American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS)

Digital Transformation Frameworks - Applicable for Disruptive Technologies?

2021-01-02T07:29:45+00:00

This paper has a two-fold aim to analyze the need of the digital transformation framework, and to understand the its impact on disruptive technologies by means of a structured review of the literature. The results of this research reveal that the digital transformation demand has developed a lot and there is seen a growing interest of its implementation in digital era of business and technology. However, results derived from an in-depth review show that there is a dire need for DT in developing countries and for more collaboration between researchers and practitioners. The paper highlights that business and digital marketing is fragmented due to disruptive technologies and shared platforms and furthermore outlines the strategies of digital transformation as a tool to be implemented among all new enabling technologies. To sum up all, it is concluded that without any doubt digital transformation is proven as tailored strategic option to impact creation, value and delivery of products and projects in almost every industry. These impacts have led to the improvement of digital marketing strategies, online business world along with employment of a variety of new successful business models, crucial to be successful in today’s and future competitive digital era demanding for innovation.

Identification of Explosive Force in 15-year Old Volleyball Players

2021-01-02T07:34:27+00:00

Assessment of physical features, especially vertical jump performance in various GRFP is of particular importance in advancing and determining the physical abilities of young age groups in volleyball. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of vertical jump in volleyball in Albania. Method; 181 volleyball players were tested, including 106 female (F) and 75 men (M) with an average age of 15-16 years, BH cm(F-177/M-191), BW kg(F-64.3/M-79.5), BMI kg/m² (F-20.39/M-21.88). Field tests Attack cm(F-285.3/M-323.7), Block cm(F-274.6/M-310.3.In three tests Bosco; Squat Jump (SJ), Countermovement Jump (CMJ), Repeat Jump (RJ 15sec) tests were conducted on the Ergo Jump System platform. The average values according to the calculations in the index of elasticity and elastic energy of the lower extremities of volleyball players as well as the index of explosive force are shown. Results: The fast power index is derived from the CMJ-SJ test difference and showed that (F-5.6/M-7). The coefficient of elasticity is expressed in% by the formula (CMJ-SJ) x100 / CMJ where it showed the values of (F-17.3% /M-16.2%), while in the RJ15sec test of anaerobic power showed the values where (F-0.8/M-0. 7).Conclusions: Tests conducted in these age groups of volleyball players in Albania clearly showed that they have unused reserves of elastic muscle energy. The capacity of the strength index in team sports in teams reaches values up to 0.90-0.95 but F&M volleyball players showed values of 0.7-0.8, is a low capacity of reactive force resistance, which results from the lack of plyometric training. The mechanical strength during the RJ15sec jump proved to be a very sensitive functional parameter that individualizes the features and characteristics of the anaerobic element of lactic acid related to training.

Theoretical Studies of the Chemical Reactivity of a Series of Coumarin Derivatives by the Density Functional Theory

2021-01-02T07:44:00+00:00

The global descriptors of reactivity such as HOMO and LUMO energies, chemical hardness, electrophilicity, softness and dipole moment are theoretically determined for five coumarin derivatives in this paper. The analysis of the determined descriptors allows us to classify the studied molecules according to their reactivities. Thus, compound M3 is qualified to be the most reactive and the least stable with 3.933 eV as its gap energy ΔE_gap. It is at the same time the softest, the best electron donor, the most electrophilic and the most polar molecule. The study of thermodynamic parameters shows that all the reactions of formation of studied coumarin derivatives are exothermic and spontaneous with less disorder. Furthermore, Hirschfield population analysis was carried out in order to locate the reactive sites, that are assumed to be the electrophilic and nucleophilic sites of the molecules. It appears that all the reactive sites are located on carbon atoms except those of molecule M3 which are located on oxygen atoms. Compounds M1 and M2 have the same electrophilic site (C15) and the same nucleophilic site (C13) thereby showing that the methyl group does not have any influence on the reactive site. The electrophilic site of the molecule M3 is located on both the identical oxygen atoms O33 and O34 while its nucleophilic site is located on the oxygen atoms O12. The electrophilic sites of compound M4 and M5 are the same and it is located on carbon atom(C11) while the nucleophilic site is located on carbon atom C23 for molecule M4. Concerning the nucleophilic sites of molecule M5 it is located on carbon atom C20. The difference nucleophilic reactive site may be due to the conjugation of activity of both fluorine atom and methyl group on the M5.

