Search results for: cognitive image dimension

Authors: Nikolaos Vassilas, Theocharis Tsenoglou, Djamchid Ghazanfarpour

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In this work we explore the capability of the mean shift algorithm as a powerful preprocessing tool for improving the quality of spatial data, acquired from airborne scanners, from densely built urban areas. On one hand, high resolution image data corrupted by noise caused by lossy compression techniques are appropriately smoothed while at the same time preserving the optical edges and, on the other, low resolution LiDAR data in the form of normalized Digital Surface Map (nDSM) is upsampled through the joint mean shift algorithm. Experiments on both the edge-preserving smoothing and upsampling capabilities using synthetic RGB-z data show that the mean shift algorithm is superior to bilateral filtering as well as to other classical smoothing and upsampling algorithms. Application of the proposed methodology for 3D reconstruction of buildings of a pilot region of Athens, Greece results in a significant visual improvement of the 3D building block model.

Keywords: 3D buildings reconstruction, data fusion, data upsampling, mean shift

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Authors: Yulia V. Krasavtseva, Tatiana V. Kornilova

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Risk-taking behaviors are not only dictated by cognitive components but also involve emotional aspects. Anticipatory emotions, involving both cognitive and affective mechanisms, are involved in decision-making in general, and risk-taking in particular. Affective reactions are prompted when an expectation or prediction is either validated or invalidated in the achieved result. This study aimed to combine predictions, anticipatory emotions, affective reactions, and personality traits in the context of risk-taking behaviors. An experimental online method Emotion and Prediction In a Casino (EPIC) was used, based on a casino-like roulette game. In a series of choices, the participant is presented with progressively riskier roulette combinations, where the potential sums of wins and losses increase with each choice and the participant is given a choice: to 'walk away' with the current sum of money or to 'play' the displayed roulette, thus accepting the implicit risk. Before and after the result is displayed, participants also rate their emotions, using the Self-Assessment Mannequin [Bradley, Lang, 1994], picking a picture, representing the intensity of pleasure, arousal, and dominance. The following personality measures were used: 1) Personal Decision-Making Factors [Kornilova, 2003] assessing risk and rationality; 2) I7 – Impulsivity Questionnaire [Kornilova, 1995] assessing impulsiveness, risk readiness, and empathy and 3) Subjective Risk Intelligence Scale [Craparo et al., 2018] assessing negative attitude toward uncertainty, emotional stress vulnerability, imaginative capability, and problem-solving self-efficacy. Two groups of participants took part in the study: 1) 98 university students (Mage=19.71, SD=3.25; 72% female) and 2) 94 online participants (Mage=28.25, SD=8.25; 89% female). Online participants were recruited via social media. Students with high rationality rated their pleasure and dominance before and after choices as lower (ρ from -2.6 to -2.7, p < 0.05). Those with high levels of impulsivity rated their arousal lower before finding out their result (ρ from 2.5 - 3.7, p < 0.05), while also rating their dominance as low (ρ from -3 to -3.7, p < 0.05). Students prone to risk-rated their pleasure and arousal before and after higher (ρ from 2.5 - 3.6, p < 0.05). High empathy was positively correlated with arousal after learning the result. High emotional stress vulnerability positively correlates with arousal and pleasure after the choice (ρ from 3.9 - 5.7, p < 0.05). Negative attitude to uncertainty is correlated with high anticipatory and reactive arousal (ρ from 2.7 - 5.7, p < 0.05). High imaginative capability correlates negatively with anticipatory and reactive dominance (ρ from - 3.4 to - 4.3, p < 0.05). Pleasure (.492), arousal (.590), and dominance (.551) before and after the result were positively correlated. Higher predictions positively correlated with reactive pleasure and arousal. In a riskier scenario (6/8 chances to win), anticipatory arousal was negatively correlated with the pleasure emotion (-.326) and vice versa (-.265). Correlations occur regardless of the roulette outcome. In conclusion, risk-taking behaviors are linked not only to personality traits but also to anticipatory emotions and affect in a modeled casino setting. Acknowledgment: The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project 19-29-07069.

Keywords: anticipatory emotions, casino game, risk taking, impulsiveness

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Authors: Roman Graf, Sergiu Gordea, Heather M. Ryan

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This paper presents an approach for easy creation and classification of institutional risk profiles supporting endangerment analysis of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the employment of data mining techniques to support set up of the most important risk factors. Subsequently, risk profiles employ risk factors classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation experts with a semi-automatic estimation of endangerment group for file format risk profiles. Our goal is to make use of an expert knowledge base, accuired through a digital preservation survey in order to detect preservation risks for a particular institution. Another contribution is support for visualisation of risk factors for a requried dimension for analysis. Using the naive Bayes method, the decision support system recommends to an expert the matching risk profile group for the previously selected institutional risk profile. The proposed methods improve the visibility of risk factor values and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented approach is designed to facilitate decision making for the preservation of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert knowledge and values of file format risk profiles. To facilitate decision-making, the aggregated information about the risk factors is presented as a multidimensional vector. The goal is to visualise particular dimensions of this vector for analysis by an expert and to define its profile group. The sample risk profile calculation and the visualisation of some risk factor dimensions is presented in the evaluation section.

