Search results for: regular classes

Authors: Saliha Ozcan

Abstract:

Technology has become an integral part of our lives, aiding individuals in accessing higher order competencies, such as global awareness, creativity, collaborative problem solving, and self-directed learning. Students need to acquire these competencies, often referred to as 21st century skills, in order to adapt to a fast changing world. Today, an ever-increasing number of schools are exploring how engagement through telecollaboration can support language learning and promote 21st century skill development in classrooms. However, little is known regarding how telecollaboration may influence the way students acquire 21st century skills. In this paper, we aim to shed light to the potential implications of telecollaborative practices in acquisition of 21st century skills. In our context, telecollaboration, which might be carried out in a variety of settings both synchronously or asynchronously, is considered as the process of communicating and working together with other people or groups from different locations through online digital tools or offline activities to co-produce a desired work output. The study presented here will describe and analyse the implementation of a telecollaborative project between two high school classes, one in Spain and the other in Sweden. The students in these classes were asked to carry out some joint activities, including creating an online platform, aimed at raising awareness of the situation of the Syrian refugees. We conduct a qualitative study in order to explore how language, culture, communication, and technology merge into the co-construction of knowledge, as well as supporting the attainment of the 21st century skills needed for network-mediated communication. To this end, we collected a significant amount of audio-visual data, including video recordings of classroom interaction and external Skype meetings. By analysing this data, we verify whether the initial pedagogical design and intended objectives of the telecollaborative project coincide with what emerges from the actual implementation of the tasks. Our findings indicate that, as well as planned activities, unplanned classroom interactions may lead to acquisition of certain 21st century skills, such as collaborative problem solving and self-directed learning. This work is part of a wider project (KONECT, EDU2013-43932-P; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance), which aims to explore innovative, cross-competency based teaching that can address the current gaps between today’s educational practices and the needs of informed citizens in tomorrow’s interconnected, globalised world.

Keywords: 21st century skills, telecollaboration, language learning, network mediated communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Seyyed Hassan Seyyedrezaei

Abstract:

The advent of computer and ICT thereafter has introduced many irrevocable changes in learning and teaching. There is substantially growing need for the use of IT and ICT in language learning and teaching. In other words, the integration of Information Technology (IT) into online teaching is of vital importance for education and assessment. Considering the fact that the image of education is undergone drastic changes by the advent of technology, education systems and teachers move beyond the walls of traditional classes and methods in order to join with other educational centers to revitalize education. Given the advent of distance learning, online courses and virtual universities, e-assessment has taken a prominent place in effective teaching and meeting the learners' educational needs. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, scrutinizing e-learning, it discusses how and why e-assessment is becoming widely used by educationalists and administrators worldwide. As a second purpose, a couple of effective strategies for online assessment will be enumerated.

Keywords: e-assessment, e learning, ICT, online assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 554

Authors: Jorge Fernandes Teixeira Filho, André Oliveira Alcantara Fontenele, Érick Aragão Ribeiro

Abstract:

The constant emergence of new technologies used in automated processes makes it necessary for teachers and traders to apply new technologies in their classes. This paper presents an application of a new technology that will be employed in a didactic plant, which represents an effluent treatment process located in a laboratory of a federal educational institution. At work were studied in the first place, all components to be placed on automation laboratory in order to determine ways to program, parameterize and organize the plant. New technologies that have been implemented to the process are basically an AS-i network and a Profinet network, a SCADA system, which represented a major innovation in the laboratory. The project makes it possible to carry out in the laboratory various practices of industrial networks and SCADA systems.

Keywords: automation, industrial networks, SCADA systems, lab automation

Procedia PDF Downloads 528

Authors: Ali Farzan

Abstract:

Classification of data objects or patterns is a major part in most of Decision making systems. One of the popular and commonly used classification methods is Decision Tree (DT). It is a hierarchical decision making system by which a binary tree is constructed and starting from root, at each node some of the classes is rejected until reaching the leaf nods. Each leaf node is a representative of one specific class. Finding the splitting criteria in each node for constructing or training the tree is a major problem. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has been adopted as a metaheuristic searching method for finding the best splitting criteria. Result of evaluating the proposed method over benchmark datasets indicates the higher accuracy of the new PSO based decision tree.