Survey of papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus and its introduced parasitoids on papaya plants in the low country dry zone of Sri Lanka

2021-01-06T17:47:20+00:00

Papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Willams and Granara Willink, is an invasive hemipteran that attacks several genera of host plants, including economically important tropical fruits and ornamentals. It is an alien invasive species and was reported for the first time in Sri Lanka in 2008 and the biocontrol programme was implemented with the introduction of three natural enemies Acerophagus papayae, Anagyrus loeki, and Pseudleptomastix mexicana imported from Puerto Rico in some selected regions in 2008 and 2009. After a decade following the initial introduction it is essential to investigate the presence of the parasitoids for the management of papaya mealybug pests. Therefore a survey was conducted to study the pest status of papaya mealybugs and to check the availability and the abundance of their introduced parasitoids is some randomly selected locations of the low country dry zone of Sri Lanka during the period from January 2018 to December 2019. The survey revealed that P. marginatus is still spreading in Sri Lanka but is present at lower population levels than in previous years, probably due to the action of introduced hymenopteran parasitoids. Among the three parasitoids the A. papayae and P. mexicana were found to be established on the papaya plants infested with papaya mealybug. The parasitoid with the greatest impact on the mealybug is generally Acerophagus papayae , whereas A. loeki was failed to establish. The finding would be very essential to tackle if there are any future threats caused by P.marginatus.

A Study on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of a Cotton Woven Shirt

2021-01-06T19:18:42+00:00

The property of textile materials has gained a lot of attention thanks to the resource consumption and waste
material emissions at the moment time. So, it's terribly essential and a core demand to gauge the
environmental result of textiles from a life cycle perspective to develop the property of textiles.
Environmental problems became vital over the previous few years owing to increasing pollution, waste
materials, heating, etc. shoppers have additionally begun to demand inexperienced products. As a result of
these events, additional strategic and systematic approaches square measure necessary for ever-changing
environmental problems. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is one of the tools to satisfy this necessity. During this
research, we have a tendency to square measure analyzing the LCA of a ‘Cotton woven Shirt’, and
scientifically evaluating the environmental impacts also as resource utilization to supply, from raw materials
to the disposal of the merchandise at the top of life.

Assessing the Relevance of Phonemic Awareness Activities in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

2021-01-07T16:07:40+00:00

Phonemic awareness (PA) has been used primarily used to investigate children early reading comprehension and pronunciation skills and later on extended to second and foreign language vis-à-vis learners reading comprehension and pronunciation enhancement. Similarly, the current study uses PA activities based on Lee and VanPatten (2003) structured input activities model as an effective way to raise learners’ awareness of the English phonemes exposed to them in order to attend to them by efficiently identifying, representing, and manipulating them. The participants involved in this study are first year students from the Department of Anglophone studies who speak Moore as first language, French as intermediate language, and English as foreign language. Having difficulties identifying, representing, and manipulating English phonemes, this study aims at helping them via structured PA activities. Using the Mann Whitney Wilcoxon Test as a statistical treatment, the findings of this study prove the effectiveness of PA activities since the group that benefited from the intervention outperformed the control group that received no treatment with a P-value less than 0.05 as 0.0001<0.5. In this logic the median of the PA group is higher than the control group: 14.5>10 though it was approximatively the same before the treatment. Also, the Likert’s scales approach which is further used to correlate students’ reactions to the results of the experiment proves that almost all students appreciate the PA activities as relevant and beneficial. Therefore, structured PA activities should be recommended in foreign language teaching when phonology is involved (244 words).

