Search results for: parallel and distributed computing

Authors: Jothilakshmy Nagammal

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This research paper deals with the different case studies, where the Form-Based Codes are adopted in general and the different implementation methods in particular are discussed to develop a method for formulating a new planning model. The organizing principle of the Form-Based Codes, the transect is used to zone the city into various context specific transects. An approach is adopted to develop the new planning model, city Specific Planning Model (CSPM), as a tool to achieve sustainability for any city in general. A case study comparison method in terms of the planning tools used, the code process adopted and the various control regulations implemented in thirty two different cities are done. The analysis shows that there are a variety of ways to implement form-based zoning concepts: Specific plans, a parallel or optional form-based code, transect-based code /smart code, required form-based standards or design guidelines. The case studies describe the positive and negative results from based zoning, Where it is implemented. From the different case studies on the method of the FBC, it is understood that the scale for formulating the Form-Based Code varies from parts of the city to the whole city. The regulating plan is prepared with the organizing principle as the transect in most of the cases. The various implementation methods adopted in these case studies for the formulation of Form-Based Codes are special districts like the Transit Oriented Development (TOD), traditional Neighbourhood Development (TND), specific plan and Street based. The implementation methods vary from mandatory, integrated and floating. To attain sustainability the research takes the approach of developing a regulating plan, using the transect as the organizing principle for the entire area of the city in general in formulating the Form-Based Codes for the selected Special Districts in the study area in specific, street based. Planning is most powerful when it is embedded in the broader context of systemic change and improvement. Systemic is best thought of as holistic, contextualized and stake holder-owned, While systematic can be thought of more as linear, generalisable, and typically top-down or expert driven. The systemic approach is a process that is based on the system theory and system design principles, which are too often ill understood by the general population and policy makers. The system theory embraces the importance of a global perspective, multiple components, interdependencies and interconnections in any system. In addition, the recognition that a change in one part of a system necessarily alters the rest of the system is a cornerstone of the system theory. The proposed regulating plan taking the transect as an organizing principle and Form-Based Codes to achieve sustainability of the city has to be a hybrid code, which is to be integrated within the existing system - A Systemic Approach with a Systematic Process. This approach of introducing a few form based zones into a conventional code could be effective in the phased replacement of an existing code. It could also be an effective way of responding to the near-term pressure of physical change in “sensitive” areas of the community. With this approach and method the new Context Specific Planning Model is created towards achieving sustainability is explained in detail this research paper.

Keywords: context based planning model, form based code, transect, systemic approach

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Authors: Gaëtan Calvar, Christophe Bouvier, Alexis Blasselle

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This paper presents the Sea Striker, a compact hydrofoil designed with the goal to address some of the issues raised by the recent evolutions of naval missions, threats and operation theatres in modern warfare. Able to perform a wide range of operations, the Sea Striker is a 40-meter stealth surface combatant equipped with a gas turbine and aft and forward foils to reach high speeds. The Sea Striker's stealthiness is enabled by the combination of composite structure, exterior design, and the advanced integration of sensors. The ship is fitted with a powerful and adaptable combat system, ensuring a versatile and efficient response to modern threats. Lightly Manned with a core crew of 10, this hydrofoil is highly automated and can be remoted pilote for special force operation or transit. Such a kind of ship is not new: it has been used in the past by different navies, for example, by the US Navy with the USS Pegasus. Nevertheless, the recent evolutions in science and technologies on the one hand, and the emergence of new missions, threats and operation theatres, on the other hand, put forward its concept as an answer to nowadays operational challenges. Indeed, even if multiples opinions and analyses can be given regarding the modern warfare and naval surface operations, general observations and tendencies can be drawn such as the major increase in the sensors and weapons types and ranges and, more generally, capacities; the emergence of new versatile and evolving threats and enemies, such as asymmetric groups, swarm drones or hypersonic missile; or the growing number of operation theatres located in more coastal and shallow waters. These researches were performed with a complete study of the ship after several operational performance computations in order to justify the relevance of using ships like the Sea Striker in naval surface operations. For the selected scenarios, the conception process enabled to measure the performance, namely a “Measure of Efficiency” in the NATO framework for 2 different kinds of models: A centralized, classic model, using large and powerful ships; and A distributed model relying on several Sea Strikers. After this stage, a was performed. Lethal, agile, stealth, compact and fitted with a complete set of sensors, the Sea Striker is a new major player in modern warfare and constitutes a very attractive response between the naval unit and the combat helicopter, enabling to reach high operational performances at a reduced cost.

Keywords: surface combatant, compact, hydrofoil, stealth, velocity, lethal

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Authors: Abdel-Monem Sayed Mohamed

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Lake Aswan is one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the world. The reservoir began to fill in 1964 and the level rose gradually, with annual irrigation cycles, until it reached a maximum water level of 181.5 m in November 1999, with a capacity of 160 km3. The filling of such large reservoir changes the stress system either through increasing vertical compressional stress by loading and/or increased pore pressure through the decrease of the effective normal stress. The resulted effect on fault zones changes stability depending strongly on the orientation of pre-existing stress and geometry of the reservoir/fault system. The main earthquake occurred on November 14, 1981, with magnitude 5.5. This event occurred after 17 years of the reservoir began to fill, along the active part of the Kalabsha fault and located not far from the High Dam. Numerous of small earthquakes follow this earthquake and continue till now. For this reason, 13 seismograph stations (radio-telemetry network short-period seismometers) were installed around the northern part of Lake Aswan. The main purpose of the network is to monitor the earthquake activity continuously within Aswan region. The data described here are obtained from the continuous record of earthquake activity and lake-water level variation through the period from 1982 to 2015. The seismicity is concentrated in the Kalabsha area, where there is an intersection of the easterly trending Kalabsha fault with the northerly trending faults. The earthquake foci are distributed in two seismic zones, shallow and deep in the crust. Shallow events have focal depths of less than 12 km while deep events extend from 12 to 28 km. Correlation between the seismicity and the water level variation in the lake provides great suggestion to distinguish the micro-earthquakes, particularly, those in shallow seismic zone in the reservoir–triggered seismicity category. The water loading is one factor from several factors, as an activating medium in triggering earthquakes. The common factors for all cases of induced seismicity seem to be the presence of specific geological conditions, the tectonic setting and water loading. The role of the water loading is as a supplementary source of earthquake events. So, the earthquake activity in the area originated tectonically (ML ≥ 4) and the water factor works as an activating medium in triggering small earthquakes (ML ≤ 3). Study of the inducing seismicity from the water level variation in Aswan Lake is of great importance and play great roles necessity for the safety of the High Dam body and its economic resources.

Keywords: Aswan lake, Aswan seismic network, seismicity, water level variation

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Authors: Judith Sue Hwa Joo

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Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit), the Bodhisattva of Mercy and Compassion, is the most widely worshipped Buddhist Divinity in Chinese societies and is also believed by more than half of Asian populations across various countries. The most overwhelming reason for the popularity of Guanyin in Chinese societies is, according to the Lotus Sutra, that Guanyin would apperceive voices of those suffering from immense afflictions and troubles, and liberate them upon crying for his/her holy name with wholeheartedness. Its pervasive social influence has spanned more than two thousand years and is still deeply affecting the lives of most Chinese people. This study aimed to investigate whether Guanyin Worship has evolved and changed in modern Chinese societies across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan and China, albeit having the same language and culture, have been territorially divided and governed by two different political regimes for over 70 years. It would be scientifically intriguing to unveil any substantial changes in religious behaviors in the context of Guanyin Worship. A comprehensive anonymous questionnaire survey in Chinese communities was conducted from October 2017 to May 2019 across various countries, mostly in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong areas. Since the religious survey is officially prohibited in China, the study was difficult and could only be exercised by means of snowball sampling. Demographic data (age, sex, education, religious belief) were registered and Guanyin’s salvation functions under various confronting situations were investigated. Psychological dimensions of religious belief in Guanyin were probed in terms of the worship experience, the willingness of veneration, and egoistic or altruistic ideations. A literature review on documented functional attributes was carried out in parallel for comparison analyses with traditional roles. Effective 1123 out of 1139 samples were obtained. Statistical analysis revealed that Guanyin Worship is still commonly practiced and deeply rooted in the hearts of all Chinese people regardless of gender, age, education, and residential area, even though they may not enshrine Guanyin at home nowadays. The conventional roles of Guanyin Bodhisattva are still valid and best satisfy the real interests of lifestyles in modern times. When comparing the traditional Buddhist Sutra and the documented literature, the divine power of modern Guanyin has notably empowered to recover, protect and transform fetal and infant spirits due to the sexual liberation, increased abortion rate, gender awakening and enhanced female autonomy in the reproductive decision. However, the One-Child policy may have critically impacted the trajectory of Guanyin Worship so that people in China prevail over those in Taiwan praying for aborted lives or premature deaths. Furthermore, particularly in Hong Kong and Macao, Guanyin not only serves as the sea guardian for the fishermen but also additional services a new function as the God of Wealth. The divine powers and salvation functions of Guanyin are indeed evolving and expanding to comply with the modern psychosocial, cultural and societal needs. This study sheds light on the modernization process of the two-thousand-year-old Guanyin Worship of contemporary Chinese societies.

