Existence of solutions for nonlinear fractional q-difference integral equations with two fractional orders and nonlocal four-point boundary conditions

We investigate the existence of solutions for a nonlinear fractional q-difference integral equation (q-variant of the Langevin equation) with two different fractional orders and nonlocal four-point boundary conditions. Our results are based on some classical fixed point theorems. An illustrative example is also presented.     

Characterization of Human Serum Immunoglobulin G Modified with Singlet Oxygen

Reactive oxygen species, as singlet oxygen (¹O₂), is continuously being generated by aerobic organisms, and react actively with biomolecules. At excessive amounts, ¹O₂ induces oxidative stress and shows carcinogenic and toxic effects due to oxidation of lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. In our study, immunoglobulin G (IgG) was modified by ¹O₂ generated by the ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of methylene blue. The modified IgG was characterized by UV spectroscopy, carbonyl content determination, thermal denaturation and electrophoretic study. Oxidation induced by modification of IgG by ¹O₂ also analyzed by scavenging studies. It was found that ultraviolet absorption spectra of modified IgG shows marked hyperchromicity. The carbonyl content was found to be high in modified IgG as compared to native IgG which confirms its oxidation. Thermal denaturation of modified protein sample shows decrease in Tm value by 3 °C and less intensity banding pattern on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The quenching effect of sodium azide provides clue for modification of IgG by methylene blue, as it is known ¹O₂ scavenger. Hence, the IgG modified with ¹O₂ may be one of the etiological pathogenic factors for rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.     

Framing controversy over language policy in Malaysia: the coverage of PPSMI reversal (teaching of mathematics and science in English) by Malaysian newspapers

In 2003, the Malaysian Government announced the policy of Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English [ETeMS or better known by its Malay acronym, Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris (PPSMI)]. The policy has, however, caused a furore, with both Malay nationalists and Chinese educationists treating the decision as an attack on their identity. Later in July 2009, the Malaysian Government announced to reverse the PPSMI policy starting from 2012. Researchers have long understood news as an artefact of a socially constructed reality. In making news, journalists shape a reality that reflects the political economic and ideological boundaries within which they work. By employing framing as the theoretical framework and content analysis as the research method, this study examined what pictures newspapers have created for citizens' understanding of the reversal of PPSMI policy. It was found that the mainstream newspapers framed the issue in similar ways, which was to explain and justify the reversal. Meanwhile, the alternative newspaper reflected what was mostly left outwhile the alternative newspaper reflected what was mostly left out and provided a counter-hegemonic discourse.     

Farmers’ Attitudes and Skills of Farm Business Management in Jordan

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate farmers’ attitudes and skills of farm management. Two scales were constructed as an instrument for data collection, based on a sample of 100 farm units. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .84 or higher, which indicated that the instrument scales were internally consistent. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze the data. Operators appeared to be largely commercial, but they did not highly rate the significance of farming as a business, or their level of management skills. Two-thirds of respondents perceived technical skills as the key to success. Poor management skills limit the operators’ ability in making informed decisions, planning and analyzing the financial performance of their operations. Farm management extension enhances farmers’ willingness and ability to make successful changes to their management practice. Improvement programs have to be targeted to the groups of operators who are more favorable to management extension, that is, full-time farmers, renters, the more experienced, the educated and the more dependent on farm income.     

A taxonomy for decision support capabilities of enterprise content management systems

Enterprise content management (ECM) systems are implemented in many organizations to deal with the complexity of the structured and unstructured organizational data. The little available ECM literature shows that many organizations using ECM focus on short-term benefits while strategic decision-making benefits are rarely considered. Although the relationship between the use of ECM and decision support (DS) is investigated recently, there is scarcity in research that investigates the categories of DS capabilities that ECM systems may have. The objective of this paper is to determine whether ECM systems can have the DS capabilities of four categories of decision support systems, namely classic decision support systems (DSS), executive information systems (EIS), expert systems (ES), and group decision support systems (GDSS). The findings indicate that ECM systems can have all decision support capabilities of classic DSS, EIS, and ES. However, ECM systems can have only a portion of decision support capabilities of GDSS.     

Construction of some hypergroups from combinatorial structures

Jajcay's studies(1993; 1994) on the automorphism groups of Cayley maps yielded a new product of groups, which he called, rotary product. Using this product, we define a hyperoperation ⊙ on the groupSym _e(G), the stabilizer of the identitye∈G in the groupSym(G). We prove that (Sym _e (G), ⊙) is a hypergroup and characterize the subhypergroups of this hypergroup. Finally, we show that the set of all subhypergroups ofSym _e (G) constitute a lattice under ordinary join and meet and that the minimal elements of order two of this lattice is a subgroup ofAut (G).     

如何应对网上短时学习需求高峰——学习成本节约策略研究

对多数开放大学来说,事实上,在许多大学中,总是会出现这样的情况,所有学生要在同一段时间内集中完成一些网上学习活动。这些活动通常造成学生在一定时间内蜂拥上网。由于学生较好的上网时间选择有限,网上学习拥挤高峰情况就会变得很糟。在通常情况下,只有那些最早上网的学生才能获得最佳在线学习机会。在马来西亚开放大学,当学生确认开设科目和占用网络槽口选择会面时间表的时候,往往就会出现网上使用高峰。大多数学生都会尽早赶去上网以确保能在时间安排表中获得网上会面的机会。那些可以利用的信息技术资源与功能,诸如互联网带宽和服务器等无法应付这些短时网络需求高峰。除非这些需求高峰得到满足,否则网络服务的速度将会迅速变慢,最终导致网络使用者排长队等候网络服务。假如可以提供超额的网络容量,要是可能的话,以确保这些短时需求高峰得到满足,那就不可能有成本效应。因为在大多数时间里,这些网络资源都没有得到充分利用。本论文着重探讨一些具有成本效应的方法以应对和满足短时网络高峰的需求。     

Construction of some hypergroups from combinatorial structures

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