Search results for: artificial neural networks

Authors: Adeleye Johnson Adelagunayeja

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The concept of making cities, communities, and neighborhoods smart, intelligent, and responsive is relatively new to Africa and its urban renewal agencies. Efforts must be made by relevant agencies to begin a holistic review of the implementation of infrastructural facilities and urban renewal methodologies that will revolve around the appreciation and application of artificial intelligence. The propagation of the ideals and benefits of the smart city concept are key factors that can encourage governments of African nations, the African Union, and other regional organizations in Africa to embrace the ideology. The ability of this smart city concept to curb insecurities – armed robbery, assassination, terrorism, and civil disorder – is one major reason, amongst others, why African governments must speedily embrace this contemporary developmental concept whose time has come! The seamlessness to access information and virtually cross-pollinate ideas with people living in already established smart cities, when combined with the great efficiency that the emergence of smart cities brings with it, are other reasons why Africa must come up with action plans that can enable the existing cities to metamorphose into smart cities. Innovations will be required to enable Africa to develop a smart city concept that will be compatible with the basic patterns of livelihood because the essence of the smart city evolution is to make life better for people to co-exist, to be productive and to enjoy standard infrastructural facilities. This research paper enumerates the multifaceted adaptive factors that have the potentials of making the adoption of smartcity concept in Africa seamless. It also proffers solutions to potential bottlenecks capable of undermining the execution of the smart city concept in Africa.

Keywords: smartcity compactibility innovation Africa government evolution, Africa as global village member, evolution in Africa, ways to make Africa adopt smartcity, localizing smartcity concept in Africa, bottleneck to smartcity developmet in Africa

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Authors: Andres Pinilla Palacios, Ricardo Tamayo

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Emotional contagion is characterized as an automatic tendency to synchronize behaviors that facilitate emotional convergence among humans. It might thus play a pivotal role to understand the dynamics of key social interactions. However, a few research has investigated its potential mechanisms. We suggest two complementary but independent processes that may underlie emotional contagion. The efficient contagion hypothesis, based on fast and implicit bottom-up processes, modulated by familiarity and spread of activation in the emotional associative networks of memory. Secondly, the emotional contrast hypothesis, based on slow and explicit top-down processes guided by deliberated appraisal and hypothesis-testing. In order to assess these two hypotheses, an experiment with 39 participants was conducted. In the first phase, participants were induced (between-groups) to an emotional state (positive, neutral or negative) using a standardized video taken from the FilmStim database. In the second phase, participants classified and rated (within-subject) the emotional state of 15 faces (5 for each emotional state) taken from the POFA database. In the third phase, all participants were returned to a baseline emotional state using the same neutral video used in the first phase. In a fourth phase, participants classified and rated a new set of 15 faces. The accuracy in the identification and rating of emotions was partially explained by the efficient contagion hypothesis, but the speed with which these judgments were made was partially explained by the emotional contrast hypothesis. However, results are ambiguous, so a follow-up experiment is proposed in which emotional expressions and activation of the sympathetic system will be measured using EMG and EDA respectively.

Keywords: electromyography, emotional contagion, emotional valence, identification of emotions, imitation

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Authors: Kang-Hsien Li

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Along with global industries in using technology to enhance the application, make the study drawn more close to the people’s behavior and produce data analysis, extended out from the mental accounting of prospect theory, this paper provides the marketing and financial applications in the field of exploration and discussions with the future. For the foreseeable future, the payment behavior depends on the form of currency, which affects a variety of product types on the marketing of marketing strategy to provide diverse payment methods to enhance the overall sales performance. This not only affects people's consumption also affects people's investments. Credit card, PayPal, Apple pay, Bitcoin and any other with advances in technology and other emerging payment instruments, began to affect people for the value and the concept of money. Such as the planning of national social welfare policies, monetary and financial regulators and regulators. The expansion can be expected to discuss marketing and finance-related mental problems at the same time, recent studies reflect two different ideas, the first idea is that individuals affected by situational frames, not broad impact at the event level, affected by the people basically mental, second idea is that when an individual event affects a broader range, and majority of people will choose the same at the time that the rational choice. That are applied to practical application of marketing, at the same time provide an explanation in the financial market under the anomalies, due to the financial markets has varied investment products and different market participants, that also highlights these two points. It would provide in-depth description of humanity's mental. Certainly, about discuss mental accounting aspects, while artificial intelligence application development, although people would be able to reduce prejudice decisions, that will also lead to more discussion on the economic and marketing strategy.

Keywords: mental accounting, behavior economics, consumer behaviors, decision-making

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Authors: Alexander G. Yushchenko

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From a multi-science point of view, we analyze threats to security resulting from globalization of international information space and information and communication aggression of Russia. A definition of Ruschism is formulated as an ideology supporting aggressive actions of modern Russia against the Euro-Atlantic community. Stages of the hybrid war Russia is leading against Ukraine are described, including the elements of subversive activity of the special services, the activation of the military phase and the gradual shift of the focus of confrontation to the realm of information and communication technologies. We reveal an emergence of a threat for democratic states resulting from the destabilizing impact of a target state’s mass media and social networks being exploited by Russian secret services under freedom-of-speech disguise. Thus, we underline the vulnerability of cyber- and information security of the network society in regard of hybrid war. We propose to define the latter a synergetic war. Our analysis is supported with a long-term qualitative monitoring of representation of top state officials on popular TV channels and Facebook. From the memetics point of view, we have detected a destructive psycho-information technology used by the Kremlin, a kind of information catastrophe, the essence of which is explained in detail. In the conclusion, a comprehensive plan for information protection of the public consciousness and mentality of Euro-Atlantic citizens from the aggression of the enemy is proposed.

