Search results for: financial issues

Authors: Abimbola Mobolanle Adu, Marcus Tayo Akinlade

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This comprehensive study systematically dissects the intricate interplay between the removal of fuel subsidy and its multifaceted repercussions on Nigeria's educational system. Originating in the 1970s, the fuel subsidy policy initially conceived to curtail fuel costs and faced financial unsustainability. In 2023, President Bola Tinubu's administration announced its cessation. The resultant escalation in petroleum product prices precipitated challenges within the education sector, manifesting as heightened administrative costs, increased student fees, amplified dropout rates, and others. Employing a qualitative research methodology, grounded in Critical Theory, the study draws from diverse secondary sources and employs content analysis to unravel the intricate layers of this issue. Critical Theory provides a lens through which the power dynamics, socio-economic structures, and ideological influences shaping policy decisions can be critically examined, offering a deeper understanding of the multifaceted impact. Findings underscore the imperative for strategic interventions, advocating for investments in technology and the exploration of alternative energy sources. The paper concludes by emphasizing the pivotal role of education, advocating for nuanced policies to alleviate the impact on both private and public educational institutions. In essence, this research contributes nuanced insights into the labyrinthine dynamics between fuel subsidy policies and the educational sector, underscoring the exigency for meticulous interventions to fortify the nation's educational foundation.

Keywords: administration, education, fuel subsidy, policy, multilayered impact

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Authors: Alfred Chen, Cheng Chieh Hsu, Yu-Pin Ma, Meng-Jie Lin, Fu Pai Chiu, Yi-Yan Sie

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This study is attempted to construct a human-computer interactive platform system that has mainly consisted of an augmented hardware system, a software system, a display table, and mixed media. This system has provided with human-computer interaction services through an interactive platform for the tourism industry. A well designed interactive platform, integrating of augmented reality and mixed media, has potential to enhance museum display quality and diversity. Besides, it will create a comprehensive and creative display mode for most museums and historical heritages. Therefore, it is essential to let public understand what the platform is, how it functions, and most importantly how one builds an interactive augmented platform. Hence the authors try to elaborate the construction process of the platform in detail. Thus, there are three issues to be considered, i.e.1) the theory and application of augmented reality, 2) the hardware and software applied, and 3) the mixed media presented. In order to describe how the platform works, Courtesy Door of Tainan Confucius Temple has been selected as case study in this study. As a result, a developed interactive platform has been presented by showing the physical entity object, along with virtual mixing media such as text, images, animation, and video. This platform will result in providing diversified and effective information that will be delivered to the users.

Keywords: human-computer interaction, mixed reality, mixed media, tourism

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Authors: Rizwan Rizwan

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This paper provides an overview of Federated Learning (FL) and its application in enhancing data security, privacy, and efficiency. FL utilizes three distinct architectures to ensure privacy is never compromised. It involves training individual edge devices and aggregating their models on a server without sharing raw data. This approach not only provides secure models without data sharing but also offers a highly efficient privacy--preserving solution with improved security and data access. Also we discusses various frameworks used in FL and its integration with machine learning, deep learning, and data mining. In order to address the challenges of multi--party collaborative modeling scenarios, a brief review FL scheme combined with an adaptive gradient descent strategy and differential privacy mechanism. The adaptive learning rate algorithm adjusts the gradient descent process to avoid issues such as model overfitting and fluctuations, thereby enhancing modeling efficiency and performance in multi-party computation scenarios. Additionally, to cater to ultra-large-scale distributed secure computing, the research introduces a differential privacy mechanism that defends against various background knowledge attacks.

Keywords: federated learning, differential privacy, gradient descent strategy, convergence, stability, threats

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Authors: Zuhaina Zakaria, Noraliza Hamzah, Siti Halijjah Shariff, Noor Aizah Abdul Karim

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The residential sector in Malaysia has become the single largest energy sector accounting for 21% of the entire energy usage of the country. In the past 10 years, a number of energy efficiency initiatives in the residential sector had been undertaken by the government including. However, there is no clear evidence that the total residential energy consumption has been reduced substantially via these strategies. Household electrical appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, lighting and televisions are used depending on the consumers’ activities. The behavior of household occupants played an important role in energy consumption and influenced the operation of the physical devices. Therefore, in order to ensure success in energy efficiency program, it requires not only the technological aspect but also the consumers’ behaviors component. This paper focuses on the challenges and opportunities in modelling residential consumer behavior in Malaysia. A field survey to residential consumers was carried out and responses from the survey were analyzed to determine the consumers’ level of knowledge and awareness on energy efficiency. The analyses will be used in determining a right framework to explain household energy use intentions and behavior. These findings will be beneficial to power utility company and energy regulator in addressing energy efficiency related issues.

