Search results for: Activity coefficients
1536 On the Hierarchical Ergodicity Coefficient
Authors: Yilun Shang
Abstract:
In this paper, we deal with the fundamental concepts and properties of ergodicity coefficients in a hierarchical sense by making use of partition. Moreover, we establish a hierarchial Hajnal’s inequality improving some previous results.
Keywords: Stochastic matrix, ergodicity coefficient, partition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13471535 Metabolites of Polygonum L. Plants Having Antitumor Properties
Authors: Dmitriy Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina
Abstract:
The article represents the results of research of antitumor activity of different structural types of plant flavonoids extracted by authors from Polygonum L. plants in commercial reserves at the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. For the first time ever the results comparative research of antitumor activity of plant flavonoids of different structural groups and their synthetic derivatives have been represented. The results of determination of toxicity of flavonoids in single parenteral infusion conditions have been represented. Experimental substantiation of possible mechanisms of antiproliferative and cytotoxic action of flavonoids has been suggested. The perspectives of usage of plant flavonoids as medications and creation of effective dosage forms of antitumor medicines on their basis have been substantiated.Keywords: Antitumor activity, cytotoxicity, flavonoids, Polygonum L., secondary metabolites.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23581534 Application of Activity-Based Costing Management System by Key Success Paths to Promote the Competitive Advantages and Operation Performance
Authors: Mei-Fang Wu, Shu-Li Wang, Feng-Tsung Cheng
Abstract:
Highly developed technology and highly competitive global market highlight the important role of competitive advantages and operation performances in sustainable company operation. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) provides accurate operation cost and operation performance information. Rich literatures provide relevant research with cases study on Activity-Based Costing application, but the research on cause relationship between key success factors and its specific outcome, such as profitability or share market are few. These relationships provide the ways to handle the key success factors to achieve the specific outcomes for ensuring to promote the competitive advantages and operation performances. The main purposes of this research are exploring the key success paths by Key Success Paths approach which will lead the ways to apply Activity-Base Costing. The Key Success Paths is the innovative method which is exploring the cause relationships and explaining what are the effects of key success factors to specific outcomes of Activity-Based Costing implementation. The cause relationships between key success factors and successful specific outcomes are Key Success Paths (KSPs). KSPs are the guidelines to lead the cost management strategies to achieve the goals of competitive advantages and operation performances. The research findings indicate that good management system design may affect the well outcomes of Activity-Based Costing application and achieve to outstanding competitive advantage, operating performance and profitability as well by KSPs exploration.Keywords: Activity-Based Costing, Key success factors, Key success paths approach, Key success paths, Key failure paths.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15451533 Antioxidative Potential of Aqueous Extract of Ocimum americanum L. Leaves: An in vitro and in vivo Evaluation
Authors: B. T. Aluko, O. I. Oloyede
Abstract:
Ocimum americanum L (Lamiaceae) is an annual herb that is native to tropical Africa. The in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activity of its aqueous extract was carefully investigated by assessing the DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS radical scavenging activity and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging activity. The reducing power, total phenol, total flavonoids and flavonols content of the extract were also evaluated. The data obtained revealed that the extract is rich in polyphenolic compounds and scavenged the radicals in a concentration dependent manner. This was done in comparison with the standard antioxidants such as BHT and Vitamin C. Also, the induction of oxidative damage with paracetamol (2000 mg/kg) resulted in the elevation of lipid peroxides and significant (P < 0.05) decrease in activities of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and catalase in the liver and kidney of rats. However, the pretreatment of rats with aqueous extract of O. americanum leaves (200 and 400 mg/kg) and silymarin (100 mg/kg) caused a significant (P < 0.05) reduction in the values of lipid peroxides and restored the levels of antioxidant parameters in these organs. These findings suggest that the leaves of O. americanum have potent antioxidant properties which may be responsible for its acclaimed folkloric uses.
