Search results for: societal impact

Authors: Nada Hamed, Mariam Aldhaheri, Sonia Abdennadher

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Islamic Finance is not a new term that emerging in the global market, but it is still under scope by many countries. Its characteristics and regulation are not widely clear and implemented. In 2015, The United Nation announced a plan about potential benefits of using Islamic Finance as a sustainable development approach. Enhancing its application in financial markets could protect from unexpected crisis that might be created from the traditional tools of finance. This paper focuses on this area to test if Islamic finance could be used for maintaining sustainable development and if the term of 'Green Islamic Finance' could be implemented to minimize the deficiencies and 'pollution’ generated from traditional techniques and tools of finance. This paper intends to measure the impact on financial performance and sustainability when financial institutions use Islamic finance or better practice it. The objective of this explanatory research is to measure the performance of Islamic Finance with using a case study of an Islamic bank. The paper would analyze and compare the behavior of financial institutions that used traditional financing tools and converted to Islamic banking system. The methodology used is based on a case study of an Islamic bank in Dubai with comparing its performance before implementing Islamic Finance and after. The selected case study represents the first national bank in Emirates Arab Unis who adopt the Islamic finance approach. Based on a time series analysis, a quantitative analysis would be also used through looking at various set of ratios that are routinely used to measure bank performance.

Keywords: Islamic finance, financial stability, green finance, Islamic finance practices, financial ratios

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Authors: Tya M. Arthur

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Purpose: BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) adolescents face racism and discrimination at a young age. These early experiences have short- and long-term impacts on their health and overall well-being. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between perceived racial discrimination at school and health risk behaviors and experiences of BIPOC adolescents. Methods: Data from the 2021 Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) were analyzed. All demographic data were summarized using frequencies and chi-squared tests. A univariate and multivariate logistic regression model was used to test the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and selected health risk factors. All analyses were conducted using STATA SE 18. Results: A total of 42.2% of the BIPOC adolescents in the study indicated being treated unfairly at school due to their race. The majority of those who reported being discriminated against were Black/African American or Multiple Race-Hispanic. Asian adolescents were almost 5 times more likely to face racial discrimination at school compared to their American Indian/Alaska Native counterparts (OR = 4.86, 95% CI [2.69-8.77], p < 0.001). Other risk predictors of racial discrimination included being female (OR = 1.38, 95% CI [1.13-1.68], p = 0.002) and feeling disconnected at school (OR = 1.76, 95% CI [1.30-2.38], p < 0.001). After adjustment for health risk behaviors and experiences, BIPOC adolescents were still more likely to face racial discrimination with even higher odds. Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the depth of racial discrimination faced by BIPOC adolescents at school. Greater attention should be placed on racial discrimination as a social determinant of health and a public health crisis.

Keywords: racial discrimination, adolescents, heath risk factors, BIPOC

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Authors: Jen-Te Pai, Jao-Heng Liu, Shin-En Pai

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The impact of climate change has intensified in recent years, causing Taiwan to face higher frequency and serious natural disasters. Therefore, it is imperative for industrial parks manufacturers to promote adaptation policies in response to climate change. On the other hand, with the rise of the international anti-terrorism situation, once a terrorist attack occurs, it will attract domestic and international media attention, especially the strategic and economic status of the science park. Thus, it is necessary to formulate adaptation and mitigation strategies under climate change and social economic disasters. After reviewed the literature about climate change, urban disaster prevention, vulnerability assessment, and risk communication, the study selected 62 industrial parks compiled by the Industrial Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan as the research object. This study explored the vulnerability and disaster prevention and disaster relief functional assessment of these industrial parks facing of natural and socio-economic disasters. Furthermore, this study explored planned adaptation of industrial parks management section and autonomous adaptation of corporate institutions in the park. The conclusion of this study is that Taiwan industrial parks with a higher vulnerability to natural and socio-economic disasters should employ positive adaptive behaviours.

Keywords: adaptive behaviours, analytic network process, vulnerability, industrial parks

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Authors: K. R. Sultana, K. Pope, Y. S. Muzychka

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In recent years, the research of heat transfer or phase change phenomena of liquid water droplets experiences a growing interest in aircraft icing, power transmission line icing, marine icing and wind turbine icing applications. This growing interest speeding up the research from single to multiple droplet phenomena. Impingements of multiple droplets and the resulting solidification phenomena after impact on a very cold surface is computationally studied in this paper. The model used in the current study solves the flow equation, composed of energy balance and the volume fraction equations. The main aim of the study is to investigate the effects of several thermo-physical properties (density, thermal conductivity and specific heat) on droplets freezing. The outcome is examined by various important factors, for instance, liquid fraction, total freezing time, droplet temperature and total heat transfer rate in the interface region. The liquid fraction helps to understand the complete phase change phenomena during solidification. Temperature distribution and heat transfer rate help to demonstrate the overall thermal exchange behaviors between the droplets and substrate surface. Findings of this research provide an important technical achievement for ice modeling and prediction studies.

