Search results for: statistical energy analysis.

Authors: Ahmed M. S. Hussein, Sahar Y. Al-Okbi

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In the present research, whole meal barley flour (WBF) was supplemented with gelatinized corn flour (GCF) in 0 and 30%. Whole meal wheat flour (WWF) was mixed with defatted rice bran (DRB) to produce 0, 20, 25, and 30% replacement levels. Rheological properties of dough were studied. Thermal properties and starch crystallinity of flours were evaluated. Flat bread, balady bread and pie were prepared from the different flour blends. The different bakeries were sensory evaluated. Color of raw materials and crust of bakery products were determined. Nutrients contents of raw flours and food products were assessed. Results showed that addition of GCF to WBF increased the viscosity and falling number of the produced dough. Water absorption, dough development time and dough stability increased with increasing the level of DRB in dough while, weakening and mixing tolerance index decreased. Extensibility and energy decreased, while, resistance to extension increased as DRB level increased. Gelatinized temperature of WWF, WBF, GCF, and DRB were 13.26, 35.09, 28.33, and 39.63, respectively. Starch crystallinity was affected when DRB was added to WWF. The highest protein content was present in balady bread made from 70% WWF and 30% DRB. The highest calcium, phosphorus, and potassium levels were present in products made from 100% WBF. Sensory attributes of the products were slightly affected by adding DRB and GCF. Conclusion: Addition of DRB or GCF to WWF or WBF, respectively affect the physical, chemical, rheological and sensory properties of balady bread, flat bread, and pie while improved their nutritive values.

Keywords: Bakeries, rheological properties, chemical and sensory attributes, flour thermal properties and starch crystallinity.

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Authors: K. Mohammed, M. Agarwal, J. Mewman, Y. Ren

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An optimum technic has been developed for extracting volatile organic compounds which contribute to the aroma of lime fruit (Citrus aurantifolia). The volatile organic compounds of healthy and infested lime fruit with California red scale Aonidiella aurantii were characterized using headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography (GC) coupled flame ionization detection (FID) and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) as a very simple, efficient and nondestructive extraction method. A three-phase 50/30 μm PDV/DVB/CAR fibre was used for the extraction process. The optimal sealing and fibre exposure time for volatiles reaching equilibrium from whole lime fruit in the headspace of the chamber was 16 and 4 hours respectively. 5 min was selected as desorption time of the three-phase fibre. Herbivorous activity induces indirect plant defenses, as the emission of herbivorous-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), which could be used by natural enemies for host location. GC-MS analysis showed qualitative differences among volatiles emitted by infested and healthy lime fruit. The GC-MS analysis allowed the initial identification of 18 compounds, with similarities higher than 85%, in accordance with the NIST mass spectral library. One of these were increased by A. aurantii infestation, D-limonene, and three were decreased, Undecane, α-Farnesene and 7-epi-α-selinene. From an applied point of view, the application of the above-mentioned VOCs may help boost the efficiency of biocontrol programs and natural enemies’ production techniques.

Keywords: Lime fruit, Citrus aurantifolia, California red scale, Aonidiella aurantii, VOCs, HS-SPME/GC-FID-MS.

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Authors: S. Looser, W. Wehrmeyer

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Given the limited research on Small and Mediumsized Enterprises’ (SMEs) contribution to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and even scarcer research on Swiss SMEs, this paper helps to fill these gaps by enabling the identification of supranational SME parameters. Thus, the paper investigates the current state of SME practices in Switzerland and across 15 other countries. Combining the degree to which SMEs demonstrate an explicit (or business case) approach or see CSR as an implicit moral activity with the assessment of their attributes for “variety of capitalism” defines the framework of this comparative analysis. To outline Swiss small business CSR patterns in particular, 40 SME owner-managers were interviewed. A secondary data analysis of studies from different countries laid groundwork for this comparative overview of small business CSR. The paper identifies Swiss small business CSR as driven by norms, values, and by the aspiration to contribute to society, thus, as an implicit part of the day-to-day business. Similar to most Central European, Mediterranean, Nordic, and Asian countries, explicit CSR is still very rare in Swiss SMEs. Astonishingly, also British and American SMEs follow this pattern in spite of their strong and distinctly liberal market economies. Though other findings show that nationality matters this research concludes that SME culture and an informal CSR agenda are strongly formative and superseding even forces of market economies, nationally cultural patterns, and language. Hence, classifications of countries by their market system, as found in the comparative capitalism literature, do not match the CSR practices in SMEs as they do not mirror the peculiarities of their business. This raises questions on the universality and generalisability of unmediated, explicit management concepts, especially in the context of small firms.

