Search results for: contact problem

Authors: Mohan Bilikallahalli Sannathimmappa, Vinod Nambiar, Rajeev Aravindakshan

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Background: Image-based teaching-learning module is innovative student-centered andragogy. The objective of our study was to explore medical students’ perception of effectiveness of image-based learning strategy in promoting their lifelong learning skills and evaluate its impact on improving students’ exam grades. Methods: A prospective single-cohort study was conducted on undergraduate medical students of the academic year 2021-22. The image-based teaching-learning module was assessed through pretest, posttest, and exam grades. Students’ feedback was collected through a predesigned questionnaire on a 3-point Likert Scale. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient test. In-Course Exam-4 results were compared with In-Course Exams 1, 2, and 3. Correlation coefficients were worked out wherever relevant to find the impact of the exercise on grades. Data were collected, entered into Microsoft Excel, and statistically analyzed using SPSS version 22. Results: In total, 127 students were included in the study. The posttest scores of the students were significantly high (24.75±) as compared to pretest scores (8.25±). Students’ opinion towards the effectiveness of image-based learning in promoting their lifelong learning skills was overwhelmingly positive (Cronbach’s alpha for all items was 0.756). More than 80% of the students indicated image-based learning was interesting, encouraged peer discussion, and helped them to identify, explore, and revise key information and knowledge improvement. Nearly 70% expressed image-based learning enhanced their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Nine out of ten students recommended image-based learning module for future topics. Conclusion: Overall, Image-based learning was found to be effective in achieving undergraduate medical students learning outcomes. The results of the study are in favor of the implementation of Image-based learning in Microbiology courses. However, multicentric studies are required to authenticate our study findings.

Keywords: active learning, knowledge, medical education, microbes, problem solving

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Authors: Sima Majnooni

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This paper discusses the Green Climate Fund's environmental and social management framework (GCF). The environmental and social management framework ensures the accredited entity considers the GCF's accreditation standards and effectively implements each of the GCF-funded projects. The GCF requires all accredited entities to meet basic transparency and accountability standards as well as environmental and social safeguards (ESMS). In doing so, the accredited entity sets up different independent units. One of these units is called the Grievance Mechanism. When allegations of environmental and social harms are raised in association with GCF-funded activities, affected parties can contact the entity’s grievance unit. One of the most challenging things about the accredited entity's grievance unit is the lack of available information and resources on the entities' websites. Many AEs have anti-corruption or anti-money laundering unit, but they do not have the environmental and social unit for affected people. This paper will argue the effectiveness of environmental and social grievance mechanisms of AEs by using a qualitative approach to indicate how many of AEs have a poor or an effective GRM. Some ESMSs seem highly effective. On the other hand, other mechanisms lack basic requirements such as a clear, transparent, uniform procedure and a definitive timetable. We have looked at each AE mechanism not only in light of how the website goes into detail regarding the process of grievance mechanism but also in light of their risk category. Many mechanisms appear inadequate for the lower level risk category entities (C) and, even surprisingly, for many higher-risk categories (A). We found; in most cases, the grievance mechanism of AEs seems vague.

Keywords: grievance mechanism, vague environmental and social policies, green climate fund, international climate finance, lower and higher risk category

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Authors: Styliani Soulioti, Helen Fiddler

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The aim of this study was to investigate the approaches used by physiotherapists in the education of patients with chronic low back pain (cLBP) and the rationale that underpins their choice of approach. Therapeutic patient education (TPE) is considered to be an important aspect of modern physiotherapy practice, as it helps patients achieve better self-management and a better understanding of their problem. Previous studies have explored this subject, but the reasoning behind the choices physiotherapists make as educators has not been widely explored, thus making it difficult to understand areas that could be addressed in order to improve the application of TPE.A qualitative study design, guided by a constructivist epistemology was used in this research project. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 7 physiotherapists. Inductive coding and thematic analysis were used, which allowed key themes to emerge. Data analysis revealed two overarching themes: 1) patient-centred versus therapist-centred educational approaches, and 2) behaviourist versus constructivist educational approaches. Physiotherapists appear to use a patient-centred-approach when they explore patients’ beliefs about cLBP and treatment expectations. However, treatment planning and goal-setting were guided by a therapist-centred approach, as physiotherapists appear to take on the role of the instructor/expert, whereas patients were viewed as students. Using a constructivist approach, physiotherapists aimed to provide guidance to patients by combining their professional knowledge with the patients’ individual knowledge, to help the patient better understand their problem, reflect upon it and find a possible solution. However, educating patients about scientific facts concerning cLBP followed a behaviourist approach, as an instructor/student relationship was observed and the learning content was predetermined and transmitted in a one-way manner. The results of this study suggest that a lack of consistency appears to exist in the educational approaches used by physiotherapists. Although patient-centeredness and constructivism appear to be the aims set by physiotherapists in order to optimise the education they provide, a student-teacher relationship appears to dominate when it comes to goal-setting and delivering scientific information.

