bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Applications of Causal Inference
Authors: Leshchenko Anna
Published: June 2024

This thesis studies how the field of causality can mathematically define the causal relationships between events distinguishing causal effects from statistically observed correlation. We concentrate on basic causality concepts and definitions of tools and we ask which aspects of the theory can be used to approach practical problems in a systematic manner. This work demonstrates basic causality methods such as building causal models, working with them using d-separation, do-calculus, and methods associated with identification of causal relationships and resolving interventional and contrafactual queries. Necessary assumptions that we need to make before we start building and working with causal models will be outlined. We will demonstrate the theory using simple examples, on the domain of categorical and numerical data. We also will present a simple diagnostic example which aims to fold overviewed tools into a practical application. For all examples data was generated synthetically for the absence of reliable publicly available ground truth data designed for causality. We conclude the thesis by outlining our experience studying and working with the theory, what value we see in using it, as well laying out the benefits and challenges of the theory.
Novel Generative Adversarial Network Architectures for Generating image Data
Authors: Mohammad Jafari Sanaz
Published: June 2024

High data collection costs and complicated data access regulations increase the demand for synthetic data. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are a novel generative framework with great potential for high quality synthetic data generation. GANs formulate the true distribution of data implicitly, and the success of GANs are often measured based on the similarity of generated data to this true distribution. GANs were originally designed to work with continuous data. However, many important real-world datasets such as medical images involve discontinuous distributions. GAN training for discontinuous distributions is relatively more challenging, as the training procedure often suffers from instability and mode collapse issues. This dissertation focuses on designing novel GAN architectures to generate representative synthetic image data, and proposes new structures to alleviate GANs' mode collapse issue. As part of this thesis, novel applications of image data generation with GANs have been also investigated for important problems arising in the telecommunication industry and medical domain. Specifically, we first explore various GAN structures to generate engineered electromagnetic surfaces. We consider the continuous approximation of the data and explore the capabilities of feed-forward and convolutional GANs for synthetic data generation. Next, we introduce a novel GAN architecture to address the problem of mode collapse in GAN training. The proposed structure incorporates a third network that penalizes the generator for generating low diversity samples. Lastly, we study the challenging problem of object generation in 3D space using GANs, and we propose extensions to existing 3D GAN structures to generate connected 3D volumes. Additionally, we explore a more challenging version of this 3D volume generation problem by generating connected volumes packed with spheres. This research has applications in radiosurgery treatment planning, and the proposed 3D GAN structure can help generate rare, unseen 3D tumor volumes and information on how to treat these tumors. Accordingly, our analysis contributes to overcoming data scarcity issues (e.g., due to privacy considerations) for an important practical problem in the medical domain.
Novel Solution Methods for CPOMDPs With Applications to Cancer Screening
Authors: Kavaklioglu Can
Published: June 2024

Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) is a modeling framework that allow decision makers to make decisions in uncertain environments. This framework is particularly suited for sequential decision making problems for which the uncertainties are revealed in stages. Constrained POMDPs (CPOMDPs) extend this framework by also accounting for various restrictions in the environment. This PhD thesis focuses on POMDPs, CPOMDPs and its extensions, proposes novel solution methods and studies applications of POMDPs in disease screening. First, we focus on developing efficient versions of the well-known algorithms for POMDPs. POMDPs are notoriously difficult to solve optimally, and exact solution algorithms typically fail to solve the instances with more than a few core states. In this regard, we consider scalable algorithms solve the POMDP problems. Specifically, we propose distributed and parallel versions of the exact solution methods such as Monahan's algorithm and the incremental pruning algorithm as well as the heuristics such as Lovejoy's upper bound and lower bound methods. Next, we study the CPOMDPs and propose linear programming-based solution methods as a flexible approach for those. We perform a detailed numerical study with five different problem instances to showcase the viability of the proposed solution approach for CPOMDPs. Lastly, we propose multi-objective CPOMDP models for the breast cancer screening problem. These CPOMDP models extend the previously proposed POMDP models for breast cancer screening by considering different screening modalities and simultaneously optimizing for expected total quality-adjusted life years maximization and life-time risk minimization objectives.
Electric Vehicle Routing Problem and Solution Approaches
Authors: Amiri Afsane
Published: June 2024

