Search results for: Density Functional Theory (DFT)

Authors: Yong Zhao, Jian He, Cheng Zhang

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Cardiovascular disease resulting from hypertension poses a significant threat to human health, and early detection of hypertension can potentially save numerous lives. Traditional methods for detecting hypertension require specialized equipment and are often incapable of capturing continuous blood pressure fluctuations. To address this issue, this study starts by analyzing the principle of heart rate variability (HRV) and introduces the utilization of sliding window and power spectral density (PSD) techniques to analyze both temporal and frequency domain features of HRV. Subsequently, a hypertension prediction network that relies on HRV is proposed, combining Resnet, attention mechanisms, and a multi-layer perceptron. The network leverages a modified ResNet18 to extract frequency domain features, while employing an attention mechanism to integrate temporal domain features, thus enabling auxiliary hypertension prediction through the multi-layer perceptron. The proposed network is trained and tested using the publicly available SHAREE dataset from PhysioNet. The results demonstrate that the network achieves a high prediction accuracy of 92.06% for hypertension, surpassing traditional models such as K Near Neighbor (KNN), Bayes, Logistic regression, and traditional Convolutional Neural Network (CNN).

Keywords: Feature extraction, heart rate variability, hypertension, residual networks.

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Authors: M. Mahli, A.I. Che-Ani, M.Z. Abd-Razak. N.M. Tawil, H. Yahaya

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Building condition assessment is a critical activity in Malaysia-s Comprehensive Asset Management Model. It is closely related to building performance that impact user-s life and decision making. This study focuses on public primary school, one of the most valuable assets for the country. The assessment was carried out based on CSP1 Matrix in Kuching Division of Sarawak, Malaysia. Based on the matrix used, three main criteria of the buildings has successfully evaluate: the number of defects; schools rating; and total schools rating. The analysis carried out on 24 schools found that the overall 4, 725 defects has been identified. Meanwhile, the overall score obtained was 45, 868 and the overall rating is 9.71, which is at the fair condition. This result has been associated with building age to evaluate its impacts on school buildings condition. The findings proved that building condition is closely related to building age and its support the theory that 'the ageing building has more defect than the new one'.

Keywords: building condition, CSP1 Matrix, assessment, school, Malaysia

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Authors: Siyuan Jing, Kun She

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Neighborhood Rough Sets (NRS) has been proven to be an efficient tool for heterogeneous attribute reduction. However, most of researches are focused on dealing with complete and noiseless data. Factually, most of the information systems are noisy, namely, filled with incomplete data and inconsistent data. In this paper, we introduce a generalized neighborhood rough sets model, called VPTNRS, to deal with the problem of heterogeneous attribute reduction in noisy system. We generalize classical NRS model with tolerance neighborhood relation and the probabilistic theory. Furthermore, we use the neighborhood dependency to evaluate the significance of a subset of heterogeneous attributes and construct a forward greedy algorithm for attribute reduction based on it. Experimental results show that the model is efficient to deal with noisy data.

Keywords: attribute reduction, incomplete data, inconsistent data, tolerance neighborhood relation, rough sets

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Authors: AbdulLateef A. Olanrewaju, Mohd F. Khamidi, Arazi Idrus

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This paper is part of an ongoing research on the development of systemic maintenance management model Malaysian university buildings. In order to achieve this aim, there is a need to develop a performance model against which services are measure. Measuring performance is a significant part of maintenance management service delivery. Maintenance organization needs to know where they are in order to provide user-driven services and to enhance productivity. The aim of this paper is to formulate a template or model for university maintenance organization in Malaysia. The model is based on literature review and survey questionnaire and has been validated. Through grounded theory, this paper developed a 8 points matrix for the university maintenance organizations for measuring and improving their service delivery. The potential of the model is guide and assists towards providing value added service delivery through initiating maintenance according to user value system rather than on the condition of the building.

Keywords: Performance matrix, university buildings, users, maintenance organization

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Authors: Wang, Kuei-Ing, Jou-Fan Shih

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This study adopts deterrence theory as well as social identities as moderators, and explores their moderating affects on online toxic disinhibition. Survey and Experimental methodologies are applied to test the research model and four hypotheses are developed in this study. The controllability of identity positively influenced the behavior of toxic disinhibition both in experimental and control groups while the fluidity of the identity did not have significant influences on online disinhibition. Punishment certainty, punishment severity as well as social identity negatively moderated the relation between the controllability of the identity and the toxic disinhibition. The result of this study shows that internet users hide their real identities when they behave inappropriately on internet, but once they acknowledge that the inappropriate behavior will be found and punished severely, the inappropriate behavior then will be weakened.

