Guarantee High Quality Research Articles

Mixed hay produced in Southern Italy: nutritive value and environmental impact

The aim of this study was to characterize eight mixed forages preserved as hays produced in four agricultural and livestock farms located in four Provinces (Avellino, Benevento, Campobasso, and Potenza) of Southern Italy, different for environmental condition. Nutritive value, in vitro fermentation characteristics and kinetics, including methane production were determined. The little differences observed between sampling areas highlighted that the forage produced in Avellino area is the most interesting in terms of chemical composition, nutritive value, in vitro characteristics, and environmental impact. Data obtained allow having more information about hays produced in the study area, useful for farmers to make balanced rations, to maintain animal health and guarantee high quality of production.

DESIGN FEATURES OF VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

The article deals with the influence of virtual informational educational environment on didactics of basic education, the functions of virtual informational educational environment as a new pedagogical system, shows the relationship of real and virtual components of the informational educational environment in the integral pedagogical process, presents the conditions for the selection of organizational forms of learning in a virtual educational environment. The validity of the selection of organizational forms of training ensures the achievement of guaranteed high quality of the educational process.

Some issues of the integrated development of public transport in the Barnaul agglomeration

The development of motor transport is the most important factor, determining the quality of life of urban population. Hence, the topic of the work is relevant. The pronounced social nature of public passenger transport should translate into the guaranteed high quality conveyance of the least affluent categories of passengers.
 The article studies the state and quality of passenger transport in the city of Barnaul, analyzes the operation of passenger transport organizations, and transportation payments made by the population. The article identifies the main problems of passenger transportation, including consequences of the poor-quality operation of transportation organizations in Barnaul and offers solutions towards the optimal development of the transport system.
 The co-authors propose to use methods, based on the driver’s observations, automatic recorders, polling methods, cross-sectional surveys or coupons, to improve the operation of transport routes.

Web-Based Student Project Management System: A Tetfund Institution-Based Research Report

Students’ final year projects are often characterized by poor quality, duplication of existing works, prolonged research writing and late submission. This TetFund sponsored research project: Web-based Student Project Management System, is designed with the latest technologies to mitigate these challenges. The project is designed to provide continuous, timeless and boundless communication between project coordinators and students, students and their supervisors, as well as students researching in the same field. The project automates routine project activities such as listing and selection of project topics, approval of project topics, project report writing guidelines, student/supervisor correspondence, assessment and report submission, and finally report storage and management. Thus, it will eliminate the duplication and recycling of existing projects by making sure that such projects are rejected automatically at the very point of submission for approval, as well as guarantee high quality and timely completion and submission of students’ projects. Agile software design approach, due to its high degree of stakeholder involvement and incremental testing of functionalities, was deployed to design the project. Also the system was developed using Java programming language with Apache Tomcat Server and MySQL as the Database Management System.

A New Field Modulation Machine With Hybrid Magnetic Sources

A new hybrid magnetic source field modulation machine (HMS-FMM) is proposed in this paper, which can work in a wide speed range and guarantee high quality torque output. Due to the bidirectional flux modulation effect applied in HMS-FMM, a large number of working harmonics can be used to generate torque. Direct current excitation is employed to regulate airgap flux density at stator yoke for wide speed range and low harmonic distortion rate at flux weakening state. In order to improve the air gap flux density, the auxiliary tooth is introduced to connect ferrite and stator tooth for providing parallel magnetic circuit. The proposed topology, operating principle and key design parameters are described. Then, the electromagnetic performances are analyzed using finite element analysis (FEA) including magnetic field distribution, back electromotive force, torque characteristics and irreversible demagnetization assessment for magnets. The FEA-predicted results show that the proposed HMS-FMM is an appealing choice for electric vehicle application, which has the merit of high torque production with low torque ripple and safe operation without demagnetization risk in wide operation range.