One of the major actions to reduce the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions that are the leading cause of the global warming problem, is the development of Electric Vehicles (EVs). Thus, the application of EVs in the routing problem for delivery in short-haul distances is investigated in this dissertation. A routing problem involving EVs is defined on a set of vertices, including a start depot, a set of customers, charging stations, and an end depot. Starting from the depot, one of the main goals of this problem is to minimize transportation costs by visiting all the customers before arriving at the end depot. In Chapter 2, a routing problem with a mixed fleet of vehicles and different charging technologies (including Level 1, 2, 3 chargers, and battery swapping) is considered. A Mixedinteger Linear Programming model is then developed and solved by exact, and metaheuristic solution approaches. The results illustrate that EVs are more likely to be used than Conventional Vehicles (CVs) in the last-mile delivery problems. Also, Level 3 chargers may be the first choice for end-route charging in these problems. In Chapter 3, reducing the total GHG emissions for CVs is thesecond objectiveinaddition to minimizingthetransportationcosts.Tosolvethis bi-objective model, three multi-objective solution methods (i.e., weighted-sum, Œµ-constraint, and hybrid methods) are integrated with the Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search. The effects of the service area, the density of the stations, and charging power on the routing problem are investigated in the third chapter. The trade-off analysis reveals that by marginally increasing transportation costs, GHG emissions can be reduced considerably. Finally, in Chapter 4, a new robust model for the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem (EVRP) is introduced to handle the energy consumption uncertainty of EVs. Moreover, the on-time delivery factor that results in customers’ satisfaction is addressed by minimizing the delay and the earliness during distribution. The effects of uncertainty levels for energy consumption on the routing problem are analyzed by performing a Monte Carlo simulation. The trade-off analysis indicates that the on-time delivery can be improved by 11% by increasing 2.5% of the costs.
Understanding the Effects of Sugar: Sugar Interactions on Macroscopic Phenomena in Oil Suspensions
Authors: Argudo Adrian
Published: June 2024

Surfactants are used in confectionery production to control the viscosity and yield value of molten chocolate. To develop a deeper understanding of the structure-function relationship of surfactants in food-related particle suspensions, the apparent viscosity, yield value, sedimentation, and particle interactions of 10 wt% confectioner's sugar-in-canola oil suspensions were investigated in the presence of up to 1 wt% commercial soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR), citric acid esters of mono- and diacylglycerols (CITREM) or ammonium phosphatides (AMP). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure attractive forces at the nano-Newton scale between a sugar substrate and a sugar crystal-functionalized AFM cantilever in an oil environment. For all but PGPR, addition of surfactant reduced the adhesion force between sugar surfaces up to a critical concentration above which the force increased, implying the presence of additional interactions. This critical concentration was assumed to be when monolayer coverage of the sugar surfaces by surfactant occurred (0.05 wt% for lecithin, 0.10 wt% for CITREM and AMP). No critical concentration was found for PGPR, with its greatest effect for each analysis occurring at the highest concentrations tested (0.60 and 1.00 wt%). The significance of these interactions on macroscopic phenomena such as apparent viscosity and sedimentation was also assessed. Like with the AFM data, there was an optimal concentration of added surfactant above which viscosity increased. Sedimentation rate greatly decreased with addition of PGPR while being only slightly affected by addition of lecithin, CITREM and AMP. An argument is made based on the relative sizes of the polar headgroup and nonpolar tail groups of the molecules which contribute to the geometry of the surfactants as they adsorb to the sugar surface. Overall, these results suggest that surfactant properties such as molecular weight and head group properties play an important role in modifying the interactions between sugar crystals in an oil-continuous environment.
How Can Researchers Support Cannabis Sativa L. Home Growers? Investigating Homegrown C. Sativa Horticulture and Defining Best Practices
Authors: Dang Michelle
Published: June 2024

The legalization of recreational Cannabis sativa L. in Canada allows citizens to grow four C. sativa plants per household for personal use. Although Cannabis sativa is widely cultivated by home growers, there are gaps in the published literature on what growing practices citizens use and what yields they achieve. The purpose of this thesis is to define the horticultural practices of C. sativa home growers and observe how their methods influence plant outcomes. In my first study, I collaborated with C. sativa home growers to describe their cultivar preferences, horticultural practices, and yields. In my second study, I used meta-analysis to identify the optimal lengths of time to switch between vegetative to flowering lighting to maximize C. sativa yields. This thesis not only provides creative ways to study the homegrown C. sativa culture, but also provides evidence-informed data to lead future decisions on Canadian C. sativa horticulture, research, and policy.
Probing the Molecular Function of Novel Boron-containing Compounds
Authors: Okura Gillian
Published: June 2024

Boron-based therapeutics represent a new class of molecules that could possess various biomedical applications with antiviral, anticancer, antibacterial and antifungal activities. Relatively few boron-containing compounds (BCC) have been approved for clinical or commercial applications. Very little is known about the potential applications of most boron containing compounds against a wide range of diseases. This project focuses on the antiviral and anticancer arms of a larger screening project to determine biological activity of novel BCCs. First, using a human coronavirus model, we demonstrated the ability of our compounds to impair viral replication in both alpha- and beta- coronavirus models. Second, cell-based assays in human pancreatic and breast cancer cell lines demonstrated that novel BCCs show selective growth inhibition. The molecular functions of our compounds were probed in various cell lines using western blotting and cell cycle distribution analyses. These have revealed that our most effective BCCs in vitro likely impact different mechanism(s) in cancer cell killing than the TM commonly studied drug, bortezomib (Velcade ). Our results reaffirm the potential of boron chemistry and use of novel BCC in biomedical applications.
Loss of Functional PMRA as Pathoadaptaion in the Shigella Spp
Authors: Qamar Arooj
Published: June 2024

