Search results for: institutional mechanism

Authors: Adebisi A. Sunday, Babajide Adeokin

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The persistent rise in farm theft in rural region of Nigeria is attributed to the lack of adequate and effective policing in the regions; thus, this brought about the inevitable introduction of native charms on farmlands as a means of fortification of harvests against theft in Ayetoro community. The use of charm by farmers as security on farmlands is a traditional crime control mechanism that is largely based on unwritten laws which greatly influenced the lives of people, and their attitudes toward the society. This research presents a qualitative sociological study on how native charms are deployed by farmers for protection against theft. The study investigated the various types of charms that are employed as security measures among farmers in Ayetoro community and the rationale behind the use of these mechanisms as farm security. The study utilized qualitative method to gather data in the research process. Under the qualitative method, in-depth interview method was adopted to generate a robust and detailed data from the respondents. Also the data generated were analysed qualitatively using thematic content analysis and simple description which was preceded by transcription of data from the recorder. It was revealed that amidst numerous charms known, two major charms are used on farmlands as a measure of social control in Ayetoro community, Ogun state South West Nigeria. Furthermore, the result of this study showed that, the desire for safekeeping of harvest from pilferers and the heavy punishments dispense on offenders by native charms are the reasons why farmers deploy charms on their farms. In addition, findings revealed that the adoption of these charms for protection has improved yields among farmers in the community because the safety of harvest has been made possible by virtue of the presence of various charms in the farm lands. Therefore, based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that such measures should be recognized in mainstream social control mechanisms in the fight against crime in Nigeria and the rest of the world. Lastly, native charms could be installed in all social and cooperate organisation and position of authority to prevent theft of valuables and things hold with utmost importance.

Keywords: Farm theft, native charms, mechanism, Ayetoro, pilferer.

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Authors: Marcela Karmazínová, Michal Štrba, Milan Pilgr

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The paper deals with the problems of the actual behavior, failure mechanism and load-carrying capacity of the special bolt connection developed and intended for the assembly connections of truss main girders of perspective railway temporary steel bridges. Within the framework of this problem solution, several types of structural details of assembly joints have been considered as the conceptual structural design. Based on the preliminary evaluation of advantages or disadvantages of these ones, in principle two basic structural configurations – so-called “tooth” and “splice-plate” connections have been selected for the subsequent detailed investigation. This investigation is mainly based on the experimental verification of the actual behavior, strain and failure mechanism and corresponding strength of the connection, and on its numerical modeling using FEM. This paper is focused only on the cyclic loading (fatigue) tests results of “splice-plate” connections and their evaluation, which have already been finished. Simultaneously with the fatigue tests, the static loading tests have been realized too, but these ones, as well as FEM numerical modeling, are not the subject of this paper.

Keywords: Bolt assembly connection, Cyclic loading, Failure mechanisms, Fatigue strength, Steel structure, Structural detail category, Temporary railway bridge.

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Authors: Jeng-Wei Tsai

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The purpose of this study was to understand the main sources of copper (Cu) accumulation in target organs of tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) and to investigate how the organism mediate the process of Cu accumulation under prolonged conditions. By measuring both dietary and waterborne Cu accumulation and total concentrations in tilapia with biokinetic modeling approach, we were able to clarify the biokinetic coping mechanisms for the long term Cu accumulation. This study showed that water and food are both the major source of Cu for the muscle and liver of tilapia. This implied that control the Cu concentration in these two routes will be correlated to the Cu bioavailability for tilapia. We found that exposure duration and level of waterborne Cu drove the Cu accumulation in tilapia. The ability for Cu biouptake and depuration in organs of tilapia were actively mediated under prolonged exposure conditions. Generally, the uptake rate, depuration rate and net bioaccumulation ability in all selected organs decreased with the increasing level of waterborne Cu and extension of exposure duration.Muscle tissues accounted for over 50%of the total accumulated Cu and played a key role in buffering the Cu burden in the initial period of exposure, alternatively, the liver acted a more important role in the storage of Cu with the extension of exposures. We concluded that assumption of the constant biokinetic rates could lead to incorrect predictions with overestimating the long-term Cu accumulation in ecotoxicological risk assessments.