Keywords: cyber and information security, hybrid war, psycho-information technology, synergetic war, Ruschism

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Authors: Ahmad Khachan, Ahmet Ozmen

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This study aims to introduce a mobile bite-sized learning concept, a mobile application with social networks motivation factors that will encourage students to practice critical thinking, improve analytical skills and learn knowledge sharing. We do not aim to propose another e-learning or distance learning based tool like Moodle and Edmodo; instead, we introduce a mobile learning tool called Interactive M-learning Application. The tool reconstructs and strengthens the bonds between educators and learners and provides a foundation for integrating mobile devices in education. The application allows learners to stay connected all the time, share ideas, ask questions and learn from each other. It is built on Android since the Android has the largest platform share in the world and is dominating the market with 74.45% share in 2018. We have chosen Google-Firebase server for hosting because of flexibility, ease of hosting and real time update capabilities. The proposed m-learning tool was offered to four groups of university students in different majors. An improvement in the relation between the students, the teachers and the academic institution was obvious. Student’s performance got much better added to better analytical and critical skills advancement and moreover a willingness to adopt mobile learning in class. We have also compared our app with another tool in the same class for clarity and reliability of the results. The student’s mobile devices were used in this experimental study for diversity of devices and platform versions.

Keywords: education, engineering, interactive software, undergraduate education

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Authors: Oludare Isaac Abiodun, Esther Omolara Abiodun

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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that cyberterrorism is existing and poses a threat to computer security and national security. Nowadays, people have become excitedly dependent upon computers, phones, the Internet, and the Internet of things systems to share information, communicate, conduct a search, etc. However, these network systems are at risk from a different source that is known and unknown. These network systems risk being caused by some malicious individuals, groups, organizations, or governments, they take advantage of vulnerabilities in the computer system to hawk sensitive information from people, organizations, or governments. In doing so, they are engaging themselves in computer threats, crime, and terrorism, thereby making the use of computers insecure for others. The threat of cyberterrorism is of various forms and ranges from one country to another country. These threats include disrupting communications and information, stealing data, destroying data, leaking, and breaching data, interfering with messages and networks, and in some cases, demanding financial rewards for stolen data. Hence, this study identifies many ways that cyberterrorists utilize the Internet as a tool to advance their malicious mission, which negatively affects computer security and safety. One could identify causes for disparate anomaly behaviors and the theoretical, ideological, and current forms of the likelihood of cyberterrorism. Therefore, for a countermeasure, this paper proposes the use of previous and current computer security models as found in the literature to help in countering cyberterrorism

Keywords: cyberterrorism, computer security, information, internet, terrorism, threat, digital forensic solution

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Authors: Getaneh Berie Tarekegn

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A precise localization system is crucial for many artificial intelligence Internet of Things (AI-IoT) applications in the era of smart cities. Their applications include traffic monitoring, emergency alarming, environmental monitoring, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and smart health care. The most common method for providing continuous positioning services in outdoor environments is by using a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Due to nonline-of-sight, multipath, and weather conditions, GNSS systems do not perform well in dense urban, urban, and suburban areas.This paper proposes a generative AI-based positioning scheme for large-scale wireless settings using fingerprinting techniques. In this article, we presented a semi-supervised deep convolutional generative adversarial network (S-DCGAN)-based radio map construction method for real-time device localization. It also employed a reliable signal fingerprint feature extraction method with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), which extracts dominant features while eliminating noise from hybrid WLAN and long-term evolution (LTE) fingerprints. The proposed scheme reduced the workload of site surveying required to build the fingerprint database by up to 78.5% and significantly improved positioning accuracy. The results show that the average positioning error of GAILoc is less than 0.39 m, and more than 90% of the errors are less than 0.82 m. According to numerical results, SRCLoc improves positioning performance and reduces radio map construction costs significantly compared to traditional methods.

Keywords: location-aware services, feature extraction technique, generative adversarial network, long short-term memory, support vector machine

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Authors: R. Chedid, R. Ghajar

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Lebanon electricity crisis continues to escalate. Rationing hours still apply across the country but with different rates. The capital Beirut is subjected to 3 hours cut while other cities, town and villages may endure 9 to 14 hours of power shortage. To mitigate this situation, private diesel generators distributed illegally all over the country are being used to bridge the gap in power supply. Almost each building in large cities has its own generator and individual villages may have more than one generator supplying their loads. These generators together with their private networks form incomplete and ill-designed and managed microgrids (MG) but can be further developed to become renewable energy-based MG operating in island- or grid-connected modes. This paper will analyze the potential of introducing MG to help resolve the energy crisis in Lebanon. It will investigate the usefulness of developing MG under the prevailing situation of existing private power supply service providers and in light of the developed national energy policy that supports renewable energy development. A case study on a distribution feeder in a rural area will be analyzed using HOMER software to demonstrate the usefulness of introducing photovoltaic (PV) arrays along the existing diesel generators for all the stakeholders; namely, the developers, the customers, the utility and the community at large. Policy recommendations regarding MG development in Lebanon will be presented on the basis of the accumulated experience in private generation and the privatization and public-private partnership laws.