Keywords: CSR, comparative study, cultures of capitalism, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

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Authors: H. Ferfera-Harrar, N. Aiouaz, N. Dairi

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Superabsorbent polymers received much attention and are used in many fields because of their superior characters to traditional absorbents, e.g., sponge and cotton. So, it is very important but challenging to prepare highly and fast-swelling superabsorbents. A reliable, efficient and low-cost technique for removing heavy metal ions from wastewater is the adsorption using bio-adsorbents obtained from biological materials, such as polysaccharides-based hydrogels superabsorbents. In this study, novel multi-functional superabsorbent composites type semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (Semi-IPNs) were prepared via graft polymerization of acrylamide onto chitosan backbone in presence of gelatin, CTS-g-PAAm/Ge, using potassium persulfate and N,N’-methylene bisacrylamide as initiator and crosslinker, respectively. These hydrogels were also partially hydrolyzed to achieve superabsorbents with ampholytic properties and uppermost swelling capacity. The formation of the grafted network was evidenced by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The porous structures were observed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). From TGA analysis, it was concluded that the incorporation of the Ge in the CTS-g-PAAm network has marginally affected its thermal stability. The effect of gelatin content on the swelling capacities of these superabsorbent composites was examined in various media (distilled water, saline and pH-solutions). The water absorbency was enhanced by adding Ge in the network, where the optimum value was reached at 2 wt. % of Ge. Their hydrolysis has not only greatly optimized their absorption capacity but also improved the swelling kinetic.These materials have also showed reswelling ability. We believe that these super-absorbing materials would be very effective for the adsorption of harmful metal ions from wastewater.

Keywords: Chitosan, gelatin, superabsorbent, water absorbency.

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Authors: Carolyn J. Ortega, Stephen E. Berger

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The role of the custody evaluator is perhaps one of the most controversial and risky endeavors in clinical practice. Complaints filed with licensing boards regarding a child-custody evaluation constitute the second most common reason for such an event. Although the evaluator is expected to answer for the family-law court what is in the “best interest of the child,” there is a lack of clarity on how to establish this in any empirically validated manner. Hence, practitioners must contend with a nebulous framework in formulating their methodological procedures that inherently places them at risk in an already litigious context. This study sought to qualitatively investigate patterns of practice among doctoral practitioners conducting child custody evaluations in the area of Southern California. Ten psychologists were interviewed who devoted between 25 and 100% of their California private practice to custody work. All held Ph.D. degrees with a range of eight to 36 years of experience in custody work. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate assessment practices, ensure adherence to guidelines, risk management, and qualities of evaluators. Forty-three Specific Themes were identified using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Seven Higher Order Themes clustered on salient factors such as use of Ethics, Law, Guidelines; Parent Variables; Child Variables; Psychologist Variables; Testing; Literature; and Trends. Evaluators were aware of the ever-present reality of a licensure complaint and thus presented idiosyncratic descriptions of risk management considerations. Ambiguity about quantifying and validly tapping parenting abilities was also reviewed. Findings from this study suggested a high reliance on unstructured and observational methods in child custody practices.

Keywords: Forensic psychology, psychological testing, assessment methodology, child custody.

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Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma

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Obesity is a low-grade inflammatory disease and may lead to health problems such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes. It is also associated with important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. This requires the detailed evaluation of obesity, particularly in children. The aim of this study is to enlighten the potential associations between lipid ratios and obesity indices and to introduce those with discriminating features among children with obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS). A total of 408 children (aged between six and eighteen years) participated in the scope of the study. Informed consent forms were taken from the participants and their parents. Ethical Committee approval was obtained. Anthropometric measurements such as weight, height as well as waist, hip, head, neck circumferences and body fat mass were taken. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure values were recorded. Body mass index (BMI), diagnostic obesity notation model assessment index-II (D2 index), waist-to-hip, head-to-neck ratios were calculated. Total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLChol), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLChol) analyses were performed in blood samples drawn from 110 children with normal body weight, 164 morbid obese (MO) children and 134 children with MetS. Age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentiles tabulated by World Health Organization were used to classify groups; normal body weight, MO and MetS. 15^th-to-85^th percentiles were used to define normal body weight children. Children, whose values were above the 99th percentile, were described as MO. MetS criteria were defined. Data were evaluated statistically by SPSS Version 20. The degree of statistical significance was accepted as p≤0.05. Mean±standard deviation values of BMI for normal body weight children, MO children and those with MetS were 15.7±1.1, 27.1±3.8 and 29.1±5.3 kg/m², respectively. Corresponding values for the D2 index were calculated as 3.4±0.9, 14.3±4.9 and 16.4±6.7. Both BMI and D2 index were capable of discriminating the groups from one another (p≤0.01). As far as other obesity indices were considered, waist-to hip and head-to-neck ratios did not exhibit any statistically significant difference between MO and MetS groups (p≥0.05). Diagnostic obesity notation model assessment index-II was correlated with the triglycerides-to-HDL-C ratio in normal body weight and MO (r=0.413, p≤0.01 and r=0.261, (p≤0.05, respectively). Total cholesterol-to-HDL-C and LDL-C-to-HDL-C showed statistically significant differences between normal body weight and MO as well as MO and MetS (p≤0.05). The only group in which these two ratios were significantly correlated with waist-to-hip ratio was MetS group (r=0.332 and r=0.334, p≤0.01, respectively). Lack of correlation between the D2 index and the triglycerides-to-HDL-C ratio was another important finding in MetS group. In this study, parameters and ratios, whose associations were defined previously with increased cardiovascular risk or cardiac death have been evaluated along with obesity indices in children with morbid obesity and MetS. Their profiles during childhood have been investigated. Aside from the nature of the correlation between the D2 index and triglycerides-to-HDL-C ratio, total cholesterol-to-HDL-C as well as LDL-C-to- HDL-C ratios along with their correlations with waist-to-hip ratio showed that the combination of obesity-related parameters predicts better than one parameter and appears to be helpful for discriminating MO children from MetS group.

