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The present experiment was conducted to determine the effect chemical fertilization rates and foliar application of plant growth regulators PGRs (Kinetin or Napthaleneacetic Acid (NAA) and their interactions on growth, flowering, chemical composition of Ervatamia coronaria plants. The plants were fertilized monthly with NPK at the rate of 2, 4 and 6 g pot-1, in addition to the control plants. Plants received the fertilization treatments were sprayed monthly with either Kinetin or NAA at 50, 100 ppm for each one, while the control plants sprayed with tap water. As general, the results indicated that within each level of fertilizer treatments, treating plants with different concentrations of PGRs (Kinetin or NAA) resulted in significant increase in tested vegetative growth (in terms of plant height, number of branches plant-1, leaf area, number of leaves plant-1, stem diameter, root length, fresh and dry weights of leaves, stems and roots), flowering parameters (Viz number of flowers/ plant, fresh and dry weights of flowers), chlorophylls content, total carbohydrates, N, P , K%, total indoles and total phenols, gibberellins, auxins and cytokinins compared to control, with superiority of NAA particularly the highest concentrations (100 ppm) . Under the same level of PGRs raising the fertilization rate caused a gradual and significant increase in all tested parameters compared to control. Based on the results, it can be recommended that for the highest quality growth and flowering parameters of Ervatamia coronaria, the plants could be sprayed with NAA at 100 ppm combined with 6 g pot-1 NPK. Resumo O presente experimento foi conduzido para determinar o efeito das taxas de fertilização química e aplicação foliar de reguladores de crescimento de plantas PGRs (Cinetina ou Ácido Naftalenoacético (ANA) e suas interações no crescimento, floração, composição química de plantas de Ervatamia coronaria. as plantas foram fertilizadas mensalmente com NPK na dose de 2, 4 e 6 g/vaso, além das plantas controle. As plantas que receberam os tratamentos de fertilização foram pulverizadas mensalmente com cinetina ou ANA a 50, 100 ppm para cada uma, enquanto as plantas controle foram pulverizadas com água da torneira . Em geral, os resultados indicaram que, dentro de cada nível de tratamentos de fertilizantes, o tratamento de plantas com diferentes concentrações de PGRs (cinetina ou ANA) resultou em aumento significativo no crescimento vegetativo testado (em termos de altura da planta, número de ramos planta-1, área foliar , número de folhas planta-1, diâmetro do caule, comprimento da raiz, pesos frescos e secos de folhas, caules e raízes), parâmetros de floração (Viz número de flores planta-1, massa fresca e seca de flores), teor de clorofilas, carboidratos totais, N, P, K%, indóis totais e fenóis totais, giberelinas, auxinas e citocininas em relação ao controle, com superioridade de ANA principalmente nas concentrações mais altas (100 ppm). Sob o mesmo nível de PGRs o aumento da taxa de adubação causou um aumento gradual e significativo em todos os parâmetros testados em relação ao controle. Com base nos resultados, pode-se recomendar que, para os parâmetros de crescimento e floração da E. coronaria de maior qualidade, as plantas podem ser pulverizadas com ANA a 100 ppm combinado com 6 g/vaso de NPK.

Emotional intelligence (EI) comes almost automatically to humans when we respond instinctively. This basic level of intelligence tells us how to behave in certain scenarios. However, can this understanding be used with the help of technology in selecting efficient managers in the construction industry where the rate of increase in costs and delays in the construction project never ends and even increases? This conceptual paper proposes a study exploring the theory of artificial emotional intelligence in the construction industry to reduce the increase in cost and time overrun in the project using mixed-method research. The indicators of construction project management success were collected from the literature. The questionnaire was prepared for the second phase, and sample data will be collected from construction project managers nationwide through an online survey to form the new model. Finally, the data will be tested and analysed to see the relationship between construction project managers' EI and project success using artificial intelligence technology. Later, they will be validated with a group of certified project managers in an appropriate workshop. This study will conclude whether selecting an excellent project manager can be achieved with the help of artificial intelligence, characterised by emotional intelligence theory. The study will also verify if there is a significant correlation between the performance of construction project managers with elements in the EI theory by using artificial technology and the success of construction projects.

Design Management is a systematic method of managing design process through integration of multiple stakeholders in a construction project. Its role and activity are about bringing ideas together, connecting, integrating, communicating, innovating and collaborating design activities, people, processes and resources that are related to the project. Project success can be measured either by objectives or subjective measures where both have their own contribution towards project management success and product outcome success. For this study, project success takes into consideration both measures. This is due to design-caused defect was found as the highest contribution in project defect when measured by cost. The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between design management and project success. For this research, the components of this theoretical framework were developed based on the theories and empirical evidence relating to design management and project success measure. The outcome shows that 41processes had been classified into 7 project stages: project initiation, preparation of design outline, conceptual design, detail design development, procurement, construction and project operation and 6 components of success measure had been identified: Objective measure consists of time and cost and subjective measures look into quality, health and safety, functionality and end-user’s, client’s, design teams and construction team satisfaction.

