Search results for: Dong minority

Authors: Md Rafiqul Islam, Ashir Ahmed, Anwaar Ulhaq, Abu Raihan M. Kamal, Yuan Miao, Hua Wang

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Mental health of people is equally important as of their physical health. Mental health and well-being are influenced not only by individual attributes but also by the social circumstances in which people find themselves and the environment in which they live. Like physical health, there is a number of internal and external factors such as biological, social and occupational factors that could influence the mental health of people. People living in poverty, suffering from chronic health conditions, minority groups, and those who exposed to/or displaced by war or conflict are generally more likely to develop mental health conditions. However, to authors’ best knowledge, there is dearth of knowledge on the impact of workplace (especially the highly stressed IT/Tech workplace) on the mental health of its workers. This study attempts to examine the factors influencing the mental health of tech workers. A publicly available dataset containing more than 65,000 cells and 100 attributes is examined for this purpose. Number of machine learning techniques such as ‘Decision Tree’, ‘K nearest neighbor’ ‘Support Vector Machine’ and ‘Ensemble’, are then applied to the selected dataset to draw the findings. It is anticipated that the analysis reported in this study would contribute in presenting useful insights on the attributes contributing in the mental health of tech workers using relevant machine learning techniques.

Keywords: mental disorder, diagnosis, occupational stress, IT workplace

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Authors: Reihaneh Mahdavishahri, Dumayi Gutierrez

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Emotionally focused couple therapy (EFCT) is one of the most effective and evidence-based approaches to couple therapy. Yet, literature is scarce of its effective application with trans and non-binary couples. It is estimated that 1.4 million trans adults live in the United Stated, with about 40% of these individuals experiencing serious psychological distress within the past month. Trans and nonbinary adults are significantly likely to experience discrimination, harassment, family rejection, and relationship challenges throughout the course of their lives. As systemic therapists, applying an informed lens when working with trans and nonbinary couples can contribute to providing effective mental health care to these individuals. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive, intersectional, and culturally informed application of EFCT with trans and nonbinary couples. We will address the current literature on applications of EFCT with diverse couples, EFCT’s strengths and limitations on cultural humility, and the gaps within current systems of care for trans and nonbinary couples. We will then provide an adaptive application of EFCT to help trans, and nonbinary couples recover from potential attachment injuries in their relationships, intersecting gender minority stressors, and achieve healing and restoration in their interpersonal dynamics.

Keywords: attachment, culturally informed care, emotionally focused couple therapy, trans and nonbinary couples

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Authors: Mark Shiu-kee Shum, Dan Shi

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The paper aims to introduce the ‘Reading to Learn, Learning to Write’ (R2L) pedagogy and its application in teaching reading and writing to non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students in Hong Kong. Guided by the teaching and learning cycles accentuated in R2L pedagogy, sufficient scaffolding was provided for students with an explicit teaching method in literacy education. To understand the influence of using R2L pedagogy on students’ reading and writing abilities across different genres, quantitative data were collected by pre- and post-test of reading and writing tasks in the two different genres of narration and explanation. The pre-test and post-test were used to assess students’ writing performance based on the three textual components of context, discourse, and graphic features, while the reading abilities were assessed at the literal, inferred and interpretive levels of reading comprehension to measure the effectiveness of R2L pedagogy on their literacy improvement. The findings show the use of R2L pedagogy has been proven more effective in improving NCS students’ writing abilities than developing their reading capacity. It is hoped that the R2L-based pedagogic practices can serve as teaching references and pedagogic rationale for L1 language teachers and raise their metalinguistic awareness in teaching Chinese to non-Chinese speaking students in Hong Kong and beyond.

Keywords: pedagogical inclusiveness, literacy education, ethnic minority, reading and writing

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Authors: George Kamil Kamal Abdelnor

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Every major educational institution has incorporated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles into its administrative, hiring, and pedagogical practices. Yet these DEI principles rarely incorporate explicit language or critical thinking about disability. Despite the fact that according to the World Health Organization, one in five people worldwide is disabled, making disabled people the larger minority group in the world, disability remains the neglected stepchild of DEI. Drawing on disability studies and crip theory frameworks, the underlying causes of this exclusion of disability from DEI, such as stigma, shame, invisible disabilities, institutionalization/segregation/delineation from family, and competing models and definitions of disability are examined. This paper explores both the ideological and practical shifts necessary to include disability in university DEI initiatives. It offers positive examples as well as conceptual frameworks such as 'divers ability' for so doing. Using Georgetown University’s 2020-2022 DEI initiatives as a case study, this paper describes how curricular infusion, accessibility, identity, community, and diversity administration infused one university’s DEI initiatives with concrete disability-inclusive measures. It concludes with a consideration of how the very framework of DEI itself might be challenged and transformed if disability were to be included.

