Search results for: teachers’ world of work

Authors: G. Senoga, D. Nakimuli, B. Ndagire, B. Lukwago, D. Kyamagwa

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Background: The COVID-19 epidemic affected the education sector, with some private schools closing while other children missed schooling for fear contracting COVID-19. Post COVID-19, PSIU in collaborated with Kampala City Council Authority Directorate of Education and Social Science, Water and Sanitation department, and Directorate of Public Health and Environment to improve sanitation and hygiene among pupils and staff in 50 public and private school system in Kampala city. The “Be Clean, Stay Healthy Campaign” used a behavioral change approach in educating, reinforcing and engaging learners on proper hand washing behaviors, proper toilet usage and garbage disposal. In April 2022, 40 Washa lots were constructed, to reduce the pupil - hand wash station ratio; distributed KCCA approved printed materials; oriented 50 teachers, WASH committees to execute and implement hygiene promotion. To ensure sustainability, WASH messages were memorized and practiced through hand washing songs, Pledge, prayer, Poems, Skits, Music, dance and drama, coupled with participatory, practical demonstrations using peer to peer approach, guest speakers at assemblies and in classes. This improved hygiene and sanitation practices. Premised on this, PSI conducted an end line assessment to explore the impact of a hand washing campaign in regards to improvements in hand washing practices and hand hygiene among pupils, accessibility, functionality and usage of the constructed hygiene and sanitation facilities. Method: A cross-sectional post intervention assessment using a mixed methods approach, targeting headteachers, wash committee members and pupils less <17 years was used. Quantitative approaches with a mix of open-ended questions were used in purposively selected respondents in 50 schools. Primary three to primary seven pupils were randomly selected, data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) Outcomes and Findings: 46,989 pupils (51% female), 1,127 and 524 teaching and non-teaching staff were reached by the intervention, respectively. 96% of schools trained on sanitation, sustainable water usage and hygiene constituted 17-man school WASH committees with teacher, parents and pupils representatives. (31%) of the WASH committees developed workplans, (78%) held WASH meetings monthly. This resulted into improved sanitation, water usage, waste management, proper use of toilets, and improved pupils’ health with reduced occurrences of stomach upsets, diarrhoea initially attributed to improper use of latrines and general waste management. Teachers reported reduced number of school absenteeism due to improved hygiene and general waste management at school, especially proper management of sanitary pads. School administrations response rate in purchase of hygiene equipment’s and detergents like soap improved. Regular WASH meetings in classes, teachers and community supervision ensured WASH facilities are used appropriately. Conclusion and Recommendations: Practical behaviour change innovations improves pupil’s knowledge and understanding of hygiene messages and usage. Over 70% of pupils had clear recall of key WASH Messages. There is need for continuous water flow in the Washa lots, harvesting rain water would reduce water bills while complementing National water supply coupled with increasing on Washa lots in densely populated schools.

Keywords: handwashing, hygyiene, sanitation, behaviour change

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Authors: M. Novak, E. Munoz, A. Jana, M. Nelemans

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Cities and local governments the world over are interested to employ circular strategies as a means to bring about food security, create employment and increase resilience. The selection and implementation of circular strategies is facilitated by modeling the effects of strategies locally and understanding the impacts such strategies have had in other (comparable) cities and how that would translate locally. Urban areas are heterogeneous because of their geographic, economic, social characteristics, governance, and culture. In order to better understand the effect of circular strategies on urban systems, we create a dataset for over 300 cities around the world designed to facilitate circular strategy scenario modeling. This new dataset integrates data from over 20 prominent global national and urban data sources, such as the Global Human Settlements layer and International Labour Organisation, as well as incorporating employment data from over 150 cities collected bottom up from local departments and data providers. The dataset is made to be reproducible. Various clustering techniques are explored in the paper. The result is sets of clusters of cities, which can be used for further research, analysis, and support comparative, regional, and national policy making on circular cities.

Keywords: data integration, urban innovation, cluster analysis, circular economy, city profiles, scenario modelling

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Authors: Debdut Roy, Vidyasagar Guggilla

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In this research, we highlight our exploratory work on modified zeolite based catalysts for catalytic cracking of hydrocarbons for production of light olefin i.e. ethylene and propylene. The work is focused on understanding the catalyst structure and activity correlation. Catalysts are characterized by surface area and pore size distribution analysis, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), Temperature Programmed Desorption (TPD) of ammonia, pyridine Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermo-gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and correlated with the catalytic activity. It is observed that the yield of lighter olefins increases with increase of Bronsted acid strength.

Keywords: catalytic cracking, zeolite, propylene, structure-activity correlation

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Authors: Skiker Kaoutar, Mounir Maouene

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Neuroimaging studies have shown that animal and tool concepts rely on distinct networks of brain areas. Animal concepts depend predominantly on temporal areas while tool concepts rely on fronto-temporo-parietal areas. However, the origin of this neurofunctional distinction for processing animal and tool concepts remains still unclear. Here, we address this question from a network perspective suggesting that the neural distinction between animals and tools might reflect the differences in their structural semantic networks. We build semantic networks for animal and tool concepts derived from Mc Rae and colleagues’s behavioral study conducted on a large number of participants. These two networks are thus analyzed through a large number of graph theoretical measures for small-worldness: centrality, clustering coefficient, average shortest path length, as well as resistance to random and targeted attacks. The results indicate that both animal and tool networks have small-world properties. More importantly, the animal network is more vulnerable to targeted attacks compared to the tool network a result that correlates with brain lesions studies.

