Search results for: tree identification

Authors: Manana Rusieshvili, Rusudan Dolidze

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This paper aims at 1) investigating the ways in which a traditional, monomodal written verbal metaphor can be transposed as a monomodal non-verbal (visual) or multimodal (aural and -visual) filmic metaphor ; 2) exploring similarities and differences in the process of encoding and decoding of monomodal and multimodal metaphors. The empiric data, on which the research is based, embrace three sources: the novel by Harry Gray ‘The Hoods’, the script of the film ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (English version by David Mills) and the resultant film by Sergio Leone. In order to achieve the above mentioned goals, the research focuses on the following issues: 1) identification of verbal and non-verbal monomodal and multimodal metaphors in the above-mentioned sources and 2) investigation of the ways and modes the specific written monomodal metaphors appearing in the novel and the script are enacted in the film and become visual, aural or visual-aural filmic metaphors ; 3) study of the factors which play an important role in contributing to the encoding and decoding of the filmic metaphor. The collection and analysis of the data were carried out in two stages: firstly, the relevant data, i.e. the monomodal metaphors from the novel, the script and the film were identified and collected. In the second, final stage the metaphors taken from all of the three sources were analysed, compared and two types of phenomena were selected for discussion: (1) the monomodal written metaphors found in the novel and/or in the script which become monomodal visual/aural metaphors in the film; (2) the monomodal written metaphors found in the novel and/or in the script which become multimodal, filmic (visual-aural) metaphors in the film.

Keywords: encoding, decoding, filmic metaphor, multimodality

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Authors: Rims Janeliukstis, Deniss Mironovs, Andrejs Kovalovs

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Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) is widely applied as a method for Structural Health Monitoring for structural damage identification and assessment by tracking the changes of the identified modal parameters over time. Unfortunately, modal parameters also depend on such external factors as temperature and loads. Any structural condition assessment using modal parameters should be done taking into consideration those external factors, otherwise there is a high chance of false positives. A method of structural reliability assessment based on anomaly detection technique called Machalanobis Squared Distance (MSD) is proposed. It requires a set of reference conditions to learn healthy state of a structure, which all future parameters are compared to. In this study, structural modal parameters (natural frequency and mode shape), as well as ambient temperature and loads acting on the structure are used as features. Numerical tests were performed on a finite element model of a carbon fibre reinforced polymer composite beam with delamination damage at various locations and of various severities. The advantages of the demonstrated approach include relatively few computational steps, ability to distinguish between healthy and damaged conditions and discriminate between different damage severities. It is anticipated to be promising in reliability assessment of massively produced structural parts.

Keywords: operational modal analysis, reliability assessment, anomaly detection, damage, mahalanobis squared distance

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Authors: Mohammad Abdel Fattah Mohammad Kewisha

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Microbial deterioration of ancient materials became one of the biggest problems facing the workers in the field of cultural heritage protection because the microbial deterioration of artifacts causes detrimental effects on the aesthetic value of the monuments due to colonization, whether they are made of inorganic materials such as stone or organic like wood, textiles, wall paintings, and paper. So, the early identification of the bacterial strains that caused deterioration is the most important point for the protection of monument objects. The present study focuses on the Bacillus spp. group, which was isolated from some biodeterioration monuments from different areas of Egypt. The investigated objects in this study were made from organic materials (cellulose), paper, textile, and wood. Isolated strains were identified up to the species level biochemically. Eleven bacterial isolates were obtained from collected samples. They were taken from different archaeological objects, four microbicides, cetrimonium bromide, sodium azide, tetraethyl ammonium bromide, and dichloroxylenol, at various concentrations ranging from 25 ppm to 500 ppm. They were screened for their antibacterial activity against the Bacillus spp. isolates, and detection of Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). It was also necessary to indicate the ideal Minimum inhibitory concentration for each strain for the purpose of biotreatment of the infected monuments with less damaging effect on monument materials.

Keywords: microbial deterioration, ancient materials, heritage protection, protection of monuments, biodeteriorative monuments

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Authors: Ali Siami, Masoud Asayesh, Asghar Najafi, Amirhosein Hamedanian

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There are so many noise sources in power generation units that these sources can produce high-level sound noise. Therefore, sound noise reduction methods can assist these industries, especially in these days that laws related to environmental issues become more strict. In a typical power plant, so many machines and devices with high-level sound noise are arranged beside of each others. Therefore, the sound source identification and reducing the noise level can be very vital. In this paper, the procedure for designing, manufacturing and testing of a silencer-muffler used for a power plant steam vent is mentioned. This unit is placed near the residential area and so it is very important to reduce the noise emission. For this purpose, in the first step, measurements have done to identify the sound source and the frequency content of noise. The overall level of noise was so high and it was more than 120dB. Then, the appropriate noise control device is designed according to the measurement results and operational conditions. In the next step, the designed silencer-muffler has been manufactured and installed on the steam discharge of the ejector. For validation of the silencer-muffler effect, the acoustic test was done again in operating mode. Finally, the measurement results before and after the installation are compared. The results have confirmed a considerable reduction in noise level resultant of using silencer-muffler in the designed frequency range.

