Search results for: common bile duct exploration

Authors: Davide Fuscà, Kanan Rahimli, Roberto Leuzzi

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Preventing abuse and illegal activities in a given area of the sea is a very difficult and expensive task. Artificial intelligence offers the possibility to implement new methods to identify the vessel class type from the kinematic features of the vessel itself. The task strictly depends on the quality of the data. This paper explores the application of a deep, long short-term memory model by using AIS flow only with a relatively low quality. The proposed model reaches high accuracy on detecting nine vessel classes representing the most common vessel types in the Ionian-Adriatic Sea. The model has been applied during the Adriatic-Ionian trial period of the international EU ANDROMEDA H2020 project to identify vessels performing behaviors far from the expected one depending on the declared type.

Keywords: maritime surveillance, artificial intelligence, behavior analysis, LSTM

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Mehdi Abbasi, Masoumeh Majidi Zolbin

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Varicocele is one of the common causes of infertility in 30-50% of married men which occurs within the spermatic cord. It can be considered as an abnormal dilatation and stasis of veins of the pampiniform plexus that drain the testis. It occurs in 15-20% of the male population. Inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity has been frequently reported in varicose veins. Several studies have considered the relationship between varicocele and semen NO concentrations. NOS isoforms have been shown to regulate a number of functions, e.g., sperm motility and maturation and germ cell apoptosis in the testes. In adult patients with varicocele, the amount of NO levels in the varicose veins are 25 times higher than in serum of peripheral veins. The aim of this study was to review the effect of different antioxidant that we applied so far on sperm parameters as well as sperm DNA fragmentation. The findings of this study suggest that antioxidants improve sperm parameters which are associated with infertility in varicocelized rats, and treatment can reduce damage to sperm DNA and increase the chance of fertility.

Keywords: antioxidant, rat, sperm parameter, varicocele

Procedia PDF Downloads 274

Authors: M. Nuhu, M. S. Amina, A. H. Aminu, A. J. Abbas, N. Salahudeen, A. Z. Yusuf

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Transesterification of jatropha methyl ester (JME) with the common polyol, trimethylolpropane (TMP) produced the TMP based ester which exhibits improved temperature properties. This paper discusses the physic-chemical properties of jatropha bio-lubricant base oil applicable for ISO VG32 and VG46 requirement. The catalyst employed for the JME was CaO synthesized in National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT) that gives 100% conversion. The molar ratio of JME to TMP was 3.5:1 and the catalyst (NaOCH3) loading were found to be 0.8% of the weight of the total reactants. The final fractionated jatropha bio-lubricant base was found to contain 11.95% monoesters, 43.89% diesters and 44.16% triesters (desired product). In addition, it was found that the bio-lubricant base oil produced is comparable to the ISO VG46 commercial standards for light and industrial gears applications and other plant based bio-lubricant.

Keywords: biodegradability, methyl ester, pour point, transesterification, viscosity index

Procedia PDF Downloads 659

Authors: Colin Schmidt, Adrien Lecossier, Pascal Crubleau, Philippe Blanchard, Simon Richir

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Introduction:The widespread availability of artificial intelligence, exemplified by Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) relying on large language models (LLM), has caused a seismic shift in the realm of knowledge. Everyone now has the capacity to swiftly learn how these models can either serve them well or not. Today, conversational AI like ChatGPT is grounded in neural transformer models, a significant advance in natural language processing facilitated by the emergence of renowned LLMs constructed using neural transformer architecture. Inventiveness of an LLM : OpenAI's GPT-3 stands as a premier LLM, capable of handling a broad spectrum of natural language processing tasks without requiring fine-tuning, reliably producing text that reads as if authored by humans. However, even with an understanding of how LLMs respond to questions asked, there may be lurking behind OpenAI’s seemingly endless responses an inventive model yet to be uncovered. There may be some unforeseen reasoning emerging from the interconnection of neural networks here. Just as a Soviet researcher in the 1940s questioned the existence of Common factors in inventions, enabling an Under standing of how and according to what principles humans create them, it is equally legitimate today to explore whether solutions provided by LLMs to complex problems also share common denominators. Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) : We will revisit some fundamentals of TRIZ and how Genrich ALTSHULLER was inspired by the idea that inventions and innovations are essential means to solve societal problems. It's crucial to note that traditional problem-solving methods often fall short in discovering innovative solutions. The design team is frequently hampered by psychological barriers stemming from confinement within a highly specialized knowledge domain that is difficult to question. We presume ChatGPT Utilizes TRIZ 40. Hence, the objective of this research is to decipher the inventive model of LLMs, particularly that of ChatGPT, through a comparative study. This will enhance the efficiency of sustainable innovation processes and shed light on how the construction of a solution to a complex problem was devised. Description of the Experimental Protocol : To confirm or reject our main hypothesis that is to determine whether ChatGPT uses TRIZ, we will follow a stringent protocol that we will detail, drawing on insights from a panel of two TRIZ experts. Conclusion and Future Directions : In this endeavor, we sought to comprehend how an LLM like GPT addresses complex challenges. Our goal was to analyze the inventive model of responses provided by an LLM, specifically ChatGPT, by comparing it to an existing standard model: TRIZ 40. Of course, problem solving is our main focus in our endeavours.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, Triz, ChatGPT, inventiveness, problem-solving