This study is aimed at investigating the level of teacher-written feedback self-efficacy among Malaysian secondary school teachers and the influence of teachers’ age, gender, qualifications and teaching experiences on their written feedback self-efficacy. Bandura (1986) had mentioned that of all the different aspects of self-knowledge, none is more influential in people’s everyday lives than their personal self-efficacy. People with a high level of selfefficacy expect favourable outcomes, while those who doubt themselves expect mediocre performance, which results in negative outcomes. This research examined the impact of self-efficacy on teacher-written feedback in formative assessment. Self-efficacy is very important to determine how teacher-written feedback is placed in their formative assessment. One hundred sixty-six English language teachers in Selangor participated in this research by completing the survey. This current research reveals that secondary schools’ English teachers’ self-efficacy of teacher-written feedback was mostly unrelated to their demographic factors. The results have shown that there was no significant difference among Malaysian secondary school teachers in relation to their qualification, teaching experience and level of training in written feedback self-efficacy.

The advancement in sustainable construction has stimulated wide-ranging investigation of construction materials and practices globally. With exceptional thermal properties, fire resistance performance, excellent strength, and outstanding durability, concrete is the utmost extensively utilized construction material around the world. Taking into consideration the quantity of concrete necessary for numerous constructions works, improving concrete sustainability would be an extremely attractive potential. Lightweight foamed concrete (LFC) is tremendously permeable, and its mechanical properties weaken with a growth in the volume of voids. Air-void segregation from solid cement phases by means of aging, drainage, and merging of voids can trigger and reduce the stability and consistency of the emitted pores, making the LFC less reliable for main utilization in load-bearing components and structural elements. In turn, to augment LFC mechanical properties, the LFC cementitious matrix can be adjusted by adding various nanoparticles. The influence of magnetite nanoparticles (MNP) in LFC was not examined in the past; hence, there is some vagueness considering the mechanism to which level the MNP can affect the LFC mechanical properties. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the influences of MNP on the compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural LFC of 1000 kg/m

One of the most important issues in dispute resolution is deciding which method or methods are most appropriate for a particular dispute. The purpose of this study is to identify appropriate dispute resolution methods based on the source of construction disputes to help contractors and owners to choose the most effective resolution method for the disputes. Previous studies addressing appropriate dispute resolution methods have compared various methods, but this research paid attention that different problems require different solutions and takes its point of departure by introducing appropriate dispute resolution methods based on their sources thus increasing the quality and effectiveness of the dispute resolution process. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 30 experts from five construction groups in Iran by applying a purposive sampling method. Qualitative content analysis and inductive approach were used to analyze the data. Furthermore, Maxqda software was used to manage and organize complete interview transcripts and facilitate the data analysis process. This research has identified four main sources of disputes in the construction industry namely; contractual, owner behavioral, contractor behavioral, and uncertainty sources. The research finding suggests that the selection of appropriate dispute resolution based on the type of disputes could enhance success in resolving disputes, perhaps without having to resort to Arbitration.

Background: N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are thought to be for pain memory, and blocking them can help to reduce pain. We aimed to assess the preventive effects of small doses of ketamine ...

Today, the Transformer model, which allows parallelization and also has its own internal attention, has been widely used in the field of speech recognition. The great advantage of this architecture is the fast learning speed, and the lack of sequential operation, as with recurrent neural networks. In this work, Transformer models and an end-to-end model based on connectionist temporal classification were considered to build a system for automatic recognition of Kazakh speech. It is known that Kazakh is part of a number of agglutinative languages and has limited data for implementing speech recognition systems. Some studies have shown that the Transformer model improves system performance for low-resource languages. Based on our experiments, it was revealed that the joint use of Transformer and connectionist temporal classification models contributed to improving the performance of the Kazakh speech recognition system and with an integrated language model it showed the best character error rate 3.7% on a clean dataset.

Introduction Early identification of a patient with infection who may develop sepsis is of utmost importance. Unfortunately, this remains elusive because no single clinical measure or test can reflect complex pathophysiological changes in patients with sepsis. However, multiple clinical and laboratory parameters indicate impending sepsis and organ dysfunction. Screening tools using these parameters can help identify the condition, such as SIRS, quick SOFA (qSOFA), National Early Warning Score (NEWS), or Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS). We aim to externally validate qSOFA, SIRS, and NEWS/NEWS2/MEWS for in-hospital mortality among adult patients with suspected infection who presenting to the emergency department. Methods and analysis PASSEM study is an international prospective external validation cohort study. For 9 months, each participating centre will recruit consecutive adult patients who visited the emergency departments with suspected infection and are planned for hospitalisation. We will collect patients' demographics, vital signs measured in the triage, initial white blood cell count, and variables required to calculate Charlson Comorbidities Index; and follow patients for 90 days since their inclusion in the study. The primary outcome will be 30-days in-hospital mortality. The secondary outcome will be intensive care unit (ICU) admission, prolonged stay in the ICU (i.e., >72 hours), and 30- as well as 90-days all-cause mortality. The study started in December 2021 and planned to enrol 2851 patients to reach 200 in-hospital death. The sample size is adaptive and will be adjusted based on prespecified consecutive interim analyses. Ethics and dissemination The Aseer Regional Committee for Research Ethics in the General Directorate of Health Affairs-Aseer Region has approved this study. Informed consent is not required for this study due to its complete observational nature and absence of interventions or invasive procedures. We will publish study's results in peer-reviewed journals and may present them at scientific conferences.