Keywords: animals, tools, network, semantics, small-world, resilience to damage

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Authors: Vishal D. Pandya

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A great deal of perceptible change has been taking place in the way our institutions of higher learning are being managed in India today. It is believed that managers, whose intuition proves to be accurate, often tend to be the most successful, and this is what makes them almost like entrepreneurs. A certain entrepreneurial spirit is what is expected and requires a degree of insight of the manager to be successful depending upon the situational and more importantly, the heterogeneity as well as the socio-cultural aspect. Teachers in Higher Education have to play multiple roles to make sure that the Learning-Teaching process becomes effective in the real sense of the term. This paper makes an effort to take a close look at that, especially in the context of the management of English language teaching in Higher Education and, therefore, focuses on the management of English language teaching in higher education by understanding target situation analyses at the socio-cultural level.

Keywords: management, language teaching, English language teaching, higher education

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Authors: Renee Yi-Mond Yuan

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The fast development of tourism industries around the world, has largely contributed to many cities, and countries economical and social progress. Past year Taiwan in particular was ranked among one of fastest raise growth country. Thanks to the prominent importance of this phenomenon; seasonal mobility or multipurpose trips have reached more than 1 Billion tourists crossing International borders and more than 4 billion intramural travelers that have nourished the economy and employment in the service sector in most attractive regions, representing about one tenth of World GDP amount, including trade, research, cultural or journalistic purposes. Then the increased activities are giving pressure to the consumption of energy, water, resources, and Greenhouse Gas emissions. The further concentration of tourists in most beautiful sites of the World with consistent supply and reduced pollutions and means for waste control and risks management are challenging the preservation and protection of the natural original environment, including species and their ecosystems, ethnics and their cultures or languages, protection of inherited landscapes and monuments for the future generations to come. In this article, few projects will be analyzed, methods and directions in the EU sustainable development scheme giving way to economical and social activities and preserve rural areas and remote countryside as well as smarter cities development. EU ETS forecasting escalation in the next few decades for road and air, and will reconsider investments and reliance on Biobased alternatives that may turn out solutions and contributions to sustain popularization of tourism development. Study of Examples of Stakeholders practices and Governments efforts, consumer’s attitude to bring new forms of more responsible holidays models: ecotourism, eco-certification, partnerships, investment in technologies and facilities, and possibly create greener perceptions and less impacting demands for the longer term through association, organizations and awards.

Keywords: tourism, sustainability, protection, risks management, change in rural/urban environment

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Authors: Parima Fasih

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The present review of literature explored the role of vocabulary in task-based language teaching (TBLT). The first focus of the present paper is to explain different aspects of vocabulary knowledge, and it continues with an introduction to TBLT. Second, the role of vocabulary and vocabulary tasks in TBLT is explained. Next, an overview of the recent empirical studies about task-based vocabulary teaching in international and Iranian contexts context is presented to address the research question concerning the effect of task-based vocabulary teaching on EFL learners' vocabulary learning. Based on the conclusions that are drawn from the previous studies, the implications reveal how the findings influence students' vocabulary learning and teachers' vocabulary teaching methods.

Keywords: vocabulary, task, task-based, task-based language teaching, vocabulary learning, vocabulary teaching

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Authors: Sven Tackenberg, Sönke Duckwitz, Andreas Petz, Christopher M. Schlick

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This paper introduces an extension to the well-established Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) to apply it to complex maintenance problems. The problem is to assign technicians to a team which has to process several tasks with multi-level skill requirements during a work shift. Here, several alternative activities for a task allow both, the temporal shift of activities or the reallocation of technicians and tools. As a result, switches from one valid work process variant to another can be considered and may be selected by the developed evolutionary algorithm based on the present skill level of technicians or the available tools. An additional complication of the observed scheduling problem is that the locations of the construction sites are only temporarily accessible during a day. Due to intensive rail traffic, the available time slots for maintenance and repair works are extremely short and are often distributed throughout the day. To identify efficient working periods, a first concept of a Bayesian network is introduced and is integrated into the extended RCPSP with pre-emptive and non-pre-emptive tasks. Thereby, the Bayesian network is used to calculate the probability of a maintenance task to be processed during a specific period of the shift. Focusing on the domain of maintenance of the railway infrastructure in metropolitan areas as the most unproductive implementation process at construction site, the paper illustrates how the extended RCPSP can be applied for maintenance planning support. A multi-criteria evolutionary algorithm with a problem representation is introduced which is capable of revising technician-task allocations, whereas the duration of the task may be stochastic. The approach uses a novel activity list representation to ensure easily describable and modifiable elements which can be converted into detailed shift schedules. Thereby, the main objective is to develop a shift plan which maximizes the utilization of each technician due to a minimization of the waiting times caused by rail traffic. The results of the already implemented core algorithm illustrate a fast convergence towards an optimal team composition for a shift, an efficient sequence of tasks and a high probability of the subsequent implementation due to the stochastic durations of the tasks. In the paper, the algorithm for the extended RCPSP is analyzed in experimental evaluation using real-world example problems with various size, resource complexity, tightness and so forth.

Keywords: maintenance management, scheduling, resource constrained project scheduling problem, genetic algorithms

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Authors: Shashank Gupta, Carlos Cid, William John Munro

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Quantum distillation is the task of concentrating quantum correlations present in N imperfect copies to M perfect copies (M < N) using free operations by involving all P the parties sharing the quantum correlation. We present a threshold quantum distillation task where the same objective is achieved but using lesser number of parties (K < P). In particular, we give an exact local filtering operations by the participating parties sharing high dimension multipartite entangled state to distill the perfect quantum correlation. Later, we bridge a connection between threshold quantum entanglement distillation and quantum steering distillation and show that threshold distillation might work in the scenario where general distillation protocol like DEJMPS does not work.

