Search results for: wave interactions

Authors: Belyihun Muchie

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This study investigates the low English oral communication skills of 5 second-year English major students at Debark University. It aims to identify the key factors contributing to their weaknesses and propose effective interventions to improve their spoken English proficiency. Mixed-methods research will be employed, utilizing observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews to gather data from the participants. To clearly identify these factors, structured and informal observations will be employed; the former will be used to identify their fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary use, and grammar accuracy, and the later will be suited to observe the natural interactions and communication patterns of learners in the classroom setting. The questionnaires will assess their self-perceptions of their skills, perceived barriers to fluency, and preferred learning styles. Interviews will also delve deeper into their experiences and explore specific obstacles faced in oral communication. Data analysis will involve both quantitative and qualitative responses. The structured observation and questionnaire will be analyzed quantitatively, whereas the informal observation and interview transcripts will be analyzed thematically. Findings will be used to identify the major causes of low oral communication skills, such as limited vocabulary, grammatical errors, pronunciation difficulties, or lack of confidence. They are also helpful to develop targeted solutions addressing these causes, such as intensive pronunciation practice, conversation simulations, personalized feedback, or anxiety-reduction techniques. Finally, the findings will guide designing an intervention plan for implementation during the action research phase. The study's outcomes are expected to provide valuable insights into the challenges faced by English major students in developing oral communication skills, contribute to the development of evidence-based interventions for improving spoken English proficiency in similar contexts, and offer practical recommendations for English language instructors and curriculum developers to enhance student learning outcomes. By addressing the specific needs of these students and implementing tailored interventions, this research aims to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical speaking ability, equipping them with the confidence and skills to flourish in English communication settings.

Keywords: oral communication skills, mixed-methods, evidence-based interventions, spoken English proficiency

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Authors: Orly Redlich

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Since the establishment of the state of Israel, and as a result of various events that led to it, Jewish citizens and Arab citizens of the state have been in constant conflict, which finds its expression in most levels of life. Therefore, the attitude of one group member to the other group members is mostly tense, loaded, and saturated with mutual suspicion. Within this reality, in many higher education institutions in Israel, Jews and Arabs meet with each other intensively and for several years. For some students, this is their first opportunity for a meaningful cross-cultural encounter. These intercultural encounters, which allow positive interactions between members of different cultural groups, may contribute to the formation of "intercultural competence" which means long-term change in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior towards 'the other culture'. The current study examined the concept of the ‘other’ among Jewish and Arab students studying together and their "intercultural competence". The study also examined whether there is a difference in the perception of the ‘other’ between students studying in different academic programs, and between students taking academic courses on multiculturalism. This quantitative study was conducted among 274 Arab and Jewish students studying together, for bachelors or master's degree, in various academic programs at the Israel Academic College of Ramat-Gan. The background data of the participants are varied, in terms of religion, origin, religiosity, employment status, living area, and marital status. The main hypothesis is that academic, social, and intercultural encounters between Jewish and Arab students, who attend college together, will be a significant factor in building "intercultural competence". Additionally, the existence of "intercultural competence" has been linked to demographic characteristics of the students, as well as the nature of intercultural encounters between Jews and Arabs in a higher education institution. The dependent variables were measured by a self-report questionnaire, using the components of '"intercultural competence"' among students, which are: 1. Cognitive knowledge of the ‘others’, 2. Feelings towards the ‘others’, 3. Change in attitudes towards the 'others', and 4. Change in behavior towards the ‘others’. The findings indicate a higher "intercultural competence" among Arab students than Jews; it was also found higher level of "intercultural competence" among Educational Counseling students than the other respondents. The importance of this research lies in finding the means to develop "intercultural competence" among Jewish and Arab students, which may reduce prejudice and stereotypes towards the other culture and may even prevent occurrences of alienation and violence in cross-cultural encounters in Israel.

Keywords: cross-cultural learning, intercultural competence, Jewish and Arab students, multiculturalism

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Authors: Youssef I. Hafez

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Since ancient history rivers have been the fostering and favorite place for people and civilizations to live and exist along river banks. However, due to floods and droughts, especially sever conditions due to global warming and climate change, river channels are completely evolving and moving in the lateral direction changing their plan form either through straightening of curved reaches (meander cut-off) or increasing meandering curvature. The lateral shift or shrink of a river channel affects severely the river banks and the flood plain with tremendous impact on the surrounding environment. Therefore, understanding the formation and the continual processes of river channel meandering is of paramount importance. So far, in spite of the huge number of publications about river-meandering, there has not been a satisfactory theory or approach that provides a clear explanation of the formation of river meanders and the mechanics of their associated geometries. In particular two parameters are often needed to describe meander geometry. The first one is a scale parameter such as the meander arc length. The second is a shape parameter such as the maximum angle a meander path makes with the channel mean down path direction. These two parameters, if known, can determine the meander path and geometry as for example when they are incorporated in the well known sine-generated curve. In this study, a uniform excess energy theory is used to illustrate the origin and mechanics of formation of river meandering. This theory advocates that the longitudinal imbalance between the valley and channel slopes (with the former is greater than the second) leads to formation of curved meander channel in order to reduce the excess energy through its expenditure as transverse energy loss. Two relations are developed based on this theory; one for the determination of river channel radius of curvature at the bend apex (shape parameter) and the other for the determination of river channel sinuosity. The sinuosity equation tested very well when applied to existing available field data. In addition, existing model data were used to develop a relation between the meander arc length and the Darcy-Weisback friction factor. Then, the meander wave length was determined from the equations of the arc length and the sinuosity. The developed equation compared well with available field data. Effects of the transverse bed slope and grain size on river channel sinuosity are addressed. In addition, the concept of maximum channel sinuosity is introduced in order to explain the changes of river channel plan form due to changes in flow discharges and sediment loads induced by global warming and climate changes.

Keywords: river channel meandering, sinuosity, radius of curvature, meander arc length, uniform excess energy theory, transverse energy loss, transverse bed slope, flow discharges, sediment loads, grain size, climate change, global warming

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Authors: Morgan Johansson, Joosef Leppanen, Mathias Flansbjer, Fabio Lozano, Josef Makdesi

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Concrete is commonly used for protective structures and how impact loading affects different types of concrete structures is an important issue. Often the knowledge gained from static loading is also used in the design of impulse loaded structures. A large plastic deformation capacity is essential to obtain a large energy absorption in an impulse loaded structure. However, the structural response of an impact loaded concrete beam may be very different compared to a statically loaded beam. Consequently, the plastic deformation capacity and failure modes of the concrete structure can be different when subjected to dynamic loads; and hence it is not sure that the observations obtained from static loading are also valid for dynamic loading. The aim of this paper is to investigate the residual plastic deformation capacity in reinforced concrete beams subjected to drop weight impact tests. A test-series consisting of 18 simply supported beams (0.1 x 0.1 x 1.18 m, ρs = 0.7%) with a span length of 1.0 m and subjected to a point load in the beam mid-point, was carried out. 2x6 beams were first subjected to drop weight impact tests, and thereafter statically tested until failure. The drop in weight had a mass of 10 kg and was dropped from 2.5 m or 5.0 m. During the impact tests, a high-speed camera was used with 5 000 fps and for the static tests, a camera was used with 0.5 fps. Digital image correlation (DIC) analyses were conducted and from these the velocities of the beam and the drop weight, as well as the deformations and crack propagation of the beam, were effectively measured. Additionally, for the static tests, the applied load and midspan deformation were measured. The load-deformation relations for the beams subjected to an impact load were compared with 6 reference beams that were subjected to static loading only. The crack pattern obtained were compared using DIC, and it was concluded that the resulting crack formation depended much on the test method used. For the static tests, only bending cracks occurred. For the impact loaded beams, though, distinctive diagonal shear cracks also formed below the zone of impact and less wide shear cracks were observed in the region half-way to the support. Furthermore, due to wave propagation effects, bending cracks developed in the upper part of the beam during initial loading. The results showed that the plastic deformation capacity increased for beams subjected to drop weight impact tests from a high drop height of 5.0 m. For beams subjected to an impact from a low drop height of 2.5 m, though, the plastic deformation capacity was in the same order of magnitude as for the statically loaded reference beams. The beams tested were designed to fail due to bending when subjected to a static load. However, for the impact tested beams, one beam exhibited a shear failure at a significantly reduced load level when it was tested statically; indicating that there might be a risk of reduced residual load capacity for impact loaded structures.