Keywords: cognitive disability, cognitive diversity, disability, higher education disability, Standardized Index of Diversity of Disability (SIDD), differential and diversity in disability, 60+ population diversity, equity, inclusion, crip theory, accessibility

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Authors: Tsung-Han Lin, Chia-Han Yang

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Recently, it’s obvious that many hotels not only provide customized service, but offer local culture to give customers different experiences. Luxury decoration and fancy equipment are not enough anymore. Customers expect that hotels not just as an accommodation, but connecting to their trips. Therefore, culture becomes significant when developing marketing strategy for hotels. Tainan, located in south of Taiwan, is the city full of culture that some hospitality industries promote their hotels exactly base on culture. Historic Tainan (台南; táinán), is a city of ancient monuments, delicious food and, above all, temples: there are more gods worshipped and more festivals and rituals observed in Tainan than in any other place in Taiwan. The oldest and most absorbing parts of Tainan are historic Anping, on the west side of town by the sea, and the cultural zones in the heart of the old city; the latter were created specifically to make things easier for visitors, with city information, signs and maps tailored to each zone and well-marked in English. The Chihkan, Dong-an Fang, Five Canals and Confucius Temple cultural zones contain the richest concentration of sights – reckon on spending at least two days to do them justice. As a result, the study aims to analyze the significance of culture on marketing strategies and C and H two hotels in Tainan city as case studies conducting the comparison of cultural marketing and experience marketing to provide a framework for hotels to develop their marketing strategies.

Keywords: cultural marketing, hospitality, historical city, Tainan city

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Authors: Dong Il Shim, Geehong Choi, Donghwi Lee, Namkyu Lee, Hyung Hee Cho

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Effective cooling technology is required to secure thermal stability in extreme heat generated systems such as integrated electronic devices and power generated systems. Pool boiling heat transfer is one of the powerful cooling mechanisms using phase change phenomena. Critical heat flux (CHF) and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) are main factors to evaluate the performance of boiling heat transfer. CHF is the limitation of boiling heat transfer before film boiling which occurs thermal failure. Surface wettability is an important surface characteristic of boiling heat transfer. A hydrophilic surface has higher CHF through effective working fluid supply to local hot spots. A hydrophobic surface promotes the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) to enhance HTC. In this study, superbiphilic surfaces, which is combined with superhydrophillic and superhydrophobic, are applied on boiling experiments to maximize boiling performance. We conducted pool boiling heat transfer using DI water at a saturated temperature and recorded bubble dynamics using a high-speed camera with 2000 fps. As a result, superbiphilic patterned surfaces promote ONB and enhance both CHF and HTC. This study demonstrates the enhanced boiling performance using superbiphilic surfaces by effective nucleation and separation of liquid/vapor pathway. We expect that further enhancement of heat transfer could be achieved in future work using optimized patterned surfaces.

Keywords: boiling heat transfer, wettability, critical heat flux, heat transfer coefficient

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Authors: Sehrish Jalal, Choon-Mee Kim, Dong-Min Kim

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Background: Many pathogens causing hemorrhagic fevers of medical and veterinary importance have been identified and isolated from rodents in the Republic of Korea (ROK). Objective: We investigated the prevalence of emerging viruses causing hemorrhagic fevers, such as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) and flaviviruses, from wild rodents. Methods: Striped field mice, Apodemus agrarius, (n=39) were captured during 2014-2015 in the south-west of ROK. Using molecular methods, lung samples were evaluated for SFTS virus, HFRS virus and flavivirus, and seropositivity was evaluated in the blood. Results: A high positive rate of Hantavirus (46.2%) was detected in A.agrarius lungs by reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-N-PCR). The monthly prevalence of HFRS virus was 16.7% in October, 86.7% in November and 25% in August of the following year (p < 0.001). Moreover, 17.9% of blood samples were serologically positive for Hantavirus antibodies. The most prevalent strain in A. agrarius was Hantaan virus. All samples were positive for neither SFTS nor flavivirus. Conclusion: Hantan virus was detected in 86.7% of A. agrarius in November (autumn), and thus, virus shedding from A. agrarius can increase the risk of humans contracting HFRS. These findings may help to predict and prevent disease outbreaks in ROK.

Keywords: hemorrhagic fever virus, molecular diagnostic technique, rodents, Korea

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Authors: Ki-seok Kwon, Dong-woo Ryu, Heung-Youl Kim

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Although high-strength concrete has many advantages over generic concrete at normal temperatures (around 20℃), it undergoes spalling at high temperatures, which constitutes its structurally fatal drawback. In this study, fire resistance tests were conducted for 3 hours in accordance with ASTM E119 on bearing wall specimens which were 3,000mm x 3,000mm x 300mm in dimensions to investigate the influence the type of admixtures would exert on the fire resistance performance of high-strength concrete. Portland cement, blast furnace slag, fly ash and silica fume were used as admixtures, among which 2 or 3 components were combined to make 7 types of mixtures. In 56MPa specimens, the severity of spalling was in order of SF5 > F25 > S65SF5 > S50. Specimen S50 where an admixture consisting of 2 components was added did not undergo spalling. In 70MPa specimens, the severity of spalling was in order of SF5 > F25SF5 > S45SF5 and the result was similar to that observed in 56MPa specimens. Acknowledgements— This study was conducted by the support of the project, “Development of performance-based fire safety design of the building and improvement of fire safety” (18AUDP-B100356-04) which is under the management of Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement as part of the urban architecture research project for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, for which we extend our deep thanks.

