Search results for: return level.

Authors: Farahnaz Amini, Woo Yun Kin, Lazwani Kolandaiveloo

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Availability of different genetic tests after completion of Human Genome Project increases the physicians’ responsibility to keep themselves update on the potential implementation of these genetic tests in their daily practice. However, due to numbers of barriers, still many of physicians are not either aware of these tests or are not willing to offer or refer their patients for genetic tests. This study was conducted an anonymous, cross-sectional, mailed-based survey to develop a primary data of Malaysian physicians’ level of knowledge and perception of gene profiling. Questionnaire had 29 questions. Total scores on selected questions were used to assess the level of knowledge. The highest possible score was 11. Descriptive statistics, one way ANOVA and chi-squared test was used for statistical analysis. Sixty three completed questionnaires were returned by 27 general practitioners (GPs) and 36 medical specialists. Responders’ age ranges from 24 to 55 years old (mean 30.2 ± 6.4). About 40% of the participants rated themselves as having poor level of knowledge in genetics in general whilst 60% believed that they have fair level of knowledge; however, almost half (46%) of the respondents felt that they were not knowledgeable about available genetic tests. A majority (94%) of the responders were not aware of any lab or company which is offering gene profiling services in Malaysia. Only 4% of participants were aware of using gene profiling for detection of dosage of some drugs. Respondents perceived greater utility of gene profiling for breast cancer (38%) compared to the colorectal familial cancer (3%). The score of knowledge ranged from 2 to 8 (mean 4.38 ± 1.67). Non- significant differences between score of knowledge of GPs and specialists were observed, with score of 4.19 and 4.58 respectively. There was no significant association between any demographic factors and level of knowledge. However, those who graduated between years 2001 to 2005 had higher level of knowledge. Overall, 83% of participants showed relatively high level of perception on value of gene profiling to detect patient’s risk of disease. However, low perception was observed for both statements of using gene profiling for general population in order to alter their lifestyle (25%) as well as having the full sequence of a patient genome for the purpose of determining a patient’s best match for treatment (18%). The lack of clinical guidelines, limited provider knowledge and awareness, lack of time and resources to educate patients, lack of evidence-based clinical information and cost of tests were the most barriers of ordering gene profiling mentioned by physicians. In conclusion Malaysian physicians who participate in this study had mediocre level of knowledge and awareness in gene profiling. The low exposure to the genetic questions and problems might be a key predictor of lack of awareness and knowledge on available genetic tests. Educational and training workshop might be useful in helping Malaysian physicians incorporate genetic profiling into practice for eligible patients.

Keywords: Gene Profiling, Knowledge, Malaysia, Physician.

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Authors: Mafel Obhuo, Dodeye I. Igbong, Duabari S. Aziaka, Pericles Pilidis

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An important feature of the exploitation of associated gas as fuel for gas turbine engines is a declining supply. So when exploiting this resource, the divestment of prime movers is very important as the fuel supply diminishes with time. This paper explores the influence of engine degradation on the timing of divestments. Hypothetical but realistic gas turbine engines were modelled with Turbomatch, the Cranfield University gas turbine performance simulation tool. The results were deployed in three degradation scenarios within the TERA (Techno-economic and environmental risk analysis) framework to develop economic models. An optimisation with Genetic Algorithms was carried out to maximize the economic benefit. The results show that degradation will have a significant impact. It will delay the divestment of power plants, while they are running less efficiently. Over a 20 year investment, a decrease of $0.11bn, $0.26bn and $0.45bn (billion US dollars) were observed for the three degradation scenarios as against the clean case.

Keywords: Economic return, flared associated gas, net present value, optimisation.

