Search results for: measured data.

Authors: Min Sun, Zhenyu Liu

Abstract:

In this paper, a new descent-projection method with a new search direction for monotone structured variational inequalities is proposed. The method is simple, which needs only projections and some function evaluations, so its computational load is very tiny. Under mild conditions on the problem-s data, the method is proved to converges globally. Some preliminary computational results are also reported to illustrate the efficiency of the method.

Keywords: variational inequalities, monotone function, global convergence.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1268

Authors: László L. Lippai

Abstract:

In addition to the fact that mental health bears great significance to a particular individual, it can also be regarded as an organizational, community and societal resource. Within the Szeged Health Promotion Research Group, we conducted mental health surveys on two levels: The inhabitants of a medium-sized Hungarian town and students of a Hungarian university with a relatively big headcount were requested to participate in surveys whose goals were to define local government priorities and organization-level health promotion programmes, respectively. To facilitate professional decision-making, we defined three, pragmatically relevant, groups of the target population: the mentally healthy, the vulnerable and the endangered. In order to determine which group a person actually belongs to, we designed a simple and quick measurement tool, which could even be utilised as a smoothing method, the Mental State Questionnaire validity of the above three categories was verified by analysis of variance against psychological quality of life variables. We demonstrate the pragmatic significance of our method via the analyses of the scores of our two mental health surveys. On town level, during our representative survey in Hódmezővásárhely (N=1839), we found that 38.7% of the participants was mentally healthy, 35.3% was vulnerable, while 16.3% was considered as endangered. We were able to identify groups that were in a dramatic state in terms of mental health. For example, such a group consisted of men aged 45 to 64 with only primary education qualification and the ratios of the mentally healthy, vulnerable and endangered were 4.5, 45.5 and 50%, respectively. It was also astonishing to see to what a little extent qualification prevailed as a protective factor in the case of women. Based on our data, the female group aged 18 to 44 with primary education—of whom 20.3% was mentally healthy, 42.4% vulnerable and 37.3% was endangered—as well as the female group aged 45 to 64 with university or college degree—of whom 25% was mentally healthy, 51.3 vulnerable and 23.8% endangered—are to be handled as priority intervention target groups in a similarly difficult position. On organizational level, our survey involving the students of the University of Szeged, N=1565, provided data to prepare a strategy of mental health promotion for a university with a headcount exceeding 20,000. When developing an organizational strategy, it was important to gather information to estimate the proportions of target groups in which mental health promotion methods; for example, life management skills development, detection, psychological consultancy, psychotherapy, would be applied. Our scores show that 46.8% of the student participants were mentally healthy, 42.1% were vulnerable and 11.1% were endangered. These data convey relevant information as to the allocation of organizational resources within a university with a considerable headcount. In conclusion, The Mental State Questionnaire, as a valid smoothing method, is adequate to describe a community in a plain and informative way in the terms of mental health. The application of the method can promote the preparation, design and implementation of mental health promotion interventions. 

Keywords: Health promotion, mental health promotion, mental state questionnaire, psychological well-being.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1207

Authors: Magda M. Mohsen, Manal E. Fareed

Abstract:

Background: Widespread use of chemotherapeutic drugs in the treatment of cancer has lead to higher health hazards among employee who handle and administer such drugs, so nurses should know how to protect themselves, their patients and their work environment against toxic effects of chemotherapy. Aim of this study was carried out to examine the effect of chemotherapy safety protocol for oncology nurses on their protective measure practices. Design: A quasi experimental research design was utilized. Setting: The study was carried out in oncology department of Menoufia university hospital and Tanta oncology treatment center. Sample: A convenience sample of forty five nurses in Tanta oncology treatment center and eighteen nurses in Menoufiya oncology department. Tools: 1. an interviewing questionnaire that covering sociodemographic data, assessment of unit and nurses' knowledge about chemotherapy. II: Obeservational check list to assess nurses' actual practices of handling and adminestration of chemotherapy. A base line data were assessed before implementing Chemotherapy Safety protocol, then Chemotherapy Safety protocol was implemented, and after 2 monthes they were assessed again. Results: reveled that 88.9% of study group I and 55.6% of study group II improved to good total knowledge scores after educating on the safety protocol, also 95.6% of study group I and 88.9% of study group II had good total practice score after educating on the safety protocol. Moreover less than half of group I (44.4%) reported that heavy workload is the most barriers for them, while the majority of group II (94.4%) had many barriers for adhering to the safety protocol such as they didn’t know the protocol, the heavy work load and inadequate equipment. Conclusions: Safety protocol for Oncology Nurses seemed to have positive effect on improving nurses' knowledge and practice. Recommendation: chemotherapy safety protocol should be instituted for all oncology nurses who are working in any oncology unit and/ or center to enhance compliance, and this protocol should be done at frequent intervals.

