Search results for: Event Related Potential

Authors: Joseph E. Hummer

Abstract:

An efficient freeway system will be essential to the development of Africa, and interchanges are a key to that efficiency. Around the world, many interchanges between freeways and surface streets, called service interchanges, are of the diamond configuration, and interchanges using roundabouts or loop ramps are also popular. However, many diamond interchanges have serious operational problems, interchanges with roundabouts fail at high demand levels, and loops use lots of expensive land. Newer service interchange designs provide other options. The most popular new interchange design in the US at the moment is the double crossover diamond (DCD), also known as the diverging diamond. The DCD has enormous potential, but also has several significant limitations. The objectives of this paper are to review new service interchange options and to highlight some of the main features of those alternatives. The paper tests four conventional and seven unconventional designs using seven measures related to efficiency, cost, and safety. The results show that there is no superior design in all measures investigated. The DCD is better than most designs tested on most measures examined. However, the DCD was only superior to all other designs for bridge width. The DCD performed relatively poorly for capacity and for serving pedestrians. Based on the results, African freeway designers are encouraged to investigate the full range of alternatives that could work at the spot of interest. Diamonds and DCDs have their niches, but some of the other designs investigated could be optimum at some spots.

Keywords: Alternative, design, diverging diamond, freeway, interchange.

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Authors: Ammar Ali Saleh Jaber, Amer Hayat Khan, Syed Azhar Syed Sulaiman

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Tuberculosis (TB) is considered as a major disease that affects daily activities and impairs health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The impact of TB on HRQoL can affect treatment outcome and may lead to treatment defaulting. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the HRQoL of TB treatment lost to follow-up during and after treatment in Yemen. For this aim, this prospective study enrolled a total of 399 TB lost to follow-up patients between January 2011 and December 2015. By applying HRQoL criteria, only 136 fill the survey during treatment. Moreover, 96 were traced and fill out the HRQoL survey. All eight HRQol domains were categorized into the physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS), which were calculated using QM scoring software. Results show that all lost to follow-up TB patients reported a score less than 47 for all eight domains, except general health (67.3) during their treatment period. Low scores of 27.9 and 29.8 were reported for emotional role limitation (RE) and mental health (MH), respectively. Moreover, the mental component score (MCS) was found to be only 28.9. The trace lost follow-up shows a significant improvement in all eight domains and a mental component score of 43.1. The low scores of 27.9 and 29.8 for role emotion and mental health, respectively, in addition to the MCS score of 28.9, show that severe emotional condition and reflect the higher depression during treatment period that can result to lost to follow-up. The low MH, RE, and MCS can be used as a clue for predicting future TB treatment lost to follow-up.

Keywords: Yemen, tuberculosis, health-related quality of life, khat.

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Authors: Chan Weng Howe, Mohd Saberi Mohamad

Abstract:

Protein residue contact map is a compact representation of secondary structure of protein. Due to the information hold in the contact map, attentions from researchers in related field were drawn and plenty of works have been done throughout the past decade. Artificial intelligence approaches have been widely adapted in related works such as neural networks, genetic programming, and Hidden Markov model as well as support vector machine. However, the performance of the prediction was not generalized which probably depends on the data used to train and generate the prediction model. This situation shown the importance of the features or information used in affecting the prediction performance. In this research, support vector machine was used to predict protein residue contact map on different combination of features in order to show and analyze the effectiveness of the features.

Keywords: contact map, protein residue contact, support vector machine, protein structure prediction

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Authors: N. Burtebayev, Sh. Hamada, Zh. Kerimkulov, D. K. Alimov, A. V. Yushkov, N. Amangeldi, A. N. Bakhtibaev

Abstract:

The main aim of the current work is to examine if 14N  is candidate to be clusterized nuclei or not. In order to check this  attendance, we have measured the angular distributions for 14N ion  beam elastically scattered on 12C target nuclei at different low  energies; 17.5, 21, and 24.5MeV which are close to the Coulomb  barrier energy for 14N+12C nuclear system. Study of various transfer  reactions could provide us with useful information about the  attendance of nuclei to be in a composite form (core + valence). The  experimental data were analyzed using two approaches;  Phenomenological (Optical Potential) and semi-microscopic (Double  Folding Potential). The agreement between the experimental data and  the theoretical predictions is fairly good in the whole angular range.