Integrative Review of Non-Financial Indicators Resulting from Social Innovation in Productive Chains

2021-01-08T07:19:43+00:00

In the literature there is no consensus on the definition of social innovation, its dimensions and causal relationships. The development of indicators becomes complex because the empirical research activity confronts concepts that differ paradoxically from metrics. This work contributes to discussion by offering an integrative review of non-financial indicators applied to productive chains with the objective of measuring social innovation activities, at the level of their links. The method used in the research was the integrative review in the periodicals Web of Science and Crossref databases, from June 2017 to June 2018. The main findings are that the models analyzed promote the organizational level as the appropriate level to measure social innovation activities. Despite these limitations, this work contributes to the field of measuring social innovation in three areas: (a) modeling a system (b) offering a mapping of organizational competencies and (c) based on this mapping, the model contributes to the Conception of specific incentives for the development of organizational competencies for the promotion of social innovations. The need to conceptually and empirically test the model in different socioeconomic environments to stabilize a social innovation monitor was observed.

Efficacy of Apitherapy for Skin Regeneration

2021-01-08T08:14:40+00:00

In daily routine, skin may be exposed to diverse severity showing wounds and burns which heal at different rate. This variation in dermal recovery and regeneration rate indirectly indicates the physiological factors which function to reestablish internal normal state of the body. To speed up the process of skin healing, several cost effective local produce based boosters are utilized for treatment of dermal burns and injuries. In this regard, honey bee products are preferred as alternative than side effects inducing anthropogenic medicines. Apitherapy (bee therapy) is the broad-spectrum pharmaceutical appliance of honey, propolis, bee pollen, royal jelly, bee wax, bee venom and bee bread which are commonly obtained products from honey bees and are considered as ideal skin healers due to their suitable biochemical composition, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and other supportive qualities. Thus, further research efforts are required for better apiculture techniques and dose optimization of these bee products to replace many hazardous antibiotics and other synthetic drugs.

Bacteriological Load Analysis of Moringa oleifera Lam. Leaves Consumed in Guinea Savannah Vegetation Zones of Nigeria

2021-01-08T08:13:47+00:00

Green leafy vegetables are consumed fresh or dried by human beings, for they are good sources of food rich in nutritional quality including beta-carotene, minerals, fibers and essential oils which play significant physiological role in human body including stimulating enzymes, reducing diseases such as diabetes, cancer and destroying bacteria such as Salmonella species, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The aim of this study is to evaluate the bacteriological load in Moringa oleifera Lam. leaves consumed in guinea savannah Vegetation zones of Nigeria, via: Abuja (Gwagwalada market), in Southern guinea savannah, Katsina (Daura market), in Northern guinea savannah and Sokoto (Central market), in Sudan guinea savannah. Three (3) fresh and dried Moringa oleifera Lam. leafy samples each of 50 grams were randomly collected per market location for analysis of total viable cells (cfu/mL) using standard procedures of analyses. The bacterial load in each sample was determined in triplicates and analyzed with SPSS Version 16. Bacterial isolates were classified on the basis of cultural morphology, Gram reaction and Biochemical tests.

Results showed that there was bacterial growth on Nutrient, Mannitol and MacConkey media. Sabouraud dextrose, Brilliant green and Salmonella- Shigella media recorded no growth in all the leave extracts analyzed. This could be ascribed to the selective nature of the Sabouraud dextrose, Brilliant green and Salmonella- Shigella media, and suggested that fungi/yeast, Salmonella species and Salmonella-Shigella species were not among the bacterial contaminants or that the active ingredient component-Pterygospermin, in Moringa oleifera leaves extract inhibited the growth of micro-organisms in the leaves extract. The bacterial load in the dried leave extracts increased by 86.70 – 88.96% compared with the fresh leave extracts. The highest viable cell count (12.2 x 10⁴±6.95 cfu/mL) was recorded by Katsina dried leave, west of the market; while the lowest microbial load (1.0 x 10⁴±0.68 cfu/mL) was reported by Katsina and Sokoto fresh leave extracts. The study recorded two pathogenic bacteria from all the locations, with Staphylococcus aureus being more dominating, followed by Escherichia coli. These are indicator organisms for poor hygienic conditions and suggests health hazards. Consumers and vegetable vendors should be educated on proper hygienic handling, transportation and storage of vegetables to avoid bacteriological food spoilage and other related health issues.

