Search results for: objective indicator of fatigue

Authors: Hooshang Mohammad Alikhani, Javad Nikoukar

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Restructuring and deregulation of power industry have changed the objectives of transmission expansion planning and increased the uncertainties. Due to these changes, new approaches and criteria are needed for transmission planning in deregulated power systems. The objective of this research work is to present a new approach for transmission expansion planning with considering new objectives and uncertainties in deregulated power systems. The approach must take into account the desires of all stakeholders in transmission expansion planning. Market based criteria must be defined to achieve the new objectives. Combination of market based criteria, technical criteria and economical criteria must be used for measuring the goodness of expansion plans to achieve market requirements, technical requirements, and economical requirements altogether.

Keywords: deregulated power systems, transmission network, stakeholder, energy systems

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Authors: Kunya Bowornchockchai

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The objective of this research is to forecast the monthly exchange rate between Thai baht and the US dollar and to compare two forecasting methods. The methods are Box-Jenkins’ method and Holt’s method. Results show that the Box-Jenkins’ method is the most suitable method for the monthly Exchange Rate between Thai Baht and the US Dollar. The suitable forecasting model is ARIMA (1,1,0)  without constant and the forecasting equation is Y_t = Y_t-1 + 0.3691 (Y_t-1 - Y_t-2) When Y_t  is the time series data at time t, respectively.

Keywords: Box–Jenkins method, Holt’s method, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), exchange rate

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Authors: Tiron-Tudor Adriana, Farcas Teodora Viorica, Ciolomic Ioana Andreea

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The issue of human capital mobility inside Europe is still an open one. Even though there were created some tools in order to better move from one country to another to work and study the number of the people doing this is very low because of various factors presented in this paper. The "rethinking educational" agenda of the European Commission has open the floor for new projects which can create steps towards a European language for skills and competences, qualifications. One of these projects is the Partnership for Exchange of experience in Student on-the-job Training. As part of this project, we are interested to see the situation of the human capital inside EU and the elements that were created until now to support this mobility. Also, the main objective of the project is to make a comparison between the four countries involved in PEST project (Romania, Hungary, Finland, and Estonia), at the education and internship level. The results are helpful for the follow of the project, for identifying where changes can be done and need to be done.

Keywords: ECVET, human capital mobility, partnership exchange, students on the job mobility, vocational education and training

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Authors: Ayesha M. Facey

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The evaluation sought to determine the factors associated with the high failure rate among students taking a first-year introductory statistics course. By utilizing Tyler’s Objective Based Model, the main objectives were: to assess the effectiveness of the lecturer’s teaching strategies; to determine the proportion of students who attends lectures and tutorials frequently and to determine the impact of infrequent attendance on performance; to determine how the assigned activities assisted in students understanding of the course content; to ascertain the possible issues being faced by students in understanding the course material and obtain possible solutions to the challenges and to determine whether the learning outcomes have been achieved based on an assessment of the second in-course examination. A quantitative survey research strategy was employed and the study population was students enrolled in semester one of the academic year 2015/2016. A convenience sampling approach was employed resulting in a sample of 98 students. Primary data was collected using self-administered questionnaires over a one-week period. Secondary data was obtained from the results of the second in-course examination. Data were entered and analyzed in SPSS version 22 and both univariate and bivariate analyses were conducted on the information obtained from the questionnaires. Univariate analyses provided description of the sample through means, standard deviations and percentages while bivariate analyses were done using Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient and Chi-square analyses. For secondary data, an item analysis was performed to obtain the reliability of the examination questions, difficulty index and discriminant index. The examination results also provided information on the weak areas of the students and highlighted the learning outcomes that were not achieved. Findings revealed that students were more likely to participate in lectures than tutorials and that attendance was high for both lectures and tutorials. There was a significant relationship between participation in lectures and performance on examination. However, a high proportion of students has been absent from three or more tutorials as well as lectures. A higher proportion of students indicated that they completed the assignments obtained from the lectures sometimes while they rarely completed tutorial worksheets. Students who were more likely to complete their assignments were significantly more likely to perform well on their examination. Additionally, students faced a number of challenges in understanding the course content and the topics of probability, binomial distribution and normal distribution were the most challenging. The item analysis also highlighted these topics as problem areas. Problems doing mathematics and application and analyses were their major challenges faced by students and most students indicated that some of the challenges could be alleviated if additional examples were worked in lectures and they were given more time to solve questions. Analysis of the examination results showed that a number of learning outcomes were not achieved for a number of topics. Based on the findings recommendations were made that suggested adjustments to grade allocations, delivery of lectures and methods of assessment.

