Search results for: economic transition

Authors: Lynette Sheridan Burns, Benjamin J. Matthews

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The context of post-industrial journalism is one in which the material circumstances of mechanical publication have been displaced by digital technologies, increasing the distance between the orthodoxy of the newsroom and the culture of journalistic writing. Content is, with growing frequency, created for delivery via the internet, publication on web-based ‘platforms’ and consumption on screen media. In this environment, the question is not ‘who is a journalist?’ but ‘what is journalism?’ today. The changes bring into sharp relief new distinctions between journalistic work and journalistic labor, providing a key insight into the current transition between the industrial journalism of the 20^th century, and the post-industrial journalism of the present. In the 20^th century, the work of journalists and journalistic labor went hand-in-hand as most journalists were employees of news organizations, whilst in the 21^st century evidence of a decoupling of ‘acts of journalism’ (work) and journalistic employment (labor) is beginning to appear. This 'decoupling' of the work and labor that underpins journalism practice is far reaching in its implications, not least for institutional structures. Under these conditions we are witnessing the emergence of expanded ‘entrepreneurial’ journalism, based on smaller, more independent and agile - if less stable - enterprise constructs that are a feature of creative industries. Entrepreneurial journalism is realized in a range of organizational forms from social enterprise, through to profit driven start-ups and hybrids of the two. In all instances, however, the primary motif of the organization is an ideological definition of journalism. An example is the Scoop Foundation for Public Interest Journalism in New Zealand, which owns and operates Scoop Publishing Limited, a not for profit company and social enterprise that publishes an independent news site that claims to have over 500,000 monthly users. Our paper demonstrates that this journalistic work meets the ideological definition of journalism; conducted within the creative industries using an innovative organizational structure that offers a new, viable post-industrial future for journalism.

Keywords: creative industries, digital communication, journalism, post industrial

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Authors: Shantol McIntosh

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Due to environmental and underlying health disparities, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an added set of economic implications worldwide. Black and Hispanic individuals are more susceptible to contract COVID-19, and if they do, they are more likely to have a severe case that necessitates hospitalization or results in death (Altarum et al., 2020). The literature shows that disparities in health and health treatment are nothing new as they have been recorded for decades and indicate systemic and structural imbalances rooted in racism and discrimination. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency with which these populations have access to healthcare and treatment. The study will also highlight the key drivers of health disparities. Findings and implications for research and policy will be discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19, racial and ethnic disparities, discrimination, policy

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Authors: Kira Toxopeus, Kamran Siddiqui

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Channel flows are common in a wide range of engineering applications. In some types of channel flows, particularly the ones involving chemical or biological processes, the control of the flow temperature is crucial to maintain the optimal conditions for the chemical reaction or to control the growth of biological species. This often becomes an issue when the flow experiences temperature fluctuations due to external conditions. While active heating and cooling could regulate the channel temperature, it may not be feasible logistically or economically and is also regarded as a non-sustainable option. Thermal energy storage utilizing phase change material (PCM) could provide the required thermal regulation sustainably by storing the excess heat from the channel and releasing it back as required, thus regulating the channel temperature within a range in the proximity of the PCM melting temperature. However, in designing such systems, the configuration of the PCM storage within the channel is critical as it could influence the channel flow dynamics, which would, in turn, affect the heat exchange between the channel fluid and the PCM. The present research is focused on the investigation of the flow dynamical behavior in the channel during heat transfer from the channel flow to the PCM thermal energy storage. Offset vertical columns in a narrow channel were used that contained the PCM. Two different column shapes, square and circular, were considered. Water was used as the channel fluid that entered the channel at a temperature higher than that of the PCM melting temperature. Hence, as the water was passing through the channel, the heat was being transferred from the water to the PCM, causing the PCM to store the heat through a phase transition from solid to liquid. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the two-dimensional velocity field of the channel flow as it flows between the PCM columns. Thermocouples were also attached to the PCM columns to measure the PCM temperature at three different heights. Three different water flow rates (0.5, 0.75 and 1.2 liters/min) were considered. At each flow rate, experiments were conducted at three different inlet water temperatures (28ᵒC, 33ᵒC and 38ᵒC). The results show that the flow rate and the inlet temperature influenced the flow behavior inside the channel.

Keywords: channel flow, phase change material, thermal energy storage, thermal regulation

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Authors: Violetta Parutis

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This qualitative study aims to answer the following research questions: i) What are the factors that students perceive as relevant to a) promoting and b) preventing good grades? ii) How does socio-economic status (SES) feature in those beliefs? We conducted in-depth interviews with 19 first- and second-year undergraduates of varying SES at a research-intensive university in the UK. The interviews yielded eight factors that students perceived as promoting and six perceived as preventing good grades. The findings suggested one significant difference between the beliefs of low and high SES students in that low SES students perceive themselves to be at a greater disadvantage to their peers while high SES students do not have such beliefs. This could have knock-on effects on their performance.