Keywords: silencer-muffler, sound noise control, sound measurement, steam ejector

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Authors: Pedram Saadati, Zahra Nazari

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In the last decade, the role and importance of knowledge-based technological businesses in the insurance industry has greatly increased, and due to the weakness of previous studies in Iran, the current research deals with the design of the InsurTech empowerment model. In order to obtain the conceptual model of the research, a hybrid framework has been used. The statistical population of the research in the qualitative part were experts, and in the quantitative part, the InsurTech activists. The tools of data collection in the qualitative part were in-depth and semi-structured interviews and structured self-interaction matrix, and in the quantitative part, a researcher-made questionnaire. In the qualitative part, 55 indicators, 20 components and 8 concepts (dimensions) were obtained by the content analysis method, then the relationships of the concepts with each other and the levels of the components were investigated. In the quantitative part, the information was analyzed using the descriptive analytical method in the way of path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed model consists of eight dimensions of supporter capability, supervisor of insurance innovation ecosystem, managerial, financial, technological, marketing, opportunity identification, innovative InsurTech capabilities. The results of statistical tests in identifying the relationships of the concepts with each other have been examined in detail and suggestions have been presented in the conclusion section.

Keywords: insurTech, knowledge-base, empowerment model, factor analysis, insurance

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Authors: Nathaniel Bayode Eniolorunda, Murtala Abubakar Gada, Sheikh Danjuma Abubakar

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The challenge of erosion in the study area is persistent, suggesting the need for a better understanding of the mechanisms that drive it. Thus, the study evolved a predictive erosion model (RUSLE_Sok), deploying Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) tools. The nature and pattern of the factors of erosion were characterized, while soil losses were quantified. Factors’ impacts were also measured, and the morphometry of gullies was described. Data on the five factors of RUSLE and distances to settlements, rivers and roads (K, R, LS, P, C, DS DRd and DRv) were combined and processed following standard RS and GIS algorithms. Harmonized World Soil Data (HWSD), Shuttle Radar Topographical Mission (SRTM) image, Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), Sentinel-2 image accessed and processed within the Google Earth Engine, road network and settlements were the data combined and calibrated into the factors for erosion modeling. A gully morphometric study was conducted at some purposively selected sites. Factors of soil erosion showed low, moderate, to high patterns. Soil losses ranged from 0 to 32.81 tons/ha/year, classified into low (97.6%), moderate (0.2%), severe (1.1%) and very severe (1.05%) forms. The multiple regression analysis shows that factors statistically significantly predicted soil loss, F (8, 153) = 55.663, p < .0005. Except for the C-Factor with a negative coefficient, all other factors were positive, with contributions in the order of LS>C>R>P>DRv>K>DS>DRd. Gullies are generally from less than 100m to about 3km in length. Average minimum and maximum depths at gully heads are 0.6 and 1.2m, while those at mid-stream are 1 and 1.9m, respectively. The minimum downstream depth is 1.3m, while that for the maximum is 4.7m. Deeper gullies exist in proximity to rivers. With minimum and maximum gully elevation values ranging between 229 and 338m and an average slope of about 3.2%, the study area is relatively flat. The study concluded that major erosion influencers in the study area are topography and vegetation cover and that the RUSLE_Sok well predicted soil loss more effectively than ordinary RUSLE. The adoption of conservation measures such as tree planting and contour ploughing on sloppy farmlands was recommended.

Keywords: RUSLE_Sok, Sokoto, google earth engine, sentinel-2, erosion

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Authors: Siddharth Soni, Gourav Kumar Pandey, Sneha Kumari, Dev Mani Pandey, Koel Mukherjee

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The silkworm Bombyx mori is a commercially important insect, but a major roadblock in silk production are silkworm diseases. Flacherie is one of the diseases of the silkworm, that affects the midgut of the 4th and 5th instar larvae and eventually makes them lethargic, stop feeding and finally result in their death. The concerned disease is a result of bacterial and viral infection and in some instances a combination of both. The present study aims to identify and study the expression level of genes in the flacherie condition. For the said work, total RNA was isolated from the infected larvae at their most probable infectious instar and cDNA was synthesized using Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR). This cDNA was then used to amplify disease relalted genes whose expression levels were checked using quantitaive PCR (qPCR) using the double delta Ct method. Cry toxin receptors like APN and BtR-175, ROS mediator Dual Oxidase are few proteins whose genes were overexpressed. Interestingly, pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) C-type lectins' genes were found to be downregulated. The results explain about the strong expression of genes that can distinguish the concerned protein in the midgut of diseased silkworm and thereby aiding knowledge in the field of inhibitor designing research.

Keywords: Bombyx mori, flacherie disease, inhibitor designing, up and down regulation

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Authors: Jafar Ahmadi, Alireza Pour-Aboughadareh

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Wheat is the first and the most important grain of the world and its bakery property is due to glutenin and gliadin qualities. Wheat seed proteins were divided into four groups according to solubility. Two groups are albumin and globulin dissolving in water and salt solutions possessing metabolic activities. Two other groups are inactive and non-dissolvable and contain glutelins or glutenins and prolamins or gliadins. Gliadins are major components of the storage proteins in wheat endosperm. Gliadin proteins are separated into three groups based on electrophoretic mobility: α/β-gliadin, γ-gliadin, and ω-gliadin. It seems that little information is available about gliadin genes in Iranian wild relatives of wheat. Thus, the aim of this study was the evaluation of the wheat wild relatives collected from different origins of Zagros Mountains in Iran, involving coding gliadin genes using specific primers. For this, forty accessions of Triticum boeoticum and Triticum urartu were selected. For each accession, genomic DNA was extracted and PCRs were performed in total volumes of 15 μl. The amplification products were separated on 1.5% agarose gels. In results, for Gli-2A locus, three allelic variants were detected by Gli-2As primer pairs. The sizes of PCR products for these alleles were 210, 490 and 700 bp. Only five (13%) and two accessions (5%) produced 700 and 490 bp fragments when their DNA was amplified with the Gli.As.2 primer pairs. However, 37 of the 40 accessions (93%) carried 210 bp allele, and three accessions (8%) did not yield any product for this marker. Therefore, these germplasm could be used as rich gene pool to broaden the genetic base of bread wheat.

