Search results for: risk chronic daily intake

Authors: Aimen Batool Bint-E-Rashid, Syed Muhammad Dawood Ali Shah, Muhammad Usman Farooq, Mahgul Anwar

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As the world is progressing, the needs and demands of the consumer market are also changing. Nowadays the trends of consumer purchase decisions are dependent upon multiple factors. This study aims to identify the influential impact of country of origin over the perception and devotion towards daily personal care products specifically in reference to the knowledge and awareness regarding that particular brand in Pakistan. To corroborate this study, a 30-item brand origin questionnaire has been used with 300 purchase decision makers belonging to different age groups. To illustrate this study, a model has been developed based on brand origin, brand awareness and brand loyalty. Correlation and regression analysis have been used to find out the results which conclude the findings on the perspective of Pakistan’s consumer market as that brand origin has a direct relationship with brand loyalty provided that the consumer has a positive brand awareness. Support for the fact that brand origin impacts brand loyalty through brand awareness has been presented in this study.

Keywords: Brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand origin, personal care products, P&G, Unilever.

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Authors: P. Gao, Z. Q. Li, Y. G. Jin

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In the past 10 years, computers and cellphones have become one of the most important factors in our lives, and one which has a tremendously negative impact on our muscles. Muscle tension may be one of the causes of sleep disturbance. Tension in the shoulders and neck can affect blood circulation to the muscles. This research uses a dry needling treatment to reduce muscle tension in order to determine if the strain in the head and shoulders can influence sleep duration. All 38 patients taking part in the testing suffered from tinnitus and have been experiencing disturbed sleep for at least one to five years. Even after undergoing drug therapy treatments and traditional acupuncture therapies, their sleep disturbances have not shown any improvement. After five to 10 dry needling treatments, 24 of the patients reported an improvement in their sleep duration. Five patients considered themselves to be completely recovered, while 12 patients experienced no improvement. This study investigated these pathogenic and therapeutic problems. The standard treatment for sleep disturbances is drug-based therapy; the results of most standard treatments are unfortunately negative. The result of this clinical research has demonstrated that: The possible cause of sleep disturbance for a lot of patients is the result of tensions in the neck and shoulder muscles. Blood circulation to those muscles is also influenced by the duration of sleep. Hypertonic neck and shoulder muscles are considered to impact sleeping patterns and lead to disturbed sleep. Poor posture, often adopted while speaking on the phone, is one of the main causes of hypertonic neck and shoulder muscle problems. The dry needling treatment specifically focuses on the release of muscle tension.

Keywords: Dry needling, sleep disturbance, sleep duration, muscle tension, trigger points.

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Authors: Olga Novikova, Timo Vuori

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This paper describes topology of business models in market ecosystem of the emerging electric mobility industry. The business model topology shows that firm-s participation in the ecosystem is associated with different requirements on resources and capabilities, and different levels of risk. Business model concept is used together with concepts of networked value creation and shows that firms can achieve higher levels of sustainable advantage by cooperation, not competition. Hybrid business models provide companies a viable alternative possibility for participation in the market ecosystem.

Keywords: Business model, ecosystem, topology.

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Authors: Chinedu Ejike

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The United States is now energy self-sufficient due to the production of shale oil reserves. With more than half of it being tapped daily in the United States, these unconventional reserves are massive and provide immense potential for future energy demands. Drilling horizontal wells and fracking are the primary methods for developing these reserves. Regrettably, recovery efficiency is rarely greater than 10%. Gas injection enhanced oil recovery offers a significant benefit in optimizing recovery of shale oil. This could be either through huff and puff, gas flooding, and cyclic gas injection. Methane, nitrogen, and carbon (IV) oxide, among other high-pressure gases, can be injected. Operators use Darcy's law to assess a reservoir's productive capacity, but they are unaware that the law may not apply to shale oil reserves. This is due to the fact that, unlike pressure differences alone, diffusion, concentration, and gas selection all play a role in the flow of gas injected into the wellbore. The reservoir drainage and oil sweep efficiency rates are determined by the transport method. This research evaluates the parameters that influence gas injection transport mechanism. Understanding the process could accelerate recovery by two to three times.

