Halima, Amghar Fateh

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Steppes of arid Mediterranean zones are deeply threatened by desertification. To stop or alleviate ecological and economic problems associated with this desertification, management actions have been implemented since the last three decades. The struggle against desertification has become a national priority in many countries. In Algeria, several management techniques have been used to cope with desertification. This study aims at investigating the effect of exclosure on floristic diversity and chemical soil properties after four years of implementation. 167 phyto-ecological samples have been studied, 122 inside the exclosure and 45 outside. Results showed that plant diversity, composition, vegetation cover, pastoral value and soil fertility were significantly higher in protected areas.

Keywords: desertification, arid, pastoral management, plant community soil fertility, gestation of environment, Algeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: Kamelia Hamza

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Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are the most prescribed drug classes for pediatric gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).Many patients are treated with these drugs for atypical manifestations attributed to gastroesophageal reflux (GER), even in the absence of proved causal relationship. There is an impression of increase use of PPI's treatment for reflux in "clalit health services," the largest health organization in Israel. In the recent years, the medicine is given without restriction, it's not limited to pediatric gastroenterologists only, but pediatricians and family doctors. The objective of this study is to evaluate the hypothesis that exposure to PPIs during the first year of life is associated with an increased risk of developing late adverse diseases: pneumonia, asthma, AGE, IBD, celiac disease, allergic disorders, obesity, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods: The study is a retrospective case-control cohort study based on a computerized database of Clalit Health Services (CHS). It includes 9844 children born between 2002-2018 and reported to complain of at least one of the symptoms (reflux/ spitting up, irritability, feeding difficulties, colics). The study population included the study group (n=4922) of children exposed to PPIs at any time prior to the first year of life and a control group (n=4922) child not exposed to PPIs who were matched to each case of the study group on age, race, socioeconomic status, and year of birth. The prevalence of late complications/diseases in the study group was compared with the prevalence of late complications/diseases diagnosis between 2002-2020 in the control group. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by using logistic regression models. Results: We found that compared to the control group, children exposed to PPIs in the first year of life had an increased risk of developing several late complications/ disorders: pneumonia, asthma, various allergies (urticaria, allergic rhinitis, or allergic conjunctivitis) OR, inhalant allergies, and food allergies. In addition, they showed an increased risk of being diagnosed with ADHD or ASD, but children exposed to PPIs in the first year of life had decrease the risk of obesity by 17% (OR 0.825, 95%CI 0.697-0.976). Conclusions: We found significant associations between the use of PPIs during the first year of life and subsequent development of late complications/diseases such as respiratory diseases, allergy diseases, ADHD, and ASD. More studies are needed to prove causality and determine the mechanism behind the effect of PPIs and the development of late complications.

Keywords: acid suppressing medications, proton pump inhibitors, histamine 2 blocker, late complications, gastroesophageal reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease, acute gastroenteritis, community acquired pneumonia, asthma, allergic diseases, obesity, inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative colitis, crohn disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, autism spectrum disorders

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Authors: Farnaz Nazem

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This paper concentrates on the sustainable traditional architecture and urban planning in hot-humid regions of Iran. In a vast country such as Iran with different climatic zones traditional builders have presented series of logical solutions for human comfort. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate traditional architecture in hot-humid climate of Iran as a sample of sustainable architecture. Iranian traditional architecture has been able to response to environmental problems for a long period of time. Its features are based on climatic factors, local construction materials of hot-humid regions and culture. This paper concludes that Iranian traditional architecture can be addressed as a sustainable architecture.

Keywords: hot-humid climate, Iran, sustainable traditional architecture, urban planning

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Authors: Kozik Renata, Leśniak Agnieszka, Plebankiewicz Edyta

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Contracting authorities in the public sector are obligated to apply the principles provided for in the Polish law for the evaluation and selection of contractors. To analyze the methods of contractors, applied in practice by public clients, the notices of contract award results for construction works were analyzed. The analysis shows that the procedure selected more and more often is open to competitive bidding, where the assessment of the competence of contractors is not very precise, as well as non-competitive bidding, i.e. single source procurement. The share of procurement procedures, where the only criterion is price, is increasing. The solution to the problems existing here might be the introduction of one of the forms of pre-selection of contractors. The article also briefly discusses verification systems for companies applying for public contracts used in EU countries.