Keywords: social class, education, academic performance, students’ beliefs

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Authors: Jyoti Sharma

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Although notion of giftedness is a reality, yet it swings along the pendulum of equality and excellence. At times, nurturance of gifted abilities becomes a struggle of better catchment of resources and facilities. Those from affluent setup are blessed with better support system whereas gifted children from disadvantaged group suffer from submissive upbringing. In developing countries like India, with diverse demographic profiles, socio-cultural diversity and economic disparity, the very concept of equality in education face severe challenge. The present paper presents the dichotomy of ideology of equality and excellence in education practices. It highlights the need of wider vision, better policy making and decentralized implementation services to allow gifted children to enjoy what they are; dream what they can be; and promote what they will be.

Keywords: gifted, disadvantaged, education safety net, India

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Authors: Mehtap Çalışkan, Nilüfer Yıldız Varan, Volkan Kaplan

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New orientations have emerged in the textile sector as a result of increasing global competition and environmental problems. Under the scope of new understandings, it is required to bring forward multi-functional, simple and environmentally friendly methods that will meet tight economic and ecological demands of today. Plasma technology has become a significant alternative in this sense. This technology may provide great advantages in case it is developed, however, it does not receive adequate consideration. In this study, plasma treatment was applied by using glow discharge plasma system to 100% polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and 95% PET/5% elastane fabrics and then the effects of plasma polymerization on fabric surface was tested and analyzed using water and oil repellent finishes.

Keywords: plasma, polyester, elastane, water repellency, oil repellency

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Authors: Dammika Bandara Herath

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A group of people who inherits a long history of existence within a particular country may be known as early inhabitants or indigenous peoples. In other words, they have not migrated to the particular territory from another part of the world and at the same time, they have inhabited the territory in issue prior to the time of a major invasion/migration. According to the UN, there are a number of unique attributes of the indigenous peoples: Self-identification as indigenous people,Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies, Distinct social, economic or political systems, Distinct language, culture and beliefs, Form non-dominant groups of society, Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities. Indigenous peoples constitute 5% of the world’s population. They are also known as tribal people, first people, native people, and indigenous people. Various indigenous communities can be found in about 90 countries in the world. Asia is home to approximately 70 % of these indigenous communities who have their own unique socio-cultural identities. Most indigenous communities remain isolated from the mainstream social, cultural, and economic institutions of their homeland. Yet, they inherited their own unique rights and responsible peculiar to their own group. These include: Protecting the socio-cultural heritage of the group, Protecting the unique identity of their community from socio-cultural changes in the mainstream communities,Protecting their land, Diffusing their cultural heritage to the future generation, Co-existing peacefully with other community .However, indigenous peoples encounter a lot of challenges as a result of socio-cultural change and legal restrictions in the world today. To assist the communities to face these challenges, the mass –media can play a significant role and the radio media has a purpose-built mechanism for this mission, known as the indigenous radio. In Sri Lanka, Dambana FM is such a radio channel based on the indigenous radio model. The target audience of this channel is the vedda / indigenous community of Sri Lanka. This study intends to the current role of the indigenous radio based on Dambana FM, of which the target audience is the indigenous community of Dambana. For the purpose of this study, interviews were conducted among fifty randomly selected respondents from the indigenous community of Dambana. As far as the findings of this study are concerned, problems in the quality of the programmed broadcasted and problems of transmission are the key issues faced by the indigenous radio in Sri Lanka. Based on the findings, the researcher seeks to develop a model to enhance the impact of the indigenous radio on its listeners in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: indigenous, communities, radio, vedda, culture

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Authors: Tereza Bartosikova

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This paper describes the values of a specific type of industrial heritage-aluminum factories. It is an especially endangered kind of industrial heritage with only a little attention paid. The paper aims to highlight the uniqueness of these grounds and to specify several options for revitalizations. The research is based on complex aluminum factories mapping in Europe from archives and bibliographic sources and on site. There is analyzed gained information that could offer a new view on the aluminum grounds. Primarily, the data are described according to the works in Žiar nad Hronom, Slovakia. More than a half aluminum grounds have ended up the production, although they can go on further. They are closely connected with some areas identity and their presence has left striking footsteps in the environment. By saving them, the historical continuity, cultural identity of population and also the economic stability of region would be supported.

Keywords: aluminum, industrial heritage, regeneration, values

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Authors: Shabnam Dadparvar, Laijin Shen, Farzad Ravanbod

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Nowadays, the political phenomenon of terrorism is considered as an effective factor on political, social, and economic changes. It has replaced the recognized political phenomena such as revolutions, wars (total war among two or more political units with distinct identities in the form of national states), coups d’état, insurgencies and etc. and has challenged political life in all its levels (sub national, national, and international political groups). In this paper by using descriptive-analytical method, the authors try to explain the spread of this political phenomenon across the world, its definition and types, also analyze different approaches to understand it. The authors believe that the Logical-Rational approach is the best way to explain and understand this phenomenon.