Keywords: Children, lipid ratios, metabolic syndrome, obesity indices.

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Authors: Haidy S. Ghali, Engy Serag, A. Samer Ezeldin

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Copper is an essential raw material used in the construction industry. During 2021 and the first half of 2022, the global market suffered from a significant fluctuation in copper raw material prices due to the aftermath of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war which exposed its consumers to an unexpected financial risk. Thereto, this paper aims to develop two hybrid price prediction models using artificial neural network and long short-term memory (ANN-LSTM), by Python, that can forecast the average monthly copper prices, traded in the London Metal Exchange; the first model is a multivariate model that forecasts the copper price of the next 1-month and the second is a univariate model that predicts the copper prices of the upcoming three months. Historical data of average monthly London Metal Exchange copper prices are collected from January 2009 till July 2022 and potential external factors are identified and employed in the multivariate model. These factors lie under three main categories: energy prices, and economic indicators of the three major exporting countries of copper depending on the data availability. Before developing the LSTM models, the collected external parameters are analyzed with respect to the copper prices using correlation, and multicollinearity tests in R software; then, the parameters are further screened to select the parameters that influence the copper prices. Then, the two LSTM models are developed, and the dataset is divided into training, validation, and testing sets. The results show that the performance of the 3-month prediction model is better than the 1-month prediction model; but still, both models can act as predicting tools for diverse economic situations.

Keywords: Copper prices, prediction model, neural network, time series forecasting.

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Authors: Nasim Abuali Galehdari, Thomas J. Ryan, Ajit D. Kelkar

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In recent years, nanotechnology has played an important role in the design of an efficient radiation shielding polymeric composites. It is well known that, high loading of nanomaterials with radiation absorption properties can enhance the radiation attenuation efficiency of shielding structures. However, due to difficulties in dispersion of nanomaterials into polymer matrices, there has been a limitation in higher loading percentages of nanoparticles in the polymer matrix. Therefore, the objective of the present work is to provide a methodology to fabricate and then to characterize the functionally graded radiation shielding structures, which can provide an efficient radiation absorption property along with good structural integrity. Sandwich structures composed of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) fabric as face sheets and functionally graded epoxy nanocomposite as core material were fabricated. A method to fabricate a functionally graded core panel with controllable gradient dispersion of nanoparticles is discussed. In order to optimize the design of functionally graded sandwich composites and to analyze the stress distribution throughout the sandwich composite thickness, a finite element method was used. The sandwich panels were discretized using 3-Dimensional 8 nodded brick elements. Classical laminate analysis in conjunction with simplified micromechanics equations were used to obtain the properties of the face sheets. The presented finite element model would provide insight into deformation and damage mechanics of the functionally graded sandwich composites from the structural point of view.

Keywords: Nanotechnology, functionally graded material, radiation shielding, sandwich composites, finite element method.