Keywords: certification, contractors selection, open tendering, public investors

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Dhaneswar Bhoi

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In Indian History, the Dalits (Scheduled Castes) were exploited with caste, since the Vedic Age (1500 BCE). They were deprived of many rights in the society and their education was also restricted by the upper castes since the introduction of the Law of Manu (1500 BCE). The Dalits were treated as lower castes (Sudras and Ati-Sudra) in the society. Occupation of these caste groups were attached to some low profile and menial occupation. Whereas, the upper caste (Brahamins) declared themselves as the top most caste groups who chose the occupation of priests and had the supreme right to education. During those days occupation was not decided by the caliber of a person rather, it was decided by the upper caste Brahamins and kept on transferring from one generation to another generation. At this juncture of the society, the upper caste people oppressed and suppressed the lower caste people endlessly. To get rid of these social problems the emancipator and the charismatic leader (Prophet for the lower caste communities), Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar appeard in the scene of Indian unjust society. Restlessly he fought against the caste oppression, social dogmas and tyranny on the basis of caste. Finally, he succeeded to affirm statutory safeguards for the oppressed and depressed or lower caste communities. Today these communities are scheduled as Scheduled Castes to access social justice for their upliftment and development. Through the liberty, equality and fraternity, he established social justice for the first time in the Indian history with the implementation of Indian Constitution on 26th January 1950. Since then the social justice has been accessed through the Constitution and Indian Republics. However, even after sixty five years of the Indian Republic and Constitutional safeguards the Scheduled Castes (SCs) are suffering many problems in the phases of their life. Even if there are special provisions made by the state aimed to meet the challenges of the weaker sections, they are still deprived of access to it, which is true especially for the Dalits or SCs. Many of the people of these communities are still not accessing education and particularly, higher education. Those who are managing to access the education have been facing many challenges in their educational premises as well as in their social life. This paper tries to find out the problem of discrimination in educational and societal level. Secondly, this paper aims to know the relation between the discrimination and access to social justice for the SCs in the educational institution and society. It also enquires the experiences of SCs who faced discrimination in their educational and social life. This study is based on the both quantitative and qualitative methods. Both of which were interpreted through the data triangulation method in mixed methodology approach. In this paper, it is found that the SCs are struggling with injustice in their social and educational spheres. Starting from their primary level to higher education, they were discriminated in curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

Keywords: social justice, discrimination, caste, scheduled castes, education

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Authors: Hamid Mohammadi, S. H. Eftekhar Afzali

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The irregular usage of chemical fertilizer cause different types of water and soil pollution and problems in health of human in past decades and organic fertilizer has been considered more and more. Mycorrhizal fungi have symbiosis with plant families and significantly effect on plant growth. Proper management of these symbiosis causes to reduce the usage of chemical fertilizers and absorb nutrition especially phosphor. Pistacia vera is endemic in Iran and is one of the most important products for this country. Considering special circumstances of pistachio orchards according to increasing salinity of water and soil and mismanagement of fertilizer reveals the necessity of the usage of Mycorrhizal fungi in these orchards.

Keywords: pistachio, mycorhiza, nutrition, salinity

Procedia PDF Downloads 501

Authors: Chandragiri Nagadeep, M. V. V. S. Durga, Sadu Mahikshith

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Future generation is depended on new ideas and innovations that develops the country economical growth and technology standards so, Startups plays an important role in satisfying above goals. Startups includes support which is given by investing into it by investors but, single digit investors can’t keep supporting one startup and lot of security problems occurs while transferring large funds to startup’s bank account. Targeting security and most supportive funding, TogEther solves these issues by providing a platform where “Crowd Funding” is available in a decentralized way such that funding is done with digital currency called cryptocurrency where transactions are done in a secured way using “Block Chain Technology”. Not only Funding but also Ideas along with their documents can be presented and hosted with help of IPFS (Inter Planetary File System).

Keywords: blockchain, ethereum, web3, reactjs, interplanetary file system, funding

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Authors: Krasimir I. Ivanov, Penka S. Zapryanova, Stefan V. Krustev, Violina R. Angelova

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Three commonly used digestion methods (dry ashing, acid digestion, and microwave digestion) in different variants were compared for digestion of tobacco leaves. Three main macroelements (K, Ca and Mg) were analysed using AAS Spectrometer Spectra АА 220, Varian, Australia. The accuracy and precision of the measurements were evaluated by using Polish reference material CTR-VTL-2 (Virginia tobacco leaves). To elucidate the problems with elemental recovery X-Ray and SEM–EDS analysis of all residues after digestion were performed. The X-ray investigation showed a formation of KClO₄ when HClO4 was used as a part of the acids mixture. The use of HF at Ca and Mg determination led to the formation of CaF₂ and MgF₂. The results were confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. SPSS program for Windows was used for statistical data processing.

