Search results for: casual-leisure information behaviors

Authors: Lorena Alemán de la Garza, Marcela Georgina Gómez-Zermeño

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This paper presents the SolarSPELL case study that aims to generate information on the use of indicators that help evaluate the pedagogical quality of a digital library resources. SolarSPELL is a solar-powered digital library with WiFi connectivity. It offers a variety of open educational resources selected for their potential for the digital transformation of educational practices and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States. The case study employed a quantitative methodology and the research instrument was applied to 55 teachers, directors and librarians. The results indicate that it is possible to strengthen the pedagogical quality of open educational resources, through actions focused on improving temporal and technological parameters. They also reveal that users believe that SolarSPELL improves the teaching-learning processes and motivates the teacher to improve his or her development. This study provides valuable information on a tool that supports teaching-learning processes and facilitates connectivity with renewable energies that improves the teacher training in active methodologies for ecosystem learning.

Keywords: educational innovation, digital library, pedagogical quality, solar energy, teacher training, sustainable development

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Authors: Şenay Güngör, Emre Elbaşi, Beyda Sadikğlu, Utku Eren Bağci, Ömer Uzunel

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One of the first places that comes to mind when it comes to tourism in Turkey is the Cappadocia Region. Due to its rich geological and geomorphological heritage, Cappadocia is one of the most visited destinations in the world. In fact, in the first half of 2023, the number of international tourists visiting Cappadocia exceeded 2 million. Considering that the economy of the Cappadocia region is largely based on tourism, it is understood that the quality and technology integration levels of the touristic services offered in the region are of great importance. In this context; as a result of the observations made in Kızılçukur, Meskendir, Güllüdere 1 and Güllüdere 2 valleys, where the important hiking routes of the Cappadocia Region are located, it has been observed that the digital level of the routes is insufficient. It has been observed that the telephone networks in the area are very low or have completely lost their signal strength. In addition, it was determined that the materials such as maps and brochures used by tourism agencies to introduce the valleys are simple and incomplete. It is thought that this situation negatively affects the tourists' orientation and touristic experience in the field. Eliminating these deficiencies identified in the field, improving the digital level of the above-mentioned hiking routes and increasing the added value in destinations are among the main objectives of our study. Within the scope of the study, a mobile application that can work both online and offline on hiking routes has been prepared. 3D modeling of Kızılçukur, Meskendir, Güllüdere 1 and Güllüdere 2 valleys were made using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). In addition, a website has been created to enable tourists to easily access all the above-mentioned information, visuals and technological applications related to the routes. As it is known, the effective use of information and communication technologies in touristic regions not only increases the satisfaction levels of tourists, but also positively affects the attraction of qualified tourists to the region. When the tangible and intangible outputs of this study are evaluated, it is thought that it will serve the social and economic development of the region and set an example for the digital transformation of other routes in the region.

Keywords: nevşehir, cappadocia, cappadocia valleys, tourism route

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Authors: Umedov Mekhroz, Griaznova Svetlana

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The quality of life and well-being of patients, staff and visitors are central to the delivery of health care. Architecture and design are becoming an integral part of the healing and recovery approach. The most significant point that can be implemented in hospital buildings is the therapeutic value of the artificial environment, the design and integration of plants to bring the natural world into the healthcare environment. The hospital environment should feel like home comfort. The techniques that therapeutic architecture uses are very cheap, but provide real benefit to patients, staff and visitors, demonstrating that the difference is not in cost but in design quality. The best environment is not necessarily more expensive - it is about special use of light and color, rational use of materials and flexibility of premises. All this forms innovative concepts in modern hospital architecture, in new construction, renovation or expansion projects. The aim of the study is to identify the methods and principles of therapeutic architecture. The research methodology consists in studying and summarizing international experience in scientific research, literature, standards, methodological manuals and project materials on the research topic. The result of the research is the development of graphic-analytical tables based on the system analysis of the processed information; 3d visualization of hospital interiors based on processed information.

Keywords: therapeutic architecture, healthcare interiors, sustainable design, materials, color scheme, lighting, environment.

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Authors: Caroline Labib

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This paper reports on a qualitative study exploring the approaches teachers used to integrate computers or smart tablets into their program planning. Their aim was to integrate ICT into children’s play, thereby supporting children’s learning and development. Data was collected in preschool settings in Melbourne in 2016. Interviews with teachers, observations of teacher interactions with children and copies of teachers’ planning and observation documents informed the study. The paper looks closely at findings from two early childhood settings and focuses on exploring the differing approaches two EC teachers have adopted when integrating iPad or computers into their settings. Data analysis revealed three key approaches which have been labelled: free digital play, guided digital play and teacher-led digital use. Importantly, teacher decisions were influenced by the interplay between the opportunities that the ICT tools offered, the teachers’ prior knowledge and experience about ICT and children’s learning needs and contexts. This paper is a snapshot of two early childhood settings, and further research will encompass data from six more early childhood settings in Victoria with the aim of exploring a wide range of motivating factors for early childhood teachers trying to integrate ICT into their programs.

Keywords: early childhood education (ECE), digital play, information and communication technologies (ICT), play, and teachers' interaction approaches

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Authors: Hao-Hsi Tseng, Hsin-Yun Lee

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In the process of building design, the designers have to complete the spatial design and consider the evacuation performance at the same time. It is usually difficult to combine the two planning processes and it results in the gap between spatial design and evacuation performance. Then the designers cannot complete an integrated optimal design solution. In addition, the evacuation routing models proposed by previous researchers is different from the practical evacuation decisions in the real field. On the other hand, more and more building design projects are executed by Building Information Modeling (BIM) in which the design content is formed by the object-oriented framework. Thus, the integration of BIM and evacuation simulation can make a significant contribution for designers. Therefore, this research plan will establish a model that integrates spatial design and evacuation planning. The proposed model will provide the support for the spatial design modifications and optimize the evacuation planning. The designers can complete the integrated design solution in BIM. Besides, this research plan improves the evacuation routing method to make the simulation results more practical. The proposed model will be applied in a building design project for evaluation and validation when it will provide the near-optimal design suggestion. By applying the proposed model, the integration and efficiency of the design process are improved and the evacuation plan is more useful. The quality of building spatial design will be better.

