Search results for: wake interactions
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2208

Search results for: wake interactions

1938 Analyzing the Place of Technology in Communication: Case Study of Kenya during COVID-19

Authors: Josephine K. Mule, Levi Obonyo

Abstract:

Technology has changed human life over time. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the work set-up, the school system, the shopping experience, church attendance, and even the way athletes train in Kenya. Although the use of technology to communicate and maintain interactions has been on the rise in the last 30 years, the uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented. Traditionally, ‘paid’ work has been considered to take place outside the “home house” but COVID-19 has resulted in what is now being referred to as “the world’s largest work-from-home experiment” with up to 43 percent of employees working at least some of the time remotely. This study was conducted on 90 respondents from across remote work set-ups, school systems, merchants and customers of online shopping, church leaders and congregants and athletes, and their coaches. Data were collected by questionnaires and interviews that were conducted online. The data is based on the first three months since the first case of coronavirus was reported in Kenya. This study found that the use of technology is in the center of working remotely with work interactions being propelled on various online platforms including, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, among others. The school system has also integrated the use of technology, including students defending their thesis/dissertations online and university graduations being conducted virtually. Kenya is known for its long-distance runners, due to the directives to reduce interactions; coaches have taken to providing their athletes with guidance on training on social media using applications such as WhatsApp. More local stores are now offering the shopping online option to their customers. Churches have also felt the brunt of the situation, especially because of the restrictions on crowds resulting in online services becoming more popular in 2020 than ever before. Artists, innovatively have started online musical concerts. The findings indicate that one of the outcomes in the Kenyan society that is evident as a result of the COVID-19 period is a population that is using technology more to communicate and get work done. Vices that have thrived in this season where the use of technology has increased, include the spreading of rumors on social media and cyberbullying. The place of technology seems to have been cemented by demand during this period.

Keywords: communication, coronavirus, COVID-19, Kenya, technology

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1937 Radiation Emission from Ultra-Relativistic Plasma Electrons in Short-Pulse Laser Light Interactions

Authors: R. Ondarza-Rovira, T. J. M. Boyd

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Intense femtosecond laser light incident on over-critical density plasmas has shown to emit a prolific number of high-order harmonics of the driver frequency, with spectra characterized by power-law decays Pm ~ m-p, where m denotes the harmonic order and p the spectral decay index. When the laser pulse is p-polarized, plasma effects do modify the harmonic spectrum, weakening the so-called universal decay with p=8/3 to p=5/3, or below. In this work, appeal is made to a single particle radiation model in support of the predictions from particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Using this numerical technique we further show that the emission radiated by electrons -that are relativistically accelerated by the laser field inside the plasma, after being expelled into vacuum, the so-called Brunel electrons is characterized not only by the plasma line but also by ultraviolet harmonic orders described by the 5/3 decay index. Results obtained from these simulations suggest that for ultra-relativistic light intensities, the spectral decay index is further reduced, with p now in the range 2/3 ≤ p ≤ 4/3. This reduction is indicative of a transition from the regime where Brunel-induced plasma radiation influences the spectrum to one dominated by bremsstrahlung emission from the Brunel electrons.

Keywords: ultra-relativistic, laser-plasma interactions, high-order harmonic emission, radiation, spectrum

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1936 Mental Health Literacy in the Arabic Community

Authors: Yamam Abuzinadah

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Mental health literacy has become a very influential topic around the world due to the increase of mental health issues that have been reported through national research and surveys. Mental health literacy refers to the awareness, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and skills when dealing with mental illness. This research explores mental health literacy in the Arabic and the ways culture informs perceptions of mental health in general. Also, the impact of mental health literacy on: help-seeking attitudes, relationships and community interactions. The outcomes of this research will contribute to raising mental health awareness among the Arabic community, develop and enhance mental health service provision and explore new ideas in regards to elevating mental health literacy in the Arabic community. This research aims to explore attitudes, beliefs, perspective, values and perceptions toward mental health in general among the Arabic community. It will also aim to highlight the factors contributing to theses beliefs, perspective, value and perception and accordingly the role these factors play in regards to awareness, services access, recovery and care provided from the family and the community. This thesis will aim to reflect a detailed theorisation and exploration of: (1) The impact of cultural factors on mental health literacy ie. attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and skills. (2) The ways culture informs perceptions of mental health literacy. (3) The impact of mental health literacy on: help-seeking behaviors, and relationships and community interactions.

Keywords: Arab, mental health, literacy, awareness

Procedia PDF Downloads 405
1935 Electronic/Optoelectronic Property Tuning in Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides via High Pressure

Authors: Juan Xia, Jiaxu Yan, Ze Xiang Shen

Abstract:

The tuneable interlayer interactions in two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichlcogenides (TMDs) offer an exciting platform for exploring new physics and applications by material variety, thickness, stacking sequence, electromagnetic filed, and stress/strain. Compared with the five methods mentioned above, high pressure is a clean and powerful tool to induce dramatic changes in lattice parameters and physical properties for 2D TMD materials. For instance, high pressure can strengthen the van der Waals interactions along c-axis and shorten the covalent bonds in atomic plane, leading to the typical first-order structural transition (2Hc to 2Ha for MoS2), or metallization. In particular, in the case of WTe₂, its unique symmetry endows the significant anisotropy and the corresponding unexpected properties including the giant magnetoresistance, pressure-induced superconductivity and Weyl semimetal states. Upon increasing pressure, the Raman peaks for WTe₂ at ~120 cm⁻¹, are gradually red-shifted and totally suppressed above 10 GPa, attributed to the possible structural instability of orthorhombic Td phase under high pressure and phase transition to a new monoclinic T' phase with inversion symmetry. Distinct electronic structures near Fermi level between the Td and T' phases may pave a feasible way to achieve the Weyl state tuning in one material without doping.

