Search results for: circulation patterns

Authors: Patrick Dzimiri

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This chapter discusses the military-orchestrated leadership change in Zimbabwe that transpired in November 2017. Fundamentally, the chapter provides a critical examination of military interference in the country's politics and its implications for a political transition in the post-Mugabe dispensation. This chapter offers insight into Zimbabwe's political crises propelled by the lack of a succession plan. It emerged that the succession battle within ZANU-PF got complicated by the militarisation of factionalism. The chapter builds from an extensive review of primary and secondary data sources on political developments before and post-Mugabe era. Vilfredo Pareto's (1848-18923) theory on elite circulation is deployed herein to explain the absence of a succession mechanism within ZANU-PF and the militarisation of socio-politics life Zimbabwe. The chapter argues that what transpired in Zimbabwe’s power wrangle within the ZANU-PF political elites was triggered by a lack of a clear succession policy. Building from insights offered by Pareto's theory of elite circulation, it is averred that the removal of Mugabe by the military did not herald any form of political transition but rather a mere power play of one elite replacing another. In addition, it is argued that the lack of political reform by the Mnangagwa government affirms the position that political elites seek power for personal self-actualisation and not the public good. The chapter concludes that Mnangagwa's rise to power is nothing but a new elite displacing the old elite structure and does not herald a positive transition and transformation in the politics of Zimbabwe.

Keywords: military, politics, zimbabwe, governance, political transition

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Authors: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi

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We here describe the theoretical and philosophical understanding of a long term use and development of algorithmic computer-based tools applied to music composition. The findings of our research lead us to interrogate some specific processes and systems of communication engaged in the discovery of specific cultural artworks: artistic creation in the sono-musical domain. Our hypothesis is that the patterns of auditory learning cannot be only understood in terms of social transmission but would gain to be questioned in the way they rely on various ranges of acoustic stimuli modes of consciousness and how the different types of memories engaged in the percept-action expressive systems of our cultural communities also relies on these shadowy conscious entities we named “Reduced Descriptive Structures”.

Keywords: algorithmic sonic computation, corrected and self-correcting learning patterns in acoustic perception, morphological derivations in sensorial patterns, social unconscious modes of communication

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Authors: M. R. Vijayakumar, K. Priyanka, Ramoji Kosuru, Lakshmi, Sanjay Singh

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Trans resveratrol (RES) is a non-flavonoid poly-phenolic compound proved for its therapeutic and preventive effect against various types of cancer. However, the practical application of RES in cancer treatment is limited because of its higher dose (up to 7.5 g/day in humans), low biological half life, rapid metabolism and faster elimination in mammals. PEGylated core-shell type lipid polymer hybrid nanoparticles are the novel drug delivery systems for long circulation and improved anti cancer effect of its therapeutic payloads. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to extend the biological half life (long circulation) and improve the therapeutic efficacy of RES through core shell type of nanoparticles. D-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (vitamin E TPGS), a novel surfactant is applied for the preparation of PEGylated lipid polymer hybrid nanoparticles. The prepared nanoparticles were evaluated by various state of the art techniques such as dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique for particle size and zeta potential, TEM for shape, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for interaction analysis and XRD for crystalline changes of drug. Entrapment efficiency and invitro drug release were determined by ultracentrifugation method and dialysis bag method, respectively. Cancer cell viability studies were performed by MTT assay, respectively. Pharmacokinetic studies after i.v administration were performed in sprague dawley rats. The prepared NPs were found to be spherical in shape with smooth surfaces. Particle size and zeta potential of prepared NPs were found to be in the range of 179.2±7.45 to 266.8±9.61 nm and -0.63 to -48.35 mV, respectively. DSC revealed absence of potential interaction. XRD study revealed presence of amorphous form in nanoparticles. Entrapment efficiency was found to be 83.7 % and drug release was found to be in controlled manner. MTT assay showed low MEC and pharmacokinetic studies showed higher AUC of nanoformulaition than its pristine drug. All these studies revealed that the RES loaded PEG modified core-shell type lipid polymer hybrid nanoparticles can be an alternative tool for chemopreventive and therapeutic application of RES in cancer.

Keywords: trans resveratrol, cancer nanotechnology, long circulating nanoparticles, bioavailability enhancement, core shell nanoparticles, lipid polymer hybrid nanoparticles

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Authors: Stefan Kurbatfinski, Aliyah Dosani, Andrew F. Hayes, Deborah Dewey, Nicole Letourneau

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Background: Maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems in preschool children. However, little is known about the influence of maternal adult attachment patterns on this association. Further, potential moderation by maternal mental health, maternal social support, or child sex is poorly understood. Therefore, this study examined associations between 1) maternal ACEs and preschool children’s behavioural problems, with mediation through maternal attachment patterns and moderation by maternal mental health, maternal social support, and child sex; and 2) maternal attachment patterns and children’s behavioural problems, with mediation through maternal mental health and social support and moderation by child sex. Methods: This secondary analysis used data (n=625) from a high socioeconomic, longitudinally prospective cohort (Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition). Child behaviour (BASC-2) and maternal adult attachment (ECR-Q) were measured at five years of child age, maternal ACEs (ACEs Questionnaire) at around 12 months, and maternal mental health (CESD and SCL-90-R) and social support (SSQ) across various prenatal and postnatal time points. All moderation and mediation analyses occurred through RStudio using PROCESS, interpreting significant interactions through Johnson-Neyman plots. Findings: Maternal ACEs interacted with maternal anxiety symptoms to predict both behavioural problems (pexternalizing=0.007; pinternalizing=0.0159). An indirect pathway via dismissive attachment was moderated by maternal social support ([0.0058, 0.0596]). Attachment patterns predicted all behavioural problems (p<0.05) and interacted with maternal anxiety symptoms to predict internalizing behaviours among male children ([0.0321, 0.1307]; [0.0321, 0.1291]). Interpretation: Maternal attachment patterns may predict children’s behavioural problems more than ACEs. Social support interventions may not always be beneficial for highly dismissively attached mothers. Implications for policy and child health include mandatory sex and gender education for teachers; assessing attachment patterns prior to recommending social support as an intervention; and anxiety-focused interventions for mothers in higher socioeconomic populations.