Keywords: Biokinetics, Chronic exposure, Copper, Coping mechanism, Tilapia

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Authors: Sansani Rungrattawatchai

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The White Kwao (Pueraria mirifica), a potent phytoestrogenic medicinal plant, has long been use in Thailand as a traditional folkmedicine. However, no scientific information of the direct effect of White Kwao on the development of mammalian embryo was available. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of White Kwao extract on the in vitro development and implantation rate of mouse embryos. This study was designed into two experiments. In the first experiment, the two-cell stage mouse embryos were collected from the oviduct of superovulated mature female mice, and randomly cultured in three different media, the M16, M16 supplemented with 0.52μg esthinylestradiol-17β, and M16 supplemented with 10 mg/ml White Kwao extract. The culture was incubated in CO2 incubator at 37 oC . After the embryos were cultivated, the developments of embryos were observed every 24 hours for 5 days. The development rate of embryos from the two-cell stage to blastocyst stage in the media was with White Kwao was significantly higher (p<0.05) than those of the control group (68.50% versus 43.50%) but did not differ from the positive control group (68.50% versus 57.66%). In the second experiment, hatched blastocysts, which obtained from three different media, were differently labeled the nuclei with two polynucleotide-specific fluorochromes, the propidium iodide (PI) and the bisbenzimide. The results showed that the number of trophectoderm cells in the blastocysts that cultivated in the media with White Kwao did not significantly differ from the control (80.00 versus 70 cells) and the positive control group (80.00 versus 112.50 cells). The average number of inner cell mass in the White Kwao treated group did not significantly differ from the control group (20.50 versus 16.00 cells) and the positive control group (20.50 versus 20.50 cells). The total cell number including the trophectoderm and the inner cell mass of the individual hatched blastocyst was evaluated. The cell number in the blastocysts obtained from the media with the White Kwao did not significantly differ from the control (94.25 + 9.50 versus 92.33 + 4.05) and the positive control group (94.25 + 9.50 versus 110.33 + 9.16). The results demonstrated that the White Kwao treatment group did have a stimulating effect on the in vitro development of mouse embryos. The exact mechanism that White Kwao stimulated mouse embryo development is not known. The suspect mechanism may in a manner similar to the mechanism that of estrogen stimulated the development of the mouse embryos. Futher studies are needed to transfer the blastocyst into the endometrium of pseudopreagnancy mice to evaluate the effect of White Kwao on implantation

Keywords: White Kwao (Pueraria mirifica), blastocyst.

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Authors: Kang Huang, Wanting Zhou, Shiwei Yuan, Lei Li

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Since information technology develops rapidly, the security issue has become an increasingly critical for computer system. In particular, as cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to gain widespread adoption, computer systems need to new security threats and attacks. The Root of Trust (RoT) is the foundation for providing basic trusted computing, which is used to verify the security and trustworthiness of other components. Designing a reliable RoT and guaranteeing its own security are essential for improving the overall security and credibility of computer systems. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of self-security technology based on the RISC-V RoT at the hardware level. To effectively safeguard the security of the RoT, researches on security safeguard technology on the RoT have been studied. At first, a lightweight and secure boot framework is proposed as a secure mechanism. Secondly, two kinds of memory protection mechanism are built to against memory attacks. Moreover, hardware implementation of proposed method has been also investigated. A series of experiments and tests have been carried on to verify to effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach is effective in verifying the integrity of the RoT’s own boot rom, user instructions, and data, ensuring authenticity and enabling the secure boot of the RoT’s own system. Additionally, our approach provides memory protection against certain types of memory attacks, such as cache leaks and tampering, and ensures the security of root-of-trust sensitive information, including keys.

Keywords: Root of Trust, secure boot, memory protection, hardware security.

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Authors: Ahmed Sakr Ashour, Hoda Saad AboRemila

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An attempt was made to fill the gap in the macro analysis of corruption by suggesting a conceptual framework that differentiates four types of macro corruption: state capture, political, bureaucratic and financial/corporate. The economic consequences or forward linkages (growth, inclusiveness and sustainability of development) and macro institutional determinants constituting the backward linkages of each type were delineated. The research implications of the macro perspective and proposed framework were discussed. Implications of the findings for theory, research and reform policies addressing macro corruption issues were discussed.

