Search results for: traditional values

Authors: Hasti Ebrahimi

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This study sheds light on the challenges and difficulties caused by the Iranian clerical system’s intervention in the country’s school education during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools remained closed for almost two years. The pandemic brought Iranian elementary school education to a standstill for almost 6 months before the country developed a nationwide learning platform – a customized television network. While the initiative seemed to have been welcomed by the majority of Iranian parents, it resented some of the more traditional strata of the society, including the influential Friday Prayer Leaders who found the televised version of the elementary education ‘less spiritual’ and ‘more ‘material’ or science-based. That prompted the Iranian Channel of Education, the specialized television network that had been chosen to serve as a nationally televised school during the pandemic, to try to redefine much of its online elementary school educational content within the religious ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, young clergies appeared on the television screen as preachers of Islamic morality, religious themes and even sociology, history, and arts. The present research delves into the consequences of such an intervention, how it might have impacted the infrastructure of Iranian elementary education and whether or not the new ideology-infused curricula would withstand the opposition of students and mainstream teachers. The main methodology used in this study is Critical Discourse Analysis with a cognitive approach. It systematically finds and analyzes the alternative ideological structures of discourse in the Iranian Channel of Education from September 2021 to July 2022, when the clergy ‘teachers’ replaced ‘regular’ history and arts teachers on the television screen for the first time. It has aimed to assess how the various uses of the alternative ideological discourse in elementary school content have influenced the processes of learning: the acquisition of knowledge, beliefs, opinions, attitudes, abilities, and other cognitive and emotional changes, which are the goals of institutional education. This study has been an effort aimed at understanding and perhaps clarifying the relationships between the traditional textual structures and processing on the one hand and socio-cultural contexts created by the clergy teachers on the other. This analysis shows how the clerical portion of elementary education on the Channel of Education that seemed to have dominated the entire televised teaching and learning process faded away as the pandemic was contained and mainstream classes were restored. It nevertheless reflects the deep ideological rifts between the clerical approach to school education and the mainstream teaching process in Iranian schools. The semantic macrostructures of social content in the current Iranian elementary school education, this study suggests, have remained intact despite the temporary ideological intervention of the ruling clerical elite in their formulation and presentation. Finally, using thematic and schematic frameworks, the essay suggests that the ‘clerical’ social content taught on the Channel of Education during the pandemic cannot have been accepted cognitively by the channel’s target audience, including students and mainstream teachers.

Keywords: televised elementary school learning, Covid 19, critical discourse analysis, Iranian clerical ideology

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Authors: Davide Forcellini

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The most recent development of earthquake engineering is based on concept of design consisting in prescribed performance rather than the more traditional prescriptive approaches. The paper aims to assess the effects of isolation devices and soil structure interaction on a benchmark bridge adopting a Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering methodology. Several isolated configurations of abutments and pier connections are compared performing the most representative isolation devices. Isolation systems suitability depends on many factors, mainly connected with ground effects. In this regard, the second purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on the studied bridge configurations. Contributions of isolation technique and soil structure interaction are assessed evaluating the resistance effects applied to Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) levels in terms of cost and time repair quantities.

Keywords: base isolation, bridge, earthquake engineering, non linearity, PBEE methodology, seismic assessment, soil structure interaction

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Authors: Maziyar Nouraee

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Electronic markets in recent decades contribute remarkably in business transactions. Many organizations consider traditional ways of trade non-economical and therefore they do trade only through electronic markets. There are different categorizations of electronic markets functions. In one classification, functions of electronic markets are categorized into classes as information, transactions, and value added. In the present paper, effects of the three classes on the two major elements of the supply chain management are measured. The two elements are decrease in the product unit cost and reduction in response time to the customer. The results of the current research show that among nine minor elements related to the three classes of electronic markets functions, six factors and three factors influence on reduction of the product unit cost and reduction of response time to the customer, respectively.

Keywords: electronic commerce, electronic market, B2B trade, supply chain management

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Authors: Ahmed Elsebaay, Maged A. Abu Adma, Mahmoud Ramadan

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This study presents a technique clarifying the effect of ambient air temperature and loads power factor changing from standard values on electric generator power rating. The study introduces an optimized technique for selecting the correct electric generator power rating for certain application and operating site ambient temperature. The de-rating factors due to the previous effects will be calculated to be applied on a generator to select its power rating accurately to avoid unsafe operation and save its lifetime. The information in this paper provides a simple, accurate, and general method for synchronous generator selection and eliminates common errors.

Keywords: ambient temperature, de-rating factor, electric generator, power factor

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Authors: Saud Eid Alanazi

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The study aimed at recognizing the obstacles of applying of Electronic Administration (e-administration), which refers to any of a number of mechanisms which convert what in a traditional office are paper processes into electronic processes, with the goal being to create a paperless office and improve productivity and performance at the University of Tabuk from its Academic Leaders' Perspectives. The sample of the study consisted of (98) members from deans, vice deans and head of departments from different specialization, gender and position. For achieving the aim of the study, a questionnaire was developed including (45) items distributed into three domains (administrative, human and technical obstacles) . By using appropriate statistical methods to analyze the information, the results indicated that the administrative obstacles domain came in the first rank with a high degree, and the human and technical obstacles came at the second rank with a moderate degree. The study also showed that there were no statistically significant differences attributed to the variables of the members (specialization, gender and position).