Keywords: decentralized systems, distributed generation, microgrids, renewable energy

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Authors: Gholba Niranjan Dilip, Anil Kumar

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Conduct of accurate reliable mapping of oil palm plantations and census of individual palm trees is a huge challenge. This study addresses this challenge and developed an optimized solution implemented deep learning techniques on remote sensing data. The oil palm is a very important tropical crop. To improve its productivity and land management, it is imperative to have accurate census over large areas. Since, manual census is costly and prone to approximations, a methodology for automated census using panchromatic images from Cartosat-2, SkySat and World View-3 satellites is demonstrated. It is selected two different study sites in Indonesia. The customized set of training data and ground-truth data are created for this study from Cartosat-2 images. The pre-trained model of Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) Lite MobileNet V2 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) from the TensorFlow Object Detection API is subjected to transfer learning on this customized dataset. The SSD model is able to generate the bounding boxes for each oil palm and also do the counting of palms with good accuracy on the panchromatic images. The detection yielded an F-Score of 83.16 % on seven different images. The detections are buffered and dissolved to generate polygons demarcating the boundaries of the oil palm plantations. This provided the area under the plantations and also gave maps of their location, thereby completing the automated census, with a fairly high accuracy (≈100%). The trained CNN was found competent enough to detect oil palm crowns from images obtained from multiple satellite sensors and of varying temporal vintage. It helped to estimate the increase in oil palm plantations from 2014 to 2021 in the study area. The study proved that high-resolution panchromatic satellite image can successfully be used to undertake census of oil palm plantations using CNNs.

Keywords: object detection, oil palm tree census, panchromatic images, single shot multibox detector

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Authors: Vaibhav Pandey, K. Chattopadhyay, N. C. Santhi Srinivas, Vakil Singh

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Aluminium alloy 7075 consist of different intermetallic precipitate particles MgZn2, CuAl2, which result in heterogeneity of micro structure and influence the corrosion properties of the alloy. Artificial ageing was found to enhance the strength properties, but highly susceptible to stress-corrosion cracking. Various conventional surface modification techniques are developed for improving corrosion properties of aluminum alloys. This led to development of novel surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) technique the so called ultrasonic shot peening which gives nano-grain structure at surface. In the present investigation the influence of surface mechanical attrition treatment on corrosion behavior of aluminum alloy 7075 was studied in 3.5wt% NaCl solution. Two different size of 1 mm and 3 mm steel balls are used as peening media and SMAT was carried out for different time intervals 5, 15 and 30 minutes. Surface nano-grains/nano-crystallization was observed after SMAT. The formation of nano-grain structure was observed for larger size balls with time of treatment and consequent increase in micro strain. As-SMATed sample with 1 mm balls exhibits better corrosion resistance as compared to that of un-SMATed sample. The enhancement in corrosion resistance may be due to formation of surface nano-grain structure which reduced the electron release rate. In contrast the samples treated with 3 mm balls showed very poor corrosion resistance. A decrease in corrosion resistance was observed with increase in the time of peening. The decrease in corrosion resistance in the shotpeened samples with larger diameter balls may due to increase in microstrain and defect density.

Keywords: aluminum alloy 7075, corrosion, SMAT, ultrasonic shot peening, surface nano-grains

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Authors: H. M. N. L. Handagiripathira

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The distributions of naturally occurring and anthropogenic radioactive materials were determined in surface sediments taken at 27 different locations along the bank of Negombo Lagoon in Sri Lanka. Hydrographic parameters of lagoon water and the grain size analyses of the sediment samples were also carried out for this study. The conductivity of the adjacent water was varied from 13.6 mS/cm to 55.4 mS/cm near to the southern end and the northern end of the lagoon, respectively, and equally salinity levels varied from 7.2 psu to 32.1 psu. The average pH in the water was 7.6 and average water temperature was 28.7 °C. The grain size analysis emphasized the mass fractions of the samples as sand (60.9%), fine sand (30.6%) and fine silt+clay (1.3%) in the sampling locations. The surface sediment samples of wet weight, 1 kg each from upper 5-10 cm layer, were oven dried at 105 °C for 24 hours to get a constant weight, homogenized and sieved through a 2 mm sieve (IAEA technical series no. 295). The radioactivity concentrations were determined using gamma spectrometry technique. Ultra Low Background Broad Energy High Purity Ge Detector, BEGe (Model BE5030, Canberra) was used for radioactivity measurement with Canberra Industries' Laboratory Source-less Calibration Software (LabSOCS) mathematical efficiency calibration approach and Geometry composer software. The mean activity concentration was found to be 24 ± 4, 67 ± 9, 181 ± 10, 59 ± 8, 3.5 ± 0.4 and 0.47 ± 0.08 Bq/kg for 238U, 232Th, 40K, 210Pb, 235U and 137Cs respectively. The mean absorbed dose rate in air, radium equivalent activity, external hazard index, annual gonadal dose equivalent and annual effective dose equivalent were 60.8 nGy/h, 137.3 Bq/kg, 0.4, 425.3 mSv/year and 74.6 mSv/year, respectively. The results of this study will provide baseline information on the natural and artificial radioactive isotopes and environmental pollution associated with information on radiological risk.

Keywords: gamma spectrometry, lagoon, radioactivity, sediments

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Authors: Shakila Singh

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This research was conducted at a selected South African university campus with women students who drink alcohol. The purpose of the study was to examine their perspectives on the role of alcohol in their lives, their understandings about women’s vulnerability to alcohol-related sexual risk and their strategies against these. The study draws on feminist principles and practices to challenge gendered inequalities that legitimate and facilitate violence against women. Recognising the danger of focusing on risk management in ways that place the burden of responsibility entirely on young women to prevent their violation, this article focuses on women students’ agency in managing risk while taking up opportunities for self-discovery. Participation was voluntary, and a student-researcher administered an open-ended questionnaire to 55 participants. The findings suggest that young women position alcohol- use as a common activity at university, and that it gives them much pleasure. They recognise that it is riskier for women and articulate valuable strategies to manage the risk to their sexual safety when drinking. These include drinking within supportive networks, avoiding financial dependence, and managing their alcohol intake. This article argues that alcohol at university is an integral part of expressions of gender and sexuality and that risk-taking is a normal part of university students’ lives. Consequently, arguments about equality need to consider risk-taking as part of young people’s lives and promote ways of managing alcohol-related risks, rather than imagining that alcohol can be avoided entirely.