Keywords: logical approach, psychological- social approach, religious approach, terrorism

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Authors: Qiyao Han, Xianhai Meng

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Urban infrastructures refer to the fundamental facilities and systems that serve cities. Due to the global climate change and human activities in recent years, many urban areas around the world are facing enormous challenges from natural and man-made disasters, like flood, earthquake and terrorist attack. For this reason, urban resilience to disasters has attracted increasing attention from researchers and practitioners. Given the complexity of infrastructure systems and the uncertainty of disasters, this paper suggests that studies of resilience could focus on urban functional sustainability (in social, economic and environmental dimensions) supported by infrastructure systems under disturbance. It is supposed that urban infrastructure systems with high resilience should be able to reconfigure themselves without significant declines in critical functions (services), such as primary productivity, hydrological cycles, social relations and economic prosperity. Despite that some methods have been developed to integrate the resilience and sustainability of individual infrastructure components, more work is needed to enable system-level integration. This research presents a conceptual analysis framework for integrating resilience and sustainability based on fractal theory. It is believed that the ability of an ecological system to maintain structure and function in face of disturbance and to reorganize following disturbance-driven change is largely dependent on its self-similar and hierarchical fractal structure, in which cross-scale resilience is produced by the replication of ecosystem processes dominating at different levels. Urban infrastructure systems are analogous to ecological systems because they are interconnected, complex and adaptive, are comprised of interconnected components, and exhibit characteristic scaling properties. Therefore, analyzing resilience of ecological system provides a better understanding about the dynamics and interactions of infrastructure systems. This paper discusses fractal characteristics of ecosystem resilience, reviews literature related to system-level infrastructure resilience, identifies resilience criteria associated with sustainability dimensions, and develops a conceptual analysis framework. Exploration of the relevance of identified criteria to fractal characteristics reveals that there is a great potential to analyze infrastructure systems based on fractal. In the conceptual analysis framework, it is proposed that in order to be resilient, urban infrastructure system needs to be capable of “maintaining” and “reorganizing” multi-scale critical functions under disasters. Finally, the paper identifies areas where further research efforts are needed.

Keywords: fractal, urban infrastructure, sustainability, system-level resilience

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Authors: Tryphon Kollintzas, Lambros Pechlivanos

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In this paper, we formulate a general equilibrium theory that explains the existence and stability of democratically elected governments that support certain groups of individuals in society (insiders) to the detriment of everybody else (outsiders), even if the latter constitute a majority. The vehicle is a dynamic general equilibrium model, where insiders get monopoly rents and outsiders get less than what they would have gotten under a common good regime. We construct such political economy equilibria, and we identify the conditions under which such political regimes (coalitions of insiders): (a) can safeguard against opportunistic behavior (i.e., do not fall from within) and (b) may come to power in the first place (i.e., manage to get elected). To that end, we highlight the role of perception manipulation and self-serving bias as a gluing device to garner an electable coalition.

Keywords: insiders, coalition governments, stability, electability, politico-economic equilibrium, perceptions manipulation

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Authors: Bahram Fathi, Mahdi Khodaparast Mashhadi, Masuod Homayounifar

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According to 1404 forecasting documentation, among the most fundamental ways of Iran’s success in competition with other regional countries are innovations, efficiency enhancements and domestic productivity. Therefore, in this study, the energy consumption efficiency of Iran and the neighbor countries has been measured in the period between 2007-2012 considering the simultaneous economic activities, CO2 emission, and consumption of energy through data envelopment analysis of undesirable output. The results of the study indicated that the energy efficiency changes in both Iran and the average neighbor countries has been on a descending trend and Iran’s energy efficiency status is not desirable compared to the other countries in the region.

Keywords: energy efficiency, environmental, undesirable output, data envelopment analysis

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Authors: Rubisha Adhikari, Rajani Shah

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Introduction: Aging is a natural, global and inevitable phenomenon every single person has to go through, and nobody can escape the process. One of the emerging challenges to public health is to improve the quality of later years of life as life expectancy continues to increase. Quality of life (QoL) has grown to be a key goal for many public health initiatives. Population aging has become a global phenomenon as they are growing more quickly in emerging nations than they are in industrialized nations, leaving minimal opportunities to regulate the consequences of the demographic shift. Methods: A community-based descriptive analytical approach was used to examine the quality of life and associated factors among elderly people. A mixed method was chosen for the study. For the quantitative data collection, a household survey was conducted using the WHOQOL-OLD tool. In-depth interviews were conducted among twenty participants for qualitative data collection. Data generated through in-depth interviews were transcribed verbatim. In-depth interviews lasted about an hour and were audio recorded. The in-depth interview guide had been developed by the research team and pilot-tested before actual interviews. Results: This study result showed the association between quality of life and socio-demographic variables. Among all the variables under socio-demographic variable of this study, age (ꭓ2=14.445, p=0.001), gender (ꭓ2=14.323, p=<0.001), marital status (ꭓ2=10.816, p=0.001), education status (ꭓ2=23.948, p=<0.001), household income (ꭓ2=13.493, p=0.001), personal income (ꭓ2=14.129, p=0.001), source of personal income (ꭓ2=28.332,p=<0.001), social security allowance (ꭓ2=18.005,p=<0.001), alcohol consumption (ꭓ2=9.397,p=0.002) are significantly associated with quality of life of elderly. In addition, affordability (ꭓ2=12.088, p=0.001), physical activity (ꭓ2=9.314, p=0.002), emotional support (ꭓ2=9.122, p=0.003), and economic support (ꭓ2=8.104, p=0.004) are associated with quality of life of elderly people. Conclusion: In conclusion, this mixed method study provides insight into the attributes of the quality of life of elderly people in Nepal and similar settings. As the geriatric population is growing in full swing, maintaining a high quality of life has become a major challenge. This study showed that determinants such as age, gender, marital status, education status, household income, personal income, source of personal income, social security allowance and alcohol consumption, economic support, emotional support, affordability and physical activity have an association with quality of life of the elderly.

