bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using Technology to Enhance Student and Faculty Success in Online Courses
Authors: Rust Dianna Z. , Brinthaupt Thomas M. , Adams Cindy L.
Published: June 2017

In this chapter, the authors present a case study that describes how their campus supports distance learning and teaching. They illustrate how higher education institutions can enhance student and faculty success in online courses through the strategic use of technology. Specifically, the authors describe programs that provide support for distance education students, employ faculty mentors to promote the quality of online courses under development, and utilize electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) to assess student learning outcomes. All of this work takes a technology-centric perspective on online learning in higher education. Using these projects as examples, the authors describe how administrators can provide support for both students and faculty as their institutions implement effective technology-centric strategies.
Networking International Student Collaboration and Experiential Exercise Projects
Authors: Vargas-Hernández José G.
Published: June 2017

This paper has the aim to analyze and to reflect on the experiential exercise from the point of views of instructor and students attending University Center of Economic and Managerial Sciences at University of Guadalajara and participating in the “X-Culture International Student Collaboration Project” as a professional, inter-personal and inter-institutional networking platform. Key words: Experiential exercise projects, international student collaboration program, inter-institutional, networking, professional development, inter-personal.
Innovation and Commercial Orientation
Authors: Bhowmick Bhaskar , Ghosh Susmita
Published: June 2017

The role of technology institutions has evolved many folds in last two decades. This evolution initiates the thought of conceptualizing the construct called Innovation and commercial orientations of technology institutions. The contextual case study focuses on the environmental aspirations and the preparedness by the institute in dealing those. The background thought of Triple-helix model helps to build the scenario. The insight is drawn on the experience in dealing with the variables by the stakeholders, the shortcoming of the newly adopted directions and observing the developments within the environment. The study contributes towards developing a measure of innovation and commercial orientations of technology institutes in emerging country context.
The Diffusion of Accounting Innovations in the New Public Sector as Influenced by IMF Reforms
Authors: Alsharari Nizar M.
Published: June 2017

This paper aims to explain the diffusion of management accounting innovations within the public sector in Jordan as influenced by IMF reforms. It is concerned with the diffusion of management accounting systems viewed as a process of actor-network building and translation. The paper presents an interpretive case study by drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The aim is to better understand the nature of accounting systems. The study recognizes that accounting innovations in Public Financial Management over the last decade were central to the rise of the New Public Management (NPM) doctrine and its associated ideas of Results Based Management (RBM) and public accountability, of which accounting is a key element. The study also concludes that the diffusion process implied three isomorphic interests; i.e. it created pressure for similar reforms and structural changes in many governmental aspects, especially the ways of thinking and doing. It thus provides a discernible conclusion through exploring the processes of accounting change as influenced by the tenets of ANT. Like Chua (1995), it has examined accounting change as a process of ‘fabrication'. Accounting innovations are constructions (Andon et al., 2007), often built on a wide array of social, economic and political factors. There have been several studies of the public sector transformation following IMF reforms but this paper has a different focus: the diffusion and adoption of management accounting systems within the new public sector. The paper discusses the findings of an interpretive case study, which is Ministry of Finance (MOF) in Jordan. The results of the study indicate that diffusion and adopting of accounting innovations by MOF is largely affected by the government influence, and these innovations usually occurred “beyond the enterprise” as well as within it. The study contributes to both accounting literature and Actor-Network Theory by providing more understanding and explanation about the dynamics of accounting innovations in the public sector. This paper has interesting findings, but also points to the need for more studies about the diffusion of accounting innovations in the public sector.
Which is the Best Way to Measure Job Performance
Authors: Kock Ned
Published: June 2017

Among latent variables that can be used in e-collaboration research, job performance is a particularly important one. It measures what most e-collaboration tools in organizations aim to improve, namely the performance at work of individuals executing tasks collaboratively with others. The authors report on a comparative assessment of scores generated based on a self-reported job performance measurement instrument vis-à-vis official annual performance evaluation scores produced by supervisors. The results suggest that the self-reported measurement instrument not only presents good validity, good reliability and low collinearity; but that it may well be a better way of measuring job performance than supervisor scores.
Exploring the Systematic Business Model Innovation
Authors: Chen Tsung-Yi
Published: June 2017