Keywords: administration, electronic administration, obstacles, technology, universities

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Authors: Bello Muhammad Dogon Kade

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The study was conducted to determine the effect of a treated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) shell in a complete diet on blood metabolites and microbial load in fattening Yankasa rams. The study was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm (Small Ruminants Unit of Animal Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Each kilogram of groundnut shell was treated with 5% urea and 5% lime for treatments 2 (UTGNS) and 3 (LTGNS), respectively. For treatment 4 (ULTGNS), 1 kg of groundnut shell was treated with 2.5% urea and 2.5% lime, but the shell in treatment 1 was not treated (UNTGNS). Sixteen Yankasa rams were used and randomly assigned to the four treatment diets with four animals per treatment in a completely randomized design (CRD). The diet was formulated to have 14% crude protein (CP) content. Rumen fluid was collected from each ram at the end of the experiment at 0 and 4 hours post-feeding. The samples were then put in a 30 ml bottle and acidified with 5 drops of concentrated sulphuric (0.1N H₂SO4) acid to trap ammonia. The results of the blood metabolites showed that the mean values of NH₃-N differed significantly (P<0.05) among the treatment groups, with rams in the ULTGNS diet having the highest significant value (31.96 mg/L). TVFs were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rams fed UNTGNS diet and higher in total nitrogen; the effect of sampling periods revealed that NH3N, TVFs and TP were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rumen fluid collected 4hrs post feeding among the rams across the treatment groups, but rumen fluid pH was significantly (p<0.05) higher in 0-hour post-feeding in all the rams in the treatment diets. In the treatment and sampling period’s interaction effects, animals on the ULTGNS diet had the highest mean values of NH3N in both 0 and 4 hours post-feeding and were significantly (P<0.5) higher compared to rams on the other treatment diets. Rams on the UTGNS diet had the highest bacteria load of 4.96X105/ml, which was significantly (P<0.05) higher than a microbial load of animals fed UNTGNS, LTGNS and ULTGNS diets. However, protozoa counts were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rams fed the UTGNS diet than those followed by the ULTGNS diet. The results showed that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the bacteria count of the animals at both 0 and 4 hours post-feeding. But rumen fungi and protozoa load at 0 hours were significantly (P<0.05) higher than at 4 hours post-feeding. The use of untreated ground groundnut shells in the diet of fattening Yankasa ram is therefore recommended.

Keywords: blood metabolites, microbial load, volatile fatty acid, ammonia, total protein

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Authors: Philipp Sommer, Amgad Agoub

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The construction sector significantly impacts global CO₂ emissions, particularly through the energy usage of residential buildings. To address this, various governments, including Germany's, are focusing on reducing emissions via sustainable refurbishment initiatives. This study examines the application of machine learning (ML) to estimate energy demands dynamically in residential buildings and enhance the potential for large-scale sustainable refurbishment. A major challenge in Germany is the lack of extensive publicly labeled datasets for energy performance, as energy performance certificates, which provide critical data on building-specific energy requirements and consumption, are not available for all buildings or require on-site inspections. Conversely, England and other countries in the European Union (EU) have rich public datasets, providing a viable alternative for analysis. This research adapts insights from these English datasets to the German context by developing a comprehensive data schema and calibration dataset capable of predicting building energy demand effectively. The study proposes a minimal feature set, determined through feature importance analysis, to optimize the ML model. Findings indicate that ML significantly improves the scalability and accuracy of energy demand forecasts, supporting more effective emissions reduction strategies in the construction industry. Integrating energy performance certificates into municipal heat planning in Germany highlights the transformative impact of data-driven approaches on environmental sustainability. The goal is to identify and utilize key features from open data sources that significantly influence energy demand, creating an efficient forecasting model. Using Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) and data from energy performance certificates, effective features such as building type, year of construction, living space, insulation level, and building materials were incorporated. These were supplemented by data derived from descriptions of roofs, walls, windows, and floors, integrated into three datasets. The emphasis was on features accessible via remote sensing, which, along with other correlated characteristics, greatly improved the model's accuracy. The model was further validated using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values and aggregated feature importance, which quantified the effects of individual features on the predictions. The refined model using remote sensing data showed a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.64 and a mean absolute error (MAE) of 4.12, indicating predictions based on efficiency class 1-100 (G-A) may deviate by 4.12 points. This R² increased to 0.84 with the inclusion of more samples, with wall type emerging as the most predictive feature. After optimizing and incorporating related features like estimated primary energy consumption, the R² score for the training and test set reached 0.94, demonstrating good generalization. The study concludes that ML models significantly improve prediction accuracy over traditional methods, illustrating the potential of ML in enhancing energy efficiency analysis and planning. This supports better decision-making for energy optimization and highlights the benefits of developing and refining data schemas using open data to bolster sustainability in the building sector. The study underscores the importance of supporting open data initiatives to collect similar features and support the creation of comparable models in Germany, enhancing the outlook for environmental sustainability.