Keywords: ageing, chitwan, elderly, health status, quality of life

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Authors: Nikhil Padhye

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Recently a new phenomenon for bonding of polymeric films in solid-state, at ambient temperatures well below the glass transition temperature of the polymer, has been reported. This is achieved by bulk plastic compression of polymeric films held in contact. Here we analyze the process of cold-rolling of polymeric films via finite element simulations and illustrate a flexible and modular experimental rolling-apparatus that can achieve bonding of polymeric films through cold-rolling. Firstly, the classical theory of rolling a rigid-plastic thin-strip is utilized to estimate various deformation fields such as strain-rates, velocities, loads etc. in rolling the polymeric films at the specified feed-rates and desired levels of thickness-reduction(s). Predicted magnitudes of slow strain-rates, particularly at ambient temperatures during rolling, and moderate levels of plastic deformation (at which Bauschinger effect can be neglected for the particular class of polymeric materials studied here), greatly simplifies the task of material modeling and allows us to deploy a computationally efficient, yet accurate, finite deformation rate-independent elastic-plastic material behavior model (with inclusion of isotropic-hardening) for analyzing the rolling of these polymeric films. The interfacial behavior between the roller and polymer surfaces is modeled using Coulombic friction; consistent with the rate-independent behavior. The finite deformation elastic-plastic material behavior based on (i) the additive decomposition of stretching tensor (D = De + Dp, i.e. a hypoelastic formulation) with incrementally objective time integration and, (ii) multiplicative decomposition of deformation gradient (F = FeFp) into elastic and plastic parts, are programmed and carried out for cold-rolling within ABAQUS Explicit. Predictions from both the formulations, i.e., hypoelastic and multiplicative decomposition, exhibit a close match. We find that no specialized hyperlastic/visco-plastic model is required to describe the behavior of the blend of polymeric films, under the conditions described here, thereby speeding up the computation process .

Keywords: Polymer Plasticity, Bonding, Deformation Induced Mobility, Rolling

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Authors: Joao Ferreira Do Rosario, Nuno Gustavo, Ana Machado, Lurdes Calisto, Luisa Carvalho, Georgette Andraz

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Currently, tourism small and medium enterprises (TSMEs) face serious economic and financial problems, making recovery efforts difficult. How the pandemic will affect tourists' behavior is still to be known. Will tourists be even more cautious regarding their choices or, on the contrary, will they be more adventurers with an enormous desire to travel in search of the lost freedom? Tourists may become even more demanding when traveling, more austere, or less concerned and eager to socialize. Adjusting to this "new tourist" is an added challenge for tourism service providers. Generation Z made up of individuals born in 1995 and following years, currently tends to assume a particular role and meaning in the present and future economic and social context, considering that we are facing the youngest workforce as well as tomorrow's consumers. This generation is distinguished from others as it is the first generation to combine a high level of education and technological knowledge and to fully experience the digital world. These young people are framed by a new value system that can explain new behaviours and consumption, namely, in the context of tourism. All these considerations point to the importance of investigating this target group as it is essential to understand how these individuals perceive, understand, act, and can be involved in a new environment built around a society regulated by new priorities and challenges of a sustainable nature. This leads not only to a focus on short-term market choices but mainly to predict future choices from a longer-term perspective. Together with the social background of a person, values are considered a stable antecedent of behavior and might therefore predict not just immediate, but also future choices. Furthermore, the meaning attributed to travel has a general connotation and goes beyond a specific travel choice or experience. In other words, values and travel's meaning form a chain of influences on the present and future travel behavior. This study explores the social background and values of Generation Z travelers vs the meaning these tourists give to travel. The aim is to discover in their present behavior cues to predict travel choices so that the future of tourism can be secured. This study also provides data for predicting the tourism choices of youngsters in the more immediate future. Methodologically, a quantitative approach was adopted based on the collection of data through a survey. Since academic research on Generation Z of tourists is still scarce, it is expected to contribute to deepening scientific knowledge in this area. Furthermore, it is expected that this research will support tourism professionals in defining differentiated marketing strategies and adapted to the requirements of this target, in a new time.