PM-LSH: a fast and accurate in-memory framework for high-dimensional approximate NN and closest pair search

Nearest neighbor (NN) search is inherently computationally expensive in high-dimensional spaces due to the curse of dimensionality. As a well-known solution, locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) is able to answer c-approximate NN (c-ANN) queries in sublinear time with constant probability. Existing LSH methods focus mainly on building hash bucket-based indexing such that the candidate points can be retrieved quickly. However, existing coarse-grained structures fail to offer accurate distance estimation for candidate points, which translates into additional computational overhead when having to examine unnecessary points. This in turn reduces the performance of query processing. In contrast, we propose a fast and accurate in-memory LSH framework, called PM-LSH, that aims to compute the c-ANN query on large-scale, high-dimensional datasets. First, we adopt a simple yet effective PM-tree to index the data points. Second, we develop a tunable confidence interval to achieve accurate distance estimation and guarantee high result quality. Third, we propose an efficient algorithm on top of the PM-tree to improve the performance of computing c-ANN queries. In addition, we extend PM-LSH to support closest pair (CP) search in high-dimensional spaces. Here, we again adopt the PM-tree to organize the points in a low-dimensional space, and we propose a branch and bound algorithm together with a radius pruning technique to improve the performance of computing c-approximate closest pair (c-ACP) queries. Extensive experiments with real-world data offer evidence that PM-LSH is capable of outperforming existing proposals with respect to both efficiency and accuracy for both NN and CP search.

Analisis Sistem Traceability Produk Tuna Ditinjau Dari Aspek Supply chain PT Hatindo Makmur

Indonesian tuna fisheries dominate world tuna production. One of the priority water areas as tuna fishing catchment is the Sendang Biru Aquatic area, because it has Pondokdadap Fish Landing Center and is the center of largest fishing activity in Malang. The international market wants a guarantee of high quality and food safety, this is supported by the implementation of traceability systems. Own traceability is way to guarantee food quality by tracking information about the position of product. The purpose of this study is to describe the supply chain system of PT Hatindo Makmur, describe the readiness to implement traceability, and develop a strategy to support the implementation of traceability. The method used is a survey and questionnaire using descriptive analysis. The results of the analysis show that the Supply chain system is carried out by several parties fishermen, PPI Pondokdapdap, CV Berkah Alam, and PT Hatindo Makmur. The readiness of fishermen in Sendang Biru the implementation of traceability systems is categorized as ready with a percentage of 79%. The strategy that can be implemented is optimize the use of tuna resources, develop a simple traceability system for handling, collaborate with NGOs to socialization and training traceability and application to fishermen, use modern technology in recording and managing permits, Providing incentives to fishermen from companies to follow regulations, monitoring and controlling fishing activities, developing owned facilities to manage ship registration and licensing at ports, increasing socialization of the importance of catch data to the results of the sale.

Reflections of older people about their experience of fall prevention exercise in the community- a qualitative study exploring evidence-based practice

BackgroundEvidence-based practice (EBP) ensures that clinicians use effective interventions to achieve desired outcomes, thereby contributing to the best quality of care. The perspective of the participants is fundamental in EBP, as they have their own individual and meaningful rationale for participating in fall prevention. This study aims to explore community-dwelling older people reflections about their reflections about EBP in physiotherapy based on their experiences of a fall prevention exercise program.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 community-dwelling older people (men = 7; women = 9). Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsThe analysis revealed three themes: 1) the tension between knowing and doing, 2) the power of the therapist-participant relationship and the process of putting knowledge into action, and 3) research is interwoven with successful therapy and is an integral component of it. EBP was considered as a collective negotiation and learning process of creating knowledge for clinical practice. The negotiation between different types of knowledge must be performed in a transparent dialogue and through interactive collaboration between the persons involved. The participants appreciated that the research findings indicate that practice gives results.ConclusionsEBP was understood and utilized as a seal of approval and a “guarantee of high quality” treatment, and its effects varied based on older people’s preferences, needs, and skills. The therapist’s relational competence appeared to be crucial for the negotiation of various sources of knowledge relative to the older people’s preferences.