Keywords: Antioxidants, free radicals, Ocimum americanum, scavenging activity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25471532 Effects of Ciprofloxacin and Levofloxacin Administration on Some Oxidative Stress Markers in the Rat
Authors: Olusegun K. Afolabi, Emmanuel B. Oyewo
Abstract:
Fluoroquinolones are a group of antibiotics widely used because of their broad spectrum activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin were administered to rats at therapeutic doses to evaluate their effects on plasma arylesterase activity, as well as, on hepatic advanced oxidized protein products (AOPPs) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, as measures of oxidative stress. Ciprofloxacin (80 mg/kg body weight) and levofloxacin (40 mg/kg body weight) were administered to male albino rats for 7 and 14 days. The data obtained demonstrated that plasma arylesterase activity was significantly decreased by both drugs with ciprofloxacin administration inhibiting the activity by 29% and 30% while Levofloxacin treatment resulted in 35% and 30% inhibition, after 7 and 14 days treatment respectively. Hepatic AOPP and MDA levels were both elevated by these antibiotics. This study supplies further evidence that fluoroquinolones at therapeutic doses promote oxidative stress.
Keywords: Arylesterase, Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin, Oxidative Stress.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 33401531 Statistical Modeling for Permeabilization of a Novel Yeast Isolate for β-Galactosidase Activity Using Organic Solvents
Authors: Shweta Kumari, Parmjit S. Panesar, Manab B. Bera
Abstract:
The hydrolysis of lactose using β-galactosidase is one of the most promising biotechnological applications, which has wide range of potential applications in food processing industries. However, due to intracellular location of the yeast enzyme, and expensive extraction methods, the industrial applications of enzymatic hydrolysis processes are being hampered. The use of permeabilization technique can help to overcome the problems associated with enzyme extraction and purification of yeast cells and to develop the economically viable process for the utilization of whole cell biocatalysts in food industries. In the present investigation, standardization of permeabilization process of novel yeast isolate was carried out using a statistical model approach known as Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to achieve maximal b-galactosidase activity. The optimum operating conditions for permeabilization process for optimal β-galactosidase activity obtained by RSM were 1:1 ratio of toluene (25%, v/v) and ethanol (50%, v/v), 25.0 oC temperature and treatment time of 12 min, which displayed enzyme activity of 1.71 IU /mg DW.
Keywords: β-galactosidase, optimization, permeabilization, response surface methodology, yeast.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 41351530 Evaluation of Antioxidant Activities of Rice Paddy Herb (Limnophila aromatica (Lam.) Merr.)
Authors: Rutanachai Thaipratum
Abstract:
Free radicals are atoms or molecules with unpaired electrons. Many diseases are caused by free radicals. Normally, free radical formation is controlled naturally by various beneficial compounds known as antioxidants. Several analytical methods have been used for qualitative and quantitative determination of antioxidants, and each has its own specificity. This project aimed to evaluate antioxidant activity of ethanolic and aqueous extracts from the rice paddy herb (Limnophila aromatica (Lam.) Merr.) measured by DPPH and Hydroxyl radical scavenging method. The results showed that averaged antioxidant activity measured in ethanolic extract (µmol Ascorbic acid equivalent/g fresh mass) were 67.09± 4.99 and 15.55±4.82 as determined by DPPH and Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity assays, respectively. Averaged antioxidant activity measured in aqueous extract (µmol Ascorbic acid equivalent/g fresh mass) were 21.08±1.25 and 10.14±3.94 as determined by DPPH and Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity assays respectively.
Keywords: Free radical, antioxidant, rice paddy herb, Limnophila aromatica (Lam.) Merr.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21801529 Estimation of Time -Varying Linear Regression with Unknown Time -Volatility via Continuous Generalization of the Akaike Information Criterion
Authors: Elena Ezhova, Vadim Mottl, Olga Krasotkina
Abstract:
The problem of estimating time-varying regression is inevitably concerned with the necessity to choose the appropriate level of model volatility - ranging from the full stationarity of instant regression models to their absolute independence of each other. In the stationary case the number of regression coefficients to be estimated equals that of regressors, whereas the absence of any smoothness assumptions augments the dimension of the unknown vector by the factor of the time-series length. The Akaike Information Criterion is a commonly adopted means of adjusting a model to the given data set within a succession of nested parametric model classes, but its crucial restriction is that the classes are rigidly defined by the growing integer-valued dimension of the unknown vector. To make the Kullback information maximization principle underlying the classical AIC applicable to the problem of time-varying regression estimation, we extend it onto a wider class of data models in which the dimension of the parameter is fixed, but the freedom of its values is softly constrained by a family of continuously nested a priori probability distributions.Keywords: Time varying regression, time-volatility of regression coefficients, Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Kullback information maximization principle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15331528 A Novel NIRS Index to Evaluate Brain Activity in Prefrontal Regions While Listening to First and Second Languages for Long Time Periods
Authors: Kensho Takahashi, Ko Watanabe, Takashi Kaburagi, Hiroshi Tanaka, Kajiro Watanabe, Yosuke Kurihara
Abstract:
Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been widely used as a non-invasive method to measure brain activity, but it is corrupted by baseline drift noise. Here we present a method to measure regional cerebral blood flow as a derivative of NIRS output. We investigate whether, when listening to languages, blood flow can reasonably localize and represent regional brain activity or not. The prefrontal blood flow distribution pattern when advanced second-language listeners listened to a second language (L2) was most similar to that when listening to their first language (L1) among the patterns of mean and standard deviation. In experiments with 25 healthy subjects, the maximum blood flow was localized to the left BA46 of advanced listeners. The blood flow presented is robust to baseline drift and stably localizes regional brain activity.