Keywords: Generation Z, travel behavior, travel meaning, Generation Z Values

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Authors: Thomas Weber, Nina Strobel, Thomas Kohne, Eberhard Abele

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In context of the energy transition in Germany, the importance of so-called virtual power plants in the energy supply continues to increase. The progressive dismantling of the large power plants and the ongoing construction of many new decentralized plants result in great potential for optimization through synergies between the individual plants. These potentials can be exploited by mathematical optimization algorithms to calculate the optimal application planning of decentralized power and heat generators and storage systems. This also includes linear or linear mixed integer optimization. In this paper, procedures for reducing the number of decision variables to be calculated are explained and validated. On the one hand, this includes combining n similar installation types into one aggregated unit. This aggregated unit is described by the same constraints and target function terms as a single plant. This reduces the number of decision variables per time step and the complexity of the problem to be solved by a factor of n. The exact operating mode of the individual plants can then be calculated in a second optimization in such a way that the output of the individual plants corresponds to the calculated output of the aggregated unit. Another way to reduce the number of decision variables in an optimization problem is to reduce the number of time steps to be calculated. This is useful if a high temporal resolution is not necessary for all time steps. For example, the volatility or the forecast quality of environmental parameters may justify a high or low temporal resolution of the optimization. Both approaches are examined for the resulting calculation time as well as for optimality. Several optimization models for virtual power plants (combined heat and power plants, heat storage, power storage, gas turbine) with different numbers of plants are used as a reference for the investigation of both processes with regard to calculation duration and optimality.

Keywords: CHP, Energy 4.0, energy storage, MILP, optimization, virtual power plant

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Authors: Chitra Rajagopal, Indra Deo Kumar, Ila Chauhan, Ruchi Joshi, Binoy Bhargavan

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Reliability and safety are essential for the success of mission-critical and safety-critical defense systems. Humans are part of the entire life cycle of defense systems development and deployment. The majority of industrial accidents or disasters are attributed to human errors. Therefore, considerations of human performance and human reliability are critical in all complex systems, including defense systems. Defense systems are operating from the ground, naval and aerial platforms in diverse conditions impose unique physical and psychological challenges to the human operators. Some of the safety and mission-critical defense systems with human-machine interactions are fighter planes, submarines, warships, combat vehicles, aerial and naval platforms based missiles, etc. Human roles and responsibilities are also going through a transition due to the infusion of artificial intelligence and cyber technologies. Human operators, not accustomed to such challenges, are more likely to commit errors, which may lead to accidents or loss events. In such a scenario, it is imperative to understand the human factors in defense systems for better systems performance, safety, and cost-effectiveness. A case study using Task Analysis (TA) based methodology for assessment and reduction of human errors in the Air and Missile Defense System in the context of emerging technologies were presented. Action-oriented task analysis techniques such as Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) and Operator Action Event Tree (OAET) along with Critical Action and Decision Event Tree (CADET) for cognitive task analysis was used. Human factors assessment based on the task analysis helps in realizing safe and reliable defense systems. These techniques helped in the identification of human errors during different phases of Air and Missile Defence operations, leading to meet the requirement of a safe, reliable and cost-effective mission.

Keywords: defence systems, reliability, risk, safety

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Authors: Javier Perez-Vaquero, Katryn Junker, Volker Lammers, Petra Foerst

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There is increasing importance to accelerate the transition to sustainable food systems by including environmentally friendly technologies. Our work focuses on protein enrichment and fractionation of agricultural side streams by dry triboelectrostatic separation technology. Materials are fed in particulate form into a system dispersed in a highly turbulent gas stream, whereby the high collision rate of particles against surfaces and other particles greatly enhances the electrostatic charge build-up over the particle surface. A subsequent step takes the charged particles to a delimited zone in the system where there is a highly uniform, intense electric field applied. Because the charge polarity acquired by a particle is influenced by its chemical composition, morphology, and structure, the protein-rich and fiber-rich particles of the starting material get opposite charge polarities, thus following different paths as they move through the region where the electric field is present. The output is two material fractions, which differ in their respective protein content. One is a fiber-rich, low-protein fraction, while the other is a high-protein, low-fiber composition. Prior to testing, materials undergo a milling process, and some samples are stored under controlled humidity conditions. In this way, the influence of both particle size and humidity content was established. We used two oilseed meals: lupine and rapeseed. In addition to a lab-scale separator to perform the experiments, the triboelectric separation process could be successfully scaled up to a mid-scale belt separator, increasing the mass feed from g/sec to kg/hour. The triboelectrostatic separation technology opens a huge potential for the exploitation of so far underutilized alternative protein sources. Agricultural side-streams from cereal and oil production, which are generated in high volumes by the industries, can further be valorized by this process.

