Search results for: basic period.

Authors: Manoj Sarda, Abhishek Agarwal, Juhi Kaushik, Vatsal Sanjay, Arup Kumar Das

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Railways in India remain primary mode of transport having one of the largest networks in the world and catering to billions of transits yearly. Catastrophic economic damage and loss to life is encountered over the past few decades due to fire to locomotives. Study of fire dynamics and fire propagation plays an important role in evacuation planning and reducing losses. Simulation based study of propagation of fire and soot inside an air conditioned coach of Indian locomotive is done in this paper. Finite difference based solver, Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) version 6 has been used for analysis. A single air conditioned 3 tier coupe closed to ambient surroundings by glass windows having occupancy for 8 people is the basic unit of the domain. A system of three such coupes combined is taken to be fundamental unit for the entire study to resemble effect to an entire coach. Analysis of flame and soot contours and concentrations is done corresponding to variations in heat release rate per unit volume (HRRPUA) of fire source, variations in conditioned air velocity being circulated inside coupes by vents and an alternate fire initiation and propagation mechanism via ducts. Quantitative results of fractional area in top and front view of the three coupes under fire and smoke are obtained using MATLAB (IMT). Present simulations and its findings will be useful for organizations like Commission of Railway Safety and others in designing and implementing safety and evacuation measures.

Keywords: Air-conditioned coaches, fire propagation, flame contour, soot flow, train fire.

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Authors: Fauziah Hanim Tafri, Zarinah Hamid, Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera, Mohd Azmi Omar

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This paper examines the relationship between financial risks and profitability of the conventional and Islamic banks in Malaysia for the period between 1996 and 2005. The measures of profitability that have been used in the study are the return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) while the financial risks are credit risk, interest rate risk and liquidity risks. This study employs panel data regression analysis of Generalised Least Squares of fixed effects and random effects models. It was found that credit risk has a significant impact on ROA and ROE for the conventional as well as the Islamic banks. The relationship between interest rate risk and ROE were found to be weakly significant for the conventional banks and insignificant for the Islamic banks. The effect of interest rate risk on ROA is significant for the conventional banks. Liquidity risk was found to have an insignificant impact on both profitability measures.

Keywords: Credit risk, interest rate risk, liquidity risk, market risk, profitability.

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Authors: M. Top, H. Telli

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Plaster material has been a preferred material especially in the Middle East geography in terms of economy, easy process and thermal insulation since very old times. However, due to the unstable nature of the material, very little has been reached today. For this reason, both finds and studies about stucco ornamentation are very few. In this study, the excavated plasterwork finds used in the architectural ornamentation in the Hosap Castle (Van/Turkey) were considered worth examining since they are rare examples. The stucco relief finds that were found in the castle is discussed. The finds of engraved artifacts on the plasterworks were not addressed. Only the pieces found in Area II and Area III (harem) and surrounding during the cleaning and excavation work carried out at Hosap Kalesi between 2007-2015, will be discussed. This is a general assessment about the finds. It is unknown where many of the pieces found. For this reason, only general appraisal was able to done. Most of the parts are made of mold technique. The motifs on the fragments are similar to the motifs of Ottoman period tiles. Parallel to the settlement history of the castle, thought that these plaster pieces belong to the 16th-17th centuries.

Keywords: Stucco decoration, Eastern Anatolia, Ottoman motifs, ornamentation, plasterwork.

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Authors: Khaled Ramadan Elbeydi

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This study is carried out to provide an insight into the analysis of the impact of selected macro-economic variables on gross fixed capital formation in Libya using annual data over the period (1970-2010). The importance of this study comes from the ability to show the relative important factors that impact the Libyan gross fixed capital formation. This understanding would give indications to decision makers on which policy they must focus to stimulate the economy. An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modeling process is employed to investigate the impact of the Gross Domestic Product, Monetary Base and Trade Openness on Gross Fixed Capital Formation in Libya. The results of this study reveal that there is an equilibrium relationship between capital formation and its determinants. The results also indicate that GDP and trade openness largely explain the pattern of capital formation in Libya. The findings and recommendations provide vital information relevant for policy formulation and implementation aimed to improve capital formation in Libya.

Keywords: ARDL, Bounds test, capital formation, Cointegration, Libya.

