Search results for: voluntary simplicity

Authors: Leonor Varandas, Pedro D. Gaspar, Martim L. Aguiar

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One of the biggest concerns in the field of agriculture is around the energy efficiency of robots that will perform agriculture’s activity and their charging methods. In this paper, two different charging methods for agricultural standalone docking stations are shown that will take into account various variants as field size and its irregularities, work’s nature to which the robot will perform, deadlines that have to be respected, among others. Its features also are dependent on the orchard, season, battery type and its technical specifications and cost. First charging base method focuses on wireless charging, presenting more benefits for small field. The second charging base method relies on battery replacement being more suitable for large fields, thus avoiding the robot stop for recharge. Existing many methods to charge a battery, the CC CV was considered the most appropriate for either simplicity or effectiveness. The choice of the battery for agricultural purposes is if most importance. While the most common battery used is Li-ion battery, this study also discusses the use of graphene-based new type of batteries with 45% over capacity to the Li-ion one. A Battery Management Systems (BMS) is applied for battery balancing. All these approaches combined showed to be a promising method to improve a lot of technical agricultural work, not just in terms of plantation and harvesting but also about every technique to prevent harmful events like plagues and weeds or even to reduce crop time and cost.

Keywords: agricultural mobile robot, charging methods, battery replacement method, wireless charging method

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Authors: Meshal Alsaiari

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Fused Deposition Modeling is one of the additive manufacturing technologies the industry is shifting to nowadays due to its simplicity and low affordable cost. The fabrication processing parameters predominantly influence FDM part strength and mechanical properties. This presentation will demonstrate the influences of the two manufacturing parameters on the tensile testing evaluation indexes, infill density, and Printing Orientation, which were analyzed to create a piping spacer suitable for oil and gas applications. The tensile specimens are made of two polymers, Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate (ASA) and High high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), to characterize the mechanical properties performance for creating the final product. The mechanical testing was carried out per the ASTM D638 testing standard, following Type IV requirements. Taguchi's experiment design using an L-9 orthogonal array was used to evaluate the performance output and identify the optimal manufacturing factors. The experimental results demonstrate that the tensile test is more pronounced with 100% infill for ASA and HIPS samples. However, the printing orientations varied in reactions; ASA is maximum at 0 degrees while HIPS shows almost similar percentages between 45 and 90 degrees. Taguchi-Gray integrated methodology was adopted to minimize the response and recognize optimal fabrication factors combinations.

Keywords: FDM, ASTM D638, tensile testing, acrylonitrile styrene acrylate

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Authors: Damian Janecki, Anna Jaskólska, Jarosław Marusiak, Artur Jaskólski

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The aim of this study was to assess double to single twitch ratio after two bouts of eccentric exercise of the elbow flexors. Maximal isometric torque, single and double twitch responses and low-frequency fatigue were assessed on the elbow flexors in 19 untrained male volunteers before, immediately after, 24 and 48 hours following two bouts of eccentric exercise consisted of 30 repetitions of lowering a dumbbell adjusted to ~75% of each individual's maximal isometric torque. Maximal isometric torque and electrically evoked responses decreased significantly in all measurements after the first bout of eccentric exercise (P<0.05). In measurements performed at 24 and 48 hours after the second bout both maximal voluntary isometric torque and electrically evoked contractions were significantly higher than in measurements performed after the fist bout (P<0.05). Although low-frequency fatigue significantly increased up to 48 hours after each bout of eccentric exercise, its values at 24 and 48 hours after the second bout were significantly lower than at respective time points after the first bout (P<0.05). Smaller changes in double to single twitch ratio at 24 and 48 hours after the second bout of eccentric exercise reflects repeated bout effect that confers protection against subsequent exercise-induced muscle damage.

Keywords: biceps brachii, electrical stimulation, lenghtening contractions, repeated bout effect

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Authors: Rabiaal Adawiyah Shazali, Corina Joseph

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The disclosure of Intellectual Capital (IC) information is getting more vital in today’s era of a knowledge-based economy. Companies are advised by accounting bodies to enhance IC disclosure which complements the conventional financial disclosures. There are no accounting standards for Intellectual Capital Disclosure (ICD), therefore the disclosure is entirely voluntary. Hence, this study aims to investigate the extent of ICD and to examine the relationship between corporate governance and ICD in Malaysia. This study employed content analysis of 100 annual reports by the top 100 public listed companies in Malaysia during 2012. The uniqueness of this study lies on its underpinning theory used where it applies the institutional isomorphism theory to support the effect of the attributes of corporate governance towards ICD. In order to achieve the stated objective, multiple regression analysis were employed to conduct this study. From the descriptive statistics, it was concluded that public listed companies in Malaysia have increased their awareness towards the importance of ICD. Furthermore, results from the multiple regression analysis confirmed that corporate governance affects the company’s ICD where the frequency of audit committee meetings and the board size has positively influenced the level of ICD in companies. Findings from this study would provide an incentive for companies in Malaysia to enhance the disclosure of IC. In addition, this study would assist Bursa Malaysia and other regulatory bodies to come up with a proper guideline for the disclosure of IC.

