Search results for: design and development the information technology architecture

Authors: Lok Yi Joyce Poon

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China's mobile payment market has boomed in the past few years. WeChat (Chinese name as Weixin) owned by Tencent is known as the fastest growing all-in-one social messaging platforms. The company has launched the WeChat Pay in 2013, in which users can link their credit card to their user account and make payments within the app’s built in digital wallet. WeChat Payment is a one-stop payment tool that can provide a seamless online experience for the shoppers to transfer money between WeChat users (peer-to-peer) and make payments online by scanning a QR code, a prominent facilitator for transactions in WeChat, to complete the payment with the app without directing the users to the external websites. The aims of this study are to examine the effectiveness of WeChat mobile payment in China as well as the impacts of the China teen’s online purchasing behavior since the establishment of WeChat Payment. The research method of this study is conducted by both online survey on Sojump, a popular online survey platform in China. A total of 120 respondents among 18 to 25 teens in China completed the survey. Data sources included participants’ response to an end-of-session questionnaire, encompassing with the types of multiple choice, open-ended questions. To have an in-depth analysis, a face-to-face interview with a Chinese teen who is a frequent user of the WeChat Pay. The main finding of the study shows that the majority of the teenagers frequently use the WeChat payment tool because of its convenience, user-friendliness and the scenarios offered within the WeChat Wallet. The respondents claimed that they will settle the bills in their daily lives via WeChat Pay. However, the respondents in the age group of 40 or above will not use the WeChat Pay due to the security concern and they do not see the app as a platform for commercial activities like online shopping. Throughout the study, it is recommended WeChat should put more efforts on the security issue and improve the payment technology by adopting the near-field communication terminals instead of requiring users to scan QR codes before they complete the transaction.

Keywords: digital wallet, mobile payment, online purchasing behavior, WeChat Pay

Procedia PDF Downloads 371

Authors: O. A. Anjola, M. A. Adejobi, L. A Tijani

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This study was conducted to investigate the effects of brewer spent grain (BSG) on growth performance and serum biochemistry characteristics of blood of broilers chickens. Three hundred and fifteen (4 weeks old) Oba – Marshall Broilers were used for the experiment. Five experimental diets were formulated with diet 1 (T1) containing 100% soya bean meal as the control, Diet 2, 3, 4 and 5 had BSG as replacement for soya bean meal at 0%, 36%, 57%, 76% and 100% respectively. The birds were allocated into each dietary group in a completely randomized design with 63 chicks in 3 replicates of 21 chicks each. The birds were offered these diets ad libitum from four weeks old to nine weeks old (35 days). Feed intake, body weight, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were assessed. Blood samples were also collected to examine the effect of BSG waste on hematology and serum biochemistry of broilers. Result indicated that BSG did not significantly (P>0.05) affect feed intake and weight gain. However, FCR and final weight of finishing broilers differs significantly (P<0.05) among treatments. The blood hematology and serum biochemistry indices did not follow a particular trend. Cholesterol concentration reduced with increasing level of BSG in the diet. Hb, RBC, WBC, neutrophils, lymphocytes, heterophiles and MCHC were significant (P<0.05) while MHC and MVC were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by BSG in diets. serum total protein, albumin, and cholesterol concentration also showed significance (P<0.05) difference. Thus, BSG can replace soya bean meal up to 14% in the broiler finisher diet without deleterious effect on the growth, hematology and the serum biochemistry of broiler chicken.

Keywords: broilers, growth performance, haematology, serum biochemistry

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: Fatma Ismailia, Malek Saihi

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This research provides an explanation of exchange incentives on the Tunis stock market from a behavioural point of view. The elucidation of the anomalies of excessive volume of transactions and that of excessive volatility cannot be done without the recourse to the psychological aspects of investors. The excessive confidence has been given the predominant role for the explanation of these phenomena. Indeed, when investors store increments, they become more confident about the precision of their private information and their exchange activities then become more aggressive on the subsequent periods. These overconfident investors carry out the intensive exchanges leading to an increase of securities volatility. The objective of this research is to identify whether the trading volume and the excessive volatility of securities observed on the Tunisian stock market come from the excessive exchange of overconfident investors. We use a sample of daily observations over the period January 1999 - October 2007 and we relied on various econometric tests including the VAR model. Our results provide evidence on the importance to consider the bias of overconfidence in the analysis of Tunis stock exchange specificities. The results reveal that the excess of confidence has a major impact on the trading volume while using daily temporal intervals.