Keywords: Chemotherapy Safety protocol, Effect, protective measure practice.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7166

Authors: Semanur Soyyiğit Kaya, Ercan Eren

Abstract:

Energy has a prominent role for development of nations. Countries which have energy resources also have strategic power in the international trade of energy since it is essential for all stages of production in the economy. Thus, it is important for countries to analyze the weaknesses and strength of the system. On the other side, international trade is one of the fields that are analyzed as a complex network via network analysis. Complex network is one of the tools to analyze complex systems with heterogeneous agents and interaction between them. A complex network consists of nodes and the interactions between these nodes. Total properties which emerge as a result of these interactions are distinct from the sum of small parts (more or less) in complex systems. Thus, standard approaches to international trade are superficial to analyze these systems. Network analysis provides a new approach to analyze international trade as a network. In this network, countries constitute nodes and trade relations (export or import) constitute edges. It becomes possible to analyze international trade network in terms of high degree indicators which are specific to complex networks such as connectivity, clustering, assortativity/disassortativity, centrality, etc. In this analysis, international trade of crude oil and coal which are types of fossil fuel has been analyzed from 2005 to 2014 via network analysis. First, it has been analyzed in terms of some topological parameters such as density, transitivity, clustering etc. Afterwards, fitness to Pareto distribution has been analyzed via Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Finally, weighted HITS algorithm has been applied to the data as a centrality measure to determine the real prominence of countries in these trade networks. Weighted HITS algorithm is a strong tool to analyze the network by ranking countries with regards to prominence of their trade partners. We have calculated both an export centrality and an import centrality by applying w-HITS algorithm to the data. As a result, impacts of the trading countries have been presented in terms of high-degree indicators.

Keywords: Complex network approach, fossil fuel, international trade, network theory.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2367

Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

Abstract:

The impact of metabolic syndrome (MetS) on cognition and functions of the brain is being investigated. Iron deficiency and deficiencies of B9 (folate) as well as B12 (cobalamin) vitamins are best-known nutritional anemias. They are associated with cognitive disorders and learning difficulties. The antidepressant effects of vitamin D are known and the deficiency state affects mental functions negatively. The aim of this study is to investigate possible correlations of MetS with serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), iron, folate, cobalamin and vitamin D in pediatric patients. 30 children, whose age- and sex-dependent body mass index (BMI) percentiles vary between 85 and 15, 60 morbid obese children with above 99^th percentiles constituted the study population. Anthropometric measurements were taken. BMI values were calculated. Age- and sex-dependent BMI percentile values were obtained using the appropriate tables prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity classification was performed according to WHO criteria. Those with MetS were evaluated according to MetS criteria. Serum BDNF was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Serum folate was analyzed by an immunoassay analyzer. Serum cobalamin concentrations were measured using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Vitamin D status was determined by the measurement of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol [25-hydroxy vitamin D3, 25(OH)D] using high performance liquid chromatography. Statistical evaluations were performed using SPSS for Windows, version 16. The p values less than 0.05 were accepted as statistically significant. Although statistically insignificant, lower folate and cobalamin values were found in MO children compared to those observed for children with normal BMI. For iron and BDNF values, no alterations were detected among the groups. Significantly decreased vitamin D concentrations were noted in MO children with MetS in comparison with those in children with normal BMI (p ≤ 0.05). The positive correlation observed between iron and BDNF in normal-BMI group was not found in two MO groups. In THE MetS group, the partial correlation among iron, BDNF, folate, cobalamin, vitamin D controlling for waist circumference and BMI was r = -0.501; p ≤ 0.05. None was calculated in MO and normal BMI groups. In conclusion, vitamin D should also be considered during the assessment of pediatric MetS. Waist circumference and BMI should collectively be evaluated during the evaluation of MetS in children. Within this context, BDNF appears to be a key biochemical parameter during the examination of obesity degree in terms of mental functions, cognition and learning capacity. The association observed between iron and BDNF in children with normal BMI was not detected in MO groups possibly due to development of inflammation and other obesity-related pathologies. It was suggested that this finding may contribute to mental function impairments commonly observed among obese children.

Keywords: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, iron, Vitamin B9, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 714

Authors: Bradley Christensen, Kevin T. McCusker, Daniel J. Gauthier, Daniel Kumor, Venkat Chandar, P. G. Kwiat

Abstract:

We report on a high-speed quantum cryptography system that utilizes simultaneous entanglement in polarization and in “time-bins". With multiple degrees of freedom contributing to the secret key, we can achieve over ten bits of random entropy per detected coincidence. In addition, we collect from multiple spots o the downconversion cone to further amplify the data rate, allowing usto achieve over 10 Mbits of secure key per second.

