Search results for: role of teachers

Authors: Pamela K. Coke, Heidi Frederiksen, Ann Sebald

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Over the past three years, the researchers have been tracking a rise in the number of teacher education candidates leaving the field before completing their university’s educator preparation program. At their institution, this rise is most pronounced in English Education. The purpose of this qualitative research study is to understand English Education teacher candidates' expectations in becoming prepared educators at each phase of their four phase teacher education program at one institution of higher education in the United States. Research questions include: To what extent do we find differences in teacher candidates' expectations of their teacher training program and student teaching experiences based upon undergraduate and graduate programs? Why do (or do not) teacher candidates persist in their teacher training program and student teaching experiences? How do dispositions develop through the course of the teacher training program? What supports do teacher candidates self-identify as needing at each phase of the teacher training program? Based upon participant interviews at each phase of the teacher education program, the researchers, all teacher educators, examine the extent to which English Education students feel prepared to student teach, focusing on preparation, persistence, and dispositions. The Colorado State University Center for Educator Preparation (CEP) provides students with information about teaching dispositions, or desired professional behaviors, throughout their education program. CEP focuses these dispositions around nine categories: Professional Behaviors, Initiative and Dependability, Tact and Judgment, Ethical Behavior and Integrity, Collegiality and Responsiveness, Effective Communicator, Desire to Improve Own Performance, Culturally Responsive, and Commitment to the Profession. Currently, in the first phase of a four phase study, initial results indicate participants expect their greatest joys will be working with and learning from students. They anticipate their greatest challenges will involve discipline and confidence. They predict they will persist in their program because they believe the country needs well-prepared teachers and they have a commitment to their professional growth. None of the participants thus far could imagine why they would leave the program. With regard to strongest and weakest dispositions, results are mixed. Some participants see Tact and Judgment as their strongest disposition; others see it as their weakest. All participants stated mentoring is a necessary support at every phase of the teacher preparation process. This study informs the way teacher educators train and evaluate teacher candidates, and has implications for the frequency and types of feedback students receive from mentors and supervisors. This research contributes to existing work on teacher retention, candidate persistence, and dispositional development.

Keywords: English education, dispositions, persistence, teacher preparation

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Authors: Joseph Akyeh, Abdul Samed Muntaka, Emmanuel Anin, Dorcas Nuertey

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Purpose: This study develops and tests arguments that the relationship between technology alignment and supply chain performance is conditional upon levels of technology championing. Methodology: The proposed relationships are tested on a sample of 217 hospitals in a major sub-Saharan African economy. Findings: Findings from the study indicate that technology alignment has a positive and significant effect on supply chain performance. The study further finds that while technology championing strengthens the direct effects of technology alignment on supply chain performance. Theoretical Contributions: A theoretical contribution from this study is the finding that when technology alignment drives supply chain performance is more complex than previously thought it depends on whether or not technology alignment is first championed by top management. Originality: Though some studies have been conducted on technology alignment and health supply chain performance, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no previous study has examined the moderating role of technology championing the link between technology alignment and supply chain performance.

Keywords: technology alignment, supply chain performance, technology championing, structural equation modelling

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Authors: Goutam Dubey, Varun Dutta

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In the present study, rotary-electro discharge machining of EN31 tool steel has been carried out using a pure copper electrode. Various response variables such as Material Removal Rate (MRR), Tool Wear Rate (TWR), and Machining Rate (MR) have been studied against the selected process variables. The selected process variables were peak current (I), voltage (V), duty cycle, and electrode rotation (N). EN31 Tool Steel is hardened, high carbon steel which increases its hardness and reduces its machinability. Reduced machinability means it not economical to use conventional methods to machine EN31 Tool Steel. So, non-conventional methods play an important role in machining of such materials.

Keywords: electric discharge machining, EDM, tool steel, tool wear rate, optimization techniques

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Authors: K. Suheiti, P. Soni, Yardha

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Challenges ahead of Indonesian agricultural development include increasing rural welfare, food needs, and the provision of employment through resource optimization that are laid out in agribusiness system. The agricultural system also responsive to the changing strategic environment. However, mounting pressure of population increase and changes in land-uses, require intensive use of agricultural land with modern agricultural machinery. Similarly, environmentally friendly technologies should continue to be developed in an effort to build and develop a good farming practice model. This paper explains the development of agricultural mechanization in Indonesia, particularly on rice production. The method of the research was analyze secondary data, tabulation and interpretation. The result showed, there was a variety of tools and agricultural machinery that have been produced and used by farmers to support national food security. The role of mechanization was needed to support national rice production and food security achievement.

Keywords: farming, Indonesia, mechanization, rice

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Authors: Habib Honari

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The purpose of this study is an investigation of the factors affecting entrepreneurship in sport from the point of view of experts in this field. This study is a descriptive analytic one and was conducted as a survey and statistical sample consisted of 64 subjects including top managers and sport management professors at physical education organization. Data is collected by research designed questionnaire. Its reliability (α=.95) is obtained after its validity confirmation (by professors). In this article the most important factors affecting sport entrepreneurship, both as an interdisciplinary field in the world, are studied. Initially, infrastructures are identified for entrepreneurial opportunities in sports and related problems become known so that identifying factors for social, cultural, and economical development to entrepreneurs will be a smooth path, because sport entrepreneurship, given its effective roles in business development, welfare, health development, and participation in various aspects of society, can also play a crucial role in the development of the country. Finally, some solutions for developing entrepreneurial sport are introduced.

