Search results for: utmost good faith

Authors: Arijit Saha, Hassan Kassem, Leo Hoening

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Ongoing climate change demands the increasing use of renewable energies. Wind energy plays an important role in this context since it can be applied almost everywhere in the world. To reduce the costs of wind turbines and to make them more competitive, simulations are very important since experiments are often too costly if at all possible. The wind turbine on a vast open area experiences the turbulence generated due to the atmosphere, so it was of utmost interest from this research point of view to generate the turbulence through various Inlet Turbulence Generation methods like Precursor cyclic and Kaimal Spectrum Exponential Coherence (KSEC) in the computational simulation domain. To be able to validate computational fluid dynamic simulations of wind turbines with the experimental data, it is crucial to set up the conditions in the simulation as close to reality as possible. This present work, therefore, aims at investigating the turbulent inflow strategy and boundary conditions of KSEC and providing a comparative analysis alongside the Precursor cyclic method for Large Eddy Simulation within the context of wind energy applications. For the generation of the turbulent box through KSEC method, firstly, the constrained data were collected from an auxiliary channel flow, and later processing was performed with the open-source tool PyconTurb, whereas for the precursor cyclic, only the data from the auxiliary channel were sufficient. The functionality of these methods was studied through various statistical properties such as variance, turbulent intensity, etc with respect to different Bulk Reynolds numbers, and a conclusion was drawn on the feasibility of KSEC method. Furthermore, it was found necessary to verify the obtained data with DNS case setup for its applicability to use it as a real field CFD simulation.

Keywords: Inlet Turbulence Generation, CFD, precursor cyclic, KSEC, large Eddy simulation, PyconTurb

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Authors: Stephanos Vassilopoulos

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Positive psychology interventions (PPIs) targeting optimism and hope in young children are scarce. This pilot study explored the feasibility and promise of the “Feel Good - Think Positive” intervention, a brief, manualized, multicomponent group PPI for young children. The intervention aimed to enhance participants’ optimism, hope, and self-esteem while reducing their anxiety levels. Forty-one students (Mage = 9.68, SD = 1.64) participated in the intervention and provided data on optimism, hope, self-esteem, and anxiety at baseline and after the intervention was concluded. Analyses showed a significant increase in optimism and self-esteem and a significant decrease in anxiety. However, no change was observed in hope levels. The results complement previous studies of school-based PPIs and hint at the promise of designing feasible interventions that can be easily incorporated into school curriculum and produce both a promoting and a remedial effect in young children.

Keywords: positive psychology intervention, positive education, hope, children

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Authors: Abdessalam Hijab, Hafida Boulekbache, Eric Henry

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The objective of this article is to explain the use of geographic information system (GIS) and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the real-time processing and analysis of data on the status of an urban sanitation network by integrating professional actors in sanitation for sustainable management in urban areas. Indeed, it is a smart geo-collaboration based on the complementarity of ICTs and GIS. This multi-actor reflection was built with the objective of contributing to the development of complementary solutions to the existing technologies to better protect the urban environment, with the help of a checklist with the spatial reference "E-Géo-LD" dedicated to the "professional/professional" actors in sanitation, for intelligent monitoring of liquid sanitation networks in urban areas. In addition, this research provides a good understanding and assimilation of liquid sanitation schemes in the "Lamkansa" sampling area of the city of Casablanca, and spatially evaluates these schemes. Downstream, it represents a guide to assess the environmental impacts of the liquid sanitation scheme.

Keywords: ICT, GIS, spatial checklist, liquid sanitation, environment

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Authors: Hamid Aslani, Ahmed Radwan

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In this paper, a single element microstrip antenna is presented for UWB applications by using techniques as partial ground plane and modified the shape of the patch. The antenna is properly designed to have a compact size and constant gain against frequency. The simulated results have done using two EM software and show good agreement with the measured results for the fabricated antenna. Then a designing of two elements patch antenna array for UWB in the frequency band of 3.1-10 GHz is presented in this paper. The array is constructed by means of feeding two omni-directional modified circular patch elements with a modified power divider. Experimental results show that the array has a stable radiation pattern and low return loss over a broad bandwidth of 64% (3.1–10 GHz). Due to its planar profile, physically compact size, wide impedance bandwidth, directive performance over a wide bandwidth proposed antenna is a good candidate for portable UWB applications and other UWB integrated circuits.

Keywords: ultra wide band, radiation performance, microstrip antenna, size miniaturized antenna

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Authors: Ejovi Eghwubare Augustine

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This study delved into the traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution in Africa, a pathway to sustainable peace in Nigeria. It deployed the quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and content analysis. The work adopted the Peace Process theory propounded by John Darby and Roger Macunity. It ascertained that disputes or disagreements are unarguably and necessarily an inevitable part of human existence, flowing directly from communication, interaction, and relationships which can occur at individual and national levels, even at international levels in view of the current trend of globalization. The alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism is a basket of procedures outside the traditional process of litigation or strict determination of legal rights. It may also be elucidated as a range of procedures that serve as generally involve the intercession and assistance of a neutral and impartial third party. The traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution in Africa are alien to the Western world; this paper is of utmost importance to the Western world and also enriched their pool of literature. Nigeria is a country that is dominated by various ethnic groups anchored on diverse cultures, customs, and traditions. It is, therefore, not surprising to see conflicts arise, and despite the various attempts at resolving these conflicts through litigation, they still remained unabated. The paper investigated the lessons learned from Traditional Mechanisms of Conflict resolution; it also interrogated its impact and the way forward. In light of the lessons that were learned and the impact of the traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution, suggestions on how to attain a sustainable, peaceful society were proffered. In conclusion, the study crystallized reforms on the alternative dispute resolution introduced through the traditional mechanism, which includes, amongst others, that constitutional recognition should be given to traditional institutions of conflict resolution to enable quick dispensation of matters.