Keywords: chronic low back pain, educational approaches, health education, patient education

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Authors: Monika Haanpää

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Well-functioning workplaces are often characterized by good co-operation, adequate flow of information, open interaction between workers and a supportive work environment. The workplace is a mosaic of human personalities and the influx of people, who speak different languages and who are from different cultural backgrounds, may bring about new challenges and enrich this environment. However, this influx of people could also pose a problem as the adaptation of immigrant people to new terms of work may depend heavily on the level of language skills, the stage of culture shock, professional identity, and personality. Migration is not a rare phenomenon in Finland anymore; nobody is surprised to see people from different countries and different backgrounds in the schools, on the streets or in shops. However, this does not mean that immigration is an easy process for people coming from other countries. The experience of workers, with diverse language and backgrounds, has rarely been researched, particularly from the superior's point of view. In addition, the vast majority of researchers have paid more attention to multicultural kindergartens in terms of immigrant children and their families. Hence, there is a need to show the problem which exists in the recruitment of the increasing number of workers who come from different countries. Opinions about kindergartens, as multicultural workplaces, have been gathered through interviews with immigrant workers responsible for education. In addition, a questionnaire for native Finnish workers and superiors in kindergartens was carried out. The collected material has been analyzed qualitatively, focusing on topics such as: the kindergarten as a multicultural workplace, factors influencing career success of workers with diverse language and cultural backgrounds, the social relations in the multicultural workplaces and teachers’ changing professional identity. The results of the research provided a novel aspect of the multicultural workplace and emphasized a dependency of immigrant workers’ on language skills in Finnish; affecting professional success. In addition, they showed the good relations between other native Finnish co-workers and superiors. The results also illustrate why writing skills in Finnish are so important in kindergartens. Part of the investigation also questions some results of the research i.e. which is more important in the kindergarten as a multicultural workplace: personality, good professional skills or good language skills.

Keywords: kindergarten, multicultural workplace, social relations at work, work satisfaction

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Authors: Qiuling Xie, Shanliang Zhu, Zongdi Sun

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In this paper, we analyzed the correlation relationship among PM2.5 from other five Air Quality Indices (AQIs) based on the grey relational degree, and built a multivariate nonlinear regression equation model of PM2.5 and the five monitoring indexes. For the optimal control problem of PM2.5, we took the partial large Cauchy distribution of membership equation as satisfaction function. We established a nonlinear programming model with the goal of maximum performance to price ratio. And the optimal control scheme is given.

Keywords: grey relational degree, multiple linear regression, membership function, nonlinear programming

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Authors: R. Periyasamy, Deepak Joshi, Sneh Anand

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Foot posture assessment is important to evaluate foot type, causing gait and postural defects in all age groups. Although different methods are used for classification of foot arch type in clinical/research examination, there is no clear approach for selecting the most appropriate measurement system. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a system for evaluation of foot type as clinical decision-making aids for diagnosis of flat and normal arch based on the Arch Index (AI) and foot pressure distribution parameter - Power Ratio (PR) data. The accuracy of the system was evaluated for 27 subjects with age ranging from 24 to 65 years. Foot area measurements (hind foot, mid foot, and forefoot) were acquired simultaneously from foot pressure intensity image using portable PedoPowerGraph system and analysis of the image in frequency domain to obtain foot pressure distribution parameter - PR data. From our results, we obtain 100% classification accuracy of normal and flat foot by using the linear discriminant analysis method. We observe there is no misclassification of foot types because of incorporating foot pressure distribution data instead of only arch index (AI). We found that the mid-foot pressure distribution ratio data and arch index (AI) value are well correlated to foot arch type based on visual analysis. Therefore, this paper suggests that the proposed system is accurate and easy to determine foot arch type from arch index (AI), as well as incorporating mid-foot pressure distribution ratio data instead of physical area of contact. Hence, such computational tool based system can help the clinicians for assessment of foot structure and cross-check their diagnosis of flat foot from mid-foot pressure distribution.

Keywords: arch index, computational tool, static foot pressure intensity image, foot pressure distribution, linear discriminant analysis

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Authors: Slim Naifar, Sonia Bradai, Christian Viehweger, Olfa Kanoun

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Vibration provides an interesting source of energy since it is available in many indoor and outdoor applications. Nevertheless, in order to have an efficient design of the harvesting system, vibration converters have to satisfy some criterion in terms of robustness, compactness and energy outcome. In this work, an electromagnetic converter based on mechanical spring principle is proposed. The designed harvester is formed by a coil oscillating around ten ring magnets using a mechanical spring. The proposed design overcomes one of the main limitation of the moving coil by avoiding the contact between the coil wires with the mechanical spring which leads to a better robustness for the converter. In addition, the whole system can be implemented in a cavity of a screw. Different parameters in the harvester were investigated by finite element method including the magnet size, the coil winding number and diameter and the excitation frequency and amplitude. A prototype was realized and tested. Experiments were performed for 0.5 g to 1 g acceleration. The used experimental setup consists of an electrodynamic shaker as an external artificial vibration source controlled by a laser sensor to measure the applied displacement and frequency excitation. Together with the laser sensor, a controller unit, and an amplifier, the shaker is operated in a closed loop which allows controlling the vibration amplitude. The resonance frequency of the proposed designs is in the range of 24 Hz. Results indicate that the harvester can generate 612 mV and 1150 mV maximum open circuit peak to peak voltage at resonance for 0.5 g and 1 g acceleration respectively which correspond to 4.75 mW and 1.34 mW output power. Tuning the frequency to other values is also possible due to the possibility to add mass to the moving part of the or by changing the mechanical spring stiffness.