Keywords: overconfidence, trading volume, efficiency, rationality, anomalies, behavioural finance, cognitive biases

Procedia PDF Downloads 392

Authors: Alice Morenike Olagunju, Olufemi A. Fakolade, Abiodun Ezekiel Adesina, Olufemi Akinloye Bolaji, Oriyomi Rabiu

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The use of computer-assisted instruction(CAI) has been suggested as a way out of the problem of Colleges of Education (CoE) in Southwest, Nigeria persistent high failure rate in and negative attitude towards Agricultural Economics (AE).The impacts of this are yet unascertained on high-flyers. This study, therefore, determined the impacts of CAI onhigh-flyers pre-service teachers’ attitude towards AE concepts in Southwest, Nigeria. The study adopted pretest-posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design. Six CoE with e-library facilities were purposively selected. Fourty-nine 200 level Agricultural education students offering introduction to AE course across the six CoE were participants. The participants were assigned to two groups (CAI, 22 and control, 27). Treatment lasted eight weeks. The AE Attitude Scale(r=0.80), Instructional guides and Teacher Performance Assessment Sheets were used for data collection. Data were analysed using t-test. The participants were 62.8% male with mean age of 22 years. Treatment had significant effects on high-flyers pre-service teachers’ attitude (t = 17.44; df = 47, p < .5). Participants in CAI ( =71.03) had higher post attitude mean score compared to those in control ( = 64.92) groups. Gender had no significant effect on attitude (t= 3.06; df= 47, p > .5). The computer assisted instructional mode enhanced students’ attitude towards Agricultural Economics concepts. Therefore, CAI should be adopted for improved attitude towards agricultural economics concepts among high-flyers pre-service teachers.

Keywords: attitude towards agricultural economics concepts, colleges of education in southwest Nigeria, computer-assisted instruction, high-flyers pre-service teachers

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: Benjamen Nathaniel, Eludiora Safiriyu Ijiyemi, Egume Oneme Lucky

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A review on machine translation systems shows that a lot of computational artefacts has been carried out to translate written or spoken texts from a source language to Yorùbá language through Machine Translation systems. However, there are no work on French to Yorùbá language machine translation system; hence, the study investigated the process involved in the translation of French-to-Yorùbá language equivalent with the view to adopting a rule- based MT approach to build a Machine Translation framework from simple sentences administered through questionnaire. Articles and relevant textbooks were reviewed with key speakers of both languages interviewed to find out the processes involved in the translation of French language and their equivalent in Yorùbálanguage simple sentences using home domain terminologies. Achieving this, a model was formulated using phrase grammar structure, re-write rule, parse tree, automata theory- based techniques, designed and implemented respectively with unified modeling language (UML) and python programming language. Analysing the result, it was observed when carrying out the result that, the Machine Translation system performed 18.45% above Experimental Subject Respondent and 2.7% below Linguistics Expert when analysed with word orthography, sentence syntax and semantic correctness of the sentences. And, when compared with Google Machine Translation system, it was noticed that the developed system performed better on lexicons of the target language.

Keywords: machine translation (MT), rule-based, French language, Yoru`ba´ language

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: Dupe Olufunke Ogunbosoye, Thaofik Badmos Mustapha, Lanre Shaffihy Adeaga, R. O. Imam

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Efforts have been made to reduce ruminants' methane emissions while improving animal productivity. Hence, an experiment was conducted to investigate the in vitro fermentation pattern, methane production, and performance of West African dwarf (WAD) rams-fed diets at graded levels of ginger. Sixteen (16) rams were randomly allocated into four dietary treatments with four animals per treatment in a completely randomized design for 84 days. Ginger powder was added at 0.00%, 0.25%, 0.50% and 0.75% as T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. The results indicated that at the 24-hour diet incubation, gas production, methane, metabolizable energy (ME), organic matter digestibility (OMD), and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) concentrations decreased with the increasing level of ginger. Conversely, the sheep-fed T4 recorded the highest daily weight gain (47.61g/day), while the least daily weight gain (17.86g/day) was recorded in ram-fed T1. The daily weight gain of the rams fed T3 and T4 was similar but significantly different from the daily weight gain in T1 (17.86g/day) and T2 (29.76g/day). Daily feed intake was not significantly different across the treatments. T4 recorded the best response regarding feed conversion ratio (18.59) compared with other treatments. Based on the results obtained, rams fed T4 perform best in terms of growth and methane production. It is therefore concluded that the addition of ginger powder into the diet of sheep up to 0.75% enhances the growth rate of WAD sheep and reduces enteric methane production to create a smart nutrition system in ruminant animal production.

Keywords: enteric methane, growth, in vitro, sheep, nutrition system

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Somayeh Komeylian

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The direction of arrival (DoA) estimation is the crucial aspect of the radar technologies for detecting and dividing several signal sources. In this scenario, the antenna array output modeling involves numerous parameters including noise samples, signal waveform, signal directions, signal number, and signal to noise ratio (SNR), and thereby the methods of the DoA estimation rely heavily on the generalization characteristic for establishing a large number of the training data sets. Hence, we have analogously represented the two different optimization models of the DoA estimation; (1) the implementation of the decision directed acyclic graph (DDAG) for the multiclass least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM), and (2) the optimization method of the deep neural network (DNN) radial basis function (RBF). We have rigorously verified that the LS-SVM DDAG algorithm is capable of accurately classifying DoAs for the three classes. However, the accuracy and robustness of the DoA estimation are still highly sensitive to technological imperfections of the antenna arrays such as non-ideal array design and manufacture, array implementation, mutual coupling effect, and background radiation and thereby the method may fail in representing high precision for the DoA estimation. Therefore, this work has a further contribution on developing the DNN-RBF model for the DoA estimation for overcoming the limitations of the non-parametric and data-driven methods in terms of array imperfection and generalization. The numerical results of implementing the DNN-RBF model have confirmed the better performance of the DoA estimation compared with the LS-SVM algorithm. Consequently, we have analogously evaluated the performance of utilizing the two aforementioned optimization methods for the DoA estimation using the concept of the mean squared error (MSE).