Keywords: decision tree, particle swarm optimization, splitting criteria, metaheuristic

Procedia PDF Downloads 392

Authors: Sihyun Park, Hyunwoo Kim, Wooyoung Jung, Dongwoo You

Abstract:

Regular maintenance works are very important on the axial forces of the cable-band bolts in suspension bridges. The band bolts show stress reduction for several reasons, including cable wire creep, the bolt relaxation, load fluctuation and cable rearrangements, etc., with time. In this study, with respect to the stress reduction that occurs over time, we carried out the theoretical review of the main cause based on the field measurements. As a result, the main cause of reduction in the cable-band bolt axial force was confirmed by the plastic deformation of the zinc plating layer used in the main cable wire, and thus, the theoretical process was established for the practical use in the field.

Keywords: cable-band Bolts, field test, maintenance, stress reduction

Procedia PDF Downloads 322

Authors: Ezrah Kipkirui Tonui, George Otieno Orwa

Abstract:

A survey of 138 farmers was conducted in Rift valley, Kenya, in November and December 2013 in three counties (Uasin-gishu, Elgeyo-marakwet, and Tranzoia) to determine public knowledge and attitude towards genetically modified (GM) maize. Above two third (70%) of the respondents had knowledge of GM maize, mostly those educated and male. Female was found to be having low knowledge on GM maize. Public acknowledged the technology’s potential positive impacts, with more than 90% willing to adopt and more than 98% willing to buy GM seedlings at any given price. A small percentage less than 3% were of a negative opinion about willing to buy and adopt GM seeds. We conclude that GM technology has a role to play in food security in Kenya. However, the public needs more information about the technology, which can be provided through established sources of information and training. Finally, public knowledge and attitude on GM maize should be studied on a regular basis, and the survey population broadened to 47 counties.

Keywords: public, knowledge, attitudes, GM maize, Kenya

Procedia PDF Downloads 295

Authors: P. Vit, J. Uddin, V. Zuccato, F. Maza, E. Schievano

Abstract:

In Ecuador honeys are produced by Apis mellifera and stingless bees (Meliponini). We studied honey produced in beeswax combs by Apis mellifera, and honey produced in pots by Geotrigona and Scaptotrigona bees. Chloroform extracts of honey were obtained for fast NMR spectra. The 1D spectra were acquired at 298 K, with a 600 MHz NMR Bruker instrument, using a modified double pulsed field gradient spin echoes (DPFGSE) sequence. Signals of 1H NMR spectra were integrated and used as inputs for PCA, PLS-DA analysis, and labelled sets of classes were successfully identified, enhancing the separation between the three groups of honey according to the entomological origin: A. mellifera, Geotrigona and Scaptotrigona. This procedure is therefore recommended for authenticity test of honey in Ecuador.

Keywords: Apis mellifera, honey, 1H NMR, entomological origin, meliponini

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Yuan Huang, Xiangping Chen, Xiaonan Luo

Abstract:

Current software are continuously updating. The change between two versions usually involves multiple program entities (e.g., packages, classes, methods, attributes) with multiple purposes (e.g., changed requirements, bug fixing). It is hard for developers to understand which changes are made for the same purpose. Whether two changes are related is not decided by the relationship between this two entities in the program. In this paper, we summarized 4 coupling rules(16 instances) and 4 state-combination types at the class, method and attribute levels for software change. Related Change Vector (RCV) are defined based on coupling rules and state-combination types, and applied to classify related software changes by using Probabilistic Neural Network during a software updating.