Keywords: energy harvesting, electromagnetic principle, vibration converter, moving coil

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Authors: Lotha Valan, Åsa Hörnsten, Ulf Isaksson

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Introduction: Sweden has a national child health care program (CHCP) where all parents are offered support to raise their children and support them for lifelong health. A systematic review concludes that there is a request for guidance in using the internet effectively for the health purposes of their children. However, a study about internet use among young mothers means that the internet is not always easy to navigate for parents, and they may need support. To fill this gap and develop a digital channel to complement the child health care (CHC) for the support of parents of children within CHC, there is a demand to investigate parents' needs in relation to this purpose. Methods: The study had a qualitative approach using focus group interviews with parents. The interview data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The main theme highlights that parents expected that a digital support channel would be something that might strengthen them toward independence concerning the care of their children in a positive way. However, they also felt that they needed personal support and that relationships with other parents and the child health care nurse were significant and meaningful. Another parental desire that emerged was that a future digital channel would facilitate and simplify access to care, and they suggested having both planned and urgent times available for parents to book. The digital channel was expected to make this possible and be a good complement to the physical contacts the traditional child healthcare currently offers. Discussion/conclusions: The parents in this study believed that digital solutions could increase their parental power in relation to the care of their children. Examples were given as nurse-led parent groups where parents with similar problems and experiences around their children could support each other and were expected to strengthen them over time. The parents stressed that a planned digital support channel also needs satisfactory solutions for both contact and response. It was suggested that there should be bookable times for both planned and urgent needs and also the possibility of rescheduling visits.

Keywords: child healthcare, parents, digital support, nursing

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Authors: A. Gonzalez Aguna, J. M. Santamaria Garcia, J. L. Gomez Gonzalez, R. Barchino Plata, M. Fernandez Batalla, S. Herrero Jaen

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Background: Computer Science is a field that transcends other disciplines of knowledge because it allows to support all kinds of physical and mental tasks. Health centres have a greater number and complexity of technological devices and the population consume and demand services derived from technology. Also, nursing education plans have included competencies related to and, even, courses about new technologies are offered to health professionals. However, nurses still limit their performance to the use and evaluation of products previously built. Objective: Develop a teaching-learning methodology for acquiring skills on designing applications for care. Methodology: Blended learning teaching with a group of graduate nurses through official training within a Master's Degree. The study sample was selected by intentional sampling without exclusion criteria. The study covers from 2015 to 2017. The teaching sessions included a four-hour face-to-face class and between one and three tutorials. The assessment was carried out by written test consisting of the preparation of an IEEE 830 Standard Specification document where the subject chosen by the student had to be a problem in the area of care. Results: The sample is made up of 30 students: 10 men and 20 women. Nine students had a degree in nursing, 20 diploma in nursing and one had a degree in Computer Engineering. Two students had a degree in nursing specialty through residence and two in equivalent recognition by exceptional way. Except for the engineer, no subject had previously received training in this regard. All the sample enrolled in the course received the classroom teaching session, had access to the teaching material through a virtual area and maintained at least one tutoring. The maximum of tutorials were three with an hour in total. Among the material available for consultation was an example of a document drawn up based on the IEEE Standard with an issue not related to care. The test to measure competence was completed by the whole group and evaluated by a multidisciplinary teaching team of two computer engineers and two nurses. Engineers evaluated the correctness of the characteristics of the document and the degree of comprehension in the elaboration of the problem and solution elaborated nurses assessed the relevance of the chosen problem statement, the foundation, originality and correctness of the proposed solution and the validity of the application for clinical practice in care. The results were of an average grade of 8.1 over 10 points, a range between 6 and 10. The selected topic barely coincided among the students. Examples of care areas selected are care plans, family and community health, delivery care, administration and even robotics for care. Conclusion: The applied methodology of learning-teaching for the design of technologies demonstrates the success in the training of nursing professionals. The role of expert is essential to create applications that satisfy the needs of end users. Nursing has the possibility, the competence and the duty to participate in the process of construction of technological tools that are going to impact in care of people, family and community.

Keywords: care, learning, nursing, technology

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Authors: Edeaghe Ehikhamenor, Jennifer Nnamdi

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Introduction: Gender-based violence (GBV) was a well-known global crisis before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic burden only intensified the crisis. With prevailing lockdowns, increased poverty due to high unemployment, especially affecting females, and other mobility restrictions that have left many women trapped with their abusers, plus isolation from social contact and support networks, GBV cases spiraled out of control. Prevalence of economic with cultural disparity, which is greatly manifested in Nigeria, is a major contributory factor to GBV. This is made worst by religious adherents where the females are virtually relegated to the background. Our societal approaches to investigations and sanctions to culprits have not sufficiently applied forensic/DNA tools in combating these major vices. Violence against women or some rare cases against men can prevent them from carrying out their duties regardless of the position they hold. Objective: The main objective of this research is to highlight the origin of GBV, the victims, types, contributing factors, and the applications of forensics/DNA tools and remedies so as to minimize GBV in our society. Methods: Descriptive information was obtained through the search on our daily newspapers, electronic media, google scholar websites, other authors' observations and personal experiences, plus anecdotal reports. Results: Findings from our exploratory searches revealed a high incidence of GBV with very limited or no applications of Forensics/DNA tools as an intervening mechanism to reduce GBV in Nigeria. Conclusion: Nigeria needs to develop clear-cut policies on forensics/DNA tools in terms of institutional framework to develop a curriculum for the training of all stakeholders to fast-track justice for victims of GBV so as to serve as a deterrent to other culprits.

