Search results for: pre-service science teachers

Authors: Juan Li, Hui Tian, Min Wang

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In China, under the considerable pressure of 'Gaokao' –the highly competitive college entrance examination, high school teachers and parents often worry that doing physical activity would take away the students’ precious study time and may have a negative impact on the academic grades. There was a tendency to achieve high academic scores at the cost of physical exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the physical fitness and academic achievement of Chinese high school students. The participants were 968 grade one (N=457) and grade two students (N=511) with an average age of 16 years from three high schools of different levels in Beijing, China. 479 were boys, and 489 were girls. One of the schools is a top high school in China, another is a key high school in Beijing, and the other is an ordinary high school. All analyses were weighted using SAS 9.4 to ensure the representatives of the sample. The weights were based on 12 strata of schools, sex, and grades. Physical fitness data were collected using the scores of the National Physical Fitness Test, which is an annual official test administered by the Ministry of Education in China. It includes 50m run, sits and reach test, standing long jump, 1000m run (for boys), 800m run (for girls), pull-ups for 1 minute (for boys), and bent-knee sit-ups for 1 minute (for girls). The test is an overall evaluation of the students’ physical health on the major indexes of strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiorespiratory function. Academic scores were obtained from the three schools with the students’ consent. The statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS 24. Independent-Samples T-test was used to examine the gender group differences. Spearman’s Rho bivariate correlation was adopted to test for associations between physical test results and academic performance. Statistical significance was set at p<.05. The study found that girls obtained higher fitness scores than boys (p=.000). The girls’ physical fitness test scores were positively associated with the total academic grades (rs=.103, p=.029), English (rs=.096, p=.042), physics (rs=.202, p=.000) and chemistry scores (rs=.131, p=.009). No significant relationship was observed in boys. Cardiorespiratory fitness had a positive association with physics (rs=.196, p=.000) and biology scores (rs=.168, p=.023) in girls, and with English score in boys (rs=.104, p=.029). A possible explanation for the greater association between physical fitness and academic achievement in girls rather than boys was that girls showed stronger motivation in achieving high scores in whether academic tests or fitness tests. More driven by the test results, girls probably tended to invest more time and energy in training for the fitness test. Higher fitness levels were associated with an academic benefit among girls generally in Chinese high schools. Therefore, physical fitness needs to be given greater emphasis among Chinese adolescents and gender differences need to be taken into consideration.

Keywords: physical fitness; adolescents; academic achievement; high school

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Authors: Jane Ebele Iloanya

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The introduction of the learning outcome approach in contemporary curriculum design and instruction, has brought student–centered education to the fore. In teacher –centered teaching and learning, the teacher transfers knowledge to the students, who are always at the receiving end. The teacher is assumed to know it all and hardly trusts the knowledge of the students. Teacher-centered education places emphasis on the supremacy of the teacher over the students who should ideally, be able to dialogue with the teacher. The paper seeks to examine the issue of democratisation of the teaching and learning process in Institutions of Higher Learning in Botswana. Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, with a total population of about two million people. In 1977, Botswana’s First National Policy on Education was unveiled. This came eleven years after the country gained independence from Great Britain. The philosophy which informed the 1977 Education Policy was “Social Harmony”. The philosophy of social harmony has four main principles: Unity, Development, Democracy and Self- Reliance. These principles were meant to permeate all aspects of lives of the people of Botswana, including, the issue of how teaching and learning is conducted in Botswana’s institutions of higher learning. This paper will examine the practicalisation of the principle of democracy in teaching and learning at higher education level in Botswana. It will in particular, discuss the issue of students’ participation and engagement in the teaching and learning process. The following questions will be addressed: 1.Are students involved in planning the curriculum? 2.How engaged are the students in the teaching and learning process? 3.How democratic are the teachers in terms of students’ rights and privileges? A mixed–method approach will be adopted in this study. Questionnaires will be distributed to the students to elicit their views on the practicalisation of the principle of democracy at the higher education level. Semi-structured interview questions will be administered in order to collect information from the lecturers on the issue of democratisation of teaching and learning at the higher education level in Botswana. In addition, relevant and related literature will be reviewed to augment collected data. The study will focus on three tertiary institutions in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. Currently, there are ten tertiary institutions in Gaborone; both privately and government owned. The outcome of this study will add to the existing body of knowledge on the issue of the practicalisation of democracy at the higher education level in Botswana. This research is therefore relevant in helping to find out if democratisation of teaching and learning has been realised in Botswana’s Institutions of higher learning. It is important to examine Botswana’s national policy on education in this way to ascertain if it has been effective in giving the country’s education system that democratic element, which is essential for a student-centered approach to the teaching and learning process.

Keywords: democratisation, higher education, learning, teaching

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Authors: Seyyed Hossein Alavi, Soudabe Mehri Talarposhti

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Passages urban landscape is made up of various components that the component parts of the whole and vice versa has relationships. In today’s cities, we have not seen a dual relationship and only one side of the equation which is the relationships of the component parts are considered. However, the effect of the component to whole is stronger and also longer. This means that every time the outer shell of the building was constructed instant impact on the viewers while it takes a long time to understand the impact of the building in its environment and basically, it seems city portrait has the sensory and untouchable effect on observer. Today, building facades are designated individually and in isolation from the context. Designers are familiar with the details of the facade, but they are not informed with the science of combination and its impact on portrait. The importance of city and also more important than that, the city portrait haven’t confirmed for those involved in the building and authorities and the construction been changed to a market for more glaring taste of designers and attracting more business and the city and its landscape has been forgotten. This essay is an attempt to collect a part of the principles and definitions needed on perspective issues and portrait, and it is hoped that it will open arena for more research and studies in this field and other related fields.