Keywords: droplets, CFD, thermos-physical properties, solidification

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Authors: Feng Tao, Han Ye, Shaoyi Liao

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City constructions collapse after earthquake and people will be buried under ruins. Search and rescue should be conducted as soon as possible to save them. Therefore, according to the complicated environment, irregular aftershocks and rescue allow of no delay, a kind of target localization method based on RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) is proposed in this article. The target localization technology based on RSSI with the features of low cost and low complexity has been widely applied to nodes localization in WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks). Based on the theory of RSSI transmission and the environment impact to RSSI, this article conducts the experiments in five scenes, and multiple filtering algorithms are applied to original RSSI value in order to establish the signal propagation model with minimum test error respectively. Target location can be calculated from the distance, which can be estimated from signal propagation model, through improved centroid algorithm. Result shows that the localization technology based on RSSI is suitable for large-scale nodes localization. Among filtering algorithms, mixed filtering algorithm (average of average, median and Gaussian filtering) performs better than any other single filtering algorithm, and by using the signal propagation model, the minimum error of distance between known nodes and target node in the five scene is about 3.06m.

Keywords: signal propagation model, centroid algorithm, localization, mixed filtering, RSSI

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Authors: N. L. Divya Gayatri

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In India, over 377 million urban people generate 62 million tons of municipal solid waste per annum. Forty-three million tons are collected, 11.9 million are treated and 31 million tons is dumped in landfill sites. The study aims to have an overall understanding of the working and functioning of a sanitary landfill from the siting to the closure stage and identifying various landscape design techniques that can be implemented in a landfill site and come up with a set of guidelines by analyzing the existing policies and guidelines pertaining to landfills. Constituents of municipal solid waste, methods of landfilling, issues, impacts, Mitigation strategies, Landscape design strategies, design approaches towards a landfill, infrastructure requirements, end-use opportunities have been discussed. The objective is to study the ecological and environmental degradation prevention methods, compare various techniques in remediation, study issues in landfill sites in India, analyze scope and opportunities and explore various landscape design strategies. The understanding of the function of landfills with respect to Municipal solid waste and landscaping is conveyed through this study. The study is limited to Landscape design factors in landfill design guidelines and policies mentioned with regard to the issues and impacts specific to the Indian context.

Keywords: sanitary landfill landscaping, environmental impact, municipal solid waste, guidelines, landscape design strategies, landscape design approaches

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Authors: Ava Zarif Sanayei, Mustafa Farjad-Fard, Mohammad-Reza Mohammadian-Behbahani, Leyli Ebrahimi, Sedigheh Sina

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The fabrication and testing of a low-cost air-filled ion chamber for X-ray dosimetry is studied. The chamber is made of a metal cylinder, a central wire, a BC517 Darlington transistor, a 9V DC battery, and a voltmeter in order to have a cost-effective means to measure the dose. The output current of the dosimeter is amplified by the transistor and then fed to the large internal resistance of the voltmeter, producing a readable voltage signal. The dose-response linearity of the ion chamber is evaluated for different exposure scenarios by the X-ray tube. kVp values 70, 90, and 120, and mAs up to 20 are considered. In all experiments, a solid-state dosimeter (Solidose 400, Elimpex Medizintechnik) is used as a reference device for chamber calibration. Each case of exposure is repeated three times, the voltmeter and Solidose readings are recorded, and the mean and standard deviation values are calculated. Then, the calibration curve, derived by plotting voltmeter readings against Solidose readings, provided a linear fit result for all tube kVps of 70, 90, and 120. A 99, 98, and 100% linear relationship, respectively, for kVp values 70, 90, and 120 are demonstrated. The study shows the feasibility of achieving acceptable dose measurements with a simplified setup. Further enhancements to the proposed setup include solutions for limiting the leakage current, optimizing chamber dimensions, utilizing electronic microcontrollers for dedicated data readout, and minimizing the impact of stray electromagnetic fields on the system.

Keywords: dosimetry, ion chamber, radiation detection, X-ray

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Authors: Samia Khadhar, Anis Chekirbene, Nouha Khiari, Amira Mabrouki

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The persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in aquatic environments are one of the most worrying problems for environmental sustainability and human health because of their carcinogenic and toxic characteristics. Human anthropogenic actions (wastewater discharges, agricultural and industrial activities) without prior treatment are the main cause of this organic pollution. Oued Madjerda is considered the most important river in Tunisia, hence the importance of assessing the level of organic pollution of water and sediments, taking into account the anthropogenic stress exerted on this river. Water and sediment samples were taken from the middle and lower valley of the Medjerda to determine the state of contamination by 7PCBs, priority 15PAHs, and pesticides. The analysis was performed by gas chromatography (GC) and liquid phase coupled to HPLC MS-MS mass spectroscopy. The results showed that for the waters, the total PAH and PCB contents vary respectively from 0.0023 to 7.72 mg/l and from 0.0001 to 0.179 mg/l. In surface sediments 0 to 15 cm, 7PCB levels vary from 1,112 to 110,062 µg/kg-1. In this study, we tried to determine the concentration of 96 pesticides in surface sediments; analyzes showed the presence of Buprofezin, propamocarb-HCl, hexaconazole, flutriafol, quinalphos, and tebufenpyrad with concentrations varying from 1.06 to 2.388 µg/kg-1. The pace of the spatial variation confirms the impact of wastewater discharged on the quality of water and sediments despite the perennial aspect of the river.