Keywords: gender-based violence, forensics, DNA, justice

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Authors: K. Caban-Piaskowska

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The aim of the article is to show how the role of a designer has changed, from the point of view of human resources management and thanks to the increased importance of design management, and is to present how a rehabilitation product, through technology approach to designing, becomes a universal product. Designing for the disabled is a very undiscovered area on the pattern-designing market, most often because it is associated with devices which support rehabilitation. In consequence, it means that the realizations have a limited group of receivers and are not that attractive for designers. The relation between using modern design in building rehabilitation devices and increasing the efficiency of treatment and physiotherapy. Using modern technology can have marketing significance. Rehabilitation products designed and produced in a modern way makes an impression that experts and professionals are involved in the lives of the user – patient. In order to illustrate the problem presented above i.e. Creating a rehabilitation product as an example of design management, the case study method was used in the research. The analysis of the case was created on the basis of an interview conducted by the author with a designer who took part in meetings with people who use rehabilitation and their physiotherapists, and created universal products in Poland in the years of 2012 to 2017. Usually, engineers and constructors deal with creating products which remind us of old torture devices, however, they are indestructible in construction. Such image of those products for the disabled clearly indicates that it is a wonderful niche for designers and emphasizes the need to make those products more attractive and innovative. Products for the disabled cannot be limited to rehabilitation equipment only e.g. wheelchairs or standing frames. Introducing the idea of universal designing can significantly broaden the circle of pattern-designing receivers – everyday-use items – with the disabled people. Fulfilling these criteria will decide about the advantage on the competitive market. It is possible due to the usage of the design management concept in the functioning of an organization. Using modern technology and materials in the production of equipment, and changing the role of a designer broadening the circle of receivers by designing a wide use process which makes it possible to use the product by people with various needs. What is more, introducing rehabilitation functions in everyday-use items can also become an innovative accent in designing. In the reality of the market, each group of users can and should be treated as a problem and a realization task.

Keywords: design management, innovation, rehabilitation product, universal product

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Authors: Zhijie Ma, Qinglin Zhao, Hongning Dai, Huan Zhang

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This paper proposes an APPLE scheme that aims at providing absolute and proportional throughput guarantees, and maximizing system throughput simultaneously for wireless LANs with homogeneous and heterogenous traffic. We formulate our objectives as an optimization problem, present its exact and approximate solutions, and prove the existence and uniqueness of the approximate solution. Simulations validate that APPLE scheme is accurate, and the approximate solution can well achieve the desired objectives already.

Keywords: IEEE 802.11e, throughput guarantee, priority, WLANs

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Authors: Biki Sarmah, Priyanko Raj Mudiar

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In the modern world of remotely interactive virtual reality-based learning and teaching, including professional skill-building training and acquisition practices, as well as data acquisition and robotic systems, the revolutionary application or implementation of field-programmable neurostimulator aids and first-hand interactive sensitisation techniques into 3D holographic audio-visual platforms have been a coveted dream of many scholars, professionals, scientists, and students. Integration of 'kinaesthetic vibrotactile haptic perception' along with an actuated step magnitude contact profiloscopy in augmented reality-based learning platforms and professional training can be implemented by using an extremely calculated and well-coordinated image telemetry including remote data mining and control technique. A real-time, computer-aided (PLC-SCADA) field calibration based algorithm must be designed for the purpose. But most importantly, in order to actually realise, as well as to 'interact' with some 3D holographic models displayed over a remote screen using remote laser image telemetry and control, all spatio-physical parameters like cardinal alignment, gyroscopic compensation, as well as surface profile and thermal compositions, must be implemented using zero-order type 1 actuators (or transducers) because they provide zero hystereses, zero backlashes, low deadtime as well as providing a linear, absolutely controllable, intrinsically observable and smooth performance with the least amount of error compensation while ensuring the best ergonomic comfort ever possible for the users.

Keywords: haptic feedback, kinaesthetic vibrotactile 3D design, medical simulation training, piezo diaphragm based actuator

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Authors: Ezman Fitriansyah, Lestari Diah Restu, Wawan

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Adaro coal mine in South Kalimantan-Indonesia maintains catchment area of approximately 15,000 Ha for its mine operation. As an open pit surface coal mine with high erosion rate, the mine water in Adaro coal mine contains high TSS that needs to be treated before being released to rivers. For the treatment process, Adaro operates 21 Settling Ponds equipped with combination of physical and chemical system to separate solids and water to ensure the discharged water complied with regional environmental quality standards. However, the sludge created from the sedimentation process reduces the settling ponds capacity gradually. Therefore regular maintenance activities are required to recover and maintain the ponds' capacity. Trucking system and direct dredging had been the most common method to handle sludge in Adaro. But the main problem in applying these two methods is excessive area required for drying pond construction. To solve this problem, Adaro implements an alternative method called Geotube®. The principle of Geotube® method is the sludge contained in the Settling Ponds is pumped into Geotube® containers which have been designed to release water and retain mud flocks. During the pumping process, an amount of flocculants chemicals are injected into the sludge to form bigger mud flocks. Due to the difference in particle size, the mud flocks are settled in the container whilst the water continues to flow out through the container’s pores. Compared to the trucking system and direct dredging method, this method provides three advantages: space required to operate, increasing of overburden waste dump volume, and increasing of water treatment process speed and quality. Based on the evaluation result, Geotube® method only needs 1:8 of space required by the other methods. From the geotechnical assessment result conducted by Adaro, the potential loss of waste dump volume capacity prior to implementation of the Geotube® method was 26.7%. The water treatment process of TSS in well maintained ponds is 16% more optimum.

