Search results for: logical framework matrix

Authors: Taye O. Famuditi, Jonathan Potts, Malcolm Bray

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This paper examines the shoreline management planning policy in England and its suitability for ameliorating the diverse environmental problems associated with Nigeria’s coastal zones. It examines the success of SMPs in England since the mid-1990s and progress achieved, with the aim of understudying the current management approach that can be transferred to Nigeria to strengthen its adoption, and as a necessary corollary, implementation of the SMPs. This paper also examines key elements of the shoreline management frameworks in England and provides answers to the question: Would shoreline management planning approach in England be appropriate and feasible in Nigeria? It further concludes that many of the action plans and principles of participation should be adoptable provided that a participatory approach that involves all stakeholders including community members and relevant sectorial ministries as well as appropriate legal framework is encouraged.

Keywords: shoreline management plans, coastal zone management, stakeholder engagement, participatory approach, Nigeria

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Authors: Ghazal Faraj, András Micsik

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Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL), a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) language, provides well-defined shapes and RDF graphs, named "shape graphs". These shape graphs validate other resource description framework (RDF) graphs which are called "data graphs". The structural features of SHACL permit generating a variety of conditions to evaluate string matching patterns, value type, and other constraints. Moreover, the framework of SHACL supports high-level validation by expressing more complex conditions in languages such as SPARQL protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL). SHACL includes two parts: SHACL Core and SHACL-SPARQL. SHACL Core includes all shapes that cover the most frequent constraint components. While SHACL-SPARQL is an extension that allows SHACL to express more complex customized constraints. Validating the efficacy of dataset mapping is an essential component of reconciled data mechanisms, as the enhancement of different datasets linking is a sustainable process. The conventional validation methods are the semantic reasoner and SPARQL queries. The former checks formalization errors and data type inconsistency, while the latter validates the data contradiction. After executing SPARQL queries, the retrieved information needs to be checked manually by an expert. However, this methodology is time-consuming and inaccurate as it does not test the mapping model comprehensively. Therefore, there is a serious need to expose a new methodology that covers the entire validation aspects for linking and mapping diverse datasets. Our goal is to conduct a new approach to achieve optimal validation outcomes. The first step towards this goal is implementing SHACL to validate the mapping between the International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) conceptual reference model (CRM) and one of its ontologies. To initiate this project successfully, a thorough understanding of both source and target ontologies was required. Subsequently, the proper environment to run SHACL and its shape graphs were determined. As a case study, we performed SHACL over a CIDOC-CRM dataset after running a Pellet reasoner via the Protégé program. The applied validation falls under multiple categories: a) data type validation which constrains whether the source data is mapped to the correct data type. For instance, checking whether a birthdate is assigned to xsd:datetime and linked to Person entity via crm:P82a_begin_of_the_begin property. b) Data integrity validation which detects inconsistent data. For instance, inspecting whether a person's birthdate occurred before any of the linked event creation dates. The expected results of our work are: 1) highlighting validation techniques and categories, 2) selecting the most suitable techniques for those various categories of validation tasks. The next plan is to establish a comprehensive validation model and generate SHACL shapes automatically.

Keywords: SHACL, CIDOC-CRM, SPARQL, validation of ontology mapping

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Authors: Seham A. S. Mohamed, Sarah R. Baker, Christopher Deery, Mario V. Vettore

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Background: The link between oral health conditions and school performance and attendance remain unclear among Middle Eastern children. The association has been studied extensively in the Western region; however, several concerns have been raised regarding the reliability and validity of measures, low quality of studies, inadequate inclusion of potential confounders, and the lack of a conceptual framework. These limitations have meant that, to date, there has been no detailed understanding of the association or of the key social, clinical, behavioural and parental factors which may impact the association. Aim: To examine the association between oral health conditions and children’s school performance and attendance at Grade 2 in Muharraq city in the Kingdom of Bahrain using Heilmann et al.’s (2015) life course framework for oral health. Objectives: To (1) describe the prevalence of oral health conditions among 7-8 years old schoolchildren in the city of Muharraq; (2) analyse the social, biological, behavioural, and parental pathways that link early and current life exposures with children’s current oral health status; (3) examine the association between oral health conditions and school performance and attendance among schoolchildren; (4) explore the early and current life course social, biological, behavioural and parental factors associated with children’s school outcomes. Design: A time-ordered-cross-sectional study was conducted with 466 schoolchildren aged 7-8 years and their parents from Muharraq city in KoB. Data were collected through parents’ self-administered questionnaires, children’s face-face interviews, and dental clinical examinations. Outcome variables, including school performance and school attendance data, were obtained from the parents and school records. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results: Dental caries, the consequence of dental caries (PUFA/pufa), and enamel developmental defects (EDD) prevalence were 93.4%, 25.7%, and 17.2%, respectively. The findings from the SEM showed that children born in families with high SES were less likely to suffer from dentine dental caries (β= -0.248) and more likely to earn high school performance (β= 0.136) at 7-8 years of age in Muharraq. From the current life course of children, the dental plaque was associated significantly and directly with enamel caries (β= 0.094), dentine caries (β= 0.364), treated teeth (filled or extracted because of dental caries) (β= 0.121), and indirectly associated with dental pain (β= 0.057). Further, dentine dental caries was associated significantly and directly with low school performance (β= -0.155). At the same time, the dental plaque was indirectly associated with low school performance via dental caries (β = −0.044). Conversely, treated teeth were associated directly with high school performance (β= 0.100). Notably, none of the OHCs, biological, SES, behavioural, or parental conditions was related to school attendance in children. Conclusion: The life course approach was adequate to examine the role of OHCs on children’s school performance and attendance. Birth and current (7-8-year-olds) social factors were significant predictors of poor OH and poor school performance.