Keywords: linked open data, information integration, digital libraries, data mining

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Authors: Sawarni Hasibuan, Juliza Hidayati

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Competitiveness and sustainability issues not only put pressure on big companies, but also small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs Batik Bogor is one of the local culture-based creative industries in Bogor city which is also dealing with the issue of sustainability. The purpose of this research is to develop framework of sustainability at SMEs Batik Indonesia case of SMEs Batik Bogor by integrating innovation of cleaner production in its supply chain. The approach used is desk study, field survey, in-depth interviews, and benchmarking best practices of SMEs sustainability. In-depth interviews involve stakeholders to identify the needs and standards of sustainability of SMEs Batik. Data analysis was done by benchmarking method, Multi Dimension Scaling (MDS) method, and Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat (SWOT) analysis. The results recommend the framework of sustainability for SMEs Batik in Indonesia. The sustainability status of SMEs Batik Bogor is classified as Moderate Sustainable. Factors that support the sustainability of SMEs Batik Bogor such is a strong commitment of top management in adopting cleaner production innovation and creativity approach. Successful cleaner production innovations are implemented primarily in the substitution of dye materials from toxic to non-toxic, reducing the intensity of non-renewable energy use, as well as the reuse and recycle of solid waste. “Mosaic Batik” is one of the innovations of solid waste utilization of batik waste produced by company R&D center that gives benefit to three pillars of sustainability, that is financial benefit, environmental benefit, and social benefit. The sustainability of SMEs Batik Bogor cannot be separated from the support of Bogor City Government which proactively facilitates the promotion of sustainable innovation produced by SMEs Batik Bogor.

Keywords: cleaner production innovation, creativity, SMEs Batik, sustainability supply chain

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Authors: Mohsen Masoomi, Fazel Asadi Amjad, Monireh Arvin

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According to Naturalistic principles, human destiny in the form of blind chance and determinism, entraps the individual, so man is a defenceless creature unable to escape from the ruthless paws of a stoical universe. In Naturalism; nonetheless, melodrama mirrors a conscious alternative with a peculiar function. A typical American Naturalistic character thus cannot be a subject for social criticism of American society since they are not victims of the ongoing virtual slavery, capitalist system, nor of a ruined milieu, but of their own volition, and more importantly, their character frailty. Through a Postmodern viewpoint, each Naturalistic work can encompass some entropic trends and changes culminating in an entire failure and devastation. Frank Norris in McTeague displays the futile struggles of ordinary men and how they end up brutes. McTeague encompasses intoxication, abuse, violation, and ruthless homicides. Norris’ depictions of the falling individual as a demon represent the entropic dimension of Naturalistic novels. McTeague’s defeat is somewhat his own fault, the result of his own blunders and resolution, not the result of sheer accident. Throughout the novel, each character is a kind of insane quester indicating McTeague’s decadence and, by inference, the decadence of Western civilisation. McTeague seems to designate Norris’ solicitude for a community fabricated by the elements of human negative demeanours and conducts hauling acute symptoms of infectious dehumanisation. The aim of this article is to illustrate how one specific negative human disposition gradually, like a running fire, can spread everywhere and burn everything in itself. The author applies the concept of entropy metaphorically to describe the individual devolutions that necessarily comprise community entropy in McTeague, a dying universe.

Keywords: animal imagery, entropy, Gypsy, melodrama

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Authors: Narek Margaryan, Zhozef Panosyan

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Due to their unique properties, carbon nanofilms have become the object of general attention and intensive research. In this case it plays a very important role to study surface properties of these films. It is also important to study processes of forming of this films, which is accompanied by a process of self-organization at the nano and micro levels. For more detailed investigation, we examined diamond-like carbon (DLC) layers deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method on Ge substrate and hydro-generated grapheme layers obtained on surface of colloidal solution using grouping method. In this report surface transformation of these CVD nanolayers is studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) upon deposition time. Also, it can be successfully used to study surface properties of self-assembled grapheme layers. In turn, it is possible to sketch out their boundary line, which enables one to draw an idea of peculiarities of formation of these layers. Images obtained by AFM are investigated as a mathematical set of numbers and fractal and roughness analysis were done. Fractal dimension, Regne’s fractal coefficient, histogram, Fast Fourier transformation, etc. were obtained. The dependence of fractal parameters on the deposition duration for CVD films and on temperature of solution tribolayers was revealed. As an important surface parameter for our carbon films, surface energy was calculated as function of Regne’s fractal coefficient. Surface potential was also measured with Kelvin probe method using semi-contacting AFM. The dependence of surface potential on the deposition duration for CVD films and on temperature of solution for hydro-generated graphene was found as well. Results obtained by fractal analysis method was related with purly esperimental results for number of samples.

Keywords: nanostructured films, self-assembled grapheme, diamond-like carbon, surface potential, Kelvin probe method, fractal analysis

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Authors: Farshideh Einsele, Hassan Foroosh

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In this paper, we present a robust algorithm to recognize extracted text from grocery product images captured by mobile phone cameras. Recognition of such text is challenging since text in grocery product images varies in its size, orientation, style, illumination, and can suffer from perspective distortion. Pre-processing is performed to make the characters scale and rotation invariant. Since text degradations can not be appropriately defined using wellknown geometric transformations such as translation, rotation, affine transformation and shearing, we use the whole character black pixels as our feature vector. Classification is performed with minimum distance classifier using the maximum likelihood criterion, which delivers very promising Character Recognition Rate (CRR) of 89%. We achieve considerably higher Word Recognition Rate (WRR) of 99% when using lower level linguistic knowledge about product words during the recognition process.