Keywords: quantum networks, quantum distillation, quantum key distribution, entanglement distillation

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Authors: Manaranjan Pradhan, Shailaja Grover, U. Dinesh Kumar

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Farming community in India, as well as other parts of the world, is one of the highly stressed communities due to reasons such as increasing input costs (cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticide), droughts, reduced revenue leading to farmer suicides. Lack of integrated farm advisory system in India adds to the farmers problems. Farmers need right information during the early stages of crop’s lifecycle to prevent damage and loss in revenue. In this paper, we use deep learning techniques to develop an early warning system for detection of crop diseases using images taken by farmers using their smart phone. The research work leads to building a smart assistant using analytics and big data which could help the farmers with early diagnosis of the crop diseases and corrective actions. The classical approach for crop disease management has been to identify diseases at crop level. Recently, ImageNet Classification using the convolutional neural network (CNN) has been successfully used to identify diseases at individual plant level. Our model uses convolution filters, max pooling, dense layers and dropouts (to avoid overfitting). The models are built for binary classification (healthy or not healthy) and multi class classification (identifying which disease). Transfer learning is used to modify the weights of parameters learnt through ImageNet dataset and apply them on crop diseases, which reduces number of epochs to learn. One shot learning is used to learn from very few images, while data augmentation techniques are used to improve accuracy with images taken from farms by using techniques such as rotation, zoom, shift and blurred images. Models built using combination of these techniques are more robust for deploying in the real world. Our model is validated using tomato crop. In India, tomato is affected by 10 different diseases. Our model achieves an accuracy of more than 95% in correctly classifying the diseases. The main contribution of our research is to create a personal assistant for farmers for managing plant disease, although the model was validated using tomato crop, it can be easily extended to other crops. The advancement of technology in computing and availability of large data has made possible the success of deep learning applications in computer vision, natural language processing, image recognition, etc. With these robust models and huge smartphone penetration, feasibility of implementation of these models is high resulting in timely advise to the farmers and thus increasing the farmers' income and reducing the input costs.

Keywords: analytics in agriculture, CNN, crop disease detection, data augmentation, image recognition, one shot learning, transfer learning

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Authors: Tim Nikolsky

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This paper seeks to explore the different ways in which music producers choose to embrace various levels of technology based on musical values, objectives, affordability, access and workflow benefits. Current digital audio production workflow is questioned. Engineers and music producers of today are increasingly divorced from the tangibility of music production. Making music no longer requires you to reach over and turn a knob. Ideas of authenticity in music production are being redefined. Calculations from the mathematical algorithm with the pretty pictures are increasingly being chosen over hardware containing transformers and tubes. Are mouse clicks and movements equivalent or inferior to the master brush strokes we are seeking to conjure? We are making audio production decisions visually by constantly looking at a screen rather than listening. Have we compromised our music objectives and values by removing the ‘hands-on’ nature of music making? DAW interfaces are making our musical decisions for us not necessarily in our best interests. Technological innovation has presented opportunities as well as challenges for education. What do music production students actually need to learn in a formalised education environment, and to what extent do they need to know it? In this brave new world of omnipresent music creation tools, do we still need tangibility in music production? Interviews with prominent Australian music producers that work in a variety of fields will be featured in this paper, and will provide insight in answering these questions and move towards developing an understanding how tangibility can be rediscovered in the next generation of music production.

Keywords: analogue, digital, digital audio workstation, music production, plugins, tangibility, technology, workflow

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Authors: Headman Hebe, Arnold Taringa

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Background of the study: The benefits derived from Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) go beyond obtaining knowledge about the environment and the impact of human beings on the environment. Hence, it is sensible to expose learners to various resources that could enable meaningful environment-inclined pedagogy. The schoolgrounds, where they are utilised to promote ESE, benefit holistic learner development. However, empirical evidence, globally, suggests that young children’s contact with nature is declining due to urbanization, safety concerns by parents/guardians, and greater dependency on technology. Modern children spend much time on videogames and social media with very little time in the natural environment. Furthermore, national education departments in numerous countries have made tangible efforts to embed environmental and place-based learning to their school curricula. South Africa is one of those countries whose national school education curriculum advocates for ESE in pedagogy. Nevertheless, there is paucity of research conducted in South Africa on schoolgrounds as potential enablers of ESE and tools to foster a connection between youngsters and the natural environment. Accordingly, this study was essential as it seeks to determine the extent to which environmental learning is accommodated in pedagogy. Significantly, it investigates efforts made to use schoolgrounds for pedagogical purposes to connect children with the natural environment. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the accessibility and use of schoolgrounds for environment-inclined pedagogy in Natural and Social Sciences in two schools located in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. It tries to answer the question: To what extent are schoolgrounds used to promote environmental and sustainability education in the selected schools?The sub-questions: How do teachers and learners perceive the use of schoolgrounds for environmental and sustainability education activities? How does the organization of schoolgrounds offer opportunities for environmental education activities and accessibility for learners? Research method: This qualitative–interpretive case study used purposive and convenient sampling for participant selection. Forty-six respondents: 40 learners (twenty grade 7 learners per school), 2 school principals and 4 grade 7 participated in this study. Data collection tools were observations, interviews, audio-visual recordings and questionnaires while data analysis was done thematically. Major findings: The findings of the study point to: The lack of teacher training and infrastructure in the schoolgrounds and, no administrative support. Unclear curriculum guidelines on the use of schoolgrounds for ESE. The availability various elements in the schoolgrounds that could aid ESE activities. Learners denied access to certain parts of the schoolgrounds. Lack of time and curriculum demands constrain teachers from using schoolgrounds.

