Search results for: modern methods

Authors: Jawid Ahmad Baktash, Mursal Dawodi, Tomokazu Nagata

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With the rapid growth of Cloud Computing, Formal Methods became a good choice for the refinement of message specification and verification for Dynamic Routing in Cloud Computing. Cloud-based Dynamic Routing is becoming increasingly popular. We propose feedback in Formal Methods for Dynamic Routing and Cloud Computing; the model and topologies show how to send messages from index zero to all others formally. The responsibility of proper verification becomes crucial with Dynamic Routing in the cloud. Formal Methods can play an essential role in the routing and development of Networks, and the testing of distributed systems. Event-B is a formal technique that consists of describing the problem rigorously and introduces solutions or details in the refinement steps. Event-B is a variant of B, designed for developing distributed systems and message passing of the dynamic routing. In Event-B and formal methods, the events consist of guarded actions occurring spontaneously rather than being invoked.

Keywords: cloud, dynamic routing, formal method, Pro-B, event-B

Procedia PDF Downloads 425

Authors: Marina Sartor Hoffer

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The multicultural composition of today's societies poses new challenges to educational contexts. Schools are therefore called first to develop dialogic aptitudes and communicative skills adapted to the complex reality of post-modern societies. It is indispensable for educators and for young people to learn theoretical and practical tools during their scholastic path, in order to allow the knowledge of themselves and of the others with the aim of recognizing the value of the others regardless of their culture. Dialogic Skills help to understand and manage individual differences by allowing the solution of problems and preventing conflicts. The Educational Sector of Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis offers a range of methods and techniques for this purpose. Educational Transactional Analysis is firmly anchored in the Personalist Philosophy and deserves to be promoted as a theoretical frame suitable to face the challenges of contemporary education. The goal of this paper is therefore to outline some conceptual and methodological signposts for the education to dialogue by drawing concepts and methodologies from educational transactional analysis.

Keywords: dialogic process, education to dialogue, educational transactional analysis, personalism, the good of the relationship

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Liya Abraham

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Medicinal plants are globally valuable sources of herbal products, either as lifesaving or life maintaining medicines. Studies reveal that more than 25% of modern drugs in the world are derived from plants. The Horn of Africa as a world hotspot; it has more than 1500 endemic plants. Eritrea, a country located in the Horn of Africa, is blessed with medicinal flora and fauna and marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Previous studies of flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea, incomplete species lists, indicate figures ranging between 6000 and 7000 species, with levels of endemism between 12–20%. In the past two decades, there has been growing interest in natural remedy herbal medicines owing to, but not limited to; resistance to antimicrobials, intolerance of side effects of modern drugs, and rise in chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, etc. Hence, owing to the rising demand for nature based health solutions, deforestation, construction purposes, grazing, and agricultural expansion; several medicinal plants in general and the endemic ones, in particular, are in the verge of extinction. Therefore, conservation strategies of endangered and endemic medicinal plants, especially those located in hot spot regions, must be promoted at global level. Thus, the author aims to share certain information regarding the endemic medicinal plants in Eritrea with the international scientific world.

Keywords: endemic, eritrea, horn of Africa, medicinal plants, species

Procedia PDF Downloads 174

Authors: А. V. Panko, Е. V. Ablets, I. G. Kovzun, М. А. Ilyashov

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Based upon generalized analysis of modern know-how in the sphere of processing, concentration and purification of iron-ore raw materials (IORM), in particular, the most widespread ferrioxide-silicate materials (FOSM), containing impurities of phosphorus and other elements compounds, noted special role of nano technological initiatives in improvement of such processes. Considered ideas of role of nano particles in processes of FOSM carbonization with subsequent direct reduction of ferric oxides contained in them to metal phase, as well as in processes of alkali treatment and separation of powered iron from phosphorus compounds. Using the obtained results the wasteless solid-phase processing, concentration and purification of IORM and FOSM from compounds of phosphorus, silicon and other impurities excelling known methods of direct iron reduction from iron ores and metallurgical slimes.

Keywords: iron ores, solid-phase reduction, nanoparticles in reduction and purification of iron from silicon and phosphorus, wasteless method of ores processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 488

Authors: Nazish Saleem Abbas, Muhammad Haris Jamil, Hamid Sharif

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Digital watermarking is a technique that allows an individual to add and hide secret information, copyright notice, or other verification message inside a digital audio, video, or image. Today, with the advancement of technology, modern healthcare systems manage patients’ diagnostic information in a digital way in many countries. When transmitted between hospitals through the internet, the medical data becomes vulnerable to attacks and requires security and confidentiality. Digital watermarking techniques are used in order to ensure the authenticity, security and management of medical images and related information. This paper proposes a watermarking technique that embeds a watermark in medical images imperceptibly and securely. In this work, digital watermarking on medical images is carried out using the Least Significant Bit (LSB) with the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). The proposed methods of embedding and extraction of a watermark in a watermarked image are performed in the frequency domain using LSB by XOR operation. The quality of the watermarked medical image is measured by the Peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). It was observed that the watermarked medical image obtained performing XOR operation between DCT and LSB survived compression attack having a PSNR up to 38.98.