Keywords: camera-based OCR, feature extraction, document, image processing, grocery products

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Authors: Suneet Jagdev

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Rapid urbanization has resulted in informal settlements on the periphery of nearly all big cities in the developing world due to lack of affordable housing options in the city. Residents of these communities have to travel long distances to get to work or search for jobs in these cities, and women, children and elderly people are excluded from urban opportunities. Affordable and safe public transport facilities can help them expand their possibilities. The aim of this research is to identify social capital as another important element of livable cities that can be protected and nurtured through transit-oriented development, as a tool to provide real resources that can help these transit-oriented communities become self-sustainable. Social capital has been referred to the collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other. It is one of the key component responsible to build and maintain democracy. Public spaces, pedestrian amenities and social equity are the other essential part of Transit Oriented Development models that will be analyzed in this research. The data has been collected through the analysis of several case studies, the urban design strategies implemented and their impact on the perception and on the community´s experience, and, finally, how these focused on the social capital. Case studies have been evaluated on several metrics, namely ecological, financial, energy consumption, etc. A questionnaire and other tools were designed to collect data to analyze the research objective and reflect the dimension of social capital. The results of the questionnaire indicated that almost all the participants have a positive attitude towards this dimensions of building a social capital with the aid of transit-oriented development. Statistical data of the identified key motivators against against demographic characteristics have been generated based on the case studies used for the paper. The findings suggested that there is a direct relation between urbanization, transit-oriented developments, and social capital.

Keywords: better opportunities, low-income settlements, social capital, social inclusion, transit oriented development

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Authors: Phitsanu Phunphetchphan

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The purposes of this research was to investigate opinions of Rajabhat University staff towards performance of the university council committee by focusing on (1) personal characteristics of the committees; (2) duties designated by the university council; and (3) relationship between university council and staff. The population of this study included all high level of management from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University which made a total of 200 respondents. Data analysis included frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that the majority of staff rated the performance of university council at a high level. The 'overall appropriate qualification of the university council' was rated as the highest score while 'good governance' was rated as the lowest mean score. Moreover, the findings also revealed that the relationship between university council’s members and the staff was rated at a high level while 'the integrity of policy implementation' was rated as the lowest score.

Keywords: investigation, performance, university council, management

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Authors: Tahir Saleem, Mohammad Usman, Nadeem Khan

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GPS signals are used for navigation and positioning purposes by a diverse set of users. However, this project intends to utilize the reflected GPS L5 signals for location of target in a region of interest by generating an image that highlights the positions of targets in the area of interest. The principle of bi-static radar is used to detect the targets or any movement or changes. The idea is confirmed by the results obtained during MATLAB simulations. A matched filter based technique is employed in the signal processing to improve the system resolution. The simulation is carried out under different conditions with moving receiver and targets. Noise and attenuation is also induced and atmospheric conditions that affect the direct and reflected GPS signals have been simulated to generate a more practical scenario. A realistic GPS L5 signal has been simulated, the simulation results verify that the detection and imaging of targets is possible by employing reflected GPS using L5 signals and matched filter processing technique with acceptable spatial resolution.

Keywords: GPS, L5 Signal, SAR, spatial resolution

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Authors: Rotimi Sunday Ajani, Omowumi Femi-Akinlosotu

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Background: The usually paired human kidneys are retroperitoneal urinary organs with some endocrine functions. Standard text books of anatomy ascribe single value to each of the dimension of length, width and thickness. Research questions: These values do not give consideration to racial and genetic variability in human morphology. They may thus be erroneous to students and clinicians working on Nigerians. Objectives: The study aimed at establishing reference values of the kidney length, width and thickness for Nigerians using the cadaveric model. Methodology: The length, width, thickness and weight of sixty kidneys harvested from cadavers of thirty adult Nigerians (Male: Female; 27: 3) were measured. Respective volume was calculated using the ellipsoid formula. Results: The mean length of the kidney was 9.84±0.89 cm (9.63±0.88 {right}; 10.06±0.86 {left}), width- 5.18±0.70 cm (5.21±0.72 {right}; 5.14±0.70 {left}), thickness-3.45±0.56 cm (3.36±0.58 {right}, 3.53±0.55 {left}), weight-125.06±22.34 g (122.36±21.70 {right}; 127.76 ±24.02 {left}) and volume of 95.45± 24.40 cm3 (91.73± 26.84 {right}; 99.17± 25.75 {left}). Discussion: Though the values of the parameters measured were higher for the left kidney (except for the width), they were not statistically significant. The various parameters obtained by this study differ from those of similar studies from other continents. Conclusion: Stating single value for each of the parameter of length, width and thickness of the kidney as currently obtained in textbooks of anatomy may be incomplete information and hence misleading. Thus, there is the need to emphasize racial differences when stating the normal values of kidney dimensions in textbooks of anatomy. Implication for Research and Innovation: The results of the study showed the dimensions of the kidney (length, width and thickness) have interracial vagaries as they were different from those of similar studies and values stated in standard textbooks of human anatomy. Future direction: This is a preliminary report and the study will continue so that more data will be obtained.

Keywords: kidney dimensions, cadaveric estimation, adult nigerians, racial differences

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Authors: Irene Kalemaki, Ioanna Garefi