Presently there is increasing attention in utilization foamcrete as a lightweight non-structural and semi-structural element in buildings to take advantage of its excellent insulation properties. Though, foamcrete has been noticed to have some disadvantages: considerable brittleness; results in low compressive and flexural strength, poor fracture toughness, poor resistance to crack propagation and low impact strength. Hence this study is intended to look into the potential of oil palm trunk (OPT) fiber in enhancing the engineering properties of foamcrete. There are 2 engineering properties will be focused in this study which are ultrasonic pulse velocity and drying shrinkage. Two densities of foamcrete of 600 kg/m3, 1200 kg/m3 were cast and tested. The ratio of cement, sand and water used in this study was 1:1.5:0.45. OPT fibers were used as additives at 0.15%, 0.30%, 0.45% and 0.60% by volume of the total mix. Test results indicated that the engineering properties of foamcrete reinforced with OPT fiber had amplified thoroughly.

Thermal comfort is the perception in which the environment is fulfilled. Thermal comfort varies from person to person. It is necessary to make the heat generated as a result of human activities dissipate at a rate to maintain equilibrium within the body in order to maintain thermal equilibrium. Understanding thermal comfort is vital to architectural design as it serves as the basis for building design but also affects sustainable design. An experiment was conducted where thermal comfort in environmental factors were measured. Autodesk Revit and Autodesk CFD were used to analyze and simulate the air movement for both Malay traditional house and modern house. Research shows that the Malay traditional house can provide better thermal indoor comfort compared to modern house. In addition, in the same bio-climate, these buildings consume less energy than modern buildings to gain better acceptable indoor environment. © 2020 Penerbit Akademia Baru - All rights reserved

Background Owing to major changes in the biomarkers available for diagnosis, criteria for acute myocardial infarction have been revised. The current international consensus definition states that the term acute myocardial infarction (AMI) should be used when there is evidence of myocardial necrosis in a clinical setting consistent with myocardial ischemia. The present guidelines pertain to patients presenting with ischemic symptoms and persistent ST-segment elevation on the electrocardiogram (ECG). Most of these patients will show a typical rise in biomarkers of myocardial necrosis and progress to Q wave myocardial infarction. Separate guidelines have recently been developed by another task force of the ESC (European Society of Cardiology) for patients presenting with ischemic symptoms but without persistent ST segment elevation and for patients undergoing myocardial revascularization in general. Aim of the work The aims of this work are: To assess the diagnostic value of interleukin-6 compared to troponin I in ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. To assess the predictive value of elevated interleukin-6 in ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. Patients This prospective study was included sixty adult patients of both sexes meeting the American Heart Association (AHA) recommendations for diagnosis of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction from those attending the Critical Care Units, Critical Care Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University to be included in the current study. Inclusion Criteria :Patients were fulfilled the criteria of diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and diagnosed as ST segment elevation MI according to American Heart Association (AHA) criteria which include patient ranging between 30 to 70 years and presented with active chest pain. Exclusion Criteria Patients were excluded from the study if they have: (1) Recent myocardial infarction in the last three months. (2) Recent cardiological intervention in the last three months. (3) Recent ischemic cerebrovascular stroke in the last three months. (4) Non ST segment elevation myocardial infarction and unstable angina according to electrocardiographic changes, cardiac markers and clinical condition of the patients. (5) Acute infectious diseases that leads to elevation of troponin I and interleukin-6. (6) Active immunological diseases. (7) Renal impairment. Methods The following data were obtained from each patient: Personal data: name, age, sex, occupation and special habits e.g. smoking. History of present illness regarding to clinical condition: onset, nature, duration, course, progression, characteristic site and radiating areas of the chest pain, relieving and aggravating factors, associated symptoms (as diaphoresis, nausea, vomiting, dyspnea and palpitation) and medication received and their effects. Medical history of diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN), and history of ischemic heart disease (IHD). Family history of IHD, DM and HTN. Conclusion From this current study we revealed that: STEMI patients have increased level of interleukin-6 compared to those normal persons. Interleukin-6 may be a potentially useful marker for diagnosis of STEMI. Interleukin-6 may be helpful prognostic value for future cardiac mortality in STEMI patients. The level of interleukin-6 is not affected by the extent of myocardial damage and necrosis. Interleukin-6 is an inflammatory cytokine. Recommendations From this study we recommend the use of interleukin-6 level as good diagnostic marker for diagnosis of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, Also this study recommend the use of interleukin-6 as good prognostic inflammatory marker in future adverse cardiac events and mortality occur after myocardial infarction STEMI type. Study limitations The results are interpreted in consideration of the small population of patients and short term follow up.