Keywords: evaluation, item analysis, Tyler’s objective based model, university statistics

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Authors: Pornsiri Kaewpradit, Chalisa Pourneaw

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Temperature control improvement of a membrane reactor with exothermic and reversible esterification reaction is studied in this work. It is well known that a batch membrane reactor requires different control strategies from a continuous one due to the fact that it is operated dynamically. Due to the effect of the operating temperature, the suitable control scheme has to be designed based reliable predictive model to achieve a desired objective. In the study, the optimization framework has been preliminary formulated in order to determine an optimal temperature trajectory for maximizing a desired product. In model predictive control scheme, a set of predictive models have been initially developed corresponding to the possible operating points of the system. The multiple predictive control moves have been further calculated on-line using the developed models corresponding to current operating point. It is obviously seen in the simulation results that the temperature control has been improved compared to the performance obtained by the conventional predictive controller. Further robustness tests have also been investigated in this study.

Keywords: model predictive control, batch reactor, temperature control, membrane reactor

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Authors: Mamman Jimoh Ahmadu, Sanusi Abubakar Sadiq, Eldah Ephraim Buba

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In modern societies, stress has become a widespread phenomenon and therefore an issue of major concern to employees, organizations, and the state. As senior management of an organization, executives are not immune to this problem because they carry out lots of activities while on duty. This paper is centered on the benefits of Tourism, Leisure and Recreation to the management of executive stress. Executives work has always been considered to be stressful. The key objective of the research is to gain a better understanding of the causes of stress among executives and to find out how tourism, leisure, and recreational activities could be used as a means to managing stress. Interview and observation data were analyzed using SPSS. The major finding revealed that that human system has specific limitations and nature cannot be cheated. It is recommended that executives should take regular and mandatory vacation of least forty days in a year. The only answer then is rest. The research recommends that a break tends to improves and relaxes, refreshes the mind and enhances performance.

Keywords: executive, recreation, stress, tourism

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Authors: Arunporn Itharat, Srisopa Ruangnoo, Pakakrong Thongdeeying

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The rhizomes of Dioscorea membranacea (DM) has long been used in Thai Traditional medicine to treat cancer and inflammatory conditions such as rheumatism. The objective of this study was to investigate anti-inflammatory activity by determining the inhibitory effect on LPS-induced TNF-α from RAW264.7 cells of crude extracts and pure isolated compounds from DM. Three known dihydrophenantrene compounds were isolated by a bioassay guided isolation method from DM ethanolic extract [2,4 dimethoxy-5,6-dihydroxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene (1) and 5-hydroxy-2,4,6-trimethoxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene(2) and 5,6,2 -trihydroxy 3,4-methoxy, 9,10- dihydrophenanthrene (3)]. 1 showed the highest inhibitory effect on PGE2, followed by 3 and 1 (IC50 = 2.26, 4.97 and >20 μg/ml or 8.31,17.25 and > 20 µM respectively). These findings suggest that this plant showed anti-inflamatory effects by displaying an inhibitory effect on TNF-α release, hence, this result supports the usage of Thai traditional medicine to treat inflammation related diseases.

Keywords: Dioscorea membranacea, anti-inflammatory activity, TNF-Alpha , dihidrophenantrene compound

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Authors: Jenn Gallup, Onur Kocaoz, Onder Islek