Keywords: PNN, related change, state-combination, logical coupling, software entity

Procedia PDF Downloads 424

Authors: Ji Eun Shin, Dong Hoon Lim

Abstract:

Data clustering is a common technique used in data analysis and is used in many applications, such as artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, economics, ecology, psychiatry and marketing. K-means clustering is a well-known clustering algorithm aiming to cluster a set of data points to a predefined number of clusters. In this paper, we implement K-means algorithm based on MapReduce framework with RHadoop to make the clustering method applicable to large scale data. RHadoop is a collection of R packages that allow users to manage and analyze data with Hadoop. The main idea is to introduce a combiner as a function of our map output to decrease the amount of data needed to be processed by reducers. The experimental results demonstrated that K-means algorithm using RHadoop can scale well and efficiently process large data sets on commodity hardware. We also showed that our K-means algorithm using RHadoop with combiner was faster than regular algorithm without combiner as the size of data set increases.

Keywords: big data, combiner, K-means clustering, RHadoop

Procedia PDF Downloads 418

Authors: Tudor Barbu

Abstract:

An automatic moment-based texture segmentation approach is proposed in this paper. First, we describe the related work in this computer vision domain. Our texture feature extraction, the first part of the texture recognition process, produces a set of moment-based feature vectors. For each image pixel, a texture feature vector is computed as a sequence of area moments. Second, an automatic pixel classification approach is proposed. The feature vectors are clustered using some unsupervised classification algorithm, the optimal number of clusters being determined using a measure based on validation indexes. From the resulted pixel classes one determines easily the desired texture regions of the image.

Keywords: image segmentation, moment-based, texture analysis, automatic classification, validation indexes

Procedia PDF Downloads 405

Authors: Anita Kéri

Abstract:

With the outbreak of the global pandemic of COVID-19, online education characterizes today’s higher education. For some higher education institutions (HEIs), the shift from classroom education to online solutions was swift and smooth, and students are continuously asked about their experience regarding online education. Therefore, there is a growing emphasis on student satisfaction with online education, a field that had emerged previously, but has become the center of higher education and research interest today. The aim of the current paper is to give a brief overview of the tools used in the online education of marketing-related classes at the examined university and to investigate student satisfaction with the applied teaching methodologies with the tool of a questionnaire. Results show that students are most satisfied with their teachers’ competences and preparedness, while they are least satisfied with online class quality, where it seems that further steps are needed to be taken.

Keywords: netnography, online teaching, pandemic, satisfaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: Shimeles Terefe Mengistue, Ascensión Del Olmo, Paola Marziani, Mirjana Pović, María Angeles Martínez-Carballo, Jaime Perea, Isabel M. Árquez

Abstract:

Quasars have historically been classified into two distinct classes, radio-loud (RL) and radio-quiet (RQ), taking into account the presence and absence of relativistic radio jets, respectively. The absence of spectra with a high S/N ratio led to the impression that all quasars (QSOs) are spectroscopically similar. Although different attempts were made to unify these two classes, there is a long-standing open debate involving the possibility of a real physical dichotomy between RL and RQ quasars. In this work, we present new high S/N spectra of 11 extremely powerful jetted quasars with radio-to-optical flux density ratio > 1000 that concomitantly cover the low-ionization emission of Mgii𝜆2800 and Hbeta𝛽 as well as the Feii blends in the redshift range 0.35 < z < 1, observed at Calar Alto Observatory (Spain). This work aims to quantify broad emission line differences between RL and RQ quasars by using the four-dimensional eigenvector 1 (4DE1) parameter space and its main sequence (MS) and to check the effect of powerful radio ejection on the low ionization broad emission lines. Emission lines are analysed by making two complementary approaches, a multicomponent non-linear fitting to account for the individual components of the broad emission lines and by analysing the full profile of the lines through parameters such as total widths, centroid velocities at different fractional intensities, asymmetry, and kurtosis indices. It is found that broad emission lines show large reward asymmetry both in Hbeta𝛽 and Mgii2800A. The location of our RL sources in a UV plane looks similar to the optical one, with weak Feii UV emission and broad Mgii2800A. We supplement the 11 sources with large samples from previous work to gain some general inferences. The result shows, compared to RQ, our extreme RL quasars show larger median Hbeta full width at half maximum (FWHM), weaker Feii emission, larger 𝑀BH, lower 𝐿bol/𝐿Edd, and a restricted space occupation in the optical and UV MS planes. The differences are more elusive when the comparison is carried out by restricting the RQ population to the region of the MS occupied by RL quasars, albeit an unbiased comparison matching 𝑀BH and 𝐿bol/𝐿Edd suggests that the most powerful RL quasars show the highest redward asymmetries in Hbeta.