Keywords: Economic growth, Inclusive growth, macro corruption, sustainable development.

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Authors: Chuang-Chun Chiou

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Ageing population is a global trend; therefore the need of care service has been increasing dramatically. There are three basic forms of service delivered to the elderly: institution, community, and home. Particularly, the institutional service can be seen as an extension of medical service. The nursing home or so-called care home which is equipped with professional staff and facilities can provide a variety of service including rehabilitation service, short-term care, and long term care. Similar to hospital and other health care service, care home service do need to provide quality and cost-effective service to satisfy the dwellers. The main purpose of this paper is to show how lean thinking and service innovation can be applied to care home operation. The issues and key factors of implementing lean practice are discussed.

Keywords: Lean, Service improvement, SERVQUAL, Care home service.

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Authors: Chin-Yu Lee, Iau-Teh Wang

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The mountain road slope failures triggered by earthquake activities and torrential rain namely to create the disaster. Province Road No. 24 is a main route to the Wutai Township. The area of the study is located at the mileages between 46K and 47K along the road. However, the road has been suffered frequent damages as a result of landslide and slope failures during typhoon seasons. An understanding of the sliding behaviors in the area appears to be necessary. Slope failures triggered by earthquake activities and heavy rainfalls occur frequently. The study is to understand the mechanism of slope failures and to look for the way to deal with the situation. In order to achieve these objectives, this paper is based on theoretical and structural geology data interpretation program to assess the potential slope sliding behavior. The study showed an intimate relationship between the landslide behavior of the slopes and the stratum materials, based on structural geology analysis method to analysis slope stability and finds the slope safety coefficient to predict the sites of destroyed layer. According to the case study and parameter analyses results, the slope mainly slips direction compared to the site located in the southeast area. Find rainfall to result in the rise of groundwater level is main reason of the landslide mechanism. Future need to set up effective horizontal drain at corrective location, that can effective restrain mountain road slope failures and increase stability of slope.

Keywords: slope stability analysis, Stereographic Projection, wedge Failure.

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Authors: Wernhuar Tarng, Yuan-Yuan Chen, Chien-Lung Li, Kun-Rong Hsie, Mingteh Chen

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An emotional speech recognition system for the applications on smart phones was proposed in this study to combine with 3G mobile communications and social networks to provide users and their groups with more interaction and care. This study developed a mechanism using the support vector machines (SVM) to recognize the emotions of speech such as happiness, anger, sadness and normal. The mechanism uses a hierarchical classifier to adjust the weights of acoustic features and divides various parameters into the categories of energy and frequency for training. In this study, 28 commonly used acoustic features including pitch and volume were proposed for training. In addition, a time-frequency parameter obtained by continuous wavelet transforms was also used to identify the accent and intonation in a sentence during the recognition process. The Berlin Database of Emotional Speech was used by dividing the speech into male and female data sets for training. According to the experimental results, the accuracies of male and female test sets were increased by 4.6% and 5.2% respectively after using the time-frequency parameter for classifying happy and angry emotions. For the classification of all emotions, the average accuracy, including male and female data, was 63.5% for the test set and 90.9% for the whole data set.

Keywords: Smart phones, emotional speech recognition, socialnetworks, support vector machines, time-frequency parameter, Mel-scale frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC).

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Authors: Hamza A. Ali, Waleed A. J. Rasheed

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The use of neural networks for recognition application is generally constrained by their inherent parameters inflexibility after the training phase. This means no adaptation is accommodated for input variations that have any influence on the network parameters. Attempts were made in this work to design a neural network that includes an additional mechanism that adjusts the threshold values according to the input pattern variations. The new approach is based on splitting the whole network into two subnets; main traditional net and a supportive net. The first deals with the required output of trained patterns with predefined settings, while the second tolerates output generation dynamically with tuning capability for any newly applied input. This tuning comes in the form of an adjustment to the threshold values. Two levels of supportive net were studied; one implements an extended additional layer with adjustable neuronal threshold setting mechanism, while the second implements an auxiliary net with traditional architecture performs dynamic adjustment to the threshold value of the main net that is constructed in dual-layer architecture. Experiment results and analysis of the proposed designs have given quite satisfactory conducts. The supportive layer approach achieved over 90% recognition rate, while the multiple network technique shows more effective and acceptable level of recognition. However, this is achieved at the price of network complexity and computation time. Recognition generalization may be also improved by accommodating capabilities involving all the innate structures in conjugation with Intelligence abilities with the needs of further advanced learning phases.

