bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Public Domestic Borrowing and its Effect on Deposit Growth, Private Sector Credit and Interest Rate: Evidence From Uganda
Authors:   Department of Accounting Makerere University Business School, Kampala – Uganda, Tumwine Sulait
Published: March 2023

Purpose: This paper investigates the effect of public domestic borrowing (PDB) on deposit growth (DG), private sector credit (PC), and interest rates (IR) among commercial banks in Uganda. Design/methodology/approach: Three equations are formulated to allow the application of the Generalized Methods Moment (GMM) approach to estimate the equations while controlling for bank internal factors, industry level and macro-economic indicators. Data for commercial banks were drawn from annual reports provided by a Bank of Uganda Depository Corporation survey (2008-2019). Findings: The study finds a significant negative relationship between PDB and IR. Although this result is not consistent with the behavioural expectations, it suggests that an increase in PDB would lower IR and increase savings and deposits. The study further finds evidence to support the fact that high PDB facilitates business undertaking and improves deposit growth in the banking sector. Lastly, the study result reveals that banks create more loans to the private sector and households when PDB reduces. Practical implications: Our results contribute to academia and policy on the effective use of public domestic borrowing to harness deposit growth, private sector credit and interest rates. The results suggest that efficient and effective utilisation of public borrowed funds would ease the cost of doing business, boost labour productivity, output, employment, savings and taxes; all these are associated with improved GDP and deposit growth that causes a reduction in the lending rate charged by banks. Originality/value: Existing literature has not paid enough attention to the effect of public domestic borrowing on the three specific outcomes, deposit growth, private sector credit and interest rates, mostly in the African context.
Developing Sustainable Traditional Costume Designs Inspired by Saudi Traditional Fashion
Authors:   Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Alajaji Tahani Nassar
Published: March 2023

Purpose: The paper aims to determine the features of traditional fashion preferred by Saudi women while designing sustainable modern styles inspired by Saudi cultural heritage. Design/methodology/approach: The descriptive-analytical method was used in this research, utilizing questionnaires as a tool to identify and define the required characteristics for the suggested designs. The population sample of the survey consisted of 300 Saudi women. Findings: Designing sustainable, developed traditional costumes that commensurate with the modern age without affecting its traditional spirit. The paper exposes that the majority of women in Saudi Arabia of different ages and social groups own traditional costumes. Original/value of the paper: The importance of the research is to preserve the traditional character, design sustainable traditional fashion, and create availability for it to be worn and converted into multiple diverse styles; furthermore, contributing to supporting and encouraging the national heritage and preserving it through the traditional fashion industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Implications: It is imperative that Ministry of Culture officials encourage and support the Saudi fashion industry. In order to produce and design sustainable fashion, mainly traditional, one must include courses in specialized fashion design programs that concern themselves with style sustainability. Another critical perspective to ponder is research; however, the research must be conducted to relate to the sustainability of developed traditional costumes.
The Influences of Ad-Targeting on Teen Purchasing Decision Autonomy
Authors: Bradley Margaret
Published: March 2023

Due to an increased awareness and adherence to the social comparison theory, where individuals have a fundamental need to be liked and ranked amongst their peers, teens fall victim to the wishful identification phenomenon potentially leading to long-term dependence on materialism for fulfilment in life. Influencers derive their social powers from wishful identification because of their seeming relatability, often presenting themselves as ordinary and relatable the status of an influencer appears more commonly achievable than the fame of the typical, mainstream celebrity, microcelebrity audiences, “followers,” often demonstrate a greater desire to emulate and achieve the status of these “micro-celebrities,” in comparison to an A-list celebrity. Knowing this, the following study utilized a quantitative, quasi-experimental method to evaluate the effectiveness of targeted advertisements. To begin, the personality of an influencer was matched with the personality of a female teenage subject using the 5 Factors of Personality Test. After matches were made, everyone was presented with two influencer advertisements – one with the best personality match and mismatch – and an online survey evaluated whether the individual would buy the presenting product and why or why not, depending. Ad-targeting does prove to be successful in making impactful marketing matches for teen female subjects in influencer marketing; this boost is only noted where there is great enough personality resonation between the subject in the influencer in both introverted and extroverted traits to be able to establish the wishful identification connections needed to spur the persuasive forces of influencer marketing.
Exploring Perspectives on Engineering: Trajectories and Narratives
Authors: Syed Yusuf
Published: March 2023

Engineering, a subject of empirical rigour with the axis of performing a practical function for a system or device user, continuously translates knowledge into social change through an ever-changing modern lens, retaining a dual resonance in the frame of professional evolution. Firstly, a progression of available conceptual knowledge and approaches will occur. This induces the change observed in professional structure and alteration in engineering role and character. These outcomes may be discussed through the path of the discipline’s professional trajectory in parallel with an engineer’s archetypal portrait, not with reference to scientific knowledge expansion, which is characteristic of different historical periods, but in terms of the development of engineering approaches. Although it is often overlooked, at the core of true engineering is a philanthropic heart and the desire to deliver a productive service. Thus, the second evolutionary force is effectively social and forward-looking in nature as public needs grow and diverge, addressed through innovation’s social role. The convergence of these two elementary dynamisms of conceptual and social roots, is exemplified in a case study on Kisiizi Hospital, which speaks directly to the aim of this study: to achieve a comprehensive view of the modern engineering mentality’s application in social settings.