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Authors: Amol Bapuso Rajmane, Pradeep M. Patil, Prakash J. Kulkarni

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The Information Retrieval community is facing the problem of effective representation of Web search results. When we organize web search results into clusters it becomes easy to the users to quickly browse through search results. The traditional search engines organize search results into clusters for ambiguous queries, representing each cluster for each meaning of the query. The clusters are obtained according to the topical similarity of the retrieved search results, but it is possible for results to be totally dissimilar and still correspond to the same meaning of the query. People search is also one of the most common tasks on the Web nowadays, but when a particular person’s name is queried the search engines return web pages which are related to different persons who have the same queried name. By placing the burden on the user of disambiguating and collecting pages relevant to a particular person, in this paper, we have developed an approach that clusters web pages based on the association of the web pages to the different people and clusters that are based on generic entity search.

Keywords: Entity resolution, information retrieval, graph based disambiguation, web people search, clustering.

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Authors: Edison Muzenda

Abstract:

A study was carried out to determine the effect of water quality on flotation performance. The experimental test work comprised of batch flotation tests using Denver lab cell for a period of 10 minutes. Nine different test runs were carried out in triplicates to ensure reproducibility using different water types from different thickener overflows, return and sewage effluent water (process water) and portable water. The water sources differed in pH, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids and conductivity. Process water was found to reduce the concentrate recovery and mass pull, while portable water increased the concentrate recovery and mass pull. Portable water reduced the concentrate grade while process water increased the concentrate grade. It is proposed that a combination of process water and portable water supply be used in flotation circuits to balance the different effects that the different water types have on the flotation efficiency.

Keywords: Flotation, mass pull, process water, thickeneroverflows, water quality.

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Authors: Mehran Yazdi, Kazem Gheysari

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In this paper, we propose an approach for the classification of fingerprint databases. It is based on the fact that a fingerprint image is composed of regular texture regions that can be successfully represented by co-occurrence matrices. So, we first extract the features based on certain characteristics of the cooccurrence matrix and then we use these features to train a neural network for classifying fingerprints into four common classes. The obtained results compared with the existing approaches demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed approach.

Keywords: Biometrics, fingerprint classification, gray level cooccurrence matrix, regular texture representation.

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Authors: Yongxian Jin, Jingzhou Huang

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In an open real-time system environment, the coexistence of different kinds of real-time and non real-time applications makes the system scheduling mechanism face new requirements and challenges. One two-level scheduling scheme of the open real-time systems is introduced, and points out that hard and soft real-time applications are scheduled non-distinctively as the same type real-time applications, the Quality of Service (QoS) cannot be guaranteed. It has two flaws: The first, it can not differentiate scheduling priorities of hard and soft real-time applications, that is to say, it neglects characteristic differences between hard real-time applications and soft ones, so it does not suit a more complex real-time environment. The second, the worst case execution time of soft real-time applications cannot be predicted exactly, so it is not worth while to cost much spending in order to assure all soft real-time applications not to miss their deadlines, and doing that may cause resource wasting. In order to solve this problem, a novel two-level real-time scheduling mechanism (including scheduling profile and scheduling algorithm) which adds the process of dealing with soft real-time applications is proposed. Finally, we verify real-time scheduling mechanism from two aspects of theory and experiment. The results indicate that our scheduling mechanism can achieve the following objectives. (1) It can reflect the difference of priority when scheduling hard and soft real-time applications. (2) It can ensure schedulability of hard real-time applications, that is, their rate of missing deadline is 0. (3) The overall rate of missing deadline of soft real-time applications can be less than 1. (4) The deadline of a non-real-time application is not set, whereas the scheduling algorithm that server 0 S uses can avoid the “starvation" of jobs and increase QOS. By doing that, our scheduling mechanism is more compatible with different types of applications and it will be applied more widely.

Keywords: Hard real-time, two-level scheduling profile, open real-time system, non-distinctive schedule, soft real-time

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Authors: Gabriela-Andreea Despescu, Mădălina-Elena Mavrodin, Gheorghe Lăzăroiu, Florin Adrian Grădinaru

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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the enhancement of a hydroelectric plant protection by coordinating protection measures / existing security and introducing new measures under a risk management process. In addition, plan identifies key critical elements of a hydroelectric plant, from its level vulnerabilities and threats it is subjected to in order to achieve the necessary protection measures to reduce the level of risk.