Keywords: annual report, content analysis, corporate governance, intellectual capital disclosure

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Authors: Plessen Mogens Graf

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Within the context of multivariate time series segmentation, this paper proposes a method inspired by a posteriori optimal trading. After a normalization step, time series are treated channelwise as surrogate stock prices that can be traded optimally a posteriori in a virtual portfolio holding either stock or cash. Linear transaction costs are interpreted as hyperparameters for noise filtering. Trading signals, as well as trading signals obtained on the reversed time series, are used for unsupervised channelwise labeling before a consensus over all channels is reached that determines the final segmentation time instants. The method is model-free such that no model prescriptions for segments are made. Benefits of proposed approach include simplicity, computational efficiency, and adaptability to a wide range of different shapes of time series. Performance is demonstrated on synthetic and real-world data, including a large-scale dataset comprising a multivariate time series of dimension 1000 and length 2709. Proposed method is compared to a popular model-based bottom-up approach fitting piecewise affine models and to a recent model-based top-down approach fitting Gaussian models and found to be consistently faster while producing more intuitive results in the sense of segmenting time series at peaks and valleys.

Keywords: time series segmentation, model-free, trading-inspired, multivariate data

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Authors: Xi Wang, Xiaoming Tao, Raymond C. H. So

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As one of the convenient and noninvasive sensing approaches, the automatic limb girth measurement has been applied to detect intention behind human motion from muscle deformation. The sensing validity has been elaborated by preliminary researches but still need more fundamental study, especially on kinetic contraction modes. Based on the novel fabric strain sensors, a soft and smart limb girth measurement system was developed by the authors’ group, which can measure the limb girth in-motion. Experiments were carried out on elbow isometric flexion and elbow isokinetic flexion (biceps’ isokinetic contractions) of 90°/s, 60°/s, and 120°/s for 10 subjects (2 canoeists and 8 ordinary people). After removal of natural circumferential increments due to elbow position, the joint torque is found not uniformly sensitive to the limb circumferential strains, but declining as elbow joint angle rises, regardless of the angular speed. Moreover, the maximum joint torque was found as an exponential function of the joint’s angular speed. This research highly contributes to the application of the automatic limb girth measuring during kinetic contractions, and it is useful to predict the contraction level of voluntary skeletal muscles.

Keywords: fabric strain sensor, muscle deformation, isokinetic contraction, joint torque, limb girth strain

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Authors: Abdul Ghafar, Malini Nair

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Non-governmental organizations have been seemed to struggle the battle of balancing many concerns with corporates which may impact on their financial solvency. Some of these concerns relates to uphold the relationship where weighing up the impacts of their involvement with corporates takes priority over the main purpose of creating valuable impacts for communities. To some extent, it can be argued that NGOs are influenced by corporates’ power to tackle contemporary issues rather than eradicating the root causes of such issues and transform the results into more sustainable manner. NGOs spend massive amount of energy, time and resources in order to move some corporates to embrace their social responsibilities. It has become a norm, where an active NGO that is becoming more successful on building partnerships with corporates is perceived to be more socially responsible. In contrast to this, as some researchers argue that the social responsibility for NGOs is not a voluntary act; they must exhibit the core values in all their practices require much attention to address. This article stresses the need of understanding ‘Social Responsibility’ of NGOs that stem from an argument that NGOs tend to act on narrow mandate rather than considering broader outcomes of their CSR initiatives. This paper argues that NGOs must focus on building capabilities of the recipients from CSR initiatives which should serve as a core value of partnerships mandate between NGOs, Corporates and Governments. We argue that SEN’s Capabilities Approach can further enhance the mainstream CSR agenda of NGOs which seems to incline more towards providing palliative solutions to social issues.

Keywords: non-profit organization, corporate social responsibility, partnerships, capabilities approach

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Authors: Sarra Boughaba

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α-aminophosphonates have found a wide range of applications in organic and medicinal chemistry; they are considered as pharmacological agents, anti-inflammatory antitumor agents, and antibiotics. A number of procedures have been developed for their synthesis. However, many of these methods suffer from some disadvantages such as long reaction times, environmental pollution, utilization of organic solvents, and expensive catalysts. In the past few years, heteropolyacids have received great attention as environmentally benign catalysts for organic synthetic processes, they possess unique physicochemical properties, such as super-acidity, high thermal and chemical stability, ability to accept and release electrons and high proton mobility, and the possibility of varying their acidity and oxidizing potential. In this context, an efficient and eco-friendly protocol has been described for the synthesis of α-aminophosphonates via one pot, three component reaction catalyzed by H₆P₂W₁₈O₆₂.14H₂O as reusable catalyst, by condensation of amino acids esters, various aromatic aldehydes and triethylphosphite under solvent-free conditions, the corresponding α-aminophosphonates were formed in good yields as racemic or diastereomericmixture. All the new products were systematically characterized by IR, MS, and ¹H, ¹³C-³¹P-NMR analyses. This method offers advantages such as simplicity workup with the green aspects by avoiding expensive catalysts and toxic solvents, good yields, short reaction times.