Keywords: diploied wheat, gliadin, Triticum boeoticum, Triticum urartu

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Authors: Bilal Murtaza, Xiaoyu Li, Liming Dong, Muhammad Kashif Saleemi, Gen Li, Bowen Jin, Lili Wang, Yongping Xu

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Fusarium spp. produce numerous mycotoxins, such as zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON), and its acetylated compounds, 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (3-ADON) and 15-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (15-ADON) (15-ADON). In a co-culture system, the soil-derived Escherichia marmotae strain degrades ZEN and DON into 3-keto-DON and DOM-1 via enzymatic deep-oxidation. When pure mycotoxins were subjected to Escherichia marmotae in culture flasks, degradation, and detoxification were also attained. DON and ZEN concentrations, ambient pH, incubation temperatures, bacterium concentrations, and the impact of acid treatment on degradation were all evaluated. The results of the ELISA and high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-high resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-HRMS) tests demonstrated that the concentration of mycotoxins exposed to Escherichia marmotae was significantly lower than the control. ZEN levels were reduced by 43.9%, while zearalenone sulfate ([M/z 397.1052 C18H21O8S1) was discovered as a derivative of ZEN converted by microbes to a less toxic molecule. Furthermore, Escherichia marmotae appeared to metabolize DON 35.10% into less toxic derivatives (DOM-1 at m/z 281 of [DON - O]+ and 3-keto-DON at m/z 295 of [DON - 2H]+). These results show that Escherichia marmotae can reduce Fusarium mycotoxins production, degrade pure mycotoxins, and convert them to less harmful compounds, opening up new possibilities for study and innovation in mycotoxin detoxification.

Keywords: mycotoxins, zearalenone, deoxynivalenol, bacterial degradation

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Authors: Qisheng Hu, Jianglei Han, Yue Yang, My Hoa Ha

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When a company is considering purchasing software for commercial use, contract risk assessment is critical to identify risks to mitigate the potential adverse business impact, e.g., security, financial and regulatory risks. Contract risk assessment requires reviewers with specialized knowledge and time to evaluate the legal documents manually. Specifically, validating contracts for a software vendor requires the following steps: manual screening, interpreting legal documents, and extracting risk-prone segments. To automate the process, we proposed a framework to assist legal contract document risk identification, leveraging pre-trained deep learning models and natural language processing techniques. Given a set of pre-defined risk evaluation problems, our framework utilizes the pre-trained transformer-based models for question-answering to identify risk-prone sections in a contract. Furthermore, the question-answering model encodes the concatenated question-contract text and predicts the start and end position for clause extraction. Due to the limited labelled dataset for training, we leveraged transfer learning by fine-tuning the models with the CUAD dataset to enhance the model. On a dataset comprising 287 contract documents and 2000 labelled samples, our best model achieved an F1 score of 0.687.

Keywords: contract risk assessment, NLP, transfer learning, question answering

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Authors: Kolja Them, Priyal Chikhaliwala, Sudeshna Chandra

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Purpose: The purpose of this work is to examine possibilities for noninvasive imaging and identification of tumor markers for cancer diagnosis. The proposed method uses antibody conjugated iron oxide nanoparticles and multicolor Magnetic Particle Imaging (mMPI). The method has the potential for radiation exposure free real-time estimation of local tumor marker concentrations in vivo. In this study, the method is applied to human Alpha-1-Fetoprotein. Materials and Methods: As tracer material AFP antibody-conjugated Dendrimer-Fe3O4 nanoparticles were used. The nanoparticle bioconjugates were then incubated with bovine serum albumin (BSA) to block any possible nonspecific binding sites. Parts of the resulting solution were then incubated with AFP antigen. MPI measurements were done using the preclinical MPI scanner (Bruker Biospin MRI GmbH) and the multicolor method was used for image reconstruction. Results: In multicolor MPI images the nanoparticles incubated only with BSA were clearly distinguished from nanoparticles incubated with BSA and AFP antigens. Conclusion: Tomographic imaging of human tumor marker Alpha-1-Fetoprotein is possible using AFP antibody conjugated iron oxide nanoparticles in presence of BSA. This opens interesting perspectives for cancer diagnosis.

Keywords: noninvasive imaging, tumor antigens, antibody conjugated iron oxide nanoparticles, multicolor magnetic particle imaging, cancer diagnosis

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Authors: L. Heidari, M. Jalili Ghazizade

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In recent years, different petrochemical complexes have been established to produce aromatic compounds. Among them, Nouri Petrochemical Complex (NPC) is the largest producer of aromatic raw materials in the world, and is located in south of Iran. Environmental concerns have been raised in this region due to generation of different types of solid waste generated in the process of aromatics production, and subsequently, industrial waste characterization has been thoroughly considered. The aim of this study is qualitative and quantitative characterization of industrial waste generated in the aromatics production process and determination of the best method for industrial waste management. For this purpose, all generated industrial waste during the production process was determined using a checklist. Four main industrial wastes were identified as follows: spent industrial soil, spent catalyst, spent molecular sieves and spent N-formyl morpholine (NFM) solvent. The amount of heavy metals and organic compounds in these wastes were further measured in order to identify the nature and toxicity of such a dangerous compound. Then industrial wastes were classified based on lab analysis results as well as using different international lists of hazardous waste identification such as EPA, UNEP and Basel Convention. Finally, the best method of waste disposal is selected based on environmental, economic and technical aspects. 