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In their pursuit of postsecondary transitions, individuals with disabilities tend to experience, academic, behavioral, and emotional challenges to a greater extent than their typically developing peers. These challenges result in lower rates of graduation, employment, independent living, and participation in college than their peers without disabilities. The lack of friendships and support systems has had a negative impact on those with a disability transitioning to postsecondary settings to include, employment, independent living, and university settings. Establishing friendships and support systems early on is an indicator of potential success and persistence in postsecondary education, employment, and independent living for typically developing college students. It is evident that a deficit in friendships and supports is a key deficit also for individuals with disabilities. To address the specific needs of this group, a mentor program was developed for a transition program held at the university for youth aged 18-21. Pre-service teachers enrolled in the special education program engaged with youth in the transition program in a variety of activities on campus. The mentorship program had two purposes: to assist young adults with disabilities who were transitioning to a workforce setting to help increase social skills, self-advocacy, supports and friendships, and confidence; and to give their peers without disabilities who were enrolled in a secondary special education course as a pre-service teacher the experience of interacting with and forming friendships with peers who had a disability for the purposes of career development. Additionally, according to researchers mobile technology has created a virtual world of equality and opportunity for a large segment of the population that was once marginalized due to physical and cognitive impairments. All of the participants had access to smart phones; therefore, technology was explored during this study to determine if it could be used as a compensatory tool to allow the young adults with disabilities to do things that otherwise would have been difficult because of their disabilities. Additionally, all participants were asked to incorporate technology such as smart phones to communicate beyond the activities, collaborate using virtual platform games which would support and promote social skills, soft-skills, socialization, and relationships. The findings of this study confirmed that a peer mentorship program that harnessed the power of technology supported outcomes specific to young adults with and without disabilities. Mobile technology and virtual game-based platforms, were identified as a significant contributor to personal, academic, and career growth for both groups. The technology encouraged friendships, provided an avenue for rich social interactions, and increased soft-skills. Results will be shared along with the development of the program and potential implications to the field.

Keywords: career outcomes, mentorship, soft-skills, technology, transition

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Authors: Ting-Ying Su, Meng-Shiou Lee, Shyang-Chwen Sheu

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Garlic is used commonly as a seasoning around the world. But some people suffer from allergy to garlic. Garlic may also cause burning of mouth, stomach, and throat. In some Buddhist traditions, consuming garlic is not allowed. The objective of this study is to develop a LAMP based method for detection of garlic in food. We designed specific primers targeted on ITS1-5.8S rRNA-ITS2 sequence of garlic DNA. The LAMP assay was performed using a set of four different primers F3, B3, FIP and BIP at 60˚C in less than 60 mins. Results showed that the primer was not cross-reactive to other commonly used spice including Chinese leek, Chinese onion, green onion, onion, pepper, basil, parsley, pepper and ginger. As low as 2% of garlic DNA could be detected. Garlic still could be detected by developed LAMP after boiled at 100˚C for 80 minutes and autoclaved at 121˚C for 60 minutes. Commercial products labeled with garlic ingredient could be identified by the developed method.

Keywords: garlic, loop-mediated isothermal amplification, processing, DNA

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Authors: Witthaya Mekhum, Wutthikorn Malikong

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The objective of this study is to investigate the increasing desktop computer performance after overclocking central processing unit or CPU by running a computer component at a higher clock rate (more clock cycles per second) than it was designed at the rate of 0.1 GHz for each level or 100 MHz starting at 4000 GHz-4500 GHz. The computer performance is tested for each level with 4 programs, i.e. Hyper PI ver. 0.99b, Cinebench R15, LinX ver.0.6.4 and WinRAR . After the CPU overclock, the computer performance increased. When overclocking CPU at 29% the computer performance tested by Hyper PI ver. 0.99b increased by 10.03% and when tested by Cinebench R15 the performance increased by 20.05% and when tested by LinX Program the performance increased by 16.61%. However, the performance increased only 8.14% when tested with Winrar program. The computer performance did not increase according to the overclock rate because the computer consists of many components such as Random Access Memory or RAM, Hard disk Drive, Motherboard and Display Card, etc.

Keywords: overclock, performance, central processing unit, computer

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Authors: Zoubida Lounis, Naouel Boumesla, Abd El Kader Bengueddach

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The main objective of this study is to synthesize a composite materials by direct synthesis at atmospheric pression having the MFI structure and MCM-41 by using double structuring. In the first part of this work we are interested in the study of the synthesis parameters, in addition to temperature, the crystallization time and pH. The second part of this work is to vary the ratio of the concentrations of both structuring C9 [C9H19(CH3)3NBr] and C16 [C16H33(CH3)3NBr] and determining the area of formation of the two materials (microporous and mesoporous at same time), for this reason we performed a battery of experiments ranging from 0 to 100% for both structural. To enhance the economic purposes of this study, the experiments were carried out by using very cheap and simple process, the pyrex tubes were used instead of the reactors, and the synthesis were done at atmospheric pressure and moderate temperature. The final products (composite materials) were obtained at high and pure quality.