Keywords: sport entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial opportunities, entrepreneurial barriers, interdisciplinary

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Authors: Albert Gyamfi

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Cocoa plays critical role in the socio-economic development of Ghana. Meanwhile, smallholder farmers most of whom are illiterate dominate the industry. According to the cocoa-based agricultural knowledge and information system (AKIS) model knowledge is created and transferred to the industry between three key actors: cocoa researchers, extension experts, and cocoa farmers. Dwelling on the SECI model, the media richness theory (MRT), and the AKIS model, a conceptual model of web 2.0-based AKIS model (AKIS 2.0) is developed and used to assess the possible effects of social media usage for knowledge creation in the Ghanaian cocoa industry. A mixed method approach with a survey questionnaire was employed, and a second-order multi-group structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyze the data. The study concludes that the use of web 2.0 applications for knowledge creation would lead to sustainable interactions among the key knowledge actors for effective knowledge creation in the cocoa industry in Ghana.

Keywords: agriculture, cocoa, knowledge, media, web 2.0

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Authors: Qiao Mao

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Starting from the theoretical viewpoints of relational aesthetics, this study explores the relationship between the university art gallery and the communities, taking Art Scattering Program in the Name of Trees of the Art Gallery of National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) as a case. The researcher uses observational and interview methods to obtain research materials to explore how university art galleries interact with communities through public art exhibitions and strengthen the relatively weak relationships with community residents. The researcher also observes how community residents can change their opinions about the university gallery by participating in public art exhibitions. The results show that the university art gallery can effectively establish the interaction with the community residents and repair the relationship with them through such programs as "collection-sharing," "teacher-student co-creation," "artist stationing," and "education promotion activities," playing an active role in promoting interpersonal communication, sustaining the natural environment development and improving community public space.

Keywords: university art gallery, public art, relational aesthetics, communities, interaction

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Authors: Lisa Tragbar

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Since the Rio declaration, the agreement resulting from the Earth Summit in 1992, the UN member states acknowledge that peace and environmental protection are deeply linked to each other. It has also been made clear by Contemporary Peace research since the early 2000 that the lack of natural resources increases conflicts, as well as potential war conflicts (general environmental conflict thesis). I argue that peace ethics need to reconsider the role of the environment in peace ethics, from conflict prevention to peacebuilding. Sumak kawsay is a concept that offers a non-anthropocentric perspective on the subject. Several Contemporary Peace Ethicists don’t take environmental peace sufficiently into account. 1. The Peace theorist Johan Galtung famously argues that positive peace depends mostly on social, economic and political factors, as institutional structures establish peace. Galtung has a relational approach to peace, yet only between human interactors. 2. Michael Fox claims in his anti-war argument to consider nonhuman entities in conflicts. Because of their species interrelation, humans cannot decide on the fate of other species. 3. Although Mark Woods considers himself a peace ecologist, following Reichberg and Syse, and argues from a duty-based perspective towards nature, he mostly focuses on the protection of the environment during war conflicts. I want to focus on a non-anthropocentric view to argue that the environment is an entity of human concern in order to construct peace. Based on the premises that the lack of natural resources create tensions that play a significant part in international conflicts and these conflicts are potential war conflicts, I argue that a non-anthropocentric account to peace ethics is an indispensable perspective towards the recovery of these resources and therefore the reduction of war conflicts. Sumak kawsay is an approach contributing to a peaceful environment, which can play a crucial role in international peacekeeping operations. To emphasize sumak kawsay in peace ethics, it is necessary to explain what this principle includes and how it renews Contemporary Peace ethics. The indigenous philosophy of life of the Andean Quechua philosophy in Ecuador and varities from other countries from the Global South include a holistic real-world vision that contains concepts like the de-hierarchization of humans and nature as well as the reciprocity principle towards nature. Sumak kawsay represents the idea of the intrinsic value of nature and an egalitarian way of life and interconnectedness between human and nonhuman entities, which has been widely neglected in Traditional War and Peace Ethics. If sumak kawsay is transferred to peacekeeping practices, peacekeepers have restorative duties not only towards humans, but also towards nature. Resource conservation and environmental protection are the first step towards a positive peace. By recognising that healthy natural resources contribute to peacebuilding, by restoring balance through compensatory justice practices like recovery, by fostering dialogue between peacekeeping forces and by entitling ecosystems with rights natural resources and environmental conflicts are more unlikely to happen. This holistic approach pays nature sufficient attention and can contribute to a positive peace.

