Daily Problem Research Articles

Neutrosophic cognitive maps for analysis of social problems analysis

Investors have been flocking to the information technology (IT) industry recently. Any commercial or IT company's success is directly proportional to its employees' efforts. The workforce's contributions are crucial when it comes to the success of technology or any other business on the global stage. However, they will disregard their personal and social lives to achieve their aim. Workers in the private sector, particularly those in the information technology industry, suffer from mental health issues such as stress, depression, anxiety, and addiction. Using Neutrosophic Cognitive Maps (NCM), we evaluated the daily problem they face. The NCM decision-making system incorporates iterative tasks of resolving conflicts until the optimal answer is reached. The NCM uses neutrosophic graphs to model depending on the opinions of experts. Studying the issue with such vague data calls for an approach such as this, which eschews the use of statistics. For unlabeled data, NCM is the most effective method.

Gap between simplified and detailed calculation of the environmental impacts of road mixtures

In order to reach the COP21 objectives, solutions with low carbon contents must be used in road projects. However, the identification of the best materials to be implemented in the wearing course of roads is a daily problem faced by stakeholders. To overcome this knowledge gap, the present study demonstrates the environmental impacts of 120 mixtures calculated with simplified and detailed hypotheses and input data. Even though the variability of inputs significantly influences the impacts of the mixtures and do not allow for the identification of the best solutions, on average, warm mix asphalt presented lower impacts than hot mix asphalt or concrete.

The Opinions of Mathematics Teachers about Using Mathematical Modeling in the Solution of Daily Life Problems and an Application of the Chinese Remainder Theorem

The opinions of mathematics teachers about using mathematical modeling (MM) in daily life problems and their use of MM in solving a daily life problem were examined within the scope of the graduate-level MM course in this study. The research was designed as a case study. Participants are five mathematics teachers selected by the purposive sampling method. The data were obtained through a structured form containing questions about a daily life problem and using MM in a daily life problem. Teachers were given one week to answer the questions on this form. Descriptive analysis was performed on the data obtained from the teachers’ problem solving, and content analysis was carried out on the data containing the teachers’ opinions. The findings determined that although the modeling processes were generally used appropriately by the teachers in solving a daily life problem, the process of understanding the problem was quickly mentioned, the teachers had difficulties in giving the most effective solution during the evaluation stage, and the communication stage was mostly ignored. It was also found out that MM could be beneficial in many ways in solving daily life problems. On the other hand, it was indicated that there may be difficulties in terms of student-teacher-environment and that teachers give very limited space to MM in classroom practices. It can be stated that the tendency of teachers to use the approaches they are accustomed to instead of MM in the solution of daily life problems is effective in the emergence of this situation.

Faculty Perceptions toward Critical Thinking among Kasetsart University Students

This study investigated faculty perceptions toward critical thinking among students in Thai universities and how this might influence how they teach, and they might instill this form of thinking in their students. The data source was semi-structured interviews with six faculty from the Educational Psychology and Guidance fields in Thai universities via Line and Facebook application. It has been found that faculty perceived that critical thinking helps students in their decision in daily life problem appropriately. Even though teachers perceived that they are encouraging their students to think critically in the classrooms, they are only concerned with comprehending the subject matters. Detailed discussions regarding the perceptions of faculty on students’ critical thinking are provided.

A threshold search based memetic algorithm for the disjunctively constrained knapsack problem

The disjunctively constrained knapsack problem consists in packing a subset of pairwisely compatible items in a capacity-constrained knapsack such that the total profit of the selected items is maximized while satisfying the knapsack capacity. DCKP has numerous applications and is however computationally challenging (NP-hard). In this work, we present a threshold search based memetic algorithm for solving the DCKP that combines the memetic framework with threshold search to find high quality solutions. Extensive computational assessments on two sets of 6340 benchmark instances in the literature demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is highly competitive compared to the state-of-the-art methods. In particular, we report 24 and 354 improved best-known results (new lower bounds) for Set I (100 instances) and for Set II (6240 instances), respectively. We additionally apply the approach to solve a real-life daily photograph scheduling problem of an earth observation satellite. We analyze the key algorithmic components and shed lights on their roles for the performance of the algorithm.

Determination of Prospective Science Teachers' Level of Knowledge about Thermodynamics and Their Reasoning with Daily Life Examples

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between environmental problems and thermodynamics of prospective science teachers. The study was conducted with the case study method. The sample consists of 74 senior prospective science teachers studying in Science Teaching Department in the faculty of education of a state university in Turkey in spring semester of 2018-2019 academic year. The first part of the data collection tool consisted of four open-ended questions and it was the form in which the prospective science teachers were asked to explain the laws of thermodynamics. In the second part of the data collection tool, there were eleven open-ended questions which were expected to be explained by the laws of thermodynamics of the given environmental problems. As a result of the study, prospective science teachers were found to have difficulty applying any laws of thermodynamics to a daily event or environmental problem.