Keywords: maternal adverse childhood experiences, internalizing behaviours, externalizing behaviours, mediators and moderators, attachment patterns, child health

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Authors: Desmond Appiah, Fan Zhang, Shouqi Yuan, Wei Xueyuan, Stephen N. Asomani

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The side channel pump has distinctive hydraulic performance characteristics over other vane pumps because of its generation of high pressure heads in only one impeller revolution. Hence, there is soaring utilization and application in the fields of petrochemical, food processing fields, automotive and aerospace fuel pumping where high heads are required at low flows. The side channel pump is characterized by unstable flow because after fluid flows into the impeller passage, it moves into the side channel and comes back to the impeller again and then moves to the next circulation. Consequently, the flow leaves the side channel pump following a helical path. However, the pressure fluctuation exhibited in the flow greatly contributes to the unwanted noise and vibration which is associated with the flow. In this paper, a side channel pump prototype was examined thoroughly through numerical calculations based on SST k-ω turbulence model to ascertain the pressure fluctuation behavior. The pressure fluctuation intensity of the 3D unstable flow dynamics were carefully investigated under different working conditions 0.8QBEP, 1.0 QBEP and 1.2QBEP. The results showed that the pressure fluctuation distribution around the pressure side of the blade is greater than the suction side at the impeller and side channel interface (z=0) for all three operating conditions. Part-load condition 0.8QBEP recorded the highest pressure fluctuation distribution because of the high circulation velocity thus causing an intense exchanged flow between the impeller and side channel. Time and frequency domains spectra of the pressure fluctuation patterns in the impeller and the side channel were also analyzed under the best efficiency point value, QBEP using the solution from the numerical calculations. It was observed from the time-domain analysis that the pressure fluctuation characteristics in the impeller flow passage increased steadily until the flow reached the interrupter which separates low-pressure at the inflow from high pressure at the outflow. The pressure fluctuation amplitudes in the frequency domain spectrum at the different monitoring points depicted a gentle decreasing trend of the pressure amplitudes which was common among the operating conditions. The frequency domain also revealed that the main excitation frequencies occurred at 600Hz, 1200Hz, and 1800Hz and continued in the integers of the rotating shaft frequency. Also, the mass flow exchange plots indicated that the side channel pump is characterized with many vortex flows. Operating conditions 0.8QBEP, 1.0 QBEP depicted less and similar vortex flow while 1.2Q recorded many vortex flows around the inflow, middle and outflow regions. The results of the numerical calculations were finally verified experimentally. The performance characteristics curves from the simulated results showed that 0.8QBEP working condition recorded a head increase of 43.03% and efficiency decrease of 6.73% compared to 1.0QBEP. It can be concluded that for industrial applications where the high heads are mostly required, the side channel pump can be designed to operate at part-load conditions. This paper can serve as a source of information in order to optimize a reliable performance and widen the applications of the side channel pumps.

Keywords: exchanged flow, pressure fluctuation, numerical simulation, side channel pump

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Authors: Celso L. Fernando, Toshio Yoshii, Takahiro Tsubota

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Understanding the causes of a road accident and predicting their occurrence is key to preventing deaths and serious injuries from road accident events. Traditional statistical methods such as the Poisson and the Logistics regressions have been used to find the association of the traffic environmental factors with the accident occurred; recently, an artificial neural network, ANN, a computational technique that learns from historical data to make a more accurate prediction, has emerged. Although the ability to make accurate predictions, the ANN has difficulty dealing with highly unbalanced attribute patterns distribution in the training dataset; in such circumstances, the ANN treats the minority group as noise. However, in the real world data, the minority group is often the group of interest; e.g., in the road traffic accident data, the events of the accident are the group of interest. This study proposes a combination of the k-means with the ANN to improve the predictive ability of the neural network model by alleviating the effect of the unbalanced distribution of the attribute patterns in the training dataset. The results show that the proposed method improves the ability of the neural network to make a prediction on a highly unbalanced distributed attribute patterns dataset; however, on an even distributed attribute patterns dataset, the proposed method performs almost like a standard neural network.

Keywords: accident risks estimation, artificial neural network, deep learning, k-mean, road safety

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Authors: Geminne Manzano, Clairecynth Yu, Lilibeth Salvador-Reyes, Viviene Santiago, Porfirio AliñO

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The distribution and abundance patterns of many marine sessile organisms such as sponges vary among and within reefs. Determining the factors affecting its distribution is essential especially for organisms that produce secondary metabolites with pharmaceutical importance. In this study, the small-scale distribution patterns of the Philippine blue sponge, Xestospongia sp. in relation to some ecological factors were examined. The relationship between the renieramycin-M production and their benthic attributes were also determined. Ecological surveys were conducted on two stations with varying depth and exposure located in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. Three 30 by 6m belt transect were used to assess the sponge abundance at each station. The substratum of the sponges was also characterized. Fish visual census observations were also taken together with the photo transect methods benthic surveys. Sponge samples were also collected for the extraction of Renieramycin-M and for further chemical analysis. Varying distribution patterns were observed to be attributed to the combination of different ecological and environmental factors. The amount of Renieramycin-production also varied in each station. The common substratum for blue sponges includes hard and soft corals, as well as, dead coral with algal patches. Blue sponges from exposed habitat frequently grow associated with massive and branching corals, Porites sp., while the most frequent substrate found on sheltered habitats is the coral Pavona sp. Exploring the influence of ecological and environmental parameters on the abundance and distribution of sponge assemblages provide ecological insights and their potential applications to pharmaceutical studies. The results of this study provide further impetus in pursuing studies into patterns and processes of the Philippine blue sponge, Xestospongia sp. distribution in relation to the chemical ecology of its secondary metabolites.

