Search results for: higher order thinking skills

Authors: Raghavi Janaswamy, Saraswathi K. Vasudev

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Music is one of the supreme arts of expressions, next to the speech itself. Its evolution over centuries has paved the way with a variety of training protocols and performing methods. Indian classical music is one of the most elaborate and refined systems with immense emphasis on the voice culture related to range, breath control, quality of the tone, flexibility and diction. Several exercises namely saraliswaram, jantaswaram, dhatuswaram, upper stayi swaram, alamkaras and varnams lay the required foundation to gain the voice culture and deeper understanding on the voice development and further on to the intricacies of the raga system. This article narrates a few of the Carnatic music training methods with an emphasis on the advanced practice methods for articulating the vocal skills, continuity in the voice, ability to produce gamakams, command in the multiple speeds of rendering with reasonable volume. The creativity on these exercises and their impact on the voice production are discussed. The articulation of the outlined conscious practice methods and vocal exercises bestow the optimum use of the natural human vocal system to not only enhance the signing quality but also to gain health benefits.

Keywords: Carnatic music, Saraliswaram, Varnam, Vocal training.

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Authors: Syed Kamarul Bakri Syed Ahmad Bokharey, Kalaikumar Vallyutham, Narayanan Sambu Potty, Nabilah Abu Bakar

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Infrastructure investments are important in developing countries, it will not only help to foster the economic growth of a nation, but it will also act as a platform in which new forms of partnership and collaboration can be developed mainly in East Asian countries. Since the last two decades, many infrastructure projects had been completed through build-operate-transfer (BOT) type of procurement. The developments of BOT have attracted participation of local and foreign private sector investor to secure funding and to deliver projects on time, within the budget and to the required specifications. Private sectors are preferred by the government in East Asia to participate in BOT projects due to lack of public funding. The finding has resulted that the private sector or promoter of the BOT projects is exposed to multiple risks which have been discussed in this paper. Effective risk management methods and good managerial skills are required in ensuring the success of the project. The review indicated that mitigation measures should be employed by the promoter throughout the concession period and support from the host government is also required in ensuring the success of the BOT project.

Keywords: BOT project, risks management, concessionaire, consortium.

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Authors: Sushil Kumar Swar, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Hari Krishan Sharma, Sushil Kumar

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The seriously damaged structures during earthquakes show the need and importance of design of reinforced concrete structures with high ductility. Reinforced concrete beam-column joints have an important function in all structures. Under seismic excitation, the beam column joint region is subjected to horizontal and vertical shear forces whose magnitude is many times higher than the adjacent beam and column. Strength and ductility of structures depends mainly on proper detailing of the reinforcement in beamcolumn joints and the old structures were found ductility deficient. DSP materials are obtained by using high quantities of super plasticizers and high volumes of micro silica. In the case of High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), since concrete is dense even at the micro-structure level, tensile strain would be much higher than that of the conventional SFRC, SIFCON & SIMCON. This in turn will improve cracking behaviour, ductility and energy absorption capacity of composites in addition to durability. The fine fibers used in our mix are 0.3mm diameter and 10 mm which can be easily placed with high percentage. These fibers easily transfer stresses and act as a composite concrete unit to take up extremely high loads with high compressive strength. HPDSPC placed in the beam column joints helps in safety of human life due to prolonged failure.

Keywords: High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), Steel Fıber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC), Slurry Infiltrated Concrete (SIFCON), Slurry Infiltrated Mat Concrete (SIMCON).

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Authors: Shibly Abdullah

Abstract:

This paper provides an overview of fundamental philosophical and functional differences in conventional and Islamic accounting. The aim of this research is to undertake a detailed analysis focus on specific illustrations drawn from both these systems and highlight how these differences implicate in recording financial transactions and preparation of financial reports for a range of stakeholders. Accounting as being universally considered as a platform for providing a ‘true and fair’ view of corporate entities can be challenged in the current world view, as the business environment has evolved and transformed significantly. Growth of the non-traditional corporate entity such as Islamic financial institutions, fundamentally questions the applicability of conventional accounting standards in preparation of Shariah-compliant financial reporting. Coupled with this, there are significant concerns about the wider applicability of Islamic accounting standards and framework in order to achieve reporting practices satisfying the information needs generally. Against the backdrop of such a context, this paper raises fundamental question as to how potential convergence could be achieved between these two systems in order to provide users’ a transparent and comparable state of financial information resulting in an alternative framework of financial reporting.

Keywords: Accounting, Islamic accounting, conventional accounting, corporate reporting.