Keywords: environment, natural resources, peace, Sumak Kawsay

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Authors: Juan Li, Hui Tian, Min Wang

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In China, under the considerable pressure of 'Gaokao' –the highly competitive college entrance examination, high school teachers and parents often worry that doing physical activity would take away the students’ precious study time and may have a negative impact on the academic grades. There was a tendency to achieve high academic scores at the cost of physical exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the physical fitness and academic achievement of Chinese high school students. The participants were 968 grade one (N=457) and grade two students (N=511) with an average age of 16 years from three high schools of different levels in Beijing, China. 479 were boys, and 489 were girls. One of the schools is a top high school in China, another is a key high school in Beijing, and the other is an ordinary high school. All analyses were weighted using SAS 9.4 to ensure the representatives of the sample. The weights were based on 12 strata of schools, sex, and grades. Physical fitness data were collected using the scores of the National Physical Fitness Test, which is an annual official test administered by the Ministry of Education in China. It includes 50m run, sits and reach test, standing long jump, 1000m run (for boys), 800m run (for girls), pull-ups for 1 minute (for boys), and bent-knee sit-ups for 1 minute (for girls). The test is an overall evaluation of the students’ physical health on the major indexes of strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiorespiratory function. Academic scores were obtained from the three schools with the students’ consent. The statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS 24. Independent-Samples T-test was used to examine the gender group differences. Spearman’s Rho bivariate correlation was adopted to test for associations between physical test results and academic performance. Statistical significance was set at p<.05. The study found that girls obtained higher fitness scores than boys (p=.000). The girls’ physical fitness test scores were positively associated with the total academic grades (rs=.103, p=.029), English (rs=.096, p=.042), physics (rs=.202, p=.000) and chemistry scores (rs=.131, p=.009). No significant relationship was observed in boys. Cardiorespiratory fitness had a positive association with physics (rs=.196, p=.000) and biology scores (rs=.168, p=.023) in girls, and with English score in boys (rs=.104, p=.029). A possible explanation for the greater association between physical fitness and academic achievement in girls rather than boys was that girls showed stronger motivation in achieving high scores in whether academic tests or fitness tests. More driven by the test results, girls probably tended to invest more time and energy in training for the fitness test. Higher fitness levels were associated with an academic benefit among girls generally in Chinese high schools. Therefore, physical fitness needs to be given greater emphasis among Chinese adolescents and gender differences need to be taken into consideration.

Keywords: physical fitness; adolescents; academic achievement; high school

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Authors: Mazo Kone, Rachida Salah, Harir Noria

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Background and objectives: c-Cbl and Cbl-b are two members of the Cbl family proteins, with a crucial role of downregulation of tyrosine kinase receptors. They act as E3 ubiquitin ligases and are multivalent adaptor proteins, making them important in maintaining homeostasis in the body. This study investigated the expression level in thymus and testis in normal conditions. Methods: The expression level was assessed by immunochemistry of tissue microarrays of normal thymus and testis biopsies. Results: Cbl-b and c-Cbl proteins were found to be highly expressed in normal testis and thymus, indicated as yellowish brown granules in the cytomembrane and cytoplasm compared to controls. The c-Cbl appears to be more highly expressed than the Cbl-b in the thymus, while c-Cbl appears slightly stronger than Cbl-b in the testis. The thymus was found with a higher grade compared to the testis. Conclusion: In this work we concluded, that in normal condition, thymus tissue expresses more Cbl family proteins(c-Cbl and Cbl-b) than the testis tissue in humans.

Keywords: Human C-Cbl proteins, Human Cbl-b protein, Testis, Thymus

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Authors: Naveed Ejaz, Liaqat Ali, Amer Nusair

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Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) serve as thermal barriers against the high temperature of the hot regions of the aircraft turbine engines keeping the surface of the turbine blades, vanes and combustion chamber at comparatively lower temperature. The life of these coatings depends on many in-service environmental factors. Among these factors, the behavior of the bond coat as well as the top coat at high temperature aggravated by the corrosive environments having S, V, Na and Cl plays a key role. The incorporation of the 5-15% CaZrO3 in YSZ coatings was studied after hot corrosion in vanadium oxide environment. It was observed that the reactivity of the V gradually switched from Y to Ca making CaV2O4 instead of YVO4; the percentage of CaV2O4 increased with the increase of CaZrO3 in YSZ. It eventually prevented leaching out of the Y from YSZ leaving the YSZ without any harmful phase change. The thermal insulation was found to be improved in case of CaZrO3 incorporated YSZ coatings as compared to only YSZ coating.

Keywords: hot corrosion, thermal barrier coatings, yttria stabilized zirconia, calcium zirconate

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Authors: Van Dong Phung, Igor Hawryszkiewycz, Kyeong Kang, Muhammad Hatim Binsawad

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Knowledge sharing (KS) is the key to creativity and innovation in any organizations. Overcoming the KS barriers has created new challenges for designing in dynamic and complex environment. There may be interrelations and interdependences among the barriers. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of literature of KS barriers and impute the relative importance of them through the fuzzy analytic network process that is a generalization of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). It helps to prioritize the barriers to find ways to remove them to facilitate KS. The study begins with a brief description of KS barriers and the most critical ones. The FANP and its role in identifying the relative importance of KS barriers are explained. The paper, then, proposes the model for research and expected outcomes. The study suggests that the use of the FANP is appropriate to impute the relative importance of KS barriers which are intertwined and interdependent. Implications and future research are also proposed.