Generally, Facilities Management (FM) managers play an important role in providing their input and knowledge of operation and maintenance in the process of Value Management (VM). Accordingly, an extensive literature review was conducted by the current research, followed by (Isa, Kamaruzzaman, Mohamed, & Berawi, 2017) a preliminary survey that was aimed to confirm the FM functions obtained from the literature review phase. In the case of the present study, the preliminary survey or semi-structured interviews were carried out with a total of six experts due to their ability to confirm the factors. Meanwhile, descriptive statistics and content validity index (CVI) were adopted in the present study as the means of analysing the response data. In addition, a total of fifty items that belong to seven latent constructs managed to be developed from the literature review. More importantly, the results of the content validity analysis showed that the item-CVI values for six of the items were less than the cut-off value of 0.78 which was accompanied with a change of 50 to 44 items. Overall, it should be noted that the contribution of the current research is in the form of support to professionals and academicians which is believed to enhance their understanding on the importance of FM involvement in the VM process.

If disputes are not resolved promptly, they tend to become prolonged and escalated, creating a more complicated and less manageable scenario. Therefore, inappropriate dispute resolution met...

The advancement in sustainable construction has stimulated wide-ranging investigation of construction materials and practices globally. With exceptional thermal properties, fire resistance performance, excellent strength, and outstanding durability, concrete is the utmost extensively utilized construction material around the world. Taking into consideration the quantity of concrete necessary for numerous constructions works, improving concrete sustainability would be an extremely attractive potential. Lightweight foamed concrete (LFC) is tremendously permeable, and its mechanical properties weaken with a growth in the volume of voids. Air-void segregation from solid cement phases by means of aging, drainage, and merging of voids can trigger and reduce the stability and consistency of the emitted pores, making the LFC less reliable for main utilization in load-bearing components and structural elements. In turn, to augment LFC mechanical properties, the LFC cementitious matrix can be adjusted by adding various nanoparticles. The influence of magnetite nanoparticles (MNP) in LFC was not examined in the past; hence, there is some vagueness considering the mechanism to which level the MNP can affect the LFC mechanical properties. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the influences of MNP on the compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural LFC of 1000 kg/m3 density. Six MNP weight fractions of 0.10%, 0.15%, 0.20%, 0.25%, 0.30%, and 0.35% were considered. The parameters accessed were compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths. The correlation between strength parameters was established as well. The results indicated that a 0.25% weight fraction of MNP gave the best performance in terms of compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile strengths. The presence of MNP in the LFC matrix enhances the viscosity and yield stress of the mixture as well as an augmented utilization of LFC cementitious binder content, which can sustain the integrity of the wet networks hence preventing further amalgamation and aging of the voids.

This paper presents the investigation of client-related factor towards delay in public projects by applying qualitative research method approach. Semi-structured interview was conducted involving contractor, architect and consultant with experience in project delay. The investigation managed to discover factors of delay which were ranked by using content analysis. The most significant client-related factor is a poor planning at initial stage by client, followed by late of payment by client, lack of awareness by client on latest progress done by staff, improper consultant selection by client, client select contractor with a weak cash flow, poor attitude of contractor selected by client, late of payment by client, lack of knowledge by client, new proposal request by new hired officer and lack of financial strength. This finding is very useful for practitioners in construction sector and very important for practitioners to be aware on these factors and focus to improve the cause of delay among client.

Background & Aims: Hepatic fibrosis is the intemperate aggregation of extracellular matrix proteins that diagnosis most types of chronic hepatopathy. Activated hepatic stellate cells is the major collagen-producing cells in the injured liver. Protective activities of Quercetin extracted from broccoli were evaluated in mice with liver fibrosis induced by ccl4. These activities were assessed by investigating the liver enzymes ALT, AST. Also albumin (Alb) was detected as the main protein that synthesized in the liver mainly, histopathology investigation and immunohistological fibrotic marker of α –SMA analysis were carried out, then compared, and statically represented. Methods: randomized controlled trial was performed on 21 male Swiss Albino mice that were randomly divided into3 groups. Control group received water and standard feed for 8weeks, positive control group received CCL4 (0.5μl/g), preventive group took CCL4 (0.5μl/g) i.p and treated with Quercetin (50mg/kg) at the same time. Results: Quercetin lowers biochemical markers(ALT and AST), elevate Alb, lower immunohistological (α-SMA)and show a significant improve in histological changes in the preventive group compared to the positive control group to be near from normal to some extent. CONCLUSION: Quercetin extracted from broccoli may assist in the protection of liver fibrosis and improve the liver hepatopathy.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common type of liver cancer and is a leading cause of death worldwide. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is involved in HCC progression, migration, and suppression of apoptosis. This study investigates the apoptotic effect of the dietary antioxidant (n-3 PUFAs) on HepG2 cells and analyzes the underlying molecular mechanisms of this effect both in vivo and in vitro. In vivo study: Seventy-five adult male albino rats were divided into three groups (n = 25): Group I (control): 0.9% normal saline, intraperitoneal. Group II: N-Nitrosodiethylamine (200 mg/kg b.wt) intraperitoneal, followed by phenobarbital 0.05% in drinking water. Group III: as group II followed by n-3 PUFAs intubation (400 mg/kg/day). In vivo study: liver specimens for biochemical, histopathological, and immunohistochemical examination. In vitro study: MTT assay, cell morphology, PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemical analysis. n-3 PUFAs significantly improved the histopathologic features of HCC and decreased the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins. Further, HepG2 cells proliferation was suppressed through inhibition of the STAT3 signaling pathway, cyclin D1, and Bcl-2 activity. Here we report that n-3 PUFAs may be an ideal cancer chemo-preventive candidate by targeting STAT3 signaling, which is involved in cell proliferation and apoptosis.

