Search results for: bivariate spatial association statistic

Authors: Edson Ephraim Sanga

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This paper stems to explore possible places used for recreation in unplanned settlements in order to avail knowledge on how to create and shape urban spaces essential for recreation and leisure. The context of unplanned settlements is spatially characterized compactness and congestions of buildings developed by residents without professional inputs. These characteristics surpass greenery landscapes such as parks and squares essential for health, happiness and wellbeing. The lack of recreational greenery landscape arises a question on how possible can recreation take places in the settlements? This study used qualitative methods mainly observation and in-depth interview to explore the recreational situation in Manzese informal settlements as an instrumental case and found that ordinary spaces are re-configured into recreational spaces and used as ‘parks’ and ‘squares’ in the settlements. The spaces are diverse and complex as they possess different spatial characteristics based on their physical attributes and the way they are used and interpreted by respective users. This paper argues that the re-configuration processes of ordinary spaces should not be taken for granted because they portray the appropriation of spaces from quotidian dimensions in a particular context.

Keywords: ordinary spaces, recreation, unplanned settlement, urban spaces

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Authors: Su Bin Wang, Jin Hee Ahn, Tong-Shin Chang

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The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are member of nuclear receptor superfamily that act as a ligand-activated transcription factors. Although platelets lack a nucleus, previous studies have shown that PPARγ agonists, rosiglitazone, inhibited platelet activation induced by collagen. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of KR-62980, a newly synthesized PPARγ agonist, on collagen receptor-stimulated platelet activation. The specific tyrosine phosphorylations of key components (Syk, Vav1, Btk and PLCγ2) for collagen receptor signaling pathways were suppressed by KR-62980. KR-62980 also attenuated downstream responses including cytosolic calcium elevation, P-selectin surface exposure, and integrin αIIbβ3 activation. PPARγ was found to associate with multiple proteins within the LAT signaling complex in collagen-stimulated platelets. This association was prevented by KR-62980, indicating a potential mechanism for PPARγ function in collagen-stimulated platelet activation. Furthermore, KR-62980 inhibited platelet aggregation and adhesion in response to collagen in vitro and prolonged in vivo thrombotic response in carotid arteries of mice. Collectively, these data suggest that KR-62980 inhibits collagen-stimulated platelet activation and thrombus formation through modulating the collagen receptor signaling pathways.

Keywords: KR-62980, PPARγ, antiplatelet, thrombosis

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Authors: Palita Sooksamran, Katcharin Mahawong

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This research aims to offer the development of innovator teachers training curriculum to create instructional innovation according to active learning approach to enhance learning achievement. The research and development process is carried out in 3 steps: Step 1 The study of the needs necessary to develop a training curriculum: the inquiry was conducted by a sample of teachers in private schools in Phayao province that provide basic education at the level of education. Using a questionnaire of 176 people, the sample was defined using a table of random numbers and stratified samples, using the school as a random layer. Step 2 Training curriculum development: the tools used are developed training curriculum and curriculum assessments, with nine experts checking the appropriateness of the draft curriculum. The statistic used in data analysis is the average ( ) and standard deviation (S.D.) Step 3 study on effectiveness of training curriculum: one group pretest/posttest design applied in this study. The sample consisted of 35 teachers from private schools in Phayao province. The participants volunteered to attend on their own. The results of the research showed that: 1.The essential demand index needed with the list of essential needs in descending order is the choice and create of multimedia media, videos, application for learning management at the highest level ,Developed of multimedia, video and applications for learning management and selection of innovative learning management techniques and methods of solve the problem Learning , respectively. 2. The components of the training curriculum include principles, aims, scope of content, training activities, learning materials and resources, supervision evaluation. The scope of the curriculum consists of basic knowledge about learning management innovation, active learning, lesson plan design, learning materials and resources, learning measurement and evaluation, implementation of lesson plans into classroom and supervision and motoring. The results of the evaluation of quality of the draft training curriculum at the highest level. The Experts suggestion is that the purpose of the course should be used words that convey the results. 3. The effectiveness of training curriculum 1) Cognitive outcomes of the teachers in creating innovative learning management was at a high level of relative gain score. 2) The assessment results of learning management ability according to the active learning approach to enhance learning achievement by assessing from 2 education supervisor as a whole were very high , 3) Quality of innovation learning management based on active learning approach to enhance learning achievement of the teachers, 7 instructional Innovations were evaluated as outstanding works and 26 instructional Innovations passed the standard 4) Overall learning achievement of students who learned from 35 the sample teachers was at a high level of relative gain score 5) teachers' satisfaction towards the training curriculum was at the highest level.

Keywords: training curriculum, innovator teachers, active learning approach, learning achievement

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Authors: Vo Thi Hai Quan

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Nam Con Son sedimentary basin is one of the very important oil and gas basins in offshore Vietnam. Hai Thach field of block 05-2 contains mostly gas accumulations in fine-grained, sand/mud-rich turbidite system, which was deposited in a turbidite channel and fan environment. Major Upper Miocene reservoir of HT-3X lies above a well-developed unconformity. The main objectives of this study are to reconstruct depositional environment and to assess the reservoir quality using data from 14 meters of core samples and digital wireline data of the well HT-3X. The wireline log and core data showed that the vertical sequences of representative facies of the well mainly range from Tb to Te divisions of Bouma sequences with predominance of Tb and Tc compared to Td and Te divisions. Sediments in this well were deposited in a submarine fan association with very fine to fine-grained, homogeneous sandstones that have high porosity and permeability, high- density turbidity currents with longer transport route from the sediment source to the basin, indicating good quality of reservoir. Sediments are comprised mainly of the following sedimentary structures: massive, laminated sandstones, convoluted bedding, laminated ripples, cross-laminated ripples, deformed sandstones, contorted bedding.