Keywords: Wadi Madjerda, organic pollution, water and sediments surface, anthropics stress

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Authors: Theodorou Kyriaki, Ypsilantis George

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Vocabulary learning has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, contrary to the neglected part of the past. Along with the interest in finding successful vocabulary teaching strategies, many scholars focused on locating learning strategies used by language learners. As a result, more and more studies in the area of language pedagogy have been investigating the use of strategies in vocabulary learning by different types of learners. A common instrument in this field is the questionnaire, a tool of work that was enriched by questions involving current technology, and it was further implemented to a sample of 300 Greek students whose age varied from 9 and 17 years. Strategies located were grouped into the three categories of memory, cognitive, and compensatory type and associations between these dependent variables were investigated. In addition, relations between dependent and independent variables (such as age, sex, type of school, cultural background, and grade in English) were pursued to investigate the impact on strategy selection. Finally, results were compared to findings of other studies in the same field to contribute to a hypothesis of ethnic differences in strategy selection. Results initially discuss preferred strategies of all participants and further indicate that: a) technology affects strategy selection while b) differences between ethnic groups are not statistically significant. A number of successful strategies are presented, resulting from correlations of strategy selection and final school grade in English.

Keywords: acquisition of English, internet technology, research among Greek students, vocabulary learning strategies

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Authors: Rhay-Hung Weng, Ching-Yuan Huang, Wan-Ping Chen

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Recently, many hospitals have put much emphasis upon the development of nurse innovation. The present study aimed to clarify how nurse innovation is related to medical service quality and medical service experience. This study adopted questionnaire-survey method with nurses and customers of the inpatient wards from three Taiwanese hospitals as the research subjects. After pairing, there were 294 valid questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analysis was utilized to test the possible impact of nurse innovation on medical service quality and experience. In terms of the dimensions of nurse innovation, “innovation behavior” ranked the highest (3.24), followed by knowledge creation and innovation diffusion; in terms of the degree of the medical service quality, 'reliability' ranked the highest (4.35). As for the degree of the medical service experience, 'feel experience' ranked the highest (4.44). All dimensions of nurse innovation have no significant effects on medical service quality and medical service experience. Of these three dimensions of nurse innovation, the level of innovation behavior was perceived by the nurses as the highest. The study found that nurse innovation has no significant effects on medical service quality and medical service experience. Managers shall provide sufficient resources and budget for fostering innovation development and encourage their nurses to develop nursing innovation for patents. The education and training courses on “patient-centered ” shall be enhanced among hospital nurses. Health care managers shall also explore the difficulties about innovation diffusion and find the solutions for nurses.

Keywords: innovation, employee innovative behavior, service quality, service experience

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Authors: Sahib Dino Naseerani

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The presented scientific text discusses the concept of imaginary pressure and its role in different relative motions. It explores how imaginary pressure, which is the combined effect of external atmospheric pressure and real pressure, affects various substances and their physical properties. The study aims to understand the impact of imaginary pressure and its potential applications in different contexts, such as spaceflight. The main objective of this study is to investigate the role of imaginary pressure on different relative motions. Specifically, the researchers aim to examine how imaginary pressure affects the contraction and mass variation of a body when it is in motion at the speed of light. The study seeks to provide insights into the behavior and consequences of imaginary pressure in various scenarios. The data was collected using three research papers. This research contributes to a better understanding of the theoretical implications of imaginary pressure. It elucidates how imaginary pressure is responsible for the contraction and mass variation of a body in motion, particularly at the speed of light. The findings shed light on the behavior of substances under the influence of imaginary pressure, providing valuable insights for future scientific studies. The study addresses the question of how imaginary pressure influences various relative motions and their associated physical properties. It aims to understand the role of imaginary pressure in the contraction and mass variation of a body, particularly at high speeds. By examining different substances in liquid and solid forms, the research explores the consequences of imaginary pressure on their volume, length, and mass.

Keywords: imaginary pressure, contraction, variation, relative motion

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Authors: Umulisa Linda, Andy Cons Matata

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The origin of legal feminism can be attributed to an attempt to provide a safe space for women such as voting, parental, and inheritance rights, among others. It was also a rebellion against male supremacy. However, with the development of technology and especially in the era of the internet, it appears that both legal feminism and the modernism are losing their luster. While these movements had their origin either in the United States of America or western Europe, their impacts have been felt as far as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In Africa, different countries have different levels of penetration of these movements. This study, therefore, had its focus on how legal feminism and modernism have influenced legal developments in Kenya and Rwanda. The study adopted a qualitative approach with the respondents being asked about their feelings and perceptions on how the two movements had affected legal developments in their countries. In order to gauge the opinion of different categories of people such as the youth, middle-aged and the elderly people as well as being gender-sensitive, the study adopted a purpose method of sampling. The questionnaires and the focus group discussions were employed as the main tools for data gathering. From the questionnaires, the focus group discussions, and the data analysis that followed, the study concluded that both legal feminism and modernity had penetrated the legal systems of both Kenya and Rwanda so deeply. The study further found that the proponents of the two movements were mostly urban based and educated women. The men were generally opposed to the movements.