Keywords: building information modeling, evacuation, design, floor plan

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Authors: Ortiz M. Rocío, Rocha G. Karina, Domenech A. Gloria

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There are several tools to assess the nutritional status of the population. A main instrument commonly used to build those tools is the food composition tables (FCT). Despite the importance of FCT, there are many error sources and variability factors that can be presented on building those tables and can lead to an under or over estimation of ingest of nutrients of a population. This work identified different food composition tables used as an instrument to estimate the nutrient ingest in Ecuador.The collection of data for choosing FCT was made through key informants –self completed questionnaires-, supplemented with institutional web research. A questionnaire with general variables (origin, year of edition, etc) and methodological variables (method of elaboration, information of the table, etc) was passed to the identified FCT. Those variables were defined based on an extensive literature review. A descriptive analysis of content was performed. Ten printed tables and three databases were reported which were all indistinctly treated as food composition tables. We managed to get information from 69% of the references. Several informants referred to printed documents that were not accessible. In addition, searching the internet was not successful. Of the 9 final tables, n=8 are from Latin America, and, n= 5 of these were constructed by indirect method (collection of already published data) having as a main source of information a database from the United States department of agriculture USDA. One FCT was constructed by using direct method (bromatological analysis) and has its origin in Ecuador. The 100% of the tables made a clear distinction of the food and its method of cooking, 88% of FCT expressed values of nutrients per 100g of edible portion, 77% gave precise additional information about the use of the table, and 55% presented all the macro and micro nutrients on a detailed way. The more complete FCT were: INCAP (Central America), Composition of foods (Mexico). The more referred table was: Ecuadorian food composition table of 1965 (70%). The indirect method was used for most tables within this study. However, this method has the disadvantage that it generates less reliable food composition tables because foods show variations in composition. Therefore, a database cannot accurately predict the composition of any isolated sample of a food product.In conclusion, analyzing the pros and cons, and, despite being a FCT elaborated by using an indirect method, it is considered appropriate to work with the FCT of INCAP Central America, given the proximity to our country and a food items list that is very similar to ours. Also, it is imperative to have as a reference the table of composition for Ecuadorian food, which, although is not updated, was constructed using the direct method with Ecuadorian foods. Hence, both tables will be used to elaborate a questionnaire with the purpose of assessing the food consumption of the Ecuadorian population. In case of having disparate values, we will proceed by taking just the INCAP values because this is an updated table.

Keywords: Ecuadorian food composition tables, FCT elaborated by direct method, ingest of nutrients of Ecuadorians, Latin America food composition tables

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Authors: Chan Yan Nok

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The present study is a qualitative study based on the coping experiences of six Hong Kong Chinese mothers who had childhood trauma from their first-person perspective. Expanding the perspective beyond the dominant discourse of “inter-generation transmission of trauma”, this study explores the experiences and meanings of child trauma embedded in their narratives through the process of thematic analysis and narrative analysis. The interviewees painted a nuanced picture of their process of coping and trauma resolution. First, acknowledgement; second, feel safe and start to tell the story of trauma; third, feel the feelings and expression of emotions; fourth, clarifying and coping with the impacts of trauma; fifth, integration and transformation; and sixth, using their new understanding of experience to have a better life. It was seen that there was no “end” within the process of trauma resolution. Instead, this is an ongoing process with positive healing trajectory. Analysis of the stories of the mothers revealed recurrent themes around continuous self-reflective awareness in the process of trauma coping. Rather than being necessarily negative and detrimental, childhood trauma could highlight the meanings of being a mother and reveal opportunities for continuous personal growth and self-enhancement. Utilizing the sense of inadequacy as a core driver in the trauma recovery process while developing a heightened awareness of the unfinished business embedded in their “automatic pattern” of behaviors, emotions, and thoughts can help these mothers become more flexible to formulate new methods in facing future predicaments. Future social work and parent education practices should help mothers deal with unresolved trauma, make sense of their impacts of childhood trauma and discover the growth embedded in the past traumatic experience. They should be facilitated in “acknowledging the reality of the trauma”, including understanding their complicated emotions arising from the traumatic experiences and voicing their struggles. In addition, helping these mothers to be aware of short-term and long-term trauma impacts (i.e., secondary responses to the trauma) and explore their effective coping strategies in “overcoming secondary responses to the trauma” are crucial for their future positive adjustment and transformation. Through affirming their coping abilities and lessons learnt from past experiences, mothers can reduce feelings of shame and powerlessness and enhance their parental capacity.

Keywords: childhood trauma, coping, mothers, self-awareness, self-reflection, trauma resolution

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Authors: Hossein Heidari Tabrizi, Azizeh Chalak, Hossein Enayat

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The present study seeks to investigate the application of expansion strategy in Persian subtitles of English crime movies. More precisely, this study aims at classifying the different types of expansion used in subtitles as well as investigating the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the application of each type. To achieve this end, three English movies; namely, The Net (1995), Contact (1997) and Mission Impossible 2 (2000), available with Persian subtitles, were selected for the study. To collect the data, the above mentioned movies were watched and those parts of the Persian subtitles in which expansion had been used were identified and extracted along with their English dialogs. Then, the extracted Persian subtitles were classified based on the reason that led to expansion in each case. Next, the appropriateness or inappropriateness of using expansion in the extracted Persian subtitles was descriptively investigated. Finally, an equivalent not containing any expansion was proposed for those cases in which the meaning could be fully transferred without this strategy. The findings of the study indicated that the reasons range from explicitation (explicitation of visual, co-textual and contextual information), mistranslation and paraphrasing to the preferences of subtitlers. Furthermore, it was found that the employment of expansion strategy was inappropriate in all cases except for those caused by explicitation of contextual information since correct and shorter equivalents which were equally capable of conveying the intended meaning could be posited for the original dialogs.