Keywords: Buddhism, Guanyin, religious behavior, salvation function

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Authors: Justin Byrne, Jose Ramon Cobo

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The growing importance of cross- or intercultural competencies (used here interchangeably) for the business and management professionals is now a commonplace in both academic and professional literature. This reflects two parallel developments. On the one hand, it is a consequence of the increased attention paid to a whole range of 'soft skills', now seen as fundamental in both individuals' and corporate success. On the other hand, and more specifically, the increasing demand for interculturally competent professionals is a corollary of ongoing processes of globalization, which multiply and intensify encounters between individuals and companies from different cultural backgrounds. Business schools have, for some decades, responded to the needs of the job market and their own students by providing students with training in intercultural skills, as they are encouraged to do so by the major accreditation agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. Adapting Early and Ang's (2003) formulation of Cultural Intelligence (CQ), this paper aims to help fill the lagunae in the current literature on intercultural training in three main ways. First, it offers an in-depth analysis of the CQ of a little studied group: contemporary Millenial and 'Generation Z' Business School students. The level of analysis distinguishes between the four different dimensions of CQ, cognition, metacognition, motivation and behaviour, and thereby provides a detailed picture of the strengths and weaknesses in CQ of the group as a whole, as well as of different sub-groups and profiles of students. Secondly, by crossing these individual-level findings with respondents' socio-cultural and educational data, this paper also proposes and tests hypotheses regarding the relative impact and importance of four possible antecedents of intercultural skills identified in the literature: prior international experience; intercultural training, foreign language proficiency, and experience of cultural diversity in habitual country of residence. Third, we use this analysis to suggest data-based intercultural training priorities for today's management students. These conclusions are based on the statistical analysis of individual responses of some 300 Bachelor or Masters students in a major European Business School provided to two on-line surveys: Ang, Van Dyne, et al's (2007) standard 20-question self-reporting CQ Scale, and an original questionnaire designed by the authors to collate information on respondent's socio-demographic and educational profile relevant to our four hypotheses and explanatory variables. The data from both instruments was crossed in both descriptive statistical analysis and regression analysis. This research shows that there is no statistically significant and positive relationship between the four antecedents analyzed and overall CQ level. The exception in this respect is the statistically significant correlation between international experience, and the cognitive dimension of CQ. In contrast, the results show that the combination of international experience and foreign language skills acting together, does have a strong overall impact on CQ levels. These results suggest that selecting and/or training students with strong foreign language skills and providing them with international experience (through multinational programmes, academic exchanges or international internships) constitutes one effective way of training culturally intelligent managers of tomorrow.

Keywords: business school, cultural intelligence, millennial, training

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Authors: Adnan Alhazmi

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Background: UDL can be understood as a framework that holds the potential to elaborate the alternatives and platforms for the students with intellectual disabilities within general education settings and aims at offering flexible pathways that can support all the students in gaining a mastering over the goals of learning. This system of learning addresses the problem of the variability of the learner by delineating the diverse ways in which the individuals can understand, conceive, express and deal with the information. Goal: The aim of the proposed research is to examine the impact of the implementation of UDL in teaching practices for the students with intellectual disabilities in Saudi Arabian schools. Method: This research has used a combination of quantitative and qualitative designs. Survey questionnaires were used to gather the data for under this analytical descriptive method. The application of the qualitative interpretive approach was applied with the help of the interview to gather a detailed understanding on the aim of the research. For this purpose, the semi-structured interviews were conducted. Thus, the primary data will be gathered with the help of survey and interview to examine the impact of universal design learning implementation on teaching practices for intellectually disabled students in Saudi Arabian schools. The survey was conducted to examine the prevailing teaching practices for the students with intellectual disabilities in Saudi Arabia and evaluate if the teaching experience influences the current practices or not. The surveys were distributed to 50 teachers who teach the students with intellectual disabilities. However, the interviews were conducted to explore barriers of implementing UDL in Saudi Arabia and provide suggested guideline for the implementation of UDL in Saudi Arabia. The interviews, therefore, were with 10 teachers teaching the same subject. Findings: A key findings highlighted in this study revealed that the UDL framework serves as a crucial guide for teachers within inclusive settings to undertake meaningful planning for the individuals with intellectual disabilities so that they are able to access, participate, and grow within the general education curriculum. Other findings of the study highlighted the need to prepare the educators and all faculty members to understand the purpose and need for inclusion, the UDL framework so that better information about academic and social expectations for individuals with intellectual disabilities can be delivered. Conclusion: On the basis of the preliminary study undertaken on the subject of research, it could be suggested that UDL can serve to be an effective support for undertaking a meaningful inclusion of students with intellectual disability (ID) in general educational settings. It holds the potential role of working as an institutional design framework that could be used for designing curriculum for students with intellectual disabilities.

Keywords: intellectual disability, inclusion, universal design for learning, teaching practice

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Authors: Showkat Ahmad Bhat, Iqra Reyaz, Falaque ul Afshan, Ahmad Arif Reshi, Muneeb U. Rehman, Manzoor R. Mir, Sabhiya Majid, Sonallah, Sheikh Bilal, Ishraq Hussain

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Background: Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the second leading cause of worldwide cancer-related deaths, with a wide variation in incidence rates across different geographical areas. The current view of cancer is that a malignancy arises from a transformation of the genetic material of a normal cell, followed by successive mutations and by chain of alterations in genes such as DNA repair genes, oncogenes, Tumor suppressor genes. Minerals are necessary for the functioning of several transcriptional factors, proteins that recognize certain DNA sequences and have been found to play a role in gastric cancer. Material Methods:The present work was a case control study and its aim was to ascertain the role of minerals and promoter hypermethylation of CpG islands of DAP-K gene in Gastric cancer patients among the Kashmiri population. Serum was extracted from all the samples and mineral estimation was done by AAS from serum, DNA was also extracted and was modified using bisulphite modification kit. Methylation-specific PCR was used for the analysis of the promoter hypermethylation status of DAP-K gene. The epigenetic analysis revealed that unlike other high risk regions, Kashmiri population has a different promoter hypermethylation profile of DAP-K gene and has different mineral profile. Results: In our study mean serum copper levels were significantly different for the two genders (p<0.05), while as no significant differences were observed for iron and zinc levels. In Methylation-specific PCR the methylation status of the promoter region of DAP-K gene was as 67.50% (27/40) of the gastric cancer tissues showed methylated DAP-K promoter and 32.50% (13/40) of the cases however showed unmethylated DAP-K promoter. Almost all 85% (17/20) of the histopathologically confirmed normal tissues showed unmethylated DAP-K promoter except only in 3 cases where DAP-K promoter was found to be methylated. The association of promoter hypermethylation with gastric cancer was evaluated by χ2 (Chi square) test and was found to be significant (P=0.0006). Occurrence of DAP-K methylation was found to be unequally distributed in males and females with more frequency in males than in females but the difference was not statistically significant (P =0.7635, Odds ratio=1.368 and 95% C.I=0.4197 to 4.456). When the frequency of DAP-K promoter methylation was compared with clinical staging of the disease, DAP-K promoter methylation was found to be certainly higher in Stage III/IV (85.71%) compared to Stage I/ II (57.69%) but the difference was not statistically significant (P =0.0673). These results suggest that DAP-K aberrant promoter hypermethylation in Kashmiri population contributes to the process of carcinogenesis in Gastric cancer and is reportedly one of the commonest epigenetic changes in the development of Gastric cancer.