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Authors: Dr. L.K. Singh, Dr. R. M. L, Riktesh Srivastava

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How to efficiently assign system resource to route the Client demand by Gateway servers is a tricky predicament. In this paper, we tender an enhanced proposal for autonomous recital of Gateway servers under highly vibrant traffic loads. We devise a methodology to calculate Queue Length and Waiting Time utilizing Gateway Server information to reduce response time variance in presence of bursty traffic. The most widespread contemplation is performance, because Gateway Servers must offer cost-effective and high-availability services in the elongated period, thus they have to be scaled to meet the expected load. Performance measurements can be the base for performance modeling and prediction. With the help of performance models, the performance metrics (like buffer estimation, waiting time) can be determined at the development process. This paper describes the possible queue models those can be applied in the estimation of queue length to estimate the final value of the memory size. Both simulation and experimental studies using synthesized workloads and analysis of real-world Gateway Servers demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system.

Keywords: Gateway Server, G/M/1 Queuing Model.

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Authors: Ekrem Erdem, Can Tansel Tugcu

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Improved resource efficiency of production is a key requirement for sustainable growth, worldwide. In this regards, by considering the energy and tourism as the extra inputs to the classical Coub-Douglas production function, this study aims at investigating the efficiency changes in the North African countries. To this end, the study uses panel data for the period 1995-2010 and adopts the Malmquist index based on the data envelopment analysis. Results show that tourism increases technical and scale efficiencies, while it decreases technological and total factor productivity changes. On the other hand, when the production function is augmented by the energy input; technical efficiency change decreases, while the technological change, scale efficiency change and total factor productivity change increase. Thus, in order to satisfy the needs for sustainable growth, North African governments should take some measures for increasing the contribution that the tourism makes to economic growth and some others for efficient use of resources in the energy sector.

Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, Economic efficiency, North African countries, Sustainable growth.

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Authors: Yen-Ting Wang, Yu-Tien Tsai, Tzuhui A. Tseng, I-Tsun Chiang, Alex J.Y. Lee

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This study examined the effects of neuromuscular training (NT) on limits of stability (LOS) in female individuals. Twenty female basketball amateurs were assigned into NT experimental group or control group by volunteer. All the players were underwent regular basketball practice, 90 minutes, 3 times per week for 6 weeks, but the NT experimental group underwent extra NT with plyometric and core training, 50 minutes, 3 times per week for 6 weeks during this period. Limits of stability (LOS) were evaluated by the Biodex Balance System. One factor ANCOVA was used to examine the differences between groups after training. The significant level for statistic was set at p<.05. Results showed that the right direction LOS scores at level 3 indicated a significant interaction between the trained/untrained groups × pre/post repeated measures with post-training scores higher than pre-training scores in the NT experimental group. The study demonstrated that Six weeks NT can improve the postural stability in young female individuals.

Keywords: Balance control, neuromuscular control and posture stability.

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Authors: L. S. Godlevsky, N. V. Kresyun, V. P. Martsenyuk, K. S. Shakun, T. V. Tatarchuk, K. O. Prybolovets, L. F. Kalinichenko, M. Karpinski, T. Gancarczyk

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Structures of eye bottom were extracted using multiscale texture gradient method and color characteristics of macular zone and vessels were verified in CIELAB scale. The difference of average values of L*, a* and b* coordinates of CIE (International Commision of Illumination) scale in patients with diabetes and healthy volunteers was compared. The average value of L* in diabetic patients exceeded such one in the group of practically healthy persons by 2.71 times (P < 0.05), while the value of a* index was reduced by 3.8 times when compared with control one (P < 0.05). b* index exceeded such one in the control group by 12.4 times (P < 0.05). The integrated index on color difference (ΔE) exceeded control value by 2.87 times (P < 0.05). More pronounced differences with ΔE were followed by a shorter period of MA appearance with a correlation level at -0.56 (P < 0.05). The specificity of diagnostics raised by 2.17 times (P < 0.05) and negative prognostic index exceeded such one determined with the expert method by 2.26 times (P < 0.05).

Keywords: Diabetic retinopathy, multiscale texture gradient, color spectrum analysis.

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Authors: Nuray Gökçek Karaca, Berrin Gökçek

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Employers occupational safety and health training obligations are regulated in 89/391/EEC Framework Directive and also in 6331 numbered Occupational Health and Safety Law in Turkey. The main objective of this research is to determine and evaluate the employers’ occupational health and safety training obligations in Framework Directive in comparison with the 6331 numbered Occupational Health and Safety Law and to examine training principles in Turkey. For this purpose, employers’ occupational health and safety training obligations examined in Framework Directive and Occupational Health and Safety Law. This study carried out through comparative scanning model and literature model. The research data were collected through European Agency and ministry legislations. As a result, employers’ occupational health and safety training obligations in the 6331 numbered Occupational Health and Safety Law are compatible with the 89/391/EEC numbered Framework Directive and training principles are determined by in different ways like the trained workers, training issues, training period, training time and trainers. In this study, employers’ training obligations are evaluated in detail.

