Search results for: current practices in teacher training

Authors: Sunday Moses Ojelabi

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Safety is the protection of the crew, passenger and equipment itself, as well as those living and working near bodies of water, from hazardous situations. To assure safety, watch keeping is paramount because neglecting your watchkeeping can lead to hazardous situations. Navigation is the assignment of a sailor to a specific route on a vessel to operate. Navigation is the process of planning, managing, and directing a vessel safely to the desired destination with the aid of intense and efficient watch keeping. Safety, i,e, all measures done to preserve the welfare of marine life, maritime infrastructure, facilities, ships, offshore installations, crew, and passengers, as well as the preservation of navigation and the ease of maritime trade, are referred to as safety measures;. When it comes to health, the absence of a proper first aid kit will affect injured sailors and passengers. Not using goggles while shipping, ear muffs, etc., in the course of maintenance can be hazardous. Watchkeeping: i.e the specific dutiies assigned to a personnel in a vessel to see to its continous smooth functionality. Your lookout or watch officer [officer on navigational duty] must be active at all times in the course of duty. Navigation refers to the technique of precisely determining a craft or vehicle's position and directing its motion along a particular course. The seafarers are not being put through regular seminars, training, and orientations. In parts of West Africa, sailors go to school without being able to secure jobs until their papers expire. For that, they won’t go for another Standard Trainning Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers to upgrade their certificate. In light of this, they are not familiar with the new vessels in the country, and for this, they can`t meet the safety, watch keeping, and navigation standards. Also, shipping companies and ship owners are being selfish by not putting the proper things needed onboard regarding safety, watchkeeping, and navigational equipment. The questions raised in these presentations are the breakdown of the safety activities, watch keeping effectiveness, and navigational accuracy. All safety and watch keeping regulations should be applied efficiently. The problem identified includes a lack of safety instruments onboard vessels in African waters. Also, inadequate proper watchkeeping due to the excess workload on the seafarers can lead to an improper lookout, which gives room to collision, hijacking, and piracy. The impact of this research is to inform African seafarers, shipping companies, and ship owners of the necessary information concerning the safety of their lives and that of their passengers, cargo, and equipment.

Keywords: standard of training, certification, watch keeping for seafarers, navigation, safety, watchkeeping

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Authors: Marie Bountrogianni, Leonora Zefi, Krystle Phirangee, Naza Djafarova

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Faculty development is critical for any institution as it impacts students’ learning experiences and faculty performance with regards to course delivery. With that in mind, The Chang School at Ryerson University embarked on an initiative to develop a comprehensive, relevant faculty development program for online faculty and instructors. Teaching Adult Learners Online (TALO) is a professional development program designed to build capacity among online teaching faculty to enhance communication/facilitation skills for online instruction and establish a Community of Practice to allow for opportunities for online faculty to network and exchange ideas and experiences. TALO is comprised of four online modules and each module provides three hours of learning materials. The topics focus on online teaching and learning experience, principles and practices, opportunities and challenges in online assessments as well as course design and development. TALO offers a unique experience for online instructors who are placed in the role of a student and an instructor through interactivities involving discussions, hands-on assignments, peer mentoring while experimenting with technological tools available for their online teaching. Through exchanges and informal peer mentoring, a small interdisciplinary community of practice has started to take shape. Successful participants have to meet four requirements for completion: i) participate actively in online discussions and activities, ii) develop a communication plan for the course they are teaching, iii) design one learning activity/or media component, iv) design one online learning module. This study adopted a mixed methods exploratory sequential design. For the qualitative phase of this study, a thorough literature review was conducted on what constitutes effective faculty development programs. Based on that review, the design team identified desired competencies for online teaching/facilitation and course design. Once the competencies were identified, a focus group interview with The Chang School teaching community was conducted as a needs assessment and to validate the competencies. In the quantitative phase, questionnaires were distributed to instructors and faculty after the program was launched to continue ongoing evaluation and revisions, in hopes of further improving the program to meet the teaching community’s needs. Four faculty members participated in a one-hour focus group interview. Major findings from the focus group interview revealed that for the training program, faculty wanted i) to better engage students online, ii) to enhance their online teaching with specific strategies, iii) to explore different ways to assess students online. 91 faculty members completed the questionnaire in which findings indicated that: i) the majority of faculty stated that they gained the necessary skills to demonstrate instructor presence through communication and use of technological tools provided, ii) increased faculty confidence with course management strategies, iii) learning from peers is most effective – the Community of Practice is strengthened and valued even more as program alumni become facilitators. Although this professional development program is not mandatory for online instructors, since its launch in Fall 2014, over 152 online instructors have successfully completed the program. A Community of Practice emerged as a result of the program and participants continue to exchange thoughts and ideas about online teaching and learning.

Keywords: community of practice, customized, faculty development, inclusive design

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Authors: Fahd Hamad Alqasham

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This longitudinal study investigates Saudi students’ use trajectory and experiences of Twitter as an innovative tool for in-class learning of the English language in a Saudi tertiary English as a foreign language (EFL) context for a 12-week semester. The study adopted van Lier’s agency theory (2008, 2010) as the analytical framework to obtain an in-depth analysis of how the learners’ could utilize Twitter to create innovative ways for them to engage in English learning inside the language classroom. The study implemented a mixed methods approach, including six data collection instruments consisting of a research log, observations, focus group participation, initial and post-project interviews, and a post-project questionnaire. The study was conducted at Qassim University, specifically at Preparatory Year Program (PYP) on the main campus. The sample included 25 male students studying in the first level of PYP. The findings results revealed that although Twitter’s affordances initially paled a crucial role in motivating the learners to initiate their agency inside the classroom to learn English, the contextual constraints, mainly anxiety, the university infrastructure, and the teacher’s role negatively influenced the sustainability of Twitter’s use past week nine of its implementation.