Keywords: geotube, mine water, settling pond, sludge handling, wastewater treatment

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Authors: V. R. Sadasivam, M. Vipin, P. Vineeth, M. Sajith, G. Sathiskumar, R. Manikandan, N. Vijayarangan

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Global positioning system technology is what leads to such things as navigation systems, GPS tracking devices, GPS surveying and GPS mapping. All that GPS does is provide a set of coordinates which represent the location of GPS units with respect to its latitude, longitude and elevation on planet Earth. It also provides time, which is accurate. The tracking devices themselves come in different flavors. They will contain a GPS receiver, and GPS software, along with some way of transmitting the resulting coordinates. GPS in mobile tend to use radio waves to transmit their location to another GPS device. The purpose of this prototype “Mobi Navi Tour for Rescue Operation” timely communication, and lightning fast decision-making with a group of people located in different places with a common goal. Timely communication and tracking the people are a critical issue in many situations, environments. Expedited can find missing person by sending the location and other related information to them through mobile. Information must be drawn from the caller and entered into the system by the administrator or a group leader and transferred to the group leader. This system will locate the closest available person, a group of people working in an organization/company or vehicle to determine availability and their position to track them. Misinformation cannot lead to the wrong decision in the rapidly paced environment in a normal and an abnormal situation. In “Mobi Navi Tour for Rescue Operation” we use Google Cloud Messaging for android (GCM) which is a service that helps developers send data from servers to their android applications on android devices. The service provides a simple, lightweight mechanism that servers can use to tell mobile applications to contact the server directly, to fetch updated application or user data.

Keywords: android, gps, tour, communication, service

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Authors: Shigeaki Mishima

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Pharmacist labor shortage has become a long-term problem in Japan. This paper discusses the relationship between organizational commitment and pharmacists' organizational behavior in the context of labor shortage. Based on a multidimensional view of organizational commitment, effective commitment and continuous commitment are measured. It is suggested that the continuous commitment has a unique impact on withholding information behavior. We also discuss the impact of labor supply and demand on continuous commitment of retail pharmacist.

Keywords: organizational commitment, pharmacist, labor shortage, professional

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Authors: Siobhan Laird

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Under article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which extends human rights in their application to those under the age of 18 years, children must be consulted ‘in all matters affecting the child’. The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England is responsible for improving the welfare of children and young people by ensuring that their Convention rights are respected and realised and their views taken seriously. In 2014 the Children’s Commissioner engaged a team of researchers at the Centre for Social Work, University of Nottingham to develop and roll out an online survey to gather information from children and young people about their exercise of choice within the public care system. Approximately 3,000 children responded to this survey, which comprised both closed and open-ended questions. SPSS was used to analyse the numerical data and a thematic analysis of textual data was conducted on answers to open-ended questions. Findings revealed that children exercised considerable choice over personal space and their spare time, but had much less choice in relation to contact with their birth families, where they lived, or the timings of moves from one placement into another. The majority of children described how they were supported to express their opinions and believed that these were taken seriously. However, a significant number reported problems and explained how specific behaviours by professionals and carers made it difficult for them to express their opinion or to feel that they had influenced decisions which affected them. In open-ended questions eliciting information about their experiences, children and young people were asked to describe how they could be better supported to make choices and what changes would assist for these to be better acknowledged and acted upon by professionals and carers. This paper concludes by presenting the ideas and suggestions of children and young people for improving the public care system in Britain in relation to their exercise of choice.

Keywords: children, choice, participation, public care

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Authors: Kourosh Modarresi

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The Netflix problem has brought the topic of “Recommendation Systems” into the mainstream of computer science, mathematics, and statistics. Though much progress has been made, the available algorithms do not obtain satisfactory results. The success of these algorithms is rarely above 5%. This work is based on the belief that the main challenge is to come up with “scalable personalization” models. This paper uses an adaptive regularization of inverse singular value decomposition (SVD) that applies adaptive penalization on the singular vectors. The results show far better matching for recommender systems when compared to the ones from the state of the art models in the industry.

Keywords: convex optimization, LASSO, regression, recommender systems, singular value decomposition, low rank approximation

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Authors: Yeidy Sorani Montenegro Camacho, Samir Bensaid, Nunzio Russo, Debora Fino

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LiFeO2 nano-powders were prepared via solution combustion synthesis (SCS) method and were used as carbon gasification catalyst in a reduced atmosphere. The gasification of soot with CO2 and H2O in the presence of CO and H2 (syngas atmosphere) were also investigated under atmospheric conditions using a fixed-bed micro-reactor placed in an electric, PID-regulated oven. The catalytic bed was composed of 150 mg of inert silica, 45 mg of carbon (Printex-U) and 5 mg of catalyst. The bed was prepared by ball milling the mixture at 240 rpm for 15 min to get an intimate contact between the catalyst and soot. A Gas Hourly Space Velocity (GHSV) of 38.000 h-1 was used for the tests campaign. The furnace was heated up to the desired temperature, a flow of 120 mL/min was sent into the system and at the same time the concentrations of CO, CO2 and H2 were recorded at the reactor outlet using an EMERSON X-STREAM XEGP analyzer. Catalytic and non-catalytic soot gasification reactions were studied in a temperature range of 120°C – 850°C with a heating rate of 5 °C/min (non-isothermal case) and at 650°C for 40 minutes (isothermal case). Experimental results show that the gasification of soot with H2O and CO2 are inhibited by the H2 and CO, respectively. The soot conversion at 650°C decreases from 70.2% to 31.6% when the CO is present in the feed. Besides, the soot conversion was 73.1% and 48.6% for H2O-soot and H2O-H2-soot gasification reactions, respectively. Also, it was observed that the carbon gasification in mixed atmosphere, i.e., when simultaneous carbon gasification with CO2 and steam take place, with H2 and CO as co-reagents; the gasification reaction is strongly inhibited by CO and H2, as well has been observed in single atmospheres for the isothermal and non-isothermal reactions. Further, it has been observed that when CO2 and H2O react with carbon at the same time, there is a passive cooperation of steam and carbon dioxide in the gasification reaction, this means that the two gases operate on separate active sites without influencing each other. Finally, despite the extreme reduced operating conditions, it has been demonstrated that the 32.9% of the initial carbon was gasified using LiFeO2-catalyst, while in the non-catalytic case only 8% of the soot was gasified at 650°C.