Keywords: affordances, environment and sustainability education, experiential learning, schoolgrounds

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Authors: Taher M. Abou-deif, Esmail M. El-Bialy, Essam E. Khalil

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The paper is devoted to numerically investigating the influence of the air supply outlets geometry on human comfort inside living looms. A computational fluid dynamics model is developed to examine the air flow characteristics of a room with different supply air diffusers. The work focuses on air flow patterns, thermal behavior in the room with few number of occupants. As an input to the full-scale 3-D room model, a 2-D air supply diffuser model that supplies direction and magnitude of air flow into the room is developed. Air distribution effect on thermal comfort parameters was investigated depending on changing the air supply diffusers type, angles and velocity. Air supply diffusers locations and numbers were also investigated. The pre-processor Gambit is used to create the geometric model with parametric features. Commercially available simulation software “Fluent 6.3” is incorporated to solve the differential equations governing the conservation of mass, three momentum and energy in the processing of air flow distribution. Turbulence effects of the flow are represented by the well-developed two equation turbulence model. In this work, the so-called standard k-ε turbulence model, one of the most widespread turbulence models for industrial applications, was utilized. Basic parameters included in this work are air dry bulb temperature, air velocity, relative humidity and turbulence parameters are used for numerical predictions of indoor air distribution and thermal comfort. The thermal comfort predictions through this work were based on ADPI (Air Diffusion Performance Index),the PMV (Predicted Mean Vote) model and the PPD (Percentage People Dissatisfied) model, the PMV and PPD were estimated using Fanger’s model.

Keywords: thermal comfort, Fanger's model, ADPI, energy effeciency

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Authors: Mohd Fadzly Yahya, Matthew Teo Yong Chang

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Globally, the increasing life expectancy of human beings has brought more issues with non-communicable diseases, especially work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMDs). WMSD also is one of the leading causes of health-related absence from work restricted work time in Malaysia. WMDs are cumulative disorders, resulting from repeated exposure to high or low-intensity loads over a long period. Evidence from a previous study showed that office workers in government and private sectors were showing high WRMDs prevalence in Malaysia. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of MSDs among Malaysian office workers in Klang Valley and to identify the association between MSDs pain and working experience among office workers. This is a cross-sectional study focusing on officer workers in the Klang Valley area. The questionnaires consisted of the subject’s demographics, Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, and The Numeric Pain Rating Scale were distributed online via google forms to all consenting participants. The data were analyzed for descriptive analysis, parametric test, and student T-test using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 27. From a total of 244 participants, 95 (38.9%) were male and 149 (61.1%) were female. 57.8% of the total samples were government staff while private-sector workers were 42.2%. The highest MSDs prevalence was neck pain during the last 12 months which contributed to 69.3% (n=169) of total participants, which is male 38.5% (n=65) and female 61.5% (n=104). Our study revealed that female office workers have a higher prevalence of WMDs and there is a significant difference in elbow pain, wrist, and hands pain, and lower back pain across four different working experience groups. Office workers in this study were highly exposed to MSDs due to poor ergonomics implementation at the workplace. It is crucial to advocate preventative measures to employers such as workplace ergonomics and changes to work practices to reduce the incidence of MSDs cases in office settings.

Keywords: musculoskeletal disorders, pain, prevalence rate, office workers, risks

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Authors: Yuko Hiramatsu, Fumihiro Sato, Atsushi Ito, Hiroyuki Hatano, Mie Sato, Yu Watanabe, Akira Sasaki

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This paper presents a mobile phone application developed for sightseeing in Nikko, one of the cultural world heritages in Japan, using the BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacon. Based on our pre-research, we decided to design our application for young people who walk around the area actively, but know little about the tradition and culture of Nikko. One solution is to construct many information boards to explain; however, it is difficult to construct new guide plates in cultural world heritage sites. The smartphone is a good solution to send such information to such visitors. This application was designed using a combination of the smartphone and beacons, set in the area, so that when a tourist passes near a beacon, the application displays information about the area including a map, historical or cultural information about the temples and shrines, and local shops nearby as well as a bus timetable. It is useful for foreigners, too. In addition, we developed quizzes relating to the culture and tradition of Nikko to provide information based on the Zeigarnik effect, a psychological effect. According to the results of our trials, tourists positively evaluated the basic information and young people who used the quiz function were able to learn the historical and cultural points. This application helped young visitors at Nikko to understand the cultural elements of the site. In addition, this application has a function to send notifications. This function is designed to provide information about the local community such as shops, local transportation companies and information office. The application hopes to also encourage people living in the area, and such cooperation from the local people will make this application vivid and inspire young visitors to feel that the cultural heritage site is still alive today. This is a gateway for young people to learn about a traditional place and understand the gravity of preserving such areas.

Keywords: BLE beacon, smartphone application, Zeigarnik effect, world heritage site, school trip

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Authors: Rahul Paul, Peter Mctaggart, Luke Skinner

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Maintaining public safety and network reliability are the core objectives of all electricity distributors globally. For many electricity distributors, managing vegetation clearances from their above ground assets (poles and conductors) is the most important and costly risk mitigation control employed to meet these objectives. Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) is widely used by utilities as a cost-effective method to inspect their spatially-distributed assets at scale, often captured using high powered LiDAR scanners attached to fixed wing or rotary aircraft. The resulting 3D point cloud model is used by these utilities to perform engineering grade measurements that guide the prioritisation of vegetation cutting programs. Advances in computer vision and machine-learning approaches are increasingly applied to increase automation and reduce inspection costs and time; however, real-world LiDAR capture variables (e.g., aircraft speed and height) create complexity, noise, and missing data, reducing the effectiveness of these approaches. This paper proposes a method for identifying each conductor from LiDAR data via clustering methods that can precisely reconstruct conductors in complex real-world configurations in the presence of high levels of noise. It proposes 3D catenary models for individual clusters fitted to the captured LiDAR data points using a least square method. An iterative learning process is used to identify potential conductor models between pole pairs. The proposed method identifies the optimum parameters of the catenary function and then fits the LiDAR points to reconstruct the conductors.