Keywords: amino acids esters, α-aminophosphonates, H₆P₂W₁₈O₆₂.14H₂O catalyst, green chemistry

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Authors: Abdelkader Anouzla, Soukaina Bouaouda, Roukaya Bouyakhsass, Salah Souabi, Abdeslam Taleb

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During storage and under the combined action of rainwater and natural fermentation, these wastes produce over 800.000 m3 of landfill leachates. Due to population growth and changing global economic activities, the amount of waste constantly generated increases, making more significant volumes of leachate. Leachate, when leaching into the soil, can negatively impact soil, surface water, groundwater, and the overall environment and human life. The leachate must first be treated because of its high pollutant load before being released into the environment. This article reviews the different leachate treatments in September 2022 techniques. Different techniques can be used for this purpose, such as biological, physical-chemical, and membrane methods. Young leachate is biodegradable; in contrast, these biological processes lose their effectiveness with leachate aging. They are characterized by high ammonia nitrogen concentrations that inhibit their activity. Most physical-chemical treatments serve as pre-treatment or post-treatment to complement conventional treatment processes or remove specific contaminants. After the introduction, the different types of pollutants present in leachates and their impacts have been made, followed by a discussion highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the various treatments, whether biological, physicochemical, or membrane. From this work, due to their simplicity and reasonable cost compared to other treatment procedures, biological treatments offer the most suitable alternative to limit the effects produced by the pollutants in landfill leachates.

Keywords: landfill leachate, landfill pollution, impact, wastewater

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Authors: Carmel Khrisna Wong Moreno, Dinah M. Espina

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The increasing price of feed ingredients has prompted farmers to seek feasible feed alternatives like the utilization of locally-grown protein-rich feedstuff which is cheaper but gives a positive result in poultry production. Trichanthera gigantea, a fodder tree which is an excellent alternative as feed ingredient in the Philippines has now gained popularity as feed supplement. This study was conducted to determine the growth and laying performance of commercial hens fed with varying levels of Trichanthera gigantea leaf meal. The incorporation of Trichanthera gigantea leaf meal at 5%, 10%, and 15% into the diet of commercial hens did not affect the growth and laying performance. Results of the study revealed that the weight gain of the birds fed with Trichanthera gigantea supplemented diets was not significantly different with the control (100% commercial layer mash). The voluntary feed intake, feed conversion ratio, weekly average egg weight and egg production of the commercial hens fed with T. gigantea leaf meal supplemented diets were not significantly different from the control. Results of the study showed that the supplementation of Trichanthera gigantea leaf meal of up to 15% into the diets of commercial hens is highly acceptable since it does not affect the growth and laying performance of the birds. In addition, it would mean a 15% savings in production cost from commercial feeds.

Keywords: egg production, growth, laying performance, trichanthera gigantea (nees)

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Authors: Nadia Allouache, Omar Rahli

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Many promising technologies have been developed to harness the sun's energy. These technologies help in economizing energy and environmental protection. The solar refrigerating systems are one of these important technologies. In addition to environmental benefits and energy saving, adsorption refrigerating systems have many advantages such as lack of moving parts, simplicity of construction and low operating costs. The work aimed to establish the main factors that affect the performances of an adsorption refrigerating system using different geometries of adsorbers and different adsorbent-adsorbate pairs. The numerical modeling of the heat and mass transfer in the system, using various working pairs, such as: activated carbon-ammonia, calcium chlorid-ammonia, activated carbon fiber- methanol and activated carbon AC35-methanol, show that the adsorber design can influence the system performances; The thermal performances of system are better in the annular configuration case. An optimal value of generating temperature is observed in annular adsorber case for which the thermal performance of the cooling system is maximal. While in the plate adsorber, above a certain value of generating temperature, the performance of the system remains almost constant. The environmental conditions such as solar radiation and pressure have a great influence in the system efficiency, and the choice of the working pair depends on the environmental conditions and the geometry of the adsorber.

Keywords: adsorber geometry, numerical modeling, optimal environmental conditions, working pairs.

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Authors: Harinder Singh

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The paper sheds light on the perceptions of the uninsured workers employed in the urban informal sector of India, towards the health insurance. In addition to this, it also explores the association of the identified perceptions with household decisions to enroll for health insurance schemes in India. Firstly the data taken from the primary survey of the uninsured workers employed in the urban informal sector was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis to evaluate the perceptions. Thereafter, logistic regression was employed to determine the association of the identified perceptions regarding the enrollment. Our study identifies twelve perceptions related to the health insurance enrollment of the uninsured workers employed in the urban informal sector of India. The study demonstrates that perceptions have the strongest association with the voluntary enrollment. These specifically relate to the lack of awareness about the need to buy health insurance; comprehensive coverage; income constraint; future contingencies and social obligations; lack of information; availability of subsidized government health care; linkage with government hospitals and preference for government schemes. Conclusions: Along with the food security, health security has become a crying need of the workers employed in the informal sector and the time has come to scale up the health insurance schemes for them in the country. Policy makers or marketers of health insurance policies should recognize the household perceptions as a potential barrier and try to develop a health insurance package as per the actual needs of the informal sector (low income) in India.