Keywords: 2D TMDs, electronic property, high pressure, first-principles calculations

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1934 Modeling Optimal Lipophilicity and Drug Performance in Ligand-Receptor Interactions: A Machine Learning Approach to Drug Discovery

Authors: Jay Ananth

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The drug discovery process currently requires numerous years of clinical testing as well as money just for a single drug to earn FDA approval. For drugs that even make it this far in the process, there is a very slim chance of receiving FDA approval, resulting in detrimental hurdles to drug accessibility. To minimize these inefficiencies, numerous studies have implemented computational methods, although few computational investigations have focused on a crucial feature of drugs: lipophilicity. Lipophilicity is a physical attribute of a compound that measures its solubility in lipids and is a determinant of drug efficacy. This project leverages Artificial Intelligence to predict the impact of a drug’s lipophilicity on its performance by accounting for factors such as binding affinity and toxicity. The model predicted lipophilicity and binding affinity in the validation set with very high R² scores of 0.921 and 0.788, respectively, while also being applicable to a variety of target receptors. The results expressed a strong positive correlation between lipophilicity and both binding affinity and toxicity. The model helps in both drug development and discovery, providing every pharmaceutical company with recommended lipophilicity levels for drug candidates as well as a rapid assessment of early-stage drugs prior to any testing, eliminating significant amounts of time and resources currently restricting drug accessibility.

Keywords: drug discovery, lipophilicity, ligand-receptor interactions, machine learning, drug development

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1933 The Connection Between the International Law and the Legal Consultation on the Social Media

Authors: Amir Farouk Ahmed Ali Hussin

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Social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Ex-Twitter have experienced exponential growth and a remarkable adoption rate in recent years. They give fantastic means of online social interactions and communications with family, friends, and colleagues from around the corner or across the globe, and they have become an important part of daily digital interactions for more than one and a half billion users around the world. The personal information sharing practices that social network providers encourage have led to their success as innovative social interaction platforms. Moreover, these practices have outcome in concerns with respect to privacy and security from different stakeholders. Guiding these privacy and security concerns in social networks is a must for these networks to be sustainable. Real security and privacy tools may not be enough to address existing concerns. Some points should be followed to protect users from the existing risks. In this research, we have checked the various privacy and security issues and concerns pertaining to social media. However, we have classified these privacy and security issues and presented a thorough discussion of the effects of these issues and concerns on the future of the social networks. In addition, we have presented a set of points as precaution measures that users can consider to address these issues.

Keywords: international legal, consultation mix, legal research, small and medium-sized enterprises, strategic International law, strategy alignment, house of laws, deployment, production strategy, legal strategy, business strategy

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1932 Sovereign State System in the Era of Globalisation: An Appraisal

Authors: Dilip Gogoi

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This paper attempts to explore the notion of sovereign state system, its emergence and legitimization by the treaty of Westphalia, 1648 in Europe and examines how the very notion of sovereign state is subject to changes in the later part of the 20th century both politically and economically in the wake of globalisation. The paper firstly traces the tradition of Westphalian sovereign state system which influenced the dominant understanding about sovereign state system till mid 20th century. Secondly, it explores how the notion of sovereign nation state is subjected to change in the post World War II specially in the context of universal acceptance of human rights and right to intervene in internal affairs of a sovereign state to protect the same, the decolonization and legitimization of the principle of self determination and through the experience of European Integration. Thirdly, it analyses how globalisation drives certain fundamental changes and poses challenges to the sovereign state system. The concluding part of the paper argues that sovereign state system is relevant and will continue to be relevant although it needs to redefine its role in the changing global environment.

Keywords: Westphalia, sovereignty, nation-state system, intervention, globalisation

Procedia PDF Downloads 413
1931 Mass Polarization in Three-Body System with Two Identical Particles

Authors: Igor Filikhin, Vladimir M. Suslov, Roman Ya. Kezerashvili, Branislav Vlahivic

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The mass-polarization term of the three-body kinetic energy operator is evaluated for different systems which include two identical particles: A+A+B. The term has to be taken into account for the analysis of AB- and AA-interactions based on experimental data for two- and three-body ground state energies. In this study, we present three-body calculations within the framework of a potential model for the kaonic clusters K−K−p and ppK−, nucleus 3H and hypernucleus 6 ΛΛHe. The systems are well clustering as A+ (A+B) with a ground state energy E2 for the pair A+B. The calculations are performed using the method of the Faddeev equations in configuration space. The phenomenological pair potentials were used. We show a correlation between the mass ratio mA/mB and the value δB of the mass-polarization term. For bosonic-like systems, this value is defined as δB = 2E2 − E3, where E3 is three-body energy when VAA = 0. For the systems including three particles with spin(isospin), the models with average AB-potentials are used. In this case, the Faddeev equations become a scalar one like for the bosonic-like system αΛΛ. We show that the additional energy conected with the mass-polarization term can be decomposite to a sum of the two parts: exchenge related and reduced mass related. The state of the system can be described as the following: the particle A1 is bound within the A + B pair with the energy E2, and the second particle A2 is bound with the pair with the energy E3 − E2. Due to the identity of A particles, the particles A1 and A2 are interchangeable in the pair A + B. We shown that the mass polarization δB correlates with a type of AB potential using the system αΛΛ as an example.