Keywords: audiovisual translation, English crime movies, expansion strategies, Persian subtitles

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Authors: S. Chowdhury, A. Corlett

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Large tsunamis strike the British Columbia coast every few hundred years. The Cascadia Subduction Zone, which extends along the Pacific coast from Vancouver Island to Northern California is one of the most seismically active regions in Canada. Significant earthquakes have occurred in this region, including the 1700 Cascade Earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.2. Based on geological records, experts have predicted a 'great earthquake' of a similar magnitude within this region may happen any time. This earthquake is expected to generate a large tsunami that could impact the coastal communities on Vancouver Island. Since many of these communities are in remote locations, they are more likely to be vulnerable, as the post-earthquake relief efforts would be impacted by the damage to critical road infrastructures. To assess the coastal vulnerability within these communities, a hydrodynamic model has been developed using MIKE-21 software. We have considered a 500 year probabilistic earthquake design criteria including the subsidence in this model. The bathymetry information was collected from Canadian Hydrographic Services (CHS), and National Oceanic Atmospheric and Administration (NOAA). The arial survey was conducted using a Cessna-172 aircraft for the communities, and then the information was converted to generate a topographic digital elevation map. Both survey information was incorporated into the model, and the domain size of the model was about 1000km x 1300km. This model was calibrated with the tsunami occurred off the west coast of Moresby Island on October 28, 2012. The water levels from the model were compared with two tide gauge stations close to the Vancouver Island and the output from the model indicates the satisfactory result. For this study, the design water level was considered as High Water Level plus the Sea Level Rise for 2100 year. The hourly wind speeds from eight directions were collected from different wind stations and used a 200-year return period wind speed in the model for storm events. The regional model was set for 12 hrs simulation period, which takes more than 16 hrs to complete one simulation using double Xeon-E7 CPU computer plus a K-80 GPU. The boundary information for the local model was generated from the regional model. The local model was developed using a high resolution mesh to estimate the coastal flooding for the communities. It was observed from this study that many communities will be effected by the Cascadia tsunami and the inundation maps were developed for the communities. The infrastructures inside the coastal inundation area were identified. Coastal vulnerability planning and resilient design solutions will be implemented to significantly reduce the risk.

Keywords: tsunami, coastal flooding, coastal vulnerable, earthquake, Vancouver, wave propagation

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Authors: Shafiullah Soomro

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Active contour is one of the image segmentation techniques and its goal is to capture required object boundaries within an image. In this paper, we propose a novel image segmentation method by using an active contour method based on anisotropic diffusion feature enhancement technique. The traditional active contour methods use only pixel information to perform segmentation, which produces inaccurate results when an image has some noise or complex background. We use Perona and Malik diffusion scheme for feature enhancement, which sharpens the object boundaries and blurs the background variations. Our main contribution is the formulation of a new SPF (signed pressure force) function, which uses global intensity information across the regions. By minimizing an energy function using partial differential framework the proposed method captures semantically meaningful boundaries instead of catching uninterested regions. Finally, we use a Gaussian kernel which eliminates the problem of reinitialization in level set function. We use several synthetic and real images from different modalities to validate the performance of the proposed method. In the experimental section, we have found the proposed method performance is better qualitatively and quantitatively and yield results with higher accuracy compared to other state-of-the-art methods.

Keywords: active contours, anisotropic diffusion, level-set, partial differential equations

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Authors: Shunyi Yang, Jingjing Yan, Siyu Dong, Xiangguo Cui

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Current architectural façade design practices incorporate various daylighting and solar radiation analysis methods. These emphasize the impact of geometry on façade design. There is scope to extend this knowledge into methods that address material translucency, porosity, and form. Such approaches can also achieve these conditions through adaptive robotic manufacturing approaches that exploit material dynamics within the design, and alleviate fabrication waste from molds, ultimately accelerating the autonomous manufacturing system. Besides analyzing the environmental solar radiant in building facade design, there is also a vacancy research area of how lighting effects can be precisely controlled by engaging the instant real-time data-driven robot control and manipulating the material properties. Ceramics carries a wide range of transmittance and deformation potentials for robotics control with the research of its material property. This paper presents one semi-autonomous system that engages with real-time data-driven robotics control, hardware kit design, environmental building studies, human interaction, and exploratory research and experiments. Our objectives are to investigate the relationship between different clay bodies or ceramics’ physio-material properties and their transmittance; to explore the feedback system of instant lighting data in robotic fabrication to achieve precise lighting effect; to design the sufficient end effector and robot behaviors for different stages of deformation. We experiment with architectural clay, as the material of the façade that is potentially translucent at a certain stage can respond to light. Studying the relationship between form, material properties, and porosity can help create different interior and exterior light effects and provide façade solutions for specific architectural functions. The key idea is to maximize the utilization of in-progress robotics fabrication and ceramics materiality to create a highly integrated autonomous system for lighting facade design and manufacture.

