Search results for: watershed level

Authors: H. Kamide, T. Arai

Abstract:

This study aims to clarify factors of courtesy to things and the effect of courtesy on a sense of unity with things based on the teaching of Buddha. The teaching of Buddha explains when dealing with things in a courteous manner carefully, the border between selves and the external world disappears, then both are united. This is an example in Buddhist way that explains the connections with all existences, and in the modern world, it is also a lesson that humans should not let matters go to waste and treat them politely. In order to reveal concrete ways to practice courtesy to things, we clarify the factors of courtesy (Study 1) and examine the effect of courtesy on the sense of unity with the things (Study 2). In Study 1, 100 Japanese (mean age=54.39, SD=15.04, 50% female) described freely about what is courtesy to things that they use daily. These descriptions were classified, and 25 items were made asking for the degree of courtesy to the things. Then different 678 Japanese (mean age=44.72, SD=13.14, 50% female) answered the 25 items on 7-point about tools they use daily. An exploratory factor analysis revealed two factors. The first factor (α=.97) includes 'I deal with the thing carefully' and 'I clean up the thing after use'. This factor reflects how gently people care about things. The second factor (α=.96) includes 'A sense of self-control has come to me through using the thing' and 'I have got inner strength by taking care of the thing'. The second factor reflects how people learn by dealing with things carefully. In this Study 2, 200 Japanese (mean age=49.39, SD=11.07, 50% female) answered courtesy about things they use daily and the degree of sense of unity with the things using the inclusion of other in the self scale, replacing 'Other' with 'Your thing'. The ANOVA was conducted to examine the effect of courtesy (high/low level of two factors) on the score of sense of unity. The results showed the main effect of care level. People with a high level of care have a stronger sense of unity with the thing. The tendency of an interaction effect is also found. The condition with a high level of care and a high level of learning enhances the sense of unity more than the condition of a low level of care and high level in learning. Study 1 found that courtesy is composed of care and learning. That is, courtesy is not only active care to the things but also to learn the meaning of the things and grow personally with the things. Study 2 revealed that people with a high level of care feel a stronger sense of unity and also people with both a high level of care and learn tend to do so. The findings support the idea of the teaching of Buddha. In the future, it is necessary to examine a combined effect of care and learning.

Keywords: courtesy, things, sense of unity, the teaching of Buddha

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Authors: G. H. B. Dilhari, A. A. D. T. Saparamadu

Abstract:

Sri Lanka is one of the prominent countries for the coir production. The coir is one of the by-products of the coconut and the coir industry is considered to be one of the traditional industries in Sri Lanka. Because of the inherent nature of the coir industry, labourers play a significant role in the coir production process. The study has analyzed the determinants of the income of the household level coir yarn labourers. The study was conducted in the Kumarakanda Grama Niladhari division. Simple random sampling was used to generate a sample of 100 household level coir yarn labourers and structured questionnaire, personal interviews, and discussion were performed to gather the required data. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis test were performed for mean comparison. The findings revealed that the household level coir yarn industry is dominated by the female workers and it was identified that fewer numbers of workers have engaged in this industry as the main occupation. In addition to that, elderly participation in the industry is higher than the younger participation and most of them have engaged in the industry as a source of extra income. Level of education, the methods of engagement, satisfaction, engagement in the industry by the next generation, support from the government, method of government support, working hours per day, employed as a main job, number of completed units per day, suffering from job related diseases and type of the diseases were related with income level of household level coir yarn laboures. The recommendations as to flourish in future includes, technological transformation for coir yarn production, strengthening the raw material base and regulating the raw material supply, introduction of new technologies, markets and training programmes, the establishment of the labourers’ association, the initiation of micro credit schemes and better consideration about the job oriented diseases.

Keywords: coir yarn, determinants, income, Sri Lanka

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Michael Louis Sunaris, Robby Yussac Tallar

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The concept of sustainable river is evolving in Indonesia today. Many rivers condition in Indonesia have decreased by quality and quantity. The degradation of this condition is caused by rapid land use change as a result of increased population growth and human activity. It brings the degradation of the existing watersheds including some types of land use that an important factor in determining the status of river sustainability. Therefore, an evaluation method is required to determine the sustainability status of waterbody within watershed. The purpose of this study is to analyze various types of land use in determining the status of river sustainability. This study takes the watersheds of Citarum Upstream as a study area. The results of the analysis prove the index of sustainability status of the river that changes from good to bad or average in the rivers in the study area. The rapid and uncontrolled changes of land use especially in the upper watersheds area are the main causes that happened over time. It was indicated that the cumulative runoff coefficients were increased significantly. These situations indicated that the damage of watersheds has an impact on the water surplus or deficit problem yearly. Therefore, the rivers in Indonesia should be protected and conserved. The sustainability index of the rivers is an index to indicate the condition of watersheds by defining status of rivers in order to achieve sustainable water resource management.