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Authors: Juliette Harper, Yu Yang

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Biofuels have gained significant attention recently due to the new regulations and agreements regarding fossil fuels and greenhouse gases being made by countries around the globe. One of the most common types of biofuels is biodiesel, primarily made via the transesterification reaction. We model this nonlinear process in MATLAB using the standard kinetic equations. Then, a nonlinear Model predictive control (NMPC) was developed to regulate this process due to its capability to handle process constraints. The feeding flow uncertainty and kinetic disturbances are further incorporated in the model to capture the real-world operating conditions. The simulation results will show that the proposed NMPC can guarantee the final composition of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) above the target threshold with a high chance by adjusting the process temperature and flowrate. This research will allow further understanding of NMPC under uncertainties and how to design the computational strategy for larger process with more variables.

Keywords: NMPC, biodiesel, uncertainties, nonlinear, MATLAB

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Authors: Po-Chen Chen, Tsung-Han Yang, Zhi-Wei Zheng, Shih-Tsang Tang

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Falls are the most common accidents during mountain hiking, especially in high-altitude environments with unstable terrain or adverse weather. Balance ability is a crucial factor in hiking, effectively ensuring hiking safety and reducing the risk of injuries. If balance ability can be assessed simply and effectively, hikers can identify their weaknesses and conduct targeted training to improve their balance ability, thereby reducing injury risks. With the widespread use of smartphones and their built-in inertial sensors, this project aims to develop a simple Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) balance measurement technique based on smartphones. This will provide hikers with an easy-to-use, low-cost tool for assessing balance ability, monitoring training effects in real-time, and continuously tracking balance ability through uploading cloud data uploads, facilitating personal athletic performance.

Keywords: balance, IMU, smartphone, wearable devices

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Authors: Bahram Fathi, Seyedhossein Sajadifar, Naser Khiabani

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Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has recently gained popularity in energy efficiency analysis. A common feature of the previously proposed DEA models for measuring energy efficiency performance is that they treat energy consumption as an input within a production framework without considering undesirable outputs. However, energy use results in the generation of undesirable outputs as byproducts of producing desirable outputs. Within a joint production framework of both desirable and undesirable outputs, this paper presents several DEA-type linear programming models for measuring energy efficiency performance. In addition to considering undesirable outputs, our models treat different energy sources as different inputs so that changes in energy mix could be accounted for in evaluating energy efficiency. The proposed models are applied to measure the energy efficiency performances of 12 OPEC countries and the results obtained are presented.

Keywords: energy efficiency, undesirable outputs, data envelopment analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 732

Authors: Evgeniya V. Gavrilova, Sofya S. Belova

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The present study was aimed at clarifying the relationship between general intellectual abilities and efficiency in free recall and rhymed words generation task after incidental exposure to linguistic stimuli. The theoretical frameworks stress that general intellectual abilities are based on intentional mental strategies. In this context, it seems to be crucial to examine the efficiency of incidentally presented information processing in cognitive task and its relation to general intellectual abilities. The sample consisted of 32 Russian students. Participants were exposed to pairs of words. Each pair consisted of two common nouns or two city names. Participants had to decide whether a city name was presented in each pair. Thus words’ semantics was processed intentionally. The city names were considered to be focal stimuli, whereas common nouns were considered to be peripheral stimuli. Along with that each pair of words could be rhymed or not be rhymed, but this phonemic aspect of stimuli’s characteristic (rhymed and non-rhymed words) was processed incidentally. Then participants were asked to produce as many rhymes as they could to new words. The stimuli presented earlier could be used as well. After that, participants had to retrieve all words presented earlier. In the end, verbal and non-verbal abilities were measured with number of special psychometric tests. As for free recall task intentionally processed focal stimuli had an advantage in recall compared to peripheral stimuli. In addition all the rhymed stimuli were recalled more effectively than non-rhymed ones. The inverse effect was found in words generation task where participants tended to use mainly peripheral stimuli compared to focal ones. Furthermore peripheral rhymed stimuli were most popular target category of stimuli that was used in this task. Thus the information that was processed incidentally had a supplemental influence on efficiency of stimuli processing as well in free recall as in word generation task. Different patterns of correlations between intellectual abilities and efficiency in different stimuli processing in both tasks were revealed. Non-verbal reasoning ability correlated positively with free recall of peripheral rhymed stimuli, but it was not related to performance on rhymed words’ generation task. Verbal reasoning ability correlated positively with free recall of focal stimuli. As for rhymed words generation task, verbal intelligence correlated negatively with generation of focal stimuli and correlated positively with generation of all peripheral stimuli. The present findings lead to two key conclusions. First, incidentally processed stimuli had an advantage in free recall and word generation task. Thus incidental information processing appeared to be crucial for subsequent cognitive performance. Secondly, it was demonstrated that incidentally processed stimuli were recalled more frequently by participants with high nonverbal reasoning ability and were more effectively used by participants with high verbal reasoning ability in subsequent cognitive tasks. That implies that general intellectual abilities could benefit from operating by different levels of information processing while cognitive problem solving. This research was supported by the “Grant of President of RF for young PhD scientists” (contract № is 14.Z56.17.2980- MK) and the Grant № 15-36-01348a2 of Russian Foundation for Humanities.