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Authors: D. O. Omondi, M. K. Walingo, G. M. Mbagaya

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Objective: This study explored the possibility of integrating Health Belief Concepts as additional predictors of intention to adopt a recommended diet-category within the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Methods: The study adopted a Sequential Exploratory Mixed Methods approach. Qualitative data were generated on attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and perceptions on predetermined diet-categories including perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived severity and cues to action. Synthesis of qualitative data was done using constant comparative approach during phase 1. A survey tool developed from qualitative results was used to collect information on the same concepts across 237 legible Type 2 diabetics. Data analysis included use of Structural Equation Modeling in Analysis of Moment Structures to explore the possibility of including perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived severity and cues to action as additional intention predictors in a single nested model. Results: Two models-one nested based on the traditional TPB model {χ2=223.3, df = 77, p = .02, χ2/df = 2.9; TLI = .93; CFI =.91; RMSEA (90CI) = .090(.039, .146)} and the newly proposed Planned Behavior Health Belief Model (PBHB) {χ2 = 743.47, df = 301, p = .019; TLI = .90; CFI=.91; RMSEA (90CI) = .079(.031, .14)} passed the goodness of fit tests based on common fit indicators used. Conclusion: The newly developed PBHB Model ranked higher than the traditional TPB model with reference made to chi-square ratios (PBHB: χ2/df = 2.47; p=0.19 against TPB: χ2/df = 2.9, p=0.02). The integrated model can be used to motivate Type 2 diabetics towards healthy eating.

Keywords: Theory, intention, predictors, mixed methods design.

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Authors: Zsolt Szabolcsi

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Political communication in Hungary has undergone a significant change in the 2010s. One element of the transformation is the Flashnews. This media product was launched in March 2015 and since then 40-50 blocks are broadcasted, daily, on 5 channels. Flashnews blocks are condensed news sessions, containing the summary of political narratives. It starts with the introduction of the narrator, then, usually four news topics are presented and, finally, the narrator concludes the block. The block lasts only one minute and, therefore, it provides a blink session into the main narratives of political communication at the time. Beyond its rapid pace, what makes its avoidance difficult is that these blocks are always in the first position in the commercial break of a non-political media product. Although it is only one minute long, its significance is high. The content of the Flashnews reflects the main governmental narratives and, therefore, the Flashnews is part of the agenda-setting capacity of political communication. It reaches media consumers who have limited knowledge and interest in politics, and their use of media products is not politically related. For this audience, the Flashnews pops up in the same way as commercials. Due to its structure and appearance, the impact of Flashnews seems to be similar to commercials, imbedded into the break of media products. It activates existing knowledge constructs, builds up associational links and maintains their presence in a way that the recipient is not aware of the phenomenon. The research aims to examine the extent to which the Flashnews and the main news narratives are identical in their content. This aim is realized with the content analysis of the two news products by examining the Flashnews and the evening news during main sport events from 2016 to 2018. The initial hypothesis of the research is that Flashnews is a contribution to the news management technique for an effective articulation of political narratives in public service media channels.

Keywords: Flashnews, political communication, political marketing, news management.

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Authors: A. Golshani, M. Gharizade Varnusefaderani, S. Majidian

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Underground structures are of those structures that have uncertainty in design procedures. That is due to the complexity of soil condition around. Under passing tunnels are also such affected structures. Despite geotechnical site investigations, lots of uncertainties exist in soil properties due to unknown events. As results, it possibly causes conflicting settlements in numerical analysis with recorded values in the project. This paper aims to report a case study on a specific under passing tunnel constructed by New Austrian Tunnelling Method in Iran. The intended tunnel has an overburden of about 11.3m, the height of 12.2m and, the width of 14.4m with 2.5 traffic lane. The numerical modeling was developed by a 2D finite element program (PLAXIS Version 8). Comparing displacement histories at the ground surface during the entire installation of initial lining, the estimated surface settlement was about four times the field recorded one, which indicates that some local unknown events affect that value. Also, the displacement ratios were in a big difference between the numerical and field data. Consequently, running several numerical back analyses using laboratory and field tests data, the geotechnical parameters were accurately revised to match with the obtained monitoring data. Finally, it was found that usually the values of soil parameters are conservatively low-estimated up to 40 percent by typical engineering judgment. Additionally, it could be attributed to inappropriate constitutive models applied for the specific soil condition.

Keywords: NATM, surface displacement history, soil tests, monitoring data, numerical back-analysis, geotechnical parameters.

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Authors: Osman Mohammed Hegazy, Ali Hamed El Bastawissy, Romani Farid Ibrahim

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In this paper, our concern is the management of mobile transactions in the shared area among many servers, when the mobile user moves from one cell to another in online partiallyreplicated distributed mobile database environment. We defined the concept of transaction and classified the different types of transactions. Based on this analysis, we propose an algorithm that handles the disconnection due to moving among sites.

Keywords: Concurrency, mobile database, transaction processing, two phase locking.

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Authors: Rudolf Csikja, Janos Toth

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Methods to detect and localize time singularities of polynomial and quasi-polynomial ordinary differential equations are systematically presented and developed. They are applied to examples taken form different fields of applications and they are also compared to better known methods such as those based on the existence of linear first integrals or Lyapunov functions.