Keywords: Hai Thach field, Miocene sand, turbidite, wireline data

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Authors: Alexandre Faure, Yoko Mizokami, éRic Dinet

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These recent years, the potential of light in assisting visually impaired people in their indoor mobility has been demonstrated by different studies. Implementing smart lighting systems for selective visual enhancement, especially designed for low-vision people, is an approach that breaks with the existing visual aids. The appearance of the surface of an object is significantly influenced by the lighting conditions and the constituent materials of the objects. Appearance of objects may appear to be different from expectation. Therefore, lighting conditions lead to an important part of accurate material recognition. The main objective of this work was to investigate the effect of the spatial distribution of light on object identification in the context of low vision. The purpose was to determine whether and what specific lighting approaches should be preferred for visually impaired people. A psychophysical experiment was designed to study the ability of individuals to identify the smallest cube of a pair under different lighting diffusion conditions. Participants were divided into two distinct groups: a reference group of observers with normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity and a test group, in which observers were required to wear visual impairment simulation glasses. All participants were presented with pairs of cubes in a "miniature room" and were instructed to estimate the relative size of the two cubes. The miniature room replicates real-life settings, adorned with decorations and separated from external light sources by black curtains. The correlated color temperature was set to 6000 K, and the horizontal illuminance at the object level at approximately 240 lux. The objects presented for comparison consisted of 11 white cubes and 11 black cubes of different sizes manufactured with a 3D printer. Participants were seated 60 cm away from the objects. Two different levels of light diffuseness were implemented. After receiving instructions, participants were asked to judge whether the two presented cubes were the same size or if one was smaller. They provided one of five possible answers: "Left one is smaller," "Left one is smaller but unsure," "Same size," "Right one is smaller," or "Right one is smaller but unsure.". The method of constant stimuli was used, presenting stimulus pairs in a random order to prevent learning and expectation biases. Each pair consisted of a comparison stimulus and a reference cube. A psychometric function was constructed to link stimulus value with the frequency of correct detection, aiming to determine the 50% correct detection threshold. Collected data were analyzed through graphs illustrating participants' responses to stimuli, with accuracy increasing as the size difference between cubes grew. Statistical analyses, including 2-way ANOVA tests, showed that light diffuseness had no significant impact on the difference threshold, whereas object color had a significant influence in low vision scenarios. The first results and trends derived from this pilot experiment clearly and strongly suggest that future investigations could explore extreme diffusion conditions to comprehensively assess the impact of diffusion on object identification. For example, the first findings related to light diffuseness may be attributed to the range of manipulation, emphasizing the need to explore how other lighting-related factors interact with diffuseness.

Keywords: Lighting, Low Vision, Visual Aid, Object Identification, Psychophysical Experiment

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Authors: Lassi Lehto, Jaakko Kahkonen, Juha Oksanen, Tapani Sarjakoski

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The use of raster-formatted data sets in geospatial analysis is increasing rapidly. At the same time, geographic data are being introduced into disciplines outside the traditional domain of geoinformatics, like climate change, intelligent transport, and immigration studies. These developments call for better methods to deliver raster geodata in an efficient and easy-to-use manner. Data cube technologies have traditionally been used in the geospatial domain for managing Earth Observation data sets that have strict requirements for effective handling of time series. The same approach and methodologies can also be applied in managing other types of geospatial data sets. A cloud service-based geodata cube, called GeoCubes Finland, has been developed to support online delivery and analysis of most important geospatial data sets with national coverage. The main target group of the service is the academic research institutes in the country. The most significant aspects of the GeoCubes data repository include the use of multiple resolution levels, cloud-optimized file structure, and a customized, flexible content access API. Input data sets are pre-processed while being ingested into the repository to bring them into a harmonized form in aspects like georeferencing, sampling resolutions, spatial subdivision, and value encoding. All the resolution levels are created using an appropriate generalization method, selected depending on the nature of the source data set. Multiple pre-processed resolutions enable new kinds of online analysis approaches to be introduced. Analysis processes based on interactive visual exploration can be effectively carried out, as the level of resolution most close to the visual scale can always be used. In the same way, statistical analysis can be carried out on resolution levels that best reflect the scale of the phenomenon being studied. Access times remain close to constant, independent of the scale applied in the application. The cloud service-based approach, applied in the GeoCubes Finland repository, enables analysis operations to be performed on the server platform, thus making high-performance computing facilities easily accessible. The developed GeoCubes API supports this kind of approach for online analysis. The use of cloud-optimized file structures in data storage enables the fast extraction of subareas. The access API allows for the use of vector-formatted administrative areas and user-defined polygons as definitions of subareas for data retrieval. Administrative areas of the country in four levels are available readily from the GeoCubes platform. In addition to direct delivery of raster data, the service also supports the so-called virtual file format, in which only a small text file is first downloaded. The text file contains links to the raster content on the service platform. The actual raster data is downloaded on demand, from the spatial area and resolution level required in each stage of the application. By the geodata cube approach, pre-harmonized geospatial data sets are made accessible to new categories of inexperienced users in an easy-to-use manner. At the same time, the multiresolution nature of the GeoCubes repository facilitates expert users to introduce new kinds of interactive online analysis operations.