Keywords: association, enrollment, health insurance, informal sector, perceptions, uninsured

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Authors: Carlos A. Vega-Posada, Jeisson Alejandro Higuita-Villa, Julio C. Saldarriaga-Molina

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This paper presents a simplified analytical approach to conduct elastic stability and second-order lateral stiffness analyses of beam-column elements (i.e., piles) with generalized end-boundary conditions embedded on a homogeneous or non-homogeneous Pasternak foundation. The solution is derived using the well-known Differential Transformation Method (DTM), and it consists simply of solving a system of two linear algebraic equations. Using other conventional approaches to solve the governing differential equation of the proposed element can be cumbersome and the solution challenging to implement, especially when the non-homogeneity of the soil is considered. The proposed formulation includes the effects of i) any rotational or lateral transverse spring at the ends of the pile, ii) any external transverse load acting along the pile, iii) soil non-homogeneity, and iv) the second-parameter of the elastic foundation (i.e., shear layer connecting the springs at the top). A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of different modulus of subgrade reactions, degrees of non-homogeneities, and intermediate end-boundary conditions on the pile response. The same set of equations can be used to conduct both elastic stability and static analyses. Comprehensive examples are presented to show the simplicity and practicability of the proposed method.

Keywords: elastic stability, second-order lateral stiffness, soil-non-homogeneity, pile analysis

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Authors: Vinay Gupta, Seema Malhotra

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Background: Patients who usually consume tobacco are unaware of its ill effects completely therefore it becomes necessary to educate and counselling them after obtaining their knowledge about tobacco. Aim: To measure prevalence of tobacco use among dental outpatients and to evaluation of tobacco user attending dental outpatients (OPD) prepared to quit. Methods: A cross-sectional survey, which was carried out on patients attending Outside Patient Department (OPD) of dental college of King Georges Medical University, Lucknow, India. All the patients who consumed tobacco attending the Dental College were asked to participate in the study. The questionnaire was written in English/ Hindi (local language). Participation in this study was voluntary and the questionnaire was anonymous and self-administered. The proposal of this survey had been approved by the ethical committee of institution. Informed consent was obtained from all the participants. Results: Prevalence of tobacco user attending the Dental OPD was 46.4%. Male tobacco user represented 85.9%. Smokeless tobacco (57%) user were more than smoking (1.4%) and 18.9% were using both smokeless and smoking tobacco. 40.7% start using tobacco since less than 5 years. 55.3% uses tobacco after get up in the morning. 87.1% tobacco user knows that it cause cancer. 54.8% respond that warning sign on packet/pouch effect on mind but due to addiction, it would not work out. 54.8% attempted for quitting but not successful. 90.0% willing to quit in future if facility provide. Conclusion: Higher prevalence of tobacco usage among study population and will to quit in future shows need of cessation clinic in every dental institution in India.

Keywords: tobacco, knowledge, practice, counselling

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Authors: Siti Aishah Hasbullah

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Studies on identification of pork content in food have grown rapidly to meet the Halal food standard in Malaysia. The used mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) approaches for the identification of pig species is thought to be the most precise marker due to the mtDNA genes are present in thousands of copies per cell, the large variability of mtDNA. The standard method commonly used for DNA detection is based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method combined with gel electrophoresis but has major drawback. Its major drawbacks are laborious, need longer time and toxic to handle. Therefore, the need for simplicity and fast assay of DNA is vital and has triggered us to develop DNA biosensors for porcine DNA detection. Therefore, the aim of this project is to develop electrochemical DNA biosensor based on ruthenium (II) complex, [Ru(bpy)2(p-PIP)]2+ as DNA hybridization label. The interaction of DNA and [Ru(bpy)2(p-HPIP)]2+ will be studied by electrochemical transduction using Gold Screen-Printed Electrode (GSPE) modified with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and succinimide acrylic microspheres. The electrochemical detection by redox active ruthenium (II) complex was measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The results indicate that the interaction of [Ru(bpy)2(PIP)]2+ with hybridization complementary DNA has higher response compared to single-stranded and mismatch complementary DNA. Under optimized condition, this porcine DNA biosensor incorporated modified GSPE shows good linear range towards porcine DNA.