Keywords: light transmittance, data-driven fabrication, computational design, computer vision, gamification for manufacturing

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Authors: Saadet Taşyürek Demirel, Halide Sena Koçyiğit, Rümeysa Fatma Çetin

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Celebrity worship, characterized by excessive admiration and devotion towards public figures, often mirrors elements of religious fervor. This study delves into the intricate connection between celebrity worship and religiosity, particularly within the Turkish cultural context, where Islamic values predominantly shape societal norms. The investigation involves the adaptation of the Celebrity Attitude Scale into Turkish and scrutinizes the interplay between young individuals' religiosity and their extreme adulation of celebrities. Additionally, the study explores potential moderating factors, such as age and gender, that might influence this relationship. A cohort of 197 young adults, aged 19 to 30, participated in this research, responding to self-administered questionnaires that assessed their attitudes towards celebrities using the adapted Celebrity Attitude Scale, along with their self-reported religiosity. The anticipated relationship between religiosity and celebrity worship is hypothesized to exhibit a non-linear pattern. Specifically, we expect religiosity to positively predict celebrity worship tendencies among individuals with minimal to moderate religiosity levels. Conversely, a negative association between religiosity and celebrity worship is expected to manifest among participants exhibiting moderate to high levels of religiosity. The findings of this study will contribute to the comprehension of the intricate dynamics between celebrity worship and religiosity, offering insights specifically within the Turkish cultural context. By shedding light on this relationship, the study aims to enhance our understanding of the multifaceted influences that shape individuals' perceptions and behaviors towards both celebrities and religious inclinations. Methodology of the study: A quantitative research will be conducted, where the factor analysis and correlational method will be used. The factor structure of the scale will be determined with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The reliability, internal consistency, Objectives of the study: This study examines the relationship between religiosity and celebrity worship by young adults in the Turkish context. The other aim of the study is to assess the Turkish validity and reliability of the Celebrity Attitude Scale and contribute it to the literature. Main Contributions of the study: The study aims to introduce celebrity worship to Turkish literature, assess the Celebrity Attitude Scale's reliability in a Turkish sample, explore manifestations of celebrity worship, and examine its link to religiosity. This research addresses the lack of Turkish sources on celebrity worship and extends understanding of the concept.

Keywords: celebrity, worship, religiosity, god

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Authors: Buse T. Aydin, Enver Ozdemir

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An automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system has serious security problems. In this study, a double layer authentication scheme between the aircraft and ground station, aircraft to aircraft, ground station to ATC tower is designed to prevent any unauthorized aircrafts from introducing themselves as friends. This method can be used as a solution to the problem of authentication. The method is a combination of classical cryptographic methods and new generation physical layers. The first layer has employed the embedded key of the aircraft. The embedded key is assumed to installed during the construction of the utility. The other layer is a physical attribute (flight path, distance, etc.) between the aircraft and the ATC tower. We create a mathematical model so that two layers’ information is employed and an aircraft is authenticated as a friend or unknown according to the accuracy of the results of the model. The results of the aircraft are compared with the results of the ATC tower and if the values found by the aircraft and ATC tower match within a certain error margin, we mark the aircraft as friend. As a result, the ADS-B messages coming from this authenticated friendly aircraft will be processed. In this method, even if the embedded key is captured by the unknown aircraft, without the information of the second layer, the unknown aircraft can easily be determined. Overall, in this work, we present a reliable system by adding physical layer in the authentication process.

Keywords: ADS-B, authentication, communication with physical layer security, cryptography, identification friend or foe

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Authors: R. Santos Jiménez, A. San-Antonio-González, M. del Río Merino, M. González Cortina, C. Viñas Arrebola

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On average, Europe generates around 890 million tons of construction and demolition waste (CDW) per year and only 50% of these CDW are recycled. This is far from the objectives determined in the European Directive for 2020 and aware of this situation, the European Countries are implementing national policies to prevent the waste that can be avoidable and to promote measures to increase recycling and recovering. In Spain, one of these measures has been the development of a CDW recycling guide for the manufacture of mortar, concrete, bricks and lightweight aggregates. However, there is still not enough information on the possibility of incorporating CDW materials in the manufacture of gypsum products. In view of the foregoing, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid is creating a database with information on the possibility of incorporating CDW materials in the manufacture of gypsum products. The objective of this study is to improve this database by analysing the feasibility of incorporating two different CDW in a gypsum matrix: ceramic waste bricks (perforated brick and double hollow brick), and extruded polystyrene (XPS) waste. Results show that it is possible to incorporate up to 25% of ceramic waste and 4% of XPS waste over the weight of gypsum in a gypsum matrix. Furhtermore, with the addition of ceramic waste an 8% of surface hardness increase and a 25% of capillary water absorption reduction can be obtained. On the other hand, with the addition of XPS, a 26% reduction of density and a 37% improvement of thermal conductivity can be obtained.

Keywords: CDW, waste materials, ceramic waste, XPS, construction materials, gypsum

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Authors: Charles Amoatey, Ebenezer Kumah

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of implementation of Distributor Management Solution (DMS) on supply chain performance in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry in Ghana. Methodology: A purposive sampling approach was used in selecting the respondents for the study. Data was collected from senior management and field supervisors from sales, distribution and customer service units of the case study firm and its channel members. This study made use of systematic literature review and results of survey data analysis to assess how information system has been used to improve supply chain performance. Findings: Results from the study showed that the critical effect factors from implementation of a DMS include (1) Obtain prompt and reliable feedback from the market; (2) Building the capacity and skills levels of employees as well as 3rd Party Agents; (3) Motivated top management to invest in MIS; and (4) Performance improvement in sales route management. The most critical challenges to an effective and sustainable MIS implementation are lack of enough trained IT employees and high barriers to cultural change especially with distributors. The paper recommends consistent investment in IS infrastructure and development of IT skills. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to the literature by exploring the effects of distribution management solution implementation and supply chain performance in a developing country context. Considering the fact that this study is based on data from only one case study firm and its channel members, generalization of the results should be treated with caution. Practical implications: The findings have confirmed the benefits of implementing a Management Information System. The result should encourage channel members to allocate adequate resources for building MIS capacity to enhance their supply chain performance. Originality/Value: In this paper, the relationship between DMS/MIS implementation and improvement in supply chain performance, in the Ghanaian context, has been established.

