Search results for: minority forms of information processing

Authors: Muhammad Khairi bin Sulaiman

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The utilization of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the construction industry has provided an opportunity for designers in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry to proceed from the conventional method of using manual drafting to a way that creates alternative designs quickly, produces more accurate, reliable and consistent outputs. By using BIM Software, designers can create digital content that manipulates the use of data using the parametric model of BIM. With BIM software, more alternative designs can be created quickly and design problems can be explored further to produce a better design faster than conventional design methods. Generally, BIM is used as a documentation mechanism and has not been fully explored and utilised its capabilities as a design tool. Relative to the current issue, Modular Coordination (MC) design as a sustainable design practice is encouraged since MC design will reduce material wastage through standard dimensioning, pre-fabrication, repetitive, modular construction and components. However, MC design involves a complex process of rules and dimensions. Therefore, a tool is needed to make this process easier. Since the parameters in BIM can easily be manipulated to follow MC rules and dimensioning, thus, the integration of BIM software with MC design is proposed for architects during the design stage. With this tool, there will be an improvement in acceptance and practice in the application of MC design effectively. Consequently, this study will analyse and explore the function and customization of BIM objects and the capability of BIM software to expedite the application of MC design during the design stage for architects. With this application, architects will be able to create building models and locate objects within reference modular grids that adhere to MC rules and dimensions. The parametric modeling capabilities of BIM will also act as a visual tool that will further enhance the automation of the 3-Dimensional space planning modeling process. (Method) The study will first analyze and explore the parametric modeling capabilities of rule-based BIM objects, which eventually customize a reference grid within the rules and dimensioning of MC. Eventually, the approach will further enhance the architect's overall design process and enable architects to automate complex modeling, which was nearly impossible before. A prototype using a residential quarter will be modeled. A set of reference grids guided by specific MC rules and dimensions will be used to develop a variety of space planning and configuration. With the use of the design, the tool will expedite the design process and encourage the use of MC Design in the construction industry.

Keywords: building information modeling, modular coordination, space planning, customization, BIM application, MC space planning

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Authors: Thomas P. Carroll

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The phenomenon of mindfulness has become ever more popular in an increasingly pluralist Western society. Mindfulness practice has penetrated secular contexts that would otherwise be closed to religious influence, including state schools, hospitals, and commerce. The contemporary understanding of mindfulness has its origins in Buddhist meditation. However, since Jon Kabat-Zinn’s pioneering work in Mindfulness-Based Interventions, the concept has developed and sometimes mutated into various forms of practice which are disembedded from their original spiritual philosophy. This project will explore the spiritual climate within which mindfulness is currently flourishing through dialogue with three interlocutors. The first interlocutor is the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor whose seminal work, ‘A Secular Age’, outlines three distinct modes of secularity. Taylor examines how the conditions of belief have changed and how the self seeks meaning in an age where belief in the divine is no longer axiomatic. The next interlocutor is Czech theologian and psychotherapist Tomáš Halík who offers a unique perspective of a Catholic who belongs to a section of society outnumbered by secular counterparts, with a theological hermeneutic best described as 'Den Fremden verstehen- understanding the stranger'. Finally, Irish theologian Michael Paul Gallagher offers a theological perspective on how the Christian faith can be translated into dialogue with Irish secular culture, as well as addressing the crisis of imagination and culture rather than the crisis of faith in Ireland. These interlocutors will illustrate that there are sometimes striking differences in how to interpret the religious signs of the times. However, these approaches also reveal significant similarities in how they address and explore the meaning of religious belief and experience today. In this way, themes will emerge that will help to frame the conversation about mindfulness in the West. These themes will include; the failure of the secularization thesis to pass, the growth of a diverse marketplace of religions and beliefs and the growth of a demographic who identify as spiritual but not religious. Such research is paramount in enabling a richer dialogue between Christian faith and mindfulness in a fragmented, postmodern Western context.

Keywords: culture, mindfulness, secularism, spirituality

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Authors: Susan Cardillo

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This research will consider ways to bridge the gap between Computer Science and Media Communications and while doing so create Social Entrepreneurship for student success. New Media, as it has been referred to, is considered content available on-demand through Internet, a digital device, usually containing some kind of interactivity and creative participation. It is the interplay between technology, images, media and communications. The next generation of the newspaper, radio, television, and film students need to have a working knowledge of the technologies that are available for the creation of their work and taught to use this knowledge to create a voice. The work is interdisciplinary; in communications, we understand the necessity of reporting and disseminating information. In documentary film we understand the instructional and historic aspects of media and technology and in the non-profit sector, we see the need for expanding outlets for good. So, the true necessity is to utilize ‘new media’ technologies to advance social causes while reporting information, teaching and creating art. Goals: The goal of this research is to give communications students a better understanding of the technology that is both, currently at their disposal, and on the horizon, so that they can use it in their media, communications and art endeavors to be a voice for their generation. There is no longer a need to be a computer scientist to have a working knowledge of communication technologies and how they will benefit our work. There are many free and easy to use applications available for the creation of interactive communications. Methodology: This is Qualitative-Case Study that puts these ideas into action. There is a survey at the end of the experiment that is qualitative in nature and allows for the participants to share ideas and feelings about the technology and approach.

Keywords: interactive storytelling, web documentary, mass communications, teaching

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Authors: Masaumi Nakahara, Sou Watanabe, Hiromichi Ogi, Atsuhiro Shibata, Kazunori Nomura

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In the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, three types of experimental research, advanced reactor fuel reprocessing, radioactive waste disposal, and nuclear fuel cycle technology, have been carried out at the Chemical Processing Facility. The facility has generated high level radioactive liquid and solid wastes in hot cells. The high level radioactive solid waste is divided into three main categories, a flammable waste, a non-flammable waste, and a solid reagent waste. A plastic product is categorized into the flammable waste and molten with a heating mantle. The non-flammable waste is cut with a band saw machine for reducing the volume. Among the solid reagent waste, a used adsorbent after the experiments is heated, and an extractant is decomposed for its stabilization. All high level radioactive solid wastes in the hot cells are packed in a high level radioactive solid waste can. The high level radioactive solid waste can is transported to the 2nd High Active Solid Waste Storage in the Tokai Reprocessing Plant in the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