Shigella spp. are pathogens responsible for the global burden of diarrhoeal disease. The genus is comprised of four species: Shigella sonnei, Shigella boydii, Shigella flexneri and Shigella dysenteriae, each phylogenetically different but phenotypically and pathogenically similar. Previous work by the McPhee lab examining the two-component signalling cascade PhoPQ-PmrD-PmrAB identified a mutation in pmrD which resulted in the loss of PmrD protein in S. flexneri M90T. Here, I investigate whether there is a loss of PmrD-PmrAB signalling cascade in other strains of Shigella besides S. flexneri M90T. Using pangenome analysis we construct a core-gene phylogeny and find our results in agreement with previous findings that Shigella spp has multiple origins of evolution. In our work we also show their genomes spread over five prominent clusters, interspersed within Escherichia genomes. Further, we look for genomic variations of pmrD and pmrA, and identified a total of 11 distinct variations; 4 of pmrD and 7 of pmrA. Using in vitro microbiology techniques, we found that one variation, a truncated pmrA present in a subset of S. dysenteriae strains did not maintain PmrAB-regulated polymyxin B resistance. We also show that the PmrD-PmrAPmrB signalling cascade does not modulate O antigen length in a dominate variant of pmrD present in all S. flexneri strains or the truncated pmrA present in some S. dysenteriae strains.
The Metal-Free, One-Pot Synthesis of Homoallylic Amines by Direct Alkylative Reductive Amination Using Allylsilatrane
Authors: Raveenthrarajan David
Published: June 2024

Homoallylic amines are versatile scaffolds that can give direct access to heterocycles such as azetidines, pyrrolidines, and quinolines. Existing approaches to synthesize homoallylic amines are typically inefficient, multi-step processes. They are commonly prepared through the allylation of pre-formed imines; such methods require inert conditions and use toxic tin reagents or use expensive titanium catalysts. We have developed a new metal-free, one-pot synthesis of homoallylic amines from aldehydes through direct alkylative reductive amination using 1-allylsilatrane, a bench-stable, easy-to-synthesize, hypercoordinate silane alkylating agent. This open-air reaction is completed in two hours at 40¬∞C and gives good to excellent yields using various substituted anilines and aromatic aldehydes. We also demonstrate multiple utility pathways for homoallylic amines to be used as building blocks for biologically active molecules.
Computational Classification Methods in Renal Pathology
Authors: Basso Matthew
Published: June 2024

When assessing kidney biopsies, pathologists use Light microscopy (LM), immunofluorescence, and electron microscopy to describe and diagnose glomerular lesions and diseases. These are laborious, costly, fraught with inter-observer variability, and can have delays in turn-around time. Thus, computational approaches can be designed as screening and/or diagnostic tools, potentially relieving pathologist time, healthcare resources, while also having the ability to identify novel biomarkers, including subvisual features.

This thesis compares a novel Biomarker feature extraction (BFE) model and test several pre- trained deep learning models to diagnose three glomerular diseases using Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) stained images. The BFE model extracted a panel of 233 explainable biomarkers related to colour, morphology, and microstructural texture that describe underlying pathology. These biomarkers were subsequently narrowed to ten morphological and microstructural texture fea- tures for classification. The proposed pre-trained deep learning models used data augmentation and Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) for better performance and inter- pretability. All classification models were then used to classify Minimal change disease (MCD), Membranous nephropathy (MN), and Thin-basement membrane nephropathy (TBMN) diseases on a glomerular and patient-level basis.

The BFE model resulted in a glomerular validation accuracy of 67.6% and testing accuracy of 76.8%. All deep learning approaches had higher validation accuracies (most for VGG16 at 78.5%) but lower testing accuracies. The highest testing accuracy at the glomerular level was VGG16 at 71.9%, while that at the patient-level was InceptionV3 at 73.3%. Patient-level classification results showed higher accuracy for the BFE model (86.76%) compared to all deep learning methods.

The BFE model was superior to three established deep learning models. The small dataset was likely contributory to the lower performance of the deep learning models, while model in- terpretability was clearly superior for the BFE. The results highlight the technical performance of both the traditional and deep learning approaches and describe how they may translate to clinical utility. Furthermore, these algorithms can be applied to clinical datasets for novel prognostic and mechanistic biomarker discovery.
A Study of the Distribution of Money in Exchange Networks of Agents
Authors: Rezaei Siavash
Published: June 2024

We investigate network models of economic agents that exchange money with their neighbors. These models are closely related to thermodynamic models of inert gasses modelled by the Boltzmann distribution. We are interested in the stationary distribution of money that is reached after many exchanges.