Keywords: distributor management solution, fast-moving consumer goods, supply chain management, information systems, Ghana

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Authors: Loong Qing Zhe, Foo Jing Heng

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A variety of data files are now available on the internet due to the advancement of technology across the globe today. As more and more data are being uploaded on the internet, people are becoming more concerned that their private data, particularly medical health records, are being compromised and sold to others for money. Hence, the accessibility and confidentiality of patients' medical records have to be protected through electronic means. Blockchain technology is introduced to offer patients security against adversaries or unauthorised parties. In the blockchain network, only authorised personnel or organisations that have been validated as nodes may share information and data. For any change within the network, including adding a new block or modifying existing information about the block, a majority of two-thirds of the vote is required to confirm its legitimacy. Additionally, a consortium permission blockchain will connect all the entities within the same community. Consequently, all medical data in the network can be safely shared with all authorised entities. Also, synchronization can be performed within the cloud since the data is real-time. This paper discusses an efficient method for storing and sharing electronic health records (EHRs). It also examines the framework of roles within the blockchain and proposes a new approach to maintain EHRs with keyword indexes to search for patients' medical records while ensuring data privacy.

Keywords: healthcare sectors, distributed system, blockchain, electronic health records (EHR)

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Authors: Abdikarim Barqadle Igale

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The main objective of this study is to find out the indicators of excellent supply chain management based on game theory. The study employed a survey design to collect data. A total of 268 respondents participated in this research. The results indicate that both companies (Coca-cola & Yousran International) managed to effectively use the physical and information flows but were different from the focus on the items in the two key areas. The Coca-cola, for instance, sustained to utilize the flows of excellent planning, starting from row materials, timing, transformation, transportation, and storage of goods to reach consumer’s hands on one side and solid linkage to strategic partners to plan and work together for long-term control of better day-to-day supply chains of goods and materials down to customers’ consumption on the other. Meanwhile, the Yousran International heavily concentrated on the physical side with moderate rapports with strategic partners for long-term improvement on supply chain. The study proposes that strong combination of effective use of both physical and information flows are good indicators of better supply chain management in today’s emerging companies.

Keywords: game theory, physical flow, supply chain management, indicators

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Authors: Tadele Araya, Tsehaye Asmelash, Girmatsion Fiseha

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Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) constitute serious healthcare problems worldwide. Blood-borne pathogens HBV, HCV and HIV are commonly associated with infections among substance or Injection Drug Users (IDUs). The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of HBV, HCV, and HIV infections among substance users in Mekelle Substance users Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used from Dec 2020 to Sep / 2021 to conduct the study. A total of 600 substance users were included. Data regarding the socio-demographic, clinical and sexual behaviors of the substance users were collected using a structured questionnaire. For laboratory analysis, 5-10 ml of venous blood was taken from the substance users. The laboratory analysis was performed by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) at Mekelle University, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology Research Laboratory. The Data was analyzed using SPSS and Epi-data. The association of variables with HBV, HCV and HIV infections was determined using multivariate analysis and a P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: The overall prevalence rate of HBV, HCV and HIV infections were 10%, 6.6%, and 7.5%, respectively. The mean age of the study participants was 28.12 ± 6.9. A higher prevalence of HBV infection was seen in participants who were users of drug injections and in those who were infected with HIV. HCV was comparatively higher in those who had a previous history of unsafe surgical procedures than their counterparts. Homeless participants were highly exposed to HCV and HIV infections than their counterparts. The HBV/HIV Co-infection prevalence was 3.5%. Those doing unprotected sexual practices [P= 0.03], Injection Drug users [P= 0.03], those who had an HBV-infected person in their family [P=0.02], infected with HIV [P= 0.025] were statistically associated with HBV infection. HCV was significantly associated with Substance users and previous history of unsafe surgical procedures [p=0.03, p=0.04), respectively. HIV was significantly associated with unprotected sexual practices and being homeless [p=0.045, p=0.05) respectively. Conclusion-The highly prevalent viral infection was HBV compared to others. There was a High prevalence of HBV/HIV co-infection. The presence of HBV-infected persons in a family, unprotected sexual practices and sharing of needles for drug injection were the risk factors associated with HBV, HIV, and HCV. Continuous health education and screening of the viral infection coupled with medical and psychological treatment is mandatory for the prevention and control of the infections.

Keywords: hepatitis b virus, hepatitis c virus, HIV, substance users

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Authors: Wen-Chung Wang, Xue-Lan Qiu

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Ipsative tests have been widely used in vocational and career counseling (e.g., the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey). Pairwise-comparison items are a typical item format of ipsative tests. When the two statements in a pairwise-comparison item measure two different constructs, the item is referred to as a multidimensional pairwise-comparison (MPC) item. A typical MPC item would be: Which activity do you prefer? (A) playing with young children, or (B) working with tools and machines. These two statements aim at the constructs of social interest and investigative interest, respectively. Recently, new item response theory (IRT) models for ipsative tests with MPC items have been developed. Among them, the Rasch ipsative model (RIM) deserves special attention because it has good measurement properties, in which the log-odds of preferring statement A to statement B are defined as a competition between two parts: the sum of a person’s latent trait to which statement A is measuring and statement A’s utility, and the sum of a person’s latent trait to which statement B is measuring and statement B’s utility. The RIM has been extended to polytomous responses, such as preferring statement A strongly, preferring statement A, preferring statement B, and preferring statement B strongly. To promote the new initiatives, in this study we developed computerized adaptive testing algorithms for MFC items and evaluated their performance using simulations and two real tests. Both the RIM and its polytomous extension are multidimensional, which calls for multidimensional computerized adaptive testing (MCAT). A particular issue in MCAT for MPC items is the within-person statement exposure (WPSE); that is, a respondent may keep seeing the same statement (e.g., my life is empty) for many times, which is certainly annoying. In this study, we implemented two methods to control the WPSE rate. In the first control method, items would be frozen when their statements had been administered more than a prespecified times. In the second control method, a random component was added to control the contribution of the information at different stages of MCAT. The second control method was found to outperform the first control method in our simulation studies. In addition, we investigated four item selection methods: (a) random selection (as a baseline), (b) maximum Fisher information method without WPSE control, (c) maximum Fisher information method with the first control method, and (d) maximum Fisher information method with the second control method. These four methods were applied to two real tests: one was a work survey with dichotomous MPC items and the other is a career interests survey with polytomous MPC items. There were three dependent variables: the bias and root mean square error across person measures, and measurement efficiency which was defined as the number of items needed to achieve the same degree of test reliability. Both applications indicated that the proposed MCAT algorithms were successful and there was no loss in measurement proficiency when the control methods were implemented, and among the four methods, the last method performed the best.