Keywords: FANP, ANP, knowledge sharing barriers, knowledge sharing, removing barriers, knowledge management

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Authors: Jane Ebele Iloanya

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The introduction of the learning outcome approach in contemporary curriculum design and instruction, has brought student–centered education to the fore. In teacher –centered teaching and learning, the teacher transfers knowledge to the students, who are always at the receiving end. The teacher is assumed to know it all and hardly trusts the knowledge of the students. Teacher-centered education places emphasis on the supremacy of the teacher over the students who should ideally, be able to dialogue with the teacher. The paper seeks to examine the issue of democratisation of the teaching and learning process in Institutions of Higher Learning in Botswana. Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, with a total population of about two million people. In 1977, Botswana’s First National Policy on Education was unveiled. This came eleven years after the country gained independence from Great Britain. The philosophy which informed the 1977 Education Policy was “Social Harmony”. The philosophy of social harmony has four main principles: Unity, Development, Democracy and Self- Reliance. These principles were meant to permeate all aspects of lives of the people of Botswana, including, the issue of how teaching and learning is conducted in Botswana’s institutions of higher learning. This paper will examine the practicalisation of the principle of democracy in teaching and learning at higher education level in Botswana. It will in particular, discuss the issue of students’ participation and engagement in the teaching and learning process. The following questions will be addressed: 1.Are students involved in planning the curriculum? 2.How engaged are the students in the teaching and learning process? 3.How democratic are the teachers in terms of students’ rights and privileges? A mixed–method approach will be adopted in this study. Questionnaires will be distributed to the students to elicit their views on the practicalisation of the principle of democracy at the higher education level. Semi-structured interview questions will be administered in order to collect information from the lecturers on the issue of democratisation of teaching and learning at the higher education level in Botswana. In addition, relevant and related literature will be reviewed to augment collected data. The study will focus on three tertiary institutions in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. Currently, there are ten tertiary institutions in Gaborone; both privately and government owned. The outcome of this study will add to the existing body of knowledge on the issue of the practicalisation of democracy at the higher education level in Botswana. This research is therefore relevant in helping to find out if democratisation of teaching and learning has been realised in Botswana’s Institutions of higher learning. It is important to examine Botswana’s national policy on education in this way to ascertain if it has been effective in giving the country’s education system that democratic element, which is essential for a student-centered approach to the teaching and learning process.

Keywords: democratisation, higher education, learning, teaching

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Authors: Efstratios Karavasilis, Foteini Christidi, Georgios Velonakis, Agapi Plousi, Kalliopi Platoni, Nikolaos Kelekis, Ioannis Evdokimidis, Efstathios Efstathopoulos

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Introduction: Advanced structural and functional neuroimaging techniques contribute to the study of anatomical and functional brain connectivity and its role in the pathophysiology and symptoms’ heterogeneity in several neurodegenerative disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS). Aim: In the present study, we applied multiparametric neuroimaging techniques to investigate the structural and functional cortico-cerebellar changes in MS patients. Material: We included 51 MS patients (28 with clinically isolated syndrome [CIS], 31 with relapsing-remitting MS [RRMS]) and 51 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) who underwent MRI in a 3.0T MRI scanner. Methodology: The acquisition protocol included high-resolution 3D T1 weighted, diffusion-weighted imaging and echo planar imaging sequences for the analysis of volumetric, tractography and functional resting state data, respectively. We performed between-group comparisons (CIS, RRMS, HC) using CAT12 and CONN16 MATLAB toolboxes for the analysis of volumetric (cerebellar gray matter density) and functional (cortico-cerebellar resting-state functional connectivity) data, respectively. Brainance suite was used for the analysis of tractography data (cortico-cerebellar white matter integrity; fractional anisotropy [FA]; axial and radial diffusivity [AD; RD]) to reconstruct the cerebellum tracts. Results: Patients with CIS did not show significant gray matter (GM) density differences compared with HC. However, they showed decreased FA and increased diffusivity measures in cortico-cerebellar tracts, and increased cortico-cerebellar functional connectivity. Patients with RRMS showed decreased GM density in cerebellar regions, decreased FA and increased diffusivity measures in cortico-cerebellar WM tracts, as well as a pattern of increased and mostly decreased functional cortico-cerebellar connectivity compared to HC. The comparison between CIS and RRMS patients revealed significant GM density difference, reduced FA and increased diffusivity measures in WM cortico-cerebellar tracts and increased/decreased functional connectivity. The identification of decreased WM integrity and increased functional cortico-cerebellar connectivity without GM changes in CIS and the pattern of decreased GM density decreased WM integrity and mostly decreased functional connectivity in RRMS patients emphasizes the role of compensatory mechanisms in early disease stages and the disintegration of structural and functional networks with disease progression. Conclusions: In conclusion, our study highlights the added value of multimodal neuroimaging techniques for the in vivo investigation of cortico-cerebellar brain changes in neurodegenerative disorders. An extension and future opportunity to leverage multimodal neuroimaging data inevitably remain the integration of such data in the recently-applied mathematical approaches of machine learning algorithms to more accurately classify and predict patients’ disease course.

