Search results for: voluntary simplicity
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 537

Search results for: voluntary simplicity

207 Graphic User Interface Design Principles for Designing Augmented Reality Applications

Authors: Afshan Ejaz, Syed Asim Ali

Abstract:

The reality is a combination of perception, reconstruction, and interaction. Augmented Reality is the advancement that layer over consistent everyday existence which includes content based interface, voice-based interfaces, voice-based interface and guide based or gesture-based interfaces, so designing augmented reality application interfaces is a difficult task for the maker. Designing a user interface which is not only easy to use and easy to learn but its more interactive and self-explanatory which have high perceived affordability, perceived usefulness, consistency and high discoverability so that the user could easily recognized and understand the design. For this purpose, a lot of interface design principles such as learnability, Affordance, Simplicity, Memorability, Feedback, Visibility, Flexibly and others are introduced but there no such principles which explain the most appropriate interface design principles for designing an Augmented Reality application interfaces. Therefore, the basic goal of introducing design principles for Augmented Reality application interfaces is to match the user efforts and the computer display (‘plot user input onto computer output’) using an appropriate interface action symbol (‘metaphors’) or to make that application easy to use, easy to understand and easy to discover. In this study by observing Augmented reality system and interfaces, few of well-known design principle related to GUI (‘user-centered design’) are identify and through them, few issues are shown which can be determined through the design principles. With the help of multiple studies, our study suggests different interface design principles which makes designing Augmented Reality application interface more easier and more helpful for the maker as these principles make the interface more interactive, learnable and more usable. To accomplish and test our finding, Pokémon Go an Augmented Reality game was selected and all the suggested principles are implement and test on its interface. From the results, our study concludes that our identified principles are most important principles while developing and testing any Augmented Reality application interface.

Keywords: GUI, augmented reality, metaphors, affordance, perception, satisfaction, cognitive burden

Procedia PDF Downloads 138
206 Design, Modeling, Fabrication, and Testing of a Scaled down Hybrid Rocket Engine

Authors: Pawthawala Nancy Manish, Syed Alay Hashim

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A hybrid rocket is a rocket engine which uses propellants in two different states of matter- one is in solid and the other either gas or liquid. A hybrid rocket exhibit advantages over both liquid rockets and solid rockets especially in terms of simplicity, stop-start-restart capabilities, safety and cost. This paper deals the design and development of a hybrid rocket having paraffin wax as solid fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. Due to variation of pressure in combustion chamber there is significantly change in mass flow rate, burning rate and uneven regression along the length of the grain. This project describes the working model of a hybrid propellant rocket motor. We have designed a hybrid rocket thrust chamber based on the predetermined combustion chamber pressure and the properties of hybrid propellant. This project is all ready in working condition with normal oxygen injector. Now we have planned to modify the injector design to improve the combustion property. We will use spray type injector for injecting the oxidizer. This idea will increase the performance followed by the regression rate of the solid fuel. By employing mass conservation law, oxygen mass flux, oxidizer/fuel ratio and regression rate the thrust coefficient can be obtained for our current design. CATIA V5 R20 is our design software for the complete setup. This project is fully based on experimental evaluation and the collection of combustion and flow parameters. The thrust chamber is made of stainless steel and the duration of test is around 15-20 seconds (Maximum). These experiments indicates that paraffin based fuel provides the opportunity to satisfy a broad range of mission requirements for the next generation of the hybrid rocket system.

Keywords: burning rate, liquid oxygen, mass flow rate, paraffin wax and sugar

Procedia PDF Downloads 305
205 Educational Turn towards Digitalization by Changing Leadership, Networks and Qualification Concepts

Authors: Patricia Girrbach

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Currently, our society is facing a new and incremental upheaval technological revolution named digitalization. In order to face the relating challenges organizations have to be prepared. They need appropriate circumstances in order to cope with current issues concerning digital transformation processes. Nowadays digitalization emerged as top issues for companies and business leaders. In this context, it is a pressure on companies to have a positive, productive digital culture. And indeed, Organizations realize that they need to address this important issue. In this context 87 percent of organizations quote culture and engagement as one of their top challenges in terms of any change process, but especially in terms of the digital turn. Executives can give their company a competitive advantage and attract top talent by having a strong workplace culture that supports digitalization. Many current studies attest that fact. Digital-oriented companies can hire more easily, they have the lowest voluntary turnover rates, deliver better customer service, and are more profitable over the long run. Based on this background it is important to provide companies starting points and practical measurements how to reach this goal. The major findings are that firms need to make sense out of digitalization. In this context, they should focus on internal but also on external stakeholders. Furthermore, they should create certain working conditions and they should support the qualification of employees, e.g. by Virtual Reality. These measurements can create positive experiences in terms of digitalization in order to ensure the support of stuff in terms of the digital turn. Based on several current studies and literature research this paper provides concrete measurements for companies in order to enable the digital turn. Therefore, the aim of this paper is providing possible practical starting points which support both the education of employees by digitalization as well as the digital turn itself within the organization.

Keywords: digitalization, industry 4.0, education 4.0, virtual reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 131
204 Film Dosimetry – An Asset for Collaboration Between Cancer Radiotherapy Centers at Established Institutions and Those Located in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Authors: A. Fomujong, P. Mobit, A. Ndlovu, R. Teboh

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Purpose: Film’s unique qualities, such as tissue equivalence, high spatial resolution, near energy independence and comparatively less expensive dosimeter, ought to make it the preferred and widely used in radiotherapy centers in low and middle income countries (LMICs). This, however, is not always the case, as other factors that are often maybe taken for granted in advanced radiotherapy centers remain a challenge in LMICs. We explored the unique qualities of film dosimetry that can make it possible for one Institution to benefit from another’s protocols via collaboration. Methods: For simplicity, two Institutions were considered in this work. We used a single batch of films (EBT-XD) and established a calibration protocol, including scan protocols and calibration curves, using the radiotherapy delivery system at Institution A. We then proceeded and performed patient-specific QA for patients treated on system A (PSQA-A-A). Films from the same batch were then sent to a remote center for PSQA on radiotherapy delivery system B. Irradiations were done at Institution B and then returned to Institution A for processing and analysis (PSQA-B-A). The following points were taken into consideration throughout the process (a) A reference film was irradiated to a known dose on the same system irradiating the PSQA film. (b) For calibration, we utilized the one-scan protocol and maintained the same scan orientation of the calibration, PSQA and reference films. Results: Gamma index analysis using a dose threshold of 10% and 3%/2mm criteria showed a gamma passing rate of 99.8% and 100% for the PSQA-A-A and PSQA-B-A, respectively. Conclusion: This work demonstrates that one could use established film dosimetry protocols in one Institution, e.g., an advanced radiotherapy center and apply similar accuracies to irradiations performed at another institution, e.g., a center located in LMIC, which thus encourages collaboration between the two for worldwide patient benefits.

