Search results for: sense determination

Authors: Mohd Yussni Hashim, Mohd Nazrul Roslan, Shahruddin Mahzan @ Mohd Zin, Saparudin Ariffin

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Fiber cross sectional area value is a crucial factor in determining the strength properties of natural fiber. Furthermore, unlike synthetic fiber, a diameter and cross sectional area of natural fiber has a large variation along and between the fibers. This study aims to determine the main and interaction effects of alkali treatment conditions which influence kenaf bast fiber mean cross sectional area. Three alkali treatment conditions at two different levels were selected. The conditions setting were alkali concentrations at 2 and 10 w/v %; fiber immersed temperature at room temperature and 100⁰C; and fiber immersed duration for 30 and 480 minutes. Untreated kenaf fiber was used as a control unit. Kenaf bast fiber bundle mounting tab was prepared according to ASTM C1557-03. Cross sectional area was measured using a Leica video analyzer. The study result showed that kenaf fiber bundle mean cross sectional area was reduced 6.77% to 29.88% after alkali treatment. From analysis of variance, it shows that interaction of alkali concentration and immersed time has a higher magnitude at 0.1619 compared to alkali concentration and immersed temperature interaction which was 0.0896. For the main effect, alkali concentration factor contributes to the higher magnitude at 0.1372 which indicated are decrease pattern of variability when the level was change from lower to higher level. Then, it was followed by immersed temperature at 0.1261 and immersed time at 0.0696 magnitudes.

Keywords: Natural fiber, kenaf bast fiber bundles, alkali treatment, cross sectional area.

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Authors: Yanju Zhang, Joost M. Woltering, Fons J. Verbeek

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It has been established that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in gene expression by post-transcriptional regulation of messengerRNAs (mRNAs). However, the precise relationships between microRNAs and their target genes in sense of numbers, types and biological relevance remain largely unclear. Dissecting the miRNA-target relationships will render more insights for miRNA targets identification and validation therefore promote the understanding of miRNA function. In miRBase, miRanda is the key algorithm used for target prediction for Zebrafish. This algorithm is high-throughput but brings lots of false positives (noise). Since validation of a large scale of targets through laboratory experiments is very time consuming, several computational methods for miRNA targets validation should be developed. In this paper, we present an integrative method to investigate several aspects of the relationships between miRNAs and their targets with the final purpose of extracting high confident targets from miRanda predicted targets pool. This is achieved by using the techniques ranging from statistical tests to clustering and association rules. Our research focuses on Zebrafish. It was found that validated targets do not necessarily associate with the highest sequence matching. Besides, for some miRNA families, the frequency of their predicted targets is significantly higher in the genomic region nearby their own physical location. Finally, in a case study of dre-miR-10 and dre-miR-196, it was found that the predicted target genes hoxd13a, hoxd11a, hoxd10a and hoxc4a of dre-miR- 10 while hoxa9a, hoxc8a and hoxa13a of dre-miR-196 have similar characteristics as validated target genes and therefore represent high confidence target candidates.

Keywords: MicroRNA targets validation, microRNA-target relationships, dre-miR-10, dre-miR-196.

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Authors: Shahad Nagoor, Lucy Hederman, Kevin Koidl, Annalina Caputo

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Doctors’ notes reflect their impressions, attitudes, clinical sense, and opinions about patients’ conditions and progress, and other information that is essential for doctors’ daily clinical decisions. Despite their value, clinical notes are insufficiently researched within the language processing community. Automatically extracting information from unstructured text data is known to be a difficult task as opposed to dealing with structured information such as physiological vital signs, images and laboratory results. The aim of this research is to investigate how Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and machine learning techniques applied to clinician notes can assist in doctors’ decision making in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. The hypothesis is that clinical outcomes like survival or mortality can be useful to influence the judgement of clinical sentiment in ICU clinical notes. This paper presents two contributions: first, we introduce COVID_ICU_BERT, a fine-tuned version of a clinical transformer model that can reliably predict clinical sentiment for notes of COVID patients in ICU. We train the model on clinical notes for COVID-19 patients, ones not previously seen by Bio_ClinicalBERT or Bio_Discharge_Summary_BERT. The model which was based on Bio_ClinicalBERT achieves higher predictive accuracy than the one based on Bio_Discharge_Summary_BERT (Acc 93.33%, AUC 0.98, and Precision 0.96). Second, we perform data augmentation using clinical contextual word embedding that is based on a pre-trained clinical model to balance the samples in each class in the data (survived vs. deceased patients). Data augmentation improves the accuracy of prediction slightly (Acc 96.67%, AUC 0.98, and Precision 0.92).

Keywords: BERT fine-tuning, clinical sentiment, COVID-19, data augmentation.

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Authors: R. E. Masto, L. C. Ram, S. K. Verma, V. A. Selvi, J. George, R. C. Tripathi, N. K. Srivastava, D. Mohanty, S. K.Jha, A. K. Sinha, A. Sinha

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There are many sources trough which the soil get enriched and contaminated with REEs. The determination of REEs in environmental samples has been limited because of the lack of sensitive analytical techniques. Soil samples were collected from four sites including open cast coal mine, natural coal burning, coal washery and control in the coal field located in Dhanbad, India. Total concentrations of rare earth elements (REEs) were determined using the inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectrometry in order to assess enrichment status in the coal field. Results showed that the mean concentrations of La, Pr, Eu, Tb, Ho, and Tm in open cast mine and natural coal burning sites were elevated compared to the reference concentrations, while Ce, Nd, Sm, and Gd were elevated in coal washery site. When compared to reference soil, heavy REEs (HREEs) were enriched in open cast mines and natural coal burning affected soils, however, the HREEs were depleted in the coal washery sites. But, the Chondrite-normalization diagram showed significant enrichment for light REEs (LREEs) in all the soils. High concentration of Pr, Eu, Tb, Ho, Tm, and Lu in coal mining and coal burning sites may pose human health risks. Factor analysis showed that distribution and relative abundance of REEs of the coal washery site is comparable with the control. Eventually washing or cleaning of coal could significantly decrease the emission of REEs from coal into the environment.