Keywords: enhanced oil recovery, gas injection, shale oil, transport mechanism, unconventional reservoir

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Authors: Ting (Grace) Lin, Jianhong (Cecilia) Xia, Todd Robinson

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Accessibility analysis, examining people’s ability to access facilities and destinations, is a fundamental assessment for transport planning, policy making, and social exclusion research. Dynamic accessibility which measures accessibility in real-time traffic environment has been an advanced accessibility indicator in transport research. It is also a useful indicator to help travelers to understand travel time daily variability, assists traffic engineers to monitor traffic congestions, and finally develop effective strategies in order to mitigate traffic congestions. This research involved real-time traffic information by collecting travel time data with 15-minute interval via the TomTom^® API. A framework for measuring dynamic accessibility was then developed based on the gravity theory and accessibility dichotomy theory through space and time interpolation. Finally, the dynamic accessibility can be derived at any given time and location under dynamic accessibility spatial analysis framework.

Keywords: Dynamic accessibility, space-time continuum, transport research, TomTom® API.

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Authors: Eyup Yurt, Ahmet Kurnaz, Ismail Sahin

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The purpose of the study is to investigate the education faculty students’ attitudes towards e-learning according to different variables. In current study, the data were collected from 393 students of an education faculty in Turkey. In this study, theattitude towards e‐learning scale and the demographic information form were used to collect data. The collected data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient. It was found that there is a significant difference in students’ tendency towards e-learning and avoidance from e-learning based on gender. Male students have more positive attitudes towards e-learning than female students. Also, the students who used the internet lesshave higher levels of avoidance from e-learning. Additionally, it is found that there is a positive and significant relationship between the number of personal mobile learning devices and tendency towards e-learning. On the other hand, there is a negative and significant relationship between the number of personal mobile learning devices and avoidance from e-learning. Also, suggestions were presented according to findings.

Keywords: Education faculty students, attitude towards e-learning, gender, daily Internet usage time, m-learning.

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Authors: Stephen Akuma, Timothy Ndera

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Information seekers get “lost in hyperspace” due to the voluminous documents updated daily on the internet. Adaptive Hypermedia Systems (AHS) are used to direct learners to their target goals. One of the most common AHS designed to help information seekers to overcome the problem of information overload is the Adaptive Education Hypermedia System (AEHS). However, this paper focuses on AEHS that adopts the learning preference of high school students and deliver learning content according to this preference throughout their learning experience. The research developed a prototype system for predicting students’ learning preference from the Visual, Aural, Read-Write and Kinesthetic (VARK) learning style model and adopting the learning content suitable to their preference. The predicting strength of several classifiers was compared and we found Support Vector Machine (SVM) to be more accurate in predicting learning style based on users’ preferences.

Keywords: Hypermedia, adaptive education, learning style, lesson content, user profile, prediction, feedback, adaptive hypermedia, learning style.

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Authors: Jagannath Aryal, Don Kulasiri, Dishi Liu

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This paper describes the optimization of a complex dairy farm simulation model using two quite different methods of optimization, the Genetic algorithm (GA) and the Lipschitz Branch-and-Bound (LBB) algorithm. These techniques have been used to improve an agricultural system model developed by Dexcel Limited, New Zealand, which describes a detailed representation of pastoral dairying scenarios and contains an 8-dimensional parameter space. The model incorporates the sub-models of pasture growth and animal metabolism, which are themselves complex in many cases. Each evaluation of the objective function, a composite 'Farm Performance Index (FPI)', requires simulation of at least a one-year period of farm operation with a daily time-step, and is therefore computationally expensive. The problem of visualization of the objective function (response surface) in high-dimensional spaces is also considered in the context of the farm optimization problem. Adaptations of the sammon mapping and parallel coordinates visualization are described which help visualize some important properties of the model-s output topography. From this study, it is found that GA requires fewer function evaluations in optimization than the LBB algorithm.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithm, Linux Cluster, LipschitzBranch-and-Bound, Optimization

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Authors: Gyou-tae Park, Young-gyu Kim, Jeong-rock Kwon, Yongwoo Lee, Hiesik Kim

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The gas safety management system using an intelligent gas meter we proposed is to monitor flow and pressure of gas, earthquake, temperature, smoke and leak of methane. Then our system takes safety measures to protect a serious risk by the result of an event, to communicate with a wall-pad including a gateway by zigbee network in buildings and to report the event to user by the safety management program in a server. Also, the inner cutoff valve of an intelligent gas meter is operated if any event occurred or abnormal at each sensor.