Development and experimental validation of hierarchical energy management system based on stochastic model predictive control for Off-grid Microgrids

Abstract In this study, a hierarchical energy management system (EMS) is proposed, to coordinate different energy sources in an islanded multi-good microgrid. The first layer deals with the daily scheduling problem, while the second layer balances the generation in real-time. A novel second layer formulation, relying on model predictive control under a scenario-based stochastic approach (sMPC), is introduced and it is compared to a reference formulation, based on a central proportional-integral controller following the indications set by the first layer. The proposed sMPC explicitly accounts for uncertainty considering several scenarios of very-short term forecast errors, that act as disturbances for the system. The sMPC evaluates the control actions and the correction rules required to guarantee optimal operations through disturbance-feedback. The EMS is implemented in an experimental setup and tested for daily operations under a rolling horizon approach. The accuracy of the numerical system simulation is evaluated, resulting in an average discrepancy of 1.7%, in terms of operation cost, with respect to the experimental operations. Then, a test case comparing the proposed EMS with the reference approach shows that the adoption of sMPC allows to approach the lowest possible operation cost achievable by a second layer with an advantage of 2.7 % against the reference case. Finally, the developed sMPC leads to only 0.5% additional costs than an ideal controller working on the same control layer.

Optimizing log transportation in the Argentinean forest industry by column generation

A column generation based algorithm for optimally solving a daily log routing problem in the Argentinean forest industry is presented in this work. Minimum-cost truck-routes are dynamically generated by two complementary pricing procedures within this algorithm. The proposed decomposition procedure is able to provide optimal and or near optimal transportation plans for large instances found in the context of the argentine forest industry which considers several modelling features usually no considered in standard OR routing problems. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on several instances from the literature and on a realistic large scale example.

Psychosocial impacts of oral epithelial dysplasia.

The psychosocial impact of receiving the diagnosis of oral epithelial dysplasia, which presents up to 3.5% increased annual risk of mouth cancer, remains unknown. Using validated instruments, the present study aimed to investigate the prevalence and existing correlations between anxiety, depression and dental anxiety symptoms and burden on oral health-related quality of life. A clinical cohort of 82 patients with oral dysplasia was asked to complete the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale and the shortened version of the Oral Health Impact Profile. Spearman's correlation coefficient and regression analyses were performed. The participants' scores were in keeping with the presence of anxiety, depression and emotional distress symptoms in 30%, 16% and 26%, respectively. However, 69% experienced anxiety related to procedures that may be required as part of long-term management of oral dysplasia (e.g. local anaesthetic injection). The oral health-related quality of life scores showed 41.5% reporting a recent daily problem due to their oral or dental health. Significant correlations [p>0.05] were found among and between all of the used instruments. Being a female with oral dysplasia also predicted increased odds of indicating higher anxiety and dental anxiety scores than males [p>0.05]. Oral dysplasia can adversely impact on the psychosocial well-being of affected persons. Establishing a causal relationship between the measured variables may, however, be challenging and would need further longitudinal studies.

Articulações entre Teoria da Flexibilidade Cognitiva e os Três Momentos Pedagógicos: confecção e análise de um material didático na estrutura fractal

A Teoria da Flexibilidade Cognitiva estabelece que o conhecimento é construído mediante o enfretamento de situações reais, pertinentes a domínios de conhecimento complexos e pouco estruturados. Articulações entre essa teoria e os Três Momentos Pedagógicos, em especial a Aplicação do Conhecimento, podem favorecer o processo “codificação-problematização-descodificação” e o modelo fractal da estruturação didática desses momentos. Este artigo tem por objetivo desenvolver essas articulações e exercitá-las na análise de um material didático referente ao tema Produção, Transmissão e Consumo da Energia Elétrica, produzido no contexto do ensino de Física da Educação de Jovens e Adultos. Verificamos que os pressupostos da Teoria da Flexibilidade Cognitiva contribuem para o desenvolvimento da Aplicação do Conhecimento e do modelo fractal por meio de estruturas de conhecimento em rede e flexíveis, construídas ao longo do cruzamento de paisagens ou temas altamente inter-relacionados, utilizadas no enfrentamento do cotidiano científico-tecnológico e na resolução de problemas. Nas considerações finais, tecemos comentários acerca da potencialidade do material didático e das articulações desenvolvidas para outras abordagens didáticas e modalidades de ensino.