Keywords: Rare earth elements, coal, soil, factor analysis

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Authors: N. Cetinkaya, N. H. Ozdemir

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The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) live yeast culture on microbial protein supply to small intestine in Kivircik male yearlings when fed with different ratio of forage and concentrate diets. Four Kivircik male yearlings with permanent rumen canula were used in the experiment. The treatments were allocated to a 4x4 Latin square design. Diet I consisted of 70% alfalfa hay and 30% concentrate, Diet II consisted of 30% alfalfa hay and 70% concentrate, Diet I and II were supplemented with a SC. Daily urine was collected and stored at -20°C until analysis. Calorimetric methods were used for the determination of urinary allantoin and creatinine levels. The estimated microbial N supply to small intestine for Diets I, I+SC, II and II+SC were 2.51, 2.64, 2.95 and 3.43 g N/d respectively. Supplementation of Diets I and II with SC significantly affected the allantoin levels in μmol/W0.75 (p<0.05). Mean creatinine values in μmol/W0.75 and allantoin:creatinine ratios were not significantly different among diets. In conclusion, supplementation with SC live yeast culture had a significant effect on urinary allantoin excretion and microbial protein supply to small intestine in Kivircik yearlings fed with high concentrate Diet II (P<0.05). Hence urinary allantoin excretion may be used as a tool for estimating microbial protein supply in Kivircık yearlings. However, further studies are necessary to understand the metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae live yeast culture with different forage:concentrate ratio in Kıvırcık Yearlings.

Keywords: Allantoin, creatinine, Kivircik yearling, microbial nitrogen, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

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Authors: V. Santamarina Campos, M. de Miguel Molina, B. de Miguel Molina, M. Á. Carabal Montagud

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With this contribution, we want to show a successful example of the application of the Design Thinking methodology, in the European project 'Technology transfer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) for the creative industry'. The use of this methodology has allowed us to design and build a drone, based on the real needs of prospective users. It has demonstrated that this is a powerful tool for generating innovative ideas in the field of robotics, by focusing its effectiveness on understanding and solving real user needs. In this way, with the support of an interdisciplinary team, comprised of creatives, engineers and economists, together with the collaboration of prospective users from three European countries, a non-linear work dynamic has been created. This teamwork has generated a sense of appreciation towards the creative industries, through continuously adaptive, inventive, and playful collaboration and communication, which has facilitated the development of prototypes. These have been designed to enable filming and photography in interior spaces, within 13 sectors of European creative industries: Advertising, Architecture, Fashion, Film, Antiques and Museums, Music, Photography, Televison, Performing Arts, Publishing, Arts and Crafts, Design and Software. Furthermore, it has married the real needs of the creative industries, with what is technologically and commercially viable. As a result, a product of great value has been obtained, which offers new business opportunities for small companies across this sector.

Keywords: Design thinking, design for effectiveness, methodology, active toolkit, storyboards, storytelling, PAR, focus group, innovation, RPAS, indoor drone, robotics, TRL, aerial film, creative industries, end-users.

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Authors: Jeries J. Abou-Hanna

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Several techniques exist for determining stress-intensity factors in linear elastic fracture mechanics analysis. These techniques are based on analytical, numerical, and empirical approaches that have been well documented in literature and engineering handbooks. However, not all techniques share the same merit. In addition to overly-conservative results, the numerical methods that require extensive computational effort, and those requiring copious user parameters hinder practicing engineers from efficiently evaluating stress-intensity factors. This paper investigates the prospects of reducing the complexity and required variables to determine stress-intensity factors through the utilization of the stress gradient and a weighting function. The heart of this work resides in the understanding that fracture emanating from stress concentration locations cannot be explained by a single maximum stress value approach, but requires use of a critical volume in which the crack exists. In order to understand the effectiveness of this technique, this study investigated components of different notch geometry and varying levels of stress gradients. Two forms of weighting functions were employed to determine stress-intensity factors and results were compared to analytical exact methods. The results indicated that the “exponential” weighting function was superior to the “absolute” weighting function. An error band +/- 10% was met for cases ranging from a steep stress gradient in a sharp v-notch to the less severe stress transitions of a large circular notch. The incorporation of the proposed method has shown to be a worthwhile consideration.

Keywords: Fracture mechanics, finite element method, stress intensity factor, stress gradient.

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Authors: M. A. Abou Donia, A. A. K. Abou-Arab, Nevin E. Sharaf, A. K. Enab, Sherif R. Mohamed

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Lead (Pb) poisoning is one of the most common and preventable environmental health problems. There are different sources of environmental pollution with lead as lead alkyl additives in petrol and manufacturing processes. Pb in the atmosphere can be deposited in urban soils, and may then be re-suspended to re-enter the atmosphere. This could increase human exposure to Pb and cause long-term health effects. Thus, monitoring Pb pollution is considered one of the major tasks in controlling pollution. Scalp hair can be utilized for the determination of lead (Pb) concentration. It provides a lasting record of metal intakes of weeks or even months, and for most metals, their accumulation in hair reflects their accumulation in the whole body. This work was conducted to investigate the concentration of lead in male scalp hair of Cairo (residential-traffic and residential-industrial) and rural residents after twenty years of phasing out of leaded gasoline. Results indicated that the mean concentration of lead in hair of residential-traffic (9.7552 μg/g ±0.71) and residential-industrial (12.3288 μg/g ±1.13) was significantly higher than that in rural residents (4.7327 μg/g ±0.67). The mean concentration of lead in hair of resident’s industrial areas was the highest among Cairo residents and not the traffic areas as it was before phasing out of leaded gasoline. Twenty years of phasing out of leaded gasoline in Cairo has greatly improved the lead pollution among residents of traffic areas, but industrial areas residents were still suffering from lead pollution, which needs more efforts to control the sources of lead pollution.

