Search results for: support for learners experiencing special needs

Authors: Saarah Juman, Ilona Johnson, Stephen Richmond, Brett Duane, Sheelagh Rogers

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Introduction: Researchers suggest that within 50 years or less, the available supply of a range of metals will be exhausted, potentially leading to increases in resource conflict and largescale production shortages. The healthcare, dental and orthodontic sectors will undoubtedly be affected as stainless steel instruments are generally heavily relied on. Although changing orthodontic archwires are unavoidable and necessary to allow orthodontic tooth movement through the progression of an archwire sequence with fixed appliances, they are thought to be manufactured in excess of what is needed. Furthermore, orthodontic archwires require trimming extraorally to allow safe intraoral insertion, thus contributing to unnecessary waste of natural resources. Currently, there is no evidence to support the optimisation of archwire length according to orthodontic fixed appliance stage. As such, this study aims to quantify archwire excess (extraoral archwire trimmings) for different stages of orthodontic fixed appliance treatment. Methodology: This prospective, observational, quantitative study observed trimmings made extraorally against pre-treatment study models by clinicians over a 3-month period. Archwires were categorised into one of three categories (initial aligning, sequence, working/finishing arcwhires) within the orthodontic fixed appliance archwire sequence. Data collection included archwire material composition and the corresponding length and weight of excess archwire. Data was entered using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and imported into statistical software to obtain simple descriptive statistics. Results: Measurements were obtained for a total of 144 archwires. Archwire materials included nickel titanium and stainless steel. All archwires observed required extraorally trimming to allow safe intraoral insertion. The manufactured lengths of orthodontic initial aligning, sequence, and working/finishing arcwhires were at least 31%, 26%, and 39% in excess, respectively. Conclusions: Orthodontic archwires are manufactured to be excessively long at all orthodontic archwire sequence stages. To conserve natural resources, this study’s findings support the optimisation of orthodontic archwire lengths by manufacturers according to the typical stages of an orthodontic archwire sequence.

Keywords: archwire, orthodontics, sustainability, waste

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Authors: Badru Hasan Segujja, Nassiwa Shamim

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This study “Territorial Influence of Religious Based Armed Conflicts in Africa” was in place to identify the influence of religious based armed conflicts, their parsistance and their impact on African societies. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, as data from respondents was descriptively recorded using random sampling technics. The study discovered that, the world is experiencing religious based armed violence where actors fight under the umbrella of freedom fighters where the African continent in particular has been at the pic of such armed violence almost since each countries independence to date. Because of this situation, the Continent is torn apart as families are traumatized by the memories of their dear ones who never survived in yesterdays’ faith based armed violence. The study disvovered that, some of these faith based armed conflicts are caused by factors ranging from undemocratic practices due to poor governance, poverty, Unemployment, religious extremism and radicalism which later turn into intractable violence. Religious armed groups such as, Holly Spirit Movement (HSM), Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and Lords Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda and now Eastern DRC and Central African Republic, ALSHABAB in East Africa, SELEKE and ANTI BALAKA in Central African Republic, BOKO HARAM in Nigeria, JANJAWEED in Sudan and Republic of Chad, Sudaneess Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) in Southern Sudan, Alqaida Mission in Islamic Magreeb (AQIIM) in Mali coupled with acute racism of Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda or Burundi and Xenophobic Nationalism in (South Africa). The study futher discovered that, the component of “freedom fighters” has strongly made these groups maintain the ground without fear of any repucation, which situation has resulted into children and women becoming disproportionally victims and the response of international communities to the violence is inadequate. The study concludes that, dialogue for peace is better than going for wars. The study recommends that, in order to restore peace on the African continent and elsewhere in the world, UN should recommend the teaching of peace values in schools, pre-conflict early warnings must be well attended, actors must refrain from using religious lebles, democracy, unemployment and poverty issues should as well be addressed to avoid unnessesary conflicts.

Keywords: influence, religious, armed, conflicts

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Authors: Nidia Thalia Alva Rangel, Ferran Padros Blazquez, Ma. Ines Gomez Del Campo Del Paso

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Happiness has been since antiquity a concept of interest around the world. Positive psychology is the science that begins to study happiness in a more precise and controlled way, obtaining wide amount of research which can be applied. One of the central constructs of Positive Psychology is Carol Ryff’s psychological well-being model as eudaimonic happiness, which comprehends six dimensions: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. Humanistic psychology is a clear precedent of Positive Psychology, which has studied human development topics and it features a great variety of intervention techniques nevertheless has little evidence with controlled research. Therefore, the present research had the aim to evaluate the efficacy of a humanistic intervention program to increase psychological well-being in healthy adults through a mixed methods study. Before and after the intervention, it was applied Carol Ryff’s psychological well-being scale (PWBS) and the Symptom Check List 90 as pretest and posttest. In addition, a questionnaire of five open questions was applied after each session. The intervention program was designed in experiential workshop format, based on the foundational attitudes defined by Carl Rogers: congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy, integrating humanistic intervention strategies from gestalt, psychodrama, logotherapy and psychological body therapy, with the aim to strengthen skills in the six dimensions of psychological well-being model. The workshop was applied to six volunteer adults in 12 sessions of 2 hours each. Finally, quantitative data were analyzed with Wilcoxon statistic test through the SPSS program, obtaining as results differences statistically significant in pathology symptoms between prettest and postest, also levels of dimensions of psychological well-being were increased, on the other hand for qualitative strand, by open questionnaires it showed how the participants were experiencing the techniques and changing through the sessions. Thus, the humanistic psychology program was effective to increase psychological well-being. Working to promote well-being prompts to be an effective way to reduce pathological symptoms as a secondary gain. Experiential workshops are a useful tool for small groups. There exists the need for research to count with more evidence of humanistic psychology interventions in different contexts and impulse the application of Positive Psychology knowledge.