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Social Innovation Education (SIE) is a new educational approach that aims to empower students to take action for a more democratic and sustainable society. Conceptually and pedagogically wise, it is situated at the intersection of Enterprise Education and Citizenship Education as it aspires to i) combine action with activism, ii) personal development with collective efficacy, iii) entrepreneurial mindsets with democratic values and iv) individual competences with collective competences. This paper abstract presents the work of the NEMESIS project, funded by H2020, that aims to design, test and validate the first consolidated approach for embedding Social Innovation Education in schools of primary and secondary education. During the academic year 2018-2019, eight schools from five European countries experimented with different approaches and methodologies to incorporate SIE in their settings. This paper reports briefly on these attempts and discusses the wider educational philosophy underlying these interventions with a particular focus on analyzing the learning outcomes and impact on students. That said, this paper doesn’t only report on the theoretical and practical underpinnings of SIE, but most importantly, it provides evidence on the impact of SIE on students. In terms of methodology, the study took place from September 2018 to July 2019 in eight schools from Greece, Spain, Portugal, France, and the UK involving directly 56 teachers, 1030 students and 69 community stakeholders. Focus groups, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations as well as students' written narratives were used to extract data on the impact of SIE on students. The overall design of the evaluation activities was informed by a realist approach, which enabled us to go beyond “what happened” and towards understanding “why it happened”. Research findings suggested that SIE can benefit students in terms of their emotional, cognitive, behavioral and agentic engagement. Specifically, the emotional engagement of students was increased because through SIE interventions; students voice was heard, valued, and acted upon. This made students feel important to their school, increasing their sense of belonging, confidence and level of autonomy. As regards cognitive engagement, both students and teachers reported positive outcomes as SIE enabled students to take ownership of their ideas to drive their projects forward and thus felt more motivated to perform in class because it felt personal, important and relevant to them. In terms of behavioral engagement, the inclusive environment and the collective relationships that were reinforced through the SIE interventions had a direct positive impact on behaviors among peers. Finally, with regard to agentic engagement, it has been observed that students became very proactive which was connected to the strong sense of ownership and enthusiasm developed during collective efforts to deliver real-life social innovations. Concluding, from a practical and policy point of view these research findings could encourage the inclusion of SIE in schools, while from a research point of view, they could contribute to the scientific discourse providing evidence and clarity on the emergent field of SIE.

Keywords: education, engagement, social innovation, students

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Authors: K. E. Oyetade, S. D. Eyono Obono

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One of the fundamental characteristics of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been the ever-changing nature of continuous release and models of ICTs with its impact on the academic, social, and psychological benefits of its introduction in schools. However, there seems to be a growing concern about its negative impact on students when introduced early in schools for teaching and learning. This study aims to design a model of child development factors affecting the early introduction of ICTs in schools in an attempt to improve the understanding of child development and introduction of ICTs in schools. The proposed model is based on a sound theoretical framework. It was designed following a literature review of child development theories and child development factors. The child development theoretical framework that fitted to the best of all child development factors was then chosen as the basis for the proposed model. This study hence found that the Jean Piaget cognitive developmental theory is the most adequate theoretical frameworks for modeling child development factors for ICT introduction in schools.

Keywords: child development factors, child development theories, ICTs, theory

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Authors: Saheed Ahmad Rufai

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The growing nature of insurgencies in their various forms in the Muslim world is now of great concern to both the leadership and the citizenry. The high sense of insecurity occasioned by the unpleasant experience has in fact attained an alarming rate in the estimation of both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Consequently, the situation began to attract contributions from scholars and researchers in security-related fields of humanities and social sciences. However, there is little evidence of contribution to the discourse and the scholarship involved by scholars in the field of education. The purpose of this proposed study is to contribute an education dimension to the growing scholarship on the subject. The study which is situated in the broad scholarship of curriculum making and grounded in both the philosophical and sociological foundations of the curriculum, employs a combination of curriculum criticism and creative synthesis, as methods, in reconstructing Muslim schools’ educational blueprint. The significance of the proposed study lies in its potential to contribute a useful addition to the scholarship of curriculum construction in the context of the Muslim world. The significance also lies in its potential to offer an ameliorative proposal over unnecessary insurgency or militancy thereby paving the way for the enthronement of a regime characterized by peaceful, harmonious and tranquil co-existence among people of diverse orientations and ideological persuasions in the Muslim world. The study is restricted to only the first two stages of curriculum making namely the formulation of philosophy which concerns the articulation of objectives, aims, purposes, goals, and principles, as well as the second stage which covers the translation of such principles to an anti-insurgency secondary school curriculum for the Muslim world.

Keywords: education for conflict resolution, anti-insurgency curriculum principles, peace education, anti-terrorist curriculum framework, curriculum for Muslim secondary schools

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Authors: Steven Latré, Frederik Desplentere, Ilya Straumit, Stepan V. Lomov

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A method is proposed in order to create a three-dimensional finite element model representing fibre reinforced insulation materials for the simulation software Siemens NX. VoxTex software, a tool for quantification of µCT images of fibrous materials, is used for the transformation of microtomography images of random fibre reinforced composites into finite element models. An automatic tool was developed to execute the import of the models to the thermal solver module of Siemens NX. The paper describes the numerical tools used for the image quantification and the transformation and illustrates them on several thermal simulations of fibre reinforced insulation blankets filled with low thermal conductive fillers. The calculation of thermal conductivity is validated by comparison with the experimental data.

Keywords: analysis, modelling, thermal, voxel

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Authors: Lorenzo Buti

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This paper investigates the nature of democratic action through a critical reading of Claude Lefort’s notion of the democratic ‘regime’. Lefort provides one of the most innovative accounts of the essential features of a democratic regime. According to him, democracy is a political regime that acknowledges the indeterminacy of a society and stages it as a contestation between competing political actors. As such, democracy provides the symbolic markers of society’s openness towards the future. However, despite their democratic features, the recent decades in late capitalist societies attest to a sense of the future becoming fixed and predetermined. This suggests that Lefort’s conception of democracy harbours a misunderstanding of the character and experience of democratic action. This paper examines this underlying tension in Lefort’s work. It claims that Lefort underestimates how a democratic regime, next to its symbolic function, also takes a materially constituted form with its particular dynamics of power relations. Lefort’s systematic dismissal of this material dimension for democratic action can lead to the contemporary paradoxical situation where democracy’s symbolic markers are upheld (free elections, public debate, dynamic between government and opposition in parliament,…) but the room for political decision-making is constrained due to a myriad of material constraints (e.g., market pressures, institutional inertias). The paper draws out the implications for the notion of democratic action. Contra Lefort, it argues that democratic action necessarily targets the material conditions that impede the capacity for decision-making on the basis of equality and liberty. This analysis shapes our understanding of democratic action in two ways. First, democratic action takes an asymmetrical, insurgent form, as a contestation of material power relations from below. Second, it reveals an ambivalent position vis-à-vis the political regime: democratic action is symbolically made possible by the democratic dispositive, but it contests the constituted form that the democratic regime takes.