Keywords: CALL, agency, innovation, EFL, language learning

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Authors: Deenadayalan Govender

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In South Africa, similar to nations globally, the prevailing tangible link between people and the state is public infrastructure. Services delivered through infrastructure to the people and to the state form a critical enabler for social development in communities and economic development in the country. In this regard, infrastructure, being the backbone to a nation’s prosperity, ideally should be effectively maintained for seamless delivery of services. South African infrastructure is in a state of deterioration, which is leading to infrastructure dysfunction and collapse and is negatively affecting development of the economy. This infrastructure deterioration stems from deficiencies in maintenance practices and strategies. From the birth of South African democracy, government has pursued socio-economic transformation and the delivery of critical basic services to decrease the broadening boundaries of disparity. In this regard, the National Infrastructure Plan borne from strategies encompassed in the National Development Plan is given priority by government in delivering strategic catalytic infrastructure projects. The National Infrastructure Plan is perceived to be the key in unlocking opportunities that generate economic growth, kerb joblessness, alleviate poverty, create new entrepreneurial prospects, and mitigate population expansion and rapid urbanisation. Socio-economic transformation benefits from new infrastructure spend is not being realised as initially anticipated. In this context, South Africa is currently in a state of weakening economic growth, with further amassed levels of joblessness, unremitting poverty and inequality. Due to investor reluctance, solicitation of strategic infrastructure funding is progressively becoming a debilitating challenge in all government institutions. Exacerbating these circumstances further, is substandard functionality of existing infrastructure subsequent to inadequate maintenance practices. This in-depth multi-sectoral study into the state of infrastructure is to understand the principal reasons for infrastructure functionality regression better; furthermore, prioritised investigations into progressive maintenance strategies is focused upon. Resultant recommendations reveal enhanced maintenance strategies, with a vision to capitalize on infrastructure design life, and also give special emphasis to socio-economic development imperatives in the long-term. The research method is principally based on descriptive methods (survey, historical, content analysis, qualitative).

Keywords: infrastructure, maintenance, socio-economic, strategies

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Authors: Zerzouri Nora, Benalia Nadia, Bensiali Nadia

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This paper presents a grid-connected wind power generation scheme using Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG). This can supply power at constant voltage and constant frequency with the rotor speed varying. This makes it suitable for variable speed wind energy application. The DFIG system consists of wind turbine, asynchronous wound rotor induction generator, and inverter with Space Vector Modulation (SVM) controller. In which the stator is connected directly to the grid and the rotor winding is in interface with rotor converter and grid converter. The use of back-to-back SVM converter in the rotor circuit results in low distortion current, reactive power control and operate at variable speed. Mathematical modeling of the DFIG is done in order to analyze the performance of the systems and they are simulated using MATLAB. The simulation results for the system are obtained and hence it shows that the system can operate at variable speed with low harmonic current distortion. The objective is to track and extract maximum power from the wind energy system and transfer it to the grid for useful work.

Keywords: Doubly Fed Induction Generator, Wind Energy Conversion Systems, Space Vector Modulation, distortion harmonics

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Authors: J. Alcisto, M. Papakyriakou, J. Guerra, A. Dominguez, M. Miller, J. Foyos, E. Jones, N. Ula, M. Hahn, L. Zeng, Y. Li, O. S. Es-Said

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Current methods of testing for hydrogen charging are slow and time consuming. The objective of this paper was to determine if hydrogen charging can be detected quantitatively through the use of Charpy Impact (CI) testing. CI is a much faster and simpler process than current methods for detecting hydrogen charging. Steel plates were Electro Discharge Machined (EDM) into ninety-six 4340 steel CI samples and forty-eight tensile bars. All the samples were heat treated at 900°C to austentite and then rapidly quenched in water to form martensite. The samples were tempered at eight different target strengths/target temperatures (145, 160, 170, 180, 190, 205, 220, to 250KSI, thousands of pounds per square inch)/(1100, 1013, 956, 898, 840, 754, 667, 494 degrees Celsius). After a tedious process of grinding and machining v-notches to the Charpy samples, they were divided into four groups. One group was kept as received baseline for comparison while the other three groups were sent to Alcoa (Fasteners) Inc. in Torrance to be cadmium coated. The three groups were coated with three thicknesses (2, 3 and 5 mils). That means that the samples were charged with ascending hydrogen levels. The samples were CI tested and tensile tested, and the data was tabulated and compared to the baseline group of uncharged samples of the same material. The results of this study were successful and indicated that CI testing was able to quantitatively detect hydrogen charging.

Keywords: Charpy impact toughness, hydrogen charging, 4340 steel, Electro Discharge Machined (EDM)

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Authors: R. Hashim, A. J. Bock, S. Cooper

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Absorptive capacity generally facilitates the adoption of innovation. How does this relationship change when economic return is not the sole driver of innovation uptake? We investigate whether absorptive capacity facilitates the adoption of green innovation based on a survey of 79 construction companies in Scotland. Based on the results of multiple regression analyses, we confirm that existing knowledge utilisation (EKU), knowledge building (KB) and external knowledge acquisition (EKA) are significant predictors of green process GP), green administrative (GA) and green technical innovation (GT), respectively. We discuss the implications for theories of innovation adoption and knowledge enhancement associated with environmentally-friendly practices.

Keywords: absorptive capacity, construction industry, environmental, green innovation

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Authors: Hai Nguyen Tien

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On the basis of the structure of alluvial sediments explained by echo sounding data and remote sensing images, the following results can be given: The estuary of Lam river (from Ben Thuy bridge to Cua Hoi) is divided into 3 channel (location is calculated according to the river bank on the Nghe An province) : i) channel I (from Ben Thuy bridge to Hung Hoa) is the branching river; ii) channel II (from Hung Hoa to Nghi Thai is a channel develops in a meandering direction with a concave side toward Ha Tinh province; iii) channel III, from Nghi Thai to Cua Hoi is a channel develops in a meandering direction with a concave side toward Nghe An province. This estuary area is formed in the period from after the sea level dropped below 0m (current water level) to the present: i) Chanel II developed moving towards Ha Tinh provnce; ii) Chanel III developed moving towards Nghe An province; iii) In chanel I, a second river branch is formed because the flow of river cuts through the Hong Lam- Hong Nhat mudflat, at the same time creating an island. Morphological characteristics of the estuary area of Lam River are the main result of erosion and deposition activities corresponding to two water levels: low water level below 0 m and water level 0 m (current water level). Characteristics of the sediment layers on the riverbed in the estuary can be used to determine the sea levels in Late Holocene–Present.