Keywords: digital image correlation (DIC), drop weight impact, experiments, plastic deformation capacity, reinforced concrete

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Authors: Jineetkumar Gawad, Chandrakant Bonde

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Tuberculosis (TB) is a major worldwide concern whose control has been exacerbated by HIV, the rise of multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB) and extensively drug resistance (XDR-TB) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The interest for newer and faster acting antitubercular drugs are more remarkable than any time. To search potent compounds is need and challenge for researchers. Here, we tried to design lead for inhibition of Decaprenyl phosphoryl-β-D-ribose 2′-epimerase (DprE1) enzyme. Arabinose is an essential constituent of mycobacterial cell wall. DprE1 is a flavoenzyme that converts decaprenylphosphoryl-D-ribose into decaprenylphosphoryl-2-keto-ribose, which is intermediate in biosynthetic pathway of arabinose. Latter, DprE2 converts keto-ribose into decaprenylphosphoryl-D-arabinose. We had a selection of 23 compounds from azaindole series for computational study, and they were drawn using marvisketch. Ligands were prepared using Maestro molecular modeling interface, Schrodinger, v10.5. Common pharmacophore hypotheses were developed by applying dataset thresholds to yield active and inactive set of compounds. There were 326 hypotheses were developed. On the basis of survival score, ADRRR (Survival Score: 5.453) was selected. Selected pharmacophore hypotheses were subjected to virtual screening results into 1000 hits. Hits were prepared and docked with protein 4KW5 (oxydoreductase inhibitor) was downloaded in .pdb format from RCSB Protein Data Bank. Protein was prepared using protein preparation wizard. Protein was preprocessed, the workspace was analyzed using force field OPLS 2005. Glide grid was generated by picking single atom in molecule. Prepared ligands were docked with prepared protein 4KW5 using Glide docking. After docking, on the basis of glide score top-five compounds were selected, (5223, 5812, 0661, 0662, and 2945) and the glide docking score (-8.928, -8.534, -8.412, -8.411, -8.351) respectively. There were interactions of ligand and protein, specifically HIS 132, LYS 418, TRY 230, ASN 385. Pi-pi stacking was observed in few compounds with basic Imidazo [4,5-b] pyridine ring. We had basic azaindole ring in parent compounds, but after glide docking, we received compounds with Imidazo [4,5-b] pyridine as a basic ring. That might be the new lead in the process of drug discovery.

Keywords: DprE1 inhibitors, in silico drug designing, imidazo [4, 5-b] pyridine, lead, tuberculosis

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Authors: P. Naderi, M. N. Ouarzazi, S. C. Hirata, H. Ben Hamed, H. Beji

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The stability of mixed convection in a Newtonian fluid medium heated from below and cooled from above, also known as the Poiseuille-Rayleigh-Bénard problem, has been extensively investigated in the past decades. To our knowledge, mixed convection in porous media has received much less attention in the published literature. The present paper extends the mixed convection problem in porous media for the case of a viscoelastic fluid flow owing to its numerous environmental and industrial applications such as the extrusion of polymer fluids, solidification of liquid crystals, suspension solutions and petroleum activities. Without a superimposed through-flow, the natural convection problem of a viscoelastic fluid in a saturated porous medium has already been treated. The effects of the viscoelastic properties of the fluid on the linear and nonlinear dynamics of the thermoconvective instabilities have also been treated in this work. Consequently, the elasticity of the fluid can lead either to a Hopf bifurcation, giving rise to oscillatory structures in the strongly elastic regime, or to a stationary bifurcation in the weakly elastic regime. The objective of this work is to examine the influence of the main horizontal flow on the linear and characteristics of these two types of instabilities. Under the Boussinesq approximation and Darcy's law extended to a viscoelastic fluid, a temporal stability approach shows that the conditions for the appearance of longitudinal rolls are identical to those found in the absence of through-flow. For the general three-dimensional (3D) perturbations, a Squire transformation allows the deduction of the complex frequencies associated with the 3D problem using those obtained by solving the two-dimensional one. The numerical resolution of the eigenvalue problem concludes that the through-flow has a destabilizing effect and selects a convective configuration organized in purely transversal rolls which oscillate in time and propagate in the direction of the main flow. In addition, by using the mathematical formalism of absolute and convective instabilities, we study the nature of unstable three-dimensional disturbances. It is shown that for a non-vanishing through-flow, general three-dimensional instabilities are convectively unstable which means that in the absence of a continuous noise source these instabilities are drifted outside the porous medium, and no long-term pattern is observed. In contrast, purely transversal rolls may exhibit a transition to absolute instability regime and therefore affect the porous medium everywhere including in the absence of a noise source. The absolute instability threshold, the frequency and the wave number associated with purely transversal rolls are determined as a function of the Péclet number and the viscoelastic parameters. Results are discussed and compared to those obtained from laboratory experiments in the case of Newtonian fluids.

Keywords: instability, mixed convection, porous media, and viscoelastic fluid

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Authors: Eric Granholm, Christophe Delay, Jason Holden, Peter Link

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Negative symptoms are an important unmet treatment needed for schizophrenia. We conducted an open trial of a novel blended intervention called mobile-assisted cognitive behavior therapy for negative symptoms (mCBTn). mCBTn is a weekly group therapy intervention combining in-person and smartphone-based CBT (CBT2go app) to improve experiential negative symptoms in people with schizophrenia. Both the therapy group and CBT2go app included recovery goal setting, thought challenging, scheduling of pleasurable activities and social interactions, and pleasure savoring interventions to modify defeatist attitudes, a target mechanism associated with negative symptoms, and improve experiential negative symptoms. We tested whether participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (N=31) who met prospective criteria for persistent negative symptoms showed improvement in experiential negative symptoms. Retention was excellent (87% at 18 weeks) and severity of defeatist attitudes and motivation and pleasure negative symptoms declined significantly in mCBTn with large effect sizes. We also tested whether pupillary responses, a measure of cognitive effort, predicted improvement in negative symptoms mCBTn. Pupillary responses were recorded at baseline using a Tobii pupillometer during the digit span task with 3-, 6- and 9-digit spans. Mixed models showed that greater dilation during the task at baseline significantly predicted a greater reduction in experiential negative symptoms. Pupillary responses may provide a much-needed prognostic biomarker of which patients are most likely to benefit from CBT. Greater pupil dilation during a cognitive task predicted greater improvement in experiential negative symptoms. Pupil dilation has been linked to motivation and engagement of executive control, so these factors may contribute to benefits in interventions that train cognitive skills to manage negative thoughts and emotions. The findings suggest mCBTn is a feasible and effective treatment for experiential negative symptoms and justify a larger randomized controlled clinical trial. The findings also provide support for the defeatist attitude model of experiential negative symptoms and suggest that mobile-assisted interventions like mCBTn can strengthen and shorten intensive psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia.

