Search results for: biological sample

Authors: H. Iranmanesh, M. R. Skandari, M. Allahverdiloo

Abstract:

Project managers are the ultimate responsible for the overall characteristics of a project, i.e. they should deliver the project on time with minimum cost and with maximum quality. It is vital for any manager to decide a trade-off between these conflicting objectives and they will be benefited of any scientific decision support tool. Our work will try to determine optimal solutions (rather than a single optimal solution) from which the project manager will select his desirable choice to run the project. In this paper, the problem in project scheduling notated as (1,T|cpm,disc,mu|curve:quality,time,cost) will be studied. The problem is multi-objective and the purpose is finding the Pareto optimal front of time, cost and quality of a project (curve:quality,time,cost), whose activities belong to a start to finish activity relationship network (cpm) and they can be done in different possible modes (mu) which are non-continuous or discrete (disc), and each mode has a different cost, time and quality . The project is constrained to a non-renewable resource i.e. money (1,T). Because the problem is NP-Hard, to solve the problem, a meta-heuristic is developed based on a version of genetic algorithm specially adapted to solve multi-objective problems namely FastPGA. A sample project with 30 activities is generated and then solved by the proposed method.

Keywords: FastPGA, Multi-Execution Activity Mode, ParetoOptimality, Project Scheduling, Time-Cost-Quality Trade-Off.

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Authors: Mokgadi Moletsane-Kekae, Robert Kananga Mukuna

Abstract:

The study focused on the analysis of the Adjusted Rorschach Comprehensive System’s responses. The objective of this study is to analyse the participants’ response rate of the Adjusted Rorschach Comprehensive System with regards to critical psychology approach. The use of critical psychology theory in this study was crucial because it responds to the current inadequate western theory or practice in the field of psychology. The study adopted a qualitative approach and a case study design. The study was grounded on interpretivist paradigm. The sample size comprised six learners (three boys and three girls, aged of 14 years) from historically disadvantaged school in the Western Cape, South Africa. The Adjusted Rorschach Comprehensive System (ARCS) administration procedure, biographical information, semi-structured interviews, and observation were used to collect data. Data was analysed using thematic framework. The study found out that, factors that increased the response rates during the administration of ARCS were, language, seating arrangement, drawing, viewing, and describing. The study recommended that, psychological test designers take into consideration the philosophy or worldviews of the local people for whom the test is designed to minimize low response rates.

Keywords: Adjusted Rorschach comprehensive system, critical psychology, learners, responses.

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Authors: Lara F. Horani, Shurong Tong

Abstract:

Identification of customer requirements and their preferences are the starting points in the process of product design. Most of design methodologies focus on traditional requirements. But in the previous decade, the green products and the environment requirements have increasingly attracted the attention with the constant increase in the level of consumer awareness towards environmental problems (such as green-house effect, global warming, pollution and energy crisis, and waste management). Determining the importance weights for the customer requirements is an essential and crucial process. This paper used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach to evaluate and rate the customer requirements for green products. With respect to the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction, surveys are conducted using a five-point scale analysis. With the help of this scale, one can derive the weight vectors. This approach can improve the imprecise ranking of customer requirements inherited from studies based on the conventional AHP. Furthermore, the AHP with extent analysis is simple and easy to implement to prioritize customer requirements. The research is based on collected data through a questionnaire survey conducted over a sample of 160 people belonging to different age, marital status, education and income groups in order to identify the customer preferences for green product requirements.

Keywords: Analytic hierarchy process, green product, customer requirements for green design, importance weights for the customer requirements.

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Authors: Javier Ordorica Villalvazo, Claudia Camargo Wilson, Jesus Everardo Olguin Tiznado

Abstract:

This paper presents an experimental case using sensory thermography to describe temperatures behavior on median nerve once an activity of repetitive motion was done. Thermography is a noninvasive technique without biological hazard and not harm at all times and has been applied in many experiments to seek for temperature patterns that help to understand diseases like cancer and cumulative trauma disorders (CTD’s). An infrared sensory thermography technology was developed to execute this study. Three women in good shape were selected for the repetitive motion tests for 4 days, two right-handed women and 1 left handed woman, two sensory thermographers were put on both median nerve wrists to get measures. The evaluation time was of 3 hours 30 minutes in a controlled temperature, 20 minutes of stabilization time at the beginning and end of the operation. Temperatures distributions are statistically evaluated and showed similar temperature patterns behavior.