An electronic-based business model (BM) is the new paradigm in business model innovation (BMI). In order to adapt to an ever-changing and extremely volatile Internet environment, an enterprise needs a systematic approach and tools to improve its existing business model or create a new one. This study analyzes the issues and system requirements for collaborative business model innovation relating to (1) BM design, (2) BM innovative system design, and (3) moral and intellectual property. Focusing on level (1) BM design, this study develops a systematic business model innovation approach based on the business model canvas (BMC) with nine building blocks and integrates the innovation radar (IR) with twelve key dimensions. Based on level (2), the study proposes a suitable collaborative BMI environment to enable the planning of a BM innovative design support system through virtual innovation teams (VITs), and to understand the system's functional requirements. Using the designed environment, this study develops the architecture of a BM knowledge support service environment based on cloud technology. To verify the proposed method, a bookstore is used as a case study. This study engages in innovative research in order to design a conceptual and systematic BMI approach.
Differences in the Exchange of Contents of Different Countries in Social Network Sites
Authors: Sander Tom , Sloka Biruta , Pūķe Ieva
Published: June 2017

The global tool social network sites (SNSs) depend on local issues. The paper compares Latvia (LV), Hungary (HU), United Kingdom (UK) and Germany (GER) to identify similarities and differences in the kind of content which is forwarded to private SNSs. The research evaluates if the global tool SNSs depend on local issues e.g. the country of origin of the member. The influence of the cultural background on the intensity to exchange information is explored in the paper. The research has been done via a survey, survey data were analysed with indicators descriptive statistics, ANOVA to test the difference between the countries and correlation analysis to analyse correlation between factors of social capital and the kind of content published in SNSs. Further the paper uses WarpPLS as a method to estimate the influence of the use of SNSs on the exchange of content to investigate results in the analysed countries and SNSs deeper. The tested statement in the paper is that there exist differences in content of SNS and mutuality's between analysed countries. The result of the research is that there are differences in the use of SNS and content of SNS between the analysed countries. It is not possible to transfer communication strategies or marketing strategies which are successful in one country to another country because the differences between the countries are immense. Especially big differences on analysed aspects are between Germany, the UK and the new European Union (EU) member countries - Latvia and Hungary.
An Evolutive Component-Based Method for Agile Development of Service Oriented Architectures
Authors: Chehili Hamza , Seinturier Lionel , Boufaida Mahmoud
Published: June 2017

The adoption of the agile methods' principles has emerged as an effective way to develop service oriented architectures as it paves the way for a better reply to the changing needs of the environment and even the customer. However, these changes may also require the evolution of the development process itself. This paper presents an agile and service-oriented software development method that combines concepts from the Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) domain and the agile software engineering one. This method provides an iterative and incremental process to deliverer business processes, implemented as an assembly of components. This leads to a faster response to the change of needs by reconfiguring the assembly of components. The method is based on a framework that implements its phases as an assembly of components to allow a dynamic reconfiguration of it in case of a development process evolution. Finally, a case study is presented to illustrate the use of the presented method.
Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Brand Engagement: An Empirical Study in the Mobile Headset Category
Authors: Roy Souvik , Mandal Santanu
Published: June 2017

Mobile phone markets are one of the most turbulent market environments today due to increased competition and change. Thus, it is of growing concern to look at consumer buying decision process and cast light on the factors that finally determine consumer choices between different mobile phone brands. With its calculated roots in fields including psychology and authoritative conduct, the engagement idea is rising in the promoting writing, with preparatory exploration showing that connected with buyers may display more prominent dedication to central brands. Notwithstanding these progressions, the engagement idea stays underexplored to date. On this basis, this article deals with consumers' choice criteria in mobile phone markets by studying factors that leads to customer brand engagement and the consequences to it in the context of mobile headset brand. Findings indicate that brand self-congruity, involvement, and interactivity leads to customer brand engagement and which itself influences satisfaction, trust and commitment for mobile headset brands.
Using TRIZ Systematic Innovation Methods for Redesign Services in Small and Medium Enterprises
Authors: Gazem Nadhmi , AbdulRahman Azizah , Saeed Faisal
Published: June 2017

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in service sector take the lion share of the market compared to other sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing. The increasing number of SMEs in the service sector brought the competition in the market to its peak, which forced SMEs to invest in improving their services. However, solving service problems requires more resources such as skilled labor or research and development funds that might be limited for many SMEs. In this paper, we review the systematic innovation methods, TRIZ, for redesign services in Small and Medium Enterprises.
Topic-Independent Chinese Sentiment Identification from Online News
Authors: Chen Zhong-Yong , Li Wen-Ting
Published: June 2017

In this paper, the authors investigate the topic-independent Chinese sentiment identification problem from online news. They analyze the word usage and sentence structure of the documents for inferring representative terms and sentences in the documents, and then employ the feature values of each document for identifying the opinion of the topic-independent online news. The support vector machine (SVM) is leveraged for training the classified model in terms of the extracted features and identifying the opinion orientation of the topic-independent documents by the trained model. Experimental results demonstrated that the authors' features are helpful for identifying the opinions of the topic-independent documents, and can help readers for filtering out the negative documents.
Toward a Knowledge Management Framework for Auditing Processes
Authors: Nguyen Loan , Kohda Youji
Published: June 2017