Keywords: galaxies, active, line, profiles, quasars, emission lines, supermassive black holes

Procedia PDF Downloads 50

Authors: Hasan Vural

Abstract:

Turkey is a favorable country to produce a great variety of agricultural products because of her different geographic and climatic conditions which have been used to divide the country into four main and seven sub regions. This classification into seven regions traditionally has been used in order to data collection and publication especially related with agricultural production. Afterwards, nine agricultural regions were considered. Recently, the governmental body which is responsible of data collection and dissemination (Turkish Institute of Statistics-TIS) has used 12 classes which include 11 sub regions and Istanbul province. This study aims to evaluate these classification efforts based on the acreage of ten main crops in a ten years time period (1996-2005). The panel data grouped in 11 subregions has been evaluated by cluster and multivariate statistical methods. It was concluded that from the agricultural production point of view, it will be rather meaningful to consider three main and eight sub-agricultural regions throughout the country.

Keywords: agricultural region, factorial analysis, cluster analysis,

Procedia PDF Downloads 403

Authors: Said S. Almaiuof

Abstract:

Integration Program Through Physical Education Lessons for The Influence of Some Physical Fitness Health-Related Components in Visual Handicapped Children. Propose of the study: The aim of this study is to design and evaluate a program for the physical education lesson to improve the cardio-respiratory endurance, considering the lesson of physical education as one of the educational means to achieve the society aims toward health and fitness, concerning the importance of the cardio-respiratory endurance as an essential one of the physical fitness health-related components. And this program tried to give them hand of help as a part of the society having the same rights as the rest of the society. Methodology: The researcher used the experimental method as a suitable method for this study and tested its hypothesis. The subject of the research selected randomly of the two classes from primary education in TRIPOLI-LIBYA, it was 28 boys (14-15) years old, then divided into groups, experimental group, n=13, which practiced the special exercises program and control group, n=15, which only practiced the normal school program. The selected child subjected to a medical examination in order to make sure that they are healthy, and the Vo2max measured by cycle ergometry and test some physical fitness makers before and after the program. Results: The study cleared that the experimental group developed in all physical variation in comparison with the control group which has a little development in a general balance only. Results are following: 1. The experimental group was successful more than the control group in all the research variation. 2. There were some improvements in time of keeping Balance in control group only. Discussion /conclusion: According to statistical analysis of data related to the values of the variables in this study; the suggested exercise program according to development the cardio respiratory endurance (CRE), and some physical fitness more than the program which already implemented in the school was less effective, just there is developing on keep balancing. It’s statistically significant (p<0.05) after applying this program. Improving the experimental group on (CRE), balance, running, sit and reach, from the suggested exercise program of what indicate the partaking program positive in improve those physical variables, and the selected exercises may contributed in improving the (CRE) for visual impairment and its pivotal in visual impairment children’s life. A health-related physical education curriculum can provide students with substantially more physical activity during physical education classes. The results show that the physical rehabilitation program for visual impairment children helped them in developing their defects due to the injury which means that this program should be in every organization having this part of people to increase their production and give them hand of help as a part of the society having the same rights as the rest of the society and to establish the idea of sport for all.

Keywords: visual handicapped, cardio-respiratory endurance, health, ergometry, education

Procedia PDF Downloads 426

Authors: Nasser Ghassembaglou, Abdullah Bolek, Oktay Yilmaz, Ertan Oznergiz, Hikmet Kocabas, Safak Yilmaz

Abstract:

Nanofibers are effective material which have frequently been investigated to produce high quality air filters. As an environmental approach our aim is to achieve nanofibers by melting. In spun-bond systems extruder, spin-pump, nozzle package and attenuator are used. Molten polymer which flows from extruder is made steady by spin-pump. Regular melt passes through nozzle holes and forms fibers under high pressure. The fibers pulled from nozzle are shrunk to micron size by an attenuator, after solidification they are collected on a conveyor. In this research different designs of attenuator system have been studied and also CFD analysis have been done on them. Afterwards, one of these designs tested and finally some optimizations have been done to reduce pressure loss and increase air velocity.