Keywords: machine learning, remote sensing, residential building, energy performance certificates, data-driven, heat planning

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Authors: Stephen Clear

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Brexit, the relationship between devolved administrations, and Westminster, as well as recent Supreme Court judgments, all evidence that traditional paradigms in the divide between legal and political constitutionalism are changing within the United Kingdom. Whilst not mutually exclusive concepts, these latest constitutional developments suggest that the UK is about to embark upon radical constitutional reform over the course of the next decade. Such will systematically redefine the roles and relationships of each of the three arms of the State. In mapping these three latest events, this paper starts by defining constitutionalism as a jurisprudential concept, from the Age of Enlightenment, through to its present day manifestations in 2020. Such thereafter explains why the UK is seeking to move further away from political constitutionalism, and instead towards an increased reliance on newly defined laws and rules, particularly given that the UK now has a government with a stronger working majority following the general election results in 2019. In doing so, this paper concludes by commenting upon recent concerns surrounding the potential for the politicization of the judiciary within the United Kingdom, at a time when the UK Prime Minister is seeking to redefine the country’s constitutional rulebook.

Keywords: United Kingdom, Brexit, constitutionalism, law, politics, constitutional reform, separation of powers

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Authors: Farzad Hosseini Hossein Abadi, Cristina Prieto Sierra, Cesar Álvarez Díaz

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Predicting streamflow accurately in flashy catchments prone to floods is a major research and operational challenge in hydrological modeling. Recent advancements in deep learning, particularly Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, have shown to be promising in achieving accurate hydrological predictions at daily and hourly time scales. In this work, a multi-timescale LSTM (MTS-LSTM) network was applied to the context of regional hydrological predictions at an hourly time scale in flashy catchments. The case study includes 40 catchments allocated in the Basque Country, north of Spain. We explore the impact of hyperparameters on the performance of streamflow predictions given by regional deep learning models through systematic hyperparameter tuning - where optimal regional values for different catchments are identified. The results show that predictions are highly accurate, with Nash-Sutcliffe (NSE) and Kling-Gupta (KGE) metrics values as high as 0.98 and 0.97, respectively. A principal component analysis reveals that a hyperparameter related to the length of the input sequence contributes most significantly to the prediction performance. The findings suggest that input sequence lengths have a crucial impact on the model prediction performance. Moreover, employing catchment-scale analysis reveals distinct sequence lengths for individual basins, highlighting the necessity of customizing this hyperparameter based on each catchment’s characteristics. This aligns with well known “uniqueness of the place” paradigm. In prior research, tuning the length of the input sequence of LSTMs has received limited focus in the field of streamflow prediction. Initially it was set to 365 days to capture a full annual water cycle. Later, performing limited systematic hyper-tuning using grid search, revealed a modification to 270 days. However, despite the significance of this hyperparameter in hydrological predictions, usually studies have overlooked its tuning and fixed it to 365 days. This study, employing a simultaneous systematic hyperparameter tuning approach, emphasizes the critical role of input sequence length as an influential hyperparameter in configuring LSTMs for regional streamflow prediction. Proper tuning of this hyperparameter is essential for achieving accurate hourly predictions using deep learning models.

Keywords: LSTMs, streamflow, hyperparameters, hydrology

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Authors: Kartina Sury Kariman

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Brand-to-customer (B2C) engagement has been well established through the traditional platform such as direct sales, advertising, customer service center, customer hotline as well as brand usage experiences. Increasingly, interest to B2C has evolved to include customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction analysis aligned with the vast growth of web 2.0. Hence, discussion on C2C interaction and brand strategy have captured social media as it enables brands and C2C interaction to be connected in various ways, providing opportunities for marketers to shape their brand engagement strategy while reaching C2C as the targeted outcomes. The objective here is to provide a preliminary review of C2C interaction consisting the antecedents and consequences while highlighting areas of research interest within the context from marketers perspective and the business outcomes. This paper discusses how C2C interaction defines marketers’ brand and communication strategy and how social media trend shapes the strategy when promoting the awareness of life insurance industry and educating the target market.

Keywords: social media, brand engagement, customer interaction, customer engagement, brand strategy, life insurance

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Authors: G. Nitesh

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The shear strength of soils is a crucial parameter instability analysis. Therefore, it is important to determine reliable values for the accuracy of stability analysis. Direct shear tests are mostly performed to determine the shear strength of cohesionless soils. The major limitation of the direct shear test is that the failure takes place through the pre-defined failure plane but the failure is not along pre-defined plane and is along the weakest plane in actual shearing mechanism that goes on in the field. This leads to overestimating the strength parameter; hence, a new apparatus called simple shear is developed and used in this study to determine the shear strength parameter that simulates the field conditions.