Keywords: happiness, humanistic psychology, positive psychology, psychological well-being, workshop

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Authors: Daniel Muwooya

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This paper analyses economic factors that have affected the competitiveness of petroleum refinery and petrochemical projects in sub-Saharan Africa in the past and continue to plague greenfield projects today. Traditional factors like plant sizing and complexity, low-capacity utilization, changing regulatory environment, and tighter product specifications have been important in the past. Additional factors include the development of excess refinery capacity in Asia and the growth of renewable sources of energy – especially for transportation. These factors create both challenges and opportunities for the development of greenfield refineries and petrochemical projects in areas of increased demand growth and new low-cost crude oil production – like sub-Saharan Africa. This paper evaluates the strategies available to project developers and host countries to address contemporary issues of energy transition and the apparent reduction of funds available for greenfield oil and gas projects. The paper also evaluates the structuring of greenfield refinery and petrochemical projects for limited recourse project finance bankability. The methodology of this paper includes analysis of current industry data, conference proceedings, academic papers, and academic books on the subjects of petroleum refinery economics, refinery financing, refinery operations, and project finance generally and specifically in the oil and gas industry; evaluation of expert opinions from journal articles; working papers from international bodies like the World Bank and the International Energy Agency; and experience from playing an active role in the development and financing of US$ 10 Billion greenfield oil development project in Uganda. The paper also applies the discounted cash flow modelling to illustrate the circumstances of an inland greenfield refinery project in Uganda. Greenfield refinery and petrochemical projects are still necessary in sub-Saharan Africa to, among other aspirations, support the transition from traditional sources of energy like biomass to such modern forms as liquefied petroleum gas. Project developers and host governments will be required to structure projects that support global climate change goals without occasioning undue delays to project execution.

Keywords: financing, refinery and petrochemical economics, Africa, project finance

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Authors: Bintou Jobe

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The construction sector, both in the United Kingdom (UK) and developing Anglophone West African countries, specifically The Gambia, is facing significant health and safety challenges. While the UK has established legislation and regulations to support Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in the industry, the same level of support is lacking in developing countries. The significance of this review is to assess the extent and effectiveness of OHS legislation and regulatory reform in the construction industry, with a focus on understanding the challenges faced by both the UK and developing Anglophone West African countries. It aims to highlight the benefits of implementing an OHS management system, specifically ISO 45001. This study uses a literature review approach, synthesizing publications from the past decade and identifying common themes and best practices related to Occupational Health and Safety in the construction industry. Findings were analysed, compared, and conclusions and recommendations were drawn after developing research questions and addressing them. This comprehensive review of the literature allows for a detailed understanding of the challenges faced by the industry in both contexts. The findings of the study indicate that while the UK has established robust health and safety legislation, many UK construction companies have not fully met the standards outlined in ISO 45001. These challenges faced by the UK include poor data management, inadequate communication of best practices, insufficient training, and a lack of safety culture mirroring those observed in the developing Anglophone countries. Therefore, compliance with OHS management systems has been shown to yield benefits, including injury prevention and centralized health and safety documentation. In conclusion, the effectiveness of OHS legislation for developing Anglophone West African countries should consider the positive impact experienced by the UK. The implementation of ISO 45001 can serve as a benchmark standard and potentially inform recommendations for developing countries. The selection criteria for literature include search keywords and phrases, such as occupational health and safety challenges, The Gambia, developing countries management systems, ISO 45001, and impact and effectiveness of OHS legislation. The literature was sourced from Google Scholar, the UK Health and Safety Executive websites, and Google Advanced Search.