Keywords: collaboration, film dosimetry, LMIC, radiotherapy, calibration

Procedia PDF Downloads 49
203 Proactive Business Approaches in Human Rights: The Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility

Authors: Fatemeh Jalalvand

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The critical human rights problems such as extreme poverty, hunger, inequalities and gender discrimination need to be addressed by powerful and influential actors in the world. In today’s globalization, corporations have become one of the potent agents in the society. They are capable of generating economic growth, reducing poverty, and increasing the well-being of individuals, thereby contributing to the betterment of a broad spectrum of human rights. However, the discussion on how business can contribute to human rights has primarily focused on not violating them (reactive approach) rather than improving the conditions and solving the problems of human rights (proactive approach). In particular, the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in bringing proactivity of business in human rights has gained less attention. This paper develops a conceptual framework to examine the role of different categories of CSR, including discretionary, ethical, legal, instrumental and political CSR in encouraging the proactive contribution of corporations to the betterment of human rights. The five propositions, related to the conceptual framework, outline the relationships between five categories of CSR and proactivity of corporations in human rights. The findings indicate that discretionary CSR with voluntary nature might not be able to motivate any contribution of business in human rights. Moreover, ethical CSR and legal CSR might lead to reactive strategies of business toward human rights. Meanwhile, the economic incentives behind the notion of instrumental CSR could result in partial proactive engagement of corporations in human rights. Finally, the internal motives as profit and power besides the external duties might lead to the highest level of proactivity of corporations in human rights under the context of political CSR. The model developed offers a map for business to adopt proactive human rights strategies more systematically maintaining key profit-drivers like power and profit. In sum, instrumental and political categories of CSR might lead corporations to improve the conditions of human rights proactively.

Keywords: CSR, human rights, proactive approach, reactive approach

Procedia PDF Downloads 223
202 The Changes in Motivations and the Use of Translation Strategies in Crowdsourced Translation: A Case Study on Global Voices’ Chinese Translation Project

Authors: Ya-Mei Chen

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Online crowdsourced translation, an innovative translation practice brought by Web 2.0 technologies and the democratization of information, has become increasingly popular in the Internet era. Carried out by grass-root internet users, crowdsourced translation contains fundamentally different features from its off-line traditional counterpart, such as voluntary participation and parallel collaboration. To better understand such a participatory and collaborative nature, this paper will use the online Chinese translation project of Global Voices as a case study to investigate the following issues: (1) the changes in volunteer translators’ and reviewers’ motivations for participation, (2) translators’ and reviewers’ use of translation strategies and (3) the correlations of translators’ and reviewers’ motivations and strategies with the organizational mission, the translation style guide, the translator-reviewer interaction, the mediation of the translation platform and various types of capital within the translation field. With an aim to systematically explore the above three issues, this paper will collect both quantitative and qualitative data and then draw upon Engestrom’s activity theory and Bourdieu’s field theory as a theoretical framework to analyze the data in question. An online anonymous questionnaire will be conducted to obtain the quantitative data. The questionnaire will contain questions related to volunteer translators’ and reviewers’ backgrounds, participation motivations, translation strategies and mutual relations as well as the operation of the translation platform. Concerning the qualitative data, they will come from (1) a comparative study between some English news texts published on Global Voices and their Chinese translations, (2) an analysis of the online discussion forum associated with Global Voices’ Chinese translation project and (3) the information about the project’s translation mission and guidelines. It is hoped that this research, through a detailed sociological analysis of a cause-driven crowdsourced translation project, can enable translation researchers and practitioners to adequately meet the translation challenges appearing in the digital age.

Keywords: crowdsourced translation, global voices, motivation, translation strategies

Procedia PDF Downloads 351
201 Mathematics Anxiety among Male and Female Students

Authors: Wern Lin Yeo, Choo Kim Tan, Sook Ling Lew

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Mathematics anxiety refers to the feeling of anxious when one having difficulties in solving mathematical problem. Mathematics anxiety is the most common type of anxiety among other types of anxiety which occurs among the students. However, level of anxiety among males and females are different. There were few past study were conducted to determine the relationship of anxiety and gender but there were still did not have an exact results. Hence, the purpose of this study is to determine the relationship of anxiety level between male and female undergraduates at a private university in Malaysia. Convenient sampling method used in this study in which the students were selected based on the grouping assigned by the faculty. There were 214 undergraduates who registered the probability courses had participated in this study. Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) was the instrument used in study which used to determine students’ anxiety level towards probability. Reliability and validity of instrument was done before the major study was conducted. In the major study, students were given briefing about the study conducted. Participation of this study were voluntary. Students were given consent form to determine whether they agree to participate in the study. Duration of two weeks were given for students to complete the given online questionnaire. The data collected will be analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to determine the level of anxiety. There were three anxiety level, i.e., low, average and high. Students’ anxiety level were determined based on their scores obtained compared with the mean and standard deviation. If the scores obtained were below mean and standard deviation, the anxiety level was low. If the scores were at below and above the mean and between one standard deviation, the anxiety level was average. If the scores were above the mean and greater than one standard deviation, the anxiety level was high. Results showed that both of the gender were having average anxiety level. Males having high frequency of three anxiety level which were low, average and high anxiety level as compared to females. Hence, the mean values obtained for males (M = 3.62) was higher than females (M = 3.42). In order to be significant of anxiety level among the gender, the p-value should be less than .05. The p-value obtained in this study was .117. However, this value was greater than .05. Thus, there was no significant difference of anxiety level among the gender. In other words, there was no relationship of anxiety level with the gender.