Keywords: bench-scale processing, dry separation, protein-enrichment, triboelectrostatic separation

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Authors: Mikael Soini, Kari Björn

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Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (MUAS) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Degree Programme provides full-time Bachelor-level undergraduate studies. ICT Degree Programme has seven different major options; this paper focuses on Health Technology. In Health Technology, a significant curriculum change in 2014 enabled transition from fragmented curriculum including dozens of courses to a new integrated curriculum built around three 30 ECTS themes. This paper focuses especially on the second theme called Customer Oriented Software Applications. From students’ point of view, the goal of this theme is to get familiar with existing health related ICT solutions and systems, understand business around health technology, recognize social and healthcare operating principles and services, and identify customers and users and their special needs and perspectives. This also acts as a background for health related web application development. Built web application is tested, developed and evaluated with real users utilizing versatile user centred development methods. This paper presents experiences obtained from the first implementation of Customer Oriented Software Applications theme. Student feedback was gathered with two questionnaires, one in the middle of the theme and other at the end of the theme. Questionnaires had qualitative and quantitative parts. Similar questionnaire was implemented in the first theme; this paper evaluates how the theme-based integrated curriculum has progressed in Health Technology major by comparing results between theme 1 and 2. In general, students were satisfied for the implementation, timing and synchronization of the courses, and the amount of work. However there is still room for development. Student feedback and teachers’ observations have been and will be used to develop the content and operating principles of the themes and whole curriculum.

Keywords: engineering education, integrated curriculum, learning and teaching methods, learning experience

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Authors: Minjeoung Kim

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Since women obtained the right to vote in 1893 for the first time in New Zealand, they have tried to participate actively into politics but still the world has a few women in political leadership. The article asks which factors might influence the appearance of women leadership in politics. The article investigates two factors such as political context, personal factors. Countries where economic development is stable and political democracy is consolidated have a tendency of appearance of women political leadership but in less developed and politically unstable countries, women politicians can be in power with their own reasons. For the personal factor, their feminist propensity is studied but there is no relationship between the appearance of women leaders and their feminist propensity.

Keywords: women political leadership, political context, slow track, transitory countries, feminist propensity

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Authors: Toan Vo

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Electronic attacks, illegal drones, interference, and jamming are no longer capabilities reserved for a state-sponsored, near-peer adversary. The proliferation of jammers on auction websites has lowered the price of entry for electronics hobbyists and nefarious actors. To enable local authorities and enforcement bodies to keep up with these challenges, this paper proposes a training as a service model to quickly and economically train and equip police departments and local law enforcement agencies. Using the U.S Department of Defense’s investment in Electronic Warfare as a guideline, a large number of personnel can be trained on effective spectrum monitoring techniques using commercial equipment readily available on the market. Finally, this paper will examine the economic benefits to the test and measurement industry if the TaaS model is applied.

Keywords: training, electronic warfare, economics, law enforcement

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Authors: Dong Tang, Yongli Zhao

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The study of the microstructure of asphalt is of great importance for the analysis of its macroscopic properties. However, the peculiarities of the chemical composition of the asphalt itself and the limitations of existing direct imaging techniques have caused researchers to face many obstacles in studying the microstructure of asphalt. The advantage of small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is that it allows quantitative determination of the internal structure of opaque materials and is suitable for analyzing the microstructure of materials. Therefore, the SAXS technique was used to study the evolution of microstructures on the nanoscale during asphalt aging. And the reasons for the change in scattering contrast during asphalt aging were also explained with the help of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). SAXS experimental results show that the SAXS curves of asphalt are similar to the scattering curves of scattering objects with two-level structures. The Porod curve for asphalt shows that there is no obvious interface between the micelles and the surrounding mediums, and there is only a fluctuation of the hot electron density between the two. The Beaucage model fit SAXS patterns shows that the scattering coefficient P of the asphaltene clusters as well as the size of the micelles, gradually increase with the aging of the asphalt. Furthermore, aggregation exists between the micelles of asphalt and becomes more pronounced with increasing aging. During asphalt aging, the electron density difference between the micelles and the surrounding mediums gradually increases, leading to an increase in the scattering contrast of the asphalt. Under long-term aging conditions due to the gradual transition from maltenes to asphaltenes, the electron density difference between the micelles and the surrounding mediums decreases, resulting in a decrease in the scattering contrast of asphalt SAXS. Finally, this paper correlates the macroscopic properties of asphalt with microstructural parameters, and the results show that the high-temperature rutting resistance of asphalt is enhanced and the low-temperature cracking resistance decreases due to the aggregation of micelles and the generation of new micelles. These results are useful for understanding the relationship between changes in microstructure and changes in properties during asphalt aging and provide theoretical guidance for the regeneration of aged asphalt.