Keywords: micom gas-meter, gas safety, zigbee, ubiquitous

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Authors: Ireneusz Majsterek, Anna Merecz, Agnieszka Sliwinska, Marcin Kosmalski, Jacek Kasznicki, Jozef Drzewoski

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Oxidative stress is considered to be the cause for onset and the progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and complications including neuropathy. It is a deleterious process that can be an important mediator of damage to cell structures: protein, lipids and DNA. Data suggest that in patients with diabetes and diabetic neuropathy DNA repair is impaired, which prevents effective removal of lesions. Objective: The aim of our study was to evaluate the association of the hOGG1 (326 Ser/Cys) and XRCC1 (194 Arg/Trp, 399 Arg/Gln) gene polymorphisms whose protein is involved in the BER pathway with DNA repair efficiency in patients with diabetes type 2 and diabetic neuropathy compared to the healthy subjects. Genotypes were determined by PCR-RFLP analysis in 385 subjects, including 117 with type 2 diabetes, 56 with diabetic neuropathy and 212 with normal glucose metabolism. The polymorphisms studied include codon 326 of hOGG1 and 194, 399 of XRCC1 in the base excision repair (BER) genes. Comet assay was carried out using peripheral blood lymphocytes from the patients and controls. This test enabled the evaluation of DNA damage in cells exposed to hydrogen peroxide alone and in the combination with the endonuclease III (Nth). The results of the analysis of polymorphism were statistically examination by calculating the odds ratio (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) using the ¤ç2-tests. Our data indicate that patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (including those with neuropathy) had higher frequencies of the XRCC1 399Arg/Gln polymorphism in homozygote (GG) (OR: 1.85 [95% CI: 1.07-3.22], P=0.3) and also increased frequency of 399Gln (G) allele (OR: 1.38 [95% CI: 1.03-1.83], P=0.3). No relation to other polymorphisms with increased risk of diabetes or diabetic neuropathy. In T2DM patients complicated by neuropathy, there was less efficient repair of oxidative DNA damage induced by hydrogen peroxide in both the presence and absence of the Nth enzyme. The results of our study suggest that the XRCC1 399 Arg/Gln polymorphism is a significant risk factor of T2DM in Polish population. Obtained data suggest a decreased efficiency of DNA repair in cells from patients with diabetes and neuropathy may be associated with oxidative stress. Additionally, patients with neuropathy are characterized by even greater sensitivity to oxidative damage than patients with diabetes, which suggests participation of free radicals in the pathogenesis of neuropathy.

Keywords: Diabetic neuropathy, oxidative stress, gene polymorphisms, oxidative DNA damage.

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Authors: S. A. Naeini, M. Hamidzadeh

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Today, with the daily advancement of geotechnical engineering on soil improvement and modification of the physical properties and shear strength of soil, it is now possible to construct structures with high-volume and high service load on loose sandy soils. One of such methods is using micropiles, which are mostly used to control asymmetrical subsidence, increase bearing capacity, and prevent soil liquefaction. This study examined the improvement of Anzali's saturated loose silty sand using 192 micropiles with a length of 8 meters and diameter of 75 mm. Bandar-e Anzali is one of Iran's coastal populated cities which are located in a high-seismicity region. The effects of the insertion of micropiles on prevention of liquefaction and improvement of subsidence were examined through comparison of the results of Standard Penetration Test (SPT) and Plate Load Test (PLT) before and after implementation of the micropiles. The results show that the SPT values and the ultimate bearing capacity of silty sand increased after the implementation of the micropiles. Therefore, the installation of micropiles increases the strength of silty sand improving the resistance of soil against liquefaction.