Keywords: watermarking, image processing, DCT, LSB, PSNR

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Andrey V. Samokhin, Nikolay V. Alekseev, Mikhail A. Sinaiskii

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The report presents the results of R&D of plasma-chemical production of W, W-Cu, W-Ni-Fe nanopowders as well as spherical micropowders of these compounds for their use in modern 3D printing technologies. Plasma-chemical synthesis of nanopowdersis based on the reduction of tungsten oxide compounds powders in a stream of hydrogen-containing low-temperature thermal plasma generated in an electric arc plasma torch. The synthesis of W-Cu and W-Ni-Fe nanocompositesiscarried out using the reduction of a mixture of the metal oxides. Using the synthesized tungsten-based nanocomposites powders, spherical composite micropowders with a submicron structure canbe manufactured by spray dryinggranulation of nanopowder suspension and subsequent densification and spheroidization of granules by melting in a low-temperature thermal plasma flow. The DC arc plasma systems are usedfor the synthesis of nanopowdersas well as for the spheroidization of microgranuls. Plasma systems have a capacity of up to 1 kg/h for nanopowder and up to 5 kg/h for spheroidized powder. All synthesized nanopowders consist of aggregated particles with sizes less than 100 nm, and nanoparticles of W-Cu and W-Ni-Fe composites have core (W) –shell (Cu or Ni-Fe) structures. The resulting dense spherical microparticles with a size of 20-60 microns have a submicron structure with a uniform distribution of metals over the particle volume. The produced tungsten-based nano- and spherical micropowderscan be used to develop new materials and manufacture products using advanced modern technologies.

Keywords: plasma, powders, production, tungsten-based

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Jeong Hwa Ryong

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Numerous characters appear in the works of England’s most prominent play writer, William Shakespeare. Most of the time, his male protagonists possess various and complex characteristics throughout the storyline of his work, making it interesting for the readers to analyze their actions in many different aspects. However, some critics argue that unlike male characters, Shakespeare’s female characters are rather more flat and one-sided, pointing out that they are either the extreme version of good or evil. Especially, it is a significant topic to discuss in the modern days, considering the fact that gender stereotype is now a sensitive issue. Starting from such argument, it is important to address their purpose of being in the play and suggest their meaning to the modern readers of today. In this context, this paper analyzes several female characters of Shakespeare’s work by closely examining their actions and lines. The characters analyzed are Ophelia from Hamlet, Cordelia from King Lear, Katherine from The Taming of the Shrew, Goneril from King Lear and Lady Macbeth from Macbeth. Nevertheless, some female protagonists of Shakespeare’s work do not fall in to this category and exceed the limitations of others. Therefore this paper proposes alternative characters such as Juliet from Romeo and Juliet and Portia from The Merchant of Venice that are rather more complex and difficult to include in just one category. By doing so, this paper critically analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of many female characters in Shakespeare’s play.

Keywords: female characters, gender stereotype, William Shakespeare

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: Karolina Porada

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Over the last 40 years, there has been a trend in landscape architecture which supporters do not perceive the role of pro-ecological or postmodern solutions in the design of public green spaces as an essential goal, shifting their attention to the 'sculptural' shaping of areas with the use of slopes, hills, embankments, and other forms of terrain. This group of designers can be considered avant-garde, which in its activities refers to land art. Initial research shows that such applications are particularly frequent in places of former post-industrial sites and landfills, utilizing materials such as debris and post-mining waste in their construction. Due to the high degradation of the environment surrounding modern man, the brownfields are a challenge and a field of interest for the representatives of landscape architecture avant-garde, who through their projects try to recover lost lands by means of transformations supported by engineering and ecological knowledge to create places where nature can develop again. The analysis of a dozen or so facilities made it possible to come up with an important conclusion: apart from the cultural aspects (including artistic activities), the green areas formally referring to the land are important in the process of remediation of post-industrial sites and waste recycling (e. g. from construction sites). In these processes, there is also a potential for applying the concept of Natural Based Solutions, i.e. solutions allowing for the natural development of the site in such a way as to use it to cope with environmental problems, such as e.g.  air pollution, soil phytoremediation and climate change. The paper presents examples of modern parks, whose compositions are based on shaping the surface of the terrain in a way referring to the land art, at the same time providing an example of brownfields reuse and application of waste recycling.  For the purposes of object analysis, research methods such as historical-interpretation studies, case studies, qualitative research or the method of logical argumentation were used. The obtained results provide information about the role that landscape architecture can have in the process of remediation of degraded areas, at the same time guaranteeing the benefits, such as the shaping of landscapes attractive in terms of visual appearance, low costs of implementation, and improvement of the natural environment quality.