 

Keywords: Deuteron Transfer, Elastic Scattering, Optical Model, Double Folding, Density Distribution.

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Authors: Mohamad Mahdavi

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Most of the real queuing systems include special properties and constraints, which can not be analyzed directly by using the results of solved classical queuing models. Lack of Markov chains features, unexponential patterns and service constraints, are the mentioned conditions. This paper represents an applied general algorithm for analysis and optimizing the queuing systems. The algorithm stages are described through a real case study. It is consisted of an almost completed non-Markov system with limited number of customers and capacities as well as lots of common exception of real queuing networks. Simulation is used for optimizing this system. So introduced stages over the following article include primary modeling, determining queuing system kinds, index defining, statistical analysis and goodness of fit test, validation of model and optimizing methods of system with simulation.

Keywords: Estimation, queuing system, simulation model, probability distribution, non-Markov chain.

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Authors: Nabli L., Dhouibi H., Collart Dutilleul S., Craye E.

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The existence of maximal durations drastically modifies the performance evaluation in Discrete Event Systems (DES). The same particularity may be found on systems where the associated constraints do not concern the time. For example weight measures, in chemical industry, are used in order to control the quantity of consumed raw materials. This parameter also takes a fundamental part in the product quality as the correct transformation process is based upon a given percentage of each essence. Weight regulation therefore increases the global productivity of the system by decreasing the quantity of rejected products. In this paper we present an approach based on mixing different characteristics theories, the fuzzy system and Petri net system to describe the behaviour. An industriel application on a tobacco manufacturing plant, where the critical parameter is the weight is presented as an illustration.

Keywords: Petri Net, Manufacturing systems, Performance evaluation, Fuzzy logic, Tolerant system.

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Authors: Rana Soltani-Zarrin, Sohrab Khanmohammadi

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In this paper, a new method for multi criteria decision making is represented whichspecifies a trajectory satisfying desired criteria including minimization of time. A rescue robot is defined to perform certain tasks before the arrival of rescue team, including evaluation of the probability of explosion in the area, detecting human-beings, and providing preliminary aidsin case of identifying signs of life, so that the security of the surroundings will have enhanced significantly for the individuals inside the disaster zone as well as the rescue team. The main idea behind our technique is using the Program Evaluation and Review Technique analysis along with Critical Path Method and use the Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method to decidewhich set of activities must be performed first. Since the disastrous event in one area may be well contagious to others, it is one of the robot's priorities to evaluate the relative adversity of the situation, using the above methods and prioritize its mission.

Keywords: PERT, CPM, MCDM.

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Authors: Saeid Ghorbanzadeh-Mashkani, Parisa Tajer-Mohammad-Ghazvini, Ahmad Nozad-Golikand, Rouha Kasra-Kermanshahi, Mohammad-Reza Davarpanah

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Today, biogenic magnetite nanoparticles among magnetic nanoparticles have unique attracted attention because of their magnetic characteristics and potential applications in various fields such as therapeutic and diagnostic. A well known example of these biogenic nanoparticles is magnetosomes of magnetotactic bacteria. In this research, we used two different types of technique for the isolation and purification of magnetosome nanoparticles from the isolated magnetotactic bacterial cells, heat-alkaline treatment and sonication. Also we evaluated pyrogen content and sterility of synthesized the isolated individual magnetosome by the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate test and direct impedimetric method respectively.

Keywords: Biogenic magnetic nanoparticles, Magnetosome, Magnetotactic bacteria, Nanobiotechnology

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Authors: Thanawit Buafai, Siyathorn Khunon

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This paper aims to explore the satisfaction levels of tourism product components on the island of Samui by studying the cultural dimension relationships of Hofsted’s classic theory. Both the six Hofsted cultural dimensions and tourism production satisfaction measures have been of interest worldwide. Therefore, the challenge of this study is to re-confirm previous research results in the ever-changing current contexts of the modern globalized business era. Self-rated questionnaires were employed to collect data from six nationalities of tourists in Samui, totaling 386 samples. The reliability of this research methodology was 0.967. Correlation was applied to analyze the relationships. The results indicate that Masculinity is significantly related to tourism destination satisfaction for every factor, while the other five cultural dimensions are related to some factors of tourism satisfaction. Surprisingly, tourist satisfaction toward the bar/restaurant factor is significantly correlated with all six cultural dimensions.