Keywords: Heavy metals, lead, hair, biological sample, urban pollution, rural pollution.

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Authors: Sungwon Jo

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Ceramics comprise the largest proportion of Korea-s cultural heritage currently preserved (Cited from “The Beauty of Old Ceramics of Korea" written by Yoon Yong-iee). Thus, this researcher conducted this investigation in an attempt to gain insight into Korea-s past culture and the lost period of the colonial period and the Korean War by looking into the ceramics. Korea, China and Japan are part of the similar cultural bloc within the East Asian region. Their porcelains manifest distinctive characteristics by each nation along with similarities. Thus, this research seeks to find the distinctive characteristics of the Korean porcelain by conducting comparative analysis of the similarities and distinctive characteristics. These distinctive characteristics are manifested effectively in the colors of the porcelains following the materials that can be obtained in Korea, China and Japan and production method. Likewise, this research seeks to identify the characteristics of the Korean porcelains- colors based on the comparative analysis of the porcelain colors. The reasons that porcelains were selected were because they are the most well preserved cultural remains in Korea and since they have both similarities and distinctive characteristics due to the cultural interchanges among Korea, China and Japan, which facilitates comparative study. The research targets include Korea, China and Japan-s porcelains. By comparing the colors of the porcelains from Korea, China and Japan that have their distinctive characteristics, this research seeks to identify Korea-specific porcelain colors. These colors derive from the materials that can be obtained only in Korea, and they are affected by the ideologies that governed at the time. This research is meaningful in the sense that this identifies the colors that embraces the Korean culture and provides important data by leveraging the study of the characteristics of the Korea-specific porcelains.

Keywords: The colors of Korean pottery, The colors of China pottery, The colors of Japan pottery, The unique identity of Korea, Pottery History.

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Authors: Claudineia Brazil, Elison Eduardo Jardim Bierhals, Luciane Teresa Salvi, Rafael Haag

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Renewable energy sources are dependent on climatic variability, so for adequate energy planning, observations of the meteorological variables are required, preferably representing long-period series. Despite the scientific and technological advances that meteorological measurement systems have undergone in the last decades, there is still a considerable lack of meteorological observations that form series of long periods. The reanalysis is a system of assimilation of data prepared using general atmospheric circulation models, based on the combination of data collected at surface stations, ocean buoys, satellites and radiosondes, allowing the production of long period data, for a wide gamma. The third generation of reanalysis data emerged in 2010, among them is the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) developed by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), these data have a spatial resolution of 0.50 x 0.50. In order to overcome these difficulties, it aims to evaluate the performance of solar radiation estimation through alternative data bases, such as data from Reanalysis and from meteorological satellites that satisfactorily meet the absence of observations of solar radiation at global and/or regional level. The results of the analysis of the solar radiation data indicated that the reanalysis data of the CFSR model presented a good performance in relation to the observed data, with determination coefficient around 0.90. Therefore, it is concluded that these data have the potential to be used as an alternative source in locations with no seasons or long series of solar radiation, important for the evaluation of solar energy potential.

Keywords: Climate, reanalysis, renewable energy, solar radiation.

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Authors: Obinna K. Ihesiulor, Krishna Shankar, Paul Smith, Alan Fien

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Excessive fretting wear at the taper-trunnion junction (trunnionosis) apparently contributes to the high failure rates of hip implants. Implant wear and corrosion lead to the release of metal particulate debris and subsequent release of metal ions at the tapertrunnion surface. This results in a type of metal poisoning referred to as metallosis. The consequences of metal poisoning include; osteolysis (bone loss), osteoarthritis (pain), aseptic loosening of the prosthesis and revision surgery. Follow up after revision surgery, metal debris particles are commonly found in numerous locations. Background: A stable connection between the femoral ball head (taper) and stem (trunnion) is necessary to prevent relative motions and corrosion at the taper junction. Hence, the importance of component assembly cannot be over-emphasized. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the influence of head-stem junction assembly by press fitting and the subsequent disengagement/disassembly on the connection strength between the taper ball head and stem. Methods: CoCr femoral heads were assembled with High stainless hydrogen steel stem (trunnion) by Push-in i.e. press fit; and disengaged by pull-out test. The strength and stability of the two connections were evaluated by measuring the head pull-out forces according to ISO 7206-10 standards. Findings: The head-stem junction strength linearly increases with assembly forces.

Keywords: Wear, modular hip prosthesis, taper head-stem, force assembly, force disassembly.

