Search results for: Data Analysis

Authors: M.F. Elkady, Sahar Zaki, Desouky Abd-El-Haleem

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Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are already widely prepared using different technologies. However, there are limited data on the effects of hydrogen ion concentration on nano-silver production. In this investigation, the impact of the pH reaction medium toward the particle size, agglomeration and the yield of the produced bio-synthesized silver were established. Quasi-spherical silver nanoparticles were synthesized through the biosynthesis green production process using the Egyptian E. coli bacterial strain 23N at different pH values. The formation of AgNPs has been confirmed with ultraviolet–visible spectra through identification of their characteristic peak at 410 nm. The quantitative production yield and the orientation planes of the produced nano-silver were examined using X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Quantitative analyses indicated that the silver production yield was promoted at elevated pH regarded to increase the reduction rate of silver precursor through both chemical and biological processes. As a result, number of the nucleus and thus the size of the silver nanoparticles were tunable through changing pH of the reaction system. Accordingly, the morphological structure and size of the produced silver and its aggregates were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. It was considered that the increment in pH value of the reaction media progress the aggregation of silver clusters. However, the presence of stain 23N biomass decreases the possibility of silver aggregation at the pH 7.

Keywords: silver nanoparticles, biosynthesis, reaction media pH, nano-silver characterization

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Authors: R. Roznowski

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This paper is an examination of a recent Michigan State University production of the classic musical, Peter Pan. In this production, approved by the licensor, the action was moved to Colonial India transforming the musical’s message to include themes of cultural identity, racism, classism and ultimately inclusion. Major character changes and casting decisions expanded the scope of the musical while still retaining the original book and score. Major changes included reframing the Darlings as British Colonials stationed in India. The Lost Boy’s as mixed race children of British officials and their Indian nannies, the Pirates were a female 'fishing fleet' a group of women sent from England to keep the British soldiers from mixing with the locals and the Michigan State University Bhangra Dance Team played the Indians in the production. Traditional Indian theatrical techniques were also employed in the storytelling. The presentation will cover the key changes to the musical, the rehearsal process, historical accuracy and audience reaction. A final analysis of cultural appropriation versus historical reframing will be examined.

Keywords: directing, history, musical theatre, producing

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Authors: Phenphak Horadee, Rodchares Hanrinth, Saithip Suttiruksa

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Inappropriate use of antibiotics has happened in several hospitals, Thailand. Drug use evaluation (DUE) is one strategy to overcome this difficulty. However, most community hospitals still encounter incomplete evaluation resulting overuse of antibiotics with high cost. Consequently, drug-resistant bacteria have been rising due to inappropriate antibiotic use. The aim of this study was to involve stakeholders in conceptualizing, developing, and prioritizing a feasible intervention strategy to promote and support appropriate antibiotic prescribing in a community hospital, Thailand. Study antibiotics included four antibiotics such as Meropenem, Piperacillin/tazobactam, Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, and Vancomycin. The study was conducted for the 1-year period between March 1, 2018, and March 31, 2019, in a community hospital in the northeastern part of Thailand. Concept mapping was used in a purposive sample, including doctors (one was an administrator), pharmacists, and nurses who involving drug use evaluation of antibiotics. In-depth interviews for each participant and survey research were conducted to seek the problems for inappropriate use of antibiotics based on drug use evaluation system. Seventy-seven percent of DUE reported appropriate antibiotic prescribing, which still did not reach the goal of 80 percent appropriateness. Meropenem led other antibiotics for inappropriate prescribing. The causes of the unsuccessful DUE program were classified into three themes such as personnel, lack of public relation and communication, and unsupported policy and impractical regulations. During the first meeting, stakeholders (n = 21) expressed the generation of interventions. During the second meeting, participants who were almost the same group of people in the first meeting (n = 21) were requested to independently rate the feasibility and importance of each idea and to categorize them into relevant clusters to facilitate multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. The outputs of analysis included the idealist, cluster list, point map, point rating map, cluster map, and cluster rating map. All of these were distributed to participants (n = 21) during the third meeting to reach consensus on an intervention model. The final proposed intervention strategy included 29 feasible and crucial interventions in seven clusters: development of information technology system, establishing policy and taking it into the action plan, proactive public relations of the policy, action plan and workflow, in cooperation of multidisciplinary teams in drug use evaluation, work review and evaluation with performance reporting, promoting and developing professional and clinical skill for staff with training programs, and developing practical drug use evaluation guideline for antibiotics. These interventions are relevant and fit to several intervention strategies for antibiotic stewardship program in many international organizations such as participation of the multidisciplinary team, developing information technology to support antibiotic smart use, and communication. These interventions were prioritized for implementation over a 1-year period. Once the possibility of each activity or plan is set up, the proposed program could be applied and integrated into hospital policy after evaluating plans. Effectiveness of each intervention could be promoted to other community hospitals to promote and support antibiotic smart use.