Keywords: alcohol-related sexual risk, drinking at university, managing risk, women students

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Authors: Sharda Kumari, Saiman Shetty

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Autonomous trucking is just one of the numerous significant shifts impacting fleet management services. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has defined six levels of vehicle automation that have been adopted internationally, including by the United States Department of Transportation. On public highways in the United States, organizations are testing driverless vehicles with at least Level 4 automation which indicates that a human is present in the vehicle and can disable automation, which is usually done while the trucks are not engaged in highway driving. However, completely driverless vehicles are presently being tested in the state of California. While autonomous trucking can increase safety, decrease trucking costs, provide solutions to trucker shortages, and improve efficiencies, logistics, too, requires advancements to keep up with trucking innovations. Given that artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automated procedures enable people to do their duties in other sectors with fewer resources, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can be applied to the autonomous trucking business to provide the same level of efficiency. In a society witnessing significant digital disruptions, fleet management is likewise being transformed by technology. Utilizing strategic alliances to enhance core services is an effective technique for capitalizing on innovations and delivering enhanced services. Utilizing analytics on CRM systems improves cost control of fuel strategy, fleet maintenance, driver behavior, route planning, road safety compliance, and capacity utilization. Integration of autonomous trucks with automated fleet management, yard/terminal management, and customer service is possible, thus having significant power to redraw the lines between the public and private spheres in autonomous trucking logistics.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, customer relationship management, customer experience, autonomous trucking, digital transformation

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Authors: Ruby Jean Hornsby

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In our rapidly advancing techno-moral world, human-robot relationships are increasingly becoming a part of intimate human life. Indeed, social robots - that is, autonomous or semi-autonomous embodied artificial agents that generally possess human or animal-like qualities (such as responding to environmental stimuli, communicating, learning, performing human tasks, and making autonomous decisions) - have been designed to function as human friends. In light of such advances, immediate philosophical scrutiny is imperative in order to examine the extent to which human-robot interactions constitute genuine friendship and therefore contribute towards the good human life. Aristotle's conception of friendship is philosophically illuminating and sufficiently broad in scope to guide such analysis. On his account, it is necessary (though not sufficient) that for a friendship to exist between two agents - A and B - both agents must have a mutual love for one another. Aristotle claims that A loves B if: Condition 1: A desires those apparent good (qua pleasant, useful, or virtuous) properties attributable to B, and Condition 2: A has goodwill (wishes what is best) for B. This paper argues that human-robot interaction can (and does) successfully meet both conditions; as such, it demonstrates that robots and humans can reciprocally love one another. It will argue for this position by first justifying the claim that a human can desire apparent good features attributable to a robot (i.e., by taking them to be pleasant and/or useful) and outlining how it is that a human can wish a robot well in light of that robot's (quasi-) interests. Next, the paper will argue that a robot can (quasi-)desire certain properties that are attributable to a human before elucidating how it is possible for a robot to act in the interests of a human. Accordingly, this paper will conclude that it is already the case that humans can formulate relationships with robots that involve reciprocated love. This is significant because it suggests that social robots are candidates for human friendship and can therefore contribute toward flourishing human futures.

Keywords: ancient philosophy, friendship, inter-disciplinary applied ethics, love, social robotics

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Authors: Mehmet Balci, Sakir Tasdemir, Mustafa Altin, Ozlem Bozok

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Our globalizing world has become almost a small village and everyone can access any information at any time. Everyone lets each other know who does whatever in which place. We can learn which social events occur in which place in the world. From the perspective of education, the course notes that a lecturer use in lessons in a university in any state of America can be examined by a student studying in a city of Africa or the Far East. This dizzying communication we have mentioned happened thanks to fast developments in computer technologies and in parallel with this, internet technology. While these developments in the world, has a very large young population and a rapidly evolving electronic communications infrastructure Turkey has been affected by this situation. Researches has shown that almost all young people in Turkey has an account in a social network. Especially becoming common of mobile devices causes data traffic in social networks to increase. In this study, has been surveyed on students in the different age groups and at the Selcuk University Vocational School of Technical Sciences Department of Computer Technology. Student’s opinions about the use of internet and social media has been gotten. Using the Internet and social media skills, purposes, operating frequency, access facilities and tools, social life and effects on vocational education etc. have been explored. Both internet and use of social media positive and negative effects on this department students results have been obtained by the obtained findings evaluating from various aspects. Relations and differences have been found out with statistic.

Keywords: computer technologies, internet use, social network, higher vocational school

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Authors: Stephanie Liu Lu

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With the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in the field of education, it is crucial to explore their impact on language learning outcomes. This paper examines the use of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, in practical writing within business Chinese teaching to investigate how AI can enhance practical writing skills and teaching effectiveness. The study involved third and fourth-year university students majoring in accounting and finance from a university in Hong Kong within the context of a business correspondence writing class. Students were randomly assigned to a control group, who completed business letter writing independently, and an experimental group, who completed the writing with the assistance of AI. In the latter, the AI-assisted business letters were initially drafted by the students issuing commands and interacting with the AI tool, followed by the students' revisions of the draft. The paper assesses the performance of both groups in terms of grammatical expression, communicative effect, and situational awareness. Additionally, the study collected dialogue texts from interactions between students and the AI tool to explore factors that affect text generation and the potential impact of AI on enhancing students' communicative and identity awareness. By collecting and comparing textual performances, it was found that students assisted by AI showed better situational awareness, as well as more skilled organization and grammar. However, the research also revealed that AI-generated articles frequently lacked a proper balance of identity and writing purpose due to limitations in students' communicative awareness and expression during the instruction and interaction process. Furthermore, the revision of drafts also tested the students' linguistic foundation, logical thinking abilities, and practical workplace experience. Therefore, integrating AI tools and related teaching into the curriculum is key to the future of business Chinese teaching.