Keywords: Soil improvement, silty sand, micropiles, SPT, PLT, strength.

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Authors: Chava Sunil Kumar, P.S. Subrahmanyan, J. Amarnath

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In this paper variation of spot price and total profits of the generating companies- through wholesale electricity trading are discussed with and without Central Generating Stations (CGS) share and seasonal variations are also considered. It demonstrates how proper analysis of generators- efficiencies and capabilities, types of generators owned, fuel costs, transmission losses and settling price variation using the solutions of Optimal Power Flow (OPF), can allow companies to maximize overall revenue. It illustrates how solutions of OPF can be used to maximize companies- revenue under different scenarios. And is also extended to computation of Available Transfer Capability (ATC) is very important to the transmission system security and market forecasting. From these results it is observed that how crucial it is for companies to plan their daily operations and is certainly useful in an online environment of deregulated power system. In this paper above tasks are demonstrated on 124 bus real-life Indian utility power system of Andhra Pradesh State Grid and results have been presented and analyzed.

Keywords: OPF, ATC, Electricity Market, Bid, Spot Price

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Authors: N. H. Harun, A. S. Abdul Nasir, M. Y. Mashor, R. Hassan

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Leukaemia is a blood cancer disease that contributes to the increment of mortality rate in Malaysia each year. There are two main categories for leukaemia, which are acute and chronic leukaemia. The production and development of acute leukaemia cells occurs rapidly and uncontrollable. Therefore, if the identification of acute leukaemia cells could be done fast and effectively, proper treatment and medicine could be delivered. Due to the requirement of prompt and accurate diagnosis of leukaemia, the current study has proposed unsupervised pixel segmentation based on clustering algorithm in order to obtain a fully segmented abnormal white blood cell (blast) in acute leukaemia image. In order to obtain the segmented blast, the current study proposed three clustering algorithms which are k-means, fuzzy c-means and moving k-means algorithms have been applied on the saturation component image. Then, median filter and seeded region growing area extraction algorithms have been applied, to smooth the region of segmented blast and to remove the large unwanted regions from the image, respectively. Comparisons among the three clustering algorithms are made in order to measure the performance of each clustering algorithm on segmenting the blast area. Based on the good sensitivity value that has been obtained, the results indicate that moving kmeans clustering algorithm has successfully produced the fully segmented blast region in acute leukaemia image. Hence, indicating that the resultant images could be helpful to haematologists for further analysis of acute leukaemia.

Keywords: Acute Leukaemia Images, Clustering Algorithms, Image Segmentation, Moving k-Means.

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Authors: S. Nurdiana, A. S. Nor Haziqah, M. K. Nur Ezwa Khairunnisa, S. Nurul `Izzati, Y. Siti Amna M. J. Norashirene, I. Nur Hilwani

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Azadirachta excelsa or locally known as sentang are frequently used as a traditional medicine by diabetes patients in Malaysia. However, less attention has been given to their toxicity effect. Thus, the study is an attempt to examine the protective effect of A. excelsa on the pancreas and to determine possible toxicity mediated by the extract. Diabetes was induced experimentally in rats by high-fat-diet for 16 weeks followed by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin at dosage of 35 mg/kg of body weight. Declination of the fasting blood glucose level was observed after continuous administration of A. excelsa for 14 days twice daily. This is due to the refining structure of the pancreas. However, surprisingly, the plant extract reduced the leukocytes, erythrocytes, hemoglobin, MCHC and lymphocytes. In addition, the rat treated with the plant extract exhibited increment in AST and eosinocytes level. Overall, the finding shows that A. excelsa possesses antidiabetic activity by improving the structure of pancreatic islet of Langerhans but involved in ameliorating of hematology and biochemical parameters.

Keywords: Azadirachta excelsa, diabetes, pancreas, hematobiochemical parameters.

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Authors: E. Fosch-Villaronga

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This paper pioneers Care Robot Impact Assessment (CRIA), a methodology used to identify, analyze, mitigate and eliminate the risks posed by the insertion of non-medical personal care robots (PCR) in medical care facilities. Its precedent instruments [Privacy and Surveillance Impact Assessment (PIA and SIA)] fall behind in coping with robots. Indeed, personal care robots change dramatically how care is delivered. The paper presents a specific risk-sector methodology, identifies which robots are under its scope and presents some of the challenges introduced by these robots.