Propelled by interviews with engineers and project managers alongside primary studies, this exploration proposes the invariance of core engineering frameworks whilst technical progression is observed. This constitutes agreement with the understanding of a professional system of profiles which acts as the stem for social, economic, and technological advancements.
The Buddhist Revival Movement: An Investigation into the Mutual Relationship between Chinese Buddhism and the Chinese Government
Authors: Liu Xiaochen , DiSalvatore Nick
Published: March 2023

It has been four decades since the Buddhist revival started. To comprehensively document the process, I divide the paper into three sections. The first section summarizes the history of the revival movement and the Chinese government’s policies before 1978. The second section analyzes three categories of policies in the 21st century: support, suppress, and distort Chinese Buddhism. In the final section, I examine the case of one particular temple, the Xingsheng temple in Baita village, China. Because it is among the temples reconstructed in the recent decade, the paper investigates how this temple was successfully rebuilt while others were not. Unlike the previous section, the primary supporting evidence are interviews with abbot Huiren – the builder of Xingsheng temple – government officials, and villagers
Manifestation of Quantum Mechanics And Particle Physics In The Macroscopic World
Authors: SINGH SUVID
Published: March 2023

Since the discovery of quantum dynamics in the 1900s, we have observed many of its effects on the macroscopic world. Max Planck gave the first quantum hypothesis in 1900, explaining how electromagnetic waves transmit energy in “quanta.” Building upon that, Louis De Broglie stated the theory of wave-particle duality, and Erwin Schrodinger postulated the equation to interpret this wave nature. Physicists expanded the field as the theories of Quantum Electrodynamics and Quantum Chromodynamics were put forward, explaining the Electromagnetic Force and the Strong Nuclear Force in terms of quanta. Theories such as the Many Worlds Interpretation were also proposed to explain quantum mechanical phenomena. Although there were many discoveries, there were also problems such as the Hierarchy Problem that arose because of the unusual mass of the Higgs Boson. Nevertheless, This unusual mass of the Higgs needs to be “unusual” for life to exist. If it were something else, the discovery of Quantum Mechanics would not have been possible, and everything we have learned about it till now would not exist; we would not exist. Thus, we can look at how quantum dynamics affects the macroscopic world even though it governs the world of the “very small.”
2021 Texas Electricity Black-out Crisis: Root-cause Analysis and Recommendations
Authors: Madhavan Kirthi , Rajamani Divakar
Published: March 2023

In this paper, we discuss the structure of the U.S power grid and various sources of electricity generation and potential vulnerabilities that the grid can face. We also discuss the role of Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the organization that is primarily responsible for managing electricity in Texas, and the sequence of events that led to the power crisis in Texas during February 2021. Finally, we do a root cause analysis for the power crisis and provide recommendations to minimize the impact of these type events on the Texas grid in the future.

The paper is organized as follows: In section one, we discuss the energy sources, how the electricity grid in America works, and some potential vulnerabilities of the power grid. Section two is entirely devoted to an explanation of how ERCOT works in Texas. In section three we discuss the events that took place in February 2021 that led to blackout.  In section four we discuss why did the events unfold and break down the causes.  We also discuss advantages and disadvantages of the current structural elements of Texas electricity industry.  In section five we offer some recommendations to remedy the situation.
COVID-19 Business Impact Review
Authors: Clark Allison
Published: March 2023

The coronavirus pandemic, or COVID-19, is an expeditiously developing virus advancing post-haste to all geographical regions of the world. This pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has and continues to result in negative economic and societal impacts in all aspects of human culture. However, previous studies have focused solely on the aforementioned societal implications of COVID-19 and neglecting that of the economy, specifically in regards to a business setting [3,6,7,8]. How does this impact vary among businesses, and what is the extent of negative or positive repercussions? This paper aims to address this gap by analyzing the degree of impact caused by COVID-19 on 50 various sizes and types of businesses in a small town atmosphere. A statistical analysis was performed in regards to this surveyed data, analyzing how the size and/or industry of a business plays a role in such business’ response to negative uncontrollable economic events. These graphs were further grouped and findings were summarized. The study discovered a higher negative correlation between small sized service industry businesses, compared to substantially larger positive responses from medium merchandising businesses. Moreover, a new understanding was found regarding the similarity between size and industry of businesses in regards to their impact by COVID-19. Overall, this study provides insights into which businesses are potentially more vulnerable to future unforeseen detrimental situations. The findings aid in the application of a response program to be used by businesses to further mitigate undesirable outcomes of businesses caused by negative external events.
Dye-Sensitized Titanium Dioxide Photocatalysis – a Novel Solution for Personal Air Filtration
Authors: Thiagarajan Vaishnuv , Thiyagarajan Sreedevi
Published: March 2023