Keywords: legal development, legal feminsim, modernism, voting, parental and inheritance rights

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Authors: Ali Asghar Sotoudeh

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Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent regime change, internal conflicts between political and ethnic-religious groups have become a hallmark of Iraqi political dynamism. The most important manifestations of these conflicts are the Kurdish-central government conflicts, as well as fundamentalism since 2003. As a result, it seems not only US presence in Iraq under the pretext of fighting terrorism and expanding democracy has not had a positive effect on controlling fundamentalism and political stability in Iraq, but it has paved the way for the formation and continuation of geopolitical crises in the form of disputes over territory and sources of power. In this regard, given the importance of the study, the main purpose of this study is to examine the process of the impact of US regime-change policy on the formation and continuation of geopolitical crises in Iraq. The central question of this study is, what effect has the US regime change policy had on Iraq's domestic political processes? Findings show that regime change and subsequent imposed federalism have widened the gaps in Iraq's sectarian-ethnic system. As a result, the geopolitical crisis in the context of the dispute over geographical territory and sources of power between ethnic-religious groups has become the most important political dynamic in Iraq since the occupation. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical, and the data collection method is library and internet resources.

Keywords: Iraq, united states, geopolitical crisis, ethno-religious conflict, political federalism

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Authors: Elisa Monteiro, Kiiko Ikegami

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The inclusion of children with diverse learning needs and/or disabilities in regular classrooms has been identified as crucial to the provision of educational equity and quality for all students. In this, teachers play an essential role, as they have a strong impact on student attainment. Whilst the adoption of inclusive practice is increasing, with potential benefits for the teaching profession, there is also a rise in the level of its challenges in Macao as many more students with learning disabilities are now being included in general education classes. Consequently, there has been a significant focus on teacher professional development to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared to teach in inclusive classrooms that give access to diverse students. Major changes in teacher education will need to take place to include more inclusive education content and to equip teachers with the necessary skills in the area of inclusive practice. This paper draws on data from in-depth interviews with 20 teachers to examine teachers’ views of support, challenges, and barriers to inclusive practices at the school and classroom levels. Thematic analysis was utilised to determine major themes within the data. Several themes emerged and serve to illustrate the identified barriers and the potential value of effective teacher education. Suggestions for increased professional development opportunities for inclusive education specific to higher education institutions are presented and the implications for practice and teacher education are discussed.

Keywords: inclusion, inclusive practice, teacher education, higher education

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Authors: Joshua N. Edokpayi, John O. Odiyo, Patience P. Shikwambana

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Water is a very rare natural resource in South Africa. Ga-Selati River is used for both domestic and industrial purposes. This study was carried out in order to assess the quality of Ga-Selati River in a mining area of Limpopo Province-Phalaborwa. The pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) were determined using a Crinson multimeter while turbidity was measured using a Labcon Turbidimeter. The concentrations of Al, Ca, Cd, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Pb were analysed in triplicate using a Varian 520 flame atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) supplied by PerkinElmer, after acid digestion with nitric acid in a fume cupboard. The average pH of the river from eight different sampling sites was 8.00 and 9.38 in wet and dry season respectively. Higher EC values were determined in the dry season (138.7 mS/m) than in the wet season (96.93 mS/m). Similarly, TDS values were higher in dry (929.29 mg/L) than in the wet season (640.72 mg/L) season. These values exceeded the recommended guideline of South Africa Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) for domestic water use (70 mS/m) and that of the World Health Organization (WHO) (600 mS/m), respectively. Turbidity varied between 1.78-5.20 and 0.95-2.37 NTU in both wet and dry seasons. Total hardness of 312.50 mg/L and 297.75 mg/L as the concentration of CaCO3 was computed for the river in both the wet and the dry seasons and the river water was categorised as very hard. Mean concentration of the metals studied in both the wet and the dry seasons are: Na (94.06 mg/L and 196.3 mg/L), K (11.79 mg/L and 13.62 mg/L), Ca (45.60 mg/L and 41.30 mg/L), Mg (48.41 mg/L and 44.71 mg/L), Al (0.31 mg/L and 0.38 mg/L), Cd (0.01 mg/L and 0.01 mg/L), Cr (0.02 mg/L and 0.09 mg/L), Pb (0.05 mg/L and 0.06 mg/L), Mn (0.31 mg/L and 0.11 mg/L) and Fe (0.76 mg/L and 0.69 mg/L). Results from this study reveal that most of the metals were present in concentrations higher than the recommended guidelines of DWAF and WHO for domestic use and the protection of aquatic life.