Keywords: gastric cancer, minerals, AAS, hypermethylation, CpG islands, DAP-K gene

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Authors: Chiu-Wen Chang, I-Yun Chang, Wei-Ting Chen, Hui-Ping Ho, Ruei-Hun Chang, Joh-Jong Huang

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Kaohsiung City is located in the tropical region where has Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus distributed; once the virus invades, it’s can easily trigger local epidemic. Besides, Kaohsiung City has a world-class airport and harbor, trade and tourism are close and frequently with every country, especially with the Southeast Asian countries which also suffer from dengue. Therefore, Kaohsiung City faces the difficult challenge of dengue every year. The objectives of this study was to enhance dengue clinical care, border management and vector surveillance in Kaohsiung City by establishing an larger scale, innovatively and more coordinated dengue prevention and control strategies in 2016, including (1) Integrated medical programs: facilitated 657 contract medical institutions, widely set up NS1 rapid test in clinics, enhanced triage and referrals system, dengue case daily-monitoring management (2) Border quarantine: comprehensive NS1 screening for foreign workers and fisheries when immigration, hospitalization and isolation for suspected cases, health education for high risk groups (foreign students, other tourists) (3) Mosquito control: Widely use Gravitrap to monitor mosquito density in environment, use NS1 rapid screening test to detect community dengue virus (4) Health education: create a dengue app for people to immediately inquire the risk map and nearby medical resources, routine health education to all districts to strengthen public’s dengue knowledge, neighborhood cleaning awards program. The results showed that after new integration of dengue prevention and control strategies fully implemented in Kaohsiung City, the number of confirmed cases in 2016 declined to 342 cases, the majority of these cases are the continuation epidemic in 2015; in fact, only two cases confirmed after the 2016 summer. Besides, the dengue mortality rate successfully decreased to 0% in 2016. Moreover, according to the reporting rate from medical institutions in 2014 and 2016, it dropped from 27.07% to 19.45% from medical center, and it decreased from 36.55% to 29.79% from regional hospital; however, the reporting rate of district hospital increased from 11.88% to 15.87% and also increased from 24.51% to 34.89% in general practice clinics. Obviously, it showed that under the action of strengthening medical management, it reduced the medical center’s notification ratio and improved the notification ratio of general clinics which achieved the great effect of dengue clinical management and dengue control.

Keywords: dengue control, integrated control strategies, clinical management, NS1

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Authors: Md Iqbal Hossain, Tahmeed Ahmed, Kenneth H. Brown

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Objective: To assess the effect of community-based follow up, with or without food-supplementation and/or psychosocial stimulation, as an alternative to current hospital-based follow-up of children with moderate-acute-malnutrition (WHZ < -2 to -3) (MAM). Design/methods: The study was conducted at the ICDDR,B Dhaka Hospital and in four urban primary health care centers of Dhaka, Bangladesh during 2005-2007. The efficacy of five different randomly assigned interventions was compared with respect to the rate of completion of follow-up, growth and morbidity in 227 MAM children aged 6-24 months who were initially treated at ICDDR,B for diarrhea and/or other morbidities. The interventions were: 1) Fortnightly follow-up care (FFC) at the ICDDR,B’s outpatient-unit, including growth monitoring, health education, and micro-nutrient supplementation (H-C, n=49). 2) FFC at community follow-up unit (CNFU) [established in the existing urban primary health-care centers close to the residence of the child] but received the same regimen as H-C (C-C, n=53). 3) As per C-C plus cereal-based supplementary food (SF) (C-SF, n=49). The SF packets were distributed on recruitment and at every visit in CNFU [@1 packet/day for 6–11 and 2 packets/day for 12-24 month old children. Each packet contained 20g toasted rice-powder, 10g toasted lentil-powder, 5g molasses, and 3g soy bean oil, to provide a total of ~ 150kcal with 11% energy from protein]. 4) As per C-C plus psychosocial stimulation (PS) (C-PS, n=43). PS consisted of child-stimulation and parental-counseling conducted by trained health workers. 5) As per C-C plus both SF+PS (C-SF+PS, n=33). Results: A total of 227children (48.5% female), with a mean ± SD age of 12.6 ±3.8 months, and WHZ of - 2.53±0.28 enrolled. Baseline characteristics did not differ by treatment group. The rate of spontaneous attendance at scheduled follow-up visits gradually decreased in all groups. Follow-up attendance and gain in weight and length were greater in groups C-SF, C-SF+PS, and C-PS than C-C, and these indicators were observed least in H-C. Children in the H-C group more often suffered from diarrhea (25 % vs. 4-9%) and fever (28% vs. 8-11%) than other groups (p < 0.05). Children who attended at least five of the total six scheduled follow-up visits gained more in weight (median: 0.86 vs. 0.62 kg, p=0.002), length (median: 2.4 vs. 2.0 cm, p=0.009) than those who attended fewer. Conclusions: Community-based service delivery, especially including supplementary food with or without psychosocial stimulation, permits better rehabilitation of children with MAM compared to current hospital outpatients-based care. By scaling the community-based follow-up including food supplementation with or without psychosocial stimulation, it will be possible to rehabilitate a greater number of MAM children in a better way.

Keywords: community-based management, moderate acute malnutrition, psychosocial stimulation, supplementary food

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Authors: Daniel Rowe, Christopher R. Vogel, Richard H. J. Willden

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The University of Oxford’s recirculating water flume is a combined wave and current test tank with a 1 m depth, 1.1 m width, and 10 m long working section, and is capable of flow speeds up to 1 ms−1 . This study documents the hydrodynamic characteristics of the facility in preparation for experimental testing of horizontal axis tidal stream turbine models. The turbine to be tested has a rotor diameter of 0.6 m and is a modified version of one of two model-scale turbines tested in previous experimental campaigns. An Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) was used to measure the flow at high temporal resolution at various locations throughout the flume, enabling the spatial uniformity and turbulence flow parameters to be investigated. The mean velocity profiles exhibited high levels of spatial uniformity at the design speed of the flume, 0.6 ms−1 , with variations in the three-dimensional velocity components on the order of ±1% at the 95% confidence level, along with a modest streamwise acceleration through the measurement domain, a target 5 m working section of the flume. A high degree of uniformity was also apparent for the turbulence intensity, with values ranging between 1-2% across the intended swept area of the turbine rotor. The integral scales of turbulence exhibited a far higher degree of variation throughout the water column, particularly in the streamwise and vertical scales. This behaviour is believed to be due to the high signal noise content leading to decorrelation in the sampling records. To achieve more realistic levels of vertical velocity shear in the flume, a simple procedure to practically generate target vertical shear profiles in open-channel flows is described. Here, the authors arranged a series of non-uniformly spaced parallel bars placed across the width of the flume and normal to the onset flow. By adjusting the resistance grading across the height of the working section, the downstream profiles could be modified accordingly, characterised by changes in the velocity profile power law exponent, 1/n. Considering the significant temporal variation in a tidal channel, the choice of the exponent denominator, n = 6 and n = 9, effectively provides an achievable range around the much-cited value of n = 7 observed at many tidal sites. The resulting flow profiles, which we intend to use in future turbine tests, have been characterised in detail. The results indicate non-uniform vertical shear across the survey area and reveal substantial corner flows, arising from the differential shear between the target vertical and cross-stream shear profiles throughout the measurement domain. In vertically sheared flow, the rotor-equivalent turbulence intensity ranges between 3.0-3.8% throughout the measurement domain for both bar arrangements, while the streamwise integral length scale grows from a characteristic dimension on the order of the bar width, similar to the flow downstream of a turbulence-generating grid. The experimental tests are well-defined and repeatable and serve as a reference for other researchers who wish to undertake similar investigations.

Keywords: acoustic doppler Velocimeter, experimental hydrodynamics, open-channel flow, shear profiles, tidal stream turbines

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Authors: Chunyang Miao, Bingxin Li, Shanglong Ning, Christopher J. B. Ford

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While it is challenging to fabricate electronic devices close to atomic dimensions in conventional top-down lithography, molecular electronics is promising to help maintain the exponential increase in component densities via using molecular building blocks to fabricate electronic components from the bottom up. It offers smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient electronic and photonic systems. A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of molecules is a layer of molecules that self-assembles on a substrate. They are mechanically flexible, optically transparent, low-cost, and easy to fabricate. A large-area multi-layer structure has been designed and investigated by the team, where a SAM of designed molecules is sandwiched between graphene and gold electrodes. Each molecule can act as a quantum dot, with all molecules conducting in parallel. When a source-drain bias is applied, significant current flows only if a molecular orbital (HOMO or LUMO) lies within the source-drain energy window. If electrons tunnel sequentially on and off the molecule, the charge on the molecule is well-defined and the finite charging energy causes Coulomb blockade of transport until the molecular orbital comes within the energy window. This produces ‘Coulomb diamonds’ in the conductance vs source-drain and gate voltages. For different tunnel barriers at either end of the molecule, it is harder for electrons to tunnel out of the dot than in (or vice versa), resulting in the accumulation of two or more charges and a ‘Coulomb staircase’ in the current vs voltage. This nanostructure exhibits highly reproducible Coulomb-staircase patterns, together with additional oscillations, which are believed to be attributed to molecular vibrations. Molecules are more isolated than semiconductor dots, and so have a discrete phonon spectrum. When tunnelling into or out of a molecule, one or more vibronic states can be excited in the molecule, providing additional transport channels and resulting in additional peaks in the conductance. For useful molecular electronic devices, achieving the optimum orbital alignment of molecules to the Fermi energy in the leads is essential. To explore it, a drop of ionic liquid is employed on top of the graphene to establish an electric field at the graphene, which screens poorly, gating the molecules underneath. Results for various molecules with different alignments of Fermi energy to HOMO have shown highly reproducible Coulomb-diamond patterns, which agree reasonably with DFT calculations. In summary, this large-area SAM molecular junction is a promising candidate for future electronic circuits. (1) The small size (1-10nm) of the molecules and good flexibility of the SAM lead to the scalable assembly of ultra-high densities of functional molecules, with advantages in cost, efficiency, and power dissipation. (2) The contacting technique using graphene enables mass fabrication. (3) Its well-observed Coulomb blockade behaviour, narrow molecular resonances, and well-resolved vibronic states offer good tuneability for various functionalities, such as switches, thermoelectric generators, and memristors, etc.