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Authors: Kew-Cheol Shim, Sung-Hwan Moon, Ji-Hyon Kil, Kyoungho Kim

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The purpose of this paper was to examine views of secondary school science teachers about purposes to use practical works in school science. The instrument to survey consisted eighteen items, which were categorized into four components as follows: ‘Scientific inquiry’, ‘Scientific knowledge’, ‘Science-related attitude’, and ‘STS (science-technology-society)’. Subjects were 152 secondary school science teachers (male 70 and female 82; middle school 50 and high school 102), who are teaching in 42 schools of 8 provinces. On the survey, science teachers were asked to answer on 5-point Lickert scale (from 1 to 5) how they thought of using practical works on purposes with domains of science objectives in school. They had positive views about using practical works for improving scientific inquiry process skills, science-related attitudes, and perceptions about STS literacy, and acquiring scientific knowledge. They would have the most willingness of using practical works for ‘Scientific Inquiry’ among domains of science objectives in school.

Keywords: Secondary school, science teacher, practical work, scientific inquiry, scientific knowledge, science-related attitude, STS.

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Authors: Brehme D’napoli Reis de Mesquita, Marcus Vin´ıcius de Souza Almeida, Caio Vin´ıcius Silva do Carmo

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Educational robotics has emerged as a pedagogical tool, utilizing technological artifacts to engage students’ curiosity and interest. It fosters active learning of STEM education competencies while also cultivating essential behavioral skills. Robotic competitions provide students with platforms to collaboratively devise diverse solutions to shared problems, fostering experience exchange, collaboration, and personal growth. Despite the prevalence of current robotic competitions, especially in Brazil, simulating real-world challenges like natural disasters, there is a notable absence of industry-related tasks. This article presents an educational robotics initiative centered around material transportation within smart manufacturing using automated guided vehicles. The proposed robotics challenge was executed in a competition held in Ac¸ailˆandia city, Maranh˜ao, Brazil, yielding satisfactory results and inspiring teams to develop time-limited solution strategies.

Keywords: Educational robotics, STEM education, robotic competitions, material transportation, smart manufacturing.

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Authors: James Kuria, John Kihiu

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This work presents a numerical model developed to simulate the dynamics and vibrations of a multistage tractor gearbox. The effect of time varying mesh stiffness, time varying frictional torque on the gear teeth, lateral and torsional flexibility of the shafts and flexibility of the bearings were included in the model. The model was developed by using the Lagrangian method, and it was applied to study the effect of three design variables on the vibration and stress levels on the gears. The first design variable, module, had little effect on the vibration levels but a higher module resulted to higher bending stress levels. The second design variable, pressure angle, had little effect on the vibration levels, but had a strong effect on the stress levels on the pinion of a high reduction ratio gear pair. A pressure angle of 25o resulted to lower stress levels for a pinion with 14 teeth than a pressure angle of 20o. The third design variable, contact ratio, had a very strong effect on both the vibration levels and bending stress levels. Increasing the contact ratio to 2.0 reduced both the vibration levels and bending stress levels significantly. For the gear train design used in this study, a module of 2.5 and contact ratio of 2.0 for the various meshes was found to yield the best combination of low vibration levels and low bending stresses. The model can therefore be used as a tool for obtaining the optimum gear design parameters for a given multistage spur gear train.

Keywords: bending stress levels, frictional torque, gear designparameters, mesh stiffness, multistage gear train, vibration levels.

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Authors: Wadii Boulila, Imed Riadh Farah, Karim Saheb Ettabaa, Basel Solaiman, Henda Ben Ghezala

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This paper investigates the problem of tracking spa¬tiotemporal changes of a satellite image through the use of Knowledge Discovery in Database (KDD). The purpose of this study is to help a given user effectively discover interesting knowledge and then build prediction and decision models. Unfortunately, the KDD process for spatiotemporal data is always marked by several types of imperfections. In our paper, we take these imperfections into consideration in order to provide more accurate decisions. To achieve this objective, different KDD methods are used to discover knowledge in satellite image databases. Each method presents a different point of view of spatiotemporal evolution of a query model (which represents an extracted object from a satellite image). In order to combine these methods, we use the evidence fusion theory which considerably improves the spatiotemporal knowledge discovery process and increases our belief in the spatiotemporal model change. Experimental results of satellite images representing the region of Auckland in New Zealand depict the improvement in the overall change detection as compared to using classical methods.

Keywords: Knowledge discovery in satellite databases, knowledge fusion, data imperfection, data mining, spatiotemporal change detection.