Keywords: ISO 45001, developing countries, occupational health and safety, UK

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Authors: Smita Nepal

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Despite being on the global education reform agenda for over two decades, interpretations and practices of inclusive education vary widely across the world. In Nepal, similar to many other developing countries, inclusive education is still an emerging concept and limited research is available to date in relation to how inclusive education is conceptualized and implemented here. Moreover, very little is known about how teachers who are at the frontline of providing inclusive education understand this concept and how well they are prepared to teach inclusively. This study addresses this research gap by investigating an overarching research question, ‘How prepared are Nepalese teachers to practice inclusive pedagogy?’ Different societies and cultures may have different interpretations of the concepts of diversity and inclusion. Acknowledging that such contextual differences influence how these issues are addressed, such as preparing teachers for providing inclusive education, this study has investigated the research questions using a sociocultural conceptual framework. A sequential mixed-method research design involved quantitative data from 203 survey responses collected in the first phase, followed by qualitative data in the second phase collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers. Descriptive analysis of the quantitative data and reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed a narrow understanding of inclusive education in the participating Nepalese teachers with limited preparedness for implementing inclusive pedagogy. Their interpretation of inclusion substantially included the need for non-discrimination and the provision of equal opportunities. This interpretation was found to be influenced by the social context where a lack of a deep understanding of human diversity was reported, leading to discriminatory attitudes and practices. In addition, common norms established in society that experiencing privileges or disadvantages was normal for diverse groups of people appeared to have led to limited efforts to enhance teachers’ understanding of and preparedness for inclusive education. This study has significant implications, not only in the Nepalese context but globally, for reform in policies and practices and for strengthening the teacher education and professional development system to promote inclusion in education. In addition, the significance of this research lies in highlighting the importance of further context-specific research in this area to ensure inclusive education in a real sense by valuing socio-cultural differences.

Keywords: inclusive education, inclusive pedagogy, sociocultural context, teacher preparation

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Authors: Gregor Bouville, Celine Schmidt

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This article presents a French case study on lean production drawing on a mixed method design which has received little attention in French management research-especially in French human resources research. The purpose is to show that using a mixed method approach in this particular case overstep the limitations of previous studies in lean production studies. The authors use the embedded design as a special articulation of mixed method to analyse and understand the effects of three organizational practices on job satisfaction and workers’ health. Results show that low scheduled autonomy, quality management, time constraint have deleterious effects on job satisfaction. Furthermore, these three practices have ambivalent effects on health work. Interest in the subjects of mixed method has been growing up among French health researchers and practioners, also recently among French management researchers. This study reinforces and refines how mixed methods may offer interesting perspectives in an integrated framework included human resources, management, and health fields. Finally, potentials benefits and limits for those interdisciplinary researches programs are discussed.

Keywords: lean production, mixed method, work organization practices, job satisfaction

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Authors: Ebrahim Zamani Beydokhti, Hashem Shariatmadar

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This paper presents an experimental and analytical investigation on the behavior of retrofitted beam-column joints subjected to reversed cyclic loading. The experimental program comprises 8 external beam–column joint connection subassemblages tested in 2 phases; one was the damaging phase and second was the repairing phase. The beam-column joints were no seismically designed, i.e. the joint, beam and column critical zones had no special transverse stirrups. The joins were tested under cyclic loading in previous research. The experiment had two phases named damage phase and retrofit phase. Then the experimental results compared with analytical results achieved from modeling in OpenSees software. The presence of lateral slab and the axial load amount were analytically investigated. The results showed that increasing the axial load and presence of lateral slab increased the joint capacity. The presence of lateral slab increased the dissipated energy, while the axial load had no significant effect on it.

Keywords: concrete beam-column joints, CFRP sheets, lateral slab, axial load

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Authors: Sungchul Ha, Hyunwoo Kim

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In mobile ad hoc networks, all nodes in a network only have limited resources and calculation ability. Therefore communication topology which have long lifetime is good for all nodes in mobile ad hoc networks. There are a variety of researches on security problems in wireless ad hoc networks. The existing many researches try to make efficient security schemes to reduce network power consumption and enhance network lifetime. Because a new node can join the network at any time, the wireless ad hoc networks are exposed to various threats and can be destroyed by attacks. Resource consumption is absolutely necessary to secure networks, but more resource consumption can be a critical problem to network lifetime. This paper focuses on efficient monitoring node distribution to enhance network lifetime in wireless ad hoc networks. Since the wireless ad hoc networks cannot use centralized infrastructure and security systems of wired networks, a new special IDS scheme is necessary. The scheme should not only cover all nodes in a network but also enhance the network lifetime. In this paper, we propose an efficient IDS node distribution scheme using minimum spanning tree (MST) method. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has superior performance in comparison with existing algorithms.

Keywords: MANETs, IDS, power control, minimum spanning tree

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Authors: Nyashadzashe Chiraga, Anthony Walker, Glen Bright

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The manufacturing industry is currently experiencing a paradigm shift into the Fourth Industrial Revolution in which customers are increasingly at the epicentre of production. The high degree of production customization and personalization requires a flexible manufacturing system that will rapidly respond to the dynamic and volatile changes driven by the market. They are a gap in technology that allows for the optimal flow of information and optimal manufacturing operations on the shop floor regardless of the rapid changes in the fixture and part demands. Information is the reduction of uncertainty; it gives meaning and context on the state of each cell. The amount of information needed to describe cellular manufacturing systems is investigated by two measures: the structural entropy and the operational entropy. Structural entropy is the expected amount of information needed to describe scheduled states of a manufacturing system. While operational entropy is the amount of information that describes the scheduled states of a manufacturing system, which occur during the actual manufacturing operation. Using Anylogic simulator a typical manufacturing job shop was set-up with a cellular manufacturing configuration. The cellular make-up of the configuration included; a Material handling cell, 3D Printer cell, Assembly cell, manufacturing cell and Quality control cell. The factory shop provides manufactured parts to a number of clients, and there are substantial variations in the part configurations, new part designs are continually being introduced to the system. Based on the normal expected production schedule, the schedule adherence was calculated from the structural entropy and operation entropy of varying the amounts of information communicated in simulated runs. The structural entropy denotes a system that is in control; the necessary real-time information is readily available to the decision maker at any point in time. For contractive analysis, different out of control scenarios were run, in which changes in the manufacturing environment were not effectively communicated resulting in deviations in the original predetermined schedule. The operational entropy was calculated from the actual operations. From the results obtained in the empirical study, it was seen that increasing, the efficiency of a factory communication system increases the degree of adherence of a job to the expected schedule. The performance of downstream production flow fed from the parallel upstream flow of information on the factory state was increased.