We aimed at discovering how auditors working in an auditing firm managed their knowledge-related processes, and then built a theoretical model for the knowledge management of professional knowledge-intensive services like auditing. We conducted a case study in an auditing firm in Vietnam by employing a qualitative methodology in this research by using twenty in-depth interviews, observations, and documentary analysis. A literature review revealed that auditing research has been developed through various approaches ranging from experimental studies to information processing and experience-focused and knowledge-related interests. However, there has not been much empirical research that explains how knowledge is created during an auditing process. We conducted an empirical case study in this research that provided useful insights into constructing a theoretical model of knowledge management processes in auditing. Because the theoretical model consisted of three phases of collecting data, analyzing data (thereby turning them into information), and synthesizing information into knowledge, we called it the collect-analyze-synthesize (CAS) model. The model was used to visualize the auditing process as a spiral with many iterative CAS processes. Wisdom in the CAS model is defined as high levels of accumulated knowledge and the ability to exercise professional judgments attained from long-term experience. Wisdom is retained by members in an auditing firm and drives the auditing process. The significance of this study was inherent in three main areas: providing scholarly extensions of the literature by suggesting a knowledge management framework for auditing processes, helping auditors and auditing firms with their roles, and ensuring better assurance services for society.
Brain Neuron Network Extraction and Analysis of Live Mice from Imaging Videos
Authors: Yu Ruichi , Jui-Hsin (Larry) Lai  , Wang Shun-Xuan , Lin Ching-Yung
Published: June 2017

Modern brain mapping techniques are producing increasingly large datasets of anatomical or functional connection patterns. Recently, it became possible to record detailed live imaging videos of mammal brain while the subject is engaging routine activity. We analyze videos recorded from ten mice to describe how to detect neurons, extract neuron signals, map correlation of neuron signals to mice activity, detect the network topology of active neurons, and analyze network topology characteristics. We propose a neuron position alignment method to compensate the distortion and movement of cerebral cortex in live mouse brain and the background luminance compensation to extract and model neuron activity. To find out the network topology, a cross-correlation based method and a causal Bayesian network method are proposed and used for analysis. Afterwards, we did preliminary analysis on network topologies. The significance of this paper is on how to extract neuron activities from live mouse brain imaging videos and a network analysis method to analyze its topology.
Image Quality Improvement Using Shift Variant and Shift Invariant Based Wavelet Transform Methods
Authors: Agarwal Sugandha , Singh O. P. , Nagaria Deepak , Tiwari Anil Kumar , Singh Shikha
Published: June 2017

The concept of Multi-Scale Transform (MST) based image de-noising methods is incorporated in this paper. The shortcomings of Fourier transform based methods have been improved using multi-scale transform, which help in providing the local information of non-stationary image at different scales which is indispensable for de-noising. Multi-scale transform based image de-noising methods comprises of Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and Stationary Wavelet Transform (SWT). Both DWT and SWT techniques are incorporated for the de-noising of standard images. Further, the performance comparison has been noted by using well defined metrics, such as, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Computation Time (CT). The result shows that SWT technique gives better performance as compared to DWT based de-noising technique in terms of both analytical and visual evaluation.
HaMA
Authors: Saighi Asma , Philippe Roose , Ghoualmi Nassira , Laborie Sébastien , Laboudi Zakaria
Published: June 2017

Nowadays, multimedia documents are omnipresent at any time from and to any devices. However, mobile devices heterogeneity and the various contexts of the user require their adaptation. In this context, the existing systems transform contents to comply with the target constraints. Nevertheless, the current solutions do not exploit the profile semantic benefits to reason upon the context for assisting the adaptation. Furthermore, there is no work that care of adapting HTML pages containing CSS and changing in time, where time specification is declarative (e.g. by means of timesheets). This paper provides an adaptation approach called “Handicap-based Multimedia Adaptation” (HaMA), in which each context constraint corresponds to handicap types in order to discover adaptation services. Thus, a generic ontology is introduced to reason upon the context and then deduces the corresponding handicap in order to infer the suitable adaptation guideline. Also, we propose a method for selecting appropriate services with respect to quality criteria. To validate HaMA, scenarios were implemented.
Digital Marketing in Online Education Services
Authors: Singh Surabhi
Published: June 2017

Digital activities are compulsorily required to include when online education services are concerned. The digital marketing strategy need to be defined if customer satisfaction has to be maintained. Digital activities are an increasingly important part of any marketing and sales strategy. The strong inclination of digital platforms for delivering courses online cannot be denied. The organization has to be focused on simple act of providing digital course and innovative strategies through which they interact with students and create learning environment. The marketing via digital media is significant for delivery of educational services online. We need to be updated in the area of online education services and for the same digital marketing strategies are critical.
Shopper's Stance Towards Web Shopping
Authors: Rao Katta Rama Mohana , Patro Chandra Sekhar
Published: June 2017