Keywords: Lam River, development, Cua Hoi, river morphology

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Authors: Abid Khan

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A recognized engineering challenge is related to personnel protection from fatal arc flash incident energy in the line side of the 480-volt switchgear incomer breakers during maintenance activities. The incident energy is typically high due to slow fault clearance, and it can be higher than the available personnel protective equipment (PPE) ratings. A fault in this section of the switchgear is cleared by breakers or fuses in the upstream higher voltage system (4160 Volt or higher). The current reflection in the higher voltage upstream system for a fault in the 480-volt switchgear is low, the clearance time is slower, and the inversely proportional incident energy is hence higher. The installation of overcurrent protection at a 480-volt system upstream of the incomer breaker will operate fast enough and trips the upstream higher voltage breaker when a fault develops at the incomer breaker. Therefore, fault current reduction as reflected in the upstream higher voltage system is eliminated. Since the fast overcurrent protection is permanently installed, it is always functional, does not require human interventions, and eliminates exposure to human errors. It is installed at the maintenance activities location, and its operations can be locally monitored by craftsmen during maintenance activities.

Keywords: arc flash, mitigation, maintenance switch, energy level

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Authors: Isaac Benning

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Using technology to expand the learning space is critical for a productive mathematical discourse. This is a case study of two teachers who developed and enacted GeoGebra-based mathematics lessons following their engagement in a two-year professional development. The didactical and semiotic affordance of GeoGebra in widening the learning space for a productive mathematical discourse was explored. The approach of thematic analysis was used for lesson artefact, lesson observation, and interview data. The results indicated that constructing tools in GeoGebra provided a didactical milieu where students used them to explore mathematical concepts with little or no support from their teacher. The prompt feedback from the GeoGebra motivated students to practice mathematical concepts repeatedly in which they privately rethink their solutions before comparing their answers with that of their colleagues. The constructing tools enhanced self-discovery, team spirit, and dialogue among students. With regards to the semiotic construct, the tools widened the physical and psychological atmosphere of the classroom by providing animations that served as virtual concrete to enhance the recording, manipulation, testing of a mathematical idea, construction, and interpretation of geometric objects. These findings advance the discussion of widening the classroom for a productive mathematical discourse within the context of the mathematics curriculum of Ghana and similar Sub-Saharan African countries.

Keywords: GeoGebra, theory of didactical situation, semiotic mediation, mathematics laboratory, mathematical discussion

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Authors: Aroge Stephen Talabi

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Work is a term that appears to be very common in usage and occurrence the world over. The meanings attached to it and what it implies equally appears to be that common and somewhat similar in description by individuals and groups as derivatives of their contexts. Work is generally seen as the exertion of efforts and the application of knowledge and skills to achieve different purposes comprising of earning a living, making money, prestige, achievement, recognition, companionship and other satisfactions. The paper examined the general meanings of work from the perspectives of various religions. It situated these meanings by drawing on the sociological significance of work among the Yoruba. It established work as social control for a reorientation in peoples approach to work. The Yoruba people of the Western Nigeria share, to a great extent, in common conceptualization and application of work as they believe and understand that their individual and community existence and living are contingent on work participation. The contextual meaning and sociological significance of work as investigated in this paper show that the Yorubas concept of work is daily applied variously in both their material and non-material cultural undertakings to influence individual and group for effective participation in productive ventures for overall social well-being. The Yoruba use all forms of training method which could be adopted by adult educators as pathways to increase individual’s work participation and to improve productivity in work organizations.The paper found out that in the Yoruba socio cultural milieu, the meanings, conceptions and the importance attached to work are used as method of inculcating in members of society the spirit of commitment and hard-work and the advantages thereof. Yoruba contexts of work are geared towards enhancement of commitment, diligence and improved productivity on-the-job behaviour. The paper, therefore, submits that using the Yoruba’s conceptions of work could enhance commitment on the parts of all those engaged in production of goods and services. The paper also suggests that the Yoruba principle and perception and application of work could be used as one of the training techniques in industrial education, which is a major aspect of adult education programmes for inculcating ethics in the workplace. Thus, effort should be made to embrace the Yoruba conception and tenet of work by all stakeholders such as the workers, group (Union), managers and the society at large. Such principles and tenet of work should be included in industrial education curriculum.

Keywords: work, contextual meaning, sociological significance, Yoruba-people, social milieu, productivity

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Authors: Anusha Jain, Santosh Vishwanathan, Praveen K. Gupta, Shwetha S., Kavitha S. N.

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Agriculture has a major impact on the Indian economy, with the highest employment ratio than any sector of the country. Currently, most of the traditional agricultural practices and farming methods are manual, which results in farmers not realizing their maximum productivity often due to increasing in labour cost, inefficient use of water sources leading to wastage of water, inadequate soil moisture content, subsequently leading to food insecurity of the country. This research paper aims to solve this problem by developing a full-fledged web application-based platform that has the capacity to associate itself with a Microcontroller-based Automated Irrigation System which schedules the irrigation of crops based on real-time soil moisture content employing soil moisture sensors centric to the crop’s requirements using WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks) and M2M (Machine To Machine Communication) concepts, thus optimizing the use of the available limited water resource, thereby maximizing the crop yield. This robust automated irrigation system provides end-to-end automation of Irrigation of crops at any circumstances such as droughts, irregular rainfall patterns, extreme weather conditions, etc. This platform will also be capable of achieving a nationwide united farming community and ensuring the welfare of farmers. This platform is designed to equip farmers with prerequisite knowledge on tech and the latest farming practices in general. In order to achieve this, the MailChimp mailing service is used through which interested farmers/individuals' email id will be recorded and curated articles on innovations in the world of agriculture will be provided to the farmers via e-mail. In this proposed system, service is enabled on the platform where nearby crop vendors will be able to enter their pickup locations, accepted prices and other relevant information. This will enable farmers to choose their vendors wisely. Along with this, we have created a blogging service that will enable farmers and agricultural enthusiasts to share experiences, helpful knowledge, hardships, etc., with the entire farming community. These are some of the many features that the platform has to offer.