Keywords: advanced neuroimaging techniques, cerebellum, MRI, multiple sclerosis

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Authors: Delphine Mukaneza, Lin Qiao, Wang Pengxin, Li Yan, Chen Yingyi

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Human activities on land use make the land-cover gradually change or transit. In this study, we examined the use of Landsat TM data to detect the land use change of Kigali between 1987 and 2009 using remote sensing techniques and analysis of data using ENVI and ArcGIS, a GIS software. Six different categories of land use were distinguished: bare soil, built up land, wetland, water, vegetation, and others. With remote sensing techniques, we analyzed land use data in 1987, 1999 and 2009, changed areas were found and a dynamic situation of land use in Kigali city was found during the 22 years studied. According to relevant Landsat data, the research focused on land use change in accordance with the role of remote sensing in the process of urbanization. The result of the work has shown the rapid increase of built up land between 1987 and 1999 and a big decrease of vegetation caused by the rebuild of the city after the 1994 genocide, while in the period of 1999 to 2009 there was a reduction in built up land and vegetation, after the authority of Kigali city established, a Master Plan where all constructions which were not in the range of the master Plan were destroyed. Rwanda's capital, Kigali City, through the expansion of the urban area, it is increasing the internal employment rate and attracts business investors and the service sector to improve their economy, which will increase the population growth and provide a better life. The overall planning of the city of Kigali considers the environment, land use, infrastructure, cultural and socio-economic factors, the economic development and population forecast, urban development, and constraints specification. To achieve the above purpose, the Government has set for the overall planning of city Kigali, different stages of the detailed description of the design, strategy and action plan that would guide Kigali planners and members of the public in the future to have more detailed regional plans and practical measures. Thus, land use change is significantly the performance of Kigali active human area, which plays an important role for the country to take certain decisions. Another area to take into account is the natural situation of Kigali city. Agriculture in the region does not occupy a dominant position, and with the population growth and socio-economic development, the construction area will gradually rise and speed up the process of urbanization. Thus, as a developing country, Rwanda's population continues to grow and there is low rate of utilization of land, where urbanization remains low. As mentioned earlier, the 1994 genocide massacres, population growth and urbanization processes, have been the factors driving the dramatic changes in land use. The focus on further research would be on analysis of Rwanda’s natural resources, social and economic factors that could be, the driving force of land use change.

Keywords: land use change, urbanization, Kigali City, Landsat

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Authors: Mohsen Sanayei, Jerzy Szpunar

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The present study investigates the effects of deformation strain and annealing temperature on the formation of twin boundaries, deformation and recrystallization texture evolution and grain boundary networks and connectivity. The resulting microstructures were characterized using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) both immediately following small amount of deformation and after short time annealing at high temperature to correlate the micro and macro texture evolution of these alloys. Furthermore, this study showed that the process of grain boundary engineering, consisting cycles of deformation and annealing, is found to substantially reduce the mass and size of random boundaries and increase the proportion of low Coincidence Site Lattice (CSL) grain boundaries.

Keywords: coincidence site lattice, grain boundary engineering, electron backscatter diffraction, texture, x-ray diffraction

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Authors: Azzouzi Fadoua

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This study focuses on the diagnosis of the dynamics of natural resources in a semi-arid mountainous weakened by natural vulnerability and anthropogenic action. This is evident in the forms of hydraulic erosion and degradation of agricultural land. The rate of this damaged land is 53%, with a strong presence of concentrated erosion; this shows that balanced and semi-balanced environments are less apparent to the Watershed, representing 47%. The results revealed the crucial role of the slopes and the density of the hydraulic networks to facilitate the transport of fine elements, at the level of the slopes with low vegetation intensity, to the lake of the dam. Something that endangers the siltation of the latter. After the study of natural and anthropogenic elements, it turned out that natural vulnerability is an integral part of the current dynamic, especially when it coincides with the overexploitation of natural resources, in this case, the exploitation of steep slopes for the cultivation of cereals and overgrazing. This causes the soil to pile up and increase the rate of runoff.

Keywords: watershed, erosion, natural vulnerability, anthropogenic

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Authors: S. N. Ekbote, G. K. Padam, Manju Arora

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Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopic investigations of (Bi, Pb)₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃O₁₀₋ₓ (Bi-2223) bulk samples were carried out in both the normal and superconducting states. A broad asymmetric resonance signal with side signals is obtained in the normal state, and all of them disappear in the superconducting state. The temperature and angular orientation effects on these signals suggest that the broad asymmetric signal arises from electron spin resonance of conduction electrons (CESR) and the side signals from exchange interactions as Platzman-Wolff type spin waves. The disappearance of CESR and spin waves in a superconducting state demonstrates the role of exchange interactions in Cooper pair formation.