Keywords: three-body systems, mass polarization, Faddeev equations, nuclear interactions

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1930 Investigating the Flow Physics within Vortex-Shockwave Interactions

Authors: Frederick Ferguson, Dehua Feng, Yang Gao

Abstract:

No doubt, current CFD tools have a great many technical limitations, and active research is being done to overcome these limitations. Current areas of limitations include vortex-dominated flows, separated flows, and turbulent flows. In general, turbulent flows are unsteady solutions to the fluid dynamic equations, and instances of these solutions can be computed directly from the equations. One of the approaches commonly implemented is known as the ‘direct numerical simulation’, DNS. This approach requires a spatial grid that is fine enough to capture the smallest length scale of the turbulent fluid motion. This approach is called the ‘Kolmogorov scale’ model. It is of interest to note that the Kolmogorov scale model must be captured throughout the domain of interest and at a correspondingly small-time step. In typical problems of industrial interest, the ratio of the length scale of the domain to the Kolmogorov length scale is so great that the required grid set becomes prohibitively large. As a result, the available computational resources are usually inadequate for DNS related tasks. At this time in its development, DNS is not applicable to industrial problems. In this research, an attempt is made to develop a numerical technique that is capable of delivering DNS quality solutions at the scale required by the industry. To date, this technique has delivered preliminary results for both steady and unsteady, viscous and inviscid, compressible and incompressible, and for both high and low Reynolds number flow fields that are very accurate. Herein, it is proposed that the Integro-Differential Scheme (IDS) be applied to a set of vortex-shockwave interaction problems with the goal of investigating the nonstationary physics within the resulting interaction regions. In the proposed paper, the IDS formulation and its numerical error capability will be described. Further, the IDS will be used to solve the inviscid and viscous Burgers equation, with the goal of analyzing their solutions over a considerable length of time, thus demonstrating the unsteady capabilities of the IDS. Finally, the IDS will be used to solve a set of fluid dynamic problems related to flow that involves highly vortex interactions. Plans are to solve the following problems: the travelling wave and vortex problems over considerable lengths of time, the normal shockwave–vortex interaction problem for low supersonic conditions and the reflected oblique shock–vortex interaction problem. The IDS solutions obtained in each of these solutions will be explored further in efforts to determine the distributed density gradients and vorticity, as well as the Q-criterion. Parametric studies will be conducted to determine the effects of the Mach number on the intensity of vortex-shockwave interactions.

Keywords: vortex dominated flows, shockwave interactions, high Reynolds number, integro-differential scheme

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1929 Ice Breakers: A Tool for Esl Learners

Authors: Nazia Shehzad

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An icebreaker is a facilitation exercise intended to help a group to begin the process of forming themselves into a team. Icebreakers are commonly presented as a game to ‘warm up’ the group by helping the members to get to know each other. They often focus on sharing personal information such as names, hobbies, etc. Challenging icebreakers also have the ability to allow a group to be better prepared to complete its assigned tasks. For example, if the team's objective is to redesign a business process such as Accounts Payable, the icebreaker activity might take the team through a process analysis. The analysis could include the identification of failure points, challenging assumptions, and development of new solutions — all in a simpler and ‘safer’ setting where the team can practice the group dynamics which they will use to solve the assigned problem. Icebreakers help establish a positive environment and provide an opportunity for students to get to know one another and the instructor. Both are critical to the retention and success of students. There are a number of benefits of using ice-breakers activities in the classroom. It reduces both student and instructor anxiety prior to introducing the course, fosters in a powerful way both student-student and faculty-student interactions. It creates an environment where the learner is expected to participate and the instructor is willing to listen, actively engage students from the onset. It conveys the message that the instructor cares about getting to know the students and makes it easier for students to form relationships early in the semester so they can work together both in and out of class.

Keywords: actively engages students, facilitation exercise, faculty- student interactions, group dynamics, warm up

Procedia PDF Downloads 320
1928 Political Communication in Twitter Interactions between Government, News Media and Citizens in Mexico

Authors: Jorge Cortés, Alejandra Martínez, Carlos Pérez, Anaid Simón

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The presence of government, news media, and general citizenry in social media allows considering interactions between them as a form of political communication (i.e. the public exchange of contradictory discourses about politics). Twitter’s asymmetrical following model (users can follow, mention or reply to other users that do not follow them) could foster alternative democratic practices and have an impact on Mexican political culture, which has been marked by a lack of direct communication channels between these actors. The research aim is to assess Twitter’s role in political communication practices through the analysis of interaction dynamics between government, news media, and citizens by extracting and visualizing data from Twitter’s API to observe general behavior patterns. The hypothesis is that regardless the fact that Twitter’s features enable direct and horizontal interactions between actors, users repeat traditional dynamics of interaction, without taking full advantage of the possibilities of this medium. Through an interdisciplinary team including Communication Strategies, Information Design, and Interaction Systems, the activity on Twitter generated by the controversy over the presence of Uber in Mexico City was analysed; an issue of public interest, involving aspects such as public opinion, economic interests and a legal dimension. This research includes techniques from social network analysis (SNA), a methodological approach focused on the comprehension of the relationships between actors through the visual representation and measurement of network characteristics. The analysis of the Uber event comprised data extraction, data categorization, corpus construction, corpus visualization and analysis. On the recovery stage TAGS, a Google Sheet template, was used to extract tweets that included the hashtags #UberSeQueda and #UberSeVa, posts containing the string Uber and tweets directed to @uber_mx. Using scripts written in Python, the data was filtered, discarding tweets with no interaction (replies, retweets or mentions) and locations outside of México. Considerations regarding bots and the omission of anecdotal posts were also taken into account. The utility of graphs to observe interactions of political communication in general was confirmed by the analysis of visualizations generated with programs such as Gephi and NodeXL. However, some aspects require improvements to obtain more useful visual representations for this type of research. For example, link¬crossings complicates following the direction of an interaction forcing users to manipulate the graph to see it clearly. It was concluded that some practices prevalent in political communication in Mexico are replicated in Twitter. Media actors tend to group together instead of interact with others. The political system tends to tweet as an advertising strategy rather than to generate dialogue. However, some actors were identified as bridges establishing communication between the three spheres, generating a more democratic exercise and taking advantage of Twitter’s possibilities. Although interactions in Twitter could become an alternative to political communication, this potential depends on the intentions of the participants and to what extent they are aiming for collaborative and direct communications. Further research is needed to get a deeper understanding on the political behavior of Twitter users and the possibilities of SNA for its analysis.