Keywords: antibiotic, concept mapping, drug use evaluation, multidisciplinary teams

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Authors: Marjan Heidarian Dehkordi, Hossein Allahyari, Bruce Parker, Reza Talaee-Hassanlouei

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The Western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis Priesner (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), is a significant pest of many economically important crops. This study evaluated the functional responses, prey-stage preferences and mutual interference of Amblyseius swirskii Anthias-Henriot (Acari: Phytoseiidae) with F. occidentalis as the host under laboratory conditions. The predator species showed no prey stage preference for either prey 1st or 2nd instar. Logistic regression analysis suggested Type II (convex) functional response for the predator species. Consequently, the per capita searching efficiency decreased significantly from 1.2425 to -7.4987 as predator densities increased from 2 to 8. The findings from this study could help select better biological control agents for effective control of F. occidentalis and other pests in vegetable production.

Keywords: biological control, functional responses, mutual interference, prey-stage preferences

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Authors: Z. Khalifa, K. M. Hassan, M. Abdel Azzem

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Potential strategies for deriving useful forms of renewable high density energy from abundant energy stored in carbohydrates is direct conversion of glucose (GLU) to electrical power. A three novel versatile modified electrodes, synthesized by electrochemical polymerization of organic monomers on glassy carbon electrodes (GC), have been developed for biofuel cells results in stable and long-term power production. Electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose in alkaline solution on conducting polymers electrodes modified by incorporation of Ni nanoparticles (NiNPs) onto poly(1,5-aminonaphthalene) (1,5-PDAN), poly(1,8-diaminonaphthalene) (1,8-PDAN) and poly(1-amino-2-methyl-9,10-anthraquinone) (PAMAQ) was investigated. The electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose at NiNPs-modified 1,5-PDAN/GC, 1,8-PDAN/GC and PAMAQ/GC electrodes has been studied using voltammetry technique. The PDAN electrodes show a slight activity in the potential of interest. The prepared NiNPs/PAMAQ/GC catalyst showed a very interesting catalytic activity that was nicely comparable to the NiNPs/1,5-PDAN/GC, NiNPs/1,8-PDAN/GC modified electrodes. In advance, both shows a significant more catalytic activity compared to the reported data for electrodes for glucose electrocatalytic oxidation.

Keywords: biofuel cells, glucose oxidation, electrocatalysis, nanoparticles and modified electrodes

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Authors: Francisco Ben, Tracey Price, Chad Morrison, Victoria Warren, Willy Gollan, Robyn Dunbar, Frank Davies, Mark Sorrell

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This paper focuses particularly on the educational aspects that contribute to the overall educational satisfaction rated by Tabor School of Education students who participated in the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in 2010, 2012 and 2013. In all three years of participation, Tabor ranked first especially in the area of overall student satisfaction. By using a single level path analysis in relation to the AUSSE datasets collected using the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ) for Tabor School of Education, seven aspects that contribute to overall student satisfaction have been identified. There appears to be a direct causal link between aspects of the Supportive Learning Environment, Work Integrated Learning, Career Readiness, Academic Challenge, and overall educational satisfaction levels. A further three aspects, being Student and Staff Interactions, Active Learning, and Enriching Educational Experiences, indirectly influence overall educational satisfaction levels.

