SPEECH LEVELS OF MADURESE LANGUAGE: A SOCIO-PRAGMATIC STUDY OF BANGKALAN DIALECT

Each ethic group in Indonesia has its own vernacular language to communicate each other politely and effectively. Among abundant vernacular languages spoken by various ethnic groups in Indonesia, Madurese language spoken by Madurese inhabitants is worth investigating due to its peculiarity. There are three speech levels of Madurese language namely Énjék Iyéh (Bâsa Andhâp/Low Level), Énggê Éntén (Bâsa Tenga’an/Mid-Level), and Enggi Buntén (Bâsa Tenggi/High Level). These different speech levels determine the use of different lexicons based on the setting of the conversation and the participants’ social role and age. This vernacular has four dialects divided based on their regencies namely Sumenep, Pamekasan, Sampang, and Bangkalan. Among the four dialects, Bangkalan is the most well-known for its frequent use of Énjék Iyéh variety. However, Enggi Buntén is still used when talking to more educated people such as Kyai and teachers, when talking to the respected elders, or when talking to strangers. This study aims at (1) elaborating the speech levels of Madurese language, particularly Bangkalan dialect, used in different settings by speakers of different social statuses and ages and (2) explaining the different lexicons used in each of those settings. The data were collected from the daily conversations of Bangkalan-dialect speakers living in Galis district

Enhancing public engagement in energy conservation measures in buildings using infrared thermography

Abstract One of the priorities to tackle the global warming is to reduce the carbon emissions and energy consumption in buildings. Buildings consume significant levels of energy for heating or air-conditioning in most parts of the world. The drive to enhance the understanding of building envelope and the impact of insulation on energy use, are decisive factors for enhancing public engagement to attain carbon emission and energy consumption reduction towards more sustainable future. This thesis presents a research in enhancing public engagement in energy conservation in the building by using infrared thermography and new methodologies. The thesis consists of three parts, including building thermography survey, innovative educational design and building monitoring. The first part was investigating the insulation of buildings, by providing the opportunity for the public to carry out thermography survey of their buildings using a low-cost smartphone based infrared camera. This part involved 50 participants, who carried out the thermography survey and conducted three questionnaires. The results show clearly how the study improved the participants' behaviour and engagement in relation to energy consumption in the building. This research resulted in developing a novel approach to enhancing people engagement. The second part has resulted in developing an innovative physical educational tool. The tool is a building simulator, which is designed to support the teaching of energy consumption in building and the impact of insulation at different school levels. The tool has been tested successfully in the laboratory, school and university with significant results. Some of the results are presented in this thesis, which confirms the effectiveness of the tool in enhancing the understanding of energy consumption in the building. The last part focused on monitoring of the energy in an existing public building in Nottingham. The monitoring study covered the monitoring of temperature, humidity, insulation efficiency, door operation and audience pattern during a whole winter season. The results have identified significant energy saving potentials by following the suggested recommendations and redesigning the operation of the building and utilising the heat generated by the audience as a sustainable source of energy. All these parts are correlated to enhancing the public behaviour and engagement in energy conservation in the building. The research was able to help people to identify the areas of issue in their insulation by using low-cost technology, providing a novel approach for people engagement. Moreover, it developed a new educational tool for the education sector to support the teaching of energy and make it more touchable. This is a vivid research, which was able to provide some new tools for people toward better future, and by that achieving the contribution to knowledge

Extraction of Blood Vessels Geometric Shape Features with Catheter Localization and Geodesic Distance Transform for Right Coronary Artery Detection.

X-ray angiography is considered the standard imaging sensory system for diagnosing coronary artery diseases. For automated, accurate diagnosis of such diseases, coronary vessels’ detection from the captured low quality and noisy angiography images is challenging. It is essential to detect the main branch of the coronary artery, to resolve such limitations along with the problems due to the sudden changes in the lumen diameter, and the abrupt changes in local artery direction. Accordingly, this paper solved these limitations by proposing a computer-aided detection system for the right coronary artery (RCA) extraction, where geometric shape features with catheter localization and geodesic distance transform in the angiography images through two parts. In part 1, the captured image was initially preprocessed for contrast enhancement using singular value decomposition-based contrast adjustment, followed by generating the vesselness map using Jerman filter, and for further segmentation the K-means was introduced. Afterward, in part 2, the geometric shape features of the RCA, as well as the skeleton gradient transform, and the start/end points were determined to extract the main blood vessel of the RCA. The analysis of the skeletonize image was performed using Geodesic distance transform to examine all branches starting from the predetermined start point and cover the branching till the predefined end points. A ranking matrix, and the inverse of skeletonization were finally carried out to get the actual main branch. The performance of the proposed system was then evaluated using different evaluation metrics on the angiography images...