Keywords: information entropy, communication in manufacturing, mass customisation, scheduling

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Authors: Amal Sellami, Ahlem Ammar

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Writing is acknowledged to be a cognitively demanding and complex task. Indeed, the writing process is composed of three iterative sub-processes, namely planning, translating (writing), and reviewing. Not only do second or foreign language learners need to write according to this process, but they also need to respect the norms and rules of language and writing in the text to-be-produced. Accordingly, researchers have suggested to approach writing as a collaborative task in order to al leviate its complexity. Consequently, collaboration has been implemented during the whole writing process or only during planning orreviewing. Researchers report that implementing collaboration during the whole process might be demanding in terms of time in comparison to individual writing tasks. Consequently, because of time constraints, teachers may avoid it. For this reason, it might be pedagogically more realistic to limit collaboration to one of the writing sub-processes(i.e., planning or reviewing). However, previous research implementing collaboration in planning or reviewing is limited and fails to explore the effects of the seconditionson the written text. Consequently, the present study examines the effects of collaboration in planning and collaboration in reviewing on the written text. To reach this objective, quantitative as well as qualitative methods are deployed to examine the written texts holistically and in terms of fluency, complexity, and accuracy. Participants of the study include 4 pairs in each group (n=8). They participated in two experimental conditions, which are: (1) collaborative planning followed by individual writing and individual reviewing and (2) individual planning followed by individual writing and collaborative reviewing. The comparative research findings indicate that while collaborative planning resulted in better overall text quality (precisely better content and organization ratings), better fluency, better complexity, and fewer lexical errors, collaborative reviewing produces better accuracy and less syntactical and mechanical errors. The discussion of the findings suggests the need to conduct more comparative research in order to further explore the effects of collaboration in planning or in reviewing. Pedagogical implications of the current study include advising teachers to choose between implementing collaboration in planning or in reviewing depending on their students’ need and what they need to improve.

Keywords: collaboration, writing, collaborative planning, collaborative reviewing

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Authors: Tom Farrelly, Yvoonne Kavanagh, Tony Murphy

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In the last 20 years, Ireland has enjoyed an upsurge in the number of international students coming to avail of its well-regarded Higher Education system. While welcome, the influx of international students has posed a number of cultural, social and academic challenges for the Irish HE sector, both at institutional and individual lecturer level. Notwithstanding the challenge to the Irish HE sector, the difficulties that incoming students face needs to be acknowledged and addressed. For students who have never left their home country before the transition can be daunting even if they have not learned the customs and ways of the new country. In 2013, Ireland’s National Forum for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education invited submissions from interested parties to design and implement digital supports aimed at assisting students transitioning into or exiting higher education. Five colleges—the Institute of Technology, Tralee; University College Cork, Institute of Technology, Carlow; Cork Institute of Technology and Waterford Institute of Technology—collectively known as the Southern Cluster, were granted funding to research and develop digital objects to support international students' transition into the Irish higher education system. One of the key fundamentals of this project was its strong commitment to incorporating the student voice to help inform the design of the digital objects. The primary research method used to ascertain student views was the circulation of an online questionnaire using SurveyMonkey to existing international students in each of the five participant colleges. The questionnaire sought to examine the experiences and opinions of the students in relation to three main aspects of their living and studying in Ireland (hence the name of the project LiveAndLearnInIreland) (1) the academic environment (2) the social aspects of living in Ireland and (3) the practical aspects of living in Ireland. The response to the survey (n=573), revealed a number of sometimes surprising issues and themes for the digital objects to address. The research, therefore, offers insight into the types of concerns that any college, whether in Ireland or further afield, needs to take into consideration, if it is to genuinely assist what can be a difficult transition for the international student. That said, while there are a number of themes that emerged that have international implications there are other themes that have a particular resonance for the Irish HE sector.

Keywords: international, transition, support, inclusion

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Authors: Forough Rahimpour

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Following the beginning of the major occultation of Imam Zaman, the Shiite great thinkers and theologians started to identify and elaborate on the fundamental beliefs, the ones which were subject to more elaboration and criticism later throughout the history. Sheikh Saduq in his Treatise on fundamental beliefs selected the most basic Shiite beliefs and through his special method which was based on traditions and narrations, explained his specific views. Sheikh Mufid, on the other hand, dealing with the same topics, applied a method consisted of intellectual-narrative approach and expressed his own views and also evaluated the ideas expressed by Sheikh Saduq. The present study aims to compare and analyze the theological similarities and differences between the views expressed by Saduq and Mufid about the notions of monotheism and dive justice. The main focus in this study is on the two treatises called "I'tiqādāt” and "Tashih al I'tiqādāt "-written by Saduq and Mufid respectively. Although Sheikh Mufid was Saduq's disciple, he sometimes disagreed with Saduq's ideas and sometimes criticized his methodology. DespiteIn Saduq's high status in the science of Hadith, Sheikh Mufid sometimes discredited the Hadiths narrated by him and considered them Khabar-e Vahid (isolated tradition).