Keywords: attrition, retention, educational experience, pre-service teacher education, student satisfaction

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Authors: Jie Zhang, Chaomin Zhang, Jihua Zhang, Haitong Li

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Using the theory of optimal distinctiveness, this study examines the effects of conformity and differentiation within corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on capital market performance. Analysing data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2022, this paper demonstrates that when firms conform to the expected scope of CSR, such behaviour enhances investor attention and market acceptance, thereby boosting stock liquidity. Conversely, emphasising differentiation in CSR practices more effectively mitigates stock price crash risk by addressing principal–agent problems and decreasing information asymmetry. This paper also investigates how organisational and environmental factors moderate the relationship between conformity and differentiation in CSR practices and their impact on capital market performance. The results also show that the influence of conformity on stock liquidity is accentuated in smaller firms and environments with stringent legal oversight. By contrast, the benefits of differentiation in reducing stock price crash risk are amplified in firms with robust corporate governance and markets characterised by high uncertainty.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, social responsibility practices, capital market performance, optimal distinctiveness

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Authors: Amal Alshahrani, Allan Ramsay

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Paraphrasing is one of the important tasks in natural language processing; i.e. alternative ways to express the same concept by using different words or phrases. Paraphrases can be used in many natural language applications, such as Information Retrieval, Machine Translation, Question Answering, Text Summarization, or Information Extraction. To obtain pairs of sentences that are paraphrases we create a system that automatically extracts paraphrases from a corpus, which is built from different sources of news article since these are likely to contain paraphrases when they report the same event on the same day. There are existing simple standard approaches (e.g. TF-IDF vector space, cosine similarity) and alignment technique (e.g. Dynamic Time Warping (DTW)) for extracting paraphrase which have been applied to the English. However, the performance of these approaches could be affected when they are applied to another language, for instance Arabic language, due to the presence of phenomena which are not present in English, such as Free Word Order, Zero copula, and Pro-dropping. These phenomena will affect the performance of these algorithms. Thus, if we can analysis how the existing algorithms for English fail for Arabic then we can find a solution for Arabic. The results are promising.

Keywords: natural language processing, TF-IDF, cosine similarity, dynamic time warping (DTW)

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Authors: Damir Počakal

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Continental part Croatia is exposed, mainly in the summer months, to the frequent occurrence of severe thunderstorms and hail. In the 1960s, aiming to protect and reduce the damage, an operational hail suppression system was introduced in that area. The current protected area is 26800 km2 and has about 580 hail suppression stations (rockets and ground generators) which are managed with 8 radar centres (S-band radars). In order to obtain objective and precise hailstone measurement for different research studies, hailpads were installed on all this stations in 2001. Additionally the dense hailpad network with the dimensions of 20 km x 30 km (1 hailpad per 4 km2), was established in the area with the highest average number of days with hail in Croatia in 2002. This paper presents analysis of relation between radar measured parameters of Cb cells in the time of hail fall with physical parameters of hail (max. diameter, number of hail stones and kinetic energy) measured on hailpads in period 2002 -2014. In addition are compared radar parameters of Cb cells with and without hail on the ground located at the same time over the polygon area.

Keywords: Cb cell, hail, radar, hailpad

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Authors: A. A. Okafor, C. H. Achebe, J. L. Chukwuneke, C. G. Ozoegwu

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The performance of an engine whose basic design parameters are known can be predicted with the assistance of simulation programs into the less time, cost and near value of actual. This paper presents a comprehensive mathematical model of the performance parameters of four stroke spark ignition engine. The essence of this research work is to develop a mathematical model for the analysis of engine performance parameters of four stroke spark ignition engine before embarking on full scale construction, this will ensure that only optimal parameters are in the design and development of an engine and also allow to check and develop the design of the engine and it’s operation alternatives in an inexpensive way and less time, instead of using experimental method which requires costly research test beds. To achieve this, equations were derived which describe the performance parameters (sfc, thermal efficiency, mep and A/F). The equations were used to simulate and optimize the engine performance of the model for various engine speeds. The optimal values obtained for the developed bivariate mathematical models are: sfc is 0.2833kg/kwh, efficiency is 28.77% and a/f is 20.75.