Keywords: molecular electronics, Coulomb blokade, electron-phonon coupling, self-assembled monolayer

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Authors: John Hardy

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Over the last decade, the world has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the quality and availability of violent extremist propaganda. This phenomenon has been fueled primarily by three interrelated trends: rapid adoption of online content mediums by creators of violent extremist propaganda, increasing sophistication of violent extremist content production, and greater coordination of content and action across violent extremist organizations. In particular, the self-styled ‘Islamic State’ attracted widespread attention from its supporters and detractors alike by mixing shocking video and imagery content in with substantive ideological and political content. Although this practice was widely condemned for its brutality, it proved to be effective at engaging with a variety of international audiences and encouraging potential supporters to seek further information. The reasons for the noteworthy success of this kind of shock-value propaganda content remain unclear, despite many governments’ attempts to produce counterpropaganda. This study examines violent extremist propaganda distributed by five terrorist organizations between 2010 and 2016, using material released by the ‎Al Hayat Media Center of the Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The time period covers all issues of the infamous publications Inspire and Dabiq, as well as the most shocking video content released by the Islamic State and its affiliates. The study uses frame analysis to distinguish thematic from symbolic content in violent extremist propaganda by contrasting the ways that substantive ideology issues were framed against the use of symbols and violence to garner attention and to stylize propaganda. The results demonstrate that thematic content focuses significantly on diagnostic frames, which explain violent extremist groups’ causes, and prognostic frames, which propose solutions to addressing or rectifying the cause shared by groups and their sympathizers. Conversely, symbolic violence is primarily stylistic and rarely linked to thematic issues or motivational framing. Frame analysis provides a useful preliminary tool in disentangling substantive ideological and political content from stylistic brutality in violent extremist propaganda. This provides governments and researchers a method for better understanding the framing and content used to design narratives and propaganda materials used to promote violent extremism around the world. Increased capacity to process and understand violent extremist narratives will further enable governments and non-governmental organizations to develop effective counternarratives which promote non-violent solutions to extremists’ grievances.

Keywords: countering violent extremism, counternarratives, frame analysis, propaganda, terrorism, violent extremism

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Authors: Amani Tahat, Serdal Kirmizialtin

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Trajectory fragment methods such as Markov State Models (MSM), Milestoning (MS) and Transition Path sampling are the prime choice of extending the timescale of all atom Molecular Dynamics simulations. In these approaches, a set of structures that covers the accessible phase space has to be chosen a priori using cluster analysis. Structural clustering serves to partition the conformational state into natural subgroups based on their similarity, an essential statistical methodology that is used for analyzing numerous sets of empirical data produced by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. Local transition kernel among these clusters later used to connect the metastable states using a Markovian kinetic model in MSM and a non-Markovian model in MS. The choice of clustering approach in constructing such kernel is crucial since the high dimensionality of the biomolecular structures might easily confuse the identification of clusters when using the traditional hierarchical clustering methodology. Of particular interest, in the case of MS where the milestones are very close to each other, accurate determination of the milestone identity of the trajectory becomes a challenging issue. Throughout this work we present two cluster analysis methods applied to the cis–trans isomerism of dinucleotide AA. The choice of nucleic acids to commonly used proteins to study the cluster analysis is two fold: i) the energy landscape is rugged; hence transitions are more complex, enabling a more realistic model to study conformational transitions, ii) Nucleic acids conformational space is high dimensional. A diverse set of internal coordinates is necessary to describe the metastable states in nucleic acids, posing a challenge in studying the conformational transitions. Herein, we need improved clustering methods that accurately identify the AA structure in its metastable states in a robust way for a wide range of confused data conditions. The single linkage approach of the hierarchical clustering available in GROMACS MD-package is the first clustering methodology applied to our data. Self Organizing Map (SOM) neural network, that also known as a Kohonen network, is the second data clustering methodology. The performance comparison of the neural network as well as hierarchical clustering method is studied by means of computing the mean first passage times for the cis-trans conformational rates. Our hope is that this study provides insight into the complexities and need in determining the appropriate clustering algorithm for kinetic analysis. Our results can improve the effectiveness of decisions based on clustering confused empirical data in studying conformational transitions in biomolecules.

Keywords: milestoning, self organizing map, single linkage, structure clustering

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Authors: Pinkey Yaqub

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The aim of this study was to investigate secondary (grades IX and X) students’ attitudes towards learning the English language based on the medium of instruction of the school, the gender of the students and the grade level in which they studied. A further aim was to determine students’ proficiency in the English language according to their gender, the grade level and the medium of instruction of the school. A survey was used to investigate the attitudes of secondary students towards English language learning. Simple random sampling was employed to obtain a representative sample of the target population for the research study as a comprehensive list of established English medium schools, and newly established English medium schools were available. A questionnaire ‘Attitude towards English Language Learning’ (AtELL) was adapted from a research study on Libyan secondary school students’ attitudes towards learning English language. AtELL was reviewed by experts (n=6) and later piloted on a representative sample of secondary students (n= 160). Subsequently, the questionnaire was modified - based on the reviewers’ feedback and lessons learnt during the piloting phase - and directly administered to students of grades 9 and 10 to gather information regarding their attitudes towards learning the English language. Data collection spanned a month and a half. As the data were not normally distributed, the researcher used Mann-Whitney tests to test the hypotheses formulated to investigate students’ attitudes towards learning English as well as proficiency in the language across the medium of instruction of the school, the gender of the students and the grade level of the respondents. Statistical analyses of the data showed that the students of established English medium schools exhibited a positive outlook towards English language learning in terms of the behavioural, cognitive and emotional aspects of attitude. A significant difference was observed in the attitudes of male and female students towards learning English where females showed a more positive attitude in terms of behavioural, cognitive and emotional aspects as compared to their male counterparts. Moreover, grade 10 students had a more positive attitude towards learning English language in terms of behavioural, cognitive and emotional aspects as compared to grade 9 students. Nonetheless, students of newly established English medium schools were more proficient in English as gauged by their examination scores in this subject as compared to their counterparts studying in established English medium schools. Moreover, female students were more proficient in English while students studying in grade 9 were less proficient in English than their seniors studying in grade 10. The findings of this research provide empirical evidence to future researchers wishing to explore the relationship between attitudes towards learning language and variables such as the medium of instruction of the school, gender and the grade level of the students. Furthermore, policymakers might revisit the English curriculum to formulate specific guidelines that promote a positive and gender-balanced outlook towards learning English for male and female students.

Keywords: attitude, behavioral aspect of attitude, cognitive aspect of attitude, emotional aspect of attitude

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Authors: Armin Nabaei, M. Omair Ahmad, M. N. S. Swamy

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Many facial expression and emotion recognition methods in the traditional approaches of using LDA, PCA, and EBGM have been proposed. In recent years deep learning models have provided a unique platform addressing by automatically extracting the features for the detection of facial expression and emotions. However, deep networks require large training datasets to extract automatic features effectively. In this work, we propose an efficient emotion detection algorithm using face images when only small datasets are available for training. We design a deep network whose feature extraction capability is enhanced by utilizing several parallel modules between the input and output of the network, each focusing on the extraction of different types of coarse features with fined grained details to break the symmetry of produced information. In fact, we leverage long range dependencies, which is one of the main drawback of CNNs. We develop this work by introducing a Dynamic Soft-Margin SoftMax.The conventional SoftMax suffers from reaching to gold labels very soon, which take the model to over-fitting. Because it’s not able to determine adequately discriminant feature vectors for some variant class labels. We reduced the risk of over-fitting by using a dynamic shape of input tensor instead of static in SoftMax layer with specifying a desired Soft- Margin. In fact, it acts as a controller to how hard the model should work to push dissimilar embedding vectors apart. For the proposed Categorical Loss, by the objective of compacting the same class labels and separating different class labels in the normalized log domain.We select penalty for those predictions with high divergence from ground-truth labels.So, we shorten correct feature vectors and enlarge false prediction tensors, it means we assign more weights for those classes with conjunction to each other (namely, “hard labels to learn”). By doing this work, we constrain the model to generate more discriminate feature vectors for variant class labels. Finally, for the proposed optimizer, our focus is on solving weak convergence of Adam optimizer for a non-convex problem. Our noteworthy optimizer is working by an alternative updating gradient procedure with an exponential weighted moving average function for faster convergence and exploiting a weight decay method to help drastically reducing the learning rate near optima to reach the dominant local minimum. We demonstrate the superiority of our proposed work by surpassing the first rank of three widely used Facial Expression Recognition datasets with 93.30% on FER-2013, and 16% improvement compare to the first rank after 10 years, reaching to 90.73% on RAF-DB, and 100% k-fold average accuracy for CK+ dataset, and shown to provide a top performance to that provided by other networks, which require much larger training datasets.