Keywords: Classification, Recognition, Neural Networks, Pattern Recognition, Generalization.

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Authors: Olga Gimeno, Javier Rivas, Maria Carbajo, Teresa Borralho

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Potassium monopersulfate has been decomposed in aqueous solution in the presence of Co(II). The process has been simulated by means of a mechanism based on elementary reactions. Rate constants have been taken from literature reports or, alternatively, assimilated to analogous reactions occurring in Fenton's chemistry. Several operating conditions have been successfully applied.

Keywords: Monopersulfate, Oxone®, Sulfate radicals, Water treatment

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Authors: Esyin Chew, Haydn Blackey

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There are increasingly plagiarism offences for students in higher education in the digital educational world. On the other hand, various and competitive online assessment and plagiarism detection tools are available in the market. Taking the University of Glamorgan as a case study, this paper describes and introduces an institutional journey on electronic plagiarism detection to inform the initial experience of an innovative tool and method which could be further explored in the future research. The comparative study and system workflow for e-plagiarism detection tool are discussed. Benefits for both academics and students are also presented. Electronic plagiarism detection tools brought great benefits to both academics and students in Glamorgan. On the other hand, the debates raised in such initial experience are discussed.

Keywords: Educational Technology, Plagiarism detection, Turnitin

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Authors: Merna H. Ibrahim

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Designing buildings which are sustainable and can control and reduce the solar radiation penetrated from the building facades is such an architectural turn. One of the most important methods of saving energy in a building is carefully designing its facade. Building’s facade is one of the most significant contributors to the energy budget as well as the comfort parameters of a building. Responsive architecture adapts to the surrounding environment causing alteration in the envelope configuration to perform in a more effectively way. One of the objectives of the responsive facades is to protect the building’s users from the external environment and achieving comfortable indoor environment. Solar radiation is one of the aspects that affects the comfortable indoor environment, as well as affects the energy consumption consumed by the HVAC systems for maintaining the indoor comfortable conditions. The aim of the paper is introducing and comparing between four different proposed responsive façade designs in terms of solar radiation reduction on the west façade of a building located in the hot arid region. In addition, the paper highlights the reducing amount of the solar radiation for each proposed responsive facades on the west façade. At the end of the paper, a proposal is introduced which combines the four different axis of movements which reduces the solar radiation the most. Moreover, the paper highlights the definition and aim of the responsive architecture, as well as the focusing on the solar radiation aspect in the hot arid zones. Besides, the paper analyzes an international responsive façade building in Essen, Germany, focusing on the type of responsive facades, angle of rotation, mechanism of movement and the effect of the responsive facades on the building’s performance.

Keywords: kinetic facades, mechanism of movement, responsive architecture, solar radiation

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Authors: Md Omar Faruq Howlader, Tariq Pervez Sattar, Sandra Dudley

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This paper describes the design process of a 200 MHz Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and a battery powered concrete vertical concrete surface climbing mobile robot. The key design feature is a miniaturized 200 MHz dipole antenna using additional radiating arms and procedure records a reduction of 40% in length compared to a conventional antenna. The antenna set is mounted in front of the robot using a servo mechanism for folding and unfolding purposes. The robot’s adhesion mechanism to climb the reinforced concrete wall is based on neodymium permanent magnets arranged in a unique combination to concentrate and maximize the magnetic flux to provide sufficient adhesion force for GPR installation. The experiments demonstrated the robot’s capability of climbing reinforced concrete wall carrying the attached prototype GPR system and perform floor-to-wall transition and vice versa. The developed GPR’s performance is validated by its capability of detecting and localizing an aluminium sheet and a reinforcement bar (rebar) of 12 mm diameter buried under a test rig built of wood to mimic the concrete structure environment. The present robotic GPR system proves the concept of feasibility of undertaking inspection procedure on large concrete structures in hazardous environments that may not be accessible to human inspectors.