Keywords: high strength concrete, mineral admixture, fire resistance, social disaster

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Authors: Kun Liang Ang, Eng Toon Saw, Wei He, Xuecheng Dong, Seeram Ramakrishna

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Ester solvents are widely used in pharmaceutical, printing and flavor industry due to their good miscibility, low toxicity, and high volatility. Through pervaporation, these ester solvents can be recovered from industrial wastewater. While metal-doped silicalite 1 zeolite membranes are commonly used in organic solvent recovery in the pervaporation process, these ceramic membranes suffer from low membrane permeation flux, mainly due to the high thickness of the metal-doped zeolite membrane. Herein, a simple method of fabricating an ultrathin tin-silicalite 1 membrane supported on alumina tube is reported. This ultrathin membrane is able to achieve high permeation flux and separation factor for an ester in a diluted aqueous solution. Nanosized tin-Silicalite 1 seeds which are smaller than 500nm has been formed through hydrothermal synthesis. The sn-Silicalite 1 seeds were then seeded onto alumina tube through dip coating, and the tin-Silicalite 1 membrane was then formed by hydrothermal synthesis in an autoclave through secondary growth method. Multiple membrane synthesis factors such as seed size, ceramic substrate surface pore size selection, and secondary growth conditions were studied for their effects on zeolite membrane growth. The microstructure, morphology and the membrane thickness of tin-Silicalite 1 zeolite membrane were examined. The membrane separation performance and stability will also be reported.

Keywords: ceramic membrane, pervaporation, solvent recovery, Sn-MFI zeolite

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Authors: Afsana Afsar Tuly

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The Rohingyas are a group of minority Muslimsin Myanmar who witnessed series of persecution, violence, and torture from Burmese military since 1948. In 2017, around 700,000 Rohingyas fled to the neighboring country Bangladesh and took shelter as refugees after facing clashes with Myanmar security forces. The number increased to 1.8 million in 2020, creating one of the largest refugee crises of recent times. This research focuses on the vulnerability and poverty faced by Rohingyas in refugee camps and how thelack of long-term solution and silence from international communitycan pose national security threat and increasing Islamic extremism in Bangladesh. Islamic religious and terrorist groups have used the Rohingyas position as stateless people to influence them into speaking against the secular government of Bangladesh. There has been increasing crime rates and formation of different rebel groups in refugee camps, causing clashes with Bangladeshi police and authority. Human trafficking, illegal drug dealings, prostitution, and other illicit activities have continuously gone up in the southeastern part of Bangladesh. Some economic, social, and environmental factors are studied and analyzed to show the change in Bangladesh between 2017 and 2020.

Keywords: national security threat, islamic extremism, rohingya refugees, refugee studies, Bangladesh, myanmar

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Authors: Yao Xing, Hong Ling Liu, Wei Dong Yu

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With the increase of global population, it is of importance for the safe water supply, while, the water-monitoring method with the capability of rapidness, low-cost, green and robustness remains unsolved. In this paper, gold nanoclusters-wool keratin is added into copper ions measured by fluorescent method in order to probe copper ions in aqueous solution. The fluorescent results show that gold nanoclusters-wool keratin exhibits high stability of pHs, while it is sensitive to temperature and time. Based on Gauss fitting method, the results exhibit that the slope of gold nanoclusters-wool keratin with pH resolution under acidic condition is higher compared to it under alkaline solutions. Besides, gold nanoclusters-wool keratin added into copper ions shows a fluorescence turn-off response transferring from red to blue under UV light, leading to the dramatically decreased fluorescent intensity of gold nanoclusters-wool keratin solution located at 690 nm. Moreover, the limited concentration of copper ions tested by gold nanoclusters-wool keratin system is around 1 µmol/L, which meets the need of detection standards. The fitting slope of Stern-Volmer plot at low concentration of copper ions is larger than it at high concentrations, which indicates that aggregated gold nanoclusters are from small amounts to large numbers with the increasing concentration of copper ions. It is expected to provide novel method and materials for copper ions testing with low cost, high efficiency, and easy operability.

Keywords: gold nanoclusters, copper ions, wool keratin, fluorescence

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Authors: A. Abada, S. Hiadsi, T. Ouahrani, B. Amrani, K. Amara

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Using the first-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbital (FP-LAPW+lo) method based on density functional theory (DFT), we have investigated the electronic structure and magnetism of some Co2- based full Heusler alloys, namely Co2ZrGe and Co2NbB. The calculations show that these compounds are to be half-metallic ferromagnets (HMFs) with a total magnetic moment of 2.000 µB per formula unit, well consistent with the Slater-Pauling rule. Our calculations show indirect band gaps of 0.58 eV and 0.47 eV in the minority spin channel of density of states (DOS) for Co2ZrGe and Co2NbB, respectively. Analysis of the DOS and magnetic moments indicates that their magnetism is mainly related to the d-d hybridization between the Co and Zr (or Nb) atoms. The half metallicity is found to be robust against volume changes and the two alloys kept a 100% of spin polarization at the Fermi level. In addition, an atom inside molecule AIM formalism and an electron localization function ELF were also adopted to study the bonding properties of these compounds, building a bridge between their electronic and bonding behavior. As they have a good crystallographic compatibility with the lattice of semiconductors used industrially and negative calculated cohesive energies with considerable absolute values these two alloys could be promising magnetic materials in the spintronics field.