Keywords: direct shear, simple shear, angle of shear resistance, cohesionless soils

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Authors: Chien-Wan Hun, Shao-Fu Chang, Chien-Chon Chen, Ker-Jer Huang

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This study presents how to use a high-efficiency process for producing cesium iodide (CsI) crystal columns by rapid heating method. In the past, the heating rate of the resistance wire heating furnace was relatively slow and excessive iodine and CsI vapors were therefore generated during heating. Because much iodine and CsI vapors are produced during heating process, the composition of CsI crystal columns is not correct. In order to enhance the heating rate, making CsI material in the heating process can quickly reach the melting point temperature. This study replaced the traditional type of external resistance heating furnace with halogen-type quartz heater, and then, CsI material can quickly reach the melting point. Eventually, CsI melt can solidify in the anodic aluminum template forming CsI crystal columns.

Keywords: cesium iodide, high efficiency, vapor, rapid heating, crystal column

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Authors: Carlu Van Der Westhuizen

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The South African Agricultural Sector is of major socio-economic importance to the country due to its contribution in maintaining stability in food production and food security, providing labour opportunities, eradicating poverty and earning foreign currency. Against this reality, this paper investigates within the Agricultural Sector in South Africa the changes in Land Policies that the new democratically elected government (African National Congress) brought about since their takeover in 1994. The change in the agricultural environment is decidedly dualistic, with 1) a commercial sector, and 2) a subsistence and emerging farmer sector. The future demands and challenges are mostly identified as those of land redistribution and social upliftment. Opportunities that arose from the challenge of change are, among others, the small-holder participation in the value chain, while the challenge of change in Agriculture and the opportunities that were identified could serve as a yardstick against which the Sectors’ (Agriculture) Performance could be measured in future. Unfortunately, despite all Governments’ Policies, Programmes and Projects and inputs of the Private Sector, the outcomes are, to a large extend, unsuccessful. The urgency with the Land Redistribution Programme is that, for the period 1994 – 2014, only 7.5% of the 30% aim in the redistribution of land was achieved. Another serious aspect of concern is that 90% of the Land Redistribution Projects are not in a state of productive use by emerging farmers. Several reasons may be offered for these failures, amongst others the uncoordinated way in which different stakeholders are involved in a specific farming project. These stakeholders could generally in most cases be identified as: - The Government as the policy maker; - The Private Sector that has the potential to contribute to the sustainable pre- and post-settlement stages of the Programme by cooperating the supporting services to Government; - Inputs from the communities in rural areas where the settlement takes place; - The landowners as sellers of land (e.g. a Traditional Council); and - The emerging beneficiaries as the receivers of land. Mentorship is mostly the medium with which the support are coordinated. In this paper focus will be on three scenarios of different types of mentorship (or management support) namely: - The Taung Irrigation Scheme (TIS) where multiple new land beneficiaries were established by sharing irrigation pivots and receiving mentorship support from commodity organisations within a traditional land sharing system; - Projects whereby the mentor is a strategic partner (mostly a major agricultural 'cooperative' which is also providing inputs to the farmer and responsible for purchasing/marketing all commodities produced); and - An individual mentor who is a private person focussing mainly on farm management mentorship without direct gain other than a monthly stipend paid to the mentor by Government. Against this introduction the focus of the study is investigating the process for the sustainable implementation of Governments’ Land Redistribution in South African Agriculture. To achieve this, the research paper is presented under the themes of problem statement, objectives, methodology and limitations, outline of the research process, as well as proposing possible solutions.

Keywords: land reform, role-players, failures, mentorship, management models

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Authors: Chiyoung Kim, Jaegeol Yim

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Bus service is often either main or the only public transportation available in cities. In metropolitan areas, both subways and buses are available whereas in the medium sized cities buses are usually the only type of public transportation available. Bus Information Systems (BIS) provide current locations of running buses, efficient routes to travel from one place to another, points of interests around a given bus stop, a series of bus stops consisting of a given bus route, and so on to users. Thanks to BIS, people do not have to waste time at a bus stop waiting for a bus because BIS provides exact information on bus arrival times at a given bus stop. Therefore, BIS does a lot to promote the use of buses contributing to pollution reduction and saving natural resources. BIS implementation costs a huge amount of budget as it requires a lot of special equipment such as road side equipment, automatic vehicle identification and location systems, trunked radio systems, and so on. Consequently, medium and small sized cities with a low budget cannot afford to install BIS even though people in these cities need BIS service more desperately than people in metropolitan areas. It is possible to provide BIS service at virtually no cost under the assumption that everybody carries a smartphone and there is at least one person with a smartphone in a running bus who is willing to reveal his/her location details while he/she is sitting in a bus. This assumption is usually true in the real world. The smartphone penetration rate is greater than 100% in the developed countries and there is no reason for a bus driver to refuse to reveal his/her location details while driving. We have developed a mobile app that periodically reads values of sensors including GPS and sends GPS data to the server when the bus stops or when the elapsed time from the last send attempt is greater than a threshold. This app detects the bus stop state by investigating the sensor values. The server that receives GPS data from this app has also been developed. Under the assumption that the current locations of all running buses collected by the mobile app are recorded in a database, we have also developed a web site that provides all kinds of information that most BISs provide to users through the Internet. The development environment is: OS: Windows 7 64bit, IDE: Eclipse Luna 4.4.1, Spring IDE 3.7.0, Database: MySQL 5.1.7, Web Server: Apache Tomcat 7.0, Programming Language: Java 1.7.0_79. Given a start and a destination bus stop, it finds a shortest path from the start to the destination using the Dijkstra algorithm. Then, it finds a convenient route considering number of transits. For the user interface, we use the Google map. Template classes that are used by the Controller, DAO, Service and Utils classes include BUS, BusStop, BusListInfo, BusStopOrder, RouteResult, WalkingDist, Location, and so on. We are now integrating the mobile app system and the web app system.