Keywords: computerized adaptive testing, ipsative tests, item response theory, pairwise comparison

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Authors: C. Asha Poorna, P. G. Vinod, A. R. R. Menon

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Currently increasing population and their activities like urbanization and industrialization generating the greatest environmental, issue called Waste. And the major problem in waste management is selection of an appropriate site for waste disposal. The selection of suitable site have constrains like environmental, economical and political considerations. In this paper we discuss the strategies to be followed while selecting a site for decentralized system for solid waste disposal, using Geographic Information System (GIS), the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the remote sensing method for Thiruvananthapuram corporation area. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland. It lies on the shores of Killiyar and Karamana River. Being on the basin the waste managements must be regulated with the water body. The different criteria considered for waste disposal site selection are lithology, surface water, aquifer, groundwater, land use, contours, aspect, elevation, slope, and distance to road, distance from settlement are examined in relation to land fill site selection. Each criterion was identified and weighted by AHP score and mapped using GIS technique and suitable map is prepared by overlay analysis.

Keywords: waste disposal, solid waste management, Geographic Information System (GIS), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

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Authors: Sohanur Rahman, Elisabeth Sinnewe, Larelle (Ellie) Chapple, Sarah Osborne

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Greater political attention to global climate change exposes firms to a higher level of political uncertainty, which can lead to adverse capital market consequences. However, a higher level of discourse on environment-specific political risk (EPR) between management and investors can mitigate information asymmetry, followed by less stock price crash risk. This study examines whether EPR discourse in discourse in the earnings conference calls (ECC) reduces firm-level stock price crash risk in the US market. This research also explores if adverse disclosures via media channels further moderates the association between EPR on crash risk. Employing a dataset of 28,933 firm-year observations from 2002 to 2020, the empirical analysis reveals that EPR discourse in ECC reduces future stock price crash risk. However, adverse disclosures via media channels can offset the favourable effect of EPR discourse on crash risk. The results are robust to the potential endogeneity concern in a quasi-natural experiment setting.

Keywords: earnings conference calls, environment, environment-specific political risk discourse, environmental disclosures, information asymmetry, reputation risk, stock price crash risk

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Authors: Jingwen Ou

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Writing for academic purposes in a second or foreign language poses a significant challenge for non-native speakers, particularly at the tertiary level, where English academic writing for L2 students is often hindered by difficulties in academic discourse, including vocabulary, academic register, and organization. The past two decades have witnessed a rising popularity in the application of the data-driven learning (DDL) approach in EAP writing instruction. In light of such a trend, this study aims to enhance the integration of DDL into English for academic purposes (EAP) writing classrooms by investigating the perception of Chinese college students regarding the use of corpus tools for improving EAP writing. Additionally, the research explores their corpus consultation behaviors during training to provide insights into corpus-assisted EAP instruction for DDL practitioners. Given the uprising popularity of DDL, this research aims to investigate Chinese university students’ use of corpus tools with three main foci: 1) the influence of corpus tools on learning behaviours, 2) the influence of corpus tools on students’ academic writing performance outcomes, and 3) students’ perceptions and potential perceptional changes towards the use of such tools. Three corpus tools, CQPWeb, Sketch Engine, and LancsBox X, are selected for investigation due to the scarcity of empirical research on patterns of learners’ engagement with a combination of multiple corpora. The research adopts a pre-test / post-test design for the evaluation of students’ academic writing performance before and after the intervention. Twenty participants will be divided into two groups: an intervention and a non-intervention group. Three corpus training workshops will be delivered at the beginning, middle, and end of a semester. An online survey and three separate focus group interviews are designed to investigate students’ perceptions of the use of corpus tools for improving academic writing skills, particularly the rhetorical functions in different essay sections. Insights from students’ consultation sessions indicated difficulties with DDL practice, including insufficiency of time to complete all tasks, struggle with technical set-up, unfamiliarity with the DDL approach and difficulty with some advanced corpus functions. Findings from the main study aim to provide pedagogical insights and training resources for EAP practitioners and learners.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, data-driven learning, English for academic purposes, tertiary education in China

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Authors: Peter I. I. Ikokwu

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Recent developments in the world, both in the health and education sectors, have further popularized the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT is available for many purposes, including teaching and learning, and its use in education is believed to empower both teachers and students by making the educational process more effective and interactive. The study examined the perceptions of teachers on the factors affecting the use of ICT in the teaching and learning of chemistry and the mitigating factors. The study involved all the lecturers (herein referred to as teachers) in the Colleges of Education in South Eastern Nigeria. The survey design was employed. 35 teachers were selected by stratified random sampling from about 78 chemistry teachers in these Colleges. However, 34 questionnaires were recovered, comprising 13 males and 21 females. 3 research questions and 3 hypotheses guided the study. Results show that the teachers have a clear perception of the factors militating against the use of ICT in the teaching and learning of chemistry, with a pooled mean of 2.96. But there was no significant difference in the perceptions of male and female teachers. Also, they identified the mitigating factors highlighted with no significant difference between the perceptions of the males and females with pooled means of 3.23 and 3.11, respectively. In all, it is noteworthy that lack of funds, irregular and inadequate power supply, and inadequate time in the school timetable was among the militating factors. Recommendations were made for the consideration of the government, the teachers, and the Institutions.