Keywords: facade, urban housing, urban design, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Maisa Haj-Tas, Jehad Alaraifi

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The significance of the study: This retrospective study examined the speech and language profiles of patients who received clinical services at the University of Jordan Hearing and Speech Clinic (UJ-HSC) from 2009 to 2014. The UJ-HSC clinic is located in the capital Amman and was established in the late 1990s. It is the first hearing and speech clinic in Jordan and one of first speech and hearing clinics in the Middle East. This clinic provides services to an annual average of 2000 patients who are diagnosed with different communication disorders. Examining the speech and language profiles of patients in this clinic could provide an insight about the most common disorders seen in patients who attend similar clinics in Jordan. It could also provide information about community awareness of the role of speech therapists in the management of speech and language disorders. Methodology: The researchers examined the clinical records of 1140 patients (797 males and 343 females) who received clinical services at the UJ-HSC between the years 2009 and 2014 for the purpose of data analysis for this study. The main variables examined in the study were disorder type and gender. Participants were divided into four age groups: children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. The examined disorders were classified as either speech disorders, language disorders, or dysphagia (i.e., swallowing problems). The disorders were further classified as childhood language impairments, articulation disorders, stuttering, cluttering, voice disorders, aphasia, and dysphagia. Results: The results indicated that the prevalence for language disorders was the highest (50.7%) followed by speech disorders (48.3%), and dysphagia (0.9%). The majority of patients who were seen at the JU-HSC were diagnosed with childhood language impairments (47.3%) followed consecutively by articulation disorders (21.1%), stuttering (16.3%), voice disorders (12.1%), aphasia (2.2%), dysphagia (0.9%), and cluttering (0.2%). As for gender, the majority of patients seen at the clinic were males in all disorders except for voice disorders and cluttering. Discussion: The results of the present study indicate that the majority of examined patients were diagnosed with childhood language impairments. Based on this result, the researchers suggest that there seems to be a high prevalence of childhood language impairments among children in Jordan compared to other types of speech and language disorders. The researchers also suggest that there is a need for further examination of the actual prevalence data on speech and language disorders in Jordan. The fact that many of the children seen at the UJ-HSC were brought to the clinic either as a result of parental concern or teacher referral indicates that there seems to an increased awareness among parents and teachers about the services speech pathologists can provide about assessment and treatment of childhood speech and language disorders. The small percentage of other disorders (i.e., stuttering, cluttering, dysphasia, aphasia, and voice disorders) seen at the UJ-HSC may indicate a little awareness by the local community about the role of speech pathologists in the assessment and treatment of these disorders.

Keywords: clinic, disorders, language, profile, speech

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Authors: Marcin Kruszewski, Barbara Sochanowicz, Sylwia Męczyńska-Wielgosz, Maria Wojewódzka, Lucyna Kapka-Skrzypczak

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Metallic NPs are widely used in a number of applications in industry, science and medicine. Among metallic NPs foreseen to be widely used in medicine are gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) due to their low toxicity, and silver NPs (AgNPs) due to their strong antimicrobial activity. In this study, we compared an effect of AgNPs and gold NPs (AuNPs) on the formation of DNA damage and global DNA methylation and in A2780 and 4T1 cell lines, widely used models of human ovarian carcinoma and murine mammary carcinoma, respectively. The cells were treated with AgNPs coated with citrate (AgNPs(cit) or PEG (AgNPs(PEG), or AuNPs. A global DNA methylation was investigated with ELISA, whereas the formation of DNA damage was investigated by a comet +/- FPG. AgNPs decreased global DNA methylation and increased the formation of DNA lesions in both cell lines. The effect was dependent on the type of NPs used, it's coating, and cell line used. In conclusion, the epigenetic and genotoxic effects of NPs strongly depends on NP nature and cellular context. Epigenetic changes observed upon the action of AgNPs may play a crucial role in NPs-induced changes in protein expression.

Keywords: DNA damage, gold nanoparticles, methylation, silver nanoparticles

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Authors: B. J. Sonani, J. K. Ratnadhariya, Srinivas Palanki

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Cryogenic engineering is the fast growing branch of the modern technology. There are various applications of the cryogenic engineering such as liquefaction in gas industries, metal industries, medical science, space technology, and transportation. The low-temperature technology developed superconducting materials which lead to reduce the friction and wear in various components of the systems. The liquid oxygen, hydrogen and helium play vital role in space application. The liquefaction process is produced very low temperature liquid for various application in research and modern application. The air liquefaction system for oxygen plants in gas industries is based on the Claude cycle. The effect of process parameters on the overall system is difficult to be analysed by manual calculations, and this provides the motivation to use process simulators for understanding the steady state and dynamic behaviour of such systems. The parametric study of this system via MATLAB simulations provide useful guidelines for preliminary design of air liquefaction system based on the Claude cycle. Every organization is always trying for reduce the cost and using the optimum performance of the plant for the staying in the competitive market.