Keywords: Downconversion, Hyper-entanglement, Quantum Cryptography

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1671

Authors: Bipul Krishna Saha, Basab Chakraborty, Ashish Alex Sam, Parthasarathi Ghosh

Abstract:

The demand for energy is cumulatively increasing with time.  Since the availability of conventional energy resources is dying out gradually, significant interest is being laid on searching for alternate energy resources and minimizing the wastage of energy in various fields.  In such perspective, low-grade waste heat from several industrial sources can be reused to generate electricity. The present work is to further the adoption of the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology in Indian industrial sector.  The present paper focuses on extending the previously reported idea to the next level through a comparative review with three different working fluids using practical data from an Indian industrial plant. For comprehensive study in the simulation platform of Aspen Hysys^®, v8.6, the waste heat data has been collected from a current coke oven gas plant in India.  A parametric analysis of non-regenerative ORC and regenerative ORC is executed using the working fluids R-123, R-11 and R-21 for subcritical ORC system.  The primary goal is to determine the optimal working fluid considering various system parameters like turbine work output, obtained system efficiency, irreversibility rate and second law efficiency under applied multiple heat source temperature (160 °C- 180 °C).  Selection of the turbo-expanders is one of the most crucial tasks for low-temperature applications in ORC system. The present work is an attempt to make suitable recommendation for the appropriate configuration of the turbine. In a nutshell, this study justifies the proficiency of integrating the ORC technology in Indian perspective and also finds the appropriate parameter of all components integrated in ORC system for building up an ORC prototype.

Keywords: Organic rankine cycle, regenerative organic rankine cycle, waste heat recovery, Indian industry.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1230

Authors: Yngvar Berg, Mehdi Azadmehr

Abstract:

In this paper we present a linear autozeroing ultra lowvoltage amplifier. The autozeroing performed by all ULV circuits is important to reduce the impact of noise and especially avoid power supply noise in mixed signal low-voltage CMOS circuits. The simulated data presented is relevant for a 90nm TSMC CMOS process.

Keywords: Low-voltage, trans conductance amplifier, linearity, floating-gate.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1365

Authors: Pejman Hosseinioun, Rose Shayeghi, Ghasem Ghorbani Rostam

Abstract:

Nowadays, obtaining traditional statistics and reports is not adequate for the needs of organizational managers. The managers need to analyze and to transform the raw data into knowledge in the world filled with information. Therefore in this regard various processes have been developed. In the meantime the artificial intelligence-based processes are used and the new topics such as business intelligence and knowledge discovery have emerged. In the current paper it is sought to study the business intelligence and its applications in the organizations.

Keywords: Business intelligence, business intelligence infrastructures, business processes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2008

Authors: Nadia H. Mohammed, Anmar Al-Taie, Fadia H. Al-Sultany

Abstract:

Although breast cancer prevalence continues to increase, mortality has been decreasing as a result of early detection and improvement in adjuvant systemic therapy. Nevertheless, this disease required further efforts to understand and identify the associated potential risk factors that could play a role in the prevalence of this malignancy among Iraqi women. The objective of this study was to assess the perception of certain predictive risk factors on the prevalence of breast cancer types among a sample of Iraqi women diagnosed with breast cancer. This was a retrospective observational study carried out at National Cancer Research Center in College of Medicine, Baghdad University from November 2017 to January 2018. Data of 100 patients with breast cancer whose biopsies examined in the National Cancer Research Center were included in this study. Data were collected to structure a detailed assessment regarding the patients’ demographic, medical and cancer records. The majority of study participants (94%) suffered from ductal breast cancer with mean age 49.57 years. Among those women, 48.9% were obese with body mass index (BMI) 35 kg/m². 68.1% of them had positive family history of breast cancer and 66% had low parity. 40.4% had stage II ductal breast cancer followed by 25.5% with stage III. It was found that 59.6% and 68.1% had positive oestrogen receptor sensitivity and positive human epidermal growth factor (HER2/neu) receptor sensitivity respectively. In regard to the impact of prediction of certain variables on the incidence of ductal breast cancer, positive family history of breast cancer (P < 0.0001), low parity (P< 0.0001), stage I and II breast cancer (P = 0.02) and positive HER2/neu status (P < 0.0001) were significant predictive factors among the study participants. The results from this study provide relevant evidence for a significant positive and potential association between certain risk factors and the prevalence of breast cancer among Iraqi women.

Keywords: Ductal breast cancer, hormone sensitivity, Iraq, risk factors.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1042

Authors: Zhaojun Wang, Zongdi Sun, Yongjie Chen, Manman Chen, Linghui Wang

Abstract:

This paper uses the analytic hierarchy process to study the execution effect of the minimum purchase price of grain in different regions and various grain crops. Firstly, for different regions, five indicators including grain yield, grain sown area, gross agricultural production, grain consumption price index, and disposable income of rural residents were selected to construct an evaluation index system. We collect data of six provinces including Hebei Province, Heilongjiang Province and Shandong Province from 2006 to 2017. Then, the judgment matrix is constructed, and the hierarchical single ordering and consistency test are carried out to determine the scoring standard for the minimum purchase price of grain. The ranking of the execution effect from high to low is: Heilongjiang Province, Shandong Province, Hebei Province, Guizhou Province, Shaanxi Province, and Guangdong Province. Secondly, taking Shandong Province as an example, we collect the relevant data of sown area and yield of cereals, beans, potatoes and other crops from 2006 to 2017. The weight of area and yield index is determined by expert scoring method. And the average sown area and yield of cereals, beans and potatoes in 2006-2017 were calculated, respectively. On this basis, according to the sum of products of weights and mean values, the execution effects of different grain crops are determined. It turns out that among the cereals, the minimum purchase price had the best execution effect on paddy, followed by wheat and finally maize. Moreover, among major categories of crops, cereals perform best, followed by beans and finally potatoes. Lastly, countermeasures are proposed for different regions, various categories of crops, and different crops of the same category.