Keywords: chemistry, teachers, perception, ICT, learning

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Authors: Ibrahim Aliyu Isah, Mohd Mansor Ismail, Salim Hassan, Norsida Man, Oluwatoyin Olagunju

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Stingless beekeeping is not only a profitable activity for Malaysian beekeepers but also for the Malaysian economy. However, natural honey has faced some difficulties, which resulted in low production due to a lack of information on improved technology as well as the capacity and potential building of stingless beekeeping farmers, which depend mostly on information received from the extension agents. Hence, it is the responsibility of the extension agents to give useful information on the available technology and develop the capacity of the farmers to make the right decision that will improve their level of production. This study assessed how technology transfer and human resource development skills influence the work performance of the extension agents toward sustainable beekeeping production among beekeepers. The study sought to establish the role of relevant technology transfer and human resource development skills in effective performance. The research design was a descriptive and quantitative survey of stingless beekeepers on technology transfer and human resource development by the extension agent. Data was obtained from 54 beekeeping farmers and was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that technology skill, technology dissemination skill, technology evaluation skill, Decision-making process skill, Leadership development skill and work performance were rated moderate by stingless beekeeping farmers, while Social skill was rated high. A significant and positive correlation (P<0.01) existed between all variables and performance. Regression results showed that leadership development skills, Decision-making process skills, and social skills are significant (P=.05), while technology skills, technology dissemination skills, and technology evaluation skills are not significant. The highest contributing factor is social skill (β=.446). Beekeeping is a profitable project in Malaysia and can be sustained if the extension services and programs are well carried out by competent extension agents and relevant agricultural government agencies.

Keywords: beekeeping, extension agents, human resource development, sustainable, technology transfer, work performance

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Authors: Desmond Young

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In building services electrical design, a key element of any project will be assessing the electrical load requirements. This needs to be done early in the design process to allow the selection of infrastructure that would be required to meet the electrical needs of the type of building. The type of building will define the type of assessment made, and the values applied in defining the maximum demand for the building, and ultimately the size of supply or infrastructure required, and the application that needs to be made to the distribution network operator, or alternatively to an independent network operator. The fact that this assessment needs to be undertaken early in the design process provides limits on the type of assessment that can be used, as different methods require different types of information, and sometimes this information is not available until the latter stages of a project. A common method applied in the earlier design stages of a project, typically during stages 1,2 & 3, is the use of benchmarks. It is a possibility that some of the benchmarks applied are excessive in relation to the current loads that exist in a modern installation. This lack of accuracy is based on information which does not correspond to the actual equipment loads that are used. This includes lighting and small power loads, where the use of more efficient equipment and lighting has reduced the maximum demand required. The electrical load can be used as part of the process to assess the heat generated from the equipment, with the heat gains from other sources, this feeds into the sizing of the infrastructure required to cool the building. Any overestimation of the loads would contribute to the increase in the design load for the heating and ventilation systems. Finally, with the new policies driving the industry to decarbonise buildings, a prime example being the recently introduced London Plan, loads are potentially going to increase. In addition, with the advent of the pandemic and changes to working practices, and the adoption of electric heating and vehicles, a better understanding of the loads that should be applied will aid in ensuring that infrastructure is not oversized, as a cost to the client, or undersized to the detriment of the building. In addition, more accurate benchmarks and methods will allow assessments to be made for the incorporation of energy storage and renewable technologies as these technologies become more common in buildings new or refurbished.

Keywords: energy, ADMD, electrical load assessment, energy benchmarks

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Authors: Wera Supa, Panita Wannapiroon

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This paper is a report on the designing of the social collaborative learning model based on proactive involvement to Promote the global merit principle in cultivating youths’ morality. The research procedures into two phases, the first phase is to design the social collaborative learning model based on proactive involvement to promote the global merit principle in cultivating youths’ morality, and the second is to evaluate the social collaborative learning model based on proactive involvement. The sample group in this study consists of 15 experts who are dominant in proactive participation, moral merit principle and youths’ morality cultivation from executive level, lecturers and the professionals in information and communication technology expertise selected using the purposive sampling method. Data analyzed by arithmetic mean and standard deviation. This study has explored that there are four significant factors in promoting the hands-on collaboration of global merit scheme in order to implant virtues to adolescences which are: 1) information and communication Technology Usage; 2) proactive involvement; 3) morality cultivation policy, and 4) global merit principle. The experts agree that the social collaborative learning model based on proactive involvement is highly appropriate.

