Search results for: creative city evaluation indicators

Authors: Sarah Reker

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The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) provides the basis of this study. For all countries which have ratified the convention since its entry into force in 2007, the effective implementation of the requirements often leads to considerable challenges. Furthermore, missing indicators make it difficult to measure progress. Therefore, the aim of the research project is to contribute to analyze the consequences of the implementation process on the inclusion and exclusion conditions for people with disabilities in Germany. Disabled People’s Organisations and other associations consider the social space to be relevant for the successful implementation of the CRPD. Against this background, the research project wants to focus on the relationship between a barrier-free access to the social space and the “full and effective participation and inclusion” (Art. 3) of persons with disabilities. The theoretical basis of the study is the sociological theory of social space (“Sozialraumtheorie”).

Keywords: decentralisation, qualitative research, residential facilities, social space

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Authors: Rachel-Kate Bowdler

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Wartime efforts, news, and heroic stories are important to the public in understanding the political climate, yet hard to digest. However, graphic novels are able to portray intense sociopolitical themes and reinvent the account for the public. Modern comics centered around war introduces the historical context to new audiences, thus keeping history relevant and remembered. This is a trend in graphic novels that is popular for expressing wartime and political stories. Graphic novels make historical accounts and stories easier to understand and more enjoyable to read through creative expression and stylistic choices like color, design, and personified depictions of characters. This results in the need to analyze intense wartime themes in terms of artistic style and elements contributing to the portrayal of the story. Whether directly or indirectly, comics became an outlet for discussing and portraying wars, especially following World War II. It may also be relevant that comics are influential in attitudes towards war efforts. in conducting in analysis on comic books relating to war time stories and a literature review, this paper will seek to analyze the role that comics play in the dissemination of information and feelings surrounding war efforts and attitudes.

Keywords: artistic style, comics, historical, war, art and culture, journalism and media

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Authors: Sender Dovchin

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The recent bi/multilingual scholarship shows that the knowledge of ‘translingual English’ is understood in terms of transcultural flows of linguistic, semiotic and cultural resources, where these resources re-transform and are recontextualised to form new specific languages and perform new identities in diverse societal contexts. Drawing on linguistic ethnographic data from contemporary popular music artist in Mongolia, this paper addresses two main critical questions: (1) how new forms of specific languages are created when English becomes translingual English in local contexts; and (2) how new varieties of local identities are constructed and performed when English transforms into translingual English. The paper argues that popular music artists in post-socialist Mongolia should better be understood as active cultural producers, contrary to those dominant discourses which position artists in the periphery as passive recipients of popular culture. Positioned within the creative nature of the global digital resources and the increasing transcultural spread of linguistic and cultural modes and features, these young Mongolian popular music artists produce not only new forms of linguistic practices in the local contexts but also create varied new forms of identities of what it means to be a young Mongolian person in the modern society.

Keywords: multilingualism, translingualism, mongolia, english

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Authors: Rita Lopa, Yukihiro Shimatani

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The focus of this research is 880m extension development along the Kamisaigo River. The river is flowing tributary of grade 2 rivers Fukutsu City, Fukuoka Prefecture. This river is a small-scale urban river and the river was formerly a straight concrete sea wall construction. The river runs through National Highway No. 3 from the confluence of Saigo River. The study covers the river basin about 326 ha with a catchment area of 20.63 ha and 4,700 m3 capacity regulating pond. The river is not wide, shallow, and has a straight alignment with active (un-vegetated) river channel sinuosity (ratio of river length to valley length) ranging between 1 and 1.3. However, the alignment of the low-flow river channel does have meandering or sinuous characteristics. Flooding is likely to occur. It has become difficult to live in the environment for organisms of the river. Hydrophilic is very low (children cannot play). There is little connection with the local community. Overall, the Kamisaigo River watershed is heavily urbanized and from a morphological, biological and habitat perspective, Kamisaigo River functions marginally not well. For river improvement and maintenance of the Kamisaigo River, the workshop was conducted in the form of planning for the proposed model is presented by the Watershed Management Laboratory. This workshop showed the relationship between citizens, City Government, and University of mutual trust has been established, that have been made landscape, environment, usage, etc.: retaining wall maintenance, hydrophilic zone, landscape zone, nature walks zone: adjacent medical facilities and adjacent to large commercial facilities. Propose of Nature walks zone with point of the design: provide slope that the wheelchair can access and walking paths to enjoy the scenery, and summary of the Kamisaigo River workshop: creating a multi-model study and creation of natural rivers.