Keywords: brownfields, contemporary parks, landscape architecture, remediation

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Asim Majeed, Rehan Bhana, Mak Sharma, Rebecca Goode, Nizam Bolia, Mike Lloyd-Williams

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This study aims to investigate and explore the underlying causes of security concerns of customers emerged when WHSmith transformed its physical system to virtualized business model through NetSuite. NetSuite is essentially fully integrated software which helps transforming the physical system to virtualized business model. Modern organisations are moving away from traditional business models to cloud based models and consequently it is expected to have a better, secure and innovative environment for customers. The vital issue of the modern age race is the security when transforming virtualized through cloud based models and designers of interactive systems often misunderstand privacy and even often ignore it, thus causing concerns for users. The content analysis approach is being used to collect the qualitative data from 120 online bloggers including TRUSTPILOT. The results and finding provide useful new insights into the nature and form of security concerns of online users after they have used the WHSmith services offered online through their website. Findings have theoretical as well as practical implications for the successful adoption of cloud computing Business-to-Business model and similar systems.

Keywords: innovation, virtualization, cloud computing, organizational flexibility

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: Wen Po Cheng, Chia Yun Chung, Ruey Fang Yu, Chao Feng Chen

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The main objective of this research was to study the differences of aluminum hydrolytic products between two PACl preparation methods. These two methods were the acidification process of freshly formed amorphous Al(OH)₃ and the conventional alkalization process of aluminum chloride solution. According to Ferron test and ²⁷Al NMR analysis of those two PACl preparation procedures, the reaction rate constant (k) values and Al₁₃ percentage of acid addition process at high basicity value were both lower than those values of the alkaline addition process. The results showed that the molecular structure and size distribution of the aluminum species in both preparing methods were suspected to be significantly different at high basicity value.

Keywords: polyaluminum chloride, Al13, amorphous aluminum hydroxide, Ferron test

Procedia PDF Downloads 376

Authors: Arsalan Jabbar, Wajiha Javed, Nelofer Mehboob, Zahid Memon

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Introduction: There are multiple social, individual and cultural factors that influence an individual’s decision to adopt family planning methods especially among non-users in patriarchal societies like Pakistan.Non-users, if targeted efficiently, can contribute significantly to country’s CPR. A research study showed that non-users if convinced to adopt lactational amenorrhea method can shift to long-term methods in future. Research shows that if non-users are targeted efficiently a 59% reduction in unintended pregnancies in Saharan Africa and South-Central and South-East Asia is anticipated. Methods: We did secondary data analysis on Pakistan Demographic Heath Survey (2012-13) dataset. Use of contraception (never-use/ever-use) was the outcome variable. At univariate level Chi-square/Fisher Exact test was used to assess relationship of baseline covariates with contraception use. Then variables to be incorporated in the model were checked for multi-collinearity, confounding, and interaction. Then binary logistic regression (with an urban-rural stratification) was done to find the relationship between contraception use and baseline demographic and social variables. Results: The multivariate analyses of the study showed that younger women (≤ 29 years) were more prone to be never users as compared to those who were > 30 years and this trend was seen in urban areas (AOR 1.92, CI 1.453-2.536) as well as rural areas (AOR 1.809, CI 1.421-2.303). While looking at regional variation, women from urban Sindh (AOR 1.548, CI 1.142-2.099) and urban Balochistan (AOR 2.403, CI 1.504-3.839) had more never users as compared to other urban regions. Women in the rich wealth quintile were more never users and this was seen both in urban and rural localities (urban (AOR 1.106 CI .753-1.624); rural areas (AOR 1.162, CI .887-1.524)) even though these were not statistically significant. Women idealizing more children(> 4) are more never users as compared to those idealizing less children in both urban (AOR 1.854, CI 1.275-2.697) and rural areas (AOR 2.101, CI 1.514-2.916). Women who never lost a pregnancy were more inclined to be non-users in rural areas (AOR 1.394, CI 1.127-1.723) .Women familiar with only traditional or no method had more never users in rural areas (AOR 1.717, CI 1.127-1.723) but in urban areas it wasn’t significant. Women unaware of Lady Health Worker’s presence in their area were more never users especially in rural areas (AOR 1.276, CI 1.014-1.607). Women who did not visit any care provider were more never users (urban (AOR 11.738, CI 9.112-15.121) rural areas (AOR 7.832, CI 6.243-9.826)). Discussion/Conclusion: This study concluded that government, policy makers and private sector family planning programs should focus on the untapped pool of never users (younger women from underserved provinces, in higher wealth quintiles, who desire more children.). We need to make sure to cover catchment areas where there are less LHWs and less providers as ignorance to modern methods and never been visited by an LHW are important determinants of never use. This all is in sync with previous literate from similar developing countries.