Keywords: half-metallic ferromagnets, full Heusler alloys, magnetic properties, electronic properties

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Authors: Kun-Ping Cheng, Dong-Shang Chang, Rou-Wen Wang

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Pre-treatment of automobile paint-shop procedures are the preparation of warm water rinsing tank, hot water rinsing tank, degreasing tank, phosphate tank. The conventional boiler steam fuel is natural gas, producing steam to supply the heat exchange of each tank sink. In this study, the high-frequency soldering economizer is developed for recovering waste heat in the automotive paint-shop (RTO, Regenerative Thermal Oxidation). The heat recovery rate of the new economizer is 20% to 30% higher than the conventional embedded heat pipe. The adaptive control system responded to both RTO furnace exhaust gas and heat demands. In order to maintain the temperature range of the tanks, pre-treatment tanks are directly heated by waste heat recovery device (gas-to-water heat exchanger) through the hot water cycle of heat transfer. The performance of developed waste heat recovery system shows the annual recovery achieved to 1,226,411,483 Kcal of heat (137.8 thousand cubic meters of natural gas). Boiler can reduce fuel consumption by 20 to 30 percent compared to without waste heat recovery. In order to alleviate environmental impacts, the temperature at the end of the flue is further reduced from 160 to 110°C. The innovative waste heat recovery is helpful to energy savings and sustainable environment.

Keywords: waste heat recovery system, sustainability, RTO (Regenerative Thermal Oxidation), economizer, automotive industry

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Authors: Jie Dong, Binjie Hu, Andrzej W Pacek, Xiaogang Yang, Nicholas J. Miles

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The effect of the shape of the vessel bottom and the length of baffles on the velocity distributions in a turbulent and in a transitional flow has been simulated. The turbulent flow was simulated using standard k-ε model and simulation was verified using LES whereas transitional flow was simulated using only LES. It has been found that both the shape of tank bottom and the baffles’ length has significant effect on the flow pattern and velocity distribution below the impeller. In the dished bottom tank with baffles reaching the edge of the dish, the large rotating volume of liquid was formed below the impeller. Liquid in this rotating region was not fully mixing. A dead zone was formed here. The size and the intensity of circulation within this zone calculated by k-ε model and LES were practically identical what reinforces the accuracy of the numerical simulations. Both types of simulations also show that employing full-length baffles can reduce the size of dead zone formed below the impeller. The LES was also used to simulate the velocity distribution below the impeller in transitional flow and it has been found that secondary circulation loops were formed near the tank bottom in all investigated geometries. However, in this case the length of baffles has smaller effect on the volume of rotating liquid than in the turbulent flow.

Keywords: baffles length, dished bottom, dead zone, flow field

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Authors: YU Kaijun, Liang Dong, Zhang Yarong, Jin Zhenzhou, Yang Zhaobao

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For the impact monitoring of distributed structures, the traditional positioning methods are based on the time difference, which includes the four-point arc positioning method and the triangulation positioning method. But in the actual operation, these two methods have errors. In this paper, the Multi-Agent Blackboard Coordination Principle is used to combine the two methods. Fusion steps: (1) The four-point arc locating agent calculates the initial point and records it to the Blackboard Module.(2) The triangulation agent gets its initial parameters by accessing the initial point.(3) The triangulation agent constantly accesses the blackboard module to update its initial parameters, and it also logs its calculated point into the blackboard.(4) When the subsequent calculation point and the initial calculation point are within the allowable error, the whole coordination fusion process is finished. This paper presents a Multi-Agent collaboration method whose agent framework is JADE. The JADE platform consists of several agent containers, with the agent running in each container. Because of the perfect management and debugging tools of the JADE, it is very convenient to deal with complex data in a large structure. Finally, based on the data in Jade, the results show that the impact location method based on Multi-Agent coordination fusion can reduce the error of the two methods.

Keywords: impact monitoring, structural health monitoring(SHM), multi-agent system(MAS), black-board coordination, JADE

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Authors: Jin Ho Kim, Yujeong Shin, Seong-Jin Cho, Dong-Jin Kim, U-Syn Ha

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Due to the development of the information industry and technologies, cellular phones have must not only function to communicate, but also have functions such as the Internet, e-banking, entertainment, etc. These phones are called smartphones. The performance of smartphones has improved, because of the various functions of smartphones, and the capacity of the battery has been increased gradually. Recently, linear generators have been embedded in smartphones in order to recharge the smartphone's battery. In this study, optimization is performed and an array change of permanent magnets is examined in order to increase efficiency. We propose an optimal design using design of experiments (DOE) to maximize the generated induced voltage. The thickness of the poleshoe and permanent magnet (PM), the height of the poleshoe and PM, and the thickness of the coil are determined to be design variables. We made 25 sampling points using an orthogonal array according to four design variables. We performed electromagnetic finite element analysis to predict the generated induced voltage using the commercial electromagnetic analysis software ANSYS Maxwell. Then, we made an approximate model using the Kriging algorithm, and derived optimal values of the design variables using an evolutionary algorithm. The commercial optimization software PIAnO (Process Integration, Automation, and Optimization) was used with these algorithms. The result of the optimization shows that the generated induced voltage is improved.

