Search results for: circular economy tools

Authors: Elham Soltani Dehnavi

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In today’s compact cities, bringing daylighting and fresh air to buildings is a significant challenge, but it also presents opportunities to reduce energy consumption in buildings by reducing the need for artificial lighting and mechanical systems. Simple adjustments to building form can contribute to their efficiency. This paper examines how the relationship between the width and depth of the rooms in office buildings affects visual and thermal comfort, and consequently energy savings. Based on these evaluations, we can determine the best location for sedentary areas in a room. We can also propose improvements to occupant experience and minimize the difference between the predicted and measured performance in buildings by changing other design parameters, such as natural ventilation strategies, glazing properties, and shading. This study investigates the condition of spatial daylighting and thermal comfort for a range of room configurations using computer simulations, then it suggests the best depth for optimizing both daylighting and thermal comfort, and consequently energy performance in each room type. The Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR) is 40% with 0.8m window sill and 0.4m window head. Also, there are some fixed parameters chosen according to building codes and standards, and the simulations are done in Seattle, USA. The simulation results are presented as evaluation grids using the thresholds for different metrics such as Daylight Autonomy (DA), spatial Daylight Autonomy (sDA), Annual Sunlight Exposure (ASE), and Daylight Glare Probability (DGP) for visual comfort, and Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD), occupied Thermal Comfort Percentage (occTCP), over-heated percent, under-heated percent, and Standard Effective Temperature (SET) for thermal comfort that are extracted from Grasshopper scripts. The simulation tools are Grasshopper plugins such as Ladybug, Honeybee, and EnergyPlus. According to the results, some metrics do not change much along the room depth and some of them change significantly. So, we can overlap these grids in order to determine the comfort zone. The overlapped grids contain 8 metrics, and the pixels that meet all 8 mentioned metrics’ thresholds define the comfort zone. With these overlapped maps, we can determine the comfort zones inside rooms and locate sedentary areas there. Other parts can be used for other tasks that are not used permanently or need lower or higher amounts of daylight and thermal comfort is less critical to user experience. The results can be reflected in a table to be used as a guideline by designers in the early stages of the design process.

Keywords: occupant experience, office buildings, space depth, thermal comfort, visual comfort

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Authors: Christakis Chatzichristou, Elias Kranos

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Architectural awards, especially if they are given by the state, recognize excellence in the field and, at the same time, strongly contribute to the making of the architectural culture of a place. The present research looks at the houses that have been awarded through such a system in Cyprus in order to discuss the values promoted, directly or not, by such a setup which is quite similar to other prestigious award systems such as the Mies van de Rohe Prize in Europe. In fact, many of the projects signed out through the state award system end up being selected to represent the country for the European awards. The residential architecture encouraged by such systems is quite interesting in that the most public of institutions influence how the most private unit of society is architecturally accommodated. The methodology uses both qualitative as well as quantitative research tools in order to analyze: the official state call for entries to the competition; the final report of the evaluation committee; the spatial characteristics of the houses through the Space Syntax methodology; the statements of the architects regarding their intentions and the final outcome; the feelings of the owners and users of the houses regarding the design process as well as the degree of satisfaction regarding the final product. The above-mentioned analyses allow for a more thorough discussion regarding not only the values promoted explicitly by the system through the brief that describes what the evaluation committee is looking for but also the values that are actually being promoted indirectly through the results of the actual evaluation itself. The findings suggest that: the strong emphasis in brief on bioclimatic design and issues of sustainability weakens significantly, if at all present, in the actual selection process; continuous improvement seems to be fuzzily used as a concept; most of the houses tend to have a similar spatial genotype; most of the houses have similar aesthetic qualities; discrepancies between the proposed lifestyle through the design and the actual use of the spaces do not seem to be acknowledged in the evaluation as an issue; the temporal factor seems to be ignored as the projects are required to be ‘finished projects’ as though the users and their needs do not change through time. The research suggests that, rather than preserving a critical attitude regarding the role of the architect in society, the state award system tends, like any other non-reflective social organism, to simply promote its own unexamined values as well as prejudices. This is perhaps more evident in the shared aesthetic character of the awarded houses and less so in the hidden spatial genotype to which they belong. If the design of houses is indeed a great opportunity for architecture to contribute in a more deliberate manner to the evolution of society, then what the present study shows is that this opportunity seems to be largely missed. The findings may serve better less as a verdict and more as a chance for introspection and discussion.

Keywords: award systems, houses, spatial genotype, aesthetic qualities

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Authors: Livia Calcagni

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Most of the largest cities in the world are located in areas that are vulnerable to coastal erosion and flooding, both linked to climate change and rising sea levels (RSL). Nevertheless, more and more people are moving to these vulnerable areas as cities keep growing. Architects, engineers and policy makers are called to rethink the way we live and to provide timely and adequate responses not only by investigating measures to improve the urban fabric, but also by developing strategies capable of planning change, exploring unusual and resilient frontiers of living, such as floating architecture. Since the beginning of the 21st century we have seen a dynamic growth of water-based architecture. At the same time, the shortage of land available for urban development also led to reclaim the seabed or to build floating structures. In light of these considerations, time is ripe to consider floating architecture not only as a full-fledged building typology but especially as a full-fledged adaptation solution for RSL. Currently, there is no global international legal framework for urban development on water and there is no structured performance based building design (PBBD) approach for floating architecture in most countries, let alone national regulatory systems. Thus, the research intends to identify the technological, morphological, functional, economic, managerial requirements that must be considered in a the development of the PBBD framework conceived as a meta-design tool. As it is expected that floating urban development is mostly likely to take place as extension of coastal areas, the needs and design criteria are definitely more similar to those of the urban environment than of the offshore industry. Therefor, the identification and categorization of parameters takes the urban-architectural guidelines and regulations as the starting point, taking the missing aspects, such as hydrodynamics, from the offshore and shipping regulatory frameworks. This study is carried out through an evidence-based assessment of performance guidelines and regulatory systems that are effective in different countries around the world addressing on-land and on-water architecture as well as offshore and shipping industries. It involves evidence-based research and logical argumentation methods. Overall, this paper highlights how inhabiting water is not only a viable response to the problem of RSL, thus a resilient frontier for urban development, but also a response to energy insecurity, clean water and food shortages, environmental concerns and urbanization, in line with Blue Economy principles and the Agenda 2030. Moreover, the discipline of architecture is presented as a fertile field for investigating solutions to cope with climate change and its effects on life safety and quality. Future research involves the development of a decision support system as an information tool to guide the user through the decision-making process, emphasizing the logical interaction between the different potential choices, based on the PBBD.

Keywords: adaptation measures, floating architecture, performance based building design, resilient architecture, rising sea levels

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Authors: Santiago Quesada-García, María Lozano-Gómez, Pablo Valero-Flores

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The recent digital revolution, together with modern technologies, is changing the environment and the way people interact with inhabited space. However, in society, the elderly are a very broad and varied group that presents serious difficulties in understanding these modern technologies. Outpatients with cognitive disabilities, such as those suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD), are distinguished within this cluster. This population group is in constant growth, and they have specific requirements for their inhabited space. According to architecture, which is one of the health humanities, environments are designed to promote well-being and improve the quality of life for all. Buildings, as well as the tools and technologies integrated into them, must be accessible, inclusive, and foster health. In this new digital paradigm, artificial intelligence (AI) appears as an innovative resource to help this population group improve their autonomy and quality of life. Some experiences and solutions, such as those that interact with users through chatbots and voicebots, show the potential of AI in its practical application. In the design of healthy spaces, the integration of AI in architecture will allow the living environment to become a kind of 'exo-brain' that can make up for certain cognitive deficiencies in this population. The objective of this paper is to address, from the discipline of neuroarchitecture, how modern technologies can be integrated into everyday environments and be an accessible resource for people with cognitive disabilities. For this, the methodology has a mixed structure. On the one hand, from an empirical point of view, the research carries out a review of the existing literature about the applications of AI to build space, following the critical review foundations. As a unconventional architectural research, an experimental analysis is proposed based on people with AD as a resource of data to study how the environment in which they live influences their regular activities. The results presented in this communication are part of the progress achieved in the competitive R&D&I project ALZARQ (PID2020-115790RB-I00). These outcomes are aimed at the specific needs of people with cognitive disabilities, especially those with AD, since, due to the comfort and wellness that the solutions entail, they can also be extrapolated to the whole society. As a provisional conclusion, it can be stated that, in the immediate future, AI will be an essential element in the design and construction of healthy new environments. The discipline of architecture has the compositional resources to, through this emerging technology, build an 'exo-brain' capable of becoming a personal assistant for the inhabitants, with whom to interact proactively and contribute to their general well-being. The main objective of this work is to show how this is possible.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, artificial intelligence, healthy architecture, neuroarchitecture, architectural design