Keywords: attenuator, nanofiber, spun-bond, extruder

Procedia PDF Downloads 399

Authors: Mahmoud M. S. Albattah

Abstract:

Urbanization results in the expansion of administrative boundaries, mainly at the periphery, ultimately leading to changes in landcover. Agricultural land, naturally vegetated land, and other land types are converted into residential areas with a high density of constructs, such as transportation systems and housing. In urban regions of rapid growth and change, urban planners need regular information on up to date ground change. Amman (the capital of Jordan) is growing at unprecedented rates, creating extensive urban landscapes. Planners interact with these changes without having a global view of their impact. The use of aerial photographs and satellite images data combined with topographic information and field survey could provide effective information to develop urban change and growth inventory which could be explored towards producing a very important signature for the built-up area changes.

Keywords: highway design, satellite technologies, remote sensing, GIS, image segmentation, classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 429

Authors: Patricia Portugal Marques de Carvalho Lourenco

Abstract:

Money, status, beauty, popularity, widespread public adulation, glitz and glamour portray a perfumed stress-free existence yet not every rock that glitters is a gold nugget and mental disorders are not an exclusivity of middle/low societal classes. Mental illnesses do not discriminate, and behind the superficial visual wealth of the upper-class, there are human beings who experience the ups and downs of life like any other person, except that publicly rather than privately and with an array of fingers pointing at them instead of a mere few. Sammi Cheung, Carina Lau, Fiona Sit, Kara Hui and Louis Cheung are a number of Hong Kong artists that have battled mental disorders, overcame them and used the process to openly discuss the still existing taboo.

Keywords: mental disorders, mental health, public communication, depression, hong kong artists

Procedia PDF Downloads 203

Authors: İsmail İnce

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to determine index and mechanical properties of pyroclastic rock in a practical way by means of electrical resistivity method. For this purpose, electrical resistivity, uniaxial compressive strength, point load strength, P-wave velocity, density and porosity values of 10 different pyroclastic rocks were measured in the laboratory. A simple regression analysis was made among the index-mechanical properties of the samples compatible with electrical resistivity values. A strong exponentially relation was found between index-mechanical properties and electrical resistivity values. The electrical resistivity method can be used to assess the engineering properties of the rock from which it is difficult to obtain regular shaped samples as a non-destructive method.

Keywords: electrical resistivity, index-mechanical properties, pyroclastic rocks, regression analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 457

Authors: Prakher Mishra, Dikshant Bodana, Saloni Desai, Sudhanshu Dixit, Sopan Agarwal, Shriraj Patel

Abstract:

Railways are sometimes lifeline of nations as they consist of huge network of rail lines and bridges. Reportedly many of the bridges are aging, weak, distressed and accident prone. It becomes a really challenging task for Engineers and workers to keep up a regular maintenance schedule for proper functioning which itself is quite a hard hitting job. In this paper we have come up with an innvovative wireless system of maintenance called BriMAIN. In this system we have installed two types of sensors, first one is called a force sensor which will continously analyse the readings of pressure at joints of the bridges and secondly an MPU-6050 triaxial gyroscope+accelerometer which will analyse the deflection of the deck of the bridge. Apart from this a separate database is also being made at the server room so that the data can be visualized by the engineers and a warning can be issued in case reading of the sensors goes above threshold.

Keywords: Accelerometer, B-MAIN, Gyroscope, MPU-6050

Procedia PDF Downloads 372

Authors: Selma Saadia, Nacira Naar, Ahmed Benaboura

Abstract:

This work is dedicated to the elaboration of composites (PP/PANI) with Polypropylene (PP) as thermoplastic polymer and the polyaniline (PANI) as electric charge doped with sulfanilic acid (PANI-As). These realized formulations are intended for the antistatic domain. The used conductive polymer is synthesized by the method self-curling which proved the obtaining of the nanoparticles of PANI in regular morphological forms. The PANI and PP composites are fabricated into a film by a twin-screw extruding. Several methods of characterization are proposed: spectroscopic, thermal, and electric. The realized composites proved a pseudo-homogeneous aspect and the threshold percolation study, showed that the formulation with 7% of PANI presents a better formulation which can be used in the antistatic domain.