Keywords: computer vision, facial expression recognition, machine learning, algorithms, depp learning, neural networks

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Authors: Gerhard D. Muller, Nadine C. Sonnenberg, Suné Donoghue

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This study delves into the intricacies of male and female consumers’ perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the South African clothing retail sector, a sector experiencing increasing consumption, yet facing significant environmental and social challenges. The aim is to discern between male and female consumers’ perceptions of clothing retailers’ CSR initiatives based on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework, which evaluates organizational sustainability across social, environmental, and economic domains. Methodologically, the study is embedded in a quantitative research paradigm adopting a cross-sectional survey design. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit male and female respondents from a diverse South African demographic background. A structured questionnaire was developed and included established consumer CSR perception scales that were adapted for the purposes of this study. The questionnaire was distributed via online platforms. The data collected from the online survey, were split by gender to allow for comparison between male and female consumers’ perceptions of clothing retailers’ CSR initiatives. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted on each of the datasets. The EFA for females revealed a five-factor solution, whereas the male EFA presented a six-factor solution, with the notable addition of an Economic Performance dimension. Results indicate subtle differences in the gender groups’ CSR perceptions. While both genders seem to value clothing retailers’ focus on quality services, females seem to have more pronounced perceptions surrounding clothing retailers’ contributions to social and environmental causes. Males, on the other hand, seem to be more discerning in their perceptions surrounding clothing retailers’ support of social and environmental causes. Ethical stakeholder relationships emerged as a shared concern across genders. Still, males presented a distinct factor, Economic Performance, highlighting a gendered divergence in the weighting of economic success and financial performance in CSR evaluation. The implications of these results are multifaceted. Theoretically, the study enriches the discourse on CSR by integrating gender insights into the TBL framework, offering a greater understanding of consumers’ CSR perceptions in the South African clothing retail context. Practically, it provides actionable insights for clothing retailers, suggesting that CSR initiatives should be gender-sensitive and communicate the TBL's elements effectively to resonate with the pertinent concerns of each segment. Additionally, the findings advocate for a contextualized approach to CSR in emerging markets that aligns with local cultural and social differences.

Keywords: consumer perceptions, corporate Social responsibility, gender differentiation, triple bottom line

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Authors: Stefan Papastefanou

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is an interdisciplinary field of computer science with the aim of creating intelligent machine behavior. Early approaches to AI have been configured to operate in very constrained environments where the behavior of the AI system was previously determined by formal rules. Knowledge was presented as a set of rules that allowed the AI system to determine the results for specific problems; as a structure of if-else rules that could be traversed to find a solution to a particular problem or question. However, such rule-based systems typically have not been able to generalize beyond the knowledge provided. All over the world and especially in IT-heavy industries such as the United States, the European Union, Singapore, and China, machine learning has developed to be an immense asset, and its applications are becoming more and more significant. It has to be examined how such products of machine learning models can and should be protected by IP law and for the purpose of this paper patent law specifically, since it is the IP law regime closest to technical inventions and computing methods in technical applications. Genetic breeding models are currently less popular than recursive neural network method and deep learning, but this approach can be more easily described by referring to the evolution of natural organisms, and with increasing computational power; the genetic breeding method as a subset of the evolutionary algorithms models is expected to be regaining popularity. The research method focuses on patentability (according to the world’s most significant patent law regimes such as China, Singapore, the European Union, and the United States) of AI inventions and machine learning. Questions of the technical nature of the problem to be solved, the inventive step as such, and the question of the state of the art and the associated obviousness of the solution arise in the current patenting processes. Most importantly, and the key focus of this paper is the problem of patenting inventions that themselves are developed through machine learning. The inventor of a patent application must be a natural person or a group of persons according to the current legal situation in most patent law regimes. In order to be considered an 'inventor', a person must actually have developed part of the inventive concept. The mere application of machine learning or an AI algorithm to a particular problem should not be construed as the algorithm that contributes to a part of the inventive concept. However, when machine learning or the AI algorithm has contributed to a part of the inventive concept, there is currently a lack of clarity regarding the ownership of artificially created inventions. Since not only all European patent law regimes but also the Chinese and Singaporean patent law approaches include identical terms, this paper ultimately offers a comparative analysis of the most relevant patent law regimes.

Keywords: algorithms, inventor, genetic breeding models, machine learning, patentability

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Authors: F. Ainlhout, S. Boutaleb, M. C. Diaz-Barradas, M. Zunzunegui

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Argania spinosa is an endemic tree of the southwest of Morocco, occupying 828,000 Ha, distributed mainly between Mediterranean vegetation and the desert. This tree can grow in extremely arid regions in Morocco, where annual rainfall ranges between 100-300 mm where no other tree species can live. It has been designated as a UNESCO Biosphere reserve since 1998. Argania tree is of great importance in human and animal feeding of rural population as well as for oil production, it is considered as a multi-usage tree. Admine forest located in the suburbs of Agadir city, 5 km inland, was selected to conduct this work. The aim of the study was to investigate the temporal variation in root-zone moisture dynamic in response to variation in climatic conditions and vegetation water uptake, using a geophysical technique called Electrical resistivity imaging (ERI). This technique discriminates resistive woody roots, dry and moisture soil. Time-dependent measurements (from April till July) of resistivity sections were performed along the surface transect (94 m Length) at 2 m fixed electrode spacing. Transect included eight Argan trees. The interactions between the tree and soil moisture were estimated by following the tree water status variations accompanying the soil moisture deficit. For that purpose we measured midday leaf water potential and relative water content during each sampling day, and for the eight trees. The first results showed that ERI can be used to accurately quantify the spatiotemporal distribution of root-zone moisture content and woody root. The section obtained shows three different layers: middle conductive one (moistured); a moderately resistive layer corresponding to relatively dry soil (calcareous formation with intercalation of marly strata) on top, this layer is interspersed by very resistant layer corresponding to woody roots. Below the conductive layer, we find the moderately resistive layer. We note that throughout the experiment, there was a continuous decrease in soil moisture at the different layers. With the ERI, we can clearly estimate the depth of the woody roots, which does not exceed 4 meters. In previous work on the same species, analyzing the δ18O in water of xylem and in the range of possible water sources, we argued that rain is the main water source in winter and spring, but not in summer, trees are not exploiting deep water from the aquifer as the popular assessment, instead of this they are using soil water at few meter depth. The results of the present work confirm the idea that the roots of Argania spinosa are not growing very deep.

Keywords: Argania spinosa, electrical resistivity imaging, root system, soil moisture

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Authors: Farhad Ahmadi, Hammed Kimiaee

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Context: This research study focuses on the effect of different levels and sources of calcium on egg production, egg traits, and calcium retention in laying Japanese quail. The study aims to determine the impact of nano calcium carbonate (NCC) and calcium carbonate (CC) on these factors. Research Aim: The main objective of this research is to investigate the effect of different levels and sources of calcium on egg production, egg traits, and calcium retention in laying Japanese quail. Specifically, the study aims to compare the effects of NCC and CC on these parameters. Methodology: The research was conducted using a total of 280 laying quail with an average age of 8 weeks. The quails were randomly distributed in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 7 treatments, 4 replications, and 10 quails in each pen. The study lasted for 90 days. The experimental diets included a control group (T1) with a basal diet consisting of 3.17% CaCO₃, and other groups supplemented with different levels (0.5%, 0.1%, and 0.15%) of either calcium carbonate (CC) or nano calcium carbonate (NCC). The quails had free access to water and feed throughout the study period. Findings: The results of the study showed that NCC at the levels of 0.1% and 0.15% (T6 and T7) improved eggshell thickness, shell thickness, and shell breaking strength compared to the control group. Although not statistically significant, there was an increasing trend in quail egg production and calcium retention in the calcareous shell of the egg in birds that consumed the experimental diets containing different levels of NCC compared to the control and other treatment groups. Theoretical Importance: This research contributes to our understanding of the effect of NCC and CC on egg production, egg traits, and calcium retention in laying Japanese quail. It highlights the potential benefits of using NCC as a calcium source in quail diets, specifically in improving the quantity and quality of eggs and calcium retention. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: Quail egg production was recorded monthly for each treatment group. At the end of the study, a total of 40 eggs (10 eggs/replicate) from each treatment group were randomly selected for analysis. Parameters such as eggshell thickness, shell thickness, shell breaking strength, and calcium retention were measured. Statistical analysis was performed to compare the results between the different treatment groups. Questions Addressed: This research aimed to answer the following questions: What is the effect of different levels and sources of calcium on egg production, egg traits, and calcium retention in laying Japanese quail? How does nano calcium carbonate compare to calcium carbonate in terms of these parameters? Conclusion: In conclusion, this study suggests that NCC at the levels of 0.1% and 0.15% can improve the quantity and quality of eggs and calcium retention in laying Japanese quail. These findings highlight the potential benefits of using NCC as a calcium source in quail diets. Further research could be conducted to explore the mechanisms behind these improvements and optimize the dosage of NCC for maximum effect.