Keywords: Climbing robot, dipole antenna, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), mobile robots, robotic GPR.

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Authors: Vincent Fromentin

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This paper examines whether or not immigration has a positive influence on the duration of unemployment, in a macroeconomic perspective. We analyse also whether the degree of labor market integration can influence migration. The integration of immigrants into the labor market is a recurrence theme in the work on the economic consequences of immigration. However, to our knowledge, no researchers have studied the impact of immigration on unemployment duration, and vice versa. With two methodology of research (panel estimations (OLS and 2SLS) and panel cointegration techniques), we show that migration seems to influence positively the short-term unemployment and negatively long-term unemployment, for 14 OECD destination countries. In addition, immigration seems to be conditioned by the structural and institutional characteristics of the labour market.

Keywords: international migration, unemployment duration, OECD countries, panel data

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Authors: Ahmad Munawar

Abstract:

The provision of urban public transport in Indonesia is not free of problems. Some of the problems include: an overall lack of capacity, lack of quality and choice, severe traffic congestions and insufficient fund to renew and repair vehicles. Generally, the comfort and quality of the city bus is poor, and many of the vehicles are dilapidated and dirty. Surveys were carried out in the city of Yogyakarta, by counting city bus vehicles and occupancies, interviewing the bus passengers, drivers and institutional staffs, who involve in public transport management. This paper will then analyze the possible plan to develop the public transport system to become more attractive and to improve the public transport management. The short, medium and long term plans are analyzed, to find the best solutions. Some constraints such as social impacts and financial impact are also taken into accounts.

Keywords: City bus, management, public transport.

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Authors: M. Mohebbi, K. Shakeri

Abstract:

In the real application of active control systems to mitigate the response of structures subjected to sever external excitations such as earthquake and wind induced vibrations, since the capacity of actuators is limited then the actuators saturate. Hence, in designing controllers for linear and nonlinear structures under sever earthquakes, the actuator saturation should be considered as a constraint. In this paper optimal design of active controllers for nonlinear structures by considering the actuator saturation has been studied. To this end a method has been proposed based on defining an optimization problem which considers the minimizing of the maximum displacement of the structure as objective when a limited capacity for actuator has been used as a constraint in optimization problem. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a single degree of freedom (SDF) structure with a bilinear hysteretic behavior has been simulated under a white noise ground acceleration of different amplitudes. Active tendon control mechanism, comprised of pre-stressed tendons and an actuator, and extended nonlinear Newmark method based instantaneous optimal control algorithm have been used as active control mechanism and algorithm. To enhance the efficiency of the controllers, the weights corresponding to displacement, velocity, acceleration and control force in the performance index have been found by using the Distributed Genetic Algorithm (DGA). According to the results it has been concluded that the proposed method has been effective in considering the actuator saturation in designing optimal controllers for nonlinear frames. Also it has been shown that the actuator capacity and the average value of required control force are two important factors in designing nonlinear controllers for considering the actuator saturation.

Keywords: Active control, Actuator Saturation, Nonlinear, Optimization.

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Authors: M. P. Valles-González, A. González Meije, A. Pastor Muro, M. García-Martínez, B. González Caballero

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This paper studies a failure case of a fuel pressure supply tube from an aircraft engine. Multiple fracture cases of the fuel pressure control tube from aircraft engines have been reported. The studied set was composed by the mentioned tube, a welded connecting pipe, where the fracture has been produced, and a union nut. The fracture has been produced in one of the most critical zones of the tube, in a region next to the supporting body of the union nut to the connector. The tube material was X6CrNiTi18-10, an austenitic stainless steel. Chemical composition was determined using an X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) and combustion equipment. Furthermore, the material was characterized mechanically, by a hardness test, and microstructurally using a stereo microscope and an optical microscope. The results confirmed that the material was within specifications. To determine the macrofractographic features, a visual examination and an observation using a stereo microscope of the tube fracture surface were carried out. The results revealed a tube plastic macrodeformation, surface damaged and signs of a possible corrosion process. Fracture surface was also inspected by scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis system (EDX), to determine the microfractographic features in order to find out the failure mechanism involved in the fracture. Fatigue striations, which are typical from a progressive fracture by a fatigue mechanism, were observed. The origin of the fracture was placed in defects located on the outer wall of the tube, leading to a final overload fracture.