Keywords: gold, screen printed electrode, ruthenium, porcine DNA

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Authors: Anuradha Chug, Sunali Gandhi

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Regression Testing is a very expensive and time-consuming process carried out to ensure the validity of modified software. Due to the availability of insufficient resources to re-execute all the test cases in time constrained environment, efforts are going on to generate test data automatically without human efforts. Many search based techniques have been proposed to generate efficient, effective as well as optimized test data, so that the overall cost of the software testing can be minimized. The generated test data should be able to uncover all potential lapses that exist in the software or product. Inspired from the natural behavior of bat for searching her food sources, current study employed a meta-heuristic, search-based bat algorithm for optimizing the test data on the basis certain parameters without compromising their effectiveness. Mathematical functions are also applied that can effectively filter out the redundant test data. As many as 50 Java programs are used to check the effectiveness of proposed test data generation and it has been found that 86% saving in testing efforts can be achieved using bat algorithm while covering 100% of the software code for testing. Bat algorithm was found to be more efficient in terms of simplicity and flexibility when the results were compared with another nature inspired algorithms such as Firefly Algorithm (FA), Hill Climbing Algorithm (HC) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). The output of this study would be useful to testers as they can achieve 100% path coverage for testing with minimum number of test cases.

Keywords: regression testing, test case selection, test case prioritization, genetic algorithm, bat algorithm

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Authors: Xue Wu

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Since the 1980s, a series of policies and practices have been implemented in China in response to the unprecedented rate of ageing population. The paper provides a detailed narrative of what later-life learning policy discourses have been advocated and gives a description on relevant practical issues during the past three decades. The research process based on the discourse approach with a systematic review of the government-issued documents. It finds that the main practices taken by central government at various levels were making University of the Aged (UA) available in all urban and rural regions to consolidate the newly student enrollments; focusing social-recreational, leisure and cultural activities on 55-75 age group; and utilizing various methods including voluntary works and tourism to improve older adults’ physical and mental wellness. Although there were greater achievements with 30 years of development, many problems still exist. Finding reveals that the curriculum should be modified to meet the needs of the local development, to promote older adults’ contact and contribution to the community, and to enhance technical competences of those in rural areas involving in agricultural production. Central government should also integrate resources from all sectors of the society for further developing later-life learning in China. The result of this paper highlights the value to promote community-based later-life learning for building a society for active ageing and ageing in place.

Keywords: ageing population, China, later-life learning, policy, University of the Aged

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Authors: Simon B. N. Thompson

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Cortisol is important to our immune system, regulates our stress response, and is a factor in maintaining brain temperature. Saliva cortisol is a practical and useful non-invasive measurement that signifies the presence of the important hormone. Electrical activity in the jaw muscles typically rises when the muscles are moved during yawning and the electrical level is found to be correlated with the cortisol level. In two studies using identical paradigms, a total of 108 healthy subjects were exposed to yawning-provoking stimuli so that their cortisol levels and electrical nerve impulses from their jaw muscles was recorded. Electrical activity is highly correlated with cortisol levels in healthy people. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Yawning Susceptibility Scale, General Health Questionnaire, demographic, health details were collected and exclusion criteria applied for voluntary recruitment: chronic fatigue, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart condition, high blood pressure, hormone replacement therapy, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. Significant differences were found between the saliva cortisol samples for the yawners as compared with the non-yawners between rest and post-stimuli. Significant evidence supports the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis that suggests rises in cortisol levels are associated with yawning. Ethics approval granted and professional code of conduct, confidentiality, and safety issues are approved therein.

Keywords: cortisol, diagnosis, neurological disease, thompson cortisol hypothesis, yawning

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Authors: Disaphon Boobpachat, Nuttaset Manimmanakorn, Apiwan Manimmanakorn, Worrawut Thuwakum, Michael J. Hamlin

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Objectives: To evaluate effect of kinesio tape compared to placebo tape and static stretching on recovery of anaerobic power and maximal oxygen uptake (Vo₂max) after intensive exercise. Methods: Thirty nine untrained healthy volunteers were randomized to 3 groups for each intervention: elastic tape, placebo tape and stretching. The participants performed intensive exercise on the dominant quadriceps by using isokinetic dynamometry machine. The recovery process was evaluated by creatine kinase (CK), pressure pain threshold (PPT), muscle soreness scale (MSS), maximum voluntary contraction (MVC), jump height, anaerobic power and Vo₂max at baseline, immediately post-exercise and post-exercise day 1, 2, 3 and 7. Results: The kinesio tape, placebo tape and stretching groups had significant changes of PPT, MVC, jump height at immediately post-exercise compared to baseline (p < 0.05), and changes of MSS, CK, anaerobic power and Vo₂max at day 1 post-exercise compared to baseline (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference of those outcomes among three groups. Additionally, all experimental groups had little effects on anaerobic power and Vo₂max compared to baseline and compared among three groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Kinesio tape and stretching did not improve recovery of anaerobic power and Vo₂max after eccentric exercise compared to placebo tape.