Keywords: WSN (wireless sensor networks), M2M (M/C to M/C communication), automation, irrigation system, sustainability, SAAS (software as a service), soil moisture sensor

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Authors: Thavananthan Sivananthawerl

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Shifting cultivation (Chena, Slash & Burn) is a cultivation method of raising, primarily, food crops (mainly annual) where an area of land is cleared off for its vegetation and cultivated for a period, and the abandoned (fallow) for its fertility to be naturally restored. Although this is the oldest (more than 5000 years) farming system, it is still practiced by indigenous communities of several countries such as Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, West & Central Africa, and Amazon rainforest area. In Sri Lanka, shifting cultivation is mainly practiced during the North-East monsoon (called as Maha season, from Sept. to Dec.) with no irrigation. The traditional system allows farmers to cultivate for a short period of cultivation and a long period fallow period. This was facilitated mainly by the availability of land with less population. In addition, in the old system, cultivation practices were mostly related to religious and spiritual practices (Astrology, dynamic farming, etc.). At present, the majority of the shifting cultivators (SC’s) are cultivating in government lands, and most of them are adopting new technology (seeds, agrochemicals, machineries). Due to the local demand, almost 70% of the SC’s growing maize is mono-crop, and the rest with mixed-crop, such as groundnut, cowpea, millet, and vegetables. To ensure continuous cultivation and reduce moisture stress, they established ‘dug wells’ and used pumps to lift water from nearby sources. Due to this, the fallow period has been reduced drastically to 1- 2 years. To have the future prosperous of system, farmers should be educated so that they can understand the harmful effects of shifting cultivation and require new policies and a framework for converting the land use pattern towards high economic returns (new crop varieties, maintaining soil fertility, reducing soil erosion) while protecting the natural forests. The practice of agroforestry should be encouraged in which both the crops and the tall trees are cared for by farmers simultaneously. To facilitate the continuous cultivation, the system needs to develop water harvesting, water-conserving technologies, and scientific water management for the limited rainy season. Even though several options are available, all the solutions vary from region to region. Therefore, it is only the government and cultivators together who can find solutions to the problems of the specific areas.

Keywords: shifting cultivation, agroforestry, fallow, economic returns, government, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Steeve Mercier, Joan Netten, Olivier Massé

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The traditional lack of success of most Canadian students in the regular French program in attaining the ability to communicate spontaneously led to the conceptualization of a modified program. This program, called Intensive French, introduced and evaluated as an experiment in several school districts, formed the basis for the creation of a more effective approach for the development of skills in a second/foreign language and literacy: the Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA).The NLA expresses the major change in the understanding of how communication skills are developed: learning to communicate spontaneously in a second language depends on the reuse of structures in a variety of cognitive situations to express authentic messages rather than on knowledge of the way a language functions. Put differently, it prioritises the acquisition of implicit competence over the learning of grammatical knowledge. This is achieved by the adoption of a literacy-based approach and an increase in intensity of instruction.Besides having strong support empirically from numerous experiments, the NLA has sound theoretical foundation, as it conforms to research in neurolinguistics. The five pedagogical principles that define the approach will be explained, as well as the differences between the NLA and the paradigm on which most current resources and teaching strategies are based. It is now 25 years since the original research occurred. The use of the NLA, as it will be shown, has expanded widely. With some adaptations, it is used for other languages and in other milieus. In Canada, classes are offered in mandarin, Ukrainian, Spanish and Arabic, amongst others. It has also been used in several indigenous communities, such as to restore the use of Mohawk, Cri and Dene. Its use has expanded throughout the world, as in China, Japan, France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Russia, as well as Mexico. The Intensive French program originally focussed on students in grades 5 or 6 (ages 10 -12); nowadays, the programs based on the approach include adults, particularly immigrants entering new countries. With the increasing interest in inclusion and cultural diversity, there is a demand for language learning amongst pre-school and primary children that can be successfully addressed by the NLA. Other current experiments target trilingual schools and work with Inuit communities of Nunavik in the province of Quebec.

Keywords: neuroeducation, neurolinguistic approach, literacy, second language acquisition, plurilingualism, foreign language teaching and learning

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Authors: Daniel J. Patricio Jiménez

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The term 'total compensation’ refers to salary, training, innovation, and development, and of course, motivation; total compensation is an open and flexible system which must facilitate personal and family conciliation and therefore cannot be isolated from social reality. Today, the challenge for any company that wants to have a future is to be sustainable, and women play a ‘special’ role in this. Spain, in its statutory and conventional development, has not given sufficient response to new phenomena such as ‘bonuses’, ‘stock options’ or ‘fringe benefits’ (constructed dogmatically and by court decisions), the new digital reality, where cryptocurrency, new collaborative models and service provision -such as remote work-, are always ahead of the law. To talk about compensation is to talk about the gender gap, and with the entry into force of RD.902 /2020 on 14 April 2021, certain measures are necessary under the principle of salary transparency; the valuation of jobs, the pay register (Rd. 6/2019) and the pay audit, are an example of this. Analyzing the methodologies, and in particular the determination and weight of the factors -so that the system itself is not discriminatory- is essential. The wage gap in Spain is smaller than in Europe, but the sources do not reflect the reality, and since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a clear stagnation. A living wage is not the minimum wage; it is identified with rights and needs; it is that which, based on internal equity, reflects the competitiveness of the company in terms of human capital. Spain has lost and has not recovered the relative weight of its wages; this is having a direct impact on our competitiveness, consequently on the precariousness of employment and undoubtedly on the levels of extreme poverty. Training is becoming more than ever a strategic factor; the new digital reality requires that each component of the system is connected, the transversality is imposed on us, this forces us to redefine content, to give answers to the new demands that the new normality requires because technology and robotization are changing the concept of employability. The presence of women in this context is necessary, and there is a long way to go. The so-called emotional compensation becomes particularly relevant at a time when pandemics, silence, and disruption, are leaving after-effects; technostress (in all its manifestations) is just one of them. Talking about motivation today makes no sense without first being aware that mental health is a priority, that it must be treated and communicated in an inclusive way because it increases satisfaction, productivity, and engagement. There is a clear conclusion to all this: compensation systems do not respond to the ‘new normality’: diversity, and in particular women, cannot be invisible in human resources policies if the company wants to be sustainable.