Keywords: composite materials, syntheisis, catalysts, mesoporous materials, microporous materials

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Authors: Haftay Abraha Tadesse

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Background: Staphylococcus is a genus of worldwide distributed bacteria correlated to several infectious of different sites in humans and animals. They are among the most important causes of infection that are associated with the consumption of contaminated food. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the isolates, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and Public Health Significance of Staphylococcus aureus in raw meat from butchery and abattoir houses of Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to October 2019. Socio-demographic data and Public Health Significance were collected using a predesigned questionnaire. The raw meat samples were collected aseptically in the butchery and abattoir houses and transported using an ice box to Mekelle University, College of Veterinary Sciences, for isolating and identification of Staphylococcus aureus. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests were determined by the disc diffusion method. Data obtained were cleaned and entered into STATA 22.0 and a logistic regression model with odds ratio was calculated to assess the association of risk factors with bacterial contamination. A P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In the present study, 88 out of 250 (35.2%) were found to be contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus. Among the raw meat specimens, the positivity rate of Staphylococcus aureus was 37.6% (n=47) and (32.8% (n=41), butchery and abattoir houses, respectively. Among the associated risks, factories not using gloves reduces risk was found to (AOR=0.222; 95% CI: 0.104-0.473), Strict Separation b/n clean & dirty (AOR= 1.37; 95% CI: 0.66-2.86) and poor habit of hand washing (AOR=1.08; 95%CI: 0.35 3.35) was found to be statistically significant and have associated with Staphylococcus aureus contamination. All isolates of thirty-seven of Staphylococcus aureus were checked and displayed (100%) sensitive to doxycycline, trimethoprim, gentamicin, sulphamethoxazole, amikacin, CN, Co trimoxazole and nitrofurantoi. Whereas the showed resistance to cefotaxime (100%), ampicillin (87.5%), Penicillin (75%), B (75%), and nalidixic acid (50%) from butchery houses. On the other hand, all isolates of Staphylococcus aureus isolate 100% (n= 10) showed sensitive chloramphenicol, gentamicin and nitrofurantoin, whereas they showed 100% resistance of Penicillin, B, AMX, ceftriaxone, ampicillin and cefotaxime from abattoirs houses. The overall multi-drug resistance pattern for Staphylococcus aureus was 90% and 100% of butchery and abattoir houses, respectively. Conclusion: 35.3% Staphylococcus aureus isolated were recovered from the raw meat samples collected from the butchery and abattoirs houses. More has to be done in the development of hand washing behavior and availability of safe water in the butchery houses to reduce the burden of bacterial contamination. The results of the present finding highlight the need to implement protective measures against the levels of food contamination and alternative drug options. The development of antimicrobial resistance is nearly always a result of repeated therapeutic and/or indiscriminate use of them. Regular antimicrobial sensitivity testing helps to select effective antibiotics and to reduce the problems of drug resistance development towards commonly used antibiotics.

Keywords: abattoir house, AMR, butchery house, S. aureus

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Authors: Te Kīpa Kēpa B. Morgan, Oliver W. Mcmillan, Dylan N. Taute, Tumanako N. Fa'aui

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Epistemologies are ways of knowing. Indigenous Peoples are aware that they do not perceive and experience the world in the same way as others. So it is important when empowering Indigenous epistemologies, such as that of the New Zealand Māori, to also be able to represent a scientific understanding within the same analysis. A geothermal development assessment tool has been developed by adapting the Mauri Model Decision Making Framework. Mauri is a metric that is capable of representing the change in the life-supporting capacity of things and collections of things. The Mauri Model is a method of grouping mauri indicators as dimension averages in order to allow holistic assessment and also to conduct sensitivity analyses for the effect of worldview bias. R-shiny is the coding platform used for this Vision Mātauranga research which has created an expert decision support tool (DST) that combines a stakeholder assessment of worldview bias with an impact assessment of mauri-based indicators to determine the sustainability of proposed geothermal development. The initial intention was to develop guidelines for quantifying mātauranga Māori impacts related to geothermal resources. To do this, three typical scenarios were considered: a resource owner wishing to assess the potential for new geothermal development; another party wishing to assess the environmental and cultural impacts of the proposed development; an assessment that focuses on the holistic sustainability of the resource, including its surface features. Indicator sets and measurement thresholds were developed that are considered necessary considerations for each assessment context and these have been grouped to represent four mauri dimensions that mirror the four well-being criteria used for resource management in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Two case studies have been conducted to test the DST suitability for quantifying mātauranga Māori and other biophysical factors related to a geothermal system. This involved estimating mauri0meter values for physical features such as temperature, flow rate, frequency, colour, and developing indicators to also quantify qualitative observations about the geothermal system made by Māori. A retrospective analysis has then been conducted to verify different understandings of the geothermal system. The case studies found that the expert DST is useful for geothermal development assessment, especially where hapū (indigenous sub-tribal grouping) are conflicted regarding the benefits and disadvantages of their’ and others’ geothermal developments. These results have been supplemented with evaluations for the cumulative impacts of geothermal developments experienced by different parties using integration techniques applied to the time history curve of the expert DST worldview bias weighted plotted against the mauri0meter score. Cumulative impacts represent the change in resilience or potential of geothermal systems, which directly assists with the holistic interpretation of change from an Indigenous Peoples’ perspective.