Keywords: river restoration, river improvement, natural rivers, Saigo River

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Authors: Hamda M. Al-Ali

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From addressing fundamental questions about the history of the solar system to exploring other planets for any signs of life have always been the core of human space exploration. This triggered humans to explore whether other planets such as Mars could support human life on them. Therefore, many planned space missions to other planets have been designed and conducted to examine the feasibility of human survival on them. However, space missions are expensive and consume a large number of various resources to be successful. To overcome these problems, material efficiency shall be maximized through the use of reusable launch vehicles (RLV) rather than disposable and expendable ones. Material efficiency is defined as a way to achieve service requirements using fewer materials to reduce CO2 emissions from industrial processes. Materials such as aluminum-lithium alloys, steel, Kevlar, and reinforced carbon-carbon composites used in the manufacturing of spacecrafts could be reused in closed-loop cycles directly or by adding a protective coat. Material efficiency is a fundamental principle of a circular economy. The circular economy aims to cutback waste and reduce pollution through maximizing material efficiency so that businesses can succeed and endure. Five strategies have been proposed to improve material efficiency in the space industry, which includes waste minimization, introduce Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure material efficiency, and introduce policies and legislations to improve material efficiency in the space sector. Another strategy to boost material efficiency is through maximizing resource and energy efficiency through material reusability. Furthermore, the environmental effects associated with the rapid growth in the number of space missions include black carbon emissions that lead to climate change. The levels of emissions must be tracked and tackled to ensure the safe utilization of space in the future. The aim of this research paper is to examine and suggest effective methods used to improve material efficiency in space missions so that space and Earth become more environmentally and economically sustainable. The objectives used to fulfill this aim are to identify the materials used in space missions that are suitable to be reused in closed-loop cycles considering material efficiency indicators and circular economy concepts. An explanation of how spacecraft materials could be re-used as well as propose strategies to maximize material efficiency in order to make RLVs possible so that access to space becomes affordable and reliable is provided. Also, the economic viability of the RLVs is examined to show the extent to which the use of RLVs has on the reduction of space mission costs. The environmental and economic implications of the increase in the number of space missions as a result of the use of RLVs are also discussed. These research questions are studied through detailed critical analysis of the literature, such as published reports, books, scientific articles, and journals. A combination of keywords such as material efficiency, circular economy, RLVs, and spacecraft materials were used to search for appropriate literature.

Keywords: access to space, circular economy, material efficiency, reusable launch vehicles, spacecraft materials

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Authors: Vahid Bayrami Rad

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In this research, common methods and techniques have been investigated with a focus on intelligent fault finding and monitoring systems in the oil industry. In fact, remote and intelligent control methods are considered a necessity for implementing various operations in the oil industry, but benefiting from the knowledge extracted from countless data generated with the help of data mining algorithms. It is a avoid way to speed up the operational process for monitoring and troubleshooting in today's big oil companies. Therefore, by comparing data mining algorithms and checking the efficiency and structure and how these algorithms respond in different conditions, The proposed (Bayesian) algorithm using data clustering and their analysis and data evaluation using a colored Petri net has provided an applicable and dynamic model from the point of view of reliability and response time. Therefore, by using this method, it is possible to achieve a dynamic and consistent model of the remote control system and prevent the occurrence of leakage in oil pipelines and refineries and reduce costs and human and financial errors. Statistical data The data obtained from the evaluation process shows an increase in reliability, availability and high speed compared to other previous methods in this proposed method.

Keywords: wireless sensors, petroleum equipment troubleshooting, Bayesian algorithm, colored Petri net, rapid miner, data mining-reliability

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Authors: Muhammad Shahid Shah, Akram Maqbool, Samina Ashraf

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Since start of this century, world has adopted inclusion as a trend in special education. To meet the challenges of inclusion response, the Punjab government has developed a progressive policy to implement inclusive education. The objectives of this research were to analyze the administration and implementation process by consideration on the management, student’s admission process, screening and assessment, adaptations in curriculum and instruction along with an evaluation, government and nonprofit organizations support. The sample consisted of 50 schools both public and private with a total of 3000 students, 9 percent of which (270) were students with disabilities. Among all the students with disabilities, 63 percent (170) were male and 37 percent (100) were female. The concluded remarks regarding management revealed that a large number of inclusive schools was lacking in terms of developing a certain model for inclusion, including the managerial breakup of staff, the involvement of stakeholders, and conducted frequent meetings. Many of schools are not able to restructure their school organizations due to lack of financial resources, consultations, and backup. As for as student’s admission/identification/assessment was concerned, only 12 percent schools applied a selection process regarding student admission, half of which used different procedures for disable candidates. Approximately 5 percent of inclusive schools had modified their curriculum, including a variety of standards. In terms of instruction, 25 percent of inclusive schools reported that they modified their instructional process. Only a few schools, however, provided special equipment for students with visual impairment, physical impairment, speech and hearing problems, students with mild intellectual disabilities, and autism. In a student evaluation, more than 45 percent reported that test items, administration, time allocations, and students’ reports were modified. For the primary board examination conducted by the Education Department of Government of Punjab, this number decreased dramatically. Finally, government and nonprofit organizations support in the forms of funding, coaching, and facilities were mostly provided by provincial governments and by Ghazali Education Trust.

Keywords: inclusion, identification, assessment, funding, facilities, evaluation

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Authors: Sebastian Leal-Arenas

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TikTok’s influence on contemporary society is undeniable. The impact of the mobile app transcends entertainment, as shown by the growing presence of specialized accounts dedicated to providing educational content, particularly as it pertains to language learning. However, the prevailing trend on the platform is vocabulary and grammar acquisition, neglecting a critical component: pronunciation. This study examines English pronunciation materials available on TikTok by taking a comprehensive approach that incorporates established assessment tools, such as the Learning Object Review Instrument and the Framework for Language Learning App Evaluation. Furthermore, novel evaluation categories are introduced to provide a more holistic assessment of these educational resources. 60 English pronunciation videos were part of the analysis. The findings reveal that these audio-visual materials present clear audio bolstered by high-quality video content and automatically generated closed captions. These three components enhance the comprehensibility of the input, making these concise videos valuable assets for language learners. Nevertheless, certain deficiencies are observed, such as the lack of emphasis on specific segments and their relationship with articulators. Improvements and refinements are discussed, as well as their potential utility within the language classroom. This study contributes to the ongoing investigation of multimedia materials used for language teaching and emphasizes the need to adapt pronunciation instruction methods to today’s technology.