We explore two types of networks, static networks and stochastic dynamic networks, where connectivity of the graph changes as a function of the money distribution. We present theoretical results and simulations for different variants of the dynamic graph model. Furthermore, we examine the properties of the stochastic networks that emerge out of the dynamic network models at equilibrium. We also present a stochastic matrix model for simulating evolution of an individual agent in static networks.
Drivers and Barriers of Leveraging Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain Finance and Trade Finance: A Mixed Methods Approach to Examine the State of Adoption
Authors: So Kar Wai
Published: June 2024

Blockchain technology has the potential to alleviate paper-based administration and risks of double-financing in supply chain finance (SCF) and trade finance (TF), providing buyers and sellers greater access to working capital. This research examines the drivers and barriers of blockchain adoption from a multi-stakeholder approach: banks, technology providers, consultants, buyers and sellers. Adoption factors are also investigated using different stages of implementation: evaluation, proof-of-concept, development, and production. A mixedmethodology of semi-structured interviews with 11 participants and a follow-up study using the Best-Worst Method (BWM), a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodology, is conducted. The study identifies 16 drivers and 18 barriers where adoption by network peers is the top driver and legal and regulatory uncertainties is the top barrier. Intra-organizational and environmental drivers were found to be more important than technological factors. This research contributes novel managerial and theoretical insights to blockchain adoption literature using the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework.
Data Governance. Enablers, Inhibitors, Practices, and Outcomes
Authors: Henninger Annegret
Published: June 2024

Data governance (DG) is a framework to manage data as a strategic enterprise asset. It is used to define and communicate an organization's accountability for data as well as decision rights, policies, standards, procedures, and compliance. As an emerging research topic, there is limited empirical research and theory development. Accordingly, this thesis builds upon Tallon, Ramirez, and Short's (2013) formative qualitative research that proposed the Theory of Information Governance (TIG). This thesis extends the TIG to develop the Refined Theory of Data/Information Governance, theorizes and tests hypotheses, and develops five lower-order constructs and two higher-order constructs. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory composite analysis, and structural equation modeling are used on survey data (N = 126, N = 227) from two separate groups of financial professionals. The findings quantitatively ascertain the composition of DG, offer a matrix of DG enablers, and identify DG as a source of competitive advantage and increased performance.
Assessment of the Impact of the Syrian Conflict on the Extent and Quality of Agricultural Land in the Sabkhat al-Jabbul Area (SJA)
Authors: Alhajjar Mohamad Fawaz
Published: June 2024

Most of Syria, including the Sabkhat al-Jabbul Area (SJA) experienced significant socio-ecological disruptions over the 2011 to 2021 period due to armed conflict in the region. This study examines the impacts of the armed conflict on the extent and the quality of agricultural lands in the SJA. Landsat imagery and unsupervised image classification were used to assess land use and land cover (LULC) change between three target years 2008, 2016, and 2020, which span the course of the conflict. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and multiple salinity indices were calculated and used to assess changes in vegetation and soil health, respectively. The change analysis revealed that the area of bare soil increased dramatically over the 12-year study period and the area of irrigated farmland decreased.
Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Gas Station Prices in Mississauga, Ontario
Authors: Qu Hao
Published: June 2024

This paper studies the spatial distribution of retail gasoline prices in the City of Mississauga, part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), over a one-month period in spring 2022. Over the past few years, the retail gasoline market has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain shortages, inflationary pressures, and of course the Russia-Ukraine war. While these are broad pressures that influence gas prices at a macro level, this research considers whether there is local variability. This study will utilize retail gasoline price data collected from a third-party crowdsourced website (Gas Buddy) three times a day (morning, afternoon and evening periods) for a total period of 30 days. Data was analyzed at the trade-area scale for the 121 gas stations in Mississauga using Emerging Hotspot Analysis. Overall, there was evidence of spatial and temporal patterns in Mississauga. The south side of Mississauga close to Oakville and the lakeshore areas were consistently classified as hotspots whereas the area around the Streetsville and Pearson airport were consistently classified as cold spots. Demographic data suggests that higher socioeconomic status, particularly education and income, consistently results in hotspots while areas with lower socioeconomic status as well as having a higher unemployment rate consistently results in cold spots.
Mothers Who Cook, Daughters Who Write: Negotiations of the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Culinary Memoir
Authors: Vakani Mariam
Published: June 2024

Popular understanding of the kitchen as the hearth and heart of the home suggests that families, especially children, make fond memories around food and eating. At the center of those memories is the Ideal Mother, who provides comfort through wholesome meals. Defining the culinary mother-daughter memoir as a memoir written by the daughter reflecting on her life and relationship with her mother through an engagement with food and culinary practice, the daughter’s writing often conflates a yearning for the mother with the yearning for the mother’s cooking. Investigating the relationship between the mother-daughter relationship, food, and grieving in five culinary memoirs, the paper undertakes a self-reflexive examination of how grief and hunger can impact the daughters’ representation of her relationship with her mother. Ultimately arguing that there is no singular representation, the paper suggests that the daughter uses cooking and memoir writing to come to terms with her grief for her lost mother.
Automatic Continuities of Law-Invariant Risk Measures
Authors: Chen Shengzhong
Published: June 2024