Keywords: Claude Lefort, democratic action, material constitution, political regime

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Authors: Nataliya G. Olkhovik

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Nowadays in the system of Russian higher medical education there have been undertaken initiatives that resulted in focusing on the resources of e-learning in teaching foreign languages. Obviously, the face-to-face communication in foreign languages bears much more advantages in terms of effectiveness in comparison with the potential of e-learning. Thus, we’ve faced the necessity of strengthening the capacity of e-learning via integration of active methods into the process of teaching foreign languages, such as project activity of students. Successful project activity of students should involve the following components: monitoring, control, methods of organizing the student’s activity in foreign languages, stimulating their interest in the chosen project, approaches to self-assessment and methods of raising their self-esteem. The contemporary methodology assumes the project as a specific method, which activates potential of a student’s cognitive function, emotional reaction, ability to work in the team, commitment, skills of cooperation and, consequently, their readiness to verbalize ideas, thoughts and attitudes. Verbal activity in the foreign language is a complex conception that consolidates both cognitive (involving speech) capacity and individual traits and attitudes such as initiative, empathy, devotion, responsibility etc. Once we organize the project activity by the means of e-learning within the ‘Foreign language’ discipline we have to take into consideration all mentioned above characteristics and work out an effective way to implement it into the teaching practice to boost its educational potential. We have integrated into the e-platform Moodle the module of project activity consisting of the following blocks of tasks that lead students to research, cooperate, strive to leadership, chase the goal and finally verbalize their intentions. Firstly, we introduce the project through activating self-activity of students by the tasks of the phase ‘Preparation of the project’: choose the topic and justify it; find out the problematic situation and its components; set the goals; create your team, choose the leader, distribute the roles in your team; make a written report on grounding the validity of your choices. Secondly, in the ‘Planning the project’ phase we ask students to represent the analysis of the problem in terms of reasons, ways and methods of solution and define the structure of their project (here students may choose oral or written presentation by drawing up the claim in the e-platform about their wish, whereas the teacher decides what form of presentation to prefer). Thirdly, the students have to design the visual aids, speech samples (functional phrases, introductory words, keywords, synonyms, opposites, attributive constructions) and then after checking, discussing and correcting with a teacher via the means of Moodle present it in front of the audience. And finally, we introduce the phase of self-reflection that aims to awake the inner desire of students to improve their verbal activity in a foreign language. As a result, by implementing the project activity into the e-platform and project activity, we try to widen the frameworks of a traditional lesson of foreign languages through tapping the potential of personal traits and attitudes of students.

Keywords: active methods, e-learning, improving verbal activity in foreign languages, personal traits and attitudes

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Authors: Runlin Liu, Shilong Li

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China is a mountainous country, with two-thirds of its territory covered by plateaus, hills, and mountains, and nearly half of the cities and towns are distributed in mountainous areas. Compared with the environmental constraints in the development path of cities and towns in the plains, there are heterogeneities in aspects such as spatial characteristics, growth mode, and ecological protection and so on for mountain village and townlets, and the development path of mountain village and townlets has a bidirectional relationship between mountain space and economic growth. Based on classical growth theory, this article explores the two-dimensional coupling relation between space and economy in mountain village and townlets under background of rural rejuvenation. GIS technology is adopted in the study to analyze spatial trends and patterns, economical spatial differentiation characteristics of village and townlets. This powerful tool can also help differentiate and analyze limiting factors and assessment systems in the economic growth of village and townlets under spatial dimension of mountainous space. To make the research more specific, this article selects mountain village and townlets in Southwest China as the object of study; this provides good cases for analyzing parallel coupling mechanism of the duality structure system between economic growth and spatial expansion and discussing the path selection of spatial economic growth of mountain village and towns with multiple constraints. The research results can provide quantitative references for the spatial and economic development paths of mountain villages and towns, which is helpful in realizing efficient and high-quality development mode with equal emphasis on spatial and economic benefits for these type of towns.

Keywords: coupling mechanism, geographic information technology, mountainous town, synergetic development, spatial economy

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Authors: Sandabad Sara, Sayd Tahri Yassine, Hammouch Ahmed

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The development of science has allowed computer scientists to touch the medicine and bring aid to radiologists as we are presenting it in our article. Our work focuses on the detection and localization of tumors areas in the human brain; this will be a completely automatic without any human intervention. In front of the huge volume of MRI to be treated per day, the radiologist can spend hours and hours providing a tremendous effort. This burden has become less heavy with the automation of this step. In this article we present an automatic and effective tumor detection, this work consists of two steps: the first is the image filtering using the filter Nl-means, then applying the expectation maximization algorithm (EM) for retrieving the tumor mask from the brain MRI and extracting the tumor area using the mask obtained from the second step. To prove the effectiveness of this method multiple evaluation criteria will be used, so that we can compare our method to frequently extraction methods used in the literature.