Keywords: Median nerve, temperature, sensory thermography, wrists, CTD’s.

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Authors: T. Shyam Ramanath, A. Sudharsan, A. Kavitha

Abstract:

As is needless to say; a majority of accidents, which occur, are due to drunk driving. As such, there is no effective mechanism to prevent this. Here we have designed an integrated system for the same purpose. Alcohol content in the driver-s body is detected by means of an infrared breath analyzer placed at the steering wheel. An infrared cell directs infrared energy through the sample and any unabsorbed energy at the other side is detected. The higher the concentration of ethanol, the more infrared absorption occurs (in much the same way that a sunglass lens absorbs visible light, alcohol absorbs infrared light). Thus the alcohol level of the driver is continuously monitored and calibrated on a scale. When it exceeds a particular limit the fuel supply is cutoff. If the device is removed also, the fuel supply will be automatically cut off or an alarm is sounded depending upon the requirement. This does not happen abruptly and special indicators are fixed at the back to avoid inconvenience to other drivers using the highway signals. Frame work for integration of sensors and control module in a scalable multi-agent system is provided .A SMS which contains the current GPS location of the vehicle is sent via a GSM module to the police control room to alert the police. The system is foolproof and the driver cannot tamper with it easily. Thus it provides an effective and cost effective solution for the problem of drunk driving in vehicles.

Keywords: Global system monitoring, global positioning system.

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Authors: V. Thulasi Bai, Srivatsa S. K.

Abstract:

Deaths from cardiovascular diseases have decreased substantially over the past two decades, largely as a result of advances in acute care and cardiac surgery. These developments have produced a growing population of patients who have survived a myocardial infarction. These patients need to be continuously monitored so that the initiation of treatment can be given within the crucial golden hour. The available conventional methods of monitoring mostly perform offline analysis and restrict the mobility of these patients within a hospital or room. Hence the aim of this paper is to design a Portable Cardiac Telemedicine System to aid the patients to regain their independence and return to an active work schedule, there by improving the psychological well being. The portable telemedicine system consists of a Wearable ECG Transmitter (WET) and a slightly modified mobile phone, which has an inbuilt ECG analyzer. The WET is placed on the body of the patient that continuously acquires the ECG signals from the high-risk cardiac patients who can move around anywhere. This WET transmits the ECG to the patient-s Bluetooth enabled mobile phone using blue tooth technology. The ECG analyzer inbuilt in the mobile phone continuously analyzes the heartbeats derived from the received ECG signals. In case of any panic condition, the mobile phone alerts the patients care taker by an SMS and initiates the transmission of a sample ECG signal to the doctor, via the mobile network.

Keywords: WET, ECG analyzer, Bluetooth, mobilecellular network, high risk cardiac patients.

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Authors: J. M. Owoyemi, O. S. Ogunrinde

Abstract:

The suitability of Newsprint and Kraft papers for the production of cement bonded ceiling board was investigated. Sample boards were produced from newsprint paper (100%), mixture of newsprint and Kraft paper (50:50) and Kraft paper (100%) at 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 cement/paper mixing ratio respectively with 3% additive concentration of calcium chloride (CaCl₂). Density, flexural and thickness swelling properties of the boards were investigated. The effects of paper type and mixing ratio on the physical and mechanical properties were also examined. The bending properties of the board which include Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) and Modulus of Rupture (MOR) increased linearly with increase in density. Modulus of rupture of boards increased as the density and mixing ratio increased. The thickness swelling property for the two paper types decreased as the board density and mixing ratio increased. Boards made from Kraft paper recorded higher strength values than the ones made from recycled newsprint paper while the mixture of kraft and newsprint papers had the best surface finish. The result of the study will help in managing the large quality of waste from paper converting/carton industry and that the ceiling boards produced could be installed with clout nails or used with suspended ceiling fittings.

Keywords: Cement, Kraft paper, Mixing ratio, Newsprint.