Keywords: aromatic compounds, industrial soil, molecular sieve, normal formyl morpholine solvent

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Authors: Jui-Pui Hung, Yu-Sheng Lai, Tzuo-Liang Luo, Kung-Da Wu, Yun-Ji Zhan

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This study presented the investigation of the influence of the tool holder interface stiffness on the dynamic characteristics of a spindle tool system. The interface stiffness was produced by drawbar force on the tool holder, which tends to affect the spindle dynamics. In order to assess the influence of interface stiffness on the vibration characteristic of spindle unit, we first created a three dimensional finite element model of a high speed spindle system integrated with tool holder. The key point for the creation of FEM model is the modeling of the rolling interface within the angular contact bearings and the tool holder interface. The former can be simulated by a introducing a series of spring elements between inner and outer rings. The contact stiffness was calculated according to Hertz contact theory and the preload applied on the bearings. The interface stiffness of the tool holder was identified through the experimental measurement and finite element modal analysis. Current results show that the dynamic stiffness was greatly influenced by the tool holder system. In addition, variations of modal damping, static stiffness and dynamic stiffness of the spindle tool system were greatly determined by the interface stiffness of the tool holder which was in turn dependent on the draw bar force applied on the tool holder. Overall, this study demonstrates that identification of the interface characteristics of spindle tool holder is of very importance for the refinement of the spindle tooling system to achieve the optimum machining performance.

Keywords: dynamic stiffness, spindle-tool holder, interface stiffness, drawbar force

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Authors: Fathi Abid, Bilel Kaffel

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The olive tree, the olive harvest during winter season and the production of olive oil better known by professionals under the name of the crushing operation have interested institutional traders such as olive-oil offices and private companies such as food industry refining and extracting pomace olive oil as well as export-import public and private companies specializing in olive oil. The major problem facing producers of olive oil each winter campaign, contrary to what is expected, it is not whether the harvest will be good or not but whether the sale price will allow them to cover production costs and achieve a reasonable margin of profit or not. These questions are entirely legitimate if we judge by the importance of the issue and the heavy complexity of the uncertainty and competition made tougher by a high level of indebtedness and the experience and expertise of speculators and producers whose objectives are sometimes conflicting. The aim of this paper is to study the formation mechanism of olive oil prices in order to learn about speculators’ behavior and expectations in the market, how they contribute by their industry knowledge and their financial alliances and the size the financial challenge that may be involved for them to build private information hoses globally to take advantage. The methodology used in this paper is based on two stages, in the first stage we study econometrically the formation mechanisms of olive oil price in order to understand the market participant behavior by implementing ARMA, SARMA, GARCH and stochastic diffusion processes models, the second stage is devoted to prediction purposes, we use a combined wavelet- ANN approach. Our main findings indicate that olive oil market participants interact with each other in a way that they promote stylized facts formation. The unstable participant’s behaviors create the volatility clustering, non-linearity dependent and cyclicity phenomena. By imitating each other in some periods of the campaign, different participants contribute to the fat tails observed in the olive oil price distribution. The best prediction model for the olive oil price is based on a back propagation artificial neural network approach with input information based on wavelet decomposition and recent past history.

Keywords: olive oil price, stylized facts, ARMA model, SARMA model, GARCH model, combined wavelet-artificial neural network, continuous-time stochastic volatility mode

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Authors: Richa Raje, Anumol Antony

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Playing is the foremost stepping stone for childhood development. Play is an essential aspect of a child’s development and learning because it creates meaningful enduring environmental connections and increases children’s performance. The children’s proficiencies are ever varying in their course of growth. There is innovation in the activities, as it kindles the senses, surges the love for exploration, overcomes linguistic barriers and physiological development, which in turn allows them to find their own caliber, spontaneity, curiosity, cognitive skills, and creativity while learning during play. This paper aims to comprehend the learning in play which is the most essential underpinning aspect of the outdoor play area. It also assesses the trend of playgrounds design that is merely hammered with equipment's. It attempts to derive a relation between the natural environment and children’s activities and the emotions/senses that can be evoked in the process. One of the major concerns with our outdoor play is that it is limited to an area with a similar kind of equipment, thus making the play highly regimented and monotonous. This problem is often lead by the strict timetables of our education system that hardly accommodates play. Due to these reasons, the play areas remain neglected both in terms of design that allows learning and wellbeing. Poorly designed spaces fail to inspire the physical, emotional, social and psychological development of the young ones. Currently, the play space has been condensed to an enclosed playground, driveway or backyard which confines the children’s capability to leap the boundaries set for him. The paper emphasizes on study related to kids ranging from 5 to 11 years where the behaviors during their interactions in a playground are mapped and analyzed. The theory of affordance is applied to various outdoor play areas, in order to study and understand the children’s environment and how variedly they perceive and use them. A higher degree of affordance shall form the basis for designing the activities suitable in play spaces. It was observed during their play that, they choose certain spaces of interest majority being natural over other artificial equipment. The activities like rolling on the ground, jumping from a height, molding earth, hiding behind tree, etc. suggest that despite equipment they have an affinity towards nature. Therefore, we as designers need to take a cue from their behavior and practices to be able to design meaningful spaces for them, so the child gets the freedom to test their precincts.

