Search results for: central machine learning

Authors: Agnes J. Otjen, Sarah Keller

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A Montana university has used applied consumer research in experiential learning with non-profit clients for over a decade. Through trial and error, a successful protocol has been established from problem statement through formative research to integrated marketing campaign execution. In this paper, we describe the protocol and its applications. Analysis was completed to determine the effectiveness of the campaigns and the results of how pre- and post-consumer research mark societal change because of media.

Keywords: consumer, research, marketing, communications

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Authors: M. Shaheed Hartley

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Science and mathematics are regarded as gateway subjects in South Africa as they are the perceived route to careers in science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM). One of the biggest challenges that the country faces is the poor achievement of learners in these two learning areas in the external high school exit examination. To compound the problem many national and international benchmark tests paint a bleak picture of the state of science and mathematics in the country. In an attempt to address this challenge, the education department of the Eastern Cape Province invited the Science Learning Centre of the University of the Western Cape to provide training to their science teachers in the form of a structured course conducted on a part-time basis in 2010 and 2011. The course was directed at improving teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical strategies and practical and experimental skills. A total of 41 of the original 50 science teachers completed the course and received their certificates in 2012. As part of their continuous professional development, 31 science teachers enrolled for BEd Hons in science education in 2013 and 28 of them completed the course in 2014. These students graduated in 2015. Of the 28 BEd Hons students who completed the course 23 registered in 2015 for Masters in Science Education and were joined by an additional 3 students. This paper provides a reflection by science educators on the training, supervision and mentorship provided to them as students of science education. The growth and development of students through their own reflection and understanding as well as through the eyes of the lecturers and supervisors that took part in the training provide the evaluation of the professional development process over the past few years. This study attempts to identify the merits, challenges and limitations of this project and the lessons to be learnt on such projects. It also documents some of the useful performance indicators with a view to developing a framework for good practice for such programmes.

Keywords: reflection, science education, professional development, rural schools

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Authors: Antony Thomas Vanchipurrakkal

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Common property resource like fisheries is conserved and managed by fishermen with the help of Local Ecological Knowledge system. Various forms of Social and Ecological elements adapted to formularize management of Chakara fishery. This study tries for a better understanding of elements involved in fishery management in India, such traditional knowledge system practicing within the fishing communities for management and conservation of the marine resources. Participatory Rural Appraisal technique is applied to seize the traditional knowledge system in central Kerala coastal region, India. Socio-Ecological Analysis framework is used for the study. This paper discusses that traditional knowledge systems of chakara fishery and discloses need for inclusive governance system. The paper also discusses adaptation of different elements of the ecological, biological and institutional knowledge system in local ecological knowledge for sustain the fishery. A framework is formulized based on elements operating in chakara fishery management.

Keywords: common property, fisheries, India, local ecological knowledge, management

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Authors: Anita Kéri

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Higher education marketing has been a widely researched field in recent years. Due to the increasing competition among higher education institutions worldwide, it has become crucial to target foreign students with effective marketing tools. Online marketing tools became central to attracting, retaining, and satisfying the needs of foreign students. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to reveal how the online marketing tools of a Hungarian university are perceived visually by its first-year foreign students, with special emphasis on the university webpage content. Eye-camera tracking and retrospective think-aloud interviews were used to measure visual perceptions. Results show that freshmen students remember those online marketing content more that has familiar content on them. Pictures of real-life students and their experiences attract students’ attention more, and they also remember information on these webpage elements more, compared to designs with stock photos. This research is novel in the sense that it uses eye-camera tracking in the field of higher education marketing, thereby providing insight into the perception of online higher education marketing for foreign students.

Keywords: higher education, marketing, eye-camera, visual perceptions

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Authors: Vineet Gairola

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In many cultures, ethnographers have tried to set up a tight link between music and possession. However, they rarely informed us about the psychology of interactions between music and the possessed. Ancient myths and the archetypal find expression through the rituals practiced in Uttarakhand. In Uttarakhand (a part of the Central Himalayan region), an intriguing archetypal healing mechanism takes place. Some people get 'possessed' by a deity and shower blessings onto people gathered for a puja in a temple, where invocation of deity takes place through two archetypal drumming instruments played together named dhol-damaun. There is devi-doli (palanquin of the goddess) worship, which is carried on the shoulders of two people and is said to be tilting and shaking on its own. Archetypal in the modern mind survives effortlessly. The 'oceanic' of religious feelings are explored through an oral text of Dholsagar. The method of ethnography along with case-studies has been used. A substantial part of fieldwork was carried out in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand. The research suggests that the collective unconscious is also sonic in nature, which is characterized by sounds and rhythms—not only symbols and images, as Dr. Jung suggested.

Keywords: archetypal, music, myth, mysticism, possession, sonic collective unconscious

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Authors: Khaled Ibrahim, Mathew Parackal, Damien Mather, Paul Hansen

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The integration between marketing and technology has given brands unprecedented opportunities to reach accurate customer data and competence to change customers' behaviour. Technology has generated a transformation within brands from traditional branding to algorithmic branding. However, brands have utilised customer data in non-cognitive programmatic targeting. This algorithmic persuasion may be effective in reaching the targeted audience. But it may encounter a moral conflict simultaneously, as it might not consider our social principles. Moral branding is a critical topic; particularly, with the increasing interest in commercial settings to teaching machines human morals, e.g., autonomous vehicles and chatbots; however, it is understudied in the marketing literature. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the recent moral branding literature. Furthermore, applying human-like mind theory as initial framing to this paper explores a more comprehensive concept involving human morals, machine behaviour, and branding.

