Original Aspect Research Articles

The human vermiform appendix: morphological and anatomical review.

The article covers aspects of morphological, anatomical, embryological, histological aspects and origin, types, blood supply, innervation, lymph drainage of human vermiform appendix. The purpose of the study is to understand real function and to summarize this information for positive impact on clinical decision in case of appendicitis. Although characteristic features of normal and diseased appendix have been reported for many previous centuries, it still the most common challenge facing every day in operation room. The appendectomy, commonest surgical emergency procedure, may cause little confusion in surgeons due to highly variable situations of it inside the abdominal cavity. However, the recent imaging techniques have increased ability of surgeon for crucial diagnosis of the diseased appendix.

Discrimination of Radix Astragali from Different Growth Patterns, Origins, Species, and Growth Years by an H1-NMR Spectrogram of Polysaccharide Analysis Combined with Chemical Pattern Recognition and Determination of Its Polysaccharide Content and Immunological Activity.

The fraud phenomenon is currently widespread in the traditional Chinese medicine Radix Astragali (RA) market, especially where high-quality RA is substituted with low-quality RA. In this case, focused on polysaccharides from RA, the classification models were established for discrimination of RA from different growth patterns, origins, species, and growth years. 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (H1-NMR) was used to establish the spectroscopy of polysaccharides from RA, which were used to distinguish RA via chemical pattern recognition methods. Specifically, orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were used to successfully establish the classification models for RA from different growth patterns, origins, species, and growth years. The satisfactory parameters and high accuracy of internal and external verification of each model exhibited the reliable and good prediction ability of the developed models. In addition, the polysaccharide content and immunological activity were also tested, which was evaluated by the phagocytic activity of RAW 264.7. And the result showed that growth patterns and origins significantly affected the quality of RA. However, there was no significant difference in the aspects of origins and growth years. Accordingly, the developed strategy combined with chemical information, biological activity, and multivariate statistical method can provide new insight for the quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine.

A Comprehensive Analysis on the Influence of the Adopted Cumulative Peak Current Distribution in the Assessment of Overhead Lines Lightning Performance

Backflashover rate (BFR) is strongly dependent on the cumulative peak current distribution (CCD) adopted in the calculations. An original aspect of the present work is that such dependence is simultaneously assessed in estimating the probability of the critical current being exceeded as well as in the annual number of flashes to the line. An IEEE brochure recommends that the distribution values that characterize the atmospheric characteristic of the region under study as accurately as possible be used. The objective of this article is to evaluate the impact of the use of different CCDs, related to several measurements carried out around the world, in the estimation of the lightning performance of transmission lines (TLs). Structures of 138, 230 and 500 kV were analyzed. In the simulations, representative curves of lightning associated with measurements taken at Monte San Salvatore (MSS), Morro do Cachimbo (MCS) and TLs in Japan (TLJ) were considered. The distributions recommended by the IEEE and by the CIGRE and the distributions of Berger obtained from MSS, MCS and TLJ were considered. The presented results indicate differences of up to 100% between the considered work distributions and the IEEE one for certain values of tower footing impedance.

Optimization of aluminum hydrolysis reactions and reactor design for continuous hydrogen production using aluminum wire feeding

The depletion of fossil fuels and the issues caused by CO2 emissions are driving changes in global energy approaches. In this context, hydrogen emerges as a new and clean energy carrier for the near future. In this study, a system that can produce hydrogen with a constant flow rate for on-demand applications is developed. Hydrolysis reactions of aluminum are utilized for hydrogen generation. Aluminum in the form of wire is used and the feeding issues have been solved. The parameters of the hydrolysis such as the solution temperature (25–80 °C), catalyzer concentration (1–4 M NaOH), aluminum quantity and aluminum wire diameter (0.6–1 mm) were optimized by adopting the response method (RSM) and using laboratory scale experiments. Aluminum hydrolysis reactions and aluminum transformations during the reactions are investigated by performing surface analyzes of the wire. Using the optimized data, the continuous hydrolysis reactor and the aluminum feeding mechanism are designed. The aluminum wire feeding system is computer controlled using a microcontroller-based code. Hydrogen production rates up to 350 ml min−1 have been accomplished. A fuel-cell in the range of 5–30 W is fed by the hydrogen generated by the hydrolysis reactor system and the stability of the hydrogen generation rate and hence of the electricity generation is proven. One of the original aspects of this study is the development of a process that continuously produces hydrogen using commercially available aluminum.