Keywords: extruding, PANI, Polypropylene, sulfanilic acid, self-Curling

Procedia PDF Downloads 229

Authors: M. Fathi, Z. Farhaninejad, M. Shahedi, M. Sadeghi

Abstract:

Drying is one of the oldest preservation methods for food and agriculture products. Appropriate control of operation can be obtained by modeling. Limitation of continues models for complex boundary condition and non-regular geometries leading to appearance of discrete novel methods such as cellular automata, which provides a platform for obtaining fast predictions by rule-based mathematics. In this research a one D dimensional CA was used for simulating thin layer drying of banana. Banana slices were dried with a convectional air dryer and experimental data were recorded for validating of final model. The model was programmed by MATLAB, run for 70000 iterations and von-Neumann neighborhood. The validation results showed a good accordance between experimental and predicted data (R=0.99). Cellular automata are capable to reproduce the expected pattern of drying and have a powerful potential for solving physical problems with reasonable accuracy and low calculating resources.

Keywords: banana, cellular automata, drying, modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 427

Authors: Reut Lanyado, David Mendlovic

Abstract:

Most biological methods for authentication require special equipment and, some of them are easy to fake. We proposed a method for authentication based on hand movement while typing a sentence with a regular camera. This technique uses the full video of the hand, which is harder to fake. In the first phase, we tracked the hand joints in each frame. Next, we represented a single frame for each individual using our Pose Agnostic Rotation and Movement (PARM) dimensional space. Then, we indicated a full video of hand movement in a fixed low dimensional space using this method: Fixed Dimension Video by Interpolation Statistics (FDVIS). Finally, we identified each individual in the FDVIS representation using unsupervised clustering and supervised methods. Accuracy exceeds 96% for 80 individuals by using supervised KNN.

Keywords: authentication, feature extraction, hand recognition, security, signal processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Muhammad Asghar Saqib, Saad Saleem Khan, Syed Abdul Rahman Kashif

Abstract:

In order to have higher efficiency, performance and reliability the regular monitoring of an electrical motor is required. This article presents a novel view of the air-gap magnetic field analysis of a switched reluctance motor under rotor cracks and rotor tilt along its shaft axis. The fault diagnosis is illustrated on the basis of a 3-D model of the motor using finite element analysis (FEA). The analytical equations of flux linkages have been used to determine the inductance. The results of the 3-D finite element analysis on a 6/4 switched reluctance motor (SRM) shows the variation of mutual inductance with the tilting of the rotor shaft and cracked rotor conditions. These results present useful information regarding the detection of shaft tilting and cracked rotors.

Keywords: switched reluctance motor, finite element analysis, cracked rotor, 3-D modelling of a srm

Procedia PDF Downloads 647

Authors: Bilal Ahmed

Abstract:

Rehabilitation of congenital and acquired maxillofacial defects is always a challenging clinical scenario. These defects pose major physiological and psychological threat not only to the patient but to the entire family. There has been an enormous scientific development in maxillofacial rehabilitation with the advent of CAD CAM, 3-D scanning, Osseo-integrated implants and improved restorative materials. There are also specialized centers with latest diagnostic and treatment facilities in the developed countries. However, in certain clinical case scenarios, conventional prosthodontic principles are still the gold standards. Similarly in a less developed world, financial and technical constraints are factors affecting treatment planning and final outcomes. However, we can do a lot of benefits to the affected human beings, even with use of simple and cost-effective conventional prosthodontic techniques and materials. These treatment strategies may sometimes be considered as intermediate or temporary options, but with regular follow-up maintenance these can be used on a definitive basis.