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Authors: Ana Hol

Abstract:

Study and work operations are being transformed with the uses of technologies and are consequently becoming global. This paper outlines lessons learned based on the international study tour that Australian Bachelor of Information Systems students undertook. This research identifies that for the study tour to be successful, students need to gain skills that global citizens require. For example, students will need to gain an understanding of local cultures, local customs and habits. Furthermore, students would also need to gain an understanding of how a field of their future career expertise operates in the host country, how study and business are conducted internationally, which tools and technologies are currently being utilized on a global scale, what trends drive future developments world-wide and how business negotiations and collaborations are being undertaken across borders. Furthermore, this research provides a guide to educators who are planning, guiding and running study tours as it outlines the requirements of having a pre-tour preparatory session, carefully planned and executed tour itineraries and post-tour sessions during which students can reflect on their experiences and lessons learned so that they can apply them to future international business visits and ventures.

Keywords: Global education, international experiences, international study tours, students as global citizens, student centered education.

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Authors: C. S. Caires, A. Barbosa, W. Hanyou

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In this paper, we present the main results achieved during a five-week international workshop on Interactive Furniture for the Classroom, with 22 Chinese design students, in Jiangmen city (Guangdong province, China), and five teachers from Portugal, France, Iran, Macao SAR, and China. The main goal was to engage design students from China with new skills and practice methodologies towards interactive design research for furniture and product design for the classroom. The final results demonstrate students' concerns on improving Chinese furniture design for the classrooms, including solutions related to collaborative learning and human-interaction design for interactive furniture products. The findings of the research led students to the fabrication of five original prototypes: two for kindergartens ('Candy' and 'Tilt-tilt'), two for primary schools ('Closer' and 'Eks(x)'), and one for art/creative schools ('Wave'). From the findings, it was also clear that collaboration, personalization, and project-based teaching are still neglected when designing furniture products for the classroom in China. Students focused on these issues and came up with creative solutions that could transform this educational field in China.

Keywords: Product design, interface design, interactive design, collaborative education and design research, design prototyping.

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Authors: Toby Gibbs, Suwaree Yordchim

Abstract:

This research analyzes factors affecting the success of Litecoin Value within Thailand and develops a guideline for selfreliance for effective business implementation. Samples in this study included 119 people through surveys. The results revealed four main factors affecting the success as follows: 1) Future Career training should be pursued in applied Litecoin development. 2) Didn't grasp the concept of a digital currency or see the benefit of a digital currency. 3) There is a great need to educate the next generation of learners on the benefits of Litecoin within the community. 4) A great majority didn't know what Litecoin was. The guideline for self-reliance planning consisted of 4 aspects: 1) Development planning: by arranging meet up groups to conduct further education on Litecoin and share solutions on adoption into every day usage. Local communities need to develop awareness of the usefulness of Litecoin and share the value of Litecoin among friends and family. 2) Computer Science and Business Management staff should develop skills to expand on the benefits of Litecoin within their departments. 3) Further research should be pursued on how Litecoin Value can improve business and tourism within Thailand. 4) Local communities should focus on developing Litecoin awareness by encouraging street vendors to accept Litecoin as another form of payment for services rendered.

Keywords: Litecoin, Mining, Confirmations.

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Authors: M. Miladi, T. Ezzedine, R. Bouallegue

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In the current decade, wireless sensor networks are emerging as a peculiar multi-disciplinary research area. By this way, energy efficiency is one of the fundamental research themes in the design of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols for wireless sensor networks. Thus, in order to optimize the energy consumption in these networks, a variety of MAC protocols are available in the literature. These schemes were commonly evaluated under simple network density and a few results are published on their robustness in realistic network-s size. We, in this paper, provide an analytical study aiming to highlight the energy waste sources in wireless sensor networks. Then, we experiment three energy efficient hybrid CSMA/CA based MAC protocols optimized for wireless sensor networks: Sensor-MAC (SMAC), Time-out MAC (TMAC) and Traffic aware Energy Efficient MAC (TEEM). We investigate these protocols with different network densities in order to discuss the end-to-end performances of these schemes (i.e. in terms of energy efficiency, delay and throughput). Through Network Simulator (NS- 2) implementations, we explore the behaviors of these protocols with respect to the network density. In fact, this study may help the multihops sensor networks designers to design or select the MAC layer which matches better their applications aims.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, medium access control, network density, wireless sensor networks.