Keywords: interaction, political communication, social network analysis, Twitter

Procedia PDF Downloads 193
1927 Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery: Experimental Insights into Low Salinity Polymer in Sandstone Reservoirs

Authors: Intisar, Khalifa, Salim, Al Busaidi

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Recently, the synergic combination of low salinity water flooding with polymer flooding has been a subject of paramount interest for the oil industry. Numerous studies have investigated the efficiency of enhanced oil recovery using low salinity polymer flooding (LSPF). However, there is no clear conclusion that can explain the incremental oil recovery, determine the main factors controlling the oil recovery process, and define the relative contribution of rock/fluids or fluid/fluid interactions to extra oil recovery. Therefore, this study aims to perform a systematic investigation of the interactions between oil, polymer, low salinity and sandstone rock surface from pore to core scale during LSPF. Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymer, Boise outcrop, a crude oil sample and reservoir cores from an Omani oil field, and brine at two different salinities were used in the study. Several experimental measurements including static bulk measurements of polymer solutions prepared with brines of high and low salinities, single phase displacement experiments, along with rheological, total organic carbon and ion chromatography measurements to analyze ion exchange reactions, polymer adsorption, and viscosity loss were used. In addition, two-phase experiments were performed to demonstrate the oil recovery efficiency of LSPF. The results revealed that the incremental oil recovery from LSPF was attributed to the combination of the reduction in the water-oil mobility ratio, an increase in the repulsion forces between crude oil/brine/rock interfaces and an increase in pH of the aqueous solution. In addition, lowering the salinity of the make-up brine resulted in a larger conformation (expansion) of the polymer molecules, which in turn resulted in less adsorption and a greater in-situ viscosity without any negative impact on injectivity. This plays a positive role in the oil displacement process. Moreover, the loss of viscosity in the effluent of polymer solutions was lower in low-salinity than in high-salinity brine, indicating that an increase in cations concentration (mainly driven by Ca2+ ions) has stronger effect on the viscosity of high-salinity polymer solution compared with low-salinity polymer.

Keywords: polymer, heavy oil, low salinity, COBR interactions

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1926 Bubbling in Gas Solids Fluidization at a Strouhal Number Tuned for Low Energy Dissipation

Authors: Chenxi Zhang, Weizhong Qian, Fei Wei

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Gas solids multiphase flow is common in many engineering and environmental applications. Turbulence and multiphase flows are two of the most challenging topics in fluid mechanics, and when combined they pose a formidable challenge, even in the dilute dispersed regime. Dimensionless numbers are important in mechanics because their constancy can imply dynamic similarity between systems, despite possible differences in medium or scale. In the fluid mechanics literature, the Strouhal number is usually associated with the dimensionless shedding frequency of a von Karman wake; here we introduce this dimensionless number to investigate bubbling in gas solids fluidization. St=fA/U, which divides stroke frequency (f) and amplitude (A) by forward speed (U). The bubble behavior in a large two-dimensional bubbling fluidized bed (500mm×30mm×6000mm) is investigated. Our result indicates that propulsive efficiency is high and energy dissipation is low over a narrow range of St and usually within the interval 0.2Keywords: bubbles, Strouhal number, two-phase flow, energy dissipation

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1925 Modeling Continuous Flow in a Curved Channel Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

Authors: Indri Mahadiraka Rumamby, R. R. Dwinanti Rika Marthanty, Jessica Sjah

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Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) was originally created to simulate nonaxisymmetric phenomena in astrophysics. However, this method still has several shortcomings, namely the high computational cost required to model values with high resolution and problems with boundary conditions. The difficulty of modeling boundary conditions occurs because the SPH method is influenced by particle deficiency due to the integral of the kernel function being truncated by boundary conditions. This research aims to answer if SPH modeling with a focus on boundary layer interactions and continuous flow can produce quantifiably accurate values with low computational cost. This research will combine algorithms and coding in the main program of meandering river, continuous flow algorithm, and solid-fluid algorithm with the aim of obtaining quantitatively accurate results on solid-fluid interactions with the continuous flow on a meandering channel using the SPH method. This study uses the Fortran programming language for modeling the SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) numerical method; the model is conducted in the form of a U-shaped meandering open channel in 3D, where the channel walls are soil particles and uses a continuous flow with a limited number of particles.

Keywords: smoothed particle hydrodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, numerical simulation, fluid mechanics

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1924 Self in Networks: Public Sphere in the Era of Globalisation

Authors: Sanghamitra Sadhu

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A paradigm shift from capitalism to information technology is discerned in the era globalisation. The idea of public sphere, which was theorized in terms of its decline in the wake of the rise of commercial mass media has now emerged as a transnational or global sphere with the discourse being dominated by the ‘network society’. In other words, the dynamic of globalisation has brought about ‘a spatial turn’ in the social and political sciences which is also manifested in the public sphere, Especially the global public sphere. The paper revisits the Habermasian concept of the public sphere and focuses on the various social networking sites with their plausibility to create a virtual global public sphere. Situating Habermas’s notion of the bourgeois public sphere in the present context of global public sphere, it considers the changing dimensions of the public sphere across time and examines the concept of the ‘public’ with its shifting transformation from the concrete collective to the fluid ‘imagined’ category. The paper addresses the problematic of multimodal self-portraiture in the social networking sites as well as various online diaries/journals with an attempt to explore the nuances of the networked self.