Keywords: soot gasification, nanostructured catalyst, reducing environment, syngas

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Authors: Mahmood Otadi, Maryam Mosleh

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The hybrid differential equations have a wide range of applications in science and engineering. In this paper, the homotopy analysis method (HAM) is applied to obtain the series solution of the hybrid differential equations. Using the homotopy analysis method, it is possible to find the exact solution or an approximate solution of the problem. Comparisons are made between improved predictor-corrector method, homotopy analysis method and the exact solution. Finally, we illustrate our approach by some numerical example.

Keywords: fuzzy number, fuzzy ODE, HAM, approximate method

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Authors: D. Manai, J. Alvarez-Marron, M. Inoubli

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The southern Tunisian Atlas is a part of the wide Cenozoic intracontinental deformation that affected North Africa as a result of convergence between African and Eurasian plates. The Southern Tunisian Atlas Front (STAF) corresponds to the chotts area that covers several hundreds of Km² and represents a 60 km wide transition between the deformed Tunisian Atlas to the North and the undeformed Saharan platform to the South. It includes three morphostructural alignments, a fold and thrust range in the North, a wide depression in the middle and a monocline to horizontal zone to the south. Four cross-sections have been constructed across the chotts area to illustrate the structure of the Southern Tunisian Atlas Front based on integrated geological and geophysical data including geological maps, petroleum wells, and seismic data. The fold and thrust zone of the northern chotts is interpreted as related to a detachment level near the Triassic-Jurassic contact. The displacement of the basal thrust seems to die out progressively under the Fejej antiform and it is responsible to the south dipping of the southern chotts range. The restoration of the cross-sections indicates that the Southern Tunisian Atlas front is a weakly deformed wide zone developed during the Cenozoic inversion with a maximum calculated shortening in the order of 1000 m. The wide structure of this STAF has been influenced by a pre-existing large thickness of upper Jurassic-Aptian sediments related to the rifting episodes associated to the evolution of Tethys in the Maghreb. During Jurassic to Aptian period, the chotts area corresponded to a highly subsiding basin.

Keywords: Southern Tunisian Atlas Front, subsident sub- basin, wide deformation, balanced cross-sections.

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Authors: E. Gil, A. Zepeda, J. Rivera, C. Ben-Youssef, S. Rincón

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Water pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems. Multiple methods have been proposed for the removal of Pb(II) from contaminated water. Among these, adsorption processes have shown to be more efficient, cheaper and easier to handle with respect to other treatment methods. However, research for adsorbents with high adsorption capacities is still necessary. For this purpose, we proposed in this work the study of metal-organic Framework [Co2(btec)(bipy)(DMF)2]n (MOF-Co) as adsorbent material of Pb (II) in aqueous media. MOF-Co was synthesized by a simple method. Firstly 4, 4’ dipyridyl, 1,2,4,5 benzenetetracarboxylic acid, cobalt (II) and nitrate hexahydrate were first mixed each one in N,N dimethylformamide (DMF) and then, mixed in a reactor altogether. The obtained solution was heated at 363 K in a muffle during 68 h to complete the synthesis. It was washed and dried, obtaining MOF-Co as the final product. MOF-Co was characterized before and after the adsorption process by Fourier transforms infrared spectra (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The Pb(II) in aqueous media was detected by Absorption Atomic Spectroscopy (AA). In order to evaluate the adsorption process in the presence of Pb(II) in aqueous media, the experiments were realized in flask of 100 ml the work volume at 200 rpm, with different MOF-Co quantities (0.0125 and 0.025 g), pH (2-6), contact time (0.5-6 h) and temperature (298,308 and 318 K). The kinetic adsorption was represented by pseudo-second order model, which suggests that the adsorption took place through chemisorption or chemical adsorption. The best adsorption results were obtained at pH 5. Langmuir, Freundlich and BET equilibrium isotherms models were used to study the adsorption of Pb(II) with 0.0125 g of MOF-Co, in the presence of different concentration of Pb(II) (20-200 mg/L, 100 mL, pH 5) with 4 h of reaction. The correlation coefficients (R2) of the different models show that the Langmuir model is better than Freundlich and BET model with R2=0.97 and a maximum adsorption capacity of 833 mg/g. Therefore, the Langmuir model can be used to best describe the Pb(II) adsorption in monolayer behavior on the MOF-Co. This value is the highest when compared to other materials such as the graphene/activated carbon composite (217 mg/g), biomass fly ashes (96.8 mg/g), PVA/PAA gel (194.99 mg/g) and MOF with Ag12 nanoparticles (120 mg/g).

