Search results for: educational experience

Authors: Zohra Faize

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Globalization has expanded the mobility privileges of the Global North population while simultaneously, those in the Global South, namely poor, and racialized minorities are increasingly criminalized for crossing international borders. As part of this global trend, Canada also engages in tight border control practices, which often result in marginalization and criminalization of asylum seekers, including children. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as a theoretical framework and methodology, this research explores the effects of tight border control practices on children asylum-seekers; with a specific focus on detention experiences in Canadian prisons and immigration Holding Centers. The preliminary results of interviews with 8 participants confirm the violations of child rights that stem from the detention practice. Children also report that they find immigration detention to be a stressful and a confusing experience, often resulting in feeling of shame and guilt after their release into the community.

Keywords: border control, crimmigration, Canada, children asylum seekers, immcarceration, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)

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Authors: Tsuyoshi Yamazaki, Etsuo Morishita

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Cyclists often run through a crosswind and sometimes we experience the adverse pressure. We came to an idea that Wells turbine can be used as power augmentation device in the crosswind something like sails of a yacht. Wells turbine always rotates in the same direction irrespective of the incoming flow direction, and we use it in the small-scale power generation in the ocean where waves create an oscillating flow. We incorporate the turbine to the wheel of a bike. A commercial device integrates strain gauges in the crank of a bike and transmitted force and torque applied to the pedal of the bike as an e-mail to the driver’s mobile phone. We can analyze the unsteady data in a spreadsheet sent from the crank sensor. We run the bike with the crank sensor on the rollers at the exit of a low-speed wind tunnel and analyze the effect of the crosswind to the wheel with a Wells turbine. We also test the aerodynamic characteristics of the turbine separately. Although power gain depends on the flow direction, several Watts increase might be possible by the Wells turbine incorporated to a bike wheel.

Keywords: aerodynamics, Wells turbine, bicycle, wind engineering

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Authors: Tutku Ak, A. Esra Cengiz, Çiğdem Ayhan Kaptan

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The conservation community has been increasingly promoting the concept of ecological connectivity towards the prevention and mitigation of landscape fragmentation. Many tools have been proposed for this purpose in not only Europe, but also around the world. Spatial planning for building connectivity, however, has many problems associated with the complexity of ecological processes at spatial and temporal scales. Furthermore, on the ground implementation could be very difficult potentially leading to ecologically disastrous results and waste of resources. These problems, on the other hand, can be avoided or rectified as more experience is gained with implementation. Therefore, it is the objective of this study to document the experiences gained with connectivity planning in Turkish landscapes. This paper is a preliminary review of the conservation initiatives and projects aimed at protecting and building ecological connectivity in and around Turkey. The objective is to scope existing conservation plans, tools and implementation approaches in Turkey and the ultimate goal is to understand to what degree they have been implemented and what are the constraints and opportunities that are being faced.

Keywords: ecological connectivity, large-scale landscapes, planning and implementation, Turkey

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Authors: Budoor Bujeir, Noor Alaidaros, Sultana Alsolami

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This study investigates how AI tools in Microsoft PowerPoint, such as Designer and Translation, might improve the process of creating presentations. Thanks to its sophisticated AI features, PowerPoint has become a powerful tool for effectively creating high-quality presentations. Designed to maximize user experience, key features include multilingual translation, real-time collaboration, and design ideas. A mixed-method approach was used, combining hands-on demos of particular AI technologies with a questionnaire given to both inexperienced and seasoned users. The survey examined how often individuals used these features, how helpful they thought they were, and how much time they could save. The results show that although tools like Designer are not widely used, they are recognized for improving aesthetics and saving time. The accuracy and usefulness of translation technologies in multilingual environments received high ratings, emphasizing how they promote inclusive communication. The importance of incorporating AI into productivity software is highlighted by this study, opening the door to more approachable, effective, and captivating presentation workflows.

Keywords: Microsoft PowerPoint, AI features, designer, translation, presentation tools, NLP

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Authors: W. S. Barber, S. L. King