Preface

2023 12th International Conference on Information and Electronics Engineering was held during February 18-20, 2023. The conference ICIEE 2023 has been held in both online and onsite mode. The participants can choose to either attend the conference virtually, or join the event in person.ICIEE 2023 is sponsored by Jeju National University with technical support from Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Tokyo University of Science, CISCO Networking Academy. ICIEE 2023 continues a tradition of bringing together researchers, academics and professionals from all over the world, experts in information, communication and networks. Submitted papers were received and sent for preliminary and peer review conducted by the technical committees. Professional comments were given according to the aspects of originality, innovation, applicability, technical merit, organizing and writing, relevance to conference. After several rounds of review procedure, 12 excellent papers had been published in the conference proceedings. The proceedings contain a collection of research papers, organized as 3 chapters: smart image processing and application, digital communication network and signal analysis, Modern intelligent information system design and model calculation. We hope that this volume of conference proceedings will serve as a valuable reference for researchers, educators, and practitioners.We would like to thank the organization committees, the members of the program committees and technical committees. They have worked very hard in reviewing papers and making valuable suggestions for the authors to improve their work. At the same time, we would like to thank all the authors for their work, their interest in our conference, the quality of their presentations and their passion to communicate really pushed this conference into a series of successes. Hope you could benefit from this proceeding!ICIEE 2023Conference ChairYungcheol ByunFull Professor/Ph.D.Dept. of Computer Engineering, Jeju National UniversityList of Committee is available in this Pdf.

Modeling higher education institutional choice drivers: a pre- and in-pandemic study of business schools in India

PurposeThe decision to select one amongst many choices of higher education institutions (HEIs) is a complex process. At a theory-building level, this study investigates the determinants of students' decisions as they consider investing in a long-term credence service higher education (HE) contract in pre- and in-pandemic and the implications for education managers. The second aspect is how disruptive global events influence such choice-making.Design/methodology/approachThe study hypothesized that there would be significant differences in the driving factors and their weight in students' decisions seeking admission into B-schools (Business schools). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and t-test validate the determinants and test hypothesized differences.FindingsResults reveal that core faculty quality, industry exposure, institutional brand name, placement offered, return on investment and specializations offered are the preferred choice criteria. The results reveal that choice criteria in the pre-and in-pandemic differ significantly.Originality/valueThe application of the SEM approach on a large primary database of students during the pre and in-pandemic periods to understand the changes in the choice of B-school for admission is the original aspect of the paper. Insights from the four hypotheses which got rejected provide value to stakeholders. As the pandemic is rearing its head once again across the globe, this study would be able to inform admissions managers on how to navigate for admissions success.

Metode SITUTE Berbasis Kabel STEM untuk Melatih Keterampilan dan Kreativitas Siswa di Masa Pandemi

This study aims to describe the implementation of the STEM learning process and the achievement of STEM learning through the SITUTE method to train the skills and creativity of class IX A students of State Junior High School 1 Brebes semester 2 of the 2020/2021 academic year. This research was conducted on class IX A students at State Junior High School 1 Brebes Semester 1 for the 2020/2021 academic year. The research data is in the form of scores of students’ skills and creativity. Data collection techniques in the form of tests and non-tes. Data analysis was carried out qualitatively and quantitatively. The results of the study show that STEM learning through the SITUTE method can be implemented properly according to the learning implementation plan (RPP). Students’ skills in STEM learning through the SITUTE method are trained on aspects of identity, tools and materials, work methods, product appearance, packaging appearance with an average achievement of 81.4%. Students’ creativity is trained on aspects of new products, new procedures, originality, environmentally friendly, and promotional techniques with an average achievement of 69%. STEM learning through the SITUTE method can be used as an alternative in training students’ skills and creativity.

İşyeri Nezaketsizliğinin Örgütsel Bağlılığa Etkisinde İş Stresinin Rolü

Organizations must prioritize issues related to organizational behavior to achieve important gains, such as fulfilling organizational objectives and providing sustainable competitive advantages. This study’s focus point is to analyze the impact of workplace incivility on organizational commitment and job stress. A unique model has been proposed that deals with workplace incivility, organizational commitment and job stress. To test this model, a survey method was utilized to collect data from individuals working in the furniture sector in the province of Kayseri (N=384). The collected data were analyzed using AMOS-22 and SPSS-27 package programs. The hypothesis tests performed with the regression-based Process Macro analysis showed workplace incivility had statistically significant positive impact on job stress, while it had a statistically significant negative impact on organizational commitment. We conducted a study on the relationship between workplace incivility and organizational commitment and analyzed the mediating role of job stress in this connection. This constitutes the original aspect of the present study. The results suggest relationship between of these two variables is mediates by job stress, revealing the originality of the proposed research model. This empirical study's findings make a significant contribution to literature by illustrating the issues that workplace incivility affects, particularly organizational behavior and work stress. Additionally, examining workplace incivility together with different organizational behavior issues is considered to make important contributions to both business management and academic literature.