Keywords: smartphone, linear generator, design of experiment, approximate model, optimal design

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Authors: Jae Young Song, In-Ohk Ouh, Seyeon Park, Byeong Sul Kang, Soo Dong Cho, In-Soo Cho

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Canine parvovirus (CPV) is a major pathogen of diarrhea disease in dogs. CPV type 2 has three of antigenic variants such as 2a, 2b, and 2c. CPV constructs a small non-enveloped, icosahedral capsid that contains single-stranded DNA. It has capsids that two largely overlapping virion proteins (VP), VP1 (82 kDa), and VP2 (65 kDa). Baculoviruses are insect pathogens that regulate insect populations in nature and are being successfully used to control insect pests. The proteins produced in the baculovirus-expression system are used for instance for functional studies, vaccine preparations, or diagnostics. The vaccines produced by baculovirus-expression system showed elicitation of antibodies. The recombinant baculovirus infected SF9 cells showed broken shape. The recombinant VP2 proteins from cell pellet or supernatant were confirmed by western blotting. The result showed that the recombinant VP2 protein bands were appeared at 65 kDa molecular weight in both cell pellet and supernatant of infected SF9 cell. These results indicated that the recombinant baculovirus infected SF9 cell express the recombinant VP2 protein successfully. In addition, the expressed recombinant VP2 protein is secreted from cell to supernatant. The baculovirus expression system can be used to produce the VP2 protein of CPV 2c. In addition, the secretion property of the expression of VP2 protein may decrease the cost of production, because it can be skipped the cell breaking step. The produced VP2 protein could be used for vaccine and the agent of diagnostic tests. This study provides the foundation of the production of CPV 2c vaccine and the diagnostic agent.

Keywords: baculovirus, canine parvovirus 2c, dog, Korea

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Authors: J. Cabral, C. Barreto Carvalho, C. da Motta, M. Sousa

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Community integration is a construct that an increasing body of research has shown to have a significant impact in well-being and recovery of people with psychiatric problems. However, there are few studies that explore which factors can be associated and predict community integration. Moreover, community integration has been mostly studied in minority groups, and currently literature on the definition and manifestation of community integration in the more general population is scarce. Thus, the current study aims to characterize community integration and explore possible predictor variables in a sample of participants with psychiatric problems (PP, N=183) and a sample of participants from the general population (GP, N=211). Results show that people with psychiatric problems present above average values of community integration, but are significantly lower than their healthy counterparts. It was also possible to observe that community integration does not vary in terms of the socio-demographic characteristics of both groups in this study. Correlation and multiple regression showed that, among several variables that literature present as relevant in the community integration process, only three variables emerged as having the most explanatory value in community integration of both groups: sense of community, basic needs satisfaction and submission. These results also shown that those variables have increased explanatory power in the PP sample, which leads us to emphasize the need to address this issue in future studies and increase the understanding of the factors that can be involved in the promotion of community integration, in order to devise more effective interventions in this field.

Keywords: community integration, mental illness, predictors, psychiatric problems

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Authors: Guozhen Li, Philip Hall, Nick Miles, Tao Wu, Jie Dong

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This paper presents a Euler-Lagrange model of the water-particles multiphase flows in a Vorsyl separator where particles with different densities are separated. A series of particles with their densities ranging from 760 kg/m³ to 1380 kg/m³ were fed into the Vorsyl separator with water by means of tangential inlet. The simulation showed that the feed materials acquired centrifugal force which allows most portion of the particles with a density less than water to move to the center of the separator, enter the vortex finder and leave the separator through the bottom outlet. While the particles heavier than water move to the wall, reach the throat area and leave the separator through the side outlet. The particles were thus separated and particles collected at the bottom outlet are pure and clean. The influence of particle density on separation efficiency was investigated which demonstrated a positive correlation of the separation efficiency with increasing density difference between medium liquid and the particle. In addition, the influence of the split ratio on the performance was studied which showed that the separation efficiency of the Vorsyl separator can be improved by the increase of split ratio. The simulation also suggested that the Vorsyl separator may not function when the feeding velocity is smaller than a certain critical feeding in velocity. In addition, an increasing feeding velocity gives rise to increased pressure drop, however does not necessarily increase the separation efficiency.