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Authors: Zeinab Hajifathali, Moghan Amirhosseinian

Abstract:

This study had two main aims: firstly, to determine how the individual substitution of CaO/MgO and CaO/SrO can affect the in vitro bioactivity of sol-gel derived substituted 58S bioactive glass (BG) and secondly to introduce a composition in the 60SiO₂–(36-x)CaO–4P₂O₅–(x)MgO and 60SiO₂–(36-x)CaO–4P₂O₅–(x)SrO quaternary systems (where x= 0, 5, 10 mol.%) with enhanced biocompatibility, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and more efficient antibacterial activity against MRSA bacteria. Results showed that both magnesium-substituted bioactive glasses (M-BGs) and strontium- substituted bioactive glasses (S-BGs) retarded the Hydroxyapatite (HA) formation. Meanwhile, magnesium had more pronounced effect. The 3-(4, 5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and ALP assays revealed that the presence of moderate amount (5 mol%) of Mg and Sr had a stimulating effect on increasing of both proliferation and differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. Live dead and Dapi/actin staining revealed both substitution of CaO/MgO and CaO/SrO resulted in more biocompatibility and stimulation potential of the MC3T3 cells compared with control. Taken together, among all of the synthesized magnesium substituted (MBGs) and strontium substituted (SBGs), the sample 58- BG with 5 mol% CaO/MgO substitution (BG-5M) was considered as a multifunctional biomaterial in bone tissue regeneration field with enhanced biocompatibility, ALP activity as well as the highest antibacterial efficiency against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.

Keywords: Apatite, alkaline earth, bioactivity, biomedical applications, sol-gel.

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Authors: A. Bagheri Garmarudi, M. Khanmohammadi, N. Khoddami, K. Shabani

Abstract:

Determination of nano particle size is substantial since the nano particle size exerts a significant effect on various properties of nano materials. Accordingly, proposing non-destructive, accurate and rapid techniques for this aim is of high interest. There are some conventional techniques to investigate the morphology and grain size of nano particles such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Vibrational spectroscopy is utilized to characterize different compounds and applied for evaluation of the average particle size based on relationship between particle size and near infrared spectra [1,4] , but it has never been applied in quantitative morphological analysis of nano materials. So far, the potential application of nearinfrared (NIR) spectroscopy with its ability in rapid analysis of powdered materials with minimal sample preparation, has been suggested for particle size determination of powdered pharmaceuticals. The relationship between particle size and diffuse reflectance (DR) spectra in near infrared region has been applied to introduce a method for estimation of particle size. Back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) as a nonlinear model was applied to estimate average particle size based on near infrared diffuse reflectance spectra. Thirty five different nano TiO2 samples with different particle size were analyzed by DR-FTNIR spectrometry and the obtained data were processed by BP- ANN.

Keywords: near infrared, particle size, chemometrics, neuralnetwork, nano structure.

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Authors: Voicu Petre, Oaida Mircea, Surugiu Petru

Abstract:

It is now unanimously accepted that conventional agriculture has led to the emergence and intensification of some forms of soil and environmental degradation, some of which are due to poorly applied or insufficiently substantiated technological measures. For this reason, the elaboration of any agricultural technology requires a deep knowledge of all the factors involved as well as of the interaction relations between them. This is also the way in which the research will be approached in this paper. Despite the fact that at European level the implementation of precision agriculture has a low level compared to some countries located on the American continent, it is emerging not only as an alternative to conventional agriculture but, as a viable way to preserve the quality of the environment in general, and the edaphic environment in particular. This gives an increased importance to the research in this paper through physical, chemical, biological, mineralogical and micromorphological analytical determinations, processing of analytical results, identification of processes, causes, factors, establishment of soil quality indicators and the perspective of measurements from distance by satellite techniques of some of these soil properties (humidity, temperature, pH, N, P, K and so on).

Keywords: Conventional agriculture, environmental degradation, precision agriculture, soil.

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Authors: S. Kumar, R. Sultana

Abstract:

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Aspergillus species on acridid populations which are major agricultural pests of rice, sugarcane, wheat, maize and fodder crops in Pakistan. Three and replicates i.e. Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus and A. niger, excluding the control, were held under laboratory conditions. It was observed that consumption faecal production of acridids was significantly reduced after the pathogenic application of Aspergillus. In the control replicate, the mortality ratio for stage (N₄-N₆) was maximum on day 2^nd i.e. [F_10.7 = 18.33, P < 0.05] followed by [F_4.20 = 07.85, P < 0.05] and [F_3.77 = 06.11, P < 0.05] on 4^th and 3^rd day, respectively. Similarly, it was a minimum i.e. [F_0.48 = 84.65, P < 0.05] on the 1^st day. It was also noted that faecal production of Acridid nymphs was not significantly affected when treated with conidial concentration in H₂O formulation; however, it was significantly reduced after the contamination with conidial concentration in oil. The high morality of acridids after contamination of Aspergillus supports their use as bio-control agent for reducing pest population. The present study recommends that exploration and screening must be conducted to provide additional pathogens for evaluation as potential biological control against grasshoppers and locusts.