Keywords: distribution patterns, Porifera, Renieramycin-M, sponge assemblages, Xestospongia sp.

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Authors: Armita Ghobadi, Samantha Emerson, Seyda Ozcaliskan

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Being a bilingual involves mastery of both speech and gesture patterns in a second language (L2). We know from earlier work in first language (L1) production contexts that speech and co-speech gesture form a tightly integrated system: co-speech gesture mirrors the patterns observed in speech, suggesting an online effect of language on nonverbal representation of events in gesture during the act of speaking (i.e., “thinking for speaking”). Relatively less is known about the online effect of language on gesture in bilinguals speaking structurally different languages. The few existing studies—mostly with small sample sizes—suggests inconclusive findings: some show greater achievement of L2 patterns in gesture with more advanced L2 speech production, while others show preferences for L1 gesture patterns even in advanced bilinguals. In this study, we focus on advanced bilingual speakers of two structurally different languages (Spanish L1 with English L2) in comparison to L1 English speakers. We ask whether bilingual speakers will follow target L2 patterns not only in speech but also in gesture, or alternatively, follow L2 patterns in speech but resort to L1 patterns in gesture. We examined this question by studying speech and gestures produced by 23 advanced adult Spanish (L1)-English (L2) bilinguals (Mage=22; SD=7) and 23 monolingual English speakers (Mage=20; SD=2). Participants were shown 16 animated motion event scenes that included distinct manner and path components (e.g., "run over the bridge"). We recorded and transcribed all participant responses for speech and segmented it into sentence units that included at least one motion verb and its associated arguments. We also coded all gestures that accompanied each sentence unit. We focused on motion event descriptions as it shows strong crosslinguistic differences in the packaging of motion elements in speech and co-speech gesture in first language production contexts. English speakers synthesize manner and path into a single clause or gesture (he runs over the bridge; running fingers forward), while Spanish speakers express each component separately (manner-only: el corre=he is running; circle arms next to body conveying running; path-only: el cruza el puente=he crosses the bridge; trace finger forward conveying trajectory). We tallied all responses by group and packaging type, separately for speech and co-speech gesture. Our preliminary results (n=4/group) showed that productions in English L1 and Spanish L1 differed, with greater preference for conflated packaging in L1 English and separated packaging in L1 Spanish—a pattern that was also largely evident in co-speech gesture. Bilinguals’ production in L2 English, however, followed the patterns of the target language in speech—with greater preference for conflated packaging—but not in gesture. Bilinguals used separated and conflated strategies in gesture in roughly similar rates in their L2 English, showing an effect of both L1 and L2 on co-speech gesture. Our results suggest that online production of L2 language has more limited effects on L2 gestures and that mastery of native-like patterns in L2 gesture might take longer than native-like L2 speech patterns.

Keywords: bilingualism, cross-linguistic variation, gesture, second language acquisition, thinking for speaking hypothesis

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Authors: Mohammed AL-Hasani

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The Pandemic COVID-19 altered the daily habits and affected the functional performance of the cities after this crisis leaving remarkable impacts on many metropolises worldwide. It is so obvious that having more densification in the city leads to more threats altering this main approach that was called for achieving sustainable development. The main goal to achieve resiliency in the cities, especially in forcing risks, is to deal with a planning system that is able to resist, absorb, accommodate and recover from the impacts that had been affected. Many Cities in London, Wuhan, New York, and others worldwide carried different planning approaches and varied in reaction to safeguard the impacts of the pandemic. The cities globally varied from the radiant pattern predicted by Le Corbusier, or having multi urban centers more like the approach of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City, or having linear growth or gridiron expansion that was common by Doxiadis, compact pattern, and many other hygiene patterns. These urban patterns shape the spatial distribution and Identify both open and natural spaces with gentrified and gentrifying areas. This crisis paid attention to reassess many planning approaches and examine the existing urban patterns focusing more on the aim of continuity and resiliency in managing the crises within the rapid transformation and the power of market forces. According to that, this paper hypothesized that those urban planning patterns determine the method of reaction in assuring quarantine for the inhabitance and the performance of public services and need to be updated through carrying out an innovative urban management system and adopt further resilience patterns in prospective urban planning approaches. This paper investigates the adaptivity and resiliency of variant urban planning patterns regarding selected cities worldwide that affected by COVID-19 and their role in applying certain management strategies in controlling the pandemic spread, finding out the main potentials that should be included in prospective planning approaches. The examination encompasses the spatial arrangement, blocks definition, plots arrangement, and urban space typologies. This paper aims to investigate the urban patterns to deliberate also the debate between densification as one of the more sustainable planning approaches and disaggregation tendency that was followed after the pandemic by restructuring and managing its application according to the assessment of the spatial distribution and urban patterns. The biggest long-term threat to dense cities proves the need to shift to online working and telecommuting, creating a mixture between using cyber and urban spaces to remobilize the city. Reassessing spatial design and growth, open spaces, urban population density, and public awareness are the main solutions that should be carried out to face the outbreak in our current cities that should be managed from global to tertiary levels and could develop criteria for designing the prospective cities

Keywords: COVID-19, densification, resiliency, urban patterns

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Authors: Ayse Cagil Kandemir, Derya Erdem, Markus Niederberger, Ralph Spolenak