Keywords: dental caries, life course, Bahrain, school outcomes

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Authors: Igor A. Krichtafovitch

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The evolutionary processes are not linear. Long periods of quiet and slow development turn to rather rapid emergences of new species and even phyla. During Cambrian explosion, 22 new phyla were added to the previously existed 3 phyla. Contrary to the common credence the natural selection or a survival of the fittest cannot be accounted for the dominant evolution vector which is steady and accelerated advent of more complex and more intelligent living organisms. Neither Darwinism nor alternative concepts including panspermia and intelligent design propose a satisfactory solution for these phenomena. The proposed hypothesis offers a logical and plausible explanation of the evolutionary processes in general. It is based on two postulates: a) the Biosphere is a single living organism, all parts of which are interconnected, and b) the Biosphere acts as a giant biological supercomputer, storing and processing the information in digital and analog forms. Such supercomputer surpasses all human-made computers by many orders of magnitude. Living organisms are the product of intelligent creative action of the biosphere supercomputer. The biological evolution is driven by growing amount of information stored in the living organisms and increasing complexity of the biosphere as a single organism. Main evolutionary vector is not a survival of the fittest but an accelerated growth of the computational complexity of the living organisms. The following postulates may summarize the proposed hypothesis: biological evolution as a natural life origin and development is a reality. Evolution is a coordinated and controlled process. One of evolution’s main development vectors is a growing computational complexity of the living organisms and the biosphere’s intelligence. The intelligent matter which conducts and controls global evolution is a gigantic bio-computer combining all living organisms on Earth. The information is acting like a software stored in and controlled by the biosphere. Random mutations trigger this software, as is stipulated by Darwinian Evolution Theories, and it is further stimulated by the growing demand for the Biosphere’s global memory storage and computational complexity. Greater memory volume requires a greater number and more intellectually advanced organisms for storing and handling it. More intricate organisms require the greater computational complexity of biosphere in order to keep control over the living world. This is an endless recursive endeavor with accelerated evolutionary dynamic. New species emerge when two conditions are met: a) crucial environmental changes occur and/or global memory storage volume comes to its limit and b) biosphere computational complexity reaches critical mass capable of producing more advanced creatures. The hypothesis presented here is a naturalistic concept of life creation and evolution. The hypothesis logically resolves many puzzling problems with the current state evolution theory such as speciation, as a result of GM purposeful design, evolution development vector, as a need for growing global intelligence, punctuated equilibrium, happening when two above conditions a) and b) are met, the Cambrian explosion, mass extinctions, happening when more intelligent species should replace outdated creatures.

Keywords: supercomputer, biological evolution, Darwinism, speciation

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Authors: Patrizia Barroero, Saliha Yagoubi

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Mindfulness meditation practices in the context of higher education are becoming more and more common. Some of the reported benefits of mediation interventions and workshops include: improved focus, general well-being, diminished stress, and even increased resilience and grit. A series of workshops free to students, faculty, and staff was offered twice a week over two semesters at Hudson County Community College, New Jersey. The results of an exploratory study based on participants’ subjective reactions to these workshops will be presented. A qualitative approach was used to collect and analyze the data and a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective served as a framework for the research design and data collection and analysis. The data collected includes three recorded videos of semi-structured interviews and several written surveys submitted by volunteer participants.

Keywords: mindfulness meditation practices, stress reduction, resilience, grit, higher education success, qualitative research

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Authors: Chryssi Vitsilaki, Apostolos Kostas, Ilias Efthymiou

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This paper presents selected best practices on online learning and teaching derived from a novel and innovating Lifelong Learning program through e-Learning, which has during the last five years been set up at the University of the Aegean in Greece. The university, capitalizing on an award-winning, decade-long experience in e-learning and blended learning in undergraduate and postgraduate studies, recently expanded into continuous education and vocational training programs in various cutting-edge fields. So, in this article we present: (a) the academic structure/infrastructure which has been developed for the administrative, organizational and educational support of the e-Learning process, including training the trainers, (b) the mode of design and implementation based on a sound pedagogical framework of open and distance education, and (c) the key results of the assessment of the e-learning process by the participants, as they are used to feedback on continuous organizational and teaching improvement and quality control.