Keywords: bus information system, GPS, mobile app, web site

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Authors: Rahmat Ali, Beenish Khan, Aftabullah, Abid A. Shah

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This research is an attempt to investigate the wide range of events using acoustic emission (AE) sensors of the concrete cubes subjected to different stress condition loading and unloading of concrete cubes. A total of 27 specimens were prepared and tested including 18 cubic (6”x6”x6”) and nine cylindrical (4”x8”) specimens were molded from three batches of concrete using w/c of 0.40, 0.50, and 0.60. The compressive strength of concrete was determined from concrete cylinder specimens. The deterioration of concrete was evaluated using the occurrence of felicity and Kaiser effects at each stress condition. It was found that acoustic emission hits usually exceeded when damage increases. Additionally, the correlation between AE techniques and the load applied were determined by plotting the normalized values. The influence of w/c on sensitivity of the AE technique in detecting concrete damages was also investigated.

Keywords: acoustic emission, concrete, felicity ratio, sensors

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Authors: Chia-Jung Chang, Sheng-Che Chen, Ming-Long Yeh, Chih-Wei Wang, Chih-Han Chang

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Introduction and Motivation: In recent years, magnesium alloy is used to be a kind of medical biodegradable materials. Magnesium is an essential element in the body and is efficiently excreted by the kidneys. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of magnesium alloy is closest to human bone. However, in some cases magnesium alloy corrodes so quickly that it would release hydrogen on surface of implant. The other product is hydroxide ion, it can significantly increase the local pH value. The above situations may have adverse effects on local cell functions. On the other hand, nowadays magnesium alloy corrode too fast to maintain the function of implant until the healing of tissue. Therefore, much recent research about magnesium alloy has focused on controlling the corrosion rate. The in vitro corrosion behavior of magnesium alloys is affected by many factors, and pH value is one of factors. In this study, we will study on the influence of pH value on the corrosion behavior of magnesium alloy by the Micro-CT (micro computed tomography) and other instruments.Material and methods: In the first step, we make some guiding plates for specimens of magnesium alloy AZ91 by Rapid Prototyping. The guiding plates are able to be a standard for the degradation of specimen, so that we can use it to make sure the position of specimens in the CT image. We can also simplify the conditions of degradation by the guiding plates.In the next step, we prepare the solution with different pH value. And then we put the specimens into the solution to start the corrosion test. The CT image, surface photographs and weigh are measured on every twelve hours. Results: In the primary results of the test, we make sure that CT image can be a way to quantify the corrosion behavior of magnesium alloy. Moreover we can observe the phenomenon that corrosion always start from some erosion point. It’s possibly based on some defect like dislocations and the voids with high strain energy in the materials. We will deal with the raw data into Mass Loss (ML) and corrosion rate by CT image, surface photographs and weigh in the near future. Having a simple prediction, the pH value and degradation rate will be negatively correlated. And we want to find out the equation of the pH value and corrosion rate. We also have a simple test to simulate the change of the pH value in the local region. In this test the pH value will rise to 10 in a short time. Conclusion: As a biodegradable implant for the area with stagnating body fluid flow in the human body, magnesium alloy can cause the increase of local pH values and release the hydrogen. Those may damage the human cell. The purpose of this study is finding out the equation of the pH value and corrosion rate. After that we will try to find the ways to overcome the limitations of medical magnesium alloy.

Keywords: magnesium alloy, biodegradable materials, corrosion, micro-CT

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Authors: Majid Khalili

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This paper deals with a bi-objective hybrid no-wait flowshop scheduling problem minimizing the makespan and total weighted tardiness, in which we consider transportation times between stages. Obtaining an optimal solution for this type of complex, large-sized problem in reasonable computational time by using traditional approaches and optimization tools is extremely difficult. This paper presents a new multi-objective variable neighborhood algorithm (MOVNS). A set of experimental instances are carried out to evaluate the algorithm by advanced multi-objective performance measures. The algorithm is carefully evaluated for its performance against available algorithm by means of multi-objective performance measures and statistical tools. The related results show that a variant of our proposed MOVNS provides sound performance comparing with other algorithms.

Keywords: no-wait hybrid flowshop scheduling; multi-objective variable neighborhood algorithm; makespan; total weighted tardiness

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Authors: Rosana Choy, Fabiola Henostroza

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Actual theory suggests social-ecological factors as the main framework of bullying. Most previous research in this phenomenon is focused on the identification of bullying attitudes and conducts in puberty and adolescence periods. For this reason, this study is considered as a contribution to the existing knowledge in measuring matters, because of its non-traditional way of evaluation (graphic items), and because of its approach to a distinctive age group, children from 7 to 9 years-old, not regularly examined in current studies in this field. The research used a transversal descriptive investigation design for the development of a graphic test for bullying predisposition. The process began with the operationalization of the variable bullying predisposition, the structuring of the factors and variable indicators of a pilot instrument, evaluation by experts of the items representation, and finally it continued with the test application to children of two types of regular school population in Lima-Peru: private and public schools. The reliability level was 0.85 and the validity of the test corroborated the three-factor structure proposed by the researchers.