Over the last decade, the trend of web shopping has been increasing rapidly with the development and ease in accessibility of internet. Web shopping is a recent experience in the field of E-Business and is definitely the future of shopping in the world. Most of the companies are operating online portals to sell their products or services to the customers. The growth of web shopping is an impetus for further exploration of the feelings towards the web, built between online businesses and shoppers. The study identifies the variables influencing shopper's stance towards web shopping and also offers some insights for improvement of the web stores. Furthermore, the results show that the variables have significant influence on the shopper's stance towards web shopping. Finally, some measures have been proposed for e-retailers to take initiatives for making web shopping experience more effective and trustworthy.
iParking
Authors: Khadsare Ankita , Jadhav Gauri , Mali Sayali , Nanaware Shivani
Published: June 2017

Finding a parking in most of the metropolitan areas, especially during the rush hours, is difficult for drivers nowadays. The iParking system proposed in this paper allows drivers to find and reserve the vacant parking slots through their smartphones and additionally support the principles of “Smart City.” The design and implementation of this proposed system called Reservation Based Smart Parking System (RSPS) is based on cloud computing and android application and finds availability of nearest parking slots. The objective is to reduce the time in finding the parking lots and avoid unnecessary traveling. The technology proposed in this paper is Infrared Sensors (IR Sensors) used for detecting the occupancy of parking slots. The iParking uses Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) to identify and track a car. The methodology proposed in this paper can easily be compared with existing parking system in terms of reducing the fuel consumption.
Impact of Information Technology on Lifestyle
Authors: Hanafizadeh Payam , Ghandchi Samira , Asgarimehr Masoud
Published: June 2017

This paper presents a review of 81 research articles published between 1996 and 2013 on the impact of information technology on lifestyle. Our findings indicate that the number of investigations into the impact of IT on various areas of everyday life, increased considerably during this period, given that 63 percent of the articles were published between 2010 and 2013. From these articles, eight dimensions emerged which were classified by IT and lifestyle experts. Moreover, theme analysis was applied to all contents extracted from the various articles, leading to an eight-sided lifestyle model. The domains are: health, learning, social, work and environment, energy, art, spiritual life, and miscellaneous. A comprehensive list of papers with classifications is presented.
Social Media Brand Communities and Brand Loyalty
Authors: Adhikari Kishalay , Panda Rajeev Kumar
Published: June 2017

The dynamic, omnipresent, and frequent on-the-go consumer-brand interactions via social media platforms are significantly changing the branding landscape. A profound comprehension of this change is crucial in assessing brand loyalty. Considering the enormous fame of social media and inherent capabilities of brand communities, the purpose of this paper is to exhibit the contributory role of Social media brand communities (SMBC) towards brand loyalty. A Survey-based empirical study involving young consumers was conducted in the selected cities of Bangalore, Kolkata, and Pune. In contrast to prior works (Algesheimer et al., 2005; Laroche et al., 2012), the authors have incorporated Analytical Hierarchy Process (hereafter AHP) in the study to implement and validate new scales. The outcomes of AHP methodology found shared consciousness and social networking as the most-preferred component and activity respectively. These outcomes would assist brand managers in the optimized allocation of communication budget and formulation of competitive branding strategies to tackle intense competition.
A New Progressive Method for Computing Skyline Queries
Authors: Lougmiri Zekri
Published: June 2017

Skyline queries are important in many fields, especially for decision making. In this context, objects or tuples of databases are defined according to some numerical and non numerical attributes. The skyline operator acts on the numerical ones. The algorithms that implements this skyline operator are genrally of progressive or non progressive. The progressive ones return the skyline operator during its execution while non preogressive alogrithms return the result at the end of its execution. This paper presents a new progressive algorithm for computing the skyline points. This algorithm is based on sorting as a preprocessing of the input. The authors present new theorems for deducing promptly the first skyline points and reducing the candidate space. A new version of Divide-and-Conquer algorithm is used for computing the final skyline. Intensive experimentations on both real and synthetic datasets show that our algorithm presents best performance comparatively to other methods.
Retrieving Objective Indicators from Student Logs in Virtual Worlds
Authors: Balderas Antonio , Berns Anke , Palomo-Duarte Manuel , Dodero Juan Manuel , Ruiz-Rube Iván
Published: June 2017