Keywords: AI-assistance, business Chinese, textual analysis, language education

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Authors: Essam Mansour

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The key purpose of this study is to show information-seeking behaviour of Kuwaiti Judges (KJs). Being one of the few studies about the information needs and information-seeking behaviour conducted in Arab and developing countries, this study is a pioneer one among many studies conducted in information seeking, especially with this significant group of information users. The authors tried to investigate this seeking behavior in terms of KJs' thoughts, perceptions, motivations, techniques, preferences, tools and barriers met when seeking information. The authors employed a questionnaire, with a response rate 77.2 percent. This study showed that most of KJs were likely to be older, educated and with a work experience ranged from new to old experience. There is a statistically reliable significant difference between KJs' demographic characteristics and some sources of information, such as books, encyclopedias, references and mass media. KJs were using information moderately to make a decision, to be in line with current events, to collect statistics and to make a specific/general research. The office and home were the most frequent location KJs were accessing information from. KJs' efficiency level of the English language is described to be moderately good, and a little number of them confirmed that their efficiency level of French was not bad. The assistance provided by colleagues, followed by consultants, translators, sectaries and librarians were found to be most strong types of assistance needed when seeking information. Mobile apps, followed by PCs, information networks (the Internet) and information databases were the highest technology tool used by KJs. Printed materials, followed by non-printed and audiovisual materials were the most preferred information formats KJs use. The use of languages, the recency of information and the place of information, the deficit role of the library to deliver information were at least significant barriers to KJs when seeking information.

Keywords: information users, information-seeking behaviour, information needs, judges, Kuwait

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Authors: Sibnath Sarkar

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Developing countries are facing many Social problems. In India, too there are several such problems. The problem of street children is one of them. No country or city anywhere in the world today is without the presence of street children, but the problem is most acute in developing countries. Thousands of street children can be seen in our populous cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and Chennai. Most of them are in the age group of 5-15 years. The number of street children is increasing gradually. Poverty, unemployment, rapid urbanization, rural-urban migrations are the root causes of street children. Being deprive from many of their, they have escaped to the street as a safe place for living. Street children always related with the urban spaces in the developing world and it represents a sad outcome of the rapid urbanization process. After coming to the streets, these children have to cope with the new situation every day. They also adopt or develop many complex survival strategies and a variety of different informal or even illegal activities in public space and form supportive social networks in order to survive in street life. Street children use the different suitable urban spaces as their earning, living, entertaining spot. Therefore, the livelihoods of young people on the street should analyze in relation to the spaces they use, as well as their age and length of stay on the streets. This paper tries to explore the livelihood strategies and copping situation of street children in Sealdah station area. One hundred seventy-five street living children are included in the study living in and around the railway station.

Keywords: strategies, street children, survive, urban-space

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Authors: Osvaldo N. Oliveira Jr.

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The control of molecular architecture inherent in some experimental methods to produce nanostructured films has had great impact on devices of various types, including sensors and biosensors. The self-assembly monolayers (SAMs) and the electrostatic layer-by-layer (LbL) techniques, for example, are now routinely used to produce tailored architectures for biosensing where biomolecules are immobilized with long-lasting preserved activity. Enzymes, antigens, antibodies, peptides and many other molecules serve as the molecular recognition elements for detecting an equally wide variety of analytes. The principles of detection are also varied, including electrochemical methods, fluorescence spectroscopy and impedance spectroscopy. In this presentation an overview will be provided of biosensors made with nanostructured films to detect antibodies associated with tropical diseases and HIV, in addition to detection of analytes of medical interest such as cholesterol and triglycerides. Because large amounts of data are generated in the biosensing experiments, use has been made of computational and statistical methods to optimize performance. Multidimensional projection techniques such as Sammon´s mapping have been shown more efficient than traditional multivariate statistical analysis in identifying small concentrations of anti-HIV antibodies and for distinguishing between blood serum samples of animals infected with two tropical diseases, namely Chagas´ disease and Leishmaniasis. Optimization of biosensing may include a combination of another information visualization method, the Parallel Coordinate technique, with artificial intelligence methods in order to identify the most suitable frequencies for reaching higher sensitivity using impedance spectroscopy. Also discussed will be the possible convergence of technologies, through which machine learning and other computational methods may be used to treat data from biosensors within an expert system for clinical diagnosis.

Keywords: clinical diagnosis, information visualization, nanostructured films, layer-by-layer technique

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Authors: Reihane Mehrparvar

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Human age could exceed further by altering gene expression through food intaking, although as a consequence of recent century eating patterns, human life-span getting shorter by emerging irregulating in autophagy mechanism, insulin, leptin, gut microbiota which are important etiological factors of type-2 diabetes, obesity, infertility, cancer, metabolic and autoimmune diseases. However, restricted calorie intake and vigorous exercise might be beneficial for losing weight and metabolic regulation in a short period but could not be implementable in the long term as a way of life. Therefore, the lack of a dietary program that is compatible with the genes of the body is essential. Sweet and high-glycemic-index (HGI) foods were associated with type-2 diabetes and cancer morbidity. The neuropsychological perspective characterizes the inclination of sweet and HGI-food consumption as addictive behavior; hence this process engages preference of gut microbiota, neural node, and dopaminergic functions. Moreover, meal composition is not the only factor that affects body hemostasis. In this narrative review, it is believed to attempt to investigate how the body responded to different food intakes and represent an accurate model based on current evidence. Eating frequently and ingesting unassimilable protein and carbohydrates may not be compatible with human genes and could cause impairments in the self-renovation mechanism. This trajectory indicates our body is more adapted to starvation and eating animal meat and marrow. Here has been recommended a model that takes into account three important factors: frequent eating, meal composition, and circadian rhythm, which may offer a promising intervention for obesity, inflammation, cardiovascular, autoimmune disorder, type-2 diabetes, insulin resistance, infertility, and cancer through intensifying autophagy-mechanism and eliminate medical costs.