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This paper reports on a pilot project to develop a collaborative partnership between a community college in rural northern Ontario, Canada, and an urban university in the greater Toronto area in Oshawa, Canada. Partner institutions will collaborate to address learning needs of university applicants whose goals are to attain an undergraduate university BA in Educational Studies and Digital Technology degree, but who may not live in a geographical location that would facilitate this pathways process. The UOIT BA degree is attained through a 2+2 program, where students with a 2 year college diploma or equivalent can attain a four year undergraduate degree. The goals reported on the project are as: 1. Our aim is to expand the BA program to include an additional stream which includes serious educational games, simulations and virtual environments, 2. Develop fully (using both synchronous and asynchronous technologies) online learning modules for use by university applicants who otherwise are not geographically located close to a physical university site, 3. Assess the digital competencies of all students, including members of local, distance and Indigenous communities using a validated tool developed and tested by UOIT across numerous populations. This tool, the General Technical Competency Use and Scale (GTCU) will provide the collaborating institutions with data that will allow for analyzing how well students are prepared to succeed in fully online learning communities. Philosophically, the UOIT BA program is based on a fully online learning communities model (FOLC) that can be accessed from anywhere in the world through digital learning environments via audio video conferencing tools such as Adobe Connect. It also follows models of adult learning and mobile learning, and makes a university degree accessible to the increasing demographic of adult learners who may use mobile devices to learn anywhere anytime. The program is based on key principles of Problem Based Learning, allowing students to build their own understandings through the co-design of the learning environment in collaboration with the instructors and their peers. In this way, this degree allows students to personalize and individualize the learning based on their own culture, background and professional/personal experiences. Using modified flipped classroom strategies, students are able to interrogate video modules on their own time in preparation for one hour discussions occurring in video conferencing sessions. As a consequence of the program flexibility, students may continue to work full or part time. All of the partner institutions will co-develop four new modules, administer the GTCU and share data, while creating a new stream of the UOIT BA degree. This will increase accessibility for students to bridge from community colleges to university through a fully digital environment. We aim to work collaboratively with Indigenous elders, community members and distance education instructors to increase opportunities for more students to attain a university education.

Keywords: aboriginal, college, competencies, digital, universities

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Authors: Sidique Gawusu, Xiaobing Zhang

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Turbulence models play a significant role in all computational fluid dynamics based modelling approaches. There is, however, no general turbulence model suitable for all flow scenarios. Therefore, a successful numerical modelling approach is only achievable if a more appropriate closure model is used. This paper evaluates different turbulence models in numerical modelling of oil-water flow within the Eulerian-Eulerian approach. A comparison among the obtained numerical results and published benchmark data showed reasonable agreement. The domain was meshed using structured mesh, and grid test was performed to ascertain grid independence. The evaluation of the models was made through analysis of velocity and pressure profiles across the domain. The models were tested for their suitability to accurately obtain a scalable and precise numerical experience. As a result, it is found that all the models except Standard-ω provide comparable results. The study also revealed new insights on flow in porous media, specifically oil reservoirs.

Keywords: turbulence modelling, simulation, multi-phase flows, water-flooding, heavy oil

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Authors: A. Kaddour, S. M. A. Bekkouche

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Limiting heat losses during ventilation of indoor building spaces has become a basic aim for architects. Much experience has been gained in terms of ventilation of indoor spaces. Nevertheless, due to the complex applications, attempts to create a theoretical base for solving the problems related to the issue are limited, especially determining the minimum ventilation period required within a designated space. In this paper we have approached this matter, both theoretically and computationally. The conclusion we reached was that controlled ventilation of spaces through vent holes that successively open and close at regular time intervals can limit the excessive circulation of air masses, which in turn limits heat losses. Air change rates through open and tilted windows in rooms of residential buildings driven by atmospheric motions are investigated to evaluate natural ventilation concepts. Model of thermal building simulations is used. A separated sample storey and a sample single room in larger scales were used to measure air transport through window openings under the influence of the external pressure distribution.

Keywords: natural ventilation, temperature factor, air change rates, air circulation

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Authors: Sarra Boukhari

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Refugee studies have lately emerged as a focused area of research, yet there is a vast knowledge gap vis-à-vis the integration experiences and socialization processes of diversified refugees in different educational settings. This research intends to study the diverse experiences of African refugee children in an Algerian mainstream secondary school. The study seeks to explore the nature and complexity of refugees’ experiences and their relevance to the integration processes. Highlighting these diverse perspectives will be for the sake of understanding ways by which integration could be facilitated amongst refugees within mainstream school classrooms. Subsequently, this study shall investigate the possibility of story-telling activities in exploring and dealing with different issues of integration met by refugees in the predefined context. Accordingly, stories and narratives will be used to discuss values designed by the Living Values Educational Programme (LVEP) that could change the negative effect of war and conflict. These stories can potentially develop young refugees’ understanding of the key social concepts that can facilitate acceptance and integration inside refugee communities and the host society. This study invokes the theoretical framework provided by Jerome Bruner’s works on constructing the narrative through real-life experiences. In practice, the idea is to voice children’ sense-making of their own world and integrate it with good values to help them construct a positive narrative. Qualitative methods will be integrated to investigate the readiness and acceptance of African refugee children to each other in an Algerian classroom. Two phases of data collection will be conducted. The first phase will attempt to answer the first research question about the challenges that refugee children encounter in their education in a host society. In this phase, classroom observation and semi-structured interviews will be held to explore the context regarding the research question. After issues and challenges have been identified in this phase, topics of discussion (values) that reflect these issues will be designed for the second phase. The use of participatory methods with children in the second stage of the data collection will help in discussing the core values by giving them the optionality of the arts-based tools through which they can express themselves. Story-telling was the idea behind the activities. It could help children express their thoughts and feelings about the discussed values freely. The methods used promoted a very integrating atmosphere in the classroom where both refugee and non-refugee students showed cohesion and integration. Children identified many issues in their integration processes that exceeded the classroom or the education setting. Political and economic opinions were openly shared in the class. Overall, the study is an attempt to reveal how refugee children in Algeria are experiencing integration in their education. The study will be unveiling the impact of the context on the integration of refugee children. The process of integration involved in this context helped to shape refugee experiences in a very unique way.