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Dip Pen nanolithography (DPN), which is a tip based method, serves a novel approach to produce nano and micro-scaled patterns due to its high resolution and pattern flexibility. It is introduced as a new constructive scanning probe lithography (SPL) technique. DPN delivers materials in the form of an ink by using the tip of a cantilever as pen and substrate as paper in order to form surface architectures. First studies rely on delivery of small organic molecules on gold substrate in ambient conditions. As time passes different inks such as; polymers, colloidal particles, oligonucleotides, metallic salts were examined on a variety of surfaces. Discovery of DPN also enabled patterning with multiple inks by using multiple cantilevers for the first time in SPL history. Specifically, polymer inks, which constitute a flexible matrix for various materials, can have a potential in MEMS, NEMS and drug delivery applications. In our study, it is aimed to construct polymer patterns using DPN by studying wetting behavior of polymer on semiconductor, metal and polymer surfaces. The optimum viscosity range of polymer and effect of environmental conditions such as humidity and temperature are examined. It is observed that there is an inverse relation with ink viscosity and depletion time. This study also yields the optimal writing conditions to produce consistent patterns with DPN. It is shown that written dot sizes increase with dwell time, indicating that the examined writing conditions yield repeatable patterns.

Keywords: dip pen nanolithography, polymer, surface patterning, surface science

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Authors: Chen Bingru

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This study is intended to describe and analyze the effects of polysyllabic shortening and word or phrase boundary on the duration patterns of spoken utterances by Mandarin learners of English in comparison with native speakers of English. To investigate the relative contribution of these effects, two production experiments were conducted. The study included 11 native British English speakers and 20 Mandarin learners of English who were asked to produce four sets of tokens consisting of a mono-syllabic base form, disyllabic, and trisyllabic words derived from the base by the addition of suffixes, and a set of short sentences with a particular combination of phrase size, stress pattern, and boundary location. The duration of words and segments was measured, and results from the data analysis suggest that the amount of polysyllabic shortening and the effect of word or phrase position are likely to affect a Chinese accent for Mandarin ESL speakers. This study sheds light on research on the duration patterns of language by demonstrating the effect of duration-related factors on the foreign accent of Mandarin ESL speakers. It can also benefit both L2 learners and language teachers by increasing their sensitivity to the duration differences and difficulties experienced by L2 learners of English. An understanding of the amount of polysyllabic shortening and the effect of position in words and phrase on syllable duration can also facilitate L2 teachers to establish priorities for teaching pronunciation to ESL learners.

Keywords: duration patterns, Chinese accent, Mandarin ESL speakers, polysyllabic shortening

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Authors: Chadlia Ounissi, Maher Gzam, Tahani Hallek, Salah Mahmoudi, Mabrouk Montacer

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This work consists of a morphological study of the coastal domain at the central fringe of the Gulf of Gabes, Southeast of Tunisia, belonging to the structural domain of the maritime Jeffara. The diachronic study of tidal mouths in the study area and the observation of morphological markers revealed the existence of hydro-sedimentary processes leading to sedimentary accumulation and filling of the estuarine system. This filling process is materialized by the genesis of a sandy cord and the lateral migration of the tidal mouth. Moreover, we have been able to affirm, by the use of satellite images, that the dominant and responsible current at this particular coastal morphology is directed to the North, having constituted a controversy on the occurrence of what is previously mentioned in the literature. The speed of the lateral displacement of the channel varies as a function of the hydrodynamic forcing. Wave-dominated sites recorded the fastest speed (18 m/year) in the image of the mouth of Wadi el Melah. Tidal dominated sites in the Wadi Zerkine satellite image recorded a very low lateral migration (2 m / year). This variation in speed indicates that the intensity of the coastal current is uneven along the coast. This general pattern of hydrodynamic circulation, to the north, of the central fringe of the Gulf of Gabes, is disturbed by hydro-sedimentary cells.

Keywords: tidal mouth, direction of current, filling, sediment transport, Gulf of Gabes

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Authors: Clement Ndoricimpa

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The expression of stance is highly expected in writing at tertiary level. Through a selection of linguistic and rhetorical elements, writers express commitment, critical distance and build a critically discerning reader in texts. Despite many studies on patterns of stance in students’ academic writing, little may not be known about how English as a Foreign Language students learns to build a critically discerning reader in their texts. Therefore, this study examines patterns of stance in essays written by students majoring in business administration at English-medium University in Burundi as part of classroom assignments. It draws on systemic functional linguistics to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively the data. The quantitative analysis is used to identify the differences in frequency of stance patterns in the essays. The results show a significant difference in the use of boosters by lower- and upper-level students. Lower-level students’ writing contains more boosters and many idiosyncratic sentence structures than do upper-level students’ writing, and upper-level students’ essays contain more hedging and few grammatical mistakes than do lower-level students’ essays. No significant difference in the use of attitude markers and concessive and contrastive expressions. Students in lower- and upper-level do not use attitude markers and disclaimer markers appropriately and accurately. These findings suggest that students should be taught the use of stance patterns in academic writing.

Keywords: academic writing, metadiscourse, stance, student corpora

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Authors: Muhammad Usman

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Pattern extraction has been done in past to extract hidden and interesting patterns from large datasets. Recently, advancements are being made in these techniques by providing the ability of multi-level mining, effective dimension reduction, advanced evaluation and visualization support. This paper focuses on reviewing the current techniques in literature on the basis of these parameters. Literature review suggests that most of the techniques which provide multi-level mining and dimension reduction, do not handle mixed-type data during the process. Patterns are not extracted using advanced algorithms for large datasets. Moreover, the evaluation of patterns is not done using advanced measures which are suited for high-dimensional data. Techniques which provide visualization support are unable to handle a large number of rules in a small space. We present a theoretical model to handle these issues. The implementation of the model is beyond the scope of this paper.