Keywords: high level radioactive solid waste, advanced reactor fuel reprocessing, radioactive waste disposal, nuclear fuel cycle technology

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Authors: Mohsen Yaghmoor, Sima Radmanesh

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Rapid environmental changes have been threaten the life of many organizations .Enabling and productivity of human resource should be considered as the most important issue in order to increase performance and ensure survival of the organizations. In this research, the effectiveness of management factory in productivity & inability of human resource have been identified and reviewed at glance. Afterward there were two questions they are “what are the factors effecting productivity and enabling of human resource” . And ”what are the priority order based on effective management of human resource in Fars Poultry Complex". A specified questionnaire has been designed in order to priorities and effectiveness of the identified factors. Six factors specify to consist of: Individual characteristics, teaching, motivation, partnership management, authority or power submission and job development that have most effect on organization. Then specify a questionnaire for priority and effect measurement of specified factor that reach after collect information and using statistical tests of keronchbakh alpha coefficient r=0.792 that we can say the questionnaire has sufficient reliability. After information analysis of specified six factors by Friedman test categorize their effect. Measurement on organization respectively consists of individual characteristics, job development or enrichment, authority submission, partnership management, teaching and motivation. At last it has been indicated to approaches to increase making power full and productivity of manpower.

Keywords: productivity, empowerment, enrichment, authority submission, partnership management, teaching, motivation

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Authors: Ajibade T., Omotesho O. A., Ayinde O. E, Ajibade E. T., Muhammad-Lawal A.

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This study was carried out to examine the extent and magnitude of food security amongst farming rural households in Nigeria. Data used for this study was collected from a total of two hundred and forty rural farming households using a two-stage random sampling technique. The main tools of analysis for this study include descriptive statistics and a constructed food security index using the identification and aggregation procedure. The headcount ratio in this study reveals that 71% of individuals in the study area were food secure with an average per capita calorie and protein availability of 4,213.92kcal and 99.98g respectively. The aggregated household daily calorie availability and daily protein availability per capita were 3,634.57kcal and 84.08g respectively which happens to be above the food security line of 2,470kcal and 65g used in this study. The food insecure households fell short of the minimum daily per capita calorie and protein requirement by 2.1% and 24.9%. The study revealed that the area is food insecure due to unequal distribution of the available food amongst the sampled population. The study recommends that the households should empower themselves financially in order to enhance their ability to afford the food during both on and off seasons. Also, processing and storage of farm produce should be enhanced in order to improve on availability throughout the year.

Keywords: farming household, food security, identification and aggregation, food security index

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Authors: Sonny Nyeko, Moses Niwe

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Purpose: This research paper examined the mediation effect of organization culture in the relationship between information technology (IT) competence and IT governance effectiveness in Ugandan public universities. The purpose of the research paper is to examine the role of organizational culture in the relationship between IT competence and IT governance effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopted the MedGraph program, Sobel tests and Kenny and Baron Approach for testing the mediation effects. Findings: It is impeccable that IT competence and organization culture are true drivers of IT governance effectiveness in Ugandan public universities. However, organizational culture reveals partial mediation in the IT competence and IT governance effectiveness relationship. Research limitations/implications: The empirical investigation in this research depends profoundly on public universities. Future research in Ugandan private universities could be undertaken to compare results. Practical implications: To effectively achieve IT governance effectiveness, it means senior management requires IT knowledge which is a vital ingredient of IT competence. Moreover, organizations today ought to adopt cultures that are intended to have them competitive in their businesses, with IT operations not in isolation. Originality/value: Spending thousands of dollars on IT resources in advanced institutes of learning necessitates IT control. Preliminary studies in Ugandan public universities have revealed the ineffective utilization of IT resources. Besides, IT governance issues with IT competence and organization culture remain outstanding. Thus, it’s a new study testing the mediating outcome of organization culture in the association between IT competence and IT governance effectiveness in the Ugandan universities.

Keywords: organization culture, IT competence, IT governance, effectiveness, mediating effect, universities, Uganda

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Authors: Alessandra Panico, Francesco Bagordo, Tiziana Grassi, Adele Idolo, Marcello Guido, Francesca Serio, Mattia De Giorgi, Antonella De Donno

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In the Province of Lecce (Southeastern Italy) an area with unusual high incidence of chronic respiratory diseases, including lung cancer, was recently identified. The causes of this health emergency are still not entirely clear. In order to determine the risk profile of children living in five municipalities included in this area an epidemiological-molecular study was performed in the years 2014-2016: the IMP.AIR. (Impact of air quality on health of residents in the Municipalities of Sternatia, Galatina, Cutrofiano, Sogliano Cavour and Soleto) study. 122 children aged 6-8 years attending primary school in the study area were enrolled to evaluate the frequency of micronuclei (MNs) in their buccal exfoliated cells. The samples were collected in May 2015 by rubbing the oral mucosa with a soft bristle disposable toothbrush. At the same time, a validated questionnaire was administered to parents to obtain information about health, lifestyle and eating habits of the children. In addition, information on airborne pollutants, routinely detected by the Regional Environmental Agency (ARPA Puglia) in the study area, was acquired. A multivariate analysis was performed to detect any significant association between frequency of MNs (dependent variable) and behavioral factors (independent variables). The presence of MNs was highlighted in the buccal exfoliated cells of about 42% of recruited children with a mean frequency of 0.49 MN/1000 cells, greater than in other areas of Salento. The survey on individual characteristics and lifestyles showed that one in three children was overweight and that most of them had unhealthy eating habits with frequent consumption of foods considered ‘risky’. Moreover many parents (40% of fathers and 12% of mothers) were smokers and about 20% of them admitted to smoking in the house where the children lived. Information regarding atmospheric contaminants was poor. Of the few substances routinely detected by the only one monitoring station located in the study area (PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO, O3) only ozone showed high concentrations exceeding the limits set by the legislation for 67 times in the year 2015. The study showed that the level of early biological effect markers in children was not negligible. This critical condition could be related to some individual factors and lifestyles such as overweight, unhealthy eating habits and exposure to passive smoking. At present, no relationship with airborne pollutants can be established due to the lack of information on many substances. Therefore, it would be advisable to modify incorrect behaviors and to intensify the monitoring of airborne pollutants (e.g. including detection of PM10, heavy metals, aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons, benzene) given the epidemiology of chronic respiratory diseases registered in this area.