Virtual Worlds (VWs) have been widely used to support learning processes. One main advantage is providing valuable data on student behaviour and interaction. Nonetheless, most platforms provide only limited access to student logs. Moreover, accessing logs usually requires technical skills most teachers do not have. In this context, the authors present a Domain Specific Language (DSL) designed to allow teachers to generate queries for retrieving valuable log information with a view to obtain evidence on learner behaviour and interaction; hence, to aid in the analysis of in-world behaviour and learning processes. Since this data is automatically retrieved, the teacher can easily run new queries to refine indicators or contrast hypotheses. The authors describe a case study carried out with undergraduate German language students using a VW-based video game. The results provide a set of indicators for analysing individual and group behaviour measuring student competence to communicate in the target language.
Strength-Based Link Prediction in Scientific Bibliographic Networks
Authors: Mohdeb Djamila , Boubetra Abdelhak , Charikhi Mourad
Published: June 2017

Network analysis literature counts plenty of models of different paradigms designed for solving the link prediction problem in complex information networks. However, fewer studies that have exploited link strength-related social theories for this purpose even in a social context. In this paper, the authors introduce a new approach to solve the link prediction problem in scientific bibliographic networks. The aim is to predict future collaboration relations between scientists relying upon the “strength of strong ties” hypothesis. The proposed model estimates the strength of a relation between two scientists using a set of efficient link strength indicators. The importance of the relation is then validated according to the scientists' expected collaboration strategies. The prediction process is performed in a heterogeneous context where the types of the nodes and the links are considered. Experiments on the DBLP real-world scientific bibliographic network, show higher performance of our model in comparison with the link prediction baseline methods.
Resistance to Enneothrips flavens Moulton and genetic parameters estimation in interspecific genotypes of peanut
Authors: Pirotta Melina Zacarelli , Silva Fabiana Mota da , Michelotto Marcos Doniseti , Fávero Alessandra Pereira , Godoy Ignácio José de , Unêda-Trevisoli Sandra Helena
Published: June 2017

Peanut is an oilseed crop of great importance for Brazilian agribusiness. A major factor affecting its production is pest incidence, mainly thrips. This study aimed to evaluate the potential for resistance to Enneothrips flavens in genotypes derived from the cross between IAC 503 and the amphidiploid (A. magna x A. cardenasii)4x and to estimate the genetic and phenotype parameters in these genotypes, allowing for better targeting in the selection. The experiments were conducted in a Federer augmented block design with additional checks in two generations (F3 and F4). Resistance to thrips was evaluated by its natural infestation and the symptoms of attacks by the insect. They were also evaluated using agronomic trait indicators of interspecific segregating with cultivated species. The results indicated that the selected progeny exhibited high resistance to thrips compared to commercial genotypes, and they had the amphidiploid as the insect resistance source. Some progenies selected as resistant also had good production traits, but with the degree of suitability to the A. hypogaea L. genotypes still low, the use of a backcross as an alternative for the introgression of resistance genes and the consequent recovery of adapted genotypes of superior recurring parents is suggested.
Stevia rebaudiana (Bert) Bertoni: influence of osmotic stress and seed priming on seed germination under laboratory conditions
Authors: Hossa Keila Regina , Pedroza Carneiro José Walter , Guedes Terezinha Aparecida , Braccini Alessandro Lucca
Published: June 2017

The foremost factor necessary for plant growers cultivating large acreages of Stevia rebaudiana (Bert) Bertoni is the production of qualitative bedding plants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of osmotic-priming on the uniformity of seed germination. First, we evaluated the percentage of normal seedlings from two seed samples harvested in 2011 and 2012. The seeds harvested in 2012 produced 71.4% normal seedlings and thus they were used in the next experiments. The seeds were subjected to osmotic stress using five concentrations of polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) at -0.2, -0.4, -0.6, -0.8, and -1.0 MPa in contrast with distilled water. Based on these first results, only -0.8 and -1.0 MPa were evaluated in the third experiment. The seeds were immersed in both concentrations of polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) for imbibing at 20ºC for four, five, six, and seven days. Thereafter, we evaluated the time to the first normal seedling (Ti), time to the last normal seedling (Tf), percentage normal seedlings at the initial time (Pi) and percentage of normal seedlings at the end of every treatment (Pf). Osmotic priming increased the percentage of normal seedlings of the Stevia rebaudiana and reduced the time to the first and last germination events.
New Insights into the Role of IL-1β in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis and Multiple Sclerosis
Authors: Lin Chih-Chung , Edelson Brian T.
Published: June 2017

Multiple sclerosis (MS), and its animal model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, are neuroinflammatory diseases driven by autoreactive pathogenic TH cells that elicit demyelination and axonal damage. How TH cells acquire pathogenicity and communicate with myeloid cells and cells of the CNS remain unclear. IL-1β is recognized to play an important role in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and perhaps MS. Clinical EAE is significantly attenuated in IL-1R–deficient and IL-1β–deficient mice, and IL-1β is found in the blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and CNS lesions of MS patients. In this article, we focus on new reports that elucidate the cellular sources of IL-1β and its actions during EAE, in both lymphoid tissues and within the CNS. Several immune cell types serve as critical producers of IL-1β during EAE, with this cytokine inducing response in both hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cells. These findings from the EAE model should inspire efforts toward investigating the therapeutic potential of IL-1 blockade in MS.
The neurochemistry of peripheral nerve regeneration
Authors: Benga Andreea , Zor Fatih , Korkmaz Ahmet , Marinescu Bogdan , Gorantla Vijay
Published: June 2017

Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) can be most disabling, resulting in the loss of sensitivity, motor function and autonomic control in the involved anatomical segment. Although injured peripheral nerves are capable of regeneration, sub-optimal recovery of function is seen even with the best reconstruction. Distal axonal degeneration is an unavoidable consequence of PNI. There are currently few strategies aimed to maintain the distal pathway and/or target fidelity during regeneration across the zone of injury. The current state of the art approaches have been focussed on the site of nerve injury and not on their distal muscular targets or representative proximal cell bodies or central cortical regions. This is a comprehensive literature review of the neurochemistry of peripheral nerve regeneration and a state of the art analysis of experimental compounds (inorganic and organic agents) with demonstrated neurotherapeutic efficacy in improving cell body and neuron survival, reducing scar formation and maximising overall nerve regeneration.
Columella reconstruction with an inferiorly-based philtral advancement flap in a cocaine abuser
Authors: Di Santo Davide , Trimarchi Matteo , Galli Andrea , Bussi Mario
Published: June 2017

Nasal columella defects can significantly impair aesthetic appearance. Columella reconstruction can be very challenging for surgeons, especially if due to cocaine abuse. The case of a 32-year-old male patient with subtotal columellar necrosis secondary to cocaine abuse is presented. An inferiorly based philtral advancement flap was performed to cover the defect. Aesthetic outcome was the primary goal of surgery. Reconstruction led to good aesthetic and functional results.
Soft embalming of cadavers for training purposes: Optimising for long-term use in tropical weather
Authors: Reddy Raghuveer , Iyer Subramania , Pillay Minnie , Thankappan Krishnakumar , Ramu Janarthanan
Published: June 2017

Background: Surgical and anatomical training has been found to be most optimally simulated in a cadaver than any other available methods. Soft embalming methods have made the bodies more ‘lifelike’ and better suited for training. The widely accepted soft embalming techniques, including Thiel embalming, are designed for temperate climates. Their use in tropical locations has been found to be associated with poor short-term and long-term preservation of the bodies. In fact, adequate reports from tropical countries on effective methods for soft embalming are lacking. Materials and Methods: This article details the modifications made in the Thiel embalming technique over a period of 2 years which has enabled us to preserve the anatomical features of bodies in an optimal way for longer periods in tropical conditions. This study was carried out in a tertiary care referral centre located in a tropical climate zone. A total of 13 frozen and thawed cadavers were used over a period of 2 years for developing such soft embalming technique. The efficacy of the technique was tested using these cadavers for varying types of surgical exercises on multiple occasions. Results: The conventionally described technique of Thiel embalming did not provide desired results. Hence, various modifications to this technique were instituted which helped us to get superior quality of soft-embalmed cadavers. In the final year, these cadavers were used successfully for workshops in flap dissection. Head and neck access surgery, arthroscopic and laparoscopic procedures as well as mock face and hand transplant dissections. Conclusions: The Theil embalming technique for obtaining soft embalmed cadavers, even though found to be best in many centres in the world, has not been found to be suitable to tropical weather. By modifying it, we have succeeded in developing a technique suitable to the tropical weather. This technique yields cadavers suitable for various surgical simulation exercises. This technique also allows the body to be optimally used over several months in multiple occasions. These modifications are very simple and have been described in detail enabling it to be adopted by any surgical skill laboratory in the tropical countries.
Modified Cantwell–Ransley repair for isolated continent epispadias in adult: Our experience
Authors: Gite Venkat Arjunrao , Jain Hitesh Mahendra , Bote Sachin M. , Nikose Jayant Vijay
Published: June 2017