Keywords: cloud service, geodata cube, multiresolution, raster geodata

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Authors: G. Akgun, I. Algul, H. Kurtaran

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In this paper geometrically nonlinear static behavior of laminated composite hollow super-elliptic beams is investigated using generalized differential quadrature method. Super-elliptic beam can have both oval and elliptic cross-sections by adjusting parameters in super-ellipse formulation (also known as Lamé curves). Equilibrium equations of super-elliptic beam are obtained using the virtual work principle. Geometric nonlinearity is taken into account using von-Kármán nonlinear strain-displacement relations. Spatial derivatives in strains are expressed with the generalized differential quadrature method. Transverse shear effect is considered through the first-order shear deformation theory. Static equilibrium equations are solved using Newton-Raphson method. Several composite super-elliptic beam problems are solved with the proposed method. Effects of layer orientations of composite material, boundary conditions, ovality and ellipticity on bending behavior are investigated.

Keywords: generalized differential quadrature, geometric nonlinearity, laminated composite, super-elliptic cross-section

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Authors: Jimena Alarcon, Andrea Llorens, Gabriel Hernandez, Maritza Palma, Lucia Navarrete

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The research has funding from the Government of Chile and is focused on defining the design of rural primary classroom that stimulates creativity. The relevance of the study consists of its capacity to define adequate educational spaces for the implementation of the design-based learning (DBL) methodology. This methodology promotes creativity and teamwork, generating a meaningful learning experience for students, based on the appreciation of their environment and the generation of projects that contribute positively to their communities; also, is an inquiry-based form of learning that is based on the integration of design thinking and the design process into the classroom. The main goal of the study is to define the design characteristics of rural primary school classrooms, associated with the implementation of the DBL methodology. Along with the change in learning strategies, it is necessary to change the educational spaces in which they develop. The hypothesis indicates that a change in the space and equipment of the classrooms based on the emotions of the students will motivate better learning results based on the implementation of a new methodology. In this case, the pedagogical dynamics require an important interaction between the participants, as well as an environment favorable to creativity. Methodologies from Kansei engineering are used to know the emotional variables associated with their definition. The study is done to 50 students between 6 and 10 years old (average age of seven years), 48% of men and 52% women. Virtual three-dimensional scale models and semantic differential tables are used. To define the semantic differential, self-applied surveys were carried out. Each survey consists of eight separate questions in two groups: question A to find desirable emotions; question B related to emotions. Both questions have a maximum of three alternatives to answer. Data were tabulated with IBM SPSS Statistics version 19. Terms referred to emotions are grouped into twenty concepts with a higher presence in surveys. To select the values obtained as part of the implementation of Semantic Differential, a number expected of 'chi-square test (x2)' frequency calculated for classroom space is considered lower limit. All terms over the N expected a cut point, are included to prepare tables for surveys to find a relation between emotion and space. Statistic contrast (Chi-Square) represents significance level ≥ 0, indicator that frequencies appeared are not random. Then, the most representative terms depend on the variable under study: a) definition of textures and color of vertical surfaces is associated with emotions such as tranquility, attention, concentration, creativity; and, b) distribution of the equipment of the rooms, with emotions associated with happiness, distraction, creativity, freedom. The main findings are linked to the generation of classrooms according to diverse DBL team dynamics. Kansei engineering is the appropriate methodology to know the emotions that students want to feel in the classroom space.

Keywords: creativity, design-based learning, education spaces, emotions

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Authors: Atitallah Sofien, Bouyahia Olfa, Mohsen S., Boussetta Khadija, Khemiri Monia, Fitouri Zohra, Boukthir Samir

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Introduction: Megaloblastic anemia (MA) is rare in children. The diversity of its etiologies can lead to misdiagnosis and may, therefore, delay the treatment. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological and etiological characteristics of children followed for MA at the Tunis children's hospital. Methodology: This is a retrospective study over a period of 25 years of all cases of MA in children in the Children's Hospital of Tunis. The diagnosis of MA was confirmed by myelogram in all patients. Results: We collected 29 observations, with an incidence of 1.2 cases/year and a sex ratio of 1. Sixty percent of the children were aged between 3 months and 2 years. The consultation time was between 15 and 30 days in a third of the patients. The clinical examination showed hypotrophy in 13% of cases, hepatosplenomegaly in 6% of cases, neurological or neurosensory damage in 23% of cases, and cardiac damage in 10% of children. MA was associated with thrombocytopenia in 65% of cases and leukoneutropenia in 24% of cases. One in 5 children had pancytopenia. The etiologies were mainly thiamine deficiency, Immerslund disease (20%), nutritional deficiency (13%), and Biermer anemia (13%). One of the patients presented an MA revealing visceral leishmaniasis. The outcome under vitamin B12, the dose of which was adapted to each etiology, was favorable for all patients. Conclusion: MA is rare in children with multiple etiologies that are mainly dominated by hereditary conditions and nutritional deficiencies, mainly in vitamin B12. The association with visceral leishmaniasis seems to be a particularity in our country not reported in the literature.