Keywords: Ethics, Impact Assessment, Law, Personal Care Robots.

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Authors: Kriddikorn Kaewwongsri, Nikom Suvonvorn

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In the deep south of Thailand, checkpoints for people verification are necessary for the security management of risk zones, such as official buildings in the conflict area. In this paper, we propose an automatic checkpoint system that verifies persons using information from ID cards and facial features. The methods for a person’s information abstraction and verification are introduced based on useful information such as ID number and name, extracted from official cards, and facial images from videos. The proposed system shows promising results and has a real impact on the local society.

Keywords: Face comparison, card recognition, OCR, checkpoint system, authentication.

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Authors: Lara Dutil-Fafard, Caroline Rhéaume, Patrick Archambault, Daniel Lafond, Neal W. Pollock

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Improving resources for medical autonomy of astronauts in prolonged space missions, such as a Mars mission, requires not only technology development, but also decision-making support systems. The Advanced Crew Medical System - Medical Condition Requirements study, funded by the Canadian Space Agency, aimed to create knowledge content and a scenario-based query capability to support medical autonomy of astronauts. The key objective of this study was to create a prototype tool for identifying medical infrastructure requirements in terms of medical knowledge, skills and materials. A multicriteria decision-making method was used to prioritize the highest risk medical events anticipated in a long-term space mission. Starting with those medical conditions, event sequence diagrams (ESDs) were created in the form of decision trees where the entry point is the diagnosis and the end points are the predicted outcomes (full recovery, partial recovery, or death/severe incapacitation). The ESD formalism was adapted to characterize and compare possible outcomes of medical conditions as a function of available medical knowledge, skills, and supplies in a given mission scenario. An extensive literature review was performed and summarized in a medical condition database. A PostgreSQL relational database was created to allow query-based evaluation of health outcome metrics with different medical infrastructure scenarios. Critical decision points, skill and medical supply requirements, and probable health outcomes were compared across chosen scenarios. The three medical conditions with the highest risk rank were acute coronary syndrome, sepsis, and stroke. Our efforts demonstrate the utility of this approach and provide insight into the effort required to develop appropriate content for the range of medical conditions that may arise.

Keywords: Decision support system, event sequence diagram, exploration mission, medical autonomy, scenario-based queries, space medicine.

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Authors: Guanqun Shi, Xueqing Zhang

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The frequent occurrence of failures in PPP projects which caused great loss has raised attention from the government as well as the concessionaire. PPPs are complex arrangements for its long operation period and multiple players. Many types of risks in PPP projects may cause the project fail. The insurance is an important tool to transfer the risks. Through a comparison and analysis of international government PPP guidelines and contracts as well as the case studies worldwide, we have identified eight main insurance principles, discussed thirteen insurance types in different stages. An overall procedure would be established to improve the practices in PPP projects.

Keywords: Public-private partnerships, insurance, contract, risk.

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Authors: Ilma Robo, Saimir Heta, Greta Plaka, Vera Ostreni

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Purpose: Drug gingival hyperplasia is an uncommon pathology encountered during routine work in dental units. The purpose of this paper is to present the clinical appearance of gingival hyperplasia caused by medications. There are already three classes of medications that cause hyperplasia and based on data from the literature, the clinical cases encountered and included in this study have been compared. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in a total of 311 patients, out of which 182 patients were included in our study, meeting the inclusion criteria. After each patient's history was recorded and it was found that patients were in their knowledge of chronic illness, undergoing treatment of gingivitis hypertrophic drugs was performed with a clinical examination of oral cavity and assessment by vertical and horizontal evaluation according to the periodontal indexes. Results: Of the data collected during the study, it was observed that 97% of patients with gingival hyperplasia are treated with nifedipine. 84% of patients treated with selected medicines and gingival hyperplasia in the oral cavity has been exposed at time period for more than 1 year and 1 month. According to the GOI, in the first rank of this index are about 21% of patients, in the second rank are 52%, in the third rank are 24% and in the fourth grade are 3%. According to the horizontal growth index of gingival hyperplasia, grade 1 included about 61% of patients and grade 2 included about 39% of patients with gingival hyperplasia. Bacterial index divides patients by degrees: grading 0 - 8.2%, grading 1 - 32.4%, grading 2 - 14% and grading 3 - 45.1%. Conclusions: The highest percentage of gingival hyperplasia caused by drugs is due to dosing of nifedipine for a duration of dosing and application for systemic healing for more than 1 year.