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Authors: L. Krpalkova, N. O' Mahony, A. Carvalho, S. Campbell, G. Corkery, E. Broderick, J. Walsh

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Farm management and operations will drastically change due to access to real-time data, real-time forecasting and tracking of physical items in combination with Internet of Things (IoT) developments to further automate farm operations. Dairy farms have embraced technological innovations and procured vast amounts of permanent data streams during the past decade; however, the integration of this information to improve the whole farm decision-making process does not exist. It is now imperative to develop a system that can collect, integrate, manage, and analyze on-farm and off-farm data in real-time for practical and relevant environmental and economic actions. The developed systems, based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, need to be connected for useful output, a better understanding of the whole farming issue and environmental impact. Evolutionary Computing (EC) can be very effective in finding the optimal combination of sets of some objects and finally, in strategy determination. The system of the future should be able to manage the dairy farm as well as an experienced dairy farm manager with a team of the best agricultural advisors. All these changes should bring resilience and sustainability to dairy farming as well as improving and maintaining good animal welfare and the quality of dairy products. This review aims to provide an insight into the state-of-the-art of big data applications and EC in relation to smart dairy farming and identify the most important research and development challenges to be addressed in the future. Smart dairy farming influences every area of management and its uptake has become a continuing trend.

Keywords: Big data, evolutionary computing, cloud, precision technologies

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Authors: Vânia Graça, Paula Quadros-Flores, Altina Ramos

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The use of Digital Technologies in teaching and learning processes is currently a reality, namely in initial teacher training. This study aims at knowing the digital reality of students in initial teacher training in order to improve training in the educational use of ICT and to promote digital technology integration strategies in an educational context. It is part of the IFITIC Project "Innovate with ICT in Initial Teacher Training to Promote Methodological Renewal in Pre-school Education and in the 1st and 2nd Basic Education Cycle" which involves the School of Education, Polytechnic of Porto and Institute of Education, University of Minho. The Project aims at rethinking educational practice with ICT in the initial training of future teachers in order to promote methodological innovation in Pre-school Education and in the 1st and 2nd Cycles of Basic Education. A qualitative methodology was used, in which a questionnaire survey was applied to teachers in initial training. For data analysis, the techniques of content analysis with the support of NVivo software were used. The results point to the following aspects: a) future teachers recognize that they have more technical knowledge about ICT than pedagogical knowledge. This result makes sense if we consider the objective of Basic Education, so that the gaps can be filled in the Master's Course by students who wish to follow the teaching; b) the respondents are aware that the integration of digital resources contributes positively to students' learning and to the life of children and young people, which also promotes preparation in life; c) to be a teacher in the digital age there is a need for the development of digital literacy, lifelong learning and the adoption of new ways of teaching how to learn. Thus, this study aims to contribute to a reflection on the teaching profession in the digital age.

Keywords: Digital technologies, initial teacher training, pedagogical use of ICT, skills.

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Authors: Caroline S. Dutra, Tatiana C. Squeff

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It is well known that the history between South Korea and Japan influences their international relations; thus, also encompassing their economic relations. In this sense, it is impossible to analyze the latter without understanding the development of the former, which is known for episodes of hostility, like on Japanese colonization, but also had moments of cultural and trade interexchange. Indeed, since 1965, with the establishment of diplomatic relations between both countries, their trade relations have improved, especially after both nations have signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Thereafter, with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, another chapter of their diplomatic and economic relations have been inaugurated. Hence, bearing in mind this history between both nations, this research intends to examine their relations through the analysis of the WTO panels they have engaged in between each other, which are, in chronological order, “DS323: Japan – Import Quotas on Dried Laver and Seasoned Laver”, “DS336: Japan - Countervailing Duties on Dynamic Random Access Memories from Korea”, “DS495: Korea - Import Band, and Testing and Certification Requirements for Radionuclides”, “DS553: Korea - Sunset Review of Anti-Dumping Duties on Stainless Steel Bars” and “DS571: Korea - Measures Affecting Trade in Commercial Vessels”. The objective of this case analysis is to point out what are the areas that are more conflictual between Japan and South Korea in regard to their economic relations so that it is possible to assert on their future (economic) relations and other possible outcomes. And in order to do so, bibliographic and documental research will be made, particularly those involving the WTO and the nations under consideration. Regarding the methods used, it is important to highlight that this is applied research in the field of international economic relations and international law, which follows a hypothetic-deductive model.

Keywords: International economic relations, Japan, South Korea, World Trade Organization.

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Authors: Valmir Baloshi, Fran Gjoka, Nehat Çollaku, Elvin Toromani

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As a sediment production mechanism, soil erosion is the main environmental threat to the Bovilla watershed, including the decline of water quality of the Bovilla reservoir that provides drinking water to Tirana city (the capital of Albania). Therefore, an experiment with 25 erosion plots for soil erosion monitoring has been set up since June 2017. The aim was to determine the soil loss on plot and watershed scale in Bovilla watershed (Tirana region) for implementation of soil and water protection measures or payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs. The results of erosion monitoring for the period June 2017 - May 2018 showed that the highest values of surface runoff were noted in bare land of 38829.91 liters on slope of 74% and the lowest values in forest land of 12840.6 liters on slope of 64% while the highest values of soil loss were found in bare land of 595.15 t/ha on slope of 62% and lowest values in forest land of 18.99 t/ha on slope of 64%. These values are much higher than the average rate of soil loss in the European Union (2.46 ton/ha/year). In the same sloping class, the soil loss was reduced from orchard or bare land to the forest land, and in the same category of land use, the soil loss increased with increasing land slope. It is necessary to conduct chemical analyses of sediments to determine the amount of chemical elements leached out of the soil and end up in the reservoir of Bovilla. It is concluded that PES programs should be implemented for rehabilitation of sub-watersheds Ranxe, Vilez and Zall-Bastar of the Bovilla watershed with valuable conservation practices.

Keywords: ANOVA, Bovilla, land cover, slope, soil loss, watershed management.