Keywords: distance education, e-learning, life-long programs, synchronous/asynchronous learning

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Authors: Smaran Manchala

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Homomorphic Encryption (HE) enables computations on encrypted data without requiring decryption, mitigating data vulnerability during processing. Usable Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) could revolutionize secure data operations across cloud computing, AI training, and healthcare, providing both privacy and functionality, however, the computational inefficiency of schemes like Cheon-Kim-Kim-Song (CKKS) hinders their widespread practical use. This study focuses on optimizing CKKS for faster matrix operations through the implementation of vector computation parallelization and GPU acceleration. The variable effects of vector parallelization on GPUs were explored, recognizing that while parallelization typically accelerates operations, it could introduce overhead that results in slower runtimes, especially in smaller, less computationally demanding operations. To assess performance, two neural network models, MLPN and CNN—were tested on the MNIST dataset using both ARM and x86-64 architectures, with CNN chosen for its higher computational demands. Each test was repeated 1,000 times, and outliers were removed via Z-score analysis to measure the effect of vector parallelization on CKKS performance. Model accuracy was also evaluated under CKKS encryption to ensure optimizations did not compromise results. According to the results of the trail runs, applying vector parallelization had a 2.63X efficiency increase overall with a 1.83X performance increase for x86-64 over ARM architecture. Overall, these results suggest that the application of vector parallelization in tandem with GPU acceleration significantly improves the efficiency of CKKS even while accounting for vector parallelization overhead, providing impact in future zero trust operations.

Keywords: CKKS scheme, runtime efficiency, fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), GPU acceleration, vector parallelization

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Authors: Lucile Richard

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Contemporary thinkers studying biopolitics and its lethal logic find little interest in Foucault's "vague sketch of the pastorate.” Despite pastoral power being depicted as the matrix of governmentality in the genealogy of biopower, most post-Foucauldian theorists disregard its study. Sovereign power takes precedence in the examination of the governmental connection between care, violence, and death. Questioning this recurring motif, this article advocates for a feminist exploration of pastoral power. It argues that giving attention to the genealogy of the pastorate is essential to account for the carelessness that runs today's politics. Examining Foucault's understanding of this "power to care" uncovers the link between care work and politics, a facet of governmentality often overlooked in sovereignty-centered perspectives. His description of “pastoral insurrections”, in so far as it highlights that caring, far from being excluded from politics, is the object of competing problematizations, also calls for a more nuanced and complex comprehension of the politicization of care and care work than the ones developed by feminist theorists. As such, it provides an opportunity to delve into under-theorized dimensions of the "care crisis" in feminist accounts. On one hand, it reveals how populations are disciplined and controlled, not only through caregiving obligations, but also through being assigned or excluded from receiving care. On the other, it stresses that the organization of the public sphere is just as important as the organization of the private sphere, which is the main focus for most feminists, in preventing marginalized perspectives on caring from gaining political momentum.

Keywords: Foucault, feminist theory, resistance, pastoral power, crisis of care, biopolitics

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Authors: Haitham Taha

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The cognitive flexibility of 27 asthmatic children with learning difficulties was tested by using the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) and compared to the performances of 30 non-asthmatic children who have persistence learning difficulties also. The results revealed that the asthmatic group had poor performance through all the WCST psychometric parameters and especially the preservative errors one. The results were discussed in light of the postulation that poor executive functions and specifically poor cognitive flexibility are in the basis of the learning difficulties of asthmatic children with learning difficulties. Neurophysiologic framework was suggested for explaining the etiology of poor executive functions and cognitive flexibility among children with moderate into severe asthma.

Keywords: asthma, learning disabilities, executive functions, cognitive flexibility, WCST

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Authors: Rahil Saeedi

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The imbalance in truck parking supply and demand can create important safety issues for truck drivers and the public. Research has shown that breaks at specific intervals can increase drivers’ alertness by reducing the monotony of the task. However, if fatigued truck drivers are unable to find a safe parking spot for rest, they may continue to drive or choose to park at remote and insecure areas or undesignated locations. All of these situations pose serious safety and security risks to truck drivers and other roadway users. This study uses 5-year truck crash data in Ohio to develop and test a framework for identifying crashes that happen as a result of imbalances in truck parking supply and demand. The societal impacts of these crashes are then interpreted as monetary values, calculated using the costs associated with various crash severity levels.