Keywords: Seductive properties of Internet, Online Disinhibition, Punishment Certainty, Punishment Severity, Social Identity.

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Authors: Stefanie Rukavina, Sascha Gruss, Steffen Walter, Holger Hoffmann, Harald C. Traue

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OPEN_EmoRec_II is an open multimodal corpus with experimentally induced emotions. In the first half of the experiment, emotions were induced with standardized picture material and in the second half during a human-computer interaction (HCI), realized with a wizard-of-oz design. The induced emotions are based on the dimensional theory of emotions (valence, arousal and dominance). These emotional sequences - recorded with multimodal data (facial reactions, speech, audio and physiological reactions) during a naturalistic-like HCI-environment one can improve classification methods on a multimodal level. This database is the result of an HCI-experiment, for which 30 subjects in total agreed to a publication of their data including the video material for research purposes*. The now available open corpus contains sensory signal of: video, audio, physiology (SCL, respiration, BVP, EMG Corrugator supercilii, EMG Zygomaticus Major) and facial reactions annotations.

Keywords: Open multimodal emotion corpus, annotated labels.

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Authors: Stefanie Rukavina, Sascha Gruss, Steffen Walter, Holger Hoffmann, Harald C. Traue

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OPEN_EmoRec_II is an open multimodal corpus with experimentally induced emotions. In the first half of the experiment, emotions were induced with standardized picture material and in the second half during a human-computer interaction (HCI), realized with a wizard-of-oz design. The induced emotions are based on the dimensional theory of emotions (valence, arousal and dominance). These emotional sequences - recorded with multimodal data (facial reactions, speech, audio and physiological reactions) during a naturalistic-like HCI-environment one can improve classification methods on a multimodal level. This database is the result of an HCI-experiment, for which 30 subjects in total agreed to a publication of their data including the video material for research purposes*. The now available open corpus contains sensory signal of: video, audio, physiology (SCL, respiration, BVP, EMG Corrugator supercilii, EMG Zygomaticus Major) and facial reactions annotations.

Keywords: Open multimodal emotion corpus, annotated labels.

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Authors: Chin Tangtarntana

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The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of animation in offensive product advertising. Experiment was conducted to collect consumer responses toward animated and static ads of offensive and non-offensive products. The study was conducted by distributing questionnaires to the target respondents. According to statistics from Innovative Internet Research Center, Thailand, majority of internet users are 18 – 44 years old. The results revealed an interaction between ad design and offensive product. Specifically, when used in offensive product advertisements, animated ads were not effective for consumer attention, but yielded positive response in terms of attitude toward product. The findings support that information processing model is accurate in predicting consumer cognitive response toward cartoon ads, whereas U&G, arousal, and distinctive theory is more accurate in predicting consumer affective response. In practical, these findings can also be used to guide ad designers and marketers that are suitable for offensive products.

Keywords: Animation, banner ad design, consumer responses, offensive product advertising, stock exchange of Thailand.

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Authors: A. Ukaew, C. Chauypen

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Design concepts of real-time embedded system can be realized initially by introducing novel design approaches. In this literature, model based design approach and in-the-loop testing were employed early in the conceptual and preliminary phase to formulate design requirements and perform quick real-time verification. The design and analysis methodology includes simulation analysis, model based testing, and in-the-loop testing. The design of conceptual driveby- wire, or DBW, algorithm for electronic control unit, or ECU, was presented to demonstrate the conceptual design process, analysis, and functionality evaluation. The concepts of DBW ECU function can be implemented in the vehicle system to improve electric vehicle, or EV, conversion drivability. However, within a new development process, conceptual ECU functions and parameters are needed to be evaluated. As a result, the testing system was employed to support conceptual DBW ECU functions evaluation. For the current setup, the system components were consisted of actual DBW ECU hardware, electric vehicle models, and control area network or CAN protocol. The vehicle models and CAN bus interface were both implemented as real-time applications where ECU and CAN protocol functionality were verified according to the design requirements. The proposed system could potentially benefit in performing rapid real-time analysis of design parameters for conceptual system or software algorithm development.