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Authors: Gen Sakoda, Hideki Takayasu, Misako Takayasu

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Waste reduction is a fundamental problem for sustainability. Methods for waste reduction with point-of-sales (POS) data are proposed, utilizing the knowledge of a recent econophysics study on a statistical property of POS data. Concretely, the non-stationary time series analysis method based on the Particle Filter is developed, which considers abnormal fluctuation scaling known as Taylor's law. This method is extended for handling incomplete sales data because of stock-outs by introducing maximum likelihood estimation for censored data. The way for optimal stock determination with pricing the cost of waste reduction is also proposed. This study focuses on the examination of the methods for large sales numbers where Taylor's law is obvious. Numerical analysis using aggregated POS data shows the effectiveness of the methods to reduce food waste maintaining a high profit for large sales numbers. Moreover, the way of pricing the cost of waste reduction reveals that a small profit loss realizes substantial waste reduction, especially in the case that the proportionality constant  of Taylor’s law is small. Specifically, around 1% profit loss realizes half disposal at =0.12, which is the actual  value of processed food items used in this research. The methods provide practical and effective solutions for waste reduction keeping a high profit, especially with large sales numbers.

Keywords: Food waste reduction, particle filter, point of sales, sustainable development goals, Taylor's Law, time series analysis.

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Authors: A. Ouargui, N. Belouaggadia, M. Ezzine

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In Morocco, the building sector is largely responsible for the evolution of energy consumption. The control of energy in this sector remains a major issue despite the rise of renewable energies. The design of an environmentally friendly building requires mastery and knowledge of energy and bioclimatic aspects. This implies taking into consideration of all the elements making up the building and the way in which energy exchanges take place between these elements. In this context, thermal insulation seems to be an ideal starting point for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, thermal insulation seems to be an ideal starting point for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this work is to provide some solutions to reduce energy consumption while maintaining thermal comfort in the building. The objective of our work is to present an experimental study on the characterization of local materials used in the thermal insulation of buildings. These are paper recycling stabilized with cement and clay. The thermal conductivity of these materials, which were constituted based on sand, clay, cement; water, as well as treated paper, was determined by the guarded-hot-plate method. It involves the design of two materials that will subsequently be subjected to thermal and mechanical tests to determine their thermophysical properties. The results show that the thermal conductivity decreases as well in the case of the paper-cement mixture as that of the paper-clay and seems to stabilize around 40%. Measurements of mechanical properties such as flexural strength have shown that the enrichment of the studied material with paper makes it possible to reduce the flexural strength by 20% while optimizing the conductivity.

Keywords: Building, composite material, insulation, thermal conductivity, paper residue.

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Authors: D. Mehdizadeh, M. Rahimian, M. Eskandari-Ghadi

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This article is concerned with the determination of the static interaction of a vertically loaded rigid circular disc embedded at the interface of a horizontal layer sandwiched in between two different transversely isotropic half-spaces called as tri-material full-space. The axes of symmetry of different regions are assumed to be normal to the horizontal interfaces and parallel to the movement direction. With the use of a potential function method, and by implementing Hankel integral transforms in the radial direction, the government partial differential equation for the solely scalar potential function is transformed to an ordinary 4th order differential equation, and the mixed boundary conditions are transformed into a pair of integral equations called dual integral equations, which can be reduced to a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind, which is solved analytically. Then, the displacements and stresses are given in the form of improper line integrals, which is due to inverse Hankel integral transforms. It is shown that the present solutions are in exact agreement with the existing solutions for a homogeneous full-space with transversely isotropic material. To confirm the accuracy of the numerical evaluation of the integrals involved, the numerical results are compared with the solutions exists for the homogeneous full-space. Then, some different cases with different degrees of material anisotropy are compared to portray the effect of degree of anisotropy.

 

Keywords: Transversely isotropic, rigid disc, elasticity, dual integral equations, tri-material full-space.

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Authors: Mustafa Salman, Nurcan Cetinkaya, Zehra Selcuk, Bugra Genc

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The objectives of the present study were to estimate the microbial-N flow to the small intestine and to predict the digestible organic matter intake (DOMI) in grazing Karayaka sheep based on urinary excretion of purine derivatives (xanthine, hypoxanthine, uric acid, and allantoin) by the use of spot urine sampling under field conditions. In the trial, 10 Karayaka sheep from 2 to 3 years of age were used. The animals were grazed in a pasture for ten months and fed with concentrate and vetch plus oat hay for the other two months (January and February) indoors. Highly significant linear and cubic relationships (P<0.001) were found among months for purine derivatives index, purine derivatives excretion, purine derivatives absorption, microbial-N and DOMI. Through urine sampling and the determination of levels of excreted urinary PD and Purine Derivatives / Creatinine ratio (PDC index), microbial-N values were estimated and they indicated that the protein nutrition of the sheep was insufficient.

In conclusion, the prediction of protein nutrition of sheep under the field conditions may be possible with the use of spot urine sampling, urinary excreted PD and PDC index. The mean purine derivative levels in spot urine samples from sheep were highest in June, July and October. Protein nutrition of pastured sheep may be affected by weather changes, including rainfall. Spot urine sampling may useful in modeling the feed consumption of pasturing sheep. However, further studies are required under different field conditions with different breeds of sheep to develop spot urine sampling as a model.

Keywords: Karayaka sheep, spot sampling, urinary purine derivatives, PDC index, microbial-N, feed intake.