Keywords: Analytic hierarchy process, grain yield, grain sown area, minimum grain purchase price.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 740

Authors: Ernst D. Schmitter

Abstract:

Monitoring lightning electromagnetic pulses (sferics) and other terrestrial as well as extraterrestrial transient radiation signals is of considerable interest for practical and theoretical purposes in astro- and geophysics as well as meteorology. Managing a continuous flow of data, automisation of the detection and classification process is important. Features based on a combination of wavelet and statistical methods proved efficient for analysis and characterisation of transients and as input into a radial basis function network that is trained to discriminate transients from pulse like to wave like.

Keywords: transient signals, statistics, wavelets, neural networks

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1422

Authors: Lobat Taghavi, Najaf Hedayat

Abstract:

Renewable water resources are crucial production variables in arid and semi-arid regions where intensive agriculture is practiced to meet ever-increasing demand for food and fiber. This is crucial for the Dez and Moghan command areas where water delivery problems and adverse environmental issues are widespread. This paper aims to identify major problems areas using on-farm surveys of 200 farmers, agricultural extensionists and water suppliers which was complemented by secondary data and field observations during 2010- 2011 cultivating season. The SPSS package was used to analyze and synthesis data. Results indicated inappropriate canal operations in both schemes, though there was no unanimity about the underlying causes. Inequitable and inflexible distribution was found to be rooted in deficient hydraulic structures particularly in the main and secondary canals. The inadequacy and inflexibility of water scheduling regime was the underlying causes of recurring pest and disease spread which often led to the decline of crop yield and quality, although these were not disputed, the water suppliers were not prepared to link with the deficiencies in the operation of the main and secondary canals. They rather attributed these to the prevailing salinity; alkalinity, water table fluctuations and leaching of the valuable agro-chemical inputs from the plants- route zone with farreaching consequences. Examples of these include the pollution of ground and surface resources due to over-irrigation at the farm level which falls under the growers- own responsibility. Poor irrigation efficiency and adverse environmental problems were attributed to deficient and outdated farming practices that were in turn rooted in poor extension programs and irrational water charges.

Keywords: water delivery, inequity, inflexibility, conflicts, environmental impact, Dez and Moghan

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1500

Authors: Erna T. Herdiani, Maman A. Djauhari

Abstract:

In recent years, the use of vector variance as a measure of multivariate variability has received much attention in wide range of statistics. This paper deals with a more economic measure of multivariate variability, defined as vector variance minus all duplication elements. For high dimensional data, this will increase the computational efficiency almost 50 % compared to the original vector variance. Its sampling distribution will be investigated to make its applications possible.

Keywords: Asymptotic distribution, covariance matrix, likelihood ratio test, vector variance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1542

Authors: C. Patrascioiu, V. Matei, N. Nicolae

Abstract:

The paper describes the experiments and the kinetic parameters calculus of the gasoil hydrofining. They are presented experimental results of gasoil hidrofining using Mo and promoted with Ni on aluminum support catalyst. The authors have adapted a kinetic model gasoil hydrofining. Using this proposed kinetic model and the experimental data they have calculated the parameters of the model. The numerical calculus is based on minimizing the difference between the experimental sulf concentration and kinetic model estimation.

Keywords: Hydrofining, kinetic, modeling, optimization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1994

Authors: Laureano Rodríguez, Gladys Casas, Ricardo Grau, Yailen Martínez

Abstract:

The classical temporal scan statistic is often used to identify disease clusters. In recent years, this method has become as a very popular technique and its field of application has been notably increased. Many bioinformatic problems have been solved with this technique. In this paper a new scan fuzzy method is proposed. The behaviors of classic and fuzzy scan techniques are studied with simulated data. ROC curves are calculated, being demonstrated the superiority of the fuzzy scan technique.

Keywords: Scan statistic, fuzzy scan, simulating study

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1360

Authors: Luciano Nieddu, Giuseppe Manfredi, Salvatore D'Acunto, Katia La Regina

Abstract:

In this paper a non-parametric statistical pattern recognition algorithm for the problem of credit scoring will be presented. The proposed algorithm is based on a clustering k- means algorithm and allows for the determination of subclasses of homogenous elements in the data. The algorithm will be tested on two benchmark datasets and its performance compared with other well known pattern recognition algorithm for credit scoring.