Keywords: Drive-by-wire ECU, in-the-loop testing, modelbased design, real-time embedded system.

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Authors: Changhong Guo, Shaomei Fang, Yong He

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In this paper, fractional Black-Scholes models for the European option pricing were established based on the fractional G-Brownian motion (fGBm), which generalizes the concepts of the classical Brownian motion, fractional Brownian motion and the G-Brownian motion, and that can be used to be a tool for considering the long range dependence and uncertain volatility for the financial markets simultaneously. A generalized fractional Black-Scholes equation (FBSE) was derived by using the Taylor’s series of fractional order and the theory of absence of arbitrage. Finally, some explicit option pricing formulas for the European call option and put option under the FBSE were also solved, which extended the classical option pricing formulas given by F. Black and M. Scholes.

Keywords: European option pricing, fractional Black-Scholes equations, fractional G-Brownian motion, Taylor’s series of fractional order, uncertain volatility.

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Authors: Sepehr Lajevardi Esfahani, Shohre Rouhani, Zahra Ranjbar

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Graphene has gained much attention owing to its unique optical and electrical properties. Charge carriers in graphene sheets (GS) carry out a linear dispersion relation near the Fermi energy and behave as massless Dirac fermions resulting in unusual attributes such as the quantum Hall effect and ambipolar electric field effect. It also exhibits nondispersive transport characteristics with an extremely high electron mobility (15000 cm²/(Vs)) at room temperature. Recently, several progresses have been achieved in the fabrication of single- or multilayer GS for functional device applications in the fields of optoelectronic such as field-effect transistors ultrasensitive sensors and organic photovoltaic cells. In addition to device applications, graphene also can serve as reinforcement to enhance mechanical, thermal, or electrical properties of composite materials. Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is an attractive method for development of various coatings and films. It readily applied to any powdered solid that forms a stable suspension. The deposition parameters were controlled in various thicknesses. In this study, the graphene electrodeposition conditions were optimized. The results were obtained from SEM, Ohm resistance measuring technique and AFM characteristic tests. The minimum sheet resistance of electrodeposited reduced graphene oxide layers is achieved at conditions of 2 V in 10 s and it is annealed at 200 °C for 1 minute.

Keywords: Electrophoretic deposition, graphene oxide, electrical conductivity, electro-optical devices.

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Authors: Mihai Rebenciuc, Simona Mihaela Bibic

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Branch of modern mathematics, graphs represent instruments for optimization and solving practical applications in various fields such as economic networks, engineering, network optimization, the geometry of social action, generally, complex systems including contemporary urban problems (path or transport efficiencies, biourbanism, & c.). In this paper is studied the interconnection of some urban network, which can lead to a simulation problem of a digraph through another digraph. The simulation is made univoc or more general multivoc. The concepts of fragment and atom are very useful in the study of connectivity in the digraph that is simulation - including an alternative evaluation of k- connectivity. Rough set approach in (bi)digraph which is proposed in premier in this paper contribute to improved significantly the evaluation of k-connectivity. This rough set approach is based on generalized rough sets - basic facts are presented in this paper.

Keywords: (Bi)digraphs, rough set theory, systems of interacting agents, complex systems.

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Authors: Shikha Maheshwari, Amit Srivastava

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In medical investigations, uncertainty is a major challenging problem in making decision for doctors/experts to identify the diseases with a common set of symptoms and also has been extensively increasing in medical diagnosis problems. The theory of cross entropy for intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS) is an effective approach in coping uncertainty in decision making for medical diagnosis problem. The main focus of this paper is to propose a new intuitionistic fuzzy cross entropy measure (IFCEM), which aid in reducing the uncertainty and doctors/experts will take their decision easily in context of patient’s disease. It is shown that the proposed measure has some elegant properties, which demonstrates its potency. Further, it is also exemplified in detail the efficiency and utility of the proposed measure by using a real life case study of diagnosis the disease in medical science.

Keywords: Intuitionistic fuzzy cross entropy (IFCEM), intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS), medical diagnosis, uncertainty.