Keywords: anxiety level, gender, mathematics anxiety, probability and statistics

Procedia PDF Downloads 267
200 Health Belief Model on Smoking Behaviors Causing Lung Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study in Thailand

Authors: Dujrudee Chinwong, Chanida Prompantakorn, Ubonphan Chaichana, Surarong Chinwong

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Objective: Understanding the university students’ perceptions on smoking caused lung cancer based on the Health Belief Model should help health care providers in assisting them to quit smoking. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the University students’ health belief in smoking behaviors caused lung cancer, which based on the Health Belief Model. Methods: Data were collected from voluntary participants using a self-administered questionnaire. Participants were students studying at a University in northern Thailand who were current smokers; they were selected using snowball sampling. Results: Of 361 students, 84% were males; 78% smoked not more than 10 cigarettes a day; 68% intended to quit smoking. Our findings, based on the health belief model, showed that 1) perceived susceptibility: participants strongly believed that if they did not stop smoking, they were at high risk of lung cancer (88%); 2) perceived severity: they strongly believed that they had a high chance of death from lung cancer if they continued smoking (84%); 3) perceived benefits: they strongly believed that quitting smoking could reduce the chance of developing lung cancer; 4) perceived barriers of quitting smoking: they strongly believed in the difficulty of quitting smoking because it needed a high effort and strong intention (69%); 5) perceived self-efficacy: however, they strongly believed that they can quit smoking right away if they had a strong intention to quit smoking (70%); 6) cues to action: they strongly believed in the support of parents (85%) and lovers (78%) in helping them to quit smoking. Further, they believed that limitation on smoking area in the University and smoking cessation services provided by the University can assist them to quit smoking. Conclusion: The Health Belief Model helps us to understand students’ smoking behaviors caused lung cancer. This could lead to designing a smoking cessation program to assist students to quit smoking.

Keywords: health belief model, lung cancer, smoking, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 273
199 The Effect of Low Power Laser on CK and Some of Markers Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

Authors: Bahareh Yazdanparast Chaharmahali

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The study showed effect of low power laser therapy on knee range of motion (flexion and extension), resting angle of knee joint, knee circumference and rating of delayed onset muscle soreness induced pain, 24 and 48 hours after eccentric training of knee flexor muscle (hamstring muscle). We investigate the effects of pulsed ultrasound on swelling, relaxed, flexion and extension knee angle and pain. 20 volunteers among girl students of college voluntary participated in this research. After eccentric training, subjects were randomly divided into two groups, control and laser therapy. In day 1 and in order to induce delayed onset muscle soreness, subjects eccentrically trained their knee flexor muscles. In day 2, subjects were randomly divided into two groups: control and low power laser therapy. 24 and 48 hours after eccentric training. Variables (knee flexion and extension, srang of motion, resting knee joint angle and knee circumferences) were measured and analyzed. Data are reported as means ± standard error (SE) and repeated measured was used to assess differences within groups. Methods of treatment (low power laser therapy) have significant effects on delayed onset muscle soreness markers. 24 and 48 hours after training a significant difference was observed between mean pains of 2 groups. This difference was significant between low power laser therapy and C groups. The Bonferroni post hock is significant. Low power laser therapy trophy as used in this study did significantly diminish the effects of delayed – onset muscle soreness on swelling, relaxed – knee extension and flexion angle.

Keywords: creatine kinase, DOMS, eccentric training, low power laser

Procedia PDF Downloads 220
198 Classifying Turbomachinery Blade Mode Shapes Using Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: Ismail Abubakar, Hamid Mehrabi, Reg Morton

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Currently, extensive signal analysis is performed in order to evaluate structural health of turbomachinery blades. This approach is affected by constraints of time and the availability of qualified personnel. Thus, new approaches to blade dynamics identification that provide faster and more accurate results are sought after. Generally, modal analysis is employed in acquiring dynamic properties of a vibrating turbomachinery blade and is widely adopted in condition monitoring of blades. The analysis provides useful information on the different modes of vibration and natural frequencies by exploring different shapes that can be taken up during vibration since all mode shapes have their corresponding natural frequencies. Experimental modal testing and finite element analysis are the traditional methods used to evaluate mode shapes with limited application to real live scenario to facilitate a robust condition monitoring scheme. For a real time mode shape evaluation, rapid evaluation and low computational cost is required and traditional techniques are unsuitable. In this study, artificial neural network is developed to evaluate the mode shape of a lab scale rotating blade assembly by using result from finite element modal analysis as training data. The network performance evaluation shows that artificial neural network (ANN) is capable of mapping the correlation between natural frequencies and mode shapes. This is achieved without the need of extensive signal analysis. The approach offers advantage from the perspective that the network is able to classify mode shapes and can be employed in real time including simplicity in implementation and accuracy of the prediction. The work paves the way for further development of robust condition monitoring system that incorporates real time mode shape evaluation.

Keywords: modal analysis, artificial neural network, mode shape, natural frequencies, pattern recognition

Procedia PDF Downloads 131
197 Development of Innovative Nuclear Fuel Pellets Using Additive Manufacturing

Authors: Paul Lemarignier, Olivier Fiquet, Vincent Pateloup

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In line with the strong desire of nuclear energy players to have ever more effective products in terms of safety, research programs on E-ATF (Enhanced-Accident Tolerant Fuels) that are more resilient, particularly to the loss of coolant, have been launched in all countries with nuclear power plants. Among the multitude of solutions being developed internationally, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and its partners are investigating a promising solution, which is the realization of CERMET (CERamic-METal) type fuel pellets made of a matrix of fissile material, uranium dioxide UO2, which has a low thermal conductivity, and a metallic phase with a high thermal conductivity to improve heat evacuation. Work has focused on the development by powder metallurgy of micro-structured CERMETs, characterized by networks of metallic phase embedded in the UO₂ matrix. Other types of macro-structured CERMETs, based on concepts proposed by thermal simulation studies, have been developed with a metallic phase with a specific geometry to optimize heat evacuation. This solution could not be developed using traditional processes, so additive manufacturing, which revolutionizes traditional design principles, is used to produce these innovative prototype concepts. At CEA Cadarache, work is first carried out on a non-radioactive surrogate material, alumina, in order to acquire skills and to develop the equipment, in particular the robocasting machine, an additive manufacturing technique selected for its simplicity and the possibility of optimizing the paste formulations. A manufacturing chain was set up, with the pastes production, the 3D printing of pellets, and the associated thermal post-treatment. The work leading to the first elaborations of macro-structured alumina/molybdenum CERMETs will be presented. This work was carried out with the support of Framatome and EdF.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, alumina, CERMET, molybdenum, nuclear safety

Procedia PDF Downloads 53
196 Designing and Formulating Action Plan for Development of Corporate Citizenship in Producing Units in Iran