Keywords: megaloblastic anemia, children, vitamin B12, anemia

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Authors: Cameron Brown, Jessica Vanburen, Scott Hunt

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This study analyzed 411 international newspaper stories pertaining to gambling-related crimes from January 2013 to December 2014. These stories included accounts of crimes committed to fund gambling or pay gambling debts or that occurred at gambling establishments. Our analysis pays particular attention to those crimes that were imputed to be committed by “problem” or “addictive” gamblers, who commit crimes to fund gambling or pay gambling debts. Previous research on problem/addictive gambling has focused on its etiology or prevalence rates and has not attended to the media portrayals of this behavior and its association with crime. Using frame analysis concepts, the data demonstrate that the newspaper stories typically frame the events as “crimes” and not the result of illness or addiction. The “evidence” of motive that could have indicated psychological problems or additions were rather framed as “criminal motive.” This framing practice advances an identity of a “problem/addictive gambler” as a deviant criminal perpetrator and not a victim of addiction. The paper concludes with a discussion of how these findings can be used to advance research on social portrayals of problem/addictive gamblers. Specifically, we consider how these media frames impede an understanding of problem/addictive gambling as a public health problem.

Keywords: problem gambling, addictive gambling, identity resonace, frame analysis

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Authors: Ilija Musa

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Positive legal regulation of juvenile privacy protection, current state of showing a child in BH media and possibilities of a child’s privacy protection by more adequate media legislature which should be arranged in accordance to recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Privacy of the minors in Bosnian-Herzegovinian media is insufficiently legally arranged. Due to the fact that there is no law on media area arrangement at the state level, electronic media are under jurisdiction of Communications regulatory agency, which at least partially, regulated the sector of radio and television broadcasting by adequate protection of child’s privacy. However, print and online media are under jurisdiction of non-governmental association Print and online media council in B&H which is not authorized to punish violators of this body’s Codex, what points out the necessity of passing the unique media law which would enable sanctioning the child’s privacy violation. The analysis of media content, which is a common violation of the child's privacy, analysis of positive legislation which regulates the media, confirmed the working hypothesis by which the minor’s protection policy in BH media is not protected at the appropriate level. Taking this into consideration, in the conclusion of this article the author gives recommendations for the regulation of legal protection of minor’s privacy in BH media.

Keywords: children, media, legislation, privacy protection, Bosnia Herzegovina

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Authors: Muhammad Fiaz, Muhammad Saqlain, Abid Mahmood, S. M. Saqlan Naqvi, Rizwan Aziz Qazi, Ghazala Kaukab Raja

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Background: Metabolic Syndrome is a clustering of multiple risk factors including central obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia. These risk phenotypes of metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalent world-wide, Therefore we aimed to identify the frequency of risk phenotypes among metabolic syndrome subjects in local adult Pakistani population. Methods: Screening of subjects visiting out-patient department of medicine, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad was performed to assess the occurrence of risk phenotypes among MetS subjects in Pakistani population. The Metabolic Syndrome was defined based on International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. Anthropometric and biochemical assay results were recorded. Data was analyzed using SPSS software (16.0). Results: Our results showed that dyslipidemia (31.50%) and hyperglycemia (30.50%) was most population specific risk phenotypes of MetS. The results showed the order of association of metabolic risk phenotypes to MetS as follows hyperglycemia>dyslipidemia>obesity >hypertension. Conclusion: The hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia were found be the major risk phenotypes among the MetS subjects and have greater chances of deceloping MetS among Pakistani Population.

Keywords: dyslipidemia, hypertention, metabolic syndrome, obesity

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Authors: Graciela Soares Marcelli, Elison Eduardo Jardim Bierhals, Luciane Teresa Salvi, Claudineia Brazil, Rafael Haag

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The sun is a source of renewable energy, and its use as both a source of heat and light is one of the most promising energy alternatives for the future. To measure the thermal or photovoltaic systems a solar irradiation database is necessary. Brazil still has a reduced number of meteorological stations that provide frequency tests, as an alternative to the radio data platform, with reanalysis systems, quite significant. ERA-Interim is a global fire reanalysis by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The data assimilation system used for the production of ERA-Interim is based on a 2006 version of the IFS (Cy31r2). The system includes a 4-dimensional variable analysis (4D-Var) with a 12-hour analysis window. The spatial resolution of the dataset is approximately 80 km at 60 vertical levels from the surface to 0.1 hPa. This work aims to make a comparative analysis between the ERA-Interim data and the data observed in the Solarimmetric Atlas of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, to verify its applicability in the absence of an observed data network. The analysis of the results obtained for a study region as an alternative to the energy potential of a given region.

Keywords: energy potential, reanalyses, renewable energy, solar radiation

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Authors: M. Pourshirazi, M. Esmaelifar, A. Aliahmadi, F. Yazdian, A. S. Hatamian Zarami, S. J. Ashrafi

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Medicinal fungi are the new potential source of drugs to improve the treatment of diseases with association to oxidative agents such as cancers. Monascus purpureus contains functional components potentially effective in improving human health. In the present work, ethanolic extract of Monascus purpureus (EEM) was evaluated for health improving potential mainly focusing on antioxidant and anticancer activities. Ferric ion reducing power (FRAP), scavenging of DPPH radicals and determining viability of breast carcinoma MCF-7 and cervical carcinoma HeLa cells with MTT assay were evaluated. Our data showed a significant antioxidant activity of EEM with 142.45 µg/ml inhibition concentration of 50% DPPH radicals and 2112.33 µg eq.Fe2+/mg extract of FRAP assay. These results might be caused by antioxidant components such as pigments and phenolic compounds. Further, the results demonstrated that EEM caused significant reduction in the viability of MCF-7 with IC50 of 7 µg/ml but not have good effect against viability of HeLa cells. Accordingly, Monascus purpureus is presented as a strong potential of breast cancer treatment. In further study, the mechanistic studies are needed to determine the mechanisms of anticancer activity of EEM.