Keywords: traditional, conflict, peace, resolution

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Authors: Rahim Shahrokhi, Junboum Park

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Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) are environmentally persistent halogenated hydrocarbons that have been widely used in many industrial and commercial applications. Recently, contaminating the soil and groundwater due to the ubiquity of PFAS in environments has raised great concern. Adsorption technology is one of the most promising methods for PFAS removal. Chitosan is a biopolymer substance with abundant amine and hydroxyl functional groups, which render it a good adsorbent. This study has tried to enhance the adsorption capacity of chitosan by grafting more amine functional groups on its surface for the removal of two long (PFOA and PFOS) and two short-chain (PFBA, PFBS) PFAS substances from the aqueous phase. A series of batch adsorption tests have been performed to evaluate the adsorption capacity of the used sorbent. Also, the sorbent was analyzed by SEM, FT-IR, zeta potential, and XRD tests. The results demonstrated that both chitosan beads have good potential for adsorbing short and long-chain PFAS from the aqueous phase.

Keywords: PFAS, chitosan beads, adsorption, grafted chitosan

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Authors: John Saaka

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The increasing world population poses a threat to food security. To meet current and future food demands, sweetpotato stand a good chance because of its recent food security roles. Concerted efforts are needed for both regional and local level varietal development. Heterosis exploiting breeding scheme (HEBS) is one of the options used to improve yield in some crop species and could be a good approach for sweetpotato improvement in Ghana by establishing heterotic gene pools within a population. To achieve this, 22 parental lines were collected from different sources and put in a full diallel arrangement. A total of 149 families, 20 individual cuttings per family, were taken to the field, including ‘checks’ and parental lines for experimentation in a 1m X 0.3m planting order according to the Westcott design. Results from this study led to the characterization of the selected parents into three main heterotic gene pools based on their suitability for use as male, female or both, respectively. This study serves as a baseline for further characterization of the rest of the germplasm in the Ghanaian sweetpotato breeding program.

Keywords: sweetpotato, heterosis, germplasm, food security

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Authors: Tess Hartland, Moitree Banerjee, Sue Churchill, Antonina Pereira, Ian Tyndall, Ruth Lowry

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Background: Sexual health services and policies for middle-aged and older adults are underdeveloped, while global sexually transmitted infections in this age group are on the rise. The Interreg cross-Europe Sexual Health In Over 45s (SHIFT) project aims to increase participation in sexual health services and improve sexual health and wellbeing in people aged over 45, with an additional focus on disadvantaged groups. Methods: A two-pronged mixed-methodology is being used to develop a model for good service provision in sexual health for over 45s. (1) Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a scoping review is being conducted, using the databases PsychINFO, Web of Science, ERIC and PubMed. A key search strategy using terms around sexual health, good practice, over 45s and disadvantaged groups. The initial search for literature yielded 7914 results. (2) Surveys (n=1000) based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour are being administered across the UK, Belgium and Netherlands to explore current sexual health knowledge, awareness and attitudes. Expected results: It is expected that sexual health needs and potential gaps in service provision will be identified in order to inform good practice for sexual health services for the target population. Results of the scoping review are being analysed, while focus group and survey data is being gathered. Preliminary analysis of the survey data highlights barriers to access such as limited risk awareness and stigma. All data analysis will be completed by the time of the conference. Discussion: Findings will inform the development of a model to improve sexual health and wellbeing for among over 45s, a population which is often missed in sexual health policy improvement.

Keywords: adult health, disease prevention, health promotion, over 45s, sexual health

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Authors: Saif Hussein Abdallah Alghazo, Norshima Humaidi

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Adopting cybersecurity protective behaviour among the employees is seriously considered in the organization, especially when the Internet of Things (IoT) is widely used in Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) era. Cybersecurity issues arise due to weaknesses of employees’ behaviour such as carelessness and failure to adopt good practices of information security behaviour. Therefore, this study aims to explore the dimensions that might influence employees’ behaviour to adopt good cybersecurity practices and to develop a new holistic model related to this concept. The study proposed this by reviewing the existing works of literature related to this field extensively, especially by focusing on the existing theory such as Protection Motivation Theory (PMT). Moreover, this study has also explored the role of cybersecurity competency among the security manager in the organization since this construct is essential to enhance the protective behaviour towards cybersecurity among the employees in the organization. The proposed research model is important to be quantitatively tested in the future as the findings will serve as the input to the act that will enhance employee’s cybersecurity protective behaviour in the IR 4.0 environment.