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Authors: Daohong Yang, Xiang Zhang, Wanting Zhou, Lei Li

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Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) is a technology that gathers information about the surrounding environment to ascertain its own position and create a map. It is widely used in computer vision, robotics, and various other fields. Many visual SLAM systems, such as OBSLAM3, utilize a constant velocity motion model. The utilization of this model facilitates the determination of the initial pose of the current frame, thereby enhancing the efficiency and precision of feature matching. However, it is often difficult to satisfy the constant velocity motion model in actual situations. This can result in a significant deviation between the obtained initial pose and the true value, leading to errors in nonlinear optimization results. Therefore, this paper proposes a motion model based on acceleration that can be applied to most SLAM systems. To provide a more accurate description of the camera pose acceleration, we separate the pose transformation matrix into its rotation matrix and translation vector components. The rotation matrix is now represented by a rotation vector. We assume that, over a short period, the changes in rotating angular velocity and translation vector remain constant. Based on this assumption, the initial pose of the current frame is estimated. In addition, the error of the constant velocity model is analyzed theoretically. Finally, we apply our proposed approach to the ORBSLAM3 system and evaluate two sets of sequences from the TUM datasets. The results show that our proposed method has a more accurate initial pose estimation, resulting in an improvement of 6.61% and 6.46% in the accuracy of the ORBSLAM3 system on the two test sequences, respectively.

Keywords: Error estimation, constant acceleration motion model, pose estimation, visual SLAM.

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Authors: Khalid Pervaiz Akhter, Mahmood Ahmad, Ghulam Murtaza, Ishrat Shafi, Zafar Javed

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The objective of this manuscript is to find area under the plasma concentration- time curve (AUC) for multiple doses of salbutamol sulphate sustained release tablets (Ventolin® oral tablets SR 8 mg, GSK, Pakistan) in the group of 18 healthy adults by using computational mathematics techniques. Following the administration of 4 doses of Ventolin® tablets 12 hourly to 24 healthy human subjects and bioanalysis of obtained plasma samples, plasma drug concentration-time profile was constructed. AUC, an important pharmacokinetic parameter, was measured using integrated equation of multiple oral dose regimens. The approximated AUC was also calculated by using computational mathematics techniques such as repeated rectangular, repeated trapezium and repeated Simpson's rule and compared with exact value of AUC calculated by using integrated equation of multiple oral dose regimens to find best computational mathematics method that gives AUC values closest to exact. The exact values of AUC for four consecutive doses of Ventolin® oral tablets were 150.5819473, 157.8131756, 164.4178231 and 162.78 ng.h/ml while the closest values approximated AUC values were 149.245962, 157.336171, 164.2585768 and 162.289224 ng.h/ml, respectively as found by repeated rectangular rule. The errors in the approximated values of AUC were negligible. It is concluded that all computational tools approximated values of AUC accurately but the repeated rectangular rule gives slightly better approximated values of AUC as compared to repeated trapezium and repeated Simpson's rules.

Keywords: Salbutamol sulphate, Area under curve (AUC), repeated rectangular rule, repeated trapezium rule, repeated Simpson's rule.

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Authors: Tholokuhle T. Ntshakala, Seraphin D. Eyono Obono

Abstract:

Nations are still finding it quite difficult to win mega sport competitions despite the major contribution of sport to society in terms of social and economic development, personal health, and in education. Even though the world of sports has been transformed into a huge global economy, it is important to note that the first step of sport is usually its introduction to children at school through physical education or PE. In other words, nations who do not win mega sport competitions also suffer from a weak and neglected PE system. This problem of the neglect of PE systems is the main motivation of this research aimed at examining the factors affecting the perceived awareness of physical education teachers on the ICTs that are adoptable for the teaching and learning of physical education. Two types of research objectives will materialize this aim: relevant theories will be identified in relation to the analysis of the perceived ICT awareness of PE teachers and subsequent models will be compiled and designed from existing literature; the empirical testing of such theories and models will also be achieved through the survey of PE teachers from the Camperdown magisterial district of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The main hypothesis at the heart of this study is the relationship between the demographics of PE teachers, their behavior both as individuals and as social entities, and their perceived awareness of the ICTs that are adoptable for PE, as postulated by existing literature; except that this study categorizes human behavior under performance expectancy, computer attitude, and social influence. This hypothesis was partially confirmed by the survey conducted by this research in the sense that performance expectancy and teachers’ age, gender, computer usage, and class size were found to be the only factors affecting their awareness of ICTs for physical education.

Keywords: Human Behavior, ICT Awareness, Physical Education, Teachers.

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Authors: Helena M. Wilhelm, Paulo O. Fernandes, Laís P. Dill, Kethlyn G. Moscon

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The use of vegetable oil (or natural ester) as an insulating fluid in electrical transformers is a trend that aims to contribute to environmental preservation since it is biodegradable and non-toxic. Besides, vegetable oil has high flash and combustion points, being considered a fire safety fluid. However, vegetable oil is usually less stable towards oxidation than mineral oil. Both insulating fluids, mineral and vegetable oils, need to be tested periodically according to specific standards. Oxidation stability can be determined by the induction period measured by conductivity method (Rancimat) by monitoring the effectivity of oil’s antioxidant additives, a methodology already developed for food application and biodiesel but still not standardized for insulating fluids. Besides adequate oxidation stability, fluids must be compatible with transformer's construction materials under normal operating conditions to ensure that damage to the oil and parts of the transformer does not occur. ASTM standard and Brazilian normative differ in parameters evaluated, which reveals the need to regulate tests for each oil type. The aim of this study was to assess oxidation stability and compatibility of vegetable oils to suggest the best way to assure a viable performance of vegetable oil as transformer insulating fluid. The determination of the induction period for several vegetable insulating oils from the local market by using Rancimat was carried out according to BS EN 14112 standard, at different temperatures (110, 120, and 130 °C). Also, the compatibility of vegetable oil was assessed according to ASTM and ABNT NBR standards. The main results showed that the best temperature for use in the Rancimat test is 130 °C, which allows a better observation of conductivity change. The compatibility test results presented differences between vegetable and mineral oil standards that should be taken into account in oil testing since materials compatibility and oxidation stability are essential for equipment reliability.