Keywords: Monascus purpureus, antioxidant, cancer, ethanolic extract

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Authors: Julija Konstantinavičienė, Vlada Vitunskienė

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The role of sustainable biomass, including wood biomass, is becoming more important because of European Green Deal. The New EU Forest strategy is a flagship element of the European Green Deal and a key action on the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030. The first measure of this strategy is promoting sustainable forest management, including encouraging the sustainable use of wood-based resources. The first aim of this research was to develop and present a new approach to the concept of forest wood biomass potential in terms of sustainable development, distinguishing theoretical, technical and sustainable potential and detailing its constraints. The second aim was to prepare the methodology outline of sustainable forest wood biomass potential assessment and empirically check this methodology, considering economic, social and ecological constraints. The basic methodologies of the research: the review of research (with a combination of semi-systematic and integrative review methodologies), rapid assessment method and statistical data analysis. The developed methodology of assessment of forest wood potential in terms of sustainable development can be used in Lithuania and in other countries and will let us compare this potential a different time and spatial levels. The application of the methodology will be able to serve the development of new national strategies for the wood sector.

Keywords: assessment, constraints, forest wood biomass, methodology, potential, sustainability

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Authors: Moses Oghenenyoreme Eyankware, Christian Ogubuchi Ede

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Groundwater is the principal source for various uses in this study area. The quality and availability of groundwater depend on rock formation within the study area. To effectively study the quality of groundwater, 24 groundwater samples were collected. The study was aimed at investigating the hydrogeochemistry of groundwater, and additionally its suitability for drinking and irrigation purposes. The following parameters were analyzed using the American Public Health Association standard method: pH, turbidity, Ec, TDS, Mg2+, SO42-, NO3¯, Cl-, HCO3¯, K+, Na2+ and Ca2+. Results obtained from Water Quality Index revealed that the groundwater sample fell within good water quality that implies that groundwater is considered fit for drinking purposes. Deduced results obtained from irrigation indices revealed that Permeability Index (PI), Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP), Sodium Percentage (Na %), Sodium Absorption Ratio (SAR), Kelly Ratio (KR), Magnesium Hazard (MH) ranges from 0.00 to 0.01, 4.04 to 412.9, 0.63 to 257.7, 0.15 to 2.34, 0.09 to 2.57 and 6.84 to 84.55 respectively. Findings from Total hardness revealed that groundwater fell within soft, moderately hard and hard categories. Estimated results obtained from CSMR, RI and LSI showed that groundwater showed corrosion tendency, salinization influenced groundwater at certain sampling points and chloride and sulfate unlikely to interfere with natural formation film.

Keywords: water, quality, suitability, anthropogenic, Nigeria

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Authors: Jinen Daghrir, Anis Kricha, Karim Kalti

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The amount of incoming administrative documents is massive and manually processing these documents is a costly task especially on the timescale. In fact, this problem has led an important amount of research and development in the context of automatically extracting fields from administrative documents, in order to reduce the charges and to increase the citizen satisfaction in administrations. In this matter, we introduce an administrative document understanding system. Given a document in which a user has to select fields that have to be retrieved from a document class, a document model is automatically built. A document model is represented by an attributed relational graph (ARG) where nodes represent fields to extract, and edges represent the relation between them. Both of vertices and edges are attached with some feature vectors. When another document arrives to the system, the layout objects are extracted and an ARG is generated. The fields extraction is translated into a problem of matching two ARGs which relies mainly on the comparison of the spatial relationships between layout objects. Experimental results yield accuracy rates from 75% to 100% tested on eight document classes. Our proposed method has a good performance knowing that the document model is constructed using only one single document.

Keywords: administrative document understanding, logical labelling, logical layout analysis, fields extraction from administrative documents

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Authors: Dorota Winnicka-Jasłowska, Małgorzata Jastrzębska, Jan Kaczmarczyk, Beata Łaźniewska-Piekarczyk, Piotr Skóra, Beata Kobiałko, Agata Kołodziej, Błażej Mól, Ewelina Lasyk, Karolina Brzęczek, Michał Król

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Creating economical, comfortable, and healthy buildings which respect the environment is a necessity resulting from legal regulations, but it is also a response to the expectations of a modern investor. Developing the concept of a residential house based on the 4E and the 2+2+(1) IDEAs is a complex process that requires specialist knowledge of many trades and requires adaptation of comprehensive solutions. IDEA 4E assumes the use of energy-saving, ecological, ergonomics, and economic solutions. In addition, IDEA 2+2+(1) assuming appropriate surface and functional-spatial solutions for a family at different stages of a building's life, i.e. 2, 4, or 5 members, enforces certain flexibility of the designed building, which may change with the number and age of its users. The building should therefore be easy to rearrange or expand. The task defined in this way was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of students of the Silesian University of Technology as part of PBL. The team consisted of 6 undergraduate and graduate students representing the following faculties: 3 students of architecture, 2 civil engineering students, and 1 student of environmental engineering. The work of the team was supported by 3 academic teachers representing the above-mentioned faculties and additional experts. The project was completed in one semester. The article presents the successive stages of the project. At first pre-design studies were carried out. They allowed to define the guidelines for the project. For this purpose, the "Model house" questionnaire was developed. The questions concerned determining the utility needs of a potential family that would live in a model house - specifying the types of rooms, their size, and equipment. A total of 114 people participated in the study. The answers to the questions in the survey helped to build the functional programme of the designed house. Other research consisted in the search for optimal technological and construction solutions and the most appropriate building materials based mainly on recycling. Appropriate HVAC systems responsible for the building's microclimate were also selected, i.e. low, temperature heating, mechanical ventilation, and the use of energy from renewable sources was planned so as to obtain a nearly zero-energy building. Additionally, rainwater retention and its local use were planned. The result of the project was a design of a model residential building that meets the presented assumptions. A 3D VR spatial model of the designed building and its surroundings was also made. The final result was the organization of an exhibition for students and the academic community. Participation in the interdisciplinary project allowed the project team members to better understand the consequences of the adopted solutions for achieving the assumed effect and the need to work out a compromise. The implementation of the project made all its participants aware of the importance of cooperation as well as systematic and clear communication. The need to define milestones and their consistent enforcement is an important element guaranteeing the achievement of the intended end result. The implementation of PBL enables students to the acquire competences important in their future professional work.