Keywords: contamination, mining activities, surface water, trace metals

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Authors: Jonathan J. Foo, Keng Hao Chew

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Interest in virtual reality (VR) technologies as virtual learning environments have been on the rise in recent years. With thanks to the aggressively competitive consumer electronics environment, VR technology has been made affordable and accessible to the average person with developments like Google Cardboard and Oculus Go. While the promise of virtual access to unique virtual learning environments with the benefits of experiential learning sounds extremely attractive, there are still concerns over user comfort in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains. Reports of motion sickness and short durations create doubt and have stunted its growth. In this paper, a multidimensional framework is proposed for the evaluation of VR learning environments within the three dimensions: tactual quality, didactic quality, and autodidactic quality. This paper further proposes a mixed-methods experimental research plan that sets out to evaluate a virtual reality training simulator in the context of amateur sports fencing. The study will investigate if an immersive VR learning environment can effectively simulate an authentic learning environment suitable for instruction, practice, and assessment while providing the user comfort in the tactual, didactic, and autodidactic dimensions. The models and recommendations developed for this study are designed in the context of fencing, but the potential impact is a guide for the future design and evaluation of all VR developments across sports and technical classroom education.

Keywords: autodidactic quality, didactic quality, tactual quality, virtual reality

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Authors: Saw Thiha, Jay Rajasekera

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A boom in video conferencing generated millions of hours of video data daily to be analyzed. However, such enormous data pose certain scalability issues to be analyzed efficiently, let alone do it in real-time, as online conferences can involve hundreds of people and can last for hours. This paper proposes an efficient online proctoring solution that can analyze the online conferences real-time on edge devices such as Android, iOS, and desktops. Since the computation can be done upfront on the devices where online conferences take place, it can scale well without requiring intensive resources such as GPU servers and complex cloud infrastructure. According to the linear models, face orientation does indeed impact the perceived eye openness. Also, the proposed z score facial landmark standardization was proven to be functional in detecting face orientation and contributed to classifying eye blinks with single eyelid distance computation while achieving a better f1 score and accuracy than the Eye Aspect Ratio (EAR) threshold method. Last but not least, the authors implemented the solution natively in the MediaPipe framework and open-sourced it along with the reproducible experimental results on GitHub. The solution provides face orientation, eye blink, facial activity, and translation detections out of the box and is highly customizable and extensible.

Keywords: android, desktop, edge computing, blink, face orientation, facial activity and translation, MediaPipe, open source, real-time, video conference, web, iOS, Z score facial landmark standardization

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Authors: Raja Arslan Ahmad Khan

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Audience feedback and data play an increasingly crucial role, particularly in the digital age. The advent of digital media and the digitalization of news have given rise to novel forms of audience feedback, markedly different from traditional channels. The engagement of online audiences challenges the conventional role of journalists, introducing a dynamic where audiences can wield both direct and indirect influence. This struggle between the audience and journalists is evident in their contributions and interactions. Media professionals are grappling with challenges such as derogatory remarks, hate speech, online harassment, audience hostility, and attacks from online audiences. The influence of online audiences extends to shaping journalists' daily routines and work practices. Consequently, this study seeks to analyze the impact of online audience feedback on journalists at a routine level within the Malaysian context. Employing a Hierarchy of Influence model as a theoretical framework, the study will utilize a quantitative approach with a snowball survey method. The study's findings aim to enhance our understanding of how online audiences influence journalists and their work practices, encompassing aspects like journalists' autonomy and integrity, editorial decision-making, performance and accountability, daily routines, work practices, as well as the psychological and emotional costs they bear. It's important to note that the study has limitations due to the use of the snowball survey method and its focus within the specific context of Malaysia, making it relatively small in scale.

Keywords: online audiences, feedback, influence, journalists, Malaysia

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Authors: S. Sakthivel

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Currently, the global economy is based on the hydrocarbon economy, which is referencing the global hydrocarbon industry. Problems of using these fossil fuels (like oil, NG, coal) are emitting greenhouse gases (GHGs) and price fluctuation, supply/distribution, etc. These challenges can be overcome by using clean energy as hydrogen. The hydrogen economy is the use of hydrogen as a low carbon fuel, particularly for hydrogen vehicles, alternative industrial feedstock, power generation, and energy storage, etc. Engineering consulting firms have a significant role in this ambition and green hydrogen value chain (i.e., integration of renewables, production, storage, and distribution to end-users). Typically, the cost of green hydrogen is a function of the price of electricity needed, the cost of the electrolyser, and the operating cost to run the system. This article focuses on economic viability and explores the alluring business scenarios globally. Break-even analysis was carried out for green hydrogen production and in order to evaluate and compare the impact of the electricity price on the production costs of green hydrogen and relate it to fossil fuel-based brown/grey/blue hydrogen costs. It indicates that the cost of green hydrogen production will fall drastically due to the declining costs of renewable electricity prices and along with the improvement and scaling up of electrolyser manufacturing. For instance, in a scenario where electricity prices are below US$ 40/MWh, green hydrogen cost is expected to reach cost competitiveness.