Keywords: diversity, gender gap, human resources, sustainability.

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Authors: Susumu Fukita, Hiromi Kawasaki, Satoko Yamasaki, Kotomi Yamashita, Tomoko Iki

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The increase in the number of workers with mental health problems has become an issue. Many workers work in small- and medium-sized enterprises, which often support local employment and economy, especially in underpopulated mountainous areas. It is important for managers to take mental health measures for employees since there is no budget to hire health staff in small- and medium-sized enterprises. It is necessary to understand the manager's attitude toward the mental health of employees and to publicly support the manager in promoting mental health measures for employees. The purpose of this study was to study the awareness of managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises regarding the mental health of employees and to consider support for managers to take measures for the mental health of employees. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises in underpopulated mountainous areas in November 2019. Managers were asked about their awareness of the mental health of their employees. Qualitative descriptive analysis was used, and subcategories and categories were extracted. Four categories emerged. Regarding the mental health of employees, the managers acknowledged that if the appearance and behavior of the employees do not interfere with their lives, the manager judges that the employees’ mental health is normal. It was also found that the managers acknowledged that there is a comfortable working environment due to the characteristics of the underpopulated mountainous area. On the other hand, the managers acknowledged that employees are dissatisfied with salaries and management systems. In addition, it was found the manager acknowledged that some employees retire due to mental health problems. Although managers recognized that employees may be dissatisfied with salaries, they also recognized that there was a comfortable working environment due to the characteristics of the areas, with good interpersonal relationships. Economic challenges are difficult to solve in underpopulated mountainous areas. It is useful to consider measures that take advantage of the characteristics of the areas where it is easy to work because of good relations with each other, for example, to create a family-like workplace culture where managers and employees can engage in daily conversation. The managers judged that the employees were in good health if there was no interference with their lives. However, it is too late to take measures at the stage when it becomes an obstacle to life. Therefore, it is necessary to provide training for managers to learn observation techniques by which they quickly notice changes in the situation of employees and give appropriate responses; and to set up a contact point for managers to consult. Local governments should actively provide public support such as training for managers and establishing consultation desks to maintain valuable employment and local economics in underpopulated mountainous areas.

Keywords: employer, mental health, small- and medium- sized enterprises, underpopulated areas

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Authors: P. Saravanan, A. Vasumathi

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Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) plays a vital role in formulating the policies and strategies for the company, in order to fulfill the employee’s requirement and to perform the job efficiently within the organisation. Human Resource Management (HRM) functions helps in attracting and motivating the talented workforce for the organisation and by increasing the performance of an individual, will result in achieving the defined goals and objectives for the company. HRM function plays an important role in managing the workers within organisation through a formal communication channel. Since HR functions acts as a mediatory role in between the employee as well as the employers within the organisation that helps in improving the efficacy and skills of the individuals employed within the company. HR manager acts as a change agent, enabling and driving the change management program with respect to business HR functions and its future requirements of the company. Due to change in the business environment, the focus of HR manager is shifting from administrative/personal functions in to a strategic business HR function. HR managers plays a strategic role in managing various HR functions such as recruitment and selection, human resource information system, manpower planning, performance management, conflict management, employee engagement, compensation management, policy formation and retention strategies followed within the industry. Major challenges faced by HR managers at work place are managing the level of engagement for the talented resources within the organisation, reducing the conflicts at workplace, mapping the talented resources through succession planning process, building the effective appraisal process and performance management system and mapping the compensation based on the skills and experience possed by the employee within the company. The authors conducted a study for the sample size of 75 HR managers from an Indian IT company through systematic sampling method. This study identifies that the female employees are facing lesser conflict than the male employees against their managers within the organisation and also the study determines the impact of demographic profile on strategic HRM practices and its challenges faced by HR managers in IT firm, India.

Keywords: strategic human resource management, change agent, employee engagement, performance management, succession planning and conflict management

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Authors: Jinming Du

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With the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020, many higher education institutions and education systems are turning to hybrid or fully distance online courses to maintain social distance and provide a safe virtual space for learning and teaching. However, the majority of faculty members were not well prepared for the shift to blended or distance learning. Communication frustrations are prevalent in both hybrid and full-distance courses. A systematic literature review was conducted by a comprehensive analysis of 1688 publications that focused on the application of the adoption of chatbots in education. This study aimed to explore instructors' experiences with chatbots in online and blended undergraduate English courses. Language learners are overwhelmed by the variety of information offered by many online sites. The recently emerged chatbots (e.g.: ChatGPT) are slightly superior in performance as compared to those traditional through previous technologies such as tapes, video recorders, and websites. The field of chatbots has been intensively researched, and new methods have been developed to demonstrate how students can best learn and practice a new language in the target language. However, it is believed that among the many areas where chatbots are applied, while chatbots have been used as effective tools for communicating with business customers, in consulting and targeting areas, and in the medical field, chatbots have not yet been fully explored and implemented in the field of language education. This issue is challenging enough for language teachers; they need to study and conduct research carefully to clarify it. Pedagogical chatbots may alleviate the perception of a lack of communication and feedback from instructors by interacting naturally with students through scaffolding the understanding of those learners, much like educators do. However, educators and instructors lack the proficiency to effectively operate this emerging AI chatbot technology and require comprehensive study or structured training to attain competence. There is a gap between language teachers’ perceptions and recent advances in the application of AI chatbots to language learning. The results of the study found that although the teachers felt that the chatbots did the best job of giving feedback, the teachers needed additional training to be able to give better instructions and to help them assist in teaching. Teachers generally perceive the utilization of chatbots to offer substantial assistance to English language instruction.