Keywords: chronic respiratory diseases, environmental pollution, lifestyle, micronuclei

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Authors: Elham Azimzadeh, Hamidollah Hassanlouei, Hadi Nobari, Georgian Badicu, Jorge Pérez-Gómez, Luca Paolo Ardigò

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Children with cerebral palsy (CP) have weak physical abilities and their limitations may have an effect on performing everyday motor activities. One of the most important and common debilitating factors in CP is the malfunction in the upper extremities to perform motor skills and there is strong evidence that task-specific training may lead to improve general upper limb function among this population. However, augmented feedback enhances the acquisition and learning of a motor task. Practice conditions may alter the difficulty, e.g., the reduced frequency of PG could be more challenging for this population to learn a motor task. So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physical guidance (PG) on learning a tracking task in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Twenty-five independently ambulant children with spastic hemiplegic CP aged 7-15 years were assigned randomly to five groups. After the pre-test, experimental groups participated in an intervention for eight sessions, 12 trials during each session. The 0% PG group received no PG; the 25% PG group received PG for three trials; the 50% PG group received PG for six trials; the 75% PG group received PG for nine trials; and the 100% PG group, received PG for all 12 trials. PG consisted of placing the experimenter's hand around the children's hand, guiding them to stay on track and complete the task. Learning was inferred by acquisition and delayed retention tests. The tests involved two blocks of 12 trials of the tracking task without any PG being performed by all participants. They were asked to make the movement as accurate as possible (i.e., fewer errors) and the number of total touches (errors) in 24 trials was calculated as the scores of the tests. The results showed that the higher frequency of PG led to more accurate performance during the practice phase. However, the group that received 75% PG had significantly better performance compared to the other groups in the retention phase. It is concluded that the optimal frequency of PG played a critical role in learning a tracking task in children with CP and likely this population may benefit from an optimal level of PG to get the appropriate amount of information confirming the challenge point framework (CPF), which state that too much or too little information will retard learning a motor skill. Therefore, an optimum level of PG may help these children to identify appropriate patterns of motor skill using extrinsic information they receive through PG and improve learning by activating the intrinsic feedback mechanisms.

Keywords: cerebral palsy, challenge point framework, motor learning, physical guidance, tracking task

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Authors: Ayan Chakraborty, BV. Rathish Kumar

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Off-late many models in viscoelasticity, signal processing or anomalous diffusion equations are formulated in fractional calculus. Tempered fractional calculus is the generalization of fractional calculus and in the last few years several important partial differential equations occurring in the different field of science have been reconsidered in this term like diffusion wave equations, Schr$\ddot{o}$dinger equation and so on. In the present paper, a time-dependent tempered fractional diffusion equation of order $\gamma \in (0,1)$ with forcing function is considered. Existence, uniqueness, stability, and regularity of the solution has been proved. Crank-Nicolson discretization is used in the time direction. B spline finite element approximation is implemented. Generally, B-splines basis are useful for representing the geometry of a finite element model, interfacing a finite element analysis program. By utilizing this technique a priori space-time estimate in finite element analysis has been derived and we proved that the convergent order is $\mathcal{O}(h²+T²)$ where $h$ is the space step size and $T$ is the time. A couple of numerical examples have been presented to confirm the accuracy of theoretical results. Finally, we conclude that the studied method is useful for solving tempered fractional diffusion equations.

Keywords: B-spline finite element, error estimates, Gronwall's lemma, stability, tempered fractional

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Authors: Charita B. Lasala, Lakambini G. Reluya

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The human factor composing the organization is an asset that needs to be managed conscientiously and to be in tuned with the organization’s need. Thus, the human resources add value to the organization by using their talents, skills and knowledge in transforming the other resources of the organization to either produce or to deliver products and services that generate profits or other valued forms for return. Keeping these kinds of employees has always been the main goal of each Human Resources Department in every company worldwide; regardless of the work being done. They are the most important resource a company can have and treating them well will make them priceless assets that can help make a business a success. Larmen de Guia Memorial College (LGMC) and Royal Oaks International School (ROIS) is one of the many organizations that seek ways to keep the human factor and are in the process of formalization and that people management is on the top of the list thus, this study was made since there was a need for the creation of the Human Resources Department due to its absence in the organization and to help the organization in keeping these valued employees. The study was anchored on the concept that human resources consist of people who perform its activities and that all decisions that affect the workforce concern the organization’s human resources functions. In conducting this study, it made use of the mixed method using both the qualitative and quantitative approaches with focus group discussions. The design has three stages namely: problem conceptualization, case analysis, and output. The output from the survey and interviews tells the abstracted ideas on the proposed HR program for the said institution. Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the personnel in the institution is not in the correct perspective, much more that the personnel has no specific job descriptions. The hiring procedure is not extensive, nor the personnel was given the chance to be exposed to training that would aid them in job development and enhancement of their skills and talents. The compensation package offered by the institution does not commensurate to their services rendered. Lastly, it is concluded that in the opinion/decision rendered by the grievance committee is not fair and that the institution failed to give good motivation/initiative for the employees to be more productive.

Keywords: employee benefits, employee relations, human resources and management, people management, recruitment, trainings

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Authors: Joanne Robertson, Awneet Sivia

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Preparing aspiring teachers to become advocates for social justice reflects a fundamental commitment for teacher education programs in Canada to create systemic educational change. The goal is ultimately to address inequities in K-12 education for students from multiple identity groups that have historically been marginalized and oppressed in schools. Social justice is described as an often undertheorized and vague concept in the literature, which increases the risk that teaching for social justice remains a lofty goal. Another concern is that the social justice agenda in teacher education in North America ignores pedagogies related to subject-matter knowledge and discipline-based teaching methods. The question surrounding how teacher education programs can address these issues forms the basis for the research undertaken in this study. The paper focuses on a qualitative research project that examines how an Equity Literature Circles (ELC) framework within a language arts methods course in a Bachelor of Education program may help pre-service teachers better understand the inherent relationship between literacy instructional practices and teaching about and for social justice. Grounded in the Freireian (2018) principle of praxis, this study specifically seeks to understand the impact of Equity Literature Circles on pre-service teachers’ understanding of current social justice issues (reflection), their development of professional competencies in literacy instruction (practice), and their identity as advocates of social justice (action) who address issues related to student diversity, equity, and human rights within the English Language Arts program. In this paper presentation, participants will be provided with an overview of the Equity Literature Circle framework, a summary of key findings and recommendations from the qualitative study, an annotated bibliography of suggested Young Adult novels, and opportunities for questions and dialogue.