Keywords: egg, calcium, nanoparticles, retention

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Authors: Tuyuan Cheng

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As we age, many things become more difficult. Among the abilities are the linguistic and cognitive ones. Competing theories have shown that these two functions could diminish together or that one is selectively affected by the other. In other words, some proposes aging affects sentence production in the same way it affects sentence comprehension and other cognitive functions, while some argues it does not.To address this question, the current investigation is conducted into the critical aspect of sentences as well as cognitive abilities – the syntactic complexity and the number of perspective shifts being contained in the elicited production. Healthy non-pathological aging is often characterized by a cognitive and neural decline in a number of cognitive abilities. Although the language is assumed to be of the more stable domain, a variety of findings in the cognitive aging literature would suggest otherwise. Older adults often show deficits in language production and multiple aspects of comprehension. Nevertheless, while some age differences likely reflect cognitive decline, others might reflect changes in communicative goals, and some even display cognitive advantages. In the domain of language processing, research efforts have been made in tests that probed a variety of communicative abilities. In general, there exists a distinction: Comprehension seems to be selectively unaffected, while production does not. The current study raises a novel question and investigates whether aging affects the production of relative clauses (RCs) under the cognitive factor of perspective shifts. Based on Perspective Hypothesis (MacWhinney, 2000, 2005), our cognitive processes build upon a fundamental system of perspective-taking, and language provides a series of cues to facilitate the construction and shifting of perspectives. These cues include a wide variety of constructions, including RCs structures. In this regard, linguistic complexity can be determined by the number of perspective shifts, and the processing difficulties of RCs can be interpreted within the theory of perspective shifting. Two experiments were conducted to study language production under controlled conditions. In Experiment 1, older healthy participants were tested on standard measures of cognitive aging, including MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination), ToMI-2 (a simplified Theory of Mind Inventory-2), and a perspective-shifting comprehension task programmed with E-Prime. The results were analyzed to examine if/how they are correlated with aging people’s subsequent production data. In Experiment 2, the production profile of differing RCs, SRC vs. ORC, were collected with healthy aging participants who perform a picture elicitation task. Variable containing 0, 1, or 2 perspective shifts were juxtaposed respectively to the pictures and counterbalanced presented for elicitation. In parallel, a controlled group of young adults were recruited to examine the linguistic and cognitive abilities in question. The results lead us to the discussion whetheraging affects RCs production in a manner determined by its semantic structure or the number of perspective shifts it contains or the status of participants’ mental understanding. The major findingsare: (1) Elders’ production on Chinese RCtypes did not display intrinsic difficulty asymmetry. (2) RC types (the linguistic structural features) and the cognitiveperspective shifts jointly play important roles in the elders’ RCproduction. (3) The production of RC may defy the aging in the case offlexibly preserved cognitive ability.

Keywords: cognition aging, perspective hypothesis, perspective shift, relative clauses, sentence complexity

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Authors: Thomas Folegot, Arnaud Levaufre, Léna Bourven, Nicolas Kermagoret, Alexis Caillard, Roger Gallou

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Concern for negative impacts of anthropogenic noise on the ocean’s ecosystems has increased over the recent decades. This concern leads to a similar increased willingness to regulate noise-generating activities, of which shipping is one of the most significant. Dealing with ship noise requires not only knowledge about the noise from individual ships, but also how the ship noise is distributed in time and space within the habitats of concern. Marine mammals, but also fish, sea turtles, larvae and invertebrates are mostly dependent on the sounds they use to hunt, feed, avoid predators, during reproduction to socialize and communicate, or to defend a territory. In the marine environment, sight is only useful up to a few tens of meters, whereas sound can propagate over hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 17, 2008 called the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) require the Member States of the European Union to take the necessary measures to reduce the impacts of maritime activities to achieve and maintain a good environmental status of the marine environment. The Ocean-Planner is a web-based platform that provides to regulators, managers of protected or sensitive areas, etc. with a decision support tool that enable to anticipate and quantify the effectiveness of management measures in terms of reduction or modification the distribution of underwater noise, in response to Descriptor 11 of the MSFD and to the Marine Spatial Planning Directive. Based on the operational sound modelling tool Quonops Online Service, Ocean-Planner allows the user via an intuitive geographical interface to define management measures at local (Marine Protected Area, Natura 2000 sites, Harbors, etc.) or global (Particularly Sensitive Sea Area) scales, seasonal (regulation over a period of time) or permanent, partial (focused to some maritime activities) or complete (all maritime activities), etc. Speed limit, exclusion area, traffic separation scheme (TSS), and vessel sound level limitation are among the measures supported be the tool. Ocean Planner help to decide on the most effective measure to apply to maintain or restore the biodiversity and the functioning of the ecosystems of the coastal seabed, maintain a good state of conservation of sensitive areas and maintain or restore the populations of marine species.

Keywords: underwater noise, marine biodiversity, marine spatial planning, mitigation measures, prediction

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Authors: Caitlin Bailey, Marian Frattarola Saulino, Beth Steinberg

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Today, virtually all programs offered to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities tout themselves as person-centered, community-based and inclusive, yet there is a vast range in type and quality of services that use these similar descriptors. The issue is exacerbated by the fields’ measurement practices around quality, inclusion, independent living, choice and person-centered outcomes. For instance, community inclusion for people with disabilities is often measured by the number of times person steps into his or her community. These measurement approaches set standards for quality too low so that agencies supporting group home residents to go bowling every week can report the same outcomes as an agency that supports one person to join a book club that includes people based on their literary interests rather than disability labels. Ultimately, lack of delineation in measurement contributes to the confusion between face value “quality” and true quality services and supports for many people with disabilities and their families. This exploratory study adopts alternative approaches to quality measurement including co-production methods and systems theoretical framework in order to identify the factors that 1) lead to high-quality supports and, 2) differentiate high-quality services. Project researchers have partnered with community practitioners who are all committed to providing quality services and supports but vary in the degree to which they are actually able to provide them. The study includes two parts; first, an online survey distributed to more than 500 agencies that have demonstrated commitment to providing high-quality services; and second, four in-depth case studies with agencies in three United States and Israel providing a variety of supports to children and adults with disabilities. Results from both the survey and in-depth case studies were thematically analyzed and coded. Results show that there are specific factors that differentiate service quality; however meaningful quality measurement practices also require that researchers explore the contextual factors that contribute to quality. These not only include direct services and interactions, but also characteristics of service users, their environments as well as organizations providing services, such as management and funding structures, culture and leadership. Findings from this study challenge researchers, policy makers and practitioners to examine existing quality service standards and measurements and to adopt alternate methodologies and solutions to differentiate and scale up evidence-based quality practices so that all people with disabilities have access to services that support them to live, work, and enjoy where and with whom they choose.

Keywords: co-production, inclusion, independent living, quality measurement, quality supports

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Authors: L. C. Nwosu, C. O. Adedire, M. O. Ashamo, E. O. Ogunwolu

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The maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky is a notorious pest of stored maize (Zea mays L.). The development of resistant maize varieties to manage weevils is a major breeding objective. The study investigated the parameters and mechanisms that confer resistance on a maize variety to S. zeamais infestation using twenty elite maize varieties. Detailed morphological, physical and chemical studies were conducted on whole-maize grain and the grain pericarp. Resistance was assessed at 33, 56, and 90 days post infestation using weevil mortality rate, weevil survival rate, percent grain damage, percent grain weight loss, weight of grain powder, oviposition rate and index of susceptibility as indices rated on a scale developed by the present study and on Dobie’s modified scale. Linear regression models that can predict maize grain damage in relation to the duration of storage were developed and applied. The resistant varieties identified particularly 2000 SYNEE-WSTR and TZBRELD3C5 with very high degree of resistance should be used singly or best in an integrated pest management system for the control of S. zeamais infestation in stored maize. Though increases in the physical properties of grain hardness, weight, length, and width increased varietal resistance, it was found that the bases of resistance were increased chemical attributes of phenolic acid, trypsin inhibitor and crude fibre while the bases of susceptibility were increased protein, starch, magnesium, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, manganese, iron, cobalt and zinc, the role of potassium requiring further investigation. Characters that conferred resistance on the test varieties were found distributed in the pericarp and the endosperm of the grains. Increases in grain phenolic acid, crude fibre, and trypsin inhibitor adversely and significantly affected the bionomics of the weevil on further assessment. The flat side of a maize grain at the point of penetration was significantly preferred by the weevil. Why the south area of the flattened side of a maize grain was significantly preferred by the weevil is clearly unknown, even though grain-face-type seemed to be a contributor in the study. The preference shown to the south area of the grain flat side has implications for seed viability. The study identified antibiosis, preference, antixenosis, and host evasion as the mechanisms of maize post harvest resistance to Sitophilus zeamais infestation.