In this thesis, we investigate the automatic continuity properties of law-invariant risk measures on general model spaces. In Chapter 2, we study automatic order lower semi-continuity of law-invariant risk measures, which is usually termed as the Fatou property in the literature. Let X be a rearrangement-invariant space other than L∞ over a non-atomic probability space. We show that every real-valued, law-invariant, coherent risk measure automatically has the Fatou property at every random variable X ∈ X whose negative tails have vanishing norm (i.e., limn∥X1{X≤−n}∥ = 0) if and only if X satisfies the Almost Order Continuous Equidistributional Average (AOCEA) property, namely, d(CL(X), Xa) = 0 for any nonnegative random variable X ∈ X , where CL(X) is the convex hull of all random variables having the same distribution as X and Xa = { X ∈ X : limn∥X1|X|≥n∥ = 0 } . We also show that the AOCEA property is satisfied by most classical model spaces, including Orlicz spaces. In Chapter 3, we first show that on an r.i. space with the AOCEA property, every real-valued, law-invariant, coherent risk measure is automatically σ(X , X ′ )-lower semicontinuity at every random variable X ∈ X whose negative tails have vanishing norm. Here X ′ is the associated space of X . We also recover a local version of the Fenchel-Moreau Duality and apply it to establish automatic dual representations of risk measures. Finally, in Chapter 4, we apply our results to study when law-invariant bounded linear functionals automatically collapse to the mean, i.e., being scalar multiples of the expectation. We show that on every r.i. space with the AOCEA property, a bounded law-invariant linear functional collapses to the mean. We also construct an r.i. space on which a bounded law-invariant linear functional may fail to collapse to the mean and thus the space fails the AOCEA property. The thesis is based on [10, 11].
Swiping with Social Anxiety: Using Dating Apps to Circumvent Barriers to Intimate Relationship Formation
Authors: Lenton-Brym Ariella P.
Published: June 2024

The present dissertation aims to improve our understanding of the ways in which social anxiety symptoms are associated with location-based dating app (e.g., TinderTM) use. In Study 1 (Chapter 2), participants (N = 159) completed a laboratory task to examine whether social anxiety symptoms were associated with decreased dating profile satisfaction and confidence, and in turn, increased profile rejection over time. Social anxiety symptoms were associated with reduced confidence during the task. Participants became more rejecting of profiles over time; however, this tendency was not moderated by social anxiety symptoms. In Study 2, participants (N = 112) completed a baseline measure of social anxiety symptoms and subsequently completed daily diaries of dating app use for 7 days. In contrast to Study 1, profile swiping (i.e., number of viewed profiles and time spent swiping through profiles) was not associated with next-day profile acceptance or the extent of participants’ social engagement with dating app matches (Chapter 3). Social anxiety symptoms again predicted reduced confidence, which was in turn associated with reduced social engagement with matches. However, the direct and indirect effects of social anxiety symptoms on measures of social engagement with dating app matches either fell below the threshold of statistical significance or met the threshold of statistical significance while accounting for only a small degree of variance in the outcome (Chapter 4). In Study 3 (Chapter 5), participants (N = 128) completed an experimental laboratory paradigm to examine the interactive effect of: (a) social anxiety symptoms and (b) rejection versus acceptance feedback on participants’ negative affect, positive affect, state anger, and willingness to initiate contact with matches. Social anxiety symptoms predicted increased negative affect and reduced willingness to initiate contact with dating app matches following rejection feedback, as well as reduced positive affect following acceptance feedback. State anger was not significantly predicted by feedback type, social anxiety, or their higher order interaction. Taken together, these results suggest that social anxiety symptoms are not associated with social engagement with dating app matches. However, following instances of rejection on dating apps, individuals with elevated social anxiety symptoms may be more likely to limit social engagement. Furthermore, socially anxious individuals may experience greater negative affect and less positive affect when using dating apps.
Emergence as Method: The Virtuality of Grief and Remembrance in Memory Eternal
Authors: Armstrong Jolene , Tschofen Monique
Published: June 2024

Named after the Ukrainian Orthodox prayer for the dead, the Canadian feminist Decameron Collective’s Memory Eternal (Вічная Пам'ять) is a single user Virtual Reality work designed for Quest 2 that features seventeen distinct storytelling works which include 360 video, interactive and spatialized sound, AI generated images and video, film, as well as text. Set in a surreal and watery landscape, the works investigate our shared experiences of grief and loss at personal, societal, and planetary scales. The design of the world and the works in it center around a question: In the wake of crises, what do and should we remember, and how? Interactants’ journey through the world takes them through experiences of mourning, sitting with, and awakening to new futures.
Significance of Listening Skills in Enhancing the Communication Skills
Authors: Tran Thi Thuy Loan  , Pham Thi Kim Tuoi  , Ho Thi Minh Hoa
Published: June 2024