Keywords: NIRS, oxy-hemoglobin, baseline drift, blood flow, working memory, BA46, first language, second language.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22771527 Electromyographic Activity of the Medial Gastrocnemius and Lateral Gastrocnemius Muscle during Salat-s and Specific Exercise
Authors: M. K. M. Safee, W. A. B. Wan Abas, N. A. Abu Osman, F. Ibrahim
Abstract:
This paper investigates the activity of the gastrocnemius (Gas) muscle in healthy subjects during salat (ruku- position) and specific exercise [Unilateral Plantar Flexion Exercise (UPFE)] using electromyography (EMG). Both lateral and medial Gas muscles were assessed. A group of undergraduates aged between 19 to 25 years voluntarily participated in this study. The myoelectric activity of the muscles were recorded and analyzed. The finding indicated that there were contractions of the muscles during the salat and exercise with almost same EMG-s level. From the result, Wilcoxon-s Rank Sum test showed no significant difference between ruku- and UPFE for both medial (p=0.082) and lateral (p=0.226) of GAS muscles. Therefore, salat may be useful in strengthening exercise and also in rehabilitation programs for lower limb activities.Keywords: Electromyography, salat, exercise, muscle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21451526 Problems of Innovative Economy: Forming of«Innovative Society» And Innovative Receptivity
Authors: Zhanna Mingaleva, Kseniy Balkova
Abstract:
Today many countries have the ambitious purposes of long-term and continuous development: constant growth of competitiveness, maintenance of a high standard of living of the population, leadership in the world market. One of the best possible ways of achievement of these purposes is a transition of the countries to innovative economy. The paper presents the analyses of problems of forming of innovative receptivity to innovations and creation of «innovative society». Creation of an innovative culture in a society and increase of the level of prestige of innovative activity are the best ways of developing of innovative processes. The base of the analysis is a comparing of Russia and different developed countries according to the level of some indictors of innovative activity.1
Keywords: innovative activity, innovative development ofeconomy, innovative receptivity, «innovative society»
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20081525 Free Flapping Vibration of Rotating Inclined Euler Beams
Authors: Chih-Ling Huang, Wen-Yi Lin, Kuo-Mo Hsiao
Abstract:
A method based on the power series solution is proposed to solve the natural frequency of flapping vibration for the rotating inclined Euler beam with constant angular velocity. The vibration of the rotating beam is measured from the position of the corresponding steady state axial deformation. In this paper the governing equations for linear vibration of a rotating Euler beam are derived by the d'Alembert principle, the virtual work principle and the consistent linearization of the fully geometrically nonlinear beam theory in a rotating coordinate system. The governing equation for flapping vibration of the rotating inclined Euler beam is linear ordinary differential equation with variable coefficients and is solved by a power series with four independent coefficients. Substituting the power series solution into the corresponding boundary conditions at two end nodes of the rotating beam, a set of homogeneous equations can be obtained. The natural frequencies may be determined by solving the homogeneous equations using the bisection method. Numerical examples are studied to investigate the effect of inclination angle on the natural frequency of flapping vibration for rotating inclined Euler beams with different angular velocity and slenderness ratio.Keywords: Flapping vibration, Inclination angle, Natural frequency, Rotating beam.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21851524 In vitro Susceptibility of Madurella mycetomatis to the Extracts of Anogeissus leiocarpus Leaves
Authors: Ikram Mohamed Eltayeb Elsiddig, Abdel Khalig Muddather, Hiba Abdel Rahman Ali, Saad Mohamed Hussein Ayoub
Abstract:
Anogeissus leiocarpus (Combretaceae) is well known for its medicinal uses in African traditional medicine, for treating many human diseases mainly skin diseases and infections. Mycetoma disease is a fungal and/ or bacterial skininfection, mainly cause by Madurella mycetomatis fungus. This study was carried out in vitro to investigate the antifungal activity of Anogeissus leiocarpus leaf extracts against the isolated pathogenic Madurella mycetomatis, by using the NCCLS modified method compared to Ketoconazole standard drug, and MTT assay. The bioactive fraction was subjected to chemical analysis implementing different chromatographic analytical methods (TLC, HPLC, and LC-MS/MS). The results showed significance antifungal activity of A. leiocarpus leaf extracts against the isolated pathogenic M. mycetomatis, compared to negative and positive controls. The chloroform fraction showed the highest antifungal activity. The chromatographic analysis of the chloroform fraction with the highest activity showed the presence of important bioactive compounds such as ellagic and flavellagic acids derivatives, flavonoids and stilbenoid, which are well known for their antifungal activity.