Keywords: maize weevil, resistant, parameters, mechanisms, preference

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Authors: D. Augutis, M. Balalaikins, D. Bastyte, R. Ferenca, A. Gintaras, R. Karpuska, G. Svitra, U. Valainis

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Osmoderma species complex (consisting of Osmoderma eremita, O. barnabita, O. lassallei and O. cristinae) is a scarab beetle serving as indicator species in nature conservation. Osmoderma inhabits cavities containing sufficient volume of wood mould usually caused by brown rot in veteran deciduous trees. As the species, having high demands for the habitat quality, they indicate the suitability of the habitat for a number of other specialized saproxylic species. Since typical habitat needed for Osmoderma and other species associated with hollow veteran trees is rapidly declining, the species complex is protected under various legislation, such as Bern Convention, EU Habitats Directive and the Red Lists of many European states. Natura 2000 sites are the main tool for conservation of O. barnabita in Lithuania, currently 17 Natura 2000 sites are designated for the species, where monitoring is implemented once in 3 years according to the approved methodologies. Despite these monitoring efforts in species reports, provided to EU according to the Article 17 of the Habitats Directive, it is defined on the national level, that overall assessment of O. barnabita is inadequate and future prospects are poor. Therefore, research on the distribution and habitat status of O. barnabita was launched on the national level in 2016, which was complemented by preparatory actions of LIFE OSMODERMA project. The research was implemented in the areas equally distributed in the whole area of Lithuania, where O. barnabita was previously not observed, or not observed in the last 10 years. 90 areas, such as Habitats of European importance (9070 Fennoscandian wooded pastures, 9180 Tilio-Acerion forests of slopes, screes, and ravines), Woodland key habitats (B1 broad-leaved forest, K1 single giant tree) and old manor parks, were chosen for the research after review of habitat data from the existing national databases. The first part of field inventory of the habitats was carried out in 2016 and 2017 autumn and winter seasons, when relative abundance of O. barnabita was estimated according to larval faecal pellets in the tree cavities or around the trees. The state of habitats was evaluated according to the density of suitable and potential trees, percentage of not overshadowed trees and amount of undergrowth. The second part of the field inventory was carried out in the summer with pheromone traps baited with (R)-(+)-γ –decalactone. Results of the research show not only occurrence and habitat status of O. barnabita, but also help to clarify O. barnabita habitat requirements in Lithuania, define habitat size, its structure and distribution. Also, it compares habitat needs between the regions in Lithuania and inside and outside Natura 2000 areas designated for the species.

Keywords: habitat status, insect conservation, Osmoderma barnabita, veteran trees

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Authors: Changhan Ouyang, Zhonglin Xie

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In response to proatherosclerotic factors such as oxidized lipids, or to therapeutic interventions such as angioplasty, stents, or bypass surgery, vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) migrate from the media to the intima, resulting in intimal hyperplasia, restenosis, graft failure, or atherosclerosis. These proatherosclerotic factors also activate autophagy in VSMCs. However, the functional role of autophagy in vascular health and disease remains poorly understood. In the present study, we determined the role of autophagy in the regulation of VSMC migration. Autophagy activity in cultured human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) and mouse carotid arteries was measured by Western blot analysis of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 B (LC3B) and P62. The VSMC migration was determined by scratch wound assay and transwell migration assay. Ex vivo smooth muscle cell migration was determined using aortic ring assay. The in vivo SMC migration was examined by staining the carotid artery sections with smooth muscle alpha actin (alpha SMA) after carotid artery ligation. To examine the relationship between autophagy and neointimal hyperplasia, C57BL/6J mice were subjected to carotid artery ligation. Seven days after injury, protein levels of Atg5, Atg7, Beclin1, and LC3B drastically increased and remained higher in the injured arteries three weeks after the injury. In parallel with the activation of autophagy, vascular injury-induced neointimal hyperplasia as estimated by increased intima/media ratio. The en face staining of carotid artery showed that vascular injury enhanced alpha SMA staining in the intimal cells as compared with the sham operation. Treatment of HASMCs with platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), one of the major factors for vascular remodeling in response to vascular injury, increased Atg7 and LC3 II protein levels and enhanced autophagosome formation. In addition, aortic ring assay demonstrated that PDGF treated aortic rings displayed an increase in neovessel formation compared with control rings. Whole mount staining for CD31 and alpha SMA in PDGF treated neovessels revealed that the neovessel structures were stained by alpha SMA but not CD31. In contrast, pharmacological and genetic suppression of autophagy inhibits VSMC migration. Especially, gene silencing of Atg7 inhibited VSMC migration induced by PDGF. Furthermore, three weeks after ligation, markedly decreased neointimal formation was found in mice treated with chloroquine, an inhibitor of autophagy. Quantitative morphometric analysis of the injured vessels revealed a marked reduction in the intima/media ratio in the mice treated with chloroquine. Conclusion: Autophagy activation increases VSMC migration while autophagy suppression inhibits VSMC migration. These findings suggest that autophagy suppression may be an important therapeutic strategy for atherosclerosis and intimal hyperplasia.

Keywords: autophagy, vascular smooth muscle cell, migration, neointimal formation

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Authors: Elizabeth Ankiambom Chiatii

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The effective participation of graduates as leaders in entrepreneurial resilience is a key driver to achieving sustainable job creation and curbing unemployment issues in the urban and rural communities of Cameroon. The unemployment problem is a global challenge in the Labour market, especially for youths graduating from universities. Statistics from the Cameroon National Institute of statistics indicate that the unemployment rate in the country increased to 3.9% in 2021 from 3.8% in 2020. One of the main causes of unemployment challenges and job hooping among university graduates is the high expectation for “white-collar jobs syndrome” as opposed to involvement in ‘blue-collar jobs’. In the recent years, the Catholic University of Cameroon has engaged its resources in problem and project based learning (PBL) approaches in order to enable the students at the end of their course work to be competent and resourceful in impacting their communities and the world at large. It is so encouraging to notice that most of our current and female ex-students have engaged as leaders in fostering entrepreneurial resilience through small and medium size ‘blue-collar’ enterprises like seamstresses or tailors, designers, catering services, poultry owners, traditional regalia designers, phone booth operators, farming (gardening) activities, saloon owners, wedding designers, restaurant operators and many other creative jobs where they also act as petty employers. A good number of them sponsor their university studies through these self-income generating activities. Part one of this paper centres on the introduction and background of study. Part two embodies some literature review in which we concentrate on some related conceptual issues. For example, we have some analogy of employment difficulties faced by the university graduates. Secondly, we will examine the details on entrepreneurial resilience within the context of Bamenda- Cameroon. Thirdly, we expound on the leadership role played by these graduates in building resilience as entrepreneurs stemming from their university training. The primary method of data collection is implemented, where questionnaires are distributed to at least 100 of these graduates engaged in building entrepreneurial resilience. The IVProbit regression analysis is used to determine the effect of these graduate participation as leader on entrepreneurial resilience. The results can contribute to the development of entrepreneurial resilience, and recommendations will be made to CATUC Bamenda, some communities and government leaders to enhance their policies to empower these young graduates in fostering these resourceful activities.