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Authors: Ranya Elkhayat

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This paper aims at offering a futures study for higher education in the Middle East. Paying special attention to the negative impacts of neoliberalism, the paper will demonstrate how higher education is now commodified, corporatized and how arts and humanities are eschewed in favor of science and technology. This conceptual paper argues against the neoliberal agenda and aims at providing an alternative exemplified in the Capabilities Approach with special reference to Martha Nussbaum’s theory. The paper is divided into four main parts: the current state of higher education under neoliberal values, a prediction of the conditions of higher education in the near future, the future of higher education using the theoretical framework of the Capabilities Approach, and finally, some areas of concern regarding the approach. The implications of the study demonstrate that Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach will ensure that the values of education are preserved while avoiding the pitfalls of neoliberalism.

Keywords: Capabilities approach, education future, higher education, MENA.

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Authors: Eva Tvrdá, Marek Halenár, Hana Greifová, Alica Mackovich, Faridullah Hashim, Norbert Lukáč

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Oxidative stress associated with semen cryopreservation may result in lipid peroxidation (LPO), DNA damage and apoptosis, leading to decreased sperm motility and fertilization ability. Curcumin (CUR), a natural phenol isolated from Curcuma longa Linn. has been presented as a possible supplement for a more effective semen cryopreservation because of its antioxidant properties. This study focused to evaluate the effects of CUR on selected oxidative stress parameters in cryopreserved bovine semen. 20 bovine ejaculates were split into two aliquots and diluted with a commercial semen extender containing CUR (50 μmol/L) or no supplement (control), cooled to 4 °C, frozen and kept in liquid nitrogen. Frozen straws were thawed in a water bath for subsequent experiments. Computer assisted semen analysis was used to evaluate spermatozoa motility, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was quantified by using luminometry. Superoxide generation was evaluated with the NBT test, and LPO was assessed via the TBARS assay. CUR supplementation significantly (P<0.001) increased the spermatozoa motility and provided a significantly higher protection against ROS (P<0.001) or superoxide (P<0.01) overgeneration caused by semen freezing and thawing. Furthermore, CUR administration resulted in a significantly (P<0.01) lower LPO of the experimental semen samples. In conclusion, CUR exhibits significant ROS-scavenging activities which may prevent oxidative insults to cryopreserved spermatozoa and thus may enhance the post-thaw functional activity of male gametes.

Keywords: Bulls, cryopreservation, curcumin, lipid peroxidation, reactive oxygen species, spermatozoa.

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Authors: M. A. Kassim, R. Potumarthi, A. Tanksale, S. C. Srivatsa, S. Bhattacharya

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Enzymatic saccharification of biomass for reducing sugar production is one of the crucial processes in biofuel production through biochemical conversion. In this study, enzymatic saccharification of dilute potassium hydroxide (KOH) pre-treated Tetraselmis suecica biomass was carried out by using cellulase enzyme obtained from Trichoderma longibrachiatum. Initially, the pre-treatment conditions were optimised by changing alkali reagent concentration, retention time for reaction, and temperature. The T. suecica biomass after pre-treatment was also characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectra and Scanning Electron Microscope. These analyses revealed that the functional group such as acetyl and hydroxyl groups, structure and surface of T. suecica biomass were changed through pre-treatment, which is favourable for enzymatic saccharification process. Comparison of enzymatic saccharification of untreated and pre-treated microalgal biomass indicated that higher level of reducing sugar can be obtained from pre-treated T. suecica. Enzymatic saccharification of pre-treated T. suecica biomass was optimised by changing temperature, pH, and enzyme concentration to solid ratio ([E]/[S]). Highest conversion of carbohydrate into reducing sugar of 95% amounted to reducing sugar yield of 20 (wt%) from pre-treated T. suecica was obtained from saccharification, at temperature: 40°C, pH: 4.5 and [E]/[S] of 0.1 after 72 h of incubation. Hydrolysate obtained from enzymatic saccharification of pretreated T. suecica biomass was further fermented into biobutanol using Clostridium saccharoperbutyliticum as biocatalyst. The results from this study demonstrate a positive prospect of application of dilute alkaline pre-treatment to enhance enzymatic saccharification and biobutanol production from microalgal biomass.

Keywords: Microalgal biomass, enzymatic saccharification, biobutanol, fermentation.

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Authors: G. Haupt

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Existing literature ondesign reasoning seems to give either one sided accounts on expert design behaviour based on internal processing. In the same way ecological theoriesseem to focus one sidedly on external elementsthat result in a lack of unifying design cognition theory. Although current extended design cognition studies acknowledge the intellectual interaction between internal and external resources, there still seems to be insufficient understanding of the complexities involved in such interactive processes. As such,this paper proposes a novelmulti-directional model for design researchers tomap the complex and dynamic conduct controlling behaviour in which both the computational and ecological perspectives are integrated in a vertical manner. A clear distinction between identified intentional and emerging physical drivers, and relationships between them during the early phases of experts- design process, is demonstrated by presenting a case study in which the model was employed.