Keywords: literacy, language, equity, social justice, diversity, human rights

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Authors: Journey Whitfield

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This study investigates the United States' ongoing violation of Black Americans' fundamental human rights, as evidenced by mass incarceration, social injustice, and economic deprivation. It argues that the U.S. contravenes Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights through policies that uphold systemic racism. The analysis dissects current practices within the criminal justice system, social welfare programs, and economic policy, uncovering the racially disparate impacts of seemingly race-neutral policies. This study establishes a clear lineage between past systems of oppression – slavery and Jim Crow – and present-day racial disparities, demonstrating their inextricable link. The thesis proposes that only a comprehensive reparations program for Black Americans can begin to redress these systemic injustices. This program must transcend mere financial compensation, demanding structural reforms within U.S. institutions to dismantle systemic racism and promote transformative justice. This study explores potential forms of reparations, drawing upon historical precedents, comparative case studies from other nations, and contemporary debates within political philosophy and legal studies. The research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods include historical analysis of legal frameworks and policy documents, as well as discourse analysis of political rhetoric. Quantitative methods involve statistical analysis of socioeconomic data and criminal justice outcomes to expose racial disparities. This study makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on reparations, human rights, and racial injustice in the United States. It offers a rigorous analysis of the enduring consequences of historical oppression and advocates for bold, justice-centered solutions.

Keywords: Black Americans, reparations, mass incarceration, racial injustice, human rights, united states

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Authors: S. Srinivasan, E. Cretu

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The information flow (e.g. block-diagram or signal flow graph) paradigm for the design and simulation of Microelectromechanical (MEMS)-based systems allows to model MEMS devices using causal transfer functions easily, and interface them with electronic subsystems for fast system-level explorations of design alternatives and optimization. Nevertheless, the physical bi-directional coupling between different energy domains is not easily captured in causal signal flow modeling. Moreover, models of fundamental components acting as building blocks (e.g. gap-varying MEMS capacitor structures) depend not only on the component, but also on the specific excitation mode (e.g. voltage or charge-actuation). In contrast, the energy flow modeling paradigm in terms of generalized across-through variables offers an acausal perspective, separating clearly the physical model from the boundary conditions. This promotes reusability and the use of primitive physical models for assembling MEMS devices from primitive structures, based on the interconnection topology in generalized circuits. The physical modeling capabilities of Simscape have been used in the present work in order to develop a MEMS library containing parameterized fundamental building blocks (area and gap-varying MEMS capacitors, nonlinear springs, displacement stoppers, etc.) for the design, simulation and optimization of MEMS inertial sensors. The models capture both the nonlinear electromechanical interactions and geometrical nonlinearities and can be used for both small and large signal analyses, including the numerical computation of pull-in voltages (stability loss). Simscape behavioral modeling language was used for the implementation of reduced-order macro models, that present the advantage of a seamless interface with Simulink blocks, for creating hybrid information/energy flow system models. Test bench simulations of the library models compare favorably with both analytical results and with more in-depth finite element simulations performed in ANSYS. Separate MEMS-electronic integration tests were done on closed-loop MEMS accelerometers, where Simscape was used for modeling the MEMS device and Simulink for the electronic subsystem.

Keywords: across-through variables, electromechanical coupling, energy flow, information flow, Matlab/Simulink, MEMS, nonlinear, pull-in instability, reduced order macro models, Simscape

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Authors: Yu-Shun Elisa Pong

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American composer John Cage (1912-1992) is an influential figure in musical, visual and performing arts after World War II and has also been claimed as a forerunner of the western avant-garde in the artistic field. However, the crucial factors contributed to his highly acclaimed achievements include the Zen enlightenment, which he mainly got from Japanese Zen master D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966). As a kind of reflection and afterthought of the Zen inspiration, John Cage created various forms of arts in which visual arts have recently attracted more and more attention and discussion, especially from the perspectives of Zen. John Cage had started to create visual art works since he was 66 years old and the activity had lasted until his death. The quality and quantity of the works are worthy of in-depth study— the 667 pieces of print, 114 pieces of water color, and about 150 pieces of sketch. Cage’s stylistic changes during the 14 years of creation are quite obvious, and the Zen elements in the later works seem to be omnipresent. Based on comparative artistic study, a historical and conceptual view of Zen art that was formed initially in the traditional Chinese and Japanese visual arts will be discussed. Then, Chinese and Japanese representative Zen works will be mentioned, and the technique aspect, as well as stylistic analysis, will be revealed. Finally, a comprehensive comparison of the original Oriental Zen works with John Cage’s works and focus on the influence, and art transformation will be addressed. The master pieces from Zen tradition by Chinese artists like Liang Kai (d. 1210) and Ma Yuan (1160-1225) from Southern Sung Dynasty, the Japanese artists like Sesshū (1420-1506), Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) and some others would be discussed. In the current study, these art works from different periods of historical development in Zen will serve as the basis of analogy, interpretation, and criticism to Cage's visual art works. Through the perspectives of the Zen authenticity from Asia, we see how John Cage appropriated the eastern culture to his innovation, which changed the art world forever. And it is believed that through a transition from inter-, cross-, toward trans-cultural inspiration, John Cage set up a unique pathway of art innovations.