Keywords: truck parking, road safety, crash data, geofencing, driver fatigue, undesignated parking

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Authors: Carolina B. A. Morais, Antonio Bob Santos

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In order to determine how innovation procurement can strengthen public efficiency and foster the modernization of public services, while at the same time promoting the opening of new private markets, this paper aims to present the two key instruments for the practice of innovation procurement at a European, national, and regional level – Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP), and Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI). Thus, it starts with a theoretical framework on the emergence of this topic in the European Innovation Policy (Section 2), then continues with the identification and systematization of the main mechanisms for its effective adoption, both on the demand and supply side of the market (Section 3), as well as to expose and describe methods and tools for positioning innovation at the heart of public entities. The innovative projects best distinguished by the European Commission for their good practices in innovation procurement are identified, and the main methodology for the development and management of innovation procurement – Forward Commitment Procurement (FCP) – is applied to them in a pioneering way (Section 4). The relevance of innovation in public procurement is systematized and reflected upon in Section 5.

Keywords: innovation procurement, innovation policy, innovation, pubic procurement

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Authors: Zhao Pengcheng, Yin Siyuan

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Fintech is the new hot topic of the 21st century, a discipline that combines financial theory with computer modelling. It can provide both digital analysis methods for investment banks and investment decisions for users. Given the variety of services available, it is necessary to provide a superior method of requirements elicitation to ensure that users' needs are addressed in the software development process. The accuracy of traditional software requirements elicitation methods is not sufficient, so this study attempts to use a multi-perspective based requirements heuristic framework. Methods such as interview and questionnaire combination, card sorting, and model driven are proposed. The collection results from PCA show that the new methods can better help with requirements elicitation. However, the method has some limitations and, there are some efficiency issues. However, the research in this paper provides a good theoretical extension that can provide researchers with some new research methods and perspectives viewpoints.

Keywords: requirement elicitation, FinTech, mobile application, survey, interview, model-driven

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Authors: K. Majumdar, S. Datta

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Electricity is recognized as fundamental to industrialization and improving the quality of life of the people. Harnessing the immense untapped hydropower potential in Tripura region opens avenues for growth and provides an opportunity to improve the well-being of the people of the region, while making substantial contribution to the national economy. Gumti hydro power plant generates power to mitigate the crisis of power in Tripura, India. The first unit of hydro power plant (5 MW) was commissioned in June 1976 & another two units of 5 MW was commissioned simultaneously. But out of 15 MW capacity at present only 8-9 MW power is produced from Gumti hydro power plant during rainy season. But during lean season the production reduces to 0.5 MW due to shortage of water. Now, it is essential to implement some mitigation measures so that the further atrocities can be prevented and originality will be possible to restore. The decision making ability of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Concordance Analysis Techniques (CAT) are utilized to identify the better decision or solution to the present problem. Some related attributes are identified by the method of surveying within the experts and the available reports and literatures. Similar criteria are removed and ultimately seven relevant ones are identified. All the attributes are compared with each other and rated accordingly to their importance over the other with the help of Pair wise Comparison Matrix. In the present investigation different mitigation measures are identified and compared to find the best suitable alternative which can solve the present uncertainties involving the existence of the Gumti Hydro Power Plant.

Keywords: concordance analysis techniques, analytic hierarchy process, hydro power

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Authors: Canan Cetin

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This essay analyses how gendered shaped views influence on our understanding of global politics. To do so, feminism used as a framework theory, thus masculinity is discussed in order to explain the male-dominated international relations (IR) discipline and the differences of reflections on our perspective considering the politics in a broader perspective. Particularly, it is highlighted that the social and cultural structures of societies have also an impact on our views about international relations and politics. From a different perspective, it is aimed that the sociological and cultural impression of the shifted gender perspectives on the political approach of different nations and societies will be examined by drawing on a range of sources. Instead of supporting one feminist theory, this essay engages with all traditions and enriches their arguments. Specifically, the main objective of the essay is hegemonic and plural masculinity on societies. The essay sets things up theoretically by looking at the nature of masculinity – the stage is set to show how this informs our understanding of IR.

Keywords: feminism, politics, international affairs, social life

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Authors: M. Zemouli, K. Amara, M. Elkeurti, Y. Benallou

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We present the molecular dynamic simulations results of the structural and dynamical properties of the zinc-blende GaBi over a wide range of temperature (300-1000) K. Our simulation where performed in the framework of the three-body Tersoff potential, which accurately reproduces the lattice constants and elastic constants of the GaBi. A good agreement was found between our calculated results and the available theoretical data of the lattice constant, the bulk modulus and the cohesive energy. Our study allows us to predict the thermodynamic properties such as the specific heat and the lattice thermal expansion. In addition, this method allows us to check its ability to predict the phase transition of this compound. In particular, the transition pressure to the rock-salt phase is calculated and the results are compared with other available works.