Keywords: Acridid, agriculture, Aspergillus, formulation, Grasshoppers.

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Authors: R. Mousli, A. Tazerouti

Abstract:

This work deals with the synthesis and the determination of some surface properties of a new anionic surfactant belonging to sulfonamide derivatives. The interest in this new surfactant is that its behavior in aqueous solution is interesting both from a fundamental and a practice point of view. Indeed, it is well known that this kind of surfactant leads to the formation of bilayer structures, and the microstructures obtained have applications in various fields, ranging from cosmetics to detergents, to biological systems such as cell membranes and bioreactors. The surfactant synthesized from pure n-alkane by photosulfochlorination and derivatized using N-ethanol amine is a mixture of position isomers. These compounds have been analyzed by Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectrometry by Electron Impact mode (GC -MS/IE), and IR. The surface tension measurements were carried out, leading to the determination of the critical micelle concentration (CMC), surface excess and the area occupied per molecule at the interface. The foaming power has also been determined by Bartsch method, and the results have been compared to those of commercial surfactants. The stability of the foam formed has also been evaluated. These compounds show good foaming power characterized in most cases by dry foam.

Keywords: Non ionic surfactants, GC-MS, surface properties, CMC, foam power.

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Authors: Toan Vu Duc, Son Ha Viet

Abstract:

This research presents the first comprehensive survey of congener profiles (7 indicator congeners) of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in sediment samples covering ten sites in CauBay River, Vietnam. Chemical analyses were carried out in gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) for tri- to hepta- brominated congeners. Results pointed out a non-homogenous contamination of the sediment with ∑₇ PBDE values ranging from 8.93 to 25.64ng g⁻¹, reflecting moderate to low contamination closely in conformity to other Asian aquatic environments. The general order of decreasing congener contribution to the total load was: BDE 47 > 99 > 100 > 154, similar to the distribution pattern worldwide. PBDEs had rare risks in the sediment of studied area.  However, due to the propensity of PBDEs to accumulate in various compartments of wildlife and human food webs, evaluation of biological tissues should be undertaken as a high priority. 

Keywords: Residue, Risk assessment, PBDEs, Sediment.

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Authors: H. Iranmanesh, M. R. Skandari, M. Allahverdiloo

Abstract:

Project managers are the ultimate responsible for the overall characteristics of a project, i.e. they should deliver the project on time with minimum cost and with maximum quality. It is vital for any manager to decide a trade-off between these conflicting objectives and they will be benefited of any scientific decision support tool. Our work will try to determine optimal solutions (rather than a single optimal solution) from which the project manager will select his desirable choice to run the project. In this paper, the problem in project scheduling notated as (1,T|cpm,disc,mu|curve:quality,time,cost) will be studied. The problem is multi-objective and the purpose is finding the Pareto optimal front of time, cost and quality of a project (curve:quality,time,cost), whose activities belong to a start to finish activity relationship network (cpm) and they can be done in different possible modes (mu) which are non-continuous or discrete (disc), and each mode has a different cost, time and quality . The project is constrained to a non-renewable resource i.e. money (1,T). Because the problem is NP-Hard, to solve the problem, a meta-heuristic is developed based on a version of genetic algorithm specially adapted to solve multi-objective problems namely FastPGA. A sample project with 30 activities is generated and then solved by the proposed method.

Keywords: FastPGA, Multi-Execution Activity Mode, Pareto Optimality, Project Scheduling, Time-Cost-Quality Trade-Off.

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Authors: Yuan-Hong Ho, Chiung-Ju Huang

Abstract:

Previous studies on political budget cycles (PBCs) implicitly assume the executive has full discretion power over fiscal policy, neglecting the role of checks and balances of the legislature. This paper goes beyond traditional PBCs models and sheds light on the case study of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan over the 1988-2007 periods. Based on the results, we find no evidence of electoral impacts on the public expenditures in South Korean and Taiwan's congressional elections. We also noted that PBCs are found on Taiwan-s government expenditures during our sample periods. Furthermore, the results also show that Japan-s legislature has a significant checks and balances on government-s expenditures. However, empirical results show that the legislature veto player in Taiwan neither has effect on the reduction of public expenditures, nor has the moderating effect over Taiwan-s political budget cycles, albeit that they are statistically insignificant.We suggest that the existence of PBCs in Taiwan is due to a weaker systemof checks and balances. Our conjecture is that Taiwan either has no legislative veto player or has observed low compliance to the law during the time period examined in our study.