Keywords: cryogenic, liquefaction, low -temperature, oxygen, claude cycle, optimization, MATLAB

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Authors: Lucyna Kapka-Skrzypczak, Barbara Sochanowicz, Magdalena Matysiak-Kucharek, Magdalena Czajka, Krzysztof Sawicki, Marcin Kruszewski

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Due to the strong antimicrobial activity silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used in various medical and general applications, among others, in cosmetics, odour resistant textiles, etc. The aim of this study was to compare effect of AgNPs and gold NPs (AuNPs) on histones posttranslational modifications. Histone molecule posttranscriptional modifications are responsible for chromatin compaction and repackaging. In this study, BALB/c mice were inoculated with murine mammary carcinoma 4T1 cells and treated with AgNPs coated with citrate (AgNPs(cit) or PEG (AgNPs(PEG), or AuNPs. Thereafter the histone H3 acetylation on Lys9 and H3 methylation on Lys4, Lys9, Lys29 was investigated. All NPs tested decreased H3 methylation, while no effect was observed for H3 acetylation. Modification of histone H3 methylation dependent on type of NPs used its coating, site of methylation and treatment used. Conclusion, epigenetic effects of nanomaterials depend on nanomaterial composition, its coating, and way of application. This work was supported by National Science Centre grant No. 2014/15/B/NZ7/01036 (MK, LKS, MMK, MC, KS), statutory funding for INTC (BS).

Keywords: gold nanoparticles, histone, methylation, silver nanoparticles

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Authors: David Sinfield, Thomas Cochrane, Marcos Steagall

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While there is much hype around the potential and development of mobile virtual reality (VR), the two key critical success factors are the ease of user experience and the development of a simple user-generated content ecosystem. Educational technology history is littered with the debris of over-hyped revolutionary new technologies that failed to gain mainstream adoption or were quickly superseded. Examples include 3D television, interactive CDROMs, Second Life, and Google Glasses. However, we argue that this is the result of curriculum design that substitutes new technologies into pre-existing pedagogical strategies that are focused upon teacher-delivered content rather than exploring new pedagogical strategies that enable student-determined learning or heutagogy. Visual Communication design based learning such as Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography and Design process is heavily based on the traditional forms of the classroom environment whereby student interaction takes place both at peer level and indeed teacher based feedback. In doing so, this makes for a healthy creative learning environment, but does raise other issue in terms of student to teacher learning ratios and reduced contact time. Such issues arise when students are away from the classroom and cannot interact with their peers and teachers and thus we see a decline in creative work from the student. Using AR and VR as a means of stimulating the students and to think beyond the limitation of the studio based classroom this paper will discuss the outcomes of a student project considering the virtual classroom and the techniques involved. The Atelier learning environment is especially suited to the Visual Communication model as it deals with the creative processing of ideas that needs to be shared in a collaborative manner. This has proven to have been a successful model over the years, in the traditional form of design education, but has more recently seen a shift in thinking as we move into a more digital model of learning and indeed away from the classical classroom structure. This study focuses on the outcomes of a student design project that employed Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies in order to expand the dimensions of the classroom beyond its physical limits. Augmented Reality when integrated into the learning experience can improve the learning motivation and engagement of students. This paper will outline some of the processes used and the findings from the semester-long project that took place.

Keywords: augmented reality, blogging, design in community, enhanced learning and teaching, graphic design, new technologies, virtual reality, visual communications

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Authors: Joel Weymouth, Ramesh K. Karne, Alexander L. Wijesinha

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Bare Machine Internet is part of the Bare Machine Computing (BMC) paradigm. It is used in programming application ns to run directly on a device. It is software that runs directly against the hardware using CPU, Memory, and I/O. The software application runs without an Operating System and resident mass storage. An important part of the BMC paradigm is the Bare Machine Internet. It utilizes an Application Development model software that interfaces directly with the hardware on a network server and file server. Because it is “bare,” it is a powerful teaching and research tool that can readily display the internals of the network protocols, software, and hardware of the applications running on the Bare Server. It was also demonstrated that the bare server was accessible by laptop and by smartphone/android. The purpose was to show the further practicality of Bare Internet in Computer Engineering and Computer Science Education and Research. It was also to show that an undergraduate student could take advantage of a bare server with any device and any browser at any release version connected to the internet. This paper presents the Bare Web Server as an educational tool. We will discuss possible applications of this paradigm.

Keywords: bare machine computing, online research, network technology, visualizing network internals

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Authors: Eunice Gan Ghee Wu, Marcus Goh Tian Xi, Alicia Chua Si Wen, Helen Bound, Lee Liang Ying, Albert Lee

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The Map of Dialogical Inquiry provides a conceptual basis of learning processes. According to the Map, dialogical inquiry motivates complex thinking, dialogue, reflection, and learner agency. For instance, classrooms that incorporated dialogical inquiry enabled learners to construct more meaning in their learning, to engage in self-reflection, and to challenge their ideas with different perspectives. While the Map contributes to the psychology of learning, its qualitative approach makes it hard to track and compare learning processes over time for both teachers and learners. Qualitative approach typically relies on open-ended responses, which can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. With these concerns, the present research aimed to develop and validate a quantifiable measure for the Map. Specifically, the Map of Dialogical Inquiry reflects the eight different learning processes and perspectives employed during a learner’s experience. With a focus on interpersonal and emotional learning processes, the purpose of the present study is to construct and validate a scale to measure the “Relating” aspect of learning. According to the Map, the Relating aspect of learning contains four conceptual components: using intuition and empathy, seeking personal meaning, building relationships and meaning with others, and likes stories and metaphors. All components have been shown to benefit learning in past research. This research began with a literature review with the goal of identifying relevant scales in the literature. These scales were used as a basis for item development, guided by the four conceptual dimensions in the “Relating” aspect of learning, resulting in a pool of 47 preliminary items. Then, all items were administered to 200 American participants via an online survey along with other scales of learning. Dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the “Relating” scale was assessed. Data were submitted to a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), revealing four distinct components and items. Items with lower factor loadings were removed in an iterative manner, resulting in 34 items in the final scale. CFA also revealed that the “Relating” scale was a four-factor model, following its four distinct components as described in the Map of Dialogical Inquiry. In sum, this research was able to develop a quantitative scale for the “Relating” aspect of the Map of Dialogical Inquiry. By representing learning as numbers, users, such as educators and learners, can better track, evaluate, and compare learning processes over time in an efficient manner. More broadly, this scale may also be used as a learning tool in lifelong learning.