Keywords: green hydrogen, cost analysis, break-even analysis, renewables, electrolyzer

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Authors: Muhammad Arsalan Mahmoo, Allah Rakha, Muhammad Sohail

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The supplementation of wheat flour with high lysine legume flours has positive effects on the nutritional value of bread. In present study, germinated and terminated soya flour blends were prepared and supplemented in bread in variable proportions (10 % and 20 % of each) to check its impact on quality and sensory attributes of bread. The results showed that there was a significant increase in protein, ash and crude fat contents due to increase in the level of germinated and ungerminated soya flour. However, the moisture and crude fiber contents of composite flours containing germinated and ungerminated soya flour decreased with increased level of supplementation. Mean values for physical analysis (loaf volume, specific volume, weight loss and force for texture) were significantly higher in breads prepared with germinated soya bean flour.The scores assigned to sensory parameters of breads like volume, color of crust, symmetry, color of crumb, texture, taste and aroma decreased significantly by increasing the level of germinated and ungerminated soya flour in wheat flour while color of crust and taste slightly improved. The scores given to overall acceptability of bread prepared from composite flour supplemented with 10 % germinated soya flour.

Keywords: composite bread, protein energy malnutrition, supplementation, amino acid profile, grain legumes

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Authors: Sarthak Mishra, Astha Sinha

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There’s no doubt about the convenience of making commercial and business transactions over the Internet under the new business model known as the e-Commerce. The term 'Electronic commerce' or e-Commerce refers to the use of an electronic medium to carry out commercial transactions. E-Commerce is one of the parts of Information Science framework and its uses are gradually becoming popular. Thus, the threat of security issues in Information Science has now become an important subject of discussion amongst the concerned users. These two issues i.e. security and privacy are required to be looked into through social, organizational, technical and economic perspectives. The current paper analyses the effect of these two issues in the arena of e-commerce. Here, no specification has been discussed rather an attempt has been made to provide a general overview. Further, attempts have been made to discuss the security and privacy issues in relation to the E-Commerce financial transactions. We shall also discuss in particular different steps required to be taken before online shopping and also shall discuss the purpose of security and privacy in E-Commerce and why it has currently become the need of the present hour. Lastly, an attempt has been made to discuss the plausible future course of development of this practice and its impact upon the global economy and if any changes should be bought about to ensure a smooth evolution of the practice. This paper has adopted a descriptive methodology to undertake its major area of study, wherein the major source of information has been via the secondary resources. Also, the study is of a comparative nature wherein the position of the various national regimes have compared with regards to the research question.

Keywords: business-business transaction (B2B), business-consumer transaction (B2C), e-commerce, online transaction, privacy and security threats

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Authors: Munir Rusan

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Municipal waste management (MWM) represents a cornerstone in the effort to preserve the environment, which guarantees a healthy living environment for communities. MWM is directly affected by population growth and population density, urbanization, and tourism. In Jordan, MWM is currently managed by transferring and dumping waste into landfills. Landfills are mostly saturated and cannot receive any more waste. Besides, the organic waste, which accounts for 50% of municipal waste, will be naturally fermented in the landfills creating an unpleasant odor and emits greenhouse gases as well as generate organic leachates that are harmful to the environment. Organic waste can be aerobically composted and generate organic fertilizer called compost. Compost is very beneficial to soil and plant growth and, in general, to the ecosystem. Home composting is very common in most developed countries, but unfortunately, in developing countries such as Jordan, such an approach is not practiced and is not even socially well acceptable. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical and chemical properties of home composting materials and to produce compost for further use as a soil amendment. The effect of compost soil application on the soil-plant system was evaluated. The soil application of the compost resulted in enhancing soil organic matter and soil N, P, and K content. The plant growth was also improved quantitatively and qualitatively. It was concluded that composting of municipal organic solid waste and soil application of the compost has a significant positive impact on the environment and soil-plant productivity.

Keywords: composting, organic solid waste, soil, plant

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Authors: L. Paulino Ferreira, M. Gomes Neto, M. Duarte, S. Serra

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Objectives: COVID-19 pandemic has caused older adults to experience a degree of social isolation and loneliness that is unprecedented. Our aim is to review state of the art regarding the consequences of social isolation due to COVID-19 in elderly people. Methods: The authors conducted a search on Medscape and PubMed with the keywords mentioned below, and the most relevant articles were selected. Results: Social isolation leads many elderlies to experience loneliness, anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, and feelings of abandonment with a perception of being a burden on society. Thus, social isolation has increased the risk for suicide in older people. It is also noteworthy that the exacerbation of psychiatric disorders (such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder) without correct treatment and follow-up also increases suicide risk. Loneliness is also associated with accelerated cognitive deterioration and dementia. Besides that, during social isolation, it could be more difficult for older people to get medication as well as proper health care. It is also noticed an increase in the risk of falls, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise. All this contributes to weakening elderlies’ immune systems leading to a higher risk of developing infections, cardiovascular events, and cancer, increasing hospitalization and morbimortality. Conclusion: Social isolation in the elderly has a significant impact on physical and mental health, as well as morbimortality and hospitalizations due to non-COVID causes. Nevertheless, further studies will be needed to assess the real dimension of the effects of social isolation due to COVID-19.