Keywords: Bi-2223 superconductor, CESR, ESR, exchange interactions, spin waves

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Authors: Arnesh Vijay

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Ever since its early introduction in the late 1980s, the mobile industry has been rapidly evolving with each passing year. The development witnessed is not just in its ability to support diverse applications, but also its extension into diverse technological means to access and offer various services to users. Amongst the various technologies present, radio systems have clearly emerged as a strong contender, due to its fine attributes of accessibility, reachability, interactiveness, and cost efficiency. These advancements have no doubt guaranteed unprecedented ease, utility and sophistication to the cell phone users, but caused uncertainty due to the interdependence of various systems, making it extremely complicated to exactly map concepts on to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standards. Although the close interrelation and interdependence of intellectual property rights and mobile standard specifications have been widely acknowledged by the technical and legal community; there, however, is a requirement for clear distinction between the scope and future-proof of inventions to influence standards and its market place adoptability. For this, collaborative work is required between intellectual property professionals, researchers, standardization specialists and country specific legal experts. With the evolution into next generation mobile technology, i.e., to 5G systems, there is a need for further work to be done in this field, which has been felt now more than ever before. Based on these lines, this poster will briefly describe the importance of intellectual property rights in the European market. More specifically, will analyse the role played by intellectual property in various standardization institutes, such as 3GPP (3rd generation partnership project) and ITU (International Telecommunications Union). The main intention: to ensure the scope and purpose is well defined, and concerned parties on all four sides are well informed on the clear significance of good proposals which not only bring economic revenue to the company but those that are capable of improving the technology and offer better services to mankind. The poster will comprise different sections. The first segment begins with a background on the rapidly evolving mobile technology, with a brief insight on the industrial impact of standards and its relation to intellectual property rights. Next, section two will succinctly outline the interplay between patents and standards; explicitly discussing the ever changing and rapidly evolving relationship between the two sectors. Then the remaining sections will examine ITU and its role played in international standards development, touching upon the various standardization process and the common patent policies and related guidelines. Finally, it proposes ways to improve the collaboration amongst various sectors for a more evolved and sophisticated next generation mobile telecommunication system. The sole purpose here is to discuss methods to reduce the gap and enhance the exchange of information between the two sectors to offer advanced technologies and services to mankind.

Keywords: mobile technology, mobile standards, intellectual property rights, 3GPP

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Authors: Bubaker F. Shareia, Almuetaz R. Boubakr

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The aim of this paper is to show how Libya’s legal, economic, political, social, and cultural systems have shaped Libyan development. This will provide a background to develop an understanding of the current role of the accounting information system in Libya and the challenges facing the design of the aeronautical information system to meet the development needs of Libya. Our knowledge of the unified economic operating systems of the world paves the way for the economic development of every developing country. In order to achieve this understanding, every developing country should be provided with a high-efficiency communications system in order to be able to interact globally. From the point of view of the theory of globalization, Libya's understanding of its socio-economic and political systems is vital in order to be able to adopt and apply accounting techniques that will assist in the economic development of Libya.

Keywords: accounting, economic development, globalisation theory, information system

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Authors: Caterina Muzzi, Sergio Albertini, Davide Giacomini

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The research is aimed to investigate the role of young entrepreneurs’ personality traits and their contextual background on the success of entrepreneurial initiatives. In the literature, the debate is still open about the main drivers in predicting entrepreneurial success. Classical theories are focused on looking at specific personality traits that could lead to successful start-ups initiatives, while emerging approaches are more interested in young entrepreneurs’ contextual background (such as the family of origin, the previous experience and their professional network). An online survey was submitted to the participants of an entrepreneurial training initiative organised by the Italian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Confindustria) in Brescia headquarter (AIB). At the time the authors started data collection for this research, the third edition of the initiative was just concluded and involved a total amount of 37 young future entrepreneurs. In the literature General self-efficacy (GSE) and, more specifically, entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) have often been associated to positive performances, as they allow future entrepreneurs to effectively cope with entrepreneurial activities, both at an early stage and in new venture management. In a counter-intuitive manner, optimism is not always associated with entrepreneurial positive results. Too optimistic people risk taking hazardous risks and some authors suggest that moderately optimistic entrepreneurs achieve more positive results than over-optimistic ones. Indeed highly optimistic individuals often hold unrealistic expectations, discount negative information, and mentally reconstruct experiences so as to avoid contradictions The importance of context has been increasingly considered in entrepreneurship literature and its role strongly emerges starting from the earliest entrepreneurial stage and it is crucial to transform the “intention of entrepreneurship” into the actual start-up. Furthermore, coherently with the “network approach to entrepreneurship”, context embeddedness allow future entrepreneurs to leverage relationships built through previous experiences and/or thanks to the fact of belonging to families of entrepreneurs. For the purpose of this research, entrepreneurial success was measured by the fact of having or not founded a new venture after the training initiative. In this research, the authors measured GSE, ESE and optimism using already tested items that showed to be reliable also in this case. They collected 36 completed questionnaires. The t-test for independent samples run to measure significant differences in means between those that already funded the new venture and those that did not. No significant differences emerged with respect to all the tested personality traits, but a logistic regression analysis, run with contextual variables as independent ones, showed that personal and professional networking, made both before and during the master, is the most relevant variable in determining new venture success. These findings shed more light on the process of new venture foundation and could encourage national and local policy makers to invest on networking as one of the main drivers that could support the creation of new ventures.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, networking, new ventures, personality traits

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Authors: L. Belkhiri, L. Mouni, A. Tiri, T.S. Narany

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In the present study, the self-organizing map (SOM) clustering technique was applied to identify homogeneous clusters of hydrochemical parameters in El Milia plain, Algeria, to assess the quality of groundwater for potable and agricultural purposes. The visualization of SOM-analysis indicated that 35 groundwater samples collected in the study area were classified into three clusters, which showed progressive increase in electrical conductivity from cluster one to cluster three. Samples belonging to cluster one are mostly located in the recharge zone showing hard fresh water type, however, water type gradually changed to hard-brackish type in the discharge zone, including clusters two and three. Ionic ratio studies indicated the role of carbonate rock dissolution in increases on groundwater hardness, especially in cluster one. However, evaporation and evapotranspiration are the main processes increasing salinity in cluster two and three.