Keywords: External representation, early phases, extended design cognition, internal processes and external drivers, conduct controlling behaviour.

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Authors: Mohammad Sadeghi, Behrouz Heidari, Korush Montazeri

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A novel thermo-sensitive superabsorbent hydrogel with salt- and pH-responsiveness properties was obtained by grafting of mixtures of acrylic acid (AA) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) monomers onto kappa-carrageenan, kC, using ammonium persulfate (APS) as a free radical initiator in the presence of methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker. Infrared spectroscopy was carried out to confirm the chemical structure of the hydrogel. Moreover, morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of MBA concentration and AA/NIPAM weight ratio on the water absorbency capacity has been investigated. The swelling variations of hydrogels were explained according to swelling theory based on the hydrogel chemical structure. The hydrogels exhibited salt-sensitivity and cation exchange properties. The temperature- and pH-reversibility properties of the hydrogels make the intelligent polymers as good candidates for considering as potential carriers for bioactive agents, e.g. drugs.

Keywords: superabsorbent, carrageenan, acrylic acid, Nisopropylacrylamide, hydrogel, swelling

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Authors: Mingxin Zhang, Zhaogan Lu, Junyi Shen

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In current common research reports, salient regions are usually defined as those regions that could present the main meaningful or semantic contents. However, there are no uniform saliency metrics that could describe the saliency of implicit image regions. Most common metrics take those regions as salient regions, which have many abrupt changes or some unpredictable characteristics. But, this metric will fail to detect those salient useful regions with flat textures. In fact, according to human semantic perceptions, color and texture distinctions are the main characteristics that could distinct different regions. Thus, we present a novel saliency metric coupled with color and texture features, and its corresponding salient region extraction methods. In order to evaluate the corresponding saliency values of implicit regions in one image, three main colors and multi-resolution Gabor features are respectively used for color and texture features. For each region, its saliency value is actually to evaluate the total sum of its Euclidean distances for other regions in the color and texture spaces. A special synthesized image and several practical images with main salient regions are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed saliency metric and other several common metrics, i.e., scale saliency, wavelet transform modulus maxima point density, and important index based metrics. Experiment results verified that the proposed saliency metric could achieve more robust performance than those common saliency metrics.

Keywords: salient regions, color and texture features, image segmentation, saliency metric

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Authors: Murtaza Adil, Sen Yang, Zhou Chao, Song Xiaoping

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The morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) recently has attracted constant interest in ferromagnetic systems for obtaining enhanced large magnetoelastic response. In the present study, structural and magnetoelastic properties of MPB involved ferromagnetic Tb_1-xGd_xFe₂ (0≤x≤1) system has been investigated. The change of easy magnetic direction from <111> to <100> with increasing x up MPB composition of x=0.9 is detected by step-scanned [440] synchrotron X-ray diffraction reflections. The Gd substitution for Tb changes the composition for the anisotropy compensation near MPB composition of x=0.9, which was confirmed by the analysis of detailed scanned XRD, magnetization curves and the calculation of the first anisotropy constant K₁. The spin configuration diagram accompanied with different crystal structures for Tb_1-xGd_xFe₂ was designed. The calculated first anisotropy constant K₁ shows a minimum value at MPB composition of x=0.9. In addition, the large ratio between magnetostriction, and the absolute values of the first anisotropy constant │λ_S∕K₁│ appears at MPB composition, which makes it a potential material for magnetostrictive application. Based on experimental results, a theoretically approach was also proposed to signify that the facilitated magnetization rotation and enhanced magnetoelastic effect near MPB composition are a consequence of the anisotropic flattening of free energy of ferromagnetic crystal. Our work specifies the universal existence of MPB in ferromagnetic materials which is important for substantial improvement of magnetic and magnetostrictive properties and may provide a new route to develop advanced functional materials.

Keywords: Free energy, lattice distortion, magnetic anisotropy, magnetostriction, morphotropic phase boundary.