The acquisition of any kind of knowledge is dependent on the learners' capacity to listen. Active listening is crucial for effective communication and achieving academic excellence. Students may improve their communication abilities by developing their listening skills. Despite its significance, hearing has been neglected in the realms of second language acquisition, research, instruction, and evaluation. This research aims to investigate the importance of listening skills in improving communication abilities. Learners who possess high listening skills have the potential to acquire proficient communication abilities. Engaging in activities such as listening to music, viewing English movies, and attending English language classes has been shown to enhance students' listening abilities. This research demonstrates the efficacy of Computer Assisted Language Learning in enhancing students' listening abilities. Acquiring listening skills enables pupils to enhance their communication abilities.
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS BUILT BEHIND THE STATE INDUSTRY BUILDING (DERZHPROM) IN THE LATE 1920S AND EARLY 1930S: BLOCKS EAST OF NAUKY AVENUE
Authors: Gella О. , Didenko K.
Published: June 2024

The article is devoted to residential buildings built in the late 1920s and early 1930s in the metropolitan Kharkiv, in the area behind the State Industry Building (Derzhprom) east of Nauky Avenue. The design andconstruction of these residential neighbourhoods, which took place between 1926 and the late 1930s and had their peculiarities and diversity, are not sufficiently covered in scientific works and require a dedicated study.
The preservation, documentation, and restoration of modernist buildings and complexes in eastern Ukraine, especially in the Kharkiv region, require the creation of a periodisation and systematisation of buildings belonging to this glorious period of architectural development. Residential districts created in the 1920s and 1930s in Soviet Ukraine, particularly in the metropolitan Kharkiv, are objects of cultural and historical value subject to documentation and analysis. The tendency to highlight the most outstanding examples leaves out the contextual buildings, which formed the basis of the development of the residential area behind Derzhprom and created a coherent architectural and temporal background of the urban landscape of the new administrative centre of the metropolitan Kharkiv. Meanwhile, the contextual buildings created an architectural setting for more famous examples, such as the Slovo House. When studying the scientific works of Kharkiv architecture researchers, one can pay attention to the coverage of residential blocks to the west of Nauky Avenue, an area with a radial-ring structure, and the almost complete absence of research on residential blocks in the part of the district to the east of the avenue. This fact is quite unfortunate, as the architectural landscape of the blocks in this part of the residential area is notable in its spatial, functional, and stylistic structure. In addition, these blocks are rich in ‘red’ residential buildings, raised in the second half of the 1920s in various cities of Soviet Ukraine, which became a kind of visiting card of life in the Soviet Union then.
Keywords: Kharkiv, Derzhprom, residential buildings, Chervonyi Donets, Slovo, KofOk, Chervonyi brodylnyk.
Persepsi Pelajar Pengajian Islam terhadap Kepentingan Pendidikan Agama kepada Golongan Pekak
Authors: Mohd Rashid Syar Meeze , Shaharudin Siti Hajar
Published: June 2024

Religious education is a very important matter for every person who holds the title of Muslim in order to ensure welfare and guidance in living life. A perfect religious life can help and encourage a Muslim to always obey and comply with Allah's commands and always do good and leave evil deeds. Islamic religious education is provided comprehensively, including to the PWDs group, especially to the deaf group. This study also aims to see the perception of Islamic study students regarding the importance of religious education for the deaf and to what extent the students are prepared to deal with the deaf. The respondents involved consisted of 100 students taking Islamic study courses around Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. Data were obtained through a questionnaire form using a 5-point Likert scale as an instrument to obtain data. The findings of this study found that the level of knowledge, perception of the importance of religious education for deaf groups and students' preparation to deal with deaf groups were high. The findings of the study also provide guidance to the parties involved to further increase the provision of students to convey religious knowledge to the deaf by mastering sign language skills comprehensively.AbstrakPendidikan agama merupakan perkara yang sangat penting bagi setiap orang yang bergelar Muslim demi menjamin kesejahteraan dan panduan dalam menjalani kehidupan. Kehidupan beragama yang sempurna dapat membantu dan mendorong seorang Muslim untuk sentiasa patuh dan taat kepada perintah Allah SWT dan sentiasa melakukan kebaikan serta meninggalkan perbuatan yang mungkar. Pendidikan agama Islam diberikan secara menyeluruh termasuklah kepada golongan OKU, terutamanya kepada golongan pekak. Kajian ini juga bertujuan untuk melihat persepsi pelajar pengajian Islam terhadap kepentingan pendidikan agama kepada golongan pekak serta sejauh manakah tahap persediaan pelajar untuk berhadapan dengan golongan pekak. Responden yang terlibat terdiri daripada 100 orang mahasiswa/i yang mengambil kursus pengajian Islam di sekitar Selangor dan Negeri Sembilan. Data diperoleh melalui borang soal selidik dengan menggunakan 5 mata skala Likert sebagai instrumen untuk mendapatkan data. Dapatan kajian ini mendapati tahap pengetahuan, persepsi terhadap kepentingan pendidikan agama kepada golongan pekak serta persediaan pelajar untuk berhadapan dengan golongan pekak adalah tinggi. Dapatan kajian juga memberikan panduan kepada pihak yang terlibat bagi meningkatkan lagi persediaan pelajar untuk menyampaikan ilmu agama kepada golongan pekak dengan menguasai kemahiran bahasa isyarat secara menyeluruh
INTRODUCTION TO THE GEOMETRICAL OBJECTS AND AXIOMS: CONCEPTUAL, DIDACTICAL AND HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Authors: Bussotti Paolo
Published: June 2024