Keywords: Vorsyl separator, separation efficiency, CFD, split ratio

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Authors: Thomas C. Nash

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New Zealand has a small, yet racially diverse, population of only 4.6 million people, consisting of a majority European immigrant population and a large indigenous Maori population. Because disparities in healthcare often exist among minority populations, it could be expected that the White and Maori populations of New Zealand would have unequal access to healthcare. In order to understand the ways these disparities may present themselves, it became important to travel to New Zealand in order to interview both Western and natural healthcare professionals, public health officials, health activists and Maori people. In observing the various mechanisms within the New Zealand healthcare system, some stand out as effective ways of alleviating the racial disparities often seen in healthcare. These include the efficiency of regional District Health Boards, the benefits of individuals making decisions regarding their treatment plans and the importance of cohesion among the Maori and White populations. In forming a conclusion around these observations, it is evident that the integration of Maori culture into contemporary New Zealand has benefited the healthcare system. This unity has generated support for non-Western medical treatments, in turn forming a healthcare system that creates low barriers to entry for non-traditional forms of healthcare. These low barriers allow individuals to allocate available healthcare resources in ways that are most beneficial for them and are consistent with their tastes and preferences, maximizing efficiency.

Keywords: alternative and complementary healthcare, low barriers to entry, Maori populations, racial cohesion

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Authors: Awe Ayodeji Samson, Adeuja Yetunde Omowunmi

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Corruption is a ‘monster’ that can consume a whole nation, continent and even the world if it is not destroyed while it is still immature; It grows in the mind of the people, takes over their thinking and guides their decision-making process. Corruption snowballs into socio-economic catastrophe that might be difficult to deal with. Corruption which is a disease of the mind can be alleviated in Africa and the world at large by transforming a Corruption-Prone Mind to a Corruption-Immune Mind and to achieve this, we have to change our value system because the use of anti-graft agencies alone is not enough. Therefore, we have to fight corruption from the inside and the outside. Value System is the principle of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group; the reviewing and reordering of our value system is the solution to the problem of corruption as proposed by this research because the African society has become a ‘Money and Power Driven Society’ where the ‘I am worth concept’ which is a problematic concept has created an ‘Aggressive Society’ with grasping and money-grabbing individuals. We place more priority on money and the display of opulence. Hence, this has led to a ‘Triangular Society’ where minority is lavishing in plenty and majority is gasping for little. The get rich quick syndrome, the ethnicity syndrome, weakened educational system are signs of the prevalence of corruption in Africa This research has analyzed role and impact of the change in our value system in the fight against corruption in Africa and has therefore proposed the change in our value system as the way forward in the fight against corruption in Africa.

Keywords: corruption-prone mind, corruption-immune mind, triangular society, aggressive society, money and power-driven society

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Authors: Taerim Kim, Shin Ahn, Chang Hwan Sohn, Dong Woo Seo, Won Young Kim

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Object: Reversible cerebral vasospasm syndrome (RCVS) remains an underrated cause of thunderclap headache which shares similar history of the ‘worst-ever’ headache with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) to the emergency physicians. This study evaluated the clinical manifestations, radiological features, and outcomes of patients with RCVS so that the physicians could raise the high index of suspicion to detect RCVS in more patients with thunderclap headache before having life-threatening complications. Methods: The electric medical records of 18 patients with diagnostic criteria of RCVS at the emergency department (ED) between January 2013 and December 2014 were retrospective reviewed. Results: The mean age was 50.7 years, and 80% were women. Patients with RCVS visit an average of 4.7 physicians before receiving an accurate diagnosis and mean duration of symptom until diagnosis is 9.3 days. All patients except one experienced severe headache, from 8 to 10 pain intensity on a numerical rating scale (NRS). 44% of patients had nausea as an associated symptom, 66% of patients experienced worsening of headache while gagging, leaning forward, defecating, urinating or having sex. The most frequently affected vessels are middle cerebral arteries demonstrating the characteristic diffuse “string of beads” appearance. Four patients had SAH as a complication. Conclusion: Patients with RCVS have a unique set of clinical and imaging features. Emergency physicians should raise the high index of suspicion to detect RCVS in more patients with thunderclap headache before life-threatening complications.

Keywords: headache, thunderclap, subarachnoid haemorrhage, stroke

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Authors: Jagoda Przybysz

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The main objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive description of the immigrants in Poland, especially situation at the labour market. The paper will provide descriptive information on the composition of immigrants in Poland, and how this has changed over time, their socio-economic characteristics, their industry allocation and their labour market outcomes. Then we will investigate various labour market performance indicators (labour force participation, employment, wages and self-employment) for immigrants of different origins based on reached statistics. Individual interviews with immigrants will indicate areas of problems of living in Poland, mostly on labour market. The article shows that immigrants from some ethnic minority groups are more active in selected sectors of labour market. The empirical basis for the work related to the situation on the labor market of foreigners who came to the Poland and live in Lodz. The studies assumed that foreigners work in Poland and operate in different ways being integrated / excluded in varying degrees. Theoretical framework for analysis are: concepts of inclusion and exclusion, the concept of a dual labour market and the concept of social anchors. Completed in the 2014-2016, a pilot study (The forms of individual interviews) with 32 foreigners arrived in the last decade to Lodz. Preliminary studies have enabled the formulation of research issues and have set the future direction of research revealing to the personal experiences of respondents, a group of factors hindering integration and exclusion areas.