Keywords: focal and peripheral stimuli, general intellectual abilities, incidental information processing

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Authors: G. T. Ntuli

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This paper critically examines the gender dynamics of a Zulu girl child in her religio-cultural context from the postcolonial feminist perspective. As one of the former colonized ethnic groups in the South African context, the Zulu tribe used to have particular and contextual religio-cultural ways of a girl’s upbringing. This included traditional and cultural norms that any member of the community could not infringe without serious repercussions from the community members. However, the postcolonial social position of a girl child within this community became ambiguous and unpredictable due to colonial changes that enhanced gender dynamics that propelled tribal communities into deeper patriarchal structures. In the empirical study conducted within the Zulu context, which investigated the retrieval of ubuntombi (virginity) as a Zulu cultural heritage, identity and sex education as a path to adulthood, it was found that a Zulu girl child’s social position is geared towards double oppression due to gender dynamics that she experiences in her lifetime. It is these gender dynamics that are examined in this paper from the postcolonial feminist perspective. These gender dynamics are at play from the birth of a girl child, developmental stage to puberty and marriage rituals. These rituals and religio-cultural practices are meant to shape and mold a ‘good woman’ in the Zulu cultural context but social gender inequality that elevates males over females propel women social status into life denying peripheral positions. Consequently, in the place of a ‘good woman’ in the communal view, an oppressed and dehumanized woman becomes the outcome of such gender dynamics, more often treated with contempt, despised and violated in many demeaning ways. These do not only leave women economically and socio-politically impoverished, but also having to face violence of all kinds such as domestic, emotional, sexual and gender-based violence that are increasingly becoming a scourge in some of the sub-Saharan African countries including South Africa. It is for this reason that this paper becomes significant, not only within the Zulu context where the research was conducted, but also in all the countries that practice and promote patriarchal tendencies in the name of religio-cultural practices. There is a need for a different outlook as to what it means to be a ‘good woman’ in the cultural context, because if the goodness of a woman is determined by life denying cultural practices, such practices need to be deconstructed and discarded.

Keywords: feminist, gender dynamics, postcolonial, religio-cultural, Zulu girl child

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: David W. Taylor, Fernando Lourenço, Carolyn Branston, Paul Tucker

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There are an increasing number of students at Universities in the United Kingdom engaging in entrepreneurship role-play to explore business start-up as a career alternative to employment. These role-play activities have been shown to have a positive influence on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Universities also play a role in developing graduates’ awareness of social responsibility. However, social responsibility is often missing from these entrepreneurship role-plays. It is important that these role-play activities include the development of values that support social responsibility, in-line with those running hybrid, humane and sustainable enterprises, and not simply focus on profit. The Young Enterprise (YE) Start-Up programme is an example of a role-play activity that is gaining in popularity amongst United Kingdom Universities seeking ways to give students insight into a business start-up. A Post-92 University in the North-West of England has adapted the traditional YE Directorship roles (e.g., Marketing Director, Sales Director) by including a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Director in all of the team-based YE Start-Up businesses. The aim for introducing this Directorship was to observe if such a role would help create a more socially responsible value-system within each company and in turn shape business decisions. This paper investigates role-play as a tool to help enterprise educators develop socially responsible attitudes and values in nascent entrepreneurs. A mixed qualitative methodology approach has been used, which includes interviews, role-play, and reflection, to help students develop positive value characteristics through the exploration of unethical and selfish behaviors. The initial findings indicate that role-play helped CSR Directors learn and gain insights into the importance of corporate social responsibility, influenced the values and actions of their YE Start-Ups, and increased the likelihood that if the participants were to launch a business post-graduation, that the intent would be for the business to be socially responsible. These findings help inform educators on how to develop socially responsible nascent entrepreneurs within a traditionally profit orientated business model.

Keywords: student entrepreneurship, young enterprise, social responsibility, role-play, values

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: Alireza Mirrashid, Mohammad Khoshbin, Ali Atghaei, Hassan Shahbazi

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In various industries, smoke and fire are two of the most important threats in the workplace. One of the common methods for detecting smoke and fire is the use of infrared thermal and smoke sensors, which cannot be used in outdoor applications. Therefore, the use of vision-based methods seems necessary. The problem of smoke and fire detection is spatiotemporal and requires spatiotemporal solutions. This paper presents a method that uses spatial features along with temporal-based features to detect smoke and fire in the scene. It consists of three main parts; the task of each part is to reduce the error of the previous part so that the final model has a robust performance. This method also uses transformer modules to increase the accuracy of the model. The results of our model show the proper performance of the proposed approach in solving the problem of smoke and fire detection and can be used to increase workplace safety.