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Authors: H. K. G. K. D. K. Hapuhinna, R. D. Gunaratne, H. M. J. C. Pitawala

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Hydroxyapatite is a bioceramic which can be used for applications in orthopedics and dentistry due to its structural similarity with the mineral phase of mammalian bones and teeth. In this study, it was synthesized, chemically changing natural Eppawala chloroapatite mineral as a value-added product. Sol-gel approach and solid state sintering were used to synthesize products using diluted nitric acid, ethanol and calcium hydroxide under different conditions. Synthesized Eppawala hydroxyapatite powder was characterized using X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) in order to find out its composition, crystallinity, presence of functional groups, bonding type, surface morphology, microstructural features, and thermal dependence and stability, respectively. The XRD results reflected the formation of a hexagonal crystal structure of hydroxyapatite. Elementary composition and microstructural features of products were discussed based on the XRF and SEM results of the synthesized hydroxyapatite powder. TGA and DSC results of synthesized products showed high thermal stability and good material stability in nature. Also, FTIR spectroscopy results confirmed the formation of hydroxyapatite from apatite via the presence of hydroxyl groups. Those results coincided with the FTIR results of mammalian bones including human bones. The study concludes that there is a possibility of producing hydroxyapatite using commercially available Eppawala chloroapatite in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: Dentistry, eppawala chloroapatite, hydroxyapatite, orthopedics.

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Authors: H. M. Abdelmoneim, N. A. Babtain, A. S. Barhamain, A. Z. Kufiah, A. S. Malibari, S. F. Munassar, R. S. Rawa

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Introduction: Prostate cancer is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in men in developed countries. Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) could be responsible for the progression and relapse of cancer. Therefore, CSCs markers could provide a prognostic strategy for human malignancies. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 (ALDH1A1) activity has been shown to be associated with tumorigenesis and proposed to represent a functional marker for tumor initiating cells in various tumor types including prostate cancer. Material & Methods: We analyzed the immunohistochemical expression of ALDH1A1 in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and prostatic adenocarcinoma and assessed their significant correlations in 50 TURP sections. They were microscopically interpreted and the results were correlated with histopathological types and tumor grade. Results: In different prostatic histopathological lesions we found that ALDH1A1 expression was low in BPH (13.3%) and PIN (6.7%) and then its expression increased with prostatic adenocarcinoma (40%), and this was statistically highly significant (P value = 0.02). However, in different grades of prostatic adenocarcinoma we found that the higher the Gleason grade the higher the expression for ALDH1A1 and this was statistically significant (P value = 0.02). We compared the expression of ALDH1A1 in PIN and prostatic adenocarcinoma. ALDH1A1 expression was decreased in PIN and highly expressed in prostatic adenocarcinoma and this was statistically significant (P value = 0.04). Conclusion: Increasing ALDH1A1 expression is correlated with aggressive behavior of the tumor. Immunohistochemical expression of ALDH1A1 might provide a potential approach to study tumorigenesis and progression of primary prostate carcinoma.

Keywords: ALDH1A1, BPH, PIN, prostatic adenocarcinoma.

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Authors: Nazar Younis, Raied Salman

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It has been always observed that the effectiveness of MIS as a support tool for management decisions degenerate after time of implementation, despite the substantial investments being made. This is true for organizations at the initial stages of MIS implementations, manual or computerized. A survey of a sample of middle to top managers in business and government institutions was made. A large ratio indicates that the MIS has lost its impact on the day-to-day operations, and even the response lag time expands sometimes indefinitely. The data indicates an infant mortality phenomenon of the bathtub model. Reasons may be monotonous nature of MIS delivery, irrelevance, irreverence, timeliness, and lack of adequate detail. All those reasons collaborate to create a degree of degeneracy. We investigate and model as a bathtub model the phenomenon of MIS degeneracy that inflicts the MIS systems and renders it ineffective. A degeneracy index is developed to identify the status of the MIS system and possible remedies to prevent the onset of total collapse of the system to the point of being useless.

Keywords: MIS, management theory, information technology, information systems, IS, organizational environment, organizations, degeneracy, organizational change.