Keywords: brand machines, conceptual framework, moral branding, moral machines

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Authors: Ganetsou Evanthia, Koutsikos Emmanouil, Austin Anna Maria

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Information technology has long served the needs of individuals for learning and entertainment, but much less for children in sickness. The aim of the proposed online video game is to provide immersive learning opportunities as well as essential social and emotional scenarios for hospital-bound children with long-term illness. Online self-paced courses on chosen school subjects, including specialised software and multisensory assessments, aim at enhancing children’s academic achievement and sense of inclusion, while doctor minigames familiarise and educate young patients on their medical conditions. Online ethical dilemmas will offer children opportunities to contemplate on the importance of medical procedures and following assigned medication, often challenging for young patients; they will therefore reflect on their condition, reevaluate their perceptions about hospitalisation, and assume greater personal responsibility for their progress. Children’s emotional and psychosocial needs are addressed by engaging in social conventions, such as interactive, daily, collaborative mini games with other hospitalised peers, like virtual competitive sports games, weekly group psychodrama sessions, and online birthday parties or sleepovers. Social bonding is also fostered by having a virtual pet to interact with and take care of, as well as a virtual nurse to discuss and reflect on the mood of the day, engage in constructive dialogue and perspective taking, and offer reminders. Access to the platform will be available throughout the day depending on the patient’s health status. The program is designed to minimise escapism and feelings of exclusion, and can flexibly be adapted to offer post-treatment and a support online system at home.

Keywords: long-term illness, children, hospital, interactive games, cognitive, socioemotional development

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Authors: E. Calil, L. A. Pereira

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The acquisition of orthography is a complex process, involving both lexical and grammatical questions. This learning occurs simultaneously with the domain of multiple textual aspects (e.g.: graphs, punctuation, etc.). However, most of the research on orthographic acquisition focus on this acquisition from an autonomous point of view, separated from the process of textual production. This means that their object of analysis is the production of words selected by the researcher or the requested sentences in an experimental and controlled setting. In addition, the analysis of the Spelling Problems (SP) are identified by the researcher on the sheet of paper. Considering the perspective of Textual Genetics, from an enunciative approach, this study will discuss the SPs recognized by dyads of newly literate students, while they are writing a text collaboratively. Six proposals of textual production were registered, requested by a 2nd year teacher of a Portuguese Primary School between January and March 2015. In our case study we discuss the SPs recognized by the dyad B and L (7 years old). We adopted as a methodological tool the Ramos System audiovisual record. This system allows real-time capture of the text in process and of the face-to-face dialogue between both students and their teacher, and also captures the body movements and facial expressions of the participants during textual production proposals in the classroom. In these ecological conditions of multimodal registration of collaborative writing, we could identify the emergence of SP in two dimensions: i. In the product (finished text): SP identification without recursive graphic marks (without erasures) and the identification of SPs with erasures, indicating the recognition of SP by the student; ii. In the process (text in progress): identification of comments made by students about recognized SPs. Given this, we’ve analyzed the comments on identified SPs during the text in progress. These comments characterize a type of reformulation referred to as Commented Oral Erasure (COE). The COE has two enunciative forms: Simple Comment (SC) such as ' 'X' is written with 'Y' '; or Unfolded Comment (UC), such as ' 'X' is written with 'Y' because...'. The spelling COE may also occur before or during the SP (Early Spelling Recognition - ESR) or after the SP has been entered (Later Spelling Recognition - LSR). There were 631 words entered in the 6 stories written by the B-L dyad, 145 of them containing some type of SP. During the text in progress, the students recognized orally 174 SP, 46 of which were identified in advance (ESRs) and 128 were identified later (LSPs). If we consider that the 88 erasure SPs in the product indicate some form of SP recognition, we can observe that there were twice as many SPs recognized orally. The ESR was characterized by SC when students asked their colleague or teacher how to spell a given word. The LSR presented predominantly UC, verbalizing meta-orthographic arguments, mostly made by L. These results indicate that writing in dyad is an important didactic strategy for the promotion of metalinguistic reflection, favoring the learning of spelling.

Keywords: collaborative writing, erasure, learning, metalinguistic awareness, spelling, text production

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Authors: Onesmus Nyaude

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The aim of the study was to investigate participants’ views on how corruption can be combated to enhance learner academic achievement. The study was undertaken on three select public secondary institutions in Zimbabwe. This study also focuses on exploring the various views of educators; parents and the learners on the role played by corruption in perpetuating the seemingly existing learner academic achievement disparities in various educational institutions. The study further interrogates and examines the nexus between the prevalence of corruption in schools and the subsequent influence on the academic achievement of learners. Corruption is considered a form of social injustice; hence in Zimbabwe, the general consensus is that it is perceived rife to the extent that it is overtaking the traditional factors that contributed to the poor academic achievement of learners. Coupled to this, have been the issue of gross abuse of power and some malpractices emanating from concealment of essential and official transactions in the conduct of business. Through proposing robust anti-corruption mechanisms, teaching and learning resources poured in schools would be put into good use. This would prevent the unlawful diversion and misappropriation of the resources in question which has always been the culture. This study is of paramount significance to curriculum planners, teachers, parents, and learners. The study was informed by the interpretive paradigm; thus qualitative research approaches were used. Both probability and non-probability sampling techniques were adopted in ‘site and participants’ selection. A representative sample of (150) participants was used. The study found that the majority of the participants perceived corruption as a social problem and a human right threat affecting the quality of teaching and learning processes in the education sector. It was established that corruption prevalence within institutions is as a result of the perpetual weakening of ethical values and other variables linked to upholding of ‘Ubuntu’ among general citizenry. It was further established that greediness and weak systems are major causes of rampant corruption within institutions of higher learning and are manifesting through abuse of power, bribery, misappropriation and embezzlement of material and financial resources. Therefore, there is great need to collectively address the problem of corruption in educational institutions and society at large. The study additionally concludes that successful combating of corruption will promote successful moral development of students as well as safeguarding their human rights entitlements. The study recommends the adoption of principles of good corporate governance within educational institutions in order to successfully curb corruption. The study further recommends the intensification of interventionist strategies and strengthening of systems in educational institutions as well as regular audits to overcome the problem associated with rampant corruption cases.