Keywords: attention, fire detection, smoke detection, spatio-temporal

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Mohammad Borhani, Ahmad Jamshidzaei, Mehdi Koohsari

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The study of climate has captivated human interest throughout history. In response to this fascination, individuals historically organized their daily activities in alignment with prevailing climatic conditions and seasonal variations. Understanding the elements and specific climatic parameters of each region, such as precipitation, which directly impacts human life, is essential because, in recent years, there has been a significant increase in heavy rainfall in various parts of the world attributed to the effects of climate change. Climate prediction models suggest a future scenario characterized by an increase in severe precipitation events and related floods on a global scale. This is a result of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions causing changes in the natural precipitation patterns. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported global warming in 2001. The average global temperature has shown an increasing trend since 1861. In the 20th century, this increase has been between (0/2 ± 0/6) °C. The present study focused on examining the trend of monthly, seasonal, and annual precipitation in Sistan and Baluchestan provinces. The study employed data obtained from 13 precipitation measurement stations managed by the Iran Water Resources Management Company, encompassing daily precipitation records spanning the period from 1997 to 2016. The results indicated that the total monthly precipitation at the studied stations in Sistan and Baluchestan province follows a sinusoidal trend. The highest intense precipitation was observed in January, February, and March, while the lowest occurred in September, October, and then November. The investigation of the trend of seasonal precipitation in this province showed that precipitation follows an upward trend in the autumn season, reaching its peak in winter, and then shows a decreasing trend in spring and summer. Also, the examination of average precipitation indicated that the highest yearly precipitation occurred in 1997 and then in 2004, while the lowest annual precipitation took place between 1999 and 2001. The analysis of the annual precipitation trend demonstrates a decrease in precipitation from 1997 to 2016 in Sistan and Baluchestan province.

Keywords: climate change, extreme precipitation, greenhouse gas, trend analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 59

Authors: M. Kolotylo, H. Zheng, R. Parente, R. Dahiya

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Large number of organizations, frequently motivated by budget and cost cuts, outsource their Information Technology (IT) positions every year. Although the objective of reduction in financial obligations is often not accomplished, many buyer companies still manage to benefit from outsourcing projects. Knowledge Transfer (KT), being one of the major processes that take place during IT outsourcing partnership, may exert a strong impact on the performance of the parties involved, particularly that of the buyer. Research, however, lacks strong conceptual basis for the possible benefits that KT from supplier may bring to the buyer; and for the mechanisms that may be adopted by the buyer to maximize such benefit. This paper aims to fill this gap by proposing a conceptual framework of organizational learning and development of dynamic capabilities enabled by KT from the supplier to the buyer. The study examines buyer-supplier relationships in the context of IT outsourcing transactions, and theorizes how KT from the supplier to the buyer helps the performance of the buyer. It warrants that more research is carried out in order to explicate and provide evidence regarding the role that KT plays in strategic improvements for the buyer. The paper proposes to take up a two-fold approach to the research: conceptual development that utilizes logical argumentation and interpretive historical research, as well as a qualitative case study which aims to capture and understand the complex processes involved. Thus, the study provides a comprehensive visualization of the dynamics of the conditions under which participation in IT outsourcing partnership might be of benefit to the buyer company. The framework demonstrates the mechanisms involved in buyer’s achievement of strategic alignment through organizational learning enabled by KT from the supplier. It highlights that organizational learning involves a balance between exploitation of assets and exploration of new possibilities, and further notes that the dynamic capabilities mediate the effect of organizational learning on firm performance. The paper explicates in what ways managers can leverage outsourcing projects to execute strategy, which would enable their organization achieve better performance. The study concludes that organizational learning enables the firm to develop IT capabilities of strategic planning, IT integration, and IT relationships in the outsourcing context, and that IT capabilities developed through the organizational learning would help the firm in achieving strategic alignment.

Keywords: dynamic capabilities, it outsourcing, knowledge transfer, organizational learning, strategic alignment

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Authors: Natalie Pomerantz, Nicholas Dugan, Molly Richards, Walter Zukas