Keywords: cybersecurity protective behaviour, protection motivation theory, IR 4.0, cybersecurity competency

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Authors: Soni Nopembri

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The objective of this research is to evaluate the implementation of teaching games for Understanding model by conducting action to physical education teacher who have got long teaching experience. The research applied Participatory Action Research. The subjects of this research were 19 physical education teachers who had got training of Teaching Games for Understanding. Data collection was conducted intensively through a questionnaire, in-depth interview, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), observation, and documentation. The collected data was analysis zed qualitatively and quantitatively. The result showed that physical education teachers had got an appropriate interpretation on TGfU model. Some indicators that were the focus of this research indicated this points; they are: (1) physical education teachers had good understanding toward TGfU model, (2) PE teachers’ competence in applying TGfU model on Physical Education at school were adequate, though some improvement were needed, (3) the influence factors in the implementation of TGfU model, in sequence, were teacher, facilities, environment, and students factors, (4) PE teachers’ perspective toward TGfU model were positively good, although some teachers were less optimistic toward the development of TGfU model in the future.

Keywords: TGfU, physical education teacher, teaching games, FGD

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Authors: Mustopa, Setyawan Wahyu Pradana

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This study aims to determine the application of animal welfare in Madura cow racing competition at Sumenep district, Madura Island. This study conducted by survey and discussion methods with 3 Madura cow owners in the competition. The animal welfare is going to be proved by observing the condition of the cage, the cleanliness of it, feeding and water, the health of the cow, also owner treatments for their Madura cow that will be served as a racer. Observations made using stable conditions ACRES form with assessment scores ranged from 1 = very poor, 2 = poor, 3 = regular, 4 = good and 5 = very good, animal welfare conditions seen by conducting observations and interviews with Madura cow owners. The result shows that the Madura cow competition has fulfilled the criteria of animal welfare application. Application of animal welfare principle by the owner of Madura cow terms of ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society) below standard, the average score obtained was 2.06, which is mean in a poor ratings. Besides considering the animal welfare application, Madura cow owners also do special treatments for their Madura cow with purpose to produce racers that are healthy and fast. Therefore, if the cow wins in Madura cow racing competition, it will purchase a high-value price.

Keywords: animal welfare, competition, Madura cow, racing

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Authors: Meiyuan Zheng, Jingwu He, Yuexi Xiong

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A universal multi-function leaf spring main landing gear was designed for light aircraft. The main landing gear combined with the leaf spring, skidding, and wheels enables it to have a good takeoff and landing performance on various grounds such as the hard, snow, grass and sand grounds. Firstly, the characteristics of different landing sites were studied in this paper in order to analyze the load of the main landing gear on different types of grounds. Based on this analysis, the structural design optimization along with the strength and stiffness characteristics of the main landing gear has been done, which enables it to have good takeoff and landing performance on different types of grounds given the relevant regulations and standards. Additionally, the impact of the skidding on the aircraft during the flight was also taken into consideration. Finally, a universal multi-function leaf spring type of the main landing gear suitable for light aircraft has been developed.

Keywords: landing gear, multi-function, leaf spring, skidding

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Authors: Suangsuda Subjaroen, Chutikarn Sriviboon, Rosjana Chandhasa

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This research aims to examine the graduates' overall satisfaction and influential factors that affect the image of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, according to the graduates' viewpoints on the graduation rehearsal day. In accordance with the graduates' perceptions, the study is related to the levels of graduates' satisfaction, their perceived quality, perceived value, and the image of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The sample group in this study involved 1,129 graduates of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University who attended on 2019 graduation rehearsal day. A questionnaire was used as an instrument in order to collect data. By the use of computing software, the statistics used for data analysis were various, ranging from frequencies, percentage, mean, and standard deviation, One-Way ANOVA, and Multiple Regression Analysis. The majority of participants were graduates with a bachelor's degree, followed by masters graduates and PhD graduates, respectively. Among the participants, most of them graduated from the Faculty of Management Sciences, followed by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Faculty of Education, respectively. Overall, the graduates were satisfied with the graduation rehearsal day, and each aspect was rated at a satisfactory level. Formality, steps, and procedures were the aspects that graduates were most satisfied with, followed by graduation rehearsal personnel and staff, venue, and facilities. Referring to graduates' perceptions, the perceived quality was rated at a very good level, the perceived value was at a good level, whereas the image of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University was perceived at a good level, respectively. There were differences in satisfaction levels among graduates with a bachelor's degree, graduates with a master's degree and a doctoral degree with statistical significance at the level of 0.05. There was a statistical significance at the level of 0.05 in perceived quality and perceived value affecting the image of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The image of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University influenced graduates' satisfaction level with statistical significance at the level of 0.01.

Keywords: university image, perceived quality, perceived value, intention to study higher education, intention to recommend the university to others

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Authors: Uswah Khairuddin, Rubiyah Yusof, Nenny Ruthfalydia Rosli

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This paper presents a comparative study between k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) and Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP-NN) classifier using Genetic Algorithm (GA) as feature selector for wood recognition system. The features have been extracted from the images using Grey Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM). The use of GA based feature selection is mainly to ensure that the database used for training the features for the wood species pattern classifier consists of only optimized features. The feature selection process is aimed at selecting only the most discriminating features of the wood species to reduce the confusion for the pattern classifier. This feature selection approach maintains the ‘good’ features that minimizes the inter-class distance and maximizes the intra-class distance. Wrapper GA is used with k-NN classifier as fitness evaluator (GA-kNN). The results shows that k-NN is the best choice of classifier because it uses a very simple distance calculation algorithm and classification tasks can be done in a short time with good classification accuracy.