Keywords: stretching, eccentric exercise, Wingate test, muscle soreness

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Authors: Hadi Farahani, Mahsa Tahzibi, Laleh Golamrej Eliasi, Mohammad Torkashvand

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Iranian deafs are an under-researched population. The lack of research comes from the fact that if none, there are very few researchers capable of speaking sign language. The exclusion of this minority group from mainstream society often distorts the general understanding of prevalent issues of the deaf in Iran. The topic of this research was co-created through preliminary discussions with the Iranian deaf. Domestic violence then was picked up as an infrastructural issue impacting other dimensions of deaf lives such as work, education, and outside family relationships. For this purpose, we systematically searched the literature seeking a comprehensive questionnaire. We came across a 46-item standardized questionnaire measuring domestic violence in Iran. To adapt this questionnaire, we followed standard procedures reflected in another article. The inclusion criteria of the current research were married (had experienced living with a partner before) and +18-year-old deaf. Sampling was random and recruitment of the participants was through governmental or voluntary organizations for the deaf. 390 questionnaires then were analyzed through SPSS version 27. Analysis showed that the prevalence rate of domestic violence was 26% in general that emotional violence with 29% was the most prevalent type. Findings suggested that the more educated, and economically independent were the participants, the lower the probability of encountering domestic violence. Domestic violence within families where all members were deaf proved to be less usual than in families in which only the participant was deaf. Further interventional research is needed to assess how to empower the Iranian deaf regarding domestic violence.

Keywords: deaf, domestic violence, economic violence, emotional violence, physical violence, sexual violence

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Authors: Nazanin Gerami, Shirin Adlparvar

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In the present time in the laboratory, one can create an ionized gas, that is to say, plasma from room temperature up to ten times more than the temperature of the sun center (150,000,000). All these temperature spectrums of plasma have applications in different disciplines, including dentistry, medicine, science, surface treatment, nuclear waste disinfection, nuclear fusion technology, etc. However, for the sick of simplicity, all these plasma temperature spectrums are classified as cold or low-pressure non-thermal plasma and warm or high-pressure equilibrium plasma. The cold plasma, as we are interested in this paper, exists at lower ion and neutral temperatures with respect to electron temperature, but in the equilibrium plasma, the temperatures of ion and electron are fairly equal. The cold plasma is a partially ionized gas comprising ions, electrons, ultraviolet photons and reactive neutrals such as radicals, excited and ground-state molecules. Cold atmospheric pressure plasmas are widely used in diverse fields of dental medicine, such as the titanium surface of dental implants, which helps in reducing contact angle and supporting the spread of osteoblastic cells and is known to aid in osteoblastic proliferation and osseointegration, thus increasing the success rates of implants. This article focuses on the anticipated uses of a newly designed water-cooled adjustable cathode cold atmospheric pressure plasma Jet (CAPPJ) for titanium surface treatment in dental implant placement.

Keywords: CAPPJ, surface modification, osseointegration, plasma medicine, dentistry

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Authors: Seyed Amin Vakili, Sahar Sadat Vakili, Seyed Ehsan Vakili, Nader Abdoli Yazdi

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Differential equations are of fundamental importance in engineering and applied mathematics, since many physical laws and relations appear mathematically in the form of such equations. The equilibrium state of structures consisting of one-dimensional elements can be described by an ordinary differential equation. The response of these kinds of structures under the loading, namely relationship between the displacement field and loading field, can be predicted by the solution of these differential equations and on satisfying the given boundary conditions. When the effect of change of geometry under loading is taken into account in modeling of equilibrium state, then these differential equations are partially integrable in quartered. They also exhibit instability characteristics when the structures are loaded compressively. The purpose of this paper is to represent the ability of the Modified Newmark Method in analyzing flexural-torsional instability of struts for both bifurcation and non-bifurcation structural systems. The results are shown to be very accurate with only a small number of iterations. The method is easily programmed, and has the advantages of simplicity and speeds of convergence and easily is extended to treat material and geometric nonlinearity including no prismatic members and linear and nonlinear spring restraints that would be encountered in frames. In this paper, these abilities of the method will be extended to the system of linear differential equations that govern strut flexural torsional stability.

Keywords: instability, torsion, flexural, buckling, modified newmark method stability

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Authors: Hai Hoang, Thanh Xuan Nguyen Thi, Guillaume Galliero

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Coarse-Grained (CG) molecular simulations have shown to be an efficient way to estimate thermophysical (static and dynamic) properties of fluids. Several strategies have been developed and reported in the literature for defining CG molecular models. Among them, those based on a top-down strategy (i.e. CG molecular models related to macroscopic observables), despite being heuristic, have increasingly gained attention. This is probably due to its simplicity in implementation and its ability to provide reasonable results for not only simple but also complex systems. Regarding simple Force-Fields associated with these CG molecular models, it has been found that the four parameters Mie chain model is one of the best compromises to describe thermophysical static properties (e.g. phase diagram, saturation pressure). However, parameterization procedures of these Mie-chain GC molecular models given in literature are generally insufficient to simultaneously provide static and dynamic (e.g. viscosity) properties. To deal with such situations, we have extended the corresponding states by using a quantity associated with the liquid viscosity. Results obtained from molecular simulations have shown that our approach is able to yield good estimates for both static and dynamic thermophysical properties for various real non-associating fluids. In addition, we will show that on simple (e.g. phase diagram, saturation pressure) and complex (e.g. thermodynamic response functions, thermodynamic energy potentials) static properties, results of our scheme generally provides improved results compared to existing approaches.