Keywords: Saduq, Mufid, monotheism, divine justice, treatise of "I'tiqādāt"

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Authors: Konstantinos Perifanos, Eirini Florou, Dionysis Goutsos

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This paper presents and benchmarks a number of end-to-end Deep Learning based models for metaphor detection in Greek. We combine Convolutional Neural Networks and Recurrent Neural Networks with representation learning to bear on the metaphor detection problem for the Greek language. The models presented achieve exceptional accuracy scores, significantly improving the previous state-of-the-art results, which had already achieved accuracy 0.82. Furthermore, no special preprocessing, feature engineering or linguistic knowledge is used in this work. The methods presented achieve accuracy of 0.92 and F-score 0.92 with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and bidirectional Long Short Term Memory networks (LSTMs). Comparable results of 0.91 accuracy and 0.91 F-score are also achieved with bidirectional Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) and Convolutional Recurrent Neural Nets (CRNNs). The models are trained and evaluated only on the basis of training tuples, the related sentences and their labels. The outcome is a state-of-the-art collection of metaphor detection models, trained on limited labelled resources, which can be extended to other languages and similar tasks.

Keywords: metaphor detection, deep learning, representation learning, embeddings

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Authors: Sandhya Baskaran, Hari Kumar Nagabushanam

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Sarcasm sentiment recognition is an area of natural language processing that is being probed into in the recent times. Even with the advancements in NLP, typical translations of words, sentences in its context fail to provide the exact information on a sentiment or emotion of a user. For example, if something bad happens, the statement ‘That's just what I need, great! Terrific!’ is expressed in a sarcastic tone which could be misread as a positive sign by any text-based analyzer. In this paper, we are presenting a unique real time ‘word with its tone’ spotting technique which would provide the sentiment analysis for a tone or pitch of a voice in combination with the words being expressed. This hybrid approach increases the probability for identification of special sentiment like sarcasm much closer to the real world than by mining text or speech individually. The system uses a tone analyzer such as YIN-FFT which extracts pitch segment-wise that would be used in parallel with a speech recognition system. The clustered data is classified for sentiments and sarcasm score for each of it determined. Our Simulations demonstrates the improvement in f-measure of around 12% compared to existing detection techniques with increased precision and recall.

Keywords: sarcasm recognition, tone-word spotting, natural language processing, pitch analyzer

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Authors: Carlos Gonzalez

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This paper describes a system to optimize the use of the internet by clients requiring downloading of videos at peak hours. The system consists of a web server belonging to a provider of video contents, a provider of internet communications and a software application running on a client’s computer. The client using the application software will communicate to the video provider a list of the client’s future video demands. The video provider calculates which videos are going to be more in demand for download in the immediate future, and proceeds to request the internet provider the most optimal hours to do the downloading. The times of the downloading will be sent to the application software, which will use the information of pre-established hours negotiated between the video provider and the internet provider to download those videos. The videos will be saved in a special protected section of the user’s hard disk, which will only be accessed by the application software in the client’s computer. When the client is ready to see a video, the application will search the list of current existent videos in the area of the hard disk; if it does exist, it will use this video directly without the need for internet access. We found that the best way to optimize the download traffic of videos is by negotiation between the internet communication provider and the video content provider.

Keywords: internet optimization, video download, future demands, secure storage

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Authors: Jayanthi Rajendran

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Experience is what makes a man perfect. Though we tend to learn many a different things in life through practice still we need to go an extra mile to gain experience which would be profitable only when it is integrated with regular practice. A clear phenomenal idea is that every teacher is a learner. The centralized idea of this paper would focus on the integrated practices carried out among the students of Jizan University which enhances learning through experiences. Integrated practices like student-directed activities, balanced curriculum, phonological based activities and use of consistent language would enlarge the vision and mission of students to earn experience through learning. Students who receive explicit instruction and guidance could practice the skills and strategies through student-directed activities such as peer tutoring and cooperative learning. The second effective practice is to use consistent language. Consistent language provides students a model for talking about the new concepts which also enables them to communicate without hindrances. Phonological awareness is an important early reading skill for all students. Students generally have phonemic awareness in their home language can often transfer that knowledge to a second language. And also a balanced curriculum requires instruction in all the elements of reading. Reading is the most effective skill when both basic and higher-order skills are included on a daily basis. Computer based reading and listening skills will empower students to understand a language in a better way. English language learners can benefit from sound reading instruction even before they are fully proficient in English as long as the instruction is comprehensible. Thus, if students have to be well equipped in learning they should foreground themselves in various integrated practices through multifarious experience for which teachers are moderators and trainers. This type of learning prepares the students for a constantly changing society which helps them to meet the competitive world around them for better employability fulfilling the vision and mission of the institution.