Keywords: children’s agency, narrative construction, refugee children, refugee experiences, story-telling

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Authors: Shih Meng-Chi, Nai-Chia Chao

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The study constructed an arts integrative curriculum for early childhood educators and kindergarten teachers to the exciting possibilities of the use of the art integration method. The art integrative curriculum applied art integration that combines and integrates various elements of music, observation, sound, art, instruments, and creation. The program consists of college courses that combine the use of technology with children’s literature, multimedia, music, dance, and drama presentation. This educational program is being used in kindergartens during the pre-service kindergarten teacher training. The study found that arts integrated curriculum was benefit for connecting across domains, multi-sensory experiences, teaching skills, implementation and creation on children art education. The art Integrating instruction helped to provide students with an understanding of the whole framework and improve the teaching quality.

Keywords: art integration, teaching quality assurance, early childhood education, arts integrated curriculum

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Authors: M. Chavleishvili, E. Kharaishvili, G. Erkomaishvili

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The article presents the development trends of farms, estimates on the optimal scope of farming, as well as the experience of local and foreign countries in this area. As well, the advantages of small and large farms are discussed; herewith, the scales of farms are compared to the local reality. The study analyzes the results of farm operations and the possibilities of diversification of farms. The indicators of an effective use of land resources and land fragmentation are measured; also, a comparative analysis with other countries is presented, in particular, the measurements of agricultural lands for farming, as well as the indicators of population ensuring. The conducted research shows that most of the farms in Georgia are small and their development is at the initial stage, which outlines that the country has a high resource potential to increase the scale of the farming industry and its full integration into market relations. On the basis of the obtained results, according to the research on the scale of farming in Georgia and the identification of hampering factors of farming development, the conclusions are presented and the relevant recommendations are suggested.

Keywords: farm cooperatives.farms, farm scale, land fragmentation, small and large farms

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Authors: Tia Claridge

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The aim of this study was to explore whether there are gender differences in how early childhood educators view and facilitate rough and tumble play in England. A qualitative approach was used to carry out semi-structured interviews with female and male early years educators. The key rationale for this study was to examine the significant lack of males working in early years education and the consequent impact this has on pedagogical practice. The findings illustrated that there are some gender differences in educators’ perspectives of rough and tumble play. These include how educators use their own childhood experience to inform their professional practice as well as identifying a need for tailored training to upskill and develop confidence in early years staff with regard to this type of play. The most surprising finding was the influence that urban and rural settings had on educators’ perceptions on weapon play, regardless of gender. Awareness of educator positionality was significant throughout the study for male participants, whereas females rarely commented their own gender. These findings indicate that further research is needed to understand the complex narratives underpinning gender and rough and tumble play.

Keywords: rough and tumble play, educators, gender, early years, pedagogy

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Authors: Renata P. Lopes

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The current art exhibit scenario presents a multitude of visualization features deployed in experiences that instigate a process of art production and design. The exhibition design through multimedia devices - from the audiovisual to the touch screen - has become a medium from which art can be understood and contemplated. Artistic practices articulated, during the modern period, the spectator's perception in the exhibition space, often challenging the architecture of museums and galleries. In turn, the museum institution seeks to respond to the challenge of welcoming the viewer whose experience is mediated by technological artifacts. When the beholder, together with the technology, interacts with the exhibition space, important displacements happen. In this work, we will analyze the migrations of the exhibition space to the digital environment through mobile devices triggered by the viewer. Based not on technological determinism, but on the conditions of the appearance of this spectator, this work is developed, with the aim of apprehending the way in which technology demarcates the differences between what the spectator was and what becomes in the contemporary atmosphere of the museums and galleries. These notions, we believe, will contribute to the formation of an exhibition design space in conformity with this participant.