Keywords: Cultural dimensions, tourism products, Samui, Thailand.

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Authors: Sadia Rahman, Shatirah Akib, M. T. R. Khan, R. Triatmadja

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Tsunami disaster poses a great threat to coastal infrastructures. Bridges without adequate provisions for earthquake and tsunami loading is generally vulnerable to tsunami attack. During the last two disastrous tsunami event (i.e. Indian Ocean and Japan Tsunami) a number of bridges were observed subsequent damages by tsunami waves. In this study, laboratory experiments were conducted to study the effects of perforations in bridge girder in force reduction. Results showed that significant amount of forces were reduced using perforations in girder. Approximately 10% to 18% force reductions were achieved by using about 16% perforations in bridge girder. Subsequent amount of force reductions revealed that perforations in girder are effective in reducing tsunami forces as perforations in girder let water to be passed through. Thus, less bridge damages are expected with the presence of perforations in girder during tsunami period.

Keywords: Bridge, force, girder, perforation, tsunami, wave.

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Authors: Esad Kadušić, Petar Bojović, Amela Žgalj

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Mobile banking services present a unique growth opportunity for mobile operators in emerging markets, and have already made good progress in bringing financial services to the previously unbanked populations of many developing countries. The potential is amazing, but what about the risks? In the complex process of establishing a mobile banking business model, many kinds of risks and factors need to be monitored and well-managed. Risk identification is the first stage of risk management. Correct risk identification ensures risk management effectiveness. Keeping the risks low makes it possible to use the full potential of mobile banking and carry out the planned business strategy. The focus should be on adoption of consumers which is the main risk factor of mobile banking services.

Keywords: Consumer Adoption, Mobile Banking, Risk

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Authors: Reinaldo Biscaro, Luciano R. Ferreira, Leonardo C. Biscaro, Raphael C. Biscaro, Isabela S. Vasconcelos, Laura C. R. Ferreira, Cristiano M. Galhardi, Erica P. Baciuk

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Introduction: The present study had the objective to present the profile of workers with shoulder disorders related to labor lawsuits in Brazil. The study analyzed the association between the worker’s health and the actions performed by the companies related to injured professional. The research method performed a retrospective, cross-sectional and quantitative database analysis. The documents of labor lawsuits with shoulder injury registered at the Regional Labor Court in the 15^th region (Campinas - São Paulo) were submitted to the medical examination and evaluated during the period from 2012 until 2015. The data collected were age, gender, onset of symptoms, length of service, current occupation, type of shoulder injury, referred complaints, type of acromion, associated or related diseases, company actions as CAT (workplace accident communication), compliance of NR7 by the organization (Environmental Risk Prevention Program - PPRA and Medical Coordination Program in Occupational Health - PCMSO). Results: From the 93 workers evaluated, there was a prevalence of men (58.1%), with a mean age of 42.6 y-o, and 54.8% were included in the age group 35-49 years. Regarding the length of work time in the company, 66.7% have worked for more than 5 years. There was an association between gender and current occupational status (p < 0.005), with predominance of women in household occupation (13 vs. 2) and predominance of unemployed men in job search situation (24 vs. 10) and reintegrated to work by judicial decision (8 vs. 2). There was also a correlation between pain and functional limitation (p < 0.01). There was a positive association of PPRA with the complaint of functional limitation and negative association with pain (p < 0.04). There was also a correlation between the sedentary lifestyle and the presence of PCMSO and PPRA (p < 0.04), and the absence of CAT in the companies (p < 0.001). It was concluded that the appearance or aggravation of osseous and articular shoulder pathologies in workers who have undertaken labor law suits seem to be associated with individual habits or inadequate labor practices. These data can help preventing the occurrence of these lesions by implementing local health promotion policies at work.

Keywords: Work-related accidents, cross-sectional study, shoulder lesions, labor lawsuits.

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Authors: Kanyapat U. Tapao

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the operation strategy strategies and public relations trend for public relations strategies development in public television station in Thailand. This study is a qualitative approach by indent interview from the 6 key informants that are managers of Voice TV and Thairath TV Channel. The results showed that both TV stations have to do research before making a release on the operation strategy policy such as a slogan, segmentation, integrated marketing communication and PR activity and also in term of Public Relations trend are including online media, online content and online training before opening the station and start promoting. By the way, we found the PR strategy for both TV station should be including application on mobile, online content, CRM activity, online banner, special event, and brand ambassador in order to bring a very reliable way.