Keywords: groundwater quality, self-organizing maps, drinking water, irrigation water

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Authors: Dominik Szczesniak, Sabre Kais

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In the present communication, we analyze selected local aspects of the metal-induced gap states (MIGSs) that may be responsible for the magnetic flux noise in some of the superconducting qubit modalities at low-dimension. The presented theoretical analysis stems from the earlier bulk considerations and is aimed at further explanation of the decoherence effect by recognizing its universal character. Specifically, the analysis is carried out by using the complex band structure method for arbitrary low-dimensional junctions. This allows us to provide the most fundamental and general observations for the systems of interest. In particular, herein, we investigate in detail the MIGSs behavior in the momentum space as a function of the potential fluctuations and the electron-electron interaction magnitude at the interface. In what follows, this study is meant to provide a direct relationship between the MIGSs behavior, the discussed decoherence effect, and the intrinsic properties of the low-dimensional Josephson junctions.

Keywords: superconducting qubits, metal-induced gap states, decoherence, low-dimension

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Authors: Munqeth Othman Agha

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The historical formation of urban centres in the eastern Arab world was shaped by rapid urbanization and sudden transformation from the age of the pre-industrial to a post-industrial economy, coupled with uneven development, informal urban expansion, and constant surges in unemployment and poverty rates. The city was stratified accordingly as overlapping layers of division and inequality that have been built on top of each other, creating complex horizontal and vertical divisions based on economic, social, political, and ethno-sectarian basis. This has been further exacerbated during the neoliberal era, which transferred the city into a sort of dual city that is inhabited by heterogeneous and often antagonistic social groups. Economic deprivation combined with a growing sense of marginalization and inequality across the city planted the seeds of political instability, outbreaking in 2011. Unlike other popular uprisings that occupy central squares, as in Egypt and Tunisia, the Syrian uprising in 2011 took place mainly within inner streets and neighborhood squares, mobilizing primarily on more or less upon the lines of stratification. This has emphasized the role of micro-urban and social settings in shaping mobilization and resistance tactics, which necessitates us to understand the way the city was stratified and place it at the center of the city-conflict nexus analysis. This research aims to understand to what extent pre-conflict urban stratification lines played a role in determining the different trajectories of three cities’ neighborhoods (Homs, Dara’a and Deir-ez-Zor). The main argument of the paper is that the way the Syrian city has been stratified creates various social groups within the city who have enjoyed different levels of accessibility to life chances, material resources and social statuses. This determines their relationship with other social groups in the city and, more importantly, their relationship with the state. The advent of a political opportunity will be depicted differently across the city’s different social groups according to their perceived interests and threats, which consequently leads to either political mobilization or demobilization. Several factors, including the type of social structures, built environment, and state response, determine the ability of social actors to transfer the repertoire of contention to collective action or transfer from social actors to political actors. The research uses urban stratification lines as the basis for understanding the different patterns of political upheavals in urban areas while explaining why neighborhoods with different social and urban environment settings had different abilities and capacities to mobilize, resist state repression and then descend into a military conflict. It particularly traces the transformation from social groups to social actors and political actors by applying the Explaining-outcome Process-Tracing method to depict the causal mechanisms that led to including or excluding different neighborhoods from each stage of the uprising, namely mobilization (M1), response (M2), and control (M3).

Keywords: urban stratification, syrian conflict, social movement, process tracing, divided city

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Authors: Ali Asmari, Alex Symington, Htaik Than, Austin Caradonna, John Senft

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This paper presents the collaborative effort between ULC Technologies and Con Edison in developing a groundbreaking robotic cable splicing machine. The focus is on the machine's design, which integrates advanced robotics and automation to enhance safety and efficiency in power network maintenance. The paper details the operational steps of the machine, including cable grounding, cutting, and removal of different insulation layers, and discusses its novel technological approach. The significant benefits over traditional methods, such as improved worker safety and reduced outage times, are highlighted based on the field data collected during the validation phase of the project. The paper also explores the future potential and scalability of this technology, emphasizing its role in transforming the landscape of power network maintenance.

Keywords: cable splicing machine, power network maintenance, electric distribution, electric transmission, medium voltage cable

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Authors: Mingxi Xiao

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Children’s experiences in the early years build and shape the brain. The early years learning environment plays a significantly important role in children’s development. A well-constructed environment will facilitate children’s physical and mental well-being. This case study used an early learning centre in Australia called SDN Hurstville as an example, describing the learning environment in the centre, as well as analyzing the functions of the affordances. In addition, this report talks about the sustainability of learning in the centre, and how the environment supports cultural diversity and indigenous learning. The early years for children are significant. Different elements in the early childhood centre should work together to help children develop better. This case study found that the natural environment and the artificial environment are both critical to children; only when they work together can children have better development in physical and mental well-being and have a sense of belonging when playing and learning in the centre.