Keywords: bivariate models, engine performance, injector engine, optimization, performance parameters, simulation, spark ignition

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Authors: Xi Xiao, Chunhui Chen, Xinyu Liu, Guangwu Hu, Yong Jiang

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Location sharing is a fundamental service in mobile Online Social Networks (mOSNs), which raises significant privacy concerns in recent years. Now, most location-based service applications adopt client/server architecture. In this paper, a location sharing system, named CSLocShare, is presented to provide flexible privacy-preserving location sharing with client/server architecture in mOSNs. CSLocShare enables location sharing between both trusted social friends and untrusted strangers without the third-party server. In CSLocShare, Location-Storing Social Network Server (LSSNS) provides location-based services but do not know the users’ real locations. The thorough analysis indicates that the users’ location privacy is protected. Meanwhile, the storage and the communication cost are saved. CSLocShare is more suitable and effective in reality.

Keywords: mobile online social networks, client/server architecture, location sharing, privacy-preserving

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Authors: Luke Andrighetto, Paul G. Stevenson, Luke C. Henderson, Jim Pearson, Xavier A. Conlan

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As pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in cold and flu medications is closely monitored and restricted in Australia, alternative methods of accessing it are of interest. The impurities and by-products of every reaction step of pseudoephedrine/ephedrine and methamphetamine synthesis have been mapped in order to develop a chemical fingerprint based on synthetic route. Likewise, seized methamphetamine contains a combination of different cutting agents and starting materials. Therefore, in-silico optimised two-dimensional HPLC with DryLab® and OpenMS® software has been used to efficiently separate complex seizure samples. An excellent match between simulated and real separations was observed. Targeted separation of model compounds was completed with significantly reduced method development time. This study produced a two-dimensional separation regime that offers unprecedented separation power (separation space) while maintaining a rapid analysis time that is faster than those previously reported for gas chromatography, single dimension high performance liquid chromatography or capillary electrophoresis.

Keywords: chemical fingerprint, ephedrine, methamphetamine, two-dimensional HPLC

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Authors: Rolf Katzenbach, Frithjof Clauss, Jie Zheng

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The final energy use can be divided mainly in four sectors: commercial, industrial, residential, and transportation. The trend in final energy consumption by sector plays as a most straightforward way to provide a wide indication of progress for reducing energy consumption and associated environmental impacts by different end use sectors. According to statistics the average share of end use energy for residential sector in the world was nearly 20% until 2011, in Germany a higher proportion is between 25% and 30%. However, it remains less studied than energy use in other three sectors as well its impacts on climate and environment. The reason for this involves a wide range of fields, including the diversity of residential construction like different housing building design and materials, living or energy using behavioral patterns, climatic condition and variation as well other social obstacles, market trend potential and financial support from government. This paper presents an extensive and in-depth analysis of the manner by which projects researched and operated by authors in the fields of energy efficiency primarily from the perspectives of both technical potential and initiative energy saving consciousness in the residential sectors especially in social housing buildings.

Keywords: energy efficiency, renewable energy, retro-commissioning, social housing, sustainability

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Authors: Xing Lv, Hui-Qin Xu

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The present study aimed to reveal the mechanism in aggravating STZ induced diabetic nephropathy (DN) by AGEs (advanced glycation end products). At the eighth day, 20 diabetic mice were randomly divided into STZ group and combination (combine AGEs with STZ) group. Simultaneously, AGEs group and normal group were set. Only mice in AGEs group, combination group were fed with high-AGEs diets. Mice diabetic conventional indicators, biochemical analysis were measured. Among the indictors, food consumptions, water intake, urine output, blood glucose, urine protein, urine creatinine, serum urea nitrogen were increased significantly in STZ, combination groups. The AGEs levels in combination group increased significantly when compared with STZ group. Weights and insulin levels in the STZ, combination groups were decreased significantly when compared with normal group, and the difference was significantly between AGEs group and STZ group. As a conclusion, AGEs play an important role in the DN development, inducing kidney damages.

Keywords: AGEs, diabetic nephropathy, serum urea nitrogen, urine protein

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Authors: Grace Baptie, Jackie Andrade, Alison Bacon, Alyson Norman

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Background: Many women experience their childbirth as traumatic, and 4-6% of mothers present with postnatal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their birth. Aims: To measure the relationship between obstetric and subjective experience of childbirth on mothers’ experience of postnatal trauma and identify salient aspects of the birth experience considered traumatic. Methods: Women who had given birth within the last year completed an online mixed-methods survey reporting on their subjective and obstetric birth experience as well as symptoms of postnatal trauma, depression and anxiety. Findings: 29% of mothers experienced their labour as traumatic and 15% met full or partial criteria for PTSD. Feeling supported and in control mediated the relationship between obstetric intervention and postnatal trauma symptoms. Five key themes were identified from the qualitative data regarding aspects of the birth considered traumatic including: obstetric complications; lack of control; concern for baby; psychological trauma and lack of support. Conclusion: Subjective birth experience is a significantly stronger predictor of postnatal trauma than level of medical intervention, the psychological consequences of which can be buffered by an increased level of support and control.