Keywords: Drug gingival hyperplasia, horizontal growth index, vertical growth index.

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Authors: Eman A. Embaby, Amira A. A. Abdallah

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Background: Occupational standing is associated with low back pain (LBP) development. Yet, trunk and gluteus-medius muscles’ fatigability has not been extensively studied during occupational standing. This study examined and correlated the rectus abdominus (RA), erector-spinae (ES), external oblique (EO), and gluteus-medius (GM) muscles’ fatigability on both sides while standing in a confined area for 30min Methods: Median frequency EMG data were collected from 15 female clinical instructors with chronic LBP (group A) and 15 asymptomatic controls (group B) (mean age 29.53±2.4 vs 29.07±2.4years, weight 63.6±7 vs 60±7.8kg, and height 162.73±4 vs 162.8±6cm respectively) using a spectrum analysis program. Data were collected in the first and last 5min of the standing task. Results: Using Mixed three-way ANOVA, group A showed significantly (p<0.05) lower frequencies for the right and left ES, and right GM in the last 5min and significantly higher frequencies for the left RA in the first and last 5min than group B. In addition, the left ES and right EO, ES and GM in group B showed significantly higher frequencies and the left ES in group A showed significantly lower frequencies in the last 5min compared with the first. Moreover, the right RA showed significantly higher frequencies than the left in the last 5min in group B. Finally, there were significant (p<0.05) correlations among the median frequencies of the tested four muscles on the same side and between both sides in both groups. Discussion/Conclusions: Clinical instructors with LBP are more liable to have higher trunk and gluteus-medius muscle fatigue than asymptomatic individuals. Thus, endurance training for these muscles should be included in the rehabilitation of such patients.

Keywords: EMG, Fatigability, Gluteus-medius, LBP, Standing, Trunk.

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Authors: M. Ramadan, B. Salah

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This paper introduces a framework to digitalize lean manufacturing tools to enhance smart lean-based manufacturing environments or Lean 4.0 manufacturing systems. The paper discusses the integration between lean tools and the powerful features of recent real-time data capturing systems with the help of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to develop an intelligent real-time monitoring and controlling system of production operations concerning lean targets. This integration is represented in the Lean 4.0 system called Dynamic Value Stream Mapping (DVSM). Moreover, the paper introduces the practice of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and ICT to smartly support lean tools and practices during daily production runs to keep the lean system alive and effective. This work introduces a practical description of how the lean method tools 5S, standardized work, and poka-yoke can be digitalized and smartly monitored and controlled through DVSM. A framework of the three tools has been discussed and put into practice in a German switchgear manufacturer.

Keywords: Lean manufacturing, Industry 4.0, radio frequency identification, value stream mapping.

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Authors: Scott N. Gerard, Aliza Heching, Susann M. Keohane, Samuel S. Adams

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The world-wide population of people over 60 years of age is growing rapidly. The explosion is placing increasingly onerous demands on individual families, multiple industries and entire countries. Current, human-intensive approaches to eldercare are not sustainable, but IoT and AI technologies can help. The Knowledge Reactor (KR) is a contextual, data fusion engine built to address this and other similar problems. It fuses and centralizes IoT and System of Record/Engagement data into a reactive knowledge graph. Cognitive applications and services are constructed with its multiagent architecture. The KR can scale-up and scaledown, because it exploits container-based, horizontally scalable services for graph store (JanusGraph) and pub-sub (Kafka) technologies. While the KR can be applied to many domains that require IoT and AI technologies, this paper describes how the KR specifically supports the challenging domain of cognitive eldercare. Rule- and machine learning-based analytics infer activities of daily living from IoT sensor readings. KR scalability, adaptability, flexibility and usability are demonstrated.