Ambient air pollution is attributed to 4.2 million deaths annually and accounts for nearly 30% of the global top 6 leading causes of death. According to the World Health Organization, 99% of the world population lives in areas with dangerously high levels of pollutants, most being in low-income countries. Although current solutions exist, none are both cheap and efficient at filtering out Particulate Matter (PM) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) outdoors. Photocatalysis, a process known to occur in photovoltaic semiconductors, has proven to degrade pollutants, but only under Ultraviolet Light, which accounts for just 3-5% of sunlight. In this experiment, the dye-sensitization method was tested to increase the filtration efficiency of a semiconductor, Titanium Dioxide (TiO2), under visible light. The dyes tested were Flavonoids, which are natural antioxidants found in fruits that have also been previously used to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic electricity production, from Blackberry, Blueberry, Raspberry and Parsley. Each filter was coated in a solution of Dye-sensitized TiO2. The filters’ efficiencies were then evaluated by passing contaminated air through each filter into a testing chamber where the resulting quality of the air was analyzed with an air quality monitor. The Parsley-TiO2 filter was the most efficient, removing nearly all VOCs, PM2.5, PM10 and PM1, and the estimated cost to create the filter was approximately $2. This filter could save millions of lives, due to its low cost of production, and could potentially be applied in impoverished areas of polluted cities like Beijing and New Delhi.
Stress Hormone Adrenaline Boosts the Antibacterial Properties of L. plantarum and E. hallii
Authors: Bok Michelle
Published: March 2023

Amid intense exercise, the human body’s quick adaptability to stressful conditions is vital to cellular function, initiating what we recognize as an “adrenaline rush”. Despite findings on the in vitro interaction of adrenaline with the gut microbiome to regulate its virulence gene expression through AI-3 quorum sensing, studies conducted to examine the influence of the stress hormone adrenaline released through exercise on the function of the microbiome in our gut are yet insufficient. The human gut consists of a variety of microbes such as L. plantarum and E. hallii that hold vital roles in maintaining metabolic balance in the gut microbiome. Through our research, we envisioned investigating how adrenaline treatment at different time intervals or concentrations mirroring the various circumstances of exercise may affect bacterial growth, antibacterial substance production, and their antibacterial properties. While both bacteria were not affected in its growth for 48 hours, in L. plantarum, demonstrating decreased growth in the first 8 hours, its main functions — lactic acid production — were furthered with the hormone. In E. hallii, butyric acid production, with the hormone, significantly increased in its supernatant, and the intermediate treatment of adrenaline for 8 hours served to catalyze the rate at which the bacteria reached its stationary phase of growth. The study holds great promise for future investigations on how such a mechanism can be applied to therapies boosting our existing abilities of protein disposal directly correlated to the prevention of diseases. What remains is, nevertheless, the discussion regarding the true control center of these bacteria that interact with adrenaline to cause changes in the antibiotic properties, function, and growth. In other words, future studies can be oriented towards understanding the changes in the antibacterial properties of given bacteria not indirectly through chemicals with antibacterial traits but rather through the quantitative measurement of growth inhibition with other bacteria or organisms.
The Validity of Three Neoclassical Canons on Attractive South Korean Faces
Authors: Li Nicole , Chen Trevor
Published: March 2023

Neoclassical thinkers and artists defined several facial proportions that supposedly evaluate facial attractiveness in an objective manner. While these neoclassical canons are highly influential in Western art and beauty cultures, their influences on East Asian beauty perception are unclear. This research paper explores the relevance of three neoclassical canons on South Korean beauty standards by calculating three facial proportions of 31 attractive female South Korean celebrities and comparing the average values of each proportion with the corresponding neoclassical canon. This study presents further insight to anthropologists about the cultural influences on beauty  perception. Furthermore, these findings can also help plastic surgeons offer more practical advice to clients of different ethnicities with facial features that may not conform to the beauty standards defined by neoclassical canons and clients who subscribe to different beauty standards.
Simulating the Mitigating Effects of Social Distancing and Vaccination during a Pandemic​
Authors: Yang Grant , Loewenberg Michael , Lewis Rostacia
Published: March 2023

Understanding the spread of a virus through a large population has always been important for mitigation, treatment, and prevention purposes. In the unprecedented wake of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, techniques to understand and test preventative measures—like vaccination and quarantining—have become increasingly necessary. The developed compartmental model simulates the interactions between (N) people, with variable infection rates for vaccinated (alpha = 0.05) and unvaccinated (Beta = 0.25) people, as well as a (t = 15) day recovery from infection. Both the range of their infectivity, controlled by the quarantine variable (q), and the vaccination rate (f) of the population were varied. The main tests were on the variables of vaccine distribution and effectiveness, as well as quarantine range and the combination between the two. The results suggest that vaccination has a negative linear effect on infection cases over the course of the simulation, while quarantine has a minimal effect until higher amounts (over 80% quarantine), with the inverse being true for duration (increasing with stricter measures). Vaccination and quarantining also have a negative linear and exponential effect respectively on peak case count, which would be helpful in managing the patient flow into hospitals. Reproduction number was also found to be limited below 1.0 by vaccination measures, bringing the outbreak to an end. From these findings, it would be reasonable to suggest that vaccination is nearly ubiquitously helpful, while much stricter quarantine restrictions must be put in place for substantial effect, with the goal to flatten peak cases and decrease reproduction number.
Hearing Dogs and Seeing Barks: Multimodal Sensory Perception of Dogs
Authors: Yu Hannah , Chen Trevor
Published: March 2023