Keywords: feature selection, genetic algorithm, optimization, wood recognition system

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Authors: Yavuz Arat, Ugur Tuztasi, Mehmet Uysal

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Anatolia has been the host of many civilizations and a site where architectural structures of many cultural layers were interpreted. Most significantly the Turks who settled in Central Asia brought their architectural dynamics and cultural accumulation to Anatolia after the 12th century. The tomb structures first observed in Central Asia under the influence of Islamic faith and Turkish cultural heritage has blossomed under Great Seljuk Empire and with the Anatolian Seljuk Empire these tombs changed both in size and form with rich and beautiful samples from Ahlat to Sivas to Kayseri and Konya. This tomb tradition which started during 13th century has continued during the Ottoman Empire period with some alterations of form and evolved into the rarely observed mausoleum type tombs. The Ottoman tradition of building tombs inside mosque gardens and their forms present the clues of an important burial tradition. However this understanding was abandoned in 20th century Turkey. This tradition was abandoned with regard to legal regulations and health conditions. This study investigates the vestiges of this tradition and its spatial reflections over a sample. The present sample is representative of a tradition that started in 1970s and the case of building tombs inside mosque gardens will be illustrated over the tomb of Hacı Kemal Onsun and his wife which is located in Konya, the capital of the Anatolian Seljuks. The building process of this tomb will be evaluated with regard to burial traditions and architectural stylization.

Keywords: tomb, language of architectural form, Anatolian Seljuk tombs, Ottoman tombs

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Authors: Greeshma Sharma, Sushil Chandra, Vijander Singh, Alok Prakash Mittal

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Navigational ability requires spatial representation, planning, and memory. It covers three interdependent domains, i.e. cognitive and perceptual factors, neural information processing, and variability in brain microstructure. Many attempts have been made to see the role of spatial representation in the navigational ability, and the individual differences have been identified in the neural substrate. But, there is also a need to address the influence of planning, memory on navigational ability. The present study aims to evaluate relations of aforementioned factors in the navigational ability. Total 30 participants volunteered in the study of a virtual shopping complex and subsequently were classified into good and bad navigators based on their performances. The result showed that planning ability was the most correlated factor for the navigational ability and also the discriminating factor between the good and bad navigators. There was also found the correlations between spatial memory recall and navigational ability. However, non-verbal episodic memory and spatial memory recall were also found to be correlated with the learning variable. This study attempts to identify differences between people with more and less navigational ability on the basis of planning and memory.

Keywords: memory, planning navigational ability, virtual reality

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Authors: Byeongcheol Kang, Junyi Kim, Hyungsik Jung, Hyungjun Yang, Jaewoo An, Jonggeun Choe

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It is important to figure out reservoir properties for better production management. Due to the limited information, there are geological uncertainties on very heterogeneous or channel reservoir. One of the solutions is to generate multiple equi-probable realizations using geostatistical methods. However, some models have wrong properties, which need to be excluded for simulation efficiency and reliability. We propose a novel method of model selection scheme, based on distance-based clustering for reliable application of production optimization algorithm. Distance is defined as a degree of dissimilarity between the data. We calculate Hausdorff distance to classify the models based on their similarity. Hausdorff distance is useful for shape matching of the reservoir models. We use multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) to describe the models on two dimensional space and group them by K-means clustering. Rather than simulating all models, we choose one representative model from each cluster and find out the best model, which has the similar production rates with the true values. From the process, we can select good reservoir models near the best model with high confidence. We make 100 channel reservoir models using single normal equation simulation (SNESIM). Since oil and gas prefer to flow through the sand facies, it is critical to characterize pattern and connectivity of the channels in the reservoir. After calculating Hausdorff distances and projecting the models by MDS, we can see that the models assemble depending on their channel patterns. These channel distributions affect operation controls of each production well so that the model selection scheme improves management optimization process. We use one of useful global search algorithms, particle swarm optimization (PSO), for our production optimization. PSO is good to find global optimum of objective function, but it takes too much time due to its usage of many particles and iterations. In addition, if we use multiple reservoir models, the simulation time for PSO will be soared. By using the proposed method, we can select good and reliable models that already matches production data. Considering geological uncertainty of the reservoir, we can get well-optimized production controls for maximum net present value. The proposed method shows one of novel solutions to select good cases among the various probabilities. The model selection schemes can be applied to not only production optimization but also history matching or other ensemble-based methods for efficient simulations.