Keywords: children, landscape design, learning environment, nature and play, outdoor play

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Authors: Julie Berame

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The study probed that out of eight (8) lessons in Science Six have been validated, lessons 1-3 got the descriptive rating of very satisfactory and lessons 4-8 got the descriptive rating of outstanding based on the content analysis of the prepared CBL lesson plans. The evaluation of the lesson plans focused on the three main features such as statements of the lesson objectives, lesson content, and organization and effectiveness. The study used developmental research procedure that contained three phases, namely: Development phase consists of determining the learning unit, lesson plans, creation of the table of specifications, exercises/quizzes, and revision of the materials; Evaluation phase consists of the development of experts’ assessment checklist, presentation of checklist to the adviser, comments and suggestions, and final validation of the materials; and try-out phase consists of identification of the subject, try-out of the materials using CBL strategy, administering science attitude questionnaire, and statistical analysis to obtain the data. The findings of the study revealed that the relevance and usability of CBL lessons 1 and 2 in terms of lesson objective, lesson content, and organization and effectiveness got the rating of very satisfactory (4.4) and lessons 3-8 got the rating of outstanding (4.7). The lessons 1-8 got the grand rating of outstanding (4.6). Additionally, results showed that CBL strategy helped foster positive attitude among students and achieved effectiveness in psychomotor learning objectives.

Keywords: development, validation, center-based learning, science

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Authors: Nwaoga, Theresa Chinyere

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The paper examines the impacts of Aso-Ebi, a Yoruba term for ‘uniform’ on the people of south-east Nigeria. Aso-Ebi is used to denote uniform wear which is typical of the people of south-west Nigeria. In the 1980s and 1990s, uniform wears were used only by immediate family members of a deceased person. This is for easy identification by visitors—to know those who are related to the deceased person. Aso-Ebi is now part of a culture that has existed in Nigeria from the Yoruba and transcended to other parts of Nigeria, precisely south-east Nigeria. The buying of Aso-Ebi and attending the occasions in the attire is the only way of showing solidarity and support to the celebrant. Aso-Ebi has led to creating a sense of belonging, opening of doors for marriage by those single, and fundraising. As part of the findings, it was discovered that Aso-Ebi has led to an increase in marital infidelity and divorce, robbery, prostitution, depression, and an increase in enmity between friends in south-east Nigeria. Data was generated through oral interviews, focus group discussion and participant observation. Secondary data were obtained from journals, textbooks, the internet and periodicals. The phenomenological method of research was used as the methodology. This method allows for an objective report and analysis of the research problem. Aso-Ebi has come to stay in Igbo culture, so there should be a proper re-orientation on the uses of Aso-Ebi during occasions like burial in Igbo land. The campaign can start from the church by discouraging people from using Aso-Ebi during burials and wedding ceremonies.

Keywords: Asho Ebi, uniformed women, burial ceremonies, August meetings

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Authors: Waseem Al Talalwah, Shorok Al Dorazi, Roger Soames

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The inferior gluteal artery is a prominent branch of the anterior trunk of internal iliac artery. It escapes from the pelvic cavity through the greater sciatic foramen below the lower edge of piriformis. In gluteal region, it provides several muscular branches to gluteal maximus and articular branch to hip joint. Further, it provides sciatic branch to sciatic nerve. Current study investigates the origin of the inferior gluteal artery of 41 cadavers in Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, University of Dundee, UK. It arose from the anterior trunk in 37.5% independently and 45.7% dependently as with the internal pudendal artery. Therefore, it arose from the anterior trunk in 83.2%. However, it found to be as a branch of the posterior trunk of internal iliac artery in 7.7% which is either a direct branch in 6.2% as or indirect branch in 1.5%. Beside the inferior gluteal artery arose with internal pudendal artery as from GPT of anterior division in 45.7%, it arose from the GPT arising from the internal iliac artery bifurcation site in 1.5%. Further, the inferior gluteal artery arose from the trunk with internal pudendal and obturator arteries in 1.5% referred as obturatogluteopudendal trunk. Occasionally, it arose from the sciatic artery in 1.5%. In few cases, the inferior gluteal artery found to be congenital absence in 4.6% which is compensated by the persistent sciatic artery. Therefore, radiologists have to aware of the origin variability of the inferior gluteal artery to alert surgeons. Knowing the origin of the inferior gluteal artery may help the surgeons to avoid iatrogenic sciatic neuropathy in pelvic procedures such as removing prostate or of uterine fibroid. Further, it may also prevent avascular necrosis of femur neck as well as gluteal claudication.

Keywords: inferior gluteal artery, internal iliac artery, sciatic neuropathy, gluteal claudication

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Authors: Renate Gericke, Carol Long

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Despite the robust empirical support of attachment, advancement in the description and conceptualization of attachment has been slow and has not significantly advanced beyond the identification of attachment security or type (namely, secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganized). This has continued despite papers arguing for theoretical refinement in the classification of attachment presentations. For thinking and practice to advance, it is critically important that these categories and their assessment be interrogated in different contexts and across developmental age. To achieve this, a quantitative design was used with descriptive and inferential statistics, and general linear models were employed to analyze the data. The Attachment Story Completion Test (ASCT) was administered to 105 children between the ages of eight and twelve from socio-economically deprived contexts with high exposure to trauma. A staggering 93% of the children had insecure attachments (specifically, avoidant 37%, disorganized 34% and ambivalent 22%) and attachment was more complex than currently conceptualized in the attachment literature. Primary attachment did not only present as one of four discreet categories, but 70% of the sample had a complex attachment with more than one type of maternal attachment style. Attachment intensity also varied along a continuum (between 1 and 5). The findings have implications for a) research that has not considered the potential complexity of attachment or attachment intensity, b) policy to more actively support mother-infant dyads, particularly in high-risk contexts and c) question the applicability of a western conceptualization of a primary maternal attachment figure in non-western collectivist societies.