Keywords: Anogeissus leiocarpus, crude extracts and fractions of Anogeissus leiocarpus, in vitro susceptibility of Madurella mycetomatis, Madurella mycetomatis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23111523 The Tyrosinase and Cyclooxygenase Inhibitory Activities and Cytotoxicity Screening of Tamarindus indica Seeds
Authors: P. Thongmuang, Y. Sudjaroen
Abstract:
The methanolic extracts from seeds of tamarind (Tamarindus indica) was prepared by Soxhlet apparatus extraction and evaluated for total phenolic content by Folin-Ciocalteu method. Then, methanolic extract was screened biological activities (In vitro) for anti-melanogenic activity by tyrosinase inhibition test, antiinflammation activity by cyclooxygenase 1 (COX-1) and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) inhibition test, and cytotoxic screening test with Vero cells. The results showed that total phenolic content, which contained in extract, was contained 27.72 mg of gallic acid equivalent per g of dry weight. The ability to inhibit tyrosinase enzyme, which exerted by Tamarind seed extracts (1 mg/ml) was 52.13 ± 0.42 %. The extract was not possessed inhibitory effect to COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes and cytotoxic effect to Vero cells. The finding is concludes that tested seed extract was possessed antimelanogenic activity with non-toxic effects. However, there was not exhibited anti-inflammatory activity. Further studies include the use of advance biological models to confirm this biological activity, as well as, the isolation and characterization of the purified compounds that it was contained.Keywords: Tamarindus indica, anti-melanogenic, antiinflammatotion, cytotoxicity, seed, phenolic compounds.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29401522 An Investigation of the Effects of Emotional Experience Induction on Mirror Neurons System Activity with Regard to Spectrum of Depressive Symptoms
Authors: Elyas Akbari, Jafar Hasani, Newsha Dehestani, Mohammad Khaleghi, Alireza Moradi
Abstract:
The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of emotional experience induction in the mirror neurons systems (MNS) activity with regard to the spectrum of depressive symptoms. For this purpose, at first stage, 449 students of Kharazmi University of Tehran were selected randomly and completed the second version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Then, 36 students with standard Z-score equal or above +1.5 and equal or equal or below -1.5 were selected to construct two groups of high and low spectrum of depressive symptoms. In the next stage, the basic activity of MNS was recorded (mu wave) before presenting the positive and negative emotional video clips by Electroencephalography (EEG) technique. The findings related to emotion induction (neutral, negative and positive emotion) demonstrated that the activity of recorded mirror neuron areas had a significant difference between the depressive and non-depressive groups. These findings suggest that probably processing of negative emotions in depressive individuals is due to the idea that the mirror neurons in motor cortex matched up the activity of cognitive regions with the person’s schema. Considering the results of the present study, it could be said that the MNS provides a substrate where emotional disorders can be studied and evaluated.