Keywords: decision support tool, holistic geothermal assessment, indigenous knowledge, mauri model decision-making framework

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Authors: Syeda Azeem Unnisa

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The present study was undertaken at Jawaharnagar Solid Waste Municipal Dumpsite, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Telangana State, India in 2017 which generates 90,000 litres of leachate per day. The main objective of the leachate treatment was to remove organic compounds like color, suspended solids, ammonia and COD by coagulation-flocculation using polyaluminum chloride (PAC) as coagulant which has higher coagulant efficiency and relative low cost compared to the conventional coagulants. Jar test apparatus was used to conduct experiments for pH 7, rapid mixing speed 150 rpm for 3 minute, slow mixing speed 30 rpm for 20 minute and the settling time of 30 minute for different dosage of PAC (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 and 5.0 g/L). The highest percentage of removal of suspended solids, color, COD and ammonical nitrogen are 97%, 96%, 60% and 37% with PAC optimum dose of 2.0 g/l. The results indicate that the PAC was effective in leachate treatment which is very much suitable for high toxicity of waste and economically feasible for Indian conditions. The treated water can be utilized for other purpose apart from drinking.

Keywords: coagulant, leachate, polyaluminium chloride, treatment

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Authors: Selvakuma Kumaresh, Man Young Kim

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Combustion phenomenon will be accomplished effectively by the development of low emission combustor. One of the significant factors influencing the entire Combustion process is the mixing between a swirling angular jet (Primary Air) and the non-swirling inner jet (fuel). To study this fundamental flow, the chamber had to be designed in such a manner that the combustion process to sustain itself in a continuous manner and the temperature of the products is sufficiently below the maximum working temperature in the turbine. This study is used to develop the effective combustion with low unburned combustion products by adopting the concept of high swirl flow and motility of holes in the secondary chamber. The proper selection of a swirler is needed to reduce emission which can be concluded from the emission of Nox and CO2. The capture of CO2 is necessary to mitigate CO2 emissions from natural gas. Thus the suppression of unburned gases is a meaningful objective for the development of high performance combustor without affecting turbine blade temperature.

Keywords: combustion, emission, can-type combustion chamber, CFD, motility of holes, swirl flow

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Authors: Simon Samwel Msanjila

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Networked environments which provides platforms and environments for business organizations are configured in different forms depending on many factors including life time, member characteristics, communication structure, and business objectives, among others. With continuing advances in digital technologies the distance has become a less barrier for business minded collaboration among organizations. With the need and ease to make business collaborate nowadays organizations are sometimes forced to co-work with others that are either unknown or less known to them in terms of history and performance. A promising approach for sustaining established collaboration has been establishment of trust relationship among organizations based on assessed trustworthiness for each participating organization. It has been stated in research that trust in organization is dynamic and thus assessment of trust level must address such dynamic nature. This paper assess relevant aspects of trust and applies the concepts to propose a semi-automated system for assessing the Sustainability and Evolution of trust in organizations participating in specific objective in a networked organizations environment.