Keywords: land use change, runoff coefficient, a simple index, sustainable river

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Authors: Bing Li

Abstract:

The primitive code-level design patterns (PDP) are the rudimentary programming elements to develop any distributed systems in the generic distributed programming environment, GreatFree. The PDP works with the primitive distributed application programming interfaces (PDA), the distributed modeling, and the distributed concurrency for scaling-up. They not only hide developers from underlying technical details but also support sufficient adaptability to a variety of distributed computing environments. Programming with them, the simplest distributed system, the lightweight messaging two-node client/server (TNCS) system, is constructed rapidly with straightforward and repeatable behaviors, copy-paste-replace (CPR). As any distributed systems are made up of the simplest ones, those PDAs, as well as the PDP, are generic for distributed programming.

Keywords: primitive APIs, primitive code-level design patterns, generic distributed programming, distributed systems, highly patterned development environment, messaging

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Authors: Jinshuo Zhang

Abstract:

Lucid dreams(LD) are the mental states in which people are aware that they are dreaming, which is a rising interdisciplinary topic among psychologists, neuroscientists and spiritual practitioners. From a phenomenological perspective, this research explores the self-consciousness structure in lucid dreams, particularly focusing on the self-reference structure between lucidity(the observer) and the dream ego(the observed). The main argument of this paper is that the self-structure in lucid dreams is a single-level paradigm. In this paper, the phenomenological characteristics of lucidity in LD are carefully unfolded. The appearance of lucidity is the most significant part of understanding the self-structure and the consciousness in dreams, which is also related to the “Six Bardos practices” in Tibetan Buddhism. In the second section, this research investigates the referential relationship between"lucidity" and "the dream ego" using the phenomenological resource of subjectivity theory, as well as referring to many cases in the psychological labs. Despite the appearance of various consciousness layers in lucid dreams, according to this paper, they are all part of a single-level consciousness paradigm. Dream ego is transparent, and dream lucidity can grasp it directly and thoroughly during LD. This research also responds to some potential criticisms and engages in current debates about the self-structure issue in lucid dreams, as well as discussing some future research prospects for dreams and lucid dreams.

Keywords: lucid dream, self-awareness, phenomenological perspective, high-order theory, one-level consciousness

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Authors: Danika Tynes

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Telehealth is a promising advancement in health care, though there are certain conditions under which telehealth has a greater chance of success. This research sought to further the understanding of what conditions compel the success of telehealth adoption at the systems level applying Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) theory (Rogers, 1962). System-level indicators were selected to represent four components of DoI theory (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and observability) and regressed on 5 types of telehealth (teleradiology, teledermatology, telepathology, telepsychology, and remote monitoring) using multiple logistic regression. The analyses supported relative advantage and compatibility as the strongest influencers of telehealth adoption, remote monitoring in particular. These findings help to quantitatively clarify the factors influencing the adoption of innovation and advance the ability to make recommendations on the viability of state telehealth adoption. In addition, results indicate when DoI theory is most applicable to the understanding of telehealth diffusion. Ultimately, this research may contribute to more focused allocation of scarce health care resources through consideration of existing state conditions available foster innovation.

Keywords: adoption, diffusion of innovation theory, remote monitoring, system-level indicators

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Authors: Jeonghwan Jeon

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Technology planning with both internal capacity and external resource is necessary for successful open innovation. Until now, many types of research have been conducted for this issue. However, technology planning for open innovation at the national level has not been researched sufficiently. This study proposes Open roadmap for open innovation at the national level. The proposed open roadmap can manage the inflow & outflow open innovation systematically. Six types of open roadmap are classified with respect to the innovation direction and characteristics. The proposed open roadmap is applied to the open innovation cases of the Roman period. The proposed open roadmap is expected to be helpful tool for technology policy planning at the national level.

Keywords: technology planning, open innovation, internal resource, external resource, technology management

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Authors: Liang Zhou, Qinke Sun