Keywords: bullying, graphic test, reliability, validity

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Authors: Dalia Suša Vugec

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In recent few decades, business process management (BPM) has been in focus of a great number of researchers and organizations. There are many benefits derived from the implementation of BPM in organizations. However, there has been also noticed that lately traditional BPM faces some difficulties in terms of the divide between models and their execution, lost innovations, lack of information fusioning and so on. As a result, there has been a new discipline, called social BPM, which incorporates principles of social software into the BPM. On the other hand, many researchers indicate organizational culture as a vital part of the BPM success and maturity. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the current state of BPM maturity and the usage of social BPM among the organizations from Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, with the regards to the organizational culture as well. The paper presents the results of a survey conducted as part of the PROSPER project (IP-2014-09-3729), financed by Croatian Science Foundation. The results indicate differences in the level of BPM maturity, the usage of social BPM and the dominant organizational culture in the observed organizations from different countries. These differences are further discussed in the paper.

Keywords: business process management, BPM maturity, organizational culture, social BPM

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Authors: Sara Ali Alokley, Mansour Saleh Albarrak

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This paper investigates the dependency or clustering of extremes in the financial returns data by estimating the extremal index value θ∈[0,1]. The smaller the value of θ the more clustering we have. Here we apply the method of Ferro and Segers (2003) to estimate the extremal index for a range of threshold values. We compare the dependency structure of extremes in the developed and emerging markets. We use the financial returns of the stock market index in the developed markets of US, UK, France, Germany and Japan and the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, China and Saudi Arabia. We expect that more clustering occurs in the emerging markets. This study will help to understand the dependency structure of the financial returns data.

Keywords: clustring, extremes, returns, dependency, extermal index

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Authors: Anastasiia Yu. Timofeeva

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Two new algorithms for nonparametric estimation of errors-in-variables models are proposed. The first algorithm is based on penalized regression spline. The spline is represented as a piecewise-linear function and for each linear portion orthogonal regression is estimated. This algorithm is iterative. The second algorithm involves locally weighted regression estimation. When the independent variable is measured with error such estimation is a complex nonlinear optimization problem. The simulation results have shown the advantage of the second algorithm under the assumption that true smoothing parameters values are known. Nevertheless the use of some indexes of fit to smoothing parameters selection gives the similar results and has an oversmoothing effect.

Keywords: grade point average, orthogonal regression, penalized regression spline, locally weighted regression

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Authors: Jessemyn Modiini, Timothy Lynar, Elena Sitnikova

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We present a novel enhanced compartmental model for malware spread analysis in cyber security. This paper applies cyber security data features to epidemiological compartmental models to model the infectious potential of malware. Compartmental models are most efficient for calculating the infectious potential of a disease. In this paper, we discuss and profile epidemiologically relevant data features from a Domain Name System (DNS) dataset. We then apply these features to epidemiological compartmental models to network traffic features. This paper demonstrates how epidemiological principles can be applied to the novel analysis of key cybersecurity behaviours and trends and provides insight into threat modelling above that of kill-chain analysis. In applying deterministic compartmental models to a cyber security use case, the authors analyse the deficiencies and provide an enhanced stochastic model for cyber epidemiology. This enhanced compartmental model (SUEICRN model) is contrasted with the traditional SEIR model to demonstrate its efficacy.

Keywords: cybersecurity, epidemiology, cyber epidemiology, malware

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Authors: Mei-Jie Xu, Yang Zhong

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Based on the symplectic geometry method, the theory of Hamilton system can be applied in the analysis of problem solved using the theory of elasticity and in the solution of elliptic partial differential equations. With this technique, this paper derives the theoretical solution for a thick rectangular plate with four free edges supported on a Winkler foundation by variable separation method. In this method, the governing equation of thick plate was first transformed into state equations in the Hamilton space. The theoretical solution of this problem was next obtained by applying the method of variable separation based on the Hamilton system. Compared with traditional theoretical solutions for rectangular plates, this method has the advantage of not having to assume the form of deflection functions in the solution process. Numerical examples are presented to verify the validity of the proposed solution method.