Keywords: exhibition, museum, exhibition design, digital media

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Authors: Taksina Bunbut

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Personality and grooming are vital for creating professionalism and safety image for all staffs in the airline industry. Airline Business Program also has an aim to educate students through the subject Personality Development and Grooming in order to elevate the quality of students to meet standard requirements of the airline industry. However, students agree that there are many difficulties that cause unsuccessful learning experience in this subject. The research is to study problems that can afflict students from getting good results in the classroom. Furthermore, exploring possible solutions to overcome challenges are also included in this study. The research sample consists of 140 students who attended the class of Personality Development and Grooming. The employed research instrument is a questionnaire. Statistic for data analysis is t-test and Multiple Regression Analysis. The result found that although students are satisfied with teaching and learning of this subject, they considered that teaching in English and teaching topics in social etiquette in different cultures are difficult for them to understand.

Keywords: personality development, grooming, Airline Business Program, soft skill

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Authors: Heichia Wang, Yalan Chao

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Social inequality is a persistent problem. One of the ways to solve this problem is through education. At present, vulnerable groups are often less geographically accessible to educational resources. However, compared with educational resources, communication equipment is easier for vulnerable groups. Now that information and communication technology (ICT) has entered the field of education, today we can accept the convenience that ICT provides in education, and the mobility that it brings makes learning independent of time and place. With mobile learning, teachers and students can start discussions in an online chat room without the limitations of time or place. However, because liquidity learning is quite convenient, people tend to solve problems in short online texts with lack of detailed information in a lack of convenient online environment to express ideas. Therefore, the ICT education environment may cause misunderstanding between teachers and students. Therefore, in order to better understand each other's views between teachers and students, this study aims to clarify the essays of the analysts and classify the students into several types of learning questions to clarify the views of teachers and students. In addition, this study attempts to extend the description of possible omissions in short texts by using external resources prior to classification. In short, by applying a short text classification, this study can point out each student's learning problems and inform the instructor where the main focus of the future course is, thus improving the ICT education environment. In order to achieve the goals, this research uses convolutional neural network (CNN) method to analyze short discussion content between teachers and students in an ICT education environment. Divide students into several main types of learning problem groups to facilitate answering student problems. In addition, this study will further cluster sub-categories of each major learning type to indicate specific problems for each student. Unlike most neural network programs, this study attempts to extend short texts with external resources before classifying them to improve classification performance. In short, by applying the classification of short texts, we can point out the learning problems of each student and inform the instructors where the main focus of future courses will improve the ICT education environment. The data of the empirical process will be used to pre-process the chat records between teachers and students and the course materials. An action system will be set up to compare the most similar parts of the teaching material with each student's chat history to improve future classification performance. Later, the function of short text classification uses CNN to classify rich chat records into several major learning problems based on theory-driven titles. By applying these modules, this research hopes to clarify the main learning problems of students and inform teachers that they should focus on future teaching.

Keywords: ICT education improvement, social equality, short text analysis, convolutional neural network

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Authors: Claire M. Hollocou, Denise Johnson

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As racism permeates the foundation of America's educational system, educators hold a level of responsibility to address racism and the power of white privilege in the classroom by implementing anti-racist practices. This study aims to discuss the practices of anti-racist education across two predominantly affluent white schools. It offers our perspectives as white and black female teachers committed to implementing and reflecting on our antiracist work. Through communities of practice and the critical dialogue framework, we will provide an environment for one another to share our experiences implementing anti-racist education. We will spend a couple of months engaging in dialogue together to support our praxis. With critical reflection, we will look for themes that emerge through the conversations as well as develop a protocol for building an antiracist community of practice. This study is a work in progress.

Keywords: anti-racism, critical dialogue, race and racism, teacher education

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Authors: Amy Claridge, Tishra Beeson