Keywords: Critical infrastructure, risk analysis, critical infrastructure protection, vulnerability, risk management, turbine, Impact analysis.

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Authors: Zohreh Bang Tavakoli, Shuktika Chatterjee

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This study is investigating the impact of ideological structures in terms of conservative and liberal on shaping immigration acceptance attitudes under the contribution of socio-economic status. According to motivated reasoning theory, political ideology is identified as a recurrent impact on the formation of attitude, while conservatives tend to express more hostility toward immigrants in comparison to liberals which are proposed to be more tolerant towards immigrants. Our finding suggests that political ideology will structure individual attitudes when citizens socio-economic vulnerability and level of education are low enough to consider immigrants as a threat. Therefore, economic vulnerability is proposed to weaken the ideological predispositions’ resistance. There has been some threats and factors such as level of education and economic condition proposed by group competition theory and labor market competition theory as fundamental factors which can strengthen or weaken the effects of political ideology on individuals’ attitudes towards immigration; those mechanisms for liberals and conservatives will be operated differently.

Keywords: Conservative, immigration, liberal, political ideology.

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Authors: Mahathir Sarjan, Ramos Radzly, Noor Baiti Jamaluddin, Mohd Hafiz Zakaria, Hisham Suhadi

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Creativity is marked by the ability or power, to produce through imaginative skill and create something anew. The University is one of the great places to improve the talent in imaginative skill. The purpose of this study was to identify a creativity of the student in presentation product development. Two hundred seventeen Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) students in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn had chosen as a respondent. This study is to survey the level of creativity which is focused on knowledge, skills, presentation style, and character of creative personnel. The level of creativity was measured based on the scale at low, medium and high followed by mean score level. The data collected by questionnaire, then analyzed using SPSS version 20.0.The result of the study indicated that the students showed a higher of creativity (mean score in Knowledge = 4.12 and Skills= 4.02). In conjunction with the findings, implications and recommendations were suggested forward like to ensconce the research and improve with a more creativity concept in presentation product of development for learning and teaching process.

Keywords: Creativity, technical, vocational education, presentation products and development for learning and teaching process.

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Authors: Bohsiu Wu

Abstract:

Among serious crimes, child homicide is a rather rare event. However, the killing of children stirs up a special type of emotion in society that pales other criminal acts. This study examines the relevancy of three possible community-level explanations for child homicide: social deprivation, female empowerment, and social isolation. The social deprivation hypothesis posits that child homicide results from lack of resources in communities. The female empowerment hypothesis argues that a higher female status translates into a higher level of capability to prevent child homicide. Finally, the social isolation hypothesis regards child homicide as a result of lack of social connectivity. Child homicide data, aggregated by US postal ZIP codes in California from 1990 to 1999, were analyzed with a negative binomial regression. The results of the negative binomial analysis demonstrate that social deprivation is the most salient and consistent predictor among all other factors in explaining child homicide victimization at the ZIP-code level. Both social isolation and female labor force participation are weak predictors of child homicide victimization across communities. Further, results from the negative binomial regression show that it is the communities with a higher, not lower, degree of female labor force participation that are associated with a higher count of child homicide. It is possible that poor communities with a higher level of female employment have a lesser capacity to provide the necessary care and protection for the children. Policies aiming at reducing social deprivation and strengthening female empowerment possess the potential to reduce child homicide in the community.

Keywords: Child homicide, deprivation, empowerment, isolation.

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Authors: Shamima Akhter, Siegfried Bauer

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to analyze the migration  process of the rural population of Bangladesh. Heckman Probit model  with sample selection was applied in this paper to explore the  determinants of migration and intensity of migration at farm  household level. The farm survey was conducted in the central part of  Bangladesh on 160 farm households with migrant and on 154 farm  households without migrant including a total of 316 farm households.  The results from the applied model revealed that main determinants  of migration at farm household level are household age, economically  active males and females, number of young and old dependent  members in the household and agricultural land holding. On the other  hand the main determinants of intensity of migration are availability  of economically adult male in the household, number of young  dependents and agricultural land holding.