Keywords: Ambient sensing, AI, artificial intelligence, eldercare, IoT, internet of things, knowledge graph.

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Authors: A. Hol

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Electronic mediums such as websites, feeds, blogs and social media sites are on a daily basis influencing our decision making, are improving our productivity and are shaping futures of many consumers and service/product providers. This research identifies that both customers and business providers heavily rely on smart phone applications. Based on this, mobile applications available on iTunes store were studied. It was identified that fruit and vegetable related applications used by consumers can broadly be categorized into purchase applications, diaries, tracking health applications, trip farm location and cooking applications. On the other hand, applications used by farmers can broadly be classified as: weather tracking, pests / fertilizer applications and general social media applications such as Facebook. To blur this farmer-consumer application divide, our research utilizes Context Specific eTransformation Framework and based on it identifies characteristic future consumer-farmer applications will need to have so that the current divide can be narrowed and consequently better farmerconsumer supply chain link established.

Keywords: Smart Phone Applications, SME, Farmers, Consumer, Fruit and Vegetable, Technology, Business Innovation.

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Authors: Leila Rashidian

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Temperature rise on Earth has had harmful effects on the Earth's surface and has led to change in precipitation patterns all around the world. The present research was aimed to study the process of climate change according to the data simulation in future and compare these parameters with current situation in the studied stations in Semnan province including Garmsar, Shahrood and Semnan. In this regard, LARS-WG software, HADCM₃ model and A₂ scenario were used for the 2010-2030 period. In this model, climatic parameters such as maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and radiation were used daily. The obtained results indicated that there will be a 4.4% increase in precipitation in Semnan province compared with the observed data, and in general, there will be a 1.9% increase in temperature. This temperature rise has significant impact on precipitation patterns. Most of precipitation will be raining (torrential rains in some cases). According to the results, from west to east, the country will experience more temperature rise and will be warmer.

Keywords: Climate change, Semnan province, LARS-WG model, climate parameters, HADCM3 model.

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Authors: Siddharth Ahuja, T. M. Muruganandam

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An analytical investigation is performed to study the unsteady response of a one-dimensional, non-linear dynamic shock system to external downstream pressure perturbations in a supersonic flow in a varying area duct. For a given pressure ratio across a wind tunnel, the normal shock's location can be computed as per one-dimensional steady gas dynamics. Similarly, for some other pressure ratio, the location of the normal shock will change accordingly, again computed using one-dimensional gas dynamics. This investigation focuses on the small-time interval between the first steady shock location and the new steady shock location (corresponding to different pressure ratios). In essence, this study aims to shed light on the motion of the shock from one steady location to another steady location. Further, this study aims to create the foundation of the Unsteady Gas Dynamics field enabling further insight in future research work. According to the new pressure ratio, a pressure pulse, generated at the exit of the tunnel which travels and perturbs the shock from its original position, setting it into motion. During such activity, other numerous physical phenomena also happen at the same time. However, three broad phenomena have been focused on, in this study - Traversal of a Wave, Fluid Element Interactions and Wave Interactions. The above mentioned three phenomena create, alter and kill numerous waves for different conditions. The waves which are created by the above-mentioned phenomena eventually interact with the shock and set it into motion. Numerous such interactions with the shock will slowly make it settle into its final position owing to the new pressure ratio across the duct, as estimated by one-dimensional gas dynamics. This analysis will be extremely helpful in the prediction of inlet 'unstart' of the flow in a supersonic engine intake and its prominence with the incoming flow Mach number, incoming flow pressure and the external perturbation pressure is also studied to help design more efficient supersonic intakes for engines like ramjets and scramjets.

Keywords: Analytical investigation, compression and expansion waves, fluid element interactions, shock trajectory, supersonic flow, unsteady gas dynamics, varying area duct, wave interactions.