Keywords: Directive, occupational health and safety, training.

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Authors: L. Basha, E. Gjika

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The exchange rate is one of the most important economic variables, especially for a small, open economy such as Albania. Its effect is noticeable on one country's competitiveness, trade and current account, inflation, wages, domestic economic activity and bank stability. This study investigates the fluctuation of Albania’s exchange rates using monthly average foreign currency, Euro (Eur) to Albanian Lek (ALL) exchange rate with a time span from January 2008 to June 2021 and the macroeconomic factors that have a significant effect on the exchange rate. Initially, the Random Forest Regression algorithm is constructed to understand the impact of economic variables in the behavior of monthly average foreign currencies exchange rates. Then the forecast of macro-economic indicators for 12 months was performed using time series models. The predicted values received are placed in the random forest model in order to obtain the average monthly forecast of Euro to Albanian Lek (ALL) exchange rate for the period July 2021 to June 2022.

Keywords: Exchange rate, Random Forest, time series, Machine Learning, forecasting.

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Authors: Sunday. E. Ogundipe, Abiola Idowu, Lawrencia. O. Ogundipe

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This study examines the impact of working capital management on firms- performance and market value of the firms in Nigeria. A sample of fifty four non-financial quoted firms in Nigeria listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange was used for this study. Data were collected from annual reports of the sampled firms for the period 1995-2009. This result shows there is a significant negative relationship between cash conversion cycle and market valuation and firm-s performance. It also shows that debt ratio is positively related to market valuation and negatively related firm-s performance. The findings confirm that there is a significant relationship between Market valuation, profitability and working capital component in line with previous studies. This mean that Nigeria firms should ensure adequate management of working capital especially cash conversion cycle components of account receivables, account payables and inventories, as efficiency working capital management is expected to contribute positively to the firms- market value.

Keywords: Cash Conversion Cycle, Firms' Performance, Market Valuation, Working Capital Management

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Authors: Patience Muchini, Electdom Matandiroya, Emmanuel Mashonjowa

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A ground-end manifestation of space weather phenomena is known as geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). GICs flow along the electric power transmission cables connecting the transformers and between the grounding points of power transformers during significant geomagnetic storms. Zimbabwe has no study that notes if grid failures have been caused by GICs. Research and monitoring are needed to investigate this possible relationship purpose of this paper is to characterize GICs with a power grid network. This paper analyses data collected, which are geomagnetic data, which include the Kp index, Disturbance storm time (DST) index, and the G-Scale from geomagnetic storms and also analyses power grid data, which includes reactive power, relay tripping, and alarms from high voltage substations and then correlates the data. This research analysis was first theoretically analyzed by studying geomagnetic parameters and then experimented upon. To correlate, MATLAB was used as the basic software to analyze the data. Latitudes of the substations were also brought into scrutiny to note if they were an impact due to the location as low latitudes areas like most parts of Zimbabwe, there are less severe geomagnetic variations. Based on theoretical and graphical analysis, it has been proven that there is a slight relationship between power system failures and GICs. Further analyses can be done by implementing measuring instruments to measure any currents in the grounding of high-voltage transformers when geomagnetic storms occur. Mitigation measures can then be developed to minimize the susceptibility of the power network to GICs.

Keywords: Adverse space weather, DST index, geomagnetically induced currents, Kp index, reactive power.

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Authors: M. A. U. Baradi, F. B. Bulao, N. D. Ganotisi, M. Jose C. Regalado, F. P. Bongat, S. B. Manglinong, M. L. O. Quigao, N. G. T. Martinez, R. G. Ancheta, M. P. Ortal

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The effects of varying air temperature (full, ¾ full, ½ full aircon adjustment, no aircon) in polishing component of Single-Pass Mill on the quality of Philippine inbred rice variety, was investigated. Parameters measured were milling recovery (MR), headrice recovery (HR), and percentage with bran streaks. Cooling method (with aircon) increased MR, HR, and percentage with bran streaks of milled rice. Highest MR and HR (67.62%; 47.33%) were obtained from ¾ full adjustment whereas no aircon were lowest (66.27%; 39.76%). Temperature in polishing component at ¾ full adjustment was 33^oC whereas no aircon was 45^oC. There was increase of 1.35% in MR and 7.57% in HR. Additional cost of milling per kg due to aircon cooling was P0.04 at 300 tons/yr volume, with 0.15 yr payback period. Net income was estimated at ₱98,100.00. Percentage of kernels with bran streaks increased from 5%–14%, indicating more nutrients of milled rice.