Jazz as Soft Power in Turkey–US Relations During the Early Cold War Period

ABSTRACT The 1950s was an era when Turkish-US relations were developing in various arenas. In addition to hard power instruments, such as NATO membership, the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid, elements of soft power were also being used to promote the relationship between the two states. One element of this latter power was jazz which became tool of US public diplomacy used to export its cultural values. This paper explores how jazz was used as such in Turkey–US relations in the 1950s. The original aspect of this article lies in its dealing with the influence of jazz music, a relatively little mentioned soft power element in Turkey–US relations of this period. The main finding of the article may be conceptualized as follows: Turkey’s relationship with the US was based not only on economic and military interests, but also cultural ties between the two which were also crucial to strengthening their bilateral relations. In this context, musicians were key agents of cultural diplomacy with their music and songs legitimizing a new and different 20th century.

Proposal and extensive test of a calibration protocol for crop phenology models

A major effect of environment on crops is through crop phenology, and therefore, the capacity to predict phenology for new environments is important. Mechanistic crop models are a major tool for such predictions, but calibration of crop phenology models is difficult and there is no consensus on the best approach. We propose an original, detailed approach for calibration of such models, which we refer to as a calibration protocol. The protocol covers all the steps in the calibration workflow, namely choice of default parameter values, choice of objective function, choice of parameters to estimate from the data, calculation of optimal parameter values, and diagnostics. The major innovation is in the choice of which parameters to estimate from the data, which combines expert knowledge and data-based model selection. First, almost additive parameters are identified and estimated. This should make bias (average difference between observed and simulated values) nearly zero. These are “obligatory” parameters, that will definitely be estimated. Then candidate parameters are identified, which are parameters likely to explain the remaining discrepancies between simulated and observed values. A candidate is only added to the list of parameters to estimate if it leads to a reduction in BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion), which is a model selection criterion. A second original aspect of the protocol is the specification of documentation for each stage of the protocol. The protocol was applied by 19 modeling teams to three data sets for wheat phenology. All teams first calibrated their model using their “usual” calibration approach, so it was possible to compare usual and protocol calibration. Evaluation of prediction error was based on data from sites and years not represented in the training data. Compared to usual calibration, calibration following the new protocol reduced the variability between modeling teams by 22% and reduced prediction error by 11%.

Photonic Applications for Restoration and Conservation of 19th Century Polychrome Religious Wooden Artworks

The present paper reports the multi-analytical approach for the removal of thick layers of metallic overpaints from a Brancovan iconostasis of the “Holy Trinity” church in Măgureni, România, which was built in 1694. After a restoration procedure at the beginning of the 20th century, the polychrome sculpture of the frame, which was initially gilded with a thin silver foil, was covered with a thick metallic overpaint layer imitating silver and gold. Currently, the conservation project of the church is focused on restoring the original aspect; thus, the overpainting that presented strong oxidation and soiling was removed. The adopted conservation methodology involved physicochemical characterization of the pictorial layers via optical microscopy, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, followed by the removal of the overpaints. The cleaning tests were performed by evaluating several methods in order to find the proper regime that would help preserve as much of the underlying polychrome layers as possible. Based on the tests, it was decided that the best solution was to use laser cleaning for the rough removal of the metallic paint overlayers and finalizing with chemical cleaning.

Wooden-Pillared Sille Çay Mosque and Its Wooden Elements

The use of wood, a traditional building material, in historical mosques dates back to ancient times. The use of wood, which has a wide range of applications in mosques, in the load-bearing system of the building is seen as a distinctive feature of the building. The reason for this situation is that the number of mosques in which wood is used in the load-bearing system is low today. Wooden-pillared mosques, which belong to different periods and have different plan types, can be found in different regions and cities. One of these types of structures, which are frequently encountered especially in Central and Inner Western Anatolia, is the Sille Çay Mosque in Konya. The goal of this study is to document the Sille Çay Mosque as an example of a mosque with wooden columns and to reveal its original aspect. In this context, a sketch of the current state of the building was prepared by examining the building; the architectural elements in the building were photographed, and their ornaments were analyzed. As a result, it was observed that woodworking was used extensively in the mosque, which has a basilical plan typology among the 19th-century wooden-pillared mosques, especially in the pulpit, mihrab, and lectern, and suggestions were made for the restoration of the structure.