Keywords: lifelong learning, scale development, dialogical inquiry, relating, social and emotional learning, socio-affective intuition, empathy, narrative identity, perspective taking, self-disclosure

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Authors: Chantima Wangsomchok

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The main purposes of this study are (1) to test the students’ communicative competence within six main functions: greeting, parting, thanking, offering, requesting and suggesting, (2) to employ error analysis in the students’ communicative competence within those functions, and (3) to compare the characteristics of the error found from the investigation. The subjects of the study is 328 first-year undergraduates taking the Foundation English course in the first semester of the 2008 academic year at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. This study found that while the subjects showed high communicative competence in the use of the following three functions: greeting, thanking, and offering, they seemed to show poor communicative competence in suggesting, requesting and parting instead. In addition, this study found that the grammatical errors were likely to be most frequently found in the parting function. In the same way, the type of errors which were less frequently found was in the functions of thanking and requesting respectively. Instead, the students tended to have high pragmatic failure in the use of greeting and suggesting functions.

Keywords: error analysis, functions of English language, communicative competence, cognitive science

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Authors: Farhat Rashid

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A study was conducted at the Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan, to evaluate the effect of different concentration of Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Mill.) powder on physicochemical and sensory properties of orange marmalade. All treatments (0, 2, 4 6, 8 and 10% Aloe vera powder) were analyzed for titratable acidity, TSS, pH, moisture, fat, fiber and protein contents. The data indicated gradual increase in titratable acidity (0.08 to 0.18%), moisture (0.23 to 0.48%), protein (0.09 to 0.40%) and fiber (0.12 to 1.03%) among all treatments with increasing concentration of Aloe vera powder. However, a decreasing trend in pH (3.81 to 2.74), TSS (68 to 56 °Brix) and fat content (1.1 to 0.08%) was noticed with gradual increase in concentration of Aloe vera powder in orange marmalade. Sensory attributes like color, taste, texture, flavor and overall acceptability were found acceptable among all treatments but T1 (2% Aloe vera powder) was liked most and T5 (10% Aloe vera powder) was least appealing to the judges. It is concluded from present study that the addition of different concentrations of Aloe vera powder in orange marmalade significantly affected the physicochemical and sensory properties of marmalade.

Keywords: orange marmalade, Aloe vera, Aloe barbadensis mill, physicochemical, characteristics, organoleptic properties, Pakistan, treatments, significance

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Authors: Yuqing Zou, Chunrui Zou, Yichong Cao

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Previous research has revealed relationships between self-efficacy (SE), engagement, and academic achievement among students in Western countries, but these relationships remain unknown in college math courses among college students in China. In addition, previous research has shown that test anxiety has a direct effect on engagement and academic achievement. However, how test anxiety affects the relationships between SE, engagement, and academic achievement is still unknown. In this study, the authors aimed to explore the mediating roles of behavioral engagement (BE), emotional engagement (EE), and cognitive engagement (CE) in the association between SE and academic achievement and the moderating role of test anxiety in college math courses. Our hypotheses are that the association between SE and academic achievement was mediated by engagement and that test anxiety played a moderating role in the association. To explore the research questions, the authors collected data through self-reported surveys among 147 students at a northwestern university in China. Self-reported surveys were used to collect data. The motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (MSLQ) (Pintrich, 1991), the metacognitive strategies questionnaire (Wolters, 2004), and the engagement versus disaffection with learning scale (Skinner et al., 2008) were used to assess SE, CE, and BE and EE, respectively. R software was used to analyze the data. The main analyses used were reliability and validity analysis of scales, descriptive statistics analysis of measured variables, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis and moderated mediation analysis to look at the structural relationships between variables at the same time. The SEM analysis indicated that student SE was positively related to BE, EE, and CE and academic achievement. BE, EE, and CE were all positively associated with academic achievement. That is, as the authors expected, higher levels of SE led to higher levels of BE, EE, and CE, and greater academic achievement. Higher levels of BE, EE, and CE led to greater academic achievement. In addition, the moderated mediation analysis found that the path of SE to academic achievement in the model was as significant as expected, as was the moderating effect of test anxiety in the SE-Achievement association. Specifically, test anxiety was found to moderate the association between SE and BE, the association between SE and CE, and the association between EE and Achievement. The authors investigated possible mediating effects of BE, EE, and CE in the associations between SE and academic achievement, and all indirect effects were found to be significant. As for the magnitude of mediations, behavioral engagement was the most important mediator in the SE-Achievement association. This study has implications for college teachers, educators, and students in China regarding ways to promote academic achievement in college math courses, including increasing self-efficacy and engagement and lessening test anxiety toward math.

Keywords: academic engagement, self-efficacy, test anxiety, academic achievement, college math courses, behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, emotional engagement

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Authors: Pooya Niksiar, Ali Ashrafizadeh, Mehrzad Shams, Amir Hossein Madani

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There are many computationally demanding applications in science and engineering which need efficient algorithms implemented on high performance computers. Recently, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have drawn much attention as compared to the traditional CPU-based hardware and have opened up new improvement venues in scientific computing. One particular application area is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), in which mature CPU-based codes need to be converted to GPU-based algorithms to take advantage of this new technology. In this paper, numerical solutions of two classes of discrete fluid flow models via both CPU and GPU are discussed and compared. Test problems include an Eulerian model of a two-dimensional incompressible laminar flow case and a Lagrangian model of a two phase flow field. The CUDA programming standard is used to employ an NVIDIA GPU with 480 cores and a C++ serial code is run on a single core Intel quad-core CPU. Up to two orders of magnitude speed up is observed on GPU for a certain range of grid resolution or particle numbers. As expected, Lagrangian formulation is better suited for parallel computations on GPU although Eulerian formulation represents significant speed up too.