Keywords: Gallium compounds, molecular dynamics simulations, interatomic potential thermodynamic properties, structural phase transition

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Authors: Tosin Osasona

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The Nigeria Police Force bears the constitutional mandate as the primary policing agency for the protection of life and property within Nigeria; however, the police have an historical ill-reputation for corruption, ineptitude and impunity. Using the institutional theory of police as the framework of analysis, the paper argues that the performance of the police in Nigeria mirrors the dominant political, social and economic institutions and the structural environment of the Nigerian state. The article puts in perspective the deliberate political decision to underfund the police, leaving officers of the force the extra task of foraging for funds to undertake the duty that the Nigeria state primarily exists for; the article further explores the nexus between corruption in the police in Nigeria and the issue of funding. The article finds that the Nigerian state, by deliberately under-funding the police, while expecting the agency to perform its duties, has indirectly sanctioned the corruption of the force and approved the cooption of the institution of police and policing for private use in Nigeria.

Keywords: Police Corruption, Funding , Informal Taxation, POlice Checkpoint

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Authors: Hamzeh Soltanali, Abbas Rohani, A. H. S. Garmabaki, Mohammad Hossein Abbaspour-Fard, Adithya Thaduri

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Toward continuous innovation and high complexity of technological systems, the automotive manufacturing industry is also under pressure to implement adequate management strategies regarding availability and productivity. In this context, evaluation of system’s performance by considering reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) methodologies can constitute for resilient operation, identifying the bottlenecks of manufacturing process and optimization of maintenance actions. In this paper, RAM parameters are evaluated for improving the operational performance of the fluid filling process. To evaluate the RAM factors through the behavior of states defined for such process, a systematic decision framework was developed. The results of RAM analysis revealed that that the improving reliability and maintainability of main bottlenecks for each filling workstation need to be considered as a priority. The results could be useful to improve operational performance and sustainability of production process.

Keywords: automotive, performance, reliability, RAM, fluid filling process

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Authors: Puzanova Zhanna Vasilyevna, Larina Tatiana Igorevna, Tertyshnikova Anastasia Gennadyevna

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In this day and age, extremism in various forms of its manifestation is a real threat to the world community, the national security of a state and its territorial integrity, as well as to the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. Extremism, as it is known, in general terms described as a commitment to extreme views and actions, radically denying the existing social norms and rules. Supporters of extremism in the ideological and political struggles often adopt methods and means of psychological warfare, appeal not to reason and logical arguments, but to emotions and instincts of the people, to prejudices, biases, and a variety of mythological designs. They are dissatisfied with the established order and aim at increasing this dissatisfaction among the masses. Youth extremism holds a specific place among the existing forms and types of extremism. In this context in 2015, we conducted a survey among Moscow college and high school students. The aim of this study was to determine how great or small is the difference in understanding and attitudes towards extremism manifestations, inclination and readiness to take part in extremist activities and what causes this predisposition, if it exists. We performed multivariate analysis and found the Russian college and high school students' opinion about the extremism and terrorism situation in our country and also their cognition on these topics. Among other things, we showed, that the level of aggressiveness of young people were not above the average for the whole population. The survey was conducted using the questionnaire method. The sample included college and high school students in Moscow (642 and 382, respectively) by method of random selection. The questionnaire was developed by specialists of RUDN University Sociological Laboratory and included both original questions (projective questions, the technique of incomplete sentences), and the standard test Dayhoff S. to determine the level of internal aggressiveness. It is also used as an experiment, the technique of study option using of FACS and SPAFF to determine the psychotypes and determination of non-verbal manifestations of emotions. The study confirmed the hypothesis that in respondents’ opinion, the level of aggression is higher today than a few years ago. Differences were found in the understanding of and respect for such social phenomena as extremism, terrorism, and their danger and appeal for the two age groups of young people. Theory of psychotypes, SPAFF (specific affect cording system) and FACS (facial action cording system) are considered as additional techniques for the diagnosis of a tendency to extreme views. Thus, it is established that diagnostics of acceptance of extreme views among young people is possible thanks to simultaneous use of knowledge from the different fields of socio-humanistic sciences. The results of the research can be used in a comparative context with other countries and as a starting point for further research in the field, taking into account its extreme relevance.

Keywords: extremism, youth extremism, diagnostics of extremist manifestations, forecast of behavior, sociological polls, theory of psychotypes, FACS, SPAFF

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Authors: Victor Counted

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John Bowlby's Attachment theory is often a framework used by many researchers to understand human relationship experiences with close 'others'. In this short brief on sexuality, I tried to discuss homosexual relationships from three attachment positions, or if you like, conditions, in relation to the compensation and correspondence hypothesis used to understand an individual's attachment orientation with an attachment figure who is seen as a secure base, safe haven, and some kind of target for proximity seeking. Drawing from the springs of virtue and hope in light of Murdock’s ‘just and love gaze’ model, I allowed myself to see the homosexual cases cited in positive terms, as I related to the situations and experiences of our homosexual ‘others’ from the guiding herald of Moltmann's theology of hope. This approach allowed me to conclusively convince readers to engage sexuality from a tolerating tendency of hope in our thinking and thoughts towards the actions and conditions of our dynamic world which is always plunging toward the future.