Authors: Freyedon Ahmadi

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Corporate citizenship is considered as one of the most discussed topics in the developed countries, in which a citizen considers a Corporate just like a usual citizen with every civil right as respectful for corporate as for actual citizens, and in return citizens expect that corporate would pay a reciprocal respect to them. The current study’s purpose is to identify the impact of the current state of corporate citizenship along effective factors on its condition on industrial producing units, in order to find an accession plane for corporate citizenship development. In this study corporate citizenship is studied in four dimensions like legal corporate, economical corporate, ethical corporate and voluntary corporate. Moreover, effective factors’ impact on corporate citizenship is explored based on threefold dimensional model: behavioral, structural, and content factors, as well. In this study, 50 corporate of Food industry and of petrochemical industry, along with 200 selected individuals from directors’ board on Tehran province’s scale with stratified random sampling method, are chosen as actuarial sample. If based on functional goal and compilation methods, the present study is a description of correlation type; questionnaire is used for accumulation of initial Data. For Instrument Validity expert’s opinion is used and structural equations and its reliability is qualified by using Cronbach Alpha. The results of this study indicate that close to 70 percent of under survey corporate have not a good condition in corporate citizenship. And all of structural factors, behavioral factors, contextual factors, have a great deal of impression and impact on the advent corporate citizenship behavior in the producing Units. Among the behavioral factors, social responsibility; among structural factors, organic structure and human centered orientation, medium size, high organizational capacity; and among the contextual factors, the clientele’s positive viewpoints toward corporate had the utmost importance in impression on under survey Producing units.

Keywords: corporate citizenship, structural factors, behavioral factors, contextual factors, producing units

Procedia PDF Downloads 207
195 Ecocriticism and Sustainable Development: A Study of Kamila Shamsie's a God in Every Stone

Authors: Shaista Maseeh

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English Literature from the beginning itself has had psychological, social and environment concerns. Virgil, Shakespeare, John Milton, William Wordsworth to the most current Robert Hass have shown and proved their environmental and ecological interests as well as distress related to its loss. Pastoral literature is also one such genre that links literature with environment. Thanks to the contemporary literary theories that they successfully are relating Literature formally to the subjects other than written text. One of such literary theory is 'Ecocriticism.' It stands under the umbrella of the Economics term, Sustainable Development,' or it can also be understood as an ecological extension of it. Ecocriticism helps the reader to study the dynamic relation between literature and our degrading environment. It draws attention towards the ravaged condition of nature and animals, that how nature is exploited by human beings for their own benefit leaving nature at a repairable loss. For instance, deforestation is reducing the size of forest every year, injuring permanently flora, fauna and also the habitat of animals. This paper will study the ecological and environmental concerns in the latest novel by Pakistani British writer Kamila Shamsie, A God in every Stone (2014). The book is not only a literary masterpiece in elegant prose, but also a novel posing a lot of questions about 'nature and environment' in general and 'animals' in particular. It gives the glimpses of the interesting history of Temple of Zeus in Greece and Ancient Caria, and covers many episodes of history the Indian freedom struggle. In course of novel's narrative Kamila Shamsie poses disturbing question about environmental abuse, about how human beings are more 'beasts' than so call beasts, poor animals. She also glorifies the simplicity of past. The novel has enough instances to prove Shamsie's positive stand on saving the earth that is being more abused than used by human beings. This paper will provide an ecocritical approach to study A God in Every Stone (2014).

Keywords: animals, ecocriticism, environment, nature

Procedia PDF Downloads 385
194 Buy-and-Hold versus Alternative Strategies: A Comparison of Market-Timing Techniques

Authors: Jonathan J. Burson

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With the rise of virtually costless, mobile-based trading platforms, stock market trading activity has increased significantly over the past decade, particularly for the millennial generation. This increased stock market attention, combined with the recent market turmoil due to the economic upset caused by COVID-19, make the topics of market-timing and forecasting particularly relevant. While the overall stock market saw an unprecedented, historically-long bull market from March 2009 to February 2020, the end of that bull market reignited a search by investors for a way to reduce risk and increase return. Similar searches for outperformance occurred in the early, and late 2000’s as the Dotcom bubble burst and the Great Recession led to years of negative returns for mean-variance, index investors. Extensive research has been conducted on fundamental analysis, technical analysis, macroeconomic indicators, microeconomic indicators, and other techniques—all using different methodologies and investment periods—in pursuit of higher returns with lower risk. The enormous variety of timeframes, data, and methodologies used by the diverse forecasting methods makes it difficult to compare the outcome of each method directly to other methods. This paper establishes a process to evaluate the market-timing methods in an apples-to-apples manner based on simplicity, performance, and feasibility. Preliminary findings show that certain technical analysis models provide a higher return with lower risk when compared to the buy-and-hold method and to other market-timing strategies. Furthermore, technical analysis models tend to be easier for individual investors both in terms of acquiring the data and in analyzing it, making technical analysis-based market-timing methods the preferred choice for retail investors.

Keywords: buy-and-hold, forecast, market-timing, probit, technical analysis

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193 A Comparative Study of Black Carbon Emission Characteristics from Marine Diesel Engines Using Light Absorption Method

Authors: Dongguk Im, Gunfeel Moon, Younwoo Nam, Kangwoo Chun

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Recognition of the needs about protecting environment throughout worldwide is widespread. In the shipping industry, International Maritime Organization (IMO) has been regulating pollutants emitted from ships by MARPOL 73/78. Recently, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of IMO, at its 68th session, approved the definition of Black Carbon (BC) specified by the following physical properties (light absorption, refractory, insolubility and morphology). The committee also agreed to the need for a protocol for any voluntary measurement studies to identify the most appropriate measurement methods. Filter Smoke Number (FSN) based on light absorption is categorized as one of the IMO relevant BC measurement methods. EUROMOT provided a FSN measurement data (measured by smoke meter) of 31 different engines (low, medium and high speed marine engines) of member companies at the 3rd International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) workshop on marine BC. From the comparison of FSN, the results indicated that BC emission from low speed marine diesel engines was ranged from 0.009 to 0.179 FSN and it from medium and high speed marine diesel engine was ranged 0.012 to 3.2 FSN. In consideration of measured the low FSN from low speed engine, an experimental study was conducted using both a low speed marine diesel engine (2 stroke, power of 7,400 kW at 129 rpm) and a high speed marine diesel engine (4 stroke, power of 403 kW at 1,800 rpm) under E3 test cycle. The results revealed that FSN was ranged from 0.01 to 0.16 and 1.09 to 1.35 for low and high speed engines, respectively. The measurement equipment (smoke meter) ranges from 0 to 10 FSN. Considering measurement range of it, FSN values from low speed engines are near the detection limit (0.002 FSN or ~0.02 mg/m3). From these results, it seems to be modulated the measurement range of the measurement equipment (smoke meter) for enhancing measurement accuracy of marine BC and evaluation on performance of BC abatement technologies.