Keywords: MRI, Em algorithm, brain, tumor, Nl-means

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Authors: Yael Livneh, Shay Tzafrir, Ilan Meshoulam

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Technological startup companies have been recognized as bearing tremendous potential for business and economic success. However, many entrepreneurs who produce promising innovative ideas fail to implement them as successful businesses. A key argument for such failure is the entrepreneurs' lack of competence in adaptation of the relevant level of formality of human resource management (HRM). The purpose of the present research was to examine multiple antecedents and consequences of HRM formality in growing startup companies. A review of the research literature identified two central components of HRM formality: HR control and professionalism. The effect of three contextual predictors was examined. The first was an intra-organizational factor: the development level of the organization. We based on a differentiation between knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation. At a given time, the organization chooses to focus on a specific mix of these orientations, a choice which requires an appropriate level of HRM formality, in order to efficiently overcome the challenges. It was hypothesized that the mix of orientations of knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation would predict HRM formality. The second predictor was the personal characteristics the organization's leader. According the idea of blueprint effect of CEO's on HRM, it was hypothesized that the CEO's cognitive style would predict HRM formality. The third contextual predictor was an external organizational factor: the level of investor involvement. By using the agency theory, and based on Transaction Cost Economy, it was hypothesized that the level of investor involvement in general management and HRM would be positively related to the HRM formality. The effect of formality on trust was examined directly and indirectly by the mediation role of procedural justice. The research method included a time-lagged field study. In the first study, data was obtained using three questionnaires, each directed to a different source: CEO, HR position-holder and employees. 43 companies participated in this study. The second study was conducted approximately a year later. Data was recollected using three questionnaires by reapplying the same sample. 41 companies participated in the second study. The organizations samples included technological startup companies. Both studies included 884 respondents. The results indicated consistency between the two studies. HRM formality was predicted by the intra-organizational factor as well as the personal characteristics of the CEO, but not at all by the external organizational context. Specifically, the organizational orientations was the greatest contributor to both components of HRM formality. The cognitive style predicted formality to a lesser extent. The investor's involvement was found not to have any predictive effect on the HRM formality. The results indicated a positive contribution to trust in HRM, mainly via the mediation of procedural justice. This study contributed a new concept for technological startup company development by a mixture of organizational orientation. Practical implications indicated that the level of HRM formality should be matched to that of the company's development. This match should be challenged and adjusted periodically by referring to the organization orientation, relevant HR practices, and HR function characteristics. A relevant matching could enhance further trust and business success.

Keywords: control, formality, human resource management, organizational development, professionalism, technological startup company

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Authors: Shimaa Mahmoud Ali Ahmed, Boshra Tawfek El-Shreef

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Sustainable development has become an important concern worldwide, and climate change has become a global threat. Some of these affect how we approach environmental issues — and how we should approach them. Environmental aspects have an important impact on the built environment, that’s why knowledge about Green Building and Green Construction become a vital dimension of urban sustainable development to face the challenges of climate change. There are several levels of green buildings, from energy-efficient lighting to 100% eco-friendly construction; the concept of green buildings in Egypt is still a rare occurrence, with the concept being relatively new to the market. There are several projects on the ground that currently employing sustainable and green solutions to some extent, some of them achieve a limit of success and others fail to employ the new solutions. The market and the cost as well, are great factors. From the last century, green architecture and environmental sustainability become a famous trend that all the researchers like to follow. Nowadays, the trend towards green has shifted to housing and real estate projects. While the environmental aspects are the key to achieve green buildings, the economic benefits, and the market forces are considered as big challenges. The paper assumes that some appropriate environmental treatments could be added to the applied prototype of the governmental social housing projects in Egypt to achieve better environmental solutions. The aim of the research is to get housing projects in Egypt closer to the track of sustainable and green buildings, through making a local future proposal to be integrated into the current policies. The proposed model is based upon adding some appropriate, cheap environmental modifications to the prototype of the Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure, and New Urban Communities. The research is based on an analytical, comparative analytical, and inductive approach to study and analyze the housing projects in Egypt and the possibilities of integrating green techniques into it.

Keywords: green buildings, urban sustainability, housing projects, sustainable development goals, Egypt 2030

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Authors: Dogan Cetin, Burak Turk, Mahmut Candan

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Landslides cause remarkable damage and loss of human life every year around the world. They may be made more likely by factors such as earthquakes, heavy precipitation, and incorrect construction activities near or on slopes. The stadium of Karabük University is located at the bottom of a very high slope. After construction of the stadium, severe deformations were observed on the social activity area surrounding the stadium. Some inclinometers were placed behind the stadium to detect the possible landslide activity. According to measurements of the inclinometers, irregular soil movements were detected at depths between 20 m and 45 m. Also, significant heaves and settlements were observed behind the stadium walls located at the toe of the slope. The heaves indicate that the stadium walls were under threat of a significant landslide. After inclinometer readings and field observations, the potential failure geometry was estimated. The protection system was designed based on numerous numerical analysis performed by 2-D Plaxis software. After the design was completed, protective geotechnical work was started. Before the geotechnical work began, new inclinometers were installed to monitor earth movement during the work and afterward. The total horizontal length of the possible failure surface is 220 m. Geotechnical work included two-row-pile construction and three-row-pile construction on the slope. The bored piles were 120 cm in diameter for two-row-pile construction, and 150 cm in diameter for three-row-pile construction. Pile length is 31.30 m for two-row-pile construction and 31.40 m for three-row-pile construction. The distance between two-row-pile and three-row-pile construction is 60 m. With these bored piles, the landslide was divided into three parts. In this way, the earth's pressure was reduced. After a number of inclinometer readings, it was seen that deformation continued during the work, but after the work was done, the movement reversed, and total deformation stayed in mm dimension. It can be said that the protection work eliminated the possible landslide.