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The primary research question to be answered for Chemical/Biological (CB) protective clothing, is how to protect wearers from a range of chemical and biological threats in liquid, vapor, and aerosol form, while reducing the thermal burden. Currently, CB protective garments are hot, heavy, and wearers are limited by short work times in order to prevent heat injury. This study demonstrates how to incorporate different levels of protection on a material level and modify fabric composites such that the thermal burden is reduced to such an extent it approaches that of a standard duty uniform with no CB protection. CB protective materials are usually comprised of several fabric layers: a cover fabric with a liquid repellent coating, a protective layer which is comprised of a carbon-based sorptive material or semi-permeable membrane, and a comfort next-to-skin liner. In order to reduce thermal burden, all of these layers were laminated together to form one fabric composite which had no insulative air gap in between layers. However, the elimination of the air gap also reduced the CB protection of the fabric composite. In order to increase protection in the laminated composite, different nonwoven aerosol protective liners were added, and a super repellent coating was applied to the cover fabric, prior to lamination. Different adhesive patterns were investigated to determine the durability of the laminate with the super repellent coating, and the effect on air permeation. After evaluating the thermal properties, textile properties and protective properties of the iterations of these fabric composites, it was found that the thermal burden of these materials was greatly reduced by decreasing the thermal resistance with the elimination of the air gap between layers. While the level of protection was reduced in laminate composites, the addition of a super repellent coating increased protection towards low volatility agents without impacting thermal burden. Similarly, the addition of aerosol protective liner increased protection without reducing water vapor transport, depending on the nonwoven used, however, the air permeability was significantly decreased. The balance of all these properties and exploration of the trade space between thermal burden and protection will be discussed.

Keywords: aerosol protection, CBRNe protection, lamination, nonwovens, repellent coatings, thermal burden

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: Mohammad Zavid Parvez, Manoranjan Paul

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Epilepsy is a common neurological disorders characterized by sudden recurrent seizures. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is widely used to diagnose possible epileptic seizure. Many research works have been devoted to predict epileptic seizure by analyzing EEG signal. Seizure prediction by analyzing EEG signals are challenging task due to variations of brain signals of different patients. In this paper, we propose a new approach for feature extraction based on phase correlation in EEG signals. In phase correlation, we calculate relative change between two consecutive segments of an EEG signal and then combine the changes with neighboring signals to extract features. These features are then used to classify preictal/ictal and interictal EEG signals for seizure prediction. Experiment results show that the proposed method carries good prediction rate with greater consistence for the benchmark data set in different brain locations compared to the existing state-of-the-art methods.

Keywords: EEG, epilepsy, phase correlation, seizure

Procedia PDF Downloads 305

Authors: Shahzad Bhattiab, M. Aslamkhana, Sana Abbasbc, Marcella Attimonellid, Kumarasamy Thangaraje, Erica Martinha Silva de Souzaf, Uzay U. Sezen

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The present study was designed to investigate three regions of mitochondrial DNA, HVI, HVII and HVIII, to hold a powwow genetic diversity and affiliations in 115 probands of 6 major ethnic groups, viz., Bijarani, Chandio, Ghallu, Khoso, Nasrani and Solangi, in the province of Sindh of Pakistan. For this purpose 88 haplotypes were scrutinized, defined by particular set of nucleotides (ignoring the C insertions around position 309 and 315). In spite of that 82% sequences were observed once, 12 % twice and 5.2 % thrice. The most common South Asian haplotypes were observed M (42%), N (6.9%) and R (6.9%) whereas west Eurasian haplotypes were J (1.7%), U (23.4%), H (9.5%), W (6.9%) and T (0.86%), in six ethnic groups. A random match probability between two unrelated individuals was found 0.06 %, while genetic diversity was ranged to be 0.991 to 0.999, and nucleotide diversity ranged from 0.0089 to 0.0142 for the whole control region of the population studied.

Keywords: mtDNA haplogroups, control region, Pakistan, Sindh, ethnicity

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Authors: Mohammad Ashraful Alam, Biro Judit

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Fear of gender-based crime and fear of crime victimization for women is a major concern in the urban areas of Bangladesh. Based on the recent data from various human rights organizations and international literature the study found that gender-based crime especially sexual assault and rape are increasing in Bangladesh at a significant rate in comparison to other countries. The major focus of the study was to identify the relationship between fear of gender-based crime and women empowerment. To explore the fact the study followed the mixed methodological approach comprising with quantitative and qualitative methods and used secondary information from national and international sources. Corresponding global pictures the present study found that gender, age, complexion, social position, and ethnicity were more common factors of sexual assault and victimization in Bangladesh which lead to women become more fearful about crime victimization than men. Fear of gender-based crime traumatizes women which leads to withdrawal of their non-essential everyday works and some time from the essential works based on their social position, financial status, and social honor in the society. The increasing crime rate also increases the propensity to fear of criminal victimization, traumatization, and feeling of helplessness which make them vulnerable. The patriarchal culture and practices in Bangladesh based on religious culture and established social norms women always feel defenseless therefore they withdraw themselves from various social activities and own interest. Women who have already victimized feel more fear and become traumatized, and who do not victimize yet but know the severity of victimization from the media and others’ have the feeling of fear of crime. Women who find themselves as weak bonding and low networks with their neighbors and living for a short duration have a feeling of more fear and avoid visiting a certain place in a certain time and avoid some social activities. The study found the young women have more possibilities to become victimized through the feeling of fear of crime is higher among elderly women than young. Though women feel fear of all kinds of crime but usually all aged women are more fearful of sexual assault and rape than other violent crimes. Therefore, elderly women and another person in the family does not allow younger girls to go and involve outside activities to secure their family status. On the other hand, fear of crime in public transport is more common to all aged women at a higher level and sometimes they compromise their freedom, independence, financial opportunities, the job only to avoid the perceived threat, and save their social and cultural honor. The study also explores that fear of crime does not always depend on crime rate but the crime news, the severity of the crime, delay justice, the ineffectiveness of police, bail of criminals, corruption and political favoritism, etc. Finally, the study shows that the fear of gender-based crime and violence is working as a potential barrier to ensuring women's empowerment in Bangladesh.