Probabilistic assessment of failure of infiltration structures under model and parametric uncertainty

We focus on the quantification of the probability of failure (PF) of an infiltration structure, of the kind that is typically employed for the implementation of low impact development strategies in urban settings. Our approach embeds various sources of uncertainty. These include (a) the mathematical models rendering key hydrological traits of the system and the ensuing model parametrization as well as (b) design variables related to the drainage structure. As such, we leverage on a rigorous multi-model Global Sensitivity Analysis framework. We consider a collection of commonly used alternative models to represent our knowledge about the conceptualization of the system functioning. Each model is characterized by a set of uncertain parameters. As an original aspect, the sensitivity metrics we consider are related to a single- and a multi-model context. The former provides information about the relative importance that model parameters conditional to the choice of a given model can have on PF. The latter yields the importance that the selection of a given model has on PF and enables one to consider at the same time all of the alternative models analyzed. We demonstrate our approach through an exemplary application focused on the preliminary design phase of infiltration structures serving a region in the northern part of Italy. Results stemming from a multi-model context suggest that the contribution arising from the adoption of a given model is key to the quantification of the degree of importance associated with each uncertain parameter.

Origin, dietary exposure, and toxicity of endocrine-disrupting food chemical contaminants: A comprehensive review

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a growing public health concern worldwide. Consumption of foodstuffs is currently thought to be one of the principal exposure routes to EDCs. However, alternative ways of human exposure are through inhalation of chemicals and dermal contact. These compounds in food products such as canned food, bottled water, dairy products, fish, meat, egg, and vegetables are a ubiquitous concern to the general population. Therefore, understanding EDCs' properties, such as origin, exposure, toxicological impact, and legal aspects are vital to control their release to the environment and food. The present paper provides an overview of the EDCs and their possible disrupting impact on the endocrine system and other organs.

Preface

2023 13th International Conference on Applied Physics and Mathematics (ICAPM 2023) was held in Singapore during March 10-12, 2023. In the past years, ICAPM was held in many large capital cities, such as Tokyo, Phuket, Singapore, Busan, Lisbon, Hong Kong, and Bangkok, etc. This conference provides a remarkable opportunity for the academic and industrial communities to address new challenges and share solutions, and discuss future research directions.The conference invited three internationally recognized experts in the field of applied physics and mathematics. They are Prof. Bakhodirzhon Siddikov, Ferris State University, USA, Prof. Naoyuki Ishimura, Chuo University, Japan, and Prof. Cheng-kuo Lee, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Scholars and researchers from China, Canada, India, Norway, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Russia, and so on took this opportunity to share their research results and discuss the future development of related fields.All papers in the conference proceeding have passed vigorous preliminary review and peer review by the technical committee. Professional comments are given according to the aspects of originality, innovation, applicability, technical merit, organizing and writing, relevance to conference, and so on. Authors benefit from the valuable comments and improve their submissions to meet the satisfaction of the reviewers. The proceeding contains a collection of research papers, and is divided into 3 chapters: Chapter 1 is entitled Basic Mathematics and Mathematical Computation; Chapter 2 is entitled Application of Mathematical Calculations and Models in Engineering; Chapter 3 is entitled Physical Theory and Engineering Physics.List of Organizing Committees, Statement of Peer Review are available in this Pdf.

Compound Aspect Extraction by Augmentation and Constituency Lattice

Aspects are opinion targets to extract in aspect-based sentiment analysis. While existing methods can already produce satisfactory extraction results, they suffer when faced with compound aspect terms, typically phrase-level aspect terms that have inner structure and occur infrequently in the training set. This issue can be mainly attributed to the scarcity of training examples targeting compound aspect terms and by the neglect of the syntactic structure of a sentence in the modeling process. In this article, we aim to cope with compound aspect extraction by a two-stage hybrid approach. Firstly, we introduce a conditional generation method for data augmentation in a masked sequence-to-sequence framework, which is controllable to preserve original aspects while generating a new sentence. Secondly, we propose a constituency lattice structure that is induced from the constituency-based parse tree of a sentence. Experimental results on two review datasets show that this approach can greatly improve the effect of compound aspect extraction.