 

Keywords: Determinants, Heckman Probit Model, Migration, Rural- Urban.

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Authors: Danupun Visuwan, Pongchanun Luangpaiboon

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This paper presents the determination of the proper quality costs parameters which provide the optimum return. The system dynamics simulation was applied. The simulation model was constructed by the real data from a case of the electronic devices manufacturer in Thailand. The Steepest Descent algorithm was employed to optimise. The experimental results show that the company should spend on prevention and appraisal activities for 850 and 10 Baht/day respectively. It provides minimum cumulative total quality cost, which is 258,000 Baht in twelve months. The effect of the step size in the stage of improving the variables to the optimum was also investigated. It can be stated that the smaller step size provided a better result with more experimental runs. However, the different yield in this case is not significant in practice. Therefore, the greater step size is recommended because the region of optima could be reached more easily and rapidly.

Keywords: Quality costs, Steepest Descent Algorithm, StepSize, System Dynamics Simulation

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Authors: K. Oh, J. P. Hwang, E. Kim, H. Lee

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This paper presents an algorithm which extends the rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) framework to deal with change of the task environments. This algorithm called the Retrieval RRT Strategy (RRS) combines a support vector machine (SVM) and RRT and plans the robot motion in the presence of the change of the surrounding environment. This algorithm consists of two levels. At the first level, the SVM is built and selects a proper path from the bank of RRTs for a given environment. At the second level, a real path is planned by the RRT planners for the given environment. The suggested method is applied to the control of KUKA™,, a commercial 6 DOF robot manipulator, and its feasibility and efficiency are demonstrated via the cosimulatation of MatLab™, and RecurDyn™,.

Keywords: Path planning, RRT, 6 DOF manipulator, SVM.

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Authors: A. Md. Harunur Rashid B. Md. Keramat Ali Molla C. Tarif Uddin Ahmed

Abstract:

This paper represents the results of long term strength of mortar incorporating Rice Husk Ash (RHA). For these work mortar samples were made according to ASTM standard C 109/C. OPC cement was partially replaced by RHA at 0, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 percent replacement level. After casting all samples were kept in controlled environment and curing was done up to 90 days. Test of mortar was performed on 3, 7, 28, 90, 365 and 700 days. It is noticed that OPC mortar shows better strength at early age than mortar having RHA but at 90 days and onward the picture is different. At 700 days it is observed that mortar containing 20% RHA shows better result than any other samples.

Keywords: OPC, RHA, replacement level, long term, strength.

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Authors: J. Liu, Z. P. Yu, L. Xiong, Y. Feng, J. He

Abstract:

According to the independence, accuracy and controllability of the driving/braking torque of the distributed drive electric vehicle, a control strategy of differential drive assisted steering was designed. Firstly, the assisted curve under different speed and steering wheel torque was developed and the differential torques were distributed to the right and left front wheels. Then the steering return ability assisted control algorithm was designed. At last, the joint simulation was conducted by CarSim/Simulink. The result indicated: the differential drive assisted steering algorithm could provide enough steering drive-assisted under low speed and improve the steering portability. Along with the increase of the speed, the provided steering drive-assisted decreased. With the control algorithm, the steering stiffness of the steering system increased along with the increase of the speed, which ensures the driver’s road feeling. The control algorithm of differential drive assisted steering could avoid the understeer under low speed effectively.

Keywords: Differential assisted steering, control strategy, distributed drive electric vehicle.

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Authors: Nasser Shamskia, Seyyed Habib Rahmati, Hassan Haleh , Seyyedeh Hoda Rahmati

Abstract:

The main criteria of designing in the most hydraulic constructions essentially are based on runoff or discharge of water. Two of those important criteria are runoff and return period. Mostly, these measures are calculated or estimated by stochastic data. Another feature in hydrological data is their impreciseness. Therefore, in order to deal with uncertainty and impreciseness, based on Buckley-s estimation method, a new fuzzy method of evaluating hydrological measures are developed. The method introduces triangular shape fuzzy numbers for different measures in which both of the uncertainty and impreciseness concepts are considered. Besides, since another important consideration in most of the hydrological studies is comparison of a measure during different months or years, a new fuzzy method which is consistent with special form of proposed fuzzy numbers, is also developed. Finally, to illustrate the methods more explicitly, the two algorithms are tested on one simple example and a real case study.