Keywords: consumer behavior theories, energy efficiency, household occupants, residential consumer

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Authors: Vasoontara Yiengprugsawan, Sam-ang Seubsman

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As Thais live longer, caregivers will become even more important to social and healthcare systems. Commonly reported in many low and middle‐income countries in Asia, formal social welfare services to support caregivers are lacking and informal family support will be required for all levels of care. In 2005, 87,151 open‐university adults were recruited to the Thai Cohort Study, with the majority aged between 25 and 39 years, and residing nationwide. At the 4‐year follow up in 2009 (n=60569) and the 8‐year follow‐up in 2013 (n=42785), prospective cohort participants were asked if they provide care for chronically ill, disabled, or frail family members. Among Thai cohort members reporting between 2009 and 2013, approximately 56% were not caregivers in either year, 24.5% reported providing care in 2009 only, 8.6% in 2013 only, and 10.6% reported providing care at both time points. Caregivers in the cohort reported providing financial support, help with shopping, emotional support, and assist with daily activities. Kessler 6 psychological distress scale, measured in both 2009 and 2013, was used as the primary outcome of a relationship between caregiving status and mental health. Using multivariate logistic regression, our 4‐year longitudinal findings revealed that cohort members who reported providing care at both time points were 1.4 to 1.6 times more likely to report high psychological distress than non‐caregivers, after accounting for potential covariates. With increasing needs for informal care provided by family members, the future health and social welfare system will need to provide adequate support to caregivers (e.g., respite care, clinical support and information for the family, and awareness of mental health among caregivers).

Keywords: family caregivers, psychological distress, prospective cohort, longitudinal study, Thailand

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Authors: Moyera Sanganeria

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In the highly competitive landscape of contemporary sports, sportspersons worldwide encounter formidable challenges, often practicing for extensive hours while contending with limited social and physical resources. A growing number of sportspersons globally are sharing their struggles with depression, anxiety, and stress arising from the complex journey and identity associated with being a sportsperson. This qualitative study aims to investigate the challenges faced by sportspersons in individual versus team sports and explore potential gender-based variations in coping strategies. It attempts to do so by recognizing the imperative to comprehend the root causes and coping mechanisms for these stressors. By employing purposive sampling, MMA and Kabaddi players from training academies across Mumbai were selected for the study. Twelve participants were interviewed through semi-structured interviews guided by an interview guide. Reflective thematic analysis was employed to discern diverse stressors and coping strategies. Key stressors encountered by young Indian sportspersons encompass injuries, socio-economic challenges, financial constraints, escalating competition, and performance anxiety. Notably, individuals engaged in team sports tended to adopt emotion-focused coping mechanisms, while those in individual sports leaned more towards problem-focused coping strategies in response to these stressors. There were no prominent gender differences found in coping strategies employed by sportspersons. This study underscores the critical issue of declining mental health among sportspersons in India, emphasizing the necessity for a structured and customized mental health intervention strategy tailored to the unique needs of this population.

Keywords: stressors, coping strategies, sports psychology, sportspersons, mental health

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Authors: Alexandru Gridan, Georgeta Ionescu, Ovidiu Ionescu, Ramon Jurj, George Sirbu, Mihai Fedorca

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The Brown Bear population size in Romania is approximately 7300-7600 individuals, which is projected to be 3000 individuals over the ecological carrying capacity. The Habitats Directive imposed certain protection rules on European Union (EU) Member States with Brown Bear populations. These however allow countries like Sweden, Croatia, Slovakia, Estonia to hunting as management tool, harvesting up to 10% of the surplus bear population annually. From the point Romania joined the EU to 2016, active conservation management has contributed to maintaining the highest and most genetically diverse Brown Bear population in Europe. Importantly, there has been good coexistence between people and bears and low levels of human-bear conflict. After social pressure and campaigning by some non-governmental organisations citing issues over monitoring, the environment minister decided in September 2016 to stop the use of hunting as a management tool for bears. Against this background, this paper provides a set of recommendations to resolve the current conflict in Romania. These include the need for collaborative decision-making to reduce conflicts between stakeholders and mechanisms to reduce current human-bear conflicts, which have increased by 50 percent in the past year.