Keywords: Emotional experiences, mirror neurons, depressive symptoms.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11661521 Resource Leveling in Construction Projects using Re- Modified Minimum Moment Approach
Authors: Abhay Tawalare, Rajesh Lalwani
Abstract:
An attempt in this paper proposes a re-modification to the minimum moment approach of resource leveling which is a modified minimum moment approach to the traditional method by Harris. The method is based on critical path method. The new approach suggests the difference between the methods in the selection criteria of activity which needs to be shifted for leveling resource histogram. In traditional method, the improvement factor found first to select the activity for each possible day of shifting. In modified method maximum value of the product of Resources Rate and Free Float was found first and improvement factor is then calculated for that activity which needs to be shifted. In the proposed method the activity to be selected first for shifting is based on the largest value of resource rate. The process is repeated for all the remaining activities for possible shifting to get updated histogram. The proposed method significantly reduces the number of iterations and is easier for manual computations.Keywords: Re-Modified, Resource Leveling, Resources Rate, Free Float, Resource Histogram
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38271520 Burstiness Reduction of a Doubly Stochastic AR-Modeled Uniform Activity VBR Video
Authors: J. P. Dubois
Abstract:
Stochastic modeling of network traffic is an area of significant research activity for current and future broadband communication networks. Multimedia traffic is statistically characterized by a bursty variable bit rate (VBR) profile. In this paper, we develop an improved model for uniform activity level video sources in ATM using a doubly stochastic autoregressive model driven by an underlying spatial point process. We then examine a number of burstiness metrics such as the peak-to-average ratio (PAR), the temporal autocovariance function (ACF) and the traffic measurements histogram. We found that the former measure is most suitable for capturing the burstiness of single scene video traffic. In the last phase of this work, we analyse statistical multiplexing of several constant scene video sources. This proved, expectedly, to be advantageous with respect to reducing the burstiness of the traffic, as long as the sources are statistically independent. We observed that the burstiness was rapidly diminishing, with the largest gain occuring when only around 5 sources are multiplexed. The novel model used in this paper for characterizing uniform activity video was thus found to be an accurate model.Keywords: AR, ATM, burstiness, doubly stochastic, statisticalmultiplexing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14071519 Research on Morning Commuting Behavior under Autonomous Vehicle Environment Based on Activity Method
Authors: Qing Dai, Zhengkui Lin, Jiajia Zhang, Yi Qu
Abstract:
Based on activity method, this paper focuses on morning commuting behavior when commuters travel with autonomous vehicles (AVs). Firstly, a net utility function of commuters is constructed by the activity utility of commuters at home, in car and at workplace, and the disutility of travel time cost and that of schedule delay cost. Then, this net utility function is applied to build an equilibrium model. Finally, under the assumption of constant marginal activity utility, the properties of equilibrium are analyzed. The results show that, in autonomous driving, the starting and ending time of morning peak and the number of commuters who arrive early and late at workplace are the same as those in manual driving. In automatic driving, however, the departure rate of arriving early at workplace is higher than that of manual driving, while the departure rate of arriving late is just the opposite. In addition, compared with manual driving, the departure time of arriving at workplace on time is earlier and the number of people queuing at the bottleneck is larger in automatic driving. However, the net utility of commuters and the total net utility of system in automatic driving are greater than those in manual driving.
Keywords: Autonomous cars, bottleneck model, activity utility, user equilibrium.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6081518 Investigating Solar Cycles and Media Sentiment Through Advanced NLP Techniques
Authors: Aghamusa Azizov
Abstract:
This study investigates the correlation between solar activity and sentiment in news media coverage, using a large-scale dataset of solar activity since 1750 and over 15 million articles from "The New York Times" dating from 1851 onwards. Employing Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools—TextBlob, Vader, and DistillBERT—the research examines the extent to which fluctuations in solar phenomena are reflected in the sentiment of historical news narratives. The findings reveal that the correlation between solar activity and media sentiment is generally negligible, suggesting a weak influence of solar patterns on the portrayal of events in news media. Notably, a moderate positive correlation was observed between the sentiments derived from TextBlob and Vader, indicating consistency across NLP tools. The analysis provides insights into the historical impact of solar activity on human affairs and highlights the importance of using multiple analytical methods to understand complex relationships in large datasets. The study contributes to the broader understanding of how extraterrestrial factors may intersect with media-reported events and underlines the intricate nature of interdisciplinary research in the data science and historical domains.