The field of multisensory integration in human speech perception has been well explored throughout a multitude of studies. Perceptual phenomena and models have been reported, including most notably, the McGurk effect and the Morton-Massaro law of information integration. Existing research of multimodal integration in human perception, include studies that involve perception of drinks and food. Beyond this, scientists have also studied how non-human species, such as dolphins and bats, integrate different sources of information. The purpose of the current study was to test whether multimodal sensory integration is used by humans when perceiving the size of dogs. Three separate audio-visual sources of barking dogs – sized small, medium, and large – were used. A 3x3 expanded factorial design was applied to test all possible pairings of auditory and visual combinations from the three sources. The stimuli were included on a questionnaire and then digitally distributed to participants, the majority of whom were high-school students aged 13-17. After viewing each stimulus, participants were prompted to answer what sized dog barked. The results of the current study were consistent with the McGurk effect. When the auditory-visual stimuli were consistent, participants were able to accurately identify what kind of dog barked. However, when the auditory-visual stimuli were inconsistent, the intermediate responses were most frequent. Thus, the results of this study are not consistent with the motor theory of perception. This study yields practical applications in the field of interspecies perception and human-canine communication.
Novel Enhanced Unsupervised Quantum Clustering Algorithm
Authors: Sikdar Diptanshu , Clapis Joe , Bhattacharya Swetha
Published: March 2023

Every day, humans generate approximately 2.5 billion gigabytes of new data. While this data is crucial in applications such as drug development and cybersecurity, it is mostly unstructured and unlabeled which makes it difficult to process effectively. Businesses and governments alike solve this problem by using machine learning algorithms to characterize the data and make decisions with it. However, conventional machine learning processes consume excessive computational resources and time: one of the most prominent, K-means clustering, has an approximate time complexity of O(n^2), where n is the input data size. This quadratic time complexity causes scalability problems with large datasets. In this project, I have created an improved, more scalable clustering algorithm by leveraging quantum computation. The approach (new Q-means) involves an Angle Embedding Feature Map, an d-dimensional SWAP Test, and a dynamic, threshold distance-based termination criteria. After implementing this algorithm using the IBM Qiskit SDK, the new Q-means algorithm was run several times on different dimensional datasets. On an average, the new Q-means performed 18% better than the K-means algorithm based on the Adjusted Rand Index. In terms of the simulation execution time, the new Q-means was about six times faster than the existing Q-means due to a multi-threaded implementation and faster convergence. The time complexity of the new Q-means without a Quantum Random Access Memory (QRAM) is O(n^2). While the existing Q-means algorithm, which utilizes QRAM, has a time complexity of O(n(log n)^p), the time complexity of the new Q-means with QRAM is significantly better—O(n).
Using Newton’s Laws to Determine the Quality of Bharatanatyam Dance Movements
Authors: Ganesh Sidhya , Ramachandran Subramanian
Published: March 2023

Bharatanatyam, an ancient Indian Classical dance form, places a heavy emphasis on dancers’ body positioning and usage of space, categorizing movements as ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ qualitatively. The present experiment investigated the extent to which statics/kinematics can be used to evaluate the quality of a Bharatanatyam dance movement. The declared hypothesis was that the dancer’s body could be approximated as a rigid body/simple object, for analysis. Two Bharatanatyam movements, a one-dimensional jump, and a two-dimensional parabolic leap were each performed in a ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ manner, recorded with calibration sticks in the background, and analyzed using Tracker. Inconsistencies within acceleration due to gravity values disproved the hypothesis. However, kinematics/statics comparisons between ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ versions of both movements resulted in the following quantitative takeaways. In the one-dimensional movement, the ‘Good’ movement had a longer duration of free fall, a higher maximum vertical height, and a smaller horizontal displacement than the ‘Bad’ movement. The force exerted by the floor on the dancer was around 100 times the dancer’s body mass in the ‘Good’ movement vs. only 72 times in the ‘Bad’ movement. In the two-dimensional ‘Good’ movement, the dancer vertically jumped 2.15% of their body height and horizontally jumped 16% of their body height. In the ‘Bad’ movement, the same values were 0.895% and 21%. Calculating torque during launch revealed that the launch leg in the ‘Good’ movement was closer to  than in the ‘Bad’ movement. The ratio of horizontal to vertical displacement was also 3 times lower for the ‘Good’ movement.
Analysis of Existing Physical Theories Explaining Aerodynamic Lift Production by an Airplane
Authors: To Cherry , Angel Jay , Lumiere Education
Published: March 2023