Keywords: academic achievement, combating, corruption, good corporate governance, qualitative study

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Authors: Neha Narayanan

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The paper tries to explore the role of language in determining spaces occupied by women in everyday lives. It is inspired from an ongoing action research work which employs ‘immersion’- arriving at a research problematic through community research, as a methodology in a Kondh adivasi village, Kirkalpadu located in Rayagada district of the Indian state of Odisha. In the dominant development discourse, language is associated with either preservation or conservation of endangered language or empowerment through language. Beyond these, is the discourse of language as a structure, with the hegemonic quality to organise lifeworld in a specific manner. This rigid structure leads to an experience of constriction of space for women. In Kirkalpadu, the action research work is with young and unmarried women of the age 15-25. During daytime, these women are either in the agricultural field or in the bari -the backyard of the house whose rooms are linearly arranged one after the other ending with the kitchen followed by an open space called bari (in Odia) which is an intimate and gendered space- where they are not easily visible. They justify the experience of restriction in mobility and fear of moving out of the village alone by the argument that the place and the men are nihi-aaeh (not good). These women, who have dropped out of school early to contribute to the (surplus) labour requirement in the household, want to learn English to be able to read signboards when they are on the road, to be able to fill forms at a bank and use mobile phones to communicate with their romantic partner(s). But the incapacity to have within one’s grasp the province of language and the incapacity to take the mobile phone to the kind of requirements marked by the above mentioned impossible transactions with space restricts them to the bari of the house. The paper concludes by seeking to explore the possibilities of learning and rethinking languages which takes into cognizance the gendered experience of women and the desire of women to cross the borders and occupy spaces restricted to them.

Keywords: action research, gendered experience, language, space

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Authors: Saeko Toyoshima

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This research will discuss if performance tasks with technology would enhance students' willingness to communicate. The present study investigated how Japanese learners of English would change their attitude to communication in their target language by experiencing a performance task, called 'digital portfolio', in the classroom, applying the concepts of action research. The study adapted questionnaires including four-Likert and open-end questions as mixed-methods research. There were 28 students in the class. Many of Japanese university students with low proficiency (A1 in Common European Framework of References in Language Learning and Teaching) have difficulty in communicating in English due to the low proficiency and the lack of practice in and outside of the classroom at secondary education. They should need to mediate between themselves in the world of L1 and L2 with completing a performance task for communication. This paper will introduce the practice of CALL class where A1 level students have made their 'digital portfolio' related to the topics of TED® (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talk materials. The students had 'Portfolio Session' twice in one term, once in the middle, and once at the end of the course, where they introduced their portfolio to their classmates and international students in English. The present study asked the students to answer a questionnaire about willingness to communicate twice, once at the end of the first term and once at the end of the second term. The four-Likert questions were statistically analyzed with a t-test, and the answers to open-end questions were analyzed to clarify the difference between them. They showed that the students had a more positive attitude to communication in English and enhanced their willingness to communicate through the experiences of the task. It will be the implication of this paper that making and presenting portfolio as a performance task would lead them to construct themselves in English and enable them to communicate with the others enjoyably and autonomously.

Keywords: action research, digital portfoliio, computer-assisted language learning, ELT with CALL system, mixed methods research, Japanese English learners, willingness to communicate

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Authors: Jawaher A. Alsultan, Allen Feldman

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With the rapid switch to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, science teachers were suddenly required to teach their classes online. This breakneck shift to eLearning raised the question of how teacher educators could support science teachers who wanted to use reform-based methods of instruction while using virtual technologies. In this retrospective self-study, we, two science teacher educators, examined our practice as we worked with science teachers to implement inquiry, discussion, and argumentation [IDA] through eLearning. Ten high school science teachers from a large school district in the southeastern US participated virtually in the COVID-19 Community of Practice [COVID-19 CoP]. The CoP met six times from the end of April through May 2020 via Zoom. Its structure was based on a model of action research called enhanced normal practice [ENP], which includes exchanging stories, trying out ideas, and systematic inquiry. Data sources included teacher educators' meeting notes and reflective conversations, audio recordings of the CoP meetings, teachers' products, and post-interviews of the teachers. Findings included a new understanding of the role of existing relationships, shared goals, and similarities in the participants' situations, which helped build trust in the CoP, and the effects of our paying attention to the science teachers’ needs led to a well-functioning CoP. In addition, we became aware of the gaps in our knowledge of how the teachers already used apps in their practice, which they then shared with all of us about how they could be used for online teaching using IDA. We also identified the need to pay attention to feelings about tensions between the teachers and us around the expectations for final products and the project's primary goals. We found that if we are to establish relationships between us as facilitators and teachers that are honest, fair, and kind, we must express those feelings within the collective, dialogical processes that can lead to learning by all members of the CoP, whether virtual or face-to-face.