Keywords: Aircon, air temperature, polishing component, quality, Single-Pass Mill.

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Authors: Cuong D. Dao, Rob J.I. Basten, Andreas Hartmann

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This paper studies the optimal maintenance planning of preventive maintenance and renewal activities for components in a single railway track when the available time for maintenance is limited. The rail-track system consists of several types of components, such as rail, ballast, and switches with different preventive maintenance and renewal intervals. To perform maintenance or renewal on the track, a train free period for maintenance, called a possession, is required. Since a major possession directly affects the regular train schedule, maintenance and renewal activities are clustered as much as possible. In a highly dense and utilized railway network, the possession time on the track is critical since the demand for train operations is very high and a long possession has a severe impact on the regular train schedule. We present an optimization model and investigate the maintenance schedules with and without the possession capacity constraint. In addition, we also integrate the social-economic cost related to the effects of the maintenance time to the variable possession cost into the optimization model. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the model.

Keywords: Rail-track components, maintenance, optimal clustering, possession capacity.

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Authors: M. F. Miah, H. Ali, E. Zannath, T. M. Shuvra, M. N. Naser, M. K. Ahmed

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In this study, breeding biology and induced breeding of freshwater mud eel, Monopterus cuchia was observed during the experimental period from February to June, 2013. Breeding biology of freshwater mud eel, Monopterus cuchia was considered in terms of gonadosomatic index, length-weight relationship of gonad, ova diameter and fecundity. The ova diameter was recorded from 0.3 mm to 4.30 mm and the individual fecundity was recorded from 155 to 1495 while relative fecundity was found from 2.64 to 12.45. The fecundity related to body weight and length of fish was also discussed. A peak of GSI was observed 2.14±0.2 in male and 5.1 ±1.09 in female. Induced breeding of freshwater mud eel, Monopterus cuchia was also practiced with different doses of different inducing agents like pituitary gland (PG), human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) and Ovuline-a synthetic hormone in different environmental conditions. However, it was observed that the artificial breeding of freshwater mud eel, Monopterus cuchia was not yet succeeded through inducing agents in captive conditions, rather the inducing agent showed negative impacts on fecundity and ovarian tissues. It was seen that mature eggs in the oviduct were reduced, absorbed and some eggs were found in spoiled condition.

Keywords: Breeding biology, induced breeding, Monopterus cuchia.

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Authors: Isabela Romanha de Alcantara, José Eustáquio Ribeiro Vieira Filho, José Garcia Gasques

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Innovation and technology can be determinant factors to ensure agricultural and sustainable growth, as well as productivity gains. Technical change has contributed considerably to supply agricultural expansion in Brazil. This agricultural growth could be achieved by incorporating more land or capital. If capital is the main source of agricultural growth, it is possible to increase production per unit of land. The objective of this paper is to estimate: 1) total factor productivity (TFP), which is measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input; and 2) the land-saving effect (LSE) that is the amount of land required in the case that yield rate is constant over time. According to this study, from 1990 to 2019, it appears that 87% of Brazilian agriculture product growth comes from the gains of productivity; the remaining 13% comes from input growth. In the same period, the total LSE was roughly 400 Mha, which corresponds to 47% of the national territory. These effects reflect the greater efficiency of using productive factors, whose technical change has allowed an increase in the agricultural production based on productivity gains.

Keywords: agriculture, land-saving effect, livestock, productivity

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Authors: V. H. Mankar, T. S. Das, S. K. Sarkar