Keywords: landslide, landslide protection, inclinometer measurement, bored piles

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Authors: Wah Wah Min

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The relative abundance and diversities of gastropods and crabs were assessed for mangrove areas of Ko Libong, Kantang district, Trang, Thailand in June 2022. Two sample sites (I and II) were studied. The site I was replanted under ecotourism, whereas site II represented the protected natural restored mangroves. This study is aimed to assess faunal diversity and how it could become re-established and resemble to natural restored mangroves. There was one sample plot at each study site with the dimension (10m x 25m) in study site I and (20m x 30m) in site II. The sample was randomly taken from each plot by using a quadrate measuring at (1 m2) in site I and (3m2) in site II; there were four quadrates in total of each site. The species richness (S), Shannon Index (H’) and Evenness Index (J’), vegetative measurements and physico-chemical parameters were calculated for each site. Seventeen gastropod species belonged to 11 families and six crab species under two families, which were collected in both study sites. Overall, in gastropod species, the highest relative abundance of Nerita planospira exhibited (53.45%, category C) with lower population density (1.61 individuals/m2), whichwas observed in study site II and for crab species, Parasesarma plicatum (83.33%, category C) with lower population density (0.33 individuals/m2). The diversity indices of gastropod species at the study site I was calculated higher indicating by (S= 12, H’= 2.27, J’ and SDI=0.91) compared to study site II (S= 7, H’= 1.22, J’ and SDI=0.63, 0.62). For the crabs, (S= 4, H’=1.33, J’ and SDI=0.96, 0.9) in study site I and (S= 2, H’=0.64, J’ and SDI=0.92, 0.67) in site II. Overall, the higher species diversity indices of study site I can be categorized “very equally” with a very good category according to evenness criteria (>0.81). This can be gained by increasing restoration sites through an ecotourism replanting program for achieving the goals of sustainable development for mangrove conservation and long-term studies are required to confirm this hypothesis.

Keywords: biodiversity, ecotourism, restoration, population

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Authors: Hasti Ebrahimi

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This study sheds light on the challenges and difficulties caused by the Iranian clerical system’s intervention in the country’s school education during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools remained closed for almost two years. The pandemic brought Iranian elementary school education to a standstill for almost 6 months before the country developed a nationwide learning platform – a customized television network. While the initiative seemed to have been welcomed by the majority of Iranian parents, it resented some of the more traditional strata of the society, including the influential Friday Prayer Leaders who found the televised version of the elementary education ‘less spiritual’ and ‘more ‘material’ or science-based. That prompted the Iranian Channel of Education, the specialized television network that had been chosen to serve as a nationally televised school during the pandemic, to try to redefine much of its online elementary school educational content within the religious ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, young clergies appeared on the television screen as preachers of Islamic morality, religious themes and even sociology, history, and arts. The present research delves into the consequences of such an intervention, how it might have impacted the infrastructure of Iranian elementary education and whether or not the new ideology-infused curricula would withstand the opposition of students and mainstream teachers. The main methodology used in this study is Critical Discourse Analysis with a cognitive approach. It systematically finds and analyzes the alternative ideological structures of discourse in the Iranian Channel of Education from September 2021 to July 2022, when the clergy ‘teachers’ replaced ‘regular’ history and arts teachers on the television screen for the first time. It has aimed to assess how the various uses of the alternative ideological discourse in elementary school content have influenced the processes of learning: the acquisition of knowledge, beliefs, opinions, attitudes, abilities, and other cognitive and emotional changes, which are the goals of institutional education. This study has been an effort aimed at understanding and perhaps clarifying the relationships between the traditional textual structures and processing on the one hand and socio-cultural contexts created by the clergy teachers on the other. This analysis shows how the clerical portion of elementary education on the Channel of Education that seemed to have dominated the entire televised teaching and learning process faded away as the pandemic was contained and mainstream classes were restored. It nevertheless reflects the deep ideological rifts between the clerical approach to school education and the mainstream teaching process in Iranian schools. The semantic macrostructures of social content in the current Iranian elementary school education, this study suggests, have remained intact despite the temporary ideological intervention of the ruling clerical elite in their formulation and presentation. Finally, using thematic and schematic frameworks, the essay suggests that the ‘clerical’ social content taught on the Channel of Education during the pandemic cannot have been accepted cognitively by the channel’s target audience, including students and mainstream teachers.

Keywords: televised elementary school learning, Covid 19, critical discourse analysis, Iranian clerical ideology

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Authors: A. N. Roslen, S. A. Syed-Sahil, A. Musavir

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In Malaysia, there are only few fashion designers who are inspired by the work of artists when creating their collections. The researchers confirmed this statement by interviewing fashion experts in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to: 1. Investigate the acceptance of fashion inspired by the work of art among consumers. 2. Encourage more designers to use work of art as their inspirations. 3. Promote Malaysian Artists through fashion. Thus, the researchers interviewed Malaysian fashion designers, image consultants, and one famous Malaysian Artist (Awang Damit). All of them had agreed that the fashion inspired by the work of art in Malaysia has a long way to go. Therefore, the researchers’ aim is to attract more fashion designers to use the work of local artists in their creations. The researchers had used interview, survey and experimentation as methods of this study. In the experimentation procedure, paintings of local artist, Awang Damit was used as a source of inspiration in creating a design Line. The result of this study had shown that fashion inspired by work of art is acknowledged and accepted by the designers and consumers.