For a student attending the initial years of the high school, it is not easy to fully realize what a geometrical object is. While speaking, for example, of a triangle, the teacher will underline that its sides have length, but no width and no thickness. However, a pupil has never seen an object of this kind in his daily experience. For, every straight line has a width and a thickness, however minimal they may be. How can we introduce the geometrical objects and, immediately afterwards, the geometrical reasonings so that the learners can accept them not based on a sort of faith act but relying on a real understanding? The best method is to explain their conceptual genesis, also adding some historical elements. Two abstract processes can be identified: the first one gave origin to the abstract objects, the second one to the propositions (axioms) on which the relations of such objects rely. Therefore, we suggest that the teacher dedicates two lessons to introducing the genetic bases of the geometrical thought before dealing with the mathematical details. In what follows, material for the two lessons is supplied.
Type 2 Diabetes: Facts and Fallacies
Authors: Amin Md Nurul
Published: June 2024

Abstract not available
Ibrahim Card Med J 2023; 13 (1&2): 5-10
Cigarette Smoking and its Association with Dyslipidemia among Middle-aged Population in Rajshahi District
Authors: Yasmin Farhana , Hassan Parvez , Haque Md  Jawadul
Published: June 2024

Background & objective: Dyslipidemia is one of the major risk factors for ischemic heart disease. Many factors contribute to the development of dyslipidemia. Smoking is one of them. Smoking and dyslipidemia are claimed to interact with each other and synergistically increase the risk of heart disease. The present study is, therefore, intended to find the association between smoking and dyslipidemia in the context of the Bangladeshi population.
Methods:The present cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Rajshahi Medical College (RMC), Rajshahi in collaboration with the Institute of Biological Science, Rajshahi University, Rajshahi over a period of five years between 2017 and 2022. A total of 230 adult (ranging from 30 to 60 years) male subjects who attended at Biochemistry Lab of RMC to have their blood tested for lipid profile were consecutively included in the study. However, individuals with the habit of chewing tobacco, ex-smokers, or those having any diseases influencing lipid profile, taking drugs (like β-blockers, thiazide, statins, fibric acid derivatives, and nicotinic acid) that may influence lipid profile, or obese persons under dietary restrictions were excluded from the study. The subjects who exhibited either serum TC: HDL ratio > 4.5 or serum Tg: HDL ratio > 3.5 or both conditions were considered as cases and the subjects who did not have either of the conditions were considered as controls in the present study.
Result: In the present study, over one-third (34.8%) of subjects had a smoking habit with the mean duration of smoking being 13.6 ± 5.0 years. Dyslipidaemia (as defined by serum TC: HDL > 4.5) was found in 33% of subjects, while the same condition, defined by serum Tg: HDL > 3.5, was found in 42.6% of the subjects. While either of the two conditions was present in 13% of subjects, both conditions were concurrently observed in 31.3% of subjects. Of the total 230 subjects, 102(44.3%) were dyslipidaemic. Smoking habit was observed to be significantly higher in the case group (54.9%) than that in the control group (18.8%). The risk of having dyslipidaemia in smokers was > 5-fold (95% CI = 2.9 – 9.5) higher than that in non-smokers (p < 0.001). However, as the duration of smoking was correlated with different lipid profiles, it was not found to be significantly correlated with any of the lipid profiles.
Conclusion: The study concluded that smokers are more likely to have dyslipidaemia than non-smokers. The risk of having dyslipidaemia in smokers is much higher than that in non-smokers. While serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and serum triglycerides are increased, serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) is reduced.  
Ibrahim Card Med J 2023; 13 (1&2): 26-31
Derecho al desarrollo y soberanía nacional: Una difícil relación
Authors: Scotton Damiano
Published: June 2024

Los textos y el análisis contemporáneo sobre los Derechos Humanos, y en particular sobre el Derecho al Desarrollo, hacen referencia de forma reiterada a la responsabilidad de los Estados en la realización de dicho Derecho, al abogar por una necesaria cooperación internacional, liderada por los mismos estados y sus derivadas organizaciones intergubernamentales, que permita alcanzar los objetivos previstos. Sin embargo, el Derecho al Desarrollo, por su propia esencia, tiene ciertas características que convierten a la participación estatal, y a las características propias de esta participación, en una dificultad adicional más que en una determinante para poder alcanzar un desarrollo pleno tanto de los individuos como de las colectividades del Estado. En este artículo, se plantea subrayar dicha contradicción, así como encontrar una posible solución en la integración regional.
Juegos, normas, taxonomías de reglas y existencia: Una revisión desde el materialismo sistémico
Authors: Ordóñez González José Rafael
Published: June 2024