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Taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt as an example, using long-term nighttime lighting data from DMSP/OLS from 1992 to 2012, support vector machine classification (SVM) was used to quantitatively extract urban built-up areas of economic belts, and spatial analysis of expansion intensity index, standard deviation ellipse, etc. was introduced. The model conducts detailed and in-depth discussions on the strength, direction, and type of the expansion of the middle and lower reaches of the economic belt and the key node cities. The results show that: (1) From 1992 to 2012, the built-up areas of the major cities in the Yangtze River Valley showed a rapid expansion trend. The built-up area expanded by 60,392 km², and the average annual expansion rate was 31%, that is, from 9615 km² in 1992 to 70007 km² in 2012. The spatial gradient analysis of the watershed shows that the expansion of urban built-up areas in the middle and lower reaches of the river basin takes Shanghai as the leading force, and the 'bottom-up' model shows an expanding pattern of 'upstream-downstream-middle-range' declines. The average annual rate of expansion is 36% and 35%, respectively. 17% of which the midstream expansion rate is about 50% of the upstream and downstream. (2) The analysis of expansion intensity shows that the urban expansion intensity in the Yangtze River Basin has generally shown an upward trend, the downstream region has continued to rise, and the upper and middle reaches have experienced different amplitude fluctuations. To further analyze the strength of urban expansion at key nodes, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Wuhan in the upper and middle reaches maintain a high degree of consistency with the intensity of regional expansion. Node cities with Shanghai as the core downstream continue to maintain a high level of expansion. (3) The standard deviation ellipse analysis shows that the overall center of gravity of the Yangtze River basin city is located in Anqing City, Anhui Province, and it showed a phenomenon of reciprocating movement from 1992 to 2012. The nighttime standard deviation ellipse distribution range increased from 61.96 km² to 76.52 km². The growth of the major axis of the ellipse was significantly larger than that of the minor axis. It had obvious east-west axiality, in which the nighttime lights in the downstream area occupied in the entire luminosity scale urban system leading position.

Keywords: urban space, support vector machine, spatial characteristics, night lights, Yangtze River Economic Belt

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Authors: M. Suresh Kumar, K. Ramani

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This paper proposed the Multi-Carrier Pulse Width Modulation for the minimization of Total Harmonic Distortion in Cascaded H-Bridge Multi-Level Inverter. Multicarrier Pulse Width Modulation method uses Alternate Position of Disposition scheme to determine the appropriate switching angle to Multi-Level Inverter. In this paper simulation results shows that the validation of Multi-Carrier Pulse Width Modulation method does capably eliminate a great number of precise harmonics and minimize the Total Harmonic Distortion value in output voltage waveform.

Keywords: alternate position, fast fourier analysis, multi-carrier pulse width modulation, multi-level inverter, total harmonic distortion

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Authors: Naziema B. Jappie

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The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between college readiness characteristics and learning outcome assessment scores. About this, it is important to examine the first-year retention and success rate. In order to undertake this study, it will be necessary to look at proficiency levels on general and domain-specific knowledge and skills reflected on national benchmark test scores (NBT), in-college interventions and course-taking patterns. Preliminary results based on data from more than 1000 students suggest that there is a positive association between NBT scores and students’ 1st-year college GPA and their retention status. For example, 63% of students with a proficient level of math skills in the NBT had the highest level of GPA at the end of 1st-year of college in comparison to 56% of those who started with a primary or intermediate level, respectively. The retention rates among those with proficiency levels were also higher than those with basic or intermediate levels (98% vs. 93% and 88%, respectively). By the end of 3rd year in college, students with intermediate or proficient entering NBT math skills had 7% and 8% of dropout rate, compared to 14% for those started at primary level; a greater percentage of students qualified by the end of 3rd-year qualified among proficient students than that among intermediate or basic level students (50% vs. 44% and 27% respectively). The findings of this study added knowledge to the field in South Africa and are expected to help stakeholders and policymakers to better understand college learning and challenges for students with disadvantaged backgrounds and provide empirical evidence in support of related practices and policies.

Keywords: assessment, data analysis, performance, proficiency, policy, student success

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Authors: Suppara Charoenpoom

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The purposes of this research were to investigate the level of consumers’ awareness of the traditional community retailers in terms of location, service quality, risk, shopping enjoyment, value for money, shopping satisfaction and intention to repurchase as well as to investigate the factors influenced the consumers’ repurchase in Samut Sonkhram Province, Thailand. The findings revealed that consumers had a high level of awareness in terms of location, and intention to repurchase. The factors influenced the consumers’ level of satisfaction included value for money, shopping enjoyment, and service quality. The factors of consumers’ level of satisfaction had an influence to the intention to repurchase. Moreover, the findings also revealed that the majority of respondents wanted traditional community retailers to continue to operate because of these reasons: close location, convenience, credit, as well as provide a place and time for community social gathering and activities.

Keywords: quality management, service quality, traditional retailer, consumers’ awareness

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Authors: Mehrdad Karimi, Farshad Negintaji

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This study has examined the appearance of identity in the urban landscape and its effects on the natural factors. For this purpose, the components of place identity, emotional attachment, place dependence and social bond which totally constitute place attachment, measures it in three domains of cognitive (place identity), affective (emotional attachment) and behavioral (place dependence and social bond). In order to measure the natural factors, three components of the absolute elements, living entities, natural elements have been measured. The study is descriptive and the statistical population has been Yasouj, a city in Iran. To analyze the data the SPSS software has been used. The results in two level of descriptive and inferential statistics have been investigated. In the inferential statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient test has been used to evaluate the research hypotheses. In this study, the variable of identity is in high level and the natural factors are also in high level. These results indicate a positive relationship between place identity and natural factors. Development of environment and reaching the quality level of the personality or identity will develop the individual and society.