Keywords: attachment, wellbeing, sexuality, homosexuality, abandonment, tolerance of hope, wise fool

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Authors: Mahsa Mohammadhosseini

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This study investigates the effectiveness of adapting the Reggio Emilia approach to online art education, specifically through White Ant Atelier (W.A.A), a virtual art initiative for Persian-speaking children. Employing an action research framework, the study examines the implementation of Reggio Emilia principles via the "Home" art project, which spanned four months and included 16 sessions. The analysis covers 50 artworks produced by participants, including 17 pieces created collaboratively by mothers and their children. The results demonstrate that integrating the Reggio Emilia approach into online platforms significantly improves children's creative expression and engagement. This finding illustrates that virtual education when integrated with child-centered methodologies like Reggio Emilia, can effectively address and reduce educational inequities among Persian-speaking children.

Keywords: Reggio Emilia, online education, art education, educational equity

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Authors: Meha Alouini, Wissem Mnif, Yasmine Souissi

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This work will be conducted within the framework of the environmental sustainable development. It involves waste recovering into biodiesel fuel. Low cost feedstocks such as waste of frying oil and animal fats have been utilized to replace refined vegetable oil for biodiesel production. Biodiesel which refers to fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) was carried out by both chemical and enzymatic reaction of transesterification. In order to compare the two studied reactions the obtained biodiesel was characterized by determining its esters content and its fuel properties according to the European standard EN 14214. It was noted that the chemical method gave the product with the best physical property. But the biological one was found more effective for obtaining important ester content. Thus it would be interesting to optimize the enzymatic pathway of production of biodiesel to obtain a better property of biodiesel.

Keywords: biodiesel, fatty acid methyl esters, transesterification, waste frying oil, waste beef fat

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Authors: Khin Mar Yee, Mu Mu Than, Kyi Lint, Aye Aye Oo, Chan Mya Hmway, Khin Zar Chi Winn

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The dynamic changes of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes in Yangon have generally resulted the improvement of human welfare and economic development since the last twenty years. Making map of LULC is crucially important for the sustainable development of the environment. However, the exactly data on how environmental factors influence the LULC situation at the various scales because the nature of the natural environment is naturally composed of non-homogeneous surface features, so the features in the satellite data also have the mixed pixels. The main objective of this study is to the calculation of accuracy based on change detection of LULC changes by Support Vector Machines (SVMs). For this research work, the main data was satellite images of 1996, 2006 and 2015. Computing change detection statistics use change detection statistics to compile a detailed tabulation of changes between two classification images and Support Vector Machines (SVMs) process was applied with a soft approach at allocation as well as at a testing stage and to higher accuracy. The results of this paper showed that vegetation and cultivated area were decreased (average total 29 % from 1996 to 2015) because of conversion to the replacing over double of the built up area (average total 30 % from 1996 to 2015). The error matrix and confidence limits led to the validation of the result for LULC mapping.

Keywords: land use and land cover change, change detection, image processing, support vector machines

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Authors: Sai Amulya Gollapalli, Dilip A. Patel, Parth Patel K., Lukman E. Mansuri

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Accumulation of moisture is one of the most worrisome aspects of a building. Architects and engineers tend to ignore its vitality during the designing and construction stage. Major fatalities in buildings can be caused by it. People avoid spending a lot of money on waterproofing. If the same mistake is repeated, no deep thinking is done. The quality of workmanship and construction is depleting due to negligence. It is important to do an analysis of the water maintenance issues happening in the current buildings and give a database for all the factors that are causing the defect. In this research, surveys are done with two waterproofing consultants, two client engineers, and two project managers. The survey was based on a matrix that was based on the causes of water maintenance issues. There were around 100 causes that were identified. The causes were categorized into six, namely, manpower, finance, method, management, environment, and material. In the matrices, the causes on the x-direction matched with the causes on the y-direction. 3 Likert scale was used to make a pairwise comparison between causes on each cell. Matrices were evaluated for the main categories and for each category separately. A final ranking was done by the weights achieved, and ‘cracks arriving from various construction joints’ was the highest with 0.57 relative significance, and ‘usage of the material’ was the lowest with 0.03 relative significance. Twelve defects due to water leakage were identified, and interviewees were asked to make a pairwise comparison of them, too, to understand the priorities. When the list of causes is achieved, the prioritization as per the stratification analysis is done. This will be beneficial to the consultants and contractors as they will get a primary idea of which causes to focus on.