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Background: Maternal depression is a serious health concern impacting between 10-16% of birthing persons. It is associated with difficulty in emotional interaction and the formation of attachment bonds between parent and infant. Longitudinally, maternal depression can have severe, lasting impacts on both parent and child, increasing the risk for mental, social, and physical health issues. Rates of prenatal depression have been higher among individuals who were pregnant during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pregnant persons are considered a high-risk group for poor clinical outcomes from COVID-19 infection and may also have faced or continue to face additional stressors such as financial burdens, loss of income or employment, and the benefits accompanying employment, especially among those in the United States (U.S.). It is less clear whether individuals who gave birth during the pandemic continue to experience high levels of depressive symptoms or whether symptoms have been reduced as a pandemic response has shifted. The current study examined longitudinal reports of depressive symptoms among individuals in the U.S. who gave birth between March 2020 and September 2021. Methods: This mixed-method study involved surveys and interviews with birthing persons (18-45 years old) in their third trimester of pregnancy and at 8 weeks postpartum. Participants also completed a follow-up survey at 12-18 months postpartum. Participants were recruited using convenience methods via an online survey. Survey participants included 242 U.S. women who self-reported depressive symptoms (10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) at each data collection wave. A subset of 23 women participated in semi-structured prenatal and 8-week postpartum qualitative interviews. Follow-up interviews are currently underway and will be integrated into the presentation. Preliminary Results: Prenatal depressive symptoms were significantly positively correlated to 8-week and 12-18-month postpartum depressive symptoms. Participants who reported clinical levels of depression prenatally were 3.29 times (SE = .32, p < .001) more likely to report clinical levels of depression at 18 months postpartum. Those who reported clinical depression at 8-weeks postpartum were 6.52 times (SE = .41, p < .001) more likely to report clinical levels of depression at 18 months postpartum. Participants who gave birth earlier in the pandemic reported significantly higher prenatal (t(103) = 2.84, p < .01) and 8-week postpartum depressive symptoms (t(126) = 3.31, p < .001). Data from qualitative interviews contextualize the findings. Participants reported negative emotions during pregnancy, including sadness, grief, and anxiety. They attributed this in part to their experiences of pregnancy during the pandemic and uncertainty related to the birth experience and postpartum period. Postpartum interviews revealed some stressors specific to childbirth during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, most women reflected on positive experiences of birth and postpartum. Conclusions: Taken together, findings reveal a pattern of persistent depressive symptoms among U.S. parents who gave birth during the pandemic. Depressive symptoms are of significant concern for the health of parents and children, and the findings of this study suggest a need for continued mental health intervention for parents who gave birth during the pandemic. Policy and practice implications will be discussed.

Keywords: maternal mental health, perinatal depression, postpartum depression, covid-19 pandemic

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Authors: Rohan Sarker, Cory Smith

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ROMIC Group UK is a leading provider of diesel electric locomotives, specializing in innovative and efficient solutions for rail transportation. With a strong focus on sustainability and performance, ROMIC's diesel electric locomotives are engineered to reduce fuel consumption while maximizing operational efficiency. The company's locomotives incorporate advanced technologies such as regenerative braking systems and precision control software, which enhance fuel economy and minimize environmental impact. ROMIC's extensive experience in the rail sector enables it to deliver reliable and powerful locomotives that meet the demands of both freight and passenger services. These locomotives are designed for heavy-duty applications, offering superior traction and load-carrying capacity across various terrains. The company's commitment to cutting-edge engineering and customer satisfaction ensures that its locomotives are a trusted choice for rail operators looking for high performance and low operational costs. ROMIC Group UK continues to drive innovation in the rail industry with its sustainable locomotive solutions.

Keywords: diesel, electric, engines, locomotives

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Authors: Flavia Schuler Gomes, Cristina Brito Dias, Emily Schuler

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One of the emerging themes in modern society is migration. What in the past was a route mostly traveled by men, is currently carried out by women and even children. In this sense, the objective of this research was to understand the experiences and repercussions of the migration in the life of young Brazilians who went to Switzerland. The specific objectives were: to know the causes and consequences of migration; how was the adaptation in the country in emotional and educational terms; as how the interviewees feel the impact of living with two cultures simultaneously. The research had a qualitative methodology. The participants were eight young men and women, between the ages of 18 and 25, who migrated to Switzerland as a child. The instrument used was interview technique of life history. The collected data were analyzed through the thematic content analysis. The results indicate that the young people migrated to accompany their mothers; in terms of nationality, two participants feel completely Swiss, and six believe they share Swiss and Brazilian aspects. None of the participants followed an academic career, having secondary education.

Keywords: adaptation, children, culture, migration

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Authors: Lillian M. Seo, Curtis L. Petersen, Ryan J. Halter, David Kotz, John A. Batsis