Keywords: DoA estimation, Adaptive antenna array, Deep Neural Network, LS-SVM optimization model, Radial basis function, and MSE

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Authors: Jain Jyoti, Jain Shorab, Sinha Shishir

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In the current scenario, development of new biodegradable composites with the reinforcement of some plant derived natural fibers are in major research concern. Abundant quantity of these natural plant derived fibers including sisal, ramp, jute, wheat straw, pine, pineapple, bagasse, etc. can be used exclusively or in combination with other natural or synthetic fibers to augment their specific properties like chemical, mechanical or thermal properties. Among all natural fibers, wheat straw, bagasse, kenaf, pineapple leaf, banana, coir, ramie, flax, etc. pineapple leaf fibers have very good mechanical properties. Being hydrophilic in nature, pineapple leaf fibers have very less affinity towards all types of polymer matrixes. Not much work has been carried out in this area. Surface treatments like alkaline treatment in different concentrations were conducted to improve its compatibility towards hydrophobic polymer matrix. Pineapple leaf fiber epoxy composites have been prepared using hand layup method. Effect of variation in fiber loading up to 20% in epoxy composites has been studied for mechanical properties like tensile strength and flexural strength. Analysis of fiber morphology has also been studied using FTIR, XRD. SEM micrographs have also been studied for fracture surface.

Keywords: composite, mechanical, natural fiber, pineapple leaf fiber

Procedia PDF Downloads 218

Authors: Carlos Gonzalez

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This paper describes a system to optimize the use of the internet by clients requiring downloading of videos at peak hours. The system consists of a web server belonging to a provider of video contents, a provider of internet communications and a software application running on a client’s computer. The client using the application software will communicate to the video provider a list of the client’s future video demands. The video provider calculates which videos are going to be more in demand for download in the immediate future, and proceeds to request the internet provider the most optimal hours to do the downloading. The times of the downloading will be sent to the application software, which will use the information of pre-established hours negotiated between the video provider and the internet provider to download those videos. The videos will be saved in a special protected section of the user’s hard disk, which will only be accessed by the application software in the client’s computer. When the client is ready to see a video, the application will search the list of current existent videos in the area of the hard disk; if it does exist, it will use this video directly without the need for internet access. We found that the best way to optimize the download traffic of videos is by negotiation between the internet communication provider and the video content provider.

Keywords: internet optimization, video download, future demands, secure storage

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Hsin-Yang Wang, K. M. A. Salam, Ying-Jia Lin, Daniel Tan, Tzu-Hsuan Chou, Hung-Yu Kao

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Detecting user intent from natural language expression has a wide variety of use cases in different natural language processing applications. Recently few-shot training has a spike of usage on commercial domains. Due to the lack of significant sample features, the downstream task performance has been limited or leads to an unstable result across different domains. As a state-of-the-art method, the pre-trained BERT model gathering the sentence-level information from a large text corpus shows improvement on several NLP benchmarks. In this research, we are proposing a method to change multi-class classification tasks into binary classification tasks, then use the confidence score to rank the results. As a language model, BERT performs well on sequence data. In our experiment, we change the objective from predicting labels into finding the relations between words in sequence data. Our proposed method achieved 71.0% accuracy in the internal intent detection dataset and 63.9% accuracy in the HuffPost dataset. Acknowledgment: This work was supported by NCKU-B109-K003, which is the collaboration between National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, and SoftBank Corp., Tokyo.

Keywords: OSML, BERT, text classification, one shot

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Naif Al-Jomah, Falah H Al-Mohanna, Abdelilah Aboussekhra

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Active breast cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), the most influential cells in breast tumor microenvironment, express/secrete high levels of the proinvasive/metastatic interleukin-6 (IL-6). Therefore, we have tested here the effect of the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) inhibitor tocilizumab (TCZ; Actemra) on different active breast CAFs. We have shown that TCZ potently and persistently suppresses the expression of various CAF biomarkers, namely α-SMA, SDF-1 as well as the STAT3 pathway and its downstream target AUF1. TCZ also inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion abilities of active breast CAF cells. Additionally, TCZ repressed the ability of CAF cells in promoting epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and enhancing the migratory/invasive and proliferative capacities of breast cancer cells in vitro. Importantly, these findings were confirmed in orthotopic humanized breast tumors in mice. Furthermore, TCZ suppressed the expression of the pro-angiogenic factor VEGF-A and its transactivator HIF-1α in CAF cells, and consequently inhibited the angiogenic-promoting effect of active CAFs both in vitro and in orthotopic tumor xenografts. These results indicate that inhibition of the IL-6/STAT3/AUF1 pathway by TCZ can normalize active breast CAFs and suppress their paracrine pro-carcinogenic effects, which paves the way toward development of specific CAF-targeting therapy, badly needed for more efficient breast cancer treatments.