Keywords: association rule mining, data mining, data warehouses, visualization of association rules

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Authors: Moyahabo Molefe

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The persistence of HIV/AIDS infection rates in SA has not only been a subject of academic debate but a mediated narrative that has dominated SA’s post-apartheid film space over the last two decades. SA’s colonial geo-spatial architecture still influences migrant labour patterns, which the Oscar-nominated (2003) SA film ‘Yesterday’ has erstwhile reflected upon, yet continues to account for the spread of HIV/AIDS in SA society. Accordingly, men who had left their homes in the rural areas to work in the mines in the cities become infected with HIV/AIDS, only to return home to infect their wives or partners in the rural areas. This paper analyses, through Social Semiotic theory, how SA geo-spatial arrangement had raptured family structures with both men and women taking new residences in the urban areas where they work away from their homes. By using Social semiotic theory, this paper seeks to understand how images and discourses have been deployed in the film ‘Yesterday’ to demonstrate how HIV/AIDS is embedded in the socio-cultural, economic and political architect of SA society. The study uses qualitative approach and content/text/visual semiotic analysis to decipher meanings from array of imagery and discourses/dialogues that are used to mythologise the relationship between the spread of HIV/AIDS and SA migrant labour patterns. The findings of the study are significant to propose a conceptual framework that can be used to mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS among SA populace, against the backdrop of changing migrant labour patterns and other related factors

Keywords: colonialism, decoloniality, HIV/AIDS, labour migration patterns, social semiotics

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Authors: K. L. Wong, I. N. Umar

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Online forum is part of a Learning Management System (LMS) environment in which students share opinions. This study attempts to investigate the perceptions of students towards online forum and their patterns of listening behaviour during the forum interaction. The students’ perceptions were measured using a questionnaire, in which seven dimensions were used including online experience, benefits of forum participation, cost of participation, perceived ease of use, usefulness, attitude and intention. Meanwhile, their patterns of listening behaviours were obtained using the log file extracted from the LMS. A total of 25 postgraduate students undertaking a course were involved in this study, and their activities in the forum session were recorded by the LMS and used as a log file. The results from the questionnaire analysis indicated that the students perceived that the forum is easy to use, useful, and bring benefits to them. Also, they showed positive attitude towards online forum, and they have the intention to use it in future. Based on the log data, the participants were also divided into six clusters of listening behaviour, in which they are different in terms of temporality, breadth, depth and speaking level. The findings were compared to previous clusters grouping and future recommendations are also discussed.

Keywords: e-learning, learning management system, listening behavior, online forum

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Authors: Manal Hassan Abdel Aziz, Fatma Mohamed Magdy Badr El Dine, Nourhan Mohamed Mohamed Saeed

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Establishing association between lip print patterns and those of fingerprints as well as blood groups is of fundamental importance in the forensic identification domain. The first aim of the current study was to determine the prevalent types of ABO blood groups, lip prints and fingerprints patterns in both studied populations. Secondly, to analyze any relation found between the different print patterns and the blood groups, which would be valuable in identification purposes. The present study was conducted on 60 healthy volunteers, (30 males and 30 females) from each of the studied population. Lip prints and fingerprints were obtained and classified according to Tsuchihashi's classification and Michael Kuchen’s classification, respectively. The results show that the ulnar loop was the most frequent among both populations. Blood group A was the most frequent among Egyptians, while blood groups O and B were the predominant among Malaysians. Significant relations were observed between lip print patterns and fingerprint (in the second quadrant for Egyptian males and the first one for Malaysian). For Malaysian females, a statistically significant association was proved in the fourth quadrant. Regarding the blood groups, 89.5% of ulnar loops were significantly related to blood group A among Egyptian males. The results proved an association between the fingerprint pattern and the lip prints, as well as between the ABO blood group and the pattern of fingerprints. However, further researches with larger sample sizes need to be directed to approve the current results.

Keywords: ABO, cheiloscopy, dactylography, Egyptians, Malaysians

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Authors: Mubarek Alpkiray, Tan Nguyen, Arild Saasen

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Geothermal drilling operations contain numerous challenges that are encountered to increase the well cost and nonproductive time. Fluid loss is one of the most undesirable troublesome that can cause well abandonment in geothermal drilling. Lost circulation can be seen due to natural fractures, high mud weight, and extremely high formation temperatures. This challenge may cause wellbore stability problems and lead to expensive drilling operations. Wellbore stability is the main domain that should be considered to mitigate or prevent fluid loss into the formation. This paper describes the causes of fluid loss in the Pamukoren geothermal field in Turkey. A geomechanics approach integration and assessment is applied to help the understanding of fluid loss problems. In geothermal drillings, geomechanics is primarily based on rock properties, in-situ stress characterization, the temperature of the rock, determination of stresses around the wellbore, and rock failure criteria. Since a high-temperature difference between the wellbore wall and drilling fluid is presented, temperature distribution through the wellbore is estimated and implemented to the wellbore stability approach. This study reviewed geothermal drilling data to analyze temperature estimation along the wellbore, the cause of fluid loss and stored electric capacity of the reservoir. Our observation demonstrates the geomechanical approach's significant role in understanding safe drilling operations on high-temperature wells. Fluid loss is encountered due to thermal stress effects around the borehole. This paper provides a wellbore stability analysis for a geothermal drilling operation to discuss the causes of lost circulation resulting in nonproductive time and cost.

Keywords: geothermal wells, drilling, wellbore stresses, drilling fluid loss, thermal stress

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Authors: Nishi Bhuvandas, P. V. Timbadiya, P. L. Patel, P. D. Porey

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Recent perceived climate variability raises concerns with unprecedented hydrological phenomena and extremes. Distribution and circulation of the waters of the Earth become increasingly difficult to determine because of additional uncertainty related to anthropogenic emissions. According to the sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Technical Paper on Climate Change and water, changes in the large-scale hydrological cycle have been related to an increase in the observed temperature over several decades. Although many previous research carried on effect of change in climate on hydrology provides a general picture of possible hydrological global change, new tools and frameworks for modelling hydrological series with nonstationary characteristics at finer scales, are required for assessing climate change impacts. Of the downscaling techniques, dynamic downscaling is usually based on the use of Regional Climate Models (RCMs), which generate finer resolution output based on atmospheric physics over a region using General Circulation Model (GCM) fields as boundary conditions. However, RCMs are not expected to capture the observed spatial precipitation extremes at a fine cell scale or at a basin scale. Statistical downscaling derives a statistical or empirical relationship between the variables simulated by the GCMs, called predictors, and station-scale hydrologic variables, called predictands. The main focus of the paper is on the need for using statistical downscaling techniques for projection of local hydrometeorological variables under climate change scenarios. The projections can be then served as a means of input source to various hydrologic models to obtain streamflow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and other hydrological variables of interest.