Keywords: cognitive-behavioral therapy, mobile interventions, negative symptoms, pupillometry schizophrenia

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Authors: Norsuhana Omar, Amilia Aminuddina Zaiton Zakaria, Raifana Rosa Mohamad Sattar, Kalaivani Chellappan, Mohd Alauddin Mohd Ali, Norizam Salamt, Zanariyah Asmawi, Norliza Saari, Aini Farzana Zulkefli, Nor Anita Megat Mohd. Nordin

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Inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of vascular dysfunction leading to arterial stiffness. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AS), as tools for the assessment of vascular damages are widely used and have been shown to predict cardiovascular disease (CVD). C-reactive protein (CRP) is a marker of inflammation. Several studies noted that regular exercise is associated with reduced arterial stiffness. The lack of exercise among Malaysians and the increasing CVD morbidity and mortality among young men are of concern. In Malaysia data on the workplace exercise intervention is scarce. A programme was designed to enable subjects to increase their level of walking as part of their daily work routine and self-monitored by using pedometers. The aim of this study to evaluate the reducing of inflammation by measuring CRP and improvement arterial stiffness measured by carotid femoral PWV (PWVCF) and AI. A total of 70 young men (20 - 40 years) who were sedentary, achieving less than 5,000 steps/day in casual walking with 2 or more cardiovascular risk factors were recruited in Institute of Vocational Skills for Youth (IKBN Hulu Langat). Subjects were randomly assigned to a control (CG) (n=34; no change in walking) and pedometer group (PG) (n=36; minimum target: 8,000 steps/day). The CRP was measured by using immunological method while PWVCF and AI were measured using Vicorder. All parameters were measured at baseline and after 12 weeks. Data for analysis was conducted using Statistical Package of Social Sciences Version 22 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). At post intervention, the CG step counts were similar (4983 ± 366vs 5697 ± 407steps/day). The PG increased step count from 4996 ± 805 to 10,128 ±511 steps/day (P<0.001). The PG showed significant improvement in anthropometric variables and lipid (time and group effect p<0.001). For vascular assessment, the PG showed significantly decreased for time and effect (p<0.001) for PWV (7.21± 0.83 to 6.42 ± 0.89) m/s; AI (11.88± 6.25 to 8.83 ± 3.7) % and CRP (pre= 2.28 ± 3.09, post=1.08± 1.37mg/L). However, no changes were seen in CG. As a conclusion, a pedometer-based walking programme may be an effective strategy for promoting increased daily physical activity which reduces cardiovascular risk markers and thus improve cardiovascular health in terms of inflammation and arterial stiffness. The community intervention for health maintenance has potential to adopt walking as an exercise and adopting vascular fitness index as the performance measuring tools.

Keywords: arterial stiffness, exercise, inflammation, pedometer

Procedia PDF Downloads 353

Authors: Frans J. Smit, Wisdom A. Munzeiwa, Hermanus C. M. Vosloo, Lyn-Marie Birkholtz, Richard K. Haynes

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Malaria and antimicrobial infections remain significant global health concerns, necessitating the continuous search for novel therapeutic approaches. This abstract presents an overview of the potential use of triazenes as effective agents against malaria and various antimicrobial pathogens. Triazenes are a class of compounds characterized by a linear arrangement of three nitrogen atoms, rendering them structurally distinct from their cyclic counterparts. This study investigates the efficacy of triazenes against malaria and explores their antimicrobial activity. Preliminary results revealed significant antimalarial activity of the triazenes, as evidenced by in vitro screening against P. falciparum, the causative agent of malaria. Furthermore, the compounds exhibited broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, indicating their potential as effective antimicrobial agents. These compounds have shown inhibitory effects on various essential enzymes and processes involved in parasite survival, replication, and transmission. The mechanism of action of triazenes against malaria involves interactions with critical molecular targets, such as enzymes involved in the parasite's metabolic pathways and proteins responsible for host cell invasion. The antimicrobial activity of the triazenes against bacteria and fungi was investigated through disc diffusion screening. The antimicrobial efficacy of triazenes has been observed against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as multidrug-resistant strains, making them potential candidates for combating drug-resistant infections. Furthermore, triazenes possess favourable physicochemical properties, such as good stability, solubility, and low toxicity, which are essential for drug development. The structural versatility of triazenes allows for the modification of their chemical composition to enhance their potency, selectivity, and pharmacokinetic properties. These modifications can be tailored to target specific pathogens, increasing the potential for personalized treatment strategies. In conclusion, this study highlights the potential of triazenes as promising candidates for the development of novel antimalarial and antimicrobial therapeutics. Further investigations are necessary to determine the structure-activity relationships and optimize the pharmacological properties of these compounds. The results warrant additional research, including MIC studies, to further explore the antimicrobial activity of the triazenes. Ultimately, these findings contribute to the development of more effective strategies for combating malaria and microbial infections.

Keywords: malaria, anti-microbials, triazene, resistance

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Authors: Oluwafunmibi Omotayo Fasanya, Augustine Kena Adjei

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Depression has emerged as a growing public health issue, with the limited effectiveness of current treatment methods driving the search for modifiable lifestyle factors. Physical inactivity and poor dietary habits are consistently identified as factors associated with increased depression symptoms. While the independent effects of physical activity (PA) and dietary quality (DQ) on mental health are well established, the combined influence of both factors on depression has not been thoroughly examined in a representative sample of U.S. adults. This study aims to explore the individual and joint associations of PA and DQ with depression symptoms, highlighting their combined impact on adults across the U.S. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007 to 2020, we evaluated the relationships between PA (measured through metabolic equivalent (MET) minutes per week) and DQ (assessed using the Healthy Eating Index [HEI]-2015) and depression symptoms (defined by a score of ≥10 on the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]). Participants were classified into four lifestyle categories: (1) healthy diet and active, (2) unhealthy diet but active, (3) healthy diet but inactive, and (4) unhealthy diet and inactive. Logistic regression models adjusted for relevant covariates were used to examine associations, with age-adjusted prevalence rates for depression calculated according to NHANES guidelines. Data from 21,530 participants, representing approximately 954 million U.S. adults aged 20-80 years, were analyzed. The overall age-adjusted prevalence of depression symptoms was 7.15%. A total of 83.1% of participants met PA recommendations, and 27.3% scored above the 60th percentile in the HEI-2015 index. Higher PA levels were inversely related to depression symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 0.805; 95% CI: 0.724-0.920), as was better dietary quality (AOR: 0.788; 95% CI: 0.690-0.910). A combination of healthy diet and adequate PA was associated with the lowest risk of depression symptoms (AOR: 0.635; 95% CI: 0.520-0.775) compared to inactive participants with unhealthy diets. Notably, participants with either a healthy diet or adequate PA but not both did not experience the same reduction in depression risk. This study highlights that the combination of a healthy diet and regular physical activity offers a synergistic protective effect against depression symptoms in U.S. adults. Public health initiatives targeting both dietary improvements and increased physical activity may significantly reduce the burden of depression across populations. Further research should focus on understanding the mechanisms underlying these interactions.

Keywords: dietary quality, physical activity, depression, healthy eating

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Authors: Natalia Uribe Corrales, María Fernanda Benavides Erazo, Santiago Henao Villegas

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Introduction: Transport is a crucial link in the porcine chain because it is considered a stressful event in the animal, due to it is a new environment, which generates new interactions, together with factors such as speed, noise, temperature changes, vibrations, deprivation of food and water. Therefore, inadequate handling at this stage can lead to bruises, musculoskeletal injuries, fatigue, and mortality, resulting in canal seizures and economic losses. Objective: To characterize the transport and driving practices for the mobilization of standing pigs directed to slaughter plants in the Valle de Aburrá, Antioquia, Colombia in 2017. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with the transporters arriving at the slaughterhouses approved by National Institute for Food and Medicine Surveillance (INVIMA) during 2017 in the Valle de Aburrá. The process of obtaining the samples was made from probabilistic sampling. Variables such as journey time, mechanical technical certificate, training in animal welfare, driving speed, material, and condition of floors and separators, supervision of animals during the trip, load density and mortality were analyzed. It was approved by the ethics committee for the use and care of animals CICUA of CES University, Act number 14 of 2015. Results: 190 trucks were analyzed, finding that 12.4% did not have updated mechanical technical certificate; the transporters experience in pig’s transportation was an average of 9.4 years (d.e.7.5). The 85.8% reported not having received training in animal welfare. Other results were that the average speed was 63.04km/hr (d.e 13.46) and the 62% had floors in good condition; nevertheless, the 48% had bad conditions on separators. On the other hand, the 88% did not supervise their animals during the journey, although the 62.2% had an adequate loading density, in relation to the average mortality was 0.2 deaths/travel (d.e. 0.5). Conclusions: Trainers should be encouraged on issues such as proper maintenance of vehicles, animal welfare, obligatory review of animals during mobilization and speed of driving, as these poorly managed indicators generate stress in animals, increasing generation of injuries as well as possible accidents; also, it is necessary to continue to improve aspects such as aluminum floors and separators that favor easy cleaning and maintenance, as well as the appropriate handling in the density of load that generates animal welfare.