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Authors: Justyna Humięcka-Jakubowska

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1. Background in music analysis. Traditionally, when we think about a composer’s sketches, the chances are that we are thinking in terms of the working out of detail, rather than the evolution of an overall concept. Since music is a “time art’, it follows that questions of a form cannot be entirely detached from considerations of time. One could say that composers tend to regard time either as a place gradually and partially intuitively filled, or they can look for a specific strategy to occupy it. In my opinion, one thing that sheds light on Stockhausen's compositional thinking is his frequent use of 'form schemas', that is often a single-page representation of the entire structure of a piece. 2. Background in music technology. Sonic Visualiser is a program used to study a musical recording. It is an open source application for viewing, analysing, and annotating music audio files. It contains a number of visualisation tools, which are designed with useful default parameters for musical analysis. Additionally, the Vamp plugin format of SV supports to provide analysis such as for example structural segmentation. 3. Aims. The aim of my paper is to show how SV may be used to obtain a better understanding of the specific musical work, and how the compositional strategy does impact on musical structures and musical surfaces. I want to show that ‘traditional” music analytic methods don’t allow to indicate interrelationships between musical surface (which is perceived) and underlying musical/acoustical structure. 4. Main Contribution. Stockhausen had dealt with the most diverse musical problems by the most varied methods. A characteristic which he had never ceased to be placed at the center of his thought and works, it was the quest for a new balance founded upon an acute connection between speculation and intuition. In the case with Mikrophonie I (1964) for tam-tam and 6 players Stockhausen makes a distinction between the "connection scheme", which indicates the ground rules underlying all versions, and the form scheme, which is associated with a particular version. The preface to the published score includes both the connection scheme, and a single instance of a "form scheme", which is what one can hear on the CD recording. In the current study, the insight into the compositional strategy chosen by Stockhausen was been compared with auditory image, that is, with the perceived musical surface. Stockhausen's musical work is analyzed both in terms of melodic/voice and timbre evolution. 5. Implications The current study shows how musical structures have determined of musical surface. My general assumption is this, that while listening to music we can extract basic kinds of musical information from musical surfaces. It is shown that an interactive strategies of musical structure analysis can offer a very fruitful way of looking directly into certain structural features of music.

Keywords: automated analysis, composer's strategy, mikrophonie I, musical surface, stockhausen

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Authors: Alvin Uchenna Ugwu

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The United Nation’s 2030 agenda and Global Action Programme (GAP) for implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has mandated all sectors in the societies, including education, to develop strategies towards actualizing sustainability in all facets of the society, by the year 2030. Education is no doubt a key tool for social change. However, educational institutions in most African nations need a paradigmatic shift to strike a balance between policies (curricular) and practices, with regards to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The paradigm shift in this regard is described as whole-institution/school approach. The whole institution approaches advocate action-focused ESD. In other words, ESD policy and curriculum makers, formal and non-formal education institutions, need to ‘practice what they preach’. This paper is developed from an ongoing study carried out by the author and guided by two research questions: -What are the views of intermediate phase science and technology preservice teachers on the ESD content included in the science and technology modules? -What challenges or enable intermediate phase science and technology pre-service teachers to learn about ESD in science and technology modules? The study drew from the views and experiences of preservice science teachers, learning about ESD in a university’s college of education in South Africa. Using qualitative case study research design, the research data were generated via questionnaires and focus group discussions. Analysis of generated data indicates that universities and institutions of higher learning need to demonstrate practical involvement while implementing ESD in societies, rather than just standing as knowledge media. Findings of the study further suggest that natural sciences and technology courses in teacher education programmes and other institutions of higher learning, should be perceived as key transformative tools in shaping the consciousness of students towards integrating and fostering ESD in developing countries such as South Africa. Thus, this paper seeks to promote ‘Whole Institution Involvement’ in teacher education colleges in South Africa, as a measure of improving ESD in higher education settings. The paper suggests that in order to achieve ESD in higher education settings and beyond, policies and practices should be reexamined beyond rhetoric and buzzwords. The paper further argues that implementation of ESD is largely influenced by context, hence two different contexts should be examined empirically.

Keywords: education for sustainable development, higher education institutions, pre-service science teachers, qualitative case study research, whole institution involvement

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Authors: Muhammad Irfan

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The rise of radicalization within Islam has spawned a new era of global terror. The battlefield Successes of ISIS and the Taliban are fuelled by an ideological war waged, largely and successfully, in the media arena. This research will examine how Islamic extremist groups are using media modalities and populist narratives to influence migrant Muslim populations in Europe towards extremism. In 2014, ISIS shocked the world in exporting horrifically graphic forms of violence on social media. Their Muslim support base was largely disgusted and reviled. In response, they reconfigured their narrative by introducing populist 'hooks', astutely portraying the Muslim populous as oppressed and exploited by unjust, corrupt autocratic regimes and Western power structures. Within this crucible of real and perceived oppression, hundreds of thousands of the most desperate, vulnerable and abused migrants left their homelands, risking their lives in the hope of finding peace, justice, and prosperity in Europe. Instead, many encountered social stigmatization, detention and/or discrimination for being illegal migrants, for lacking resources and for simply being Muslim. This research will examine how Islamic extremist groups are exploiting the disenfranchisement of these migrant populations and using populist messaging on social media to influence them towards violent extremism. ISIS, in particular, formulates specific encoded messages for newly-arriving Muslims in Europe, preying upon their vulnerability. Violence is posited, as a populist response, to the tyranny of European oppression. This research will analyze the factors and indicators which propel Muslim migrants along the spectrum from resilience to violence extremism. Expected outcomes are identification of factors which influence vulnerability towards violent extremism; an early-warning detection framework; predictive analysis models; and de-radicalization frameworks. This research will provide valuable tools (practical and policy level) for European governments, security stakeholders, communities, policy-makers, and educators; it is anticipated to contribute to a de-escalation of Islamic extremism globally.

Keywords: populism, radicalization, de-radicalization, social media, ISIS, Taliban, shariah, jihad, Islam, Europe, political communication, terrorism, migrants, refugees, extremism, global terror, predictive analysis, early warning detection, models, strategic communication, populist narratives, Islamic extremism

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Authors: Angelo Corallo, Maria Elena Latino, Marta Menegoli

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The link between man and food plays, in the social and economic system, a central role where cultural and multidisciplinary aspects intertwine: food is not only nutrition, but also communication, culture, politics, environment, science, ethics, fashion. This multi-dimensionality has many implications in the food economy. In recent years, the consumer became more conscious about his food choices, involving a consistent change in consumption models. This change concerns several aspects: awareness of food system issues, employment of socially and environmentally conscious decision-making, food choices based on different characteristics than nutritional ones i.e. origin of food, how it’s produced, and who’s producing it. In this frame the ‘consumption choices’ and the ‘interests of the citizen’ become one part of the others. The figure of the ‘Citizen Consumer’ is born, a responsible and ethically motivated individual to change his lifestyle, achieving the goal of sustainable consumption. Simultaneously the branding, that before was guarantee of the product quality, today is questioned. In order to meet these needs, Agri-Food companies are developing specific product lines that follow two main philosophies: ‘Back to basics’ and ‘Less is more’. However, the issue of ethical behavior does not seem to find an adequate on market offer. Most likely due to a lack of attention on the communication strategy used, very often based on market logic and rarely on ethical one. The label in its classic concept of ‘clean labeling’ can no longer be the only instrument through which to convey product information and its evolution towards a concept of ‘clear label’ is necessary to embrace ethical and transparent concepts in progress the process of democratization of the Food System. The implementation of a voluntary traceability path, relying on the technological models of the Internet of Things or Industry 4.0, would enable the Agri-Food Supply Chain to collect data that, if properly treated, could satisfy the information need of consumers. A change of approach is therefore proposed towards Agri-Food traceability that is no longer intended as a tool to be used to respond to the legislator, but rather as a promotional tool useful to tell the company in a transparent manner and then reach the slice of the market of food citizens. The use of mobile technology can also facilitate this information transfer. However, in order to guarantee maximum efficiency, an appropriate communication model based on the ethical communication principles should be used, which aims to overcome the pipeline communication model, to offer the listener a new way of telling the food product, based on real data collected through processes traceability. The Citizen Consumer is therefore placed at the center of the new model of communication in which he has the opportunity to choose what to know and how. The new label creates a virtual access point capable of telling the product according to different point of views, following the personal interests and offering the possibility to give several content modalities to support different situations and usability.