Ethical practice is usually addressed in the forms of code of conduct, rules and regulations, agreement, and contract. There is a lack of empirical studies on ethical issues involving contractors during tender application submission. Therefore, to begin with, a preliminary research was conducted in an attempt to explore the presence of ethical issues at tendering stage, particularly at the beginning of the tender evaluation stage. The research methodology was qualitative as telephone interviews were used for its data collection method. The participants were selected from a purposive sampling consisting of local authorities and other agencies. Seventy-five percent of the participants claimed of having come across unethical cases. Surprisingly, the findings showed that falsifications of documents by the tenderers were identified during the tender application submission stage. It was also found that the lower grade contractors are prone to practise unethically compared to the higher-grade counterparts. The industry should seriously address these findings as it could possibly reduce the competitiveness of tenders and affect the overall project performance. This research is crucial in order to suggest the way forward for tendering practice, instil the ethical practice of the contractors, assist tender evaluators, and most importantly, elevate the study in refining the tender submission process.

Power transmission system has been designed as an overhead lines constructed with lattice towers or monopoles; or as underground cables to transmit electricity supply from power plant to consumers. In order to meet the incremental demand of power supply, transmission networks require upgrading works and the construction of more overhead tower or monopole. This paper presents the implication of the community and landowner concerns on the effects of high voltage power transmission overhead lines construction in Peninsular Malaysia. Quantitative approach was applied in this research by distributing questionnaires survey to the targetted respondents. Language, culture, perception, knowledge and other factors such as political influence were significance variables which can affect effective communication strategy in the construction of high voltage power transmission lines in Peninsular Malaysia. Therefore, it is important to have an effective communication between all parties to generate positive outcome in supporting the progressive construction of the high voltage power transmission overhead lines.

Research on dispute avoidance procedure (DAP) particularly in Malaysia is lacking as most of the current research and development deals withvarious issues within the dispute resolution procedure and management field. It is therefore significant to conduct a country-specific research by exploring the viability of DAP based on socio-legal research. The aim of this article is two-fold: to present the perceptions of the Malaysian construction industry players on the substantive elements of a viable DAP mechanism and; to formulate a necessary legal reform to accommodate and support the formulated DAP mechanism within the Malaysian construction industry. As part of a socio-legal research approach, interviews were conducted with the selected construction industry players to disclosethe pattern, which may help to explain the underlying issues. NVivo software has been used to manage and organize the complete interview transcripts and facilitate the data analysis process for this study. Among others, this research suggests that a viable DAP mechanism consists of the following substantive elements, namely, to introduce the mechanism through contract and to provide a contractually binding settlement. In essence, this research also advocatesa necessary legal reform to accommodate and support the formulated DAP mechanism within the Malaysian construction industry. This research generally confirms that a country-specific research is required through a socio-legal research. Keywords: DAP, socio-legal research, construction industry, legal reform, legal system

Prospective Evaluation of Chronic Pancreatitis for Epidemiologic and Translational Studies (PROCEED) is the first prospective, observational cohort study of chronic pancreatitis (CP) in the United States. The primary goals of PROCEED are to define disease progression, test the predictive capability of candidate biomarkers, and develop a platform to conduct translational and mechanistic studies in CP. Using objective and consensus-driven criteria, PROCEED will enroll adults at different stages of CP-controls, suspected CP, and definite CP. In addition to collecting detailed information using structured case report forms and protocol-mandated evaluations at baseline and during follow-up, PROCEED will establish a linked biorepository of blood, urine, saliva, stool, pancreatic fluid, and pancreatic tissue. Enrollment for PROCEED began in June 2017. As of July 1, 2018, nine clinical centers of the Consortium for the Study of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes, and Pancreatic Cancer are enrolling, and 350 subjects have completed baseline evaluation. In conclusion, PROCEED will provide the most accurate and reliable estimates to date on progression of CP. The established cohort and biorepository will facilitate numerous analyses, leading to new strategies for diagnosis, methods to monitor disease progression, and treatment of CP.