Keywords: pronunciation, segments, teaching materials, technology

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Authors: Aminu Yakubu Umar

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X-ray is the major contributor to the effective dose of both the patient and the personnel. Because of the radiological risks involved, it is usually recommended that dose to patient from X-ray be kept as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) with adequate image quality. The implementation of quality assurance in diagnostic radiology can help greatly in achieving that, as it is a technique designed to reduce X-ray doses to patients undergoing radiological examination. In this study, quality control was carried out in six hospitals, which involved KVp test, evaluation of total filtration, test for constancy of radiation output, and check for mA linearity. Equipment used include KVp meter, Rad-check meter, aluminum sheets (0.1–1.0 mm) etc. The results of this study indicate that, the age of the X-ray machines in the hospitals ranges from 3-13 years, GHI and GH2 being the oldest and FMC being the newest. In the evaluation of total filtration, the HVL of the X-ray machines in the hospitals varied, ranging from 2.3-5.2 mm. The HVL was found to be highest in AHC (5.2 mm), while it was lowest in GH3 (2.3 mm). All HVL measurements were done at 80 KVp. The variation in voltage accuracy in the hospitals ranges from 0.3%-127.5%. It was only in GH1 that the % variation was below the allowed limit. The test for constancy of radiation output showed that, the coefficient of variation ranges from 0.005–0.550. In GH3, FMC and AHC, the coefficient of linearity were less than the allowed limit, while in GH1, GH2 and GH4 the coefficient of linearity had exceeded the allowed limit. As regard to mA linearity, FMC and AHC had their coefficients of linearity as 0.12 and 0.10 respectively, which were within the accepted limit, while GH1, GH3 and GH4 had their coefficients as 0.16, 0.69 and 0.98 respectively, which exceeded the allowed limit.

Keywords: radiation, X-ray output, quality control, half-value layer, mA linearity, KVp variation

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Authors: M. Linda Phooko, Phesheya E. Dlamini, Vusumuzi E. Mbanjwa, Rhandu Chauke

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The decline of yields as a consequence of miss-informed land-use decisions poses a threat to sustainable agriculture in South Africa. The non-uniform growth pattern of wheat crop and the yields below expectations has been one of the main concerns for Timatjatji community farmers. This study was then conducted to characterize, classify, and evaluate soils of the farm for sustainable land use planning. A detailed free survey guided by surface features was conducted on a 25 ha farm to check soil variation. It was revealed that Sepane (25%), Bonheim (21%), Rensburg (18%), Katspruit (15%), Arcadia (12%) and Dundee (9%) were the dominant soil forms found across the farm. Field soil description was done to determine morphological characteristics of the soils which were matched with slope percentage and climate to assess the potential of the soils. The land capability results showed that soils were generally shallow due to high clay content in the B horizon. When the climate of the area was factored in (i.e. land potential), it further revealed that the area has low cropping potential due to heat, moisture stress and shallow soils. This implies that the farm is not suitable for annual cropping but can be highly suitable for planted pastures.

Keywords: characterization, land capability, land evaluation, land potential

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Authors: Zahra Khodaee

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Environmental Justice (EJ) concept consists of multifaceted movements, community struggles, and discourses in contemporary societies that seek to reduce environmental risks, increase environmental protections, and generally reduce environmental inequalities suffered by minority and poor communities; a term that incorporates ‘environmental racism’ and ‘environmental classism,’ captures the idea that different racial and socioeconomic groups experience differential access to environmental quality. This article explores environmental justice as an urban phenomenon in urban planning and applies it in peri-urban environment of a metropolis. Tehran peri-urban environments which are the result of meeting the city- village- nature systems or «city-village junction» have gradually faced effects such as accelerated environmental decline, changes without land-use plan, and severe service deficiencies. These problems are instances of environmental injustice which make the planners to adjust the problems and use and apply the appropriate strategies and policies by looking for solutions and resorting to theories, techniques and methods related to environmental justice. In order to access to this goal, try to define environmental justice through justice and determining environmental justice indices to analysis environmental injustice in case study. Then, make an effort to introduce some criteria to select case study in two micro and micro levels. Qiyamdasht town as the peri-urban environment of Tehran metropolis is chosen and examined to show the existence of environmental injustice by questionnaire analysis and SPSS software. Finally, use AIDA technique to design a strategic plan and reduce environmental injustice in case study by introducing the better scenario to be used in policy and decision making areas.

Keywords: environmental justice, metropolis of Tehran, Qiyam, Dasht peri, urban settlement, analysis of interconnected decision area (AIDA)

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Authors: Muhammad Saqlain, Poom Kumam

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Language being an abstract system and creative act, is quite complicated as its meaning varies depending on the context. The context is determined by the empirical knowledge of a person, which is derived from observation and experience. About further subdivided attributes, the decision-making challenges may entail quantitative and qualitative factors. However, because there is no norm for putting a numerical value on language, existing approaches cannot carry out the operations of linguistic knowledge. The assigning of mathematical values (fuzzy, intuitionistic, and neutrosophic) to any decision-making problem; without considering any rule of linguistic knowledge is ambiguous and inaccurate. Thus, this paper aims to provide a generic model for these issues. This paper provides the linguistic set structure of the fuzzy hypersoft set (FLHSS) to solve decision-making issues. We have proposed the definition some basic operations like AND, NOT, OR, AND, compliment, negation, etc., along with Topology and examples, and properties. Secondly, the operational laws for the fuzzy linguistic hypersoft set have been proposed to deal with the decision-making issues. Implementing proposed aggregate operators and operational laws can be used to convert linguistic quantifiers into numerical values. This will increase the accuracy and precision of the fuzzy hypersoft set structure to deal with decision-making issues.