Keywords: social isolation, COVID-19, elderly, mental health

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Authors: Xinlan Zhang, Dandong Ge, Bingying Liu, Haoyang Liang

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With the rapid development of technology and urbanization, innovation has become an important driving force for urban development. Since the late 20th Century, a number of cities and regions have emerged in the world with innovation as the main driving force, and many of them are still the most important innovation centers in the world. Based on the perspective of innovation ecosystem theory, this paper compares Silicon Valley in the United States, Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Tsukuba in Japan and Zhongguancun in China to explore the reasons for the success of innovative regions and their respective characteristics, hoping to provide a reference for the development of other innovative cities. The main conclusions of this study are the following; firstly, different countries have different social backgrounds. The development model of innovative regions is closely related to the regional backgrounds. Secondly, the market force and the government power have important significance for the development of the innovation regions. The influence of the government power in the early stage of development is great, and in the latter stage, development is dominated by the market force. In addition, the self-organizing ability of the region has a great impact on the innovation ability of the region. Strong self-organizing ability is conducive to the development of innovation economy.

Keywords: contrastive study, development model, innovation ecosystem, innovative regions

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Authors: Khalid S. Hashim, Andy Shaw, Rafid Alkhaddar

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Dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) plays a key role in the electrocoagulation process (EC) as it oxidizes the heavy metals, ammonia, and cyanide into other forms that can be removed easily from water. For instance, the DO oxidises Fe (II) to Fe (III), As (III) to As (V), and cyanide to cyanate and then to ammonia. As well as, removal of nitrogenous compounds accomplishes by the presence of DO. Hence, many of the previous investigations used external aerators to provide the required DO inside EC reactors especially when the water being treated has low DO (such as leachate and highly polluted waters with organic matter); or when the DO depleted during the EC treatment. Although the external aeration process effectively enhances the DO concentration, it has a significant impact on energy consumption. Where, the presence of air bubbles increases the electrical resistance of the EC cell that increase the energy consumption in consequence. Thus, the present project aims to fill this gap by an innovative use of perforated flow columns in the designing of a new EC reactor (ECR1). The new reactor (ECR1) consisted of a Perspex made cylinder container having a controllable working volume of 0.5 to 1 L. It supplied with a flow column that consisted of perorated discoid electrodes that made from aluminium. In order to investigate the performance of ECR1; water samples with a controlled DO concentration were pumped at different flow rates (110, 220, and 440 ml/min) to the ECR1 for 10 min. The obtained results demonstrated that the ECR1 increased the DO concentration from 5.0 to 9.54, 10.53, and 11.0 mg/L which equivalent to 90.8%, 110.6%, and 120% at flow rates of 110, 220, and 440 mL/min respectively.

Keywords: dissolved oxygen, flow column, electrocoagulation, aluminium electrodes

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Authors: Swarnali Chakma, Akihiko Hokugo

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Research on three case studies reviewed here explains many aspects and complications of evacuation behavior during an emergency period. The scenario and phenomenon of the disaster were different, but the similarities are that after receiving the warning peoples does not take it seriously. Many individuals evacuated after taking some kind of action, for example; return to home, searching for family members, prepared valuable things etc. Based on a review of the literature, the data identified a number of factors that help explain evacuation behavior during the disaster. In the case of Japan, cultural inhibitors impact people’s behavior; for example, following the traffic rules, some people lost their time to skip because of the slow-moving car makes overcrowded traffic and some of them were washed away by the tsunami. In terms of Bangladeshi culture, women did not want to evacuate without men because staying men and women who do not know each other under the same roof together is not regular practice or comfortable. From these three case studies, it is observed that early warning plays an important role in cyclones, typhoons and earthquakes. A high level of trust from residents in the warning system is important to real evacuation. It is necessary to raise awareness of disaster and provide information on the vulnerability to cyclones, typhoons and earthquakes hazards at community levels. The local level may help decision makers and other stakeholders to make a better decision regarding an effective disaster management.