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In this paper, we have proposed a novel blind watermarking architecture towards its hardware implementation in VLSI. In order to facilitate this hardware realization, cellular automata (CA) concept is introduced. The CA has been already accepted as an attractive structure for VLSI implementation because of its modularity, parallelism, high performance and reliability. The hardware realizable multiresolution spread spectrum watermarking techniques are very few in numbers in spite of their best ever resiliency against signal impairments. This is because of the computational cost and complexity associated with their different filter banks and lifting techniques. The concept of cellular automata theory in order to form a new transform domain technique i.e. Cellular Automata Transform (CAT) have been incorporated. Since CA provides spreading sequences having very low cross-correlation properties, the CA based pseudorandom sequence generator is considered in the present work. Considering the watermarking technique as a digital communication process, an error control coding (ECC) must be incorporated in the data hiding schemes. Besides the hardware implementation of entire CA based data hiding technique, the individual blocks of the algorithm using CA provide the best result than that of some other methods irrespective of the hardware and software technique. The Cellular Automata Transform, CA based PN sequence generator, and CA ECC are the requisite blocks that are developed not only to meet the reliable hardware requirements but also for the basic spread spectrum watermarking features. The proposed algorithm shows statistical invisibility and resiliency against various common signal-processing operations. This algorithmic design utilizes the existing allocated bandwidth in the data transmission channel in a more efficient manner.

Keywords: Cellular automata, watermarking, error control coding, PN sequence, VLSI.

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Authors: Naeem Ullah Khan, Kalsoom Khan

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No state can be progressive and prosperous in which a large number of people is deprived of their basic economic rights and freedoms. In the contemporary world of globalization, the right to development has gained a momentum force in the domain of International Development Law (IDL) and has integrated into the National Legal System (NLS) of the major developed states. The international experts on human rights argued that the right to development (RTD) is called a third-generation human right which tends to enhance the welfare and prosperity of individuals, and thus, it is a right to a process whose outcomes are human rights despite the controversy on the implications of RTD. In the Pakistan legal system, the RTD has not been expressly stated in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973. However, there are some implied constitutional provisions which reflect the concept of RTD. The jurisprudence on RTD is still an evolving paradigm in the contextual perspective of Pakistan, and the superior court of diverse jurisdiction acts as a catalyst regarding the protection and enforcement of RTD in the interest of the public at large. However, the case law explores the positive inclination of the courts in Pakistan on RTD be incorporated as an express provision in the chapters of fundamental rights; in this scenario, the high court’s of Pakistan under Article 199 and the supreme court of Pakistan under Article 184(3) have exercised jurisdiction on the enforcement of RTD. This paper inter-alia examines the national dimensions of RTD from the standpoint of state practice in Pakistan and it analyzes the experience of judiciary in the protection and enforcement of RTD. Moreover, the paper highlights the social and cultural challenges to Pakistan in the implementation of RTD and possible solution to improve the conditions of human rights in Pakistan. This paper will also highlight the steps taken by Pakistan regarding the awareness, incorporation, and propagation of RTD at the national level.

Keywords: Globalization, Pakistan, RTD, third-generation right.

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Authors: Sanjeev Sharma, Suman Lata

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With the availability of diverse printed, electronic literature and web sites on medical and health related information, it is impossible for the medical professional to get the information he seeks in the shortest possible time. For all these problems information literacy is the only solution. Thus, information literacy is recognized as an important aspect of medical education. In the present study, an attempt has been made to know the information literacy skills of the faculty and students at medical colleges of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh. The scope of the study was confined to the 12 selected medical colleges of three States (Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh). The findings of the study were based on the data collected through 1018 questionnaires filled by the respondents of the medical colleges. It was found that Online Medical Websites (such as WebMD, eMedicine and Mayo Clinic etc.) were frequently used by 63.43% of the respondents of Chandigarh which is slightly more than Haryana (61%) and Punjab (55.65%). As well, 30.86% of the respondents of Chandigarh, 27.41% of Haryana and 27.05% of Punjab were familiar with the controlled vocabulary tool; 25.14% respondents of Chandigarh, 23.80% of Punjab, 23.17% of Haryana were familiar with the Boolean operators; 33.05% of the respondents of Punjab, 28.19% of Haryana and 25.14% of Chandigarh were familiar with the use and importance of the keywords while searching an electronic database; and 51.43% of the respondents of Chandigarh, 44.52% of Punjab and 36.29% of Haryana were able to make effective use of the retrieved information. For accessing information in electronic format, 47.74% of the respondents rated their skills high, while the majority of respondents (76.13%) were unfamiliar with the basic search technique i.e. Boolean operator used for searching information in an online database. On the basis of the findings, it was suggested that a comprehensive training program based on medical professionals information needs should be organized frequently. Furthermore, it was also suggested that information literacy may be included as a subject in the health science curriculum so as to make the medical professionals information literate and independent lifelong learners.

Keywords: Information, information literacy, medical colleges, medical professionals.