Keywords: John Cage, Chinese Zen art, Japanese Zen art, visual art

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Authors: Adnan I. O. Zaid, Raghad S. Hemeimat

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Magnesium - aluminum alloys are versatile materials which are used in manufacturing a number of engineering and industrial parts in the automobile and aircraft industries due to their strength – to –weight -ratio. Against these preferable characteristics, magnesium is difficult to deform at room temperature therefore it is alloyed with other elements mainly Aluminum and Zinc to add some required properties particularly for their high strength - to -weight ratio. Mg and its alloys oxidize rapidly therefore care should be taken during melting or machining them; but they are not fire hazardous. Grain refinement is an important technology to improve the mechanical properties and the micro structure uniformity of the alloys. Grain refinement has been introduced in early fifties; when Cibula showed that the presence of Ti, and Ti+ B, produced a great refining effect in Al. since then it became an industrial practice to grain refine Al. Most of the published work on grain refinement was directed toward grain refining Al and Zinc alloys; however, the effect of the addition of rare earth material on the grain size or the mechanical behavior of Mg alloys has not been previously investigated. This forms the main objective of the research work; where, the effect of Ti addition on the grain size, mechanical behavior, ductility, and the extrusion force & energy consumed in forward extrusion of Mg-AZ31 alloy is investigated and discussed in two conditions, first in the as cast condition and the second after extrusion. It was found that addition of Ti to Mg- AZ31 alloy has resulted in reduction of its grain size by 14%; the reduction in grain size after extrusion was much higher. However the increase in Vicker’s hardness was 3% after the addition of Ti in the as cast condition, and higher values for Vicker’s hardness were achieved after extrusion. Furthermore, an increase in the strength coefficient by 36% was achieved with the addition of Ti to Mg-AZ31 alloy in the as cast condition. Similarly, the work hardening index was also increased indicating an enhancement of the ductility and formability. As for the extrusion process, it was found that the force and energy required for the extrusion were both reduced by 57% and 59% with the addition of Ti.

Keywords: cast condition, direct extrusion, ductility, MgAZ31 alloy, super - plasticity

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Authors: Jared R. Chapman

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This study introduces a type of motivational information system called an educational engagement information system (EEIS). An EEIS draws on principles of behavioral economics, motivation theory, and learning cognition theory to design information systems that help students want to improve their performance. This study compares academic outcomes for course sections taught by part- and full-time instructors both with and without an EEIS. Without an EEIS, students in the part-time instructor's course sections demonstrated significantly higher failure rates (a 143.8% increase) and dropout rates (a 110.4% increase) with significantly fewer students scoring a B- or higher (39.8% decrease) when compared to students in the course sections taught by a full-time instructor. It is concerning that students in the part-time instructor’s course without an EEIS had significantly lower academic outcomes, suggesting less understanding of the course content. This could impact retention and continuation in a major. With an EEIS, when comparing part- and full-time instructors, there was no significant difference in failure and dropout rates or in the number of students scoring a B- or higher in the course. In fact, with an EEIS, the failure and dropout rates were statistically identical for part- and full-time instructor courses. When using an EEIS (compared with not using an EEIS), the part-time instructor showed a 62.1% decrease in failures, a 61.4% decrease in dropouts, and a 41.7% increase in the number of students scoring a B- or higher in the course. We are unaware of other interventions that yield such large improvements in academic performance. This suggests that using an EEIS such as Delphinium may compensate for part-time instructors’ limitations of expertise, time, or rewards that can have a negative impact on students’ academic outcomes. The EEIS had only a minimal impact on failure rates (7.7% decrease) and dropout rates (18.8% decrease) for the full-time instructor. This suggests there is a ceiling effect for the improvements that an EEIS can make in student performance. This may be because experienced instructors are already doing the kinds of things that an EEIS does, such as motivating students, tracking grades, and providing feedback about progress. Additionally, full-time instructors have more time to dedicate to students outside of class than part-time instructors and more rewards for doing so. Using adjunct and other types of part-time instructors will likely remain a prevalent practice in higher education management courses. Given that using part-time instructors can have a negative impact on student graduation and persistence in a field of study, it is important to identify ways we can augment part-time instructors’ performance. We demonstrated that when part-time instructors use an EEIS, it can result in significantly lower students’ failure and dropout rates and an increase in the rate of students earning a B- or above; and bring their students’ performance to parity with the performance of students taught by a full-time instructor.

Keywords: gamification, engagement, motivation, academic outcomes

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Authors: Kanokwan Sansuwan, Orapint Jintasataporn, Srinoy Chumkam

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Asian seabass is one of the economically important fish of Thailand and other countries in the Southeast Asia. Zinc is an essential trace metal to fish and vital to various biological processes and function. It is required for normal growth and indispensable in the diet. Therefore, the artificial diets offered to intensively cultivated fish must possess the zinc content required by the animal metabolism for health maintenance and high weight gain rates. However, essential elements must also be in an available form to be utilized by the organism. Thus, this study was designed to evaluate the application of different zinc forms, including organic Zinc (zinc amino acid complex) and inorganic Zinc (zinc sulfate), as feed additives in diets for Asian seabass. Three groups with five replicates of fish (mean weight 22.54 ± 0.80 g) were given a basal diet either unsupplemented (control) or supplemented with 50 mg Zn kg−¹ sulfate (ZnSO₄) or Zinc Amino Acid Complex (ZnAA) respectively. Feeding regimen was initially set at 3% of body weight per day, and then the feed amount was adjusted weekly according to the actual feeding performance. The experiment was conducted for 10 weeks. Fish supplemented with ZnAA had the highest values in all studied growth indicators (weight gain, average daily growth and specific growth rate), followed by fish fed the diets with the ZnSO₄, and lowest in fish fed the diets with the control. Lysozyme and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of fish supplemented with ZnAA were significantly higher compared with all other groups (P < 0.05). Fish supplemented with ZnSO₄ exhibited significant increase in digestive enzyme activities (protease, pepsin and trypsin) compared with ZnAA and the control (P < 0.05). However, no significant differences were observed for RNA and protein in muscle (P > 0.05). The results of the present work suggest that ZnAA are a better source of trace elements for Asian seabass, based on growth performance and immunity indices examined in this study.