Keywords: angiogenesis, interleukin-6, paracrine, cancer-associated fibroblasts

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Zelalem Markos Borko

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The quality of life of people with blindness is significantly influenced by the level of resilience they possess. A qualitative approach of the descriptive phenomenological design was employed to address basic study objectives. The researcher purposely selected three blind graduate students from Sidist Kilo Campus and conducted a semi-structured interview to gather data. Data were analyzed by using thematic coding techniques. The present study found that personal characteristics such as commitment, living hope, motivation, positive self-esteem, self-confidence, and communication have shaped resiliency for successful university students with visual disabilities. The finding showed that the school environment is the place in which blind students had developed/experienced social, psychological, and economical competency and hope for their academic and entire life success. Furthermore, the finding showed that blind students had experienced individual, family, school, and community-related risks in the success track. Therefore, governmental and non-governmental organizations should provide training for students with visual impairments that focus on the individual traits that shape resilience for academic success, such as commitment, living hope, motivation, positive self-esteem, self-confidence, and communication and also community-oriented training should be to break the social stigma and discriminations for the individuals with the visual impairment.

Keywords: blind students, risk and protective factors, lived experience, success

Procedia PDF Downloads 50

Authors: Rufat Nuriyev

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Located in the eastern part of the Republic of Azerbaijan and on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, Gobustan National Reserve was inscribed as Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape into the World Heritage List in 2007. Gobustan is an outstanding rock art landscape, where over 6000 rock engravings were found and registered, since the end of Upper Paleolithic up to the Middle Ages. Being a rock art center, the Gobustan seeks to stimulate public awareness and disseminate knowledge of prehistoric art to enrich educational, cultural and artistic communities regionally, nationally and internationally. Due to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the “Action Plan” , planned actions started to realize. Some of them implemented before of stipulated date. For the attraction of visitors and improvement of service quality in the museum-reserve, various activities are organized. The building of a new museum center at the foot of the Beyukdash Mountain has been completed in 2011. Main aims of the new museum building and exhibition was to provide better understanding of the importance of this monument for local community, Azerbaijanian culture and the world. In the Petroglyph Museum at Gobustan, digital and traditional media are closely integrated to reveal the complexity of historical, cultural and artistic meaning of prehistoric rock carvings of Gobustan. Alongside with electronic devices, the visitor gets opportunity of direct contact with artifacts and ancient rock carvings.

Keywords: Azerbaijan, Gobustan, rock art, museum

Procedia PDF Downloads 281

Authors: Lyanne Rodriguez, Eduardo Fuente, Andrés Trostchansky, Ivan Palomo

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Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death in the world. The development of platelet-rich thrombi has been considered a trigger for acute cardiovascular events. A healthy diet, rich in fruit and vegetables, has been related to increased protection against cardiovascular events. Previous studies have observed that tomato pomace has a potent antiplatelet activity, due could be attributed to its high content of fatty acids (> 30%). It has been shown that unsaturated fatty acids can undergo endogenous intracellular nitration reactions during digestion after lipid consumption. Additionally, nitrated fatty acids (NO2-FA) can significantly reduce atherosclerotic lesion formation, inhibiting the expression of adhesion molecules on dysfunctional endothelium and platelet activation. In this work, we have proposed the nitration of fatty acids present in tomato pomace to improve its antiplatelet action. The gastric digestion of the tomato pomace allowed the nitration of the fatty acids, while by HPLC/MS/MS we were able to identify and quantify the nitrated fatty acids. The nitrated tomase extracts showed antiplatelet potential when platelets were stimulated with TRAP-6 and collagen. This activity was related to the presence of nitrated linoleic acid, which inhibited platelet activation by flow cytometry. The knowledge about the antiplatelet activity of nitrated fatty acids from tomato pomace will further develop new and more effective agents.

Keywords: cardiovascular, tomato extracts, nitrated fatty acids, antiplatelet activity

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Xiaoming Jiang, Jinqiao Shi, Qingfeng Tan, Wentao Zhang, Xuebin Wang, Muqian Chen

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Nowadays, big companies such as Google, Microsoft, which have adequate proxy servers, have perfectly implemented their web crawlers for a certain website in parallel. But due to lack of expensive proxy servers, it is still a puzzle for researchers to crawl large amounts of information from a single website in parallel. In this case, it is a good choice for researchers to use free public proxy servers which are crawled from the Internet. In order to improve efficiency of web crawler, the following two issues should be considered primarily: (1) Tasks may fail owing to the instability of free proxy servers; (2) A proxy server will be blocked if it visits a single website frequently. In this paper, we propose Proxisch, an optimization approach of large-scale unstable proxy servers scheduling, which allow anyone with extremely low cost to run a web crawler efficiently. Proxisch is designed to work efficiently by making maximum use of reliable proxy servers. To solve second problem, it establishes a frequency control mechanism which can ensure the visiting frequency of any chosen proxy server below the website’s limit. The results show that our approach performs better than the other scheduling algorithms.