Keywords: water leakage, survey, causes, matrices, prioritization

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Authors: Marita Canina, Carmen Bruno

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Digital Do It Yourself (DIY) is a contemporary socio-technological phenomenon, enabled by technological tools. The nature and potential long-term effects of this phenomenon have been widely studied within the framework of the EU funded project ‘Digital Do It Yourself’, in which the authors have created and experimented a specific Digital Do It Yourself (DiDIY) co-design process. The phenomenon was first studied through a literature research to understand its multiple dimensions and complexity. Therefore, co-design workshops were used to investigate the phenomenon by involving people to achieve a complete understanding of the DiDIY practices and its enabling factors. These analyses allowed the definition of the DiDIY fundamental factors that were then translated into a design tool. The objective of the tool is to shape design concepts by transferring these factors into different environments to achieve innovation. The aim of this paper is to present the ‘DiDIY Factor Stimuli’ tool, describing the research path and the findings behind it.

Keywords: co-design process, digital DIY, innovation, toolkit

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Authors: Erez Yerushalmi, Sani Ziv

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The rising demand for healthcare services, without a corresponding rise in public supply, led to a debate on whether to increase private healthcare provision - especially in hospital services and second-tier healthcare. Proponents for increasing private healthcare highlight gains in efficiency, while opponents its risk to social welfare. None, however, provide a measure of the social value and its impact on the economy in terms of a monetary value. In this paper, we impute a minimum social value of public healthcare that corresponds to indifference between gains in efficiency, with losses to social welfare. Our approach resembles contingent valuation methods that introduce a hypothetical market for non-commodities, but is different from them because we use numerical simulation techniques to exploit certain market failure conditions. In this paper, we develop a general equilibrium model that distinguishes between public-private healthcare services and public-private financing. Furthermore, the social value is modelled as a by product of healthcare services. The model is then calibrated to our unique health focused Social Accounting Matrix of Israel, and simulates the introduction of a hypothetical health-labour market - given that it is heavily regulated in the baseline (i.e., the true situation in Israel today). For baseline parameters, we estimate the minimum social value at around 18% public healthcare financing. The intuition is that the gain in economic welfare from improved efficiency, is offset by the loss in social welfare due to a reduction in available social value. We furthermore simulate a deregulated healthcare scenario that internalizes the imputed value of social value and searches for the optimal weight of public and private healthcare provision.

Keywords: contingent valuation method (CVM), general equilibrium model, hypothetical market, private-public healthcare, social value of public healthcare

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Authors: Carlo Schick

Abstract:

Legitimacy can be regarded the very fabric of political orders. Up to this point, IR scholarship was particularly interested in the legitimacy of nation-states, international regimes and of non-governmental actors. The legitimacy of collaborative governance comprising public, private and civic actors, however, has not received much attention from an IR perspective. This is partly due to the fact that the concept of legitimacy is difficult to operationalise and measure in settings where there is no clear boundary between political authorities and those who are subject to collaborative governance. In this case, legitimacy cannot be empirically approached in its own terms, but can only be analysed in terms of dialectic legitimation processes. The author develops a three-fold analytical framework based on a dialogical understanding of legitimation. Legitimation first has to relate to public legitimacy demands and contestations of collaborative governance and second to legitimacy claims issued by collaborative governance networks themselves. Lastly, collaborative governance is dependent on constant self-legitimisation. The paper closes with suggesting a discourse analytic approach to further empirical research on the legitimacy of collaborative governance.

Keywords: legitimacy, collaborative governance, discourse analysis, dialectic legitimation

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Authors: Sameil Hanna Samweil Botros

Abstract:

The variation of social networking websites inside higher training has garnered enormous hobby in recent years, with numerous researchers thinking about it as a possible shift from the conventional lecture room-based learning paradigm. However, this boom in research and carried out research, but the adaption of SNS-based modules has not proliferated inside universities. This paper commences its contribution with the aid of studying the numerous fashions and theories proposed in the literature and amalgamates together various effective aspects for the inclusion of social technology within e-gaining knowledge. A three-phased framework is similarly proposed, which informs the important concerns for the hit edition of SNS in improving the student's mastering experience. This suggestion outlines the theoretical foundations as a way to be analyzed in sensible implementation across worldwide university campuses.