Keywords: CFD, Eulerian formulation, graphics processing units, Lagrangian formulation

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Authors: Cátia Gonçalves, Teresa Nunes, Inês Pina, Ana Vicente, C. Alves, Felix Charvet, Daniel Neves, A. Matos

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The production of charcoal relies on rudimentary technologies using traditional brick kilns. Charcoal is produced under pyrolysis conditions: breaking down the chemical structure of biomass under high temperature in the absence of air. The amount of the pyrolysis products (charcoal, pyroligneous extract, and flue gas) depends on various parameters, including temperature, time, pressure, kiln design, and wood characteristics like the moisture content. This activity is recognized for its inefficiency and high pollution levels, but it is poorly characterized. This activity is widely distributed and is a vital economic activity in certain regions of Portugal, playing a relevant role in the management of woody residues. The location of the units establishes the biomass used for charcoal production. The Portalegre district, in the Alto Alentejo region (Portugal), is a good example, essentially with rural characteristics, with a predominant farming, agricultural, and forestry profile, and with a significant charcoal production activity. In this district, a recent inventory identifies almost 50 charcoal production units, equivalent to more than 450 kilns, of which 80% appear to be in operation. A field campaign was designed with the objective of determining the composition of the emissions released during a charcoal production cycle. A total of 30 samples of particulate matter and 20 gas samples in Tedlar bags were collected. Particulate and gas samplings were performed in parallel, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, alternating the inlet heads (PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅), in the particulate sampler. The gas and particulate samples were collected in the plume as close as the emission chimney point. The biomass (dry basis) used in the carbonization process was a mixture of cork oak (77 wt.%), holm oak (7 wt.%), stumps (11 wt.%), and charred wood (5 wt.%) from previous carbonization processes. A cylindrical batch kiln (80 m³) with 4.5 m diameter and 5 m of height was used in this study. The composition of the gases was determined by gas chromatography, while the particulate samples (PM₁₀, PM₂.₅) were subjected to different analytical techniques (thermo-optical transmission technique, ion chromatography, HPAE-PAD, and GC-MS after solvent extraction) after prior gravimetric determination, to study their organic and inorganic constituents. The charcoal production cycle presents widely varying operating conditions, which will be reflected in the composition of gases and particles produced and emitted throughout the process. The concentration of PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ in the plume was calculated, ranging between 0.003 and 0.293 g m⁻³, and 0.004 and 0.292 g m⁻³, respectively. Total carbon, inorganic ions, and sugars account, in average, for PM10 and PM₂.₅, 65 % and 56 %, 2.8 % and 2.3 %, 1.27 %, and 1.21 %, respectively. The organic fraction studied until now includes more than 30 aliphatic compounds and 20 PAHs. The emission factors of particulate matter to produce charcoal in the traditional kiln were 33 g/kg (wooddb) and 27 g/kg (wooddb) for PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅, respectively. With the data obtained in this study, it is possible to fill the lack of information about the environmental impact of the traditional charcoal production in Portugal. Acknowledgment: Authors thanks to FCT – Portuguese Science Foundation, I.P. and to Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal for financial support within the scope of the project CHARCLEAN (PCIF/GVB/0179/2017) and CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020).

Keywords: brick kilns, charcoal, emission factors, PAHs, total carbon

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Authors: Supranee Wattanasin

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This research study was a qualitative documentary research by using an in-depth interview with many experts in the field who has both knowledge and experience to provide information to create a strategic plan to enhance the students’ ethics. The findings revealed that there were five areas that require an attention. The five areas included honesty, accurate fact, human right, speed, and responsibility. The development of the strategic plan to enhance the ethics for students who major in communication arts can be concluded as follows. First, the government, private, and religion sectors need to come up together and set up the activities to promote the ethical standard in schools, universities, and organizations. Second, it is important to cultivate the knowledge that ethics is important of the professional jobs, especially in the mass communication and media. Third, the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy should be brought to explain to students in order for them to have some immunity to the negative attitude such as drinking alcohol, gambling, cut classes, and cheating at exams. Fourth, experts in the field of ethics should be found to provide more knowledge to students and allow students to participate in activities that will increase their experience and knowledge of the real world problem.

Keywords: communication arts, ethics, mass communication, media, strategy

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Authors: Mohammad Mushir Khan, C. Satyanarayana

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Education is considered as one of the prime bottlenecks in the economic growth of India. The Ministry of Human Resource & Development, Government of India has, therefore, given special attention to this issue and the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education has increased marginally during last five years, with the efforts and various policy decisions like Right to Education (RTE) and other fee reimbursement schemes, initiated by the State Governments. But still this is one of the lowest, if assessed at the global level. It is true that the GER has improved but the survey reveals that the quality has been badly affected. This paper tries to assess the impact of lack of quality education in various sectors that affects Indian Economy and thereby signifies the need of immediate policy decision at the government level. It is to be noted that in higher education, science, management, engineering and technology plays vital role as far as shaping country’s economy is concerned and as such the quality needs to be addressed, particularly, in these streams. The paper, after carefully studying lots of survey reports and other government/ non-government documents recommends measures to be initiated by the Central Government, on priority, for improving quality of education. The quality up-gradation in higher education single handedly provides real fuel to the India’s growth Engine, as it has potential to touch each and every sector that strengthens country’s economy.