Keywords: distance-based clustering, geological uncertainty, particle swarm optimization (PSO), production optimization

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Authors: Shirajul Islam Khan, Muhammad Ashraful Alam Bhuiyan, Syeda Tania Begum

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Introduction: Acne vulgaris is one of the most common dermatologic conditions and affects the vast majority of people at some point during their lifetime, so effective treatment is of major importance. The failure of usual treatment modalities, teratogenic effects with some severe side effects, and resistance to P.Acne by Retinoides have been focusing on new therapeutic options for the treatment of acne. More recently, pulsed dye laser therapy has been reported to reduce acne lesion counts. The negligible morbidity of these treatment modalities and some other benefits of subsequent acne scar management lead this therapy more attractive. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of pulsed dye laser therapy in the treatment of inflammatory acne vulgaris. Materials and Methods: A prospective clinical trial was done in the Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka, to find out the role of pulse dye laser in the treatment of inflammatory acne vulgaris. The study was carried out with 60 patients with mild to moderate acne vulgaris, and those were treated with pulsed dye laser therapy at baseline and after 4, 8, and 12 weeks. Results: Among 60 patients with inflammatory acne, 42(70%) were in the age group of less than 20 years, and 36(60%) were female. Regarding the number of inflammatory lesions, the baseline mean number (± SD) was 12.77 ± 4.01; after 4 weeks of treatment of inflammatory acne by pulsed dye laser was 7.80 ± 4.11; after 8 weeks of treatment, 6.10 ± 4.03 and after 12 weeks of treatment was 4.17 ± 4.02. After 4 weeks of treatment by pulse dye laser, the level of improvement was excellent at 3.3%, good at 10%, fair at 60%, and poor at 26.7%; after 8 weeks of treatment, excellent was 13.3%, good was 46.7%, the fair was 30% and poor 10% and after 12 weeks of treatment, excellent was 56.7%, good 13.3%, fair 23.3% and poor 6.7%. Regarding safety level, out of 60 patients of inflammatory acne vulgaris treated by pulsed dye laser, about 52(86.7%) patients did not observe any side effects. Conclusions: On the basis of the study results, it can be concluded that pulsed-dye laser is highly effective and well tolerated by patients in the treatment of inflammatory acne.

Keywords: pulsed-dye laser, inflammatory acne, acne vulgaris, retinoids

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Authors: Benjamin Orimolade, Emily Draper

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The interest in all solid electrochromic devices (ECD) is ongoing. This is because these devices offer realistic applications of electrochromic materials in products such as sensors, windows and energy storage devices. The use of quasi-solid (gel) electrolytes for the construction of these ECDs is attractive because of their ease of preparation, availability, low cost, improved electrochromic performance, good ionic conductivity and prevention of leakages in ECDs. Herein, we developed a gel electrolyte consisting of polyacrylamide modified with succinonitrile for an ECD containing leucine-modified naphthalene diimide (NDI-L) as electrochromic material. The amount of succinonitrile in the gel was optimized, and the structure, surface morphology, and ionic conductivity of the electrolytes were assessed using microscopic techniques and electrochemical methods. The ECD fabricated with the gel electrolyte displayed good electrochromic performance with a fast switching response of up to 10 s and outstanding stability. These results add significant insight into understanding the inter- and intra-molecular interaction in succinonitrile gel electrolytes and provide a typical practicable high-performance gel electrolyte material for solid electrochromic devices.

Keywords: electrochromic device, gel electrolytes, naphthalene diimide, succinonitrile

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Authors: Anabel Moriña

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In recent years, advances have been made in disability policy at Spanish universities, especially in terms of creating more inclusive learning environments. Nevertheless, while efforts to foster inclusion at the tertiary level -and the growing number of students with disabilities at university- are clear signs of progress, serious barriers to full participation in learning still exist. The research shows that university responses to diversity tend to be reactive, not proactive; as a result, higher education (HE) environments can be especially disabling. It has been demonstrated that the performance of students with disabilities is closely linked to the good will of university faculty and staff. Lectures are key players when it comes to helping or hindering students throughout the teaching/learning process. This paper presents an analysis of how lecturers respond to students with disabilities, the initial question being: do lecturers aid or hinder students? The general aim is to analyse-by listen to the students themselves-lecturers barriers and support identified as affecting academic performance and overall perception of the higher education (HE) experience. Biographical-narrative methodology was employed. This research analysed the results differentiating by fields of knowledge. The research was conducted in two phases: discussion groups along with individual oral/written interviews were set up with 44 students with disabilities and mini life histories were completed for 16 students who participated in the first stage. The study group consisted of students with disabilities enrolled during three academic years. The results of this paper noted that participating students identified many more barriers than bridges when speaking about the role lecturers play in their learning experience. Findings are grouped into several categories: Faculty attitudes when “dealing with” students with disabilities, teaching methodologies, curricular adaptations, and faculty training in working with students. Faculty does not always display appropriate attitudes towards students with disabilities. Study participants speak of them turning their backs on their problems-or behaving in an awkward manner. In many cases, it seems lecturers feel that curricular adaptations of any kind are a form of favouritism. Positive attitudes, however, often depend almost entirely on the good will of faculty and-although well received by students-are hard to come by. As the participants themselves suggest, this study confirms that good teaching practices not only benefit students with disabilities but the student body as a whole. In this sense, inclusive curricula provide new opportunities for all students. A general coincidence has been the lack of training on behalf of lecturers to adequately attend disabled students, and the need to cover this shortage. This can become a primary barrier and is more often due to deficient faculty training than to inappropriate attitudes on the part of lecturers. In conclusion, based on this research we can conclude that more barriers than bridges exist. That said, students do report receiving a good deal of support from their lecturers-although almost exclusively in a spirit of good will; when lecturers do help, however, it tends to have a very positive impact on students' academic performance.