Keywords: Checks and balances, compliance to the law, political budget cycles, veto player.

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Authors: Mahdi Taghipour Masoumi, Ali Abdi Kordani, Mahmoud Nazirizad

Abstract:

Geosynthetics utilization plays an important role in the construction of highways with no additive layers, such as asphalt concrete or cement concrete, or in a subgrade layer which affects the bearing capacity of unbounded layers. This laboratory experimental study was carried out to evaluate changes in the load bearing capacity of reinforced soil with these materials in highway roadbed with regard to geotextile properties. California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test samples were prepared with two types of soil: Clayey and sandy containing non-reinforced and reinforced soil. The samples comprised three types of geotextiles with different characteristics (150, 200, 300 g/m²) and depths (H= 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 mm), and were grouped into two forms, one-layered and two-layered, based on the sample materials in order to perform defined tests. The results showed that the soil bearing characteristics increased when one layer of geotextile was used in clayey and sandy samples reinforced by geotextile. However, the bearing capacity of the soil, in the presence of a geotextile layer material with depth of more than 30 mm, had no remarkable effect. Furthermore, when the two-layered geotextile was applied in material samples, although it increased the soil resistance, it also showed that through the addition of a number or weights of geotextile into samples, the natural composition of the soil changed and the results are unreliable.

Keywords: Reinforced soil, geosynthetics, geotextile, transportation capacity, CBR experiments.

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Authors: Maurizio Dapor, Isabel Abril, Pablo de Vera, Rafael Garcia-Molina

Abstract:

The ionization yield of ion tracks in polymers and bio-molecular systems reaches a maximum, known as the Bragg peak, close to the end of the ion trajectories. Along the path of the ions through the materials, many electrons are generated, which produce a cascade of further ionizations and, consequently, a shower of secondary electrons. Among these, very low energy secondary electrons can produce damage in the biomolecules by dissociative electron attachment. This work deals with the calculation of the energy distribution of electrons produced by protons in a sample of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), a material that is used as a phantom for living tissues in hadron therapy. PMMA is also of relevance for microelectronics in CMOS technologies and as a photoresist mask in electron beam lithography. We present a Monte Carlo code that, starting from a realistic description of the energy distribution of the electrons ejected by protons moving through PMMA, simulates the entire cascade of generated secondary electrons. By following in detail the motion of all these electrons, we find the radial distribution of the energy that they deposit in PMMA for several initial proton energies characteristic of the Bragg peak.

Keywords: Monte Carlo method, secondary electrons, energetic ions, ion-beam cancer therapy, ionization cross section, polymethylmethacrylate, proton beams, secondary electrons, radial energy distribution.

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Authors: Walaa Khalaf, Calogero Pace, Manlio Gaudioso

Abstract:

We present an Electronic Nose (ENose), which is aimed at identifying the presence of one out of two gases, possibly detecting the presence of a mixture of the two. Estimation of the concentrations of the components is also performed for a volatile organic compound (VOC) constituted by methanol and acetone, for the ranges 40-400 and 22-220 ppm (parts-per-million), respectively. Our system contains 8 sensors, 5 of them being gas sensors (of the class TGS from FIGARO USA, INC., whose sensing element is a tin dioxide (SnO2) semiconductor), the remaining being a temperature sensor (LM35 from National Semiconductor Corporation), a humidity sensor (HIH–3610 from Honeywell), and a pressure sensor (XFAM from Fujikura Ltd.). Our integrated hardware–software system uses some machine learning principles and least square regression principle to identify at first a new gas sample, or a mixture, and then to estimate the concentrations. In particular we adopt a training model using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) approach with linear kernel to teach the system how discriminate among different gases. Then we apply another training model using the least square regression, to predict the concentrations. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed multiclassification and regression scheme is effective in the identification of the tested VOCs of methanol and acetone with 96.61% correctness. The concentration prediction is obtained with 0.979 and 0.964 correlation coefficient for the predicted versus real concentrations of methanol and acetone, respectively.

Keywords: Electronic nose, Least square regression, Mixture ofgases, Support Vector Machine.