Keywords: point cloud, LİDAR data, machine learning, computer vision, catenary curve, vegetation management, utility industry

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Authors: Lauren Provost

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The digital world remains increasingly vulnerable, making the development of effective cybersecurity approaches even more critical in supporting the success of the digital economy and national security. Although approaches to cybersecurity have shifted and improved in the last decade with new models, especially with cloud computing and mobility, a record number of high severity vulnerabilities were recorded in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and its National Vulnerability Database (NVD) in 2020. This is due, in part, to the increasing complexity of cyber ecosystems. Security must be approached with a more comprehensive, multi-tool strategy that addresses the complexity of cyber ecosystems, including the human factor. Ethical hacking has emerged as such an approach: a more effective, multi-strategy, comprehensive approach to cyber security's most pressing needs, especially understanding the human factor. Research on ethical hacking, however, is limited in scope. The two main objectives of this work are to (1) provide highlights of case studies in ethical hacking, (2) provide a conceptual framework for research in ethical hacking that embraces and addresses both technical and nontechnical security measures. Recommendations include an improved conceptual framework for research centered on ethical hacking that addresses many factors and attributes of significant attacks that threaten computer security; a more robust, integrative multi-layered framework embracing the complexity of cybersecurity ecosystems.

Keywords: ethical hacking, literature review, penetration testing, social engineering

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Authors: Mohammad H. Taheri, David J. Brown, Nasser Sherkat

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Engagement is one of the most important factors in determining successful outcomes and deep learning in students. Existing approaches to detect student engagement involve periodic human observations that are subject to inter-rater reliability. Our solution uses real-time multimodal multisensor data labeled by objective performance outcomes to infer the engagement of students. The study involves four students with a combined diagnosis of cerebral palsy and a learning disability who took part in a 3-month trial over 59 sessions. Multimodal multisensor data were collected while they participated in a continuous performance test. Eye gaze, electroencephalogram, body pose, and interaction data were used to create a model of student engagement through objective labeling from the continuous performance test outcomes. In order to achieve this, a type of continuous performance test is introduced, the Seek-X type. Nine features were extracted including high-level handpicked compound features. Using leave-one-out cross-validation, a series of different machine learning approaches were evaluated. Overall, the random forest classification approach achieved the best classification results. Using random forest, 93.3% classification for engagement and 42.9% accuracy for disengagement were achieved. We compared these results to outcomes from different models: AdaBoost, decision tree, k-Nearest Neighbor, naïve Bayes, neural network, and support vector machine. We showed that using a multisensor approach achieved higher accuracy than using features from any reduced set of sensors. We found that using high-level handpicked features can improve the classification accuracy in every sensor mode. Our approach is robust to both sensor fallout and occlusions. The single most important sensor feature to the classification of engagement and distraction was shown to be eye gaze. It has been shown that we can accurately predict the level of engagement of students with learning disabilities in a real-time approach that is not subject to inter-rater reliability, human observation or reliant on a single mode of sensor input. This will help teachers design interventions for a heterogeneous group of students, where teachers cannot possibly attend to each of their individual needs. Our approach can be used to identify those with the greatest learning challenges so that all students are supported to reach their full potential.

Keywords: affective computing in education, affect detection, continuous performance test, engagement, flow, HCI, interaction, learning disabilities, machine learning, multimodal, multisensor, physiological sensors, student engagement

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Authors: Hsin-Jen Chen

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Primary schooling in Taiwan is in a process of radical restructuring during the decade. At the center of these restructuring is the position of the principal and questions to do with how principals, as school leaders, respond to radical change. Adopting a case-study approach, the study chose a middle Taiwanese primary school to investigate how the principal learned to be political. Using micropolitical leadership, the principal at the researched site successfully coped with internal change and external demands. On the whole, judging from the principal’s leadership style on the mediation between parents and teachers, as well as school-based curriculum development, it could be argued that the principal was on the stance of being a leader of the cultural transformation instead of cultural reproduction. In doing so, the qualitative evidence has indicated that the principal seemed to be successful in coping with the demands of rapid change. Continuing learning for leadership is the core of working as a principal.

Keywords: micropolitics, leadership, micropolitical leadership, learning for leadership

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Authors: Himanshu Payal, Sachin Maheshwari, Pushpendra S. Bharti

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Electrical discharge machining (EDM), a non-conventional machining process, finds wide applications for shaping difficult-to-cut alloys. Process modeling of EDM is required to exploit the process to the fullest. Process modeling of EDM is a challenging task owing to involvement of so many electrical and non-electrical parameters. This work is an attempt to model the EDM process using artificial neural network (ANN). Experiments were carried out on die-sinking EDM taking Inconel 825 as work material. ANN modeling has been performed using experimental data. The prediction ability of trained network has been verified experimentally. Results indicate that ANN can predict the values of performance measures of EDM satisfactorily.