Keywords: black carbon, filter smoke number, international maritime organization, marine diesel engine (two and four stroke), particulate matter

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192 A Case Study on the Effectiveness of the Physical Therapy Home Exercise Program for Pelvic Floor Muscle Training in a Middle-Aged Female Post- Surgical Repair of Stage III Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Authors: Iwona Kasior

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Purpose: Pelvic organ prolapse is the descent of pelvic organs into the vaginal opening. Currently, few trials have been conducted to determine the influence of pelvic floor muscle training in decreasing stage or symptoms associated with pelvic organ prolapse. The purpose of this case study is to determine whether pelvic floor muscle training can decrease the stage of pelvic organ prolapse and related symptoms. Case Presentation: This is the case of a 55-year-old female; recently diagnosed with midline cystocele, stage three. She has undergone corrective surgery that failed. She has now resorted to managing the condition with a home exercise regimen of voluntary pelvic floor muscle contractions, topical vaginal crème prescribed by her gynecologist, and slight lifestyle modifications. Methods: The patient was treated by a physical therapist for evaluation, vaginal exam, and educated in the ‘knack’ maneuver, lifestyle modifications, and proper technique of performing pelvic floor muscle contractions. The subject continued with a home exercise program with a specific regimen of pelvic floor muscle contractions and topical vaginal crème. Outcome: As determined by her physical therapist and the subject, her pelvic floor muscle strength had increased following the pelvic floor muscle training regimen and the use of the ‘knack’ maneuver. The subject reported a small decrease in the size of bulging prolapse and related symptoms of dryness, odor, vaginal discomfort, and the sensation of descent. Conclusion: Pelvic floor muscle training helped to lessen the degree of the prolapse, but not significantly enough to decrease the diagnosed stage.

Keywords: Kegel exercises, pelvic floor, pelvic organ prolapse, physical therapy

Procedia PDF Downloads 160
191 The Determinants of Financial Ratio Disclosures and Quality: Evidence from an Emerging Market

Authors: Ben Kwame Agyei-Mensah

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This study investigated the influence of firm-specific characteristics which include proportion of Non-Executive Directors, ownership concentration, firm size, profitability, debt equity ratio, liquidity and leverage on the extent and quality of financial ratios disclosed by firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. The research was conducted through detailed analysis of the 2012 financial statements of the listed firms. Descriptive analysis was performed to provide the background statistics of the variables examined. This was followed by regression analysis which forms the main data analysis. The results of the extent of financial ratio disclosure level, mean of 62.78%, indicate that most of the firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange did not overwhelmingly disclose such ratios in their annual reports. The results of the low quality of financial ratio disclosure mean of 6.64% indicate that the disclosures failed woefully to meet the International Accounting Standards Board's qualitative characteristics of relevance, reliability, comparability and understandability. The results of the multiple regression analysis show that leverage (gearing ratio) and return on investment (dividend per share) are associated on a statistically significant level as far as the extent of financial ratio disclosure is concerned. Board ownership concentration and proportion of (independent) non-executive directors, on the other hand were found to be statistically associated with the quality of financial ratio disclosed. There is a significant negative relationship between ownership concentration and the quality of financial ratio disclosure. This means that under a higher level of ownership concentration less quality financial ratios are disclosed. The findings also show that there is a significant positive relationship between board composition (proportion of non-executive directors) and the quality of financial ratio disclosure.

Keywords: voluntary disclosure, firm-specific characteristics, financial reporting, financial ratio disclosure, Ghana stock exchange

Procedia PDF Downloads 565
190 Total Synthesis of Natural Cyclic Depsi Peptides by Convergent SPPS and Macrolactonization Strategy for Anti-Tb Activity

Authors: Katharigatta N. Venugopala, Fernando Albericio, Bander E. Al-Dhubiab, T. Govender

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Recent years have witnessed a renaissance in the field of peptides that are obtained from various natural sources such as many bacteria, fungi, plants, seaweeds, vertebrates, invertebrates and have been reported for various pharmacological properties such as anti-TB, anticancer, antimalarial, anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV, antibacterial, antifungal, and antidiabetic, activities. In view of the pharmacological significance of natural peptides, serious research efforts of many scientific groups and pharmaceutical companies have consequently focused on them to explore the possibility of developing their potential analogues as therapeutic agents. Solid phase and solution phase peptide synthesis are the two methodologies currently available for the synthesis of natural or synthetic linear or cyclic depsi-peptides. From a synthetic point of view, there is no doubt that the solid-phase methodology gained added advantages over solution phase methodology in terms of simplicity, purity of the compound and the speed with which peptides can be synthesised. In the present study total synthesis, purification and structural elucidation of analogues of natural anti-TB cyclic depsi-peptides such as depsidomycin, massetolides and viscosin has been attempted by solid phase method using standard Fmoc protocols and finally off resin cyclization in solution phase method. In case of depsidomycin, synthesis of linear peptide on solid phase could not be achieved because of two turn inducing amino acids in the peptide sequence, but total synthesis was achieved by convergent solid phase peptide synthesis followed by cyclization in solution phase method. The title compounds obtained were in good yields and characterized by NMR and HRMS. Anti-TB results revealed that the potential title compound exhibited promising activity at 4 µg/mL against H37Rv and 16 µg/mL against MDR strains of tuberculosis.

Keywords: total synthesis, cyclic depsi-peptides, anti-TB activity, tuberculosis

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189 Willingness to Adopt "Green Steel" Products: A Case Study from the Automotive Sector

Authors: Hasan Muslemani, Jeffrey Wilson, Xi Liang, Francisco Ascui, Katharina Kaesehage

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This paper aims to examine consumer behaviour towards, and the willingness to adopt, green steel use in the automotive sector, in order to identify potential barriers and opportunities for its widespread adoption. Semi-structured interviews were held with experts from global, regional and country-specific industry associations and automakers. The analysis shows there is a new shift towards lifecycle thinking in the sector, although these efforts have been voluntary and driven by customer and employee pressures rather than regulation. The paper further appraises possible demand for green steel within different vehicle types (based on size and powertrain), and shows that manufacturers of electric heavy-duty vehicles are most likely to adopt green steel in the first instance, given the amount of incorporated steel in the vehicles and the fact that lifecycle emissions lie predominantly in their manufacturing phase. A case for green advanced higher-strength steels (AHSS) can also be made in light-duty passenger vehicles, which may mitigate competition from light-weight alternative materials in terms of cost and greenness (depending on source and utilisation zones). This work builds on a wide sustainability-related literature in the automotive sector and highlights areas in need of urgent action if the sector as a whole were to meet its Paris Agreement climate targets, in particular a need to revisit current CO2 performance regulations to include Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, engage in educational green marketing campaigns, and explore innovative market-based mechanisms to bridge the gap between relatively-low carbon abatement costs of steelmaking and high abatement costs of vehicle manufacturing.