Keywords: proxy server, priority queue, optimization algorithm, distributed web crawling

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Amine Ez-Zoubi, Abdellah Farah

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Because of their effectiveness and environmental safety, many essential oils have been investigated as biopesticides. Nevertheless, the encapsulation process is necessary to improve its physical, chemical, and biological properties. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to study the physicochemical characteristics, and antifungal activity of the Artemisia Herba-Alba essential oil (HAEO) encapsulated in succinic acid modified β-CD (SACD). A yellowish oil was obtained from plant A. Herba-Alba using hydrodistillation and GC-MS was used to identify the chemical composition, in which α-Thujone (65.0%) was the main component in HAEO. The succinic acid has been esterified via the hydroxyl groups in β-CD to produce SACD. In addition, the inclusion complex formation of HAEO and SACD was generated according to the co-precipitation method and was analyzed by several techniques. The antifungal activity in vitro was examined against Botrytis cinerea by direct contact with a potato dextrose agar culture medium. At a 0.1 % concentration, the HAEO in encapsulated form showed higher potential for the control of B. cinerea when compared to the EO in free form (38.34 to 12%). Thus, these results produced evidence that the encapsulation of EOs in SACD can be useful for the development of B.cinerea inhibitors and a promising alternative biopesticide.

Keywords: Artemisia Herba-Alba essential oil, succinic acid modified β-cyclodextrin, inclusion complex, co-precipitation, Botrytis cinerea, direct contact

Procedia PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Mary Titilayo Olowe

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The controversies that trailed the political campaign and eventual choice of Donald Trump as the American president is so great that expectations are high as to what the content of his inaugural speech will portray. Given the fact that language is a dynamic vehicle of expressing intentions, the speech needs to be objectively assessed so as to access its content in the manner intended through the three strands of meaning postulated by the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG): the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual. The focus of this paper, however, is on the interpersonal meaning which deals with how language exhibits social roles and relationship. This paper, therefore, attempts to analyse President Donald Trump’s inaugural speech to elicit interpersonal meaning in it. The analysis is done from the perspective of mood and modality which are housed in SFG. Results of the mood choice which is basically declarative, reveal an information-centered speech while the high option for the modal verb operator ‘will’ shows president Donald Trump’s ability to establish an equal and reliant relationship with his audience, i.e., the Americans. In conclusion, the appeal of the speech to different levels of Interpersonal meaning is largely responsible for its overall effectiveness. One can, therefore, understand the reason for the massive reaction it generates at the center of global discourse.

Keywords: interpersonal, modality, mood, systemic functional grammar

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Pouya Karimi, Ramin Gasemi Shayan, Parsa Sheykhzade

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Ease shotgun DNA sequencing is changing the microbial sciences. Sequencing instruments are compelling to the point that example planning is currently the key constraining element. Here, we present a microfluidic test readiness stage that incorporates the key strides in cells to grouping library test groundwork for up to 96 examples and decreases DNA input prerequisites 100-overlay while keeping up or improving information quality. The universally useful microarchitecture we show bolsters work processes with subjective quantities of response and tidy up or catch steps. By decreasing the example amount necessities, we empowered low-input (∼10,000 cells) entire genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and soil miniaturized scale settlements with prevalent outcomes. We additionally utilized the upgraded throughput to succession ∼400 clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa libraries and exhibit magnificent single-nucleotide polymorphism discovery execution that clarified phenotypically watched anti-toxin opposition. Completely coordinated lab-on-chip test arrangement beats specialized boundaries to empower more extensive organization of genomics across numerous fundamental research and translational applications.

Keywords: clinical microbiology, DNA, microbiology, microbial genomics

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

Authors: Linyue Jia, Wenbo Du, Zhaohui Wang, Ke Liu, Shubo Li

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Due to the great potential for weight reduction in aerospace and automotive industries, magnesium-rare earth (Mg-RE) based alloys with outstanding mechanical performance have been widely investigated for decades. However, magnesium alloys are still restricted in engineering applications because of their lower strength and ductility. Hence, there are large spaces and challenges in achieving high-performance Mg alloys. This work reports an Mg-Gd-Er-Zn-Zr alloy with ultrahigh strength and good ductility developed via hot extrusion, pre-deformation, and two-stage aging. The extruded alloy comprises fine dynamically recrystallized (DRXed) grains and coarse worked grains with a large aspect ratio. Pre-deformation has little effect on the microstructure and macro-texture and serves primarily to introduce a large number of dislocations, resulting in strain hardening and higher precipitation strengthening during subsequent aging due to more nucleation sites. As a result, the alloy exhibits a yield strength (YS) of 506 MPa, an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 549 MPa, and elongation (EL) of 8.2% at room temperature, showing superior strength-ductility balance than the other wrought Mg-RE alloys previously reported. The current study proposes a combination of pre-deformation and two-stage aging to further improve the mechanical properties of wrought Mg alloys for engineering applications.