Keywords: art, fashion, inspiration, local artist

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Authors: Asmaa Baghli

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Self-acceptance is one of the most pertinent notions that attracted the attention of many scholars. These latters believed that the sense of self-acceptance for people contributes in the emergence of their self-esteem and helps to improve their efficacy level. Simply defined, self-acceptance stands for the ability of the person to admire and accept herself and her potentials. This fact is believed to participate in the personal image creation depending on the qualities and features possessed. Hitherto, the following paper aims, first, to provide a brief and concise definition of self-acceptance, self-esteem and self-efficacy. It tries to explain the correlation between the three concepts along with its linkage to language teaching. Then, it examines teachers’ acceptance level and its influence on their classroom actions. For that purpose, the main methodology undertaken is the mixed method. That means the combination between both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The prime tools selected are a questionnaire and self-acceptance test for teachers. Finally, it suggests some techniques for developing teachers’ self-acceptance.

Keywords: competence, development, efficacy, Self-acceptance, self-esteem, teachers

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Authors: Samaneh Pouyanfar, Michael Oliff

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The industry of home appliances may beone of theindustries which has the highest competition, and actually what can guarantee the survival of this industry is discovering the superior services. A trend to provide quality products and services plays an important role in this industry because discovering the services is counted as a vital affair for Manufacturing Organizations’ survival and profitability. Given the importance of the topic, this paper attempts to investigate the relative priority of the factors influencing the customer satisfaction in gaining the competitive advantage in Pars-Khazar Company. In sum, 96 executives of Pars-Khazar Company where investigated in a census. For this purpose, after reviewing the research literature and performing deep interviews between pundits and experts active in the industry, the research questionnaire was made based on variables affecting customer satisfaction and components determining business competitive advantage. Determining the content validity took place by judgement of the experts. The reliability of each structure was measured based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Since the value of Cronbach's alpha was higher than 0.7 for each structure, internal consistency of statements was high and the reliability of the questionnaire was acceptable. The data analysis was also done with Kulmgrf-asmyrnf test and Friedman test using SPSS software. The results showed that in dimension of factors affecting customer satisfaction, the History of trade name (brand), Familiarity with the product brand, Brand reputation and Safety have the highest value of priority respectively, and the variable of firm growth has the highest value of priority among the components determining the performance of competitive advantage.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, competitive advantage, brand history, safety, growth

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Authors: X. S. Wu, H. Jia, P. H. Qian, Z. Zhang, H. L. Cai, F. M. Zhang

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A bipolar resistance switching behaviour is detected for a Ti/TiO2-x/Au memristor device, which is fabricated by a masked designed magnetic sputtering. The current dependence of voltage indicates the curve changes slowly and continuously. When voltage pulses are applied to the device, the set and reset processes maintains linearity, which is used to simulate the synapses. We argue that the conduction mechanism of the device is from the oxygen vacancy channel model, and the resistance of the device change slowly due to the reaction between the titanium electrode and the intermediate layer and the existence of a large number of oxygen vacancies in the intermediate layer. Then, Hopfield neural network is constructed to simulate the behaviour of neural network in image processing, and the accuracy rate is more than 98%. This shows that titanium dioxide memristor has a broad application prospect in high performance neural network simulation.

Keywords: memristor fabrication, neuromorphic computing, bionic synaptic application, TiO₂-based

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Authors: Sang-Tae Ji, Jeong-Woo Park, Jun-Ho Park, Kwang-Woo Nam

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This study aims is to suggest the basic factors by considering the priority of intersection in the diffusion project of Smart intersection. Busan Metropolitan City is conducting a smart intersection project for efficient traffic management. The smart intersection project aims to make breakthrough improvement of the intersection congestion by optimizing the signal system using CCTV (closed-circuit television camera) image analysis technology. This study investigated trends of existing researches and analyzed by setting three things of traffic volume, characteristics of intersection road, and whether or not to conduct the main arterial road as factors for selecting new intersection when spreading smart intersection. Using this, we presented the priority of the newly installed intersection through the present situation and analysis for the Busan Metropolitan City which is the main destination of the spreading project of the smart intersection. The results of this study can be used as a consideration in the implementation of smart intersection business.

Keywords: CCTV, GIS, ICT, Smart City, smart intersection

Procedia PDF Downloads 388

Authors: Alexis Thouki

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In our post-Christian societies, ecclesiastical heritage acquired a new extrovert profile aiming to reach out an increasingly diverse audience. In this context, the various motivations, interests, personalities and cultural exchanges, found in the ‘post-modern pilgrimage’, bequeath a hybrid and multidimensional character to religious tourism education. In consequence, churches have acquired the challenging role of enriching visitors cultural and spiritual capital. Despite this promising diversification to relate, reveal and provoke constructive discourses, due to the various ‘conflicting interests’, practitioners attempt to tame the rich in symbolism and meanings religious environment through ‘neutral interpretations’. This paper aims to present the results of an ongoing developing strategy related to the presentation of contentious meanings in English churches. The paper will explore some of the underlying issues related to the capacity of ‘neutrality’ to spark, downplay or eliminate contentious conversations relating to the cultural, religious, and social dimension of Christian cultural heritage thematology. In an effort to understand this issue, the paper examines the concept of neutrality and what it stands for, executing a discourse analysis in the semantic context in which the theological lexicon is interwoven with the cultural and social meanings of sacred sites. Following that, the paper examines whether the preferable interpretive strategies meet the post-modern interpretative framework which is marked by polysemy and critical active engagement. The ultimate aim of the paper is to investigate the hypothesis that the preferable neutral strategies, managing the ‘conflicting’ demands of worshippers and visitors, result in the uneven treatment of both, the religious and historical spirit of the place.

Keywords: contentious dialogue, interpretation, meaning making, religious tourism

Procedia PDF Downloads 158