Keywords: social collaborative learning, proactive involvement, global merit principle, morality

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Authors: Bander Alzahrani, Mohammed Alreshoodi

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Information-centric networking (ICN) using architectures such as the Publish-Subscribe Internet Technology (PURSUIT) has been proposed as a new networking model that aims at replacing the current used end-centric networking model of the Internet. This emerged model focuses on what is being exchanged rather than which network entities are exchanging information, which gives the control plane functions such as routing and host location the ability to be specified according to the content items. The forwarding plane of the PURSUIT ICN architecture uses a simple and light mechanism based on Bloom filter technologies to forward the packets. Although this forwarding scheme solve many problems of the today’s Internet such as the growth of the routing table and the scalability issues, it is vulnerable to brute force attacks which are starting point to distributed- denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. In this work, we design and analyze a novel source-routing and information delivery technique that keeps the simplicity of using Bloom filter-based forwarding while being able to deter different attacks such as denial of service attacks at the ingress of the network. To achieve this, special forwarding nodes called Edge-FW are directly attached to end user nodes and used to perform a security test for malicious injected random packets at the ingress of the path to prevent any possible attack brute force attacks at early stage. In this technique, a core entity of the PURSUIT ICN architecture called topology manager, that is responsible for finding shortest path and creating a forwarding identifiers (FId), uses a cryptographically secure hash function to create a 64-bit hash, h, over the formed FId for authentication purpose to be included in the packet. Our proposal restricts the attacker from injecting packets carrying random FIds with a high amount of filling factor ρ, by optimizing and reducing the maximum allowed filling factor ρm in the network. We optimize the FId to the minimum possible filling factor where ρ ≤ ρm, while it supports longer delivery trees, so the network scalability is not affected by the chosen ρm. With this scheme, the filling factor of any legitimate FId never exceeds the ρm while the filling factor of illegitimate FIds cannot exceed the chosen small value of ρm. Therefore, injecting a packet containing an FId with a large value of filling factor, to achieve higher attack probability, is not possible anymore. The preliminary analysis of this proposal indicates that with the designed scheme, the forwarding function can detect and prevent malicious activities such DDoS attacks at early stage and with very high probability.

Keywords: forwarding identifier, filling factor, information centric network, topology manager

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Authors: Safa Gharbi, Hayfa Zgaya, Nesrine Zoghlami, Slim Hammadi, Cyril De Barbarin, Laurent Vinatier, Christiane Coupier

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Increasing productivity and quality of service, improving the working comfort and ensuring the efficiency of all processes are important challenges for every warehouse. The order picking is recognized to be the most important and costly activity of all the process in warehouses. This paper presents a new approach using Augmented Reality (AR) in the field of logistics. It aims to create a Head-Up Display (HUD) interface with a Warehouse Management System (WMS), using AR glasses. Integrating AR technology allows the optimization of order picking by reducing time of picking process, increasing the efficiency and delivering quickly. The picker will be able to access immediately to all the information needed for his tasks. All the information is displayed when needed in the field of vision (FOV) of the operator, without any action requested from him. These research works are part of the industrial project RASL (Réalité Augmentée au Service de la Logistique) which gathers two major partners: the LAGIS (Laboratory of Automatics, Computer Engineering and Signal Processing in Lille-France) and Genrix Group, European leader in warehouses logistics, who provided his software for implementation, and his logistics expertise.

Keywords: Augmented Reality (AR), logistics and optimization, Warehouse Management System (WMS), Head-Up Display (HUD)

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Authors: Bin Liu, Weijie Liu, Bin Sun, Yihui Luo

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In order to solve the problem of lower spatial resolution and block effect in the fusion method based on separable wavelet transform in the resulting fusion image, a new sampling mode based on multi-resolution analysis of two-channel non separable wavelet transform, whose dilation matrix is [1,1;1,-1], is presented and a multispectral image fusion method based on this kind of sampling mode is proposed. Filter banks related to this kind of wavelet are constructed, and multiresolution decomposition of the intensity of the MS and panchromatic image are performed in the sampled mode using the constructed filter bank. The low- and high-frequency coefficients are fused by different fusion rules. The experiment results show that this method has good visual effect. The fusion performance has been noted to outperform the IHS fusion method, as well as, the fusion methods based on DWT, IHS-DWT, IHS-Contourlet transform, and IHS-Curvelet transform in preserving both spectral quality and high spatial resolution information. Furthermore, when compared with the fusion method based on nonsubsampled two-channel non separable wavelet, the proposed method has been observed to have higher spatial resolution and good global spectral information.

Keywords: image fusion, two-channel sampled nonseparable wavelets, multispectral image, panchromatic image

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Authors: K. Doi, T. Nishimura, H. Fujimoto, T. Tanaka

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It has been known that visually impaired persons have some problems in getting visual information. Therefore, information accessibility for the visually impaired persons is very important in a current information society. Some application software with read-aloud function for using personal computer and smartphone are getting more and more popular among visually impaired persons in the world. On the other hand, it is also very important for being able to learn how to read and write characters such as Braille and Visual character. Braille typewriter has been widely used in learning Braille. And also raised-line drawing kits as writing material has been used for decades for especially acquired visually impaired persons. However, there are some drawbacks such as the drawn line cannot be erased. Moreover, visibility of drawing lines is not so good for visually impaired with low vision. We had significant number of requests for developing new writing material for especially acquired visually impaired persons instead of raised-line drawing kits. For conducting development research of novel writing material, we could receive a research grant from ministry of health, labor and welfare in Japanese government. In this research, we developed writing material typed pens and pencils with Beeswax-discharge instead of conventional raised-line drawing kits. This writing material was equipped with cartridge heater for melting beeswax and its heat controller. When this pen users held down the pen tip on the regular paper such as fine paper and so on, the melted beeswax could be discharged from pen tip with valve structure. The beeswax was discharged at 100 gf of holding down force based on results of our previous trial study. The shape of pen tip was semispherical for becoming low friction between pen tip and surface of paper. We conducted one basic experiment to evaluate influence of the curvature of pen tip on ease to write. Concretely, the conditions of curvature was 0.15, 0.35, 0.50, 1.00 mm. The following four interval scales were used as indexes of subjective assessment during writing such as feeling of smooth motion of pen, feeling of comfortable writing, sense of security and feeling of writing fatigue. Ten subjects were asked to participate in this experiment. The results reveal that subjects could draw easily when the radius of the pen tip was 1.00 mm, and lines drawn with beeswax-discharge writing material were easy to perceive.

Keywords: beeswax-discharge writing material, raised-line drawing kits, visually impaired persons, pen tip

Procedia PDF Downloads 309