Keywords: symplectic geometry method, Winkler foundation, thick rectangular plate, variable separation method, Hamilton system

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Authors: E. Nakamachi, K. Matsumoto, K. Yamamoto, Y. Morita, H. Sakamoto

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In recently, electromagnetic and mechanical stimulations have been recognized as the effective extracellular environment stimulation technique to enhance the defected peripheral nerve tissue regeneration. In this study, we developed a new hybrid bioreactor by adopting 50 Hz uniform alternative current (AC) magnetic stimulation and 4% strain mechanical stimulation. The guide tube for nerve regeneration is mesh structured tube made of biodegradable polymer, such as polylatic acid (PLA). However, when neural damage is large, there is a possibility that peripheral nerve undergoes necrosis. So it is quite important to accelerate the nerve tissue regeneration by achieving enhancement of nerve axonal extension rate. Therefore, we try to design and fabricate the system that can simultaneously load the uniform AC magnetic field stimulation and the stretch stimulation to cells for enhancement of nerve axonal extension. Next, we evaluated systems performance and the effectiveness of each stimulation for rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cells (PC12). First, we designed and fabricated the uniform AC magnetic field system and the stretch stimulation system. For the AC magnetic stimulation system, we focused on the use of pole piece structure to carry out in-situ microscopic observation. We designed an optimum pole piece structure using the magnetic field finite element analyses and the response surface methodology. We fabricated the uniform AC magnetic field stimulation system as a bio-reactor by adopting analytically determined design specifications. We measured magnetic flux density that is generated by the uniform AC magnetic field stimulation system. We confirmed that measurement values show good agreement with analytical results, where the uniform magnetic field was observed. Second, we fabricated the cyclic stretch stimulation device under the conditions of particular strains, where the chamber was made of polyoxymethylene (POM). We measured strains in the PC12 cell culture region to confirm the uniform strain. We found slightly different values from the target strain. Finally, we concluded that these differences were allowable in this mechanical stimulation system. We evaluated the effectiveness of each stimulation to enhance the nerve axonal extension using PC12. We confirmed that the average axonal extension length of PC12 under the uniform AC magnetic stimulation was increased by 16 % at 96 h in our bio-reactor. We could not confirm that the axonal extension enhancement under the stretch stimulation condition, where we found the exfoliating of cells. Further, the hybrid stimulation enhanced the axonal extension. Because the magnetic stimulation inhibits the exfoliating of cells. Finally, we concluded that the enhancement of PC12 axonal extension is due to the magnetic stimulation rather than the mechanical stimulation. Finally, we confirmed that the effectiveness of the uniform AC magnetic field stimulation for the nerve axonal extension using PC12 cells.

Keywords: nerve cell PC12, axonal extension, nerve regeneration, electromagnetic-mechanical stimulation, bioreactor

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Authors: Erimias Firre

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This study is situated within the religio-cultural milieu of Coptic Orthodox Christians of the Tigrinya ethnic group in Eritrea. With this ethnic group being conservative and traditionally bound, extended family structures dissected along various clans and expansive community networks are the distinguishing mark of its members. Notably, Coptic Tigrinya constitutes the largest percentage of all Christian denominations in Eritrea. As religious, cultural beliefs, rituals and teachings permeate in all aspects of social life, a distinct worldview and traditionalized health and illness conceptualization are common. Accordingly, this study argues that religio-culturally bound illness ideologies immensely determine the perception, help seeking behavior and healing preference of Coptic Tigrinya in Eritrea. The study bears significance in the sense that it bridges an important knowledge gap, given that it is ethno-linguistically (within the Tigrinya ethnic group), spatially (central region of Eritrea) and religiously (Coptic Christianity) specific. The conceptual framework guiding this research centered on the social determinants of mental health, and explores through the lens of critical theory how existing systems generate social vulnerability and structural inequality, providing a platform to reveal how the psychosocial model has the capacity to emancipate and empower those with mental disorders to live productive and meaningful lives. A case study approach was employed to explore the interrelationship between religio-cultural beliefs and practices and perception of common mental disorders of depression, anxiety, bipolar affective, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorders and the impact of these perceptions on people with those mental disorders. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 41 participants representing seven diverse cohorts; people with common mental disorders, family caregivers, general community members, ex-fighters , priests, staff at St. Mary’s and Biet-Mekae Community Health Center; resulting in rich data for thematic analysis. Findings highlighted current religio-cultural perceptions, causes and treatment of mental disorders among Coptic Tigrinya result in widespread labelling, stigma and discrimination, both of those with mental disorders and their families. Traditional healing sources are almost exclusively tried, sometimes for many years, before families and sufferers seek formal medical assessment and treatment, resulting difficult to treat illness chronicity. Service gaps in the formal medical system result in the inability to meet the principles enshrined in the WHO Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 to which the Eritrean Government is a signatory. However, the study found that across all participant cohorts, there was a desire for change that will create a culture whereby those with mental disorders will have restored hope, connectedness, healing and self-determination.

Keywords: Coptic Tigrinya, mental disorders, psychosocial model social integration and recovery, traditional healing

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Kanita Beširević

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Open-source software development activities highly rely on Internet gathering communities volunteering in software development projects. Additionally, the libraries and cultural institutions share their metadata in the form of linked metadata to enable dissemination and enrichment. The open-source software provides free alternatives to traditional software solutions. The article aims to investigate the ever-increasing options for the digital library open source software adoption. The software available is presented and compared to other software solutions as well as to their previous versions. The top three open-source digital library software solutions are presented and compared. The comparison criteria are adopted from the UNESCO study by Bankier, J., & Gleason, K. Institutional Repository Software Comparison comprising of twelve criteria to appraise software, namely: infrastructure, front-end design, content discovery, publication tools, interoperability, and preservation. This article adopts a descriptive methodology based on data and information collected through selected software websites and the literature review.