Keywords: attachment, children at risk, middle childhood, non-western context

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Authors: Branislav Kovačević, Andrej Pilipović, Zoran Novčić, Marina Milović, Lazar Kesić, Milan Drekić, Saša Pekeč, Leopold Poljaković Pajnik, Saša Orlović

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Poplars present one of the most important tree species used for phytoremediation in the northern hemisphere. They can be used either as direct “cleaners” of the contaminated soils or as buffer zones preventing the contaminant plume to the surrounding environment. In order to produce appropriate planting material for this purpose, there is a long process of the breeding of the most favorable candidates. Although the development of the poplar propagation technology has been evolving for decades, white poplar nursery production, as well as the establishment of short-rotation coppice plantations, still considerably depends on the success of hardwood cuttings’ survival. This is why easy rooting is among the most desirable properties in white poplar breeding. On the other hand, there are many opportunities for the optimization of the technological procedures in order to meet the demands of particular genotype (clonal technology). In this study the effect of the term of hardwood cuttings’ preparation of four white poplar clones on their survival and further growth of rooted cuttings in nursery conditions were tested. There were three terms of cuttings’ preparation: the beginning of February (2nd Feb 2023), the beginning of March (3rd Mar 2023) and the end of March (21nd Mar 2023), which is regarded as the standard term. The cuttings were stored in cool chamber at 2±2°C. All cuttings were planted on the same date (11th Apr 2023), in soil prepared with rotary tillage, and then cultivated by usual nursey procedures. According to the results obtained after the bud set (29th Sept 2023) there were significant differences in the survival and growth of rooted cuttings between examined terms of cutting preparation. Also, there were significant differences in the reaction of examined clones on terms of cutting preparation. In total, the best results provided cuttings prepared at the first term (2nd Feb 2023) (survival rate of 39.4%), while performance after two later preparation terms was significantly poorer (20.5% after second and 16.5% after third term). These results stress the significance of dormancy preservation in cuttings of examined white poplar clones for their survival, which could be especially important in context of climate change. Differences in clones’ reaction to term of cutting preparation suggest necessity of adjustment of the technology to the needs of particular clone i.e. design of clone specific technology.

Keywords: rooting, Populus alba, nursery, clonal technology

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Authors: Meilee Shen

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Buddhist nuns in Taiwan have shouldered various responsibilities in educational, cultural, economic, and social aspects that transforms and transcends Chinese Buddhism to a higher level in Taiwan and overseas. In the recent years, Nuns in Taiwan have formed various associations to reach their goals and satisfy their needs. This research will focus on the following: 1. How to distinguish a Buddhist organization from temple? 2. Whether the forming of female Buddhist organizations reveals religious purpose or gender conflict in Buddhism? 3. How can nuns in Taiwan be unified together to establish their identification? This paper will mainly study on the Chinese Buddhist Bhikkhuni Association (CBBA) because they have gained allies together to work for religious causes and social needs since 1996. However, with a mission to promote female practitioners’ role in Buddhist circle, CBBA did not contribute much to the gender issue in Buddhism. The research found that CBBA did not achieve their goal to unite nuns in Taiwan because they failed to support nuns' education and did not recruit young and highly educated ones as CBBA's faculties. In conclusion, the research suggests i) to connect with other Buddhist organizations in order to achieve the dream of unity, ii) to fill the generation gap by overturn hierarchical system in Buddhist community and create a new environment for new generation to grow, iii) to shift financial contribution from social charity to nuns’ education to promote female role in Buddhism in the future.

Keywords: Bhikkhuni in Taiwan, Bhikkhuni population and education, Buddhism in Taiwan, Chinese Buddhist Bhikkhuni Association

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Authors: Naima Nur, Safa Islam, Saeema Islam, Faridul Alam

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Background: Drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (DR-PTB), particularly multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and pre-extensive drug-resistant (pre-XDR), is a major challenge in effectively controlling TB, especially in developing. This study aimed to identify the strains of M. tuberculosis complex (MTC) and drug resistance patterns among the pulmonary tuberculosis patients. Methods: The study used a cross-sectional design, and 815 patients were recruited randomly in three study periods. In the first-period, 210 treated PTB patients, who were completed their treatment, received their diagnoses using light microscopy, fluorescence microscopy and cultured on Lowenstein-Jensen (L-J) slant, and then strains were identified as MTC by biochemical tests, and then sensitivity test in National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital. In the second-period, 220 re-treated PTB patients, who were completed their treatment, received their diagnoses using culture on L-J slant, line probe assay (LPA), and GeneXpert in the same hospital. In the last-period, during treatment, 385 MDR-PTB patients received their diagnoses using culture on L-J slant and LPA in the same hospital. Results: Among sixty-two (29.5%) PTB patients, 13% were sensitive to all first-line anti-TB drugs, 26% were MDR-TB patients, and 14.2% were pre-XDR-TB among 14 MDR-TB patients. After three years, 31% were MDR-TB among 220 re-treated PTB patients. After five years, 16.4% was pre-XDR-TB among 385 MDR-TB patients. Compared to females, male patients were significantly higher at all times. Conclusion: The current study demonstrated that in three study periods, the proportions of DR-TB, MDR-TB, and pre-XDR patients were an alarming issue and increasing daily.