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Authors: R. Walha, F. Drira, H. El-Abed, A. M. Alimi

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The Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) applied to Arabic language is a challenging task. This is mainly related to the language specificities which make the researchers facing multiple difficulties such as the insufficient linguistic resources and the very limited number of available transcribed Arabic speech corpora. In this paper, we are interested in the development of a HMM-based ASR system for Standard Arabic (SA) language. Our fundamental research goal is to select the most appropriate acoustic parameters describing each audio frame, acoustic models and speech recognition unit. To achieve this purpose, we analyze the effect of varying frame windowing (size and period), acoustic parameter number resulting from features extraction methods traditionally used in ASR, speech recognition unit, Gaussian number per HMM state and number of embedded re-estimations of the Baum-Welch Algorithm. To evaluate the proposed ASR system, a multi-speaker SA connected-digits corpus is collected, transcribed and used throughout all experiments. A further evaluation is conducted on a speaker-independent continue SA speech corpus. The phonemes recognition rate is 94.02% which is relatively high when comparing it with another ASR system evaluated on the same corpus.

Keywords: ASR, HMM, acoustical analysis, acoustic modeling, Standard Arabic language

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Authors: Rasheed O. Oloyede, Joseph O. Adelusi, Peter O. Akinbile

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This study was conducted to investigate the extent with which knowledge of results influences the performance of cricket players. A sample of 160 fresh students in the Department of Physical and Health Education who are novice in the game were randomly assigned into two groups. The first group of eighty (80) subjects was classified as experimental group while the second group of eighty (80) subjects was the control group. Subjects in both groups were asked to bowl and bat ten times each for a period of six weeks. After the first round, the subjects in the experimental group were allowed feedback on their performance in the first trial while those in the control group were denied feedback. Two null hypotheses generated for the study were tested using percentages and chi-square statistical analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Analysis of data showed that knowledge of results influenced the performance of cricket players. It was concluded that knowledge of results is pertinent for effective skill acquisition and could enhance better performance among unskilled cricket players. Hence, it is suggested that immediate feedback on the level of skill acquisition by the prospective and unskilled cricket players would inspire them for better performance in cricket tournaments.

Keywords: Batting, Bowling, Knowledge of Results, Performance, Skill Acquisition.

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Authors: Gergely Horváth

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The study presents the complexity of food safety dividing it into two layers. Beyond the basic layer of requirements, there is a more demanding higher level linked with quality and purity aspects. It would be important to give special prominence to both layers, given that massive illnesses are caused by foods even though officially licensed. Then the study discusses an exciting safety challenge stemming from the risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Furthermore, it features legal case examples that illustrate how certain liability questions are solved or not yet decided in connection with the production of genetically modified crops. In addition, a special kind of land grabbing, more precisely land grabbing from non-GMO farming systems can also be noticed as well as a new phenomenon eroding food sovereignty. Coexistence, the state where organic, conventional, and GM farming systems are standing alongside each other is an unsuitable experiment that cannot be successful, because of biophysical reasons (such as cross-pollination). Agricultural and environmental lawyers both try to find the optimal solution. Agri-environmental measures are introduced as a special subfield of law maintaining also food safety. The important steps of agri-environmental legislation are aiming at the protection of natural values, the environmental media and strengthening food safety as well, practically the quality of agricultural products intended for human consumption. The major findings of the study focus on searching for the appropriate approach capable of solving the security and safety problems of food production. The most interesting concepts of the Hungarian national and EU food law legislation are analyzed in more detail with descriptive, analytic and comparative methods.

Keywords: Food law, food safety, food security, GMO, agri-environmental measures.

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Authors: Tienfuan Kerh, Hsienchang Lu, Rob Saunders

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Shoreline erosion problems caused by global warming and sea level rising may result in losing of land areas, so it should be examined regularly to reduce possible negative impacts. Initially in this study, three sets of survey images obtained from the years of 1990, 2001, and 2010, respectively, are digitalized by using graphical software to establish the spatial coordinates of six major beaches around the island of Taiwan. Then, by overlaying the known multi-period images, the change of shoreline can be observed from their distribution of coordinates. In addition, the neural network approximation is used to develop a model for predicting shoreline variation in the years of 2015 and 2020. The comparison results show that there is no significant change of total sandy area for all beaches in the three different periods. However, the prediction results show that two beaches may exhibit an increasing of total sandy areas under a statistical 95% confidence interval. The proposed method adopted in this study may be applicable to other shorelines of interest around the world.

Keywords: Digitalized shoreline coordinates, survey image overlaying, neural network approximation, total beach sandy areas.