Keywords: linguistic quantifiers, aggregate operators, multi-criteria decision making (mcdm)., fuzzy topology

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Authors: Abubakar Abdulkareem, Nasir Haruna Soba

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing at a rapid pace, revolutionizing several industries, including education. This talk looks at how useful AI can be for academic writing, with an emphasis on how it can help researchers be more accurate, productive, and creative. The academic world now relies heavily on AI technologies like grammar checkers, plagiarism detectors, and content generators to help with the writing, editing, and formatting of scholarly papers. This study explores the particular uses of AI in academic writing and assesses how useful and helpful these applications may be for both students and scholars. By means of an extensive examination of extant literature and a sequence of empirical case studies, we scrutinize the merits and demerits of artificial intelligence tools utilized in academic writing. Important discoveries indicate that although AI greatly increases productivity and lowers human error, there are still issues that need to be resolved, including reliance, ethical concerns, and the potential loss of critical thinking abilities. The talk ends with suggestions for incorporating AI tools into academic settings so that they enhance rather than take the place of the intellectual rigor that characterizes scholarly work. This study adds to the continuing conversation about artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education by supporting a methodical strategy that uses technology to enhance human abilities in academic writing.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, academic writing, ai tools, productivity, ethics, higher education

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Authors: Wong Seng Yue

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Game dynamics and game mechanics are the two main components that used in gamification to engage and encourage students to learn. The advantages of gamified classroom are engaging students, increasing students interest, preserving students focus and remain a positive behaviour. However, the empirical studies on gamification are still at early stage, especially the effectiveness of various gamification components have not been evaluated. Thus, this study is aimed to conduct a user experience (UX) evaluation on gamified classroom through Prezi, which focused on learning experience, gaming experience, adaptivity, and gameplay experience. This study is a further study extended from the previous exploratory study to explore more on UX of gamified classroom via Prezi by interview. A focus group study, which involves 22 students from a foundation course has been conducted for the study. Besides the empirical data from the previous study, this focus group study has significantly found that 90.9% respondents show their positive perceptions on gaming experience via Prezi. They are interested, feel fresh, good, and highly motivated of the contents of Prezi. 95.5% participants have had a positive learning experience from the gamified classroom via Prezi, which can engage them, made them concentrate on learning and easy to remember what they have learned if compared to the traditional classroom slides. The adaptivity of the gamified classroom also high due to its zooming user interface, narrative, rewards and engagement features. This study has uncovered on how far the impact of gamification components in the classroom, especially UX that implemented in gamified classroom.

Keywords: user experience (UX), gamification, gamified classroom, Prezi

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Authors: Jin Lam, Joe Au

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This study aims to investigate the impact of practicing expressive textile arts on the underprivileged people namely, ex-offenders after taking a three-month textile arts and fashion creativity workshops from a service-learning subject, offered by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in May 2016. In this service-learning subject, the subject lecturers, students and ex-offenders co-designed various expressive textile artworks together. During the creative process, the ex-offenders could enhance their self-confidence and rebuild a satisfactory identity through practicing expressive textile arts and fashion creativity. Ten textile arts prototypes in the format of fashion garments were presented in a mini fashion show and an exhibition, both at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in July 2016. A quantitative research method was adopted and a questionnaire survey was conducted in this study. The research findings suggest that positive impacts are found on the ex-offenders’ perceptions of ‘feelings and thoughts before attending the workshops’, ‘feelings and thoughts during the workshops’, ‘attitude toward the textile arts materials’, and ‘attitude toward the expressive textile artworks’.

Keywords: creativity, design, expressive textile arts, fashion, underprivileged people

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Authors: Mariam Bibi, Rubab Mehboob, Mehreen Sirshar

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Satisfying the customer requirements is the ultimate goal of producing or developing any product. The quality of the product is decided on the bases of the level of customer satisfaction. There are different techniques which have been reported during the survey which enhance the quality of the product through software defect prediction and by locating the missing software requirements. Some mining techniques were proposed to assess the individual performance indicators in collaborative environment to reduce errors at individual level. The basic intention is to produce a product with zero or few defects thereby producing a best product quality wise. In the analysis of survey the techniques like Genetic algorithm, artificial neural network, classification and clustering techniques and decision tree are studied. After analysis it has been discovered that these techniques contributed much to the improvement and enhancement of the quality of the product.