Keywords: magnesium alloys, mechanical properties, microstructure, pre-deformation, two-stage aging

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Nader Parsazadeh

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The variety of bed sediment load relationships, insufficient information and data, and the influence of river conditions make the selection of an optimum relationship for a given river extremely difficult. Hence, in order to select the best formulae, the bed load equations should be evaluated. The affecting factors need to be scrutinized, and equations should be verified. Also, re-evaluation may be needed. In this research, sediment bed load of Dez Dam at Tal-e Zang Station has been studied. After reviewing the available references, the most common formulae were selected that included Meir-Peter and Muller, using MS Excel to compute and evaluate data. Then, 52 series of already measured data at the station were re-measured, and the sediment bed load was determined. 1. The calculated bed load obtained by different equations showed a great difference with that of measured data. 2. r difference ratio from 0.5 to 2.00 was 0% for all equations except for Nilsson and Shields equations while it was 61.5 and 59.6% for Nilsson and Shields equations, respectively. 3. By reviewing results and discarding probably erroneous measured data measurements (by human or machine), one may use Nilsson Equation due to its r value higher than 1 as an effective equation for estimating bed load at Tal-e Zang Station in order to predict activities that depend upon bed sediment load estimate to be determined. Also, since only few studies have been conducted so far, these results may be of assistance to the operators and consulting companies.

Keywords: bed load, empirical relation ship, sediment, Tale Zang Station

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Ellie Abdi, Susana Juniu

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The purpose of this presentation is to describe an interdisciplinary teaching program that integrates physical education concepts using a philosophical approach. The presentation includes a review of: a) the philosophy of American education, b) the philosophy of sports and physical education, c) the interdisciplinary physical education program, d) professional development programs, (e) the Success of this physical education program, f) future of physical education. This unique interdisciplinary program has been implemented in an urban school physical education discipline in East Orange, New Jersey for over 10 years. During the program the students realize that the bodies go through different experiences. The body becomes a place where a child can recognize in an enjoyable way to express and perceive particular feelings or mental states. Children may distinguish themselves to have high abilities in the social or other domains but low abilities in the field of athletics. The goal of this program for the individuals is to discover new skills, develop and demonstrate age appropriate mastery level at different tasks, therefore the program consists of 9 to 12 sports, including many game. Each successful experience increases the awareness ability. Engaging in sports and physical activities are social movements involving groups of children in situations such as teams, friends, and recreational settings, which serve as a primary socializing agent for teaching interpersonal skills. As a result of this presentation the audience will reflect and explore how to structure a physical education program to integrate interdisciplinary subjects with philosophical concepts.

Keywords: interdisciplinary disciplines, philosophical concepts, physical education, interdisciplinary teaching program

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Authors: Chen-Yuan Hsu

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Introduction Elderly is growing and results to live in the long-term care (LTC) and then due to the routine of the facilities in Taiwan, also resulted to losing of those people with environment interaction, so, the self-reliance support (SRS) for those people to experience environment interaction is an essential. Methods This study was recruited samples of a LTC in the central of Taiwan. There was a following research on the SRS group with 20 samples collected and routine care group with 20 samples. A structured questionnaire as the Environment Interaction Dimension, as data collection included demographic information and the dimensions of environment interaction. Data analysis used SPSS 22.0 for Window 2000 to report the finding. Results The Environment Interaction Dimension for Taiwanese is a Chinese version of the containing 8 items. The result of t-test analysis found that environment interaction showed a significant difference between groups (p＜.05), the result recommended that there was a higher score of environment interaction dimension on the SRS group (29.90±5.56) comparing with the routine care group (22.1±5.53). Conclusion This study showed that the SRS group was higher than the routine care group on the environment interaction dimension for Taiwanese elderly living in the LTC. The results can also provide the reference for LTC, to encourage those people to participate in SRS in LTC, and therefore also improving their environment interaction.

Keywords: self-reliance support, environment interaction, long-term care, elderly

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Karla Lienau, Rafael Müller, René Moré, Debora Ressnig, Dan Cook, Richard Walton, Greta R. Patzke

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The increasing demand for renewable energy sources and storable fuels underscores the high potential of artificial photosynthesis. The four electron transfer process of water oxidation remains the bottleneck of water splitting, so that special emphasis is placed on the development of economic, stable and efficient water oxidation catalysts (WOCs). Our investigations introduced cobalt carbodiimide CoNCN and its transition metal analogues as WOC types, and further studies are focused on the interaction of different transition metals in the convenient all-nitrogen/carbon matrix. This provides further insights into the nature of the ‘true catalyst’ for cobalt centers in this non-oxide environment. Water oxidation activity is evaluated with complementary methods, namely photocatalytically using a Ru-dye sensitized standard setup as well as electrocatalytically, via immobilization of the WOCs on glassy carbon electrodes. To further explore the tuning potential of transition metal combinations, complementary investigations were carried out in oxidic spinel WOC matrices with more versatile host options than the carbodiimide framework. The influence of the preparative history on the WOC performance was evaluated with different synthetic methods (e.g. hydrothermally or microwave assisted). Moreover, the growth mechanism of nanoscale Co3O4-spinel as a benchmark WOC was investigated with in-situ PXRD techniques.