Keywords: digestion methods, plant tissue, determination of macroelements, K, Ca, Mg

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Authors: M. A. H. Barry

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The concept of Good faith (husn al-niyyah) and fair-dealing (Nadl) are the fundamental guiding elements in all contracts and other agreements under Islamic law. The preaching of Al-Quran and Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be upon Him) firmly command people to act in good faith in all dealings. There are several Quran verses and the Prophet’s saying which stressed the significance of dealing honestly and fairly in all transactions. Under the English law, the good faith is not considered a fundamental requirement for the formation of a legal contract. However, the concept of Good Faith in private contracts is recognized by the civil law system and in Article 7(1) of the Convention on International Sale of Goods (CISG-Vienna Convention-1980). It took several centuries for the international trading community to recognize the significance of the concept of good faith for the international sale of goods transactions. Nevertheless, the recognition of good faith in Civil law is only confined for the commercial contracts. Subsequently to the CISG, this concept has made inroads into the private international law. There are submissions in favour of applying the good faith concept to public international law based on tacit recognition by the international conventions and International Tribunals. However, under public international law the concept of good faith is not recognized as a source of rights or obligations. This weakens the spirit of the good faith concept, particularly when determining the international disputes. This also creates a fundamental flaw because the absence of good faith application means the breaches tainted by bad faith are tolerated. The objective of this research is to evaluate, examine and analyze the application of the concept of good faith in the modern laws and identify its limitation, in comparison with Islamic concept of good faith. This paper also identifies the problems and issues connected with the non-application of this concept to public international law. This research consists of three key components (1) the preliminary inquiry (2) subject analysis and discovery of research results, and (3) examining the challenging problems, and concluding with proposals. The preliminary inquiry is based on both the primary and secondary sources. The same sources are used for the subject analysis. This research also has both inductive and deductive features. The Islamic concept of good faith covers all situations and circumstances where the bad faith causes unfairness to the affected parties, especially the weak parties. Under the Islamic law, the concept of good faith is a source of rights and obligations as Islam prohibits any person committing wrongful or delinquent acts in any dealing whether in a private or public life. This rule is applicable not only for individuals but also for institutions, states, and international organizations. This paper explains how the unfairness is caused by non-recognition of the good faith concept as a source of rights or obligations under public international law and provides legal and non-legal reasons to show why the Islamic formulation is important.

Keywords: good faith, the civil law system, the Islamic concept, public international law

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Authors: Li Dan, Zhao Junsuo, Zhang Wenjun

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Aiming at the shortcomings of the Quantum Genetic Algorithm such as the multimodal function optimization problems easily falling into the local optimum, and vulnerable to premature convergence due to no closely relationship between individuals, the paper presents an Improved Many Worlds Quantum Genetic Algorithm (IMWQGA). The paper using the concept of Many Worlds; using the derivative way of parallel worlds’ parallel evolution; putting forward the thought which updating the population according to the main body; adopting the transition methods such as parallel transition, backtracking, travel forth. In addition, the algorithm in the paper also proposes the quantum training operator and the combinatorial optimization operator as new operators of quantum genetic algorithm.

Keywords: quantum genetic algorithm, many worlds, quantum training operator, combinatorial optimization operator

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Authors: Malay Niraj, Praveen Kumar

Abstract:

The present study is a new approach for improving equipment life and Overall Equipment Efficiency (O.E.E.) through suitable maintenance practice with the help of value engineering. Value engineering is a one of the most powerful decision-making techniques which depend on many factors. The improvements are the result of recommendations made by multidisciplinary teams representing all parties involved. VE is a rigorous, systematic effort to improve the OEE and optimize the life cycle cost of a facility. The study describes problems in maintenance arising due to the absence of having clear criteria and strong decision constrain how to maintain failing equipment. Using factor comparisons, the study has been made between different maintenance practices and finally best maintenance practice based on value engineering technique has been selected.