Estrategia de los productores del sur de Yucatán para insertarse en la economía de mercado

El propósito de este artículo es destacar el caso de los productores de una comunidad del sur de Yucatán, que siguen una estrategia basada en la obtención de ingresos dentro de su unidad de producción, que generalmente, los arraiga a su comunidad. El objetivo es caracterizar la agricultura familiar de la comunidad de Yáaxhom, Yucatán, y analizar el comportamiento de los productores, a través del ingreso monetario, para resolver su problema económico cotidiano. Para la caracterización de la comunidad se siguió el método general para el estudio multilateral de la agricultura, mientras que para la obtención de los ingresos monetarios netos se adecuó la teoría económica convencional de ingresos y costos a las unidades de producción que no se comportan como empresas, y se obtuvo una muestra estadística de la comunidad. Los resultados sugieren que la integración de un mercado cercano, disponibilidad de recursos naturales, organización de los productores, apoyos gubernamentales y desarrollo de policultivos, han hecho que los productores no tengan interés en abandonar sus unidades de producción. El origen del ingreso dentro de la unidad de producción es diversificado y fluye durante prácticamente todo el año. La promoción por parte de las autoridades de estrategias similares en otras regiones puede inhibir la emigración campo-ciudad.

A time-dependent shared autonomous vehicle system design problem

The emergence of the shared autonomous vehicle (SAV) provides new opportunities and challenges for the fashionable car-sharing mode. This study proposes a time-dependent SAV system design problem by jointly optimizing fleet size, parking infrastructure deployment, and daily operation of the system for infrastructure planning in the long run. The dynamic system optimum (DSO) principle in terms of total daily system cost (TDSC) is adopted to formulate the daily operation of the SAV system, i.e., users’ departure time choices and SAVs’ route choices. By incorporating the link transmission model (LTM) as the traffic flow model, the daily operation problem (DOP) of the SAV system is formulated as a linear programming (LP) problem. Further, the time-dependent SAV system design problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem. The LP relaxation of the proposed MILP problem could provide a tight lower bound, and a diving heuristic algorithm is developed to solve the proposed MILP problem. Finally, numerical examples are designed to illustrate the properties of the model and the efficiency of the proposed solution algorithm.

Workplace violence toward resident doctors in public hospitals of Syria: prevalence, psychological impact, and prevention strategies: a cross-sectional study

IntroductionWorkplace violence (WPV) against healthcare workers is a common and daily problem in hospitals worldwide. Studies in different countries indicated that exposure to WPV potentially impacts the psychological status of healthcare workers. However, there is a paucity of studies approaching this issue in the Syrian healthcare system.ObjectivesThis study had three objectives: (1) to estimate the prevalence of violence against resident doctors in Syria, (2) to examine the association between WPV and resident doctors’ psychological stress, sleep quality, depression, and general health and (3) to suggest approaches to tackle this problem from the resident doctors' perspectives.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 8 out of 14 provinces, and covered 17 out of 56 accessible functioning hospitals in Syria. Data were collected using anonymous, self-administered questionnaires during February 2020. A total of 1226 resident doctors volunteered to participate in the study. Finally, 1127 valid questionnaires were used in the final data analysis. The overall response rate was 91.92%.ResultsA total of 955 participants (84.74%) reported exposure to WPV in the 12 months prior to the study. In specific, 84.74% exposed to verbal violence and 19.08% to physical violence. Patients’ associates were the predominant aggressors in both verbal and physical violence (n = 856; 89.63%, n = 178; 82.79%, respectively). Most resident doctors (87.31%) suggested enacting more legislation to protect doctors as the best solution to reduce WPV. Verbal and physical violence showed a significant positive correlation with each item of depression and stress, and a significant negative correlation with both subjective sleep quality and subjective health.ConclusionWorkplace violence against resident doctors in Syria is highly common. Therefore, policymakers, hospital managers, and supervisors should work collaboratively in order to minimize WPV and ensure resident doctors’ safety and psychophysical stability.