Keywords: eLearning, institutionalization, teaching and learning, transformation vtuber, ray tracing, avatar agriculture, adaptive, e-learning, technology eLearning, higher education, social network sites, student learning

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Authors: Ru-Yin Yang, Chi Wu, Cheng-Yu Tsai, Yin-Tzu Lin, Wen-Te Liu

Abstract:

Background: Sleep breathing disorder (SDB) is a condition demonstrated by recurrent episodes of the airway obstruction leading to intermittent hypoxia and quality fragmentation during sleep time. However, the procedures for SDB severity examination remain complicated and costly. Objective: The objective of this study is to establish a simplified examination method for SDB by the respiratory impendence pattern sensor combining the signal processing and machine learning model. Methodologies: We records heart rate variability by the electrocardiogram and respiratory pattern by impendence. After the polysomnography (PSG) been done with the diagnosis of SDB by the apnea and hypopnea index (AHI), we calculate the episodes with the absence of flow and arousal index (AI) from device record. Subjects were divided into training and testing groups. Neuron network was used to establish a prediction model to classify the severity of the SDB by the AI, episodes, and body profiles. The performance was evaluated by classification in the testing group compared with PSG. Results: In this study, we enrolled 66 subjects (Male/Female: 37/29; Age:49.9±13.2) with the diagnosis of SDB in a sleep center in Taipei city, Taiwan, from 2015 to 2016. The accuracy from the confusion matrix on the test group by NN is 71.94 %. Conclusion: Based on the models, we established a prediction model for SDB by means of the wearable sensor. With more cases incoming and training, this system may be used to rapidly and automatically screen the risk of SDB in the future.

Keywords: sleep breathing disorder, apnea and hypopnea index, body parameters, neuron network

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Authors: Sanghamitra Acharya, Suwarna Datar

Abstract:

Extensive use of digital and smart communication createsprolong expose of unwanted electromagnetic (EM) radiations. This harmful radiation creates not only malfunctioning of nearby electronic gadgets but also severely affects a human being. So, a suitable microwave absorbing material (MAM) becomes a necessary urge in the field of stealth and radar technology. Initially, Aluminum based hexa ferrite was prepared by sol-gel technique and for carbon derived composite was prepared by the simple one port chemical reduction method. Finally, composite films of Poly (Vinylidene) Fluoride (PVDF) are prepared by simple gel casting technique. Present work demands that aluminum-based hexaferrite phase conjugated with graphene in PVDF matrix becomes a suitable candidate both in commercially important X and Ku band. The structural and morphological nature was characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission-scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and Raman spectra which conforms that 30-40 nm particles are well decorated over graphene sheet. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and conducting force microscopy (CFM) study further conforms the magnetic and conducting nature of composite. Finally, shielding effectiveness (SE) of the composite film was studied by using Vector network analyzer (VNA) both in X band and Ku band frequency range and found to be more than 30 dB and 40 dB, respectively. As prepared composite films are excellent microwave absorbers.

Keywords: carbon nanocomposite, microwave absorbing material, electromagnetic shielding, hexaferrite

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Authors: Kalliopi Kanaki, Michael Kalogiannakis

Abstract:

Nowadays, in the digital era, the early acquisition of basic programming skills and knowledge is encouraged, as it facilitates students’ exposure to computational thinking and empowers their creativity, problem-solving skills, and cognitive development. More and more researchers and educators investigate the introduction of computational thinking in K-12 since it is expected to be a fundamental skill for everyone by the middle of the 21st century, just like reading, writing and arithmetic are at the moment. In this paper, a doctoral research in the process is presented, which investigates the infusion of computational thinking into science curriculum in early childhood education. The whole attempt aims to develop young children’s computational thinking by introducing them to the fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming in an enjoyable, yet educational framework. The backbone of the research is the digital environment PhysGramming (an abbreviation of Physical Science Programming), which provides children the opportunity to create their own digital games, turning them from passive consumers to active creators of technology. PhysGramming deploys an innovative hybrid schema of visual and text-based programming techniques, with emphasis on object-orientation. Through PhysGramming, young students are familiarized with basic object-oriented programming concepts, such as classes, objects, and attributes, while, at the same time, get a view of object-oriented programming syntax. Nevertheless, the most noteworthy feature of PhysGramming is that children create their own digital games within the context of physical science courses, in a way that provides familiarization with the basic principles of object-oriented programming and computational thinking, even though no specific reference is made to these principles. Attuned to the ethical guidelines of educational research, interventions were conducted in two classes of second grade. The interventions were designed with respect to the thematic units of the curriculum of physical science courses, as a part of the learning activities of the class. PhysGramming was integrated into the classroom, after short introductory sessions. During the interventions, 6-7 years old children worked in pairs on computers and created their own digital games (group games, matching games, and puzzles). The authors participated in these interventions as observers in order to achieve a realistic evaluation of the proposed educational framework concerning its applicability in the classroom and its educational and pedagogical perspectives. To better examine if the objectives of the research are met, the investigation was focused on six criteria; the educational value of PhysGramming, its engaging and enjoyable characteristics, its child-friendliness, its appropriateness for the purpose that is proposed, its ability to monitor the user’s progress and its individualizing features. In this paper, the functionality of PhysGramming and the philosophy of its integration in the classroom are both described in detail. Information about the implemented interventions and the results obtained is also provided. Finally, several limitations of the research conducted that deserve attention are denoted.

Keywords: computational thinking, early childhood education, object-oriented programming, physical science courses

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