Keywords: coarse-grained model, mie potential, molecular simulations, thermophysical properties, phase equilibria

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Authors: Luljeta Gashi, Naser Ramadani, Zana Deva, Dafina Gexha-Bunjaku

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The official HIV/AIDS data in Kosovo are based on HIV case reporting from health-care services, the blood transfusion system and Voluntary Counselling and Testing centres. Between 1986 and 2014, are reported 95 HIV and AIDS cases, of which 49 were AIDS, 46 HIV and 40 deaths. The majority (69%) of cases were men, age group 25 to 34 (37%) and route of transmission is: heterosexual (90%), MSM (7%), vertical transmission (2%) and IDU (1%). Based on existing data and the UNAIDS classification system, Kosovo is currently still categorised as having a low-level HIV epidemic. Even though with a low HIV prevalence, Kosovo faces a number of threatening factors, including increased number of drug users, a stigmatized and discriminated MSM community, high percentage of youth among general population (57% of the population under the age of 25), with changing social norms and especially the sexual ones. Methods: Data collection was done using self administered structured questionnaires amongst 249 high school students. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: The findings revealed that 68% of students know that HIV transmission can be reduced by having sex with only one uninfected partner who has no other partners, 94% know that the risk of getting HIV can be reduced by using a condom every time they have sex, 68% know that a person cannot get HIV from mosquito bites, 81% know that they cannot get HIV by sharing food with someone who is infected and 46% know that a healthy looking person can have HIV. Conclusions: Seventy one percent of high school students correctly identify ways of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV and who reject the major misconceptions about HIV transmission. The findings of the study indicate a need for more health education and promotion.

Keywords: Kosovo, KPAR, HIV, high school

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Authors: Navarat Sachayansrisakul, Nattawat Ponnara

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Human beings are driving forces for any unit of societies, whether it would be in a family, communities, industries or even organizations. However, as our humanity progresses, the reliance has shifted from human to machineries and technologies. One main challenge when dealing with more than one person is conflict often resulted. If the conflict is properly managed, then economic development also follows. In order to achieve positive outcome of conflict, it is believed that the management comes from within individual entrepreneurs. As such, this is a unique study as it looks into the spiritual side of humans as business people and applies to the business environment with the focus on moral and ethical framework in order for sustainable development. This study aims to provide a model of how to positively manage conflict without compromising the ethical and moral standards of the businesses. Sustainability in this study is achieved through the Buddhists’ aim for liberation in which it works on the balanced approach to solving conflict. Buddhists’ livelihood is established on simplicity and non-violence while contributing not to only one’s self but those around them such as the stake holders of the businesses and the communities. According to Buddhist principles and some findings, a model called ‘The Bestination Conflict Management’ was developed. Bestination model offers an alternative approach for entrepreneurs to achieve sustainability along with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that benefit the well-beings of the owners, the stakeholders and the communities involved. This research study identifies ‘Conflict Management’ model as having goodwill and wisdom as a base, then moral motivation as the next level up to have a disciplines in order to keep a unit well cooperated.

Keywords: sustainable, entrepreneurs, Buddhist, moral, ethics, conflict

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Authors: Mohammad Talei, Neda Ranjbar Nosheri, Reza Kazemi Gorzadini

Abstract:

Today municipalities are searching for the new tools for increasing the public participation in different levels of urban planning. This approach of urban planning involves the community in planning process using participatory approaches instead of the long traditional top-down planning methods. These tools can be used to obtain the particular problems of urban furniture form the residents’ point of view. One of the tools that is designed with this goal is public participation GIS (PPGIS) that enables citizen to record and following up their feeling and spatial knowledge regarding main problems of the city, specifically urban furniture, in the form of maps. However, despite the good intentions of PPGIS, its practical implementation in developing countries faces many problems including the lack of basic supporting infrastructure and services and unavailability of sophisticated public participatory models. In this research we develop a PPGIS using of Web 2 to collect voluntary geodataand to perform spatial analysis based on Spatial OnLine Analytical Processing (SOLAP) and Spatial Data Mining (SDM). These tools provide urban planners with proper informationregarding the type, spatial distribution and the clusters of reported problems. This system is implemented in a case study area in Tehran, Iran and the challenges to make it applicable and its potential for real urban planning have been evaluated. It helps decision makers to better understand, plan and allocate scarce resources for providing most requested urban furniture.