Impact of E-Marketing on Consumer Buying Behavior

In this modern and mechanized world the businesses area doping a number of tools and techniques for marketing. However all the tools are deriving results but the most updated method of marketing is the electronic marketing. It is the method of marketing that derives more target customers as compared to the other techniques. Researchers have sown that since the technology has updated and today the customers are aware of the technology. The customers are more interested in the social media websites and the applications. Hence these applications have becomea good spot of advertisements and promotion. Similarly the search engines are offering adds policy that derives the customers in thebusiness and ultimately maximizes the revenues for the business

The biosensitivity of certain organs in rats exposed to low doses of γ-radiation

AbstractTrace elements as Fe, Cu, Zn and Ca are essential for life. They approximately involved in all living processes, they play an important role in the hormones and enzymes activities. The present study demonstrate the biosensitivity of certain organs (spleen, intestine, heart and brain) in rats exposed to low doses of γ-radiation by determine the effectiveness on essential metal levels. Rats were exposed to 0.06, 0.126 and 0.227 Gy as a total doses at a low dose rate 2.5 mGy/h by two models of exposure, continuous and fractionated (along one and two weeks). Results indicated that the metal levels affected by the time exposure and organ sensitivity. Continuous exposure manifested increase in brain Fe, spleen Cu and Ca and decrease Ca in intestine and brain at all doses. After one week, intestine Cu and heart Zn decreased. After two weeks, decrease in Fe levels was observed in intestine, heart and brain at all doses. Also heart Zn and brain Ca decreased, Ca heart increased where Cu exhibit elevation in spleen and lowering in intestine at all doses. The statistic analysis presented significant effect between groups according the time factor and/or dose levels on Fe and Ca in all organs. Also significant effect present in Zn levels due to the time factor and/or dose levels in all organs except intestine. In conclusion, the rat organs have been responded to the low doses of γ-radiation at low dose rate by significant changes in essential metals concentrations

Impact of Social Media on Dubai Stock Market using Sentiment Analysis

One of the main objectives of having securities stock markets is to ensure fair trading. Our analysis of this study will show how sentiment analysis and text mining techniques can help stock markets to sense wipes in the market participants\u27 behaviors and how the market community can benefit from it. The ability to detect potential insiders and investors\u27 mood would help the stock market to take necessary actions to protect the trading environment and enhance investors’ trust in the market. In this project, we will be building a pilot proof of concept utilizing sentiment analysis on Twitter, one of the most popular social media applications, and Dubai Financial Market, one of the most active stock markets in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the English language. The project can grow in sophistication and coverage in the future. In this project, I am using R as a primary development tool where a statistical and visual analysis will be carried out utilizing its rich open community libraries

Innovative concept of an educational physical simulation tool for teaching energy consumption in buildings for enhancing public engagement

Buildings consume significant amount of energy for heating or air-conditioning in most countries. Therefore, educating the public and young generations to enhance their engagement and encourage them to reduce carbon emission and energy consumption in their daily life is becoming essential worldwide to drive continuous improvement towards more sustainable future. This paper presents an innovative educational tool to simulate energy performance and its use in educating university students and teaching school children about the subject. The paper outlines the developed educational tool and presents its benefits via two detailed case studies, with wide and diverse level of knowledge and learning outcomes. The educational technology includes a small-scale multi-layered model of buildings where insulation layers can be added to or removed from the building's envelop to influence energy performance. Qualitative and quantitative research has been conducted . The results show that the technology is capable of engaging the young generation and to help them to understand the thermal performance and energy efficiency of buildings

Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Egyptian Banking Sector

Due to the increasing pressure on multinational corporations (MNCs) to take responsibility for their business operations, many large corporations have started to address the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Accordingly, corporate social disclosure, that is the communication of an organisation’s social and environmental impact through the annual report or similar medium, is an increasingly important issue. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how multinational banks working in Egypt choose to communicate their CSR activities to different stakeholders, and to compare it with local banks. Content analysis has been used to analyse both the annual reports and web pages of both multinational and local banks. CSR was classified into five themes (environmental related, community related, employee related, customer related and investor related). The results of the empirical work show that there is CSR disclosure in the banking sector in Egypt at both a local and multinational level; all of the banks disclosed some information related to different CSR categories and it was positive information. The results also showed that this social disclosure in the Egyptian banking sector was inadequate and there is still a long way to go. The social information disclosed was far less than leading banks in developed countries. Also, the study indicated that a greater amount of information was provided on the website than in the annual report, especially within multinational banks. These results could be attributed to the voluntary nature of the reporting regime in Egypt