Keywords: Constrained clustering, Credit scoring, Statistical pattern recognition, Supervised classification.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2024

Authors: Zhe JIN, Motomichi TOYAMA

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a fixed formatting method of PPX(Pretty Printer for XML). PPX is a query language for XML database which has extensive formatting capability that produces HTML as the result of a query. The fixed formatting method is to completely specify the combination of variables and layout specification operators within the layout expression of the GENERATE clause of PPX. In the experiment, a quick comparison shows that PPX requires far less description compared to XSLT or XQuery programs doing the same tasks.

Keywords: PPX, XML, HTML, XSLT, XQuery, fixed formatting method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1340

Authors: A. Camões, M. Ferreira Dias, M. Amorim

Abstract:

In recent years, the social economy is increasingly seen as a viable means to address social problems. Social enterprises, as well as public projects and initiatives targeted to meet social purposes, offer organizational models that assume heterogeneity, flexibility and adaptability to the ‘real world and real problems’. Despite the growing popularity of social initiatives, decision makers still face a paucity in what concerns the available models and tools to adequately assess its sustainability, and its impacts, notably the nature of its contribution to economic growth. This study was carried out at the local level, by analyzing the social impact initiatives and projects promoted by the Municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha (Câmara Municipal de Albergaria-a-Velha -CMA), a municipality of 25,000 inhabitants in the central region of Portugal. This work focuses on the challenges related to the qualifications and employability of citizens, which stands out as one of the key concerns in the Portuguese economy, particularly expressive in the context of small-scale cities and inland territories. The study offers a characterization of the Municipality, its socio-economic structure and challenges, followed by an exploratory analysis of multiple sourced data, collected from the CMA's documental sources as well as from privileged informants. The purpose is to conduct detailed analysis of the CMA's social projects, aimed at characterizing its potential impact for the model of qualifications and employability of the citizens of the Municipality. The study encompasses a discussion of the socio-economic profile of the municipality, notably its asymmetries, the analysis of the social projects and initiatives, as well as of data derived from inquiry actors involved in the implementation of the social projects and its beneficiaries. Finally, the results obtained with the Better Life Index will be included. This study makes it possible to ascertain if what is implicit in the literature goes to the encounter of what one experiences in reality.

Keywords: Measurement, municipalities, social economy, social impact.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 698

Authors: Susannah G. Fleming Lionel Tarassenko

Abstract:

The photoplethysmogram (PPG) is the pulsatile waveform produced by the pulse oximeter, which is widely used for monitoring arterial oxygen saturation in patients. Various methods for extracting the breathing rate from the PPG waveform have been compared using a consistent data set, and a novel technique using autoregressive modelling is presented. This novel technique is shown to outperform the existing techniques, with a mean error in breathing rate of 0.04 breaths per minute.

Keywords: Autoregressive modelling, breathing rate, photoplethysmogram, pulse oximetry.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3283

Authors: Rawaa H. El-Bidweihy, Hisham M. Abdelsalam, Ihab A. El-Khodary

Abstract:

Bayesian networks are now considered to be a promising tool in the field of energy with different applications. In this study, the aim was to indicate the states of a previous constructed Bayesian network related to the solar energy in Egypt and the factors affecting its market share, depending on the followed data distribution type for each factor, and using either the Z-distribution approach or the Chebyshev’s inequality theorem. Later on, the separate and the conditional probabilities of the states of each factor in the Bayesian network were derived, either from the collected and scrapped historical data or from estimations and past studies. Results showed that we could use the constructed model for scenario and decision analysis concerning forecasting the total percentage of the market share of the solar energy in Egypt by 2035 and using it as a stable renewable source for generating any type of energy needed. Also, it proved that whenever the use of the solar energy increases, the total costs decreases. Furthermore, we have identified different scenarios, such as the best, worst, 50/50, and most likely one, in terms of the expected changes in the percentage of the solar energy market share. The best scenario showed an 85% probability that the market share of the solar energy in Egypt will exceed 10% of the total energy market, while the worst scenario showed only a 24% probability that the market share of the solar energy in Egypt will exceed 10% of the total energy market. Furthermore, we applied policy analysis to check the effect of changing the controllable (decision) variable’s states acting as different scenarios, to show how it would affect the target nodes in the model. Additionally, the best environmental and economical scenarios were developed to show how other factors are expected to be, in order to affect the model positively. Additional evidence and derived probabilities were added for the weather dynamic nodes whose states depend on time, during the process of converting the Bayesian network into a dynamic Bayesian network.

Keywords: Bayesian network, Chebyshev, decision variable, dynamic Bayesian network, Z-distribution

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 473

Authors: Sheng-Chi Tseng, Der-Ming Liou

Abstract:

The health record in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system is more sensitive than demographic. It raises the important issue for the EHR requirement in privacy, security, audit trail, patient access, and archiving and data retention. The studies about the EHR system security are deficient. The aim of this study is to build a security environment for the EHR system by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Audit Trail and Node Authentication Security (ATNA) profile. The CDAs can be access in a secure EHR environment.