Keywords: asphalt, Beaucage model, microstructure, SAXS

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Authors: Santimoy Khilari, Debabrata Pradhan

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Ever−increasing energy demand and growing energy crisis along with environmental issues emphasize the research on sustainable energy conversion and storage systems. Recently, supercapacitors or electrochemical capacitors emerge as a promising energy storage technology for future generation. The activity of supercapacitors generally depends on the efficiency of its electrode materials. So, the development of cost−effective efficient electrode materials for supercapacitors is one of the challenges to the scientific community. Transition metal oxides with spinel crystal structure receive much attention for different electrochemical applications in energy storage/conversion devices because of their improved performance as compared to simple oxides. In the present study, we have synthesized polypyrrole (PPy) supported manganese cobaltite nanorods (MnCo2O4 NRs) hybrid electrode material for supercapacitor application. The MnCo2O4 NRs were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal and calcination approach. The MnCo2O4 NRs/PPy hybrid was prepared by in situ impregnation of MnCo2O4 NRs during polymerization of pyrrole. The surface morphology and microstructure of as−synthesized samples was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. The crystallographic phase of MnCo2O4 NRs, PPy and hybrid was determined by X-ray diffraction. Electrochemical charge storage activity of MnCo2O4 NRs, PPy and MnCo2O4 NRs/PPy hybrid was evaluated from cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Significant improvement of specific capacitance was achieved in MnCo2O4 NRs/PPy hybrid as compared to the individual components. Furthermore, the mechanically mixed MnCo2O4 NRs, and PPy shows lower specific capacitance as compared to MnCo2O4 NRs/PPy hybrid suggesting the importance of in situ hybrid preparation. The stability of as prepared electrode materials was tested by cyclic charge-discharge measurement for 1000 cycles. Maximum 94% capacitance was retained with MnCo2O4 NRs/PPy hybrid electrode. This study suggests that MnCo2O4 NRs/PPy hybrid can be used as a low cost electrode material for charge storage in supercapacitors.

Keywords: supercapacitors, nanorods, spinel, MnCo2O4, polypyrrole

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Authors: Gauranga Das

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People in cities have prosperity but there is immense pollution, chaos in the mind, anxiety and turbulence. People in the villages experience pristine pure environment but they also experience poverty. There is a need to find out ways by which the cities and the villages can complement each other through their strengths and take care of each other’s weaknesses. In order to do this, the case study of Govardhan Ecovillage has been explored in this paper. All its environment, social and economic initiatives along with eco-tourism and wellness features are being analyzed. The analysis shows that Govardhan Ecovillage is successfully able to harmonize its different initiatives and provide a package which has created a win-win solution for the city people and also the villagers. Such kind of Eco-tourism initiatives should be supported and replicated in other places in the world to benefit everyone.

Keywords: sustainability, ecotourism, ecology, rural development, wellness, biodiversity

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Authors: Dragan Zivotic, Mirjana Ilic, Aleksandra Perovic, Predrag Gavrilovic

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As with the provision of other services, the service quality perception is one of the key factors that the modern manager must pay attention to. Countries in which the state regulation is in transition also have specific features in providing fitness services. Identification of the dimensions in which the most significant different service quality perception between different types of fitness centers, enables managers to profile the offer according to the wishes and expectations of users. The aim of the paper was the comparison of the quality of services perception in the field of fitness in Serbia between three categories of fitness centers: the privately owned centers, the publicly owned centers, and the Public-private partnership centers. For this research 350 respondents of both genders (174 men and 176 women) were interviewed, aged between 18 and 68 years, being beneficiaries of fitness services for at least 1 year. Administered questionnaire with 100 items provided information about the 15 basic areas in which they expressed the service quality perception in the gym. The core sample was composed of 212 service users in private fitness centers, 69 service users in public fitness centers and 69 service users in the public-private partnership. Sub-samples were equal in representation of women and men, as well as by age and length of use of fitness services. The obtained results were subject of univariate analysis with the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric analysis of variance. Significant differences between the analyzed sub-samples were not found solely in the areas of rapid response and quality outcomes. In the multivariate model, the results were processed by backward stepwise discriminant analysis that extracted 3 areas that maximize the differences between sub-samples: material and technical basis, secondary facilities and coaches. By applying the classification function 93.87% of private centers services users, 62.32% of public centers services users and 85.51% of the public-private partnership centers users of services were correctly classified (total 86.00%). These results allow optimizing the allocation of the necessary resources in profiling offers of a fitness center in order to optimally adjust it to the user’s needs and expectations.

Keywords: fitness, quality perception, management, public ownership, private ownership, public-private partnership, discriminative analysis

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Authors: Mahmoud Rufai Mahmoud

Abstract:

A look at existing literature on sales force motivation reveals lack of consensus on the role monetary rewards play in motivating salespeople. In view of the apparent contradiction inherent in the literature, it follows perhaps, chat sales managers are faced with the dilemma of what role to assign to monetary incentives in the scheme of motivating salespeople. This study investigated the perception of industrial salespeople on the role of money as a motivator. The result shows that salespeople believe that money is an important motivator whose power of motivation is influenced by a complex function of economic, social and psychological variables. Based on the findings, if is recommended that managers need different types of rewards to achieve a given level of motivation.  