Keywords: foreigners, immigrants, labour market, migration, Poland

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Authors: Shin-Hyung Cho, Dong-Kyu Kim, Seung-Young Kho

Abstract:

Truck-involved crashes have higher crash severity than non-truck-involved crashes. There have been many studies about the frequency of crashes and the development of severity models, but those studies only analyzed the relationship between observed variables. To identify why more people are injured or killed when trucks are involved in the crash, we must examine to quantify the complex causal relationship between severity of the crash and risk factors by adopting the latent factors of crashes. The aim of this study was to develop a structural equation or model based on truck-involved and non-truck-involved crashes, including five latent variables, i.e. a crash factor, environmental factor, road factor, driver’s factor, and severity factor. To clarify the unique characteristics of truck-involved crashes compared to non-truck-involved crashes, a confirmatory analysis method was used. To develop the model, we extracted crash data from 10,083 crashes on Korean freeways from 2008 through 2014. The results showed that the most significant variable affecting the severity of a crash is the crash factor, which can be expressed by the location, cause, and type of the crash. For non-truck-involved crashes, the crash and environment factors increase severity of the crash; conversely, the road and driver factors tend to reduce severity of the crash. For truck-involved crashes, the driver factor has a significant effect on severity of the crash although its effect is slightly less than the crash factor. The multiple group analysis employed to analyze the differences between the heterogeneous groups of drivers.

Keywords: crash severity, structural structural equation modeling (SEM), truck-involved crashes, multiple group analysis, crash on freeway

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Authors: Abilio Pires Zacarias

Abstract:

Analyzing company boards of directors is a relevant and timely topic. As the representative of shareholders, the board is the most senior management body of this type of company. Therefore, ascertaining the best kind of candidates to nominate, namely the most appropriate characteristics for leading the board to achieve better levels of performance, is certainly of great interest. The companies selected for this study were the 1,000 largest non-financial companies and the 100 largest financial companies in Portugal according to the Instituto Nacional de Estatística for 2010. The information stemmed from a questionnaire addressed to the person in charge of daily company management and then processed through STATA 17 with the multivariate analysis of variables - MANOVA. The study may correspondingly report that the vast majority of boards in the sample operate a dual leadership structure. By in terms of its prevalence, unitary leadership represents only a minority. Agency theory and stewardship theory postulate different characteristics for the ideal chairman but neither receive confirmation from our results. On the other hand, our findings do validate the behavioral theory of firms (BToF), concluding that experience is associated with organizational performance. This study is also relevant due to its analysis of companies not listed on the financial markets not only because of their weighting in the economy but also because they remain only very poorly studied in this field and thus also correspondingly contributing to deepening the literature.

Keywords: agency theory, behavioral theory of the firm, board of directors, corporate governance, stewardship theory

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Authors: Dong-ping Yuan, Lin Gu, Jun Long, Jie Chen, Ni Jie, Ying-Li Shi

Abstract:

Endometriosis is a common disease in women of reproductive age, whose classic characteristic is mononuclear cell infiltration into lesions. Shikonin is an anti-inflammatory phytocompound from Lithospermum erythrorhizon, whose potential therapeutic effects for the endometriosis remain unclear. The working hypothesis was that shikonin can inhibit the development of endometriosis by the inhibition of chemotactic effect. Shikonin significantly inhibited the growth of human endometrial tissue implanted into mice (P<0.05). No observable adverse effects were found. The mouse regulated upon activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted (mRANTES) level in peritoneal fluid of animal endometriosis model was higher than that in normal SCID mice (P<0.05), and decreased dramatically after shikonin treatment in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.05). Peritoneal fluid from NOD/SCID mice treated with shikonin inhibited monocytes chemotaxis, which could be abolished by mRANTES antibody. In vitro, shikonin significantly inhibited RANTES expression of U937 cells cultured alone or co-cultured with human methothelail cells and endometrial stromal cells, and inhibited RANTES-induced chemotaxis of U937 cells (P<0.05). The present results suggest that shikonin can inhibit the development of endometriosis by mechanisms that at least include the inhibition of RANTES expression and decreased migration of mononuclear cells to lesions. Shikonin may be a useful and safe new approach for treating endometriosis.

Keywords: endometriosis, shikonin, RANTES chemotaxis

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Authors: Jing Hu, Dong Yang

Abstract:

With the increasingly difficult development and operating environment of exploration, there are many new challenges and difficulties in developing and exploiting oil and gas resources. These include the ability to dynamically monitor wells and provide data and assurance for the completion and production of high-cost and complex wells. A key technology in providing these assurances and maximizing oilfield profitability is real-time permanent reservoir monitoring. The emergence of optical fiber sensing systems has gradually begun to replace traditional electronic systems. Traditional temperature sensors can only achieve single-point temperature monitoring, but fiber optic sensing systems based on the Bragg grating principle have a high level of reliability, accuracy, stability, and resolution, enabling cost-effective monitoring, which can be done in real-time, anytime, and without well intervention. Continuous data acquisition is performed along the entire wellbore. The integrated package with the downhole pressure gauge, packer, and surface system can also realize real-time dynamic monitoring of the pressure in some sections of the downhole, avoiding oil well intervention and eliminating the production delay and operational risks of conventional surveys. Real-time information obtained through permanent optical fibers can also provide critical reservoir monitoring data for production and recovery optimization.