Purpose: We evaluate here our experience with modified Cantwell–Ransley technique described by Gearhart for correction of isolated continent epispadias in adults with respect to its long-term functional outcome and complications. Introduction: Isolated male epispadias is a rare anomaly with a reported incidence of 1 in 11,700 males. Many surgical techniques with various modifications described to correct epispadias as treatment are debatable and challenging. The majority of the cases are treated at childhood as clinical presentation is striking at birth; hence, presentation in adulthood is extremely rare. Materials and Methods: During the past 5 years, modified Cantwell–Ransley technique described by Gearhart was performed in five cases of isolated continent epispadias which includes two cases of proximal penile, two distal penile and one penopubic. All cases were fresh except one had prior failed repair. Corporal rotation was done by delayed absorbable sutures without incision and anastomosis and suprapubic diversions placed in all the cases. Results: All cases followed up ranging from 6 months to 5 years and were having horizontal and downwards angled penis. No case had urethrocutaneous fistula or stricture. One case had superficial skin infection which healed by secondary intention did not require any secondary procedure. All cases maintained erection post-operatively too. Catheterisation with soft tube revealed easily negotiable channel in all cases on follow-up. Conclusion: Modified Cantwell–Ransley repair described by Gearhart has excellent cosmetic, functional and anatomical results in isolated continent epispadias in the adult.
Use of selfie sticks and iPhones to record operative photos and videos in plastic surgery
Authors: Chandrappa Ashok Basur , Nagaraj Pradeep Kumar , Vasudevan Srikanth , Nagaraj Anantheswar Yelampalli , Jagadish Krithika , Shah Ankit
Published: June 2017

Use of smartphone has become ubiquitous. With smartphone cameras becoming powerful, they are replacing digital cameras and digital SLRs as primary instruments to take photos and record videos. It is natural even for plastic surgeons that smartphones are handy to take still photographs and even record high-definition or 4K videos. Another invention which has become popular with smartphone photography is a selfie stick. We explain the possibility and methodology of using an iPhone and selfie stick to take operative photographs and high-quality videos.
Hölder continuity of the integrated density of states for quasi-periodic Jacobi operators
Authors: Tao Kai , Voda Mircea
Published: June 2017

We show Hölder continuity for the integrated density of states of a quasi-periodic Jacobi operator with analytic coefficients, in the regime of positive Lyapunov exponent and with a strong Diophantine condition on the frequency. In particular, when the coefficients are trigonometric polynomials we express the Hölder exponent in terms of the degrees of the coefficients.
Asymptotic behaviour of the Hodge Laplacian spectrum on graph-like manifolds
Authors: Egidi Michela , Post Olaf
Published: June 2017

We consider a family of compact, oriented and connected

n

-dimensional manifolds

X_{\epsilon}

shrinking to a metric graph as

\epsilon \to 0

and describe the asymptotic behaviour of the eigenvalues of its Hodge Laplacian on

X_{\epsilon}

. We apply our results to produce manifolds with spectral gaps of arbitrarily large size in the spectrum of the Hodge Laplacian.
Estimates on the molecular dynamics for the predissociation process
Authors: Briet Philippe , Martinez André
Published: June 2017

We study the survival probability associated with a semiclassical matrix Shrödinger operator that models the predissociation of a general molecule in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. We show that it is given by its usual time-dependent exponential contribution, up to a reminder term that is exponentially small (in the semiclassical parameter) with arbitrarily large rate of decay. The result applies in any dimension, and in presence of a number of resonances that may tend to infinity as the semiclassical parameter tends to 0.
Точные асимптотики типа Лапласа для гауссовской меры Боголюбова: многообразие точек минимума функционала действия
Authors: Fatalov Vadim Rolandovich
Published: June 2017

Доказана теорема о точной асимптотике больших уклонений меры Боголюбова в $L^p$-норме для $p=4,6,8,10$ при $p>p_0$, где $p_0=2+4\pi^2/\beta^2\omega^2$ - пороговое значение, $\beta>0$ - обратная температура, $\omega>0$ - собственная частота гармонического осциллятора. Исследование проводится методом Лапласа в функциональных пространствах для гауссовских мер.
Модели с четырьмя конкурирующими взаимодействиями и с несчетным множеством значений спина на дереве Кэли
Authors: Rozikov Utkir Abdulloevich , Khaidarov Farkhod Khalimzhonovich
Published: June 2017

Рассмотрены модели с четырьмя конкурирующими взаимодействиями (с внешним полем, с взаимодействиями ближайшего соседа, вторых ближайших соседей, трех ближайших соседей) и с несчетным множеством $[0,1]$ значений спина на дереве Кэли порядка $k=2$. Задача построения расщепленных мер Гиббса для изучаемых моделей сводится к анализу решений некоторых нелинейных интегральных уравнений, также исследуются случаи моделей Изинга и Поттса. Показано, что периодические меры Гиббса для рассматриваемых моделей являются либо трансляционно-инвариантными, либо имеют период два. Также приведены примеры, когда периодические меры Гиббса с периодом два неединственны.
Глобально суперинтегрируемые гамильтоновы системы
Authors: Kurov Aleksandr , Sardanashvily Gennadi Aleksandrovich
Published: June 2017