Keywords: animal welfare, driving practices, pigs, truck infrastructure

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Authors: Asim Abbasi, Muhammad Sufyan, Iqra, Muhammad Ibrahim Shahid, Muhammad Ashfaq

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The foundation of human life on earth relies on many ecosystem services provided by insects of which pollination owes a vital role. The pollination service offered by insects has annual worth of approximately €153 billion. The majority of the flowering plants depends on entomophiles pollination for their reproduction and formation of seeds and fruits. The quantity and quality of insect pollination have multiple implications for stable ecosystem, diverse species level, food security and climate change resilience. The rapidly mounting human population, depletion of natural resources and the global climate change forced us to enter an era of pollination crisis. Climate change not only alters the phenology, population abundance and geographic ranges of different pollinators but also hinders their pollination activities. The successful pollination process relies heavily on the synchronization of biological events of pollinators with the phenological stages of the flowering plants. However, there are possibilities that impending climatic changes may result in asynchrony between plant-pollinators interactions and also mitigate the extent of pollination. The trophic mismatch mostly occurs when pollinators and plants inhabiting the same environment use different environmental cues to regulate their biological events, as these cues are not equally affected by climate change. Synchrony has also been disrupted when one of the interacting species has migratory nature and depend on cues for migration. Moreover, irregular rainfalls and up-surging temperature also disrupts the foraging behaviour of pollinators resulting in reduced flowers visits by insect. Climate change has a direct impact on the behavior and physiology of honey bees, the best known pollinators owing to their extreme floral fidelity. Rising temperature not only alleviates the quantity and quality of floral environment but also alters the bee’s colony harvesting and development ability. Furthermore, a possible earlier decline of flowers is expected in a growing season due to this rising temperature. This may also lead to disrupt the efficiency bumblebee queen that require a constant and adequate nectar and pollen supply throughout the entire growing season for healthy colony production. Considering the role of insect pollination in our ecosystem, their associated risks regarding climate change should be addressed properly for devising a well-focused research needed for their conservation.

Keywords: climate change, phenological, pollination, synchronization

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Authors: Sukran Karatas

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Authentic energy network interrelations between the Creator and the creations as well as from creations to creations are the most important points for the worlds of physics and metaphysic to unite together and work in harmony, both within human beings, on the other hand, have the ability to choose their own life style voluntarily. However, it includes the automated involuntary spirit, soul and body working systems together with the voluntary actions, which involve personal, cultural and universal, rational or irrational variable values. Therefore, it is necessary for human beings to know the methods of existing authentic energy network connections to be able to communicate correlate and accommodate the physical and metaphysical entities as a proper functioning unity; this is essential for complete human psychological, biological and social well-being. Authentic knowledge is necessary for human beings to verify the position of self within self and with others to regulate conscious and voluntary actions accordingly in order to prevent oppressions and frictions within self and between self and others. Unfortunately, the absence of genuine individual and universal basic knowledge about how to establish an authentic energy network connection within self, with the deity and the environment is the most problematic issue even in the twenty-first century. The second most problematic issue is how to maintain freedom, equality and justice among human beings during these strictly interwoven network connections, which naturally involve physical, metaphysical and behavioral actions of the self and the others. The third and probably the most complicated problem is the scientific identification and the authentication of the deity. This not only provides the whole power and control over the choosers to set their life orders but also to establish perfect physical and metaphysical links as fully coordinated functional energy network. This thus indicates that choosing an authentic deity is the key-point that influences automated, emotional, and behavioral actions altogether, which shapes human perception, personal actions, and life orders. Therefore, we will be considering the existing ‘four types of energy wave end boundary behaviors’, comprising, free end, fixed end boundary behaviors, as well as boundary behaviors from denser medium to less dense medium and from less dense medium to denser medium. Consequently, this article aims to demonstrate that the authentication and the choice of deity has an important effect on individual psychological, biological and social health. It is hoped that it will encourage new researches in the field of authentic energy network connections to establish the best position and the most correct interrelation connections with self and others without violating the authorized orders and the borders of one another to live happier and healthier lives together. In addition, the book ‘Deity and Freedom, Equality, Justice in History, Philosophy, Science’ has more detailed information for those interested in this subject.

Keywords: deity, energy network, power, freedom, equality, justice, happiness, sadness, hope, fear, psychology, biology, sociology

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Authors: Yufeng Wu, Yifan Gu, Bin Li, Wei Wang

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Resource recycling process contains a subsystem with interactions of three dimensions including coupling allocation of primary and secondary resources, responsibility coordination of stakeholders in forward and reverse supply chains, and trans-boundary transfer of hidden resource and environmental responsibilities between regions. Overlap or lack of responsibilities is easy to appear at the intersection of the three management dimensions. It is urgent to make an overall design of the policy system for recycling resources. From theoretical perspective, this paper analyzes the unique external differences of resource and environment in various dimensions and explores the reason why the effects of trans-dimensional policies are strongly correlated. Taking the example of the copper resources contained in the waste electrical and electronic equipment, this paper constructs reduction effect accounting model of resources recycling and set four trans-dimensional policy scenarios including resources tax and environmental tax reform of the raw and secondary resources, application of extended producer responsibility system, promotion of clean development mechanism, and strict entry barriers of imported wastes. In these ways, the paper simulates the impact effect of resources recycling process on resource deduction and emission reduction of waste water and gas, and constructs trans-dimensional policy mix scenario through integrating dominant strategy. The results show that combined application of various dimensional policies can achieve incentive compatibility and the trans-dimensional policy mix scenario can reach a better effect. Compared with baseline scenario, this scenario will increase 91.06% copper resources reduction effect and improve emission reduction of waste water and gas by eight times from 2010 to 2030. This paper further analyzes the development orientation of policies in various dimension. In resource dimension, the combined application of compulsory, market and authentication methods should be promoted to improve the use ratio of secondary resources. In supply chain dimension, resource value, residual functional value and potential information value contained in waste products should be fully excavated to construct a circular business system. In regional dimension, it should give full play to the comparative advantages of manufacturing power to improve China’s voice in resource recycling in the world.

Keywords: resource recycling, trans-dimension, policy design, incentive compatibility, life cycle

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Authors: Ayalew Yimam Ali

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The T-shaped microchannel is used to mix both miscible or immiscible fluids with different viscosities. However, mixing at the entrance of the T-junction microchannel can be difficult mixing phenomena due to micro-scale laminar flow aspects with the two miscible high-viscosity water-glycerol fluids. One of the most promising methods to improve mixing performance and diffusion mass transfer in laminar flow phenomena is acoustic streaming (AS), which is a time-averaged, second-order steady streaming that can produce rolling motion in the microchannel by oscillating a low-frequency range acoustic transducer and inducing an acoustic wave in the flow field. The newly developed 3D trapezoidal, triangular structure spine used in this study was created using sophisticated CNC machine cutting tools used to create microchannel mold with a 3D trapezoidal triangular structure spine alone the T-junction longitudinal mixing region. In order to create the molds for the 3D trapezoidal structure with the 3D sharp edge tip angles of 30° and 0.3mm trapezoidal, triangular sharp edge tip depth from PMMA glass (Polymethylmethacrylate) with advanced CNC machine and the channel manufactured using PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) which is grown up longitudinally on the top surface of the Y-junction microchannel using soft lithography nanofabrication strategies. Flow visualization of 3D rolling steady acoustic streaming and mixing enhancement with high-viscosity miscible fluids with different trapezoidal, triangular structure longitudinal length, channel width, high volume flow rate, oscillation frequency, and amplitude using micro-particle image velocimetry (μPIV) techniques were used to study the 3D acoustic streaming flow patterns and mixing enhancement. The streaming velocity fields and vorticity flow fields show 16 times more high vorticity maps than in the absence of acoustic streaming, and mixing performance has been evaluated at various amplitudes, flow rates, and frequencies using the grayscale value of pixel intensity with MATLAB software. Mixing experiments were performed using fluorescent green dye solution with de-ionized water in one inlet side of the channel, and the de-ionized water-glycerol mixture on the other inlet side of the T-channel and degree of mixing was found to have greatly improved from 67.42% without acoustic streaming to 0.96.83% with acoustic streaming. The results show that the creation of a new 3D steady streaming rolling motion with a high volume flowrate around the entrance was enhanced by the formation of a new, three-dimensional, intense streaming rolling motion with a high-volume flowrate around the entrance junction mixing zone with the two miscible high-viscous fluids which are influenced by laminar flow fluid transport phenomena.