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Authors: Ashish Pathak, Dong-Jin Kim, S. Singh, H. Srichandan, Byoung-Gon Kim

Abstract:

The desulfurization of coal using biological methods is an emerging technology. The biodesulfurization process uses the catalytic activity of chemolithotrophic acidpohiles in removing sulfur and pyrite from the coal. The present study was undertaken to examine the potential of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans in removing the pyritic sulfur and iron from high iron and sulfur containing US coal. The experiment was undertaken in 10 L batch stirred tank reactor having 10% pulp density of coal. The reactor was operated under mesophilic conditions and aerobic conditions were maintained by sparging the air into the reactor. After 35 days of experiment, about 64% of pyrite and 21% of pyritic sulfur was removed from the coal. The findings of the present study indicate that the biodesulfurization process does have potential in treating the high pyrite and sulfur containing coal. A good mass balance was also obtained with net loss of about 5% showing its feasibility for large scale application.

Keywords: At.ferrroxidans, Batch reactor, Coal desulfurization, Pyrite.

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Authors: Mutshinye Manguvhewa, Maria Florence, Mansoo Yu

Abstract:

Substance use among pregnant women is a perennial problem in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. There are many influential elements related with substance use among women of childbearing-age. Factors associated with substance use during pregnancy were explored using qualitative research approach and bio-ecological theoretical framework was utilised to guide the study. Participants were selected using purposive sampling. Participants accessed from the Department of Social Development who met the inclusion criteria of the study were interviewed using semi structured interviews. Participants were referred for psychological intervention during the interview if deemed necessary. Braun and Clarke’s six phases of thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. The study adhered to ethical measures for the participants’ protection. Participants had been knowledgeable about the study earlier than the initiation of the interviews and the important points of their voluntary participation had been explained. The key findings from this study illustrate that social factors, individual area and romantic relationship are the major contributing factors to substance use among pregnant ladies in this sample. Recommendations arising from the study encompass that the stakeholders, rehabilitation centers, Department of Health and future researchers ought to act proactively against substance use all through pregnancy.

Keywords: Bio-ecological factors, pregnancy risk awareness, antenatal care, substance use.

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Authors: Marcia T. Mitchell

Abstract:

This research uses computational linguistics, an area of study that employs a computer to process natural language, and aims at discerning the patterns that exist in declarative sentences used in technical texts. The approach is mathematical, and the focus is on instructional texts found on web pages. The technique developed by the author and named the MAYA Semantic Technique is used here and organized into four stages. In the first stage, the parts of speech in each sentence are identified. In the second stage, the subject of the sentence is determined. In the third stage, MAYA performs a frequency analysis on the remaining words to determine the verb and its object. In the fourth stage, MAYA does statistical analysis to determine the content of the web page. The advantage of the MAYA Semantic Technique lies in its use of mathematical principles to represent grammatical operations which assist processing and accuracy if performed on unambiguous text. The MAYA Semantic Technique is part of a proposed architecture for an entire web-based intelligent tutoring system. On a sample set of sentences, partial semantics derived using the MAYA Semantic Technique were approximately 80% accurate. The system currently processes technical text in one domain, namely Cµ programming. In this domain all the keywords and programming concepts are known and understood.

Keywords: Natural language understanding, computational linguistics, knowledge representation, linguistic theories.

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Authors: Amani Ashari, Julia Omar, Arif Hashim, Shahrul Hamid

Abstract:

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene polymorphism has influence on serum lipids which relates to cardiovascular risk. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency distribution of APOE alleles among Malaysian Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients with and without coronary artery disease (CAD) and their association with serum lipid profiles. A total of 115 patients were recruited in which 78 patients had Type 2 DM without CAD and 37 patients had Type 2 DM with CAD. The APOE polymorphism was detected by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The APOE ɛ3 allele was the most common one in both groups. There was no significant association between the APOE genotypes and the CAD status in Type 2 DM using Pearson χ² test. Further analysis indicated there were no significant differences in all lipid parameters between E2, E3 and E4 subgroups in both groups. The study showed that the E4 allele carriers of Type 2 DM with CAD patients had higher LDL-C level and lower HDL-C level compared to the other allele carriers. However, analyses showed these levels were not statistically different. The study also showed that the Type 2 DM with CAD group with E2 allele had higher triglyceride (TG). In conclusion, further study with larger sample size is needed to confirm role of E4 as a marker of CAD among Type 2 DM patients in Malaysian population.

Keywords: Apolipoprotein E, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, lipids.