Keywords: blow up, finite escape time, polynomial ODE, singularity, Lotka–Volterra equation, Painleve analysis, Ψ-series, global existence

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Authors: T. Holden, G. Tremberger, Jr, E. Cheung, R. Subramaniam, R. Sullivan, N. Gadura, P. Schneider, P. Marchese, A. Flamholz, T. Cheung, D. Lieberman

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A nucleotide sequence can be expressed as a numerical sequence when each nucleotide is assigned its proton number. A resulting gene numerical sequence can be investigated for its fractal dimension in terms of evolution and chemical properties for comparative studies. We have investigated such nucleotide fluctuation in the 16S rRNA gene of archaea thermophiles. The studied archaea thermophiles were archaeoglobus fulgidus, methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus, methanocaldococcus jannaschii, pyrococcus horikoshii, and thermoplasma acidophilum. The studied five archaea-euryarchaeota thermophiles have fractal dimension values ranging from 1.93 to 1.97. Computer simulation shows that random sequences would have an average of about 2 with a standard deviation about 0.015. The fractal dimension was found to correlate (negative correlation) with the thermophile-s optimal growth temperature with R2 value of 0.90 (N =5). The inclusion of two aracheae-crenarchaeota thermophiles reduces the R2 value to 0.66 (N = 7). Further inclusion of two bacterial thermophiles reduces the R2 value to 0.50 (N =9). The fractal dimension is correlated (positive) to the sequence GC content with an R2 value of 0.89 for the five archaea-euryarchaeota thermophiles (and 0.74 for the entire set of N = 9), although computer simulation shows little correlation. The highest correlation (positive) was found to be between the fractal dimension and di-nucleotide Shannon entropy. However Shannon entropy and sequence GC content were observed to correlate with optimal growth temperature having an R2 of 0.8 (negative), and 0.88 (positive), respectively, for the entire set of 9 thermophiles; thus the correlation lacks species specificity. Together with another correlation study of bacterial radiation dosage with RecA repair gene sequence fractal dimension, it is postulated that fractal dimension analysis is a sensitive tool for studying the relationship between genotype and phenotype among closely related sequences.

Keywords: Fractal dimension, archaea thermophiles, Shannon entropy, GC content

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Authors: Costas S. Iliopoulos, Spiros Michalakopoulos

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A new, combinatorial model for analyzing and inter- preting an electrocardiogram (ECG) is presented. An application of the model is QRS peak detection. This is demonstrated with an online algorithm, which is shown to be space as well as time efficient. Experimental results on the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database show that this novel approach is promising. Further uses for this approach are discussed, such as taking advantage of its small memory requirements and interpreting large amounts of pre-recorded ECG data.

Keywords: Combinatorics, ECG analysis, MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, QRS Detection, String Algorithms

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Authors: John Hadden, Ashutosh Tiwari, Rajkumar Roy, Dymitr Ruta

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The aim of this paper is to identify the most suitable model for churn prediction based on three different techniques. The paper identifies the variables that affect churn in reverence of customer complaints data and provides a comparative analysis of neural networks, regression trees and regression in their capabilities of predicting customer churn.

Keywords: Churn, Decision Trees, Neural Networks, Regression.

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Authors: R. M. Kashim

Abstract:

The study investigated primary school teachers’ conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational numbers and its effects on pupil’s achievement in rational numbers. Specifically, primary school teachers’ level of conceptual knowledge about rational numbers, primary school teachers’ level of procedural knowledge about rational numbers, and the effects of teachers conceptual and procedural knowledge on their pupils understanding of rational numbers in primary schools is investigated. The study was carried out in Bauchi metropolis in the Bauchi state of Nigeria. The design of the study was a multi-stage design. The first stage was a descriptive design. The second stage involves a pre-test, post-test only quasi-experimental design. Two instruments were used for the data collection in the study. These were Conceptual and Procedural knowledge test (CPKT) and Rational number achievement test (RAT), the population of the study comprises of three (3) mathematics teachers’ holders of Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) teaching primary six and 210 pupils in their intact classes were used for the study. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, analysis of variance, analysis of covariance and t- test. The findings indicated that the pupils taught rational number by a teacher that has high conceptual and procedural knowledge understand and perform better than the pupil taught by a teacher who has low conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational number. It is, therefore, recommended that teachers in primary schools should be encouraged to enrich their conceptual knowledge of rational numbers. Also, the superiority performance of teachers in procedural knowledge in rational number should not become an obstruction of understanding. Teachers Conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational numbers should be balanced so that primary school pupils will have a view of better teaching and learning of rational number in our contemporary schools.

Keywords: Achievement, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, rational numbers.