Keywords: birth trauma, perinatal mental health, postnatal PTSD, subjective experience

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Authors: Rabiaa Gammoudi, Najet Rebei, Othman Hasnaoui

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Photovoltaic systems use different techniques for tracking the Maximum Power Point (MPPT) to provide the highest possible power to the load regardless of the climatic conditions variation. In this paper, the proposed method is the Open Circuit (OC) method with sudden and random variations of insolation. The simulation results of the water pumping system controlled by OC method are validated by an experimental experience in real-time using a test bench composed by a centrifugal pump powered by a PVG via a boost chopper for the adaptation between the source and the load. The output of the DC/DC converter supplies the motor pump LOWARA type, assembly by means of a DC/AC inverter. The control part is provided by a computer incorporating a card DS1104 running environment Matlab/Simulink for visualization and data acquisition. These results show clearly the effectiveness of our control with a very good performance. The results obtained show the usefulness of the developed algorithm in solving the problem of degradation of PVG performance depending on the variation of climatic factors with a very good yield.

Keywords: PVWPS (PV Water Pumping System), maximum power point tracking (MPPT), open circuit method (OC), boost converter, DC/AC inverter

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Authors: Burak Unveren, Ecem Uygun, Özdemi̇r Teke

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A large body of literature documents how the Ottoman Empire's economic decline in relation to Western Europe was exacerbated by the unequal legal treatment of its subjects based on creed. Motivated by this debate, we empirically explore whether property taxes collected from businesses in Istanbul discriminated against or favored non-Muslims after the cadastral survey of the capital in 1875. The survey was conducted to determine the property taxes. And the process was potentially susceptible to the biased views of the surveyors who calculated the taxes payable via their subjective appraisals of all real properties. According to our results, in contrast to widely held beliefs regarding 19th-century Istanbul, the number of Muslim shop owners is higher than that of non-Muslims. Moreover, we find evidence for taxes collected from non-Muslim shop and store owners to be higher compared to Muslims, even after controlling for all physical features (e.g., size, location, etc.). These results directly pertain to the fiscal capacity of the Ottoman state and its economic divergence from Europe in the 19th century. Surprisingly, the data also indicates no statistically different tax differentials between male and female property owners.

Keywords: economic history, taxation, small business, discrimination

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Authors: Benedict O. Ayomanor, Cookey Iyen, Ifeoma S. Iyen

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Rice hull (RH) biomass product gives feasible silica for exact temperature and period. The minimal fabrication price turns its best feasible produce to metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si). In this work, to avoid ecological worries extending from CO₂ release to oil leakage on water and land, or nuclear left-over pollution, all finally add to the immense topics of ecological squalor; high purity silicon > 98.5% emerge set from rice hull ash (RHA) by solid-liquid removal. The RHA derived was purified by nitric and hydrochloric acid solutions. Leached RHA sieved, washed in distilled water, and desiccated at 1010ºC for 4h. Extra cleansing was achieved by carefully mixing the SiO₂ ash through Mg dust at a proportion of 0.9g SiO₂ to 0.9g Mg, galvanised at 1010ºC to formula magnesium silicide. The solid produced was categorised by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Elemental analysis using XRF found the percentage of silicon in the material is approximately 98.6%, main impurities are Mg (0.95%), Ca (0.09%), Fe (0.3%), K (0.25%), and Al (0.40%).