Keywords: Fuzzy Discharge, Fuzzy estimation, Fuzzy ranking method, Hydrological data

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Authors: Jessada Monthasuwan, Charinsak Saetiaw, Chanchai Thongsopa

Abstract:

This paper presents the development and design of the curved rectangular patch arrays antenna for small missile application. This design uses a 0.1mm flexible copper sheet on the front layer and back layer, and a 1.8mm PVC substrate on a middle layer. The study used a small missile model with 122mm diameter size with speed 1.1 Mach and frequency range on ISM 2.4 GHz. The design of curved antenna can be installation on a cylindrical object like a missile. So, our proposed antenna design will have a small size, lightweight, low cost and simple structure. The antenna was design and analysis by a simulation result from CST microwave studio and confirmed with a measurement result from a prototype antenna. The proposed antenna has a bandwidth covering the frequency range 2.35-2.48 GHz, the return loss below -10 dB and antenna gain 6.5 dB. The proposed antenna can be applied with a small guided missile effectively.

Keywords: Rectangular path arrays, small missile antenna.

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Authors: Mohammad Hosein Hojati, Fardin Boustani

Abstract:

Groundwater is one of the most important water resources in Fars province. Based on this study, 95 percent of the total annual water consumption in Fars is used for agriculture, whereas the percentages for domestic and industrial uses are 4 and 1 percent, respectively. Population growth, urban and industrial growth, and agricultural development in Fars have created a condition of water stress. In this province, farmers and other users are pumping groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate, causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables and depletion of this resource. In this research variation of groundwater level, their effects and ways to help control groundwater levels in aquifer of the Kavar- Maharloo plains in Fars plain were evaluated .Excessive exploitation of groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater levels fall too fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown of the groundwater level in this plain were 17 meters during 1995 to 2006. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water level changes in the Kavar-Maharloo Aquifer in the Fars province in order to determine the areas of greatest depletion, the cause of depletion, and predict the remaining life of the aquifer.

Keywords: Aquifer , ground water depletion, water table

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Authors: Pirada Techaratpong

Abstract:

This research aims to study value-creation process of producing monk-s bowls, Thai traditional handicrafts, which is facing problems in adapting to the changing society. It also aims to identify problems and obstacles to value creation. This research is based on a case study of monk-s bowl manufactures from Ban-Baat Village, Bangkok. The conceptual framework is based on the model of value chain to analyze the process. The research methodology is qualitative. This research found that the value-creation process of monk-s bowls consists of eight activities contributing to adding value to the products and increasing profits to the producers in return. Five major problems and obstacles are found. The research suggests that these problems and obstacles limit the manufacturers- potential for creating more valued product and lead to business stagnation. These problems should be addressed and solved with collaboration among the government, the private sector and the manufacturers.

Keywords: Craft manufacturing, problems and obstacles, value chain, value creation.

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Authors: S. Pesina, T. Solonchak

Abstract:

An analysis of word semantics focusing on the invariance of advanced imagery in several pressing problems. Interest in the language of imagery is caused by the introduction, in the linguistics sphere, of a new paradigm, the center of which is the personality of the speaker (the subject of the language). Particularly noteworthy is the question of the place of the image when discussing the lexical, phraseological values ​​and the relationship of imagery and metaphors. In part, the formation of a metaphor, as an interaction between two intellective entities, occurs at a cognitive level, and it is the category of the image, having cognitive roots, which aides in the correct interpretation of the results of this process on the lexical-semantic level.

Keywords: Image, metaphor, concept, creation of a metaphor, cognitive linguistics, erased image, vivid image.