Seagull

Microsoft Azure is dedicated to guarantee high quality of service to its customers, in particular, during periods of high customer activity, while controlling cost. We employ a Data Science (DS) driven solution to predict user load and leverage these predictions to optimize resource allocation. To this end, we built the Seagull infrastructure that processes per-server telemetry, validates the data, trains and deploys ML models. The models are used to predict customer load per server (24h into the future), and optimize service operations. Seagull continually re-evaluates accuracy of predictions, fallback to previously known good models and triggers alerts as appropriate. We deployed this infrastructure in production for PostgreSQL and MySQL servers across all Azure regions, and applied it to the problem of scheduling server backups during low-load time. This minimizes interference with user-induced load and improves customer experience.

Multilevel optimal managerial incentives and audit fees to limit earnings management practices

The main objective of this study is to design an optimal managerial compensation scheme and optimal auditor fees to counter income-increasing earnings management behavior. This study draws on game theory with three players: the shareholders, managers and auditors. It considers the possibility of collusion between the manager and auditor and analyzes the different scenarios that may exist between the three players. The results of our study prove that it is possible to establish an optimal managerial compensation contract and optimal auditor fees which will limit earnings management manipulation and guarantee high audit quality. We found that the optimal managerial compensation scheme depends on the firm situation. Moreover, we illustrated how the auditor is motivated by improving audit effort in all possible scenarios. This paper can be considered a tentative effort to provide systematic evidence for designing optimal contracts that align divergent interests between managers and shareholders.

Научная правовая экспертиза как гарантия качества административно-правовых норм

Научная правовая экспертиза как гарантия качества административно-правовых норм

Ways to improve administrative and legal mechanism for ensuring the rights of business entities in the field of taxation

The author of the article, based on the analysis of scientific views of scholars and current legislation of Ukraine, elaborates the ways to improve administrative and legal mechanism for ensuring the rights of business entities in the field of taxation. It is substantiated that the objective prerequisites for improving administrative and legal mechanism for ensuring the rights of business entities in the field of taxation are: 1) low level of trust of entrepreneurs in the tax service; 2) high level of corruption in the agencies of the State Tax Service; 3) imperfect mechanism of legal regulation of tax advice; 4) low level of quality and efficiency of functioning of administrative and legal mechanism of ensuring the rights and lawful interests of business entities as taxpayers, etc. It was stated that the first step towards improving administrative and legal mechanism for ensuring the rights of business entities in the field of taxation should be the improvement of the relevant administrative legislation. The expediency of improving the organizational structure of the State Tax Service is substantiated. Emphasis was placed on the need to improve the interaction of the State Tax Service with other public authorities and the public on ensuring the rights of business entities in the field of taxation. It is noted that the deep and constructive interaction of the State Tax Service of Ukraine with other public authorities and the public is undoubtedly an important guarantee of high quality and efficiency for ensuring the rights of business entities.

Selection of demulsifiers for transportation and oil preparation at Kondinskoye oil field

The article considers the results of the study on the selection of chemical reagents to improve the rheological properties of the oil emulsion of the Kondinskoye oil field during transportation and dehydration of the emulsion. The studies have been carried out on an artificial emulsion. We describe a method of determining demulsifying activity of a reagent at a certain temperature mode of a preliminary water discharge plant. In addition, we give the results of the study with various chemical reagents, select the optimal mode of emulsion preparation. This experiment was conducted in order to select the most effective demulsifiers to improve the technology and economics of the field and transportation process. The optimal choice of type of demulsifier, mode of its application and places of entry guarantee high quality of oil preparation. The following demulsifiers could be used in the process: DE-4, DE-6, and DE-9. The result of using these reagents is an optimal reagent flow rate per ton of fluid and a maximum amount of water separated from the emulsion over a certain time.