Keywords: agri food traceability, agri-food transparency, clear label, food system, internet of things

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Authors: Hortènsia Curell, Ana Fernández-Montraveta

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This paper presents the creation, development, and analysis of a corpus designed to study the presence of attitude markers and author’s stance in research articles in two different areas of linguistics (theoretical linguistics and sociolinguistics). These two disciplines are expected to behave differently in this respect, given the disparity in their discursive conventions. Attitude markers in this work are understood as the linguistic elements (adjectives, nouns and verbs) used to convey the writer's stance towards the content presented in the article, and are crucial in understanding writer-reader interaction and the writer's position. These attitude markers are divided into three broad classes: assessment, significance, and emotion. In addition to them, we also consider first-person singular and plural pronouns and possessives, modal verbs, and passive constructions, which are other linguistic elements expressing the author’s stance. The corpus, Corpus of Attitude in Academic Writing (CAAW), comprises a collection of 21 articles, collected from six journals indexed in JCR. These articles were originally written in English by a single native-speaker author from the UK or USA and were published between 2022 and 2023. The total number of words in the corpus is approximately 222,400, with 106,422 from theoretical linguistics (Lingua, Linguistic Inquiry and Journal of Linguistics) and 116,022 from sociolinguistics journals (International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Language in Society and Journal of Sociolinguistics). Together with the corpus, we present the tool created for the creation and storage of the corpus, along with a tool for automatic annotation. The steps followed in the compilation of the corpus are as follows. First, the articles were selected according to the parameters explained above. Second, they were downloaded and converted to txt format. Finally, examples, direct quotes, section titles and references were eliminated, since they do not involve the author’s stance. The resulting texts were the input for the annotation of the linguistic features related to stance. As for the annotation, two articles (one from each subdiscipline) were annotated manually by the two researchers. An existing list was used as a baseline, and other attitude markers were identified, together with the other elements mentioned above. Once a consensus was reached, the rest of articles were annotated automatically using the tool created for this purpose. The annotated corpus will serve as a resource for scholars working in discourse analysis (both in linguistics and communication) and related fields, since it offers new insights into the expression of attitude. The tools created for the compilation and annotation of the corpus will be useful to study author’s attitude and stance in articles from any academic discipline: new data can be uploaded and the list of markers can be enlarged. Finally, the tool can be expanded to other languages, which will allow cross-linguistic studies of author’s stance.

Keywords: academic writing, attitude, corpus, english

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Authors: Eva Laryea, Clement Yeboah Authors

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A pretest-posttest within subjects, experimental design was employed to examine the effects of a computerized basic statistics learning game on achievement and statistics-related anxiety of students enrolled in introductory graduate statistics course. Participants (N = 34) were graduate students in a variety of programs at state-funded research university in the Southeast United States. We analyzed pre-test posttest differences using paired samples t-tests for achievement and for statistics anxiety. The results of the t-test for knowledge in statistics were found to be statistically significant indicating significant mean gains for statistical knowledge as a function of the game-based intervention. Likewise, the results of the t-test for statistics-related anxiety were also statistically significant indicating a decrease in anxiety from pretest to posttest. The implications of the present study are significant for both teachers and students. For teachers, using computer games developed by the researchers can help to create a more dynamic and engaging classroom environment, as well as improve student learning outcomes. For students, playing these educational games can help to develop important skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. Students can develop interest in the subject matter and spend quality time to learn the course as they play the game without knowing that they are even learning the presupposed hard course. The future directions of the present study are promising, as technology continues to advance and become more widely available. Some potential future developments include the integration of virtual and augmented reality into educational games, the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to create personalized learning experiences, and the development of new and innovative game-based assessment tools. It is also important to consider the ethical implications of computer game-based pedagogy, such as the potential for games to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and biases. As the field continues to evolve, it will be crucial to address these issues and work towards creating inclusive and equitable learning experiences for all students. This study has the potential to revolutionize the way basic statistics graduate students learn and offers exciting opportunities for future development and research. It is an important area of inquiry for educators, researchers, and policymakers, and will continue to be a dynamic and rapidly evolving field for years to come.

Keywords: pretest-posttest within subjects, experimental design, achievement, statistics-related anxiety

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Authors: Tamrat Girma Biru

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Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is defined as resistant to at least Refampicin and Isoniazed: the most two power full TB drugs. It is a leading cause of high rates of morbidity and mortality, and increasing psychosocial challenges to patients, especially when co-infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Ethiopia faces the highest rates of MDR-TB infection in the world. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to identify the psychosocial challenges of MDR-TB patients, to investigate the extent of the psychosocial challenges on (self-esteem, depression, and stigma) that MDR-TB patients encounter, to examine whether there is a sex difference in experiencing psychosocial challenges and assess the counseling needs of MDR-TB patients. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at St. Peter TB Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa on 40 patients (25 males and 15 females) who are hospitalized for treatment. The patients were identified by using purposive sampling and made fill a questionnaire measuring their level of self-esteem, depression and stigma. Besides, data were collected from 16 participants, 28 care providers and 8 guardians, using semi-structured interview. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS statistical program, descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and qualitative description. Results and Discussion: The results of the study showed that the majority (80%) of the respondents had suffered psychological challenges and social discriminations. Thus, the significance of MDR-TB and its association with HIV/AIDS problems is considered. Besides the psychosocial challenges, various aggravating factors such as length of treatment, drug burden and insecurity in economy together highly challenges the life of patients. In addition, 60% of participants showed low level of self-esteem. The patients also reported that they experienced high self-stigma and stigma by other members of the society. The majority of the participants (75%) showed moderate and severe level of depression. In terms of sex there is no difference between the mean scores of males and females in the level of depression and stigmatization by others and by themselves. But females showed lower level of self-esteem than males. The analysis of the t-test also shows that there were no statistically significant sex difference on the level of depression and stigma. Based on the qualitative data MDR-TB patients face various challenges in their life sphere such as: Psychological (depression, low self value, lowliness, anxiety), social (stigma, isolation from social relations, self-stigmatization,) and medical (drug side effect, drug toxicity, drug burden, treatment length, hospital stays). Recommendations: Based on the findings of this study possible recommendations were forwarded: develop and extend MDR-TB disease awareness creation through by media (printing and electronic), school net TB clubs, and door to door community education. Strengthen psychological wellbeing and social relationship of MDR-TB patients using proper and consistent psychosocial support and counseling. Responsible bodies like Ministry of Health (MOH) and its stakeholders and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) need to assess the challenges of patients and take measures on this pressing issue.