Keywords: artificial neural network, EDM, metal removal rate, modeling, surface roughness

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Authors: Alireza Saidi

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Aside from injuries due to direct contact with hot or cold substances or objects, exposure to extreme temperatures in the workplace involves physical hazards to workers. On the other hand, a poorly acclimatized worker may have reduced performance and alertness and may, therefore, be more vulnerable to the risk of accidents and injuries. Due to the incompatibility of the standards put in place with certain workplaces and the lack of thermoregulation in many protective equipments, thermal strains remain among the physical risks most present in many work sectors. However, many of these problems can be overcome thanks to the potential of intelligent textile technologies allowing intelligent thermoregulation in protective equipment. Nowadays, technologies such as heating elements, cooling elements are applied in products intended for sport and leisure, and research work has been carried out in the integration of temperature sensors and thermal stress detectors in personal protective equipment. However, the usage of all of these technologies in personal protective equipment remains very marginal. This article presents a portrait of the current state of intelligent thermoregulation systems by carrying out a synthesis of technical developments, which is accompanied by a gap analysis of current developments. Thus, the research work necessary for the adaptation and integration of intelligent thermoregulation systems with personal protective equipment is discussed in order to offer a perspective of future developments.

Keywords: personal protective equipment, smart textiles, thermoregulation, thermal strain

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Authors: Przewodowski Włodzimierz, Przewodowska Agnieszka, Sekrecka Danuta, Michałowska Dorota

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Colloidal metal nanoparticles are widely applied in various areas and have great potential in different biotechnological applications. Their particular properties associated with both the antiseptic, antioxidant and anti aging properties as well as ability to penetrate most of the biological barriers, synergy in the absorption of nutrients and nontoxic to plants. The properties make them potentially useful in the fast and safe production of healthy, certified starting material in the production of plants exposed to many pathogenic microorganisms causing serious diseases, significantly affecting yield and causing the economic losses. In this case it is crucial to provide appropriate conditions for the production, storage and distribution of the plant material. Therefore, the aim of the proposed research was to develop and identify the influence of four colloidal metal nanoparticles on growth and proliferation of in vitro cultures of potato (Solanum tuberosum) - one of the most economically important strategic crops in the world. The research on different varieties of potato was performed by placing the explants of the in vitro cultures on sterile Murashige and Skoog (MS) type medium. The influence of the nanocolloids was evaluated using the MS medium impregnated with the examinated nanoparticles. The vigour of growth and the rate of proliferation was examinated for 6-8 weeks with both night/day-length and temperature over the ranges 8/16 h and 20–22 °C respectively. The results of our preliminary work confirmed high usefulness of the nanocolloids in the safe production of the examinated in vitro cultures.

Keywords: colloidal metal nanoparticles, in vitro cultures, potato, propagation

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Authors: Jia Wang, Wanting Zhang, Yutong Xv, Zihan Guo, Weiguang Ma

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Background: Before becoming qualified nurses, newly graduated nurses(NGNs) must experience a painful transition period, even transition shocks. Transition shocks are public health issues. To address the transition issue of NGNs, many programs or interventions have been developed and implemented. However, there are no studies to understand and assess the transition state of newly graduated nurses from work to life, from external abilities to internal emotions. Aims: Assess the transition status of newly graduated nurses in China. Identify the factors influencing the transition status of newly graduated nurses. Methods: The multi-center cross-sectional study design was adopted. From May 2022 to June 2023, 1261 newly graduated nurse in hospitals were surveyed online with the the Demographic Questionnaire and Transition Status Scale for Newly Graduated Nurses. SPSS 26.0 were used for data input and statistical analysis. Statistic description were adopted to evaluate the demographic characteristics and transition status of NGNs. Independent-samples T-test, Analysis of Variance and Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of transition status. Results: The total average score of Transition Status Scale for Newly Graduated Nurses was 4.00（SD = 0.61）. Among the various dimensions of Transition Status, the highest dimension was competence for nursing work, while the lowest dimension was balance between work and life. The results showed factors influencing the transition status of NGNs include taught by senior nurses, night shift status, internship department, attribute of working hospital, province of work and residence, educational background, reasons for choosing nursing, types of hospital, and monthly income. Conclusion: At present, the transition status score of new nurses in China is relatively high, and NGNs are more likely to agree with their own transition status, especially the dimension of competence for nursing work. However, they have a poor level of excess in terms of life-work balance. Nursing managers should reasonably arrange the working hours of NGNs, promote their work-life balance, increase the salary and reward mechanism of NGNs, arrange experienced nursing mentors to teach, optimize the level of hospitals, provide suitable positions for NGNs with different educational backgrounds, pay attention to the culture shock of NGNs from other provinces, etc. Optimize human resource management by intervening in these factors that affect the transition of new nurses and promote a better transition of new nurses.

Keywords: newly graduated nurse, transition, humanistic car, nursing management, nursing practice education