Keywords: identity, place identity, landscape, urban landscape, landscaping

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Authors: Konstantin A. Bochaver, Alexandra O. Savinkina

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The study analyzed the relationship between the homogeneity-heterogeneity of players in a football team and their efficiency. Compatible players were examined in terms of level of socio-psychological development of the team for which they act. It was shown that in teams of high level of socio-psychological development more compatible were athletes with different levels of failure avoidance motivation. But in low-level teams – bucking the trend. The homogeneity of success achievement motivation was not a factor in the effectiveness of the football team.

Keywords: compatibility, failure avoidance motivation, football, heterogeneity, homogeneity, soccer, sport team, success achievement motivation

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Authors: Kaleem Ahmed, Jamal A. Khan

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Grouping patterns, habitat use, and overlap studies were conducted on five sympatric ungulate species sambar (Cervus unicolor), chital (Axis axis), muntjac (Muntiacus muntjac), goral (Nemorhaedus goral), and serow (Capricornis sumatraensis) in the Dabka watershed area within Indian West Himalayan range. Data on age, sex composition, group size, and various ecological and topographical factors governing the presence/absence of species within the study area were collected using a 250 km of a trail walk, 95 permanent circular plots of 10 m radius, and 3 vantage points with 58 scannings. The highest mean group size was recorded for chital (6.35 ± 0.50), followed by sambar (1.35 ± 0.10), goral (1.25 ±0.63), muntjac (1.12 ± 0.05), and serow (1.00 ± 0.00). Grouping pattern significantly varied among sympatric species (F = 85.10, df. = 6, P = 0.000). The highest mean pellet group density (/ha ± SE) was recorded for sambar (41.56 ± 3.51), followed by goral (23.31 ± 3.45), chital (19.21 ± 3.51), muntjac (7.43 ± 1.21), and serow (1.02 ± 0.10). Two-way variance analysis showed a significant difference in the density of the pellet group of all ungulate species across different study area habitats (F = 6.38, df = 4, P = 0.027). The availability-utilization (AU) analysis reveals that goral was mostly sighted in steep slopes, preferred > 2100 m altitudinal range with low shrub understory, avoided dense forest, and relatively more southern aspects were used. Chital had used a wide range of tree and shrub coverings with a preference towards moderate cover range (26-50%), preferred areas with low slope category ( < 25), avoided areas of high altitude > 900 m. Sambar avoided less tree cover (0-25), preferred slope category (26-500), altitudes between 1600-2100 m, and preferred dense forest with northern aspects. Muntjac used all elevation ranges in the study area with a preference towards the dense forest and northern aspects. Serow preferred high tree cover > 75%, avoided low shrub cover (0-25%), preferred high shrub cover 51-75%, utilized higher elevation > 2100 m, avoided low elevation range and northern aspects. All species occupied similar habitat types, forest or scrub, except for the goral, which preferred open spaces. Between muntjac and sambar, the highest overlap was found (65%), and there was no overlap between chital and serow, chital and goral. Aspect, slope, altitude, and vegetation characteristics were found to be important factors for the overlap of ungulate sympatric species. One major reason for their ecological separation at the fine-scale level is the differential use of altitude by ungulates in the present study. This is confirmed by the avoidance by chital of altitudes > 900 m and serow of < 2100 m.

Keywords: altitude, grouping pattern, Himalayas, overlap, ungulates

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Authors: Amanda Andrea Beatrix Brita, Dominic J. Buenaventura, Charmaine A. Seromines, Antonne Noel V. Chua, Ma. Luisa G. Badilles

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Online ranting, or the act of forcefully expressing your opinion towards other people over the Internet, has been an ongoing issue ever since the creation of the Internet. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of active users has been observed to have increased during this time, thus increasing the number of people being engaged in online activities, which consequently affects the number of individuals who participate in online ranting. However, with all that is observed, what is usually not a topic being discussed about this event are the motivations that lead people to do online ranting. The study was undertaken to discover the level of aggression, Satisfaction, and online engagement in their environment. We utilized 2 researcher-made questionnaires that were validated by three experts, namely for the Satisfaction and engagement levels. We adapted Cyber-Aggression Typology Questionnaire (CATQ) for the level of aggression. Quota sampling was used in determining the respondents. A quota of 250 students was recommended. The results showed that the students in every institution have a deficient level of aggression, and the majority of the institution has a shallow level of Satisfaction when it comes to online ranting. Similar findings are presented in the level of engagement; 2 out of 3 of the institution students have shallow engagement in the general settings that expound students' engagement. Although the result shows deficient levels, there are still instances and possibilities that students may still engage in an online rant regarding various circumstances when triggered. Researchers assumed that there are restrictions on movements likely to show opinions online because of consequences.