Keywords: artificial intelligence in education, chatbots, education and technology, education system, pedagogical chatbot, chatbots and language education

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Authors: Damith Tennakoon, Mojgan Jadidi, Seyedreza Razavialavi

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With recent advancements of automation in robotics, from self-driving cars to autonomous 4-legged quadrupeds, one industry that has been stagnant is the construction industry. The methodologies used in a modern-day construction site consist of arduous physical labor and the use of heavy machinery, which has not changed over the past few decades. The dangers of a modern-day construction site affect the health and safety of the workers due to performing tasks such as lifting and moving heavy objects and having to maintain unhealthy posture to complete repetitive tasks such as painting, installing drywall, and laying bricks. Further, training for heavy machinery is costly and requires a lot of time due to their complex control inputs. The main focus of this research is using immersive wearable technology and robotic arms to perform the complex and intricate skills of modern-day construction workers while alleviating the physical labor requirements to perform their day-to-day tasks. The methodology consists of mounting a stereo vision camera, the ZED Mini by Stereolabs, onto the end effector of an industrial grade robotic arm, streaming the video feed into the Virtual Reality (VR) Meta Quest 2 (Quest 2) head-mounted display (HMD). Due to the nature of stereo vision, and the similar field-of-views between the stereo camera and the Quest 2, human-vision can be replicated on the HMD. The main advantage this type of camera provides over a traditional monocular camera is it gives the user wearing the HMD a sense of the depth of the camera scene, specifically, a first-person view of the robotic arm’s end effector. Utilizing the built-in cameras of the Quest 2 HMD, open-source hand-tracking libraries from OpenXR can be implemented to track the user’s hands in real-time. A mixed-reality (XR) Unity application can be developed to localize the operator's physical hand motions with the end-effector of the robotic arm. Implementing gesture controls will enable the user to move the robotic arm and control its end-effector by moving the operator’s arm and providing gesture inputs from a distant location. Given that the end effector of the robotic arm is a gripper tool, gripping and opening the operator’s hand will translate to the gripper of the robot arm grabbing or releasing an object. This human-robot interaction approach provides many benefits within the construction industry. First, the operator’s safety will be increased substantially as they can be away from the site-location while still being able perform complex tasks such as moving heavy objects from place to place or performing repetitive tasks such as painting walls and laying bricks. The immersive interface enables precision robotic arm control and requires minimal training and knowledge of robotic arm manipulation, which lowers the cost for operator training. This human-robot interface can be extended to many applications, such as handling nuclear accident/waste cleanup, underwater repairs, deep space missions, and manufacturing and fabrication within factories. Further, the robotic arm can be mounted onto existing mobile robots to provide access to hazardous environments, including power plants, burning buildings, and high-altitude repair sites.

Keywords: construction automation, human-robot interaction, hand-tracking, mixed reality

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Authors: Iulianna Taritsa, Kuldeep Neote, Eric Fossel

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Lysosome-induced immunogenic cell death (LIICD) is a powerful mechanism of targeting cancer cells that kills circulating malignant cells and primes the host’s immune cells against future remission. Current immunotherapies for cancer are limited in preventing recurrence – a gap that can be bridged by training the immune system to recognize cancer neoantigens. Lysosomal leakage can be induced therapeutically to traffic antigens from dying cells to dendritic cells, which can later present those tumorigenic antigens to T cells. Previous research has shown that oxidative agents administered in the tumor microenvironment can initiate LIICD. We generated a fusion protein between an oxidative agent known as xanthine oxidase (XO) and a mini-antibody specific for EGFR/HER2-sensitive breast tumor cells. The anti-EGFR single domain antibody fragment is uniquely sourced from llama, which is functional without the presence of a light chain. These llama micro-antibodies have been shown to be better able to penetrate tissues and have improved physicochemical stability as compared to traditional monoclonal antibodies. We demonstrate that the fusion protein created is stable and can induce early markers of immunogenic cell death in an in vitro human breast cancer cell line (SkBr3). Specifically, we measured overall cell death, as well as surface-expressed calreticulin, extracellular ATP release, and HMGB1 production. These markers are consensus indicators of ICD. Flow cytometry, luminescence assays, and ELISA were used respectively to quantify biomarker levels between treated versus untreated cells. We also included a positive control group of SkBr3 cells dosed with doxorubicin (a known inducer of LIICD) and a negative control dosed with cisplatin (a known inducer of cell death, but not of the immunogenic variety). We looked at each marker at various time points after cancer cells were treated with the XO/antibody fusion protein, doxorubicin, and cisplatin. Upregulated biomarkers after treatment with the fusion protein indicate an immunogenic response. We thus show the potential for this fusion protein to induce an anticancer effect paired with an adaptive immune response against EGFR/HER2+ cells. Our research in human cell lines here provides evidence for the success of the same therapeutic method for patients and serves as the gateway to developing a new treatment approach against breast cancer.

Keywords: apoptosis, breast cancer, immunogenic cell death, lysosome

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Authors: Tet H. Yeap

Abstract:

An analog restricted Hopfield Network is presented in this paper. It consists of two layers of nodes, visible and hidden nodes, connected by directional weighted paths forming a bipartite graph with no intralayer connection. An energy or Lyapunov function was derived to show that the proposed network will converge to stable states. By introducing hidden nodes, the proposed network can be trained to store patterns and has increased memory capacity. Training to be an associative memory, simulation results show that the associative memory performs better than a classical Hopfield network by being able to perform better memory recall when the input is noisy.