Keywords: contraception, demographic and health survey, family planning, never users

Procedia PDF Downloads 409

Authors: Jaroslav Kušnír

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Hawaiian literature in English has been researched more intensively in the past decades, mostly in the context of Asian American literature. In his collection of stories Language of the Gecko's and Other Stories, Hawaiian author Gary Pak explores complex relationships between Asian, Native Hawaiian, and American characters living mostly in Hawaii. Through a depiction of these complex relationships, Pak also explores the interaction between different cultures in Hawaii as well as the formation of Asian/Hawaiian identity in the modern world. Based on a comparative approach and close analysis method, this paper will explore the role of place and its historical and cultural background in the formation of modern Asian/Hawaiian cultural identity as manifested in Pak's stories My Friend Kammy and Ishmael Reed or Me. At the same time, through the use of Bill Ashcroft´s concept of transnation, the author of this paper will analyze Pak's depiction of the formation of the cultural identity of characters from Gary Pak's stories My Friend Kammy and Ishmael Reed or Me, which are, in the author of this paper´s view, the characters close to the concept of Ashcroft's transnation which makes them different from traditional cosmopolitan or diasporic characters.

Keywords: culture, cultural identity, Hawaiian identity, Hawaiian literature, place, transnation

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Authors: Egboja Simon, Agi Sunday

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One of the most important key to success of a nation is to ensure steady development and national economic self - sufficiency and independence. There have been challenges in food security related issues in many developing nations. The problems may be as a result of rise in food price across the globe diminishing global food reserve and erratic weather patterns among other factors. In Nigeria several Agricultural politics have been formulated to curtail food security challenges. Unfortunately, these policies have not yielded the deserved results of increase food production. This paper is designed to identify the various challenges confronting food security in Nigeria with a view of highlighting the reasons that accounting for these problems. This paper also suggests ways of addressing these challenges and concludes by saying that subsidization of the process of farm inputs like fertilizer, improved seed and agro chemicals education of the farmers on modern methods of farming through extension services, improvisation of villages based food storage mechanism and provision of infrastructural facilities in rural areas to facilitate the preservation and easy evacuation of farm produce should be encouraged.

Keywords: governance, security, food, development, conflict, hunger, society, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Kwa-Sur Tam, Byung O. Kang

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By using different ranges of daily sky clearness index defined in this paper, any day can be classified as a clear sky day, a partly cloudy day or a cloudy day. This paper demonstrates how short-term forecasting of solar irradiation can be improved by taking into consideration the type of day so defined. The source of day type dependency has been identified. Forecasting methods that take into consideration of day type have been developed and their efficacy have been established. While all methods that implement some form of adjustment to the cloud cover forecast provided by the U.S. National Weather Service provide accuracy improvement, methods that incorporate day type dependency provides even further improvement in forecast accuracy.

Keywords: day types, forecast methods, National Weather Service, sky cover, solar energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 466

Authors: Hanife Merve Öztürk, Sıdıka Dalgan

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In this project, a capacity analysis study is done at TAT A. Ş. Maret Plant. Production capacity of products which generate 80% of sales amount are determined. Obtained data entered the LEKIN Scheduling Program and we get production schedules by using heuristic methods. Besides heuristic methods, as mathematical model, disjunctive programming formulation is adapted to flexible job shop problems by adding a new constraint to find optimal schedule solution.

Keywords: scheduling, flexible job shop problem, shifting bottleneck heuristic, mathematical modelling

Procedia PDF Downloads 401

Authors: Hisham Mortada

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Transition in the urban configuration of Arab cities has never been as radical and visible as it has been since the turn of the last century. The emergence of new cities near historical settlements of Arabia has spawned a series of developments in and around the old city precincts. New developments are based on advanced technology and conform to globally prevalent standards of city planning, superseding the vernacular arrangements based on traditional norms that guided so-called ‘city planning’. Evidence to this fact are the extant Arab buildings present at the urban core of modern cities, which inform us about intricate spatial organization. Organization that subscribed to multiple norms such as, satisfying gender segregation and socialization, economic sustainability, and ensuring security and environmental coherence etc., within settlement compounds. Several participating factors achieved harmony in such an inclusive city—an organization that was challenged and apparently replaced by the new planning order in the face of growing needs of globalized, economy-centric and high-tech models of development. Communities found it difficult to acclimatize with the new western planning models that were implemented at a very large scale throughout the Kingdom, which later experienced spatial re-structuring to suit users’ needs. A closer look the ancient city of Yanbu, now flanked with such new developments, allows us to differentiate and track the beginnings of this unprecedented transition in settlement formations. This paper aims to elaborate the Arabian context offered to both the ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ planning approaches, in order to understand challenges and solutions offered by both at different times. In the process it will also establish the inconsistencies and conflicts that arose with the shift in planning paradigm, from traditional-'cultural norms’, to modern-'physical planning', in the Arabian context. Thus, by distinguishing the two divergent planning philosophies, their impact of the Arabian morphology, relevance to lifestyle and suitability to the biophysical environment, it concludes with a perspective on sustainability particularly for in case of Yanbu.