Keywords: micro fabrication, 3d acoustic streaming flow visualization, micro-particle image velocimetry, mixing enhancement.

Procedia PDF Downloads 20

Authors: Sajana Suwal, Ganesh R. Nhemafuki

Abstract:

Evaluation of ground response under earthquake shaking is crucial in geotechnical earthquake engineering. Damage due to seismic excitation is mainly correlated to local geological and geotechnical conditions. It is evident from the past earthquakes (e.g. 1906 San Francisco, USA, 1923 Kanto, Japan) that the local geology has strong influence on amplitude and duration of ground motions. Since then significant studies has been conducted on ground motion amplification revealing the importance of influence of local geology on ground. Observations from the damaging earthquakes (e.g. Nigata and San Francisco, 1964; Irpinia, 1980; Mexico, 1985; Kobe, 1995; L’Aquila, 2009) divulged that non-uniform damage pattern, particularly in soft fluvio-lacustrine deposit is due to the local amplification of seismic ground motion. Non-uniform damage patterns are also observed in Kathmandu Valley during 1934 Bihar Nepal earthquake and recent 2015 Gorkha earthquake seemingly due to the modification of earthquake ground motion parameters. In this study, site effects resulting from amplification of soft soil in Kathmandu are presented. A large amount of subsoil data was collected and used for defining the appropriate subsoil model for the Kathamandu valley. A comparative study of one-dimensional total-stress equivalent linear and non-linear site response is performed using four strong ground motions for six sites of Kathmandu valley. In general, one-dimensional (1D) site-response analysis involves the excitation of a soil profile using the horizontal component and calculating the response at individual soil layers. In the present study, both equivalent linear and non-linear site response analyses were conducted using the computer program DEEPSOIL. The results show that there is no significant deviation between equivalent linear and non-linear site response models until the maximum strain reaches to 0.06-0.1%. Overall, it is clearly observed from the results that non-linear site response model perform better as compared to equivalent linear model. However, the significant deviation between two models is resulted from other influencing factors such as assumptions made in 1D site response, lack of accurate values of shear wave velocity and nonlinear properties of the soil deposit. The results are also presented in terms of amplification factors which are predicted to be around four times more in case of non-linear analysis as compared to equivalent linear analysis. Hence, the nonlinear behavior of soil prevails the urgent need of study of dynamic characteristics of the soft soil deposit that can specifically represent the site-specific design spectra for the Kathmandu valley for building resilient structures from future damaging earthquakes.

Keywords: deep soil, equivalent linear analysis, non-linear analysis, site response

Procedia PDF Downloads 291

Authors: Jamil Lane, Jason Freeman

Abstract:

Background: The role of interpersonal relationships is vital predictors of adolescents’ eating habits, exercise activity, and health problems including obesity. The effect of interpersonal relationships (i.e. family, friends, and intimate partners) on individual health behaviors and development have gained considerable attention during the past 10 years. Teenagers eating habits and exercise activities are established through a dynamic course involving internal and external factors such as food preferences, body weight perception, and parental and peer influence. When conceptualizing one’s interpersonal relationships, it is important to understand that how one relates to others is shaped by their culture. East-Asian culture has been characterized as collectivistic, which describes the significant role intergroup relationships play in their construction of the self. Cultures found in North America, on the other hand, can be characterized as individualistic, meaning that these cultures encourage individuals to prioritize their interest over the needs and want of their compatriots. Individuals from collectivistic cultures typically have stronger boundaries between in-group and out-group membership, whereas those from individualistic cultures see themselves as distinct and separate from strangers as well as family or friends. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of collectivism and individualism on interpersonal relationships that shapes eating patterns and physical activity among Asian-American and European-American adolescents. Design/Methods: Analyses were based on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the United States who were surveyed from 1994 through 2008. This data will be used to examine interpersonal relationship factors that shape dietary intake and physical activity patterns within the Asian-American and European-American population in the United States. Factors relating to relationship strength, eating, and exercise behaviors were reported by participants in this first wave of data collection (1995). We plan to analyze our data using intragroup comparisons among those who identified as 'Asian-American' (n = 270) and 'White or European American' (n = 4,294) among the domains of positivity of peer influence and level of physical activity / healthy eating. Further, intergroup comparisons of these relationships will be made to extricate how the role positive peer influence in maintaining healthy eating and exercise habits differs with cultural variation. Results: We hypothesize that East-Asian participants with a higher degree of positivity in their peer and family relationships will experience a significantly greater rise in healthy eating and exercise behaviors than European-American participants with similar degrees of relationship positivity.

Keywords: interpersonal relationships, eating patterns, physical activity, adolescent health

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: S. Srinivasan, E. Cretu

Abstract:

The information flow (e.g. block-diagram or signal flow graph) paradigm for the design and simulation of Microelectromechanical (MEMS)-based systems allows to model MEMS devices using causal transfer functions easily, and interface them with electronic subsystems for fast system-level explorations of design alternatives and optimization. Nevertheless, the physical bi-directional coupling between different energy domains is not easily captured in causal signal flow modeling. Moreover, models of fundamental components acting as building blocks (e.g. gap-varying MEMS capacitor structures) depend not only on the component, but also on the specific excitation mode (e.g. voltage or charge-actuation). In contrast, the energy flow modeling paradigm in terms of generalized across-through variables offers an acausal perspective, separating clearly the physical model from the boundary conditions. This promotes reusability and the use of primitive physical models for assembling MEMS devices from primitive structures, based on the interconnection topology in generalized circuits. The physical modeling capabilities of Simscape have been used in the present work in order to develop a MEMS library containing parameterized fundamental building blocks (area and gap-varying MEMS capacitors, nonlinear springs, displacement stoppers, etc.) for the design, simulation and optimization of MEMS inertial sensors. The models capture both the nonlinear electromechanical interactions and geometrical nonlinearities and can be used for both small and large signal analyses, including the numerical computation of pull-in voltages (stability loss). Simscape behavioral modeling language was used for the implementation of reduced-order macro models, that present the advantage of a seamless interface with Simulink blocks, for creating hybrid information/energy flow system models. Test bench simulations of the library models compare favorably with both analytical results and with more in-depth finite element simulations performed in ANSYS. Separate MEMS-electronic integration tests were done on closed-loop MEMS accelerometers, where Simscape was used for modeling the MEMS device and Simulink for the electronic subsystem.

Keywords: across-through variables, electromechanical coupling, energy flow, information flow, Matlab/Simulink, MEMS, nonlinear, pull-in instability, reduced order macro models, Simscape

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Keigo Ide, Toru Maruyama, Michihiro Ito, Hiroyuki Fujimura, Yoshikatu Nakano, Shoichiro Suda, Sachiyo Aburatani, Haruko Takeyama

Abstract:

Understanding environmental system is one of the important tasks. In recent years, conservation of coral environments has been focused for biodiversity issues. The damage of coral reef under environmental impacts has been observed worldwide. However, the casual relationship between damage of coral and environmental impacts has not been clearly understood. On the other hand, structure/diversity of marine bacterial community may be relatively robust under the certain strength of environmental impact. To evaluate the coral environment conditions, it is necessary to investigate relationship between marine bacterial composition in coral reef and environmental factors. In this study, the Time Scale Network Analysis was developed and applied to analyze the marine environmental data for investigating the relationship among coral, bacterial community compositions and environmental factors. Seawater samples were collected fifteen times from November 2014 to May 2016 at two locations, Ishikawabaru and South of Sesoko in Sesoko Island, Okinawa. The physicochemical factors such as temperature, photosynthetic active radiation, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, salinity, chlorophyll, dissolved organic matter and depth were measured at the coral reef area. Metagenome and metatranscriptome in seawater of coral reef were analyzed as the biological factors. Metagenome data was used to clarify marine bacterial community composition. In addition, functional gene composition was estimated from metatranscriptome. For speculating the relationships between physicochemical and biological factors, cross-correlation analysis was applied to time scale data. Even though cross-correlation coefficients usually include the time precedence information, it also included indirect interactions between the variables. To elucidate the direct regulations between both factors, partial correlation coefficients were combined with cross correlation. This analysis was performed against all parameters such as the bacterial composition, the functional gene composition and the physicochemical factors. As the results, time scale network analysis revealed the direct regulation of seawater temperature by photosynthetic active radiation. In addition, concentration of dissolved oxygen regulated the value of chlorophyll. Some reasonable regulatory relationships between environmental factors indicate some part of mechanisms in coral reef area.