Keywords: bear, bear population, bear management, wildlife conflict

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Authors: Nyasha Agnes Gurira, Petronella Katekwe

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Traditional management systems (TMS) are a vital source of knowledge for conserving cultural and natural heritage. TMS’s are renowned for their ability to preserve both tangible and intangible manifestations of heritage. They are a construct of the intricate relationship that exists between heritage and host communities, where communities are recognized as owners of heritage and so, set up management mechanisms to ensure its adequate conservation. Multiple heritage condition surveys were conducted to assess the effectiveness of using TMS in the conservation of both natural and cultural heritage. Surveys were done at Nharira Hills, Mahwemasimike, Dzimbahwe, Manjowe Rock art sites and Norumedzo forest which are heritage places in Zimbabwe. It assessed the state of conservation of the five case studies and assessed the role that host communities play in the management of these heritage places. It was revealed that TMS’s are effective in the conservation of natural heritage, however in relation to heritage forms with cultural manifestations, there are major disparities. These range from differences in appreciation and perception of value within communities leading to vandalism, over emphasis in the conservation of the intangible element as opposed to the tangible. This leaves the tangible element at risk. Despite these issues, TMS are a reliable knowledge base which enables more holistic conservation approaches for cultural and natural heritage.

Keywords: communities, cultural intangible, tangible heritage, traditional management systems, natural

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Authors: Alexandra-Monica Toma

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As the internet became a ruling force of society, computer-mediated communication has enriched its methods to convey meaning by combining linguistic means to visual means of expressivity. One of the elements of cyberspace is what we call a meme, a succinct, visually engaging tool used to communicate ideas or emotions, usually in a funny or ironic manner. Coined by Richard Dawkings in the late 1970s to refer to cultural genes, this term now denominates a special type of vernacular language used to share content on the internet. This research aims to analyse the basic mechanism that stands at the basis of meme creation as a blend of innovation and imitation and will approach some of the most widely used image macros remixed to generate new content while also pointing out success strategies. Moreover, this paper discusses whether memes can transcend the light-hearted and playful mood they mirror and become biting and sharp cultural comments. The study also uses the concept of multimodality and stresses how the text interacts with image, discussing three types of relations between the two: symmetry, amplification, and contradiction. We will furthermore show that memes are cultural artifacts and virtual tropes highly dependent on context and societal issues by using a corpus of memes created related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: context, computer-mediated communication, memes, multimodality

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Authors: Sepideh Nikounejad, Mostafa Ghaderi, Nematollah Azizi, Per-Olof Thang, Mohamad Reza Neyestani

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From an educational perspective, an effective and efficient relationship between university and industry can be considered as an important means by which not only both sides are improved but also it brings many advantages and benefits for both parties. It means more specifically, mutual collaboration between universities and industry can not only reduce youth unemployment, but it can improve the quality of teaching and learning in higher education settings while providing more qualified people to industrial enterprises. Indeed the lack of effective interaction between Iranian universities and industry has confronted the country and created many challenges include in increasing number of unskillful and unemployed graduates. However, in order to suggest appropriate practical strategies, it is very important to see how this issue has been tackled by Swedish universities, which have had a good background in this collaboration and how they are connected to the industry in particular and labour market in general. The research aims to study and compare the mechanisms, processes, and policies of the current model in the relationships between university and industry in Iran and Sweden. As a qualitative study, grounded theory was applied. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected purposefully and by the snowball sampling method. The findings indicate that despite reported needs from both sides for close collaborations between universities and industries in Iran, current policies and practices, including internship, laboratory, and financial support, need to be revised critically. However, in light of our findings on the Swedish policies and practices for linking universities and industries, some practical strategies will be suggested for the Iranian higher education context. In conclusion, cooperation models between universities and industries in Iran and Sweden will be described.

Keywords: cooperation, higher education, industry, comparative

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Authors: Camilo Perez Lee, Mark Lefsrud, Edris Madadian, Yves Roy

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Biomass availability is one of the most important aspects to consider when determining the proper location of potential bioenergy plants. Since this aspect has a direct impact on biomass transportation and storage, biomass availability greatly influences the operational cost. Biomass availability is more than the quantity available on a specific region; other elements such as biomass accessibility and potential play an important role. Accessibility establishes if the biomass could be extracted and conveyed easily considering factors such as biomass availability, infrastructure condition and other operational issues. On the other hand, biomass potential is defined as the capacity of a specific region to scale the usage of biomass as an energy source, move from another energy source or to switch the type of biomass to increase their biomass availability in the future. This paper defines methodologies and parameters in order to determine the biomass availability within the administrative regions of the province of Quebec; firstly by defining the forestry, agricultural, municipal solid waste and energy crop biomass availability per administrative region, next its infrastructure accessibility and lastly defining the region potential. Thus, these data are processed to create a biomass availability matrix allowing to define the overall biomass availability per region and to determine the most optional candidates for bioenergy plant location.