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Authors: Jiabei Zhang

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Although adapted physical education (APE) teacher preparation programs are available in the nation, a consistent standards-based competency evaluation scale for preparing of qualified personnel for teaching children with disabilities in APE cannot be identified in the literature. The purpose of this study was to develop a standard-based competency evaluation scale for assessing qualifications for teaching children with disabilities in APE. Standard-based competencies were reviewed and identified based on research evidence documented as effective in teaching children with disabilities in APE. A standard-based competency scale was developed for assessing qualifications for teaching children with disabilities in APE. This scale included 20 standard-based competencies and a 4-point Likert-type scale for each standard-based competency. The first standard-based competency is knowledgeable of the causes of disabilities and their effects. The second competency is the ability to assess physical education skills of children with disabilities. The third competency is able to collaborate with other personnel. The fourth competency is knowledgeable of the measurement and evaluation. The fifth competency is to understand federal and state laws. The sixth competency is knowledgeable of the unique characteristics of all learners. The seventh competency is the ability to write in behavioral terms for objectives. The eighth competency is knowledgeable of developmental characteristics. The ninth competency is knowledgeable of normal and abnormal motor behaviors. The tenth competency is the ability to analyze and adapt the physical education curriculums. The eleventh competency is to understand the history and the philosophy of physical education. The twelfth competency is to understand curriculum theory and development. The thirteenth competency is the ability to utilize instructional designs and plans. The fourteenth competency is the ability to create and implement physical activities. The fifteenth competency is the ability to utilize technology applications. The sixteenth competency is to understand the value of program evaluation. The seventeenth competency is to understand professional standards. The eighteenth competency is knowledgeable of the focused instruction and individualized interventions. The nineteenth competency is able to complete a research project independently. The twentieth competency is to teach children with disabilities in APE independently. The 4-point Likert-type scale ranges from 1 for incompetent to 4 for highly competent. This scale is used for assessing if one completing all course works is eligible for receiving an endorsement for teaching children with disabilities in APE, which is completed based on the grades earned on three courses targeted for each standard-based competency. A mean grade received in three courses primarily addressing a standard-based competency will be marked on a competency level in the above scale. The level 4 is marked for a mean grade of A one receives over three courses, the level 3 for a mean grade of B over three courses, and so on. One should receive a mean score of 3 (competent level) or higher (highly competent) across 19 standard-based competencies after completing all courses specified for receiving an endorsement for teaching children with disabilities in APE. The validity, reliability, and objectivity of this standard-based competency evaluation scale are to be documented.

Keywords: evaluation scale, teacher preparation, adapted physical education teachers, and children with disabilities

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Authors: Konysbek Aksaule

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The purpose of this work is to explore new and effective ways of teaching English to students who are studying a foreign language since the timeliness of the problem disclosed in this article is due to the high level of English proficiency that potential specialists must have due to high competition in the context of global globalization. The article presents an analysis of the feasibility and effectiveness of using an authentic feature film in teaching English to students. The methodological basis of the study includes an assessment of the level of students' proficiency in a foreign language, the stage of evaluating the film, and the method of selecting the film for certain categories of students. The study also contains a list of practical tasks that can be applied in the process of viewing and perception of an original feature film in a foreign language, and which are aimed at developing language skills such as speaking and listening. The results of this study proved that teaching English to students through watching an original film is one of the most effective methods because it improves speech perception, speech reproduction ability, and also expands the vocabulary of students and makes their speech fluent. In addition, learning English through watching foreign films has a huge impact on the cultural views and knowledge of students about the country of the language being studied and the world in general. Thus, this study demonstrates the high potential of using authentic feature film in English lessons for pedagogical science and methods of teaching English in general.

Keywords: university, education, students, foreign language, feature film

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Authors: Ziad M. Hejazi, Hani F. Mokhtar, Mohammed S. Bahabri, Mohammed H. Ghafouri, Ahmed S. Bahaitham

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This paper demonstrates the efforts taken by an Information Technology (IT) organization at Saudi Aramco to establish Operations Guide in a practical manner. Review of related work and literature revealed several important aspects to be considered when implementing the operation guide including Identify supporting IT groups, specify each group roles and responsibilities, formulate the IT operations in terms of processes (input/output), list each process main steps, provide the details of each process main step, develop the RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) chart, highlight the process KPI’s, utilized systems, and forms. Identified aspects were then addressed in the actual implementation via several practices, including developing the operation guide for all IT supported operations, creating a shared folder for the operations guide, and announcing the implementation to all IT staff. The implementation of the mentioned practice was benchmarked, identified as best in class, and adopted by other internal organizations. Moreover, it was evident and appreciated by IT management. The significance of this study stems from the fact that it might be among the first studies in Saudi Arabia that propose a practical guideline to implement IT operations guide by IT organizations. Additional research significance comes from the study being conducted in Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s biggest integrated energy and petrochemical companies.

Keywords: operations guide, process implementation, Saudi Aramco company, information technology, standard of procedure

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Authors: Amira Zrelli, Tahar Ezzedine

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Routing protocol may enhance the lifetime of sensor network, it has a highly importance, especially in wireless sensor network (WSN). Therefore, routing protocol has a big effect in these networks, thus the choice of routing protocol must be studied before setting up our network. In this work, we implement the routing protocol collect tree protocol (CTP) which is one of the hierarchic protocols used in structural health monitoring (SHM). Therefore, to evaluate the performance of this protocol, we choice to work with Contiki system and Cooja simulator. By throughput and RSSI evaluation of each node, we will deduce about the utility of CTP in structural monitoring system.

Keywords: CTP, WSN, SHM, routing protocol

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Authors: Tianqiao Zhang, Ye Tian, Yanliang Yin, Yichao Tian, Suzhai Tian, Weige Sun, Shuhui Gong, Limei Tang, Ruoliang Tang

Abstract:

Introduction: Healthcare workers, especially the nurses all over the world, are highly vulnerable to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), experiencing high rates of neck, shoulder, and low back injuries, due to the unfavorable working conditions. To reduce WMSDs among nursing personnel, many workplace interventions have been developed and implemented. Unfortunately, the ongoing Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has posed great challenges to the ergonomic practices and interventions in healthcare facilities, particularly the hospitals, since current Covid-19 mitigation measures, such as social distancing and working remotely, has substantially minimized in-person gatherings and trainings. On the other hand, hospitals throughout the world have been short-staffed, resulting in disturbance of shift scheduling and more importantly, the increased job demand among the available caregivers, particularly the doctors and nurses. With the latest development in communication technology, remote intervention measures have been developed as an alternative, without the necessity of in-person meetings. The Omaha System (OS) is a standardized classification system for nursing practices, including a problem classification system, an intervention system, and an outcome evaluation system. This paper describes the development of an OS-based ergonomic intervention program. Methods: First, a comprehensive literature search was performed among worldwide electronic databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), between journal inception to May 2020, resulting in a total of 1,418 scientific articles. After two independent screening processes, the final knowledge pool included eleven randomized controlled trial studies to develop the draft of the intervention program with Omaha intervention subsystem as the framework. After the determination of sample size needed for statistical power and the potential loss to follow-up, a total of 94 nurses from eight clinical departments agreed to provide written, informed consent to participate in the study, which were subsequently assigned into two random groups (i.e., intervention vs. control). A subgroup of twelve nurses were randomly selected to participate in a semi-structured interview, during which their general understanding and awareness of musculoskeletal disorders and potential interventions was assessed. Then, the first draft was modified to reflect the findings from these interviews. Meanwhile, the tentative program schedule was also assessed. Next, two rounds of consultation were conducted among experts in nursing management, occupational health, psychology, and rehabilitation, to further adjust and finalize the intervention program. The control group had access to all the information and exercise modules at baseline, while an interdisciplinary research team was formed and supervised the implementation of the on-line intervention program through multiple social media groups. Outcome measures of this comparative study included biomechanical load assessed by the Quick Exposure Check and stresses due to awkward body postures. Results and Discussion: Modification to the draft included (1) supplementing traditional Chinese medicine practices, (2) adding the use of assistive patient handling equipment, and (3) revising the on-line training method. Information module should be once a week, lasting about 20 to 30 minutes, for a total of 6 weeks, while the exercise module should be 5 times a week, each lasting about 15 to 20 minutes, for a total of 6 weeks.

Keywords: ergonomic interventions, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), omaha system, nurses, Covid-19

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Authors: D. O. Miranda, L. R. Azevedo, J. F. C. Cordeiro, A. H. Dos Santos, S. F. Lisboa, F. S. Guimarães, G. S. Bisson

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Background: The Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the world. The prevalence of psychiatric-disorders among CRC patients, mainly depression, is high, resulting in impaired quality of life and side effects of primary treatment. High levels of proinflammatory cytokines at tumor microenvironment is a feature of CRC and the literature suggests that those mediators could contribute to the development of psychiatric disorders. Nevertheless, the ability of tumor-associated biological processes to affect the central nervous system (CNS) has only recently been explored in the context of symptoms of depression and is still not well understood. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that depressive-like behavior in an experimental model of CCR induced by N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) was correlated to proinflammatory profile in the periphery and in the brain. Methods: Colorectal carcinogenesis was induced in adult C57BL/6 mice (n=12) by administration of MNNG (5mg/kg, 0.1ml/intrarectal instillation) 2 times a week, for 2 week. Control group (n=12) received saline (0.1ml/intrarectal instillation). Eight weeks after beginning of MNNG administration animals were submitted to the forced swim test (FST) and the sucrose preference test for evaluation, respectively, of depressive- and anhedonia-like behaviors. After behavioral evaluation, the colon was collected and brain regions dissected (cortex-C, striatum-ST and hippocampus-HIP) for posterior evaluation of cytokine levels (IL-1β, IL-10, IL-17, and CX3CL1) by ELISA. Results: MNNG induced depressive-like behavior, represented by increased immobility time in the FST (Student t test, p < 0.05) and lower sucrose preference (Student t test, p < 0.05). Moreover, there were increased levels of IL-1β, IL-17 and CX3CL1 in the colonic tissue (Student t test, p < 0.05) and in the brain (IL-1 β in the ST and HIP, Student t test, p < 0.05; IL-17 and CX3CL1 in the C and HIP, p < 0.05). IL-10 levels, in contrast, were decreased in both the colon (p < 0.05) and the brain (C and HIP, p < 0.05). Conclusions: The results obtained in the present work support the notion that tumor growth induces neuroinflammation in stress-related brain regions and depressive-like behavior, which could be related to the high incidence of depression in colorectal carcinogenesis. This work have important clinical and research implications, taken into account that cytokine levels may be a marker promissory for the developing depression in CRC patients. New therapeutic strategies to assist in alleviating mental suffering in cancer patients might result from a better understanding of the role of cytokines in the pathophysiology of depression in these subjects.

Keywords: cytokines, brain, depression, colorectal cancer

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Authors: Talip Turkmen

Abstract:

From the moment the first beats, the first step into the world mankind finds him in a struggle to survive. Most important case to win this fight is power. Power is one of the most common concepts which we encounter in our life. Mainly power is ability to reach desired results on someone else or ability to penetrate into the behavior of others. Throughout history merging technology and changing political trade-offs caused the change of concept of power. Receiving a state of multipolar new world order in the 21st century and increasing impacts of media have narrowed the limits of military power. With increasing globalization and peaceful diplomacy this gap, left by military power, has filled by soft power which has ability to persuade and attract. As concepts of power soft power also has not compromised yet. For that reason it is important to specify, sources of soft power, soft power strategies and limits of soft power. The purpose of this study was to analyze concept of soft power and importance of soft power in foreign relations. This project focuses on power, hard power and soft power relations, sources of soft power and strategies to gain soft power. Datas in this project was acquired from other studies on soft power and foreign relations. This paper was prepared in terms of concept and research techniques. As a result of data gained in this study the one of important topics in international relations is balance between soft power.

Keywords: soft power, foreign policy, national power, hard power

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