Since the first successful airplane, invented by The Wright brothers in the early 1900s, air travel has become one of the most common modes of transportation. While airplane production and use rapidly increase, explanations regarding the physics of flight remain elusive due to major shortcomings. With all the research available, this paper aims to explore how accurately current theories have explained lift production by an airplane's wing. The contents of this paper will touch on the subject of physics, more specifically fluid dynamics and aerodynamics, and even more specifically, the aerodynamic force known as lift. Theories analyzed in this paper include the "Equal Transit", "Skipping Stone", "Venturi", Momentum-Based, Bernoulli-Based, and Circulation theory. Overall, limitations leading to the inaccuracy of these explanations include not providing physical explanations for specific assumptions, misusing and misinterpreting principles and theorems, simplifying explanations thus not accounting for all necessary factors, proposing one-way causation relationships, confusing mathematical theories for qualitative physical theories, and conflicting experimental data. Because of this, an additional purpose of this paper is to provide a more accurate and comprehensive explanation for lift.
THE The Anthropology of Su’Style Noodles
Authors: Huang Yunwei , Moulton Tyler
Published: March 2023

This content contains a lot of interesting concepts about food and diet. However, there is not a lot of mention of food culture in the article. Most of my topics will revolve around cultural output and cultural cognition, to feel the difference between local people and tourists. I will discuss the food recognition and food culture recognition of the local Suzhou culture in the follow-up, which will ultimately be reflected in the local people's understanding of food culture. The reason why I choose to eat Su-style noodles each week is because I lived in the old town before, and many authentic folk snacks were not as delicious as in the old town. The original intention of this theme is that many people do not recognize Suzhou's Food culture is a very important culture, which has been indifferent and generalized.The original intention of the old craftsman has also disappeared. Now the progress of science and technology has prompted the local people to not identify with this culture so much, and lack a sense of identity.
Climate Migrants and the Denial of Refugee Status
Authors: Streeter Elizabeth , Cloward Joseph
Published: March 2023

Climate change is a worldwide phenomenon that is gradually transforming every aspect of our world. A consequence of the many environmental effects, a significant humanitarian outcome of it is climate migration. Not covered by the 1951 Convention on Refugees and lacking any other comprehensive legislation, climate migrants are unprotected and vulnerable. Considering the high possibility of further environmental degradation, this paper explores the current situations of the impacted people by examining the legal definition outlined in the 1951 Convention and by looking at ways to ameliorate the issue. Focusing strongly on the denial of the refugee status and the importance of perspective, I prioritize an anthropological methodology through the investigation of two case studies, Kiribati’s Ioane Teitiota and the country of Guatemala. With an analysis of their past, current, and possible future situations, I highlight the difficulty of distinguishing economic migrants from climate migrants and point out the importance that the factor of time has in these cases.
Understanding the 2020-2021 Tigray Conflict in Ethiopia : Background, Root Causes, and Consequences
Authors: Pellet Philippe
Published: March 2023

The military offensive unleashed on 4 November, 2020 by the central government in Addis Ababa against the regional state of Tigray is the culmination of escalating tensions between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in power since 2018, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Ethiopian federal troops, supported by the military forces of Amhara regional state and the Eritrean army, quickly occupied the main towns in Tigray by late November 2020, but Tigrayan forces retained control of large areas, particularly in the mountainous regions, where fighting continued. An offensive launched in June 2021 by the Tigrayan forces resulted in the recapture of the main towns, including Tigray’s capital Mekelle, leading the Ethiopian government to declare a unilateral ceasefire. There are numerous testimonies on major abuses and killings of civilians and clerics by the occupying forces, as well as looting of key infrastructure, leading to a major humanitarian crisis. Humanitarian aid has been hampered by continued fighting and access restrictions. The ceasefire raised hopes that massive humanitarian aid can finally be delivered, but statements made by Abiy Ahmed in June 2021, denying the existence of famine in Tigray and accusing aid organizations of supporting Tigrayan rebels, raise fears that the government’s strategy may be to maintain a blockade of Tigray, further exacerbating an already catastrophic humanitarian situation. In addition to analysing the immediate causes and consequences, this study also shows that this conflict has its roots in the long history of a country composed of more than 80 ethnic groups.
Correlation of Balance and Functional Ankle Instability in Elderly Women
Authors: Sultan Aisha , Shabbir Maryam , Arshad Naveed , Shafee Iram , Naz Anam , Hanif Muhammad
Published: March 2023