Keywords: restricted Hopfield network, Lyapunov function, simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation

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Authors: L. A. Toro, N. Prieto, J. J. Vargas

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There are many control charts for monitoring mean and variance. Among these, the X y R, X y S, S2 Hotteling and Shewhart control charts, for mentioning some, are widely used for monitoring mean a variance in industrial processes. In particular, the Shewhart charts are based on the information about the process contained in the current observation only and ignore any information given by the entire sequence of points. Moreover, that the Shewhart chart is a control chart without memory. Consequently, Shewhart control charts are found to be less sensitive in detecting smaller shifts, particularly smaller than 1.5 times of the standard deviation. These kind of small shifts are important in many industrial applications. In this study and effective alternative to Shewhart control chart was implemented. In case of univariate process an Exponentially Moving Average (EWMA) control chart was developed and Multivariate Exponentially Moving Average (MEWMA) control chart in case of multivariate process. Both of these charts were based on memory and perform better that Shewhart chart while detecting smaller shifts. In these charts, information the past sample is cumulated up the current sample and then the decision about the process control is taken. The mentioned characteristic of EWMA and MEWMA charts, are of the paramount importance when it is necessary to control industrial process, because it is possible to correct or predict problems in the processes before they come to a dangerous limit.

Keywords: control charts, multivariate exponentially moving average (MEWMA), exponentially moving average (EWMA), industrial control process

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Authors: Pablo M. S. Vallejos

Abstract:

The article aims to analyze the autobiographical practices of users on Instagram, observing the instrumentalization of image resources in the construction of visual narratives that make up that archive and digital diary. Through bibliographical review, discourse exploration and case studies, the research also aims to present a new theoretical perception about everyday records - edited with a collage of filters and aesthetic tools - that permeate that social network, understanding it as a platform fictionalizing and an expansion of life. In this way, therefore, the work reflects on possible futures in the elaboration of representations and identities in the context of digital spaces in the 21st century.

Keywords: visual culture, social media, autobiography, image

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Authors: Hatice Yildirim

Abstract:

This study was an investigation into the role of teaching assistants (TAs) for deaf pupils in an English primary school. This study aimed to provide knowledge about how TAs support deaf pupils in mainstream schools in England. It is accepted that TAs have an important role in the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream schools. However, there has been a lack of attention paid to the role of TAs for deaf pupils in the literature. A qualitative case study approach was used to address the research questions. Twelve semi-structured classroom observations and six semi-structured interviews were carried out with four TAs and two teachers in one English mainstream primary school. The data analysis followed a thematic analysis framework. The results indicated that TAs are utilised based on a one-on-one support model and are deployed under the class teachers in the classroom. The classroom activities are carried out in small groups with the TAs and the class teacher’s agreement, as per the school’s policy. Findings show that TAs carried out seven different roles in the education of deaf pupils in an English mainstream primary school. Supporting the academic and social development of deaf pupils is TA`s main role. Also, they record pupils’ progress, communicate with pupils’ parents, take on a pastoral care role, tutor pupils in additional support lessons and raise awareness of deaf pupils’ issues.

Keywords: deaf, mainstream primary school, teaching assistant, teaching assistant`s roles

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Authors: Baratali Monfaredraz

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The concept of justice has been able to occupy a lot of people’s minds and speeches for a long time. Justice has various dimensions such as economic justice, judicial justice, political justice, educational justice, ethnical justice and etc. Educational justice as one of the most basic dimensions of justice can alter our education in every field and it can flourish the talents and capabilities on macro level. One of the most efficient ways for social justice realization is to provide equal opportunities for all people in the society to be able to access equally to education as their human rights since today how progress occurs in education is regarded as the index of social development. On this basis, especially developing countries try to provide equal opportunities for all people in terms of access to education, specifically in higher education. At present, private education system violates the principles of conducting effort, meeting the needs and in part realizing the capabilities and so it cannot be justified to be a fair conductance. It seems that providing higher quality education in public schools and lowering role of teacher and educational facilities in educational achievement can be considered as a proper way to remove the discrimination in terms of unequal distribution of educational facilities. In addition, higher education development in deprived regions can initialize social activities among the inhabitants of these regions. Justice in educational field can result in access of all people to economic and social situations and job opportunities in future.

Keywords: educational justice, deprivation, private schools, higher education, job opportunities

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Authors: Mamidi Ramakrishna Rao

Abstract:

Doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG) due to their advantages like speed variation and four-quadrant operation, find its application in wind turbines. DFIG besides supplying power to the grid has to support reactive power (kvar) under grid voltage variations, should contribute minimum fault current during faults, have high efficiency, minimum weight, adequate rotor protection during crow-bar-operation from +20% to -20% of rated speed.  To achieve the optimum performance, a good electromagnetic design of DFIG is required. In this paper, a simple and heuristic global optimization – Differential Evolution has been used. Variables considered are lamination details such as slot dimensions, stack diameters, air gap length, and generator stator and rotor stack length. Two operating conditions have been considered - voltage and speed variations. Constraints included were reactive power supplied to the grid and limiting fault current and torque. The optimization has been executed separately for three objective functions - maximum efficiency, weight reduction, and grid fault stator currents. Subsequent calculations led to the conclusion that designs determined through differential evolution help in determining an optimum electrical design for each objective function.

Keywords: design optimization, performance, DFIG, differential evolution

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Authors: Nilda Ersoy, Sevinç Şener, Ayşe Yalçın Elidemir, Ebru Evcil, Ergün Döğen

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In this study, pesticide residues were investigated in black cumin (Nigella orientalis L.) seeds which grown in Turkey. GC-MS and LC-MS/MS analytical instruments are used in high precision, when determining residue limits. A total of 100 pesticide active ingredients in LC-MS/MS devices have been performed in Nigella orientalis L. seeds samples. Moreover, for same aim, 103 pesticide active ingredients were analyzed in GC-MS. This study conducted in 2012 and 2013. Samples residues were not found in detectable levels for two years.

Keywords: pesticide, residue, black cumin, Nigella orientalis L.