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Authors: Hakan Işık, Esra Saraçoğlu

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In this study, a comparison of two control methods, Proportional Control (PC) and Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC), which have been used to develop an ideal thermoelectric renal hypothermia system in order to use in renal surgery, has been carried out. Since the most important issues in long-lasting parenchymatous renal surgery are to provide an operation medium free of blood and to prevent renal dysfunction in the postoperative period, control of the temperature has become very important in renal surgery. The final product is seriously affected from the changes in temperature, therefore, it is necessary to reach some desired temperature points quickly and avoid large overshoot. PIC16F877 microcontroller has been used as controller for both of these two methods. Each control method can simply ensure extra renal hypothermia in the targeted way. But investigation of advantages and disadvantages of every control method to each other is aimed and carried out by the experimental implementations. Shortly, investigation of the most appropriate method to use for development of system and that can be applied to people safely in the future, has been performed. In this sense, experimental results show that fuzzy logic control gives out more reliable responses and efficient performance.

Keywords: renal hypothermia, renal cooling, temperature control, proportional control fuzzy logic control

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Authors: Shun Hattori

Abstract:

In recent years, many researches to mine the exploding Web world, especially User Generated Content (UGC) such as weblogs, for knowledge about various phenomena and events in the physical world have been done actively, and also Web services with the Web-mined knowledge have begun to be developed for the public. However, there are few detailed investigations on how accurately Web-mined data reflect physical-world data. It must be problematic to idolatrously utilize the Web-mined data in public Web services without ensuring their accuracy sufficiently. Therefore, this paper introduces the simplest Web Sensor and spatiotemporallynormalized Web Sensor to extract spatiotemporal data about a target phenomenon from weblogs searched by keyword(s) representing the target phenomenon, and tries to validate the potential and reliability of the Web-sensed spatiotemporal data by four kinds of granularity analyses of coefficient correlation with temperature, rainfall, snowfall, and earthquake statistics per day by region of Japan Meteorological Agency as physical-world data: spatial granularity (region-s population density), temporal granularity (time period, e.g., per day vs. per week), representation granularity (e.g., “rain" vs. “heavy rain"), and media granularity (weblogs vs. microblogs such as Tweets).

Keywords: Granularity analysis, knowledge extraction, spatiotemporal data mining, Web credibility, Web mining, Web sensor.

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Authors: Kumara Jayapathma J. H. M. S. S., Dampegama S. D. P. J.

Abstract:

Lands are valuable & limited resource which constantly changes with the growth of the population. An efficient and good land management system is essential to avoid conflicts associated with lands. This paper aims to design the prototype model of a Mobile GIS Land use and Land Information System in real-time. Homagama Divisional Secretariat Division situated in the western province of Sri Lanka was selected as the study area. The prototype model was developed after reviewing related literature. The methodology was consisted of designing and modeling the prototype model into an application running on a mobile platform. The system architecture mainly consists of a Google mapping app for real-time updates with firebase support tools. Thereby, the method of implementation consists of front-end and back-end components. Software tools used in designing applications are Android Studio with JAVA based on GeoJSON File structure. Android Studio with JAVA in GeoJSON File Synchronize to Firebase was found to be the perfect mobile solution for continuously updating Land use and Land Information System (LIS) in real-time in the present scenario. The mobile-based land use and LIS developed in this study are multiple user applications catering to different hierarchy levels such as basic users, supervisory managers, and database administrators. The benefits of this mobile mapping application will help public sector field officers with non-GIS expertise to overcome the land use planning challenges with land use updated in real-time.

Keywords: Android, Firebase, GeoJSON, GIS, JAVA, JSON, LIS, mobile GIS, real-time, REST API.

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Authors: J. C. M. Santos, J. C. A. Sousa, A. J. Rubio, L. S. Soletti, F. Gasparotto, N. U. Yamaguchi

Abstract:

Magnetic graphene has received widespread attention for their capability of water and wastewater treatment, which has been attracted many researchers in this field. A bibliometric analysis based on the Web of Science database was employed to analyze the global scientific outputs of magnetic graphene for water treatment until the present time (2012 to 2017), to improve the understanding of the research trends. The publication year, place of publication, institutes, funding agencies, journals, most cited articles, distribution outputs in thematic categories and applications were analyzed. Three major aspects analyzed including type of pollutant, treatment process and composite composition have further contributed to revealing the research trends. The most relevant research aspects of the main technologies using magnetic graphene for water treatment were summarized in this paper. The results showed that research on magnetic graphene for water treatment goes through a period of decline that might be related to a saturated field and a lack of bibliometric studies. Thus, the result of the present work will lead researchers to establish future directions in further studies using magnetic graphene for water treatment.