Keywords: Yanbu, traditional architecture, Hijaz, coral building, Saudi Arabia

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: Gramza-Michalowska Anna, Skrety Joanna, Anna Zywica, Kobus-Cisowska Joanna, Kmiecik Dominik, Korczak Jozef

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Background: Modern consumer highly appreciates the positive influence of consumed products on well-being and overall health. High acceptance of new food is a result of intensified research showing many proofs confirming that food offers significant prophylactic and therapeutic potential, next to its basic nutritional function. Objective: Proposition of the technology of unsweetened oat drinks enriched with plant extracts for pro-health oriented individuals. We investigated the effects of selected plant extracts addition on antioxidative capacity and consumer’s acceptance of drinks as representative of all day diet product. Methods: The analysis of the basic composition and antioxidant properties of the drinking product was conducted. Basic composition included protein, lipids and fiber content. Antioxidant capacity of drink was evaluated with use radical scavenging methods (DPPH, ABTS), ORAC value and FRAP. Proposed drink as new product was also characterized with sensory analysis, which included color, aroma, taste, consistency and overall acceptance. Results: Results showed that addition of plant extracts into a oat drink allowed to enhance its antioxidant potential and influenced significantly its sensory values. The preferred composition and properties of designed beverage permit claim that it can have a positive impact on the health of the consumers. Conclusion: Designed oat drink would be an answer for pro-healthy life style of the consumers. Results showed that product with plant extracts addition would be accepted by the consumers and because of its antioxidative potential could be an important factor in prevention of free radicals influence on human organism.

Keywords: phytonutrients, pro-health, well-being, antioxidant potential, sensory value

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Mohd Sabere Sulaiman, Masyitah Abd Aziz, Norsiah Hassan, Jamilah Halina Abdul Halim, Mohd Saipul Asrafi Haron

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The use of clay roof tiles was spread out through Asia and Europe, including Malaysia, since the early 17th Century. Most of the common type of clay roof tiles are used in a flat and rectangular shape, measurement, styles, and characteristics through each tradition and interest, including responsive to the climate. Various types of heritage clay roof tiles were used in Malaysia’s Government Buildings dated 1865, 1919, 1936, and so forth, which mostly were imported from India, France, and Italy. Until now, these heritage clay roof tiles are still found throughout Malaysia, including the ‘Interlocking’ clay roof tile type. This study is to investigate and overview the existence of heritage clay roof tiles used in Malaysia; the ‘interlocking’ type with ‘lip’ and ‘hooks’, through literature reviews as desktop study besides carried out a preliminary observation on various sites and interviews. From the literatures, the last production and used of the local heritage clay roof tiles in Malaysia dated in mid 1900s in Batu Arang, Selangor. The brick factory was abandoned since early 2000s. Although the modern ‘Interlocking’ type were produced to duplicate its form, pattern, and size of the original one, they still facing the problem to blend and merged, which end up dismantling the original version, or replacing one to one condition and even replaced overall with the modern materials. This is quite contradicting with the basic principles of building conservation and had become a challenge. Initial findings from the preliminary observation on site in various state in Malaysia shows some evidence that the heritage clay roof tiles are still intact and been used. Some of them might change to modern roof materials such as metal deck, probably due to easy maintenance and cheaper. Also, some are still struggling to maintain and retain its looks and authenticity of the roof while facing the increasing of material cost. Those improper alteration and changes made is due to lack of knowledge among the owner and end user. Various aspect needs to be considered in order to sustain its usage and its original looks by looking at the proper maintenance aspects of the heritage clay roof tiles to prolong the building life for future generation preferences.

Keywords: challenges, clay, interlocking, maintenance

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Authors: P. J. Moore-Jones

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Emirati students studying at the University of the Emirates, one of three major public institutions of higher learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have a wide demographic of faculty members teaching them an equally wide variety of courses. These faculty members bring with them their own cultural assumptions, methods, expectations, educational practices and use of language. The history of multiculturalism in the UAE coupled with the contemporary multiculturalism that exists in higher education Dubai create intriguing phenomena within the classroom. This study seeks to delve into students’ and faculty members’ perceptions of the social stratification that exist in this context. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with both and analyzed from an interpretive perspective. Findings suggest the social stratification with is deeply-seeded in the multicultural history of the region and country are reflected in the everyday interworkings of education in modern day Dubai. The relevance of this research lies in that these findings can provide valuable insights into not only the attitudes and perceptions of these Emirati students might also be applicable to any of those student populations may exist.