Keywords: data mining, defect prediction, missing requirements, software quality

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Authors: Hebah M. Musalem, Jeylan El-Mansoury, Lin M. Tuleimat, Selwa Alhazza, Abdul-Aziz A. Al Zoba

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Background: Amblyopia is a condition that affects the visual system triggering a decrease in visual acuity without a known underlying pathology. It is due to abnormal vision development in childhood or infancy. Most importantly, vision loss is preventable or reversible with the right kind of intervention in most of the cases. Strabismus, sensory defects, and anisometropia are all well-known causes of amblyopia. However, ocular misalignment in Strabismus is considered the most common form of amblyopia worldwide. The risk of developing amblyopia increases in premature children, developmentally delayed or children who had brain lesions affecting the visual pathway. The prevalence of amblyopia varies between 2 to 5 % in the world according to the literature. Objective: To determine the different causes of Amblyopia in pediatric patients seen in ophthalmology clinic of a tertiary care center, i.e. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH&RC). Methods: This is a hospital based, random retrospective, based on reviewing patient’s files in the Ophthalmology Department of KFSH&RC in Riyadh city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Inclusion criteria: amblyopic pediatric patients who attended the clinic from 2015 to 2016, who are between 6 months and 18 years old. Exclusion Criteria: patients above 18 years of age and any patient who is uncooperative to obtain an accurate vision or a proper refraction. Detailed ocular and medical history are recorded. The examination protocol includes a full ocular exam, full cycloplegic refraction, visual acuity measurement, ocular motility and strabismus evaluation. All data were organized in tables and graphs and analyzed by statistician. Results: Our preliminary results will be discussed on spot by our corresponding author. Conclusions: We focused on this study on utilizing various examination techniques which enhanced our results and highlighted a distinguished correlation between amblyopia and its’ causes. This paper recommendation emphasizes on critical testing protocols to be followed among amblyopic patient, especially in tertiary care centers.

Keywords: amblyopia, amblyopia causes, amblyopia diagnostic criterion, amblyopia prevalence, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Prabhat Kashyap, Krishan Kumar

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Delhi, the capital of India, is one of the most populated and polluted city among the world. In terms of air quality, Delhi’s air is degrading day by day & becomes worst of any major city in the world. The role of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) is not much studied in cities like Delhi as a culprit for degraded air quality. They not only play a critical role in rural areas but also determine the atmospheric chemistry of urban areas as well. Particularly, Isoprene (2-methyl 1,3-butadiene, C5H8) is the single largest emitted compound among other BVOCs globally, that influence the tropospheric ozone chemistry in urban environment as the ozone forming potential of isoprene is very high. It is mainly emitted by vegetation & a small but significant portion is also released by vehicular exhaust of petrol operated vehicles. This study investigates the spatial and temporal variations of quantitative measurements of isoprene emissions along with different traffic tracers in 2 different seasons (post-monsoon & winter) at four different locations of Delhi. For the quantification of anthropogenic and biogenic isoprene, two sites from traffic intersections (Punjabi Bagh & CRRI) and two sites from vegetative locations (JNU & Yamuna Biodiversity Park) were selected in the vicinity of isoprene emitting tree species like Ficus religiosa, Dalbergia sissoo, Eucalyptus species etc. The concentrations of traffic tracers like benzene, toluene were also determined & their robust ratios with isoprene were used to differentiate anthropogenic isoprene with biogenic portion at each site. The ozone forming potential (OFP) of all selected species along with isoprene was also estimated. For collection of intra-day samples (3 times a day) in each season, a pre-conditioned fenceline monitoring (FLM) carbopack X thermal desorption tubes were used and further analysis was done with Gas chromatography attached with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results of the study proposed that the ambient air isoprene is always higher in post-monsoon season as compared to winter season at all the sites because of high temperature & intense sunlight. The maximum isoprene emission flux was always observed during afternoon hours in both seasons at all sites. The maximum isoprene concentration was found to be 13.95 ppbv at Biodiversity Park during afternoon time in post monsoon season while the lower concentration was observed as low as 0.07 ppbv at the same location during morning hours in winter season. OFP of isoprene at vegetation sites is very high during post-monsoon because of high concentrations. However, OFP for other traffic tracers were high during winter seasons & at traffic locations. Furthermore, high correlation between isoprene emissions with traffic volume at traffic sites revealed that a noteworthy share of its emission also originates from road traffic.

Keywords: biogenic VOCs, isoprene emission, anthropogenic isoprene, urban vegetation

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Authors: Nidhi Prabha

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Transportation as a sector is one of the most significant infrastructural elements of the ‘urban.' The distinctness of an urban life in a city is marked by the dynamic movements that it enables within the city-space. Therefore it is important to study the public-transport systems that enable and foster mobility which characterizes the urban. It is also crucial to underscore the way one is examining the urban transport systems - either as an infrastructural unit in a strict physical-structural sense or as a structural unit which acts as a prism refracting multiple experiences depending on the location of the ‘commuter.' In the proposed paper, the attempt is to uncover and investigate the assumption of the neuter-commuter by looking at urban transportation in the secondary sense i.e. as a structural unit which is experienced differently by different kinds of commuters, thus making transportation deeply distributed with various social structures and locations like class or gender which map onto the transport systems. To this end, the public-transit systems operating in Urban Delhi i.e. the Delhi Metros and the Delhi Transport Corporation run public-buses are looked at as case studies. The study is premised on the knowledge and data gained from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include data and knowledge collected from fieldwork, the methodology for which has ranged from adopting ‘mixed-methods’ which is ‘Qualitative-then-Quantitative’ as well as borrowing ethnographic techniques. Apart from fieldwork, other primary sources looked at including Annual Reports and policy documents of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Union and Delhi budgets, Economic Survey of Delhi, press releases, etc. Secondary sources include the vast array of literature available on the critical nodes that inform the research like gender, transport geographies, urban-space, etc. The study indicates a deeply-distributed urban transport system wherein the various social-structural locations or different kinds of commuters map onto the way these different commuters experience mobility or movement within the city space. Mobility or movement, therefore, becomes gendered or has class-based ramifications. The neuter-commuter assumption is thus challenged. Such an understanding enables us to challenge the anonymity which the ‘urban’ otherwise claims it provides over the rural. The rural is opposed to the urban wherein urban ushers a modern way of life, breaking ties of traditional social identities. A careful study of the transport systems through the traveling patterns and choices of the commuters, however, indicate that this does not hold true as even the same ‘public-space’ of the transport systems allocates different places to different kinds of commuters. The central argument made though the research done is therefore that infrastructure like urban-transport-systems has to be studied and examined as seen beyond just a physical structure. The various experiences of daily mobility of different kinds of commuters have to be taken into account in order to design and plan more inclusive transport systems.