Keywords: Asian seabass, growth performance, zinc amino acid complex (ZnAA), zinc sulfate (ZnSO₄)

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Authors: N. Moradi, C. M. Lopez-Vazquez, H. Garcia Hernandez, F. Rubio Rincon, D. Brdanovic, Mark van Loosdrecht

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Advanced oxidation processes have been widely used for disinfection, removal of residual organic material, and for the removal of emerging contaminants from drinking water and wastewater. Yet, the application of these technologies to sludge treatment processes has not gained enough attention, mostly, considering the complexity of the sludge matrix. In this research, ozone and UV/H₂O₂ treatment were applied for the removal of emerging contaminants from a digestate supernatant. The removal of the following compounds was assessed:(i) salicylic acid (SA) (a surrogate of non-stradiol anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)), and (ii) sulfamethoxazole (SMX), sulfamethazine (SMN), and tetracycline (TCN) (the most frequent human and animal antibiotics). The ozone treatment was carried out in a plexiglass bubble column reactor with a capacity of 2.7 L; the system was equipped with a stirrer and a gas diffuser. The UV and UV/H₂O₂ treatments were done using a LED set-up (PearlLab beam device) dosing H₂O₂. In the ozone treatment evaluations, 95 % of the three antibiotics were removed during the first 20 min of exposure time, while an SA removal of 91 % occurred after 8 hours of exposure time. In the UV treatment evaluations, when adding the optimum dose of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂:COD molar ratio of 0.634), 36% of SA, 82% of TCN, and more than 90 % of both SMX and SMN were removed after 8 hours of exposure time. This study concluded that O₃ was more effective than UV/H₂O₂ in removing emerging contaminants from the digestate supernatant.

Keywords: digestate sludge, emerging contaminants, ozone, UV-AOP

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Authors: Do Thi Ha, Khanitta Nuntaboot

Abstract:

Background: Competency of nurses is vital to safe nursing practice as well as essential component to drive quality of nursing services. There exists little up to date information concerning actual competency among Vietnamese nurses. Purposes: The purpose of this study is to identify the actual nursing competency among nurses in clinical settings in Vietnam. Methods: A qualitative study, ethnographic method, comprised of the participant-observation, in-depth interview, and focus group discussion with multidisciplinary groups of nurses employing in Cho Ray hospital, Vietnam, managers/administrators, nurse teachers, medical doctors, other health care providers, patients and family members which derived from purposeful sampling technique. Content analysis was used for data analysis. Results: Five essential themes of nursing competencies among nurses were identified include (1) knowledge, (2) skills, (3) attitude and value-based nursing practice, (4) legal and ethical competencies, and (5) transcultural competencies. Basic and advanced knowledge were identified as further two dimensions of knowledge. There were five sub themes identified as further dimensions of skills include technical skills, communication skills, organizing and management skills, teamwork and interrelationship, and critical thinking skills. Conclusions: The findings from this study provide valuable information and understanding of the actual competency among nurses in clinical settings in Vietnam. It is expected that this understanding would assist in developing a guide to nursing education and training, nursing practice and relevant policy regulation used for promoting nursing competency among nurses.

Keywords: ethnographic method, nursing competency, qualitative design, Vietnam

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Authors: Irene Capecchi, Tommaso Borghini, Iacopo Bernetti

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An important tool for the enhancement of cultural sites is serious games (SG), i.e., games designed for educational purposes; SG is applied in cultural sites through trivia, puzzles, and mini-games for participation in interactive exhibitions, mobile applications, and simulations of past events. The combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and digital cultural content has also produced examples of cultural heritage recovery and revitalization around the world. Through AR, the user perceives the information of the visited place in a more real and interactive way. Another interesting technological development for the revitalization of cultural sites is the combination of AR and Global Positioning System (GPS), which integrated have the ability to enhance the user's perception of reality by providing historical and architectural information linked to specific locations organized on a route. To the author’s best knowledge, there are currently no applications that combine GPS AR and SG for cultural heritage revitalization. The present research focused on the development of an SG based on GPS and AR. The study area is the village of Caldana in Tuscany, Italy. Caldana is a fortified Renaissance village; the most important architectures are the walls, the church of San Biagio, the rectory, and the marquis' palace. The historical information is derived from extensive research by the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence. The storyboard of the SG is based on the history of the three characters who built the village: marquis Marcello Agostini, who was commissioned by Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, to build the village, his son Ippolito and his architect Lorenzo Pomarelli. The three historical characters were modeled in 3D using the freeware MakeHuman and imported into Blender and Mixamo to associate a skeleton and blend shapes to have gestural animations and reproduce lip movement during speech. The Unity Rhubarb Lip Syncer plugin was used for the lip sync animation. The historical costumes were created by Marvelous Designer. The application was developed using the Unity 3D graphics and game engine. The AR+GPS Location plugin was used to position the 3D historical characters based on GPS coordinates. The ARFoundation library was used to display AR content. The SG is available in two versions: for children and adults. the children's version consists of finding a digital treasure consisting of valuable items and historical rarities. Players must find 9 village locations where 3D AR models of historical figures explaining the history of the village provide clues. To stimulate players, there are 3 levels of rewards for every 3 clues discovered. The rewards consist of AR masks for archaeologist, professor, and explorer. At the adult level, the SG consists of finding the 16 historical landmarks in the village, and learning historical and architectural information interactively and engagingly. The application is being tested on a sample of adults and children. Test subjects will be surveyed on a Likert scale to find out their perceptions of using the app and the learning experience between the guided tour and interaction with the app.

Keywords: augmented reality, cultural heritage, GPS, serious game

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Authors: Tingting Liu, Yufeng Wu, Xi Tian, Yu Gong, Tieyong Zuo

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The household solid waste generated by household in Beijing is increasing quickly due to rapid population growth and lifestyle changes. However, there are no rigorous data on the generation and collection of the recyclable household solid wastes. The Beijing city government needs this information to make appropriate policies and plans for waste management. To address this information need, we undertook the first comprehensive study of recyclable household solid waste for Beijing. We carried out a survey of 500 families across sixteen districts in Beijing. We also analyzed the quantities, spatial distribution and categories of collected waste handled by curbside recyclers and permanent recycling centers for 340 of the 9797 city-defined residential areas of Beijing. From our results, we estimate that the total quantity of recyclable household solid waste was 1.8 million tonnes generated by Beijing household in 2013 and 71.6% of that was collected. The main generation categories were waste paper (24.4%), waste glass bottle (23.7%) and waste furniture (14.3%). The recycling rate was varied among different kinds of municipal solid waste. Also based on our study, we estimate there were 22.8 thousand curbside recyclers and 5.7 thousand permanent recycling centers in Beijing. The problems of household solid waste collecting system were inadequacies of authorized collection centers, skewed ratios of curbside recyclers and authorized permanent recycling centers, weak recycling awareness of residents and lack of recycling resources statistics and appraisal system. According to the existing problems, we put forward the suggestions to improve household solid waste management.