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Background: Resistance-based exercises effectively enhance muscle strength, which is especially important in older populations as it reduces the risk of disability. Our group developed a Bluetooth-enabled handle for resistance exercise bands that wirelessly transmits relative force data through low-energy Bluetooth to a local smartphone or similar device. The system has the potential to measure home-based exercise interventions, allowing health professionals to monitor compliance. Its feasibility has already been demonstrated in both clinical and field-based settings, but it remained unclear whether the system’s usability persisted upon repeated use. The current study sought to assess the usability of this system and its users’ satisfaction with repeated use by deploying the device among younger adults to gather formative information that can ultimately improve the device’s design for older adults. Methods: A usability study was conducted in which 32 participants used the above system. Participants executed 10 repetitions of four commonly performed exercises: bicep flexion, shoulder abduction, elbow extension, and triceps extension. Each completed three exercise sessions, separated by at least 24 hours to minimize muscle fatigue. At its conclusion, subjects completed an adapted version of the usefulness, satisfaction, and ease (USE) questionnaire – assessing the system across four domains: usability, satisfaction, ease of use, and ease of learning. The 20-item questionnaire examined how strongly a participant agrees with positive statements about the device on a seven-point Likert scale, with one representing ‘strongly disagree’ and seven representing ‘strongly agree.’ Participants’ data were aggregated to calculate mean response values for each question and domain, effectively assessing the device’s performance across different facets of the user experience. Summary force data were visualized using a custom web application. Finally, an optional prompt at the end of the questionnaire allowed for written comments and feedback from participants to elicit qualitative indicators of usability. Results: Of the n=32 participants, 13 (41%) were female; their mean age was 32.4 ± 11.8 years, and no participants had a physical impairment. No usability questions received a mean score < 5 of seven. The four domains’ mean scores were: usefulness 5.66 ± 0.35; satisfaction 6.23 ± 0.06; ease of use 6.25 ± 0.43; and ease of learning 6.50 ± 0.19. Representative quotes of the open-ended feedback include: ‘A non-rigid strap-style handle might be useful for some exercises,’ and, ‘Would need different bands for each exercise as they use different muscle groups with different strength levels.’ General impressions were favorable, supporting the expectation that the device would be a useful tool in exercise interventions. Conclusions: A simple usability assessment of a Bluetooth-enabled resistance exercise band supports a consistent and positive user experience among young adults. This study provides adequate formative data, assuring the next steps can be taken to continue testing and development for the target population of older adults.

Keywords: Bluetooth, exercise, mobile health, mHealth, usability

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Authors: Mohammad Saraj Sharifzai, Keisuke Kitagawa, Mohammad Kamil Halimee, Javid Habib, Daishi Sakaguchi

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The overall goal of this paper is to examine the suitability and potential of the policies addressing the sustainability and affordability of housing for returnees, and to determine the impact of this policy on housing delivery for Afghan refugees. Housing is a central component of the settlement experience of refugees. A positive housing situation can facilitate many aspects of integration. Unaffordable, and unsafe housing, however, can cause disruptions in the entire settlement process. This paper aims to identify a suite of built forms for housing that is both affordable and environmentally sustainable for Afghan refugees. The result was the development of a framework that enables the assessment of the overall performance of various types of housing development in all zones of the country. There is very little evidence that the present approach of housing provision to the vagaries of market forces has provided affordable housing, especially for Afghan refugees. There is a need to incorporate social housing into the policy to assist people who cannot afford to have their own houses.

Keywords: Afghan refugees, housing policy, affordability, social housing, housing provision, environmental sustainability principles, resettlement

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Authors: Siti Khadijah Che Osmi, Mohammed Ahmad Syed

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Underground tunnels are one of the most popular public facilities for various applications such as transportation, water transfer, network utilities and etc. Experience from the past earthquake reveals that the underground tunnels also become vulnerable components and may damage at certain percentage depending on the level of ground shaking and induced phenomena. In this paper a numerical analysis is conducted in evaluating the sensitivity of two types of circular shallow tunnel lining models to wide ranging changes in the geotechnical design parameter. Critical analysis has been presented about the current methods of analysis, structural typology, ground motion characteristics, effect of soil conditions and associated uncertainties on the tunnel integrity. The response of the tunnel is evaluated through 2D non-linear finite element analysis, which critically assesses the impact of increasing levels of seismic loads. The finding from this study offer significant information on improving methods to assess the vulnerability of underground structures.

Keywords: geotechnical design parameter, seismic response, sensitivity analysis, shallow tunnel

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Authors: Mais Khader, Xingjie Wei

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This research sheds light on female entrepreneurs by providing new insights on the survival predictions of companies led by females in the UK. This study aims to build a predictive machine learning model of the survival of female-led & co-led small & medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK over the period 2000-2020. The predictive model built utilised a combination of financial and non-financial features related to both companies and their directors to predict SMEs' survival. These features were studied in terms of their contribution to the resultant predictive model. Five machine learning models are used in the modelling: Decision tree, AdaBoost, Naïve Bayes, Logistic regression and SVM. The AdaBoost model had the highest performance of the five models, with an accuracy of 73% and an AUC of 80%. The results show high feature importance in predicting companies' survival for company size, management experience, financial performance, industry, region, and females' percentage in management.