Keywords: community of practice, facilitators, self-study, action research

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Authors: Hari K. Adhikari, Keshab Sharma, K. C. Apil

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The Gorkha Nepal earthquake of moment magnitude (Mw) 7.8 hit the central region of Nepal on April 25, 2015; with the epicenter about 77 km northwest of Kathmandu Valley. This paper aims to explore challenges of reconstruction in the rural earthquake-stricken areas of Nepal. The Gorkha earthquake on April 25, 2015, has significantly affected the livelihood of people and overall economy in Nepal, causing severe damage and destruction in central Nepal including nation’s capital. A larger part of the earthquake affected area is difficult to access with rugged terrain and scattered settlements, which posed unique challenges and efforts on a massive scale reconstruction and rehabilitation. 800 thousand buildings were affected leaving 8 million people homeless. Challenge of reconstruction of optimum 800 thousand houses is arduous for Nepal in the background of its turmoil political scenario and weak governance. With significant actors involved in the reconstruction process, no appreciable relief has reached to the ground, which is reflected over the frustration of affected people. The 2015 Gorkha earthquake is one of most devastating disasters in the modern history of Nepal. Best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive study on reconstruction after disasters in modern Nepal, which integrates the necessary information to deal with challenges and opportunities of reconstructions. The study was conducted using qualitative content analysis method. Thirty engineers and ten social mobilizes working for reconstruction and more than hundreds local social workers, local party leaders, and earthquake victims were selected arbitrarily. Information was collected through semi-structured interviews and open-ended questions, focus group discussions, and field notes, with no previous assumption. Author also reviewed literature and document reviews covering academic and practitioner studies on challenges of reconstruction after earthquake in developing countries such as 2001 Gujarat earthquake, 2005 Kashmir earthquake, 2003 Bam earthquake and 2010 Haiti earthquake; which have very similar building typologies, economic, political, geographical, and geological conditions with Nepal. Secondary data was collected from reports, action plans, and reflection papers of governmental entities, non-governmental organizations, private sector businesses, and the online news. This study concludes that inaccessibility, absence of local government, weak governance, weak infrastructures, lack of preparedness, knowledge gap and manpower shortage, etc. are the key challenges of the reconstruction after 2015 earthquake in Nepal. After scrutinizing different challenges and issues, study counsels that good governance, integrated information, addressing technical issues, public participation along with short term and long term strategies to tackle with technical issues are some crucial factors for timely and quality reconstruction in context of Nepal. Sample collected for this study is relatively small sample size and may not be fully representative of the stakeholders involved in reconstruction. However, the key findings of this study are ones that need to be recognized by academics, governments, and implementation agencies, and considered in the implementation of post-disaster reconstruction program in developing countries.

Keywords: Gorkha earthquake, reconstruction, challenges, policy

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Authors: Ritvik Chauhan, Vijay Kumar Baraik

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Women are most vulnerable to crime despite occupying central position in shaping a society as the first teacher of children. In India too, having equal rights and constitutional safeguards, the incidences of crime against them are large and grave. In this context of crime against women, especially rape has been increasing over time. This paper explores the spatial and temporal aspects of crime against women in India with special reference to rape. It also examines the crime against women with its spatial, socio-economic and demographic associates using related data obtained from the National Crime Records Bureau India, Indian Census and other government sources of the Government of India. The simple statistical, choropleth mapping and other cartographic representation methods have been used to see the crime rates, spatio-temporal patterns of crime, and association of crime with its correlates.  The major findings are visible spatial variations across the country and are also in the rising trends in terms of incidence and rates over the reference period. The study also indicates that the geographical associations are somewhat observed. However, selected indicators of socio-economic factors seem to have no significant bearing on crime against women at this level.

Keywords: crime against women, crime mapping, trend analysis, society

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Authors: Usama Mohamed Ahamed

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This research deals with the bond behavior of carbon FRP composite wraps adhered/bonded to the surface of the concrete. Four concrete mixes were designed to achieve a concrete compressive strength of 18, 22.5,25 and 30 MP after 28 days of curing. The focus of the study is on bond degradation when the hybrid structure is exposed to hot weather conditions. Specimens were exposed to 50 0C temperature duration 6 months and other specimens were sustained in laboratory temperature ( 20-24) 0C. Upon removing the specimens from their conditioning environment, tension tests were performed in the machine using a specially manufactured concrete cube holder. A lightweight mortar layer is used to protect the bonded carbon FRP layer on the concrete surface. The results show that the higher the concrete's compressive, the higher the bond strength. The high temperature decreases the bond strength between concrete and carbon fiber-reinforced polymer. The use of a protection layer is essential for concrete exposed to hot weather.

Keywords: concrete, bond, hot weather and carbon fiber, carbon fiber reinforced polymers

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Authors: Alaina Caulkett, Audra Selkowitz, Lauren Harter, Aimee DeFoe

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Educational robotics is an effective tool for teaching and learning STEM curricula. Yet, most traditional professional development programs do not cover engineering, coding, or robotics. This paper will give an overview of how and why the VEX Professional Development Plus Introductory Training courses were developed to provide guided, simple professional development in the area of robotics and computer science instruction. These training courses guide educators through learning the basics of VEX robotics platforms, including VEX 123, GO, IQ, and EXP. Because many educators do not have experience teaching robotics or computer science, this course is meant to simulate one on one training or tutoring through video-based instruction. These videos, led by education professionals, can be watched at any time, which allows educators to watch at their own pace and create their own personalized professional development timeline. This personalization expands beyond the course itself into an online community where educators at different points in the self-paced course can converse with one another or with instructors from the videos and learn from a growing community of practice. By the end of each course, educators are armed with the skills to introduce robotics or computer science in their classroom or educational setting. The design of the course was guided by a variation of the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework and included hands-on activities and challenges to keep educators engaged and excited about robotics. Some of the concepts covered include, but are not limited to, following build instructions, building a robot, updating firmware, coding the robot to drive and turn autonomously, coding a robot using multiple methods, and considerations for teaching robotics and computer science in the classroom, and more. A secondary goal of this research is to discuss how this professional development approach can serve as an example in the larger educational community and explore ways that it could be further researched or used in the future.