Keywords: Green steel, Consumer behaviour, Automotive industry, Environmental sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 139
188 Shaping and Improving the Human Resource Management in Small and Medium Enterprises in Poland

Authors: Małgorzata Smolarek

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One of the barriers to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are difficulties connected with management of human resources. The first part of article defines the specifics of staff management in small and medium enterprises. The practical part presents results of own studies in the area of diagnosis of the state of the human resources management in small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland. It takes into account its impact on the functioning of SME in a variable environment. This part presents findings of empirical studies, which enabled verification of the hypotheses and formulation of conclusions. The findings presented in this paper were obtained during the implementation of the project entitled 'Tendencies and challenges in strategic managing SME in Silesian Voivodeship.' The aim of the studies was to diagnose the state of strategic management and human resources management taking into account its impact on the functioning of small and medium enterprises operating in Silesian Voivodeship in Poland and to indicate improvement areas of the model under diagnosis. One of the specific objectives of the studies was to diagnose the state of the process of strategic management of human resources and to identify fundamental problems. In this area, the main hypothesis was formulated: The enterprises analysed do not have comprehensive strategies for management of human resources. The survey was conducted by questionnaire. Main Research Results: Human resource management in SMEs is characterized by simplicity of procedures, and the lack of sophisticated tools and its specificity depends on the size of the company. The process of human resources management in SME has to be adjusted to the structure of an organisation, result from its objectives, so that an organisation can fully implement its strategic plans and achieve success and competitive advantage on the market. A guarantee of success is an accurately developed policy of human resources management based on earlier analyses of the existing procedures and possessed human resources.

Keywords: human resources management, human resources policy, personnel strategy, small and medium enterprises

Procedia PDF Downloads 217
187 AI-Based Techniques for Online Social Media Network Sentiment Analysis: A Methodical Review

Authors: A. M. John-Otumu, M. M. Rahman, O. C. Nwokonkwo, M. C. Onuoha

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Online social media networks have long served as a primary arena for group conversations, gossip, text-based information sharing and distribution. The use of natural language processing techniques for text classification and unbiased decision-making has not been far-fetched. Proper classification of this textual information in a given context has also been very difficult. As a result, we decided to conduct a systematic review of previous literature on sentiment classification and AI-based techniques that have been used in order to gain a better understanding of the process of designing and developing a robust and more accurate sentiment classifier that can correctly classify social media textual information of a given context between hate speech and inverted compliments with a high level of accuracy by assessing different artificial intelligence techniques. We evaluated over 250 articles from digital sources like ScienceDirect, ACM, Google Scholar, and IEEE Xplore and whittled down the number of research to 31. Findings revealed that Deep learning approaches such as CNN, RNN, BERT, and LSTM outperformed various machine learning techniques in terms of performance accuracy. A large dataset is also necessary for developing a robust sentiment classifier and can be obtained from places like Twitter, movie reviews, Kaggle, SST, and SemEval Task4. Hybrid Deep Learning techniques like CNN+LSTM, CNN+GRU, CNN+BERT outperformed single Deep Learning techniques and machine learning techniques. Python programming language outperformed Java programming language in terms of sentiment analyzer development due to its simplicity and AI-based library functionalities. Based on some of the important findings from this study, we made a recommendation for future research.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, social network, text

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186 Bridging between Shariah Law and Legal Framework: A Study of Problems and Solutions of Islamic Banking System in Bangladesh

Authors: Md. Abdul Kader, Md. Akiz Uddin

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The Islamic banking system is based on the Islamic shariah principles. Islamic banking is set up to avoid riba (interest)--which is prohibited in Islam-- and to prevent unscrupulous practices and participate actively in achieving the welfare-oriented Islamic economy. In the process of offering Islamic banking services, practitioners have been facing several challenges. Out of many challenges, this paper particularly highlights the need for a centralized legal framework for Islamic banks that should be compliant with the shariah law. The researchers employed a qualitative method to collect case studies from high-profile Islamic Bankers and analyzed respective legal documents and policy papers to conduct the study. This study investigates the Shariah Governance Framework (SGF), amended Banking Companies Act, 1991 (Act No. 14 of 1991), and the Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) of Islamic banks in Bangladesh to evaluate how legal framework supervise and/or monitor Islamic banking system under the jurisdiction of shariah law. The study reveals that the Shariah governance system in Bangladesh is mainly voluntary rather than regulatory, and there is an absence of full-fledged SGF. Though there is no complete Islamic Banking Act for controlling, guiding, and supervising the Islamic banks in Bangladesh, some Islamic banking provisions have already been incorporated in the amended Banking Companies Act, 1991 (Act No. 14 of 1991). Bangladesh Bank did not set up any separate Department at its Head Office to control, guide and supervise the operation of the Islamic banks. So, ensuring the implementation of Shariah principles concurrent with the legal framework of banking policies is recommended in this study. This study also prescribes that the government should enact a law or policy for the operations of Islamic banks in order to improve the Islamic Banking system of Bangladesh. In addition, the central bank can set up a Central Shariah Supervisory Board (CSSB) or authorize the existing Central Shariah Board for Islamic Banks of Bangladesh (CSBIB) to supervise and monitor overall activities of Islamic banks and resolve the disputes among the stakeholders concerning the Shariah issues of Islamic banks.

Keywords: islamic banking, shariah law, banking policies, shariah governance framework (SGF)

Procedia PDF Downloads 51
185 Healthy Feeding and Drinking Troughs for Profitable Intensive Deep-Litter Poultry Farming

Authors: Godwin Ojochogu Adejo, Evelyn UnekwuOjo Adejo, Sunday UnenwOjo Adejo

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The mainstream contemporary approach to controlling the impact of diseases among poultry birds rely largely on curative measures through the administration of drugs to infected birds. Most times as observed in the deep liter poultry farming system, entire flocks including uninfected birds receive the treatment they do not need. As such, unguarded use of chemical drugs and antibiotics has led to wastage and accumulation of chemical residues in poultry products with associated health hazards to humans. However, wanton and frequent drug usage in poultry is avoidable if feeding and drinking equipment are designed to curb infection transmission among birds. Using toxicological assays as guide and with efficiency and simplicity in view, two newly field-tested and recently patented equipments called 'healthy liquid drinking trough (HDT)' and 'healthy feeding trough (HFT)' that systematically eliminate contamination of the feeding and drinking channels, thereby, curbing wide-spread infection and transmission of diseases in the (intensive) deep litter poultry farming system were designed. Upon combined usage, they automatically and drastically reduced both the amount and frequency of antibiotics use in poultry by over > 50%. Additionally, they conferred optimization of feed and water utilization/elimination of wastage by > 80%, reduced labour by > 70%, reduced production cost by about 15%, and reduced chemical residues in poultry meat or eggs by > 85%. These new and cheap technologies which require no energy input are likely to elevate safety of poultry products for consumers' health, increase marketability locally and for export, and increase output and profit especially among poultry farmers and poor people who keep poultry or inevitably utilize poultry products in developing countries.