Keywords: psychosocial challenges, counseling, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), tuberculosis therapy

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Authors: Bhakti Chitale

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Mumbai city, which is the business capital of India and one of the most crowded cities in the world, holds the biggest slum in Asia. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) occupies an area of 4035 sq.km. with a population of 22.8 million people. This population is mostly urban with 91% of this population living in areas of Municipal Corporations and Councils. Another 3% live in Census Towns. The region has 9 Municipal Corporations, 8 Municipal councils, and around 1000 villages. On the one hand MMR reflects the highest contribution to the Nations overall economy and on the other hand it shows the horrible and intolerable picture of about 2 million people, who are living in slums/without even slum with totally unhygienic conditions and with total loss of hope. The generations are about to get affected adversely if the solution is not worked out. This study is an attempt towards working out the solution. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is state government's authority, specially formed to govern the development of MMR. MMRDA is engaged in long term planning, promotion of new growth centres, implementation of strategic projects and financing infrastructure development. While preparing the master plan for MMR for next 20 years MMRDA conducted a detail study regarding Housing scenario in MMR and possible options for improvement. The author was the in charge officer for the said assignment. This paper puts light on the interesting outcomes of the research study, which ranges from the adverse effects of government policies, automatic responses of housing market, effects on planning processes, and overall changing needs of housing patterns in the world due to changes in the social mechanism. It alarms the urban planners who usually focus on smart infrastructure development, about allied future dangers. This housing study will explain the complexities, realities and needs of innovations in the housing policies all over the world. The paper will explain further few success stories and failure stories of government initiatives with reasons. It gives the clear idea about the differences in needs of housing for people from different economic groups and direct and indirect market pressures on low cost housing. Magical phenomenon came in front like a large percentage of vacant houses is present in spite of the huge need. Housing market gets affected by the developments or any other physical and financial changes taking place in the nearby areas or cities, also by changes in cities which are located far from the region and also by the international investments or policy changes. Instead of just depending on governments actions in case of generation of affordable housing, it becomes equally important to make the housing markets automatically generate such stock and still make them sustainable is the aim of all the movement. In summary, we may say that the paper will sequentially elaborate the complete dynamics of housing in one of the most crowded urban area in the world that is Mumbai Metropolitan Region, with a lot of data, analysis, case studies, and recommendations.

Keywords: Mumbai India, slum housing, region planning, market recommendations

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Authors: S. Mahdi Sadatmansouri, Maryam Khalili

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World, nowadays, encounters serious water scarcity problem. During the past few years, by advent of Smart Energy and Water Meter (SEWM) and its installation at the electro-pumps of the water wells, one had believed that it could be the golden key to address the groundwater resources over-pumping issue. In fact, implementation of these Smart Meters managed to control the water table drawdown for short; but it was not a sustainable approach. SEWM has been considered as law enforcement facility at first; however, for solving a complex socioeconomic problem like shared groundwater resources management, more than just enforcement is required: participation to conserve common resources. The well owners or farmers, as water consumers, are the main and direct stakeholders of this system and other stakeholders could be government sectors, investors, technology providers, privet sectors or ordinary people. Designing a socio-technical system not only defines the role of each stakeholder but also can lubricate the communication to reach the system goals while benefits of each are considered and provided. Farmers, as the key participators for solving groundwater problem, do not trust governments but they would trust a fair system in which responsibilities, privileges and benefits are clear. Technology could help this system remained impartial and productive. Social aspects provide rules, regulations, social objects and etc. for the system and help it to be more human-centered. As the design methodology, Design Thinking provides probable solutions for the challenging problems and ongoing conflicts; it could enlighten the way in which the final system could be designed. Using Human Centered Design approach of IDEO helps to keep farmers in the center of the solution and provides a vision by which stakeholders’ requirements and needs are addressed effectively. Farmers would be considered to trust the system and participate in their groundwater resources management if they find the rules and tools of the system fair and effective. Besides, implementation of the socio-technical system could change farmers’ behavior in order that they concern more about their valuable shared water resources as well as their farm profit. This socio-technical system contains nine main subsystems: 1) Measurement and Monitoring system, 2) Legislation and Governmental system, 3) Information Sharing system, 4) Knowledge based NGOs, 5) Integrated Farm Management system (using IoT), 6) Water Market and Water Banking system, 7) Gamification, 8) Agribusiness ecosystem, 9) Investment system.

Keywords: human centered design, participatory management, smart energy and water meter (SEWM), social object, socio-technical system, water table drawdown

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Authors: Domenico Carmelo Mongelli

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The context of this research is that of the Italian reality, which, in order to adapt to the EU Directives that prohibit the production of internal combustion engines in favor of electric mobility from 2035, is extremely concerned about the significant loss of jobs resulting from the difficulty of the automotive industry in converting in such a short time and due to the reticence of potential buyers in the face of such an epochal change. The aim of the research is to evaluate for Italy the potential of the most valid alternative to this transition to electric: leaving the current production of diesel engines unchanged, no longer powered by gasoil, imported and responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, but powered entirely by a nationally produced and eco-sustainable fuel such as biodiesel. Today in Italy, the percentage of biodiesel mixed with gasoil for diesel engines is too low (around 10%); for this reason, this research aims to evaluate the functioning of current diesel engines powered 100% by biodiesel and the ability of the Italian production system to cope to this hypothesis. The research geographically identifies those abandoned lands in Italy, now out of the food market, which is best suited to an energy crop for the final production of biodiesel. The cultivation of oilseeds is identified, which for the Italian agro-industrial reality allows maximizing the agricultural and industrial yields of the transformation of the agricultural product into a final energy product and minimizing the production costs of the entire agro-industrial chain. To achieve this objective, specific databases are used, and energy and economic balances are prepared for the different agricultural product alternatives. Solutions are proposed and tested that allow the optimization of all production phases in both the agronomic and industrial phases. The biodiesel obtained from the most feasible of the alternatives examined is analyzed, and its compatibility with current diesel engines is identified, and from the evaluation of its thermo-fluid-dynamic properties, the engineering measures that allow the perfect functioning of current internal combustion engines are examined. The results deriving from experimental tests on the engine bench are evaluated to evaluate the performance of different engines fueled with biodiesel alone in terms of power, torque, specific consumption and useful thermal efficiency and compared with the performance of engines fueled with the current mixture of fuel on the market. The results deriving from experimental tests on the engine bench are evaluated to evaluate the polluting emissions of engines powered only by biodiesel and compared with current emissions. At this point, we proceed with the simulation of the total replacement of gasoil with biodiesel as a fuel for the current fleet of diesel vehicles in Italy, drawing the necessary conclusions in technological, energy, economic, and environmental terms and in terms of social and employment implications. The results allow us to evaluate the potential advantage of a total replacement of diesel fuel with biodiesel for powering road vehicles with diesel cycle internal combustion engines without significant changes to the current vehicle fleet and without requiring future changes to the automotive industry.

Keywords: biodiesel, economy, engines, environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 62

Authors: Ashley Hobson, Ashley Efaw

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Professionalism is an essential skill for clinicians, particularly for Occupational Therapy Providers (OTPs). The World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) Guiding Principles for Ethical Occupational Therapy and American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Code of Ethics establishes expectations for professionalism among OTPs, emphasizing its importance in the field. However, the teaching and assessment of professionalism vary across OTP programs. The flexibility provided by the country standards allows programs to determine their own approaches to meeting these standards, resulting in inconsistency. Educators in both academic and fieldwork settings face challenges in objectively assessing and providing feedback on student professionalism. Although they observe instances of unprofessional behavior, there is no standardized assessment measure to evaluate professionalism in OTP students. While most students are committed to learning and applying professionalism skills, they enter OTP programs with varying levels of proficiency in this area. Consequently, they lack a uniform understanding of professionalism and lack an objective means to self-assess their current skills and identify areas for growth. It is crucial to explicitly teach professionalism, have students to self-assess their professionalism skills, and have OTP educators assess student professionalism. This approach is necessary for fostering students' professionalism journeys. Traditionally, there has been no objective way for students to self-assess their professionalism or for educators to provide objective assessments and feedback. To establish a uniform approach to professionalism, the authors incorporated professionalism content into our curriculum. Utilizing an operational definition of professionalism, the authors integrated professionalism into didactic, fieldwork, and capstone courses. The complexity of the content and the professionalism skills expected of students increase each year to ensure students graduate with the skills to practice in accordance with the WFOT Guiding Principles for Ethical Occupational Therapy Practice and AOTA Code of Ethics. Two professionalism assessments were developed based on the expectations outlined in the both documents. The Professionalism Self-Assessment allows students to evaluate their professionalism, reflect on their performance, and set goals. The Professionalism Assessment for Educators is a modified version of the same tool designed for educators. The purpose of this workshop is to provide educators with a framework and tools for assessing student professionalism. The authors discuss how to integrate professionalism content into OTP curriculum and utilize professionalism assessments to provide constructive feedback and equitable learning opportunities for OTP students in academic, fieldwork, and capstone settings. By adopting these strategies, educators can enhance the development of professionalism among OTP students, ensuring they are well-prepared to meet the demands of the profession.