Keywords: Operation strategy, public relations trend, public relations strategies development, online banner.

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Authors: Hromada Martin

Abstract:

Risk analysis is considered as a fundamental aspect relevant for ensuring the level of critical infrastructure protection, where the critical infrastructure is seen as system, asset or its part which is important for maintaining the vital societal functions. Article actually discusses and analyzes the potential application of selected tools of information support for the implementation and within the framework of risk analysis and critical infrastructure protection. Use of the information in relation to their risk analysis can be viewed as a form of simplifying the analytical process. It is clear that these instruments (information support) for these purposes are countless, so they were selected representatives who have already been applied in the selected area of critical infrastructure, or they can be used. All presented fact were the basis for critical infrastructure resilience evaluation methodology development.

Keywords: Critical infrastructure, Protection, Resilience, Risk Analysis.

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Authors: Thaweesak Yingthawornsuk, Chusak Thanawattano

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Acoustical properties of speech have been shown to be related to mental states of speaker with symptoms: depression and remission. This paper describes way to address the issue of distinguishing depressed patients from remitted subjects based on measureable acoustics change of their spoken sound. The vocal-tract related frequency characteristics of speech samples from female remitted and depressed patients were analyzed via speech processing techniques and consequently, evaluated statistically by cross-validation with Support Vector Machine. Our results comparatively show the classifier's performance with effectively correct separation of 93% determined from testing with the subjectbased feature model and 88% from the frame-based model based on the same speech samples collected from hospital visiting interview sessions between patients and psychiatrists.

Keywords: Depression, SVM, Vocal Extract, Vocal Tract

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Authors: K. Kalaiselvan, A. Elango, N.M. Nagarajan, N. Mathiazhagan

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Dissimilar joining of Titanium and Aluminum thin sheets has potential applications in aerospace and automobile industry which can reduce weight and cost and improve strength, corrosion resistance and high temperature properties. However successful welding of Titanium/Aluminium sheets is of challenge due to differences in physical, chemical and metallurgical properties between the two. This paper describes research results of Laser Beam Welding (LBW) of Ti/Al thin sheets in which many researchers have recently performed and critically reviewed from different perspectives. Also some of notable works in the field of laser welding with changes in mechanical properties, crack propagation, diffusion behavior, chemical potential, interfacial reaction and the microstructure are reported.

Keywords: Laser Beam Welding (LBW), Mechanical properties, Titanium and Aluminium thin sheets.

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Authors: R. Kaur, Y. B. Pakade, J. K. Katnoria

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Considering the serious health hazards of air pollutants from automobiles, the present study was aimed to estimate the genotoxic/tumor inducing potential of three soil samples collected from junctions of Bus stand (BS), Crystal (CT) and Railway station (RS) of Amritsar, Punjab (India) using Allium cepa root chromosomal aberration assay (AlRCAA) and potato disc tumor assay (PDTA). The genotoxic potential in AlRCAA was 41.27% and 41.26% for BS; 37.89% and 43.38% for RS and 33.76% and 37.83% for CT during in situ and root dip treatments, respectively. The maximum number of tumors were induced in RS sample (64) followed by BS (21) and CT (9) during PDTA. The physicochemical parameters of soil sample were also studied and the concentration of lead was found to be 95.21 mg/Kg in RS, 35.30 mg/Kg in BS and 24.59 mg/Kg in CT samples.

Keywords: Automobiles, genotoxicity, Physicochemical parameters, pollutants.

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Authors: Prakash G L, Thejaswini M, S H Manjula, K R Venugopal, L M Patnaik

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Computing and maintaining network structures for efficient data aggregation incurs high overhead for dynamic events where the set of nodes sensing an event changes with time. Moreover, structured approaches are sensitive to the waiting time that is used by nodes to wait for packets from their children before forwarding the packet to the sink. An optimal routing and data aggregation scheme for wireless sensor networks is proposed in this paper. We propose Tree on DAG (ToD), a semistructured approach that uses Dynamic Forwarding on an implicitly constructed structure composed of multiple shortest path trees to support network scalability. The key principle behind ToD is that adjacent nodes in a graph will have low stretch in one of these trees in ToD, thus resulting in early aggregation of packets. Based on simulations on a 2,000-node Mica2- based network, we conclude that efficient aggregation in large-scale networks can be achieved by our semistructured approach.