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Authors: Shireen Simon

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This study explores the interactions between primary school parents-teachers in Malaysia. Schools in the country are organized to promote participation between parents and teachers. Exchanges of dialogue are most valued between parents and teachers because teachers are in daily contact with pupils’ and the first line of communication with parents. Teachers are considered by parents as the most important connection to improve children learning and well-being. Without a good communication, interaction or involvement between parent-teacher might tarnish a pupils’ performance in school. This study tries to find out multiple emotions among primary school parents-teachers, either estranged or cordial, when they communicate in a multi-cultured society in Malaysia. Important issues related to parent-teacher interactions are discussed further. Parents’ involvement in an effort to boost better education in school is significantly more effective with parents’ involvement. Lastly, this article proposes some suggestions for parents and teachers to build a positive relationship with effective communication and establish more democratic open door policy.

Keywords: Multi-cultured society, parental involvement, parent-teacher relationships, parents’ interaction.

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Authors: E. A. Feilat, I. A. Metwally, S. Al-Matri, A. S. Al-Abri

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive investigation of five blackouts that occurred on 28 August to 8 September 2011 due to bushing failures of the 132/33 kV, 125 MVA transformers at JBB Ali Grid station. The investigation aims to explore the root causes of the bushing failures and come up with recommendations that help in rectifying the problem and avoiding the reoccurrence of similar type of incidents. The incident reports about the failed bushings and the SCADA reports at this grid station were examined and analyzed. Moreover, comprehensive power quality field measurements at ten 33/11 kV substations (S/Ss) in JBB Ali area were conducted, and frequency scans were performed to verify any harmonic resonance frequencies due to power factor correction capacitors. Furthermore, the daily operations of the on-load tap changers (OLTCs) of both the 125 MVA and 20 MVA transformers at JBB Ali Grid station have been analyzed. The investigation showed that the five bushing failures were due to a local problem, i.e. internal degradation of the bushing insulation. This has been confirmed by analyzing the time interval between successive OLTC operations of the faulty grid transformers. It was also found that monitoring the number of OLTC operations can help in predicting bushing failure.

Keywords: Modeling and simulation, power system, transformer, bushing, OLTC, power quality, partial discharge.

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Authors: O. Badagadze, G. Sirbiladze, I. Khutsishvili

Abstract:

The work proposes a decision support methodology for the credit risk minimization in selection of investment projects. The methodology provides two stages of projects’ evaluation. Preliminary selection of projects with minor credit risks is made using the Expertons Method. The second stage makes ranking of chosen projects using the Possibilistic Discrimination Analysis Method. The latter is a new modification of a well-known Method of Fuzzy Discrimination Analysis.

Keywords: Expert valuations, expertons, investment project risks, positive and negative discriminations, possibility distribution.

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Authors: B. Selma

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of SIPINA method to predict the harmfulness parameters controlling the seismic response. The approach developed takes into consideration both the focal depth and the peak ground acceleration. The parameter to determine is displacement. The data used for the learning of this method and analysis nonlinear seismic are described and applied to a class of models damaged to some typical structures of the existing urban infrastructure of Jassy, Romania. The results obtained indicate an influence of the focal depth and the peak ground acceleration on the displacement.

Keywords: SIPINA method, seism, focal depth, peak ground acceleration, displacement.

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Authors: Mahmoud R. Shaghaghian

Abstract:

Amount of dissolve oxygen in a river has a great direct affect on aquatic macroinvertebrates and this would influence on the region ecosystem indirectly. In this paper it is tried to predict dissolved oxygen in rivers by employing an easy Fuzzy Logic Modeling, Wang Mendel method. This model just uses previous records to estimate upcoming values. For this purpose daily and hourly records of eight stations in Au Sable watershed in Michigan, United States are employed for 12 years and 50 days period respectively. Calculations indicate that for long period prediction it is better to increase input intervals. But for filling missed data it is advisable to decrease the interval. Increasing partitioning of input and output features influence a little on accuracy but make the model too time consuming. Increment in number of input data also act like number of partitioning. Large amount of train data does not modify accuracy essentially, so, an optimum training length should be selected.

Keywords: Dissolved oxygen, Au Sable, fuzzy logic modeling, Wang Mendel.

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