Keywords: metabolic disease, anti-aging, type-2 diabetes, autophagy

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Authors: Jennifer Bradley

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With opportunities to live and work abroad on the rise, effective preparation and support for international employees needs to be addressed within the work-site. International employees must build new habits, routines and social networks in an unfamiliar culture. Culture shock typically occurs within the first year and can affect both physical and psychological health. Employers have the opportunity to support staff through the adaptation process and foster healthy habits and routines. Cross-cultural training that includes a combination of instructional teaching, cultural experiences, and practice, is shown to increase the international employee adaptation process. However, little evidence demonstrates that organizations provide all of these aspects for international employees. The occupational therapy practitioner (OTP) offers a unique perspective focusing on the employee transactional relationship and engagement of meaningful occupations to enhance and enable participation in roles, habits and routines within new cultural contexts. This paper examines one such program developed and implemented by an OTP at the New England Center for Children, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The effectiveness of the program was assessed via participant feedback and concluded that an international employee support program that focuses on a variety of meaningful experiences and knowledge can empower employees to navigate healthy practices, develop habits and routines, and foster positive inter-cultural relationships in the organization and community.

Keywords: occupational therapy practitioner, cross cultural training, international employee health, international employee support

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Authors: Ashokkumar Subbiah

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This study investigates the impact of factors that influenced the success of construction planning for a major construction project in Qatar. An approach of participant observation is adopted which is informed by the principles of ethnography: one that reports the participants’ view of their world rather than imposing an artificial theoretical framework upon it. As participant observant, key factors were observed and identified that had an impact on the management and execution of the construction planning. It is found that a ‘shadow culture’ exists between the project participants which, it is argued, is only observable from the perspective of an embedded participant observer. The shadow culture acts to enable the management of the planning process, and its efficacy relates to the ‘quality’ of human inter-relationships amongst immediate stakeholders. Whilst this study uses the concept of shadow culture, it is treated as both a methodological stance and one of the findings of this research in the context of the major construction project in Qatar. The concept of shadow culture is not imposed upon the findings, but instead is used as a research tool: respondents report their own worldview and this is reported from the view of a participant observant in a manner that is understandable and useful to those who are not part of the construction project. The findings of this study identify similar factors influencing the planning process of the Qatar project, but the shadow culture predominantly influences these factors towards the failure of planning process. The research concludes by questioning the assumption that construction planning is a mechanistic process that has to be conducted solely by the planning team. Instead, it is a highly social phenomenon in which the seemingly mechanistic process is made workable by the quality of relationships that exist in the project. Drawing on this the final section provides a series of recommendations that may be helpful in enhancing the efficacy of project planning; these include better training/education at the pre-construction phase; recognition of the importance of shadow processes at management levels, and better appreciation of the impact of contract type and chosen procurement route.

Keywords: construction planning, participant observation, project participants, shadow culture

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Authors: Camilo A. Guerrero-Martin, Erik Montes Paez, Marcia C. K. Oliveira, Jonathan Campos, Elizabete F. Lucas

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Asphaltenes precipitation is considered as a formation damage problem, which can reduce the oil recovery factor. It fouls piping and surface installations, as well as cause serious flow assurance complications and decline oil well production. Therefore, researchers have shown an interest in chemical treatments to control this phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to assess the asphaltenes precipitation onset of crude oils in the presence of cardanol, by titrating the crude with n-heptane. Moreover, based on this results obtained at atmosphere pressure, the asphaltenes precipitation onset pressure were calculated to predict asphaltenes precipitation in the reservoir, by using differential liberation and refractive index data of the oils. The influence of cardanol concentrations in the asphaltenes stabilization of three Brazilian crude oils samples (with similar API densities) was studied. Therefore, four formulations of cardanol in toluene were prepared: 0, 3, 5, 10 and 15 m/m%. The formulations were added to the crude at 2:98 ratio. The petroleum samples were characterized by API density, elemental analysis and differential liberation test. The asphaltenes precipitation onset (APO) was determined by titrating with n-heptane and monitoring with near-infrared (NIR). UV-Vis spectroscopy experiments were also done to assess the precipitate asphaltenes content. The asphaltenes precipitation envelopes (APE) were also determined by numerical simulation (Multiflash). In addition, the adequate artificial lift systems (ALS) for the oils were selected. It was based on the downhole well profile and a screening methodology. Finally, the oil flowrates were modelling by NODAL analysis production system in the PIPESIM software. The results of this study show that the asphaltenes precipitation onset of the crude oils were 2.2, 2.3 and 6.0 mL of n-heptane/g of oil. The cardanol was an effective inhibitor of asphaltenes precipitation for the crude oils used in this study, since it displaces the precipitation pressure of the oil to lower values. This indicates that cardanol can increase the oil wells productivity.