Objectives: To evaluate and find the correlation of balance and functional ankle instability in elderly women. Methodology: A cross-sectional correlation study was conducted from June 2020 to December 2020, in which 61 participants (i.e., elderly women) were included. In the selected old age homes the self-reported questionnaire (Identification of Functional Ankle Instability [IdFAI]) had been distributed to the participants fulfilling the inclusion criteria as hand-outs and the performance-based questionnaire (Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment [POMA]) have been assessed and filled by the researcher. Chi square was used for associations and Pearson correlation for balance score and functional instability score.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 64.89Â±4.30 years. According to the result of Tinetti Balance score, 31.1% elderly women with low risk of fall, medium risk of fall was 32.8% whereas with high risk of fall was 36.1%. The IdFAI showed, elderly women with Ankle Instability 62.3% while elderly women with No Ankle Instability were 37.7%. There was negative (inverse) Pearson linear correlation (r = -0.550) between age and balance (p â‰¤ 0.05) which means when the age increases, the balance decreases and also a weak association between age and functional ankle instability (p â‰¥ 0.05).
Conclusion: This study concluded that there was not adequate evidence to propose an association between Balance and self-reported functional ankle instability.
In Hospital Outcome Among Smoker and Nonsmoker Patients Presented with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention
Authors: Muhammad Owais  , Amjad Ali  , Muhammad Adeel  , Ambreen Haider  , Ashok Kumar  , Marvi Nawaz
Published: March 2023

Objective: To determine the association between smoking and in-hospital outcomes in patients presented with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
Methodology: This prospective cohort study was conducted at Department of Cardiology, National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (NICVD), Karachi, from November 9, 2020 to May 8, 2021. All the patients (current smoker, ex-smoker and non-smoker) with age 18 years to 85 years, both gender, patients diagnosed with STEMI in accordance with operational definition and underwent primary PCI were included. Patients diagnosed with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction were divided into two groups, expose (smoker) and unexposed (nonsmoker). Before PPCI demographic detail were noted and body mass index was calculated after management of STEMI then PCI was performed. In hospital outcome i.e. heart failure, in-hospital mortality and transient ischemic attack were assessed within 30 days of hospital stay after PCI. All the collected data were entered into the proforma.
Results: Mean Â±SD of age in exposed group was 56.5Â±11.8 and non-exposed group was 57.7Â±12.1 years. In group wise distribution of gender, 82 (70.7%) males and 34 (29.3%) females were enrolled in exposed group and 80 (68.9%) males and 36 (31.1%) females were included in non-exposed group. Risk of heart failure and transient ischemic attack were 1.4 and 5.0 times more likely in exposed as compared to unexposed with [Relative Risk 1.444 and 5.0 respectively. While risk of mortality was 0.2 times less likely in exposed as compared to unexposed with [Relative Risk 0.222] and P value was found to be as significant i.e. (P=0.030).
Conclusion: It is to be concluded that significant risk of heart failure and transient ischemic attack were noted in exposed as compared to unexposed and vice versa in case of mortality, but we cannot rule out residual confounders.
Early Outcome of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in Obese and Non Obese Patients
Authors: Ajwad Farogh  , Noman Izhar  , Iqra Niaz  , Omar Iqbal
Published: March 2023

Objective: To determine the impact of body mass index (BMI) on short-term outcomes like; renal failure, prolonged ventilation and mortality after CABG surgery.
Methodology: This prospective comparative study was conducted at the Cardiac Surgery Department, Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology, Bahawalpur from February to December 2021. A total of 148 patients were enrolled after taking written consent and data was collected through predesign proforma sheets, including; clinical history, investigation and early outcomes in term of (renal failure, prolonged ventilation, and mortality). SPSS 23 was used to analyze data with statistically significant p-value < 0.05.
Results: The findings showed that average age of research participants were 57.14 Â± 3.07 (age range 30-73 years) and 121 (81.76%) male compared with 27(18.24%) female patients were enrolled with insignificant p-value of 0.730. In this study prolonged ventilation was found in 5(6.76%) obese and 8(10.81%) non-obese patients with insignificant p-value of 0.070. Renal Failure was found in 2 (2.70%) obese and 8 (10.81%) non-obese patients with significant p-value of 0.02 and mortality in 4(5.41%) obese and 2 (2.70%) non-obese patients with significant p-value of 0.0482.
Conclusion: The results of the current investigation demonstrated that an obese BMI was a reliable indicator of morbidity or mortality following CABG.
ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARININ İŞ BULMA KAYGILARI İLE ÖĞRETMENLİK MESLEĞİNE YÖNELİK TUTUMLARI ARASINDAKİ İLİŞKİNİN İNCELENMESİ
Authors: Güçlü Mustafa , Abbak Yeliz , Toprak Emre
Published: March 2023