Keywords: higher education, economy, accreditation, industry, technology

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Authors: Neha Singh, Ananya Arora

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Facial expression measurement plays a crucial role in the identification of emotion. Facial expression plays a key role in psychophysiology, neural bases, and emotional disorder, to name a few. The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) has proven to be the most efficient and widely used of the various systems used to describe facial expressions. Coders can manually code facial expressions with FACS and, by viewing video-recorded facial behaviour at a specified frame rate and slow motion, can decompose into action units (AUs). Action units are the most minor visually discriminable facial movements. FACS explicitly differentiates between facial actions and inferences about what the actions mean. Action units are the fundamental unit of FACS methodology. It is regarded as the standard measure for facial behaviour and finds its application in various fields of study beyond emotion science. These include facial neuromuscular disorders, neuroscience, computer vision, computer graphics and animation, and face encoding for digital processing. This paper discusses the conceptual basis for FACS, a numerical listing of discrete facial movements identified by the system, the system's psychometric evaluation, and the software's recommended training requirements.

Keywords: facial action, action units, coding, machine learning

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Authors: Leticia Lengler, Jefferson Oliveira, Vania Estivalete, Jordana Marques Kneipp

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The context of social, economic and environmental transformations has driven innumerable changes in the organizational environment, influencing the social interactions that occur in this scenario. In this sense, social entrepreneurship emerges as a unique opportunity to challenge, question, rethink certain concepts and traditional theories widely discussed in relation to entrepreneurship. Therefore, the interest in studying personal values has been based on the idea that they might be predictors of the behavior of individuals. As an attempt to relate personal values with the characteristics of social entrepreneurs, this study aims to investigate the salient values and the social entrepreneurship perceptions that occur in two social projects responsible for developing sports skills among the students. For purposes of analysis, it is intended to consider: (i) a description of both Social Projects and their respective institutions, considering their history and relevance in the context; (ii) analysis of the personal values of the idealizers and teachers responsible for the projects, (iii) identification of the characteristics of social entrepreneurship manifested in the two projects, and (iv) discussion of similarities and disparities of the categories identified among the participants of the projects. Therefore, this study will carry a qualitative analysis from the interviews with 10 participants of each social project (named Projeto Remar/ASENA and Projeto Mãos Dadas/JUDÔ SANTA MARIA): 2 projects coordinators, 2 students, 2 parents of students, 2 physical education internships and 2 businessmen who stablished a partnership with each project. The data collection will be done through semi-structured interviews that are going to last around 30 minutes each, being recorded, transcribed and later analyzed, through the categorical analysis. The option for categorical analysis is supported by the fact that it is the best alternative when one wants to study values, opinions, attitudes and beliefs, through qualitative ones. In the present research, the pre-analysis phase consisted of an organization of the material collected during the research with Remar and Mãos Dadas Project, and a dynamic reading of this material, seeking to identify the characteristics of social entrepreneurship and values addressed in the study. In the analytical description phase, a more in-depth analysis of the material collected in the research will be carried out. The third phase, referred to as referential interpretation or treatment of results obtained will allow to verify the homogeneity and the heterogeneity among the participants' perceptions of the projects. Some preliminary results coming from the first interviews revealed the projects are guided by values such as cooperation, respect, well-being and nature preservation. These values are linked to the social entrepreneurship perception of the projects managers, who established their activities in behalf of the local community.

Keywords: personal values, social entrepreneurship, social projects, sports participants

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Authors: Yu-Ting Chen, Shiao-Shing Chen, Hung-Te Hsu, Saikat Sinha Ray

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Forward osmosis (FO) is a crucial technology with low operating pressure and cost for water reuse and reclamation. In Taiwan, with the advance of science and technology, thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) based industries are growing exponentially. In the optoelectronic industry wastewater, the iodide is one of the valuable element; it is also used in the medical industry. In this study, it was intended to concentrate iodide by utilizing FO system and can be reused for TFT-LCD production. Cellulose triacetate (CTA) membranes were used for all these FO experiments, and potassium iodide solution was used as the feed solution. It has been found that EDTA-2Na as draw solution at pH 8 produced high water flux and minimized salt leakage. The result also demonstrated that EDTA-2Na of concentration 0.6M could achieve the highest water flux (6.69L/m2 h). Additionally, from the recovered iodide ion from pH 3-8, the I- species was found to be more than 99%, whereas I2 was measured to be less than 1%. When potassium iodide solution was used from low to high concentration (1000 ppm to 10000 ppm), the iodide rejection was found to be than more 90%. Since, CTA membrane is negatively charged and I- is anionic in nature, so it will from electrostatic repulsion and hence there will be higher rejection. The overall performance demonstrates that recovery of concentrated iodide using FO system is a promising technology.

Keywords: draw solution, EDTA-2Na, forward osmosis, potassium iodide

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Authors: Chukwuma Mgboji

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Since the advent of Artificial Intelligence, robots have become a major stay in developing societies. Robots are deployed in Education, Health, Food and in other spheres of life. Nigeria a country in West Africa has a very low profile in the advancement of Artificial Intelligence especially in the grass roots. The benefits of Artificial intelligence are not fully maximised and harnessed. Advances in artificial intelligence are perceived as impossible or observed as irrelevant. This study seeks to ascertain the needed skills for the development of artificialintelligence amongst secondary schools in Nigeria. The study focused on South East Nigeria with Five states namely Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Anambra and Enugu. The sample size is 1000 students drawn from Five Government owned Universities offering Computer Science, Computer Education, Electronics Engineering across the Five South East states. Survey method was used to solicit responses from respondents. The findings from the study identified mathematical skills, analytical skills, problem solving skills, computing skills, programming skills, algorithm skills amongst others. The result of this study to the best of the author’s knowledge will be highly beneficial to all stakeholders involved in the advancements and development of artificial intelligence.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, secondary school, robotics, skills