Este artículo ofrece una revisión desde la perspectiva del materialismo sistémico de algunas taxonomías de reglas aplicables a contextos normativos comunitarios diversos como los juegos, el deporte, el derecho, la religión y las organizaciones criminales. Se examinan las conexiones entre las taxonomías de normas, destacando la presencia de reglas aceptadas que definen acciones permitidas, prohibidas u obligatorias en ambos contextos. Se analizan las clasificaciones normativas propuestas por filósofos como Rawls, Searle y Bulygin, reconociendo la necesidad de actualizarlas en consonancia con el materialismo sistémico. Se propone una nueva taxonomía de las reglas basada en una 4-tupla que incluye la expresión lingüística, el constructo designado, la función social asociada y el tiempo de desarrollo de la función. Esta perspectiva permite distinguir entre diferentes tipos de reglas según su función en el nivel material social, promoviendo una comprensión más profunda de la realidad jurídica y social.
Historical and Theoretical Perspectives of Panic Buying: Consumer Behavior at Its Worst?
Authors: Menon Mohan
Published: June 2024

Panic Buying (PB) is an old phenomenon but has been in the news mostly because of the pandemic but in 2021 for other reasons. While there are supply-side reasons that make it difficult for marketers to sell, the demand-side reasons cause psychological difficulties in consumers. While there have been a few attempts to smooth over these situations, it would seem that every PB situation is different. This limits the applicability of lessons learned from one instance to another in the future. The paper attempts to provide (1) a historical perspective for PB, layout the nature of PB and (2) provide an overview of the various theoretical perspectives that can utilized to potentially to understand the consumer psychology behind PB. This is followed by a brief section on the implications of PB and discussion.
Relationships of Learning Styles to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Gen Z
Authors: Challa Chandrashekar , Eyob Ephrem , Adekoya Adeyemi A , Omojokun Emmanuel
Published: June 2024

This research investigates a cohort of Gen Z students’ learning attributes to understand their learning styles. In this study, we applied Bloom’s Taxonomy as a framework to understand the cognitive learning strategies of Gen Z students and explore the development of corresponding and effective learning and appropriate assessment approaches for their academic success. A survey of Business students at a medium-sized southeastern (US) university was conducted. The results indicate a significant positive relationship between the dependent variable, taking information apart, and exploring relationships to some of the Bloom Taxonomy attributes as independent variables.
The Effect of Occupational Safety and Health to Employee Performance in PT.IMP
Authors: Tobing Josephine , Lumbantoruan Rutman , Sihotang Khesia Pinta Uli Rian
Published: June 2024

The purpose of this study was to determine how much influence the health and safety to employees performance in PT Internet Media Prima. The sampling technique using saturated sampling technique (census), because the sampling is done in the Project division in which only amounted to 30 people. This research uses descriptive analysis with quantitative approach using a questionnaire and using linear regression analysis techniques, that occupational safety and health as independent variables (X) and employee performance as the dependent variable (Y). The data processing in this study using the program Statistical SPSS. The results of this study states that the safety and health give singnificant and positive effect on employee performance.Keywords: health, safety, employee performance
Analysis of Customer Loyalty
Authors: Hutasoit, SE., MSi., MSE Posma Sariguna Johnson Kennedy , Simanjuntak Priskila Theodora , Tobing Fenny BNL
Published: June 2024

This study aims to determine the level of loyalty of FEUKI students to use Indosat IM3 products, and to know the attributes/factors that lead to these customers loyalty to IM3 products. Source of data used is derived from primary data obtained from questionnaires distributed to eighty-eight of the respondents who have used at least a year IM3 Indosat continuously. The methods used are using the qualitative analysis techniques Fishbein and Likert scale. The conclusion can be drawn from the fishbien analysis, where the results showed that the students' attitude FEUKI as customer responses to a product that is worth 243.24 Indosat IM3 in the category quite satisfied, with a percentage of 77.44%. students have shown loyalty to Indosat IM3 products. The level of loyalty are the majority (90.1%) high loyalty. Attributes that affect customer loyalty are in quadrant II in the Cartesian diagram. The indicators referral is an attribute/dominant factor affecting the loyal attitude of the students.Keywords : customer loyalty, products, fishbien analysis
The Effect of Tax Planning to Minimize the Tax Burden
Authors: Melfrida Christina , Malau Melinda , Sihombing Salmon
Published: June 2024

This study aims to determine how the effect of tax planning undertaken by PT. KBX, and to know what the right method to minimize the tax burden. The data for this study were obtained from interviews with tax accounting section and General Human Resources of PT. KBX with observations regarding the implementation of tax planning. The research proves that PT. KBX has not executed tax planning appropriately. The company uses the method of calculation of income tax Article 21 is borne by the employer (net method), so that the expense incurred income tax Article 21 shall be paid in the calculation of taxable income for corporate income tax. As a result the corporate income tax paid is greater.Keywords : Taxes, PT. KBX, Peghasilan Tax (VAT).