Keywords: maxillofacial defects, obturators, prosthodontics, medical and health sciences

Procedia PDF Downloads 330

Authors: Mohammed Hassan Alshaikhi

Abstract:

Teaching vocabulary is a fundamental step in helping students to develop a good grasp of language. Exploring new strategies is an essential part of improving the teaching of vocabulary. The study aimed to explore the teaching vocabulary strategies in Saudi primary classrooms (aged 11 and 12 years old) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study was based on qualitative data collected from a large-scale case study, which utilised observations at eight male state and private primary schools during the academic year 2016-2017. The observations were transcribed, coded and entered into Nvivo software to be organised and analysed. Varying teaching vocabulary strategies were explored, and then they were circulated to many English teachers to be used in their classes.

Keywords: case study, English language, Saudi teachers, teaching vocabulary strategies

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: Siham Soulaimi

Abstract:

Europe has become a difficult destination due to strict migration policies and border controls, making Morocco an immigration country. Morocco is currently at the center of the international migration debate because it not only hosts regular migrants but also must deal with the problem of irregular migrants entering its territory. Sub-Saharan irregular migration is full of challenges that might cause a delay for the migrants, announcing a death sentence for many others. The journey's hurdles are likely to cause a crisis in expectations, resulting in serious consequences on the migrants' mental health. Our research study emphasizes that sub-Saharan migrants begin irregular journeys with high hopes, only to be disappointed by how unexpectedly cruel it turns out to be. We also pointed to specific physical and, more crucially, mental health problems that they end up with after survival, resulting in somatic disorders.

Keywords: irregular migration, Sub-Saharan migrants, challenges, experiences crisis, mental health, somatoform disorder

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Shiau-Fang Chao, Yu-Chih Chen

Abstract:

Owing to physical limitations and restrained lifestyle, older long-term care (LTC) residents are more likely to be affected by their environment than their community-dwelling counterparts. They also participate fewer activities and experience worse mental health than healthy older adults. This study adopts the ICF model to determine the extent to which the clustered patterns of LTC environment and activity participation are associated with older residents’ mental health. Method: Data were collected from a stratified equal probability sample of 634 older residents in 155 LTC institutions in Taiwan. Latent profile analysis (LPA) and latent class analysis (LCA) were conducted to explore the profiles for environment and activity participation. Multilevel modeling was performed to elucidate the relationships among environment profiles, activity profiles, and mental health. Results: LPA identified three mutually exclusive environment profiles (Low-, Moderate-, and High-Support Environment) based on the physical, social, and attitudinal environmental domains, consolidated from 12 environmental measures. LCA constructed two distinct activity profiles (Low- and High-Activity Participation) across seven activity domains (outdoor, volunteer-led leisure, spiritual, household chores, interpersonal exchange, social, and sedentary activity) that were factored from 20 activities. Compared to the Low-Support Environment class, older adults in the Moderate- and High-Support Environment classes had better mental health. Older residents in the Moderate- and High-Support Environment classes were more likely to be in the “High Activity” class, which in turn, exhibited better mental health. Conclusion: This study advances the current knowledge through rigorous methods and study design. The study findings lead to several conclusions. First, this study supports the use of ICF framework to institutionalized older individuals with functional limitations and demonstrates that both measures of environment and activity participation can be refined from multiple indicators. Second, environmental measures that encompass the physical, social, and attitudinal domains would provide a more comprehensive assessment on the place where an older individual embeds. Third, simply counting activities in which an older individual participates or considering a certain type of activity may not capture his or her way of life. Practitioners should not only focus on group or leisure activities within the institutions; rather, more efforts should be made to consider residents’ preferences for everyday life and support their remaining ability by encouraging continuous participation in activities they still willing and capable to perform. Fourth, environment and activity participation are modifiable factors which have greater potential to strengthen older LTC residents’ mental health, and activity participation should be considered in the link between environment and mental health. A combination of enhanced physical, social, and attitudinal environments, and continual engagement in various activities may optimize older LTC residents’ mental health.