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Authors: Mai Ashraf Talaat

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Objectives: The aim of this review article is to assess the success of dental implants in breast cancer patients receiving bisphosphonate therapy and to evaluate the risk of developing bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw following dental implant surgery. Materials and Methods: A thorough search was conducted, with no time or language restriction, using: PubMed, PubMed Central, Web of Science, and ResearchGate electronic databases. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms such as “bisphosphonate”, “dental implant”, “bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ)”, “osteonecrosis”, “breast cancer, MRONJ”, and their related entry terms were used. Eligibility criteria included studies and clinical trials that evaluated the impact of bisphosphonates on dental implants. Conclusion: Breast cancer patients undergoing bisphosphonate therapy may receive dental implants. However, the risk of developing BRONJ and implant failure is high. Risk factors such as the type of BP received, the route of administration, and the length of treatment prior to surgery should be considered. More randomized controlled trials with long-term follow-ups are needed to draw more evidence-based conclusions.

Keywords: dental implants, breast cancer, bisphosphonates, osteonecrosis, bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw

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Authors: Jose Carlos Montemayor, Kendrick Thomas Angelo Santos

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Filipinos have been divided on President Rodrigo Duterte’s leadership ever since his election in 2016. This study aimed to gain a thorough, in-depth understanding of the opinions of Filipinos from different age and income brackets on these issues in order to address the lack of studies analysing the current Philippine political landscape. An interview tackling relevant national issues were conducted with twelve respondents from the intersections of four age groups and three income brackets. The government’s handling of some issues received mixed opinions, some had neutral viewpoints, while others had more unfavorable ones. The responses differed on three levels: (1) the general stance on an issue; (2) the strength of a stance; and (3) the factoring in of an issue in forming an overall perception on the administration’s performance. Contrary to previous studies on political thought, opinions varied greatly such that no unique set of viewpoints could be attributed to any of the defined age or income groups. These results will be most useful to political science researchers, political analysts, and candidates shaping their platforms for the upcoming elections. Future studies are recommended to tackle more national issues and to consider other factors that may affect political opinions and behavior.

Keywords: age groups, opinion formation, socioeconomic brackets, Philippine politics, Rodrigo Duterte

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Authors: Durhane Wong-Rieger, Kawaldip Sehmi, Nicola Bedlington, Nicole Boice, Tamás Bereczky

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Patient-generated health data should be seen as the expression of the experience of patients, including the outcomes reflecting the impact a treatment or service had on their physical health and wellness. We discuss how the healthcare system can reach a place where digital is a determinant of health - where data is generated by patients and is respected and which acknowledges their contribution to science. We explore the biggest barriers facing this. The International Experience Exchange with Patient Organisation’s Position Paper is based on a global patient survey conducted in Q3 2021 that received 304 responses. Results were discussed and validated by the 15 patient experts and supplemented with literature research. Results are a subset of this. Our research showed patient communities want to influence how their data is generated, shared, and used. Our study concludes that a reasonable framework is needed to protect the integrity of patient data and minimise abuse, and build trust. Results also demonstrated a need for patient communities to have more influence and control over how health data is generated, shared, and used. The results clearly highlight that the community feels there is a lack of clear policies on sharing data.

Keywords: digital health, equitable access, humanise healthcare, patient data

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Authors: Khryslyn Araño, Dela Cruz, Michael Leo, Dela Pena, Eden May, Leslie Joy Diaz

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Montmorillonite (MMT) is a very abundant clay mineral and is versatile such that it can be chemically or physically altered by changing the ions between the sheets of its layered structure. This clay mineral can be prepared into functional nanoparticles that can be used as fillers in other nanomaterials such as nanofibers to achieve special properties. In this study, two types of iron-modified MMT, Iron-MMT (FeMMT) and Zero Valent Iron-MMT (ZVIMMT) were synthesized via ion exchange technique. The modified clay was incorporated in polymer nanofibers which were produced using a process called electrospinning. ICP analysis confirmed that clay modification was successful where there is an observed decrease in the concentration of Na and an increase in the concentration of Fe after ion exchange. XRD analysis also confirmed that modification took place because of the changes in the d-spacing of Na-MMT from 11.5 Å to 13.6 Å and 12.6 Å after synthesis of FeMMT and ZVIMMT, respectively. SEM images of the electrospun nanofibers revealed that the ZVIMMT-filled fibers have a smaller average diameter than the FeMMT-filled fibers because of the lower resistance of the suspensions of the former to the elongation force from the applied electric field. The resistance to the electric field was measured by getting the bulk voltage of the suspensions.

Keywords: electrospinning, nanofibers, montmorillonite, materials science

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Authors: Mathieu Audet, Monica Soliman, Emilie Eve Gravel, Rebecca Friesdorf