Eğitim, bir ülkenin gelişmesinde önemli bir güce sahiptir. Bu nedenle her ülke eğitim sistemini reformdan geçirmeye, içinde bulunulan çağın koşullarına uygun hale getirmeye çalışmaktadır. Öğretmen ise eğitim sistemi içinde en etkili öğelerden biridir. Öğretmenlik mesleği sadece bilişsel olarak değil duyuşsal olarak da bazı özellikler gerektirmektedir. Öğretmen adaylarının iş bulmaya yönelik olarak geliştirmiş oldukları kaygı onların motivasyonlarını ve tutumlarını olumsuz etkileyebilmektedir. Bu araştırmada öğretmen adaylarının iş bulma kaygıları ile öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik tutumları arasındaki ilişkinin araştırılması, eğitim teorisyen ve uygulayıcılarına önerilerde bulunulması amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmanın evreni İç Anadolu’da büyükşehir statüsündeki bir il merkezinde öğrenim gören öğretmen adaylarından oluşmaktadır. Bu evrenden amaçlı örnekleme yöntemiyle belirlenen 2. ve 4. sınıftaki 232 öğretmen adayı araştırmanın örneklemini oluşturmaktadır. Araştırma nicel araştırma yöntemlerinden ilişkisel tarama modeline sahiptir. Araştırmanın verileri Üstüner (2006) tarafından geliştirilen “Öğretmenlik Mesleğine Yönelik Tutum Ölçeği” ile Tekin (2015) tarafından geliştirilmiş olan “İşsizlik Kaygı Düzeyi Ölçeği” ve araştırmacılar tarafından hazırlanan kişisel bilgi formu kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda öğretmen adaylarının işsizlik kaygı düzeylerinin yüksek olduğu, kaygı düzeyi arttıkça öğretmenlik mesleğine olan tutumun azaldığı görülmüştür.
A parábola do semeador: questões de gênero na obra distópica de Octavia Butler
Authors: Vargas Gabriele Valim , Marques Eduardo Marks de
Published: March 2023

O presente artigo busca investigar no romance distópico A parábola do semeador, da autora afro-americana Octavia Butler, questões concernentes ao gênero observadas no livro, ou seja, ponderações acerca do espaço que o estudo de gênero encontra na literatura. Vale destacar que esse foi o primeiro livro da duologia Semente da Terra, tendo sua primeira publicação em 1993, embora tenha começado a ser traduzido no Brasil muitos anos depois. Dessa maneira, por meio da exposição de trechos selecionados na obra supracitada, serão abordados, também, estudos acerca da desigualdade de gênero. Portanto, discorreremos, aqui, sobre os seguintes assuntos: as diferentes visões dos papéis a serem desempenhados por homens e mulheres na sociedade e relações de poder e domínio do primeiro para com o segundo, bem como reflexões sobre as masculinidades, protagonismo feminino e violência de gênero. Para isso, serão considerados os conceitos propostos por autores como Butler (2003), Oliveira (1998), Gomes (2016), entre outros pesquisadores que tratam dos estudos de gênero na literatura.
The AERosol and TRACe gas Collector (AERTRACC): an online-measurement-controlled sampler for source-resolved emission analysis
Authors: Pikmann Julia , Moormann Lasse , Drewnick Frank , Borrmann Stephan
Published: March 2023

Abstract. Probing sources of atmospheric pollution in complex environments often leads to the measurement and sampling of a mixture of different aerosol types due to fluctuations of the emissions or the atmospheric transport situation. Here, we present the AERosol and TRACe gas Collector (AERTRACC), a system for sampling various aerosol types independently on separate sampling media,
controlled by parallel online measurements of particle, trace gas, and
meteorological variables, like particle number or mass concentration,
particle composition, trace gas concentration, and wind direction and
speed. AERTRACC is incorporated into our mobile laboratory (MoLa) which
houses online instruments that measure various physical and chemical aerosol
properties, as well as trace gas concentrations. Based on preparatory online
measurements with the whole MoLa setup, suitable parameters measured by
these instruments are used to define individual sampling conditions for each
targeted aerosol type using a dedicated software interface. Through
evaluation of continuously online-measured data with regard to the sampling
conditions, the sampler automatically switches between sampling and
non-sampling for each of up to four samples, which can be collected in
parallel. The particle phase and gas phase of each aerosol type, e.g., source emissions and background, are sampled onto separate filters with PM1 and PM10 cutoffs and thermal desorption tubes, respectively.
Information on chemical compounds in the sampled aerosol is obtained by means of
thermal desorption chemical ionization mass spectrometry (TD-CIMS) as the
analysis method. The design, operation, and characterization of the sampler
are presented. For in-field validation, wood-fired pizza oven emissions were
sampled as targeted emissions separately from ambient background. Results
show that the combination of well-chosen sampling conditions allows more
efficient and effective separation of source-related aerosols from the
background, as seen by the increases of particle number and mass concentration
and concentration of organic aerosol types, with minimized loss of sampling
time compared to alternative sampling strategies.
Modeling the inhibition effect of straw checkerboard barriers on wind-blown sand
Authors: Huang Haojie
Published: March 2023

Abstract. Straw checkerboard barriers (SCBs) are usually laid to prevent or delay
desertification caused by eolian sand erosion in arid and semiarid regions. Understanding the impact of SCBs and their laying length on eolian sand erosion is of great significance to reduce damage and laying costs. In this study, a three-dimensional wind-blown-sand model in the presence of SCBs was established by introducing the splash process and equivalent sand barriers into a large-eddy simulation airflow. From this model, the inhibition effect of SCBs on wind-blown sand was studied qualitatively, and the sensitivity of eolian sand erosion to the laying length was investigated. The results showed that the decrease in the wind speed in the SCB area oscillates along the flow direction. Moreover, the longer the laying lengths are, the lower the wind speed and the sand transport rate in the stable stage behind SCBs will be. We further found that the concentration of sand particles near the side of SCBs is higher than that in its central region, which is qualitatively consistent with previous research. Our results also indicated that whether the wind speed will decrease below the impact threshold or the fluid threshold is the key factor affecting whether sand particles can penetrate the SCBs and form stable wind-blown sand behind the SCBs under the same conditions. Although our model does not include the collision between sand particles and SCB walls, which makes the suppression of wind-blown sand by SCBs obtained from the current model conservative, our research still provides theoretical support for the minimum laying length of SCBs in anti-desertification projects.
The temperature-dependent shear strength of ice-filled joints in rock mass considering the effect of joint roughness, opening and shear rates
Authors: Huang Shibing , Cai Haowei , Xin Zekun , Liu Gang
Published: March 2023