Keywords: barriers, disability, higher education, lecturers

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Authors: Marina Franulovic, Robert Basan, Bozidar Krizan

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Constitutive modelling of material behaviour is becoming increasingly important in prediction of possible failures in highly loaded engineering components, and consequently, optimization of their design. In order to account for large number of phenomena that occur in the material during operation, such as kinematic hardening effect in low cycle fatigue behaviour of steels, complex nonlinear material models are used ever more frequently, despite of the complexity of determination of their parameters. As a method for the determination of these parameters, genetic algorithm is good choice because of its capability to provide very good approximation of the solution in systems with large number of unknown variables. For the application of genetic algorithm to parameter identification, inverse analysis must be primarily defined. It is used as a tool to fine-tune calculated stress-strain values with experimental ones. In order to choose proper objective function for inverse analysis among already existent and newly developed functions, the research is performed to investigate its influence on material behaviour modelling.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, kinematic hardening, material model, objective function

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Authors: Siti Aisyah

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This article discusses character education which is a very basic education for early childhood with the aim of instilling moral values to prevent unacceptable behaviours. Children can absorb good character when they are in a supportive environment, for that schools should understand and implement character education in the learning process. In the school environment, good character education and habituation can be developed. All parties in the school should be involved, especially the teachers. This research discusses how teachers apply characters on the values of responsibility, honesty, discipline, love and compassion, caring, courage, independence, hard work, mutual cooperation, courtesy, justice, self-control and tolerance. The respondents of this study were teachers involving 200 children from all over Indonesia. The methodology used was a survey method with the result that more than 80% of teachers have been able to exhibit the expected behaviours. The survey was conducted based on observations, types of tasks and assessed performance. The character values can be optimally taught in the school environment based on the teacher's ability to implement them. Through the character education in schools, children can also instil a positive outlook on life.

Keywords: teachers, character strengthening, early childhood, behavior

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Authors: Damou Mehdi, Nouri Keltoum, Feham Mohammed, Khazini Mohammed, Bouazza Tayb Habibi Chawki

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The Half mode SIW filter is treated by two softwares (HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator) and CST (Computer Simulation Technology)). The filter HMSIW has a very simple structure and a very compact size. The simulated results by CST are presented and compared with the results simulated by a high-frequency structure simulator. Good agreement between the simulated CST and simulated results by HFSS is observed. By cascading two of them according to design requirement, a X-band bandpass filter is designed and simulated to meet compact size, low insertion loss, good return loss as well as second harmonic suppression. As an example, we designed the proposed HMSIW filter at X band by HFSS. The filter has a pass-band from 7.3 GHz to 9.8 GHz, and its relative operating fraction bandwidth is 29.5 %. There are one transmission zeros are located at 14.4 GHz.

Keywords: substrate integrated waveguide, filter, HMSIW, defected ground structures (DGS), simulation BPF

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Authors: Samitharathana R. Wadigala

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The peace will not be established until the self-consciousness would reveal in the human beings. In this nuclear age, the establishment of a lasting peace on the earth represents the primary condition for the preservation of human civilization and survival of human beings. Nothing perhaps is so important and indispensable as the achievement and maintenance of peace in the modern world today. Peace in today’s world implies much more than the mere absence of war and violence. In the interdependent world of today the United Nations needs to be representative of the modern world and democratic in its functioning because it came into existence to save the generations from the scourge of war and conflict. Buddhism is the religion of peaceful co-existence and philosophy of enlightenment. Violence and conflict from the perspective of the Buddhist theory of interdependent origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda) are same with everything else in the world a product of causes and conditions. Buddhism is totally compatible with the congenial and peaceful global order. The canonical literature, doctrines, and philosophy of Buddhism are the best suited for inter-faith dialogue, harmony, and universal peace. Even today Buddhism can resurrect the universal brotherhood, peaceful co-existence and harmonious surroundings in the comity of nations. With its increasing vitality in regions around the world, many people today turn to Buddhism for relief and guidance at the time when peace seems to be a deferred dream more than ever. From a Buddhist point of view the roots of all unwholesome actions (Conflict) i. e. greed, hatred and delusion are viewed as the root cause of all human conflicts. Conflict often emanates from attachment to material things: pleasures, property, territory, wealth, economic dominance or political superiority. Buddhism has some particularly rich resources for deployment in dissolving conflict. Buddhism addresses the Buddhist perspective on the causes of conflict and ways to resolve conflict to realize world peace. The world has enough to satisfy every body’s needs but not every body’s greed.