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Authors: S. Da Costa, D. Páez, F. Sánchez

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We examine the causal role of positive affect on creativity, the association of creativity or innovation in the ideation phase with functional emotional regulation, successful adjustment to stress and dispositional emotional creativity, as well as the predictive role of creativity for positive emotions and social adjustment. The study examines the effects of modification of positive affect on creativity. Participants write three poems, narrate an infatuation episode, answer a scale of personal growth after this episode and perform a creativity task, answer a flow scale after creativity task and fill a dispositional emotional creativity scale. High and low positive effect was induced by asking subjects to write three poems about high and low positive connotation stimuli. In a neutral condition, tasks were performed without previous affect induction. Subjects on the condition of high positive affect report more positive and less negative emotions, more personal growth (effect size r = .24) and their last poem was rated as more original by judges (effect size r = .33). Mediational analysis showed that positive emotions explain the influence of the manipulation on personal growth - positive affect correlates r = .33 to personal growth. The emotional creativity scale correlated to creativity scores of the creative task (r = .14), to the creativity of the narration of the infatuation episode (r = .21). Emotional creativity was also associated, during performing the creativity task, with flow (r = .27) and with affect balance (r = .26). The mediational analysis showed that emotional creativity predicts flow through positive affect. Results suggest that innovation in the phase of ideation is associated with a positive affect balance and satisfactory performance, as well as dispositional emotional creativity is adaptive.

Keywords: Affectivity, creativity, induction, innovation, psychological factors.

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Authors: Andrei A. Kolyshkin

Abstract:

In the present paper some recommendations for the use of software package “Mathematica" in a basic numerical analysis course are presented. The methods which are covered in the course include solution of systems of linear equations, nonlinear equations and systems of nonlinear equations, numerical integration, interpolation and solution of ordinary differential equations. A set of individual assignments developed for the course covering all the topics is discussed in detail.

Keywords: Numerical methods, "Mathematica", e-learning.

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Authors: Hidetoshi Nonaka, Masahito Kurihara

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In this paper, an authentication system using keystroke dynamics is presented. We introduced pressure sensing for the improvement of the accuracy of measurement and durability against intrusion using key-logger, and so on, however additional instrument is needed. As the result, it has been found that the pressure sensing is also effective for estimation of real moment of keystroke.

Keywords: Biometric authentication, Keystroke dynamics, Pressure sensing, Time-frequency analysis.

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Authors: Abeer Aljohani

Abstract:

The COVID-19 virus spread has been one of the extreme pandemics across the globe. It is also referred as corona virus which is a contagious disease that continuously mutates into numerous variants. Currently, the B.1.1.529 variant labeled as Omicron is detected in South Africa. The huge spread of COVID-19 disease has affected several lives and has surged exceptional pressure on the healthcare systems worldwide. Also, everyday life and the global economy have been at stake. Numerous COVID-19 cases have produced a huge burden on hospitals as well as health workers. To reduce this burden, this paper predicts COVID-19 disease based on the symptoms and medical history of the patient. As machine learning is a widely accepted area and gives promising results for healthcare, this research presents an architecture for COVID-19 detection using ML techniques integrated with feature dimensionality reduction. This paper uses a standard University of California Irvine (UCI) dataset for predicting COVID-19 disease. This dataset comprises symptoms of 5434 patients. This paper also compares several supervised ML techniques on the presented architecture. The architecture has also utilized 10-fold cross validation process for generalization and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique for feature reduction. Standard parameters are used to evaluate the proposed architecture including F1-Score, precision, accuracy, recall, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and Area under Curve (AUC). The results depict that Decision tree, Random Forest and neural networks outperform all other state-of-the-art ML techniques. This result can be used to effectively identify COVID-19 infection cases.

Keywords: Supervised machine learning, COVID-19 prediction, healthcare analytics, Random Forest, Neural Network.

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Authors: Fan Yang, Ye-lu Wang, Yang Zhao

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The dynamic load allowance, as an application result of the vehicle-bridge coupled vibration theory, is an important parameter for bridge design and evaluation. Based on the coupled vehicle-bridge vibration theory, the current work establishes a full girder model of a dynamic load allowance, selects a planar five-degree-of-freedom three-axis vehicle model, solves the coupled vehicle-bridge dynamic response using the APDL language in the spatial finite element program ANSYS, selects the pivot point 2 sections as the representative of the negative moment section, and analyzes the effects of parameters such as travel speed, unevenness, vehicle frequency, span diameter, span number and forced displacement of the support on the negative moment dynamic load allowance through orthogonal tests. The influence of parameters such as vehicle speed, unevenness, vehicle frequency, span diameter, span number, and forced displacement of the support on the negative moment dynamic load allowance is analyzed by orthogonal tests, and the influence law of each influencing parameter is summarized. It is found that the effects of vehicle frequency, unevenness, and speed on the negative moment dynamic load allowance are significant, among which vehicle frequency has the greatest effect on the negative moment dynamic load allowance; the effects of span number and span diameter on the negative moment dynamic load allowance are relatively small; the effects of forced displacement of the support on the negative moment dynamic load allowance are negligible.