Keywords: Solar Activity Correlation, Media Sentiment Analysis, Natural Language Processing, NLP, Historical Event Patterns.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 701517 Impact of Positive Psychology Education and Interventions on Well-Being: A Study of Students Engaged in Pastoral Care
Authors: Inna R. Edara, Haw-Lin Wu
Abstract:
Positive psychology investigates human strengths and virtues and promotes well-being. Relying on this assumption, positive interventions have been continuously designed to build pleasure and happiness, joy and contentment, engagement and meaning, hope and optimism, satisfaction and gratitude, spirituality, and various other positive measures of well-being. In line with this model of positive psychology and interventions, this study investigated certain measures of well-being in a group of 45 students enrolled in an 18-week positive psychology course and simultaneously engaged in service-oriented interventions that they chose for themselves based on the course content and individual interests. Students’ well-being was measured at the beginning and end of the course. The well-being indicators included positive automatic thoughts, optimism and hope, satisfaction with life, and spirituality. A paired-samples t-test conducted to evaluate the impact of class content and service-oriented interventions on students’ scores of well-being indicators indicated statistically significant increase from pre-class to post-class scores. There were also significant gender differences in post-course well-being scores, with females having higher levels of well-being than males. A two-way between groups analysis of variance indicated a significant interaction effect of age by gender on the post-course well-being scores, with females in the age group of 56-65 having the highest scores of well-being in comparison to the males in the same age group. Regression analyses indicated that positive automatic thought significantly predicted hope and satisfaction with life in the pre-course analysis. In the post-course regression analysis, spiritual transcendence made a significant contribution to optimism, and positive automatic thought made a significant contribution to both hope and satisfaction with life. Finally, a significant test between pre-course and post-course regression coefficients indicated that the regression coefficients at pre-course were significantly different from post-course coefficients, suggesting that the positive psychology course and the interventions were helpful in raising the levels of well-being. The overall results suggest a substantial increase in the participants’ well-being scores after engaging in the positive-oriented interventions, implying a need for designing more positive interventions in education to promote well-being.
Keywords: Hope, optimism, positive automatic thoughts, satisfaction with life, spirituality, well-being.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9651516 Numerical Simulations of Cross-Flow around Four Square Cylinders in an In-Line Rectangular Configuration
Authors: Shams Ul Islam, Chao Ying Zhou, Farooq Ahmad
Abstract:
A two-dimensional numerical simulation of crossflow around four cylinders in an in-line rectangular configuration is studied by using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Special attention is paid to the effect of the spacing between the cylinders. The Reynolds number ( Re ) is chosen to be e 100 R = and the spacing ratio L / D is set at 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0 and 10.0. Results show that, as in the case of four cylinders in an inline rectangular configuration , flow fields show four different features depending on the spacing (single square cylinder, stable shielding flow, wiggling shielding flow and a vortex shedding flow) are observed in this study. The effects of spacing ratio on physical quantities such as mean drag coefficient, Strouhal number and rootmean- square value of the drag and lift coefficients are also presented. There is more than one shedding frequency at small spacing ratios. The mean drag coefficients for downstream cylinders are less than that of the single cylinder for all spacing ratios. The present results using the LBM are compared with some existing experimental data and numerical studies. The comparison shows that the LBM can capture the characteristics of the bluff body flow reasonably well and is a good tool for bluff body flow studies.Keywords: Four square cylinders, Lattice Boltzmann method, rectangular configuration, spacing ratios, vortex shedding.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27001515 Changes to Oxidative Stress Levels Following Exposure to Formaldehyde in Lymphocytes
Authors: Malinee Pongsavee
Abstract:
Formaldehyde is the illegal chemical substance used for food preservation in fish and vegetable. It can promote carcinogenesis. Superoxide dismutases are the important antioxidative enzymes that catalyze the dismutation of superoxide anion into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. The resultant level of oxidative stress in formaldehyde-treated lymphocytes was investigated. The formaldehyde concentrations of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 120μmol/L were treated in human lymphocytes for 12 hours. After 12 treated hours, the superoxide dismutase activity change was measured in formaldehyde-treated lymphocytes. The results showed that the formaldehyde concentrations of 60, 80 and 120μmol/L significantly decreased superoxide dismutase activities in lymphocytes (P < 0.05). The change of superoxide dismutase activity in formaldehyde-treated lymphocytes may be the biomarker for detect cellular injury, such as damage to DNA, due to formaldehyde exposure.