Keywords: consistent language, employability, phonological awareness, balanced curriculum

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Authors: Gloria A. Adewumi, Andrew C. Eloka-Eboka, Freddie L. Inambao

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Bio-based carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have received considerable research attention due to their comparative advantages of high level stability, simplistic use, low toxicity and overall environmental friendliness. New potentials for improvement in heat transfer applications are presented due to their high aspect ratio, high thermal conductivity and special surface area. Phonons have been identified as being responsible for thermal conductivities in carbon nanotubes. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of heat conduction in CNTs involves investigating the difference between the varieties of phonon modes and knowing the kinds of phonon modes that play the dominant role. In this review, a reference to a different number of studies is made and in addition, the role of phonon relaxation rate mainly controlled by boundary scattering and three-phonon Umklapp scattering process was investigated. Results show that the phonon modes are sensitive to a number of nanotube conditions such as: diameter, length, temperature, defects and axial strain. At a low temperature (<100K) the thermal conductivity increases with increasing temperature. A small nanotube size causes phonon quantization which is evident in the thermal conductivity at low temperatures.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes, phonons, thermal conductivity, Umklapp process

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Authors: Chow Jeng Hei, Pavel Tkalich, Low Kai Sheng Bryan

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Due to the growing demand for sustainability in the maritime industry, there has been a significant increase in focus on alternative fuels such as biofuels, liquefied natural gas (LNG), hydrogen, methanol and ammonia to reduce the carbon footprint of vessels. Alternative fuels offer efficient transportability and significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a critical factor in combating global warming. In an era where the world is determined to tackle climate change, the utilization of methanol is projected to witness a consistent rise in demand, even during downturns in the oil and gas industry. Since 2022, there has been an increase in methanol loading and discharging operations for industrial use in Singapore. These operations were conducted across various storage tank terminals at Jurong Island of varying capacities, which are also used to store alternative fuels for bunkering requirements. The key objective of this research is to support the green shipping industries in the transformation to new fuels such as methanol and ammonia, especially in evolving the capability to inform risk assessment and management of spills. In the unlikely event of accidental spills, a highly reliable forecasting system must be in place to provide mitigation measures and ahead planning. The outcomes of this research would lead to an enhanced metocean prediction capability and, together with advanced sensing, will continuously build up a robust digital twin of the bunkering operating environment. Outputs from the developments will contribute to management strategies for alternative marine fuel spills, including best practices, safety challenges and crisis management. The outputs can also benefit key port operators and the various bunkering, petrochemicals, shipping, protection and indemnity, and emergency response sectors. The forecasted datasets provide a forecast of the expected atmosphere and hydrodynamic conditions prior to bunkering exercises, enabling a better understanding of the metocean conditions ahead and allowing for more refined spill incident management planning

Keywords: clean fuels, hydrodynamics, coastal engineering, impact assessments

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Authors: T. Konst

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Most jobs include training and communication tasks, but often the people in these jobs lack pedagogical competences to plan, implement and assess learning. This paper aims to discuss how a learning approach called innovation pedagogy developed in higher education can be utilized for learning development in various organizations. The methods presented how to implement innovation pedagogy such as process consultation and train the trainer model can provide added value to develop pedagogical knowhow in organizations and thus support their internal learning and development.

Keywords: innovation pedagogy, learning, organizational development, process consultation

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Authors: Mohammed Arif, Abdessalam Kifouche

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Optical character recognition (OCR) has a main role in the present time. It's capable to solve many serious problems and simplify human activities. The OCR yields to 70's, since many solutions has been proposed, but unfortunately, it was supportive to nothing but Latin languages. This work proposes a system of recognition of an off-line Arabic handwriting. This system is based on a structural segmentation method and uses support vector machines (SVM) in the classification phase. We have presented a state of art of the characters segmentation methods, after that a view of the OCR area, also we will address the normalization problems we went through. After a comparison between the Arabic handwritten characters & the segmentation methods, we had introduced a contribution through a segmentation algorithm.

Keywords: OCR, segmentation, Arabic characters, PAW, post-processing, SVM

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Authors: Dana Cassandra Winkler, Delia Leiding, Rene Bergs, Franziska Kaiser, Ramona Kirchhart, Ute Habel