Keywords: Continuous T-girder bridge, dynamic load allowance, sensitivity analysis, vehicle-bridge coupling.

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Authors: Maja Martinovic, Valentina Zarkovic, Hrvoje Maljak

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Europe is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, in which tourism occupies a significant place among the most relevant economic activities, and this applies to the Republic of Croatia as well. Based on this study, the authors intended to encourage and support the creation of an effective tourism policy in Croatia that would be based on the profiling of certain target groups. Another objective was to compare the results obtained from the customer analysis with the market analysis of the tourism industry in Croatia. The objective is to adapt the current tourist offer according to the identified needs and expectations of a particular tourist group in order to increase the attractiveness of Croatia as a tourist destination and motivate greater attendance of the targeted tourist groups. The current research was oriented towards the Russian market as the target group. Therefore, the authors wanted to encourage a discussion on how to attract more Russian guests. Consequently, the intention of the research was a detailed analysis of Russian tourists, in order to gain a better understanding of their travelling motives and tendencies. Furthermore, attention was paid to the expectations of Russian customers and to compare them with the Croatian tourist offer, and to determine whether there is a possibility for an overlap. The method used to obtain the information required was a survey conducted among Russian citizens about their travelling habits. The research was carried out on the basis of 166 participants of different age, gender, profession and income group. The sampling and distribution of the survey took place between May and July 2016. The results provided from the research indicate that Croatian tourism has certain unrealized potential considering the popularization of Croatia as a tourist destination, and there is a capacity for increasing the revenues within the group of Russian tourists. Such a conclusion is based on the fact that the Croatian tourist offer and the preferences of the Russian guests are compatible, i.e. they overlap in many aspects. The results demonstrate that beautiful nature, cultural and historical heritage as well as the sun and sea, play a leading role in attracting more Russian tourists. It is precisely these elements that form the three pillars of the Croatian tourist offer. On the other hand, the profiling revealed that the most desirable destinations for the Russian guests are Italy and Spain, both of which provide the same main tourist attractions as Croatia. Therefore, the focus of the strategic ideas given in the paper shifted to other tourism segments, such as type of accommodation, sales channels, travel motives, additional offer and seasonality etc., in order to gain advantage in the Russian market, the Mediterranean region and tourism in general. The purpose of the research is to serve as a foundation for analysing the attractiveness of the other tourist destinations in the Russian market, as well as to be a general basis for a more detailed profiling of the various specific target groups of the Russian and other tourist groups.

Keywords: Croatia, Russian market, target groups, tourism, tourist destination.

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Authors: J. K. Visser, H. T. Malan

Abstract:

A need exists to identify the sources of risks associated with the process automation systems within petrochemical companies or similar energy related industries. These companies use many different process automation technologies in its value chain. A crucial part of the process automation system is the information technology component featuring in the supervisory control layer. The ever-changing technology within the process automation layers and the rate at which it advances pose a risk to safe and predictable automation system performance. The age of the automation equipment also provides challenges to the operations and maintenance managers of the plant due to obsolescence and unavailability of spare parts. The main objective of this research was to determine the risk sources associated with the equipment that is part of the process automation systems. A secondary objective was to establish whether technology managers and technicians were aware of the risks and share the same viewpoint on the importance of the risks associated with automation systems. A conceptual model for risk sources of automation systems was formulated from models and frameworks in literature. This model comprised six categories of risk which forms the basis for identifying specific risks. This model was used to develop a questionnaire that was sent to 172 instrument technicians and technology managers in the company to obtain primary data. 75 completed and useful responses were received. These responses were analyzed statistically to determine the highest risk sources and to determine whether there was difference in opinion between technology managers and technicians. The most important risks that were revealed in this study are: 1) the lack of skilled technicians, 2) integration capability of third-party system software, 3) reliability of the process automation hardware, 4) excessive costs pertaining to performing maintenance and migrations on process automation systems, and 5) requirements of having third-party communication interfacing compatibility as well as real-time communication networks.

Keywords: Distributed control system, identification of risks, information technology, process automation system.

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Authors: B. Y. Matmuratov, S. D. Madrakhimova. R. S. Esanov. A. D. Matchanov

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Supramolecular complexes of glycyrrhizic acid with kinetin in various molar ratios were obtained, physico-chemical parameters and spectral properties of the resulting complexes were studied (UV, IR, mass spectrometry.

Keywords: Monoammonium salt of glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhizic acid, supramolecular complex, isomolar series, IR spectroscopy.