Keywords: healthy, trough, toxicological, assay-guided, poultry

Procedia PDF Downloads 132
184 Greenhouse Gas Mitigation by Promoting Renewable Energy in Algeria

Authors: F. Sahnoune

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The study focuses on the analysis of the Algerian greenhouse gase emissions. In Algeria, as in other countries, the issue of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change is the subject of great concern. As climate change is a global problem and taking into consideration the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities' as mentioned in the Rio Declaration in 1992, Algeria has initiated a broad program of voluntary reduction of GHG emissions and climate change adaptation. Thus although the contribution of Algeria on global warming is minimal (less than 0.5% of global GHG emissions), the country is, because its geographical position and climatic characteristics, very vulnerable and should integrate mitigation and adaptation into its development policy. Even a small rise in temperature would lead to various socio-economic problems that hinder the development of the country. The models predict that rainfall events are less frequent but more intense, while droughts are more common and longer. The decrease of water resources, declining agricultural yields, encroaching desert, the challenge of planning and the energy consumption for air conditioning are only the initial impacts to which Algeria must find answers supportable economically and socially. The study examines to what extent, Algeria can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We present an analysis of the current situation, trends in CO2 emissions, footprint of Algeria, national climate plan and especially what will be the impact on GHG emissions of the new strategy for promoting renewable energy adopted in 2011 and expects to produce 40% of electricity needs from solar energy. The results show that in 2012 the GHG emissions totaled 153 MT CO2 eq and growing at a rate of over 3%. The Introduction of solar energy in electricity production and implementation of energy efficiency allow to reduce by 2030 more than 300 MT CO2 eq. Avenues of consideration relating to a combination of policies and improved technologies that are able to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate the impacts caused by climate change in the medium term will also be presented.

Keywords: climate change, co2 mitigation, greenhouse gases, renewable energy, sustainable development

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183 Taking What Each Needs - The Basic Logic of Everyday Practice in State-backed Cultural Infrastructure in China

Authors: Yiling Shao, Megan Dai

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This paper attempts to explore whether the cultural infrastructure supported by the Chinese government is still subject to a logic of “strict regulation”.Previous studies have pointed out that the "paternalism" tendency of China's cultural policy always leads to excessive government intervention in cultural development, while Chinese cultural practitioners can only seek cultural autonomy in the cracks of supervision. This can also explain why Chinese cultural policies sometimes have different effects than the official expectations.But this only reflects one aspect of China's cultural policy. In fact, the welfare cultural infrastructure funded by the government seems to highlight the principles of "safeguarding citizens' cultural rights" and "citizens' voluntary" rather than "indoctrination" and "enlightenment", What new features of China's cultural policy are reflected behind this policy orientation that is completely different from the logic of "regulation", which has also become an important issue in this paper. Based on the field survey of a cultural infrastructure (Gao ming District Cultural Center) in Gao ming District, Fo shan City, Guangdong Province, China, for nearly one year, the authors have obtained many text and picture materials.The paper discusses the dual role of cultural centers in China's cultural policy -both as a formal commitment by the state to protect citizens' basic cultural rights and as a social space for citizens to use preferential policies to obtain cultural capital. All in all, the author have conclued three operational logics of the cultural infrastructure currently supported by the Chinese government (at least in developed areas): first, the cultural center has become a versatile cultural space; second, grass-roots cultural cadres can be described as "policy entrepreneurs"; third, ordinary citizens will use the officially supported cultural infrastructure to increase cultural capital. This paper argues that, in comparison to the common “regulatory hand” in the field of cultural industries, in cultural infrastructure supported by state, the authorities and citizens are not in conflict. On the contrary, authorities must adopt a de-regulatory "pleasing" strategy to gain the support of citizens.

Keywords: cultural infrastructure, cultural capital, deregulation, policy entrepreneur

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182 Analysis of Human Toxicity Potential of Major Building Material Production Stage Using Life Cycle Assessment

Authors: Rakhyun Kim, Sungho Tae

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Global environmental issues such as abnormal weathers due to global warming, resource depletion, and ecosystem distortions have been escalating due to rapid increase of population growth, and expansion of industrial and economic development. Accordingly, initiatives have been implemented by many countries to protect the environment through indirect regulation methods such as Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), in addition to direct regulations such as various emission standards. Following this trend, life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques that provide quantitative environmental information, such as Human Toxicity Potential (HTP), for buildings are being developed in the construction industry. However, at present, the studies on the environmental database of building materials are not sufficient to provide this support adequately. The purpose of this study is to analysis human toxicity potential of major building material production stage using life cycle assessment. For this purpose, the theoretical consideration of the life cycle assessment and environmental impact category was performed and the direction of the study was set up. That is, the major material in the global warming potential view was drawn against the building and life cycle inventory database was selected. The classification was performed about 17 kinds of substance and impact index, such as human toxicity potential, that it specifies in CML2001. The environmental impact of analysis human toxicity potential for the building material production stage was calculated through the characterization. Meanwhile, the environmental impact of building material in the same category was analyze based on the characterization impact which was calculated in this study. In this study, establishment of environmental impact coefficients of major building material by complying with ISO 14040. Through this, it is believed to effectively support the decisions of stakeholders to improve the environmental performance of buildings and provide a basis for voluntary participation of architects in environment consideration activities.