Keywords: compromise personal freedom, fear of crime, fear of gender-based crime, fear of violent crime victimization, rape, sexual assaults, withdrawal from regular activities, women empowerment

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Authors: Takoua Soltani, Imen Soltani, Taoufik Aguili

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The communications' and radar systems' demands give rise to new developments in the domain of active integrated antennas (AIA) and arrays. The main advantages of AIA arrays are the simplicity of fabrication, low cost of manufacturing, and the combination between free space power and the scanner without a phase shifter. The integrated active antenna modeling is the coupling between the electromagnetic model and the transport model that will be affected in the high frequencies. Global modeling of active circuits is important for simulating EM coupling, interaction between active devices and the EM waves, and the effects of EM radiation on active and passive components. The current review focuses on the modeling of the active element which is a MESFET transistor immersed in a rectangular waveguide. The proposed EM analysis is based on the Method of Moments combined with the Generalised Equivalent Circuit method (MOM-GEC). The Method of Moments which is the most common and powerful software as numerical techniques have been used in resolving the electromagnetic problems. In the class of numerical techniques, MOM is the dominant technique in solving of Maxwell and Transport’s integral equations for an active integrated antenna. In this situation, the equivalent circuit is introduced to the development of an integral method formulation based on the transposition of field problems in a Generalised equivalent circuit that is simpler to treat. The method of Generalised Equivalent Circuit (MGEC) was suggested in order to represent integral equations circuits that describe the unknown electromagnetic boundary conditions. The equivalent circuit presents a true electric image of the studied structures for describing the discontinuity and its environment. The aim of our developed method is to investigate the antenna parameters such as the input impedance and the current density distribution and the electric field distribution. In this work, we propose a global EM modeling of the MESFET AsGa transistor using an integral method. We will begin by describing the modeling structure that allows defining an equivalent EM scheme translating the electromagnetic equations considered. Secondly, the projection of these equations on common-type test functions leads to a linear matrix equation where the unknown variable represents the amplitudes of the current density. Solving this equation resulted in providing the input impedance, the distribution of the current density and the electric field distribution. From electromagnetic calculations, we were able to present the convergence of input impedance for different test function number as a function of the guide mode numbers. This paper presents a pilot study to find the answer to map out the variation of the existing current evaluated by the MOM-GEC. The essential improvement of our method is reducing computing time and memory requirements in order to provide a sufficient global model of the MESFET transistor.

Keywords: active integrated antenna, current density, input impedance, MESFET transistor, MOM-GEC method

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Authors: Dimitrios Triantakonstantis, Demetris Stathakis

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Urban areas have been expanded throughout the globe. Monitoring and modeling urban growth have become a necessity for a sustainable urban planning and decision making. Urban prediction models are important tools for analyzing the causes and consequences of urban land use dynamics. The objective of this research paper is to analyze and model the urban change, which has been occurred from 1990 to 2000 using CORINE land cover maps. The model was developed using drivers of urban changes (such as road distance, slope, etc.) under an Artificial Neural Network modeling approach. Validation was achieved using a prediction map for 2006 which was compared with a real map of Urban Atlas of 2006. The accuracy produced a Kappa index of agreement of 0,639 and a value of Cramer's V of 0,648. These encouraging results indicate the importance of the developed urban growth prediction model which using a set of available common biophysical drivers could serve as a management tool for the assessment of urban change.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, CORINE, urban atlas, urban growth prediction

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Authors: Hameed B. Mahood, Ali Sh. Baqir, Alasdair N. Campbell

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Experiments to study the limitation of flooding inception of three-phase direct contact condenser have been carried out in a counter-current small diameter vertical condenser. The total column height was 70 cm and 4 cm diameter. Only 48 cm has been used as an active three-phase direct contact condenser height. Vapour pentane with three different initial temperatures (40, 43.5 and 47.5 °C) and water with a constant temperature (19 °C) have been used as a dispersed phase and a continuous phase respectively. Five different continuous phase mass flow rate and four different dispersed phase mass flow rate have been tested throughout the experiments. Dimensionless correlation based on the previous common flooding correlation is proposed to calculate the up flow flooding inception of the three-phase direct contact condenser.