Keywords: social stratification, intercultural competence, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Damian Winczewski

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Carl von Clausewitz’s political theory of war was criticized in the 20th century in several ways. It was also the source of many disagreements over readings of its most popular theses. Among them, the reflections of thinkers categorized as part of the broader postmodern current stand out, such as Michael Foucault and his successors, who presented a nuanced and critical approach to strategy theory. Foucault viewed it as part of a broader political–legal discourse of sovereignty rooted in the Middle Ages, which underlies modern biopower. Clausewitz’s theory of strategy underpinned a new humanist discourse rationalizing the phenomenon of war while, in a methodological sense, becoming an epistemic model of how Foucault conceived power strategy. Foucault’s contemporary commentators try to develop his position by arguing the analogy between the discourse prevailing in Clausewitz’s time and the contemporary neoliberal discourse and technological revolution on the battlefield, which create a new order of power. Meanwhile, they recognize that the modern development of strategy was to make Clausewitz’s understanding of war obsolete. However, postmodernists focusing on showy stylistics in their assessments rely on a mythologized narrative about Clausewitz, reducing his theories to a discourse of war as a way for nation-states to conduct foreign policy. In this article, Clausewitz shows that his theory goes much deeper and provides a critical perspective on the relationship between war and politics. The dialectical structure makes it possible to understand war as a historically variable but constantly policy-dependent phenomenon.

Keywords: Clausewitz, Foucault, Virilio, postmodernism, war and politics, power

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Authors: Robin Becker, Nane Roetmann, Manfred Helmus

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The construction industry faces a significant challenge due to a shortage of skilled work-ers, especially in construction management, despite an increase in graduates. This is main-ly because the job is associated with high stress, long hours, and poor work-life balance. A survey revealed that the profession is unattractive to students, who prioritize personal growth, flexibility, and digitalization in their careers. To address this issue, companies can consider implementing various work modules like "working time documentation," "home office," "job sharing," and "time off." These modules can improve control, work-life bal-ance, and efficiency if tailored to the company's framework. They offer a way to make the field more appealing to future employees while benefiting existing staff, provided that both employers and employees are flexible and considerate of project-specific conditions and teams. The feasibility of these models depends on the company's overall framework, with potential for cost-neutral implementation and positive effects on efficiency and men-tal health. However, their success also relies on the specific context of the company, and more data is needed to assess their full impact.

Keywords: modern construction management, construction industry, work modules, shortage of junior staff, sustainable personnel management, making construction management more attractive, working time model

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Authors: Qiong Hu

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From old English to modern English, the gender category has changed from grammatical gender system to natural gender system. The word classes that reflected gender has changed from pronouns, adjectives, and numerals in old English to only pronouns in modern English. In present-day English, the third person singular pronouns are the only paradigm that keeps an intact gender. 'He' and 'they' used as epicene pronouns are one of the two commonest phenomena of gender disagreement (the other being those against the natural gender). Considering the convenience of corpus concordance, epicene pronoun usage is selected in this study in which the anaphors are restricted to possessives (eg. his, their), and the antecedents are restricted to compound indefinite pronouns (eg. someone, somebody). Factors like writing form (eg. someone vs. some one), the semantics of the prefixes (eg. some- vs. any-), and suffixes (eg. -one vs. -body), as well as frequency, are taken into consideration. Statistics indicate that 'their' is increasingly used as the epicene pronoun compared with the decline of 'his' (when both writing forms are considered). This is influenced by social factors such as feminist movement, as well as the semantics and frequency of antecedents. Their (plural) used in anaphoric reference to various indefinite pronouns (singular in form) can also be treated as number variation in third person pronouns, and the trend that 'their' in place of his can also be treated as a change in number category. Among different candidates for the gender-neutral function, 'their' is proven to be the most promising one based on the diachronic data. This does not reject any new competitors in the future which still remains to be seen.

Keywords: language variation and change, epicene pronouns, gender, number

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Authors: Violina Angelova, Stefan Krustev

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The aim of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of different soil test extractants for the determination of available soil phosphorus in five internationally certified standard soils, sludge and clay (NCS DC 85104, NCS DC 85106, ISE 859, ISE 952, ISE 998). The certified samples were extracted with the following methods/extractants: CaCl₂, CaCl₂ and DTPA (CAT), double lactate (DL), ammonium lactate (AL), calcium acetate lactate (CAL), Olsen, Mehlich 3, Bray and Kurtz I, and Morgan, which are commonly used in soil testing laboratories. The phosphorus in soil extracts was measured colorimetrically using Spectroquant Pharo 100 spectrometer. The methods used in the study were evaluated according to the recovery of available phosphorus, facility of application and rapidity of performance. The relationships between methods are examined statistically. A good agreement of the results from different soil test was established for all certified samples. In general, the P values extracted by the nine extraction methods significantly correlated with each other. When grouping the soils according to pH, organic carbon content and clay content, weaker extraction methods showed analogous trends; also among the stronger extraction methods, common tendencies were found. Other factors influencing the extraction force of the different methods include soil: solution ratio, as well as the duration and power of shaking the samples. The mean extractable P in certified samples was found to be in the order of CaCl₂ < CAT < Morgan < Bray and Kurtz I < Olsen < CAL < DL < Mehlich 3 < AL. Although the nine methods extracted different amounts of P from the certified samples, values of P extracted by the different methods were strongly correlated among themselves. Acknowledgment: The financial support by the Bulgarian National Science Fund Projects DFNI Н04/9 and DFNI Н06/21 are greatly appreciated.