Keywords: Buddhism, conflict-violence, peace, self-consciousness

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Authors: Magdalena Orth, Gunnar Gotz

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Background: Domestic accountability, budget transparency and public financial management (PFM) are considered vital components of good governance in developing countries. The aid modality budget support (BS) promotes these governance functions in developing countries. BS engages in political decision-making and provides financial and technical support to poverty reduction strategies of the partner countries. Nevertheless, many donors have withdrawn their support from this modality due to cases of corruption, fraud or human rights violations. This exit from BS is leaving a finance and governance vacuum in the countries. The evaluation team analyzed the consequences of terminating the use of this modality and found particularly negative effects for good governance outcomes. Methodology: The evaluation uses a qualitative (theory-based) approach consisting of a comparative case study design, which is complemented by a process-tracing approach. For the case studies, the team conducted over 100 semi-structured interviews in Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia and used four country-specific, tailor-made budget analysis. In combination with a previous DEval evaluation synthesis on the effects of BS, the team was able to create a before-and-after comparison that yields causal effects. Main Findings: In all four countries domestic accountability and budget transparency declined if other forms of pressure are not replacing BS´s mutual accountability mechanisms. In Malawi a fraud scandal created pressure from the society and from donors so that accountability was improved. In the other countries, these pressure mechanisms were absent so that domestic accountability declined. BS enables donors to actively participate in political processes of the partner country as donors transfer funds into the treasury of the partner country and conduct a high-level political dialogue. The results confirm that the exit from BS created a governance vacuum that, if not compensated through external/internal pressure, leads to a deterioration of good governance. For example, in the case of highly aid dependent Malawi did the possibility of a relaunch of BS provide sufficient incentives to push for governance reforms. Overall the results show that the three good governance areas are negatively affected by the exit from BS. This stands in contrast to positive effects found before the exit. The team concludes that the relationship is causal, because the before-and-after comparison coherently shows that the presence of BS correlates with positive effects and the absence with negative effects. Conclusion: These findings strongly suggest that BS is an effective modality to promote governance and its abolishment is likely to cause governance disruptions. Donors and partner governments should find ways to re-engage in closely coordinated policy-based aid modalities. In addition, a coordinated and carefully managed exit-strategy should be in place before an exit from similar modalities is considered. Particularly a continued framework of mutual accountability and a high-level political dialogue should be aspired to maintain pressure and oversight that is required to achieve good governance.

Keywords: budget support, domestic accountability, public financial management and budget transparency, Sub-Sahara Africa

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Authors: Eldah Ephraim Buba

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This paper evaluated the quality of tourism education in Nigeria higher education. The problem of poor quality of tourism education in Nigeria’s higher institutions prompted the study. Archival research was used with evaluation reports as secondary data, twenty evaluation reports for different polytechnics from the National board for technical education (NBTE) from 1995-2012 were assessed. The evidence from the documents shows that the quality of teaching and evaluation is fair. The programmes resources are fairly good, and most of the teachers do not have a postgraduate qualification in tourism related courses. It is therefore recommended that the institutions running tourism programmes in Nigeria need to introduce self -assessment of programmes and not rely on the NBTE accreditation which comes up in three years. Also there is need for a staff development policy that will encourage Tourism educators to further their education; The Tertiary Educational Trust Fund (TETFUND) should focus on developing staff of tourism education because it is an area of study in Nigeria that lacks qualified personnel. With the way higher institution in Nigeria are finding interest in tourism programmes, having good quality programmes will not only produce better professionals but it will help in offering better services in the industry and maximizing the impacts of the business.

Keywords: education, evaluation, tourism quality, self-assessment

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Authors: Abolade Olajoke, Adigun Folasade Oyenike, Odunjo Oluronke Omolola Olaleye, Babajide Rotimi

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Against the shortfall associated with unprecedented urbanization in most cities of the world, coupled with rapid expansion of outer boundaries, is the resultant birth of the development of new towns. The paper therefore examines the impacts of Ibeju - Lekki New Town on Neighbouring communities of Ibeju Lekki. Random systematic sampling was employed elicit relevant information from a total number of 269 residents at interval of five buildings in four neighbouring communities. Descriptive statistics was employed to test for the socioeconomic characteristics of respondents, problems faced by government officials during the implementation and monitoring process. Likert scale was employed to ascertain respondents view on the impact of the new town on neighbouring communities. Result from the findings shows that male (56.9%) are the most dominant occupant in the study area of which most (68.1%) fall within the most the active age group (18-39 and 40-59 years). Results further shows that 36% of the total respondents are traders and majority (32%) earn below government salary wage cap of ₦18000 thus indicating that majority of the respondents are petty traders. Results of findings from development authority reveals that the major problem encountered during monitoring and implementation is harassment of government officials (35%). Result of likert scale further show that new town has brought increase in intensity of land use within neighbouring communities (RAI 3.65), provision of job opportunity (RAI 3.57). This have consequently improve standard of living of the neighbouring community (RAI 3.27). On the contrary some (RAI 1.97) opined that attention should paid to provision of power supply and provision of recreation facilities (RAI I.63). The study recommends that government should make adequate provisions for basic facilities such power supply, adequate health care system, basic education and provision of healthy portable water. This should be given utmost priority to enhance the living condition of residents. To forestall attack from residents’ adequate security measures should be provided as backup for Government official during implementation and monitoring. Appropriate sanction to illegal occupants and demolition of illegal structures should be fully implemented, This will indubitably prevent haphazard development and also promote a liveable environment. Against the shortfall associated with unprecedented urbanization in most cities of the world, coupled with rapid expansion of outer boundaries, is the resultant birth of the development of new towns. The paper therefore examines the impacts of Ibeju - Lekki New Town on Neighbouring communities of Ibeju Lekki. Random systematic sampling was employed elicit relevant information from a total number of 269 residents at interval of five buildings in four neighbouring communities. Descriptive statistics was employed to test for the socioeconomic characteristics of respondents, problems faced by government officials during the implementation and monitoring process. Likert scale was employed to ascertain respondents view on the impact of the new town on neighbouring communities. Result from the findings shows that male (56.9%) are the most dominant occupant in the study area of which most (68.1%) fall within the most the active age group (18-39 and 40-59 years). Results further shows that 36% of the total respondents are traders and majority (32%) earn below government salary wage cap of ₦18000 thus indicating that majority of the respondents are petty traders. Results of findings from development authority reveals that the major problem encountered during monitoring and implementation is harassment of government officials (35%) Result of likert scale further show that new town has brought increase in intensity of land use within neighbouring communities (RAI 3.65), provision of job opportunity (RAI 3.57). This have consequently improve standard of living of the neighbouring community (RAI 3.27). On the contrary some (RAI 1.97) opined that attention should paid to provision of power supply and provision of recreation facilities (RAI I.63). The study recommends that government should make adequate provisions for basic facilities such power supply, adequate health care system, basic education and provision of healthy portable water. This should be given utmost priority to enhance the living condition of residents. To forestall attack from residents’ adequate security measures should be provided as backup for Government official during implementation and monitoring. Appropriate sanction to illegal occupants and demolition of illegal structures should be fully implemented, This will indubitably prevent haphazard development and also promote a liveable environment.