Keywords: siliceous, leached, biomass, solid-liquid extraction

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Authors: Amal Alatar

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The paper focuses on the exploration of architectural characteristics and decorative elements of the temple of Echmun, emphasizing the socio-economic significance of Sidon during the Greek and Roman periods to understand the implications of their spread and development on the Phoenician cities, as well as reveal the symbolical and societal connotations that may have been connected with the buildings, in order to allow a well-founded examination of common characteristics. In general, studying Phoenician archaeology posed some problems. The main problem is that most major Phoenician settlements lay beneath modern urban centers. This situation often prevented or largely restricted full archaeological investigations; the publications are frequently not complete enough to determine the basic characteristics of the architectural elements. Another key problem is the political instability of the region, which affected the archaeological research in the Phoenician homeland for many years. Nevertheless, during the past decades, an ever-growing cache of data was acquired from the archaeological surroundings of the Phoenician sites. Both the architectural elements from the Greek and Roman period have never been studied as a group before. Surprisingly, they have been largely ignored, despite their apparent profusion throughout the cities. The Roman period of Sidon has generally been neglected in preference to earlier periods, where it is often difficult to distinguish between Roman, Bronze age, medieval and Ottoman structures.

Keywords: archaeology, classical, Hellenistic, Eshmun Temple, architecture, Sidon, Lebanon

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Authors: M. R. Naroui Rad, H. Fanaei, A. Ghalandarzehi

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To find out the yield of melon, the traits are vital. This research was performed with the objective to assess the impact of nine different morphological traits on the production of 20 melon landraces in the sistan weather region. For all the traits genetic variation was noted. Minimum genetical variance (9.66) along with high genetic interaction with the environment led to low heritability (0.24) of the yield. The broad sense heritability of the traits that were included into the differentiating model was more than it was in the production. In this study, the five selected traits, number of fruit, fruit weight, fruit width, flesh diameter and plant yield can differentiate the genotypes with high or low production. This demonstrated the significance of these 5 traits in plant breeding programs. Discriminant function of these 5 traits, particularly, the weight of the fruit, in case of the current outputs was employed as an all-inclusive parameter for pointing out landraces with the highest yield. 75% of variation in yield can be explained with this index, and the weight of fruit also has substantial relation with the total production (r=0.72**). This factor can be highly beneficial in case of future breeding program selections.

Keywords: melon, discriminant analysis, genetic components, yield, selection

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Authors: Tauhidur Rahman, Gitartha Kalita

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In this study a four span box girder bridge is considered and effect of the rotational and translational earthquake ground motion have been thoroughly investigated. This study is motivated by the fact that in many countries the translational and rotational components of earthquake ground motion, especially rocking, is not adequately considered in analysing the overall response of the structures subjected to earthquake ground excitations. Much consideration is given to only the horizontal components of the earthquake ground motion during the response analysis of structures. In the present research work, P waves, SV waves and Rayleigh wave excitations are considered for different angle of incidence. In the present paper, the four span bridge is model considering the effects of vertical and rocking components of P, SV and Rayleigh wave excitations. Ground responses namely displacement, velocity and acceleration of the substructures of the bridge have been considered for rotational and translational effects in addition to the horizontal ground motion due to earthquake and wind.

Keywords: ground motion, response, rotational effects, translational effects

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Authors: G. Çetinkaya, M. Yıldız, P. Çetinkaya

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Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries and its total contribution to the global economy in 2014 was US$7.6 trillion, which equates to 9.8% of total economy GDP in 2014. Mountains are important regions for tourism industry and its second most popular tourist destinations after coastal regions. Hiking and trekking are most popular activity in mountains region and it is estimated that more than 50 million people visit mountains each year. So that hiking was come out to individual activity and it’s to be a massive event. Nowadays hiking is commercialized and mostly it’s become organized by travel agency and tour operators. Travel agency which is offering hiking activities to know the demands of the individuals involved in these activities and is required to submit to it for services. The aim of this study to determined hiking participant expectation from hiking by travel agency perspective. 34 travel agency officials participated in the study. Data were collected by questionnaire developed by the researchers. Results show that according to travel agency officials “visual quality” is the most important expectation factor for hikers. And other expectation factors are “safety”, “accessibility”, “unspoiled local service”, “walking grade”, “expert guidance service”, “popularity of trail”, “uncrowded trail”, “substructure facilities”, “relevant cost”, “guidebook” and “suitable climatic conditions”.