Keywords: professionalism, assessments, student learning, student preparedness, ethical practice

Procedia PDF Downloads 23

Authors: Varis Ransibrahmanakul, Doug Pirhalla, Scott Sheridan, Cameron Lee

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U.S. coastal areas and ecosystems are facing multiple sea level rise threats and effects: heavy rain events, cyclones, and changing wind and weather patterns all influence coastal flooding, sedimentation, and erosion along critical barrier islands and can strongly impact habitat resiliency and water quality in protected habitats. These impacts are increasing over time and have accelerated the need for new tracking techniques, models and tools of flood risk to support enhanced preparedness for coastal management and mitigation. To address this issue, NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS) evaluated new metrics from satellite altimetry AVISO/Copernicus and MODIS IR flood extents to isolate nodes atmospheric variability indicative of elevated sea level and nuisance flood events. Using de-trended time series of cross-shelf sea surface heights (SSH), we identified specific Self Organizing Maps (SOM) nodes and transitions having a strongest regional association with oceanic spatial patterns (e.g., heightened downwelling favorable wind-stress and enhanced southward coastal transport) indicative of elevated coastal sea levels. Results show the impacts of the inverted barometer effect as well as the effects of surface wind forcing; Ekman-induced transport along broad expanses of the U.S. eastern coastline. Higher sea levels and corresponding localized flooding are associated with either pattern indicative of enhanced on-shore flow, deepening cyclones, or local- scale winds, generally coupled with an increased local to regional precipitation. These findings will support an integration of satellite products and will inform seasonal outlook model development supported through NOAAs Climate Program Office and NOS office of Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS). Overall results will prioritize ecological areas and coastal lab facilities at risk based on numbers of nuisance flood projected and inform coastal management of flood risk around low lying areas subjected to bank erosion.

Keywords: AVISO satellite altimetry SSHA, MODIS IR flood map, nuisance flood, remote sensing of flood

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: S. K. Appiah, E. N. Aidoo, D. Asamoah Owusu, M. W. Nuonabuor

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Urbanization remains one of the unique predominant factors which is linked to the destruction of urban environment and its associated cases of soil contamination by heavy metals through the natural and anthropogenic activities. These activities are important sources of toxic heavy metals such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and lead (Pb), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn). Often, these heavy metals lead to increased levels in some areas due to the impact of atmospheric deposition caused by their proximity to industrial plants or the indiscriminately burning of substances. Information gathered on potentially hazardous levels of these heavy metals in soils leads to establish serious health and urban agriculture implications. However, characterization of spatial variations of soil contamination by heavy metals in Ghana is limited. Kumasi is a Metropolitan city in Ghana, West Africa and is challenged with the recent spate of deteriorating soil quality due to rapid economic development and other human activities such as “Galamsey”, illegal mining operations within the metropolis. The paper seeks to use both univariate and multivariate geostatistical techniques to assess the spatial distribution of heavy metals in soils and the potential risk associated with ingestion of sources of soil contamination in the Metropolis. Geostatistical tools have the ability to detect changes in correlation structure and how a good knowledge of the study area can help to explain the different scales of variation detected. To achieve this task, point referenced data on heavy metals measured from topsoil samples in a previous study, were collected at various locations. Linear models of regionalisation and coregionalisation were fitted to all experimental semivariograms to describe the spatial dependence between the topsoil heavy metals at different spatial scales, which led to ordinary kriging and cokriging at unsampled locations and production of risk maps of soil contamination by these heavy metals. Results obtained from both the univariate and multivariate semivariogram models showed strong spatial dependence with range of autocorrelations ranging from 100 to 300 meters. The risk maps produced show strong spatial heterogeneity for almost all the soil heavy metals with extremely risk of contamination found close to areas with commercial and industrial activities. Hence, ongoing pollution interventions should be geared towards these highly risk areas for efficient management of soil contamination to avert further pollution in the metropolis.

Keywords: coregionalization, heavy metals, multivariate geostatistical analysis, soil contamination, spatial distribution

Procedia PDF Downloads 288

Authors: Indu Gaur, Neha Bhadauria, Shilpi Shilpi, Susmita Goswami, Prem D. Sharma, Prabir K. Paul

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The concept of organic agriculture has been accepted as novelty in Indian society, but there is no data available on the human pathogens colonizing plant parts due to such practices. Also, the pattern and mechanism of their colonization need to be understood in order to devise possible strategies for their prevention. In the present study, human pathogenic bacteria were isolated from organically grown tomato plants and five of them were identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter ludwigii, Serratia fonticola, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Chryseobacterium jejuense. Tomato plants were grown in controlled aseptic conditions with 25±1˚C, 70% humidity and 12 hour L/D photoperiod. Six weeks old plants were divided into 6 groups of 25 plants each and treated as follows: Group 1: K. pneumonia, Group 2: E. ludwigii, Group 3: S. fonticola, Group 4: S. maltophilia, Group 5: C. jejuense, Group 6: Sterile distilled water (control). The inoculums for all treatments were prepared by overnight growth with uniform concentration of 108 cells/ml. Leaf samples from above groups were collected at 0.5, 2, 4, 6 and 24 hours post inoculation for the colony forming unit counts (CFU/cm2 of leaf area) of individual pathogens using leaf impression method. These CFU counts were used for the in vivo colonization assay and adherence assay of individual pathogens. Also, resistance of these pathogens to at least 12 antibiotics was studied. Based on these findings S. fonticola was found to be most prominently colonizing the phylloplane of tomato and was further studied. Tomato plants grown in controlled aseptic conditions same as mentioned above were divided into 2 groups of 25 plants each and treated as follows: Group 1: S. fonticola, Group 2: Sterile distilled water (control). Leaf samples from above groups were collected at 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours post inoculation and homogenized in suitable buffers for surface and cell wall protein isolation. Protein samples thus obtained were subjected to isocratic SDS-gel electrophoresis and analyzed. It was observed that presence of S. fonticola could induce the expression of at least 3 additional cell wall proteins at different time intervals. Surface proteins also showed variation in the expression pattern at different sampling intervals. Further identification of these proteins by MALDI-MS and bioinformatics tools revealed the gene(s) involved in the interaction of S. fonticola with tomato phylloplane.

Keywords: cell wall proteins, human pathogenic bacteria, phylloplane, solanum lycopersicum

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: A. D'Alessandro, F. Ubertini, A. L. Materazzi

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In the field of civil engineering, Structural Health Monitoring is a topic of growing interest. Effective monitoring instruments permit the control of the working conditions of structures and infrastructures, through the identification of behavioral anomalies due to incipient damages, especially in areas of high environmental hazards as earthquakes. While traditional sensors can be applied only in a limited number of points, providing a partial information for a structural diagnosis, novel transducers may allow a diffuse sensing. Thanks to the new tools and materials provided by nanotechnology, new types of multifunctional sensors are developing in the scientific panorama. In particular, cement-matrix composite materials capable of diagnosing their own state of strain and tension, could be originated by the addition of specific conductive nanofillers. Because of the nature of the material they are made of, these new cementitious nano-modified transducers can be inserted within the concrete elements, transforming the same structures in sets of widespread sensors. This paper is aimed at presenting the results of a research about a new self-sensing nanocomposite and about the implementation of smart sensors for Structural Health Monitoring. The developed nanocomposite has been obtained by inserting multi walled carbon nanotubes within a cementitious matrix. The insertion of such conductive carbon nanofillers provides the base material with piezoresistive characteristics and peculiar sensitivity to mechanical modifications. The self-sensing ability is achieved by correlating the variation of the external stress or strain with the variation of some electrical properties, such as the electrical resistance or conductivity. Through the measurement of such electrical characteristics, the performance and the working conditions of an element or a structure can be monitored. Among conductive carbon nanofillers, carbon nanotubes seem to be particularly promising for the realization of self-sensing cement-matrix materials. Some issues related to the nanofiller dispersion or to the influence of the nano-inclusions amount in the cement matrix need to be carefully investigated: the strain sensitivity of the resulting sensors is influenced by such factors. This work analyzes the dispersion of the carbon nanofillers, the physical properties of the fresh dough, the electrical properties of the hardened composites and the sensing properties of the realized sensors. The experimental campaign focuses specifically on their dynamic characterization and their applicability to the monitoring of full-scale elements. The results of the electromechanical tests with both slow varying and dynamic loads show that the developed nanocomposite sensors can be effectively used for the health monitoring of structures.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes, self-sensing nanocomposites, smart cement-matrix sensors, structural health monitoring