PM-LSH

Nearest neighbor (NN) search in high-dimensional spaces is inherently computationally expensive due to the curse of dimensionality. As a well-known solution to approximate NN search, locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) is able to answer c-approximate NN ( c -ANN) queries in sublinear time with constant probability. Existing LSH methods focus mainly on building hash bucket based indexing such that the candidate points can be retrieved quickly. However, existing coarse-grained structures fail to offer accurate distance estimation for candidate points, which translates into additional computational overhead when having to examine unnecessary points. This in turn reduces the performance of query processing. In contrast, we propose a fast and accurate LSH framework, called PM-LSH, that aims to compute the c -ANN query on large- scale, high-dimensional datasets. First, we adopt a simple yet effective PM-tree to index the data points. Second, we develop a tunable confidence interval to achieve accurate distance estimation and guarantee high result quality. Third, we propose an efficient algorithm on top of the PM-tree to improve the performance of computing c -ANN queries. Extensive experiments with real-world data offer evidence that PM-LSH is capable of outperforming existing proposals with respect to both efficiency and accuracy.

Impact of the Accuracy of Land Cover Data sets on the Accuracy of Land Cover Change Scenarios in the Mono River Basin, Togo, West Africa

Knowledge about land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics is of high importance for a number of environmental studies including the development of water resources, land degradation and food security. Often, available global or regional data sets are used for impact studies, although they have not been validated for the area of interest. Validation is especially required if data are used to set up a land change model predicting future changes for management purposes. Therefore, three different LULC maps of the Mono River Basin in Togo were evaluated in this study. The analyzed maps were obtained from three sources: CILSS (2 km resolution), ESA (300 m), and Globeland (30m) datasets. Validation was performed using 1,000 reference points in the watershed derived from satellite images. The results reveal CILSS as the most accurate data set with a Kappa coefficient of 68% and an overall accuracy of 83%. CILSS data shows a decrease of savanna and forest whereas an increase of cropland over the period 1975 to 2013. The increase of cropland area of 30.97% from 1975 to 2013 can be related to the increase in population and their food demand, while the losses of forest area and the decrease of savanna are further amplified by using wood as energy sources and the lack of forest management. The three datasets were used to simulate future LULC changes using the Terrset Land Change Modeler. The validation of the model using CILSS data for 2013 showed a quality of 50.94%, it is only 40.04% for ESA and 20.13% for Globeland30. CILSS data was utilized to simulate the LULC distribution for the years 2020 and 2027 because of its satisfactory performances. The results show that a high spatial resolution is not a guarantee of high quality. The results of this study can be used for impact studies and to develop management strategies for mitigating negative effects of land use and land cover change.

Towards appropriate information provision for and decision-making with patients with limited health literacy in hospital-based palliative care in Western countries: a scoping review into available communication strategies and tools for healthcare providers

BackgroundPerson-centred palliative care poses high demands on professionals and patients regarding appropriate and effective communication and informed decision-making. This is even more so for patients with limited health literacy, as they lack the necessary skills to find, understand and apply information about their health and healthcare. Recognizing patients with limited health literacy and adapting the communication, information provision and decision-making process to their skills and needs is essential to achieve desired person-centred palliative care. The aim of this study is to summarize available strategies and tools for healthcare providers towards successful communication, information provision and/or shared decision-making in supporting patients with limited health literacy in hospital-based palliative care in Western countries.MethodsA scoping review was conducted. First, databases PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched. Next, grey literature was examined using several online databases and by contacting national experts. In addition, all references of included studies were checked.ResultsFive studies were included that showed that there are face-to-face, written as well as online strategies available for healthcare providers to support communication, information provision and, to a lesser extent, (shared) decision-making in palliative care for patients with limited health literacy. Strategies that were mentioned several times were: teach-back method, jargon-free communication and developing and testing materials with patients with limited health literacy, among others. Two supporting tools were found: patient decision aids and question prompt lists.ConclusionsTo guarantee high quality person-centred palliative care, the role of health literacy should be considered. Although there are several strategies available for healthcare providers to facilitate such communication, only few tools are offered. Moreover, the strategies and tools appear not specific for the setting of palliative care, but seem helpful for providers to support the communication, information provision and decision making with patients with limited health literacy in general. Future research should focus on which strategies or tools are (most) effective in supporting patients with limited health literacy in palliative care, and the implementation of these strategies and tools in practice.