Keywords: biomass, availability, bioenergy, accessibility, biomass potential

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Authors: Irina Khutsishvili

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The presented study develops a decision support methodology for multi-criteria group decision-making problem. The proposed methodology is based on the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution) approach in the hesitant fuzzy environment. The main idea of decision-making problem is a selection of one best alternative or several ranking alternatives among a set of feasible alternatives. Typically, the process of decision-making is based on an evaluation of certain criteria. In many MCDM problems (such as medical diagnosis, project management, business and financial management, etc.), the process of decision-making involves experts' assessments. These assessments frequently are expressed in fuzzy numbers, confidence intervals, intuitionistic fuzzy values, hesitant fuzzy elements and so on. However, a more realistic approach is using linguistic expert assessments (linguistic variables). In the proposed methodology both the values and weights of the criteria take the form of linguistic variables, given by all decision makers. Then, these assessments are expressed in triangular fuzzy numbers. Consequently, proposed approach is based on triangular hesitant fuzzy TOPSIS decision-making model. Following the TOPSIS algorithm, first, the fuzzy positive ideal solution (FPIS) and the fuzzy negative-ideal solution (FNIS) are defined. Then the ranking of alternatives is performed in accordance with the proximity of their distances to the both FPIS and FNIS. Based on proposed approach the software package has been developed, which was used to rank investment projects in the real investment decision-making problem. The application and testing of the software were carried out based on the data provided by the ‘Bank of Georgia’.

Keywords: fuzzy TOPSIS approach, investment project, linguistic variable, multi-criteria decision making, triangular hesitant fuzzy set

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Authors: Shriya Shukla, Lachin Fernando

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Pneumonia, a leading cause of mortality in young children globally, presents significant diagnostic challenges, particularly in resource-limited settings. This study presents an approach to diagnosing pediatric pneumonia using Chest X-Ray (CXR) images, employing a lightweight MobileNetV2 model enhanced with synthetic data augmentation. Addressing the challenge of dataset scarcity and imbalance, the study used a Variational Autoencoder-Generative Adversarial Network (VAE-GAN) to generate synthetic CXR images, improving the representation of normal cases in the pediatric dataset. This approach not only addresses the issues of data imbalance and scarcity prevalent in medical imaging but also provides a more accessible and reliable diagnostic tool for early pneumonia detection. The augmented data improved the model’s accuracy and generalization, achieving an overall accuracy of 95% in pneumonia detection. These findings highlight the efficacy of the MobileNetV2 model, offering a computationally efficient yet robust solution well-suited for resource-constrained environments such as mobile health applications. This study demonstrates the potential of synthetic data augmentation in enhancing medical image analysis for critical conditions like pediatric pneumonia.

Keywords: pneumonia, MobileNetV2, image classification, GAN, VAE, deep learning

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Authors: Elizabeta Krstić Vukelja

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Digitization of personal data is a consequence of the development of information and communication technologies that create a new work environment with many advantages and challenges, but also potential threats to privacy and personal data protection. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council is becoming a law and obligation that should address the issues of personal data protection and information security. The existence of the Regulation leads to the conclusion that national legislation in the field of virtual environment, protection of the rights of EU citizens and processing of their personal data is insufficiently effective. In the health system, special emphasis is placed on the processing of special categories of personal data, such as health data. The healthcare industry is recognized as a particularly sensitive area in which a large amount of medical data is processed, the digitization of which enables quick access and quick identification of the health insured. The protection of the individual requires quality IT solutions that guarantee the technical protection of personal categories. However, the real problems are the technical and human nature and the spatial limitations of the application of the Regulation. Some conclusions will be drawn by analyzing the implementation of the basic principles of the Regulation on the example of the Croatian health care system and comparing it with similar activities in other EU member states.

Keywords: regulation, healthcare system, personal dana protection, quality data assurance

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Authors: Christo Nicholls

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The National Electricity Grid (NEG) in South Africa has been under strain for the last five years. This overburden of the NEG led Eskom (the State-Owned Entity responsible for the NEG) to implement a blunt methodology to assist them in reducing the maximum demand (MD) on the NEG, when required, called Loadshedding. The challenge of this methodology is that not only does it lead to immense technical issues with the distribution network equipment, e.g., transformers, due to the frequent abrupt off and on switching, it also has a broader negative fiscal impact on the distributors, as their key consumers (commercial & industrial) are now grid defecting due to the lack of Electricity Security Provision (ESP). This paper provides a pragmatic alternative methodology utilizing specific functionalities embedded within direct-connect single and three-phase Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) Solutions deployed within the distribution network, in conjunction with a Multi-Agent Systems Based AI implementation focused on Automated Negotiation Peer-2-Peer trading. The results of this research clearly illustrate, not only does methodology provide a factual percentage contribution towards the NEG MD at the point of consideration, it also allows the distributor to leverage the real-time MD data from key consumers to activate complex, yet impact-measurable Demand Response (DR) programs.