Keywords: human toxicity potential, major building material, life cycle assessment, production stage

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181 Influence of Flexible Plate's Contour on Dynamic Behavior of High Speed Flexible Coupling of Combat Aircraft

Authors: Dineshsingh Thakur, S. Nagesh, J. Basha

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A lightweight High Speed Flexible Coupling (HSFC) is used to connect the Engine Gear Box (EGB) with an Accessory Gear Box (AGB) of the combat aircraft. The HSFC transmits the power at high speeds ranging from 10000 to 18000 rpm from the EGB to AGB. The HSFC is also accommodates larger misalignments resulting from thermal expansion of the aircraft engine and mounting arrangement. The HSFC has the series of metallic contoured annular thin cross-sectioned flexible plates to accommodate the misalignments. The flexible plates are accommodating the misalignment by the elastic material flexure. As the HSFC operates at higher speed, the flexural and axial resonance frequencies are to be kept away from the operating speed and proper prediction is required to prevent failure in the transmission line of a single engine fighter aircraft. To study the influence of flexible plate’s contour on the lateral critical speed (LCS) of HSFC, a mathematical model of HSFC as a elven rotor system is developed. The flexible plate being the bending member of the system, its bending stiffness which results from the contoured governs the LCS. Using transfer matrix method, Influence of various flexible plate contours on critical speed is analyzed. In the above analysis, the support bearing flexibility on critical speed prediction is also considered. Based on the study, a model is built with the optimum contour of flexible plate, for validation by experimental modal analysis. A good correlation between the theoretical prediction and model behavior is observed. From the study, it is found that the flexible plate’s contour is playing vital role in modification of system’s dynamic behavior and the present model can be extended for the development of similar type of flexible couplings for its computational simplicity and reliability.

Keywords: flexible rotor, critical speed, experimental modal analysis, high speed flexible coupling (HSFC), misalignment

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180 Quadriceps Muscle Activity in Response to Slow and Fast Perturbations following Fatiguing Exercise

Authors: Nosratollah Hedayatpour, Hamid Reza Taheri, Mehrdad Fathi

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Introduction: Quadriceps femoris muscle is frequently involved in various movements e.g., jumping, landing) during sport and/or daily activities. During ballistic movement when individuals are faced with unexpected knee perturbation, fast twitch muscle fibers contribute to force production to stabilize knee joint. Fast twitch muscle fiber is more susceptible to fatigue and therefor may reduce the ability of the quadriceps muscle to stabilize knee joint during fast perturbation. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fatigue on postural response of the knee extensor muscles to fast and slow perturbations. Methods: Fatigue was induced to the quadriceps muscle using a KinCom Isokinetic Dynamometer (Chattanooga, TN). Bipolar surface electromyography (EMG) signals were simultaneously recorded from quadriceps components (vastus medialis, rectus femoris, and vastus lateralis) during pre- and post-fatigue postural perturbation performed at two different velocities of 120 ms and 250 mes. Results: One-way ANOVA showed that maximal voluntary knee extension force and time to task failure, and associated EMG activities were significantly reduced after fatiguing knee exercise (P< 0.05). Two-ways ANOVA also showed that ARV of EMG during backward direction was significantly larger than forward direction (P< 0.05), and during fast-perturbation it was significantly higher than slow-perturbation (P< 0.05). Moreover, ARV of EMG was significantly reduced during post fatigue perturbation, with the largest reduction identified for fast-perturbation compared with slow perturbation (P< 0.05). Conclusion: A larger reduction in muscle activity of the quadriceps muscle was observed during post fatigue fast-perturbation to stabilize knee joint, most likely due to preferential recruitment of fast twitch muscle fiber which are more susceptible to fatigue. This may partly explain that why knee injuries is common after fast ballistic movement.

Keywords: electromyography, fast-slow perturbations, fatigue, quadriceps femoris muscle

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179 Practice Educators' Perspective: Placement Challenges in Social Work Education in England

Authors: Yuet Wah Echo Yeung

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Practice learning is an important component of social work education. Practice educators are charged with the responsibility to support and enable learning while students are on placement. They also play a key role in teaching students to integrate theory and practice, as well as assessing their performance. Current literature highlights the structural factors that make it difficult for practice educators to create a positive learning environment for students. Practice educators find it difficult to give sufficient attention to their students because of the lack of workload relief, the increasing emphasis on managerialism and bureaucratisation, and a range of competing organisational and professional demands. This paper reports the challenges practice educators face and how they manage these challenges in this context. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with thirteen practice educators who support students in statutory and voluntary social care settings in the Northwest of England. Interviews were conducted between April and July 2017 and each interview lasted about 40 minutes. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. All practice educators are experienced social work practitioners with practice experience ranging from 6 to 42 years. On average they have acted as practice educators for 13 years and all together have supported 386 students. Our findings reveal that apart from the structural factors that impact how practice educators perform their roles, they also faced other challenges when supporting students on placement. They include difficulty in engaging resistant students, complexity in managing power dynamics in the context of practice learning, and managing the dilemmas of fostering a positive relationship with students whilst giving critical feedback. Suggestions to enhance the practice educators’ role include support from organisations and social work teams; effective communication with university tutors, and a forum for practice educators to share good practice and discuss placement issues.

Keywords: social work education, placement challenges, practice educator, practice learning

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178 Use of Giant Magneto Resistance Sensors to Detect Micron to Submicron Biologic Objects

Authors: Manon Giraud, Francois-Damien Delapierre, Guenaelle Jasmin-Lebras, Cecile Feraudet-Tarisse, Stephanie Simon, Claude Fermon

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Early diagnosis or detection of harmful substances at low level is a growing field of high interest. The ideal test should be cheap, easy to use, quick, reliable, specific, and with very low detection limit. Combining the high specificity of antibodies-functionalized magnetic beads used to immune-capture biologic objects and the high sensitivity of a GMR-based sensors, it is possible to even detect these biologic objects one by one, such as a cancerous cell, a bacteria or a disease biomarker. The simplicity of the detection process makes its use possible even for untrained staff. Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR) is a recently discovered effect consisting in the electrical resistance modification of some conductive layers when exposed to a magnetic field. This effect allows the detection of very low variations of magnetic field (typically a few tens of nanoTesla). Magnetic nanobeads coated with antibodies targeting the analytes are mixed with a biological sample (blood, saliva) and incubated for 45 min. Then the mixture is injected in a very simple microfluidic chip and circulates above a GMR sensor that detects changes in the surrounding magnetic field. Magnetic particles do not create a field sufficient to be detected. Therefore, only the biological objects surrounded by several antibodies-functionalized magnetic beads (that have been captured by the complementary antigens) are detected when they move above the sensor. Proof of concept has been carried out on NS1 mouse cancerous cells diluted in PBS which have been bonded to magnetic 200nm particles. Signals were detected in cells-containing samples while none were recorded for negative controls. Binary response was hence assessed for this first biological model. The precise quantification of the analytes and its detection in highly diluted solution is the step now in progress.

Keywords: early diagnosis, giant magnetoresistance, lab-on-a-chip, submicron particle

Procedia PDF Downloads 220