Keywords: Aircraft Engine, microstructure, fatigue, FE-SEM, fractography, fracture, fuel tube, stainless steel.

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Authors: Susmita Ghosh, Bhaskar Bhowmick

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Market is an important factor for start-ups to look into during decision-making in product development and related areas. Emerging country markets are more uncertain in terms of information availability and institutional supports. The literature review of market uncertainty reveals the need for identifying factors representing the market uncertainty. This paper identifies factors for market uncertainty using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and confirmed the number of factor retention using an alternative factor retention criterion ‘Parallel Analysis’. 500 entrepreneurs, engaged in start-ups from all over India participated in the study. This paper concludes with the factor structure of ‘market uncertainty’ having dimensions of uncertainty in industry orientation, uncertainty in customer orientation and uncertainty in marketing orientation.

Keywords: Uncertainty, market, orientation, competitor, demand.

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Authors: Correa Arias, César

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Today, Higher Education in a global scope is subordinated to the greater institutional controls through the policies of the Quality of Education. These include processes of over evaluation of all the academic activities: students- and professors- performance, educational logistics, managerial standards for the administration of institutions of higher education, as well as the establishment of the imaginaries of excellence and prestige as the foundations on which universities of the XXI century will focus their present and future goals and interests. But at the same time higher education systems worldwide are facing the most profound crisis of sense and meaning and attending enormous mutations in their identity. Based in a qualitative research approach, this paper shows the social configurations that the scholars at the Universities in Mexico build around the discourse of the Quality of Education, and how these policies put in risk the social recognition of these individuals.

Keywords: Higher education, quality of education, social recognition, social configurations.

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Authors: J. Luché-Thayer, C. Perronne, C. Meseko

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We reviewed how certain institutional policies and practices, as well as questionable research, are creating obstacles to care and informed consent for Lyme and relapsing fever Borreliosis patients. The interference is denying access to treatments that meet the internationally accepted standards as set by the Institute of Medicine. This obstruction to care contributes to significant human suffering, disability and negative economic effect across many nations and in many regions of the world. We note how evidence based medicine emphasizes the importance of clinical experience and patient-centered care and how these patients benefit significantly when their rights to choose among treatment options are upheld.  

Keywords: Conflicts of interest, obstacles to healthcare accessibility, patient-centered care, the right to informed consent.

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Authors: Saad Al-Gahtani, Ghassan H Al Shatter

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Argument over the use of particular method in interlanguage pragmatics has increased recently. Researchers argued the advantages and disadvantages of each method either natural or elicited. Findings of different studies indicated that the use of one method may not provide enough data to answer all its questions. The current study investigated the validity of using multimethod approach in interlanguage pragmatics to understand the development of requests in Arabic as a second language (Arabic L2). To this end, the study adopted two methods belong to two types of data sources: the institutional discourse (natural data), and the role play (elicited data). Participants were 117 learners of Arabic L2 at the university level, representing four levels (beginners, low-intermediate, highintermediate, and advanced). Results showed that using two or more methods in interlanguage pragmatics affect the size and nature of data.

Keywords: Arabic L2, Development of requests, Interlanguage Pragmatics, Multimethod approach.

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Authors: M.Jalali Azizpour, S.Norouzi, D.Sajedipour, H.Mohammadi majd, S.A.Hosseini, H.Talebi, A.Ghamari

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In this paper, the bond strength of thermal spray coatings in high speed shafts has been studied. The metallurgical and mechanical studies has been made on the coated samples and shaft using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Keywords: Thermal spray, Residual stress, Wear mechanism, HVOF, Gas compressor shafts

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Authors: Xianghan O’Dea

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This article argues an urgent need to better understand the personal experiences of Chinese top-up students studying in the UK since the number of Chinese students taking year-long top-up programmes in the UK has risen rapidly in recent years. This lack of knowledge could potentially have implications for the reputation of some UK institutions and also the attractiveness of the UK higher education sector to future international students. This longitudinal study explored the academic and social experiences of 12 Chinese top-up students in a UK institution in-depth and revealed that the students felt their experiences were influenced significantly by their surrounding contexts at the macro and meso levels, which, however, have been largely overlooked in existing research. This article suggests the importance of improving the communications between the partner institutions in China and the UK, and also providing sufficient pre-departure and after arrival support to Chinese top-up students at the institutional level.