Keywords: computer science education, online professional development, professional development, robotics education, video-based instruction

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Authors: Silvia C. Ambag, Racidon P. Bernarte, Jacquelyn B. Buccahi, Jessica R. Lacaron, Charlyn L. Mangulabnan

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This study aimed to answer the query, “What is the impact of Students Online Evaluation on PUP Faculty’s Performance?” The problem of the study was resolve through the objective of knowing the perceived impact of students’ online evaluation on PUP faculty’s performance. The objectives were carried through the application of quantitative research design and by conducting survey research method. The researchers utilized primary and secondary data. Primary data was gathered from the self-administered survey and secondary data was collected from the books, articles on both print-out and online materials and also other theses related study. Findings revealed that PUP faculty in general stated that students’ online evaluation made a highly positive impact on their performance based on their ‘Knowledge of Subject’ and ‘Teaching for Independent Learning’, giving a highest mean of 3.62 and 3.60 respectively., followed by the faculty’s performance which gained an overall means of 3.55 and 3.53 are based on their ‘Commitment’ and ‘Management of Learning’. From the findings, the researchers concluded that Students’ online evaluation made a ‘Highly Positive’ impact on PUP faculty’s performance based on all Four (4) areas. Furthermore, the study’s findings reveal that PUP faculty encountered many problems regarding the students’ online evaluation; the impact of the Students’ Online Evaluation is significant when it comes to the employment status of the faculty; and most of the PUP faculty recommends reviewing the PUP Online Survey for Faculty Evaluation for improvement. Hence, the researchers recommend the PUP Administration to revisit and revise the PUP Online Survey for Faculty Evaluation, specifically review the questions and make a set of questions that will be appropriate to the discipline or field of the faculty. Also, the administration should fully orient the students about the importance, purpose and impact of online faculty evaluation. And lastly, the researchers suggest the PUP Faculty to continue their positive performance and continue on being cooperative with the administrations’ purpose of addressing the students’ concerns and for the students, the researchers urged them to take the online faculty evaluation honestly and objectively.

Keywords: on-line Evaluation, faculty, performance, Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)

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Authors: Yogesh Shukla

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Many attempts have been made to study temperature distribution problem in human tissues under normal environmental and physiological conditions at constant arterial blood temperature. But very few attempts have been made to investigate temperature distribution in human tissues under different arterial blood temperature. In view of above, a finite element model has been developed to unsteady temperature distribution in dermal region in human body. The model has been developed for one dimension unsteady state case. The variation in parameters like thermal conductivity, blood mass flow and metabolic activity with respect to position and time has been incorporated in the model. Appropriate boundary conditions have been framed. The central difference approach has been used in space variable and trapezoidal rule has been employed a long time variable. Numerical results have been obtained to study relationship among temperature and time.

Keywords: rate of metabolism, blood mass flow rate, thermal conductivity, heat generation, finite element method

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Authors: Prashanth Pillai, Purnaprajna Mangsuli

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Oil exploration and production companies invest considerable time and efforts to extract essential well attributes (like well status, surface, and target coordinates, wellbore depths, event timelines, etc.) from unstructured data sources like technical reports, which are often non-standardized, multimodal, and highly domain-specific by nature. It is also important to consider the context when extracting attribute values from reports that contain information on multiple wells/wellbores. Moreover, semantically similar information may often be depicted in different data syntax representations across multiple pages and document sources. We propose a hierarchical multi-source fact extraction workflow based on a deep learning framework to extract essential well attributes at scale. An information retrieval module based on the transformer architecture was used to rank relevant pages in a document source utilizing the page image embeddings and semantic text embeddings. A question answering framework utilizingLayoutLM transformer was used to extract attribute-value pairs incorporating the text semantics and layout information from top relevant pages in a document. To better handle context while dealing with multi-well reports, we incorporate a dynamic query generation module to resolve ambiguities. The extracted attribute information from various pages and documents are standardized to a common representation using a parser module to facilitate information comparison and aggregation. Finally, we use a probabilistic approach to fuse information extracted from multiple sources into a coherent well record. The applicability of the proposed approach and related performance was studied on several real-life well technical reports.

Keywords: natural language processing, deep learning, transformers, information retrieval

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Authors: Ruslan Salmurzauli, Sabir Nurtazin, Buho Hoshino, Niels Thevs, A. B. Yeszhanov, Aiman Imentai

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This article presents the results of a research on the transformation of the diverse ecosystems of the Ili delta during the period 1979-2014 based on the analysis of the hydrological regime dynamics, weather conditions and satellite images. Conclusions have been drawn on the decisive importance of the water runoff of the Ili River in the negative changes and environmental degradation in delta areas over the past forty-five years. The increase of water consumption in the Chinese and Kazakhstan parts of the Ili-Balkhash basin caused desiccation and desertification of many hydromorphic delta ecosystems and the reduction of water flow into Lake Balkhash. We demonstrate that a significant reduction of watering of the delta areas could drastically accelerate the aridization and degradation of the hydromorphic ecosystems. Under runoff decrease, a transformation process of the delta ecosystems begins from the head part and gradually spread northward to the periphery of the delta. The desertification is most clearly expressed in the central and western parts of the delta areas.