Keywords: coral environment, marine microbiology, network analysis, omics data analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Devi Eka Septiyani Arifin, Jrjeng Ruan

Abstract:

As an approach to manipulate the performance of polymer thin film, epitaxy crystallization within polymer blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymer poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) P(VDF-TrFE) was studied in this research, which involves the competition between phase separation and crystal growth of constitutive semicrystalline polymers. The unique piezoelectric feature of poly(vinylidene fluoride) crystalline phase is derived from the packing of molecular chains in all-trans conformation, which spatially arranges all the substituted fluorene atoms on one side of the molecular chain and hydrogen atoms on the other side. Therefore, the net dipole moment is induced across the lateral packing of molecular chains. Nevertheless, due to the mutual repulsion among fluorene atoms, this all-trans molecular conformation is not stable, and ready to change above curie temperature, where thermal energy is sufficient to cause segmental rotation. This research attempts to explore whether the epitaxial interactions between piezoelectric crystals and crystal lattice of hexamethylbenzene (HMB) crystalline platelet is able to stabilize this metastable all-trans molecular conformation or not. As an aromatic crystalline compound, the melt of HMB was surprisingly found able to dissolve the poly(vinylidene fluoride), resulting in homogeneous eutectic solution. Thus, after quenching this binary eutectic mixture to room temperature, subsequent heating or annealing processes were designed to explore the involve phase separation and crystallization behavior. The phase transition behaviors were observed in-situ by X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The molecular packing was observed via transmission electron microscope (TEM) and the principles of electron diffraction were brought to study the internal crystal structure epitaxially developed within thin films. Obtained results clearly indicated the occurrence of heteroepitaxy of PVDF/PVDF-TrFE on HMB crystalline platelet. Both the concentration of poly(vinylidene fluoride) and the mixing ratios of these two constitutive polymers have been adopted as the influential factors for studying the competition between the epitaxial crystallization of PVDF and P(VDF-TrFE) on HMB crystalline. Furthermore, the involved epitaxial relationship is to be deciphered and studied as a potential factor capable of guiding the wide spread of piezoelectric crystalline form.

Keywords: epitaxy, crystallization, crystalline platelet, thin film and mixing ratio

Procedia PDF Downloads 223

Authors: Mohamed Dakki, Genevieve Robin, Marie Suet, Abdeljebbar Qninba, Mohamed A. El Agbani, Asmâa Ouassou, Rhimou El Hamoumi, Hichem Azafzaf, Sami Rebah, Claudia Feltrup-Azafzaf, Nafouel Hamouda, Wed a.L. Ibrahim, Hosni H. Asran, Amr A. Elhady, Haitham Ibrahim, Khaled Etayeb, Essam Bouras, Almokhtar Saied, Ashrof Glidan, Bakar M. Habib, Mohamed S. Sayoud, Nadjiba Bendjedda, Laura Dami, Clemence Deschamps, Elie Gaget, Jean-Yves Mondain-Monval, Pierre Defos Du Rau

Abstract:

In biodiversity monitoring, large datasets are becoming more and more widely available and are increasingly used globally to estimate species trends and con- servation status. These large-scale datasets challenge existing statistical analysis methods, many of which are not adapted to their size, incompleteness and heterogeneity. The development of scalable methods to impute missing data in incomplete large-scale monitoring datasets is crucial to balance sampling in time or space and thus better inform conservation policies. We developed a new method based on penalized Poisson models to impute and analyse incomplete monitoring data in a large-scale framework. The method al- lows parameterization of (a) space and time factors, (b) the main effects of predic- tor covariates, as well as (c) space–time interactions. It also benefits from robust statistical and computational capability in large-scale settings. The method was tested extensively on both simulated and real-life waterbird data, with the findings revealing that it outperforms six existing methods in terms of missing data imputation errors. Applying the method to 16 waterbird species, we estimated their long-term trends for the first time at the entire North African scale, a region where monitoring data suffer from many gaps in space and time series. This new approach opens promising perspectives to increase the accuracy of species-abundance trend estimations. We made it freely available in the r package ‘lori’ (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=lori) and recommend its use for large- scale count data, particularly in citizen science monitoring programmes.

Keywords: biodiversity monitoring, high-dimensional statistics, incomplete count data, missing data imputation, waterbird trends in North-Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Julia Cristina Bonaldo, Christophe L. Martin, Severine Romero Baivier, Stephane Mazerat

Abstract:

Alumina refractories are commonly used in steel and foundry industries. These refractories are prepared through a powder metallurgy route. They are a mixture of hard alumina particles and graphite platelets embedded into a soft carbonic matrix (binder). The powder can be cold pressed isostatically or uniaxially, depending on the application. The compact is then fired to obtain the final product. The quality of the product is governed by the microstructure of the composite and by the process parameters. The compaction behavior and the mechanical properties of the fired product depend greatly on the amount of each phase, on their morphology and on the initial microstructure. In order to better understand the link between these parameters and the macroscopic behavior, we use the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to simulate the compaction process and the fracture behavior of the fired composite. These simulations are coupled with well-designed experiments. Four mixes with various amounts of Al₂O₃ and binder were tested both experimentally and numerically. In DEM, each particle is modelled and the interactions between particles are taken into account through appropriate contact or bonding laws. Here, we model a bimodal mixture of large Al₂O₃ and small Al₂O₃ covered with a soft binder. This composite is itself mixed with graphite platelets. X-ray tomography images are used to analyze the morphologies of the different components. Large Al₂O₃ particles and graphite platelets are modelled in DEM as sets of particles bonded together. The binder is modelled as a soft shell that covers both large and small Al₂O₃ particles. When two particles with binder indent each other, they first interact through this soft shell. Once a critical indentation is reached (towards the end of compaction), hard Al₂O₃ - Al₂O₃ contacts appear. In accordance with experimental data, DEM simulations show that the amount of Al₂O₃ and the amount of binder play a major role for the compaction behavior. The graphite platelets bend and break during the compaction, also contributing to the macroscopic stress. Firing step is modeled in DEM by ascribing bonds to particles which contact each other after compaction. The fracture behavior of the compacted mixture is also simulated and compared with experimental data. Both diametrical tests (Brazilian tests) and triaxial tests are carried out. Again, the link between the amount of Al₂O₃ particles and the fracture behavior is investigated. The methodology described here can be generalized to other particulate materials that are used in the ceramic industry.

Keywords: cold compaction, composites, discrete element method, refractory materials, x-ray tomography

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Everard van Kemenade

Abstract:

Many quality improvement activities are planned. Leaders are strongly involved in missions, visions and strategic planning. They use, consciously or unconsciously, the PDCA-cycle, also know as the Deming cycle. After the planning, the plans are carried out and the results or effects are measured. If the results show that the goals in the plan have not been achieved, adjustments are made in the next plan or in the execution of the processes. Then, the cycle is run through again. Traditionally, the PDCA-cycle is advocated as a means to an end. However, PDCA is especially fit for planned, ordered, certain contexts. It fits with the empirical and referential quality paradigm. For uncertain, unordered, unplanned processes, something else might be needed instead of Plan-Do-Check-Act. Due to the complexity of our society, the influence of the context, and the uncertainty in our world nowadays, not every activity can be planned anymore. At the same time organisations need to be more innovative than ever. That provides leaders with ‘wicked tendencies’. However, that raises the question how one can innovate without being able to plan? Complexity science studies the interactions of a diverse group of agents that bring about change in times of uncertainty, e.g. when radical innovation is co-created. This process is called emergence. This research study explores the role of leadership in the emergence paradigm. Aim of the article is to study the way that leadership can support the emergence of innovation in a complex context. First, clarity is given on the concepts used in the research question: complexity, emergence, innovation and leadership. Thereafter a literature search is conducted to answer the research question. The topics ‘emergent leadership’ or ‘complexity leadership’ are chosen for an exploratory search in Google and Google Scholar using the berry picking method. Exclusion criterion is emergence in other disciplines than organizational development or in the meaning of ‘arising’. The literature search conducted gave 45 hits. Twenty-seven articles were excluded after reading the title and abstract because they did not research the topic of emergent leadership and complexity. After reading the remaining articles as a whole one more was excluded because the article used emergent in the limited meaning of ‗arising‘ and eight more were excluded because the topic did not match the research question of this article. That brings the total of the search to 17 articles. The useful conclusions from the articles are merged and grouped together under overarching topics, using thematic analysis. The findings are that 5 topics prevail when looking at possibilities for leadership to facilitate innovation: enabling, sharing values, dreaming, interacting, context sensitivity and adaptivity. Together they form In Dutch the acronym Medusa.