Keywords: asphaltenes, NODAL analysis production system, precipitation pressure onset, inhibitory molecule

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Authors: Giulia Sarego, Lorenzo Olivieri, Andrea Valmorbida, Carlo Bettanini, Giacomo Colombatti, Marco Pertile, Enrico C. Lorenzini

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International guidelines recommend removing any artificial body in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) within 25 years from mission completion. Among disposal strategies, electrodynamic tethers appear to be a promising option for LEO, thanks to the limited storage mass and the minimum interface requirements to the host spacecraft. In particular, recent technological advances make it feasible to deorbit large objects with tether lengths of a few kilometers or less. To further investigate such an innovative passive system, the European Union is currently funding the project E.T.PACK – Electrodynamic Tether Technology for Passive Consumable-less Deorbit Kit in the framework of the H2020 Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Open program. The project focuses on the design of an end of life disposal kit for LEO satellites. This kit aims to deploy a taped tether that can be activated at the spacecraft end of life to perform autonomous deorbit within the international guidelines. In this paper, the orbital performance of the E.T.PACK deorbiting kit is compared to other disposal methods. Besides, the orbital decay prediction is parametrized as a function of spacecraft mass and tether system performance. Different values of length, width, and thickness of the tether will be evaluated for various scenarios (i.e., different initial orbital parameters). The results will be compared to other end-of-life disposal methods with similar allocated resources. The analysis of the more innovative system’s performance with the tape coated with a thermionic material, which has a low work-function (LWT), for which no active component for the cathode is required, will also be briefly discussed. The results show that the electrodynamic tether option can be a competitive and performant solution for satellite disposal compared to other deorbit technologies.

Keywords: deorbiting performance, H2020, spacecraft disposal, space electrodynamic tethers

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Authors: Marwa T. Badawy, Alaa F. Bakr, Nesrine Hegazi, Mohamed A. Farag, Ahmed Abdellatif

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Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease affecting a large population worldwide. Africa is rich in native medicinal plants with myriad health benefits, though less explored towards the development of specific drug therapy as in diabetes. This study aims to determine the in vivo antidiabetic potential of the well-reported and traditionally used fruits of Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) using STZ induced diabetic model. The in-vitro cytotoxic and antioxidant properties were examined using MTT assay on L-929 fibroblast cells and DPPH antioxidant assays, respectively. The extract showed minimal cytotoxicity with an IC50 value of 105.7 µg/mL. Histopathological and immunohistochemical investigations showed the hepatoprotective and the renoprotective effects of A. digitata fruits’ extract, implying its protective effects against diabetes complications. These findings were further supported by biochemical assays, which showed that i.p., injection of a low dose (150 mg/kg) of A. digitata twice a week lowered the fasting blood glucose levels, lipid profile, hepatic and renal markers. For a comprehensive overview of extract metabolites composition, ultrahigh performance (UHPLC) analysis coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HRMS/MS) in synchronization with molecular networks led to the annotation of 77 metabolites, among which 50% are reported for the first time in A. digitata fruits.

Keywords: adansonia digital, diabetes mellitus, metabolomics, streptozotocin, Sprague, dawley rats

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Kers Kapaj, Rialda Xhizdari, Ilma Robo

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Dealing with emerging cases of dental malpractice with justifications that stem from the clear rules of dental ethics is a phenomenon with an increasing trend in today's dental practice. Dentists should clearly understand how far the limit of malpractice goes, with or without minimal or major consequences, for the affected patient, which can be justified as a complication of dental treatment, in support of the rules of dental ethics in the dental office. Indeed, malpractice can occur in cases of lack of professionalism, but it can also come as a consequence of anatomical and physiological limitations in the implementation of the dental protocols, predetermined and indicated by the patient in the paragraph of the treatment plan in his personal card. This study is of the review type with the aim of the latest findings published in the literature about the problem of dealing with these phenomena. The combination of keywords is done in such a way with the aim to give the necessary space for collecting the right information in the networks of publications about this field, always first from the point of view of the dentist and not from that of the lawyer or jurist. From the findings included in this article, it was noticed the diversity of approaches towards the phenomenon depends on the different countries based on the legal basis that these countries have. There is a lack of or a small number of articles that touch on this topic, and these articles are presented with a limited number of data on the same topic. Conclusions: Dental malpractice should not be hidden under the guise of various dental complications that we justify with the strict rules of ethics for patients treated in the dental chair. The individual experience of dental malpractice must be published with the aim of serving as a source of experience for future generations of dentists.

Keywords: dental ethics, malpractice, professional protocol, random deviation

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Authors: M. Parvez Alam, M. Bilal Khan

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Concrete is the material of choice where strength, performance, durability, impermeability, fire resistance, and abrasion resistance are required. The hunger for the higher strength leads to other materials to achieve the desired results and thus, emerged the contribution of cementitious material for the strength of concrete In present day constructions, concrete is chosen as one of the best choices by civil engineers in construction materials. The concept of sustainability is touching new heights and many pozzolonic materials are tried and tested as partial replacement for the cement. In this paper, comprehensive review of available literatures are studied to evaluate the performance of pozzolonic materials such as ceramic waste powder, copper slag, silica fume on the strength of concrete by the partial replacement of ordinary materials such as cement, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate at different percentage of composition. From the study, we conclude that ceramic wastes are suitable to be used in the construction industry, and more significantly on the making of concrete. Ceramic wastes are found to be suitable for usage as substitution for fine and coarse aggregates and partial substitution in cement production. They were found to be performing better than normal concrete, in properties such as density, durability, permeability, and compressive strength. Copper slag is the waste material of matte smelting and refining of copper such that each ton of copper generates approximately 2.5 tons of copper slag. Copper slag is one of the materials that is considered as a waste which could have a promising future in construction Industry as partial or full substitute of aggregates. Silica fume, also known as micro silica or condensed silica fume, is a relatively new material compared to fly ash, It is another material that is used as an artificial pozzolonic admixture. High strength concrete made with silica fume provides high abrasion/corrosion resistance.