Keywords: maintenance strategy, overall equipment efficiency, value engineering, decision-making

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Authors: Christian Bruss, Simona Gamba, Davide Azzolini, Federico Podestà

Abstract:

In this paper, the authors assess the impact of different political and environmental shocks on the size and on the age and gender composition of asylum-related migration flows to Europe. With this paper, the authors contribute to the literature by looking at the impact of different political and environmental shocks on the gender and age composition of migration flows in addition to the size of these flows. Conflicting theories predict different outcomes concerning the relationship between political and environmental shocks and the migration flows composition. Analyzing the relationship between the causes of migration and the composition of migration flows could yield more insights into the mechanisms behind migration decisions. In addition, this research may contribute to better informing national authorities in charge of receiving these migrant, as women and children/the elderly require different assistance than young men. To be prepared to offer the correct services, the relevant institutions have to be aware of changes in composition based on the shock in question. The authors analyze the effect of different types of shocks on the number, the gender and age composition of first time asylum seekers originating from 154 sending countries. Among the political shocks, the authors consider: violence between combatants, violence against civilians, infringement of political rights and civil liberties, and state terror. Concerning environmental shocks, natural disasters (such as droughts, floods, epidemics, etc.) have been included. The data on asylum seekers applying to any of the 32 Schengen Area countries between 2008 and 2015 is on a monthly basis. Data on asylum applications come from Eurostat, data on shocks are retrieved from various sources: georeferenced conflict data come from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), data on natural disasters from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), data on civil liberties and political rights from Freedom House, data on state terror from the Political Terror Scale (PTS), GDP and population data from the World Bank, and georeferenced population data from the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). The authors adopt a Difference-in-Differences identification strategy, exploiting the different timing of several kinds of shocks across countries. The highly skewed distribution of the dependent variable is taken into account by using count data models. In particular, a Zero Inflated Negative Binomial model is adopted. Preliminary results show that different shocks - such as armed conflict and epidemics - exert weak immediate effects on asylum-related migration flows and almost non-existent effects on the gender and age composition. However, this result is certainly affected by the fact that no time lags have been introduced so far. Finding the correct time lags depends on a great many variables not limited to distance alone. Therefore, finding the appropriate time lags is still a work in progress. Considering the ongoing refugee crisis, this topic is more important than ever. The authors hope that this research contributes to a less emotionally led debate.

Keywords: age, asylum, Europe, forced migration, gender

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Authors: Elimhan N. Mahmudov

Abstract:

The paper concerns the necessary and sufficient conditions of optimality for Cauchy problem of fourth order discrete (PD) and discrete-approximate (PDA) inclusions. The main problem is formulation of the fourth order adjoint discrete and discrete-approximate inclusions and transversality conditions, which are peculiar to problems including fourth order derivatives and approximate derivatives. Thus the necessary and sufficient conditions of optimality are obtained incorporating the Euler-Lagrange and Hamiltonian forms of inclusions. Derivation of optimality conditions are based on the apparatus of locally adjoint mapping (LAM). Moreover in the application of these results we consider the fourth order linear discrete and discrete-approximate inclusions.

Keywords: difference, optimization, fourth, approximation, transversality

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Authors: Adrian Bostan, Nicolae Tapus, Adriana Tapus

Abstract:

The purpose of this research paper is to study and develop a system that is able to help identify problems and improve human rehabilitation after traumatic injuries. Traumatic injuries in human’s lower limbs can occur over a life time and can have serious side effects if they are not treated correctly. In this paper, we developed an intelligent cane (IntelliCane) so as to help individuals in their rehabilitation process and provide feedback to the users. The first stage of the paper involves an analysis of the existing systems on the market and what can be improved. The second stage presents the design of the system. The third part, which is still under development is the validation of the system in real world setups with people in need. This paper presents mainly stages one and two.

Keywords: IntelliCane, 3D printing, microprocessor, weight measurement, rehabilitation tool

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Authors: Reza Mohammadi, Mahdieh Sahebi

Abstract:

We develop a method based on polynomial quintic spline for numerical solution of fourth-order non-homogeneous parabolic partial differential equation with variable coefficient. By using polynomial quintic spline in off-step points in space and finite difference in time directions, we obtained two three level implicit methods. Stability analysis of the presented method has been carried out. We solve four test problems numerically to validate the derived method. Numerical comparison with other methods shows the superiority of presented scheme.

Keywords: fourth-order parabolic equation, variable coefficient, polynomial quintic spline, off-step points

Procedia PDF Downloads 352