Keywords: Ili-Balkhash basin, Ili river delta, runoff, hydrological regime, transformation of ecosystems, remote sensing

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Authors: Giselle Martinez Negrette

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Language and culture mutually shape and reflect the human experience. In the learning process, this connection creates and sustains the shared world of learners and educators. Dual Language (DL) programs exemplify this relationship by placing language and culture at the center of their educational approach. These programs, originally conceived to advance social justice in education, aim to foster bilingualism, biliteracy, academic development and sociocultural competence, emphasizing the inseparability of linguistic and cultural growth. Furthermore, because DL programs serve children from diverse cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, they operate as spaces where linguistic skills and sociocultural understandings are actively cultivated, negotiated, and celebrated. Against this background, this paper examines how two DL teachers see language and culture shaping and reflecting the educational experience, and how their understandings of the relationship influence their mediation of sociocultural competence in their classrooms. This qualitative study employs critical discourse analysis to study in detail participants’ narratives seeking to uncover their perspectives on the “politics” surrounding language use and cultural understandings in their school contexts. Our findings show that these educators are not only keenly aware of the pivotal role that language and culture play in multilingual students’ learning journeys, but they have identified the sociolinguistic “games” taking place in their classrooms. We contend these understandings are pivotal for the critical development of sociocultural competence in DL programs. This study provides DL educators with important conceptual and pedagogical insights regarding the intersection between language and culture in their classrooms and seeks to encourage them to analyze their roles as supporters or opponents of transformative rupture opportunities to contest inequities in education

Keywords: sociocultural competence, critical discourse analysis, dual language programs, language, culture

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Authors: Amin Mojiri, Hamidi Abdul Aziz

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Leachate is created while water penetrates through the waste in a landfill, carrying some forms of pollutants. In literature, for treatment of wastewater and leachate, different ways of biological treatment were used. Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is a kind of biological treatment. This study investigated the co-treatment of landfill leachate and domestic waste water by SBR and powdered activated carbon augmented (PAC) SBR process. The response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite design (CCD) were employed. The independent variables were aeration rate (L/min), contact time (h), and the ratio of leachate to wastewater mixture (%; v/v)). To perform an adequate analysis of the aerobic process, three dependent parameters, i.e. COD, color, and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N or NH4-N) were measured as responses. The findings of the study indicated that the PAC-SBR showed a higher performance in elimination of certain pollutants, in comparison with SBR. With the optimal conditions of aeration rate (0.6 L/min), leachate to waste water ratio (20%), and contact time (10.8 h) for the PAC-SBR, the removal efficiencies for color, NH3-N, and COD were 72.8%, 98.5%, and 65.2%, respectively.

Keywords: co-treatment, landfill Leachate, wastewater, sequencing batch reactor, activate carbon

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Authors: Ritesh Joshi, Kishan Fuse, Gopal Zinzala, Nishit Nirmal

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Ti-6Al-4V is a titanium alloy having high strength, low weight and corrosion resistant which is a required characteristic for a material to be used in aerospace industry. Titanium, being a hard alloy is difficult to the machine via conventional methods, so it is a call to use non-conventional processes. In present work, the effects on Ti-6Al-4V by drilling a hole of Ø 6 mm using copper (99%) electrode in Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) process is analyzed. Effect of various input parameters like peak current, pulse-on time and pulse-off time on output parameters viz material removal rate (MRR) and electrode wear rate (EWR) is studied. Multi-objective optimization technique Grey relational analysis is used for process optimization. Experiments are designed using an L9 orthogonal array. ANOVA is used for finding most contributing parameter followed by confirmation tests for validating the results. Improvement of 7.45% in gray relational grade is observed.

Keywords: ANOVA, electric discharge machining, grey relational analysis, Ti-6Al-4V

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Authors: A. Martins, I. Martins, O. Pereira

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The purpose of this research is to focus on the importance of distributed leadership in universities and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The research question is whether there a significant finding in self-reported ratings of leadership styles of those respondents that are studying management. The study aims to further discover whether students are encouraged to become responsible and proactive citizens, to develop their skills set, specifically shared leadership and higher-level skills to inspire creation knowledge, sharing and distribution thereof. Contemporary organizations need active and responsible individuals who are capable to make decisions swiftly and responsibly. Leadership influences innovative results and education play a dynamic role in preparing graduates. Critical reflection of extant literature indicates a need for a culture of leadership and innovation to promote organizational sustainability in the globalised world. This study debates the need for HEIs to prepare the graduate for both organizations and society as a whole. This active collaboration should be the very essence of both universities and the industry in order for these to achieve responsible sustainability. Learning and innovation further depend on leadership efficacy. This study follows the pragmatic paradigm methodology. Primary data collection is currently being gathered via the web-based questionnaire link which was made available on the UKZN notice system. The questionnaire has 35 items with a Likert scale of five response options. The purposeful sample method was used, and the population entails the undergraduate and postgraduate students in the College of Law and Business, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Limitations include the design of the study and the reliance on the quantitative data as the only method of primary data collection. This study is of added value for scholars and organizations in the innovation economy.