Keywords: carbodiimide, photocatalysis, spinels, water oxidation

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Authors: Kesavan Markkandan, Ha Young Park, Seung-Il Yoo, Sin-Gi Park, Junhyung Park

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For genetic identification of crop cultivars, insertions/deletions (InDel) markers have been preferred currently because they are easy to use, PCR based, co-dominant and relatively abundant. However, new InDels need to be developed for genetic studies of new varieties due to the difference of allele frequencies in InDels among the population groups. These new varieties are evolved with low levels of genetic diversity in specific genome loci with high recombination rate. In this study, we described soybean barcode system approach based on InDel makers, each of which is specific to a variation block (VB), where the genomes split by all assumed recombination sites. Firstly, VBs in crop cultivars were mined for transferability to VB-specific InDel markers. Secondly, putative InDels in the VB regions were identified for the development of barcode system by analyzing particular cultivar’s whole genome data. Thirdly, common VB-specific InDels from all cultivars were selected by gel electrophoresis, which were converted as 2D barcode types according to comparing amplicon polymorphisms in the five cultivars to the reference cultivar. Finally, the polymorphism of the selected markers was assessed with other cultivars, and the barcode system that allows a clear distinction among those cultivars is described. The same approach can be applicable for other commercial crops. Hence, VB-based genetic identification not only minimize the molecular markers but also useful for assessing cultivars and for marker-assisted breeding in other crop species.

Keywords: variation block, polymorphism, InDel marker, genetic identification

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Authors: Xiran Wang, Johanna Trinkl, Thomas Hoffmann, Wilfried Schwab

Abstract:

Malonyltransferases (MATs) are enzymes that play a key role in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in plants, such as flavonoids and anthocyanins. As a kind of flavonoid-rich fruit, strawberries are an ideal model to study MATs. From Goodberry metabolome data, in the hybrid generation of 2 strawberries various, Fragaria × ananassa cv. 'Senga Sengana' and 'Candonga', we found the malonylated flavonoid concentration is significantly higher in 'Senga Sengana' compared with 'Candonga'. Therefore, we aimed to identify and characterize the malonyltransferases responsible for the different malonylated flavonoid concentrations in two different strawberry cultivars. In this study, we have found 6 MATs via genome mapping, metabolome analysis, gene cloning, and enzyme assay from strawberries, which catalyzed the malonylation of flavonoid substrates: quercetin-3-glucoside, kaempferol-3-glucoside, pelargonidin-3-glucoside, and cyanidin-3-glucoside. All four compounds reacted with FaMATs to varying degrees. These MATs have important implication into strawberries’ flavonoid biosynthesis, and also provide insights into insights into flavonoid biosynthesis, potential applications in agriculture, plant science, and pharmacy, and information on the regulation of secondary metabolism in plants.

Keywords: malonyltransferase, strawberry, flavonoid biosynthesis, enzyme assay

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Authors: Md. Shahriar Sabuz

Abstract:

Different social factors influence individuals to migrate from their native lands. This qualitative study was designed to analyze the main social factors that have a significant role in the movement of people across borders. In this study, two research questions, i.e., ‘Which social factors of a country significantly influence the persons' decision to migrate from their homeland?’ and ’2: do different social factors of a country influence the process of international migration?" were formulated and relevant data were analyzed to get the logical answer to these two questions. Data analysis revealed that people migrate in large numbers due to deplorable and unsafe social conditions in their home countries. Sometimes migration occurs due to a lack of basic facilities in native countries. It is quite significant to know that these social conditions create a sense of deprivation and insecurity in individuals, and they move to other lands to get a sense of achievement and greater security for themselves and their whole families. This study is significant and distinct from previous studies in that it provides comprehensive information about the major social factors responsible for international migrations and their role in influencing an individual's proclivity to migrate. Besides this, it greatly opens new horizons of research and analysis for other researchers working on the agenda of international migration.

Keywords: International migration, social factors, income inequality, social discrimination

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Iting Chiang, Cheng-Yu Wei, Chin-Teng Kuo, Po-Sheng Hsu, Yo-Lun Yang, Yung-Chang Kang, Chien-Chon Chen, Chih-Yuan Chen

Abstract:

In recent years, it is reported that microalloying of nitrogen atoms within traditional Cr-Mo-V hot work tool steels can achieve better high temperature mechanical properties, which thus leads to such metallurgical approach widely utilized in the several commercial advanced hot work tool steels. Although the performance of hot work tool steel can be improved better by alloy composition design strategy, the influence of processing parameters on the mechanical property, especially on the service life of hot work tool steel, is still not fully understood yet. A longer service life of hot work tool steel can decrease the manufacturing cost effectively and thus become a research hot spot. According to several previous studies, it is generally acknowledged the service life of hot work tool steels can be increased effectively as the steels possessing higher hardness and toughness due to the formation and propagation of microcracks within the steel can be inhibited effectively. Therefore, in the present research, the designed experiments are primarily to explore the synergistic effect of nitrogen content and austenitization conditioning on the mechanical properties of hot work tool steels has been conducted and analyzed. No matter the nitrogen content, the results indicated the hardness of hot work tool steels increased as the austenitization treatment executed at higher temperature. On the other hand, an optimum toughness of hot work tool steel can be achieved as the austenitization treatment performed at a suitable temperature range. The possible explanation of such metallurgical phenomenon has been also proposed and analyzed in the present research.