Keywords: AI, AMI, demand response, multi-agent

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Authors: N. Hammid, F. Bouarab-Dahmani, T. Berkane

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Since its appearance, the MOOC (massive open online course) is gaining more and more intention of the educational communities over the world. Apart from the current MOOCs design and purposes, the creators of MOOC focused on the importance of the connection and knowledge exchange between individuals in learning. In this paper, we present a conceptual model for massive open online blended courses where teachers over the world can collaborate and exchange their experience to get a common efficient content designed as a MOOC opened to their students to live a better learning experience. This model is based on disciplines’ concepts capitalization and the detection of the obstacles met by their students when faced with problem situations (exercises, projects, case studies, etc.). This detection is possible by analyzing the frequently of semantic errors committed by the students. The participation of teachers in the design of the course and the attendance by their students can guarantee an efficient and extensive participation (an important number of participants) in the course, the learners’ motivation and the evaluation issues, in the way that the teachers designing the course assess their students. Thus, the teachers review, together with their knowledge, offer a better assessment and efficient connections to their students.

Keywords: massive open online course, MOOC, online learning, e-learning

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Authors: Sh. Khoshemehry, M. E. Bahram, M. J. Pourvaghar

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Sport has found a special place as an effective phenomenon in all societies of the contemporary world. The relationship between physical activity and exercise with different sciences has provided new fields for human study. The range of issues related to exercise and physical education is such that it requires specialized sciences and special studies. In this article, the psychological and social sections of exercise have been investigated for children and adults. It can be used for anyone in different age groups. Exercise and regular physical movements have a great impact on the mental and social health of the individual in addition to body health. It affects the individual's adaptability in society and his/her personality. Exercise affects the treatment of diseases such as depression, anxiety, stress, body image, and memory. Exercise is a safe haven for young people to achieve the optimum human development in its shelter. The effects of sensorimotor skills on mental actions and mental development are such a way that many psychologists and sports science experts believe these activities should be included in training programs in the first place. Familiarity of students and scholars with different programs and methods of sensorimotor activities not only causes their mental actions; but also increases mental health and vitality, enhances self-confidence and, therefore, mental health.

Keywords: anxiety, mental health, physical activity, serotonin

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Authors: Bonginkosi A. Thango, Jacobus A. Jordaan, Agha F. Nnachi

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In this day and age, there is a proliferate concern from all governments across the globe to barricade the environment from greenhouse gases, which absorb infrared radiation. As a result, solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity has been an expeditiously growing renewable energy source and will eventually undertake a prominent role in the global energy generation. The selection and purchasing of energy-efficient transformers that meet the operational requirements of the solar photovoltaic energy generation plants then become a part of the Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) investment plan of action. Taking these into account, this paper proposes a procedure that put into effect the intricate financial analysis necessitated to precisely evaluate the transformer service lifetime no-load and load loss factors. This procedure correctly set forth the transformer service lifetime loss factors as a result of a solar PV plant’s sporadic generation profile and related levelized costs of electricity into the computation of the transformer’s total ownership cost. The results are then critically compared with the conventional transformer total ownership cost unaccompanied by the emission costs, and demonstrate the significance of the sporadic energy generation nature of the solar PV plant on the total ownership cost. The findings indicate that the latter play a crucial role for developers and Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) in making the purchase decision during a tender bid where competing offers from different transformer manufactures are evaluated. Additionally, the susceptibility analysis of different factors engrossed in the transformer service lifetime cost is carried out; factors including the levelized cost of electricity, solar PV plant’s generation modes, and the loading profile are examined.

Keywords: solar photovoltaic plant, transformer, total ownership cost, loss factors

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Authors: Azaz Zaman, Mirazur Rahman

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Capital market is a crucial financial market place where companies and the government can raise long-term funds and, at the same time, investors get the opportunity to invest in the listed companies. Capital markets play a vital role not only in shifting the funds from surplus entity to deficit for investment, but also in the overall economic development of any developing country like Bangladesh. Being the first and biggest capital market of Bangladesh, Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) is the prime bourse of the country. The differences in the investment preference— among three broad categories of investors in DSE including individual investors, institutional investors, and government— are easily observed. Authors of this article have used five categories of investors such as sponsors or directors of the company, institutional investors, foreign investors, government, and the general public in order to present a comparative analysis of their investment patterns. Obtaining data on the percentage of investment by these five types of investors in different sectors from the DSE website, this study aims to analyze the sector-wise investment preference of these investors using August 2018 data. The study has found that the sponsors or directors of the company have the highest percentage of investment in the textile industry which is close to 16%. The Bangladesh government, as an investor, has the highest percentage of investment in the fuel & power sector, approximately 32%. It has also found that the mutual funds' sector is mostly financed by institutional investors, nearly 28%. Foreign investors have their most investments in the banking sector, which is close to 22%. It has also revealed that the textile sector is mostly financed by the general public, close to 17%. Nevertheless, general public, surprisingly, has the lowest percentage of investment in the telecommunication sector, which is 0.10%.