Keywords: Three-phase heat exchanger, condenser, solar energy, flooding phenomena

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Authors: P. Priyanka, S. Shruthi, N. Guruprasad

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Health is a common theme in most cultures. In fact all communities have their concepts of health, as part of their culture. Health continues to be a neglected entity. Planning of Human diet should be done very careful by selecting the food items or groups of food items also the composition involved. Low price and good taste of foods are regarded as two major factors for optimal human nutrition. Linear programming techniques have been extensively used for human diet formulation for quiet good number of years. Through the process, we mainly apply “The Simplex Method” which is a very useful statistical tool based on the theorem of Elementary Row Operation from Linear Algebra and also incorporate some other necessary rules set by the Simplex Method to help solve the problem. The study done by us is an attempt to develop a programming model for optimal planning and best use of nutrient ingredients.

Keywords: diet formulation, linear programming, nutrient ingredients, optimization, simplex method

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Authors: Catalin-Teodor Dogaru, Ana-Maria Dogaru

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Success means different things to different people. For us, project managers, it becomes even harder to find a definition. Many factors have to be included in the evaluation. Moreover, literature is not very helpful, lacking consensus and neutrality. Post-implementation reviews (PIR) can be an efficient tool in evaluating how things worked on a certain project. Despite the visible progress, PIR is not a very detailed subject yet and there is not a common understanding in this matter. This may be the reason that some organizations include it in the projects’ lifecycle and some do not. Through this paper, we point out the reasons why all project managers should pay proper attention to this important step and to the elements, which can be assessed, beside the already famous triple constraints: cost, budget, and time. It is essential to take notice that PIR is not a checklist. It brings the edge in eliminating subjectivity and judging projects based on actual proof. Based on our experience, our success indicator model, presented in this paper, contributes to the success of the project! In the same time, it increases trust among customers who will perceive success more objectively.

Keywords: project, post implementation, review, success, indicators

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Authors: I. Pina, M. Painho

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Increased knowledge about the nature of place and the conditions under which space becomes place is a key factor for better urban planning and place-making. Although there is a broad consensus on the relevance of this knowledge, difficulties remain in relating the theoretical framework about place and urban management. Issues related to representation of places are among the greatest obstacles to overcome this gap. With this critical discussion, based on literature review, we intended to explore, in a common framework for geographical analysis, the potential of stories to spell out place meanings, bringing together qualitative text analysis and text mining in order to capture and represent the singularity contained in each person's life history, and the patterns of social processes that shape places. The development of this reasoning is based on the extensive geographical thought about place, and in the theoretical advances in the field of Geographic Information Science (GISc).

Keywords: discourse analysis, geographic information science place, place-making, stories

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Authors: S. Ishak, M. G. Nasuruddin

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This paper looks at healing performances as ethnographic expressions of local knowledge and culture embedded within the Malay psyche and gemeinschaft. As society develops and progresses, these healing performances are caught within conflicting trajectories which become compounded by the contestations of tradition, religious concerns, locality and modernity. As exemplifications of the Malay ethos, these performances practice common rituals, cater to the innate needs of the practitioners and serve the targeted, closed, local community. This paper traces the ethnographic methods in documenting these practices as rituals of healing in a post-modern world. It delineates the ethnographic concepts used to analyze these rituals, and to semiotically read the varied binarial oppositions and juxtapositions. The paper concludes by highlighting the reconciliatory processes involved in maintaining these ritual performances as exemplifications of the Malay ethos playing an important role in the re-aligning, re-balancing and healing of the Malay community’s psyche.

Keywords: angina, winds, semangat, spirits, traditional theatres, trance

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Authors: Devendra Kr Tayal, Vrinda Gupta, Aastha Bansal, Khushi Singh, Sristi Sharma, Hunny Gaur

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In today's world, suicide is a serious problem. In order to save lives, early suicide attempt detection and prevention should be addressed. A good number of at-risk people utilize social media platforms to talk about their issues or find knowledge on related chores. Twitter and Reddit are two of the most common platforms that are used for expressing oneself. Extensive research has already been done in this field. Through supervised classification techniques like Nave Bayes, Bernoulli Nave Bayes, and Multiple Layer Perceptron on a Reddit dataset, we demonstrate the early recognition of suicidal ideation. We also performed comparative analysis on these approaches and used accuracy, recall score, F1 score, and precision score for analysis.

Keywords: machine learning, suicide ideation detection, supervised classification, natural language processing

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Authors: W. T. Hsu, H. L. Tsai

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The rapid aging of the population is a common trend in the world. However, the progress of modern medical technology has increased the average life expectancy. The global population structure has changed dramatically, and the elderly population has risen rapidly. In the face of rapid population growth, it must be noted issues of the aging population must face up to, which are the physiological, psychological, and social problems associated with aging. This study aims to investigate how insurance agents are actively dealing with an aging society, their own aging anxiety, and their exercise habits. Purposive sampling was the sampling method of this study, a total of 204 respondents were surveyed and 204 valid surveys were returned. The returned valid ratio was 100%. Statistical method included descriptive statistics, t-test, and one-way ANOVA. The results of the study found that the insurance agent’s age, seniority, exercise habits to aging anxiety are significantly different.