Keywords: available soil phosphorus, certified samples, determination, soil test extractants

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Authors: Amandeep Kaur

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All religions enlighten truth which provides spiritual tranquility. But, the language of these holy books is not easy to understand because these have divine language. That's why hermeneutical Study is necessary to understand these Scriptures. There is a separate theoretical framework to study all the disciplines of language, literature, religion etc. Similarly the discipline of interpretation has its own theoretical framework known as hermeneutics. It is a science of interpretation that put forward the best ways and methods of interpretation. But in this modern world, hermeneutics is considered as a theoretical-cum-philosophical discipline. It is vast study of understanding texts. Hermeneutics is especially related to the study of religious scriptures like the Bible, the Qur'an, the Vedas and the Shri Guru Granth Sahib and many more. It is mainly the Western concept which has a great old tradition because it used the Bible as the foremost holy scripture for definition and interpretation. The Discipline of the Indian hermeneutics was led by Mimamsa School. The reference of the word hermeneutics in works of Ancient Greek philosophers indicates towards the antiquity of this word. Shri Guru Granth Sahib's schools of interpretation like Udasi, Nirmala, Sevapanthi and Gyani came into existence to interpret the discourse of Shri Guru Granth Sahib. These are sects of Sikhism and have great contribution to interpret and preach Guru Granth Sahib's revelation. This research paper will represent the comparative study of these sects methods, tools and styles of interpreting the meaning of this holy book. Interpretation is basically textual based process. So, all these schools have chosen Guru Granth Sahib for textual study. Some of the schools have done a whole interpretation of Guru Granth Sahib. But, some of them have done only interpretation of prominent banies i.e Japuji Sahib, Anand Sahib, Assa-di-war etc. This study will also throw lights on sect's historical background and contribution. At last conclusion of this paper is that all the schools have done gurbani interpretation according to their own philosophical and theological point of view. These schools have many similarities and differences among their way of interpretation. It will be discussed briefly.

Keywords: Gyani, hermeneutics, Mimamsa, Nirmala, Sevapanthi, Udasi

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Authors: Nuri Balta, Ali Eryilmaz

Abstract:

High-quality teachers are the key to improve student learning. Without a professional development of the teachers, the improvement of student success is difficult and incomplete. This study offers an in-service training course model for professional development of teachers (PD) entitled "teachers teaching teachers" (TTT). The basic premise of the PD program, designed for this study, was primarily aimed to increase the subject matter knowledge of high school physics teachers. The TTT course (the three hour long workshops), organized for this study, lasted for seven weeks with seventeen teachers took part in the TTT program at different amounts. In this study, the effect of the TTT program on teachers’ knowledge improvement was searched through the modern physics unit (MPU). The participating teachers taught the unit to one of their grade ten classes earlier, and they taught another equivalent class two months later. They were observed in their classes both before and after TTT program. The teachers were divided into placebo and the treatment groups. The aim of Solomon four-group design is an attempt to eliminate the possible effect of pre-test. However, in this study the similar design was used to eliminate the effect of pre teaching. The placebo group teachers taught their both classes as regular and the treatment group teachers had TTT program between the two teachings. The class observation results showed that the TTT program increased teachers’ knowledge and skills in teaching MPU. Further, participating in the TTT program caused teachers to teach the MPU in accordance with the requirements of the curriculum. In order to see any change in participating teachers’ success, an achievement test was applied to them. A large effect size (dCohen=.93) was calculated for the effect of TTT program on treatment group teachers’ achievement. The results suggest that staff developers should consider including topics, attractive to teachers, in-service training programs (a) to help teachers’ practice teaching the new topics (b) to increase the participation rate. During the conduction of the TTT courses, it was observed that teachers could not end some discussions and explain some concepts. It is now clear that teachers need support, especially when discussing counterintuitive concepts such as modern physics concepts. For this reason it is recommended that content focused PD programs be conducted at the helm of a scholarly coach.