Keywords: IHE ATNA, EHR security.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3009

Authors: R. Poonkuzhali, M. Y. Sanavullah, M. R. Gurupriya

Abstract:

Opportunistic routing is used, where the network has the features like dynamic topology changes and intermittent network connectivity. In Delay tolerant network or Disruption tolerant network opportunistic forwarding technique is widely used. The key idea of opportunistic routing is selecting forwarding nodes to forward data packets and coordination among these nodes to avoid duplicate transmissions. This paper gives the analysis of pros and cons of various opportunistic routing techniques used in MANET.

Keywords: Expected Transmission Count (ETX), Opportunistic routing, Proactive Source Routing (PSR), throughput.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2389

Authors: Shivayogi Charantimath

Abstract:

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are effective for treating malignancies but are associated with side effects like oral mucositis. Chlorhexidine gluconate is one of the most commonly used mouthwash in prevention of signs and symptoms of mucositis. Evidence shows that chlorhexidine gluconate has side effects in terms of colonization of bacteria, bad breadth and less healing properties. Thus, it is essential to find a suitable alternative therapy which is more effective with minimal side effects. Curcumin, an extract of turmeric is gradually being studied for its wide-ranging therapeutic properties such as antioxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antimicrobial, antiseptic, chemo sensitizing and radio sensitizing properties. The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of topical curcumin gel on radio-chemotherapy induced oral mucositis in cancer patients. The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of curcumin gel in the management of oral mucositis in cancer patients undergoing radio chemotherapy and compare with chlorhexidine. The study was conducted in K.L.E. Society’s Belgaum cancer hospital. 40 oral cancer patients undergoing the radiochemotheraphy with oral mucositis was selected and randomly divided into two groups of 20 each. The study group A [20 patients] was advised Cure next gel for 2 weeks. The control group B [20 patients] was advised chlorhexidine gel for 2 weeks. The NRS, Oral Mucositis Assessment scale and WHO mucositis scale were used to determine the grading. The results obtained were calculated by using SPSS 20 software. The comparison of grading was done by applying Mann-Whitney U test and intergroup comparison was calculated by Wilcoxon matched pairs test. The NRS scores observed from baseline to 1^st and 2^nd week follow up in both the group showed significant difference. The percentage of change in erythema in respect to group A was 63.3% for first week and for second week, changes were 100.0% with p = 0.0003. The changes in Group A in respect to erythema was 34.6% for 1^st week and 57.7% in second week. The intergroup comparison was significant with p value of 0.0048 and 0.0006 in relation to group A and group B respectively. The size of the ulcer score was measured which showed 35.5% [P=0.0010] of change in Group A for 1^st and 2^nd week showed totally reduction i.e. 103.4% [P=0.0001]. Group B showed 24.7% change from baseline to 1^st week and 53.6% for 2^nd week follow up. The intergroup comparison with Wilcoxon matched pair test was significant with p=0.0001 in group A. The result obtained by WHO mucositis score in respect to group A shows 29.6% [p=0.0004] change in first week and 75.0% [p=0.0180] change in second week which is highly significant in comparison to group B. Group B showed minimum changes i.e. 20.1% in 1^st week and 33.3% in 2^nd week. The p value with Wilcoxon was significant with 0.0025 in Group A for 1^st week follow up and 0.000 for 2^nd week follow up. Curcumin gel appears to an effective and safer alternative to chlorhexidine gel in treatment of oral mucositis.

Keywords: Curcumin, chemotherapy, mucositis, radiotherapy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2125

Authors: C. S. Quah, S. P. L. Sim

Abstract:

This study examined how individuals in their respective teams contributed to innovation performance besides defining the term of innovation in their own respective views. This study also identified factors that motivated University staff to contribute to the innovation products. In addition, it examined whether there is a significant relationship between professional training level and the length of service among university staff towards innovation and to what extent do the two variables contributed towards innovative products. The significance of this study is that it revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the university staff when contributing to innovation performance. Stratified-random sampling was employed to determine the samples representing the population of lecturers in the study, involving 123 lecturers in one of the local universities in Malaysia. The method employed to analyze the data is through categorizing into themes for the open-ended questions besides using descriptive and inferential statistics for the quantitative data. This study revealed that two types of definition for the term “innovation” exist among the university staff, namely, creation of new product or new approach to do things as well as value-added creative way to upgrade or improve existing process and service to be more efficient. This study found that the most prominent factor that propels them towards innovation is to improve the product in order to benefit users, followed by selfsatisfaction and recognition. This implies that the staff in the organization viewed the creation of innovative products as a process of growth to fulfill the needs of others and also to realize their personal potential. This study also found that there was only a significant relationship between the professional training level and the length of service of 4 - 6 years among the university staff. The rest of the groups based on the length of service showed that there was no significant relationship with the professional training level towards innovation. Moreover, results of the study on directional measures depicted that the relationship for the length of service of 4- 6 years with professional training level among the university staff is quite weak. This implies that good organization management lies on the shoulders of the key leaders who enlighten the path to be followed by the staff.