Keywords: concrete, pozzolonic materials, ceramic waste powder, copper slag

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Authors: Ramiz Kuliev, Fuad Kuliev-Smirnov

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The 'Shadow Sparring' training exercise is widely used in the training of boxers and martial artists. The main disadvantage of the usual shadow sparring is that the trainer cannot fully control such training and evaluate its results. During the competition, the athlete, preparing for the upcoming fight, imagines the Shadow (upcoming opponent) in accordance with his own imagination. A ‘Smart-Shadow Sparring’ (SSS) is an innovative version of the ‘Shadow Sparring’. During SSS, the fighter will see the Shadow (virtual opponent that moves, defends, and punches) and understand when he misses the punches from the Shadow. The task of a real athlete is to spar with a virtual one, move around, punch in the direction of unprotected areas of the Shadow and dodge his punches. Moves and punches of Shadow are set up before each training. The system will give the coach full information about virtual sparring: (i) how many and what type of punches has the fighter landed, (ii) accuracy of these punches, (iii) how many and what type of virtual punches (punches of Smart-Shadow) has the fighter missed, etc. SSS will be recorded as animated fighting of two fighters and will help the coach to analyze past training. SSS can be configured to fit the physical and technical characteristics of the next real opponent (size, techniques, speed, missed and landed punches, etc.). This will allow to simulate and rehearse the upcoming fight and improve readiness for the next opponent. For amateur fighters, SSS will be reconfigured several times during a tournament, when the real opponent becomes known. SSS can be used in three versions: (1) Digital Shadow: the athlete will see a Shadow on a monitor (2) VR-Shadow: the athlete will see a Shadow in a VR-glasses (3) Smart Shadow: a Shadow will be controlled by artificial intelligence. These technologies are based on the ‘semi-real simulation’ method. The technology allows coaches to train athletes remotely. Simulation of different opponents will help the athletes better prepare for competition. Repeat rehearsals of the upcoming fight will help improve results. SSS can improve results in Boxing, Taekwondo, Karate, and Fencing. 41 sets of medals will be awarded in these sports at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Keywords: boxing, combat sports, fight simulation, shadow sparring

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Authors: Jeffrey Chase

Abstract:

Historically the profession of Occupational Therapy was closely tied to the treatment of those suffering from mental illness; more recently, and especially in the U.S., the percentage of OTs identifying as working in the mental health area has declined significantly despite the estimate that by 2020 behavioral health disorders will surpass physical illnesses as the major cause of disability worldwide. In the U.S. less than 10% of OTs identify themselves as working with the mentally ill and/or practicing in mental health settings. Such a decline has implications for both those suffering from mental illness and the profession of Occupational Therapy. One reason cited for the decline of OT in mental health has been the limited research in the discipline addressing mental health practice. Despite significant advances in technology and growth in the field of neuroscience, major institutions and funding sources such as the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have noted that research into the etiology and treatment of mental illness have met with limited success over the past 25 years. One major reason posited by NIMH is that research has been limited by how we classify individuals, that being mostly on what is observable. A new classification system being developed by NIMH, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoc), has the goal to look beyond just descriptors of disorders for common neural, genetic, and physiological characteristics that cut across multiple supposedly separate disorders. The hope is that by classifying individuals along RDoC measures that both reliability and validity will improve resulting in greater advances in the field. As a result of this change NIH and NIMH will prioritize research funding to those projects using the RDoC model. Multiple disciplines across many different setting will be required for RDoC or similar classification systems to be developed. During this shift in research methodology OT has an opportunity to reassert itself into the research and treatment of mental illness, both in developing new ways to more validly classify individuals, and to document the legitimacy of previously ill-defined and validated disorders such as sensory integration.

Keywords: global mental health and neuroscience, research opportunities for ot, greater integration of ot in mental health research, research and funding opportunities, research domain criteria (rdoc)

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Authors: Sandra Baez, Mariana Pino, Mildred Berrio, Hernando Santamaria-Garcia, Lucas Sedeno, Adolfo Garcia, Sol Fittipaldi, Agustin Ibanez

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Schadenfreude refers to the perceiver’s experience of pleasure at another’s misfortune. This is a multidetermined emotion which can be evoked by hostile feelings and envy. The experience of Schadenfreude engages mechanisms implicated in diverse social cognitive processes. For instance, Schadenfreude involves heightened reward processing, accompanied by increased striatal engagement and it interacts with mentalizing and perspective-taking abilities. Patients with Huntington's disease (HD) exhibit reductions of Schadenfreude experience, suggesting a role of striatal degeneration in such an impairment. However, no study has directly assessed the relationship between regional brain atrophy in HD and reduced Schadenfreude. This study investigated whether gray matter (GM) atrophy in HD patients correlates with ratings of Schadenfreude. First, we compared the performance of 20 HD patients and 23 controls on an experimental task designed to trigger Schadenfreude and envy (another social emotion acting as a control condition). Second, we compared GM volume between groups. Third, we examined brain regions where atrophy might be associated with specific impairments in the patients. Results showed that while both groups showed similar ratings of envy, HD patients reported lower Schadenfreude. The latter pattern was related to atrophy in regions of the reward system (ventral striatum) and the mentalizing network (precuneus and superior parietal lobule). Our results shed light on the intertwining of reward and socioemotional processes in Schadenfreude, while offering novel evidence about their neural correlates. In addition, our results open the door to future studies investigating social emotion processing in other clinical populations characterized by striatal or mentalizing network impairments (e.g., Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders).

Keywords: envy, Gray matter atrophy, Huntigton's disease, Schadenfreude, social emotions

Procedia PDF Downloads 312