Keywords: activity, environment, mental health, older LTC residents

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Fatma Abdedayem

Abstract:

The most effective and efficient methods in image categorization are almost based on bag-of-words (BOW) which presents image by a histogram of occurrence of visual words. In this paper, we propose a novel extension to this method. Firstly, we extract features in multi-scales by applying a color local descriptor named opponent-SIFT. Secondly, in order to represent image we use Spatial Pyramid Representation (SPR) and an extension to the BOW method which based on weighting visual words. Typically, the visual words are weighted during histogram assignment by computing the ratio of their occurrences in the image to the occurrences in the background. Finally, according to classical BOW retrieval framework, only a few words of the vocabulary is useful for image representation. Therefore, we select the useful weighted visual words that respect the threshold value. Experimentally, the algorithm is tested by using different image classes of PASCAL VOC 2007 and is compared against the classical bag-of-visual-words algorithm.

Keywords: BOW, useful visual words, weighted visual words, bag of visual words

Procedia PDF Downloads 424

Authors: Yang Jiayue, Liang Junwen

Abstract:

Case interviews with 12 mothers of hearing-impaired children in Beijing found that families with hard-of-hearing children make all-out efforts for rescue and rehabilitation until they exhaust family resources, they travel to work places, homes, and rehabilitation institutions every day, and social relations gradually shrink inward. In the stigmatized social environment, children with hearing impairment find it difficult to integrate into regular communication and gradually return to a silent world; their parents also suffer from social discrimination and affiliate stigma, and they gradually reduce contact with others. Finally, families with hearing-impaired children become invisible people in society; the "deafness" of children leads families to "loss of voice."

Keywords: family with hearing-impaired children, social retreat, social exclusion, stigma

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Lela Gadrani, Mariam Tsitsagi

Abstract:

Human is a part of the urban landscape and responsible for it. Urbanization of cities includes the longest phase; thus none of the environment ever undergoes such anthropogenic impact as the area of large cities. The post-Soviet period is very interesting in terms of scientific research. The changes that have occurred in the cities since the collapse of the Soviet Union have not yet been analyzed best to our knowledge. In this context, the aim of this paper is to analyze the changes in the land use of the three large cities of Georgia (Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi). Tbilisi as a capital city, Batumi as a port city, and Kutaisi as a former industrial center. Data used during the research process are conventionally divided into satellite and supporting materials. For this purpose, the largest topographic maps (1:10 000) of all three cities were analyzed, Tbilisi General Plans (1896, 1924), Tbilisi and Kutaisi historical maps. The main emphasis was placed on the classification of Landsat images. In this case, we have classified the images LULC (LandUse / LandCover) of all three cities taken in 1987 and 2016 using the supervised and unsupervised methods. All the procedures were performed in the programs: Arc GIS 10.3.1 and ENVI 5.0. In each classification we have singled out the following classes: built-up area, water bodies, agricultural lands, green cover and bare soil, and calculated the areas occupied by them. In order to check the validity of the obtained results, additionally we used the higher resolution images of CORONA and Sentinel. Ultimately we identified the changes that took place in the land use in the post-Soviet period in the above cities. According to the results, a large wave of changes touched Tbilisi and Batumi, though in different periods. It turned out that in the case of Tbilisi, the area of developed territory has increased by 13.9% compared to the 1987 data, which is certainly happening at the expense of agricultural land and green cover, in particular, the area of agricultural lands has decreased by 4.97%; and the green cover by 5.67%. It should be noted that Batumi has obviously overtaken the country's capital in terms of development. With the unaided eye it is clear that in comparison with other regions of Georgia, everything is different in Batumi. In fact, Batumi is an unofficial summer capital of Georgia. Undoubtedly, Batumi’s development is very important both in economic and social terms. However, there is a danger that in the uneven conditions of urban development, we will eventually get a developed center - Batumi, and multiple underdeveloped peripheries around it. Analysis of the changes in the land use is of utmost importance not only for quantitative evaluation of the changes already implemented, but for future modeling and prognosis of urban development. Raster data containing the classes of land use is an integral part of the city's prognostic models.

Keywords: analysis, geo information system, remote sensing, LULC

Procedia PDF Downloads 441