Diptacus rubuscolum Trinidad, Duarte and Navia (Eriophyoidea: Diptilomiopidae) on blackberry (Rubus ulmifolius Schott) in Mexico: occurrence, complementary description, and biology

Blackberry (Rubus ulmifolius Scott) is an economically important crop in Mexico. Eriophyoidea mites are among the most important arthropod pests affecting production of this crop worldwide. Despite this, reports on species diversity of Eriophyoidea on blackberry in Mexico are scarce. We sampled six orchards from two municipalities in the state of Michoacan, the most important region for blackberry production. Sampling was carried out monthly between May and November 2018. Only one species of eriophyoid mite was found, Diptacus rubuscolum Trinidad, Duarte and Navia. We conducted a detailed morphological study of this mite and a complementary description is presented. In addition, we obtained partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (mt COI), the 18S and 28S of the rRNA. The duration of each developmental stage was determined under controlled conditions (25 °C, 60% RH and 12:12 light regime). We confirmed the identity of D. rubuscolum by comparing partial sequences of the D2 region within the 28S rRNA from our samples and sequences retrieved from GenBank. Overall, morphological characteristics were in line with the type specimens. However, some differences on body shape and empodium structure were pointed out. The developmental stages of D. rubuscolum were egg, larva, nymphochrysalis, nymph, imagochrysalis and adult, with a mean duration of 75 (±10), 56 (±9), 21 (±7), 41 (±8), 19 (±6) and 114 (±12) hours respectively. The information produced provides insight and knowledge on the occurrence of this species on blackberry in Mexico as well as on original biological aspects.

Leveraging hierarchical language models for aspect-based sentiment analysis on financial data

Every day millions of news articles and (micro)blogs that contain financial information are posted online. These documents often include insightful financial aspects with associated sentiments. In this paper, we predict financial aspect classes and their corresponding polarities (sentiment) within sentences. We use data from the Financial Question & Answering (FiQA) challenge, more precisely the aspect-based financial sentiment analysis task. We incorporate the hierarchical structure of the data by using the parent aspect class predictions to improve the child aspect class prediction (two-step model). Furthermore, we incorporate model output from the child aspect class prediction when predicting the polarity. We improve the F1 score by 7.6% using the two-step model for aspect classification over direct aspect classification in the test set. Furthermore, we improve the state-of-the-art test F1 score of the original aspect classification challenge from 0.46 to 0.70. The model that incorporates output from the child aspect classification performs up to par in polarity classification with our plain RoBERTa model. In addition, our plain RoBERTa model outperforms all the state-of-the-art models, lowering the MSE score by at least 28% and 33% for the cross-validation set and the test set, respectively.

Conditions for the origin of homochirality in primordial catalytic reaction networks

We study the generation of homochirality in a general chemical model (based on the homogeneous, fully connected Smoluchowski aggregation-fragmentation model) that obeys thermodynamics and can be easily mapped onto known origin of life models (e.g. autocatalytic sets, hypercycles, etc.), with essential aspects of origin of life modeling taken into consideration. Using a combination of theoretical modeling and numerical simulations, we look for minimal conditions for which our general chemical model exhibits spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking. We show that our model spontaneously breaks mirror symmetry in various catalytic configurations that only involve a small number of catalyzed reactions and nothing else. Of particular importance is that mirror symmetry breaking occurs in our model without the need for single-step autocatalytis or mutual inhibition, which may be of relevance for prebiotic chemistry.

Competitiveness of the Cities: Branding and Positioning

Purpose: The primary aim of the research is to examine the branding and positioning of cities within the framework of competitiveness. In this regard, Silifke which is a district in Turkey has been analyzed in terms of competitiveness with its branding and positioning tendency. Theoretical framework: It is well-known fact that cities are in a competition with each other to attract entrepreneurs, tourists and citizens in today's globalized world. It is considered that the competitiveness of a city is largely determined by its branding and positioning features. Design/methodology/approach: The mixed research approach was preferred in the research process and data were obtained through a questionnaire using the Drugan’s (2014) Brand City Scale. In order to ensure the highest level of measurement quality, that encompasses reliability of the research, the simple random sampling method was preferred. The analysis process was carried out with the data from 476 participants. Findings: When the discourse analyses including qualitative data have been taken into account, it was found that the city differs with its sea, historical background, agricultural features, river and tourism opportunities. These features occur as competitors however; quantitative data analyses’ results identify that the city has only been regarded as a branding city with its agricultural production capacity. Research, Practical & Social implications: It is suggested that the future researches highlight the contributions by carrying out the comparative studies between the cities. Originality/value: The original aspect of the research is that there hasn’t been any research dealing with the city itself in terms of branding and positioning.