Keywords: Innovation, length of service, performance, professional training level, motivation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1551

Authors: Sidharth Talan, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Eoin Joseph Wallace, Nikita Agrawal

Abstract:

Underground mining is at the core of rapidly evolving metals and minerals sector due to the increasing mineral consumption globally. Even though the surface mines are still more abundant on earth, the scales of industry are slowly tipping towards underground mining due to rising depth and complexities of orebodies. Thus, the efficient and productive functioning of underground operations depends significantly on the synchronized performance of key elements such as operating site, mining equipment, manpower and mine services. Production drilling is the process of conducting long hole drilling for the purpose of charging and blasting these holes for the production of ore in underground metal mines. Thus, production drilling is the crucial segment in the underground metal mining value chain. This paper presents the process mapping tool to evaluate the production drilling process in the underground metal mining operation by dividing the given process into three segments namely Input, Process and Output. The three segments are further segregated into factors and sub-factors. As per the study, the major input factors crucial for the efficient functioning of production drilling process are power, drilling water, geotechnical support of the drilling site, skilled drilling operators, services installation crew, oils and drill accessories for drilling machine, survey markings at drill site, proper housekeeping, regular maintenance of drill machine, suitable transportation for reaching the drilling site and finally proper ventilation. The major outputs for the production drilling process are ore, waste as a result of dilution, timely reporting and investigation of unsafe practices, optimized process time and finally well fragmented blasted material within specifications set by the mining company. The paper also exhibits the drilling loss matrix, which is utilized to appraise the loss in planned production meters per day in a mine on account of availability loss in the machine due to breakdowns, underutilization of the machine and productivity loss in the machine measured in drilling meters per unit of percussion hour with respect to its planned productivity for the day. The given three losses would be essential to detect the bottlenecks in the process map of production drilling operation so as to instigate the action plan to suppress or prevent the causes leading to the operational performance deficiency. The given tool is beneficial to mine management to focus on the critical factors negatively impacting the production drilling operation and design necessary operational and maintenance strategies to mitigate them. 

Keywords: Process map, drilling loss matrix, availability, utilization, productivity, percussion rate.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1055

Authors: Tomas Makaras, Gintaras Svecevičius

Abstract:

Landfill waste is a common problem as it has an economic and environmental impact even if it is closed. Landfill waste contains a high density of various persistent compounds such as heavy metals, organic and inorganic materials. As persistent compounds are slowly-degradable or even non-degradable in the environment, they often produce sublethal or even lethal effects on aquatic organisms. The aims of the present study were to estimate sublethal effects of the Kairiai landfill (WGS: 55°55‘46.74“, 23°23‘28.4“) leachate on the locomotor activity of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss juveniles using the original system package developed in our laboratory for automated monitoring, recording and analysis of aquatic organisms’ activity, and to determine patterns of fish behavioral response to sublethal effects of leachate. Four different concentrations of leachate were chosen: 0.125; 0.25; 0.5 and 1.0 mL/L (0.0025; 0.005; 0.01 and 0.002 as part of 96-hour LC50, respectively). Locomotor activity was measured after 5, 10 and 30 minutes of exposure during 1-minute test-periods of each fish (7 fish per treatment). The threshold-effect-concentration amounted to 0.18 mL/L (0.0036 parts of 96-hour LC50). This concentration was found to be even 2.8-fold lower than the concentration generally assumed to be “safe” for fish. At higher concentrations, the landfill leachate solution elicited behavioral response of test fish to sublethal levels of pollutants. The ability of the rainbow trout to detect and avoid contaminants occurred after 5 minutes of exposure. The intensity of locomotor activity reached a peak within 10 minutes, evidently decreasing after 30 minutes. This could be explained by the physiological and biochemical adaptation of fish to altered environmental conditions. It has been established that the locomotor activity of juvenile trout depends on leachate concentration and exposure duration. Modeling of these parameters showed that the activity of juveniles increased at higher leachate concentrations, but slightly decreased with the increasing exposure duration. Experiment results confirm that the behavior of rainbow trout juveniles is a sensitive and rapid biomarker that can be used in combination with the system for fish behavior monitoring, registration and analysis to determine sublethal concentrations of pollutants in ambient water. Further research should be focused on software improvement aimed to include more parameters of aquatic organisms’ behavior and to investigate the most rapid and appropriate behavioral responses in different species. In practice, this study could be the basis for the development and creation of biological early-warning systems (BEWS).