Keywords: Compatibility, Rancimat, natural ester, vegetable oil.

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Authors: M. Azadbakht, E. Ghajarjazi, E. Amiri, F. Abdigaol

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In this research the effect of moisture at three levels (47, 57, and 67 w.b.%) on the physical properties of the Pofaki pea variety including, dimensions, geometric mean diameter, volume, sphericity index and the surface area was determined. The influence of different moisture levels (47, 57 and 67 w.b.%), in two loading orientation (longitudinal and transverse) and three loading speed (4,6 and 8 mm min-1) on the mechanical properties of pea such as maximum deformation, rupture force, rupture energy, toughness and the power to break the pea was investigated. It was observed in the physical properties that moisture changes were affective at 1% on, dimensions, geometric mean diameter, volume, sphericity index and the surface area. It was observed in the mechanical properties that moisture changes were effective at 1% on, maximum deformation, rupture force, rupture energy, toughness and the power to break. Loading speed was effective on maximum deformation, rupture force, rupture energy at 1% and it was effective on toughness at 5%. Loading orientation was effective on maximum deformation, rupture force, rupture energy, toughness at 1% and it was effective on power at 5%. The mutual effect of speed and orientation were effective on rupture energy at 1% and were effective on toughness at 5% probability. The mutual effect of moisture and speed were effective on rupture force and rupture energy at 1% and were effective on toughness 5% probability. The mutual effect of orientation and moisture on rupture energy and toughness were effective at 1%.

Keywords: Mechanical properties, Pea, Physical properties.

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Authors: Adilah Shariff, Nur Syairah Mohamad Aziz, Norsyahidah Md Saleh, Nur Syuhada Izzati Ruzali

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The first objective of this study is to investigate the suitability of coconut frond (CF) and coconut husk (CH) as feedstocks using a laboratory-scale slow pyrolysis experimental setup. The second objective is to investigate the effect of pyrolysis temperature on the biochar yield. The properties of CF and CH feedstocks were compared. The properties of the CF and CH feedstocks were investigated using proximate and elemental analysis, lignocellulosic determination, and also thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The CF and CH feedstocks were pyrolysed at 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700 °C for 2 hours at 10 °C/min heating rate. The proximate analysis showed that CF feedstock has 89.96 mf wt% volatile matter, 4.67 mf wt% ash content and 5.37 mf wt% fixed carbon. The lignocelluloses analysis showed that CF feedstock contained 21.46% lignin, 39.05% cellulose and 22.49% hemicelluloses. The CH feedstock contained 84.13 mf wt% volatile matter, 0.33 mf wt% ash content, 15.54 mf wt% fixed carbon, 28.22% lignin, 33.61% cellulose and 22.03% hemicelluloses. Carbon and oxygen are the major component of the CF and CH feedstock compositions. Both of CF and CH feedstocks contained very low percentage of sulfur, 0.77% and 0.33%, respectively. TGA analysis indicated that coconut wastes are easily degraded. It may be due to their high volatile content. Between the temperature ranges of 300 and 800 °C, the TGA curves showed that the weight percentage of CF feedstock is lower than CH feedstock by 0.62%-5.88%. From the D TGA curves, most of the weight loss occurred between 210 and 400 °C for both feedstocks. The maximum weight loss for both CF and CH are 0.0074 wt%/min and 0.0061 wt%/min, respectively, which occurred at 324.5 °C. The yield percentage of both CF and CH biochars decreased significantly as the pyrolysis temperature was increased. For CF biochar, the yield decreased from 49.40 wt% to 28.12 wt% as the temperature increased from 300 to 700 °C. The yield for CH biochars also decreased from 52.18 wt% to 28.72 wt%. The findings of this study indicated that both CF and CH are suitable feedstock for slow pyrolysis of biochar.

Keywords: Biochar, biomass, coconut wastes, slow pyrolysis.

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Authors: P. Abachi, T. W. Coyle, P. S. Musavi Gharavi

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By applying coating onto a structural component, the corrosion and/or wear resistance requirements of the surface can be fulfilled. Since the layer adhesion of the coating influences the mechanical integrity of the coat/substrate interface during the service time, it should be examined accurately. At the present work, the tensile bonding strength of the 316 stainless steel plasma sprayed coating on aluminum substrate was determined by using tensile adhesion test, TAT, specimen. The interfacial fracture toughness was specified using four-point bend specimen containing a saw notch and modified chevron-notched short-bar (SB) specimen. The coating microstructure and fractured specimen surface were examined by using scanning electron- and optical-microscopy. The investigation of coated surface after tensile adhesion test indicates that the failure mechanism is mostly cohesive and rarely adhesive type. The calculated value of critical strain energy release rate proposes relatively good interface status. It seems that four-point bending test offers a potentially more sensitive means for evaluation of mechanical integrity of coating/substrate interfaces than is possible with the tensile test. The fracture toughness value reported for the modified chevron-notched short-bar specimen testing cannot be taken as absolute value because its calculation is based on the minimum stress intensity coefficient value which has been suggested for the fracture toughness determination of homogeneous parts in the ASTM E1304-97 standard. 

Keywords: Bonding strength, four-point bend test, interfacial fracture toughness, modified chevron-notched short-bar specimen, plasma sprayed coating.