Keywords: aggression, satisfaction, online rant engagement, online rant

Procedia PDF Downloads 59

Authors: G. H. B. Dilhari, A. A. D. T. Saparamadu

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The coir is one of the by-products of the coconut and the coir industry can be identified as one of the traditional industries in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is one of the prominent countries for the coir production. Due to the labour insensitiveness, the labourers are the significant factor in the coir production process. The study has analyzed the determinants and its impact on income of the household level coir yarn labourers. The study was conducted in the Kumarakanda Grama Niladhari division, Galle, Sri Lanka. Simple random sampling was used to generate the sample of 100 household level coir yarn labourers and structured questionnaire, personal interviews and discussion were performed to gather the required data. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis test were carried out. The findings revealed that the household level coir yarn industry is dominated by the female workers and fewer amounts of workers have engaged this industry as the main occupation. In addition to that, elderly participation of the industry is greater than younger participation and most of them engaged as an extra income source. Level of education, the methods of engagement, satisfaction, labour’s children employment in the coir industry, support from the government, method of government support, working hours per day, employed as a main job, no of completed units per day, suffering any job related diseases and type of the diseases were related with income level of household level coir yarn labourers. The recommendations were formulated in respect to these problems including technological transformation for coir yarn production, strengthening of the raw material base and regulating the raw material supply, introduction of new technologies, markets and training programs, the establishment of the labourers association, the initiation of micro credit schemes, better consideration about the job oriented diseases.

Keywords: coir, coir yarn labourers, income, Galle

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Authors: Masoud Baghalian, Musa Arshad

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In order to investigate the effect of foliar application of calcium chloride on the resistance of fruits such as Red and Golden Lebanese apple varieties to blue mold, a split plot experiment in time and space, based on accidental blocks, with three replications under foliar application were done (Control, one in a thousand, two in thousands) and the results of the variance analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the levels of foliar and variety at 5% level and between time, there is significant difference in interaction of variety × time and three way interaction of foliar×variety×time, at 1% level. The highest resistance to the blue mold disease in foliar application was observed at two in thousands calcium (calcium chloride) level.

Keywords: apple, blue mold, foliar calcium, resistance

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Authors: H. Varol

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Although students’ interest level in pursuing Computer Science and related degrees are lower than previous decade, fundamentals of computers, specifically introductory level programming courses are either listed as core or elective courses for a number of non-computer science majors. Universities accommodate these non-computer science majored students either via creating separate sections of a class for them or simply offering mixed-body classroom solutions, in which both computer science and non-computer science students take the courses together. In this work, we demonstrated how we handle introductory level programming course at Sam Houston State University and also provide facts about our observations on students’ success during the coursework. Moreover, we provide suggestions and methodologies that are based on students’ major and skills to overcome the deficiencies of mix-body type of classes.

Keywords: computer science, non-computer science major, programming, programming education

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Authors: Sun-Mi Park, Ji-Hyun Jung, Min-Jung Kang

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Software (SW) education is scheduled to be included in the National curriculum in South Korea by 2018. However, Korean national kindergarten curriculum has been excepted from the revision of the entire Korean national school curriculum including software education. Even though the SW education has not been considered a part of current national kindergarten curriculum, there is a growing interest of adopting software education into the ECE practice. Teachers might be a key element in introducing and implementing new educational change such as SW education. In preparation for the adoption of SW education in ECE, it might be necessary to figure out ECE teachers’ perception and attitudes toward early childhood software education. For this study, 219 ECE teachers’ concern level in SW education was surveyed by using the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ). As a result, the teachers' concern level in SW education is the highest at stage 0-Unconcerned and is high level in stage 1-informational, stage 2-personal, and stage 3-management concern. Thus, a non-user pattern was mostly indicated. However, compared to a typical non-user pattern, the personal and informative concern level is slightly high. The 'tailing up' phenomenon toward stage 6-refocusing was shown. Therefore, the pattern aspect close to critical non-user ever appeared to some extent. In addition, a significant difference in concern level was shown at all stages depending on the awareness of necessity. Teachers with SW training experience showed higher intensity only at stage 0. There was statistically significant difference in stage 0 and 6 depending on the future implementation decision. These results will be utilized as a resource in building ECE teachers’ support system according to his or her concern level of SW education.

Keywords: concerns-based adoption model (CBAM), early childhood education teachers, software education, Stages of Concern (SoC)

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Authors: Maria Kazantzaki, Evangelos Tsakalos, Eleni Filippaki, Yannis Bassiakos

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Mediterranean areas are characterized by intense seismic and volcanic activity as well as eustatic changes, the result of which is the creation of particularly vulnerable coastal zones. The most vulnerable are low-lying coastal areas, the geomorphological evolution of which are highly affected by natural processes and anthropogenic interventions. Therefore, assessing changes that take place along coastal zones is of great importance in order to enable the development of integrated coastal management plans. A characteristic case is the gulf of Mirabello in N.E Crete, where intense coastal erosion, in combination with the tectonic subsidence of the area, threatens a large part of the coastal zone, resulting in direct socio-economic impacts. The present study assesses the temporal geomorphological changes that have taken place in the coastal zone of Mirabello gulf to provide a clear frame of the coastal zone evolution over time and performs a vulnerability assessment based on the coastal vulnerability index (CVI) methodology by Thieler and Hammar-Klose, considering geological features, coastal slope, relative sea-level change, shoreline erosion/accretion rates and mean significant wave height as well as mean tide range in the area. In light of this, an impact assessment, based on three different sea level rise scenarios, is also performed and presented.