Keywords: multi-drug resistant, drug-resistant, pre-extensive drug resistant, pulmonary tuberculosis

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Authors: Yi-Tung Lin

Abstract:

Researchers commonly assess implicit self-esteem with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The IAT’s measure, often referred to as the IAT effect, indicates the strengths of automatic preferences for the self relative to others, which is often considered an index of implicit self-esteem. However, based on the Dual-process theory, the IAT does not rely entirely on the automatic process; it is also influenced by a controlled process. The present study, therefore, analyzed the IAT data with the Quad model, separating four processes on the IAT performance: the likelihood that automatic association is activated by the stimulus in the trial (AC); that a correct response is discriminated in the trial (D); that the automatic bias is overcome in favor of a deliberate response (OB); and that when the association is not activated, and the individual fails to discriminate a correct answer, there is a guessing or response bias drives the response (G). The AC and G processes are automatic, while the D and OB processes are controlled. The AC parameter is considered as the strength of the association activated by the stimulus, which reflects what implicit measures of social cognition aim to assess. The stronger the automatic association between self and positive valence, the more likely it will be activated by a relevant stimulus. Therefore, the AC parameter was used as the index of implicit self-esteem in the present study. Meanwhile, the relationship between implicit self-esteem and depression is not fully investigated. In the cognitive theory of depression, it is assumed that the negative self-schema is crucial in depression. Based on this point of view, implicit self-esteem would be negatively associated with depression. However, the results among empirical studies are inconsistent. The aims of the present study were to examine the psychometric properties of the AC (i.e., test-retest reliability and its correlations with explicit self-esteem and depression) and compare it with that of the IAT effect. The present study had 105 patients with depressive disorders completing the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II and the IAT on the pretest. After at least 3 weeks, the participants completed the second IAT. The data were analyzed by the latent-trait multinomial processing tree model (latent-trait MPT) with the TreeBUGS package in R. The result showed that the latent-trait MPT had a satisfactory model fit. The effect size of test-retest reliability of the AC and the IAT effect were medium (r = .43, p < .0001) and small (r = .29, p < .01) respectively. Only the AC showed a significant correlation with explicit self-esteem (r = .19, p < .05). Neither of the two indexes was correlated with depression. Collectively, the AC parameter was a satisfactory index of implicit self-esteem compared with the IAT effect. Also, the present study supported the results that implicit self-esteem was not correlated with depression.

Keywords: cognitive modeling, implicit association test, implicit self-esteem, quad model

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Authors: Iqra Yaseen

Abstract:

One of the well-known areas of computer science and engineering, image processing in the context of computer vision has been essential to automation. In remote sensing, medical science, and many other fields, it has made it easier to uncover previously undiscovered facts. Grading of diverse items is now possible because of neural network algorithms, categorization, and digital image processing. Its use in the classification of agricultural products, particularly in the grading of seeds or grains and their cultivars, is widely recognized. A grading and sorting system enables the preservation of time, consistency, and uniformity. Global population growth has led to an increase in demand for food staples, biofuel, and other agricultural products. To meet this demand, available resources must be used and managed more effectively. Image processing is rapidly growing in the field of agriculture. Many applications have been developed using this approach for crop identification and classification, land and disease detection and for measuring other parameters of crop. Vegetation localization is the base of performing these task. Vegetation helps to identify the area where the crop is present. The productivity of the agriculture industry can be increased via image processing that is based upon Unmanned Aerial Vehicle photography and satellite. In this paper we use the machine learning techniques like Convolutional Neural Network, deep learning, image processing, classification, You Only Live Once to UAV imaging dataset to divide the crop into distinct groups and choose the best way to use it.

Keywords: image processing, UAV, YOLO, CNN, deep learning, classification

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Authors: Zunaira Zaman, David Bohannon

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This study explores the application of machine learning (ML) for detecting security vulnerabilities in source code. The research aims to assist organizations with large application portfolios and limited security testing capabilities in prioritizing security activities. ML-based approaches offer benefits such as increased confidence scores, false positives and negatives tuning, and automated feedback. The initial approach using natural language processing techniques to extract features achieved 86% accuracy during the training phase but suffered from overfitting and performed poorly on unseen datasets during testing. To address these issues, the study proposes using the abstract syntax tree (AST) for Java and C++ codebases to capture code semantics and structure and generate path-context representations for each function. The Code2Vec model architecture is used to learn distributed representations of source code snippets for training a machine-learning classifier for vulnerability prediction. The study evaluates the performance of the proposed methodology using two datasets and compares the results with existing approaches. The Devign dataset yielded 60% accuracy in predicting vulnerable code snippets and helped resist overfitting, while the Juliet Test Suite predicted specific vulnerabilities such as OS-Command Injection, Cryptographic, and Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities. The Code2Vec model achieved 75% accuracy and a 98% recall rate in predicting OS-Command Injection vulnerabilities. The study concludes that even partial AST representations of source code can be useful for vulnerability prediction. The approach has the potential for automated intelligent analysis of source code, including vulnerability prediction on unseen source code. State-of-the-art models using natural language processing techniques and CNN models with ensemble modelling techniques did not generalize well on unseen data and faced overfitting issues. However, predicting vulnerabilities in source code using machine learning poses challenges such as high dimensionality and complexity of source code, imbalanced datasets, and identifying specific types of vulnerabilities. Future work will address these challenges and expand the scope of the research.