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Background: Violence is a multidimensional phenomenon, affecting people of every age, socio-economic status and gender. Nevertheless, most studies primarily focus on men perpetrating women. Aim of the present study is to identify the likelihood of mental and somatic disorders and risk-taking behavior in male violence affected. In addition, the relationship between age of violence experience and the risk for health-related problems was analyzed. Method: On the basis of current evidence, a questionnaire was developed focusing on demographic background, health status, risk-taking behavior, and active and passive violence exposure. In total, 5221 males (Mean: 56,1 years, SD: 17,6) were consulted. To account for the time of violence experience in an efficient way, age clusters ‘0-12 years’, ‘13-20 years’, ‘21-35 years’, ‘36-65 years’ and ‘over 65 years’ were defined. A binary logistic regression was calculated to reveal differences in violence-affected and non-violence affected males regarding health and risk-taking factors. Males who experienced violence on a daily/ almost daily basis vs. males who reported violence occurrence once/ several times a month/ year were compared with respect to health factors and risk-taking behavior. Data of males, who indicated active and passive violence exposure, were analyzed by a chi²-analysis, to investigate a possible relation between the age of victimization and violence perpetration. Findings: Results imply that general violence experience, independent of active and passive violence exposure increases the likelihood in favor of somatic-, psychosomatic- and mental disorders as well as risk-taking behavior in males. Experiencing violence on a daily or almost daily basis in childhood and adolescence may serve as a predictor for increased health problems and risk-taking behavior. Furthermore, the violence experience and perpetration occur significantly within the same age cluster. This underlines the importance of a near-term intervention to minimize the risk, that victims become perpetrators later. Conclusion: The present study reveals predictors concerning health risk factors as well as risk-taking behavior in males with violence exposure. The results of this study may underscore the benefit of intervention and regular health care approaches in violence-affected males and underline the importance of acknowledging the overlap of violence experience and perpetration for further research.

Keywords: health disease, male, mental health, prevalence, risk-taking behavior, violence

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Authors: Zahara Abdulhussan Al-Awadai

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Currently, serious games play a significant role in education, sparking an increasing interest in using games for purposes beyond mere entertainment. In this research, we investigate the main requirements and aspects of designing and developing effective serious games for learning and developing a conceptual model to describe the structure of serious games with a focus on both aspects of serious games. The main contributions of this approach are to facilitate the design and development of serious games in a flexible and easy-to-use way and also to support the cooperative work between the multidisciplinary developer team.

Keywords: game development, game design, requirements, serious games, serious game model.

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Authors: Werner Roux Uys

Abstract:

The Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) holds a high position of trust in South African society and a lack of trust by taxpayers in the Commissioner’s actions or conduct could compromise SARS’ management of public finances. Tax morality – which is implicit in the social contract between taxpayers and the state – includes distinct phenomena that can cause a breakdown if there is a perceived lack of action on the part of the Commissioner to ensure public finances are kept safe. To promote tax morality, the Commissioner must support the judiciary in the exercise of its discretion to punish fraudulent tax activities and corrupt tax practices. For several years the political meddling in the Commissioner’s actions and conduct have caused perceived abuse of power at SARS, and taxpayers believed their hard-earned income paid over to SARS would be fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyse previous decisions held by the South African judiciary regarding the Commissioner’s actions and conduct in tax matters, as well as consider important political statements and newspaper bulletins for the purpose of this research. The study applies a qualitative research approach and exploratory case study technique. Keywords were selected and inserted in the LexisNexis electronic database to systematically identify applicable case law where the ratio decidendi of the court referred to the actions and/or conduct of the Commissioner. Specific real-life statements, including political statements and newspaper bulletins, were selected to support the topic at hand. The purpose of the study is to educate the public about the perceptions that have transformed taxpayers’ behaviour towards the Commissioner for SARS since South Africa’s fledgling constitutional democracy was inaugurated in 1994. The study adds to the literature by identifying key characteristics or distinct phenomena regarding the actions and conduct of the Commissioner affecting taxpayers’ behaviour, including discretionary decision-making. From the findings, it emerged that SARS must abide by its (own) laws and that there is a need to educate not only South African taxpayers about tax morality, but also the public in general.

Keywords: commissioner, SARS, action and conduct, judiciary, discretionry, decsion-making

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Authors: Omar Abdalla, Abdelfatah Ahmed, Ahmed Mustafa, Abdelazem Eldouma

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is evaluating the effect of extremely low frequency magnetic field on Waster rats brain. The number of rats used in this study were 25, which were divided into five groups, each group containing five rats as follows: Group 1: The control group which was not exposed to energized field; Group 2: Rats were exposed to a magnetic field with an intensity of 0.6 mT (2 hours/day); Group 3: Rats were exposed to a magnetic field of 1.2 mT (2 hours/day); Group4: Rats were exposed to a magnetic field of 1.8 mT (2 hours/day); Group 5: Rats were exposed to a magnetic field of 2.4 mT (2 hours/day) and all groups were exposed for seven days, by designing a maze and calculating the time average for arriving to the decoy at special conditions. We found the time average before exposure for the all groups was G2=330 s, G3=172 s, G4=500 s and G5=174 s, respectively. We exposed all groups to ELF-MF and measured the time and we found: G2=465 s, G3=388 s, G4=501 s, and G5=442 s. It was observed that the time average increased directly with field strength. Histological samples of frontal lop of brain for all groups were taken and we found lesion, atrophy, empty vacuoles and disorder choroid plexus at frontal lope of brain. And finally we observed the disorder of choroid plexus in histological results and Alzheimer's symptoms increase when the magnetic field increases.

Keywords: nonionizing radiation, biophysics, magnetic field, shrinkage

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Authors: Kang Woobang

Abstract:

The base of the column is not only a support but also the embodiment of profound symbolism full of cosmic energy. Finding the full jars from which various energy emanate at the Notre Dame of Paris and Saint-Germain-des-Pres in France, the author was so shocked. As the column is cosmic tree, from the Full Jar full with cosmic energy emerges the cosmic tree composed of shaft and capital.