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Authors: Vladyslav Povoroznyuk, Larysa Martynyuk, Iryna Syzonenko, Liliya Martynyuk

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Osteoporosis is one of the important problems in postmenopausal women due to an increased risk of sudden and unexpected fractures. This study is aimed to determine the connection between bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS) in Ukrainian women suffering from metabolic syndrome. Participating in the study, 566 menopausal women aged 50-79 year-old were examined and divided into two groups: Group A included 336 women with no obesity (BMI ≤ 29.9 kg/m²), and Group B – 230 women with metabolic syndrome (diagnosis according to IDF criteria, 2005). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used for measuring of lumbar spine (L1-L4), femoral neck, total body and forearm BMD and bone quality indexes (last according to Med-Imaps installation). Data were analyzed using Statistical Package 6.0. A significant increase of lumbar spine (L1-L4), femoral neck, total body and ultradistal radius BMD was found in women with metabolic syndrome compared to those without obesity (p < 0.001) both in their totality and in groups of 50-59 years, 60-69 years, and 70-79 years. TBS was significantly higher in non-obese women compared to metabolic syndrome patients of 50-59 years and in the general sample (p < 0.05). Analysis showed significant positive correlation between body mass index (BMI) and BMD at all levels. Significant negative correlation between BMI and TBS (L1-L4) was established. Despite the fact that BMD indexes were significantly higher in women with metabolic syndrome, the frequency of vertebral and non-vertebral fractures did not differ significantly in the groups of patients.

Keywords: Bone mineral density, trabecular bone score, metabolic syndrome, fracture.

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Authors: P. V. Pramila, V. Mahesh

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Pulmonary Function Tests are important non-invasive diagnostic tests to assess respiratory impairments and provides quantifiable measures of lung function. Spirometry is the most frequently used measure of lung function and plays an essential role in the diagnosis and management of pulmonary diseases. However, the test requires considerable patient effort and cooperation, markedly related to the age of patients resulting in incomplete data sets. This paper presents, a nonlinear model built using Multivariate adaptive regression splines and Random forest regression model to predict the missing spirometric features. Random forest based feature selection is used to enhance both the generalization capability and the model interpretability. In the present study, flow-volume data are recorded for N= 198 subjects. The ranked order of feature importance index calculated by the random forests model shows that the spirometric features FVC, FEF25, PEF, FEF25-75, FEF50 and the demographic parameter height are the important descriptors. A comparison of performance assessment of both models prove that, the prediction ability of MARS with the `top two ranked features namely the FVC and FEF25 is higher, yielding a model fit of R2= 0.96 and R2= 0.99 for normal and abnormal subjects. The Root Mean Square Error analysis of the RF model and the MARS model also shows that the latter is capable of predicting the missing values of FEV1 with a notably lower error value of 0.0191 (normal subjects) and 0.0106 (abnormal subjects) with the aforementioned input features. It is concluded that combining feature selection with a prediction model provides a minimum subset of predominant features to train the model, as well as yielding better prediction performance. This analysis can assist clinicians with a intelligence support system in the medical diagnosis and improvement of clinical care.

Keywords: FEV1, Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines Pulmonary Function Test, Random Forest.

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Authors: Taposh Roy, Anna Paradowska, Ralph Abrahams, Quan Lai, Michael Law, Peter Mutton, Mehdi Soodi, Wenyi Yan

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In this investigation, a laser cladding process with a powder feeding was used to deposit stainless steel 410L (high strength, excellent resistance to abrasion and corrosion, and great laser compatibility) onto railhead (higher strength, heat treated hypereutectoid rail grade manufactured in accordance with the requirements of European standard EN 13674 Part 1 for R400HT grade), to investigate the development and controllability of process-induced residual stress in the cladding, heat-affected zone (HAZ) and substrate and to analyse their correlation with hardness profile during two different laser cladding directions (across and along the track). Residual stresses were analysed by neutron diffraction at OPAL reactor, ANSTO. Neutron diffraction was carried out on the samples in longitudinal (parallel to the rail), transverse (perpendicular to the rail) and normal (through thickness) directions with high spatial resolution through the thickness. Due to the thick rail and thin cladding, 4 mm thick reference samples were prepared from every specimen by Electric Discharge Machining (EDM). Metallography across the laser claded sample revealed four distinct zones: The clad zone, the dilution zone, HAZ and the substrate. Compressive residual stresses were found in the clad zone and tensile residual stress in the dilution zone and HAZ. Laser cladding in longitudinally cladding induced higher tensile stress in the HAZ, whereas transversely cladding rail showed lower tensile behavior.

Keywords: Laser cladding, residual stress, neutron diffraction, HAZ.