Keywords: climate change, downscaling, GCM, RCM

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Authors: S. Shujan, A. T. Rupasinghe, N. L. Gunawardena

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Numerous studies have determined that there is a direct correlation between the successful interviewee and the nonverbal behavioral patterns of that person during the interview. In this study, we focus on formations of interview questions in such a way that, it gets an opportunity for assessing interviewee through the answers using the nonverbal behavioral cues. From all the nonverbal behavioral factors we have identified, in this study priority is given to the ‘facial expression variations’ with the assistance of facial expression analytics tool; this research proposes a novel approach in question formation for the assessment of interviewees in ‘Software Industry’.

Keywords: assessments, hirability, interviews, non-verbal behaviour patterns, question formation

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Authors: Wheyming Song, Ssu-Ping Lin

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The primary advantage of package-on-package (PoP) packaging is that since it has less volume, it weighs less. But this is also related to its principal drawback, which is warpage. This research investigates how PoP package warpage patterns are affected by assembling process parameters, including substrate temperature, injection speed, injection temperature, and compound forces. We also investigate how warpage patterns are affected by the location of the silicon chip. The methodologies used in this research are design of experiment and warpage simulation via ANSYS. We propose a regression model to predict the warpage value as a function of substrate temperature, injection speed, injection temperature, and compound forces. Our results show that interaction effects exist between substrate temperature and compound forces and between injection speed and injection temperature. Therefore, determining the optimal values for substrate temperature, compound forces, injection speed, and injection temperature cannot be done individually. Also, our results show that the warpage patterns based on the location of silicon chips can be classified into 11 groups, with the largest warpage occurring at the left-most and right-most sides.

Keywords: package-on-package, warpage, design of experiment, simulation

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Authors: Aneta Nitsch-Osuch, Damian Okrucinski, Magdalena Dawgialło, Izabela Gołębiak, Ernest Kuchar

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The Hospital Antibiotic Policy (HAP) should be implemented to rationalize the antibiotic use and to decrease the risk of spreading of spreading of resistant bacteria. The aim of our study was to describe the antibiotic consumption patterns at the single oncosurgery ward before and after implementation of the HAP. We conducted a retrospective analysis of the antibiotic use at the Oncosurgery Ward in Warsaw (Poland) in years 2011-2016. Calculations were based on daily defined doses (DDDs), DDDs/100 hospitalizations and DDDs/100 person-days, drug utilization rates (DU 90% and DU 100%) were also analysed. After implementation of the HAP, the total antibiotic consumption increased (365.35 DDD in 2011 vs. 1359,22 DDD in 2016). The significant change was observed in antibiotic consumption patterns: the use of amoxicillin clavulanate and carbapenems or glycopeptides decreased significantly (p < 0,05), while the use of ciprofloxacin and aminoglycosides increased (p < 0,05). The DU100% rate varied from 6 in 2011 to 12 in 2016; while DU 90% rate varied from 2 in 2011 to 3-5 in 2013-2016. Although the implementation of the HAP did not result in the decreased total antibiotic consumption, it provided favorable changes in the antibiotic consumption patterns.

Keywords: antibiotics, hospital, policy, stewardship

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Authors: Zhaoyu Chen

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In this study, an attempt was made to find reasons why tourists go to particular attractions. Tourists may be either motivated by the attractions or simply make the choice to satisfy their needs and desires. Based on the attractions in Hong Kong, this research was conducted to explore the attraction-related concepts to discuss how the attraction system works. Due to the limited studies on exploring the attractiveness of attractions through tourist movement patterns, the study aims to evaluate such indicators to determine whether tourists are motivated by attractiveness or their own needs. The investigation is conducted through the comparison of different source markets - Mainland China, short haul markets (excluding Mainland China) and long haul markets. The latest finding of Departing Visitor Survey (DVS) implemented by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is employed for the analysis. Various tourist movement patterns are drawn from the practical data. The managerial implication to destination management organizations (DMOs) is suggested to better allocate attractions according to the needs of tourists.

Keywords: attractions, attraction system, Hong Kong, tourist movement patterns

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Authors: Sara R. Knigge, Sugat R. Tuladhar, Hans-Klaus HöFfler, Tobias Schilling, Tim Kaufeld, Axel Haverich

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Tissue engineered (TE) heart valves based on degradable electrospun fiber scaffold represent a promising approach to overcome the known limitations of mechanical or biological prostheses. But the mechanical stress in the high-pressure system of the human circulation is a severe challenge for the delicate materials. Hence, the prediction of the scaffolds` in vivo degradation kinetics must be as accurate as possible to prevent fatal events in future animal or even clinical trials. Therefore, this study investigates whether long-term testing in full blood provides more meaningful results regarding the degradation behavior than conventional tests in simulated body fluids (SBF) or Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS). Fiber mats were produced from a polycaprolactone (PCL)/tetrafluoroethylene solution by electrospinning. The morphology of the fiber mats was characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A maximum physiological degradation environment utilizing a test set-up with porcine full blood was established. The set-up consists of a reaction vessel, an oxygenator unit, and a roller pump. The blood parameters (pO2, pCO2, temperature, and pH) were monitored with an online test system. All tests were also carried out in the test circuit with SBF and PBS to compare conventional degradation media with the novel full blood setting. The polymer's degradation is quantified by SEM picture analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and Raman spectroscopy. Tensile and cyclic loading tests were performed to evaluate the mechanical integrity of the scaffold. Preliminary results indicate that PCL degraded slower in full blood than in SBF and PBS. The uptake of water is more pronounced in the full blood group. Also, PCL preserved its mechanical integrity longer when degraded in full blood. Protein absorption increased during the degradation process. Red blood cells, platelets, and their aggregates adhered on the PCL. Presumably, the degradation led to a more hydrophilic polymeric surface which promoted the protein adsorption and the blood cell adhesion. Testing degradable implants in full blood allows for developing more reliable scaffold materials in the future. Material tests in small and large animal trials thereby can be focused on testing candidates that have proven to function well in an in-vivo-like setting.