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Authors: Anurag Jain, Rajneesh Kumar

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Cloud computing is the outcome of rapid growth of internet. Due to elastic nature of cloud computing and unpredictable behavior of user, load balancing is the major issue in cloud computing paradigm. An efficient load balancing technique can improve the performance in terms of efficient resource utilization and higher customer satisfaction. Load balancing can be implemented through task scheduling, resource allocation and task migration. Various parameters to analyze the performance of load balancing approach are response time, cost, data processing time and throughput. This paper demonstrates a two level load balancer approach by combining join idle queue and join shortest queue approach. Authors have used cloud analyst simulator to test proposed two level load balancer approach. The results are analyzed and compared with the existing algorithms and as observed, proposed work is one step ahead of existing techniques.

Keywords: Cloud Analyst, Cloud Computing, Join Idle Queue, Join Shortest Queue, Load balancing, Task Scheduling.

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Authors: Alejandro Gomez Suarez, H. Srikanth Kamath

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In this paper, SFQ (Start Time Fair Queuing) algorithm is analyzed when this is applied in computer networks to know what kind of behavior the traffic in the net has when different data sources are managed by the scheduler. Using the NS2 software the computer networks were simulated to be able to get the graphs showing the performance of the scheduler. Different traffic sources were introduced in the scripts, trying to establish the real scenario. Finally the results were that depending on the data source, the traffic can be affected in different levels, when Constant Bite Rate is applied, the scheduler ensures a constant level of data sent and received, but the truth is that in the real life it is impossible to ensure a level that resists the changes in work load.

Keywords: Cbq, Cbr, Nam, Ns2.

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Authors: M. J. Pourvaghar, M. E. Bahram, M. Sayyah, Sh. Khoshemehry

Abstract:

Adiponectin is a cytokine secreted by the adipose tissue that functions as an anti-inflammatory, antiathrogenic and anti-diabetic substance. Its density is inversely correlated with body mass index. The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of 12 weeks of high intensity interval training (HIIT) with the level of serum adiponectin and some selected adiposity markers in overweight and fat college students. This was a clinical research in which 24 students with BMI between 25 kg/m² to 30 kg/m². The sample was purposefully selected and then randomly assigned into two groups of experimental (age =22.7±1.5 yr.; weight = 85.8±3.18 kg and height =178.7±3.29 cm) and control (age =23.1±1.1 yr.; weight = 79.1±2.4 kg and height =181.3±4.6 cm), respectively. The experimental group participated in an aerobic exercise program for 12 weeks, three sessions per weeks at a high intensity between 85% to 95% of maximum heart rate (considering the over load principle). Prior and after the termination of exercise protocol, the level of serum adiponectin, BMI, waist to hip ratio, and body fat percentages were calculated. The data were analyzed by using SPSS: PC 16.0 and statistical procedure such as ANCOVA, was used. The results indicated that 12 weeks of intensive interval training led to the increase of serum adiponectin level and decrease of body weight, body fat percent, body mass index and waist to hip ratio (P < 0.05). Based on the results of this research, it may be concluded that participation in intensive interval training for 12 weeks is a non-invasive treatment to increase the adiponectin level while decreasing some of the anthropometric indices associated with obesity or being overweight.

Keywords: Adiponectin, interval, intensive, overweight, training.

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Authors: Abdurraouf Gaja, Salah Al-Dahash, Guru Solmon Raju, Chikara Kubota

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Corpus luteum cross sectional (by ultrasonography) and plasma progesterone (by DELFIA) were estimated in early pregnant and non pregnant cows on days 14^th and 20^th to 23r^d post insemination. On day 14^th, corpus luteum sectional area was 348.43 mm² in pregnant and 387.84mm² in non pregnant cows. Within days 20^th to 23^rd, corpus luteum sectional area ranged between 342.06 and 367.90 mm² in pregnant and between 193.85 and 270.69 mm² in non pregnant cows. Plasma progesterone level was 2.43 ng/ml in pregnant and 2.46 ng/ml in non pregnant cows on day 14^th, while during days 20^th to 23^rd the level ranged between 2.47 and 2.84 ng/ml in pregnant and between 0.53 and 1.17 ng/ml in non pregnant cows. Results of both luteal tissue areas as well as plasma progesterone levels were highly significantly deferent (P<0.01) between pregnant and non pregnant cows during days 20^th to 23^rd, but there were no significant differences on day 14^th. The correlation between CL cross sectional area and plasma progesterone level was 0.4 in pregnant cows and 0.99 in non pregnant cow. It is clear, from this study, that ultrasonic assessment of corpora lutea is a viable alternative to determine plasma progesterone levels for early pregnancy diagnosis in cows.