Keywords: globalisation, network society, public sphere, self-fashioning, identity, autonomy

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1923 Predictive Modeling of Student Behavior in Virtual Reality: A Machine Learning Approach

Authors: Gayathri Sadanala, Shibam Pokhrel, Owen Murphy

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In the ever-evolving landscape of education, Virtual Reality (VR) environments offer a promising avenue for enhancing student engagement and learning experiences. However, understanding and predicting student behavior within these immersive settings remain challenging tasks. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the predictive modeling of student behavior in VR using machine learning techniques. We introduce a rich data set capturing student interactions, movements, and progress within a VR orientation program. The dataset is divided into training and testing sets, allowing us to develop and evaluate predictive models for various aspects of student behavior, including engagement levels, task completion, and performance. Our machine learning approach leverages a combination of feature engineering and model selection to reveal hidden patterns in the data. We employ regression and classification models to predict student outcomes, and the results showcase promising accuracy in forecasting behavior within VR environments. Furthermore, we demonstrate the practical implications of our predictive models for personalized VR-based learning experiences and early intervention strategies. By uncovering the intricate relationship between student behavior and VR interactions, we provide valuable insights for educators, designers, and developers seeking to optimize virtual learning environments.

Keywords: interaction, machine learning, predictive modeling, virtual reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 86
1922 Synergistic and Antagonistic Interactions between Garlic Extracts and Metformin in Diabetes Treatment

Authors: Ikram Elsiddig, Yacouba Djamila, Amna Hamad

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Abstract—The worldwide increasing of using herbs in form of medicine with or without prescription medications potentiates the interactions between herbal products and conventional medicines; due to more research for herb-drug interactions are needed. for a long time hyperglycemia had been treated with several medicinal plants. A. sativum, belonging to the Liliaceae family is well known for its medicinal uses in African traditional medicine, it used for treating of many human diseases mainly diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. The purpose of this study is to determine the interaction effect between A. sativum bulb extracts and metformin drug used in diabetes treatment. The in vitro and in vivo evaluation were conducted by glucose reuptake using isolated rats hemidiaphgrams tissue and by estimate glucose tolerance in glucose-loaded wistar albino rats. The results showed that, petroleum ether, chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts were found to have activity of glucose uptake in isolated rats hemidiaphgrams of 24.11 mg/g, 19.07 mg/g and 15.66 mg/g compared to metformin drug of 17 mg/g. These activity were reducded to 17.8 mg/g, 13.59 mg/g and 14.46 mg/g after combination with metformin, metformin itself reduced to 13.59 mg/g, 14.46 mg/g and 12.71 mg/g in comination with chloroform and ethyl acetate. These decrease in activity could be due to herbal–drug interaction between the extracts of A. sativum bulb and metformin drug. The interaction between A. sativum extract and metformin was also shown by in vivo study on the induced hyperglycemic rats. The glucose level after administered of 200 mg/kg was found to be increase with 47.2 % and 17.7% at first and second hour compared to the increase of blood glucose in the control group of 82.6% and76.7%.. At fourth hour the glucose level was became less than normal with 3.4% compared to control which continue to increase with 68.2%. Dose of 400 mg/kg at first hour showed increase in blood glucose of 31.5 %, at second and fourth hours the glucose level was became less than normal with decrease of 3.2 % and 30.4%. After combination the activity was found to be less than that of extract at both high and low dose, whereas, at first and second hour, the glucose level was found to be increase with 50.4% and 21.2%, at fourth hour the glucose level was became less than normal with 14%. Therefore A. sativum could be a potential source for anti-diabetic when it used alone, and it is significant important to use the garlic extract alone instead of combined with Metformin drug in diabetes- treatment.

Keywords: Antagonistic, Garlic, Metformin, Synergistic

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1921 Cost Diminution in Supply Chain of a Dairy Industry

Authors: Naveed Ahmed Khan

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The ever increasing importance of food industry cannot be denied and especially in the wake of escalating population and prices both in developing and developed nations. Thus, this issue demands the attention of researchers especially in the area of supply chain to identify cost diminution waste eliminating supply chain practices in the said industry. For such purpose the 'Dairy Division' of Engro Foods Limited, one of the biggest food companies in Pakistan was taken into consideration in a case study manner. Based on the literature review and interviews following variables were obtained: energy, losses, maintenance, taxes, and logistics. Having studied the said variables, it was concluded that management of relevant industries operating in a comparable environment need to efficiently manage two major areas: energy and taxes. On the other hand, similar kind of other organizations could be benefited by adopting the proficient supply chain practices being observed at dairy division of Engro foods limited.

Keywords: cost diminution, supply chain, dairy industry, Engro Foods Limited

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1920 The Making of a Male: Narrative Analysis of the Protagonist in Cholera District

Authors: Behre O. Ozalp

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Cinema is a reflection of the society, as much as it captures the social codes. These codes are learned within the society; and through movies these practices of the gender order are reproduced as well. One of the best examples engendering these codes is a modern classic of Turkish cinema, Cholera District (1997), originally Ağır Roman in Turkish. It is a coming of age movie of a teenage boy in an old neighborhood of Istanbul, where he learns to be a 'man' through the hegemonic masculinity codes of the society. The corporal and verbal practices that are used in the representation of the male protagonist's portrayal is based on his performativity. This paper, through narrative analysis of the aforementioned movie, reviews how gender and narrative are intertwined within the context of queer theory. The methodology follows the protagonist's object of desire while evaluating his heterosexuality which requires affirmative performances. The framework of the study firstly focuses on the protagonist's own life and his interactions with the males of his kinship. Later, the focus gravitates towards his interactions with the female object of desire while evaluating how this relationship shapes his status in society. Lastly, the study focuses on the relationship between the protagonist and non-relative males of the neighborhood. The journey of a young male becoming a man by copying the other males delivers a clear representation of how heterosexuality is favored in terms of gender order.