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Authors: Isari Pairoa, Proud Arunrangsiwed

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Brand mascots are the cartoon characters, which are mainly designed for advertising or other related marketing purposes. Many brand mascots are extremely popular, since they were presented in commercial advertisements and Line Stickers. Brand Line Stickers could lead the users to identify with the brand and brand mascots, where might influence users to become loyal customers, and share the identity with the brand. The objective of the current study is to examine the effect of brand mascots on consumers’ decision and consumers’ intention to purchase the product. This study involved 400 participants, using cluster sampling from 50 districts in Bangkok metropolitan area. The descriptive analysis shows that using brand mascot causes consumers' positive attitude toward the products, and also heightens the possibility to purchasing the products. The current study suggests the new type of marketing strategy, which is brand fandom. This study has also contributed the knowledge to the area of integrated marketing communication and identification theory.

Keywords: Brand mascot, consumers’ behavior, marketing communication, purchasing.

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Authors: Imen Hamed, Burcu Ak, Oya Işık, Leyla Uslu, Kubilay Kazım Vursavuş

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In this study, 3 species of Dunaliella (Dunaliella sp. Salt Lake isoalte (Tuz Gölü), Dunaliella salina CCAP19/18, and Dunaliella bardawil LB 2538) and their optical density, dry matter, chlorophyll a, total carotenoids, and β-carotene production were investigated in a batch system. The aim of this research was to compare carotenoids, and β-carotene production were investigated in a batch those 3 species. Therefore 2 stress factors were used: 2 different temperatures (20°C and 30°C) and 2 different salinities (30‰, and 60‰) were tested over a 17-day study. The highest growth and chlorophyll a was reported for Dunaliella sp. under 20°C/30‰ and 20°C/60‰ conditions respectively followed by D. bardawil and D. salina. Significant differences were noticed (p<0.05) for the other 3 species. The growth decreased as temperature and salinity increased since the lowest growth was noticed for the 30°C/60‰ group. The chlorophyll a content decreased also as temperature increased however when the NaCl concentration increased an augmentation of the content was noticed . In the 17^th day of experiment the highest carotenoids concentration was reported for D. bardawil 20°C/30‰ (65,639±0,400 μg.mL⁻¹) and the most important β carotene concentration was for D. salina 20°C/60‰ (8,98E-07±0,013 mol/L).

Keywords: Dunaliella sp., Dunaliella salina, Dunaliella bardawil, stress factors, pigments, growth.

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Authors: Zhou Luchen, Wu Yubing, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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As the scale of the network becomes larger and more complex than before, the density of user devices is also increasing. The development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks is able to collect and transform data in an efficient way by using software-defined networks (SDN) technology. This paper proposed a three-layer distributed and dynamic cluster architecture to manage UAVs by using an AI-based resource allocation calculation algorithm to address the overloading network problem. Through separating services of each UAV, the UAV hierarchical cluster system performs the main function of reducing the network load and transferring user requests, with three sub-tasks including data collection, communication channel organization, and data relaying. In this cluster, a head node and a vice head node UAV are selected considering the CPU, RAM, and ROM memory of devices, battery charge, and capacity. The vice head node acts as a backup that stores all the data in the head node. The k-means clustering algorithm is used in order to detect high load regions and form the UAV layered clusters. The whole process of detecting high load areas, forming and selecting UAV clusters, and moving the selected UAV cluster to that area is proposed as offloading traffic algorithm.

Keywords: k-means, resource allocation, SDN, UAV network, unmanned aerial vehicles.

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Authors: E. Satoh, R. Kasahara, T. Aoki, K. Fukatsu, D. Venkata Ramanarao, H. Harayama, T. Murata, A. Suwa

Abstract:

Rice plant hoppers (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) have been causing extensive economic damage in rice and are considered as serious threat in rice producing countries of Asia. They have developed resistance to major groups of chemical insecticide, and severe outbreaks occur commonly throughout Asia. To control these nuisance pests, Nihon Nohyaku Co., Ltd., recently discovered an insecticide, benzpyrimoxan (proposed ISO name), which is under development as NNI-1501 (development code). Benzpyrimoxan has a unique chemical structure which contains benzyloxy and cyclic acetal groups on pyrimidine moiety (5-(1,3-dioxan-2-yl)-4-[4- (trifluoromethyl)benzyloxy]pyrimidine). In order to clarify the biological properties of benzpyrimoxan, we conducted several experiments and found the following results. Benzpyrimoxan has high activity against nymphal stages of rice plant hoppers without any adulticidal activity. It provides excellent and long lasting control against rice plant hoppers, including populations that have developed resistance to several other chemical groups of insecticide. The study on its mode of action is undergoing. These features highlight the versatility of this insecticide as an effective and valuable tool from the viewpoints of insecticide resistance management and integrated pest management program. With the use of benzpyrimoxan, farmers shall be able to lead the best yield potential by keeping the population density of rice plant hoppers and associated virus diseases under control.