Keywords: trust evolution, trust sustainability, networked organizations, dynamic trust

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Authors: Bae Yu been, Choi Sung won, Lee Ju yeon, Yang Dan Bi

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The purpose of this study is to develop a self-help therapy program for bipolar disorder (BD). Psychosocial treatment is adjunct to pharmacotherapy for BD, however, it is limited and they demand high costs. Therefore, the objective of the study is to overcome these limitations by developing the self-treatment for BD. The study was examined the efficacy of the self-treatment program for BD. A randomized controlled trial compared the self-help therapy (ST) intervention with a treatment as usual (TAU) group. ST group has conducted the program for 8 weeks (16 sessions). Mood chart, Quality of Life in Bipolar Disorder Questionnaire, Attitudes toward seeking professional help Scale, BIS, CERQ, YMRS, MADRS were used by pre, post, and follow up. The efficacy of the self-help therapy was analyzed by using mixed ANOVAs. There were significant differences in the rate of occurrence of mania or depression between the two groups. ST group reported stable moods on mood chart, and reductions in mood symptoms and improvements in quality of life and treatment adherence. This study was confirmed applicable to BD to the self-help therapy for patients with BD conducted first in Korea.

Keywords: self help therapy, bipolar disorder, self help, self therapy

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Authors: Flavia Schuler Gomes, Cristina Brito Dias, Emily Schuler

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One of the emerging themes in modern society is migration. What in the past was a route mostly traveled by men, is currently carried out by women and even children. In this sense, the objective of this research was to understand the experiences and repercussions of the migration in the life of young Brazilians who went to Switzerland. The specific objectives were: to know the causes and consequences of migration; how was the adaptation in the country in emotional and educational terms; as how the interviewees feel the impact of living with two cultures simultaneously. The research had a qualitative methodology. The participants were eight young men and women, between the ages of 18 and 25, who migrated to Switzerland as a child. The instrument used was interview technique of life history. The collected data were analyzed through the thematic content analysis. The results indicate that the young people migrated to accompany their mothers; in terms of nationality, two participants feel completely Swiss, and six believe they share Swiss and Brazilian aspects. None of the participants followed an academic career, having secondary education.

Keywords: adaptation, children, culture, migration

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Authors: Chengli Liu, C. K. M. Lee

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The tradition competitive newsvendor game assumes decision makers are rational. However, there are behavioral biases when people make decisions, such as loss aversion, mental accounting and overconfidence. Overestimation of a subject’s own performance is one type of overconfidence. The objective of this research is to analyze the impact of the overestimated demand in the newsvendor competitive game with two players. This study builds a competitive newsvendor game model where newsvendors have private information of their demands, which is overestimated. At the same time, demands of each newsvendor forecasted by a third party institution are available. This research shows that the overestimation leads to demand steal effect, which reduces the competitor’s order quantity. However, the overall supply of the product increases due to overestimation. This study illustrates the boundary condition for the overestimated newsvendor to have the equilibrium order drop due to the demand steal effect from the other newsvendor. A newsvendor who has higher critical fractile will see its equilibrium order decrease with the drop of estimation level from the other newsvendor.

Keywords: bias, competing newsvendor, Nash equilibrium, overestimation

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Authors: Chia-Ling Chang, Hao-Bo Chang

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Global climate change alters rainfall characteristics, while the variation of these characteristics further influences environmental conditions, such as hydrologic responses, landslide areas, and the amounts of diffuse pollution. The variations of environmental conditions may impact the stability of water resource systems. The objective of this study is to assess the present conditions of major water resource systems in Taiwan. The impact of climate change on each system is also discussed herein. Compared to the water resource systems in northern Taiwan, the ratio of the precipitation during the rainy season to that during the dry season has a larger increase in southern Taiwan. This variation of hydrologic condition impacts the stability of water resource systems and increases the risk of normal water supply. The findings in this work can be important references for water resource management.

Keywords: basin management, climate change, water resource system, water resource management

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Authors: Azna Zuberi

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Biofilm is a sessile bacterial accretion in which bacteria adapts different physiological and morphological behavior from planktonic form. It is the root cause of about 80% microbial infections in human. Among them, E. coli biofilms are most prevalent in medical devices associated nosocomial infections. The objective of this study was to inhibit biofilm formation by targeting LuxS gene, involved in quorum sensing using CRISPRi. luxS is a synthase, involved in the synthesis of Autoinducer-2(AI-2), which in turn guides the initial stage of biofilm formation. To implement CRISPRi system, we have synthesized complementary sgRNA to target gene sequence and co-expressed with dCas9. Suppression of luxS was confirmed through qRT-PCR. The effect of luxS gene on biofilm inhibition was studied through crystal violet assay, XTT reduction assay and scanning electron microscopy. We conclude that CRISPRi system could be a potential strategy to inhibit bacterial biofilm through mechanism base approach.