Keywords: hegemonic masculinity, performativity, queer theory, Turkish cinema

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1919 Evaluation of Dynamic and Vibrational Analysis of the Double Chambered Cylinder along Thermal Interactions

Authors: Mohammadreza Akbari, Leila Abdollahpour, Sara Akbari, Pooya Soleimani

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Transferring thermo at the field of solid materials for instance tube-shaped structures, causing dynamical vibration at them. Majority of thermal and fluid processes are done engineering science at solid materials, for example, thermo-transferred pipes, fluids, chemical and nuclear reactors, include thermal processes, so, they need to consider the moment solid-fundamental structural strength unto these thermal interactions. Fluid and thermo retentive materials in front of external force to it like thermodynamical force, hydrodynamical force and static force continuously according to a function of time vibrated, and this action causes relative displacement of the structural materials elements, as a result, the moment resistance analysis preservation materials in thermal processes, the most important parameters for design are discussed. Including structural substrate holder temperature and fluid of the administrative and industrial center, is a cylindrical tube that for vibration analysis of cylindrical cells with heat and fluid transfer requires the use of vibration differential equations governing the structure of a tubular and thermal differential equations as the vibrating motive force at double-glazed cylinders.

Keywords: heat transfer, elements in cylindrical coordinates, analytical solving the governing equations, structural vibration

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1918 A Computational Study on Flow Separation Control of Humpback Whale Inspired Sinusoidal Hydrofoils

Authors: J. Joy, T. H. New, I. H. Ibrahim

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A computational study on bio-inspired NACA634-021 hydrofoils with leading-edge protuberances has been carried out to investigate their hydrodynamic flow control characteristics at a Reynolds number of 14,000 and different angles-of-attack. The numerical simulations were performed using ANSYS FLUENT and based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver mode incorporated with k-ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model. The results obtained indicate varying flow phenomenon along the peaks and troughs over the span of the hydrofoils. Compared to the baseline hydrofoil with no leading-edge protuberances, the leading-edge modified hydrofoils tend to reduce flow separation extents along the peak regions. In contrast, there are increased flow separations in the trough regions of the hydrofoil with leading-edge protuberances. Interestingly, it was observed that dissimilar flow separation behaviour is produced along different peak- or trough-planes along the hydrofoil span, even though the troughs or peaks are physically similar at each interval for a particular hydrofoil. Significant interactions between adjacent flow structures produced by the leading-edge protuberances have also been observed. These flow interactions are believed to be responsible for the dissimilar flow separation behaviour along physically similar peak- or trough-planes.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, flow separation control, hydrofoils, leading-edge protuberances

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1917 Synthesis Modified Electrodes with Au/Pt Nanoparticles and Two New Coordination Polymers of Ag(I) and Cu(II) Constructed by Pyrazine and 3-Nitrophthalic Acid as a Novel Electrochemical Sensing Platform

Authors: Zohreh Derikvand, Hadis Cheraghi, Azadeh Azadbakht, Vaclav Eigner, Michal Dusek

Abstract:

Two new one and two dimensional metal organic coordination polymers of Cu(II), [Cu(3-nph)2(H2O)2pz]n (1) and Ag(I), {[Ag(3-nph)pz].H2O}n (2) with pyrazine (pz) and 3- nitrophthalic acid (3-nph) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, spectral (IR, UV-Vis), thermal (TG/DTG) analysis and single crystal X-ray diffraction. We used these compounds to preparation modified electrode with Au/Pt nanosparticles in order to investigation electrochemistry and electrocatalysis activities. The surface structure and composition of the sensor were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The Ag(I) coordination polymer shows a 2D layer structure constructed from dinuclear silver (I) building blocks in which two crystallographically Ag+ ions are connected to each other by a covalent bond. The pyrazine ligands adopt μ2 bridging modes, linking the metal centers into a one and two -dimensional coordination framework in 1 and 2. The two AgI cations are surrounded by pyrazine and 3-nitrophthalate mono anions and indicate distorted tetrahedral geometry. In the crystal structures of Ag(I) complex there are non-classical hydrogen bonding arrangements, C–O•••π and π–π stacking interactions. In Cu(II) coordination polymer, the coordination geometry around Cu(II) atom is a distorted octahedron. Interestingly, the structural analysis illustrates that the strong and weak hydrogen bond accompanied with C–H•••π and C–O•••π stacking interactions assemble the crystal structure of 1 and 2 into fascinating 3D supramolecular architecture.

Keywords: 3-nithrophethalic acid, crystal structure, coordination polymer, electrocatalysis

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1916 Physical Aggression and Language Skills among Children with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

Authors: Maryam Razmjoee

Abstract:

Physical aggression is one of the most common behavioural problems among children with intellectual disabilities. Behaviours such as hitting, kicking, and threatening with the intent to harm others are examples of physical aggression. Identified language delays are related to physically aggressive behaviours, as children with poor language skills are often frustrated by socially interactions with their peers, leaving them at risk engaging in acts of physical aggression. As a result of this concern, physical aggression and language skills of children with mild intellectual disabilities was investigated. In the current study, 102 students, from years 1-3, with mild intellectual disabilities (51 girls and 51 boys) have been recruited from five educational centres which cater for children with mild intellectual disabilities in the city of Shiraz (a major city in Iran). The Test of Language Development-Primary: 3rd Edition (TOLD-3) and Overt and Relational Aggression Questionnaire were used to assess these children. Results showed that physical aggression had a significant negative association with expressive (p = 0.008), and receptive (p = 0.019) language skills. In addition, boys demonstrated more physically aggressive behaviours than girls (p = 0.014). No difference was found in expressive and receptive language skills between girls and boys with mild intellectual disabilities. The overall findings suggest that improving the language skills of children with intellectual disabilities experiencing language delays will help them to avoid exhibiting antisocial behaviours in social interactions.