Keywords: gender, infrastructure, mobility, urban-transport-systems

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Authors: M. A. Meslem

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For precise geoid determination, we use a reference field to subtract long and medium wavelength of the gravity field from observations data when we use the remove-compute-restore technique. Therefore, a comparison study between considered models should be made in order to select the optimal reference gravity field to be used. In this context, two recent global geopotential models have been selected to perform this comparison study over Northern Algeria. The Earth Gravitational Model (EGM2008) and the Global Gravity Model (GECO) conceived with a combination of the first model with anomalous potential derived from a GOCE satellite-only global model. Free air gravity anomalies in the area under study have been used to compute residual data using both gravity field models and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) to subtract the residual terrain effect from the gravity observations. Residual data were used to generate local empirical covariance functions and their fitting to the closed form in order to compare their statistical behaviors according to both cases. Finally, height anomalies were computed from both geopotential models and compared to a set of GPS levelled points on benchmarks using least squares adjustment. The result described in details in this paper regarding these two models has pointed out a slight advantage of GECO global model globally through error degree variances comparison and ground-truth evaluation.

Keywords: quasigeoid, gravity aomalies, covariance, GGM

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Authors: Aliyu Umar, Mohammed Yau, Faruruwa M. Dahiru, Saed Garba

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Evaluation of heavy metals in twelve commonly consumed herbal medicines/preparations in Kano State, Nigeria, was carried out. The samples comprised of five unregistered powdered medicines, namely, Zuwo, (ZW); Rai Dorai, (RD); Miyar Tsanya, (MTS); Bagaruwar Makka, (BM); and Madobiya, (M); five unregistered liquid herbal medicinal concussions for pile (MB), yellow fever (MS), typhoid (MT), stomach pain (MC), sexually transmitted diseases (STDs); and two registered herbal medicines; Alif Powder (AP) and Champion Leaf (CL). The heavy metals evaluation was carried out using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) and the result revealed the concentrations (ppm) ranges of the heavy metals as follows: Cadmium (0.0045 – 0.1601), Chromium (0.0418 – 0.2092), Cobalt (0.0038 – 0.0760), Copper (0.0547 – 0.2465), Iron (0.1197 – 0.3592), Manganese (0.0123 – 1.4462), Nickel (0.0073 – 0.0960), Lead (0.185 – 0.0927) and Zinc (0.0244 – 0.2444). Comparing the results obtained in this work with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and permissible limits of other countries, the concentrations of heavy metals in the herbal medicine/preparations are within the allowed permissible limits range in herbal medicines and their use could be safe.

Keywords: Kano state, herbal medicines, registered, unregistered

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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A well-defined insulin resistance (IR) is one of the requirements for the good understanding and evaluation of metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, underlying causes for the development of IR are not clear. Endothelial dysfunction also participates in the pathogenesis of this disease. IR indices are being determined in various obesity groups and also in diagnosing MetS. Components of MetS have been well established and used in adult studies. However, there are some ambiguities particularly in the field of pediatrics. The aims of this study were to compare the performance of fasting blood glucose (FBG), one of MetS components, with some other IR indices and check whether FBG may be replaced by some other parameter or ratio for a better evaluation of pediatric MetS. Five-hundred and forty-nine children were involved in the study. Five groups were constituted. Groups 109, 40, 100, 166, 110, 24 children were included in normal-body mass index (N-BMI), overweight (OW), obese (OB), morbid obese (MO), MetS with two components (MetS2) and MetS with three components (MetS3) groups, respectively. Age and sex-adjusted BMI percentiles tabulated by World Health Organization were used for the classification of obesity groups. MetS components were determined. Aside from one of the MetS components-FBG, eight measures of IR [homeostatic model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR), homeostatic model assessment of beta cell function (HOMA-%β), alanine transaminase-to-aspartate transaminase ratio (ALT/AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), insulin (INS), insulin-to-FBG ratio (INS/FBG), the product of fasting triglyceride and glucose (TyG) index, McAuley index] were evaluated. Statistical analyses were performed. A p value less than 0.05 was accepted as the statistically significance degree. Mean values for BMI of the groups were 15.7 kg/m², 21.0 kg/m², 24.7 kg/m², 27.1 kg/m², 28.7 kg/m², 30.4 kg/m² for N-BMI, OW, OB, MO, MetS2, MetS3, respectively. Differences between the groups were significant (p < 0.001). The only exception was MetS2-MetS3 couple, in spite of an increase detected in MetS3 group. Waist-to-hip circumference ratios significantly differed only for N-BMI vs, OB, MO, MetS2; OW vs MO; OB vs MO, MetS2 couples. ALT and ALT/AST did not differ significantly among MO-MetS2-MetS3. HOMA-%β differed only between MO and MetS2. INS/FBG, McAuley index and TyG were not significant between MetS2 and MetS3. HOMA-IR and FBG were not significant between MO and MetS2. INS was the only parameter, which showed statistically significant differences between MO-MetS2, MO-MetS3, and MetS2-MetS3. In conclusion, these findings have suggested that FBG presently considered as one of the five MetS components, may be replaced by INS during the evaluation of pediatric morbid obesity and MetS.