Keywords: stock market investment, Dhaka stock exchange, capital market, Bangladesh

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Authors: Edwina Owusu Panin

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Families may face significant obstacles as a result of single parenting and disabilities. The amenities and support those single parents need to give their children with disabilities the care they need are frequently out of their reach. These can include financial hardship, limited access to health and education, and social isolation. In addition, cultural attitudes toward disability can worsen these challenges, making it difficult for families to get the support and resources they need. Despite these challenges, many single parents have shown resilience and strength to overcome these difficulties and defend the rights of their children; some, too, have failed in taking care of their disabled children in Ghana. The study traces the developmental process of how single parents cope with disabled children. There is a discouraging fact that single father’s face a much more dreadful task in taking care of their disabled children in Ghana, which is later highlighted in the article. Additional research and support are needed to address the unique needs of families facing these challenges. This case study explores the experiences of single parents raising children with disabilities in Ghana. Using a qualitative approach, the study examines the challenges facing lone parents in caring for children, including access to healthcare, education and social support. In addition, the study examines the impact of cultural disability attitudes on the experiences of single parents and their children and what causes it in Ghana. Findings indicate that single parents in Ghana face significant challenges in accessing resources and support for their children and that cultural attitudes toward disability may aggravate these challenges. However, the study recommends the tenacity and strengths of how to create awareness, protect the welfare and also by encouraging single parents to face these challenges and protect the rights of their children, swaying away influences of bad cultural attitudes.

Keywords: disability, single parenting, case study, assessing

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Authors: Philemon Wokoma Iyagba, Obey Onenee Christie

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From the hindbrain, which is responsible for motor activities, to the forebrain, responsible for processing information related to complex cognitive activities, the human brain has continued to evolve over the years. This evolution- has been progressive, leading to advancements in science and technology. However, the development of science and technology in Africa, where ancient civilization arguably began, has been retrogressive. Dialectics was done by dissecting different opinions on the reason behind the stunted development of science and technology in Africa. The researchers proposed that the inability to sustain the technological advancements made by early Africans is due to poor or lack of replicability of the African knowledge-based system, almost no or poor documentation of adopted procedures and the approval-seeking mentality that cheaply paved the way for westernization which also led to the adulteration of the African way of life and education without making room for incorporating her identity and proper alignment of her rich cultural heritage in education and her enormous achievements before and during the middle age. This article discussed conceptual issues, with its positions based on established facts, the discussion was based on relevant literature and recommendations were made accordingly.

Keywords: forebrain, hindbrain, dialectics from African perspective, development in science and technology

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Authors: Sarish Rehman, Kishwar Khan, Yanglong Hou

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Among the existed myriad energy-storage technologies, lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) show the appealing potential for the ubiquitous growth of next-generation electrical energy storage application, owing to their unparalleled theoretical energy density of 2600 Wh/kg that is over five times larger than that of conventional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Despite its significant advances, its large scale implementations are plagued by multitude issues: particularly the intrinsic insulating nature of the sulfur (10-30 S/cm), mechanical degradation of the cathode due to large volume changes of sulfur up to 80 % during cycling and loss of active material (producing polysulfide shuttle effect). We design a unique structure, namely silicon/silica (Si/SiO2) crosslink with hierarchical porous carbon spheres (Si/SiO2@C), and use it as a new and efficient sulfur host to prepare Si/SiO2@C-S hybrid spheres to solve the hurdle of the polysulfides dissolution. As results of intriguing structural advantages developed hybrids spheres, it acts as efficient polysulfides reservoir for enhancing lithium sulfur battery (LSB) in the terms of capacity, rate ability and cycling stability via combined chemical and physical effects.

Keywords: high specific surface area, high power density, high content of sulfur, lithium sulfur battery

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Authors: Aly Ahmed, Aber Kay Obwona, Mokrzecka Martyna, Piotrowska Małgorzata, Richardson Stephen

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Frankfurt am Main, the fifth largest city in Germany, ranked at 15th place by the Global Financial Centers Index in 2014, and a finalist of European Green Capital, 214 is a crucial player in German Environmental Policy. Since 2012 the city Authorities have been working on implementing the plan, which assumed to reduce the energy consumption by 50%, and fully switch to renewable energy by the year 2050. To achieve this goal, the Municipality of Frankfurt has begun preparing the Master plan, which will be introduced to public by the end of 2015. A significant question when facing the starting of Master Plan public’s introduction was deciding which method should be used to increase the public engagement. In order to answer this question, the city and region authorities in the cooperation with Frankfurt’s Universities and Climate KIC, organized a two-week PhD scientific workshops, in which participated more than 30 students from numerous countries. The paper presented the outcome of the research and solution proposal of the winning team. Transitions theory tells, that to address challenges as complex as Climate Change and the Energiewende, using of new technologies and system to the public is not sufficient. Transition –by definition is a process, and in such a large scale (city and region transition) can be fulfilled only, when operates within a broad socio – technical system. Authors believe that only by close cooperation with city dwellers, as well as different stakeholders, the Transition in Frankfurt can be successful. The vital part is the strategy which will ensure the engagement, sense of ownership and broad support within Frankfurt society. Author proposal based therefore, on fostering the citizens engagement through a comprehensive, innovative communication strategy.