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Authors: Ankush, Harshit Sosan Lakra, Rachita Kuthial

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Climate change poses significant challenges to vulnerable communities, particularly indigenous populations in ecologically sensitive regions. Jharkhand, located in the heart of India, is home to several indigenous communities, including the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). The Indigenous architecture of the region functions as a significant reservoir of climate adaptation wisdom. It explores the architectural analysis encompassing the construction materials, construction techniques, design principles, climate responsiveness, cultural relevance, adaptation, integration with the environment and traditional wisdom that has evolved through generations, rooted in cultural and socioeconomic traditions, and has allowed these communities to thrive in a variety of climatic zones, including hot and dry, humid, and hilly terrains to withstand the test of time. Despite their historical resilience to adverse climatic conditions, PVTG tribal communities face new and amplified challenges due to the accelerating pace of climate change. There is a significant research void that exists in assimilating their traditional practices and local wisdom into contemporary climate resilience initiatives. Most of the studies place emphasis on technologically advanced solutions, often ignoring the invaluable Indigenous Local knowledge that can complement and enhance these efforts. This research gap highlights the need to bridge the disconnect between indigenous knowledge and contemporary climate adaptation strategies. The study aims to explore and leverage indigenous knowledge of vernacular architecture as a strategic tool for enhancing climatic resilience among PVTGs of the region. The first objective is to understand the traditional wisdom of vernacular architecture by analyzing and documenting distinct architectural practices and cultural significance of PVTG communities, emphasizing construction techniques, materials and spatial planning. The second objective is to develop culturally sensitive climatic resilience strategies based on findings of vernacular architecture by employing a multidisciplinary research approach that encompasses ethnographic fieldwork climate data assessment considering multiple variables such as temperature variations, precipitation patterns, extreme weather events and climate change reports. This will be a tailor-made solution integrating indigenous knowledge with modern technology and sustainable practices. With the involvement of indigenous communities in the process, the research aims to ensure that the developed strategies are practical, culturally appropriate, and accepted. To foster long-term resilience against the global issue of climate change, we can bridge the gap between present needs and future aspirations with Traditional wisdom, offering sustainable solutions that will empower PVTG communities. Moreover, the study emphasizes the significance of preserving and reviving traditional Architectural wisdom for enhancing climatic resilience. It also highlights the need for cooperative endeavors of communities, stakeholders, policymakers, and researchers to encourage integrating traditional Knowledge into Modern sustainable design methods. Through these efforts, this research will contribute not only to the well-being of PVTG communities but also to the broader global effort to build a more resilient and sustainable future. Also, the Indigenous communities like PVTG in the state of Jharkhand can achieve climatic resilience while respecting and safeguarding the cultural heritage and peculiar characteristics of its native population.

Keywords: vernacular architecture, climate change, resilience, PVTGs, Jharkhand, indigenous people, India

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Authors: Mohammad Ali Karimi, Hossein Tavallali, Abdolhamid Hatefi-Mehrjardi

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In this study, an electrochemical sensor based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) functionalized improved graphene (AuNPs-IGE) was fabricated for selective determination of L-dopa in the presence of ascorbic acid by a novel self-assembly method. The AuNP IGE modified carbon paste electrode (AuNPs-IGE/CPE) utilized for investigation of the electrochemical behavior of L-dopa in phosphate buffer solution. Compared to bare CPE, AuNPs-IGE/CPE shows novel properties towards the electrochemical redox of levodopa (L-dopa) in phosphate buffer solution at pH 4.0. The oxidation potential of L-dopa shows a significant decrease at the AuNPs-IGE/CPE. The oxidation current of L-dopa is higher than that of the unmodified CPE. AuNPs-IG/CPE shows excellent electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of ascorbic acid (AA). Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) method, the oxidation current is well linear with L-dopa concentration in the range of 0.4–50 µmol L-1, with a detection limit of about 1.41 nmol L-1 (S/N = 3). Therefore, it was applied to measure L-dopa from real samples that recoveries are 94.6-106.2%. The proposed electrode can also effectively avoid the interference of ascorbic acid, making the proposed sensor suitable for the accurate determination of L-dopa in both pharmaceutical preparations and human body fluids.

Keywords: gold nanoparticles, improved graphene, L-dopa, self-assembly

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Authors: Parvez Sattar

Abstract:

There are around 150,000 female sex workers in Bangladesh, and the country hosts one of the largest brothels in the world. There are 20 brothel-villages in the country, of which 14 are recognized to be ‘official’, and at least 11 are currently operational. Although the national Constitution adopts a preventive policy against prostitution, law does not, as such, prohibit commercial sex work by an adult woman working in a brothel having made an affidavit in this regard. But, at the same time, the law renders at least some forms of floating and hotel based sex work illegal, while sex between males has been termed as sodomy and made culpable offence even on its own. All forms of sex works by MSM and Hijra are thus branded as criminal acts. Observations and findings drawn in this article are based on both primary and secondary sources collecting data from a series of field-based empirical studies conducted by the author through questionnaire survey, FGDs, key informant consultations and other PRA/PLA tools. General and specific conclusions have been based on analysis guided by international standards of human and labour rights approaches. It has been noted that neither the community attitudes nor the cultural mind-sets, or the State's institutional set up is supportive of the causes of sex workers engaged in the most exploitative forms of labour. Lack of respect for fundamental rights continues to diminish any chances of sex workers' reintegration to the mainstream of the society, perpetuates poverty, and increases their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. To aggravate the scenario, the endemic practice of a complex debt-bondage masked by the so-called 'entry-cost' and ‘legal license’ to the industry is considered to be a somewhat accepted 'open secret' and that the police and administration keep their eyes off from such practices treating these as 'their internal affairs'. Often these practices are used by the Sardarni/Khala (landlady) and other 'managing' actors as the tool for further exploitation of the sex workers as well as a 'control strategy'. The paper concludes with the observation that the tabooed truths of commercial sex and sex workers are inherently embedded in the very factors that compel them into this endemically ostracised profession itself. While denial of both recognition and enjoyment of the fundamental human rights of sex workers is widespread, it is the same cycle of social vulnerability and economic exclusion that often confines these people within a continuous process of servitude and modern day slavery.

Keywords: commercial sex work and human rights, Labor protection in sex industry, Prostitution Law in Bangladesh, Sex work as modern day slavery

Procedia PDF Downloads 98