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Authors: Lu Zou, Dianfu MA, Ying Wang, Xianqi Zhao

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Avionic software architecture has transit from a federated avionics architecture to an integrated modular avionics (IMA) .ARINC 653 (Avionics Application Standard Software Interface) is a software specification for space and time partitioning in Safety-critical avionics Real-time operating systems. Methods to transform the abstract avionics application logic function to the executable model have been brought up, however with less consideration about the code generating input and output model specific for ARINC 653 platform and inner-task synchronous dynamic interaction order sequence. In this paper, we proposed an AADL-based model-driven design methodology to fulfill the purpose to automatically generating Cµ executable model on ARINC 653 platform from the ARINC653 architecture which defined as AADL653 in order to facilitate the development of the avionics software constructed on ARINC653 OS. This paper presents the mapping rules between the AADL653 elements and the elements in Cµ language, and define the code generating rules , designs an automatic C µ code generator .Then, we use a case to illustrate our approach. Finally, we give the related work and future research directions.

Keywords: IMA, ARINC653, AADL653, code generation.

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Authors: Orkide Donma, M. Metin Donma, Burcin Nalbantoglu, Birol Topcu, Feti Tulubas, Murat Aydin, Tuba Gokkus, Ahmet Gurel

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Increasing prevalence of childhood obesity has increased the interest in early and late indicators of gaining weight. Cell blood counts may be indicators of pro-inflammatory states. The aim was to evaluate associations of hematological parameters, including hematocrit (HTC), hemoglobin, blood cell counts and their indices with the degree of obesity in pediatric population. A total of 249; -139 morbidly obese (MO), 82 healthy normal weight (NW) and 28 overweight (OW) children were included into the scope of the study. WHO BMI-for age percentiles were used to form age- and sexmatched groups. Informed consent forms and the Ethics Committee approval were obtained. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Hematological parameters were determined. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS. The degree for statistical significance was p≤0.05. Significant differences (p=0.000) between waist-to-hip ratios and head-to- neck ratios (hnrs) of MO and NW children were detected. A significant difference between hnrs of OW and MO children (p=0.000) was observed. Red cell distribution width (RDW) was higher in OW children than NW group (p=0.030). Such finding couldn’t be detected between MO and NW groups. Increased RDW was prominent in OW children. The decrease in mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) values in MO children was sharper than the values in OW children (p=0.006 vs p=0.042) compared to those in NW group. Statistically higher HTC levels were observed between MO-NW (p=0.014), but none between OW-NW. Though the cause-effect relationship between obesity and erythrocyte indices still needs further investigation, alterations in RDW, HTC, MCHC during obesity may be of significance in the early life.

Keywords: Anthropometry, children, erythrocytes, obesity.

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Authors: E. M. Vieira, C. S. Vieira, L. P. Bonifácio, L. M. de Oliveira Ciabati, A. C. A. Franzon, F. S. Zaratini, J. A. C. Sanchez, M. S. Andrade, J. P. Dias de Souza

Abstract:

The quality of prenatal care is key to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. Communication between the health service and users can stimulate prevention and care. M-health has been an important and low cost strategy to health education. The PRENACEL programme (prenatal in the cell phone) was developed. It consists of a programme of information via SMS from the 20^th week of pregnancy up to 12^th week after delivery. Messages were about prenatal care, birth, contraception and breastfeeding. Communication of the pregnant woman asking questions about their health was possible. The objective of this study was to evaluate the implementation of PRENACEL as a useful complement to the standard prenatal care. Twenty health clinics were selected and randomized by cluster, 10 as the intervention group and 10 as the control group. In the intervention group, women and their partner were invited to participate. The control group received the standard prenatal care. All women were interviewed in the immediate post-partum and in the 12^th and 24^th week post-partum. Most women were married, had more than 8 years of schooling and visit the clinic more than 6 times during prenatal care. The intervention group presented lowest percentage of higher economic participants (5.6%), less single mothers and no drug user. It also presented more prenatal care visits than the control group and it was less likely to present Severe Acute Maternal Mortality when compared to control group as well as higher percentage of partners (75.4%) was present at the birth compared to control group. Although the study is still being carried out, preliminary data are showing positive results of the compliance of women to prenatal care.

Keywords: Cellphone, health technology, prenatal care, prevention.

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Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, M. Hamidzadeh

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The use of waste rubber chips not only can be of great importance in terms of the environment, but also can be used to increase the shear strength of soils. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the variation of the internal friction angle of liquefiable sandy soil using waste rubber chips. For this purpose, the geotechnical properties of unmodified and modified soil samples by waste lining rubber chips have been evaluated and analyzed by performing the triaxial consolidated drained test. In order to prepare the laboratory specimens, the sandy soil in part of Rudsar shores in Gilan province, north of Iran with high liquefaction potential has been replaced by two percent of waste rubber chips. Samples have been compressed until reaching the two levels of density of 15.5 and 16.7 kN/m³. Also, in order to find the optimal length of chips in sandy soil, the rectangular rubber chips with the widths of 0.5 and 1 cm and the lengths of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm were used. The results showed that the addition of rubber chips to liquefiable sandy soil greatly increases the shear resistance of these soils. Also, it can be seen that decreasing the width and increasing the length-to-width ratio of rubber chips has a direct impact on the shear strength of the modified soil samples with rubber chips.