Keywords: high school physics, in-service training course, modern physics unit, teacher professional development

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Authors: Temitope Yetunde Bello

Abstract:

Peacemaking through the television represents a symbiotic relationship between the media and the (Yoruba) society such that the functional role of the media has expanded. Studying the ‘new function’ of the television as it publicizes peacemaking, using Yoruba indigenous means, is yet to be adequately incorporated into academic discourse. Using the Social Responsibility Theory, the paper examines the essence of publicizing peacemaking, the Yoruba indigenous institutions, philosophy and language that are used on the programs as well as the effectiveness of publicity in the television-driven peacemaking. The paper is a qualitative case-study research where five peacemaking television programs from state-owned stations in South-West Nigeria are purposively selected and studied. Findings show that peacemaking publicity facilitates intervention processes as parties’ communication gap is bridged and social justice is attained. Also, Yoruba indigenous peacemaking elements are utilized and projected through the television. The paper concludes by affirming that publicizing culturally-induced interventions in civil conflicts, though with a number of challenges, is effective and that television-driven peacemaking is a modern extension of Yoruba indigenous peacemaking media. It consequently recommends that the programs incorporate the new media to enhance wider audience and faster feedbacks while simultaneously retaining Yoruba indigenous essence of peacebuilding in this modern time.

Keywords: peace intervention publicity, television, television-driven peacemaking, yoruba indigenous elements

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Authors: P. Řehoř, D. Holátová, V. Doležalová

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Paper deals with analysis of strategic management methods in non-profit making organization in the Czech Republic. Strategic management represents an aggregate of methods and approaches that can be applied for managing organizations - in this article the organizations which associate owners and keepers of non-state forest properties. Authors use these methods of strategic management: analysis of stakeholders, SWOT analysis and questionnaire inquiries. The questionnaire was distributed electronically via e-mail. In October 2013 we obtained data from a total of 84 questionnaires. Based on the results the authors recommend the using of confrontation strategy which improves the competitiveness of non-profit making organizations.

Keywords: strategic management, non-profit making organization, strategy analysis, SWOT analysis, strategy, competitiveness

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Authors: Tang Jiacheng, Fang Tianyu, Liu Yicen, Xiang Xingzhou

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The proportion of healthcare services is increasing throughout the globe. The convergence of mobile technology is driving new business opportunities, innovations in healthcare service delivery and the promise of a better life tomorrow for different populations with various healthcare needs. One of the most important phases for the combination of health care and mobile applications is to elicit requirements correctly. In this paper, four articles from different research directions with four topics on healthcare were detailed analyzed and summarized. We identified the underlying problems in guidance to develop mobile applications to provide healthcare service for Older adults, Women in menopause, Patients undergoing covid. These case studies cover several elicitation methods: survey, prototyping, focus group interview and questionnaire. And the effectiveness of these methods was analyzed along with the advantages and limitations of these methods, which is beneficial to adapt the elicitation methods for future software development process.

Keywords: healthcare, software requirement elicitation, mobile applications, prototyping, focus group interview

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Authors: Luzia Dominguez

Abstract:

This paper explores the concept of ‘translanguaging’ and the relevance of its pedagogical application in the context of foreign language education in a multilingual urban environment. We review relevant literature discussing this theoretical concept, its scope, potential, and limitations when applied to the teaching of foreign languages. We then discuss its possible practical application in Welsh secondary schools, particularly in the most diverse areas of the Welsh capital, Cardiff (United Kingdom). The concept of translanguaging has evolved in scope, from its initial application in the teaching of Welsh and English in the Welsh bilingual context to finding a relevant space not only in the international arena of Sociolinguistics and language pedagogy but also being present in current Welsh educational policies and, presumably, practices. However, it is important to consider the actual pedagogical relevance of incorporating this concept into these policies, particularly in the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages. Additionally, it is important to examine any social factors that may influence the effectiveness of its application in the social context, in our case, a multilingual, ethnically diverse urban context. By analyzing these issues, we aim to explore possible teaching practices that could be pedagogically effective in applying the concept in Cardiff secondary schools.

Keywords: pedagogy, modern foreign languages, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics

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Authors: Vaclav Musil, Robert Cep, Sarka Malotova, Jiri Hajnys, Frantisek Spalek

Abstract:

The new designs of satellite gears comprising a number of small gears pose high requirements on the precise production of small module gears. The objective of the experimental activity stated in this article was to compare the conventional rolling gear cutting technology with the modern wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) technology for the production of small module gear m=0.6 mm (thickness of 2.5 mm and material 30CrMoV9). The WEDM technology lies in copying the profile of gearing from the rendered trajectory which is then transferred to the track of a wire electrode. During the experiment, we focused on the comparison of these production methods. Main measured parameters which significantly influence the lifetime and noise was chosen. The first parameter was to compare the precision of gearing profile in respect to the mathematic model. The second monitored parameter was the roughness and surface topology of the gear tooth side. The experiment demonstrated high accuracy of WEDM technology, but a low quality of machined surface.

Keywords: precision of gearing, small module gears, surface topology, WEDM technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 233