Procedia PDF Downloads 218

Authors: Niina Jallinoja, Anu Moisio

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Focus on adult learning is vital to overcome economic challenges as well as to respond to the demand for new competencies and sustained productivity in the digitalized world economy. Employees of all ages must be able to carry on continuous professional development to remain competitive in the labor market. According to EU policies, countries should offer more flexible opportunities for adult learners who study online and in so-called ‘second chance’ qualification programmes. Traditionally, adult education in Finland has comprised of not only liberal adult education but also the government funding to study for Bachelor, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees in Finnish Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS). From the beginning of 2021, public funding is allocated not only to degrees but also to courses to achieve new competencies for adult learners in Finland. Consequently, there will be degree students (often younger of age) and adult learners studying in the same evening, online and blended courses. The question is thus: How are combined studies meeting the different needs of degree students and adult learners? Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (UAS), located in the metropolitan area of Finland, is taking up the challenge of continuous learning for adult learners. Haaga-Helia has been reforming the bachelor level education and respective shorter courses from 2019 in the biggest project in its history. By the end of 2023, Haaga-Helia will have a flexible, modular curriculum for the bachelor's degrees of hospitality management, business administration, business information technology, journalism and sports management. Building on the shared key competencies, degree students will have the possibility to build individual study paths more flexibly, thanks to the new modular structure of the curriculum. They will be able to choose courses across all degrees, and thus, build their own unique competence combinations. All modules can also be offered as separate courses or learning paths to non-degree students, both publicly funded and as commercial services for employers. Consequently, there will be shared course implementations for degree studies and adult learners with various competence requirements. The newly designed courses are piloted in parallel of the designing of the curriculum in Haaga-Helia during 2020 and 2021. Semi-structured online surveys are composed among the participants for the key competence courses. The focus of the research is to understand how students in the bachelor programme and adult learners from Open UAE perceive the learning experience in such a diverse learning group. A comparison is also executed between learning methods of in-site teaching, online implementation, blended learning and virtual self-learning courses to understand how the pedagogy is meeting the learning objectives of these two different groups. The new flexible curricula and the study modules are to be designed to fill the most important competence gaps that exist in the Finnish labor markets. The new curriculum will be dynamic and constantly evolving over time according to the future competence needs in the labor market. This type of approach requires constant dialogue between Haaga-Helia and workplaces during and after designing of the shared curriculum.

Keywords: ccompetence development, continuous learning, curriculum, higher education

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Xinhai Li, Huidong Tian, Yumin Guo

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Bird migration is fantastic natural phenomenon. In recent years, the use of GPS transmitters has generated a vast amount of data, and the Movebank platform has made these data publicly accessible. For researchers, what they need are data analysis tools. Although there are approximately 90 R packages dedicated to animal movement analysis, the capacity for comprehensive processing of bird migration data remains limited. Hence, we introduce a novel package called migrationR. This package enables the calculation of movement speed, direction, changes in direction, flight duration, daily and annual movement distances. Furthermore, it can pinpoint the starting and ending dates of migration, estimate nest site locations and stopovers, and visualize movement trajectories at various time scales. migrationR distinguishes individuals through NMDS (non-metric multidimensional scaling) coordinates based on movement variables such as speed, flight duration, path tortuosity, and migration timing. A distinctive aspect of the package is the development of a hetero-occurrences species distribution model that takes into account the daily rhythm of individual birds across different landcover types. Habitat use for foraging and roosting differs significantly for many waterbirds. For example, White-naped Cranes at Poyang Lake in China typically forage in croplands and roost in shallow water areas. Both of these occurrence types are of equal importance. Optimal habitats consist of a combination of crop lands and shallow waters, whereas suboptimal habitats lack both, which necessitates birds to fly extensively. With migrationR, we conduct species distribution modeling for foraging and roosting separately and utilize the moving distance between crop lands and shallow water areas as an index of overall habitat suitability. This approach offers a more nuanced understanding of the habitat requirements for migratory birds and enhances our ability to analyze and interpret their movement patterns effectively. The functions of migrationR are demonstrated using our own tracking data of 78 White-naped Crane individuals from 2014 to 2023, comprising over one million valid locations in total. migrationR can be installed from a GitHub repository by executing the following command: remotes::install_github("Xinhai-Li/migrationR").

Keywords: bird migration, hetero-occurrences species distribution model, migrationR, R package, satellite telemetry

Procedia PDF Downloads 49

Authors: G. Melo, J. Felix, S. Maciel, C. Fernandes, W. Rodrigues

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In Brazilian public policy, the Centres of Reference for Social Assistance (CRAS in Portuguese) are part of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS in Portuguese). SUAS is responsible for addressing spontaneous or currently active cases that are brought forth from other services in the social assistance network. The following case was reviewed by CRAS’s team in Recife, Brazil, after a complaint of child abuse was filed against the mother of a 7-year-old girl by the girl’s aunt. The girl is the daughter of an incestuous relationship between her mother and her older brother. The complaint was registered by service staff and five interventions were subsequently carried out on behalf of the child. These interventions provided a secure place for dialogue with both the child and her family and allowed for an investigation of the abuse to proceed. They took place in the child’s school as well as her aunt’s residence. At school, the child (with her classmates) watched a video and listened to a song about the prevention of child abuse. This was followed up with a second intervention to determine any signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), by having the child play with the mobile app ‘My Angela’. Books on the themes of family and fear were also read to the child on different occasions at her school – after every intervention she was asked to draw something related to fear and her concept of a family. After the interventions and discussing the case as a team, we reached several conclusions: 1) The child did not appear to show any symptoms of PTSD; 2) She normally fantasized about her future and life story; 3) She did not allow herself to be touched by strangers with whom she lacks a close relationship (such as classmates or her teacher); 4) Through her drawings, she reproduced the conversations she had had with the staff; 5) She habitually covered her drawings when asked questions about the abuse. In this particular clinical case, we want to highlight that the role of the Psychologist’s intervention at CRAS is to attempt to resolve the issue promptly (and not to develop a prolonged clinical study based on traditional methods), by making use of the available tools from the social assistance network, and by making referrals to the relevant authorities, such as the Public Ministry, so that final protective actions can be taken and enforced. In this case, the Guardian Council of the Brazilian Public Ministry was asked to transfer the custody of the child to her uncle. The mother of the child was sent to a CAPS (Centre for Psychosocial Care), having been diagnosed with psychopathology. The child would then participate in NGO programs that allow for a gradual reduction of social exposure to her mother before being transferred to her uncle’s custody in Sao Paulo.