Keywords: Improvement, shear strength, internal friction angle, sandy soil, rubber chip.

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Authors: Mohammad Asif

Abstract:

A large number of chemical, bio-chemical and pollution-control processes use heterogeneous fixed-bed reactors. The use of finite hollow cylindrical catalyst pellets can enhance conversion levels in such reactors. The absence of the pellet core can significantly lower the diffusional resistance associated with the solid phase. This leads to a better utilization of the catalytic material, which is reflected in the higher values for the effectiveness factor, leading ultimately to an enhanced conversion level in the reactor. It is however important to develop a rigorous heterogeneous model for the reactor incorporating the two-dimensional feature of the solid phase owing to the presence of the finite hollow cylindrical catalyst pellet. Presently, heterogeneous models reported in the literature invariably employ one-dimension solid phase models meant for spherical catalyst pellets. The objective of the paper is to present a rigorous model of the fixed-bed reactors containing finite hollow cylindrical catalyst pellets. The reaction kinetics considered here is the widely used Michaelis–Menten kinetics for the liquid-phase bio-chemical reactions. The reaction parameters used here are for the enzymatic degradation of urea. Results indicate that increasing the height to diameter ratio helps to improve the conversion level. On the other hand, decreasing the thickness is apparently not as effective. This could however be explained in terms of the higher void fraction of the bed that causes a smaller amount of the solid phase to be packed in the fixed-bed bio-chemical reactor.

Keywords: Fixed-bed reactor, Finite hollow cylinder, Catalyst pellet, Conversion, Michaelis-Menten kinetics.

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Authors: E. Srinivasan, D. Ebenezer

Abstract:

Midpoint filter is quite effective in recovering the images confounded by the short-tailed (uniform) noise. It, however, performs poorly in the presence of additive long-tailed (impulse) noise and it does not preserve the edge structures of the image signals. Median smoother discards outliers (impulses) effectively, but it fails to provide adequate smoothing for images corrupted with nonimpulse noise. In this paper, two nonlinear techniques for image filtering, namely, New Filter I and New Filter II are proposed based on a nonlinear high-pass filter algorithm. New Filter I is constructed using a midpoint filter, a highpass filter and a combiner. It suppresses uniform noise quite well. New Filter II is configured using an alpha trimmed midpoint filter, a median smoother of window size 3x3, the high pass filter and the combiner. It is robust against impulse noise and attenuates uniform noise satisfactorily. Both the filters are shown to exhibit good response at the image boundaries (edges). The proposed filters are evaluated for their performance on a test image and the results obtained are included.

Keywords: Image filters, Midpoint filter, Nonlinear filters, Nonlinear highpass filter, Order-statistic filters, Rank-order filters.

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Authors: H. Mohammadiun, A. Kianifar, A. Kargar

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Nowadays, there is little information, concerning the heat shield systems, and this information is not completely reliable to use in so many cases. for example, the precise calculation cannot be done for various materials. In addition, the real scale test has two disadvantages: high cost and low flexibility, and for each case we must perform a new test. Hence, using numerical modeling program that calculates the surface recession rate and interior temperature distribution is necessary. Also, numerical solution of governing equation for non-charring material ablation is presented in order to anticipate the recession rate and the heat response of non-charring heat shields. the governing equation is nonlinear and the Newton- Rafson method along with TDMA algorithm is used to solve this nonlinear equation system. Using Newton- Rafson method for solving the governing equation is one of the advantages of the solving method because this method is simple and it can be easily generalized to more difficult problems. The obtained results compared with reliable sources in order to examine the accuracy of compiling code.

Keywords: Ablation rate, surface recession, interior temperaturedistribution, non charring material ablation, Newton Rafson method.

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Authors: Toby Gibbs, Suwaree Yordchim

Abstract:

This research analyzes factors affecting the success of Bitcoin Value within Thailand and develops a guideline for self-reliance for effective business implementation. Samples in this study included 121 people through surveys. The results revealed four main factors affecting the success as follows: 1) A great majority didn't know what Bitcoin was. 2) Didn't grasp the concept of a digital currency or see the benefit of a digital currency. 3) There is a great need to educate the next generation of learners on the benefits of Bitcoin within the community. 4) Future Career training should be pursued in applied Bitcoin development.