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Access to higher education is critical for reducing social inequalities. The Canada Learning Bond (CLB) is a government savings incentive aimed at increasing higher education access for children of low income families by providing money toward a Registered Education Savings Plan. To better understand the educational and financial decision-making of low income families, Employment Social Development Canada conducted qualitative fieldwork with eligible parents and children, teachers, and community organizations promoting the Bond. Insights from this fieldwork were then used to develop letters to better target the needs and experiences of eligible families. In the present study, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with children ages 12 to 13, the oldest cohort of eligible children, to test the effectiveness of the new letters. Parents or caregivers of 150,088 eligible children were assigned to one of five letter conditions promoting the Bond or to a control condition that did not receive a letter. The letter conditions were: (a) the standard letter from past outreach, (b) a letter presenting the exact amount the child was eligible to receive, enhancing the salience of benefits, (c) a letter with a social norm, (d) a letter with an image emphasizing the feasibility of higher education by presenting the diversity of options (i.e., college, trade schools, apprenticeships) – many participants interviewed viewed that university was unfeasible, and (e) a letter minimizing references to 'saving' (i.e., not framing the Bond explicitly as a savings incentive) – a concept that did not resonate with low income families who felt they could not afford to save. The exact amount was also presented in letters (c) through (e). The letter minimizing references to 'saving' and presenting the exact amount had the highest net take-up rate at 6.6%, compared to 3.5% for the standard letter group. Furthermore, this trial’s BI-informed letters showed the largest impact on take-up so far, with a net take-up of 5.7% compared to 3.0% and 3.9% in the first two trials. This research highlights the value of mixed-method approaches combining qualitative and behavioural insights methods for developing context-sensitive interventions for social programs. By gaining a deeper understanding of the needs and experiences of program users through qualitative fieldwork, and then integrating these insights into behaviourally informed communications, we were able to increase take-up of an education savings program, which may ultimately improve access to higher education in children of low income families.

Keywords: access to higher education, behavioral insights, government, innovation, mixed-methods, social programs

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Authors: Angad Arora

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In production operations/manufacturing, a cell or line is typically a bunch of similar machines (computer numerical control (CNCs), advanced cutting, 3D printing or special purpose machines. For qualifying a typical manufacturing line /cell / new process, Ideally, we need a sample of parts that can be flown through the process and then we make a judgment on the health of the line/cell. However, with huge volumes and mass production scope, such as in the mobile phone industry, for example, the actual cells or lines can go in thousands and to qualify each one of them with statistical confidence means utilizing samples that are very large and eventually add to product /manufacturing cost + huge waste if the parts are not intended to be customer shipped. To solve this, we come up with 2 steps statistical approach. We start with a small sample size and then objectively evaluate whether the process needs additional samples or not. For example, if a process is producing bad parts and we saw those samples early, then there is a high chance that the process will not meet the desired yield and there is no point in keeping adding more samples. We used this hypothesis and came up with 2 steps binomial testing approach. Further, we also prove through results that we can achieve an 18-25% reduction in samples while keeping the same statistical confidence.

Keywords: statistics, data science, manufacturing process qualification, production planning

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Authors: Tripti Watwe

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Music or art of any country is its national heritage and represents the cultural personality of that region. Noble Laureate Rabindranath Tagore through his international educational endeavour called ‘Visva-Bharati’ established this concept that music can very much be a part of the mainstream education of a country because the purpose of both music and education is to bring in transformation in an individual. An individual with musical veins is more focused and meditative towards his or her goal in life. That is why in Tagore’s Visva-Bharati, one can observe even the brightest brains from various fields of economics, science, social sciences or literature equally verbal and efficient in Rabindra songs which the poet created under his own name.Tagore established this phenomenon that music if made a part of education and life, brings in profound transformation in the character and over-all personality of a person giving better and responsible citizens to a nation. It is expected that this hypothesis that music and education can be a nectarine combination can be established and proved with the help of various recorded observations containing Tagore’s educational philosophy, his experiments in his own institution ‘Visva-Bharati’ and through recorded research materials which have been gathered during the author’s field work in Visva-Bharati.

Keywords: Rabindranath Tagore, Visva-Bharati, education, music, philosophy

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Authors: Pooja Pandey

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The role of communication plays an integral part in the management of any disaster, whether natural or human-induced, both require effective and strategic delivery of information. The way any information is conveyed carries the most weight while dealing with the disaster. Hence, integrating communication strategies in disaster risk management (DRM) are extensively acknowledged however, these integration and planning are missing from the practical books. Researchers are continuously exploring integrated DRM and have established substantial vents between research and implementation of the strategies (gaps between science and policy). For this reason, this paper reviews the communication barriers that obstruct effective management of the disaster. Communication between first responders (government agencies, police, medical services) and the public (people directly affected by the disaster) is most critical and lacks proper delivery during a disaster. And these challenges can only be resolved if the foundation of the problem is properly dealt with, which is resolving the issues within the organizations. Through this study, it was found that it is necessary to build the communication gap between the organizations themselves as most of the hindrances occur during the mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery phase of the disaster. The study is concluded with the main aim to review the communication barriers within and at the organizational, technological, and social levels that impact effective DRM. In the end, some suggestions are made to strengthen the knowledge for future improvement in communication between the responders and their organizations.

Keywords: communication, organization, barriers, first responders, disaster risk management

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Authors: Nwachukwu M. A., Nwachukwu J. I., Anyanwu J., Emeka U., Okorondu J., Acholonu C.

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Actualization of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) conceived by the United Nations in 2015 is a global challenge that may not be feasible in sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2030, except universities play a committed role. This is because; there is a need to educate the people about the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development in the region to make the desired change. Here is a sensitization paper with a model of intervention and curricular planning to allow advancement in understanding and knowledge of SDGs. This Model Center for Sustainability Studies (MCSS) will enable partnerships with institutions in Africa and in advanced nations, thereby creating a global network for sustainability studies not found in sub-Saharan Africa. MCSS will train and certify public servants, government agencies, policymakers, entrepreneurs and personnel from organizations, and students on aspects of the SDGs and sustainability science. There is a need to add sustainability knowledge into environmental education and make environmental education a compulsory course in higher institutions and a secondary school certificate exam subject in sub-Saharan Africa. MCSS has 11 training modules that can be replicated anywhere in the world.

Keywords: sustainability, higher institutions, training, SDGs, collaboration, sub-Saharan Africa

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