Keywords: child abuse, intervention, social psychology, violence

Procedia PDF Downloads 304

Authors: Mariana L. de Araújo, Pedro P. M. Menezes

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Research on strategic human resource management (SHRM) has made progress in the last few decades, showing a relationship between policies and practices of human resource management (HRM) and improving organizational results. That's because demonstrating the effectiveness of any HRM or other organizational practice, which means the extent that this can operate as a tool to achieve organizational performance, is a complex and arduous task to execute. Even today, there isn't consensus about "effectiveness," and the tools to measure the effectiveness are disconnected and not convincing. It is not different from the performance management system (PMS) effectiveness. A disproportionate focus on specific criteria adopted and an accumulation of studies that don't relate to the others, which damages the development of the field. Therefore, it aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the PMS through models, dimensions, criteria, and measures. The objective of this study is to propose a theoretical-integrative model for evaluating PMS based on the literature in the PMS field. So, the PRISMA protocol was applied to carry out a systematic review, resulting in 57 studies. After performing the content analysis, we identified six dimensions: learning, societal impact, reaction, financial results, operational results and transfer, and 22 categories. In this way, a theoretical-integrative model for assessing the effectiveness of PMS was proposed based on the findings of this study, in which it was possible to confirm that the effectiveness construct is somewhat complex when viewing that most of the reviewed studies considered multiple dimensions in their assessment. In addition, we identified that the most immediate and proximal results of PMS are the most adopted by the studies; conversely, the studies adopted less distal outcomes to assess the effectiveness of PMS. Another finding of this research is that the reviewed studies predominantly analyze from the individual or psychological perspective, even when it comes to criteria whose phenomena are at an organizational level. Therefore, this study converges with a trend recently identified when referring to a process of "psychologization" in which GP studies, in general, have demonstrated macro results of the GP system from an individual perspective. Therefore, given the identification of a methodological pattern, the predominant influence of individual and psychological aspects in studies on HRM in administration is highlighted, demonstrated by the reflection on the practically absolute way of measuring the effectiveness of PMS from perceptual and subjective measures. Therefore, based on the recognition of the patterns identified, the model proposed to promote studies on the subject more broadly and profoundly to broaden and deepen the perspective of the field of management's interests so that the evaluation of the effectiveness of PMS can promote inputs on the impact of the PMS system in organizational performance. Finally, the findings encourage reflections on assessing the effectiveness of PMS through the theoretical-integrative model developed so that the field can promote new theoretical and practical perspectives.

Keywords: performance management, strategic human resource management, effectiveness, organizational performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: S. Jurado, E. Pazmino

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Determination of the medial axis of a porous media sample is a non-trivial problem of interest for several disciplines, e.g., hydrology, fluid dynamics, contaminant transport, filtration, oil extraction, etc. However, the computational tools available for researchers are limited and restricted. The primary aim of this work was to develop a series of algorithms to extract porosity, medial axis structure, and pore-throat size distributions from porous media domains. A complementary objective was to provide the algorithms as free computational software available to the academic community comprising researchers and students interested in 3D data processing. The burn algorithm was tested on porous media data obtained from High-Resolution X-Ray Microtomography (HRXMT) and idealized computer-generated domains. The real data and idealized domains were discretized in voxels domains of 550³ elements and binarized to denote solid and void regions to determine porosity. Subsequently, the algorithm identifies the layer of void voxels next to the solid boundaries. An iterative process removes or 'burns' void voxels in sequence of layer by layer until all the void space is characterized. Multiples strategies were tested to optimize the execution time and use of computer memory, i.e., segmentation of the overall domain in subdomains, vectorization of operations, and extraction of single burn layer data during the iterative process. The medial axis determination was conducted identifying regions where burnt layers collide. The final medial axis structure was refined to avoid concave-grain effects and utilized to determine the pore throat size distribution. A graphic user interface software was developed to encompass all these algorithms, including the generation of idealized porous media domains. The software allows input of HRXMT data to calculate porosity, medial axis, and pore-throat size distribution and provide output in tabular and graphical formats. Preliminary tests of the software developed during this study achieved medial axis, pore-throat size distribution and porosity determination of 100³, 320³ and 550³ voxel porous media domains in 2, 22, and 45 minutes, respectively in a personal computer (Intel i7 processor, 16Gb RAM). These results indicate that the software is a practical and accessible tool in postprocessing HRXMT data for the academic community.

Keywords: medial axis, pore-throat distribution, porosity, porous media

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: Dhouha Laribi Galalou, Najla Allani Bouhoula, Atef Hammouda

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This research delves into the fundamental question of the morphological restitution of built archaeology in order to place it in its paradigmatic context and to seek answers to it. Indeed, the understanding of the object of the study, its analysis, and the methodology of solving the morphological problem posed, are manageable aspects only by means of a thoughtful strategy that draws on well-defined epistemological scaffolding. In this stream, the crisis of natural reasoning in archaeology has generated multiple changes in this field, ranging from the use of new tools to the integration of an archaeological information system where urbanization involves the interplay of several disciplines. The built archaeological topic is also an architectural and morphological object. It is also a set of articulated elementary data, the understanding of which is about to be approached from a logicist point of view. Morphological restitution is no exception to the rule, and the inter-exchange between the different disciplines uses the capacity of each to frame the reflection on the incomplete elements of a given architecture or on its different phases and multiple states of existence. The logicist sequence is furnished by the set of scattered or destroyed elements found, but also by what can be called a rule base which contains the set of rules for the architectural construction of the object. The knowledge base built from the archaeological literature also provides a reference that enters into the game of searching for forms and articulations. The choice of the Roman Forum in North Africa is justified by the great urban and architectural characteristics of this entity. The research on the forum involves both a fairly large knowledge base but also provides the researcher with material to study - from a morphological and architectural point of view - starting from the scale of the city down to the architectural detail. The experimentation of the knowledge deduced on the paradigmatic level, as well as the deduction of an analysis model, is then carried out on the basis of a well-defined context which contextualises the experimentation from the elaboration of the morphological information container attached to the rule base and the knowledge base. The use of logicist analysis and artificial intelligence has allowed us to first question the aspects already known in order to measure the credibility of our system, which remains above all a decision support tool for the morphological restitution of Roman Fora in North Africa. This paper presents a first experimentation of the model elaborated during this research, a model framed by a paradigmatic discussion and thus trying to position the research in relation to the existing paradigmatic and experimental knowledge on the issue.

Keywords: classical reasoning, logicist reasoning, archaeology, architecture, roman forum, morphology, calculation

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: John Hardy

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A range of future-oriented intelligence techniques is commonly used by states to assess their national security and develop strategies to detect and manage threats, to develop and sustain capabilities, and to recover from attacks and disasters. Although homeland security organizations use future's intelligence tools to generate scenarios and simulations which inform their planning, there have been relatively few studies of the methods available or their applications for homeland security purposes. This study presents an assessment of one category of strategic intelligence techniques, termed Multi-Path Futures Analyses (MPFA), and how it can be applied to three distinct tasks for the purpose of analyzing homeland security issues. Within this study, MPFA are categorized as a suite of analytic techniques which can include effects-based operations principles, general morphological analysis, multi-path mapping, and multi-criteria decision analysis techniques. These techniques generate multiple pathways to potential futures and thereby generate insight into the relative influence of individual drivers of change, the desirability of particular combinations of pathways, and the kinds of capabilities which may be required to influence or mitigate certain outcomes. The study assessed eighteen uses of MPFA for homeland security purposes and found that there are five key applications of MPFA which add significant value to analysis. The first application is generating measures of success and associated progress indicators for strategic planning. The second application is identifying homeland security vulnerabilities and relationships between individual drivers of vulnerability which may amplify or dampen their effects. The third application is selecting appropriate resources and methods of action to influence individual drivers. The fourth application is prioritizing and optimizing path selection preferences and decisions. The fifth application is informing capability development and procurement decisions to build and sustain homeland security organizations. Each of these applications provides a unique perspective of a homeland security issue by comparing a range of potential future outcomes at a set number of intervals and by contrasting the relative resource requirements, opportunity costs, and effectiveness measures of alternative courses of action. These findings indicate that MPFA enhances analysts’ ability to generate tangible measures of success, identify vulnerabilities, select effective courses of action, prioritize future pathway preferences, and contribute to ongoing capability development in homeland security assessments.

Keywords: homeland security, intelligence, national security, operational design, strategic intelligence, strategic planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Wang Yang

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Shenzhen is a modern city of China's reform and opening-up policy, the development of urban morphology has been established on the administration of the Chinese government. This city`s planning paradigm is primarily affected by the spatial structure and human behavior. The subjective urban agglomeration center is divided into several groups and centers. In comparisons of this effect, the city development law has better to be neglected. With the continuous development of the internet, extensive data technology has been introduced in China. Data mining and data analysis has become important tools in municipal research. Data mining has been utilized to improve data cleaning such as receiving business data, traffic data and population data. Prior to data mining, government data were collected by traditional means, then were analyzed using city-relationship research, delaying the timeliness of urban development, especially for the contemporary city. Data update speed is very fast and based on the Internet. The city's point of interest (POI) in the excavation serves as data source affecting the city design, while satellite remote sensing is used as a reference object, city analysis is conducted in both directions, the administrative paradigm of government is broken and urban research is restored. Therefore, the use of data mining in urban analysis is very important. The satellite remote sensing data of the Shenzhen city in July 2018 were measured by the satellite Modis sensor and can be utilized to perform land surface temperature inversion, and analyze city heat island distribution of Shenzhen. This article acquired and classified the data from Shenzhen by using Data crawler technology. Data of Shenzhen heat island and interest points were simulated and analyzed in the GIS platform to discover the main features of functional equivalent distribution influence. Shenzhen is located in the east-west area of China. The city’s main streets are also determined according to the direction of city development. Therefore, it is determined that the functional area of the city is also distributed in the east-west direction. The urban heat island can express the heat map according to the functional urban area. Regional POI has correspondence. The research result clearly explains that the distribution of the urban heat island and the distribution of urban POIs are one-to-one correspondence. Urban heat island is primarily influenced by the properties of the underlying surface, avoiding the impact of urban climate. Using urban POIs as analysis object, the distribution of municipal POIs and population aggregation are closely connected, so that the distribution of the population corresponded with the distribution of the urban heat island.