Keywords: early childhood center, early childhood education, learning environment, Australia

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Authors: Amal M. Alrayes

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Data and system quality play a central role in organizational success, and the quality of any existing information system has a major influence on the effectiveness of overall system performance.Given the importance of system and data quality to an organization, it is relevant to highlight their importance on organizational performance in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This research aims to discover whether system quality and data quality are related, and to study the impact of system and data quality on organizational success. A theoretical model based on previous research is used to show the relationship between data and system quality, and organizational impact. We hypothesize, first, that system quality is positively associated with organizational impact, secondly that system quality is positively associated with data quality, and finally that data quality is positively associated with organizational impact. A questionnaire was conducted among public and private organizations in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The results show that there is a strong association between data and system quality, that affects organizational success.

Keywords: data quality, performance, system quality, Kingdom of Bahrain

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Authors: David Sinfield, Thomas Cochrane, Marcos Steagall

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While there is much hype around the potential and development of mobile virtual reality (VR), the two key critical success factors are the ease of user experience and the development of a simple user-generated content ecosystem. Educational technology history is littered with the debris of over-hyped revolutionary new technologies that failed to gain mainstream adoption or were quickly superseded. Examples include 3D television, interactive CDROMs, Second Life, and Google Glasses. However, we argue that this is the result of curriculum design that substitutes new technologies into pre-existing pedagogical strategies that are focused upon teacher-delivered content rather than exploring new pedagogical strategies that enable student-determined learning or heutagogy. Visual Communication design based learning such as Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography and Design process is heavily based on the traditional forms of the classroom environment whereby student interaction takes place both at peer level and indeed teacher based feedback. In doing so, this makes for a healthy creative learning environment, but does raise other issue in terms of student to teacher learning ratios and reduced contact time. Such issues arise when students are away from the classroom and cannot interact with their peers and teachers and thus we see a decline in creative work from the student. Using AR and VR as a means of stimulating the students and to think beyond the limitation of the studio based classroom this paper will discuss the outcomes of a student project considering the virtual classroom and the techniques involved. The Atelier learning environment is especially suited to the Visual Communication model as it deals with the creative processing of ideas that needs to be shared in a collaborative manner. This has proven to have been a successful model over the years, in the traditional form of design education, but has more recently seen a shift in thinking as we move into a more digital model of learning and indeed away from the classical classroom structure. This study focuses on the outcomes of a student design project that employed Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies in order to expand the dimensions of the classroom beyond its physical limits. Augmented Reality when integrated into the learning experience can improve the learning motivation and engagement of students. This paper will outline some of the processes used and the findings from the semester-long project that took place.

Keywords: augmented reality, blogging, design in community, enhanced learning and teaching, graphic design, new technologies, virtual reality, visual communications

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Authors: Abid Ali Abid

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Electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves have been playing a significant role in inner magnetosphere, and their proton band has been detected using the Magnetospheric-Multiscale (MMS) satellite observations in the inner magnetosphere. It has been examined that the intensity of EMIC waves gradually increases by decreasing the L shell. Thermal anisotropy of hot protons initiates the waves. The low-energy cold protons (ions) can be activated by the EMIC waves when the EMIC wave intensity is high. As a result, these formerly invisible protons are now visible. The EMIC waves, whose frequency ranges from 0.001 Hz to 5 Hz in the inner magnetosphere and received considerable attention for energy transport across the magnetosphere. Since these waves act as a mechanism for the loss of energetic electrons from the Van Allen radiation belt to the atmosphere, therefore, it is necessary to understand how and where they can be produced, as well as the direction of waves along the magnetic field lines. It is demonstrated that throughout the energy range of 1 eV to 100 eV, the number density and temperature anisotropy of the protons likewise rise as the intensity of the EMIC waves increases.

Keywords: electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves, magnetospheric-multiscale (MMS) satellite, cold protons, inner magnetosphere

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Authors: Numra Qayyum, Samina Sarwat, Noor ul Ain

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Bilingual speakers generally can speak both languages with the same competency without mixing them intentionally and making mistakes, but sometimes errors occur in language selection. This quantitative study particularly deals with the language errors made by Urdu-English bilinguals. In this research, researchers have given special attention to the part played by bottom-up priming and top-down cognitive control in these errors. Unstable Urdu-English bilingual participants termed pictures and were prompted to shift from one language to another under the pressure of time. Different situations were given to manipulate the participants. The long and short runs trials of the same language were also given before switching to another language. The study is concluded with the findings that bilinguals made more errors when switching to the first language from their second language, and these errors are large in number, especially when a speaker is switching from L2 (second language) to L1 (first language) after a long run. When the switching is reversed, i.e., from L2 to LI, it had no effect at all. These results gave the clear responsibility of all these errors to top-down cognitive control.

Keywords: bottom up priming, language error, language switching, top down cognitive control

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