Keywords: company survival, entrepreneurship, females, machine learning, SMEs

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Authors: Dagaci Aliyu Manbe, Anthony Abah Ebonyi

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The increase in global temperatures is worsened by frequent natural events and human activities. Climate change has taken a prominent space in the global discourse on crime and criminality. Compared to when the subject centred around the discussion on the depletion of the ozone layer and global warming, today, the narrative revolves around the implications of changes in weather and climatic conditions in relations to violent crimes or conflict that traverse vast social, economic, and political spaces in different countries. Global warming and climate change refer to an increase in average global temperatures in the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans, which occurs due to human activities such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuel such as gas flaring. The trend is projected to continue, if unchecked. This paper seeks to explore the nexus between climate change and criminality in Nigeria. It further examines the main ecological changes that predispose conflict dynamics of security threats factored by climate change to peaceful co-existence in Nigeria. It concludes with some recommendations on the way forward.

Keywords: conflict, climate change, criminality, global warning, peace

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Authors: Aleksandar Chonevski

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The free-market economy provides many opportunities for entrepreneurship or starting one’s own business, attracting many students to study business at for-profit colleges in the United States. This is also true for international students, many of whom are filled with the hope of making a better life for themselves and their families through entrepreneurial endeavors. This qualitative research showed that not all graduates business students start their own business. In investigating this phenomenon, the effectiveness of entrepreneurship curricula at international colleges needs to be examined in order to adjust, improve and reform entrepreneurship curricula. This qualitative study will explore how business skills learned in college for-profit play a role in the entrepreneurial readiness of undergraduate business students in the south Florida. Business curricula helps international students achieve goals and transform their actions to understand challenges in a corporate society. Students will be interviewed to gain information about the students’ experience with entrepreneurship curricula in a for-profit college in south Florida.

Keywords: business skills, college curriculum, entrepreneurial readiness, international students

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Authors: Firdaus Amri, Ima Sri Rahmani

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Traffic jam becomes the main problem among the people in a metropolitan city, especially in Indonesia. Nebengers, as one of ridesharing community in Indonesia, offer solutions against this problem. Nebengers is a social media community that connect people who want to give the ride and who want to ask for the ride. But in reality, Nebengers still have quite problems, especially regarding the safety issue. Practically, in this issue, they (people in Nebengers) only depend on trust between the one who gives the ride and who asks for the ride. Trust is defined as an expectation that partners, including potential partners, have goodwill and benign intent in their dealing with one and another. This paper will examine the role of personality type as predictor of trust among Nebengers community. Hexaco Personality consists of six dimensions (honesty-humility, emotionality, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience) is used in this research. By using snowball sampling, we took 250 respondents from Nebengers community as participants for this research. They complete questionnaires which are provided in online form. The role of each personality type as a basic analysis to understand trust among Nebengers community will be discussed in this research.

Keywords: Nebengers, personality type, ridesharing, trust

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Authors: Michael Vallely

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This paper uses data from waves 1 to 10 (2009-2019) of the UK Household Longitudinal Study to examine the social origin pay gap in the UK labour market. We find that regardless of how we proxy social origin, whether it be using the dominance approach, total parental occupation, parental education, total parental education, or the higher parental occupation and higher parental education, the results have one thing in common; in all cases, we observe a significant social origin pay gap for those from the lower social origins with the largest pay gap observed for those from the ‘lowest’ social origin. The results may indicate that when we consider the occupational status and education of both parents, previous estimates of social origin pay gaps and the number of individuals affected may have been underestimated. We also observe social origin pay gaps within educational attainment groups, such as degree holders, and within professional and managerial occupations. Therefore, this paper makes a valuable contribution to the social origin pay gap literature as it provides empirical evidence of a social origin pay gap using a large-scale UK dataset and challenges the argument that education is the great ‘social leveller’.

Keywords: social class, social origin, pay gaps, wage inequality

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Authors: Martina Holenko Dlab, Natasa Hoic-Bozic

Abstract:

This paper presents an original approach to student and group activity level assessment that relies on certainty factors theory. Activity level is used to represent quantity and continuity of student’s contributions in individual and collaborative e‑learning activities (e‑tivities) and is calculated to assist teachers in assessing quantitative aspects of student's achievements. Calculated activity levels are also used to raise awareness and provide recommendations during the learning process. The proposed approach was implemented within the educational recommender system ELARS and validated using data obtained from e‑tivity realized during a blended learning course. The results showed that the proposed approach can be used to estimate activity level in the context of e-tivities realized using Web 2.0 tools as well as to facilitate the assessment of quantitative aspect of students’ participation in e‑tivities.