Keywords: city development, communication strategies, social transition, sustainability

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Authors: Jennifer Donovan

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Practice collaborations between legal assistance and social support services have emerged as a growing framework worldwide for delivering services to clients with high degrees of disadvantage, vulnerability and complexity. In Australia, the past five years has seen a significant growth in these socio-legal collaborations, with programs being delivered through legal, social service and health organizations and addressing a range of issues including mental health, immigration, parental child abduction and domestic violence. This presentation is based on research currently mapping the nature of these collaborations in Australia and exploring the influence that collaborating professions are having on each other’s practice. In a similar way to problem-solving courts being seen as a systematic take up of therapeutic jurisprudence in the court setting, socio-legal collaborations have the potential to be a systematic take up of therapeutic jurisprudence in an advice setting. This presentation will explore the varied ways in which socio-legal collaboration is being implemented in these programs. It will also explore the development of interdisciplinary therapeutic jurisprudence within them, with preliminary findings suggesting that both legal and social service practice is being influenced by the collaborative setting, with legal practice showing a more therapeutic orientation and social service professions, such as social work, moving toward a legal and rights orientation.

Keywords: collaboration, socio-legal, Australia, therapeutic jurisprudence

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Authors: García López

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The Government Departments of Health have the task of informing and educating citizens about public health issues. For this, they use channels like Twitter, key in the search for health information and the propagation of content. The tweets, important in the virality of the content, may contain emotions that influence the contagion and exchange of knowledge. The goal of this study is to perform an analysis of the emotional projection of health information shared on Twitter by official American accounts: the disease control account CDCgov, National Institutes of Health, NIH, the government agency HHSGov, and the professional organization PublicHealth. For this, we used Tone Analyzer, an International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) tool specialized in emotion detection in text, corresponding to the categorical model of emotion representation. For 15 days, all tweets from these accounts were analyzed with the emotional analysis tool in text. The results showed that their tweets contain an important emotional load, a determining factor in the success of their communications. This exposes that official accounts also use subjective language and contain emotions. The predominance of emotion joy over sadness and the strong presence of emotions in their tweets stimulate the virality of content, a key in the work of informing that government health departments have.

Keywords: emotions in tweets, emotion detection in the text, health information on Twitter, American health official accounts, emotions on Twitter, emotions and content

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Authors: Blerim Olluri

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A forensic science laboratory in Kosovo has never been organized at the level of most modern forensic science laboratories. This was made possible after the war of 1999 with the help and support from the United States. The United States Government/ICITAP provided 9.5 million dollars to support this project, this support have greatly benefitted law enforcement in Kosovo. With the establishment of Operative Procedures of Work and the law for Kosovo Agency of Forensic, the accreditation with ISO/IEC 17025 of the KAF labs it becomes mandatory. Since 2012 Laboratory’s DNA/Serology and Narcotics has begun reviewing and harmonizing their procedures according to ISO/IEC 17025. The focus of this work was to create quality manuals, procedures, work instructions, quality documentation and quality records. Furthermore, during this time is done the validation of work methods from scientific qualified personnel of KAF, without any help from other foreign agencies or accreditation body.In October 2014 we had the first evaluation based on ISO 17025 standards. According to the initial report of this assessment we have non conformity in test and Calibration methods method’s, and accommodation and environmental conditions. We identified several issues that are of extreme importance to KAF. One the most important issue is to create a professional group with experts of KAF, which will work in all the obligations, requested from ISO/IEC 17025. As conclusions that we earn in this path of accreditation, are that laboratory’s need to take corrective action, and all nonconformance’s must be addressed and corrective action taken before accreditation can be granted.