Keywords: full picher or jar, transcendental or supernatural birth from yonggi, yonggimun, yonggissak

Procedia PDF Downloads 399

Authors: Karina Peron, Ricardo Ghelman, Monica Taminato, Katia R. Oliveira, Debora C. A. Rodrigues, Juliana R. C. Mumme, Olga K. M. Sunakozaua, Georg Seifert, Vicente O. Filho

Abstract:

The nurse is the most available health professional for the interventions of support in the integrative approach in hospital environment, therefore a professional group key to changes in the model of care. The central components in the performance of anthroposophic nursing procedures are direct physical contact, promotion of proper rhythm, thermal regulation and the construction of a calm and empathic atmosphere, safe for patients and their caregivers. The procedures of anthroposophic external therapies (AET), basically composed of the application of compresses and the use of natural products, provide an opportunity to intensify the therapeutic results through an innovative, complementary and integrative model in the university hospital. The objective of this work is to report the implementation of a program of nursing techniques (AET) through a partnership between the Pediatric Oncology Sector of the Department of Pediatrics of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo and Charite University of Berlin, with lecturers from Berlin's Integrative Hospital Havelhöhe and Witten-Herdecke Integrative Hospital, both in Germany. Intensive training activities of the Hospital's nursing staff and a survey on AET needs were developed based on the most prevalent complaints in pediatric oncology patients in the three environments of the Hospital of Pediatric Oncology: Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Intensive Care Unit and Division of Internal Patients. We obtained the approval of the clinical protocol of external anthroposophic therapies for nursing care by the Ethics Committee and the Academic Council of the Hospital. With this project, we highlight the key AET needs that will be part of the standard program of pediatric oncology care with appropriate scientific support. The results of the prevalent symptoms were: vomiting, nausea, pain, difficulty in starting sleep, constipation, cold extremities, mood disorder and psychomotor agitation. This project was the pioneer within the Integrative Pediatrics Program, as an innovative concept of Medicine and Integrative Health presented at scientific meetings.

Keywords: integrative health care, integrative nursing, pediatric nursing, pediatric oncology

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Authors: Khaldon Lweesy, Feryal Alskafi, Rabaa Hammad, Shaker Khanfar, Yara Alsukhni

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Electronic noses are devices designed to emulate the humane sense of smell by characterizing and differentiating odor profiles. In this study, we build a low-cost e-nose using an array module containing four different types of metal oxide semiconductor gas sensors. We used this system to create a profile for a meat specimen over three days. Then using a pattern recognition software, we correlated the odor of the specimen to its age. It is a simple, fast detection method that is both non-expensive and non-destructive. The results support the usage of this technology in food control management.

Keywords: e-nose, low cost, odor detection, food safety

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Authors: Rachel Falconer

Abstract:

Background: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the duties placed on signatory nations to take measures to protect children from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and maltreatment. The systems for ensuring this protection vary globally, shaped by national welfare policies. In England and Finland, past research has highlighted differences in how child protection issues are framed and how state agencies respond. However, less is known about how such differences impact processes of social work judgment and decision making in practice. Method: Data was collected as part of a wider PhD project in three stages. First, social workers in sites across England and Finland were asked to complete a short questionnaire. Participants were then asked to comment on two constructed case vignettes, and were interviewed about their experiences of child protection decision making at the point of referral. Interviews were analyzed using NVivo to draw out key themes. Findings: There were similarities in how the English and Finnish social workers responded to the case vignettes; for example, participants in both countries expressed concerns about similar risk factors and all felt further assessment was needed. Differences were observed, in particular, in regard to the sources of support and guidance participants referred to, with the English social workers appearing to rely more upon managerial input for their decisions than the Finnish social workers. These findings suggest evidence for two distinct decision making approaches: ‘supervised’ and ‘supported’ judgement. Implications for practice: The findings have relevance to the conference theme of research and evaluation of social work practice, and support the findings of previous studies that have emphasized the significance of organizational factors in child protection decision making. The comparative methodology has also helped to demonstrate how organizational factors can influence practice in different child protection system ‘orientations’. The presentation will discuss the potential practice implications of ‘supervised’, manager-led approaches to decision making as contrasted with ‘supported’, team-led approaches, inviting discussion about the relevance of these findings for social work in other countries.

Keywords: child protection, comparative research, decision making, social work, vignettes

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Authors: O. Badagadze, G. Sirbiladze, I. Khutsishvili

Abstract:

The work proposes a decision support methodology for the credit risk minimization in selection of investment projects. The methodology provides two stages of projects’ evaluation. Preliminary selection of projects with minor credit risks is made using the Expertons Method. The second stage makes ranking of chosen projects using the Possibilistic Discrimination Analysis Method. The latter is a new modification of a well-known Method of Fuzzy Discrimination Analysis.

Keywords: expert valuations, expertons, investment project risks, positive and negative discriminations, possibility distribution

Procedia PDF Downloads 662