Keywords: expectation, hikers, travel agency, mountain tourism

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Authors: Belkacem Ould Said, Nourddine Retiel, Abdelilah Benazza, Mohamed Aichouni

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In this paper, a numerical study of two-dimensional steady flow has been made of natural convection in a differentially heated vertical conical partially annular space. The heat transfer is assumed to take place by natural convection. The inner and outer surfaces of annulus are maintained at uniform wall temperature. The annulus is filled with air. The CFD FLUENT12.0 code is used to solve the governing equations of mass, momentum and energy using constant properties and the Boussinesq approximation for density variation. The streamlines and the isotherms of the fluid are presented for different annuli with different boundary conditions and Rayleigh numbers. Emphasis is placed on the influences of the height of the inner vertical cone on the flow and the temperature fields. In addition, the effects on the heat transfer are discussed for various values of physical parameters of the fluid and geometric parameters of the annulus. The heat transfer on the hot walls of the annulus is also calculated in order to make comparisons between the cylinder annulus for boundary conditions and several Rayleigh numbers. A good agreement of Nusselt number has been found between the present predictions and reference from the literature data.

Keywords: natural convection, heat transfer, numerical simulation, conical partially, annular space

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Authors: Khalil Khanafer

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This study emphasizes on analyzing the effect of flow conditions and the geometric variation of the microcantilever’s bluff body on the microcantilever detection capabilities within a fluidic device using a finite element fluid-structure interaction model. Such parameters include inlet velocity, flow direction, and height of the microcantilever’s supporting system within the fluidic cell. The transport equations are solved using a finite element formulation based on the Galerkin method of weighted residuals. For a flexible microcantilever, a fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis is utilized and the fluid domain is described by an Arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation that is fully coupled to the structure domain. The results of this study showed a profound effect on the magnitude and direction of the inlet velocity and the height of the bluff body on the deflection of the microcantilever. The vibration characteristics were also investigated in this study. This work paves the road for researchers to design efficient microcantilevers that display least errors in the measurements.

Keywords: fluidic cell, FSI, microcantilever, flow direction

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Authors: Prosper Tafadzwa Denhere, Ephias Ruhode, Munyaradzi Zhou

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Health Information Systems (HISs) interoperability is emerging to be the future of modern healthcare systems Enterprise Architecture (EA), where healthcare entities are seamlessly interconnected to share healthcare data. The reality that the healthcare industry has been characterised by an influx of fragmented stand-alone e-Health systems, which present challenges of healthcare information sharing across platforms, desires much attention for systems integration efforts. The lack of an EA conceptual framework resultantly crates the need for investigating an ideal solution to the objective of Health Information Systems interoperability development assessment. The study takes a qualitative exploratory approach through a design science research context. The research aims to study the various themes withdrawn from the literature that can help in the assessment of interoperable HISs development through a literature study. Themes derived from the study include HIS needs, HIS readiness, HIS constraints, and HIS technology integration elements and standards tied to the EA development architectural layers of The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) as an EA development methodology. Eventually, the themes were conceptualised into a framework reviewed by two experts. The essence of the study was to provide a framework within which interoperable EA of HISs should be developed.

Keywords: enterprise architecture, eHealth, health information systems, interoperability

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Authors: Mojtaba Valinejadshoubi, Azin Shakibabarough, Ashutosh Bagchi

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Facilities such as residential buildings, office buildings, and hospitals house large density of occupants. Therefore, a low-cost facility management program (FMP) should be used to provide a satisfactory built environment for these occupants. Facility management (FM) has been recently used in building projects as a critical task. It has been effective in reducing operation and maintenance cost of these facilities. Issues of information integration and visualization capabilities are critical for reducing the complexity and cost of FM. Building information modeling (BIM) can be used as a strong visual modeling tool and database in FM. The main objective of this study is to examine the applicability of BIM in the FM process during a building’s operational phase. For this purpose, a seven-storey office building is modeled Autodesk Revit software. Authors integrated the cloud-based environment using a visual programming tool, Dynamo, for the purpose of having a real-time cloud-based communication between the facility managers and the participants involved in the project. An appropriate and effective integrated data source and visual model such as BIM can reduce a building’s operational and maintenance costs by managing the building life cycle properly.