Keywords: architecture and urban planning, civil engineering, environmental engineering, project-based learning, sustainable building

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Authors: Yassamina Berkane, Leila Kloul, Yoann Demoli

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Quality of life, environmental impact, congestion of mobility means, and infrastructures remain significant challenges for urban mobility. Solutions like car sharing, spatial redesign, eCommerce, and autonomous vehicles will likely increase the unit veh-km and the density of cars in urban traffic, thus reducing congestion. However, the impact of such solutions is not clear for researchers. Congestion arises from growing populations that must travel greater distances to arrive at similar locations (e.g., workplaces, schools) during the same time frame (e.g., rush hours). This paper first reviews the research and application cases of urban congestion methods through recent years. Rethinking the question of time, it then investigates people’s willingness and flexibility to adapt their arrival and departure times from workplaces. We use neural networks and methods of supervised learning to apply a new methodology for predicting peoples' intentions from their responses in a questionnaire. We created and distributed a questionnaire to more than 50 companies in the Paris suburb. Obtained results illustrate that our methodology can predict peoples' intentions to reschedule their activities (work, study, commerce, etc.).

Keywords: urban mobility, decongestion, machine learning, neural network

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Authors: Harman Dwi R., Alwin Mugiyantoro, Heppy Chintya P.

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The location of this research is a part of Geoheritage that located in Nglipar, Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta Special Region. Whereas in this location, the carbonate sandstone of Sambipitu Formation (early-middle Miocene) is well exposed along Ngalang River, also there are ichnofossil presence which causes this formation to be interesting. The determination of paleobathymetry is particularly important in determining paleoenvironment and paleogeographic. Paleobathymetry can be determined by identifying the presence of Foraminifera bentonik fossil and parasequence emerge. The methods that used in this study are spatial method of field observation with systematic sampling, descriptive method of paleontology, biostratigraphy analysis, geometrical analysis of Ichnofossil, and study literature. The result obtained that paleobathymetry of this location is bathyal zone with maximum regression known by Bulliminoides williamsonianus showing depth 17 fathoms at the age of N3-N5 (Oligocenne-Early Miocene) and the maximum transgression is known by Cibicides pseudoungarianus showing depth 862 fathoms at the age of N8-N9 (Early-Middle Miocene). Where the obtained paleobathymetry supported of the presence and formed the pattern of ichnofossil that found in the study area.

Keywords: paleobathymetry, biostratigraphy, ichnofossil, Ngalang river

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Authors: Aouina Nabila Yasmina, Chaoui Zine El Abiddine

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This study presents a comprehensive investigation into the elastic mean free path (EMFP) of electrons colliding with pyrimidine, a precursor to the pyrimidine bases in DNA, employing the Screen Corrected Additivity Rule (SCAR) method. The SCAR method is introduced as a novel approach that combines classical and quantum mechanical principles to elucidate the interaction of electrons with pyrimidine. One of the most fundamental properties characterizing the propagation of a particle in the nuclear medium is its mean free path. Knowledge of the elastic mean free path is essential to accurately predict the effects of radiation on biological matter, as it contributes to the distances between collisions. Additionally, the mean free path plays a role in the interpretation of almost all experiments in which an excited electron moves through a solid. Pyrimidine, the precursor of the pyrimidine bases of DNA, has interesting physicochemical properties, which make it an interesting molecule to study from a fundamental point of view. These include a relatively large dipole polarizability and dipole moment and an electronic charge cloud with a significant spatial extension, which justifies its choice in this present study.

Keywords: elastic mean free path, elastic collision, pyrimidine, SCAR

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Authors: Grygorii Kostromin, Vladyslav Povoroznyuk

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Chronic venous diseases (CVD) are one of the common, though controversial problems in medicine. It is generally accepted that this pathology predominantly occurs in women. The issue of excessive weight as a risk factor for CVD is still considered debatable. To the author's best knowledge, today in Ukraine, there are barely any studies that describe the relationship between CVD and obesity. Our study aims to determine the association between age, body composition, obesity and CVD in postmenopausal women. The study was conducted in D. F. Chebotarev Institute of Gerontology, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. We have examined 96 postmenopausal women aged 46-85 years (mean age – 66.19 ± 0.96 years), who were divided into two groups depending on the presence of CVD. The women were examined by vascular surgeons. For the diagnosis of CVD, we used clinical, anatomic and pathophysiologic classifications. We also performed clinical, ultrasound and densitometry examinations. We found that the CVD frequency in postmenopausal women increased with age (from 72% in those aged 45-59 years to 84% in those aged 75-89 years). A significant correlation between the total fat mass and age was determined in postmenopausal women with CVD. We also observed a significant correlation between the lower extremities’ fat mass and age in both examined groups. A significant correlation between body mass index and age was determined only in postmenopausal women without CVD.