Effects of coexisting upper gastrointestinal symptoms on daily life and quality of life in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common disease encountered in daily medical care and clinical problem which hampers daily life and reduces quality of life (QOL). The coexistence of GERD-related symptoms with the typical GERD symptoms, such as heartburn or acid regurgitation, and various upper abdominal symptoms is frequently observed in patients with GERD. However, the effect of these coexisting symptoms on the daily life and QOL of patients with GERD has not been clarified. Therefore, the effects of the various upper abdominal symptoms coexisting with GERD on the daily life and QOL of such patients were compared. A total of 113 newly diagnosed patients who visited our hospital with typical GERD symptoms were assessed using the modified frequency scale for the symptoms of GERD (MFSSG), gastroesophageal reflux and dyspepsia therapeutic efficacy and satisfaction test (GERD-TEST), and short-form 8-item health survey (SF-8) questionnaires. The "gastroesophageal reflux symptom" (7 items) and "dyspepsia symptom" (7 items) groups were divided into two "typical symptoms" and two "atypical symptoms" for a total of four categories. The Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis were used to evaluate the correlations between each symptom category and dissatisfaction for daily life [eating, sleeping, daily activities, mood, as well as dissatisfaction for daily life-symptom subscale (SS), which is the average of the four items in the GERD-TEST, the physical component summary [PCS] and mental component summary [MCS] of the SF-8, and the influence of each symptom category on the daily life and QOL. The incidences of each symptom category in patients with GERD were high: typical GERD (100%), atypical GERD symptoms (67.3%), typical functional dyspepsia (FD) (71.7%), and atypical FD (75.2%). Pearson's correlation analysis demonstrated significant correlations between each symptom category and living status (dissatisfactions of eating, sleeping, daily activities, daily life-SS) and almost all items in SF-8 (PCS, MCS) (P < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis indicated the largest influences of each symptom category on living status and QOL in descending order: dissatisfaction for eating (atypical FD, typical FD), daily activities (atypical FD, typical FD, typical GERD), mood (atypical FD), daily life-SS (atypical FD, typical FD), PCS (typical FD), and MCS (atypical FD) (P < 0.05). Coexisting FD symptoms, particularly atypical FD symptoms, had a large influence on the impairments of daily life and decreases in QOL. Daily medical care of GERD requires attention to coexisting symptoms and their treatment instead of just focusing on the chief complaints by patients.

Prospects of using modern machine training methods to improve sitting working conditions through analysis and control of human posture

The article presents an analysis of the latest research conducted to monitor the health of workers with a sedentary lifestyle. The results show that about 75% of all workers in the developed world are in a sedentary position during their professional activities. This leads to long-term disturbances in a person's sitting posture, which in turn provokes musculoskeletal complications in the back, neck, shoulders, arms and legs. Chronic back pain is becoming a daily problem for many people, and in some cases even an occupational disease. It is determined that among the ways to combat the negative effects of sedentary lifestyle and work, one of the main ones is posture control and a cycle of appropriate physical exercises. Both ways require self-control of the individual, for some reminders from different gadgets. In recent years, «smart» devices and ancillary software that accompany modern man in trying to control his health have become more and more developed. One of the areas of research and development in this area is the study of possible ways to use machine learning in this area. The creation of the apparatus of machine learning tools and neural networks has been implemented, the main task of which is the analysis of human posture with images and video streams, output of results in a form acceptable for further use. The goals of the development are to create a system that will control a person during his work, reminding him of his posture, minimizing the potential negative impact on everyone's health. The created system has enough tools for accurate analysis of human posture from a static image and analysis with an accuracy of 92-94% of the video stream. Google Chrome Web Browser extension has been created for the API to use HTML markup language, CSS page style language, and JavaScript based on TensorFlow libraries that import pre-built and trained machine learning systems. This allows the user to control their posture while working on a personal computer at their workplace. The application provides an opportunity to independently monitor a person's posture and report in case of violations.

A story of nimble knowledge production in an era of academic capitalism

A rise of academic capitalism over the past four decades has been well documented within many research-intensive universities. Largely missing, however, are in-depth studies of how particularly situated academic groups manage the uncertainties that come with intermittent and fickle commercial funding streams in their daily research practice and problem choice. To capture the strategies scientists adopt under these conditions, this article provides an ethnographically detailed (and true) story about how a single project in Artificial Intelligence grew over several years from a peripheral idea to the very center of an academic lab’s commercial portfolio. The analysis theorizes an epistemic form—nimble knowledge production—and documents three of its lab-level features: 1) rapid prototyping to keep sunk costs low, 2) shared search for “real world problems” rather than “theoretical” ones, and 3) nimble commitment to research problem choice. While similar forms of academic knowledge transfer have been lauded as “mode 2,” “innovative,” or “hybrid” for initiating cross-institutional collaboration and pushing science beyond disciplinary silos, this case suggests it can rely on fleeting attention to problems resistant to a quick fix.