Keywords: biofilm, CRISPRi, luxS, microbial

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Authors: Fouad. Inel, Lakhdar. Khochemane

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This article presents a comparative response specification performance between two controllers of three and four cable based robots for various applications. The main objective of this work is: The first is to use the direct and inverse geometric model to study and simulate the end effector position of the robot with three and four cables. A graphical user interface has been implemented in order to visualizing the position of the robot. Secondly, we present the determination of static and dynamic tensions and lengths of cables required to flow different trajectories. At the end, we study the response of our systems in closed loop with a Proportional-Integrated Derivative (PID) and Proportional-Integrated (PD) controllers then this last are compared the results of the same examples using MATLAB/Simulink; we found that the PID method gives the better performance, such as rapidly speed response, settling time, compared to PD controller.

Keywords: parallel cable-based robots, geometric modeling, dynamic modeling, graphical user interface, open loop, PID/PD controllers

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Authors: Hyeon-Kyo Lim, Sang-Hun Byun

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Risk assessment is carried out in most industrial plants for accident prevention, but there exists insufficient data for statistical decision making. It is commonly said that risk can be expressed as a product of consequence and likelihood of a corresponding hazard factor. Eventually, therefore, risk assessment involves human decision making which cannot be objective per se. This study was carried out to comprehend perceptive characteristics of human beings in industrial plants. Subjects were shown a set of illustrations describing scenes of industrial plants, and were asked to assess the risk of each scene with not only linguistic variables but also numeric scores in the aspect of consequence and likelihood. After that, their responses were formulated as fuzzy membership functions, and compared with those of university students who had no experience of industrial works. The results showed that risk level of industrial workers were lower than those of any other groups, which implied that the workers might generally have a tendency to neglect more hazard factors in their work fields.

Keywords: fuzzy, hazard, linguistic variable, risk assessment

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Authors: Imessaoudene Y., Mouhouche B., Sengouga A., Kadir M.

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The objective of this work is to determine the virtual water of main crops grown in the province of Djelfa and water use efficiency (W.U.E.), Which is essential to approach the application and better integration with the offer in the region. In the case of agricultural production, virtual water is the volume of water evapo-transpired by crops. It depends on particular on the expertise of its producers and its global production area, warm and dry climates induce higher consumption. At the scale of the province, the determination of the quantities of virtual water is done by calculating the unit water requirements related to water irrigated hectare and total rainfall over the crop using the Cropwat 8.0 F.A.O. software. Quantifying the volume of agricultural virtual water of crops practiced in the study area demonstrates the quantitative importance of these volumes of water in terms of available water resources in the province, so the advantages which can be the concept of virtual water as an analysis tool and decision support for the management and distribution of water in scarcity situation.

Keywords: virtual water, water use efficiency, water requirements, Djelfa

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Authors: Nouby M. Ghazaly, Ahmed O. Moaaz, Mostafa Makrahy

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The main purpose of a car suspension system is to reduce the vibrations resulting from road roughness. The main objective of this research paper is to decrease vibration and improve passenger comfort through controlling car suspension system using sliding mode control techniques. The mathematical model for passive and active suspensions systems for quarter car model which subject to excitation from different road profiles is obtained. The active suspension system is synthesized based on sliding mode control for a quarter car model. The performance of the sliding mode control is determined through computer simulations using MATLAB and SIMULINK toolbox. The simulated results plotted in time domain, and root mean square values. It is found that active suspension system using sliding mode control improves the ride comfort and decrease vibration.

Keywords: quarter car model, active suspension system, sliding mode control, road profile

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Authors: Asaad Y. Shamseldin

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Analytical probabilistic approach is an innovative approach for urban stormwater modeling. It can provide information about the long-term performance of a stormwater management facility without being computationally very demanding. This paper explores the application of the analytical probabilistic approach in New Zealand. The paper presents the results of a case study aimed at development of an objective way of identifying what constitutes a rainfall storm event and the estimation of the corresponding statistical properties of storms using two selected automatic rainfall stations located in the Auckland region in New Zealand. The storm identification and the estimation of the storm statistical properties are regarded as the first step in the development of the analytical probabilistic models. The paper provides a recommendation about the definition of the storm inter-event time to be used in conjunction with the analytical probabilistic approach.