Keywords: Acetal, benzpyrimoxan, insecticide, NNI-1501, pyrimidine, rice plant hoppers.

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Authors: Nagalingam Arun Prasanth, Ahmed Syed Adnan, S. H. Yeo

Abstract:

Surface topography plays a significant role in the functional performance of engineered parts. It is important to have a control on the surface geometry and understanding on the surface details to get the desired performance. Hence, in the current research contribution, a non-contact micro-texturing technique has been explored and developed. The technique involves ultrasonic excitation of a tool as a prime source of surface texturing for aluminum alloy workpieces. The specimen surface is polished first and is then immersed in a liquid bath containing 10% weight concentration of Ti6Al4V grade 5 spherical powders. A submerged slurry jet is used to recirculate the spherical powders under the ultrasonic horn which is excited at an ultrasonic frequency and amplitude of 40 kHz and 70 µm respectively. The distance between the horn and workpiece surface was remained fixed at 200 µm using a precision control stage. Texturing effects were investigated for different process timings of 1, 3 and 5 s. Thereafter, the specimens were cleaned in an ultrasonic bath for 5 mins to remove loose debris on the surface. The developed surfaces are characterized by optical and contact surface profiler. The optical microscopic images show a texture of circular spots on the workpiece surface indented by titanium spherical balls. Waviness patterns obtained from contact surface profiler supports the texturing effect produced from the proposed technique. Furthermore, water droplet tests were performed to show the efficacy of the proposed technique to develop hydrophilic surfaces and to quantify the texturing effect produced.

Keywords: Surface texturing, surface modification, topography, ultrasonic.

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Authors: Dibyendu Ghoshal, Shimal Das

Abstract:

Image compression based on fractal coding is a lossy compression method and normally used for gray level images range and domain blocks in rectangular shape. Fractal based digital image compression technique provide a large compression ratio and in this paper, it is proposed using YUV colour space and the fractal theory which is based on iterated transformation. Fractal geometry is mainly applied in the current study towards colour image compression coding. These colour images possesses correlations among the colour components and hence high compression ratio can be achieved by exploiting all these redundancies. The proposed method utilises the self-similarity in the colour image as well as the cross-correlations between them. Experimental results show that the greater compression ratio can be achieved with large domain blocks but more trade off in image quality is good to acceptable at less than 1 bit per pixel.

Keywords: Fractal coding, Iterated Function System (IFS), Image compression, YUV colour space.

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Authors: Li Bixia, Ren Shouwen, Fu Yanfeng, Tu Feng, Xiaoming Fang, Xueming Wang

Abstract:

The utilization of dietary crude fiber in different breed pigs is not the same. Su-shan pigs are a new breed formed by crossing Taihu pigs and Yorkshire pigs. In order to understand the resistance of Su-shan pigs to dietary crude fiber, 150 Su-shan pigs with 60 kg of average body weight and similar body conditions were allocated to three groups randomly, and there are 50 pigs in each group. The percentages of dietary crude fiber were 8.35%, 9.10%, and 11.39%, respectively. At the end of the experiment, 15 pigs randomly selected from each group were slaughtered. The results showed as follows: average daily gain of the 9.10% group was higher than that of the 8.35% group and the 11.39% group; there was a significant difference between the 9.10% group and the 8.35% group (p < 0.05. Levels of urea nitrogen, total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein in the 9.10% group were significantly higher than those in the 8.35% group and the 11.39% group (p < 0.05). Ratios of meat to fat in the 9.10% group and the 11.39% group were significantly higher than that in the 8.35% group (p < 0.05). Lean percentage of 9.10% group was higher than that of 8.35% group and 11.39% group, but there was no significant difference in three groups (p > 0.05). The weight of small intestine and large intestine in the 11.39% group was higher than that in the 8.35% group, and the 9.10% group and the difference reached a significant level (p < 0.05). In conclusion, increasing dietary crude fiber properly could reduce fat percentage, and improve the ratio of meat to fat of finishing Su-shan pigs. The digestion and metabolism of dietary crude fiber promoted the development of stomach and intestine of finishing Su-shan pig.

Keywords: Su-Shan pigs, dietary crude fiber, growth performance, serum biochemical indexes.

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