REGULATION OF PLATELET EXOCTOSIS AND ITS ROLE IN DISEASES

In addition to their role in hemostasis, platelets appear to contribute to vascular inflammatory diseases. Platelets achieve this through the secretion of various prothrombotic and pro-inflammatory molecules. Platelet secretion is mediated by integral membrane proteins called Soluble NSF Attachment protein REceptors (SNAREs). SNAREs come from both granule/vesicle membranes (v-SNAREs) and target membranes (t-SNAREs) to form a trans-bilayer complex that promotes membrane fusion and subsequent granule cargo release. The work described in this dissertation dissects various, yet related aspects of platelet secretion in both physiological relevant and pathological circumstances. Atherosclerosis is a leading cause of death in the westernized countries and a major contributor to heart attacks and strokes. Given the potential involvement of platelets in atherosclerosis and previous work from our laboratory showing that VAMP-8 is the primary v-SNARE for platelet secretion, one part of this dissertation focuses on the role of VAMP-8- mediated secretion in atherosclerosis. The data showed that the deletion of VAMP-8 in the ApoE-/- null model of chronic atherosclerosis attenuated plaque development compared to the wild type littermates. Aged (50 week) VAMP-8-/-/ApoE-/- mice showed a reduction in lesion size compared to ApoE-/- controls, as measured by Oil Red-O staining of the plaques in the aortic sinus and by en face analysis of plaques in the aortic arch. These data show that the loss of VAMP-8 attenuates the development of atherosclerotic plaques and suggest that platelet secretion contributes to atherosclerosis. Considering the vital role of platelet secretion in both physiological and pathological conditions, it is essential to understand how it is regulated. SNARE proteins are controlled by a range of regulatory molecules that affect where, when, and with whom they form trans-bilayer complexes for membrane fusion. One family of such regulators is the Munc18 family: platelets contain three (Munc18a-c). The second part of this dissertation focuses on the role of Munc18b/STXBP2. Mutations in the Munc18b/STXBP2 gene underlie Familial Hemophagocytic Lymphohistocytosis type 5 (FHL5), which is a life- threatening disease caused by dysregulation of the immune system. Platelets from two biallelic FHL5 patients had almost undetectable levels of Munc18b/STXBP2 levels; the levels of Munc18a increased slightly and Munc18c levels were unaffected. Syntaxin 11 levels were affected but the levels of other secretory machinery proteins were normal. Platelet secretion from dense and alpha granule in two biallelic patients and the one heterozygous patient was decreased. The release of serotonin from dense granules, and platelet factor 4 (PF4) from alpha granules was profoundly affected in the biallelic patients and partially affected in the heterozygote heterozygous patient. Lysosome release was affected only from the platelets of the biallelic patients. These data indicate that Munc18b plays a key role in platelet secretion. Ras is the prototypical member of a family of low molecular weight, GTP-binding proteins. It affects various cellular functions by cycling between an active, guanine triphosphate (GTP) and an inactive guanine diphosphate (GDP) -bound state. Little is known about the role of Ras activation in platelets. The third part of this dissertation focuses on what could be learned about Ras’ role by analyzing platelets from patients with Noonan Syndrome. Specific mutations in the genes encoding elements of Ras signaling pathways are associated with Noonan Syndrome. Platelets from Noonan Syndrome patients with a mutation in kRas (F156V) were analyzed and shown to have a defect in aggregation in response to low levels of agonist. These data suggest that Ras may play a functionally relevant role in platelet activation. In summary, the experiments presented in investigations of this dissertation support a role for platelet secretion in several pathological conditions and suggest that platelet secretion assays may serve as useful as diagnostic tools for some genetic diseases. In addition, these studies elucidate the importance of understanding the regulation of platelet exocytosis, to drive the development of new antithrombotic therapeutics

UK corporate governance effects on investor behaviour and firm performance before and during crisis

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in FinanceThe recent financial crisis has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of corporate governance (CG) in monitoring management and protecting investors’ interests. There is concern that ‘poor’ CG was, to a certain extent, a major cause of the current financial crisis. This thesis, therefore, investigates the crucial policy question of whether the quality of CG has any effect on financial performance, information asymmetry and on block shareholders’ investment decisions. This is achieved and presented in the form of three essays on CG practices in UK with a particular focus on the periods before and during the 2007/2008 financial crisis. The first essay aims to investigate the impact of firm-level CG on block shareholders’ investment decisions for a large sample of UK non-financial firms over the period 2005 to 2009. Using a panel data analysis, the results revealed the importance of CG for block shareholders’ investment decisions. Furthermore, the study results indicated that only institutional block shareholders consider CG to be important criteria for their investment decisions. Moreover, when the effect of CG on block shareholdings in both periods before and during crisis was examined, a significant difference in results appeared: an insignificant positive relationship in the pre-crisis period turned out to be significant during crisis. The result thus indicates that block shareholders viewed CG as particularly important during the crisis period. The second essay aims to examine the effect of CG on firm performance before and during the financial crisis. It also investigates the mediating effect of agency costs on the association between CG and firm performance. The results revealed that CG affects firm performance only in the period before the crisis, but no significant effect was found during the crisis period. Moreover, agency cost was proved to fully mediate the relationship between CG and performance in the pre-crisis period. The results point to an important issue, which is the need to re-evaluate CG not only in stable periods but also during turbulent times, and to evaluate its ability to perform effectively in such different conditions. The third essay investigates the effect of both CG and block ownership on information asymmetry. Further, the effects of CG in lessening the positive association between block ownership and information asymmetry is considered. The results revealed that CG affects information asymmetry only in the pre-crisis. In addition, block ownership was shown to have a significant and positive effect on information asymmetry during crisis periods suggesting that block shareholders benefit from their information advantage during crisis period which in turn worsens the information asymmetry problem. This suggests that block shareholders engage more in their private benefits rather than in efficient monitoring. The results also proved that CG is insignificant during turbulent period in lessening the negative effect of block ownership