Keywords: behaviour, language skills, mild intellectual disabilities, physical aggression, primary school students

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1915 From Avatars to Humans: A Hybrid World Theory and Human Computer Interaction Experimentations with Virtual Reality Technologies

Authors: Juan Pablo Bertuzzi, Mauro Chiarella

Abstract:

Employing a communication studies perspective and a socio-technological approach, this paper introduces a theoretical framework for understanding the concept of hybrid world; the avatarization phenomena; and the communicational archetype of co-hybridization. This analysis intends to make a contribution to future design of virtual reality experimental applications. Ultimately, this paper presents an ongoing research project that proposes the study of human-avatar interactions in digital educational environments, as well as an innovative reflection on inner digital communication. The aforementioned project presents the analysis of human-avatar interactions, through the development of an interactive experience in virtual reality. The goal is to generate an innovative communicational dimension that could reinforce the hypotheses presented throughout this paper. Being thought for its initial application in educational environments, the analysis and results of this research are dependent and have been prepared in regard of a meticulous planning of: the conception of a 3D digital platform; the interactive game objects; the AI or computer avatars; the human representation as hybrid avatars; and lastly, the potential of immersion, ergonomics and control diversity that can provide the virtual reality system and the game engine that were chosen. The project is divided in two main axes: The first part is the structural one, as it is mandatory for the construction of an original prototype. The 3D model is inspired by the physical space that belongs to an academic institution. The incorporation of smart objects, avatars, game mechanics, game objects, and a dialogue system will be part of the prototype. These elements have all the objective of gamifying the educational environment. To generate a continuous participation and a large amount of interactions, the digital world will be navigable both, in a conventional device and in a virtual reality system. This decision is made, practically, to facilitate the communication between students and teachers; and strategically, because it will help to a faster population of the digital environment. The second part is concentrated to content production and further data analysis. The challenge is to offer a scenario’s diversity that compels users to interact and to question their digital embodiment. The multipath narrative content that is being applied is focused on the subjects covered in this paper. Furthermore, the experience with virtual reality devices proposes users to experiment in a mixture of a seemingly infinite digital world and a small physical area of movement. This combination will lead the narrative content and it will be crucial in order to restrict user’s interactions. The main point is to stimulate and to grow in the user the need of his hybrid avatar’s help. By building an inner communication between user’s physicality and user’s digital extension, the interactions will serve as a self-guide through the gameworld. This is the first attempt to make explicit the avatarization phenomena and to further analyze the communicational archetype of co-hybridization. The challenge of the upcoming years will be to take advantage from these forms of generalized avatarization, in order to create awareness and establish innovative forms of hybridization.

Keywords: avatar, hybrid worlds, socio-technology, virtual reality

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1914 Microscale observations of a gas cell wall rupture in bread dough during baking and confrontation to 2/3D Finite Element simulations of stress concentration

Authors: Kossigan Bernard Dedey, David Grenier, Tiphaine Lucas

Abstract:

Bread dough is often described as a dispersion of gas cells in a continuous gluten/starch matrix. The final bread crumb structure is strongly related to gas cell walls (GCWs) rupture during baking. At the end of proofing and during baking, part of the thinnest GCWs between expanding gas cells is reduced to a gluten film of about the size of a starch granule. When such size is reached gluten and starch granules must be considered as interacting phases in order to account for heterogeneities and appropriately describe GCW rupture. Among experimental investigations carried out to assess GCW rupture, no experimental work was performed to observe the GCW rupture in the baking conditions at GCW scale. In addition, attempts to numerically understand GCW rupture are usually not performed at the GCW scale and often considered GCWs as continuous. The most relevant paper that accounted for heterogeneities dealt with the gluten/starch interactions and their impact on the mechanical behavior of dough film. However, stress concentration in GCW was not discussed. In this study, both experimental and numerical approaches were used to better understand GCW rupture in bread dough during baking. Experimentally, a macro-scope placed in front of a two-chamber device was used to observe the rupture of a real GCW of 200 micrometers in thickness. Special attention was paid in order to mimic baking conditions as far as possible (temperature, gas pressure and moisture). Various differences in pressure between both sides of GCW were applied and different modes of fracture initiation and propagation in GCWs were observed. Numerically, the impact of gluten/starch interactions (cohesion or non-cohesion) and rheological moduli ratio on the mechanical behavior of GCW under unidirectional extension was assessed in 2D/3D. A non-linear viscoelastic and hyperelastic approach was performed to match the finite strain involved in GCW during baking. Stress concentration within GCW was identified. Simulated stresses concentration was discussed at the light of GCW failure observed in the device. The gluten/starch granule interactions and rheological modulus ratio were found to have a great effect on the amount of stress possibly reached in the GCW.

Keywords: dough, experimental, numerical, rupture

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1913 Influence of Major Axis on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of Elliptical Section

Authors: K. B. Rajasekarababu, J. Karthik, G. Vinayagamurthy

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This paper is intended to explain the influence of major axis on aerodynamic characteristics of elliptical section. Many engineering applications such as off shore structures, bridge piers, civil structures and pipelines can be modelled as a circular cylinder but flow over complex bodies like, submarines, Elliptical wing, fuselage, missiles, and rotor blades, in which the parameters such as axis ratio can influence the flow characteristics of the wake and nature of separation. Influence of Major axis in Flow characteristics of elliptical sections are examined both experimentally and computationally in this study. For this research, four elliptical models with varying major axis [*AR=1, 4, 6, 10] are analysed. Experimental works have been conducted in a subsonic wind tunnel. Furthermore, flow characteristics on elliptical model are predicted from k-ε turbulence model using the commercial CFD packages by pressure based transient solver with Standard wall conditions.The analysis can be extended to estimation and comparison of Drag coefficient and Fatigue analysis of elliptical sections.