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Authors: J. Franková, V. Pivodová, F. Růžička, J. Ulrichová

Abstract:

An implant elicits a biological response in the surrounding tissue which determines the acceptance and long-term function of the implant. Dental implants have become one of the main therapy methods in clinic after teeth lose. A successful implant is in contact with bone and soft tissue represent by fibroblasts. In our study we focused on the interaction between six different chemically and physically modified titanium implants (Tis-MALP, Tis-O, Tis- OA, Tis-OPAAE, Tis-OZ, Tis-OPAE) with alveolar fibroblasts as well as with five type of microorganisms (S. epidermis, S.mutans, S. gordonii, S. intermedius, C.albicans). The analysis of microorganism adhesion was determined by CFU (colony forming unite) and biofilm formation. The presence of α3β1 and vinculin expression on alveolar fibroblasts was demonstrated using phospho specific cell based ELISA (PACE). Alveolar fibroblasts have the highest expression of these proteins on Tis-OPAAE and Tis-OPAE. It corresponds with results from bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation and it was related to the lowest production of collagen I by alveolar fibroblasts on Tis-OPAAE titanium disc.

Keywords: titanium disc, alveolar fibroblasts, microorganisms, adhesion

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Authors: Norazah Mohd Suki, Norbayah Mohd Suki

Abstract:

This research aims to examine the influence of mediating effect of corporate social responsibility on the relationship between consumer awareness of green marketing and purchase intentions in the retail setting. Data from 200 valid questionnaires was analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach for the analysis of structural equation models with SmartPLS computer program version 2.0 as research data does not necessarily have a multivariate normal distribution and is less sensitive to sample size than other covariance approaches. PLS results revealed that corporate social responsibility partially mediated the link between consumer awareness of green marketing and purchase intentions of the product in the retail setting. Marketing managers should allocate a sufficient portion of their budget to appropriate corporate social responsibility activities by engaging in voluntary programs for positive return on investment leading to increased business profitability and long run business sustainability. The outcomes of the mediating effects of corporate social responsibility add a new impetus to the growing literature and preceding discoveries on consumer green marketing awareness, which is inadequately researched in the Malaysian setting. Direction for future research is also presented.

Keywords: Green marketing awareness, corporate social responsibility, partial least squares, purchase intention.

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Authors: S. Sarumathi, M. Vaishnavi, S. Geetha, P. Ranjetha

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Machine learning is a new and exciting area of artificial intelligence nowadays. Machine learning is the most valuable, time, supervised, and cost-effective approach. It is not a narrow learning approach; it also includes a wide range of methods and techniques that can be applied to a wide range of complex realworld problems and time domains. Biological image classification, adaptive testing, computer vision, natural language processing, object detection, cancer detection, face recognition, handwriting recognition, speech recognition, and many other applications of machine learning are widely used in research, industry, and government. Every day, more data are generated, and conventional machine learning techniques are becoming obsolete as users move to distributed and real-time operations. By providing fundamental knowledge of machine learning tools and research opportunities in the field, the aim of this article is to serve as both a comprehensive overview and a guide. A diverse set of machine learning resources is demonstrated and contrasted with the key features in this survey.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, machine learning algorithms, machine learning tools.

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Authors: F. Rashno Seydari, M. Nikafrooz

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This paper intends to study needs analysis of hearing-impaired students’ teachers in elementary schools all over Iran. The subjects of this study were 275 teachers who were teaching hearing-impaired students in elementary schools. The participants were selected by a quota sampling method. To collect the data, questionnaires of training needs consisting of 41 knowledge items and 31 performance items were used. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software in the form of descriptive analyses (frequency and mean) and inferential analyses (one sample t-test, paired t-test, independent t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient). The findings of the study indicated that teachers generally have considerable needs in knowledge and performance domains. In 32 items out of the total 41 knowledge domain items and in the 27 items out of the total 31 performance domain items, the teachers had considerable needs. From the quantitative point of view, the needs of the performance domain were more than those of the knowledge domain, so they have to be considered as the first priority in training these teachers. There was no difference between the level of the needs of male and female teachers. There was a significant difference between the knowledge and performance domain needs and the teachers’ teaching experience, 0.354 and 0.322 respectively. The teachers who had been trained in working with hearing-impaired students expressed more training needs (both knowledge and performance).

Keywords: Needs analysis, hearing impaired students, hearing impaired students’ teachers, knowledge domain, performance domain.