Keywords: Progesterone, ultrasonography, corpus luteum, pregnancy diagnosis, cow.

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Authors: Aiyeloja A.A, Ogunjinmi A.A

Abstract:

The recurring decimal of rural and urban poverty in Nigeria, resulting from lack of sustainable livelihood activities by the people due to non-diversification of the economy, necessitated this study. One hundred snail farmers were randomly selected in Akure North and Akure South Local Government areas of Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria where snail farming is widely practised. Data collection was through questionnaires administration and onsite observation of farms. Data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics, Student-s t-test and regression analysis. Cost benefit ratio (CBR) and rate of return on investment (RORI) were calculated in order to determine the poverty alleviation potentials of snail farming in the study areas. Although snail farming was profitable and viable, it was below poverty line. With time and more knowledge in its farming activities, and with more people taking to snail production, its poverty alleviation and reduction potentials will increase.

Keywords: Alleviation, farming, Nigeria, potential, poverty, snail.

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Authors: Pisit Potjanajaruwit

Abstract:

The objectives of the study were to determine the marketing mix factors that influencing tourist’s destination decision making for cultural tourism in the Chonburi province. Both quantitative and qualitative data were applied in this study. The samples of 400 cases for quantitative analysis were tourists (both Thai and foreign) who were interested in cultural tourism in the Chonburi province, and traveled to cultural sites in Chonburi and 14 representatives from provincial tourism committee of Chonburi and local tourism experts. Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis. The study found that Thai and foreign tourists are influenced by different important marketing mix factors. The important factors for Thai respondents were physical evidence, price, people, and place at high importance level. For foreign respondents, physical evidence, price, people, and process were high importance level, whereas, product, place and promotion were moderate importance level.

Keywords: Chonburi Province, Decision Making for cultural tourism, Marketing Mixed.

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Authors: Marthese Azzopardi, Liberato Camilleri

Abstract:

This research was performed to investigate the study habits and level of difficulty perceived by post-secondary students in Biology at Advanced-level topics after completing their first year of study. At the end of a two-year ‘sixth form’ course, Maltese students sit for the Matriculation and Secondary Education Certificate (MATSEC) Advanced-level biology exam as a requirement to pursue science-related studies at the University of Malta. The sample was composed of 23 students (16 taking Chemistry and seven taking some ‘Other’ subject at the Advanced Level). The cohort comprised seven males and 16 females. A questionnaire constructed by the authors, was answered anonymously during the last lecture at the end of the first year of study, in May 2016. The Chi square test revealed that gender plays no effect on the various study habits (c² (6) = 5.873, p = 0.438). ‘Reading both notes and textbooks’ was the most common method adopted by males (71.4%), whereas ‘Writing notes on each topic’ was that mostly used by females (81.3%). The Mann-Whitney U test showed no significant difference in the study habits of students and the mean assessment mark obtained at the end of the first year course (p = 0.231). Statistical difference was found with the One-ANOVA test when comparing the mean assessment mark obtained at the end of the first year course when students are clustered by their Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) grade (p < 0.001). Those obtaining a SEC grade of 2 and 3 got the highest mean assessment of 68.33% and 66.9%, respectively [SEC grading is 1-7, where 1 is the highest]. The Friedman test was used to compare the mean difficulty rating scores provided for the difficulty of each topic. The mean difficulty rating score ranges from 1 to 4, where the larger the mean rating score, the higher the difficulty. When considering the whole group of students, nine topics out of 21 were perceived as significantly more difficult than the other topics. Protein synthesis, DNA Replication and Biomolecules were the most difficult, in that order. The Mann-Whitney U test revealed that the perceived level of difficulty in comprehending Biomolecules is significantly lower for students taking Chemistry compared to those not choosing the subject (p = 0.018). Protein Synthesis was claimed as the most difficult by Chemistry students and Biomolecules by those not studying Chemistry. DNA Replication was the second most difficult topic perceived by both groups. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to examine the effect of gender on the perceived level of difficulty in comprehending various topics. It was found that females have significantly more difficulty in comprehending Biomolecules than males (p=0.039). Protein synthesis was perceived as the most difficult topic by males (mean difficulty rating score = 3.14), while Biomolecules, DNA Replication and Protein synthesis were of equal difficulty for females (mean difficulty rating score = 3.00). Males and females perceived DNA Replication as equally difficult (mean difficulty rating score = 3.00). Discovering the students’ study habits and perceived level of difficulty of specific topics is vital for the lecturer to offer guidance that leads to higher academic achievement.