Surgery scheduling in outpatient procedure centre with re-entrant patient flow and fuzzy service times

To meet the increase in demand for outpatient surgical services, surgery scheduling for outpatient procedure centres (OPCs) has recently attracted considerable attention in both the healthcare industry and the academic community. This paper considers a novel OPC daily surgery scheduling problem (ODSSP) to minimise the average recovery completion time of all patients. To satisfy the OPC surgical practice, patient intake and recovery are applied in the same area for more resource flexibility, and uncertain service times for intake, surgical procedures and recovery are considered. Owing to the similarities shared between healthcare delivery systems and production systems, ODSSP is formulated as a two-stage no-wait re-entrant hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with fuzzy service times. Considering the NP-hardness of such scheduling problem, a new hybrid meta-heuristic (GA-BAVNS) is employed to obtain detailed daily OPC surgery schedules. To achieve greater balance between exploration and exploitation in the search space, GA-BAVNS hybridises a genetic algorithm (GA) and a variable neighbourhood search (VNS) to schedule outpatients for surgical services. To improve the local search performance of the VNS, six novel block-based neighbourhood structures are employed to generate neighbourhood solutions. Moreover, an adaptive neighbourhood change procedure (ANCP) is employed to systematically change the search order of neighbourhood structures for better solutions. Computational results on a set of test problems indicate the superiority of the proposed GA-BAVNS.

Neurocognitive, social cognitive, and clinical predictors of creativity in schizophrenia

BackgroundCreativity is considered an essential human accomplishment and a key component for daily life problem solving. It has been suggested that impairment in working memory, cognitive flexibility, and theory of mind could lead to lower creativity in schizophrenia. Additionally, other neurocognitive and social cognitive domains, as well as clinical symptoms could play a role in this relationship. However, the extent to which each of these domains influences creativity in schizophrenia remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to simultaneously investigate the specific contribution of neurocognitive, social cognitive, and clinical variables to creativity in schizophrenia. MethodsOne hundred and one patients with schizophrenia were assessed in terms of sociodemographic, clinical, neurocognitive, social cognitive, and creativity variables. ResultsAfter controlling for sociodemographic variables, regression analyses showed that higher social perception (β = 0.286, p = .004) and processing speed (β = 0.219, p = .023) predicted creativity total score. Higher social perception (β = 0.298, p = .002) and processing speed (β = 0.277, p = .004) explained figural creativity. Finally, lower negative symptoms (β = −0.302, p = .002) and higher social perception (β = 0.210, p = .029) predicted verbal creativity. ConclusionsResults suggest that neurocognitive, social cognitive, as well as clinical symptoms influence creativity of patients with schizophrenia. Moreover, these findings point out the prominent role of social cognition in creativity in schizophrenia.

The one container drayage problem with soft time windows

Intermodal freight transport consists of using different modes of transport without changing the load unit. This results in a significant reduction in the time that goods spend at intermodal terminals, where transshipment takes place. Drayage refers to the transport of freight on trucks among intermodal terminals, depots, customers and suppliers. In spite of the fact that drayage only represents between 5 and 10 percent of total distance, it may amount up to more than 30 percent of the total costs. The aim of this work is to study drayage operations. First, an extensive literature review is undertaken. Since the intermodal transport chain can become more efficient by means of a proper organisation of the drayage movements, the optimization of the daily drayage problem has been identified as one of the main ways of reducing the drayage cost and improving intermodal operations. On this problem, the lack of a common benchmark has hindered reaching further conclusions from all the research carried out. Therefore, this paper proposes a common framework and presents a generalized formulation of the problem, which allows modeling most drayage policies, with the limitation of only considering one-container problems. Results show that flexible tasks in the repositioning of empty containers as well as soft time windows can reduce the operating costs and facilitate the management of drayage companies. This work may help consider adequate policies regarding drayage operations in intermodal terminals.

System of Linear Equation Problem Solving: Descriptive-Study about Students’ Mathematical Connection Ability

Algebra is one of the fields in mathematics studied by secondary school students. The students’ ability to solve algebra problems is still low. This is due to their lack of ability to solve real-world problems. This is because their mathematical connection capabilities are also not good. Mathematical connection ability is one of the standard processes in learning mathematics. The purpose of this study was to describe the mathematical connection ability of secondary school students in solving algebra problems. This research method is descriptive-qualitative. The research subjects were each high, medium, and low ability secondary school student. The data obtained is the result of subjects’ work in solving systems of three-variable linear equations. Subjects’ work outcomes will be analyzed based on indicators of mathematical connection ability. The results of this study are high, medium, and low ability students able to meet several indicators in recognizing and using some ideas or concepts in mathematics. Students can understand how the concepts of mathematics are interconnected. Only highly capable student shows indicators of the application of mathematics in daily life problem.