Keywords: Municipal waste; Recyclable waste; Waste categories; Waste collection

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Authors: Souhila Belabbas

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the Kabyles’ multilingual practices in the UK, within the Kabyle/Amazigh Cultural Organisation in London, on online platforms and at home. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa. Drawing on ethnographic research with this community, this study brings together their post-migration language preservation activisms as well as their dynamic multilingual practices and situational language choice into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms, which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies in multilingual spaces. These multilingual repertoires also included a range of ideological stances, expressed as cultural, moral, and political attitudes to the “mother tongue” and to other, potentially more dominant, languages in their lives, involving both inclusive and exclusive instances. The Kabyles in the UK practice everyday forms of multilingualism in the dynamic terms whilst making strong identity claims to an endangered heritage language. Crucially, their language contact experiences were not a post-migration novelty but part of their pre-migration lifeworlds. The participants involved in this study shared a commitment to Kabyle identity activism. They expressed this differently, varyingly foregrounding cultural, social or political issues. These differences were related to their North-African cultural background, live, gender, religious and/or political affiliation, as well as to their different migratory trajectories. Among these ethno-conscious individuals, the use of Kabyle was often particularly vibrant in informal domains of casual conversations and mixed in with French, English and often Arabic. During community events and festivals, though, many made special efforts to converse in Kabyle as if to make a point about their commitment to a shared identity.

Keywords: ethnography, language ideology, language choice, heritage language, migration trajectories, multilingual repertoires

Procedia PDF Downloads 62

Authors: Souhila Belabbas

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the Kabyles’ multilingual practices in the UK, within the Kabyle/Amazigh Cultural Organisation in London, on online platforms and at home. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa. Drawing on ethnographic research with this community, this study brings together their post-migration language preservation activisms as well as their dynamic multilingual practices and situational language choice into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms, which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies in multilingual spaces. These multilingual repertoires also included a range of ideological stances, expressed as cultural, moral, and political attitudes to the “mother tongue” and to other, potentially more dominant, languages in their lives, involving both inclusive and exclusive instances. The Kabyles in the UK practice everyday forms of multilingualism in the dynamic terms whilst making strong identity claims to an endangered heritage language. Crucially, their language contact experiences were not a post-migration novelty but part of their pre-migration lifeworlds. The participants involved in this study shared a commitment to Kabyle identity activism. They expressed this differently, varyingly foregrounding cultural, social or political issues. These differences were related to their North-African cultural background, live, gender, religious and/or political affiliation, as well as to their different migratory trajectories. Among these ethno-conscious individuals, the use of Kabyle was often particularly vibrant in informal domains of casual conversations and mixed in with French, English and often Arabic. During community events and festivals, though, many made special efforts to converse in Kabyle as if to make a point about their commitment to a shared identity.

Keywords: ethnography, language ideology, language choice, heritage language, migration trajectories, multilingual repertoires

Procedia PDF Downloads 61

Authors: Rita Magdalena, N. K. Caecar Pratiwi, Yunendah Nur Fuadah, Sofia Saidah, Bima Sakti

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Vessel segmentation of retinal fundus is important for biomedical sciences in diagnosing ailments related to the eye. Segmentation can simplify medical experts in diagnosing retinal fundus image state. Therefore, in this study, we designed a software using MATLAB which enables the segmentation of the retinal blood vessels on retinal fundus images. There are two main steps in the process of segmentation. The first step is image preprocessing that aims to improve the quality of the image to be optimum segmented. The second step is the image segmentation in order to perform the extraction process to retrieve the retina’s blood vessel from the eye fundus image. The image segmentation methods that will be analyzed in this study are Morphology Operation, Discrete Wavelet Transform and combination of both. The amount of data that used in this project is 40 for the retinal image and 40 for manually segmentation image. After doing some testing scenarios, the average accuracy for Morphology Operation method is 88.46 % while for Discrete Wavelet Transform is 89.28 %. By combining the two methods mentioned in later, the average accuracy was increased to 89.53 %. The result of this study is an image processing system that can segment the blood vessels in retinal fundus with high accuracy and low computation time.

Keywords: discrete wavelet transform, fundus retina, morphology operation, segmentation, vessel

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Authors: Reynante E. Autida, Maria Ana T. Quimbo

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The chemistry education curriculum provides an excellent avenue where students learn the principles and concepts in chemistry and at the same time, as a central science, better understand related fields. However, the teaching approach used by teachers affects student learning. Cased-based teaching (CBT) is one of the various forms of inductive method. The teacher starts with specifics then proceeds to the general principles. The students’ role in inductive learning shifts from being passive in the traditional approach to being active in learning. In this paper, the effects of Small-Group Case-Based Teaching (SGCBT) on college chemistry students’ achievement, critical thinking, and attitude toward chemistry including the relationships between each of these variables were determined. A quasi-experimental counterbalanced design with pre-post control group was used to determine the effects of SGCBT on Engineering students of four intact classes (two treatment groups and two control groups) in one of the State Universities in Mindanao. The independent variables are the type of teaching approach (SGCBT versus pure lecture-discussion teaching or PLDT) while the dependent variables are chemistry achievement (exam scores) and scores in critical thinking and chemistry attitude. Both Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and t-tests (within and between groups and gain scores) were used to compare the effects of SGCBT versus PLDT on students’ chemistry achievement, critical thinking, and attitude toward chemistry, while Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the relationships between each of the variables. Results show that the use of SGCBT fosters positive attitude toward chemistry and provides some indications as well on improved chemistry achievement of students compared with PLDT. Meanwhile, the effects of PLDT and SGCBT on critical thinking are comparable. Furthermore, correlational analysis and focus group interviews indicate that the use of SGCBT not only supports development of positive attitude towards chemistry but also improves chemistry achievement of students. Implications are provided in view of the recent findings on SGCBT and topics for further research are presented as well.