Keywords: children, insulin resistance indices, metabolic syndrome, obesity

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Authors: Yu-Chi Liao, Nai-Wen Guo, Chun‑Hung Lee, Yung-Chin Lu, Cheng-Hung Ko

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Objective: The incidence of behavioral addictions, especially substance use disorders (SUDs), is gradually be taken seriously with various physical health problems. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) is a treatment option for promoting long-term health behavior change in recent years. MBRP is a structured protocol that integrates formal meditation practices with the cognitive-behavioral approach of relapse prevention treatment by teaching participants not to engage in reappraisal or savoring techniques. However, considering SUDs as a complex brain disease, questionnaires and symptom evaluation are not sufficient to evaluate the effect of MBRP. Neurophysiological biomarkers such as quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG) may improve accurately represent the curative effects. This study attempted to find out the neurophysiological indicator of MBRP in various severity SUD involuntary clients. Participants and Methods: Thirteen participants (all males) completed 8-week mindfulness-based treatment provided by trained, licensed clinical psychologists. The behavioral data were from the Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS) and Negative Mood Regulation Scale (NMR) before and afterMBRP treatment. The QEEG data were simultaneously recorded with executive attention tasks, called comprehensive nonverbal attention test(CNAT). The two-way repeated-measures (treatment * severity) ANOVA and independent t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Thirteen participants regrouped into high substance dependence (HS) and low substance dependence (LS) by SDS cut-off. The HS group showed more SDS total score and lower gamma wave in the Go/No Go task of CNAT at pretest. Both groups showed the main effect that they had a lower frontal theta/beta ratio (TBR) during the simple reaction time task of CNAT. The main effect showed that the delay errors of CNAT were lower after MBRP. There was no other difference in CNAT between groups. However, after MBRP, compared to LS, the HS group have resonant progress in improving SDS and NMR scores. The neurophysiological index, the frontal TBR of the HS during the Go/No Go task of CNATdecreased than that of the LS group. Otherwise, the LS group’s gamma wave was a significant reduction on the Go/No Go task of CNAT. Conclusion: The QEEG data supports the MBRP can restore the prefrontal function of involuntary addicts and lower their errors in executive attention tasks. However, the improvement of MBRPfor the addict with high addiction severity is significantly more than that with low severity, including QEEG’s indicators and negative emotion regulation. Future directions include investigating the reasons for differences in efficacy among different severity of the addiction.

Keywords: mindfulness, involuntary clients, QEEG, emotion regulation

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Authors: Benson Ade Eniola Afere

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This paper introduces a family of fourth-order hybrid beta polynomial kernels developed for statistical analysis. The assessment of these kernels' performance centers on two critical metrics: asymptotic mean integrated squared error (AMISE) and kernel efficiency. Through the utilization of both simulated and real-world datasets, a comprehensive evaluation was conducted, facilitating a thorough comparison with conventional fourth-order polynomial kernels. The evaluation procedure encompassed the computation of AMISE and efficiency values for both the proposed hybrid kernels and the established classical kernels. The consistently observed trend was the superior performance of the hybrid kernels when compared to their classical counterparts. This trend persisted across diverse datasets, underscoring the resilience and efficacy of the hybrid approach. By leveraging these performance metrics and conducting evaluations on both simulated and real-world data, this study furnishes compelling evidence in favour of the superiority of the proposed hybrid beta polynomial kernels. The discernible enhancement in performance, as indicated by lower AMISE values and higher efficiency scores, strongly suggests that the proposed kernels offer heightened suitability for statistical analysis tasks when compared to traditional kernels.

Keywords: AMISE, efficiency, fourth-order Kernels, hybrid Kernels, Kernel density estimation

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Authors: S. Mezghani, E. Perrin, J. L. Bodnar, J. Marthe, B. Cauwe, V. Vrabie

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Non contact evaluation of the thickness of paint coatings can be attempted by different destructive and nondestructive methods such as cross-section microscopy, gravimetric mass measurement, magnetic gauges, Eddy current, ultrasound or terahertz. Infrared thermography is a nondestructive and non-invasive method that can be envisaged as a useful tool to measure the surface thickness variations by analyzing the temperature response. In this paper, the thermal quadrupole method for two layered samples heated up with a pulsed excitation is firstly used. By analyzing the thermal responses as a function of thermal properties and thicknesses of both layers, optimal parameters for the excitation source can be identified. Simulations show that a pulsed excitation with duration of ten milliseconds allows to obtain a substrate-independent thermal response. Based on this result, an experimental setup consisting of a near-infrared laser diode and an Infrared camera was next used to evaluate the variation of paint coating thickness between 60 µm and 130 µm on two samples. Results show that the parameters extracted for thermal images are correlated with the estimated thicknesses by the Eddy current methods. The laser pulsed thermography is thus an interesting alternative nondestructive method that can be moreover used for non conductive substrates.