In this paper, a re-evaluation undertaken for dynamic VM consolidation problem and optimal online deterministic algorithms for the single VM migration in an experimental environment. We proceeded to focus on energy and performance trade-off by planet lab workload traces, which consists of a thousand Planetlab VMs with widespread simulation environments. All experiments are done in a simulated cloud environment by the CloudSim simulation tool. A new paradigm of utility-oriented IT services is cloud computing, which offers a pay-as-you-go model. In recent years, there has been increasing interest among many users from business, scientific, engineering and educational territories in cloud computing. There is increasing concern that high energy consumption issues are a disadvantage for various institutions. However, so far too little attention has been given to the various methods to reduce energy consumption in cloud environments while ensuring performance. Besides the evaluation of energy-efficient data center management algorithms in the cloud, we proposed a further research directed toward the development of energy efficient algorithms. By the experimental evaluation of the current proposal for the competitive analysis of dynamic VM consolidation and optimal online deterministic algorithms for the single VM migration, we found different results for different algorithm combinations. Cloud-based data centers` consume massive energy, which has a negative effect on the environment and operational cost, this work contributes to the energy consumption reduction in the cloud environment., Comment: 15 Pages, 5 Figures

Saving energy is an important issue for cloud providers to reduce energy cost in a data center. With the increasing popularity of cloud computing, it is time to examine various energy reduction methods for which energy consumption could be reduced and lead us to green cloud computing. In this paper, our aim is to propose a virtual machine selection algorithm to improve the energy efficiency of a cloud data center. We are also presenting experimental results of the proposed algorithm in a cloud computing based simulation environment. The proposed algorithm dynamically took the virtual machines' allocation, deallocation, and reallocation action to the physical server. However, it depends on the load and heuristics based on the analysis placement of a virtual machine which is decided over time. From the results obtained from the simulation, we have found that our proposed virtual machine selection algorithm reduces the total energy consumption by 19% compared to the existing one. Therefore, the energy consumption cost of a cloud data center reduces and also lowers the carbon footprint. Simulation-based experimental results show that the proposed heuristics which are based on resource provisioning algorithms reduce the energy consumption of the cloud data center and decrease the virtual machine's migration rate., Comment: 16 Pages, 11 Figures

We demonstrate several new aspects of exceptional points of degeneracy (EPD) pertaining to propagation in two uniform coupled transmission-line structures. We describe an EPD using two different approaches - by solving an eigenvalue problem based on the system matrix, and as a singular point from bifurcation theory, and the link between these two disparate viewpoints. Cast as an eigenvalue problem, we show that eigenvalue degeneracies are always coincident with eigenvector degeneracies, so that all eigenvalue degeneracies are implicitly EPDs in two uniform coupled transmission lines. Furthermore, we discuss in some detail the fact that EPDs define branch points (BPs) in the complex-frequency plane; we provide simple formulas for these points, and show that parity-time (PT) symmetry leads to real-valued EPDs occurring on the real-frequency axis. We discuss the connection of the linear algebra approach to previous waveguide analysis based on singular points from bifurcation theory, which provides a complementary viewpoint of EPD phenomena, showing that EPDs are singular points of the dispersion function associated with the fold bifurcation. This provides an important connection of various modal interaction phenomena known in guided-wave structures with recent interesting effects observed in quantum mechanics, photonics, and metamaterials systems described in terms of the EPD formalism.

Construction projects are commonly afflicted by risk due to their uncertainty and complexity in nature. Thus this requires the contractor to have an effective risk management approach. Previous studies revealed that there was no formal risk management being used by the contractors in Malaysia. Hence, the study concentrated on the types of risk involves during construction project, the application of risk management by contractors in Malaysian construction industry and the strategy taken by them to mitigate risks. The research conducted surveys to the contractors registered with the Construction Industry Development Board, Malaysia (CIDB). The finding shows that there is a lack of standardization in the practice of risk management. Risk management has been mandated by the company and that the application has improved project performance. Besides formal approach and educating the people to conduct risk management, it is recommended that a standardized guideline of risk management is needed to improve the ap...

We propose a novel class of lasers based on a fourth order exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD) referred to as the degenerate band edge (DBE). EPDs have been found in Parity-Time-symmetric photonic structures that require loss and/or gain, here we show that the DBE is a different kind of EPD since it occurs in periodic structures that are lossless and gainless. Because of this property, a small level of gain is sufficient to induce single-frequency lasing based on a synchronous operation of four degenerate Floquet-Bloch eigenwaves. This lasing scheme constitutes a new paradigm in the light-matter interaction mechanism that leads also to the unprecedented scaling law of the laser threshold with the inverse of the fifth power of the laser-cavity length. The DBE laser has the lowest lasing threshold in comparison to a regular band edge laser and to a conventional laser in cavities with the same loaded quality (Q) factor and length. In particular, even without mirror reflectors the DBE laser exhibits a lasing threshold which is an order of magnitude lower than that of a uniform cavity laser of the same length and with very high mirror reflectivity. Importantly, this novel DBE lasing regime enforces mode selectivity and coherent single-frequency operation even for pumping rates well-beyond the lasing threshold, in contrast to the multifrequency nature of conventional uniform cavity lasers., Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures

A joint venture (JV) involves two or more businesses pooling their resources and expertise to achieve a particular goal, where the risks and rewards are shared. JV has become popular because of their importance as a strategic alternative in global competition. The number of JV has increased over the past two decades due to intensified technology, competitive challenges and market globalisation but it is important to understand what causes some JV to fail and others to succeed. Conflict is the main reason that causes some JV to fail. It may create problems in future planning and have negative effects on the financial performance of the firm that would affect JV survival. Hence, the study concentrates on the JV relationship between partners in the Malaysian construction industry in order to identify the effective ways in managing conflicts. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed to the selected respondents and the finding shows that all of the respondents experienced conflict in the JV and the conflict management team seems to be inexistent to manage the conflict. Some recommendations in managing conflict are dictated by discussing the problem such as open talk, self-patience, endurance and being decisive as well as educating all the staffs in handling conflict.

Effect of carob pods extract (CPE) administration on oogram pattern of S. mansoni infected mice. (DOC 32 kb)

An oscillator design based on a periodic, double ladder resonant circuit is proposed. The circuit exhibits a degenerate band edge (DBE) in the dispersion diagram of its phase-frequency eigenstates, and possesses unique resonance features associated with a high Q-factor resonance, compared to a single ladder or a conventional LC tank circuit. This oscillator is shown to have an oscillation threshold that is half that of a single LC ladder circuit having the same total quality factor, and thus is more robust than an LC oscillator in the presence of losses. It is also shown that the output and amplitude of the double-ladder oscillator is much less sensitive to the output loading compared to single-ladder oscillators. We show the analysis and design of such oscillators that potentially lead to enhancing the efficiency of RF components and sources., Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures

Identification of phenolic compounds by HPLC technique in Ceratonia siliqua pod extract. (DOC 43Â kb)

Effect of carob pods extract (CPE) administration on oogram pattern of S. mansoni infected mice. (DOC 32 kb)

Qaietbai Castle in Alexandria is one of the most important Islamicmonuments that possesses a unique position according to the city شs builtcontext as it gathers between the natural component that are representedin the heaven space and aqua surface, as well as its other activities onthe hand, and the built context represented in the surrounding urbanizedareas with their visual components on the other.This paper aims at studying the possibility of upgrading aesthetic imagelevel , and achieving a higher positive level of visual realization ofhistorical places as well as investing this in urbanized built upgrading ofvaluable historical building ,and other surrounding areas throughreaching ordered systematic steps that enable us to achieve a higherlevel of visual realization of heritage building through its visual richnessand surrounding areas , and prevent confusion that contributes toreducing visual realization .This study depended on descriptive and analytical approach throughstudying the most important elements that affect visual richness andrealization of historical places, through describing and analyzing thecase study of Qaietbai Castle in Alexandria to specify the problems facedby valuable monumental placesSo the study was conducted to investigate the visual experience to realizethe castle on the way to the beach of Alexandria city through dividing itinto sectors of sight to study the visual sequence towards the castle , thepossibility of its visual richness , and the visual experience inside thecastle , its neighborhoods and the surrounding urbanized environment .The study showed the importance of visual studies in Egyptian cities ,enriching urban and archeological areas , and not neglecting orconsidering them secondary things especially in the archeologicalregions , and taking serious steps to prevent visual aggressiveness in allits kinds to create interaction between the receiver and the visualenvironment of heritage zone that should be in the mind of the visitor asan unforgettable visual experience . As for the city inhabitant, hisinteraction with the visual environment in his city does strengthen hisbelonging to the city, and encourages him to converse its heritage zones.They are all positive values we wish to enhance, converse, andstrengthen.The research consists of four parts , the first part deals with the problemof research and its methods, the second part is a theatrical introduction to visual realization of heritage and historical areas in the built contextand environmental surroundings , as well as the most important meansthat leads to visual richness of such areas . the third part deals with astudy of the visual experience to realize the building of Qaietbai Castle ,the possibility of its visual richness and giving the surrounding area aunique visual character due to the visual reference represented in thebuilding of the castle . The fourth part deals with the concluded results.

The purpose of this study is to determine the counseling self-efficacy among trainee counselor. One hundred respondents from three universities in Malaysia were chosen through stratified sampling. Descriptive research design was used in this study. The Counseling Self-Estimate Inventory was used to measure counseling self-efficacy. The data was analyzed using the descriptive statistic to measure mean and standard deviation of counseling efficacy scale and subscales. The findings obtained from the study can guide counselor educators on the importance of counseling self-efficacy of trainee counselors. This is where serious attention should be given in the education and supervision of counselors to ensure the production of good counselors. Overall, the findings of the research gave useful implication in the counseling profession, especially in the field of counselor education and supervision.