Keywords: PPGIS, spatial information, urbanizing futures, urban planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 694

Authors: Usman Abubakar, Xiaoyuan Wang, Sayyed Haleem Shah, Sadiq Ur Rahman, Rabiu Saleh Zakariyya

Abstract:

High-speed Permanent magnet synchronous machine (HSPMSM) uses in different industrial applications like blowers, compressors as a result of its superb performance. Nevertheless, the over-temperature rise of both winding and PM is one of their substantial problem for a high-power HSPMSM, which affects its lifespan and performance. According to the literature, HSPMSM with a Hybrid cooling configuration has a much lower temperature rise than non-hybrid cooling. This paper presents the design 185kW, 26K rpm with two different cooling configurations, i.e., hybrid cooling configuration (forced air and housing spiral water jacket) and non-hybrid (forced air cooling assisted with winding’s potting material and sleeve’s material) to enhance the heat dissipation of winding and PM respectively. Firstly, the machine’s electromagnetic design is conducted by the finite element method to accurately account for machine losses. Then machine’s cooling configurations are introduced, and their effectiveness is validated by lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN). Investigation shows that using potting, sleeve materials to assist non-hybrid cooling configuration makes the machine’s winding and PM temperature closer to hybrid cooling configuration. Therefore, the machine with non-hybrid cooling is prototyped and tested due to its simplicity, lower energy consumption and can still maintain the lifespan and performance of the HSPMSM.

Keywords: airflow network, axial ventilation, high-speed PMSM, thermal network

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Authors: Chandra Gupt Porwal, Preeti C. Porwal

Abstract:

Transient data reveals much about the machine's condition that steady-state data cannot. New technologies make this information much more available for evaluating the mechanical integrity of a machine train. Recent surveys at various stations indicate that simplicity is preferred over completeness in machine audits throughout the power generation industry. This is most clearly shown by the number of rotating machinery predictive maintenance programs in which only steady-state vibration amplitude is trended while important transient vibration data is not even acquired. Efforts have been made to explain what transient data is, its importance, the types of plots used for its display, and its effective utilization for analysis. In order to demonstrate the value of measuring transient data and its practical application in rotating machinery for resolving complex and persistent issues with turbine generators, the author presents a few case studies that highlight the presence of rotor instabilities due to the shaft moving towards the bearing centre in a 100 MM LMZ unit located in the Northern Capital Region (NCR), heavy misalignment noticed—especially after 2993 rpm—caused by loose coupling bolts, which prevented the machine from being synchronized for more than four months in a 250 MW KWU unit in the Western Region (WR), and heavy preload noticed at Intermediate pressure turbine (IPT) bearing near HP- IP coupling, caused by high points on coupling faces at a 500 MW KWU unit in the Northern region (NR), experienced at Indian power plants.

Keywords: transient data, steady-state-data, intermediate -pressure-turbine, high-points

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Authors: Stephanie Giordano, Eric Lam, Rosa Plasencia

Abstract:

An important piece of active aging is ensuring people have the right support to meet individual needs. Using NCI-AD data, we will look at measures of satisfaction with community access and needed services among people with physical disabilities receiving LTSS in the US. National Core Indicators—Aging and Disabilities (NCI-AD) is a voluntary effort by State Medicaid, aging, and disability agencies across the US to measure and track their own performance. NCI-AD uses a standardized survey – the Adult Consumer Survey (ACS), to hear directly from people receiving services about the quality of services and supports they receive. Data from the 2018-19 ACS found that compared to people without a physical disability, those with a physical disability were more likely to make choices about the services they receive, including when and how often they receive those services. Yet people with a physical disability were less likely to report they get enough assistance with everyday activities (e.g., shopping, housework, and taking medications) and self-care (e.g., dressing or bathing) and more likely to report that services and supports do not fully meet their needs and goals. A further breakdown by age shows that people 40-65 years old with a physical disability experienced even greater barriers to being as active in the community as they would like to be, indicating a need to better support people as they age with or into a disability. We will explore how these and other outcomes were affected by COVID-19, take a closer look at outcomes by demographics (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, and mental health diagnoses) and discuss implications on the future needs of service systems.

Keywords: quality-of-life, long-term services and supports, person-centered, community

Procedia PDF Downloads 74

Authors: S. Doyle, G. A. Aggidis

Abstract:

Wave energy converter technologies continue to show good progress in worldwide research. One of the most researched technologies, the Oscillating Water Column (OWC), is arguably one of the most popular categories within the converter technologies due to its robustness, simplicity and versatility. However, the versatility of the OWC is still largely untapped with most deployments following similar trends with respect to applications and operating systems. As the competitiveness of the energy market continues to increase, the demand for wave energy technologies to be innovative also increases. For existing wave energy technologies, this requires identifying areas to diversify for lower costs of energy with respect to applications and synergies or integrated systems. This paper provides a review of all OWCs systems integrated into alternative applications in the past and present. The aspects and variation in their design, deployment and system operation are discussed. Particular focus is given to the Multi-OWCs (M-OWCs) and their great potential to increase capture on a larger scale, especially in synergy applications. It is made clear that these steps need to be taken in order to make wave energy a competitive and viable option in the renewable energy mix as progression to date shows that stand alone single function devices are not economical. Findings reveal that the trend of development is moving toward these integrated applications in order to reduce the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) and will ultimately continue in this direction in efforts to make wave energy a competitive option in the renewable energy mix.

Keywords: wave energy converter, oscillating water column, ocean energy, renewable energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 101