Keywords: building information modeling, facility management, operational phase, building life cycle

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Authors: Asma A. Ben Ahmed, Hajer M. Alborawy, Alaa A. Mashina, Pradeep K. Velautham, Abdulmonem Gobassa, Emhemmed Elgallal, Mohamed N. El Attug

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Generic medicines are those where patent protection has expired, and which may be produced by manufacturers other than the innovator company. Use of generic medicines has been increasing in recent years, primarily as a cost saving measure in healthcare provision. Generic medicines are typically 20 – 90 % cheaper than originator equivalents. Physicians often continue to prescribe brand-name drugs to their patients even when less expensive pharmacologically equivalent generic drugs are available. Because generics are less expensive than their brand-name counterparts, the cost-savings to the patient is not the only factor that physicians consider when choosing between generic and brand-name drugs. Unfortunately Physicians in general and Libyan Physicians in particular tend to prescribe brand-name drugs, even without evidence of their therapeutic superiority, because neither they nor their insured patients bear these drugs’ increased cost with respect to generic substitutes. This study is to compare the quality of five different prednisolone tablets of the same strength from different companies under different trade names: Julphar, October pharma, Akums, Actavis, Pfizer compared them with pure prednisolone reference (BPCRS).

Keywords: quality control, pharmaceutical analysis, generic medicines, prednisolone

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Authors: M. Lizzy Madiwani, Ignatious Ncube, Evelyn Madoroba

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This study was designed to determine the distribution of pathogenic bacteria in household raised chickens and study their virulence and antibiotic profiles. For this purpose, 40 chickens were purchased from families in the Capricorn district and sacrificed for sampling. Tissues were cultured on different bacteriological media followed by biotyping using Matrix-assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-time of Flight (MALDI-TOF). Disk diffusion test was performed to determine the antibiotic susceptibility profiles of these bacteria. Out of a total of 160 tissue samples evaluated, E. coli and Salmonella were detected in these tissues. Furthermore, determination of the pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella strains at species level using primer sets that target selected genes of interest in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was employed. The invA gene, a confirmatory gene of Salmonella was detected in all the Salmonella isolates. The study revealed that there is a high distribution of Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli in these chickens. Therefore, further studies on identification at the species level are highly recommended to provide management and sanitation practices to lower this prevalence. The antimicrobial susceptibly data generated from this study can be a valuable reference to veterinarians for treating bacterial diseases in poultry.

Keywords: antimicrobial, Escherichia coli, pathogens, Salmonella

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Katarzyna Baruch, Agata Szelag, Jaroslaw Rubacha, Bartlomiej Chojnacki, Tadeusz Kamisinski

Abstract:

Methodology used to measure the reduction of transmitted impact sound by floor coverings situated on a massive floor is described in ISO 10140-3: 2010. To carry out such tests, the standardised reverberation room separated by a standard floor from the second measuring room are required. The need to have a special laboratory results in high cost and low accessibility of this measurement. The authors propose their own engineering method to measure the impact sound improvement with floor coverings. This method does not require standard rooms and floor. This paper describes the measurement procedure of proposed engineering method. Further, verification tests were performed. Validation of the proposed method was based on the analytical model, Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) model and empirical measurements. The received results were related to corresponding ones obtained from ISO 10140-3:2010 measurements. The study confirmed the usefulness of the engineering method.

Keywords: building acoustic, impact noise, impact sound insulation, impact sound transmission, reduction of impact sound

Procedia PDF Downloads 324

Authors: Nazim Habibov, Alena Auchynnikava, Lida Fan

Abstract:

The exploration of the relationship between social trust and the support of the welfare system in transitional countries has attracted growing interests in recent decades. This study estimates the effects of interpersonal and institutional trust on the support of the welfare system in 27 countries in Eastern Europe the former Soviet Union. We estimate the data sets from the Life-in-Transition Survey 2010 and 2016 with binomial regression models. The results indicate that both interpersonal and institutional trust have positive effects on the support for the welfare system in all the three areas under investigation: helping the needy, public healthcare and public education, both in the less developed countries of the former Soviet Union and in the more developed Eastern European countries. Furthermore, the positive effects of interpersonal and institutional trust on support for helping the needy, public healthcare and public education were found to grow over time. In conclusion, this study confirms that interpersonal and institutional trusts have positive effects for the public support of the welfare system in these transitional countries under investigation, regardless of their level of development.

Keywords: central and eastern Europe, former Soviet union, international social welfare policy, comparative social welfare policy

Procedia PDF Downloads 130