Alternative dispute resolution methods (ADR) were developed in the construction industry to acquire suitable solutions. These methods are classified based on the role of the third party (neutral). Third-parties can play multiple roles in the ADR process including a facilitative, advisory, determinative or combined. The authorities of the third-party in the types of ADR techniques are different. Despite the importance of a third party in the ADR process, previous studies are not clearly identified factors for selecting them. The purpose of this research is to provide critical factors for neutral to support ADR methods in the construction industry. This research also, highlights the role of neutral in common ADR techniques. Random sampling was used for quantitative data collection. Of the 200 experts invited to fill in the questionnaire, 112 experts participated. To provide critical factors the factor analysis was used. The research found four critical factors for selecting supporting ADR neutrals in construction including; familiarity with legal and technical issues, being accepted by parties, efficiency and fairness. It can be concluded that selecting neutral party using the critical factors is efficient because the selection of a third-party in ADR is based on many variables is very difficult.

The change of conformation of a bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS). Structural properties were investigated as a function of chemical denaturant concentrations and a temperature. In pure water, the protein keeps its native size at guanidine hydrochloride (GdmCl) concentrations below 1 M and behaves like an excluded volume chain above 4 M. A transition in structure and properties of the protein seems to occur around a GdmCl concentration of 1.7 M. Still, this protein forms an unfolded conformation in presence of 6 M of urea concentration and the value of the diffusive virial coefficient indicates that the interactions between the polypeptide chain and solvent are repulsive. The true value of the T m = 43 °C, has obtained by linear extrapolation to 0 M GdmCl.

We demonstrate the existence of a special degeneracy condition, called degenerate band edge (DBE), between two Bloch modes in periodically loaded circular all-metallic waveguides at microwave frequencies. The DBE condition has been associated with a dramatic reduction in group velocity and with some unique resonance properties, but it has not been shown in hollow waveguide structures yet. Hence, we show here its existence in two periodic waveguide examples. The unit cell of the first case is composed of a circular waveguide loaded with two inner cylinders with elliptical irises with misaligned angles. The second structure is composed of loading the waveguide with elliptical rings. The demonstration of DBE in those waveguide is explained through a simple multi transmission line approach where the conditions to obtain DBE are clarified, and suggests that the DBE can occur in several other analogous periodic waveguide. These structures can be potentially used to investigate unconventional gain schemes in traveling wave tubes or other kinds of distributed amplifiers and novel pulse compressors., Comment: 3 pages, 5 figures

Who is responsible for construction safety: architects, engineers, contractors, or perhaps even clients? Safety of the constructed facility is normally the responsibility of the architect and engineer, whereas safety of the construction process is conventionally considered to be the contractor's responsibility. In many cases, construction accidents are, therefore, mainly considered as the contractor's responsibility. In fact, many factors associated with construction accidents can be traced back to the designer's responsibility as well as the client's responsibility. Under the barner of rethinking construction mainly introduced in the UK Construction industry, there is a need to include rethinking construction safety as a focus. This paper discuss a concept of rethinking construction safety. This concept contains an introduction of total safety management (TSM) in construction. The development of this concept is based on the constraint-response theory of construction accident. In this paper, the role of project participants in managing construction safety are examined. A framework of the total safety management is introduced. It summarises how all project participants involved in the project implementation process, from project concept, project design, and throughout project construction work together to control any risk of construction accident. The clients, designers, contractors and other participants share the responsibility of construction safety. Further development and implementation of this concept will help in improving safety performance in construction.

4, 11, Walailak Journal of Science and Technology

We present the theory of a new amplification regime in Travelling Wave Tubes (TWTs) composed of a slow-wave periodic structure that supports multiple electromagnetic modes that can all be synchronized with the electron beam. The interaction between the multimodal slow-wave structure and the electron beam is quantified using a Multi Transmission Line approach (MTL) based on a generalized Pierce model and transfer matrix analysis leading to the identification of modes with complex Bloch wavenumber. In particular, we address a new possible operation condition for TWTs based on the super synchronism between an electron beam and four modes exhibiting a degeneracy condition near a band edge of the periodic slowwave MTL. We show a phenomenological change in the band structure of periodic MTL where we observe at least two growing modal cooperating solutions as opposed to a uniform MTL interacting with an electron beam where there is rigorously only one growing modal solution. We discuss the advantage of using such a degeneracy condition in TWTs that leads to larger gain conditions in amplifier regimes and also to very lowstarting beam current in high power oscillators., Comment: Version 2. 33 pages, 16 figures

In this paper the results of a study conducted to determine the perception of counselling needs by primary school teachers in Malaysia and Lesotho are reported. To this end, teachers were asked about the special needs of students they teach, how they cope with these students, what assistance they would like to have in teaching, and the best approach for dealing with student concerns. Teachers in Lesotho are dealing with larger numbers of special needs students and thus are having more difficulties than Malaysian teachers. Malaysian teachers appeared to be more interested in improving their teaching effectiveness. There was some variation in the perceptions of how to best deal with student concerns.