Keywords: complexity science, emergence, leadership in the emergence paradigm, innovation, the Medusa principles

Procedia PDF Downloads 29

Authors: Murray Anderson, Galina Freed, Karli Jahn

Abstract:

Trauma is increasingly recognized as an important construct that has health implications for those who struggle with various mental health issues. For those individuals who meet the criteria for a diagnosis of hoarding disorder (HD), many have experienced some form of trauma. Further, some of the therapeutic interventions for those with HD can further perpetuate or magnify the experience of trauma. Therefore, the aim of this scoping review is to identify and document the nature and extent of research evidence related to trauma as it connects with HD. This review was guided by the questions, ‘How can our understanding of the trauma cycle help us to better appreciate the experiences of individuals who hoard, and how will a trauma informed lens inform the interventions for hoarding disorder? A comprehensive literature search was performed to identify original studies that contained the words “hoarding” and “trauma.” PsychINFO”,''EBSCO host,” “CINAHL” and “PubMed” were searched between January 2005 and April 2021. Articles were screened by three reviewers. Data extracted included publication date, demographics, study design, type of analysis, and noted connections between hoarding and trauma. Of the 329 articles, all duplicates, articles on hoardings of animals, articles not in English, and those without full-text availability were removed. Five categories were found in the remaining 45 articles, including (a) traumatic and stressful life events; (b) the link between posttraumatic stress disorder, trauma, and hoarding; (c) the relationships between different comorbidities, trauma, and hoarding; (d) the lack of early emotional expression and other forms of parental deprivation; and (e) the role of attachment. Lastly, the literature explains how the links between hoarding and trauma are difficult to study due to the highly stigmatized identities with this population. The review provided strong support for the connections between the experience of trauma and HD. What is missing from the literature is the use of a trauma-informed lens to better account for the ways in which hoarding disorder is understood. Other missing pieces in the literature are the potential uses of a trauma-informed lens to enhance the therapeutic process, to understand and reduce treatment attrition, and to improve treatment outcomes. The application of a trauma informed lens could improve our understanding of effective interactions among clients, families, and communities and improve the education around hoarding-related matters. Exploring the connections between trauma and HD can improve therapeutic delivery and destigmatize the experience of dealing with clutter and hoarding concerns. This awareness can also provide health care professionals with both the language and skills to liberate them from a reductionist view on HD.

Keywords: hoarding, attachment, parental deprivation, trauma

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Yaara Shilo

Abstract:

Early childhood education and care (ECEC)in Israel has undergone extensive reform and now requires daycare centers to meet internationally recognized professional standards. Since 1948, one of the aims of childcare facilities was to enable women’s participation in the workforce.A 1965 law grouped daycare centers for young children with facilities for the elderly and for disabled persons under the same authority. In the 1970’s, ECEC leaders sought to change childcare from proprietary to educational facilities. From 1976 deliberations in the Knesset regarding appropriate attribution of ECEC frameworks resulted in their being moved to various authorities that supported women’s employment: Ministries of Finance, Industry, and Commerce, as well as the Welfare Department. Prior to 2018, 75% of infants and toddlers in institutional care were in unlicensed and unsupervised settings. Legislative processes accompanied the conceptual change to an eventual appropriate attribution of ECEC frameworks. Position papers over the past two decades resulted in recommendations for standards conforming to OECD regulations. Simultaneous incidents of child abuse, some resulting in death, riveted public attention to the need for adequate government supervision, accelerating the legislative process. Appropriate care for very young children must center on quality interactions with caregivers, thus requiring adequate staff training. Finally, in 2018 a law was passed stipulating standards for staff training, proper facilities, child-adult ratios, and safety measures. The Ariav commission expanded training to caregivers for ages 0-3. Transfer of the ECEC to the Ministry of Education ensured establishment of basic training. Groundwork created by new legislation initiated professional development of EC educators for ages 0-3. This process should raise salaries and bolster the system’s ability to attract quality employees. In 2022 responsibility for ECEC ages 0-3 was transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Education, shifting emphasis from proprietary care to professional considerations focusing on wellbeing and early childhood education. The recent revolutionary changes in ECEC point to a new age in the care and education of Israel’s youngest citizens. Implementation of international standards, adequate training, and professionalization of the workforce focus on the child’s needs.

Keywords: policy, early childhood, care and education, daycare, development

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Renuka G. Oka

Abstract:

From chowks to streets to verandahs to courtyards; residential open spaces are very significantly placed in traditional urban neighborhoods of India. At various levels of intersection, the open spaces with their attributes like juxtaposition with the built fabric, scale, climate sensitivity and response, multi-functionality, etc. reflect and respond to the patterns of human interactions. Also, these spaces tend to be quite well utilized. On the other hand, it is a common specter to see an imbalanced utilization of open spaces in newly/recently planned residential clusters. This is maybe due to lack of activity generators around or wrong locations or excess provisions or improper incorporation of aforementioned design attributes. These casual observations suggest the necessity for a systematic study of current residential open spaces. The exploratory study thus attempts to draw lessons through a structured inspection of residential open spaces to understand the effective environment as revealed through their use patterns. Here, residential open spaces are considered in a wider sense to incorporate all the un-built fabric around. These thus, include both use spaces and access space. For the study, open spaces in ten exemplary housing clusters/societies built during the last ten years across India are studied. A threefold inquiry is attempted in this direction. The first relates to identifying and determining the effects of various physical functions like space organization, size, hierarchy, thermal and optical comfort, etc. on the performance of residential open spaces. The second part sets out to understand socio-cultural variations in values, lifestyle, and beliefs which determine activity choices and behavioral preferences of users for respective residential open spaces. The third inquiry further observes the application of these research findings to the design process to derive meaningful and qualitative design advice. However, the study also emphasizes to develop a suitable framework of analysis and to carve out appropriate methods and approaches to probe into these aspects of the inquiry. Given this emphasis, a considerable portion of the research details out the conceptual framework for the study. This framework is supported by an in-depth search of available literature. The findings are worked out for design solutions which integrate the open space systems with the overall design process for residential clusters. The open spaces in residential areas present great complexities both in terms of their use patterns and determinants of their functional responses. The broad aim of the study is, therefore, to arrive at reconsideration of standards and qualitative parameters used by designers – on the basis of more substantial inquiry into the use patterns of open spaces in residential areas.

Keywords: open spaces, physical and social determinants, residential clusters, use patterns

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Ayalew Yimam Ali

Abstract:

The Y-shaped microchannel is used to mix both miscible or immiscible fluids with different viscosities. However, mixing at the entrance of the Y-junction microchannel can be a difficult mixing phenomena due to micro-scale laminar flow aspects with the two miscible high-viscosity water-glycerol fluids. One of the most promising methods to improve mixing performance and diffusion mass transfer in laminar flow phenomena is acoustic streaming (AS), which is a time-averaged, second-order steady streaming that can produce rolling motion in the microchannel by oscillating a low-frequency range acoustic transducer and inducing an acoustic wave in the flow field. The developed 3D trapezoidal, triangular structure spine used in this study was created using sophisticated CNC machine cutting tools used to create microchannel mold with a 3D trapezoidal triangular structure spine alone the Y-junction longitudinal mixing region. In order to create the molds for the 3D trapezoidal structure with the 3D sharp edge tip angles of 30° and 0.3mm trapezoidal triangular sharp edge tip depth from PMMA glass (Polymethylmethacrylate) with advanced CNC machine and the channel manufactured using PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) which is grown up longitudinally on top surface of the Y-junction microchannel using soft lithography nanofabrication strategies. Flow visualization of 3D rolling steady acoustic streaming and mixing enhancement with high-viscosity miscible fluids with different trapezoidal, triangular structure longitudinal length, channel width, high volume flow rate, oscillation frequency, and amplitude using micro-particle image velocimetry (μPIV) techniques were used to study the 3D acoustic streaming flow patterns and mixing enhancement. The streaming velocity fields and vorticity flow fields show 16 times more high vorticity maps than in the absence of acoustic streaming, and mixing performance has been evaluated at various amplitudes, flow rates, and frequencies using the grayscale value of pixel intensity with MATLAB software. Mixing experiments were performed using fluorescent green dye solution with de-ionized water in one inlet side of the channel, and the de-ionized water-glycerol mixture on the other inlet side of the Y-channel and degree of mixing was found to have greatly improved from 67.42% without acoustic streaming to 0.96.83% with acoustic streaming. The results show that the creation of a new 3D steady streaming rolling motion with a high volume flowrate around the entrance was enhanced by the formation of a new, three-dimensional, intense streaming rolling motion with a high-volume flowrate around the entrance junction mixing zone with the two miscible high-viscous fluids which are influenced by laminar flow fluid transport phenomena.