Keywords: Composite, graphene oxide, nanomaterials, scientometrics.

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Authors: S. Huber, B. Schnalzer, B. Alcalde, S. Hanke, L. Mpaltadoros, T. G. Stavropoulos, S. Nikolopoulos, I. Kompatsiaris, L. Pérez-Breva, V. Rodrigo-Casares, J. Fons-Martínez, J. de Bruin

Abstract:

Developing new medicine and health solutions and improving patient health currently rely on the successful execution of clinical trials, which generate relevant safety and efficacy data. For their success, recruitment and retention of participants are some of the most challenging aspects of protocol adherence. Main barriers include: i) lack of awareness of clinical trials; ii) long distance from the clinical site; iii) the burden on participants, including the duration and number of clinical visits, and iv) high dropout rate. Most of these aspects could be addressed with a new paradigm, namely the Remote Decentralized Clinical Trials (RDCTs). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted additional advantages and challenges for RDCTs in practice, allowing participants to join trials from home and not depending on site visits, etc. Nevertheless, RDCTs should follow the process and the quality assurance of conventional clinical trials, which involve several processes. For each part of the trial, the Building Blocks, existing software and technologies were assessed through a systematic search. The technology needed to perform RDCTs is widely available and validated but is yet segmented and developed in silos, as different software solutions address different parts of the trial and at various levels. The current paper is analyzing the availability of technology to perform RDCTs, identifying gaps and providing an overview of Basic Building Blocks and functionalities that need to be covered to support the described processes.

Keywords: architectures and frameworks for health informatics systems, clinical trials, information and communications technology, remote decentralized clinical trials, technology availability

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Authors: Ismail I. Abo-Ghanema, El-Nasharty M.A., El-Far A. H., Hanan A.Ghonium

Abstract:

In this study, we investigated the effects of ginger and L-carnitine on the reproductive performance of male rats with respect to semen parameters, male sex hormones and the testicular antioxidant system. A total of sixty mature male albino rats were divided into four groups of fifteen rats. The control group received saline, whereas the other three groups received ginger (100 mg kg-1 d- 1.), L-carnitine (150 mg kg-1 d-1.) or a combination of both ginger (100 mg kg-1 d-1.) and L-carnitine (150 mg kg-1 d-1.) via a stomach tube daily for one month. At the end of the treatment period, the rats were sacrificed, and their sperm characteristics (count, motility and viability), antioxidant enzyme factors levels (reduced glutathione, catalase, superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity) and sex hormone levels (testosterone, Follicle stimulating hormone(FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) were analysed. Our results showed that the three experimental treatments improved sperm parameters, antioxidant enzyme activity and testosterone hormone levels; the most pronounced positive effects were observed in the group that received a combination of both ginger and L-carnitine. Therefore, the administration of a combination of ginger and L-carnitine may be beneficial for improving male sexual performance.

Keywords: Ginger, L-Carnitine, Spermatogenesis, Rats.

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Authors: Maria Isabel Garcia-Planas, Maria Victoria Garcia-Camba

Abstract:

Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience have allowed a step forward in perceiving the processes involved in learning from the point of view of acquiring new information or the modification of existing mental content. The evoked potentials technique reveals how basic brain processes interact to achieve adequate and flexible behaviours. The objective of this work, using evoked potentials, is to study if it is possible to distinguish if a patient suffers a specific type of learning disorder to decide the possible therapies to follow. The methodology used in this work is to analyze the dynamics of different brain areas during a cognitive activity to find the relationships between the other areas analyzed to understand the functioning of neural networks better. Also, the latest advances in neuroscience have revealed the exis-tence of different brain activity in the learning process that can be highlighted through the use of non-invasive, innocuous, low-cost and easy-access techniques such as, among others, the evoked potentials that can help to detect early possible neurodevelopmental difficulties for their subsequent assessment and therapy. From the study of the amplitudes and latencies of the evoked potentials, it is possible to detect brain alterations in the learning process, specifically in dyscalculia, to achieve specific corrective measures for the application of personalized psycho-pedagogical plans that allow obtaining an optimal integral development of the affected people.

Keywords: dyscalculia, neurodevelopment, evoked potentials, learning disabilities, neural networks

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