Keywords: accreditation, assessment, narcotics, DNA

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Authors: Samal Abzhanova, Saule Mussabekova

Abstract:

Today, a new system of education is being created in Kazakhstan in order to develop the system of education and to satisfy the world class standards. For this purpose, there have been established new requirements and responsibilities to the instructors. Students should not be limited with providing only theoretical knowledge. Also, they should be encouraged to be competitive, to think creatively and critically. Moreover, students should be able to implement these skills into practice. These issues could be resolved through the permanent improvement of teaching methods. Therefore, a specialist who teaches the languages should use up-to-date methods and introduce new technologies. The result of the investigation suggests that an interactive teaching method is one of the new technologies in this field. This paper aims to provide information about implementing new technologies in the process of teaching language. The paper will discuss about necessity of introducing innovative technologies and the techniques of organizing interactive lessons. At the same time, the structure of the interactive lesson, conditions, principles, discussions, small group works and role-playing games will be considered. Interactive methods are carried out with the help of several types of activities, such as working in a team (with two or more group of people), playing situational or role-playing games, working with different sources of information, discussions, presentations, creative works and learning through solving situational tasks and etc.

Keywords: interactive education, interactive methods, system of education, teaching a language

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Authors: Birtukan Atinkut Asmare

Abstract:

Climate change disproportionately affects many Africans who heavily rely on climate-exposed sectors such as rain-fed agriculture and fishing, rendering them highly vulnerable. Gender plays a significant role, as men and women experience unequal impacts and vulnerabilities due to gender norms, labor divisions, resource access, and power dynamics. Drawing on an integrated framework, this study sheds light on the gendered impacts of climate change on household’s livelihood, their vulnerability, and adaptation in rural Ethiopia's Lake Tana Basin. This study utilized mixed research methods, integrating diverse qualitative techniques such as focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and field observations, along with quantitative data gathered through household surveys. The findings reveal that women-headed households were more vulnerable to climate change than male-headed households. Flood was the major climate-induced hazards in the area that threatened the lives and livelihoods of households. In response to climate change, households undertook different adaptation measures such as agroforestry practices, crop diversification, seasonal migration, petty trading, charcoal and fuel wood sales. However, the adaptation strategies were slightly varied based on the gender of the household head. Women-headed households specifically engaged in fuelwood collection and selling and petty trading activities. The main constraints for adaptation were limited access to technologies, extension services, information, and financial services. Therefore, this research urges attention from research, policy, and advisory services on rural households who are trying to survive in the face of climate change.

Keywords: agriculture, climate change impacts, ethiopia, gender

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Authors: Khwaja Naweed Seddiqi, Zabihullah Mahdi, Shigeo Honma

Abstract:

Recently increasing oil production from petroleum reservoirs is one of the most important issues in the global energy sector. So, in this paper, the recovery of oil by the waterflooding technique from petroleum reservoir are considered. To investigate the aforementioned phenomena, the relative permeability of two immiscible fluids in sand is measured in the laboratory based on the steady-state method. Two sorts of oils, kerosene and heavy oil, and water are pumped simultaneously into a vertical sand column with different pumping ratio. From the change in fractional discharge measured at the outlet, a method for determining the relative permeability is developed focusing on the displacement mechanism in sand. Then, displacement mechanism of two immiscible fluids in the sand is investigated under the Buckley-Leveret frontal displacement theory and laboratory experiment. Two sorts of experiments, one is the displacement of pore water by oil, the other is the displacement of pore oil by water, are carried out. It is revealed that the relative permeability curves display tolerably different shape owing to the properties of oils, and produce different amount of residual oils and irreducible water saturation.

Keywords: petroleum reservoir engineering, relative permeability, two-phase flow, immiscible displacement in porous media, steady-state method, waterflooding

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Authors: Penina Orenstein

Abstract:

In today’s world, particularly with COVID-19 a constant worldwide threat, organizations need greater visibility over their supply chains more than ever before, in order to find areas for improvement and greater efficiency, reduce the chances of disruption and stay competitive. The concept of supply chain mapping is one where every process and route is mapped in detail between each vendor and supplier. The simplest method of mapping involves sourcing publicly available data including news and financial information concerning relationships between suppliers. An additional layer of information would be disclosed by large, direct suppliers about their production and logistics sites. While this method has the advantage of not requiring any input from suppliers, it also doesn’t allow for much transparency beyond the first supplier tier and may generate irrelevant data—noise—that must be filtered out to find the actionable data. The primary goal of this research is to build data maps of supply chains by focusing on a layered approach. Using these maps, the secondary goal is to address the question as to whether the supply chain is re-engineered to make improvements, for example, to lower the carbon footprint. Using a drill-down approach, the end result is a comprehensive map detailing the linkages between tier-one, tier-two, and tier-three suppliers super-imposed on a geographical map. The driving force behind this idea is to be able to trace individual parts to the exact site where they’re manufactured. In this way, companies can ensure sustainability practices from the production of raw materials through the finished goods. The approach allows companies to identify and anticipate vulnerabilities in their supply chain. It unlocks predictive analytics capabilities and enables them to act proactively. The research is particularly compelling because it unites network science theory with empirical data and presents the results in a visual, intuitive manner.

Keywords: data mining, supply chain, empirical research, data mapping

Procedia PDF Downloads 168