Keywords: Electrospun scaffold, full blood degradation test, long-term polymer degradation, tissue engineered aortic heart valve

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Authors: Alireza Nikbakht Shahbazi

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There are various factors that affect climate changes; drought is one of those factors. Investigation of efficient methods for estimating climate change impacts on drought should be assumed. The aim of this paper is to investigate climate change impacts on drought in Karoon3 watershed located south-western Iran in the future periods. The atmospheric general circulation models (GCM) data under Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios should be used for this purpose. In this study, watershed drought under climate change impacts will be simulated in future periods (2011 to 2099). Standard precipitation index (SPI) as a drought index was selected and calculated using mean monthly precipitation data in Karoon3 watershed. SPI was calculated in 6, 12 and 24 months periods. Statistical analysis on daily precipitation and minimum and maximum daily temperature was performed. LRAS-WG5 was used to determine the feasibility of future period's meteorological data production. Model calibration and verification was performed for the base year (1980-2007). Meteorological data simulation for future periods under General Circulation Models and climate change IPCC scenarios was performed and then the drought status using SPI under climate change effects analyzed. Results showed that differences between monthly maximum and minimum temperature will decrease under climate change and spring precipitation shall increase while summer and autumn rainfall shall decrease. The precipitation occurs mainly between January and May in future periods and summer or autumn precipitation decline and lead up to short term drought in the study region. Normal and wet SPI category is more frequent in B1 and A2 emissions scenarios than A1B.

Keywords: climate change impact, drought severity, drought frequency, Karoon3 watershed

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Authors: Fulufhelo Oscar Maphiri-Makananise

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The main purpose of this paper is to explore and provide substantiated evidence based on the usage patterns of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by females in the Vhembe District in Limpopo-Province, South Africa. The study presents a broader picture and understanding about the usage of ICTs from female’s perspective. The significance of this study stems from the need to discover the role, relevance and usage patterns of ICTs such as smartphones, computers, laptops, and iPods, internet and social networking sites among females following the trends of new media technologies in the society. The main objective of the study was to investigate the usability and accessibility of ICTs to empower the Vhembe District females in South Africa. The study used quantitative research method together with elements of qualitative research to determine the major ideas, perceptions and usage patterns of ICTs by females in the District. Data collection involved structured and self-administered questionnaire with both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Two groups of respondents participated in this study. Media Studies female students (n=50) at the University of Venda provided their ideas and perceptions about the usefulness and usage patterns of ICTs such as smartphones, internet and computers at the university level, while the second group were (n=50) Makhado comprehensive school learners who also provided their perceptions and ideas about the use of ICTs at the high school level. Also, the study provides a more balanced, accurate and rational results on the pertinent issues that concern the use of ICTs by females in the Vhembe District. The researcher also believes that the findings of the study are useful as a guideline and model for ICT intervention that work as an empowerment to women in South Africa. The study showed that the main purpose of using ICTs by females was to search information for writing assignments, conducting research, dating, exchanging ideas and networking with friends and relatives that are also members of social networking sites and maintaining existing friends in real life. The study further revealed that most females were using ICTs for social purposes and accessing the internet than entertaining themselves. The finding also indicated a high number of females that used ICTs for e-learning (62%) and social purposes (85%). Moreover, the study centred on providing strong insightful information on the females’ usage patterns and their perceptions of ICTs in the Vhembe district of Limpopo province.

Keywords: female users, information and communication technologies, internet, usage patterns

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Authors: Saad Algharib, Jay Lee

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Urbanization is a complex phenomenon that occurs during the city’s development from one form to another. In other words, it is the process when the activities in the land use/land cover change from rural to urban. Since the oil exploration, Kuwait City has been growing rapidly due to its urbanization and population growth by both natural growth and inward immigration. The main objective of this study is to detect changes in urban land use/land cover and to examine the changing spatial patterns of urban growth in and around Kuwait City between 1989 and 2001. In addition, this study also evaluates the spatial patterns of the changes detected and how they can be related to the spatial configuration of the city. Recently, the use of remote sensing and geographic information systems became very useful and important tools in urban studies because of the integration of them can allow and provide the analysts and planners to detect, monitor and analyze the urban growth in a region effectively. Moreover, both planners and users can predict the trends of the growth in urban areas in the future with remotely sensed and GIS data because they can be effectively updated with required precision levels. In order to identify the new urban areas between 1989 and 2001, the study uses satellite images of the study area and remote sensing technology for classifying these images. Unsupervised classification method was applied to classify images to land use and land cover data layers. After finishing the unsupervised classification method, GIS overlay function was applied to the classified images for detecting the locations and patterns of the new urban areas that developed during the study period. GIS was also utilized to evaluate the distribution of the spatial patterns. For example, Moran’s index was applied for all data inputs to examine the urban growth distribution. Furthermore, this study assesses if the spatial patterns and process of these changes take place in a random fashion or with certain identifiable trends. During the study period, the result of this study indicates that the urban growth has occurred and expanded 10% from 32.4% in 1989 to 42.4% in 2001. Also, the results revealed that the largest increase of the urban area occurred between the major highways after the forth ring road from the center of Kuwait City. Moreover, the spatial distribution of urban growth occurred in cluster manners.