Keywords: coastal vulnerability index, coastal erosion, GIS, sea level rise

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Authors: Olfat Shaker, Miriam Wadie, Reham Ali, Ayman Yosry

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity and accounts for over 9% of cancer incidence worldwide. Silent information regulator 2 homolog 1 (SIRT1) gene is located in the nucleus and exert its effects via modulation of histone and non-histone targets. They function in the cell via histone deacetylase (HDAC) and/or adenosine diphosphate ribosyl transferase (ADPRT) enzymatic activity. The aim of this work was to study the relationship between SIRT1 polymorphism and its protein level in colorectal cancer patients in comparison to control cases. This study includes 2 groups: thirty healthy subjects (control group) & one hundred CRC patients. All subjects were subjected to: SIRT-1 serum level was measured by ELISA and gene polymorphisms of rs12778366, rs375891 and rs3740051 were detected by real time PCR. For CRC patients clinical data were collected (size, site of tumor as well as its grading, obesity) CRC patients showed high significant increase in the mean level of serum SIRT-1 compared to control group (P<0.001). Mean serum level of SIRT-1 showed high significant increase in patients with tumor size ≥5 compared to the size < 5 cm (P<0.05). In CRC patients, percentage of T allele of rs12778366 was significantly lower than controls, CC genotype and C allele C of rs 375891 were significantly higher than control group. In CRC patients, the CC genotype of rs12778366, was 75% in rectosigmoid and 25% in cecum & ascending colon. According to tumor size, the percentage of CC genotype was 87.5% in tumor size ≥5 cm. Conclusion: serum level of SIRT-1 and T allele, C allele of rs12778366 and rs 375891 respectively can be used as diagnostic markers for CRC patients.

Keywords: CRC, SIRT1, polymorphisms, ELISA

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Authors: Evangelos G. Ilias, Panagiotis G. Ilias, Vasileios T. Popotas

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The United Kingdom has one of the oldest railway networks in the world dating back to 1825 when the world’s first passenger railway was opened. The network has some 40,000 bridges of various construction types using a wide range of materials including masonry, steel, cast iron, wrought iron, concrete and timber. It is commonly accepted that the successful operation of the network is vital for the economy of the United Kingdom, consequently the cost effective maintenance of the existing infrastructure is a high priority to maintain the operability of the network, prevent deterioration and to extend the life of the assets. Every bridge on the railway network is required to be assessed every eighteen years and a structured approach to assessments is adopted with three main types of progressively more detailed assessments used. These assessment types include Level 0 (standardized spreadsheet assessment tools), Level 1 (analytical hand calculations) and Level 2 (generally finite element analyses). There is a degree of conservatism in the first two types of assessment dictated to some extent by the relevant standards which can lead to some structures not achieving the required load rating. In these situations, a Level 2 Assessment is often carried out using finite element analysis to uncover ‘latent strength’ and improve the load rating. If successful, the more sophisticated analysis can save on costly strengthening or replacement works and avoid disruption to the operational railway. This paper presents the ‘strengthening by assessment’ achieved by Level 2 analyses. The use of more accurate analysis assumptions and the implementation of non-linear modelling and functions (material, geometric and support) to better understand buckling modes and the structural behaviour of historic construction details that are not specifically covered by assessment codes are outlined. Metallic bridges which are susceptible to loss of section size through corrosion have largest scope for improvement by the Level 2 Assessment methodology. Three case studies are presented, demonstrating the effectiveness of the sophisticated Level 2 Assessment methodology using finite element analysis against the conservative approaches employed for Level 0 and Level 1 Assessments. One rail overbridge and two rail underbridges that did not achieve the required load rating by means of a Level 1 Assessment due to the inadequate restraint provided by U-Frame action are examined and the increase in assessed capacity given by the Level 2 Assessment is outlined.