Keywords: motivation, salespeople, money, Nigeria

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Authors: Changtong Wang, Lingyun Wei

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The combination of auctions and supply chains is of great significance in improving the supply chain management system and enhancing the efficiency of economic and social operations. To address the gap in research on supply chain strategies under the auction mechanism, a model is developed for the 1-N auction model in a complete information environment, and it is concluded that the two-part contract auction model for retailers in this model can achieve supply chain coordination. The model is validated by substituting the model into the scenario of a fresh-cut flower industry flower auction in exchange for arithmetic examples to further prove the validity of the conclusions.

Keywords: auction mechanism, supply chain coordination strategy, fresh cut flowers industry, supply chain management

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Authors: Bukunola K. Oguntade, Gareth M. Watkins

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The synthesis and characterization of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is an area of coordination chemistry which has grown rapidly in recent years. Worldwide there has been growing concerns about future energy supplies, and its environmental impacts. A good number of MOFs have been tested for the adsorption of small molecules in the vapour phase. An important issue for potential applications of MOFs for gas adsorption and storage materials is the stability of their structure upon sorption. Therefore, study on the thermal stability of MOFs upon adsorption is important. The incorporation of two or more transition metals in a coordination polymer is a current challenge for designed synthesis. This work focused on the synthesis, characterization and small molecule adsorption properties of three microporous (one zinc monometal and two bimetallics) complexes involving Cu(II), Zn(II) and 1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxylic acid using the ambient precipitation and solvothermal method. The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, Infrared spectroscopy, Scanning Electron microscopy, Thermogravimetry analysis and X-ray Powder diffraction. The N2-adsorption Isotherm showed the complexes to be of TYPE III in reference to IUPAC classification, with very small pores only capable for small molecule sorption. All the synthesized compounds were observed to contain water as guest. Investigations of their inclusion properties for small molecules in the vapour phase showed water and methanol as the only possible inclusion candidates with 10.25H2O in the monometal complex [Zn4(H2B4C)2.5(OH)3(H2O)]·10H2O but not reusable after a complete structural collapse. The ambient precipitation bimetallic; [(CuZnB4C(H2O)2]·5H2O, was found to be reusable and recoverable from structure collapse after adsorption of 5.75H2O. In addition, Solvo-[CuZnB4C(H2O)2.5]·2H2O obtained from solvothermal method show two cycles of rehydration with 1.75H2O and 0.75MeOH inclusion while structure remains unaltered upon dehydration and adsorption.

Keywords: adsorption, characterization, copper, metal -organic frameworks, zinc

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Authors: Soumaya Ben Kheilifa, Dorra Mezzez Hmaied

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We propose two approaches to examine whether European hedge fund managers can time market liquidity. Using a sample of 1616 European hedge funds, we find evidence of liquidity timing. More importantly, this ability adds economic value to investors. Thus, it represents valuable managerial skill and a major source of European hedge funds’ performance. Also we show that the majority of these funds demonstrate liquidity timing ability especially during liquidity crisis. Finally, it emerged that our main evidence of liquidity timing remains significant after controlling for market timing and volatility timing.

Keywords: european hedge funds, liquidity timing ability, market liquidity, crisis

Procedia PDF Downloads 376

Authors: Mulligan T., Barker-Collo S., Gobson K., Jones K.

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There is a relatively scarce body of literature regarding adolescent experiences of traumatic brain injury (TBI). This qualitative study explored how sustaining a TBI at this unique stage of development might impact a young person as they navigate the challenges of adolescence and transition to adulthood, and what might support recovery. Thirteen young adults who sustained a mild-moderate TBI as an adolescent (aged 13 – 17 years), approximately 7.7 years (range = 6.7 – 8.0 years) prior, participated in the research. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to explore participants’ experiences surrounding and following their TBIs. Thematic analysis of interview data produced five key categories of findings: (1) Following their TBIs, many participants experienced problems with cognitive (e.g., forgetfulness, concentration difficulties), physical (e.g., migraines, fatigue) and emotional (e.g., depression, anxiety) functioning, which were often endured into adulthood. (2) TBI-related problems often adversely affected important areas of life for the participant, including school, work and friendships. (3) Changes following TBI commonly impacted identity formation. (4) Recovery processes evolved over time as the participants coped initially by just ‘getting on with it’, before learning to accept new limitations and, ultimately, growing from their TBI experiences. (5) While the presence of friends and family assisted recovery, struggles were often exacerbated by a lack of emotional support from others, in addition to the absence of any assistance or information-provision from professionals regarding what to expect following TBI. The findings suggest that even mild TBI sustained during adolescence can have consequences for an individual’s functioning, engagement in life and identity development, whilst also giving rise to post-traumatic growth. Recovery following adolescent TBI might be maximised by facilitating greater understanding of the injury and acknowledging its impacts on important areas of life, as well as the provision of emotional support and facilitating self-reflection and meaning-making.

Keywords: adolescent, brain Injury, qualitative, post-traumatic growth

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