Keywords: Articulation agreements, Chinese top-up students, top-up programmes, U curve.

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Authors: Chao Yi, Cunyue Lu, Lingwei Quan

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Piezoelectric linear motors have the characteristics of great electromagnetic compatibility, high positioning accuracy, compact structure and no deceleration mechanism, which make it promising to applicate in micro-miniature precision drive systems. However, most piezoelectric motors are employed by flexible clamping, which has insufficient rigidity and is difficult to use in rapid positioning. Another problem is that this clamping method seriously affects the vibration efficiency of the vibrating unit. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a piezoelectric stack linear motor based on double-end rigid clamping. First, a piezoelectric linear motor with a length of only 35.5 mm is designed. This motor is mainly composed of a motor stator, a driving foot, a ceramic friction strip, a linear guide, a pre-tightening mechanism and a base. This structure is much simpler and smaller than most similar motors, and it is easy to assemble as well as to realize precise control. In addition, the properties of piezoelectric stack are reviewed and in order to obtain the elliptic motion trajectory of the driving head, a driving scheme of the longitudinal-shear composite stack is innovatively proposed. Finally, impedance analysis and speed performance testing were performed on the piezoelectric linear motor prototype. The motor can measure speed up to 25.5 mm/s under the excitation of signal voltage of 120 V and frequency of 390 Hz. The result shows that the proposed piezoelectric stacked linear motor obtains great performance. It can run smoothly in a large speed range, which is suitable for various precision control in medical images, aerospace, precision machinery and many other fields.

Keywords: Elliptical trajectory, linear motor, piezoelectric stack, rigid clamping.

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Authors: Amir Saber Gharamaleki, Beitollah Alipour, Zeinab Faghfoori, Ahmad YariKhosroushahi

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent cancers and intestinal microbial community plays an important role in colorectal tumorigenesis. Probiotics have recently been assessed as effective anti-proliferative agents and thus this study was performed to examine whether CRC undergo apoptosis by treating with isolated Iranian native dairy yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus YAS, secretion metabolites. The cytotoxicity assessments on cells (HT-29, Caco-2) were accomplished through 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay as well as qualitative DAPI (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining) and quantitative (flow cytometry assessments) evaluations of apoptosis. To evaluate the main mechanism of apoptosis, Real time PCR method was applied. Kluyveromyces marxianus YAS secretions (IC50) showed significant cytotoxicity against HT-29 and Caco-2 cancer cell lines (66.57 % and 66.34 % apoptosis) similar to 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) while apoptosis only was developed in 27.57 % of KDR normal cells. The prophylactic effects of Kluyveromyces marxianus (PTCC 5195), as a reference yeast, was not similar to Kluyveromyces marxianus YAS indicating strain dependency of bioactivities on CRC disease prevention. Based on real time PCR results, the main cytotoxicity is related to apoptosis phenomenon and the core related mechanism is depended on the overexpression of BAX, CASP 9, CASP 8 and CASP 3 inducing apoptosis genes. However, several investigations should be conducted to precisely determine the effective compounds to be used as anticancer therapeutics in the future.

Keywords: Anticancer, anti-proliferative, apoptosis, cytotoxicity, yeast.