Keywords: non destructive, paint coating, thickness, infrared thermography, laser, heterogeneity

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Authors: Musa Galadima Toro

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The study focused on the impact of teaching critical reading strategies on students’ performance in English and communication skills at the college of education Azare Bauchi state, Nigeria. It adopted a pre-test, post-test experimental group design. A sample of two hundred and forty (240) students was randomly selected from four departments within the school. The students were randomized into two groups: experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught critical reading strategies as a form of treatment, while the control group involved in normal reading comprehension exercises. The findings of the study showed a significant difference in the performance of students who were taught critical reading strategies at the post- test level. Recommendations based on the findings of the study were proffered such as placing more emphasis on teaching critical reading strategies in order to improve students’ creative thinking skills and also encouraging students to read articles in science and humanities to improve their reading skills among others.

Keywords: English, communication skill, critical reading, strategies

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Authors: Gulbakhyt Sultanova

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Business education institutions assess the progress of their students by giving them grades for courses completed and calculating a Grade Point Average (GPA). Whether the participation in these courses has led to the development of competences enabling graduates to successfully compete in the labor market should be measured using a new index: Employment Readiness Assessment (ERA). The higher the ERA, the higher the quality of education at a business school. This is applied, empirical research conducted by using a method of linear optimization. The aim of research is to identify factors which lead to the minimization of the deviation of GPA from ERA as well as to the maximization of ERA. ERA is composed of three components resulting from testing proficiency in Business English, testing work and personal skills, and job interview simulation. The quality of education is improving if GPA approximates ERA and ERA increases. Factors which have had a positive effect on quality enhancement are academic mobility of students and staff, practical-oriented courses taught by staff with work experience, and research-based courses taught by staff with research experience. ERA is a better index to measure the quality of business education than traditional indexes such as GPA due to its greater accuracy in assessing the level of graduates’ competences demanded in the labor market. Optimizing the educational process in pursuit of quality enhancement, ERA has to be used in parallel with GPA to find out which changes worked and resulted in improvement.

Keywords: assessment and evaluation, competence evaluation, education quality, employment readiness

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Authors: A. Yongsheng Guo, B. Obedat. Abdulazeez, C. Xiaoxian Zhu

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This study aimed to identify the barriers to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China and build a theoretical framework to evaluate the support provided by the authorities and institutions. A grounded theory approach was adopted to collect and analyze data. 32 interviews were conducted with SME managers, and open, axial and selective coding was utilized to develop themes. Based on institutional theory, grounded theory models were used to present findings. The findings showed that the main barriers in the business environment were defaulting on contracts, bureaucracy in procedures, lack of financial and legal support, limited intermediaries and channels, and poor quality of products and services. This study found that many programs were provided to support SMEs. A theoretical framework was developed to evaluate the performance of the programs from the managers’ perspective. The concepts of economy, efficiency and effectiveness were used to evaluate the perceived value of the programs. This study suggests that specialized programs are needed to suit sector-specific requirements, and creative packages are helpful in supporting SMEs' growth.

Keywords: business support, public economics, public programme, SME

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Authors: Jiří Klečka, Dagmar Čámská

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This paper is focused on the investigation of productivity (total productivity and partial productivity). The value productivity is an indicator of level and changes in technical economic efficiency of production factors. It represents an important factor in achieving corporate objectives. This text works with the contemporary concept of value productivity that means that indicators of the productivity express the effect of economic efficiency not only of inputs consumption, but also of inputs binding efficiency. This approach is based on principles of the economic profit, respectively the economic value added (EVA). The research is done on the sample of Czech enterprises operating in the automotive industry in the regions of Liberec and the Central Bohemia. The data sample covers the time period 2006-2011 which allows the comparison of development before crisis and during crisis period. It enables to discover the companies' reaction during crises and the regional comparison allows to showing if there are significant differences between regions.

Keywords: automotive industry, Czech Republic, economic efficiency, regional comparison, value productivity

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Authors: Benhammadi Hocine, Fehdi Chemseddine, Chaffai Hicham

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The study site is the plateau Cheria, a city in south eastern Algeria (Tebessa) thanks to its structure perched syncline is the region of Tebessa a real water tower. Special rates provided by some boreholes and wells around the city Cheria have long been led to believe that the reserves were virtually limitless. The investigations carried out in this region have located karstified limestone areas at depth of 100 meters of the carbonate formation. During the last two decades a rainfall deficit has increased the effect of drought has caused an increase in flow from this aquifer. The effect on water resources is a significant and progressive reduction of the static level of the karst aquifer. The qualitative aspect has also been marked by degradation. This climate variability marked by the decade of drought (1990/2000) has had the effect on the local population, a forced change of their activity primarily agricultural. Abandoning agro pastoral mode due to prolonged drought, populations chose agriculture maraichère consumer a lot of water, this increasing the depletion of water resources. This change in activity was accompanied by a rural exodus to urban areas. The result has led to an increase in population in the urban areas, this has resulted in an increase in water demand and an increase in emissions (waste water). Uncontrolled discharges contribute to pollute a little more groundwater. The second consequence is type Geotechnical, it is the appearance of sinkholes, results of the alternating periods of drought and violent floods. Sinkholes are a real concern for the management and urban development. An interdisciplinary contribution (geology, hydrology, climatology and management) is essential to reduce or avoid impacts in different sectors.

Keywords: aquifer, carbonate formation, drought, exodus, resources, chéria, Algéria

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