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Authors: Pamita Awasthi, Kirna, Shilpa Dogra, Manu Vatsal, Ritu Barthwal

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Doxorubicin, also known as Adriamycin, is an anthracycline class of drug used in cancer chemotherapy. It is used in the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, acute leukemia, breast cancer, lung cancer, endometrium cancer and ovary cancers. It functions via intercalating DNA and ultimately killing cancer cells. The major side effects of doxorubicin are hair loss, myelosuppression, nausea & vomiting, oesophagitis, diarrhea, heart damage and liver dysfunction. The minor modifications in the structure of compound exhibit large variation in the biological activity, has prompted us to carry out the synthesis of sulfonamide derivatives. Sulfonamide is an important feature with broad spectrum of biological activity such as antiviral, antifungal, diuretics, antiinflammatory, antibacterial and anticancer activities. Structure of the synthesized compound N-(1-methyl-2-oxo-2-N-methyl anilinoethyl) benzene sulfonamide confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR),13C NMR, Mass and FTIR spectroscopic tools to assure the position of all protons and hence stereochemistry of the molecule. Further we have reported the binding potential of synthesized sulfonamide analogues in comparison to doxorubicin drug using Auto Dock 4.2 software. Computational binding energy (B.E.) and inhibitory constant (Ki) has been evaluated for the synthesized compound in comparison of doxorubicin against Poly (dA-dT).Poly (dA-dT) and Poly (dG-dC).Poly (dG-dC) sequences. The in vitro cytotoxic study against human breast cancer cell lines confirms the better anticancer activity of the synthesized compound over currently in use anticancer drug doxorubicin. The IC50 value of the synthesized compound is 7.12 μM whereas for doxorubicin is 7.2 μM.

Keywords: Anticancer, Auto Dock, Doxorubicin, Sulfonamide.

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Authors: Jin-Hong Kim, Joon Sung Park, Jun-Hyuk Choi, In-Soung Jung

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With a development of Hybrid Electric Vehicle(HEV), A photovoltaic(PV) generation system is used for charging batteries in many cases. A dc/dc converter using PV power for a battery charger requires a high efficiency. In this paper, A ZVS boost converter using the renewable energies for HEV charger is proposed. Through the theoretical analysis and experimental result, operation modes and characteristics of the proposed topology are verified.

Keywords: HEV, EV, charger, resonant

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Authors: Robert L. Burdett, Bayan Bevrani

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Analytical techniques for measuring and planning railway capacity expansion activities have been considered in this article. A preliminary mathematical framework involving track duplication and section sub divisions is proposed for this task. In railways, these features have a great effect on network performance and for this reason they have been considered. Additional motivations have also arisen from the limitations of prior models that have not included them.

Keywords: Capacity analysis, capacity expansion, railways.

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Authors: O.B. Ozipek, E. Bozdag, E. Sunbuloglu, A. Abdullahoglu, E. Belen, E. Celikkanat

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In textile industry, besides the conventional textile products, technical textile goods, that have been brought external functional properties into, are being developed for technical textile industry. Especially these products produced with weaving technology are widely preferred in areas such as sports, geology, medical, automotive, construction and marine sectors. These textile products are exposed to various stresses and large deformations under typical conditions of use. At this point, sufficient and reliable data could not be obtained with uniaxial tensile tests for determination of the mechanical properties of such products due to mainly biaxial stress state. Therefore, the most preferred method is a biaxial tensile test method and analysis. These tests and analysis is applied to fabrics with different functional features in order to establish the textile material with several characteristics and mechanical properties of the product. Planar biaxial tensile test, cylindrical inflation and bulge tests are generally required to apply for textile products that are used in automotive, sailing and sports areas and construction industry to minimize accidents as long as their service life. Airbags, seat belts and car tires in the automotive sector are also subject to the same biaxial stress states, and can be characterized by same types of experiments. In this study, in accordance with the research literature related to the various biaxial test methods are compared. Results with discussions are elaborated mainly focusing on the design of a biaxial test apparatus to obtain applicable experimental data for developing a finite element model. Sample experimental results on a prototype system are expressed.

Keywords: Biaxial Stress, Bulge Test, Cylindrical Inflation, Fabric Testing, Planar Tension.

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Authors: A. Aissani, H. Benaoudia

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Stochastic comparison has been an important direction of research in various area. This can be done by the use of the notion of stochastic ordering which gives qualitatitive rather than purely quantitative estimation of the system under study. In this paper we present applications of comparison based uncertainty related to entropy in Reliability analysis, for example to design better systems. These results can be used as a priori information in simulation studies.

Keywords: Uncertainty, Stochastic comparison, Reliability, serie's system, imperfect repair.

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