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Authors: Ching-Tsan Tsai, Sih-Rong Chen, Chi-Hung Hsieh

Abstract:

The technique of inducing micro ecosystem restoration is one of aquatic ecology engineering methods used to retrieve the polluted water. Batch scale study, pilot plant study, and field study were carried out to observe the eutrophication using the Inducing Ecology Restorative Symbiosis Agent (IERSA) consisting mainly degraded products by using lactobacillus, saccharomycete, and phycomycete. The results obtained from the experiments of the batch scale and pilot plant study allowed us to development the parameters for the field study. A pond, 5 m to the outlet of a lake, with an area of 500 m2 and depth of 0.6-1.2 m containing about 500 tons of water was selected as a model. After the treatment with 10 mg IERSA/L water twice a week for 70 days, the micro restoration mechanisms consisted of three stages (i.e., restoration, impact maintenance, and ecology recovery experiment after impact). The COD, TN, TKN, and chlorophyll a were reduced significantly in the first week. Although the unexpected heavy rain and contaminate from sewage system might slow the ecology restoration. However, the self-cleaning function continued and the chlorophyll a reduced for 50% in one month. In the 4th week, amoeba, paramecium, rotifer, and red wriggle worm reappeared, and the number of fish flies appeared up to1000 fish fries/m3. Those results proved that inducing restorative mechanism can be applied to improve the eutrophication and to control the growth of algae in the lakes by gaining the selfcleaning through inducing and competition of microbes. The situation for growth of fishes also can reach an excellent result due to the improvement of water quality.

Keywords: Ecosystem restoration, eutrophication, lake.

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Authors: Gunasekaran Raja, Ramkumar Jayaraman

Abstract:

In this paper, we consider CCL-N (Cooperative Cross Layer Network) topology based on the cross layer (both centralized and distributed) environment to form network communities. Various performance metrics related to the IEEE 802.16 networks are discussed to design CCL-N Topology. In CCL-N topology, nodes are classified as master nodes (Master Base Station [MBS]) and serving nodes (Relay Station [RS]). Nodes communities are organized based on the networking terminologies. Based on CCL-N Topology, various simulation analyses for both transparent and non-transparent relays are tabulated and throughput efficiency is calculated. Weighted load balancing problem plays a challenging role in IEEE 802.16 network. CoTS (Concurrent Transmission Scheduling) Scheme is formulated in terms of three aspects – transmission mechanism based on identical communities, different communities and identical node communities. CoTS scheme helps in identifying the weighted load balancing problem. Based on the analytical results, modularity value is inversely proportional to that of the error value. The modularity value plays a key role in solving the CoTS problem based on hop count. The transmission mechanism for identical node community has no impact since modularity value is same for all the network groups. In this paper three aspects of communities based on the modularity value which helps in solving the problem of weighted load balancing and CoTS are discussed.

Keywords: Cross layer network topology, concurrent scheduling, modularity value, network communities and weighted load balancing.

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Authors: Ryan Brading

Abstract:

The results of Taiwan’s presidential election, which took place on 11 January 2020, were alarming for the Kuomintang (KMT). A party that was once the pillar of Taiwan’s institutional apparatus is now losing its direction. Since 2016, the inability of KMT to construct a winning presidential election campaign strategy has made its Chinese ancestry an obstacle in Taiwan’s vibrant and transparent democracy. The appearance of the little-known legislator Han Kuo-yu as the leadership alternative opened the possibility of reigniting the party. Han’s victory in the Kaohsiung mayoral election in November 2018 provided hope that Han could also win the presidency. Wrongly described as a populist, Han, however, was defeated in the January 2020 presidential race. This article analyses why Han is not a populist, his triumph in Kaohsiung, humiliation in running for the presidency and suffering a complete ‘loss of face’ when Kaohsiungers democratically ousted him from the mayoral post on 6 June 2020.

Keywords: Populism, ‘1992 Consensus’, Taiwan, youth vote, Han’s recall.

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Authors: Rahmatollah Rahimi, Fariba Moharrami

Abstract:

The Kinetics formation of labile Complex Ag (I) tetra (p-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin, was investigated at 25oC and I=0.1M (NaNO3). By spectrophotometric titration, the composition ratio of the complex was established to be 2:1 (Ag : H2TCPP). The equilibrium constant, K, was found to be log 10-6.53. Binding of the first Ag (I) was found to be rate determining step with rate constant, k1= 4.67×102 . A plausible mechanism is discussed. We discus theoretically why Ag(I)2TCPP is unstable.

Keywords: Kinetics, Silver, TCPP, Sitting-atop, Theoretical study

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