Abstract. Global warming causes many rockfall activities in alpine mountains, especially when ice-filled joints in the rock mass become thawed. The
warming and thawing of frozen soils and intact rocks have been widely studied in the past several decades; however, the variation of shear strengths of
ice-filled joints is not fully understood. In this study, a series of compression–shear experiments were conducted to investigate the shear
strength of ice-filled rock joints by considering the effects of joint roughness, temperature, opening, shear rates and normal stress. The joint
roughness can improve the shear strength of ice-filled joints. However, the contribution of joint roughness is controlled by some noticeable bulges
instead of the joint roughness coefficient (JRC) index. The peak shear strength of the ice-filled joint linearly increases with the increasing aggregation of rupture ice area before these noticeable bulges. As the joint opening increases, the effect of joint roughness decreases, and the shear strength of ice-filled joints tends to be equal to the
shear strength of pure ice. In addition, the shear strength quickly reduces with increasing temperature from −15 to −0.5 ∘C. The
shear failure mode changes from shear cracking of joint ice to the shear debonding of the ice–rock interface above −1 ∘C. Increasing
shear rate decreases the shear strength of ice-filled joints because the joint ice displays the brittle failure phenomenon at a high shear
rate. The peak shear strength of the ice-filled joint linearly increases with the increase in normal stress. Moreover, it is also proved that the
Mohr–Coulomb criterion can be used to characterize the shear strength of ice-filled joints under different normal stresses. This research can
provide a better understanding of the warming degradation mechanism of ice-filled joints by considering the abovementioned important influencing factors.
Difference in load predictions obtained with effective turbulence vs. a dynamic wake meandering modeling approach
Authors: Doubrawa Paula , Shaler Kelsey , Jonkman Jason
Published: March 2023

Abstract. According to the international standard for wind turbine design, the effects of wind turbine wakes on structural loads can be considered in two ways: (1) by augmenting the ambient turbulence levels with the effective turbulence model (EFF) and then calculating the resulting loads and (2) by performing dynamic wake meandering (DWM) simulations, which compute wake effects and loads for all turbines in a farm at once. There is no definitive answer in scientific literature as to the consequences of choosing one model over the other, but the two approaches are unarguably very different. The work presented here expounds on these differences and investigates to what extent they affect the simulated structural loads. We consider an idealized 4x4 rectangular array of National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5 MW wind turbines with a spacing of 5 by 8 rotor diameters, and three wind speed scenarios at high ambient turbulence. Load simulations are performed in OpenFAST with EFF and in FAST.Farm with the DWM implementation. We compare ambient turbulence, wind farm turbulence, and loads between both approaches. When omnidirectional results are compared, EFF wind farm turbulence intensity is consistently higher by 0.2 % (above rated wind speed) to 2.7 % (below rated wind speed). However, for certain wind directions, the EFF turbulence can be lower than FAST.Farm by almost 9 %. Wind speeds within the farm were found to differ by up to 3 m s-1 due to the lack of wake deficits in the EFF approach, leading to longer tails toward low values in the FAST.Farm mean load distributions. Consistent with the turbulence results, the median EFF load standard deviations are also consistently higher, by a maximum of 20 % and 17 % for blade-root out-of-plane and tower base fore-aft moments, respectively.
Rock art technology, digital imaging and experimental archaeology: recent research on Iberian Late Bronze Age warrior stelae
Authors: Díaz-Guardamino Marta
Published: March 2023

Este artículo propone un enfoque metodológico para el estudio de la tecnología del arte rupestre que combina la aplicación de técnicas de imagen digital (en particular, Reflectance Transformation Imaging, RTI) con experimentos de recreación de arte rupestre. Se argumenta que este tipo de enfoque ‘bottom-up’, combinando dos líneas de evidencia complementarias, tiene el potencial de ofrecer información valiosa sobre las comunidades de práctica involucradas en la creación de arte rupestre. El artículo utiliza estelas de guerrero de la Edad del Bronce Final en la Península Ibérica como estudio de caso y presenta los resultados del reciente análisis tecnológico de cuatro estelas de la cuenca del Guadalquivir, así como un experimento de recreación. Además de ofrecer nueva información sobre la dimensión social de la creación de estelas, el artículo también subraya la importancia de las herramientas documentadas a través del trabajo de campo en los lugares de hallazgo de las estelas como una línea de evidencia adicional a tener en cuenta.