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Authors: Samira Vafaye Eslahi

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BCI (Brain Computer Interface) is a communication machine that translates brain massages to computer commands. These machines with the help of computer programs can recognize the tasks that are imagined. Feature extraction is an important stage of the process in EEG classification that can effect in accuracy and the computation time of processing the signals. In this study we process the signal in three steps of active segment selection, fractal feature extraction, and classification. One of the great challenges in BCI applications is to improve classification accuracy and computation time together. In this paper, we have used student’s 2D sample t-statistics on continuous wavelet transforms for active segment selection to reduce the computation time. In the next level, the features are extracted from some famous fractal dimension estimation of the signal. These fractal features are Katz and Higuchi. In the classification stage we used ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System) classifier, FKNN (Fuzzy K-Nearest Neighbors), LDA (Linear Discriminate Analysis), and SVM (Support Vector Machines). We resulted that active segment selection method would reduce the computation time and Fractal dimension features with ANFIS analysis on selected active segments is the best among investigated methods in EEG classification.

Keywords: EEG, Student’s t- statistics, BCI, Fractal Features, ANFIS, FKNN.

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Authors: Sevgi Birsel Nemlioğlu, Hasan Atak

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Aggression is a behavior that cannot be approved by the society. Vandalism which is aggression towards objects is an action that tends to damage public or personal property. The behaviors that are described as vandalism can often be observed in the schools as well. According to Zwier and Vaughan (1) previous research about the reasons of and precautionary measures for vandalism in schools can be grouped in three tendency categories: conservative, liberal and radical. In this context, the main aim of this study is to discover which ideological tendency of the reasons of school vandalism is adopted by the teachers and what are their physical, environmental, school system and societal solutions for vandalism. A total of 200 teachers participated in this study, and the mean age was 34.20 years (SD = 6.54). The sample was made up of 109 females and 91 males. For the analysis of the data, SPSS 15.00, frequency, percentage, and t-test were used. The research showed that the teachers have tendencies in the order of conservative, liberal and radical for the reasons of vandalism. The research also showed that the teachers do not have any tendency for eliminating vandalism physically and general solutions on the level of society; on the other hand they mostly adopt a conservative tendency in terms of precautions against vandalism in the school system. Second most, they adopt the liberal tendency in terms of precautions against vandalism in the school system. . It is observed that the findings of this study are comparable to the existing literature on the subject. Future studies should be conducted with multiple variants and bigger sampling.

Keywords: Vandalism, School, Vandal, Turkey, Teacher, Tendency.

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Authors: Shu-Yin Yu

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With the advancement of artificial intelligence technology, most companies are aware of the profound potential of artificial intelligence in commercial marketing. Man-machine dialogue has become the latest trend in marketing customer service. However, chatbots are often considered to be lack of intelligent or unfriendly conversion, which instead reduces the communication effect of chatbots. To ensure that chatbots represent the brand image and provide a good user experience, companies and users attach great importance. In this study, customer service chatbot was used as the research sample. The research variables are based on the theory of artificial intelligence emotions, integrating the technology acceptance model and innovation diffusion theory, and the three aspects of pleasure, arousal, and dominance of the human-machine PAD (Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance) dimension. The results show that most of the participants have a higher acceptance of innovative technologies and are high pleasure and arousal in the user experience. Participants still have traditional gender (female) service stereotypes about customer service chatbots. Users who have high trust in using chatbots can easily enhance brand acceptance and easily accept brand messages, extend the trust of chatbots to trust in the brand, and develop a positive attitude towards the brand.

Keywords: Brand attitude, chatbot, emotional interaction, user experience.

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Authors: Pariwat Somnuek

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This study focused on tourism logistic services in the border areas of Thailand by an analysis and comparison of the opinions of tourists, villagers, and entrepreneurs of these services. Sample representatives of this study were a total of 600 villagers and 15 entrepreneurs in the three border areas consisting of Chong Anma, Chong Sa-Ngam, and Chong Jom checkpoints. For methodology, survey questionnaires, situation analysis, TOWS matrix, and focus group discussions were used for data collection, as well as descriptive analysis and statistics such as arithmetic means and standard deviations, were employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that business potential was at the medium level and entrepreneurs were satisfied with their turnovers. However, perspectives of transportation and tourism services provided for tourists need to be immediately improved. Recommendations for the potential development included promotion of border tourism destinations and foreign investments into accommodation, restaurants, and transport, as well as the establishment of business networks between Thailand and Cambodia, along with the introduction of new tourism destinations by co-operation between entrepreneurs in both countries. These initiatives may lead to increased visitors, collaboration of security offices, and an improved image of tourism security.

Keywords: Business potential, potential development, tourism logistics, services.

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