Keywords: elliptical section, major axis, aerodynamic characteristics, k-ε turbulence model

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1912 Bilingual Identities of Kuwaiti Students at Universities with EMI

Authors: Marta Tryzna, Shahd Al Shammari

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Though Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the only official language in GCC states, including Kuwait, and traditionally the preferred vehicle for literacy in the Arab countries, recent studies in Qatar and the UAE observe a growing role of English, particularly in literacy and knowledge transmission contexts. The present study examines the attitudes to Arabic and English and the use of both languages in literacy-related domains based on a sample of bilingual Arabic-English undergraduates (N=522) at a private university with EMI in Kuwait. The results indicate that Arabic (Kuwaiti dialect) is associated with familial interactions, Arabic-English bilingualism predominates in interactions with classmates, friends, on social media and at work, while English is prevalent in literacy-related contexts such as reading books, magazines, or online material, domains traditionally associated with MSA. Attitudes towards Arabic and English are equally positive according to the majority of the respondents, who report being comfortable expressing themselves and projecting their identity in both languages. No statistically significant differences were found comparing the importance of Arabic and English in the sample. Future trends were identified based on high agreement on the importance of speaking English with children and low agreement on speaking only Arabic at home. The study corroborates recently observed trends in the GCC favoring bilingualism across personal, academic and professional domains, with English becoming the preferred language of literacy among young bilingual Kuwaitis.

Keywords: bilingual, English, Arabic, EMI, identity

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1911 Students’ Online Forum Activities and Social Network Analysis in an E-Learning Environment

Authors: P. L. Cheng, I. N. Umar

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Online discussion forum is a popular e-learning technique that allows participants to interact and construct knowledge. This study aims to examine the levels of participation, categories of participants and the structure of their interactions in a forum. A convenience sampling of one course coordinator and 23 graduate students was selected in this study. The forums’ log file and the Social Network Analysis software were used in this study. The analysis reveals 610 activities (including viewing forum’s topic, viewing discussion thread, posting a new thread, replying to other participants’ post, updating an existing thread and deleting a post) performed by them in this forum, with an average of 3.83 threads posted. Also, this forum consists of five at-risk participants, six bridging participants, four isolated participants and five leaders of information. In addition, the network density value is 0.15 and there exist five reciprocal interactions in this forum. The closeness value varied between 28 and 68 while the eigen vector centrality value varied between 0.008 and 0.39. The finding indicates that the participants tend to listen more rather than express their opinions in the forum. It was also revealed that those who actively provide supports in the discussion forum were not the same people who received the most responses from their peers. This study found that cliques do not exist in the forum and the participants are not selective to whom they response to, rather, it was based on the content of the posts made by their peers. Based upon the findings, further analysis with different method and population, larger sample size and a longer time frame are recommended.

Keywords: e-learning, learning management system, online forum, social network analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 363
1910 Describing the Fine Electronic Structure and Predicting Properties of Materials with ATOMIC MATTERS Computation System

Authors: Rafal Michalski, Jakub Zygadlo

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We present the concept and scientific methods and algorithms of our computation system called ATOMIC MATTERS. This is the first presentation of the new computer package, that allows its user to describe physical properties of atomic localized electron systems subject to electromagnetic interactions. Our solution applies to situations where an unclosed electron 2p/3p/3d/4d/5d/4f/5f subshell interacts with an electrostatic potential of definable symmetry and external magnetic field. Our methods are based on Crystal Electric Field (CEF) approach, which takes into consideration the electrostatic ligands field as well as the magnetic Zeeman effect. The application allowed us to predict macroscopic properties of materials such as: Magnetic, spectral and calorimetric as a result of physical properties of their fine electronic structure. We emphasize the importance of symmetry of charge surroundings of atom/ion, spin-orbit interactions (spin-orbit coupling) and the use of complex number matrices in the definition of the Hamiltonian. Calculation methods, algorithms and convention recalculation tools collected in ATOMIC MATTERS were chosen to permit the prediction of magnetic and spectral properties of materials in isostructural series.

Keywords: atomic matters, crystal electric field (CEF) spin-orbit coupling, localized states, electron subshell, fine electronic structure

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1909 Tracking and Classifying Client Interactions with Personal Coaches

Authors: Kartik Thakore, Anna-Roza Tamas, Adam Cole

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The world health organization (WHO) reports that by 2030 more than 23.7 million deaths annually will be caused by Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs); with a 2008 economic impact of $3.76 T. Metabolic syndrome is a disorder of multiple metabolic risk factors strongly indicated in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Guided lifestyle intervention driven by live coaching has been shown to have a positive impact on metabolic risk factors. Individuals’ path to improved (decreased) metabolic risk factors are driven by personal motivation and personalized messages delivered by coaches and augmented by technology. Using interactions captured between 400 individuals and 3 coaches over a program period of 500 days, a preliminary model was designed. A novel real time event tracking system was created to track and classify clients based on their genetic profile, baseline questionnaires and usage of a mobile application with live coaching sessions. Classification of clients and coaches was done using a support vector machines application build on Apache Spark, Stanford Natural Language Processing Library (SNLPL) and decision-modeling.

Keywords: guided lifestyle intervention, metabolic risk factors, personal coaching, support vector machines application, Apache Spark, natural language processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 404