Keywords: POI, satellite remote sensing, the population distribution, urban heat island thermal map

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: P. Viduthalai, A. K. Divakar, V. Natarajan

Abstract:

Media is one of the powerful tools that manipulate the world in numerous aspects especially in the form of a communication process. For instance, the concept of the public sphere, which was earlier represented by landlords and elites has now transformed into a virtual public sphere, which is also represented by marginalized people. Unfortunately, this acquisition is still paradoxical. Though the media proliferation and its effects are humongous, still it has not been the same throughout the world. Inequality in access to media has created a technological divide among people. Finally, globalization and approach by the government towards using media for development communication has significantly changed the way in which the media reaches every nook and corner. Monarchy, oligarchy, republic and democracy together form the basis of most governments of the world. Of which, democracy is the one with the highest involvement and participation of the people. Ideally, the participation of the people is what, that keeps the democracy running. A healthy democracy is possible only when people are able to access information that makes citizens responsible and serves to check the functioning of their elected representatives. On one side the media consumption of people plays a crucial role in the formation of the public sphere, and on the other side, big media conglomerates are a serious threat to community participation, which is a goal that the media should strive for in a country like India. How different people consume these different media, differs greatly from length and breadth of the country. Another aspect of this media consumption is that it isn’t passive. People usage and consumption of media are related with the gratification that they derive from the particular media. This aspect varies from person to person and from society to society according to both internal and external factors. This article sets out from the most underlying belief that Malayali Tribes have adopted television and becomes a part of daily life and a day never passes without it especially after the introduction of Free Television Scheme by the past state government. Though they are living in hilly and socially isolated places, they too have started accessing media for understanding about the people of the plains and their culture, dictated by their interest. Many of these interests appear to have a social and psychological origin. The present research attempts to study how gratification of these needs lead Malayali Tribes to form such a virtual public sphere where they could communicate with people of the plains. Data was collected through survey method, from 300 respondents on “Exposure towards Television and their perception”. Conventional anthropological methods like unstructured interviews were also used to supplement the data collection efforts in the three taluks namely Yercaud, Pethanayankkanpalayam and Panamaraththuppatty in Salem district of TamilNadu. The results highlight the role of Television in gratifying needs of the Malayali Tribes.

Keywords: democracy, gratification, Malayali Tribes and television, virtual public sphere

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Authors: Roya Yumul, Ofelia Loani Elvir-Lazo, Sevan Komshian, Ruby Wang, Jun Tang

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: An objective means for monitoring the anti-nociceptive effects of perioperative medications has long been desired as a way to provide anesthesiologists information regarding a patient’s level of antinociception and preclude any untoward autonomic responses and reflexive muscular movements from painful stimuli intraoperatively. To this end, electroencephalogram (EEG) based tools including BIS and qCON were designed to provide information about the depth of sedation while qNOX was produced to inform on the degree of antinociception. The goal of this study was to compare the reliability of qCON/qNOX to BIS as specific indicators of response to nociceptive stimulation. METHODS: Sixty-two patients undergoing general anesthesia with LMA were included in this study. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained, and informed consent was acquired prior to patient enrollment. Inclusion criteria included American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class I-III, 18 to 80 years of age, and either gender. Exclusion criteria included the inability to consent. Withdrawal criteria included conversion to the endotracheal tube and EEG malfunction. BIS and qCON/qNOX electrodes were simultaneously placed on all patients prior to induction of anesthesia and were monitored throughout the case, along with other perioperative data, including patient response to noxious stimuli. All intraoperative decisions were made by the primary anesthesiologist without influence from qCON/qNOX. Student’s t-distribution, prediction probability (PK), and ANOVA were used to statistically compare the relative ability to detect nociceptive stimuli for each index. Twenty patients were included for the preliminary analysis. RESULTS: A comparison of overall intraoperative BIS, qCON and qNOX indices demonstrated no significant difference between the three measures (N=62, p> 0.05). Meanwhile, index values for qNOX (62±18) were significantly higher than those for BIS (46±14) and qCON (54±19) immediately preceding patient responses to nociceptive stimulation in a preliminary analysis (N=20, * p= 0.0408). Notably, certain hemodynamic measurements demonstrated a significant increase in response to painful stimuli (MAP increased from 74 ±13 mm Hg at baseline to 84 ± 18 mm Hg during noxious stimuli [p= 0.032] and HR from 76 ± 12 BPM at baseline to 80 ± 13 BPM during noxious stimuli [p=0.078] respectively). CONCLUSION: In this observational study, BIS and qCON/qNOX provided comparable information on patients’ level of sedation throughout the course of an anesthetic. Meanwhile, increases in qNOX values demonstrated a superior correlation to an imminent response to stimulation relative to all other indices

Keywords: antinociception, BIS, general anesthesia, LMA, qCON/qNOX

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Authors: Margareta Simina Stanc, Aurel Mototolea, Tiberiu Potarniche

Abstract:

Sacidava archeological site is located in Dobrudja region, Romania, on a hill on the right bank of the Danube - the Musait point, located at about 5 km north-east from Dunareni village. The place-name documents the fact that, prior to the Roman conquest, in the area, there was a Getic settlement. The location of the Sacidava was made possible by corroborating the data provided by the ancient sources with the epigraphic documents (the milial pillar during the time of Emperor Decius). The tegular findings attest that an infantry unit, cohors I Cilicum milliaria equitata, as well as detachments from Legio V Macedonica and Legio XI Claudia, were confined to Sacidava. During the period of the Dominion, the garrison of the fortification is the host of a cavalry unit: cuneus equitum scutariorum. In the immediate vicinity to the Roman fortress, to the east, were identified two other fortifications: a Getic settlement (4th-1st century B.C.) and an Early Medieval settlement (9th-10th century A.C.). The archaeological material recovered during the research is represented by ceramic forms such as amphoras, jugs, pots, cups, plates, to which are added oil lamps, some of them typologically new at the time of discovery. Local ceramic shapes were also founded, worked by hand or by wheel, considered un-Romanized or in the course of Romanization. During the time of the Principality, Sacidava it represented an important military outpost serving mainly the city of Tropaeum Traiani, controlling also the supply and transport on the Danube limes in the Moesic sector. This role will determine the development of the fortress and the appearance of extramuros civil structures, thus becoming an important landmark during the 5th-6th centuries A.C., becoming a representation of power of the Roman empire in an area of continuous conflict. During recent archaeological researches, faunal remains were recovered, and their analysis allowed to estimate the animal resources and subsistence practices (animal husbandry, hunting, fishing) in the settlement. The methodology was specific to archaeozoology, mainly consisting of anatomical, taxonomical, and taphonomical identifications, recording, and quantification of the data. The remains of domestic mammals have the highest proportion indicating the importance of animal husbandry; the predominant species are Bos taurus, Ovis aries/Capra hircus, and Sus domesticus. Fishing and hunting were of secondary importance in the subsistence economy of the community. Wild boar and the red deer were the most frequently hunted species. Just a few fish bones were recovered. Thus, the ancient city of Sacidava is proving to be an important element of cultural heritage of the south-eastern part of Romania, for whose conservation and enhancement efforts must be made, especially by landscape reconstruction.

Keywords: archaeozoology, landscape reconstruction, limes, military outpost

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