Обобщение теоремы Мищенко-Фоменко для симплектических суперинтегрируемых систем на случай произвольного, не обязательно компактного, инвариантного подмногообразия позволяет дать глобальное описание суперинтегрируемой гамильтоновой системы, которая может распадаться на несколько неэквивалентных глобально суперинтегрируемых систем на непересекающихся открытых подмножествах фазового симплектического многообразия, имеющих как компактные, так и некомпактные инвариантные подмногообразия. Характерным примером такой композиции глобально суперинтегрируемых систем является движение в центрально-симметричном поле, в частности двумерная задача Кеплера.
Ренормгрупповое исследование плавления двумерной системы
коллапсирующих твердых дисков
Authors: Ryzhov Valentin Nikolaevich , Tareeva Elena Evgen'evna , Fomin Yurii Dmitrievich , Tsiok Elena Nikolaevna , Chumakov Evgenii Sergeevich
Published: June 2017

Рассмотрено плавление двумерной системы коллапсирующих твердых дисков (система с потенциалом твердых дисков, к которому добавлена отталкивающая ступенька) для различных значений ширины отталкивающей ступеньки. Фазовая диаграмма системы рассчитана методом функционала плотности в теории кристаллизации с использованием уравнений теории Березинского-Костерлица-Таулесса-Хальперина-Нельсона-Янга для определения линии устойчивости по отношению к диссоциации дислокационных пар, которая соответствует непрерывному переходу из твердой в гексатическую фазу. Показано, что кристаллическая фаза может плавиться как посредством непрерывного перехода при низких плотностях (переход в гексатическую фазу), с последующим переходом из гексатической фазы в изотропную жидкость, так и посредством перехода первого рода. С помощью решения уравнений ренормгруппы, учитывающих наличие в системе сингулярных дефектов (дислокаций), рассмотрено влияние перенормировки упругих модулей на вид фазовой диаграммы.
Dimensional Specifications for Metallic Body Push-to-Connect Fittings Used on a Vehicular Air Brake System
Authors:   Air Brake Tubing and Tube Ftg Committee
Published: June 2017

This SAE Standard covers general and dimensional specifications for brass bodied reusable Push to Connect tube fittings for use in the piping of vehicular air brake systems. This type of fitting is intended for use with nylon tubing per SAE J844. See SAE J2494-3 for the Performance Requirements of Reusable (Push to Connect) Fittings Intended for Use in Automotive Air Brake Systems and U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) 571.
Internal population displacement and its aftermath on Nigerian political economy: an enduring colonial template
Authors: Niworu Salihu Muhammed
Published: June 2017

The paper interrogated the corporate existence of Nigeria and raised some fundamental questions regarding reasons for discontent, violent conflicts and internal population displacement in Nigeria given her enormous resources, both human and material. The paper through intensive content analysis provided answers to these questions. Some of the findings include that the issue of discontent is because the political class refused to delink from the exploitative orientation of the colonial past. They siphon public fund for private use, the same way the colonial lords exploited Africa’s resources for their home industrialization. Consequently, quality infrastructure and economic empowerment elude Nigerians. As a result of the discontentment and people’s urge to fend for themselves, violent conflicts often erupt which always result to mass displacement of people. The paper suggested among others that, government should prioritize and provide to the citizenry public consumption goods such as roads, health facilities, education, shelter, pipe borne water, occupational inputs, etc.
Chinua Achebe and Albert Camus: Okonkwo's suicide in Things Fall Apart and The Vision of the Absurd
Authors: Minima M.H.S. , Nyah Peter
Published: June 2017

This paper discussed Camus’ Vision of the Absurd as demonstrated by Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart through his Character, Okonkwo. Using sociological and psychological details, it considered the issue of suicide as the absurd outcome of an upsetting effect of the new world order and a contradiction or divorce between man and his setting. This paper also brought to bear the unacceptable terms of life under a treacherous and alien government where the governed would prefer death to a life of compromise and of cowardice.
Modernization and its effect on cultural heritage in south-western Nigeria
Authors: Eze-Uzomaka Pamela , Oloidi John Akintunde
Published: June 2017

The Yoruba of Nigeria have some rich cultural heritages which have been impacted by Western acculturation. Two Yoruba communities, Ado and Igede-Ekiti with such valuable cultural heritage were used for this study. The effects of Western acculturation and modernization which may be through Christianity and formal education were examined. It was discovered that these cultural elements and activities have negatively been impacted on. Some cultural practices are either going or have gone into extinction while others are gradually abandoned. This research highlighted some of the traditional activities of the people of Ado and Igede-Ekiti, and examined the impacts of westernization on them. Findings from the research indicated that modernization has both beneficial and adverse effects on the entire tradition of the people but the negative impacts are more pronounced. This research suggested some solutions to the problems facing cultural activities and recommended that, in this contemporary period, urgent measures should be taken to salvage and rescue these heritages using modern methods and equipment. This will help national integration and development.Keywords: Westernization, indigenous, values, tradition, contemporary