Keywords: knowledge creation, learning, performance, sustainability

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Authors: Onan Kilicaslan, Anil Kabaklarli, Levent Subasi, Erdem Bektas, Rifat Yilmaz

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The Aluminum-Copper casting alloys are well known for their high mechanical strength, especially when compared to more commonly used Aluminum-Silicon alloys. A201 is one of the best in terms of strength vs. weight ratio among other aluminum alloys, which makes it suitable for premium quality casting applications in aerospace and automotive industries. It is reported that A201 has low castability, but it is easy to machine. However, there is a need to specifically determine the process window for feasible machining. This research investigates the machinability of A201 alloy after T7 heat treatment in terms of chip/burr formation, surface roughness, hardness, and microstructure. The samples are cast with low-pressure sand casting method and milling experiments are performed with uncoated carbide tools using different cutting speeds and feeds. Statistical analysis is used to correlate the machining parameters to surface integrity. It is found that there is a strong dependence of the cutting conditions on machinability and a process window is determined.

Keywords: A201-T7, machinability, milling, surface integrity

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Authors: Lynn Mcquarrie, Charlotte Enns

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The goal of this project was to develop a visually-based, signed language phonological awareness training program and to pilot the intervention with signing deaf children (ages 6 -10 years/ grades 1 - 4) who were beginning readers to assess the effects of systematic explicit American Sign Language (ASL) phonological instruction on both ASL vocabulary and English print vocabulary learning. Growing evidence that signing learners utilize visually-based signed language phonological knowledge (homologous to the sound-based phonological level of spoken language processing) when reading underscore the critical need for further research on the innovation of reading instructional practices for visual language learners. Multiple single-case studies using a multiple probe design across content (i.e., sign and print targets incorporating specific ASL phonological parameters – handshapes) was implemented to examine if a functional relationship existed between instruction and acquisition of these skills. The results indicated that for all cases, representing a variety of language abilities, the visually-based phonological teaching approach was exceptionally powerful in helping children to build their sign and print vocabularies. Although intervention/teaching studies have been essential in testing hypotheses about spoken language phonological processes supporting non-deaf children’s reading development, there are no parallel intervention/teaching studies exploring hypotheses about signed language phonological processes in supporting deaf children’s reading development. This study begins to provide the needed evidence to pursue innovative teaching strategies that incorporate the strengths of visual learners.

Keywords: American sign language phonological awareness, dual language strategies, vocabulary learning, word reading

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Authors: Ho-Won Jung, Donghun Lee, Hyung-Jin Kim

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Predictive analytics (data analysis) uses a subset of measurements (the features, predictor, or independent variable) to predict another measurement (the outcome, target, or dependent variable) on a single person or unit. It applies empirical methods in statistics, operations research, and machine learning to predict the future, or otherwise unknown events or outcome on a single or person or unit, based on patterns in data. Most analyses of metabolic syndrome are not predictive analytics but statistical explanatory studies that build a proposed model (theory building) and then validate metabolic syndrome predictors hypothesized (theory testing). A proposed theoretical model forms with causal hypotheses that specify how and why certain empirical phenomena occur. Predictive analytics and explanatory modeling have their own territories in analysis. However, predictive analytics can perform vital roles in explanatory studies, i.e., scientific activities such as theory building, theory testing, and relevance assessment. In the context, this study is to demonstrate how to use our predictive analytics to support theory building (i.e., hypothesis generation). For the purpose, this study utilized a big data predictive analytics platform TM based on a co-occurrence graph. The co-occurrence graph is depicted with nodes (e.g., items in a basket) and arcs (direct connections between two nodes), where items in a basket are fully connected. A cluster is a collection of fully connected items, where the specific group of items has co-occurred in several rows in a data set. Clusters can be ranked using importance metrics, such as node size (number of items), frequency, surprise (observed frequency vs. expected), among others. The size of a graph can be represented by the numbers of nodes and arcs. Since the size of a co-occurrence graph does not depend directly on the number of observations (transactions), huge amounts of transactions can be represented and processed efficiently. For a demonstration, a total of 13,254 metabolic syndrome training data is plugged into the analytics platform to generate rules (potential hypotheses). Each observation includes 31 predictors, for example, associated with sociodemographic, habits, and activities. Some are intentionally included to get predictive analytics insights on variable selection such as cancer examination, house type, and vaccination. The platform automatically generates plausible hypotheses (rules) without statistical modeling. Then the rules are validated with an external testing dataset including 4,090 observations. Results as a kind of inductive reasoning show potential hypotheses extracted as a set of association rules. Most statistical models generate just one estimated equation. On the other hand, a set of rules (many estimated equations from a statistical perspective) in this study may imply heterogeneity in a population (i.e., different subpopulations with unique features are aggregated). Next step of theory development, i.e., theory testing, statistically tests whether a proposed theoretical model is a plausible explanation of a phenomenon interested in. If hypotheses generated are tested statistically with several thousand observations, most of the variables will become significant as the p-values approach zero. Thus, theory validation needs statistical methods utilizing a part of observations such as bootstrap resampling with an appropriate sample size.

Keywords: explanatory modeling, metabolic syndrome, predictive analytics, theory building

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Authors: D. Madhushanka, Y. Liu, H. C. Fernando