Renewable Energies Use for Hydrogen Production Powering Fuel Cell Vehicles in the Island of Crete, Greece

2021-01-15T18:40:37+00:00

The possibility of using indigenous renewable energies for electrolytic hydrogen production in Crete has been investigated. Hydrogen can be used for de-carbonization of the transportation sector in the island replacing all existing conventional vehicles with fuel cell electric vehicles. The required H₂ has been estimated as well as the electricity needed for its production via water electrolysis. Solar and wind energy is currently used for electricity generation with solar-PV systems and wind farms in Crete generating a significant amount of the island’s electricity consumption. The size and the cost of the solar-PV systems and the wind farms required for electricity generation, needed in electrolytic H₂ production, have been estimated. The hydrogen required for powering all fuel cell vehicles in Crete has been estimated at 53,037 tonsH₂/year and the electricity required for its electrolytic production at 3,826,563 MWh. The size of the solar-PV systems generating the electricity required in water electrolysis is estimated at 2,710 MW_p while their cost at bil.$ 3.25. The size of the wind farms generating the electricity required in water electrolysis is estimated at 1,501 MW_el while their cost at bil.$ 1.50. It is concluded that local renewable energies can be used for electrolytic H₂ production in Crete although their installation cost is high. The results can be used for the creation of a roadmap regarding the de-carbonization of the island’s transportation sector.

Chia Biofortification With Lithium Sources Applied by Foliar Fertilization

2021-01-17T19:39:13+00:00

Lithium (Li) is an element considered essential for humans, however, low concentrations in soil, water and food have caused low consumption by the world population. Consequently, fertilization via lithium leaf to increase its concentration in food employing biofortification is an alternative, given the growing health problems in the population caused by low intakes of this trace element. Thus, the objective was to evaluate doses and sources of lithium, applied by foliar fertilization in the development and productivity of chia, in the south of the state of Tocantins. The experiment was carried out at the Federal University of Tocantins, Campus de Gurupi, in the agricultural year 2016/17 in pots with 8dm³containing a dystrophic red-yellow Latosol, with a clay texture, in a randomized block design, in a factorial scheme 5x2, with four replicates. The first factor was constituted by five doses (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 g ha^-1) and the second factor by two sources of Li (lithium hydroxide - LiOH and lithium sulfate - Li₂SO₄). Two applications were carried out by foliar fertilization, the first at 75 and the second at 95 days after transplanting. At 120 days, the characteristics of plant height, the height of the upper stem, stem diameter, bunch length, number of bunches and after harvest (145 days), the weight of a thousand grains, grain yield and Li content were evaluated in the grains. The supply via Li leaf through LiOH and Li₂SO₄ sources promoted the biofortification of chia grains. The highest concentrations of Li in the grains were obtained with the application of 29.2 and 31.8 g ha^-1 of LiOH and Li₂SO₄, respectively. The best responses in cluster length, thousand-grain mass, and pH were obtained using LiOH. Regardless of the source, doses of lithium above 35 g ha^-1 promote a reduction in the morphological and agronomic characteristics evaluated in the culture of chia.

Increased Severity of COVID-19 In Obese Patients: a Meta-analysis

2021-01-17T20:47:06+00:00

The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of obesity in the pathogenesis of severe COVID‐19 infection. The relation between obesity and severe COVID-19 has not been completely recorded. PUBMED, Cochrane Clinical trials database, Google Scholar and MEDLINE were used to search for literature. Comprehensive Meta-analysis software and Excel were used to analyze data. The retrospective cohort study examined the correlation between BMI and in patients accepted in intensive care for COVID-19. Nine studies were chosen with a total of 340,811 patients were selected. Patients with a severe COVID-19 cases had varying pooled odds ratios based on BMI; for BMI of 25-29.9 kg/m²1.24 (random; 95% CI: 1.03-1.48; p = 0.374; I2 =0.000), for BMI of 30-34.9 kg/m² 2.01 (random; 95% CI: 1.41-2.88; p = 0.041; I2 = 59.942) and for BMI of ≥35 kg/m² 2.16 (random; 95% CI: 1.61-2.89; p = 0.172; I2 = 43.242). These studies also showed a linear increase in percentage of severe COVID-19 cases based on increasing BMI. The present study indicates a high frequency of obesity among patients accepted in intensive care for COVID-19. Disease severity escalates with Body mass index (BMI). Obesity is a risk factor for COVID-19 severity. Awareness of this severity is needed to be spread widely so as to curtail overweight or obesity.