Keywords: new town, urbanization, infrastructure boundary

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Authors: Seon Soon Choi

Abstract:

It is necessary to predict a fatigue crack propagation life for estimation of structural integrity. Because of an uncertainty and a randomness of a structural behavior, it is also required to analyze stochastic characteristics of the fatigue crack propagation life at a specified fatigue crack size. The essential purpose of this study is to present the good probability distribution fit for the fatigue crack propagation life at a specified fatigue crack size in magnesium alloys under various fatigue load ratio conditions. To investigate a stochastic crack growth behavior, fatigue crack propagation experiments are performed in laboratory air under several conditions of fatigue load ratio using AZ31. By Anderson-Darling test, a goodness-of-fit test for probability distribution of the fatigue crack propagation life is performed and the good probability distribution fit for the fatigue crack propagation life is presented. The effect of load ratio on variability of fatigue crack propagation life is also investigated.

Keywords: fatigue crack propagation life, load ratio, magnesium alloys, probability distribution

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Authors: Logan Carmichael

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As the world’s governments seek to increasingly digitize their service provisions, there exists a subsequent and fully valid concern about the security underpinning these digital governance provisions. Estonia, a small and innovative Baltic nation, has been refining both its digital governance structure and cybersecurity mechanisms for over three decades and has been praised as global ‘best practice’ in both fields. However, the security of the Estonian digital governance system has been ever-evolving and significantly shaped by cybersecurity crises. This paper examines said crises – 2007 cyberattacks on Estonian government, banks, and news media; the 2017 e-ID crisis; the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine – and how governance decision-making following these crises has shaped the cybersecurity of the digital governance structure in Estonia. This paper employs a blended constructivist and historical institutionalist theoretical approach as a useful means to view governance and decision-making in the wake of cybersecurity incidents affecting the Estonian digital governance structure. Together, these theoretical groundings frame the topics of cybersecurity and digital governance in an Estonian context through a lens of ideation and experience, as well as institutional path dependencies over time and cybersecurity crises as critical junctures to study. Furthermore, this paper takes a qualitative approach, employing discourse analysis, policy analysis, and elite interviewing of Estonian officials involved in digital governance and cybersecurity in order to glean nuanced perspectives into the processes that followed these four crises. Ultimately, the results of this paper will offer insight into how governments undertake policy-driven change following cybersecurity crises to ensure sufficient security of their digitized service provisions. This paper’s findings are informative not only in continued decision-making in the Estonian system but also in other states currently implementing a digital governance structure, for which security mechanisms are of the utmost importance.

Keywords: cybersecurity, digital governance, Estonia, crisis management, governance in crisis

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Authors: Pitimanus Bunlue

Abstract:

The objectives of this study were to identify the unique characteristics of Salaya Old market, Phutthamonthon, Nakhon Pathom and develop the effective video media to promote the homeland awareness among local people and the characteristic features of this community were collectively summarized based on historical data, community observation, and people’s interview. The acquired data were used to develop a media describing prominent features of the community. The quality of the media was later assessed by interviewing local people in the old market in terms of content accuracy, video, and narration qualities, and sense of homeland awareness after watching the video. The result shows a 6-minute video media containing historical data and outstanding features of this community was developed. Based on the interview, the content accuracy was good. The picture quality and the narration were very good. Most people developed a sense of homeland awareness after watching the video also as well.

Keywords: audio-visual, creating homeland awareness, Phutthamonthon Nakhon Pathom, research and development

Procedia PDF Downloads 291