Keywords: Fish behavior biomarker, landfill leachate, locomotor activity, rainbow trout juveniles, sublethal effects.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1818

Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

Abstract:

Obesity is known to be associated with many clinically important diseases including metabolic syndrome (MetS). Vitamin B₁₂ plays essential roles in fat and protein metabolisms and its cooperation with vitamin B₉ is well-known. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible contributions as well as associations of these micronutrients upon obesity and MetS during childhood. A total of 128 children admitted to Namik Kemal University, Medical Faculty, Department of Pediatrics Outpatient Clinics were included into the scope of this study. The mean age±SEM of 92 morbid obese (MO) children and 36 with MetS were 118.3±3.8 months and 129.5±6.4 months, respectively (p > 0.05). The study was approved by Namık Kemal University, Medical Faculty Ethics Committee. Written informed consent forms were obtained from the parents. Demographic features and anthropometric measurements were recorded. WHO BMI-for age percentiles were used. The values above 99 percentile were defined as MO. Components of MetS [waist circumference (WC), fasting blood glucose (FBG), triacylglycerol (TRG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-Chol), systolic pressure (SP), diastolic pressure (DP)] were determined. Routine laboratory tests were performed. Serum vitamin B₁₂ concentrations were measured using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Vitamin B₉ was analyzed by an immunoassay analyzer. Values for vitamin B₁₂ < 148 pmol/L, 148-221 pmol/L, > 221 pmol/L were accepted as low, borderline and normal, respectively. Vitamin B₉ levels ≤ 4 mcg/L defined deficiency state. Statistical evaluations were performed by SPSSx Version 16.0. p≤0.05 was accepted as statistical significance level. Statistically higher body mass index (BMI), WC, hip circumference (C) and neck C were calculated in MetS group compared to children with MO. No difference was noted for head C. All MetS components differed between the groups (SP, DP p < 0.001; WC, FBG, TRG p < 0.01; HDL-Chol p < 0.05). Significantly decreased vitamin B₉ and vitamin B₁₂ levels were detected (p < 0.05) in children with MetS. In both groups percentage of folate deficiency was 5.5%. No cases were below < 148 pmol/L. However, in MO group 14.3% and in MetS group 22.2% of the cases were of borderline status. In MO group B₁₂ levels were negatively correlated with BMI, WC, hip C and head C, but not with neck C. WC, hip C, head C and neck C were all negatively correlated with HDL-Chol. None of these correlations were observed in the group of children with MetS. Strong positive correlation between FBG and insulin as well as strong negative correlation between TRG and HDL-Chol detected in MO children were lost in MetS group. Deficiency state end-products of both B₉ and B₁₂ may interfere with the expected profiles of MetS components. In this study, the alterations in MetS components affected vitamin B₁₂ metabolism and also its associations with anthropometric body measurements. Further increases in vitamin B₁₂ and vitamin B₉ deficiency in MetS associated with the increased vitamin B₁₂ as well as vitamin B₉ deficiency metabolites may add to MetS parameters.

Keywords: Children, cobalamin, folate, metabolic syndrome, obesity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1113

Authors: Jamal Bakkas, Mohamed Bahaj, Abdellatif Soklabi

Abstract:

The intense use of the web has made it a very changing environment, its content is in permanent evolution to adapt to the demands. The standards have accompanied this evolution by passing from standards that regroup data with their presentations without any structuring such as HTML, to standards that separate both and give more importance to the structural aspect of the content such as XML standard and its derivatives. Currently, with the appearance of the Semantic Web, ontologies become increasingly present on the web and standards that allow their representations as OWL and RDF/RDFS begin to gain momentum. This paper provided an automatic method that converts XML schema document to ontologies represented in OWL.

Keywords: XML Schema, OWL, RDB, Mapping, Ontology.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2353

Authors: Prima Gusti Yanti, Fairul Zabadi

Abstract:

The purpose of the study is to find out relation of moral massage between the authority and globalization in proverb. Proverb is one of the many forms of cultural identity of the Indonesian/Malay people filled with moral values. The values contained within those proverbs are beneficial not only to the society, but also to those who held power amidst on this era of globalization. The method being used is qualitative research through content analysis which is done by describing and uncovering the forms and meanings of proverbs used within Indonesia Minangkabau society. Sources for this study’s data were extracted from a Minangkabau native speaker in the sub district of Tanah Abang, Jakarta. Said sources were retrieved through a series of interviews with the Minangkabau native speaker, whose speech is still adorned with idiomatic expressions. The research findings show that there are 30 existed proverbs or idiomatic expressions in the Minangkabau language often used by its indigenous people. The thirty data contain moral values which are closely interwoven with the matter of power and globalization. Analytical results show that the fourteen moral values contained within proverbs reflect a firm connection between rule and power in globalization; such as: responsible, brave, togetherness and consensus, tolerance, politeness, thorough and meticulous, honest and keeping promise, ingenious and learning, care, self-correction, be fair, alert, arbitrary, self-awareness. Structurally, proverbs possess an unchangeably formal construction; symbolically, proverbs possess meanings that are clearly decided through ethnographic communicative factors along with situational and cultural contexts. Values contained within proverbs may be used as a guide in social management, be it between fellow men, between men and nature, or even between men and their Creator. Therefore, the meanings and values contained within the morals of proverbs could also be utilized as a counsel for those who rule and in charge of power in order to stem the tides of globalization that had already spread into sectoral, territorial and educational continuums.

Keywords: Continuum, globalization, identity, proverb, rule-power.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1889