Keywords: geographic information systems, remote sensing, urbanization, urban growth

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Authors: Vemula Amalakrishna, S. Pushpavanam

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Change and motion characterize and persistently reshape the world around us, on scales from molecular to global. The subtle interplay between change (Reaction) and motion (Diffusion) gives rise to an astonishing intricate spatial or temporal pattern. These pattern formation in nature has been intellectually appealing for many scientists since antiquity. Periodic precipitation patterns, also known as Liesegang patterns (LP), are one of the stimulating examples of such self-assembling reaction-diffusion (RD) systems. LP formation has a great potential in micro and nanotechnology. So far, the research on LPs has been concentrated mostly on how these patterns are forming, retrieving information to build a universal mathematical model for them. Researchers have developed various theoretical models to comprehensively construct the geometrical diversity of LPs. To the best of our knowledge, simulation studies of LPs assume an arbitrary value of RD parameters to explain experimental observation qualitatively. In this work, existing models were studied to understand the mechanism behind this phenomenon and challenges pertaining to models were understood and explained. These models are not computationally effective due to the presence of discontinuous precipitation rate in RD equations. To overcome the computational challenges, smoothened Heaviside functions have been introduced, which downsizes the computational time as well. Experiments were performed using a conventional LP system (AgNO₃-K₂Cr₂O₇) to understand the effects of different gels and temperatures on formed LPs. The model is extended for real parameter values to compare the simulated results with experimental data for both 1-D (Cartesian test tubes) and 2-D(cylindrical and Petri dish).

Keywords: reaction-diffusion, spatio-temporal patterns, nucleation and growth, supersaturation

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Authors: Nazish Badar

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In early 2009, Pandemic type A (H1N1) Influenza virus emerged globally. Since then, it has continued circulation causing considerable morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the evolutionary changes in Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 viruses from 2009-15 and their relevance with the current vaccine viruses. Methods: Respiratory specimens were collected with influenza-like illness and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness. Samples were processed according to CDC protocol. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of Haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes was carried out comparing representative isolates from Pakistan viruses. Results: Between Jan2009 - Feb 2016, 1870 (13.2%) samples were positive for influenza A out of 14086. During the pandemic period (2009–10), Influenza A/ H1N1pdm 09 was the dominant strain with 366 (45%) of total influenza positives. In the post-pandemic period (2011–2016), a total of 1066 (59.6%) cases were positive Influenza A/ H1N1pdm 09 with co-circulation of different Influenza A subtypes. Overall, the Pakistan A(H1N1) pdm09 viruses grouped in two genetic clades. Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses only ascribed to Clade 7 during the pandemic period whereas viruses belong to clade 7 (2011) and clade 6B (2015) during the post-pandemic years. Amino acid analysis of the HA gene revealed mutations at positions S220T, I338V and P100S specially associated with outbreaks in all the analyzed strains. Sequence analyses of post-pandemic A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses showed additional substitutions at antigenic sites; S179N,K180Q (SA), D185N, D239G (CA), S202A (SB) and at receptor binding sites; A13T, S200P when compared with pandemic period. Substitution at Genetic markers; A273T (69%), S200P/T (15%) and D239G (7.6%) associated with severity and E391K (69%) associated with virulence was identified in viruses isolated during 2015. Analysis of NA gene revealed outbreak markers; V106I (23%) among pandemic and N248D (100%) during post-pandemic Pakistan viruses. Additional N-Glycosylation site; HA S179N (23%), NA I23T(7.6%) and N44S (77%) in place of N386K(77%) were only found in post-pandemic viruses. All isolates showed histidine (H) at position 275 in NA indicating sensitivity to neuraminidase inhibitors. Conclusion: This study shows that the Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses from Pakistan clustered into two genetic clades, with co-circulation of some variants. Certain key substitutions in the receptor binding site and few changes indicative of virulence were also detected in post-pandemic strains. Therefore, it is imperative to continue monitoring of the viruses for early identification of potential variants of high virulence or emergence of drug-resistant variants.

Keywords: Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09, evolutionary analysis, post pandemic period, Pakistan

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Authors: Shuruq Ghazi Nahhas

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Islamic art is a decorative art that depends on repeating motifs in various shapes to cover different surfaces. Each motif has its own characteristics and style that may reflect different Islamic periods, such as Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Seljuk, Nasrid, Ottoman, and Safavid. These periods were the most powerful periods which played an important role in developing the Islamic motifs. Most of these motifs of the Islamic heritage were not used in new applications. This research focused on reviving the vegetal Islamic motifs found on Islamic heritage and redesign them in a new format to decorate various products, including scarfs, cushions, coasters, wallpaper, wall art, and boxes. The scarf is chosen as one element of these decorative products because it is used as accessories to add aesthetic value to fashion. A descriptive-analytical method is used for this research. The process started with extracting and analyzing the original motifs. Then, creating the new motifs by simplifying, deleting, or adding elements based on the original structure. Then, creating repeated patterns and applying them to decorative products. The findings of this research indicated: repeating patterns based on different structures creates unlimited patterns. Also, changing the elements of the motifs of a pattern adds new characteristics to the pattern. Also, creating frames using elements from the repeated motifs adds aesthetic and contemporary value to decorative products. Finally, using various methods of combining colors creates unlimited variations of each pattern. At the end, reviving the Islamic motifs in contemporary vision enriches decorative products with aesthetic, artistic, and historical values of different Islamic periods. This makes the decorative products valuable that adds uniqueness to their surroundings.

Keywords: Islamic motifs, contemporary patterns, scarfs, decorative products

Procedia PDF Downloads 136