Keywords: hot work tool steel, Cr-Mo-V, toughness, hardness, TEM

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Authors: S. Assylbekova, D. Zolotareva, A. Dauletbakov, Ye. Belyankova, S. Bayazit, A. Basharimova, A. Zazybin, A. Isimberlenova, A. Kakimova, M. Aydemir, A. Kairullinova

Abstract:

Transfer hydrogenation (TH) is a key process in organic chemistry, especially in pharmaceutical and agrochemical synthesis, offering a safer and more sustainable approach compared to traditional methods. This work is devoted to the synthesis and use of ruthenium catalysts containing phosphinite ligands in TH reactions. Ruthenium complexes are particularly noteworthy for their effectiveness in asymmetric TH. Their stability and adaptability to different reaction environments make them ideal for both laboratory-scale and industrial applications. Phosphinite ligands (P(OR)R'2) are used in the synthesis of complexes to improve their properties. These ligands are known for their ability to finely tune the electronic and steric properties of metal centers. The electron-donating nature of the phosphorus atom, combined with the variability in the R and R' groups, allows for significant customization of the catalyst's properties. The purpose and difference of the work is to study the incorporation of a hydrophilic ionic liquid into the composition of a phosphinite ligand, which will then be converted into a catalyst. The technique involves the synthesis of a phosphinite ligand with an ionic liquid at room temperature under an inert atmosphere and then a ruthenium complex. Next, the TH reactions of acetophenone and its derivatives are carried out using the resulting catalyst. The conversion of ketone to alcohol is analyzed using a gas chromatograph. This study contributes to the understanding of the influence of catalyst physico-chemical properties on transfer hydrogenation results.

Keywords: transfer hydrogenation, ruthenium, catalysts, phosphinite ligands

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Authors: Oktia Woro Kasmini Handayani, Sri Ratna Rahayu, Efa Nugroho, Bertakalswa Hermawati

Abstract:

In Indonesia, from 2007 until 2013, the prevalence of overnutrition in children under five years and school age tends to increase. Clean and Health Life Behavior of school children supporting nutrition status still below the determined target. On the other side, school institution is an ideal place to educate and form health behavior, that should be initiated as early as possible (Early Age Education/PAUD level). The objective of this research was to find out the effectivity of education model through partnership with school institution in urban region, city of Semarang, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The research used quantitative approach supported with qualitative data. The population consist of all mother having school children of ages 3-5 years within the research region; sampling technique was purposive sampling, as many as 237 mothers. Research instrument was Clean and Health Life Behavior evaluation questionaire, and video as education media. The research used experimental design. Data analysis used effectivity criteria from Sugiyono and 2 paired sampel t test. Education model optimalization in the effort to improve nutrition status indicates t test result with signification < 0.05 (there was significant effect before and after model intervention), with effectivity test result of 79% (effective), but still below expected target which is 80%. Education model need to be utilized and optimallized the implementation so that expected target reached.

Keywords: nutrition status, early age education, clean dan health life behavior, education model

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Authors: Nagda Ibrahim Mady, Shimaa Mohamed Atiha

Abstract:

In light of actual needs of elderly people and the changes that accompany age in eyesight, hearing, dexterity, mobility, and memory which make aged people unable to carry out the simplest living affairs especially clothing demands. These needs are almost neglected in the current clothing market obligate aged peoples to wear the available choices without any consideration to their actual desires and needs. Fashion designer has gained many experiences that can gather between ergonomics and stages of fashion designing process. Fashion designer can determine the actual needs of aged people and reply these needs with designs that can achieve Improvement to the life quality of aged people besides maintaining good appearance. Thus Fashion designer can help elderly people to avoid negative impacts age leaves on them, either it is psychological or kinetic or that of dementia. Ergonomics in clothing is considered the tools and mechanisms that are used to fit aged people satisfactions supporting them to improve their living using the least time and effort. Providing the elderly with comfort besides maintaining good appearance that can make self–confidence besides independence. From this point of view the research is looking forward to improve the life of aged people through addressing functional clothes that can make elderly independent in the wearing process. Providing in these designs comfort, quality, and practicality and economic cost. Suggesting the suitable fabrics and materials and applying it to the designs to help the elderly perform their daily living customs. Reaching the successful designs that can be acceptable to specialists and to consumers whom they confirm: it supplies their clothing needs and provides the atheistic and functional performance and therefore it gives them better life.

Keywords: ergonomic, design garments, elderly people, life quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 546