Keywords: chronic venous disease, risk factors, age, obesity, postmenopausal women

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Authors: Varun Singh, Mainak Bandyopadhyay, Maharana Pratap Singh

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The shortest path (SP) problem concerns with finding the shortest path from a specific origin to a specified destination in a given network while minimizing the total cost associated with the path. This problem has widespread applications. Important applications of the SP problem include vehicle routing in transportation systems particularly in the field of in-vehicle Route Guidance System (RGS) and traffic assignment problem (in transportation planning). Well known applications of evolutionary methods like Genetic Algorithms (GA), Ant Colony Optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) have come up to solve complex optimization problems to overcome the shortcomings of existing shortest path analysis methods. It has been reported by various researchers that PSO performs better than other evolutionary optimization algorithms in terms of success rate and solution quality. Further Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have emerged as key information systems for geospatial data analysis and visualization. This research paper is focused towards the application of PSO for solving the shortest path problem between multiple points of interest (POI) based on spatial data of Allahabad City and traffic speed data collected using GPS. Geovisualization of results of analysis is carried out in GIS.

Keywords: particle swarm optimization, GIS, traffic data, outliers

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Authors: I. D. Mngutyo, T. T. Gyuse, D. S. A. Alaci, J. Atser

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Streets are public spaces that are meaningful to all people because of lack of restriction on streets. Studies show that conditions, activities and people contribute to the success of public spaces. Also, self-organization potential in activity patterns offers a prospect for the revitalization of an urban area. This potential is mostly ignored hence many African streets appear disorganized giving African urban areas an unplanned look. Therefore, this study aims to analyze street utilization patterns and explore the relationship between the pattern of street use and condition of streets in Makurdi.These activity patterns form a data base for the revitalization of public space. Three major and minor arterials streets in nine out of the eleven wards that make up the built up part of Makurdi were purposively selected as units for measurement. A street activity audit was done on streets for activities that can be observed. For activities that cannot be easily observed 4 questionnaires were randomly administered on each of the three streets giving a total of 108 questionnaires. Multivariate statistical tools such as factor analysis and regression will be used to show emerging streets activity patterns and spatial variation among the nine wards.

Keywords: streets, utilization patterns, revitalization, urban design, urban, areas, developing countries

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Authors: Ana Paula Soares, Alexandrina Lages, Helena Oliveira, Francisco-Javier Gutiérrez-Domínguez, Marisa Lousada

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From an early age, exposure to a spoken language allows us to implicitly capture the structure underlying the succession of the speech sounds in that language and to segment it into meaningful units (words). Statistical learning (SL), i.e., the ability to pick up patterns in the sensory environment even without intention or consciousness of doing it, is thus assumed to play a central role in the acquisition of the rule-governed aspects of language and possibly to lie behind the language difficulties exhibited by children with development language disorder (DLD). The research conducted so far has, however, led to inconsistent results, which might stem from the behavioral tasks used to test SL. In a classic SL experiment, participants are first exposed to a continuous stream (e.g., syllables) in which, unbeknownst to the participants, stimuli are grouped into triplets that always appear together in the stream (e.g., ‘tokibu’, ‘tipolu’), with no pauses between each other (e.g., ‘tokibutipolugopilatokibu’) and without any information regarding the task or the stimuli. Following exposure, SL is assessed by asking participants to discriminate between triplets previously presented (‘tokibu’) from new sequences never presented together during exposure (‘kipopi’), i.e., to perform a two-alternative-forced-choice (2-AFC) task. Despite the widespread use of the 2-AFC to test SL, it has come under increasing criticism as it is an offline post-learning task that only assesses the result of the learning that had occurred during the previous exposure phase and that might be affected by other factors beyond the computation of regularities embedded in the input, typically the likelihood two syllables occurring together, a statistic known as transitional probability (TP). One solution to overcome these limitations is to assess SL as exposure to the stream unfolds using online techniques such as event-related potentials (ERP) that is highly sensitive to the time-course of the learning in the brain. Here we collected ERPs to examine the neurofunctional correlates of SL in preschool children with DLD, and chronological-age typical language development (TLD) controls who were exposed to an auditory stream in which eight three-syllable nonsense words, four of which presenting high-TPs and the other four low-TPs, to further analyze whether the ability of DLD and TLD children to extract-word-like units from the steam was modulated by words’ predictability. Moreover, to ascertain if the previous knowledge of the to-be-learned-regularities affected the neural responses to high- and low-TP words, children performed the auditory SL task, firstly, under implicit, and, subsequently, under explicit conditions. Although behavioral evidence of SL was not obtained in either group, the neural responses elicited during the exposure phases of the SL tasks differentiated children with DLD from children with TLD. Specifically, the results indicated that only children from the TDL group showed neural evidence of SL, particularly in the SL task performed under explicit conditions, firstly, for the low-TP, and, subsequently, for the high-TP ‘words’. Taken together, these findings support the view that children with DLD showed deficits in the extraction of the regularities embedded in the auditory input which might underlie the language difficulties.