Keywords: Aggregation, Packet Merging, Query Processing.

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Authors: Suken Nayak, Aditya Kambli, Bharati Ingale, Gauri Shukla

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The technological concepts such as wireless hospital and portable cardiac telemetry system require the development of physiological signal acquisition devices to be easily integrated into the hospital database. In this paper we present the low cost, portable wireless ECG acquisition hardware that transmits ECG signals to a dedicated computer.The front end of the system obtains and processes incoming signals, which are then transmitted via a microcontroller and wireless Bluetooth module. A monitoring purpose Bluetooth based end user application integrated with patient database management module is developed for the computers. The system will act as a continuous event recorder, which can be used to follow up patients who have been resuscitatedfrom cardiac arrest, ventricular tachycardia but also for diagnostic purposes for patients with arrhythmia symptoms. In addition, cardiac information can be saved into the patient-s database of the hospital.

Keywords: ECG, Bluetooth communication, monitoring application, patient database

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Authors: N. A. Salim, M. M. Othman, I. Musirin, M. S. Serwan

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Hidden failure in a protection system has been recognized as one of the main reasons which may cause to a power system instability leading to a system cascading collapse. This paper presents a computationally systematic approach used to obtain the estimated average probability of a system cascading collapse by considering the effect of probability hidden failure in a protection system. The estimated average probability of a system cascading collapse is then used to determine the severe loading condition contributing to the higher risk of critical system cascading collapse. This information is essential to the system utility since it will assist the operator to determine the highest point of increased system loading condition prior to the event of critical system cascading collapse.

Keywords: Critical system cascading collapse, protection system hidden failure, severe loading condition.

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Authors: Joselito Medina Marin, Norberto Hernández Romero, Juan Carlos Seck Tuoh Mora, Erick S. Martinez Gomez

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The Flow Shop Scheduling Problem (FSSP) is a typical problem that is faced by production planning managers in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS). This problem consists in finding the optimal scheduling to carry out a set of jobs, which are processed in a set of machines or shared resources. Moreover, all the jobs are processed in the same machine sequence. As in all the scheduling problems, the makespan can be obtained by drawing the Gantt chart according to the operations order, among other alternatives. On this way, an FMS presenting the FSSP can be modeled by Petri nets (PNs), which are a powerful tool that has been used to model and analyze discrete event systems. Then, the makespan can be obtained by simulating the PN through the token game animation and incidence matrix. In this work, we present an adaptive PN to obtain the makespan of FSSP by applying PN analytical tools.

Keywords: Flow-shop scheduling problem, makespan, Petri nets, state equation.

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Authors: Revathi Venkataraman, M. Pushpalatha, T. Rama Rao

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The lack of any centralized infrastructure in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) is one of the greatest security concerns in the deployment of wireless networks. Thus communication in MANET functions properly only if the participating nodes cooperate in routing without any malicious intention. However, some of the nodes may be malicious in their behavior, by indulging in flooding attacks on their neighbors. Some others may act malicious by launching active security attacks like denial of service. This paper addresses few related works done on trust evaluation and establishment in ad hoc networks. Related works on flooding attack prevention are reviewed. A new trust approach based on the extent of friendship between the nodes is proposed which makes the nodes to co-operate and prevent flooding attacks in an ad hoc environment. The performance of the trust algorithm is tested in an ad hoc network implementing the Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) protocol.

Keywords: AODV, Flooding, MANETs, trust estimation

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Authors: Mona Salah El-Din Hassanein

Abstract:

Faced with a sudden, unexpected, and overwhelming event, the individual's normal cognitive processing may cease to function, trapping the psyche in "speechless terror", while images, feelings and sensations are experienced with emotional intensity. Unable to master such situation, the individual becomes a trauma victim who will be susceptible to traumatic recollections like intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and repetitive re-living of the primal event in a way that blurs the distinction between past and present, and forecloses the future. Trauma is timeless, repetitious, and contagious; a trauma observer could fall prey to "secondary victimhood". Central to the process of healing the psychic wounds in the aftermath of trauma is verbalizing the traumatic experience (i.e., putting it into words) – an act which provides a chance for assimilation, testimony, and reevaluation. In light of this paradigm, this paper proposes a reading of Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, written shortly after his release from prison, as a post-traumatic text which traces the disruptive effects of the traumatic experience of Wilde's imprisonment for homosexual offences and the ensuing reversal of fortune he endured. Post-traumatic writing demonstrates the process of "working through" a trauma which may lead to the possibility of ethical agency in the form of a "survivor mission". This paper draws on fundamental concepts and key insights in literary trauma theory which is characterized by interdisciplinarity, combining the perspectives of different fields like critical theory, psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, history, and social studies. Of particular relevance to this paper are the concepts of "vicarious traumatization" and "survivor mission", as The Ballad of Reading Gaol was written in response to Wilde's own prison trauma and the indirect traumatization he experienced as a result of witnessing the execution of a fellow prisoner whose story forms the narrative base of the poem. The Ballad displays Wilde's sense of mission which leads him to recognize the social as well as ethical implications of personal tragedy. Through a close textual analysis of The Ballad of Reading Gaol within the framework of literary trauma theory, the paper aims to: (a) demonstrate how the poem's thematic concerns, structure and rhetorical figures reflect the structure of trauma; (b) highlight Wilde's attempts to come to terms with the effects of the cataclysmic experience which transformed him into a social outcast; and (c) show how Wilde manages to transcend the victim status and assumes the role of ethical agent to voice a critique of the Victorian penal system and the standards of morality underlying the cruelties practiced against wrong doers and to solicit social action.

Keywords: Ballad of Reading Gaol, post-traumatic writing, trauma theory, Wilde.

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Authors: S. Behnam Asl, H. Sadeghi Naeini, L. Sadat Ensaniat, R. Khorshidian, S. Alipour, S. Behnam Asl

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Nowadays the construction industry is growing specially among developing counties. Iran also has a critical role in these industries in terms of workers disorders. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) assign 7% of the whole diseases in the society, which make some limitations. One of the main factors, which are ended to WMSDs, is awkward posture. Steel bar bending is considered as one of the prominent performance among construction workers. In this case study we conducted to find the major tasks of bar benders and the most important related risk factors. This study was carried out among twenty workers (18-45 years) as our volunteer samples in some construction sites with less than 6 floors in two regions of Tehran municipality. The data was gathered through in depth observation, interview and questionnaire. Also postural analysis was done by OWAS. In another part of study we used NMQ for gathering some data about psychosocial effects of work related disorders. Our findings show that 64% of workers were not aware of work risks, also about 59% of workers had troubles in their wrists, hands, and especially among workers who worked in steel bar bending. In 46% cases low back pain were prevalence. Considering with gathered data and results, awkward postures and long term tasks and its duration are known as the main risk factors in WMSDs among construction workers, so work-rest schedule and also tools design should be considered to make an ergonomic condition for the mentioned workers.

Keywords: Bar benders, construction workers, musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), OWAS method.

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Authors: Kwang-Wook Kim, Geun-Il Park, Eil-Hee Lee, Kune-Woo Lee, Kee-Chan Song

Abstract:

Electrolytic dissolution characteristics of UO2 and SIMFUEL electrodes were studied at several potentials in carbonate solutions of a high concentration at several pHs. The electrolytic uranium dissolution was much affected by a corrosion product of UO2CO3 generated at the electrode during the dissolution in carbonate solution. The corrosion product distorted the voltammogram at UO2 and SIMFUEL electrodes in the potential region of oxygen evolution and increased the overpotential of oxygen evolution at the electrode. The effective dissolution in a carbonate solution could be obtained at an applied potential such as +4 V (vs SSE) or more which had an overpotential of oxygen evolution high enough to rupture the corrosion product on the electrode surface.

Keywords: Anodic, Electrolytic, Dissolution, SIMFUEL, Uranium dioxide, Carbonate

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Authors: Abada Ahmed, Hiadsi Said, Ouahrani Tarik, Amrani Bouhalouane, Amara Kadda

Abstract:

Using the first-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbital (FP-LAPW+lo) method based on density functional theory (DFT), we have investigated the electronic structure and magnetism of full Heusler alloys Co2ZrGe and Co2NbB. These compounds are predicted to be half-metallic ferromagnets (HMFs) with a total magnetic moment of 2.000
B per formula unit, well consistent with the Slater-Pauling rule. Calculations show that both the alloys have an indirect band gaps, in the minority-spin channel of density of states (DOS), with values of 0.58 eV and 0.47 eV for Co2ZrGe and Co2NbB, respectively. Analysis of the DOS and magnetic moments indicates that their magnetism is mainly related to the d-d hybridization between the Co and Zr (or Nb) atoms. The half-metallicity is found to be relatively robust against volume changes. In addition, an atom inside molecule AIM formalism and an electron localization function ELF were also adopted to study the bonding properties of these compounds, building a bridge between their electronic and bonding behavior. As they have a good crystallographic compatibility with the lattice of semiconductors used industrially and negative calculated cohesive energies with considerable absolute values these two alloys could be promising magnetic materials in the spintronic field.