Keywords: hydrology, rainfall storm, storm inter-event time, New Zealand, stormwater management

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Authors: Mina Henneb, Rafik Belabbas, Safia Zenia

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and to identify the risk factors of Eimeria spp. and Giardia spp. infection in rabbits from the local population of four localities in northern Algeria. Dung samples were collected from 16 farms, totalling 111 rabbits, and were analysed by the flotation method. Additional, data regarding the farms and management practices were obtained by means of a questionnaire used in the surveys and interviews. The results revealed that the prevalence of Eimerias pp. contamination was 68.75% (11/16) for farms and 58.56% (65/111) for rabbits, respectively. The prevalence of Giardia spp. was respectively 56.25% (9/16) for farms and 11.7% (13/111) for rabbits. The analyses showed that the prevalence of Eimeria spp. was significantly higher in the farms that did not comply with hygiene and non-conventional feeding and watering. However, the prevalence of Giardia spp. was significant in rabbits kept in poor conditions of rearing. In conclusion, this study showed that the prevalence of these two parasites in rabbits from the local population is relevant and may have important implications for the rabbit industry and public health, especially in rural areas.

Keywords: Algeria, digestive parasites, prevalence, rabbits, risk factors

Procedia PDF Downloads 176

Authors: Tsugunosuke Sakai, Haruya Tamaki, Ryuichi Yoshida, Ryohei Egusa, Etsuji Yamaguchi, Shigenori Inagaki, Fusako Kusunoki, Miki Namatame, Masanori Sugimoto, Hiroshi Mizoguchi

Abstract:

We aim to develop a full-body interaction game that could let children cooperate and interact with other children in small groups. As the first step for our aim, the objective of the full-body interaction game developed in this study is to make interaction between children. The game requires two children to jump together with the same timing. We let children experience the game and answer the questionnaires. The children using several strategies to coordinate the timing of their jumps were observed. These included shouting time, watching each other, and jumping in a constant rhythm as if they were skipping rope. In this manner, we observed the children playing the game while cooperating with each other. The results of a questionnaire to evaluate the proposed interactive game indicate that the jumping game was a very enjoyable experience in which the participants could immerse themselves. Therefore, the game enabled children to experience cooperation with others by using body movements.

Keywords: children, cooperation, full-body interaction game, kinect sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 373

Authors: Nooraneda Mutalip Laidey

Abstract:

Computer Crimes Act 1997 (CCA 1997) was conceded by Malaysia’s legislative body in 1997 and the Act was enforced in June 2000. The purpose of CCA 1997 is to provide for offences related to misuse of computers such as hacking, cracking and phishing. CCA 1997 was modelled after United Kingdom’s Computer Misuses Act 1990 as a response to the emerging computer crimes. This legislation is divided into three parts and 12 Sections. The first part outlines preliminary matters that include short title and relevant definitions, second part provides for the offenses related to misuse of computers and specifies penalties for each offences, and the last part deals with ancillary provisions such as jurisdictional and investigational issues of cybercrime. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the development of computer crimes and its deterrence in Malaysia. Specific sections of CCA 1997 will be analysed in details and detail assessment on the prevention and prosecution of computer crimes in Malaysia will be accessed to determine whether CCA 1997 is so far adequate in preventing computer crimes in Malaysia.

Keywords: computer, computer crimes, CCA 1997, circumvention, deterrence

Procedia PDF Downloads 348

Authors: Jamshid Ghiasi Ghalehkandi, Naser Maheri Sis, Yahya Ebrahimnezhad, Shahin Hassanpour

Abstract:

The objective of present study was to examine the effects of fresh garlic juice on semen malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and total antioxidant status (TAS) in male rats. Fifty-four male rats (230-250 g) were allocated into 3 treatment groups (each include 3 groups and 6 replicate). Group 1 served as water control. In group 2, rats were gavaged with 60 mg/kg garlic juice. In group 3, rats were offered 120 mg/kg garlic juice. Animals received treatments orally and ad libitum access to chow pellets and fresh water. After 4 weeks, animals were killed, testes were taken out and semen samples were used to determine MDA, SOD, GPx and TAS activity. According to the results, garlic juice (120 mg/kg) significantly declined semen MDA activity compared to control group (P<0.05). These results suggest that presumably garlic juice protects semen oxidation in rat testes.

Keywords: garlic juice, chromium chloride, semen, rat

Procedia PDF Downloads 768