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Authors: Sara Sallam, Mohamed Taqi, Naoual Belouaggadia

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Solar thermal power plants using parabolic trough collectors (PTC) are currently a powerful technology for generating electricity. Most of these solar power plants use thermal oils as heat transfer fluid. The latter is heated in the solar field and transfers the heat absorbed in an oil-water heat exchanger for the production of steam driving the turbines of the power plant. Currently, we are seeking to develop PTCs with direct steam generation (DSG). This process consists of circulating water under pressure in the receiver tube to generate steam directly into the solar loop. This makes it possible to reduce the investment and maintenance costs of the PTCs (the oil-water exchangers are removed) and to avoid the environmental risks associated with the use of thermal oils. The pressure drops in these systems are an important parameter to ensure their proper operation. The determination of these losses is complex because of the presence of the two phases, and most often we limit ourselves to describing them by models using empirical correlations. A comparison of these models with experimental data was performed. Our calculations focused on the evolution of the pressure of the liquid-vapor mixture along the receiver tube of a PTC-DSG for pressure values and inlet flow rates ranging respectively from 3 to 10 MPa, and from 0.4 to 0.6 kg/s. The comparison of the numerical results with experience allows us to demonstrate the validity of some models according to the pressures and the flow rates of entry in the PTC-DSG receiver tube. The analysis of these two parameters’ effects on the evolution of the pressure along the receiving tub, shows that the increase of the inlet pressure and the decrease of the flow rate lead to minimal pressure losses.

Keywords: Direct steam generation, parabolic trough collectors, pressure drop.

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Authors: B. Nassar, W. Hussein, M. Mokhtar

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The critical concern of satellite operations is to ensure the health and safety of satellites. The worst case in this perspective is probably the loss of a mission, but the more common interruption of satellite functionality can result in compromised mission objectives. All the data acquiring from the spacecraft are known as Telemetry (TM), which contains the wealth information related to the health of all its subsystems. Each single item of information is contained in a telemetry parameter, which represents a time-variant property (i.e. a status or a measurement) to be checked. As a consequence, there is a continuous improvement of TM monitoring systems to reduce the time required to respond to changes in a satellite's state of health. A fast conception of the current state of the satellite is thus very important to respond to occurring failures. Statistical multivariate latent techniques are one of the vital learning tools that are used to tackle the problem above coherently. Information extraction from such rich data sources using advanced statistical methodologies is a challenging task due to the massive volume of data. To solve this problem, in this paper, we present a proposed unsupervised learning algorithm based on Principle Component Analysis (PCA) technique. The algorithm is particularly applied on an actual remote sensing spacecraft. Data from the Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) was acquired under two operation conditions: normal and faulty states. The models were built and tested under these conditions, and the results show that the algorithm could successfully differentiate between these operations conditions. Furthermore, the algorithm provides competent information in prediction as well as adding more insight and physical interpretation to the ADCS operation.

Keywords: Space telemetry monitoring, multivariate analysis, PCA algorithm, space operations.

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Authors: Paula Pascoal-Faria, Rúben Pereira, Elodie Pinto, Miguel Belbut, Ana Rosa, Inês Sousa, Nuno Alves

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Apple bruise damage from harvesting, handling, transporting and sorting is considered to be the major source of reduced fruit quality, resulting in loss of profits for the entire fruit industry. The three factors which can physically cause fruit bruising are vibration, compression load and impact, the latter being the most common source of bruise damage. Therefore, prediction of the level of damage, stress distribution and deformation of the fruits under external force has become a very important challenge. In this study, experimental and numerical methods were used to better understand the impact caused when an apple is dropped from different heights onto a plastic surface and a conveyor belt. Results showed that the extent of fruit damage is significantly higher for plastic surface, being dependent on the height. In order to support the development of a biomimetic electronic device for the determination of fruit damage, the mechanical properties of the apple fruit were determined using mechanical tests. Preliminary results showed different values for the Young’s modulus according to the zone of the apple tested. Along with the mechanical characterization of the apple fruit, the development of the first two prototypes is discussed and the integration of the results obtained to construct the final element model of the apple is presented. This work will help to reduce significantly the bruise damage of fruits or vegetables during the entire processing which will allow the introduction of exportation destines and consequently an increase in the economic profits in this sector.

Keywords: Apple, fruit damage, impact during crop and post-crop, mechanical characterization of the apple, numerical evaluation of fruit bruise damage, electronic device.

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Authors: Chan Eang Teng, Tang Mui Joo

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With the viral factor on social media, the sense of persuasion is generated by repetition and popularity. When users’ interest is captured, political awareness increases to spark political enthusiasm, but, the level of user’s political participation and political attitude of those active users is still questionable. An online survey on 250 youth and in-depth interview on two politicians are conducted to answer the main question in this paper. The result shows that Facebook significantly increases political awareness among youths. Social media may not be the major trigger to political activism among youths as most respondents opined that they would still vote without Facebook. Other factors could be political campaigning, political climate, age, peer pressure or others. Finding also shows that majority of respondents did not participate in online political debates or political groups. Many also wondered if the social media was the main power switch that triggers the political influx among young voters. The research finding is significant to understand how the new media, Facebook, has reshaped the political landscape in Malaysia, creating the Social Media Election that changed the rules of the political game. However, research finding does not support the ideal notion that the social media is the major trigger to youth’s political activism. This research outcome has exposed the flaws of the Social Media Election. It has revealed the less optimistic side of youth political activism. Unfortunately, results fall short of the idealistic belief that the social media have given rise to political activism among youths in the 13^th General Election in Malaysia. The research outcome also highlights an important lesson for the democratic discourse of Malaysia which is making informed and educated decisions takes more commitment, proactive and objective attitude.

Keywords: Social media, political participation, political activism, democracy, political communication.

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