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Fires are one of the foremost factors of land surface disturbance in diverse ecosystems, causing soil erosion and land-cover changes and atmospheric effects affecting people's lives and properties. Generally, the severity of the fire is calculated as the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) index. This is performed manually by comparing two images obtained afterward. Then by using the bitemporal difference of the preprocessed satellite images, the dNBR is calculated. The burnt area is then classified as either unburnt (dNBR<0.1) or burnt (dNBR>= 0.1). Furthermore, Wildfire Severity Assessment (WSA) classifies burnt areas and unburnt areas using classification levels proposed by USGS and comprises seven classes. This procedure generates a burn severity report for the area chosen by the user manually. This study is carried out with the objective of producing an automated tool for the above-mentioned process, namely the World Wildfire Severity Assessment Tool (WWSAT). It is implemented in Google Earth Engine (GEE), which is a free cloud-computing platform for satellite data processing, with several data catalogs at different resolutions (notably Landsat, Sentinel-2, and MODIS) and planetary-scale analysis capabilities. Sentinel-2 MSI is chosen to obtain regular processes related to burnt area severity mapping using a medium spatial resolution sensor (15m). This tool uses machine learning classification techniques to identify burnt areas using NBR and to classify their severity over the user-selected extent and period automatically. Cloud coverage is one of the biggest concerns when fire severity mapping is performed. In WWSAT based on GEE, we present a fully automatic workflow to aggregate cloud-free Sentinel-2 images for both pre-fire and post-fire image compositing. The parallel processing capabilities and preloaded geospatial datasets of GEE facilitated the production of this tool. This tool consists of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to make it user-friendly. The advantage of this tool is the ability to obtain burn area severity over a large extent and more extended temporal periods. Two case studies were carried out to demonstrate the performance of this tool. The Blue Mountain national park forest affected by the Australian fire season between 2019 and 2020 is used to describe the workflow of the WWSAT. This site detected more than 7809 km2, using Sentinel-2 data, giving an error below 6.5% when compared with the area detected on the field. Furthermore, 86.77% of the detected area was recognized as fully burnt out, of which high severity (17.29%), moderate-high severity (19.63%), moderate-low severity (22.35%), and low severity (27.51%). The Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest Park, California, the USA, which is affected by the Cameron peak fire in 2020, is chosen for the second case study. It was found that around 983 km2 had burned out, of which high severity (2.73%), moderate-high severity (1.57%), moderate-low severity (1.18%), and low severity (5.45%). These spots also can be detected through the visual inspection made possible by cloud-free images generated by WWSAT. This tool is cost-effective in calculating the burnt area since satellite images are free and the cost of field surveys is avoided.

Keywords: burnt area, burnt severity, fires, google earth engine (GEE), sentinel-2

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Authors: Muhammad Hanif Amiri, Edris Sadeqy, Ahmad Freed Osman

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International Conference on Architectural Engineering and Skyscraper (ICAES 2016) on January 18 - 19, 2016 is aimed to exchange new ideas and application experiences face to face, to establish business or research relations and to find global partners for future collaboration. Therefore, we are very keen to participate and share our issues in order to get valuable feedbacks of the conference participants. Urbanization is a controversial issue all around the world. Substandard and unplanned urbanization has many implications on a social, cultural and economic situation of population life. Unplanned and illegal construction has become a critical issue in Afghanistan particularly Kabul city. In addition, lack of municipal bylaws, poor municipal governance, lack of development policies and strategies, budget limitation, low professional capacity of ainvolved private sector in development and poor coordination among stakeholders are the other factors which made the problem more complicated. The main purpose of this research paper is to review urbanization pattern of Kabul city and find out the improvement solutions and to evaluate the increasing of population density which caused vast illegal and unplanned development which finally converts the Kabul city to a slam area as the whole. The Kabul city Master Plan was reviewed in the year 1978 and revised for the planned 2million population. In 2001, the interim administration took place and the city became influx of returnees from neighbor countries and other provinces of Afghanistan mostly for the purpose of employment opportunities, security and better quality of life, therefore, Kabul faced with strange population growth. According to Central Statistics Organization of Afghanistan population of Kabul has been estimated approx. 5 million (2015), however a new Master Plan has been prepared in 2009, but the existing challenges have not been dissolved yet. On the other hand, 70% of Kabul population is living in unplanned (slam) area and facing the shortage of drinking water, inexistence of sewerage and drainage network, inexistence of proper management system for solid waste collection, lack of public transportation and traffic management, environmental degradation and the shortage of social infrastructure. Although there are many problems in Kabul city, but still the development of 22 townships are in progress which caused the great attraction of population. The research is completed with a detailed analysis on four main issues such as elimination of duplicated administrations, Development of regions, Rehabilitation and improvement of infrastructure, and prevention of new townships establishment in Kabul Central Core in order to mitigate the problems and constraints which are the foundation and principal to find the point of departure for an objective based future development of Kabul city. The closure has been defined to reflect the stage-wise development in light of prepared policy and strategies, development of a procedure for the improvement of infrastructure, conducting a preliminary EIA, defining scope of stakeholder’s contribution and preparation of project list for initial development. In conclusion this paper will help the transformation of Kabul city.

Keywords: development of regions, illegal construction, population density, urbanization pattern

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Authors: Suzy Pereira, Alberto Rocha, Ana Almeida, Catarina Figueiredo, Helena Fonseca, Leonor Moreira, Carla Blum Vestena, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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The socio-educational support to parents, through parental education intervention programs, is part of European social policies, aiming to respond to the needs of education, promotion of well-being and development of children and young people. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of the Positive Parenting Program on the subjective well-being of the parents of gifted children. The Positive Parenting Program is authored and is conducted by the National Association of Study and Intervention in Giftedness, Portuguese Association. The central question to be explored in this research is: Does the promotion of positive parenting in parents of gifted children have a positive impact on the subjective well-being? The sample consisted of 30 parents, non-probabilistic sampling of convenience, of which 15 parents belong to the intervention group and the rest to the control group. One dimension will be evaluated - subjective well-being, through the PANAS questionnaire - before and after the sessions of this program. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of the process and results of the positive parenting program in parents of gifted children.

Keywords: positive parenting, subjective well-being, giftedness, parental education intervention programs

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