Keywords: assessment, ELARS, e-learning, recommender systems, student model

Procedia PDF Downloads 265

Authors: Akiko Ohta, Masahiro Minami, Yusra Qadir, Jennifer York

Abstract:

The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a home instruction program for mothers of children 3 to 5 years old. Using role-play as a method of teaching, the participating mothers work with their home visitors and learn how to deliver the HIPPY curriculum to their children. Applying HIPPY, Reviving Hope and Home for High-risk Refugee Mothers Program (RHH) was created to provide more personalized peer support and to respond to ongoing settlement challenges for isolated and vulnerable Government Assisted Refugee (GAR) mothers. GARs often have greater needs and vulnerabilities than other refugee groups. While the support is available, they often face various challenges and barriers in starting their new lives in Canada, such as inadequate housing, low first-language literacy levels, low competency in English or French, and social isolation. The pilot project was operated by Mothers Matter Centre (MMC) from January 2019 to March 2021 in partnership with the Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISSofBC). The formative evaluation was conducted by a research team at Simon Fraser University. In order to provide more suitable support for GAR mothers, RHH intended to offer more flexibility in HIPPY delivery, supported by a home visitor, to meet the need of refugee mothers facing various conditions and challenges; to have a pool of financial resources to be used for the RHH families when necessitated during the program period; to have another designated staff member, called a community navigator, assigned to facilitate the support system for the RHH families in their settlement; to have a portable device available for each RHH mother to navigate settlement support resources; and to provide other variations of the HIPPY curriculum as an option for the RHH mothers, including a curriculum targeting pre-HIPPY age children. Reflections on each program component was collected from RHH mothers and staff members of MMC and ISSofBC, including frontline workers and management staff, through individual interviews and focus group discussions. Each of the RHH program components was analyzed and evaluated by applying Moore’s four domains framework to identify key information and generate new knowledge (data). To capture RHH mothers’ program experience more in depth based on their own reflections, the photovoice method was used. Some photos taken by the mothers will be shared to illustrate their RHH experience as part of their life stories. Over the period of the program, this evaluation observed how RHH mothers became more confident in various domains, such as communicating with others, taking public transportations alone, and teaching their own child(ren). One of the major factors behind the success was their home visitors’ flexibility and creativity to create a more meaningful and tailored approach for each mother, depending on her background and personal situation. The role of the community navigator was tested out and improved during the program period. The community navigators took the key role to assess the needs of the RHH families and connect them with community resources. Both the home visitors and community navigators were immigrant mothers themselves and owing to their dedicated care for the RHH mothers; they were able to gain trust and work closely and efficiently with RHH mothers.

Keywords: refugee mothers, settlement support, program evaluation, Canada

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Jasraj Meena, Malay Kumar, Manu Vardhan

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Cloud computing is a new technology in industry and academia. The technology has grown and matured in last half decade and proven their significant role in changing environment of IT infrastructure where cloud services and resources are offered over the network. Cloud technology enables users to use services and resources without being concerned about the technical implications of technology. There are substantial research work has been performed for the usage of cloud computing in educational institutes and majority of them provides cloud services over high-end blade servers or other high-end CPUs. However, this paper proposes a new stack called “CiCKAStack” which provide cloud services over unutilized computing resources, named as commodity computers. “CiCKAStack” provides IaaS and PaaS using underlying commodity computers. This will not only increasing the utilization of existing computing resources but also provide organize file system, on demand computing resource and design and development environment.

Keywords: commodity computers, cloud-computing, KVM, CloudStack, AppScale

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: V. Iakovoglou, G. N. Zaimes, M. P. Arraiza Bermúdez-Cañete, J. L. García, M. C. Giménez, C. Calderón-Guerrero, F. Ioras, I. Abrudan

Abstract:

A new fast growing trend in tourism is ecotourism, in which tourists visit natural ecosystems under low impact, non-consumptive and locally oriented activities. Through these activities species and habitats are maintained and typically, underdeveloped regions are emphasized. Ecotourism provides a great alternative, especially for rural and undeveloped area. At the same time, despite its many benefits, it also poses many risks for the naturally protected areas. If ecotourism is practiced improperly degradation and irreversible damages could be the unwanted result. In addition, the lack of MSc programs in the field of Ecotourism in Europe makes it a necessity to be developed. Such an MSc program is being implemented with the lead partner the Technical University of Madrid. The entire partnership has six Universities, seven SMEs and one National Park from seven different countries all over Europe. The MSc will have 10 educational modules that will be available online and will prepare professionals that will be able to implement ecotourism in a sustainable way. Only through awareness and education a sustainable ecotourism will be achieved in the protected areas of Europe.

Keywords: ERASMUS, MSc program, protected Areas, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 456