Keywords: insurance practitioners, aging anxiety, exercise habits, elderly

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Authors: Daphne Sobolev, Niklas Voege

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During the last three decades, consumer ethics perceptions have attracted the attention of a large number of researchers. Nevertheless, little is known about the effect of the cognitive and situational contexts of the decision on ethics judgments. In this paper, the interrelationship between consumers’ ethics perceptions, legality evaluations and mind-sets are explored. Legality evaluations represent the cognitive context of the ethical judgments, whereas mind-sets represent their situational context. Drawing on moral development theories and priming theories, it is hypothesized that both factors are significantly related to consumer ethics perceptions. To test this hypothesis, 289 participants were allocated to three mind-set experimental conditions and a control group. Participants in the mind-set conditions were primed for aggressiveness, politeness or awareness to the negative legal consequences of breaking the law. Mind-sets were induced using a sentence-unscrambling task, in which target words were included. Ethics and legality judgments were assessed using consumer ethics and internet ethics questionnaires. All participants were asked to rate the ethicality and legality of consumer actions described in the questionnaires. The results showed that consumer ethics and legality perceptions were significantly correlated. Moreover, including legality evaluations as a variable in ethics judgment models increased the predictive power of the models. In addition, inducing aggressiveness in participants reduced their sensitivity to ethical issues; priming awareness to negative legal consequences increased their sensitivity to ethics when uncertainty about the legality of the judged scenario was high. Furthermore, the correlation between ethics and legality judgments was significant overall mind-set conditions. However, the results revealed conflicts between ethics and legality perceptions: consumers considered 10%-14% of the presented behaviors unethical and legal, or ethical and illegal. In 10-23% of the questions, participants indicated that they did not know whether the described action was legal or not. In addition, an asymmetry between the effects of aggressiveness and politeness priming was found. The results show that the legality judgments and mind-sets interact with consumer ethics perceptions. Thus, they portray consumer ethical judgments as dynamical processes which are inseparable from other cognitive processes and situational variables. They highlight that legal and ethical education, as well as adequate situational cues at the service place, could have a positive effect on consumer ethics perceptions. Theoretical contribution is discussed.

Keywords: consumer ethics, legality judgments, mind-set, priming, aggressiveness

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Authors: Bokolombe Pitchou Ngoy, John Mack, Tebello Nyokong

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Synthesis and photochemical studies of BODIPY dyes have been investigated in this work in order to have a broad benchmark of this functionalized photosensitizer for biological applications such as photodynamic therapy or antimicrobial activity. The common acid catalyzed synthetic method was used, and BODIPY dyes were obtained in quite a good yield (25 %) followed by bromination and Knoevenagel condensation to afford the BODIPY dyes conjugated with maximum absorbance in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The fluorescence lifetimes, fluorescence quantum yield, and Singlet oxygen quantum yield of the conjugated BODIPY dyes were determined in different solvents by using Time Correlation Single Photon Counting (TCSPC), fluorimeter, and Laser Flash Photolysis respectively. It was clearly shown that the singlet oxygen quantum yield was higher in THF followed by DMSO compared to another solvent. The same trend was observed for the fluorescence lifetimes.

Keywords: BODIPY, photodynamic therapy, photosensitizer, singlet oxygen

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Authors: Yuchen Niu, Liang Zhao, Fangfang Xie, Weiyu Liu

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In the past decades, rapid urbanization in China has significantly promoted economic growth and caused a large number of environmental problems. In consideration of land resources shortage, high-density cities will become a common phenomenon in the future. How to improve the living environment under high density is a new challenge. Shenzhen is a typical high-density city, but also the forefront of China's development and reform area. This study selects 9 urban parks with different natural attributes in Shenzhen and explores the relationship of natural, economic, and social conditions within the service scope. Based on correlation analysis and system analysis, the results indicate that improvement of park design and management methods contribute to obtaining higher ecological value and promote economic and social development.

Keywords: correlation analysis, high-density city, park improvement, urban green spaces

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Authors: Wojciech Dąbrowski, Joanna Bąk, Laurent Solliec

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Nowadays technical and technological progress and constant development of methods and devices applied to sanitary engineering is indispensable. Issues related to sanitary engineering involve flow measurements for water and wastewater. The precise measurement is very important and pivotal for further actions, like monitoring. There are many methods and techniques of flow measurement in the area of sanitary engineering. Weirs and flumes are well–known methods and common used. But also there are alternative methods. Some of them are very simple methods, others are solutions using high technique. The old–time method combined with new technique could be more useful than earlier. Paper describes substitute method of flow gauging (California pipe method) and proposal of modification of this method used for inclined pipe. Examination of possibility of improving and developing old–time methods is direction of the investigation.

Keywords: California pipe, sewerage, flow rate measurement, water, wastewater, improve, modification, hydraulic monitoring, stream

Procedia PDF Downloads 432