Keywords: Biology, Perceived difficulty, Post-secondary, Study habits.

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Authors: Е. V. Kutsina, S. A. Tarasova

Abstract:

In this article we present a methodology which enables preschool and primary school unlanguaged children to remember words, phrases and texts with the help of graphic signs - letters, syllables and words. Reading for a child becomes a support for speech development. Teaching is based on the principle "from simple to complex", "a letter - a syllable - a word - a proposal - a text." Availability of multi-level texts allows using this methodology for working with children who have different levels of speech development.

Keywords: Alalia, analytic-synthetic method, development of coherent speech, formation of vocabulary, learning to read, , sentence formation, three-level stories, unlanguaged children.

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Authors: Khampheth Bounnady, Boontee Kruatrachue, Somkiat Wangsiripitak

Abstract:

This paper proposed high level feature for online Lao handwritten recognition. This feature must be high level enough so that the feature is not change when characters are written by different persons at different speed and different proportion (shorter or longer stroke, head, tail, loop, curve). In this high level feature, a character is divided in to sequence of curve segments where a segment start where curve reverse rotation (counter clockwise and clockwise). In each segment, following features are gathered cumulative change in direction of curve (- for clockwise), cumulative curve length, cumulative length of left to right, right to left, top to bottom and bottom to top ( cumulative change in X and Y axis of segment). This feature is simple yet robust for high accuracy recognition. The feature can be gather from parsing the original time sampling sequence X, Y point of the pen location without re-sampling. We also experiment on other segmentation point such as the maximum curvature point which was widely used by other researcher. Experiments results show that the recognition rates are at 94.62% in comparing to using maximum curvature point 75.07%. This is due to a lot of variations of turning points in handwritten.

Keywords: Handwritten feature, chain code, Lao handwritten recognition.

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Authors: Leslie J.C.Bluck, Sarah J.Jackson, Georgios Vlasakakis, Adrian Mander

Abstract:

The use of a Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) to interpret breath measurements obtained during a 13C Octanoic Breath Test (13COBT) is demonstrated. The statistical analysis was implemented using WinBUGS, a commercially available computer package for Bayesian inference. A hierarchical setting was adopted where poorly defined parameters associated with a delayed Gastric Emptying (GE) were able to "borrow" strength from global distributions. This is proved to be a sufficient tool to correct model's failures and data inconsistencies apparent in conventional analyses employing a Non-linear least squares technique (NLS). Direct comparison of two parameters describing gastric emptying ng ( tlag -lag phase, t1/ 2 -half emptying time) revealed a strong correlation between the two methods. Despite our large dataset ( n = 164 ), Bayesian modeling was fast and provided a successful fitting for all subjects. On the contrary, NLS failed to return acceptable estimates in cases where GE was delayed.

Keywords: Bayesian hierarchical analysis, 13COBT, Gastricemptying, WinBUGS.

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