The guideline for self-reliance planning consisted of 4 aspects: 1) Local communities need to develop awareness of the usefulness of Bitcoin and share the value of Bitcoin among friends and family. 2) Computer Science and Business Management staff should develop skills to expand on the benefits of Bitcoin within their departments. 3) Further research should be pursued on how Bitcoin Value can improve business and tourism within Thailand. Local communities should focus on developing Bitcoin awareness by encouraging street vendors to accept Bitcoin as another form of payment for services rendered. 4) Development planning: by arranging meet up groups to conduct further education on Bitcoin and share solutions on adoption into every day usage.

Keywords: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Decentralized.

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Authors: M. Mojaddam, M. Araei, T. Saki Nejad, M. Soltani Howyzeh

Abstract:

In order to study the effect of different levels of triple super phosphate chemical fertilizer and biological phosphate fertilizer (fertile 2) on some morphological traits of corn this research was carried out in Ahvaz in 2002 as a factorial experiment in randomized complete block design with 4 replications). The experiment included two factors: first, biological phosphate fertilizer (fertile 2) at three levels of 0, 100, 200 g/ha; second, triple super phosphate chemical fertilizer at three levels of 0, 60, 90 kg/ha of pure phosphorus (P2O5). The obtained results indicated that fertilizer treatments had a significant effect on some morphological traits at 1% probability level. In this regard, P2B2 treatment (100 g/ha biological phosphate fertilizer (fertile 2) and 60 kg/ha triple super phosphate fertilizer) had the greatest plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and ear length. It seems that in Ahvaz weather conditions, decrease of consumption of triple superphosphate chemical fertilizer to less than a half along with the consumption of biological phosphate fertilizer (fertile 2) is highly important in order to achieve optimal results. Therefore, it can be concluded that biological fertilizers can be used as a suitable substitute for some of the chemical fertilizers in sustainable agricultural systems.

Keywords: Biological phosphate fertilizer, corn (SC704), morphological, triple super phosphate.

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Authors: Prima Luna, Afroditi Chatzifragkou, Dimitris Charalampopoulos

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Sorghum byproducts, namely bran, stalk, and panicle are examples of lignocellulosic biomass. These raw materials contain large amounts of polysaccharides, in particular hemicelluloses, celluloses, and lignins, which if efficiently extracted, can be utilised for the development of a range of added value products with potential applications in agriculture and food packaging sectors. The aim of this study was to characterise fractions extracted from sorghum bran and stalk with regards to their physicochemical properties that could determine their applicability as food-packaging materials. A sequential alkaline extraction was applied for the isolation of cellulosic, hemicellulosic and lignin fractions from sorghum stalk and bran. Lignin content, phenolic content and antioxidant capacity were also investigated in the case of the lignin fraction. Thermal analysis using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) revealed that the glass transition temperature (T_g) of cellulose fraction of the stalk was ~78.33 ^oC at amorphous state (~65%) and water content of ~5%. In terms of hemicellulose, the T_g value of stalk was slightly lower compared to bran at amorphous state (~54%) and had less water content (~2%). It is evident that hemicelluloses generally showed a lower thermal stability compared to cellulose, probably due to their lack of crystallinity. Additionally, bran had higher arabinose-to-xylose ratio (0.82) than the stalk, a fact that indicated its low crystallinity. Furthermore, lignin fraction had T_g value of ~93 ^oC at amorphous state (~11%). Stalk-derived lignin fraction contained more phenolic compounds (mainly consisting of p-coumaric and ferulic acid) and had higher lignin content and antioxidant capacity compared to bran-derived lignin fraction.

Keywords: Alkaline extraction, bran, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, sorghum, stalk.

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Authors: Prasansha Kumari

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This paper intends to identify and analyze customer adoption and attitudes towards mobile banking facilities. The study uses six perceived characteristics of innovation that can be used to form a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward an innovation, namely: Relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trailability, risk, and observability. Collected data were analyzed using Pearson Chi-Square test. The results showed that mobile bank users were predominantly males. There is a growing trend among young, educated customers towards converting to mobile banking in Sri Lanka. The research outcomes suggested that all the six factors are statistically highly significant in influencing mobile banking adoption and attitude formation towards mobile banking in Sri Lanka. The major reasons for adopting mobile banking services are the accessibility and availability of services regardless of time and place. Over the 75 percent of the respondents mentioned that savings in time and effort and low financial costs of conducting mobile banking were advantageous. Issue of security was found to be the most important factor that motivated consumer adoption and attitude formation towards mobile banking. Main barriers to mobile banking were the lack of technological skills, the traditional cash‐carry banking culture, and the lack of awareness and insufficient guidance to using mobile banking.

Keywords: Compatibility, complexity, mobile banking, risk.