The Concept of Social Marketing while Supplying the Population with Liquefied Gas

The article analyzes the specificity of the marketing activities of the gas supplying organization involved in the socially significant projects. Social marketing acts as a concept acceptable in conditions of increased corporate social responsibility of the society and organization. Consideration for the interests of a commercial organization requires support from government agencies in terms of subsidizing costs when supplying localities with liquefied gas, in the absence of pipelines and the economic viability of their construction. The most important condition providing the access of the population to natural gas is the choice of a reliable gas supplier that could compensate for lost income at the expense of other activities, and guarantee high quality public services. Assessment of the quality of customer service is an indicator of the effectiveness of the tasks set by the gas supplying organization and the criterion for selecting a partner organization for a social project of the public authorities. The paper assessed the competitive advantages of a gas supplying organization operating on the principles of social marketing. Recommendations are given on the development of the organization’s activities while reducing the demand for liquefied gas supplies in the region.

Novel probes for pH and dissolved oxygen measurements in cultivations from millilitre to benchtop scale

pH value and the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) are key parameters to monitor and control cell growth in cultivation studies. Reliable, robust and accurate methods to measure these parameters in cultivation systems in real time guarantee high product yield and quality. This mini-review summarises the current state of the art of pH and DO sensors that are applied to bioprocesses from millilitre to benchtop scale by means of a short introduction on measuring principles and selected applications. Special emphasis is placed on single-use bioreactors, which have been increasingly employed in bioprocess development and production in recent years. Working principles, applications and the particular requirements of sensors in these cultivation systems are given. In such processes, optical sensors for pH and DO are often preferred to electrochemical probes, as they allow semi-invasive measurements and can be miniaturised to micrometre scale or lower. In addition, selected measuring principles of novel sensing technologies for pH and DO are discussed. These include solid-state sensors and miniaturised devices that are not yet commercially available, but show promising characteristics for possible use in bioprocesses in the near future.

„Ich möchte sterben“ – Zum Umgang mit Suizidwünschen in der hausärztlichen Palliativbetreuung

Different attitudes towards, and ideas about the end of life, represent an often experienced challenge in palliative care provided by family doctors. If values diverge too strongly, considerable strain can originate from it for the health care professionals, in particular if it is about assisted suicide. How do family doctors experience the incompatibility between patients’ wishes and personal values? How do they succeed to bridge value divergences? Based on group discussions with family doctors in Switzerland the contribution focusses on these questions and identifies different strategies of family doctors. The results indicate that in particular ’convergence of perspectives’ with patients can reduce the strain for family doctors and can at the same time guarantee high quality of care.

APPLICATION OF SOLID PAINT COATING ON AIRCRAFT

Applying solid paint is a procedure used in practice to cover an aircraft skin with a coat of chromatic lacquer which possesses anti-corrosion properties. Additionally, this coat improves aerodynamic characteristics of a/c skin. Solid paint is applied as a preventive maintenance of the material the skin is made of to protect it against atmospheric exposure factors and it is conducted before an a/c is certified airworthy or when a given assembly requires separate maintenance or repair , and even in case of faults removal of skin coating fragment during scheduled maintenance. Painting process is conducted in a specially designated room which needs to meet a number of requirements and occupational safety regulations. The most important factor which the painting shop must meet is an appropriate room temperature, air-conditioning system and fire extinguishing equipment. The process of applying solid paint is timeconsuming and requires precision. The author presents chosen methods of applying solid paint on aircraft construction elements as well as painting process preparatory maintenance. The article presents specificity of the preparatory process starting with appropriately prepared room, protective clothing and equipment suitable for solid paint application and ending with appropriate humidity parameters. The contents of the article depicts conditions which have to be met so that the process is accomplished in a safe manner and according to technological procedures. Subsequent stages of the paint application process show complex technology and influence of many factors which guarantee correct and safe task execution. Correct and technologically appropriate removal of the old lacquer layer, aircraft washing and finally outer layers application guarantee high quality, durability and safety of air crews and passengers.