Keywords: Formaldehyde, lymphocytes, superoxide dismutase activity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22311514 Formal Modeling and Verification of Software Models
Authors: Siamak Rasulzadeh
Abstract:
Graph transformation has recently become more and more popular as a general visual modeling language to formally state the dynamic semantics of the designed models. Especially, it is a very natural formalism for languages which basically are graph (e.g. UML). Using this technique, we present a highly understandable yet precise approach to formally model and analyze the behavioral semantics of UML 2.0 Activity diagrams. In our proposal, AGG is used to design Activities, then using our previous approach to model checking graph transformation systems, designers can verify and analyze designed Activity diagrams by checking the interesting properties as combination of graph rules and LTL (Linear Temporal Logic) formulas on the Activities.Keywords: UML 2.0 Activity, Verification, Model Checking, Graph Transformation, Dynamic Semantics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14441513 Complex Condition Monitoring System of Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine
Authors: A. M. Pashayev, D. D. Askerov, C. Ardil, R. A. Sadiqov, P. S. Abdullayev
Abstract:
Researches show that probability-statistical methods application, especially at the early stage of the aviation Gas Turbine Engine (GTE) technical condition diagnosing, when the flight information has property of the fuzzy, limitation and uncertainty is unfounded. Hence the efficiency of application of new technology Soft Computing at these diagnosing stages with the using of the Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks methods is considered. According to the purpose of this problem training with high accuracy of fuzzy multiple linear and non-linear models (fuzzy regression equations) which received on the statistical fuzzy data basis is made. For GTE technical condition more adequate model making dynamics of skewness and kurtosis coefficients- changes are analysed. Researches of skewness and kurtosis coefficients values- changes show that, distributions of GTE workand output parameters of the multiple linear and non-linear generalised models at presence of noise measured (the new recursive Least Squares Method (LSM)). The developed GTE condition monitoring system provides stage-by-stage estimation of engine technical conditions. As application of the given technique the estimation of the new operating aviation engine technical condition was made.Keywords: aviation gas turbine engine, technical condition, fuzzy logic, neural networks, fuzzy statistics
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25431512 Innovative Activity of Virtual Firm
Authors: Veronika Gruberová
Abstract:
The strengthening of competitive advantage combined with the transformation of business strategy is necessary for the company to succeed in the time of market changes. And in this sense the innovation activities of the firm are exactly significanting. Virtual firms are a specific form of enterprise in which we can't suppose all regularities obtaining in other forms. The aim of the paper is to evaluate factors influencing the innovation activity of virtual firm with the determination of their importance and influences on the basis of selected metrics.
Keywords: Innovation, virtual firm, factor
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13941511 Stochastic Simulation of Reaction-Diffusion Systems
Authors: Paola Lecca, Lorenzo Dematte
Abstract:
Reactiondiffusion systems are mathematical models that describe how the concentration of one or more substances distributed in space changes under the influence of local chemical reactions in which the substances are converted into each other, and diffusion which causes the substances to spread out in space. The classical representation of a reaction-diffusion system is given by semi-linear parabolic partial differential equations, whose general form is ÔêétX(x, t) = DΔX(x, t), where X(x, t) is the state vector, D is the matrix of the diffusion coefficients and Δ is the Laplace operator. If the solute move in an homogeneous system in thermal equilibrium, the diffusion coefficients are constants that do not depend on the local concentration of solvent and of solutes and on local temperature of the medium. In this paper a new stochastic reaction-diffusion model in which the diffusion coefficients are function of the local concentration, viscosity and frictional forces of solvent and solute is presented. Such a model provides a more realistic description of the molecular kinetics in non-homogenoeus and highly structured media as the intra- and inter-cellular spaces. The movement of a molecule A from a region i to a region j of the space is described as a first order reaction Ai k- → Aj , where the rate constant k depends on the diffusion coefficient. Representing the diffusional motion as a chemical reaction allows to assimilate a reaction-diffusion system to a pure reaction system and to simulate it with Gillespie-inspired stochastic simulation algorithms. The stochastic time evolution of the system is given by the occurrence of diffusion events and chemical reaction events. At each time step an event (reaction or diffusion) is selected from a probability distribution of waiting times determined by the specific speed of reaction and diffusion events. Redi is the software tool, developed to implement the model of reaction-diffusion kinetics and dynamics. It is a free software, that can be downloaded from http://www.cosbi.eu. To demonstrate the validity of the new reaction-diffusion model, the simulation results of the chaperone-assisted protein folding in cytoplasm obtained with Redi are reported. This case study is redrawing the attention of the scientific community due to current interests on protein aggregation as a potential cause for neurodegenerative diseases.