Keywords: PDHM, optical fiber, coiled tubing, photoelectric composite cable, digital-oilfield

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Authors: Aicha Bouhlala, Sabah Chettibi

Abstract:

A systematic investigation on structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of Ce₀.₇₅A₀.₂₅O₂ (A = W, Mo) is performed using first-principles calculations within the framework Full-Potential Linear Augmented Plane Wave (FP-LAPW) method based on the Density Functional Theory (DFT). The exchange-correlation potential has been treated using the generalized gradient approximation (WC-GGA) developed by Wu-Cohen. The host compound CeO2 was doped with transition metal atoms W and Mo in the doping concentration of 25% to replace the Ce atom. In structural properties, the equilibrium lattice constant is observed for the W-doped CeO₂ compound which exists within the value of 5.314 A° and the value of 5.317 A° for Mo-doped CeO2. The present results show that Ce₀.₇₅A₀.₂₅O₂ (A=W, Mo) systems exhibit semiconducting behavior in both spin channels. Although undoped CeO₂ is a non-magnetic semiconductor. The band structure of these doped compounds was plotted and they exhibit direct band gap at the Fermi level (EF) in the majority and minority spin channels. In the magnetic properties, the doped atoms W and Mo play a vital role in increasing the magnetic moments of the supercell and the values of the total magnetic moment are found to be 1.998 μB for Ce₀.₇₅W₀.₂₅O₂ and to be 2.002 μB for Ce₀.₇₅Mo₀.₂₅O₂ compounds. Calculated results indicate that the magneto-electronic properties of the Ce₁₋ₓAₓO₂(A= W, Mo) oxides supply a new way to the experimentalist for the potential applications in spintronics devices.

Keywords: FP-LAPW, DFT, CeO₂, properties

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Authors: Zahid Shafiq, Li Liu, Dong Wang, Yong-Jun Chen

Abstract:

As synthetic organic methods are increasingly concerned with the growing importance of sustainable chemistry, iodine recently has emerged as an inexpensive, non-toxic, readily available and environmentally benign catalyst for various organic transformations to afford the corresponding products in high yields with high regio- and chemoselectivity. Iodine has found widespread applications in various organic synthesis such as Michael addition, coupling reaction and also in the multicomponent synthesis where it can efficiently activate C=C, C=O, C=N, and so forth. Iodine not only has been shown to be an efficient mild Lewis acid in various processes, but also due to its moderate nature, and water tolerance, reactions catalyzed by iodine can be effectively carried out in neutral media under very mild conditions. We have successfully described an efficient procedure for the nucleophilic substitution of the Baylis-Hillman (BH) adducts and their corresponding acetates with indoles to get α-substitution product using catalytic Silver Triflate (AgOTf) as Lewis acid. At this point, we were interested to develop an environmentally benign catalytic system to effect this substitution reaction and to avoid the use of metal Lewis acid as a catalyst. Since, we observed the formation of -product during the course of the reaction, we also became interested to explore the reaction conditions in order to control regioselectivity and to obtain both regioisomers. The developed methodology resulted in regioselective substitution products with controlled selectivity. Further, the substitution products were used to synthesize various Tri- and Tetracyclo Azepino indole derivatives via reductive amination.

Keywords: indole, regioselective, Baylis-Hillman, substitution

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Authors: Kaori Mori Want

Abstract:

American society is a racially diverse society and there are children books that tell the importance of respecting racial differences. Through reading books, children understand the world around them little by little along with their direct interaction with the world in reality. They find role models in books, strive to be like role models, and grow confidence in who they are. Books thus nurture the mind of children. On the other hand, because of their small presence, children books for multiracial Asian American children are scarce. Multiracial Asian American population is increasing but they are still minority in number. The lack of children’s books for these children may deprive the opportunities of them to embrace their multiraciality positively because they cannot find someone like them in any books. Children books for multiracial Asian American are still not that many, but a few have been being published recently. This paper introduces children books for multiracial Asian American children, and examines how they address issues pertaining to these children, and how they could nurture their self-esteem. Many states of the US used to ban interracial marriages and interracial families and their children once were discriminated against in American society. There was even a theory called the hybrid degeneracy theory which claimed that mixed race children were inferior mentally and physically. In this negative social environment, some multiracial Asian American people report that they had trouble embracing their multiracial identity positively. Yet, children books for these children are full of positive messages. This paper will argue the importance of children books for the mental growth of multiracial Asian American children, and how these books can contribute to the development of multiculturalism in the US in general.

Keywords: critical mixed race studies in the US, hapa children literature, interracial marriage, multiraciality

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