Keywords: assessment, bridges, buckling, finite element analysis, non-linear modelling, strengthening

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Authors: Liang Cheng Chang, Wei Ju Huang, You Cheng Chen

Abstract:

Investigation and research are keys for conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources. The hydrogeological structure is an important base for groundwater analysis and simulation. Traditionally, the hydrogeological structure is artificially determined based on geological drill logs, the structure of wells, groundwater levels, and so on. In Taiwan, groundwater observation network has been built and a large amount of groundwater-level observation data are available. The groundwater level is the state variable of the groundwater system, which reflects the system response combining hydrogeological structure, groundwater injection, and extraction. This study applies analytical tools to the observation database to develop a methodology for the identification of confined and unconfined aquifers. These tools include frequency analysis, cross-correlation analysis between rainfall and groundwater level, groundwater regression curve analysis, and decision tree. The developed methodology is then applied to groundwater layer identification of two groundwater systems: Zhuoshui River alluvial fan and Pingtung Plain. The abovementioned frequency analysis uses Fourier Transform processing time-series groundwater level observation data and analyzing daily frequency amplitude of groundwater level caused by artificial groundwater extraction. The cross-correlation analysis between rainfall and groundwater level is used to obtain the groundwater replenishment time between infiltration and the peak groundwater level during wet seasons. The groundwater regression curve, the average rate of groundwater regression, is used to analyze the internal flux in the groundwater system and the flux caused by artificial behaviors. The decision tree uses the information obtained from the above mentioned analytical tools and optimizes the best estimation of the hydrogeological structure. The developed method reaches training accuracy of 92.31% and verification accuracy 93.75% on Zhuoshui River alluvial fan and training accuracy 95.55%, and verification accuracy 100% on Pingtung Plain. This extraordinary accuracy indicates that the developed methodology is a great tool for identifying hydrogeological structures.

Keywords: aquifer identification, decision tree, groundwater, Fourier transform

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Authors: Monique de Ritter, Annemieke Roobeek

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This study takes a holistic multi-layered systems approach on entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability. Concretely we looked how mission driven entrepreneurs (level 1) employ new business models and launch innovative products and/or ideas in their enterprises, which are (level 2) operating in entrepreneurial ecosystems (level 3), and how these in turn may generate higher level sustainable change (level 4). We employed a qualitative grounded research approach in which our aim is to contribute to theory. Fourteen in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with mission driven entrepreneurs in the Netherlands in which their individual drives, business models, and ecosystems were discussed. Interview transcripts were systematically coded and analysed and the ecosystems were visually mapped. Most important patterns include 1) entrepreneurs have a clear sustainable mission and regard this mission as de raison d’être of their enterprise; 2) entrepreneurs employ new business models with a focus on collaboration for innovation; the business model supports or enhances the sustainable mission of the enterprise, 3) entrepreneurs collaborate in ecosystems in which a) they also regard suppliers as partners for innovation and clients as ambassadors for the sustainable mission, b) would like to improve their relationships with financial institutions as they are in the entrepreneurs’ perspective often lagging behind with their innovative ideas and models, c) they collaborate for knowledge and innovation with several parties, d) personal informal connections are very important, and e) in which the higher sustainable mission is not a point of competition but of collaboration.

Keywords: sustainability, entrepreneurship, innovation, ecosystem, business models

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Authors: Olubunmi Kolawole

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This study explored how certain organizational antecedents like work environment, and individual antecedents (e.g. job level and tenure) could affect employees empowerment in the hospitality industry. A total of 200 valid responses from a survey conducted in 10 hotels in Lagos Nigeria were received. Data were analyzed using frequency distribution and percentage analysis. Findings suggest that leadership, work environment, as well as tenure and level in the organization are reliable predictors of employees empowerment in Nigeria's hotel sector. Empowerment is a major factor which determines how employees feel about themselves and their jobs. The study concluded that organizations need to learn that an empowered employee will put in superior performance which would positively impact on the organization.

Keywords: employee empowerment, hospitality industry, individual-level antecedents, leadership, organizational antecedents

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Authors: Tzuli Lin

Abstract:

This paper aims to explore that the EU and Member State (UK) converges on cultural diplomacy to constitute an influential European external relations. It will address the development of EU cultural diplomacy and practice at Member state level. It also discusses the EU and Member States suffering in cultural resource overlapped. In contrast to the literature on the EU external relations, studies of the cultural dimension are rare. Thus, this paper will utilise the broad policy papers to explore how the cultural diversity among the Member States and the EU has a constructive progress at European level but not at Member State level. It can be argued that cultural component is the pivotal strategy for the stagnated EU external relations since the Euro crisis. The EU recognises that if it wants to promote the trade relations from the inside of Europe to outside, it requires the broad culture context among its traditional diplomacy, which brings the cultural component into a significant role. Even though in the area of Member State level, they share the fundamental value and idea, it does not elaborate Member States regarding the EU as a representative of European cultural diplomacy. In theory and practice, the discourse of Normative Power Europe (NPE) can be the analytic framework to construct the research of cultural diplomacy in Europe. NPE is an idea of the EU’s global role and spreading its norms to others. Moreover, Member States’ national interest has supreme priority rather than the EU. Therefore, this paper will utilise the UK as a case study to explore that cultural diplomacy shows fragmentation at European level. In the result, this paper will illustrate that the EU and the UK have mutual recognised each other as a partner not a leader.