Keywords: disaster management, emergency period, evacuation, shelter, typhoon

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Authors: Yen-Sheng Ho

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It is important to actively adjust the legal system of land use in archaeological sites and the reward system to meet the needs of modern society and to solve the dilemma of government management. Under the principle of administration according to law and the principle of the clarity of law, human rights, legal orders and legitimate expectation shall be regulated. The Cultural Heritage Preservation Act has many norms related to archaeological sites in Taiwan. However, in practice, the preservation of archaeological sites still encounters many challenges. For instance, some archaeological sites have ‘management and maintenance plans’. The restrictions of land uses are not clearly defined making it difficult to determine how planting types and cultivation methods will impact the underground relics. In addition, there are questions as follows. How to coordinate the ‘site preservation plan’ with the Regional Planning Act and the Urban Planning Act? How to define preservation of land, preservation area and other uses of land or area? How to define land use in practice? How to control land use? After selecting three sites for the case investigation, this study will analyze the site’s land use status and propose the direction of land use and control methods. This study suggests that the prerequisite to limit the use of land is to determine the public interest in the preservation of the site. Another prerequisite is to establish a mechanism for permitting the use of the site and for setting the site preservation and zoning maintenance practices according to the Regional Planning Act, Urban Planning Act and other relevant rules, such as, land use zoning, land use control, land management, land maintenance, regional development and management and etc.

Keywords: archaeological site, land use and site preservation plan, regional planning, urban planning

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Authors: Zubair Ahmad

Abstract:

Drawing from social exchange theory, this study proposes to explore the association between corporate social responsibility as external CSR and Internal CSR with employees' green behavior. Furthermore, the author also analyzed the moderating role of organizational trust among the aforementioned associations. The target respondents for this descriptive study were employees working hotel industry of Pakistan. An online questionnaire link was sent to hotel managers and is requested to share the questionnaire link with employees. The respondents for this study were selected through the convenience sampling technique. The collected data from participants is analyzed through AMOS and SPSS. The findings show that both internal corporate social responsibility and external corporate social responsibility exert a positive and significant influence on employees' green behavior. Thus it is concluded that the key driver behind the green behavior of hotel employees is the social setting of their workplace. Findings also revealed that organizational trust plays a positive role in enhancing the green behavior of hotel employees. This study extends the literature on corporate social responsibility by exploring the boundary role of organizational trust between internal and external corporate social responsibility and employees' green behavior in hotels. Moreover, CSR activities should be performed for attaining a competitive edge and maintaining a balance between progress and sustainability of the environment.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, internal corporate social responsibility, external corporate social responsibility, social exchange theory, employee green behavior, organizational trust

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Authors: Di Wei, Xing Hu, Yangjun Chen, Baofeng Li, Hong Chen

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To achieve the research purpose of guiding the spatial morphology design of blocks through the indicators to obtain a good wind environment, it is necessary to find the most suitable type and value range of each urban spatial morphology indicator. At present, most of the relevant researches is based on the numerical simulation of the ideal block shape and rarely proposes the results based on the complex actual block types. Therefore, this paper firstly attempted to make theoretical speculation on the main factors influencing indicators' effectiveness by analyzing the physical significance and formulating the principle of each indicator. Then it was verified by the field wind environment measurement and statistical analysis, indicating that Porosity(P₀) can be used as an important indicator to guide the design of block wind environment in the case of deep street canyons, while Frontal Area Density (λF) can be used as a supplement in the case of shallow street canyons with no height difference. Finally, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to quantify the impact of block height difference and street canyons depth on λF and P₀, finding the suitable type and value range of λF and P₀. This paper would provide a feasible wind environment index system for urban designers.

Keywords: urban spatial morphology indicator, urban microclimate, computational fluid dynamics, block ventilation, correlation analysis

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Authors: Abhishek Khupsare, Ajay Parmar, Ajay Agarwal, Swapnil Wanjari

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The extreme demand for aggregate leads to the exploitation of river-bed for fine aggregates, affecting the environment adversely. Therefore, a suitable alternative to natural river sand is essentially required. This study focuses on preventing environmental impact by developing polymer sand to replace natural river sand (NRS). Development of polymer sand by mixing high volume fly ash, bottom ash, cement, natural river sand, and locally purchased high solid content polycarboxylate ether-based superplasticizer (HS-PCE). All the physical and chemical properties of polymer sand (P-Sand) were observed and satisfied the requirement of the Indian Standard code. P-Sand yields good specific gravity of 2.31 and is classified as zone-I sand with a satisfactory friction angle (37˚) compared to natural river sand (NRS) and Geopolymer fly ash sand (GFS). Though the water absorption (6.83%) and pH (12.18) are slightly more than those of GFS and NRS, the alkali silica reaction and soundness are well within the permissible limit as per Indian Standards. The chemical analysis by X-Ray fluorescence showed the presence of high amounts of SiO2 and Al2O3 with magnitudes of 58.879% 325 and 26.77%, respectively. Finally, the compressive strength of M-25 grade concrete using P-sand and Geopolymer sand (GFS) was observed to be 87.51% and 83.82% with respect to natural river sand (NRS) after 28 days, respectively. The results of this study indicate that P-sand can be a good alternative to NRS for construction work as it not only reduces the environmental effect due to sand mining but also focuses on utilising fly ash and bottom ash.

Keywords: polymer sand, fly ash, bottom ash, HSPCE plasticizer, river sand mining

Procedia PDF Downloads 58