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Authors: Cenk Sezen, Turgay Partal

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North Sea Caspian Pattern Index (NCP) refers to an atmospheric teleconnection between the North Sea and North Caspian at the 500 hPa geopotential height level. The aim of this study is to search for effects of NCP on annual and seasonal mean temperature and also annual and seasonal precipitation totals in the Aegean region of Turkey. The study contains the data that consist of 46 years obtained from nine meteorological stations. To determine the relationship between NCP and the climatic parameters, firstly the Pearson correlation coefficient method was utilized. According to the results of the analysis, most of the stations in the region have a high negative correlation NCPI in all seasons, especially in the winter season in terms of annual and seasonal mean temperature (statistically at significant at the 90% level). Besides, high negative correlation values between NCPI and precipitation totals are observed during the winter season at the most of stations. Furthermore, the NCPI values were divided into two group as NCPI(-) and NCPI(+), and then mean temperature and precipitation total values, which are grouped according to the NCP(-) and NCP(+) phases, were determined as annual and seasonal. During the NCPI(-), higher mean temperature values are observed in all of seasons, particularly in the winter season compared to the mean temperature values under effect of NCP(+). Similarly, during the NCPI(-) in winter season precipitation total values have higher than the precipitation total values under the effect of NCP(+); however, in other seasons there no substantial changes were observed between the precipitation total values. As a result of this study, significant proof is obtained with regards to the influences of NCP on the temperature and precipitation regime in the Aegean region of Turkey.

Keywords: Aegean Region, North Sea Caspian Pattern, precipitation, temperature.

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Authors: Hassen M. Ouakad

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In this paper, the influence of van der Waals, as well as electrostatic forces on the structural behavior of MEMS and NEMS actuators, has been investigated using of a Euler-Bernoulli beam continuous model. In the proposed nonlinear model, the electrostatic fringing-fields and the mid-plane stretching (geometric nonlinearity) effects have been considered. The nonlinear integro-differential equation governing the static structural behavior of the actuator has been derived. An original Galerkin-based reduced-order model has been developed to avoid problems arising from the nonlinearities in the differential equation. The obtained reduced-order model equations have been solved numerically using the Newton-Raphson method. The basic design parameters such as the pull-in parameters (voltage and deflection at pull-in), as well as the detachment length due to the van der Waals force of some investigated micro- and nano-actuators have been calculated. The obtained numerical results have been compared with some other existing methods (finite-elements method and finite-difference method) and the comparison showed good agreement among all assumed numerical techniques.

Keywords: MEMS, NEMS, fringing-fields, mid-plane stretching, Galerkin method.

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Authors: Dalia Suša Vugec, Ana-Marija Stjepić, Darija Ivandić Vidović

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Digital transformation is one of the latest trends on the global market. In order to maintain the competitive advantage and sustainability, increasing number of organizations are conducting digital transformation processes. Those organizations are changing their business processes and creating new business models with the help of digital technologies. In that sense, one should also observe the role of business process management (BPM) and its maturity in driving digital transformation. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to investigate the role of BPM in digital transformation process within one organization. Since experiences from practice show that organizations from financial sector could be observed as leaders in digital transformation, an insurance company has been selected to participate in the study. That company has been selected due to the high level of its BPM maturity and the fact that it has previously been through a digital transformation process. In order to fulfill the goals of the paper, several interviews, as well as questionnaires, have been conducted within the selected company. The results are presented in a form of a case study. Results indicate that digital transformation process within the observed company has been successful, with special focus on the development of digital strategy, BPM and change management. The role of BPM in the digital transformation of the observed company is further discussed in the paper.

Keywords: Business process management, case study, Croatia, digital transformation, insurance company.

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Authors: G. Sevilla, S. Zapata, F. Giraldo, E. Torres, C. Collazos

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This work describes a framework for teaching of global software engineering (GSE) in university undergraduate programs. This framework proposes a method of teaching that incorporates adequate techniques of software requirements elicitation and validated tools of communication, critical aspects to global software development scenarios. The use of proposed framework allows teachers to simulate small software development companies formed by Latin American students, which build information systems. Students from three Latin American universities played the roles of engineers by applying an iterative development of a requirements specification in a global software project. The proposed framework involves the use of a specific purpose Wiki for asynchronous communication between the participants of the process. It is also a practice to improve the quality of software requirements that are formulated by the students. The additional motivation of students to participate in these practices, in conjunction with peers from other countries, is a significant additional factor that positively contributes to the learning process. The framework promotes skills for communication, negotiation, and other complementary competencies that are useful for working on GSE scenarios.

Keywords: Requirements analysis, distributed requirements engineering, practical experiences, collaborative support.

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