Keywords: open source software, digital library, DSpace, Fedora, Greenstone

Procedia PDF Downloads 97

Authors: Yik Sin Chan, Bee Ling Chuah, Wei Quan Chan, Ri Jin Cheng, Yan Hang Oon, Kong Soo Khoo, Nam Weng Sit

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Traditionally, medicinal plants have been used to treat different kinds of ailments including infectious diseases. They serve as a good source of lead compounds for the development of new and safer anti-infective agents. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial potential of the leaves of three medicinal plants, namely Catunaregam spinosa (Rubiaceae; Mountain pomegranate), Houttuynia cordata (Saururaceae; "fishy-smell herb") and Rhapis excelsa (Arecaceae; “broadleaf lady palm”). The leaves extracts were obtained by sequential extraction using hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, ethanol, methanol and water. The antibacterial and antifungal activities were assessed using a colorimetric broth microdilution method against a panel of human pathogenic bacteria (Gram-positive: Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus; Gram-negative: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and fungi (yeasts: Candida albicans, Candida parapsilosis and Cryptococcus neoformans; Moulds: Aspergillus fumigatus and Trichophyton mentagrophytes) respectively; while antiviral activity was evaluated against the Chikungunya virus on monkey kidney epithelial (Vero) cells by neutral red uptake assay. All the plant extracts showed bacteriostatic activity, however, only 72% of the extracts (13/18) were found to have bactericidal activity. The lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were given by the hexane extract of C. spinosa against S. aureus with the values of 0.16 and 0.31 mg/mL respectively. All the extracts also possessed fungistatic activity. Only the hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts of H. cordata exerted inhibitory activity against A. fumigatus, giving the lowest fungal susceptibility index of 16.7%. In contrast, only 61% of the extracts (11/18) showed fungicidal activity. The ethanol extract of R. excelsa exhibited the strongest fungicidal activity against C. albicans, C. parapsilosis and T. mentagrophytes with minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values of 0.04–0.08 mg/mL, in addition to its methanol extract against T. mentagrophytes (MFC=0.02 mg/mL). For anti-Chikungunya virus activity, only chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts of R. excelsa showed significant antiviral activity with 50% effective concentrations (EC50) of 29.9 and 78.1 g/mL respectively. Extracts of R. excelsa warrant further investigations into their active principles responsible for antifungal and antiviral properties.

Keywords: bactericidal, Chikungunya virus, extraction, fungicidal

Procedia PDF Downloads 386

Authors: Paul Campbell, Nicholas Biddle

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There is a complex, endogenous relationship between individual circumstances, attitudes, and behaviour. This study uses longitudinal panel data to assess changes in social and political attitudes over a 7-year period. Attitudes are captured with the question 'what is the most important issue facing Australia today', collected at multiple time points in a longitudinal survey of 2200 Australians. Consistency of attitudes, and factors predicting change over time, are assessed. The consistency of responses has methodological implications for data collection, specifically how often such questions ought to be asked of a population. When change in attitude is observed, this study assesses the extent to which individual demographic characteristics, personality traits, and broader societal events predict change.

Keywords: attitudes, longitudinal survey analysis, personality, social values

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Payam Nejat, Fatemeh Jomehzadeh, Muhamad Zaimi Abd. Majid, Mohd.Badruddin Yusof, Hasrul Haidar Ismail

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Currently, building energy consumption has become an international issue especially in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia 14% of total final energy consumption is utilized in the building sector. Due to hot arid climate, 60% of total building energy consumption in this country is associated with cooling systems. In addition in 2011, this country was one of top ten CO2 emitting countries which illustrate the significance of renewable resources to sustaining the energy consumption. Wind as an important renewable energy can play a prominent role to supply natural ventilation inside the building and windcatcher as a traditional technique can be implemented for this purpose. In this paper the different types of windcatchers, its performance and function was reviewed. It can be concluded due high temperature and low humidity in most area of Saudi Arabia this technique can be successfully be employed and help to reduce fossil energy consumption and related CO2 emissions.

Keywords: natural ventilation, windcatcher, wind, badgir

Procedia PDF Downloads 579

Authors: Morakinyo Akintolu, Moeketsi Letseka

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In the year 2015, the United Nation member states, through the representative of all heads of states present, adopted the 17 Global goals known as the Sustainable Development Goals in their capacity to bring about social, economic, and cultural development to the world. Therefore, the need to accommodate equitable development one of the major goals is to achieve equitable and quality education for all to bring about international development. In this light, the study investigates the role of open distance learning in achieving sustainable development goals. Open distance learning comes as a second chance to individuals in disseminating educational content to students who missed the opportunity of attending the traditional school setting. Therefore, this study investigates if the SDGs reflect this type of learning (ODL) in creating Education for all according to the 2030 agenda by the United Nations. It further ascertains the role of ODL in achieving SDGs, the challenges encountered as well as the way forward.

Keywords: open distance learning, sustainable development goals, distance education, achieving, 2030 agenda

Procedia PDF Downloads 118