Keywords: graduates entrepreneurial resilience, unemployment challenges, white-collar job syndrome, small and medium size blue-collar enterprises

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Authors: T. Kuchukhidze, N. Jalagonia, T. Archuadze, G. Bokuchava

Abstract:

The growing scientific-technological progress in modern civilization causes actuality of producing construction materials which can successfully work in conditions of high temperature, radiation, pressure, speed, and chemically aggressive environment. Such extreme conditions can withstand very few types of materials and among them, ceramic materials are in the first place. Corundum ceramics is the most useful material for creation of constructive nodes and products of various purposes for its low cost, easy accessibility to raw materials and good combination of physical-chemical properties. However, ceramic composite materials have one disadvantage; they are less plastics and have lower toughness. In order to increase the plasticity, the ceramics are reinforced by various dopants, that reduces the growth of the cracks. It is shown, that adding of even small amount of carbon fibers and carbon nanotubes (CNT) as reinforcing material significantly improves mechanical properties of the products, keeping at the same time advantages of alundum ceramics. Graphene in composite material acts in the same way as inorganic dopants (MgO, ZrO2, SiC and others) and performs the role of aluminum oxide inhibitor, as it creates shell, that gives possibility to reduce sintering temperature and at the same time it acts as damper, because scattering of a shock wave takes place on carbon structures. Application of different structural modification of carbon (graphene, nanotube and others) as reinforced material, gives possibility to create multi-purpose highly requested composite materials based on alundum ceramics. In the present work offers simplified technology for obtaining of aluminum oxide ceramics, reinforced with carbon nanostructures, during which chemical modification with doping carbon nanostructures will be implemented in the process of synthesis of final powdery composite – Alumina. In charge doping carbon nanostructures connected to matrix substance with C-O-Al bonds, that provide their homogeneous spatial distribution. In ceramic obtained as a result of consolidation of such powders carbon fragments equally distributed in the entire matrix of aluminum oxide, that cause increase of bending strength and crack-resistance. The proposed way to prepare the charge simplifies the technological process, decreases energy consumption, synthesis duration and therefore requires less financial expenses. In the implementation of this work, modern instrumental methods were used: electronic and optical microscopy, X-ray structural and granulometric analysis, UV, IR, and Raman spectroscopy.

Keywords: ceramic materials, α-Al₂O₃, carbon nanostructures, composites, characterization, hot-pressing

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Authors: Nicholas Aerne, John P. Parmigiani

Abstract:

There is an increasing desire for renewable and sustainable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. This desire is the result of several factors. First, is the role of fossil fuels in climate change. Scientific data clearly shows that global warming is occurring. It has also been concluded that it is highly likely human activity; specifically, the combustion of fossil fuels, is a major cause of this warming. Second, despite the current surplus of petroleum, fossil fuels are a finite resource and will eventually become scarce and alternatives, such as clean or renewable energy will be needed. Third, operations to obtain fossil fuels such as fracking, off-shore oil drilling, and strip mining are expensive and harmful to the environment. Given these environmental impacts, there is a need to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources as a primary energy source. Various sources of renewable energy exist. Many familiar sources obtain renewable energy from the sun and natural environments of the earth. Common examples include solar, hydropower, geothermal heat, ocean waves and tides, and wind energy. Often obtaining significant energy from these sources requires physically-large, sophisticated, and expensive equipment (e.g., wind turbines, dams, solar panels, etc.). Other sources of renewable energy are from the man-made environment. An example is municipal water distribution systems. The movement of water through the pipelines of these systems typically requires the reduction of hydraulic pressure through the use of pressure reducing valves. These valves are needed to reduce upstream supply-line pressures to levels suitable downstream users. The energy associated with this reduction of pressure is significant but is currently not harvested and is simply lost. While the integrity of municipal water supplies is of paramount importance, one can certainly envision means by which this lost energy source could be safely accessed. This paper provides a technical description and analysis of one such means by the technology company InPipe Energy to generate hydroelectricity by harvesting energy from municipal water distribution pressure reducing valve stations. Specifically, InPipe Energy proposes to install hydropower turbines in parallel with existing pressure reducing valves in municipal water distribution systems. InPipe Energy in partnership with Oregon State University has evaluated this approach and built a prototype system at the O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab. The Oregon State University evaluation showed that the prototype system rapidly and safely initiates, maintains, and ceases power production as directed. The outgoing water pressure remained constant at the specified set point throughout all testing. The system replicates the functionality of the pressure reducing valve and ensures accurate control of down-stream pressure. At a typical water-distribution-system pressure drop of 60 psi the prototype, operating at an efficiency 64%, produced approximately 5 kW of electricity. Based on the results of this study, this proposed method appears to offer a viable means of producing significant amounts of clean renewable energy from existing pressure reducing valves.

Keywords: pressure reducing valve, renewable energy, sustainable energy, water supply

Procedia PDF Downloads 199

Authors: Da-Hye Jang, Woo-Jeong Cho

Abstract:

Marine leisure tourism contributes greatly to the national economy in which the sea is located nearby and many countries are using marine tourism to create value added. The interest and investment of government and local governments on marine leisure tourism growing as a major trend of marine tourism is steadily increasing. But indiscriminate investment in marine leisure tourism such as duplicated business wastes limited resources. In other words, government and local governments need to select and concentrate on the goal they pursue by drawing priority on maritime leisure tourism policies. The purpose of this study is to analyze development strategies on supplier for marine leisure tourism and thus provide a comprehensive and rational framework for developing marine leisure tourism. In order to achieve the purpose, this study is to analyze priorities for each evaluation criterion of marine leisure tourism development policies using Analytic Hierarchy Process. In this study, a questionnaire was used as the survey tool and was developed based on the previous studies, government report, regional report, related thesis and literature for marine leisure tourism. The questionnaire was constructed by verifying the validity of contents from the expert group related to marine leisure tourism after conducting the first and second preliminary surveys. The AHP survey was conducted to experts (university professors, researchers, field specialists and related public officials) from April 6, 2018 to April 30, 2018 by visiting in person or e-mail. This study distributed 123 questionnaires and 68 valid questionnaires were used for data analysis. As a result, 4 factors with 12 detail strategies were analyzed using Excel. Extracted factors of development strategies of marine leisure tourism are consist of 4 factors such as infrastructure, popularization, law & system improvement and advancement. In conclusion, the results of the pairwise comparison of the four major factor on the first class were infrastructure, popularization, law & system improvement and advancement in order. Second, marine water front space maintenance had higher priority than marina facilities expansion and the establishment of marine leisure education center. Third, marine leisure safety·culture improvement had higher priority than strengthening experience·education program and the upkeep and open promotion event. Fourth, specialization·cluster of marine leisure tourism had higher priority than business support system of marine leisure tourism. Fifth, the revision of water-related leisure activities safety act had higher priority than an enactment of marine tourism promotion act and the foster of marina service industry. Finally, marine water front space maintenance was the most important development plan to boost marine leisure tourism.

Keywords: marine leisure tourism, marine leisure, marine tourism, analytic hierarchy process

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Felipe M. de Freitas, Icaro V. Soares, Lucas L. L. Fortes, Sandro T. M. Gonçalves, Úrsula D. C. Resende

Abstract:

The SPICE-based simulators are quite robust and widely used for simulation of electronic circuits, their algorithms support linear and non-linear lumped components and they can manipulate an expressive amount of encapsulated elements. Despite the great potential of these simulators based on SPICE in the analysis of quasi-static electromagnetic field interaction, that is, at low frequency, these simulators are limited when applied to microwave hybrid circuits in which there are both lumped and distributed elements. Usually the spatial discretization of the FDTD (Finite-Difference Time-Domain) method is done according to the actual size of the element under analysis. After spatial discretization, the Courant Stability Criterion calculates the maximum temporal discretization accepted for such spatial discretization and for the propagation velocity of the wave. This criterion guarantees the stability conditions for the leapfrogging of the Yee algorithm; however, it is known that for the field update, the stability of the complete FDTD procedure depends on factors other than just the stability of the Yee algorithm, because the FDTD program needs other algorithms in order to be useful in engineering problems. Examples of these algorithms are Absorbent Boundary Conditions (ABCs), excitation sources, subcellular techniques, grouped elements, and non-uniform or non-orthogonal meshes. In this work, the influence of the stability of the FDTD method in the modeling of concentrated elements such as resistive sources, resistors, capacitors, inductors and diode will be evaluated. In this paper is proposed, therefore, the electromagnetic modeling of electronic components in order to create models that satisfy the needs for simulations of circuits in ultra-wide frequencies. The models of the resistive source, the resistor, the capacitor, the inductor, and the diode will be evaluated, among the mathematical models for lumped components in the LE-FDTD method (Lumped-Element Finite-Difference Time-Domain), through the parametric analysis of Yee cells size which discretizes the lumped components. In this way, it is sought to find an ideal cell size so that the analysis in FDTD environment is in greater agreement with the expected circuit behavior, maintaining the stability conditions of this method. Based on the mathematical models and the theoretical basis of the required extensions of the FDTD method, the computational implementation of the models in Matlab® environment is carried out. The boundary condition Mur is used as the absorbing boundary of the FDTD method. The validation of the model is done through the comparison between the obtained results by the FDTD method through the electric field values and the currents in the components, and the analytical results using circuit parameters.

Keywords: hybrid circuits, LE-FDTD, lumped element, parametric analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 149