Keywords: adsorption, heavy metals, metal-organic frameworks, Pb(II)

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Authors: Mammar Khames, Mustapha Oumouna

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Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonoses in the world. It represents a serious threat to human health; the existence of brucellosis in Algeria dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. Its transmission to humans is through coccobacilli of the genus Brucella following direct contact with contaminated animals or indirectly through the consumption of their unpasteurized dairy products. The present investigation covers a retrospective study on human brucellosis in the district of Medea over a period from 2011 to 2021 at the level of two public health establishments. In the first place, it is at the level of the Directorate of Public Health and in the infectious department level at Medea Hospital, and at the level of the directorate of agricultural services in the third place. The results showed that during these eleven years of study, 795 cases were collected from the department of health and population, and 141 cases were collected from the infectious department of the district of Medea. A total of 56 cases of bovine brucellosis were obtained from the directorate of agricultural services of the district of Medea. Human brucellosis affects all age groups with different percentages, but the rate has been higher in the 20-44 age group, with a predominance of men. However, the geographic distribution map of the cases shows that the western part of the district was the most affected. A cohort of 141 cases was hospitalized at the infectious service level of Medea Hospital. They were 89 men and 52 women. The most common age reached is [20-44] years. The majority were of rural origin. Two serological reactions were performed for diagnosis: the buffered antigen test and Wright's serodiagnosis. Bovine brucellosis affects all age groups with different percentages, but the rate was higher in the 2-to-4-year age group, with a predominance of females. From these data, we conclude that brucellosis has a strong spread in the region studied.

Keywords: human brucellosis, serology, Medea, Algeria

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Authors: Minho Lee, Donghyun Back, Jaemoon Jung, Woojin Park

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The current 3-dimensional (3D) posture prediction models commonly provide only a few optimal postures to achieve a specific objective. The problem with such models is that they are incapable of rapidly providing several optimal posture candidates according to various situations. In order to solve this problem, this paper presents a 3D memory-based posture planning (3D MBPP) model, which is a new digital human model that can analyze the feasible postures in 3D space for reaching tasks that have postural constraints and specific reaching space. The 3D MBPP model can be applied to the types of works that are done with constrained working postures and have specific reaching space. The examples of such works include driving an excavator, driving automobiles, painting buildings, working at an office, pitching/batting, and boxing. For these types of works, a limited amount of space is required to store all of the feasible postures, as the hand reaches boundary can be determined prior to perform the task. This prevents computation time from increasing exponentially, which has been one of the major drawbacks of memory-based posture planning model in 3D space. This paper validates the utility of 3D MBPP model using a practical example of analyzing baseball batting posture. In baseball, batters swing with both feet fixed to the ground. This motion is appropriate for use with the 3D MBPP model since the player must try to hit the ball when the ball is located inside the strike zone (a limited area) in a constrained posture. The results from the analysis showed that the stored and the optimal postures vary depending on the ball’s flying path, the hitting location, the batter’s body size, and the batting objective. These results can be used to establish the optimal postural strategies for achieving the batting objective and performing effective hitting. The 3D MBPP model can also be applied to various domains to determine the optimal postural strategies and improve worker comfort.

Keywords: baseball, memory-based, posture prediction, reaching area, 3D digital human models

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Authors: Mumtaz Khan, Adeel Shahid, Waqas Khan

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Heavy metals presence in water streams is a big danger for aquatic life and ultimately effects human health. Removal of copper (Cu) by ispaghula husk, maize fibre, and maize oil cake from synthetic solution in batch conditions was studied. Different experimental parameters such as contact time, initial solution pH, agitation rate, initial Cu concentration, biosorbent concentration, and biosorbent particle size has been studied to quantify the Cu biosorption. The rate of adsorption of metal ions was very fast at the beginning and became slow after reaching the saturation point, followed by a slower active metabolic uptake of metal ions into the cells. Up to a certain point, (pH=4, concentration of Cu = ~ 640 mg/l, agitation rate = ~ 400 rpm, biosorbent concentration = ~ 0.5g, 3g, 3g for ispaghula husk, maize fiber and maize oil cake, respectively) increasing the pH, concentration of Cu, agitation rate, and biosorbent concentration, increased the biosorption rate; however the sorption capacity increased by decreasing the particle size. At optimized experimental parameters, the maximum Cu biosorption by ispaghula husk, maize fibre and maize oil cake were 86.7%, 59.6% and 71.3%, respectively. Moreover, the results of the kinetics studies demonstrated that the biosorption of copper on ispaghula husk, maize fibre, and maize oil cake followed pseudo-second order kinetics. The results of adsorption were fitted to both the Langmuir and Freundlich models. The Langmuir model represented the sorption process better than Freundlich, and R² value ~ 0.978. Optimizations of physical and environmental parameters revealed, ispaghula husk as more potent copper biosorbent than maize fibre, and maize oil cake. The sorbent is cheap and available easily, so this study can be applied to remove Cu impurities on pilot and industrial scale after certain modifications.

Keywords: biosorption, copper, ispaghula husk, maize fibre, maize oil cake, purification

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Authors: Samer Abu Ghazaleh, Jawdat Gousous

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E-learning in general started in Jordan around ten years ago in universities and at different departments and colleges. This paper will investigate the possibility to apply e-learning in architecture department at University of Jordan. As known architecture departments in general depend greatly in its syllabus upon design courses and studios, which consists nearly one third of its total credit hours. A survey has been conducted for architectural students at the University of Jordan and several conclusions have been reached irrespective of age, gender and nationality of the students, where the main problem was the way of the communication between the tutor and the student.