Keywords: code embeddings, neural networks, natural language processing, OS command injection, software security, code properties

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Authors: Pijush Roy, Vinay Kumar Rai

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

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

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Authors: Huang Yong, Chen Qianting, Zhao Shurong

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In order to identify the role and effect of Characteristic Towns as an important means to promote urban-rural integration, this paper uses Flow Theory and complex network analysis methods to jointly construct the identification path of urban-rural integration capabilities of Characteristic Towns. Take the National Characteristic Towns of Yunnan Province as the empirical objects to identify their role laws. The study found that in the implementation of the National Characteristic Town Project in Yunnan Province, (1) the population is more susceptible to the impact of the Characteristic Town Project than the technical elements, but the stability is poor; (2) The flow capacity of urban and rural technical elements is weak, and the quality of the enterprise cooperation network in general; (3) Compared with the batch of Characteristic Towns in 2016, its ability to promote urban-rural integration is higher in 2017; (4) The role of the Characteristic Town Project on urban-rural integration focuses on the improvement of the number of urban and rural flow elements. This paper analyzes the mode of the role of Characteristic Towns on urban-rural integration from the perspective of ‘flow,’ establishes a research paradigm for evaluating the role of Characteristic Towns in urban-rural integration capabilities, and builds a path for the application of Characteristic Towns to support the realization of urban-rural integration goals.

Keywords: characteristic town, urban-rural integration, flow theory, complex network analysis

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Authors: Ahmed M. Jihad

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The paper presents the concept of sustainable development, and the role of geographic techniques in the design, planning and presentation of maps of smart cities with geographical vision, and the identification of programs and tools, and models of maps of Arab cities, is the problem of research in how to apply, process and experience these programs? What is the role of geographic techniques in planning and mapping the optimal place for these cities? The paper proposes an addition to the designs of Iraqi cities, as it can be developed in the future to serve as a model for interactive smart cities by developing its services. The importance of this paper stems from the concept of sustainable development dynamic which has become a method of development imposed by the present era in rapid development to achieve social balance and specialized programs in draw paper argues that ensuring sustainable development is achieved through the use of information technology. The paper will follow the theoretical presentation of the importance of the concept of development, design tools and programs. The paper follows the method of analysis of modern systems (System Analysis Approach) through the latest programs will provide results can be said that the new Iraqi cities can be developed with smart technologies, like some of the Arab and European cities that were newly created through the introduction of international investment, and therefore Plans can be made to select the best programs in manufacturing and producing maps and smart cities in the future.

Keywords: geographic techniques, planning the cities, smart cities, sustainable development

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Authors: Elham Allahmoradi, Bahman Allahmoradi, Ali Bonyadi Naeini

Abstract:

Complex systems have many aspects. A variety of methods have been developed to analyze these systems. The most efficient of these methods should not only be simple, but also provide useful and comprehensive information about many aspects of the system. Matrix methods are considered the most commonly methods used to analyze and design systems. Each matrix method can examine a particular aspect of the system. If these methods are combined, managers can access to more comprehensive and broader information about the system. This study was conducted in four steps. In the first step, a process model of a real project has been extracted through IDEF3. In the second step, activity levels have been attained by writing a process model in the form of a design structure matrix (DSM) and sorting it through triangulation algorithm (TA). In the third step, sub-processes have been obtained by writing the process model in the form of an interface structure matrix (ISM) and clustering it through cluster identification algorithm (CIA). In the fourth step, a mixed model has been developed to provide a unified picture of the project structure through the simultaneous presentation of activities and sub-processes. Finally, the paper is completed with a conclusion.

Keywords: integrated definition for process description capture (IDEF3) method, design structure matrix (DSM), interface structure matrix (ism), mixed matrix model, activity level, sub-process

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Authors: Rafiu O. Sanni, Abayomi O. Olajuyigbe, Nelson R. Osungbemiro, Rotimi F. Olaniyan

Abstract:

The Owena River lies within the drainage basins of the Oni, Siluko, and Ogbesse rivers. The river’s immediate surroundings are covered by dense forests, interspersed by plantations of cocoa, oil palm, kolanut, bananas, and other crops. The objectives were to identify the aquatic plants community, comprising the algae and aquatic macrophytes, observe their population dynamics in relation to the two seasons and identify their economic importance, especially to the neighbouring community. The study sites were determined using a stratified sampling method. Three strata were marked out for sampling namely strata I (upstream)–5 stations, strata II (reservoir) –2 stations, and strata III (outflow) 2 stations. These nine stations were tagged st1, st2, st3…st9. The aquatic macrophytes were collected using standard methods and identified at the University of Ibadan herbarium while the algal samples were collected using standard methods for microalgae. The periphytonic species were scraped from surfaces of rocks (perilithic), sucked with large syringe from mud (epipellic), scraped from suspended logs, washed from roots of aquatic angiosperms (epiphytic), as well as shaken from other particles such as suspended plant parts. Some were collected physically by scooping floating thallus of non-microscopic multicellular forms. The specimens were taken to the laboratory and observed under a microscope with mounted digital camera for photomicrography. Identification was done using Prescott.

Keywords: aquatic plants, aquatic macrophytes, algae, Owena river

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