Keywords: EU cultural diplomacy, cultural policy, cultural diversity, normative power

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Authors: Nestor C. Nabe, Melvie F. Bayog

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The cultural competence of police officers can lead to effective law enforcement and gain respect to their organization. This study evaluated the level of cultural competence of Philippine National Police Personnel in Midsayap, Cotabato, Philippines. Descriptive survey research design was used in this study. The survey utilized an adapted questionnaire to measure the level of cultural competence of the respondents. Questionnaires were administered to 305 ethnic minorities coming from the four major ethnic tribes in Midsayap, Cotabato, Philippines. The data gathered were treated using Percentage, Mean, T-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings are as follows: the level of cultural competence of police personnel is moderate; and, there is no significant difference in the cultural competence of the police personnel when analyzed by age, gender, civil status and, occupation while there is a significant difference analyzed by educational attainment and ethnic tribe. Based on the findings, the following conclusions were drawn: the level of cultural competence of police personnel is only manifested sometimes; and, civil status, and occupation has no significant difference in the cultural competence of police personnel while educational attainment and ethnic tribe has a significant difference.

Keywords: competence, cultural, Philippines, police

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Authors: Ilkham Gafurovich Atabaev, Khimmatali Nomozovich Juraev

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The activation energy of conductivity in p-i-n SiC structures fabricated by doping with Aluminum using the new low-temperature diffusion method is investigated. In this method, diffusion is stimulated by the flux of carbon and silicon vacancies created by surface oxidation. The activation energy of conductivity in the p - layer is 0.25 eV and it is close to the ionization energy of Aluminum in 4H-SiC from 0.21 to 0.27 eV for the hexagonal and cubic positions of aluminum in the silicon sublattice for weakly doped crystals. The conductivity of the i-layer (measured in the reverse biased diode) shows 2 activation energies: 0.02 eV and 0.62 eV. Apparently, the 0.62 eV level is a deep trap level and it is a complex of Aluminum with a vacancy. According to the published data, an analogous level system (with activation energies of 0.05, 0.07, 0.09 and 0.67 eV) was observed in the ion Aluminum doped 4H-SiC samples.

Keywords: activation energy, aluminum, low temperature diffusion, SiC

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Authors: Rizki Nor Amelia, Farida A. Setiawati

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This study aimed to: (1) describe the characteristics of teacher-made test instrument used to measure the ability of students’chemistry, and (2) identify the presence of the compability difficulty level set by teachers to difficulty level by empirical results. Based on these objectives, this study was a descriptive research. The analysis in this study used the Rasch model and Chi-square statistics. Analysis using Rasch Model was based on the response patterns of high school students to the teacher-made test instrument on chemistry subject Academic Year 2015/2016 in the Yogyakarta. The sample of this research were 358 students taken by cluster random sampling technique. The analysis showed that: (1) a teacher-made tests instrument has a medium on the mean difficulty level. This instrument is capable to measure the ability on the interval of -0,259 ≤ θ ≤ 0,659 logit. Maximum Test Information Function obtained at 18.187 on the ability +0,2 logit; (2) 100% items categorized either as easy or difficult by rasch model is match with the teachers’ judgment; while 37 items are categorized according to rasch model which 8.10% and 10.81% categorized as easy and difficult items respectively according to the teachers, the others are medium categorized. Overall, the distribution of the level of difficulty formulated by the teachers has the distinction (not match) to the level of difficulty based on the empirical results.

Keywords: chemistry, items parameter fitness, Rasch model, teacher-made test

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Authors: Sanjaykumar R. Patel, Parth R. Kayastha

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α-lactose monohydrate is widely used in the pharmaceutical industries as an inactive substance that acts as a vehicle or a medium for a drug or other active substance. It is a byproduct of dairy industries, and the recovery of lactose from whey not only boosts the improvement of the economics of whey utilization but also causes a reduction in pollution as lactose recovery can reduce the BOD of whey by more than 80%. In the present study, levels of process parameters were kept as initial lactose concentration (30-50% w/w), sonication amplitude (20-40%), sonication time (2-6 hours), and crystallization temperature (10-20 ^oC) for the recovery of lactose in ultrasound assisted cooling crystallization. In comparison with cooling crystallization, the use of ultrasound enhanced the lactose recovery by 39.17% (w/w). The parameters were optimized for the lactose recovery using Taguchi Method. The optimum conditions found were initial lactose concentration at level 3 (50% w/w), amplitude of sonication at level 2 (40%), the sonication time at level 3 (6 hours), and crystallization temperature at level 1 (10 °C). The maximum recovery was found to be 85.85% at the optimum conditions. Sonication time and the initial lactose concentration were found to be significant parameters for the lactose recovery.

Keywords: crystallization, lactose, Taguchi method, ultrasound

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