Keywords: cellular telephone, design courses, e-learning, internet

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Authors: J. Chamorro-Servent, S. Tassani, M. A. Gonzalez-Ballester, L. J. Roca, J. Romeu, O. Camara

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Electromagnetic and microwave imaging (MWI) have been used in medical imaging in the last years, being the most common applications of breast cancer and stroke detection or monitoring. In those applications, the subject or zone to observe is surrounded by a number of antennas, and the Nyquist criterium can be satisfied. Additionally, the space between the antennas (transmitting and receiving the electromagnetic fields) and the zone to study can be prepared in a homogeneous scenario. However, this may differ in other cases as could be intracardiac catheters, stomach monitoring devices, pelvic organ systems, liver ablation monitoring devices, or uterine fibroids’ ablation systems. In this work, we analyzed different MWI algorithms to find the most suitable method for dealing with an intrabody scenario. Due to the space limitations usually confronted on those applications, the device would have a cylindrical configuration of a maximum of eight transmitters and eight receiver antennas. This together with the positioning of the supposed device inside a body tract impose additional constraints in order to choose a reconstruction method; for instance, it inhabitants the use of well-known algorithms such as filtered backpropagation for diffraction tomography (due to the unusual configuration with probes enclosed by the imaging region). Finally, the difficulty of simulating a realistic non-homogeneous background inside the body (due to the incomplete knowledge of the dielectric properties of other tissues between the antennas’ position and the zone to observe), also prevents the use of Born and Rytov algorithms due to their limitations with a heterogeneous background. Instead, we decided to use a time-reversed algorithm (mostly used in geophysics) due to its characteristics of ignoring heterogeneities in the background medium, and of focusing its generated field onto the scatters. Therefore, a 2D time-reversed finite difference time domain was developed based on the time-reversed approach for microwave breast cancer detection. Simultaneously an in-silico testbed was also developed to compare ground-truth dielectric properties with corresponding microwave imaging reconstruction. Forward and inverse problems were computed varying: the frequency used related to a small zone to observe (7, 7.5 and 8 GHz); a small polyp diameter (5, 7 and 10 mm); two polyp positions with respect to the closest antenna (aligned or disaligned); and the (transmitters-to-receivers) antenna combination used for the reconstruction (1-1, 8-1, 8-8 or 8-3). Results indicate that when using the existent time-reversed method for breast cancer here for the different combinations of transmitters and receivers, we found false positives due to the high degrees of freedom and unusual configuration (and the possible violation of Nyquist criterium). Those false positives founded in 8-1 and 8-8 combinations, highly reduced with the 1-1 and 8-3 combination, being the 8-3 configuration de most suitable (three neighboring receivers at each time). The 8-3 configuration creates a region-of-interest reduced problem, decreasing the ill-posedness of the inverse problem. To conclude, the proposed algorithm solves the main limitations of the described intrabody application, successfully detecting the angular position of targets inside the body tract.

Keywords: FDTD, time-reversed, medical imaging, microwave imaging

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Authors: D. Kuvshinov, A. Siswanto, W. Zimmerman

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A phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (TPA) is a synthetic analogue of phorbol ester (PE), a natural toxic compound of Euphorbiaceae plant. The oil extracted from plants of this family is useful source for primarily biofuel. However this oil can also be used as a food stock due to its significant nutrition content. The limitations for utilizing the oil as a food stock are mainly due to a toxicity of PE. Nowadays a majority of PE detoxification processes are expensive as include multi steps alcohol extraction sequence. Ozone is considered as a strong oxidative agent. It reaction with PE it attacks the carbon double bond of PE. This modification of PE molecular structure results into nontoxic ester with high lipid content. This report presents data on development of simple and cheap PE detoxification process with water application as a buffer and ozone as reactive component. The core of this new technique is a simultaneous application of new microscale plasma unit for ozone production and patented gas oscillation technology. In combination with a reactor design the technology permits ozone injection to the water-TPA mixture in form of microbubbles. The efficacy of a heterogeneous process depends on diffusion coefficient which can be controlled by contact time and interface area. The low velocity of rising microbubbles and high surface to volume ratio allow fast mass transfer to be achieved during the process. Direct injection of ozone is the most efficient process for a highly reactive and short lived chemical. Data on the plasma unit behavior are presented and influence of the gas oscillation technology to the microbubbles production mechanism has been discussed. Data on overall process efficacy for TPA degradation is shown.

Keywords: microbubble, ozonolysis, synthetic phorbol ester, chemical engineering

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Authors: N. Bachok, N. L. Aleng, N. M. Arifin, A. Ishak, N. Senu

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The problem of laminar fluid flow which results from the shrinking of a permeable surface in a nanofluid has been investigated numerically. The model used for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. A similarity solution is presented which depends on the mass suction parameter S, Prandtl number Pr, Lewis number Le, Brownian motion number Nb and thermophoresis number Nt. It was found that the reduced Nusselt number is decreasing function of each dimensionless number.

Keywords: Boundary layer, nanofluid, shrinking sheet, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, similarity solution

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Authors: Giorgi Methodishvili, Iuliia Methodishvili

Abstract:

In this paper product development algorithm is used to determine the optimal management of financial resources in company. Aspects of financial management considered include put initial investment, examine all possible ways to solve the problem and the optimal rotation length of profit. The software of given problems is based using greedy algorithm. The obtained model and program maintenance enable us to define the optimal version of management of proper financial flows by using visual diagram on each level of investment.

Keywords: management, software, optimal, greedy algorithm, graph-diagram

Procedia PDF Downloads 56