Keywords: case-based teaching, small-group learning, chemistry cases, chemistry achievement, critical thinking, chemistry attitude

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Authors: Leonardo A. Ambrosio, Carlos. H. Silva Santos, Ivan E. L. Rodrigues, Ayumi K. de Campos, Leandro A. Machado

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In this work, we propose an algorithm developed under Python language for the modeling of ordinary scalar Bessel beams and their discrete superpositions and subsequent calculation of optical forces exerted over dielectric spherical particles. The mathematical formalism, based on the generalized Lorenz-Mie theory, is implemented in Python for its large number of free mathematical (as SciPy and NumPy), data visualization (Matplotlib and PyJamas) and multiprocessing libraries. We also propose an approach, provided by a synchronized Software as Service (SaaS) in cloud computing, to develop a user interface embedded on a mobile application, thus providing users with the necessary means to easily introduce desired unknowns and parameters and see the graphical outcomes of the simulations right at their mobile devices. Initially proposed as a free Android-based application, such an App enables data post-processing in cloud-based architectures and visualization of results, figures and numerical tables.

Keywords: Bessel Beams and Frozen Waves, Generalized Lorenz-Mie Theory, Numerical Methods, optical forces

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Authors: Sunidhi Syal, Rasangi Tennakoon, Patrick O'Donoghue

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Polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases are a group of diseases related to neurodegeneration caused by repeats of the amino acid glutamine (Q) in the DNA, which translates into an elongated polyQ tract in the protein. The pathological explanation is that the polyQ tract forms cytotoxic aggregates in the neurons, leading to their degeneration. There are no cures or preventative efforts established for these diseases as of today, although the symptoms of these diseases can be relieved. This study specifically focuses on Huntington's disease, which is a type of polyQ disease in which aggregation is caused by the extended cytosine, adenine, guanine (CUG) codon repeats in the huntingtin (HTT) gene, which encodes for the huntingtin protein. Using this principle, we attempted to create six models, which included mutating wildtype tRNA alanine variant tRNA-AGC-8-1 to have glutamine anticodons CUG and UUG so serine is incorporated at glutamine sites in poly Q tracts. In the process, we were successful in obtaining tAla-8-1 CUG mutant clones in the HTTexon1 plasmids with a polyQ tract of 23Q (non-pathogenic model) and 74Q (disease model). These plasmids were transfected into mouse neuroblastoma cells to characterize protein synthesis and aggregation in normal and mistranslating cells and to investigate the effects of glutamines replaced with alanines on the disease phenotype. Notably, we observed no noteworthy differences in mean fluorescence between the CUG mutants for 23Q or 74Q; however, the Triton X-100 assay revealed a significant reduction in insoluble 74Q aggregates. We were unable to create a tAla-8-1 UUG mutant clone, and determining the difference in the effects of the two glutamine anticodons may enrich our understanding of the disease phenotype. In conclusion, by generating structural disruption with the amino acid alanine, it may be possible to find ways to minimize the toxicity of Huntington's disease caused by these polyQ aggregates. Further research is needed to advance knowledge in this field by identifying the cellular and biochemical impact of specific tRNA variants found naturally in human genomes.

Keywords: Huntington's disease, polyQ, tRNA, anticodon, clone, overlap PCR

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Authors: Nutnicha Wongpadungkiat, Suwit Siriwatanayotin, Aluck Thipayarat, Punchira Vongsawasdi, Chotika Viriyarattanasak

Abstract:

Chicken products are major export product of Thailand. With a dramatically increasing consumption of chicken product in the world, there are abundant wastes from chicken meat processing industry. Recently, much research in the development of value-added products from chicken meat industry has focused on the production of protein hydrolysate, utilized as food ingredients for human diet and animal feed. The present study aimed to determine the effect of thermal pre-treatment on functional properties of chicken protein hydrolysate. Chicken breasts were heated at 40, 60, 80 and 100ºC prior to hydrolysis by Alcalase at 60ºC, pH 8 for 4 hr. The hydrolysate was freeze-dried, and subsequently used for assessment of its functional properties molecular weight by gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The obtained results show that increasing the pre-treatment temperature increased oil holding capacity and emulsion stability while decreasing antioxidant activity and water holding capacity. The SDS-PAGE analysis showed the evidence of protein aggregation in the hydrolysate treated at the higher pre-treatment temperature. These results suggest the connection between molecular weight of the hydrolysate and its functional properties.

Keywords: chicken protein hydrolysate, enzymatic hydrolysis, thermal pretreatment, functional properties

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Authors: Romeo A. Botes, Imelda Smit

Abstract:

The demands of an ever changing and complex higher education environment, along with the profile of modern learners challenge current approaches to assessment and feedback. More learners enter the education system every year. The younger generation expects immediate feedback. At the same time, feedback should be meaningful. The assessment of practical activities in programming poses a particular problem, since both lecturers and learners in the information and computer science discipline acknowledge that paper-based assessment for programming subjects lacks meaningful real-life testing. At the same time, feedback lacks promptness, consistency, comprehensiveness and individualisation. Most of these aspects may be addressed by modern, technology-assisted assessment. The focus of this paper is the continuous development of an artefact that is used to assist the lecturer in the assessment and feedback of practical programming activities in a senior database programming class. The artefact was developed using three Design Science Research cycles. The first implementation allowed one programming activity submission per assessment intervention. This pilot provided valuable insight into the obstacles regarding the implementation of this type of assessment tool. A second implementation improved the initial version to allow multiple programming activity submissions per assessment. The focus of this version is on providing scaffold feedback to the learner – allowing improvement with each subsequent submission. It also has a built-in capability to provide the lecturer with information regarding the key problem areas of each assessment intervention.

Keywords: programming, computer-aided assessment, technology-assisted assessment, programming assessment software, design science research, mixed-method

Procedia PDF Downloads 283