Keywords: micro fabrication, 3d acoustic streaming flow visualization, micro-particle image velocimetry, mixing enhancement

Procedia PDF Downloads 21

Authors: Pauline Cuenin, Marcelo Leles Romarco Oliveira

Abstract:

Based on their localities and following their ecological rationality, family-based farmers have experimented, adapted and innovated to improve their production systems continuously for millennia. With the technological package transfer processes of the so-called Green Revolution for agricultural holdings, farmers have become increasingly dependent on ready-made "recipes" built from so-called "universal" and global knowledge to face the problems that emerge in the management of local agroecosystems, thus reducing their creative and experiential capacities. However, the production of novelties within farms is fundamental to the transition to more sustainable agro food systems. In fact, as the fruits of local knowledge and / or the contextualization of exogenous knowledge, novelties are seen as seeds of transition. By presenting new techniques, new organizational forms and epistemological approaches, agroecology was pointed out as a way to encourage and promote the creative capacity of farmers. From this perspective, this theoretical work aims to analyze how agroecology encourages the innovative capacity of farmers, and in general, the production of novelties. For this, an analysis was made of the theoretical and methodological bases of agroecology through a literature review, specifically looking for the way in which it articulates the local with the global, complemented by an analysis of agro ecological Brazilian experiences. It was emphasized that, based on the peasant way of doing agriculture, that is, on ecological / social co-evolution or still called co-production (interaction between human beings and living nature), agroecology recognizes and revalues peasant involves the deep interactions of the farmer with his site (bio-physical and social). As a "place science," practice and movement, it specifically takes into consideration the local and empirical knowledge of farmers, which allows questioning and modifying the paradigms that underpin the current agriculture that have disintegrated farmers' creative processes. In addition to upgrade the local, agroecology allows the dialogue of local knowledge with global knowledge, essential in the process of changes to get out of the dominant logic of thought and give shape to new experiences. In order to reach this articulation, agroecology involves new methodological focuses seeking participatory methods of study and intervention that express themselves in the form of horizontal spaces of socialization and collective learning that involve several actors with different knowledge. These processes promoted by agroecology favor the production of novelties at local levels for expansion at other levels, such as the global, through trans local agro ecological networks.

Keywords: agroecology, creativity, global, local, novelty

Procedia PDF Downloads 223

Authors: Krisala Joshi, Sayanta Ghosh, Renu Lata, Jagdish C. Kuniyal

Abstract:

Throughout the world, monitoring and estimating the changing pattern of forests across diverse landscapes through remote sensing is instrumental in understanding the interactions of human activities and the ecological environment with the changing climate. Forest change detection using satellite imageries has emerged as an important means to gather information on a regional scale. Kullu valley in Himachal Pradesh, India is situated in a transitional zone between the lesser and the greater Himalayas. Thus, it presents a typical rugged mountainous terrain with moderate to high altitude which varies from 1200 meters to over 6000 meters. Due to changes in agricultural cropping patterns, urbanization, industrialization, hydropower generation, climate change, tourism, and anthropogenic forest fire, it has undergone a tremendous transformation in forest cover in the past three decades. The loss and degradation of forest cover results in soil erosion, loss of biodiversity including damage to wildlife habitats, and degradation of watershed areas, and deterioration of the overall quality of nature and life. The supervised classification of LANDSAT satellite data was performed to assess the changes in forest cover in Kullu valley over the years 2000 to 2020. Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) was calculated to discriminate between burned and unburned areas of the forest. Our study reveals that in Kullu valley, the increasing number of forest fire incidents specifically, those due to anthropogenic activities has been on a rise, each subsequent year. The main objective of the present study is, therefore, to estimate the change in the forest cover of Kullu valley and to address the various social aspects responsible for the anthropogenic forest fires. Also, to assess its impact on the significant changes in the regional climatic factors, specifically, temperature, humidity, and precipitation over three decades, with the help of satellite imageries and ground data. The main outcome of the paper, we believe, will be helpful for the administration for making a quantitative assessment of the forest cover area changes due to anthropogenic activities and devising long-term measures for creating awareness among the local people of the area.

Keywords: Anthropogenic Activities, Forest Change Detection, Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), Supervised Classification

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Authors: Rajan Goyal, S. Lamba, S. Annapoorni

Abstract:

The indirect exchange coupled system consists of two ferromagnetic layers separated by non-magnetic spacer layer. The type of exchange coupling may be either ferro or anti-ferro depending on the thickness of the spacer layer. In the present work, the strength of exchange coupling in FePt/Al₂O₃/Fe₃Pt has been investigated by varying the thickness of the spacer layer Al₂O₃. The FePt/Al₂O₃/Fe₃Pt trilayer structure is fabricated on Si <100> single crystal substrate using sputtering technique. The thickness of FePt and Fe₃Pt is fixed at 60 nm and 2 nm respectively. The thickness of spacer layer Al₂O₃ was varied from 0 to 16 nm. The normalized hysteresis loops recorded at room temperature both in the in-plane and out of plane configuration reveals that the orientation of easy axis lies along the plane of the film. It is observed that the hysteresis loop for ts=0 nm does not exhibit any knee around H=0 indicating that the hard FePt layer and soft Fe₃Pt layer are strongly exchange coupled. However, the insertion of Al₂O₃ spacer layer of thickness ts = 0.7 nm results in appearance of a minor knee around H=0 suggesting the weakening of exchange coupling between FePt and Fe₃Pt. The disappearance of knee in hysteresis loop with further increase in thickness of the spacer layer up to 8 nm predicts the co-existence of ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchange interaction between FePt and Fe₃Pt. In addition to this, the out of plane hysteresis loop also shows an asymmetry around H=0. The exchange field Hex = (Hc↑-HC↓)/2, where Hc↑ and Hc↓ are the coercivity estimated from lower and upper branch of hysteresis loop, increases from ~ 150 Oe to ~ 700 Oe respectively. This behavior may be attributed to the uncompensated moments in the hard FePt layer and soft Fe₃Pt layer at the interface. A better insight into the variation in indirect exchange coupling has been investigated using recoil curves. It is observed that the almost closed recoil curves are obtained for ts= 0 nm up to a reverse field of ~ 5 kOe. On the other hand, the appearance of appreciable open recoil curves at lower reverse field ~ 4 kOe for ts = 0.7 nm indicates that uncoupled soft phase undergoes irreversible magnetization reversal at lower reverse field suggesting the weakening of exchange coupling. The openness of recoil curves decreases with increase in thickness of the spacer layer up to 8 nm. This behavior may be attributed to the competition between FM and AFM exchange interactions. The FM exchange coupling between FePt and Fe₃Pt due to porous nature of Al₂O₃ decreases much slower than the weak AFM coupling due to interaction between Fe ions of FePt and Fe₃Pt via O ions of Al₂O₃. The hysteresis loop has been simulated using Monte Carlo based on Metropolis algorithm to investigate the variation in strength of exchange coupling in FePt/Al₂O₃/Fe₃Pt trilayer system.

Keywords: indirect exchange coupling, MH loop, Monte Carlo simulation, recoil curve

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