Keywords: development language disorder, statistical learning, transitional probabilities, word segmentation

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Authors: Jeong Hwan Joo, Keun Pil Kim

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During meiosis, meiotic recombination is initiated by Spo11-mediated DSB formation and exonuclease-mediated DSB resection occurs to expose single stranded DNA formation. RPA is further required to inhibit secondary structure formation of ssDNA that can be formed Watson-Crick pairing. Rad51-Dmc1, RecA homologs in eukaryote and their accessory factors involve in searching homolog templates to mediate strand exchange. In this study, we investigate the recombinational roles of replication protein A (RPA), which is heterotrimeric protein that is composed of RPA1, RPA2, and RPA3. Here, we investigated meiotic recombination using DNA physical analysis at the HIS4LEU2 hot spot. In rfa1-119 (K45E, N316S) cells, crossover (CO) and non-crossover (NCO) products reduced than WT. rfa1-119 delayed in single end invasion-to-double holiday junction (SEI-to-dHJ) transition and exhibits a defect in second-end capture that is also modulated by Rad52. In the further experiment, we observed that in rfa1-119 mutant, RPA could not be released in timely manner. Furthermore, rfa1-119 exhibits failure in the second end capture, implying reduction of COs and NCOs. In this talk, we will discuss more detail how RPA involves in chromatin axis association via formation of axis-bridge and why RPA is required for Rad52-mediated second-end capture progression.

Keywords: homolog interaction, meiotic recombination, replication protein A, RPA1

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Authors: Ben-Caleb Egbide, Egharevba Mathew, Achugamonu Uzoma, Faboyede Samuel

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The importance of budgeting in government and corporate entities as medium for the efficient management of scarce resources is self-evident. But when it comes to home or personal budgeting, there seem to be lingering misconceptions as regards its relevance. While most people view personal budgeting merely as a tool for tracking expenses and schedule for paying bills and indebtedness, very few consider it as one of the most important device for sound financial planning, money management instrument and/or wealth-creation mechanism. This paper is conceptualised to investigate the association between personal budgeting and financial well-being among staffers of tertiary institution in the South West Nigeria. Underpinned by the individualistic/cultural theory of well-being and the adoption of a survey research design, a structured questionnaire was used to gather data from a cross section of staff of tertiary Institutions in Ogun State. A Spearman Rank Correlation was utilised for analysis of data. The result indicates a high positive relationship between personal budgeting and tendencies for enhanced financial well-being among staff. The paper established that a change of value and behavioural pattern by individuals and household, especially in the areas of personal spending and budgeting could drastically reduce the incidence of the severity of financial stress, hence, enhanced wellness among staff.

Keywords: personal budgeting, financial well-being, tertiary institutions staffers, Nigeria

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Authors: Alexander V. Spirov, David M. Holloway, Ekaterina M. Myasnikova

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Segmentation of the early Drosophila embryo results from the dynamic establishment of spatial gene expression patterns. Patterning occurs on an embryo geometry which is a 'deformed' prolate ellipsoid, with anteroposterior and dorsal-ventral major and minor axes, respectively. Patterning is largely independent along each axis, but some interaction can be seen in the 'bending' of the segmental expression stripes. This interaction is not well understood. In this report, we investigate how 3D geometrical features of the early embryo affect the segmental expression patterning. Specifically, we study the effect of geometry on formation of the Bicoid primary morphogenetic gradient. Our computational results demonstrate that embryos with a much longer ventral than dorsal surface ('bellied') can produce curved Bicoid concentration contours which could activate curved stripes in the downstream pair-rule segmentation genes. In addition, we show that having an extended source for Bicoid in the anterior of the embryo may be necessary for producing the observed exponential form of the Bicoid gradient along the anteroposterior axis.

Keywords: Drosophila embryo, bicoid morphogenetic gradient, exponential expression profile, expression surface form, segmentation genes, 3D modelling

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Authors: Vethathirri Ramanujam Srinivasan, S. M. Shiva Nagendra

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Air quality management in urban areas is a serious concern in both developed and developing countries. In this regard, more number of air quality monitoring stations are planned to mitigate air pollution in urban areas. In India, Central Pollution Control Board has set up 574 air quality monitoring stations across the country and proposed to set up another 500 stations in the next few years. The number of monitoring stations for each city has been decided based on population data. The setting up of ambient air quality monitoring stations and their operation and maintenance are highly expensive. Therefore, there is a need to optimize monitoring networks for air quality management. The present paper discusses the various methods such as Indian Standards (IS) method, US EPA method and European Union (EU) method to arrive at the minimum number of air quality monitoring stations. In addition, optimization of rain-gauge method and Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) method using Geographical Information System (GIS) are also explored in the present work for the design of air quality network in Chennai city. In summary, additionally 18 stations are required for Chennai city, and the potential monitoring locations with their corresponding land use patterns are ranked and identified from the 1km x 1km sized grids.

Keywords: air quality monitoring network, inverse distance weighted method, population based method, spatial variation

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Authors: Heng Yang, Tao Luo, Yakun Zhang, Kai Wang, Wei Qin, Liang Xie, Ye Yan, Erwei Yin

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Recent years have seen that audio-visual recognition has shown great potential in a strong noise environment. The existing method of audio-visual recognition has explored methods with ResNet and feature fusion. However, on the one hand, ResNet always occupies a large amount of memory resources, restricting the application in engineering. On the other hand, the feature merging also brings some interferences in a high noise environment. In order to solve the problems, we proposed an effective framework with bidirectional distillation. At first, in consideration of the good performance in extracting of features, we chose the light model, Efficientnet as our extractor of spatial features. Secondly, self-distillation was applied to learn more information from raw data. Finally, we proposed a bidirectional distillation in decision-level fusion. In more detail, our experimental results are based on a multi-model dataset from 24 volunteers. Eventually, the lipreading accuracy of our framework was increased by 2.3% compared with existing systems, and our framework made progress in audio-visual fusion in a high noise environment compared with the system of audio recognition without visual.

Keywords: lipreading, audio-visual, Efficientnet, distillation

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