Keywords: Reaction-diffusion systems, Fick's law, stochastic simulation algorithm.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17361510 A Novel VLSI Architecture of Hybrid Image Compression Model based on Reversible Blockade Transform
Authors: C. Hemasundara Rao, M. Madhavi Latha
Abstract:
Image compression can improve the performance of the digital systems by reducing time and cost in image storage and transmission without significant reduction of the image quality. Furthermore, the discrete cosine transform has emerged as the new state-of-the art standard for image compression. In this paper, a hybrid image compression technique based on reversible blockade transform coding is proposed. The technique, implemented over regions of interest (ROIs), is based on selection of the coefficients that belong to different transforms, depending on the coefficients is proposed. This method allows: (1) codification of multiple kernals at various degrees of interest, (2) arbitrary shaped spectrum,and (3) flexible adjustment of the compression quality of the image and the background. No standard modification for JPEG2000 decoder was required. The method was applied over different types of images. Results show a better performance for the selected regions, when image coding methods were employed for the whole set of images. We believe that this method is an excellent tool for future image compression research, mainly on images where image coding can be of interest, such as the medical imaging modalities and several multimedia applications. Finally VLSI implementation of proposed method is shown. It is also shown that the kernal of Hartley and Cosine transform gives the better performance than any other model.Keywords: VLSI, Discrete Cosine Transform, JPEG, Hartleytransform, Radon Transform
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18351509 An Analysis of Activity-Based Costing in a Manufacturing System
Authors: Derya Eren Akyol, Gonca Tuncel, G. Mirac Bayhan
Abstract:
Activity-Based Costing (ABC) represents an alternative paradigm to traditional cost accounting system and it often provides more accurate cost information for decision making such as product pricing, product mix, and make-orbuy decisions. ABC models the causal relationships between products and the resources used in their production and traces the cost of products according to the activities through the use of appropriate cost drivers. In this paper, the implementation of the ABC in a manufacturing system is analyzed and a comparison with the traditional cost based system in terms of the effects on the product costs are carried out to highlight the difference between two costing methodologies. By using this methodology, a valuable insight into the factors that cause the cost is provided, helping to better manage the activities of the company.Keywords: Activity-based costing, manufacturing systems, product costs, traditional costing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31531508 The Antimicrobial Activity of the Essential Oil of Salvia officinalis Harvested in Boumerdes
Authors: N. Meziou-Chebouti, A. Merabet, N. Behidj, F-Z. Bissaad
Abstract:
The Algeria by its location offers a rich and diverse vegetation. A large number of aromatic and medicinal plants grow spontaneously. The interest in these plants has continued to grow in recent years. Their particular properties due to the essential oil fraction can be utilized to treat microbial infections. To this end, and in the context of the valuation of the Algerian flora, we became interested in the species of the family Lamiaceae which is one of the most used as a global source of spices. The plant on which we have based our choice is a species of sage "Salvia officinalis" from the Isser localized region within the province of Boumerdes. This work focuses on the study of the antimicrobial activity of essential oil extracted from the leaves of Salvia officinalis. The extraction is carried out by essential oil hydrodistillation and reveals a yield of 1.06℅. The study of the antimicrobial activity of the essential oil by the method of at aromatogramme shown that Gram positive bacteria are most susceptible (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis) with a strong inhibition of growth. The yeast Candida albicans fungus Aspergillus niger and have shown moderately sensitive.
Keywords: Aromatogram, anti-microbial activity, essential oil, Salvia officinalis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18541507 Using Data from Foursquare Web Service to Represent the Commercial Activity of a City
Authors: Taras Agryzkov, Almudena Nolasco-Cirugeda, Jos´e L. Oliver, Leticia Serrano-Estrada, Leandro Tortosa, Jos´e F. Vicent
Abstract:
This paper aims to represent the commercial activity of a city taking as source data the social network Foursquare. The city of Murcia is selected as case study, and the location-based social network Foursquare is the main source of information. After carrying out a reorganisation of the user-generated data extracted from Foursquare, it is possible to graphically display on a map the various city spaces and venues especially those related to commercial, food and entertainment sector businesses. The obtained visualisation provides information about activity patterns in the city of Murcia according to the people‘s interests and preferences and, moreover, interesting facts about certain characteristics of the town itself.
Keywords: Social networks, Foursquare, spatial analysis, data visualization, geocomputation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2676