Keywords: Electronic properties, full Heusler alloys, halfmetallic ferromagnets, magnetic properties.

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Authors: Sunusi N., Kresna A. J., Islamiyati A., Raupong

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Hazard rate estimation is one of the important topics in forecasting earthquake occurrence. Forecasting earthquake occurrence is a part of the statistical seismology where the main subject is the point process. Generally, earthquake hazard rate is estimated based on the point process likelihood equation called the Hazard Rate Likelihood of Point Process (HRLPP). In this research, we have developed estimation method, that is hazard rate single decrement HRSD. This method was adapted from estimation method in actuarial studies. Here, one individual associated with an earthquake with inter event time is exponentially distributed. The information of epicenter and time of earthquake occurrence are used to estimate hazard rate. At the end, a case study of earthquake hazard rate will be given. Furthermore, we compare the hazard rate between HRLPP and HRSD method.

Keywords: Earthquake forecast, Hazard Rate, Likelihood point process, Point process.

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Authors: Muhammad Y.K. Barozai, Ifthikhar A. Baloch, M. Din

Abstract:

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding and regulatory RNAs about 20 to 24 nucleotides long. Their conserved nature among the various organisms makes them a good source of new miRNAs discovery by comparative genomics approach. The study resulted in 21 miRNAs of 20 pre-miRNAs belonging to 16 families (miR156, 157, 158, 164, 165, 168, 169, 172, 319, 390, 393, 394, 395, 400, 472 and 861) in evergreen spruce tree (Picea). The miRNA families; miR 157, 158, 164, 165, 168, 169, 319, 390, 393, 394, 400, 472 and 861 are reported for the first time in the Picea. All 20 miRNA precursors form stable minimum free energy stem-loop structure as their orthologues form in Arabidopsis and the mature miRNA reside in the stem portion of the stem loop structure. Sixteen (16) miRNAs are from Picea glauca and five (5) belong to Picea sitchensis. Their targets consist of transcription factors, growth related, stressed related and hypothetical proteins.

Keywords: BLAST, Comparative Genomics, Micro-RNAs, Spruce

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Authors: Tarek Elhasia, Bernd Noche, Lima Zhao

Abstract:

In recent years, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has been widely researched in academic domain. However, due to the traditional operational role and the complexity of supply chain management in the cement industry, a relatively small amount of research has been conducted on cement supply chain simulation integrated with sustainability criteria. This paper analyses the cement supply chain operations using the Push-Pull supply chain frameworks, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology; and proposal integration approach, proposes three supply chain scenarios based on Make-To-Stock (MTS), Pack-To-Order (PTO) and Grind- To-Order (GTO) strategies. A Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) model of SSCM is constructed using Arena software to implement the three-target scenarios. We conclude with the simulation results that (GTO) is the optimal supply chain strategy that demonstrates the best economic, ecological and social performance in the cement industry.

Keywords: Cement industry, simulation, supply chain management (SCM), sustainability.

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Authors: J. Erina, I. Erins

Abstract:

The goals of the present research are to estimate Six Sigma implementation in Latvian commercial banks and to identify the perceived benefits of its implementation. To achieve the goals, the authors used sequential explanatory method. To obtain empirical data, the authors have developed the questionnaire and adapted it for the employees of Latvian commercial banks. The questions are related to Six Sigma implementation and its perceived benefits. The questionnaire mainly consists of closed questions, the evaluation of which is based on 5 point Likert scale. The obtained empirical data has shown that of the two hypotheses put forward in the present research – Hypothesis 1 – has to be rejected, while Hypothesis 2 has been partially confirmed. The authors have also faced some research limitations related to the fact that the participants in the questionnaire belong to different rank of the organization hierarchy.

Keywords: Six Sigma, Quality, Commercial banking sector, Latvia.

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